<p>This thesis examines the history of the North Manchuria frontier from 1900 to 1931, which was a crucial period in regional development. Within thirty-one years, about four million Chinese peasants immigrated into the region. The frontier society that took shape exhibited features different from China Proper. It lacked traditional Chinese social characteristics such as the clan system. The frontier exhibited a volatile social order. However, the new society was still Chinese and the coming of millions of immigrants impressed this character further on the region.</p> <p>Land ownership changed dramatically. Once the state began to sell off land, private ownership quickly developed. By the end of the 1920s, over ninety-five percent of the land was privately owned. Large-scale ownership was balanced off by a small-scale farming economy. Seventy-five percent of land was occupied by small farmers. The region developed special ties with the international market, and the great demand after World War One for soybean spurred rapid economic growth.</p> <p>Indigenous peoples embraced agricultural life, though the varying ethnic groups responded to it differently. The Solon abandoned hunting for sedentary life, the Manchus turned them from soldiers to farmers, while the Mongols moved from pastoral life to settlement. The tide of Chinese immigration was the primary factor in bringing about this change, but other factors such as the change of ecological system, government policies and the adoption of a new land system played important roles.</p> <p>Banditry was a persistent phenomenon of the frontier, because of historical, social and geographical factors. Banditry was an inescapable part of frontier life through the 1900-31 period. Settlers organized themselves for defense and the government launched punitive campaigns. However, banditry remained a central problem. Banditry created its own subculture in frontier life.</p> <p>Russian influence was important in the early history of the frontier. The Russians occupied the region from 1900 to 1906. They built a railway, controlled navigation on major rivers, dominated international trade and held timber and mining concessions. The Russians turned the railway zone into a sub-colony where they held mastery for more than two decades. However, the dissertation points out that the Russian role should not be exaggerated. Chinese authorities never surrendered sovereignty and endeavored to reassert their authority. Within the railway zone the Chinese had to acquiesce to the status quo, but they sought to limit Russian actions in the region beyond the zone. After the Bolshevik Revolution, Russian influence in North Manchuria quickly waned.</p> <p>Bolshevik Revolution, Russian influence in North Manchuria quickly waned. This thesis is intended to probe and analyze the development of the North Manchuria frontier. Since few scholars have studied the region from the perspective of frontier history, the thesis represents a pioneering effort. It postulates that the quick evolution of the region from a wilderness to a granary was a special case in the history of modem China. However, the distinctiveness of the region does not separate it from the rest of China. Rather, to understand the development of the frontier is to understand more fully the history of modern China.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Birth of the U.S. Cavalry" examines the founding and initial operations of the U.S. Regiment of Dragoons, forebear of the First Cavalry Regiment and thus the army's first permanent mounted unit. The dragoons escorted traders along the Santa Fe Trail and projected American authority by visiting the villages of many Plains Indian nations. Dragoon officers and men made the first contacts between the U.S. government and the Kiowa, Comanche, and Wichita nations. They also helped negotiate a treaty that cleared the way for the completion of Jacksonian Indian Removal. The appointment of dragoon officers and recruitment of their enlisted subordinates reflect diverging military cultures in Jacksonian America. Approximately half of the officers served as volunteer officers during the Black Hawk War. These men clashed with the regiment's regular officers, who viewed themselves as members of a nascent profession. Analysis of government records and army registers shows that the regulars emphasized the need for military education, sought to exclude partisan politics from the appointment process, and served longer on average than the ex-volunteers. The army, expressing concerns over the quality of infantry and artillery rank and file, wanted healthy, native-born citizens for the dragoons. It departed from established recruiting practices and recruited the dragoons from all over the country, including rural areas. These novel efforts attained the desired results. Enlistment records reveal that dragoons tended to be younger than other recruits, to hail from all regions of the country, and to have been farmers or skilled tradesmen in civil life. Obtaining these men came at a price. Dragoons saw themselves as virtuous citizens and did not like regular discipline or performing the mundane tasks of frontier regulars. Many expressed dissatisfaction by deserting, making dragoon desertion rates higher than those of the army as a whole. / History

