This thesis examines the evidence for the decline and survival of historic landed estates since the end of the nineteenth century. The focus is on the processes of adaptation undergone by those estates that have survived over the post-war period. These processes are described in this study as a 'compromise' of 'traditional' landed estate characteristics. The particular approach taken by this research is to focus on the manipulation of property rights as a way of comprehending estate survival strategies. The work observes how various forms of legislation and the emergence of other powerful interest groups have acted to increasingly constrain the rights of rural landowners. A conceptual framework indicates how wide-ranging political, economic and social changes, and alterations to family circumstances, are reflected in the changing division and sub-division of owner, occupier and user rights over historic landed estates. The research is based on a micro-level investigation of an estate in south-east Devon. It examines how the political activities of the estate's owners represent attempts made by them to publicise their position and to defend their property rights. Subsequently, the study investigates the evolution of the estate over the post-war period in terms of its ownership and management, size, occupancy, economic activities, and local relations. Particular attention is paid to a series of 'critical' moments when changing circumstances required the formulation of major survival strategies. The study examines the central place of property rights and their accompanying responsibilities, observing how the allocation and re-allocation of property rights has become particularly fluid, complex and contested, and how the manipulation of property rights represents the response of estate owners to both opportunities and threats. The findings of the case study are also considered more broadly, that is, in relation to the position of rural landowners in general in the late twentieth century countryside

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This research examines description in the office sector with particular reference to the city of Kuala Lumpur. Depreciation is typically considered implicitly in appraisal models. Furthermore, from the early 1990 until 1996, the impact of depreciation in the office market was largely hidden by high nominal growth in rents and capital values due to high inflation and high real growth. Improper analysis of depreciation may have potentially damaged property values and consequently mispriced the city's market. It is, therefore, important to analyse depreciation comprehensively to assess proper prices in the city's office market. This study is designed to achieve a better understanding of depreciation. The research proposes a statistical approach for modelling the impact of depreciation on the City of Kuala Lumpur offices and considers three major causes of depreciation; physical deterioration, building obsolescence and site obsolescence. Forty-nine offices which are located in the three commercial areas are selected. Data on property characteristics, tenure and values were analysed. Principal Component Analysis eliminates the problem of 'multicollinearity' which exists in the models with original variables, and summarises independent variables into a number of orthogonal factors which represent three sources of depreciation. An analysis of rental depreciation indicates that a combination of the three sources of depreciation is a better explanation of depreciation than 'age' alone. It shows that, despite the common suggestion that the level of depreciation changes markedly with building age, there is little evidence to conclude that these are strongly correlated. The findings of the analysis indicate that the relative rate of depreciation for offices in the City of Kuala Lumpur is dependent on changes to the functional specifications of the buildings. The faster the changes, the quicker the rate of depreciation. Finally, site obsolescence is shown to be less significant than functional specifications, especially in yield depreciation, in the case study area.

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The aim of this thesis is to explain recent developments in the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) infrastructure policy and their implications for European integration theory. It sets out to test the view that firstly, the ad hoc nature of the TEN-T programme leads to national governments reaffirming their role as key actors within the EU policymaking process. Secondly, the aspiration of the EU's sustainable mobility strategy is not implemented in practice at the national level. The thesis combines theories of European integration with a study of the EU day-to-day transport policy making process to show how the TEN-T programme fits into wider debates on sustainability and European integration generally. To achieve this objective the thesis examines the dichotomous debate that exists between intergovernmental and supranational theorists in their attempts to conceptualise the wider process of European integration. It argues that such approaches drawn from International Relations (IR) are sufficient tools to explain the EU system of governance. In order to characterise the EU transport policy-making process more effectively this thesis highlights the need to adopt a combination of tools from both IR and Comparative Politics (CP) schools of thought. The transport sector is examined within the thesis for the reason that it remains one of the few policy areas that can better illustrate the tension between intergovernmental and supranational approaches to European integration. In addition, the transport sector is of European significance as decades of unrestrained growth have heightened concerns about its ability to achieve sustainable mobility. Indeed, the TEN-T programme is offered as part of the solution to Europe's transport problems and as a means of promoting sustainable mobility within the EU. However, analysis of the TEN-T policy development reveals a set of obstacles to the implentation of a sustainable European transport infrastructure policy. The findings resulting from this research are firstly, contrary to the assumption that European transport policy is dominated by an integrationist strategy of the political centre in Europe: it is the national government that remains the key actor in the European transport infrastructure policy process. Secondly, based on the evidence presented within this thesis, the transport sector does not signify a marked shift towards multi-level governance. Thirdly, the absence of this power sharing framework can be used to explain the unsustainable direction of the current TEN-T policy.

The work presented in this thesis concerns the identification of vehicle occupant models. Mathematical models of the vehicle occupant are used in the preliminary design and development phase of vehicle design. In the design phase, the model is used to guide the decision on restraint system feasibility. In the development phase the model is used to suggest solutions to problems associated with the dummy trajectory or restraint system performance. Current methods used -to determine such models involve independent component testing. The conditions under which the components are tested are often not typical of a crash test, hence iterations of the computer model are needed to successively improve model and test correlation. In order to address these problems which cause inaccurate specification of the mathematical models, an alternative method of data set assembly for crash victim models is suggested. This alternative method is based on the techniques of system identification which allow unknown system parameters to be determined from experimental input/output data. Initially the viability of using system identification techniques to develop a valid mathematical model of the vehicle occupant and restraint system was investigated. This initial study used input and output measurementsfr om computer simulations of the occupant in frontal impact, as source data for the identification. Effects of simulated disturbances (noise corrupted output signals) and the effects of simplified model structure on the identification are also investigated. Several methods for analysing the likely errors in the identified parameters are defined and discussed in this simulation study. Results relating to the identification of seat contact and seat belt characteristics from physical tests are also presented and these are interpreted in light of the simulation results.