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This study aims to combine information about sea level rise (SLR), the probability distribution of storm surge, a flood damage function and the value of property by elevation along the coast of selected cities to measure expected flood damage. The selected six cities all have nearby long-term tidal stations that can be used to estimate the probability distribution of floods. The model is calibrated to each city. The study then compares the cost of building higher seawalls today along the coast versus the benefit of each wall (the reduction in expected flood damage).

The combination of coastal storms and SLR has led to extensive flood damage across American cities. This study creates a simple generic model that evaluates whether seawalls would be effective at addressing this flooding problem. The paper develops an approach that readily measures the expected flood benefits and costs of alternative coastal seawalls. The approach takes account of near term SLR and the probability distribution of storm surge. The model finds seawalls are effective only in cities where many buildings are in the 25-year flood plain.

Cities with many buildings built on land below 2 m in elevation (the 25-year flood plain) have high expected flood damage from storms and SLR. Cities which already have many buildings in this flood plain would benefit from seawalls. Assuming seawalls are built above the high tide line, the optimal wall height that maximizes net benefits is between 0.9 to 1.2 m. These relatively low seawalls block 70%–83% of expected flood damage in these cities. Fair flood insurance is the least cost strategy for handling the remaining damages that overtop the optimal seawalls.

The analysis evaluates whether or not to build a seawall the length of each city at high tide lines. However, the analysis also finds several long stretches of coast in two cities where a wall is not warranted because there are few vulnerable buildings. Future analyses should consider seawalls in more spatially detailed sections of each city. Each section could then be analyzed independently. Whether or not more complex hydrodynamic models are needed to evaluate coastal resilience planning should also be explored. Alternative solutions such as planned retreat and nature-based solutions should be compared with seawalls in future studies as well.

Cities should be careful to avoid development in the 25-year flood plain because of high expected flood damage. Cities that have low elevation areas subject to frequent flooding should consider seawalls to reduce frequent flooding. Because they are very costly and have low expected benefits, high walls that can stop a one-hundred-year storm are generally not worth building.

The analysis reveals that the most important factor determining the vulnerability of cities along the eastern coastline of the USA is the number of buildings built below 2 m in elevation (the 25-year flood plain). Cities should use zoning to discourage further development in the 25-year flood plain. Cities which already have many buildings in this flood plain would benefit from city-wide seawalls. Assuming these walls are built at mean high-high tide, the optimal height of current seawalls should be relatively modest – averaging about 0.9–1.2 m above ground. Using fair insurance for the remaining risk is less expensive than building taller walls. In particular, the cost of seawalls that protect against a major hurricane surge are over three times the expected benefit and should not be built. As decades pass and observed sea level progresses, seawalls and the boundary of the 25-year flood plain should be reevaluated.

This paper develops a coastal flood model that combines SLR and the probability distribution of storm surges with the value of property by elevation to estimate the expected damage from storm surge. The model is relatively easy to calibrate making it a practical tool to guide city flood planning. The authors illustrate what insights such a model gives about coastal resilience to flooding across six cities along the Eastern US coastline.

Changes in climate may have both beneficial and harmful effects on crop yields. However, the effects will be more in countries whose economy depends on agriculture. This study aims to measure the economic impacts of climate change on crop farming in Bangladesh.

A Ricardian model was used to estimate the relationship between net crop income and climate variables. Historical climate data and farm household level data from all climatic zones of Bangladesh were collected for this purpose. A regression model was then developed of net crop income per hectare against long-term climate, household and farm variables. Marginal impacts of climate change and potential future impacts of projected climate scenarios on net crop incomes were also estimated.

The results revealed that net crop income in Bangladesh is sensitive to climate, particularly to seasonal temperature. A positive effect of temperature rise on net crop income was observed for the farms located in the areas having sufficient irrigation facilities. Estimated marginal impact suggests that 1 mm/month increase in rainfall and 10°C increase in temperature will lead to about US$4-15 increase in net crop income per hectare in Bangladesh. However, there will be significant seasonal and spatial variations in the impacts. The assessment of future impacts under climate change scenarios projected by Global Circulation Models indicated an increase in net crop income from US$25-84 per hectare in the country.

The findings of this study indicate the need for development practitioners and policy planners to consider both the beneficial and harmful effects of climate change across different climatic zones while designing and implementing the adaptation policies in the country.

Literature survey of the Web of Science, Science Direct and Google Scholar indicates that this study is the first attempt to measure the economic impacts of climate change on overall crop farming sector in Bangladesh using an econometric model.

“Human service is a fundamental concept in librarianship, and the essential role of reference librarians is to connect people with the information they want,” wrote Jennifer Mendelsohn in 1994. To further this connection, librarians have suggested looking for, and have often actively sought out, patrons before they approach the reference or information desk, yet our image of the roving reference encounter remains sketchy. This picture ranges from that of a harried, overworked professional dispensing inadequate service to a multitude of users, to a librarian effectively extending a hand to the three‐fifths to two‐thirds of all users who would not otherwise request assistance. The picture one sees depends on one's individual work preference. Such conflicting mental pictures lead to round after round of endless debate.