This dissertation investigates why literary dreams of the West have been categorically dismissed as mythical. Western critics and authors, ranging from Thomas Jefferson to Owen Wister to Patricia Nelson Limerick, have sought to override dreams of the West by representing the western genre as, in Jane Tompkins’ words, a “craving for material reality.” This focus on authenticity betrays an antipathy to the imagination, which is often assumed to be fantastical, escapist, or utopian – groundless, and therefore useless. Such a prejudice, however, has blinded scholars to the value of the dreams of western literary characters. My project argues that the western imagination, far from constituting a withdrawal from reality, is worthy of critical attention because it is grounded in the land itself: the state of the land is directly correlated to a character’s ability to formulate a reliable vision of his setting, and this image can enable or disable agency in that space. By investigating changes in western land practices such as gold-mining, homesteading, and transportation, I show that the ways characters imagine western landscapes not only model historical interpretations of the West but also allow for literary explorations of potential responses to the land’s real social, political, and economic conditions. This act of imagining, premised on Louis Althusser’s explanation of ideology, follows Arjun Appadurai’s conception of the imagination as “social practice.” Ultimately, my dissertation explores geographical visions in western novels across the 20th century in order to demonstrate the imagination’s vital historical function in the creation of the West. / English

New Zealand experienced dramatic restructuring programs after the Labor party won the national elections in 1984. Deregulation of price controls, removal of the log export ban, and privatization of public assets were the main shocks to the forest sector. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impacts of these reforms on wood and paper industry cost, production, and cost efficiency. Unlike previous work, the effects of privatization and deregulation are compared to determine which shock had the most influence on the forest sector. Results show that production decreased, total cost increased, and cost efficiency decreased after deregulation for the sector, and that deregulation was more significant than privatization for the wood and paper sectors. In particular, removal of the log export ban had the greatest impact, while privatization had little effect on industry production and cost. This suggests that countries with comparative advantages in wood processing who implement deregulation or privatization may suffer through a short term period of lower cost efficiency as the economy adjusts to higher input costs in those sectors. In New Zealand's case, the adjustments most likely affecting efficiency have been investments in new technologies, which require time to attain maximum efficiency. The results are contrary to other studies that have predicted increased efficiency as a result of privatization. / Ph. D.

This theses traces the history of Cleburne in Johnson County, Texas through its founding during reconstruction through the early 1900s.

Dans le modèle standard de cosmologie ΛCDM, environ 72% de la densité d'énergie totale de l'Univers se présente sous la forme d'énergie sombre qui causerait la présente accélération de l'Univers. Parmi les sondes cosmologiques couramment utilisées, l'effet de lentille gravitationnel forte dans les amas est une technique prometteuse fournissant des contraintes orthogonales sur les paramètres cosmologiques. Le programme HFF a permis une amélioration significative de l'estimation de la distribution de masse des amas. Cependant, la modélisation de l'effet de lentille forte dans les amas semble ne pas atteindre la résolution angulaire des observations HST. Cette thèse fournit une meilleure compréhension de l'impact des erreurs systématiques dans la modélisation paramétrique de l'effet de lentille forte dans les amas de galaxies et, donc, sur la détermination des paramètres cosmologiques. Premièrement, j'ai analysé deux amas de galaxies simulés, ayant les mêmes caractéristiques que les amas du programme HFF, Ares et Hera. J'ai utilisé plusieurs estimateurs afin d'évaluer la qualité de nos reconstructions obtenues, permettant de quantifier l'impact des erreurs systématiques dues, au choix des profils de densité et configurations et, ensuite, de la disponibilité d'images multiples dans la détermination de paramètres cosmologiques. Deuxièmement, en utilisant deux amas de galaxies, j'ai testé quatre modèles cosmologiques pour lesquels l'équation d'état de l'énergie sombre, w(z), est paramétrisée en fonction du redshift. J'ai réalisé plusieurs modélisations pour quantifier l'impact des erreurs systématiques liées à la position des images multiples sur les paramètres cosmologiques. / In the standard cosmological model ΛCDM, about 70% of the energy density of the Universe is in the form of a dark energy that would cause the current acceleration of the Universe. Among the extensively used cosmological probes, using strong lensing features in galaxy clusters is a promising technique yielding orthogonal constraints on cosmological parameters. The program HFF has led to a significant improvement of cluster mass estimates. However, strong lensing modelling appears to be still unable to match the HST observations angular resolution.This thesis provides a better understanding of how systematic errors impact the retrieval of cosmological parameters in order to use strong lensing clusters as reliable cosmological probes. Firstly, I have analyzed two simulated HFF-like clusters, Ares and Hera, I use several estimators to assess the goodness of our reconstructions by comparing our multiple models, with the input models. This allows to quantify the impact of systematic errors arising from the choice of different density profiles and configurations and, secondly, from the availability of constraints in the parametric modelling of strong lensing clusters and therefore on the retrieval of cosmological parameters. Secondly, I probe four cosmological models in which the equation of state of dark energy, w(z), is parameterized as a function of redshift using strong lensing features in two galaxy clusters. To quantify how the cosmological constraints are biased due to systematic effects in the strong lensing modelling, I carry out several modelling attempts considering different uncertainties for the multiple images positions.