Early in 1996 South Ayrshire Libraries submitted a proposal to the British Library Research and Innovation Centre’s Digital Libraries Programme, outlining a plan to enhance public library support to users who were engaged in open or distance learning by identifying and classifying a range of learning resources which could be accessed via the Internet. This was to be accomplished by designing and developing a Web‐based directory to support open learners. In addition it was planned that references to locally held open learning material should also be included in the directory. The proposal included a preliminary stage which involved collaboration with the Robert Gordon University School of of Information and Media, to develop information and skills training for independent learners. It was envisaged that this would take the form of a Web‐based resource which collated various learning skills packages which are currently available on the Internet. This could then be used as the basis for developing information skills courses which could be run locally by public library staff. The aim of this paper is to describe the procedure and rationale for developing the Information Skills Web site and to report on progress to date. Examines the question of why information skills training was seen to be a key starting point for the project and the issues and challenges which have surfaced during the development and implementation of the Web site designed to facilitate this training. The Web site itself can be accessed at http://www.rgu.ac.uk/∼sim/staff/mmcc/ ayr/intro.htm

Although studies have shown that electronic media exposure can negatively affect infants’ and young children’s language development, exposure to these forms of media is increasing in North America. To better understand the types of electronic media exposure and their potential effects, we utilized naturalistic daylong recordings collected in the homes of bilingual Spanish–English infants of Latinx descent (n = 37). The present study examines contextual aspects of electronic media exposure, and the effects of electronic media on two types of parent–infant social interactions associated with child language development: parentese (a style of infant-directed speech distinguished by its higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation) and parent–infant turn-taking. Using Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA), two daylong audio recordings were collected from each family. These recordings were manually annotated for electronic media type, directedness, language, parental support, parentese, and turn-taking. Our results showed that the infants in our study experienced exposure to many different forms of electronic media, in both English and Spanish, and that the programming was predominantly adult-directed rather than child-directed. While both parentese and turn-taking were reduced in the presence of electronic media, the strength of these effects was modulated by electronic media sources, demonstrating that various devices differentially affect parental language input. These results provide a glimpse into what types of media young bilingual Spanish–English learning infants are experiencing and can help researchers design language interventions that are inclusive and relevant for families from these populations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the demise of Enron, one of the most curious aspects of which was that on the surface it appeared to be thriving, giving no one any cause to question the company's governance structures.

The paper provides a detailed analysis of the composition of Enron's board of directors, demonstrating how directly observable traits are not the sole determinants of effective corporate governance.

The paper finds that collectively, the board's qualifications are less overt, and even more elusive are the ethics and morals that drive the governance process.

This case illustrates how ethics and morals are necessary, but that none is sufficient, to deter poor governance, and also underscores the far‐reaching impact of Enron's moral deficiencies.

This paper aims to make an assessment of the contribution made by accounting histories of women produced since 1992 and the current state of knowledge production in this subject area.

The study is based on a review of published sources on accounting history and women's, gender and feminist history.

Whereas feminist historians and historians of gender boast substantial advances in research and transformative impacts on the wider discipline of history, similar momentum is less evident in accounting history. It is argued that over the past 15 years scholarship has remained substantially in the “recovery” phase, has not “defamiliarized” the sub‐field and is yet to engage with developments in feminist and gender historiography which offer regenerative potential.

The paper argues that sex and gender differentiation persist in both the past and the present and their study should feature large on the accounting history research agenda.

Core themes in feminist and gender history are explored with a view to identifying research questions for accounting historians. These themes include the oppression and subordination of women, the public‐private divide, restoring women to history, devising new periodisations, investigating socio‐cultural relations, and the construction of identities.

Although numerous studies recently have appeared that identify the most‐cited scholars and works in the general criminology and criminal justice literature and in several specialty areas, no previous citation study has specifically examined the police studies literature. Through an analysis of 370 articles and research notes appearing from 1991 to 1995 in the areas of police studies, published in Criminology, Justice Quarterly, and four academic periodicals devoted to police studies, we list the 50 most‐cited scholars and the 36 most‐cited works. The lists of the most‐cited scholars and works in the specialty area of police studies are compared to general lists taken from leading criminology and criminal justice journals and introductory textbooks. We conclude with some thoughts about the relevance of citation analysis to specialists in police studies.

This paper aims to evaluate the effects of climate variables on the mean yield and yield variability of major pulse crops in the Telangana state of India.

Authors have estimated the Just and Pope (1978, 1979) production function using panel data at the district level of four major pulses in nine former districts of Telangana for 36 years during 1980–2015. A three-stage feasible generalized least squares estimation procedure has been followed. The mean yield and yield variance functions have been estimated individually for each of these study crops, namely, Bengal gram, green gram, red gram and horse gram.

Results have shown that changes in climatic factors such as rainfall and temperature have significant influences on the mean yield levels and yield variance of pulses. The maximum temperature is observed to have a significant adverse impact on the mean yield of a majority of pulses, and it is also a risk-enhancing factor for a majority of pulses except horse gram. However, the minimum temperature is positively related to the mean yields of the study crops except for Bengal gram, and it is having a risk-reducing impact for a majority of study crops. Rainfall is observed to have a negative impact on the mean yields of all pulses, but it is a risk-enhancing factor for only one crop, i.e. Bengal gram. Thus, rising temperatures and excess rainfall are not favorable to the productivity of pulses in study districts.

The present study is based on the secondary data at the district level and is considering only one state. Season-wise primary data, including farm-specific characteristics, could have been better. The projected climate change and its impact on the mean yields and yield variance of pulses need to be considered in a future study.

According to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to empirically evaluate the impact of climatic variables on the mean yields and yield variability of major pulses in Telangana using a panel data for major pulses and nine districts of 36 years time-series during 1980–2015. The study has given useful policy recommendations.