This paper provides simulation evidence concerning some statistical properties of two different approaches to technical efficiency estimation for multiple-output production under noisy conditions: The Ray Frontier Approach (RFA) from Löthgren (1997) DEA+ proposed in Gstach (1996). RFA, unlike earlier approaches in the realm of stochastic frontier analysis, is capable of efficiency estimation in the case of multiple outputs as well and lends itself for comparison with DEA+. Several settings with varying sample sizes, noise to signal ratios and mean inefficiencies are investigated. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

The Walling Family of Nineteenth-Century Texas recounts the actions of the first four generations of the John Walling family. Through a heavily quantitative study, the study focuses on the patterns of movement, service, and seizing opportunity demonstrated by the family as they took full advantage of the benefits of frontier expansion in the Old South and particularly Texas. In doing so, it chronicles the role of a relatively unknown family in many of the most defining events of the nineteenth-century Texas experience such as the Texas Revolution, Mexican War, Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Close of the Frontier. Based on extensive research in census, tax, election, land, military, family paper, newspaper, and existing genealogical records; the study documents the contributions of family members to the settlement of more than forty counties while, at the same time, noting its less positive behaviors such as its open hostility to American Indians, and significant slave ownership. This study seeks to extend the work of other quantitative studies that looked at movement and political influence in the Old South, Texas, and specific communities to the microcosm of a single extended family. As a result, it should be of use to those wanting a greater understanding of how events in nineteenth-century Texas shaped, and were shaped by, families outside the political and social elite.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent Amanor-Boadu / Allen M. Featherstone / Estimation of cost functions can provide useful economic information to producers, economists, and policy makers. From the estimation of a cost function, it is possible to calculate cost efficiency, economies of scope, and economies of scale. Economic theory specifies the cost function as a frontier since firms cannot operate at lower cost than the cost minimizing input/output bundle. However, traditional parametric estimation techniques often violate economic theory using two sided-error systems. The stochastic frontier method has allowed the estimation of a frontier but continues to restrict the technology through functional assumption. Nonparametric frontier estimation is an alternative approach to estimate a cost frontier by enveloping the data which by its construct, conforms to economic theory. This research expands the economic information available by deriving multi-product scale economies and product-specific scale economies from the nonparametric approach. It also tests its ability to accurately recover these important economic measures under different assumptions of the cost function, and cost inefficiency distributions. Next, this new method is compared to other methods used to estimate cost functions and associated economic measures including a two-sided error system, stochastic frontier method, and an OLS model restricting the errors to take on only positive values. Finally, the nonparametric approach with the new measures is applied to a sample of Kansas farms. The nonparametric approach is able to closely estimate economies of scale and scope from estimation of a cost frontier. Comparison reveals that the nonparametric approach is closer to the “true” economic measures than some parametric methods and that it is better able to extrapolate out of sample when there are no zero output firms. Finally, the nonparametric approach shows that potential cost savings from economies of scale and economies of scope exist for small Kansas farms. However, cost savings from economies of scale become exhausted when farms exceed gross annual revenues of $500k, while economies of scope also diminish as farms grow larger. Results also show from annual frontier estimations that estimates of economies of scale, scope, and cost efficiency have remained relatively stable from 2002 to 2011.

Die Arbeit folgt dem Frontier-Mythos, einer Narration, die für die US-amerikanische Kultur von grundlegender Bedeutung ist. Der Gang von Ost nach West, den die Erschließung und Kultivierung des Kontinents beinhaltete, formierte auf verschiedenen Feldern eine mythologische Erzählung: in der Literatur- und Politikgeschichte und in einer Unterhaltungskultur, die um die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts in Form von Groschenromanen oder Wild-West-Shows entstand. Die thematischen Hauptaspekte der Arbeit richten sich auf Geographie, Technologie und Verkehr. Buffalo Bill''s Wild-West-Show, die die Geschichte der frontier als Kampf zwischen Zivilisation und Natur, also modernen Amerikanern und indianischen Ureinwohnern, erzählt, stellt dazu den Cowboy, personifiziert durch den Show-Impresario William F. Cody, in den Mittelpunkt. Der selbst in Bewegung befindliche Showbetrieb korrespondiert dabei der Geschichte, die er erzählt. Mehrere Tourneen nach Europa leisten zudem einen Mythentransport zwischen Alter und Neuer Welt. Dabei geht es insbesondere um die Betonung einer Differenz zwischen zeitlicher Vertikale und räumlicher Horizontale: also zwischen der statisch organisierten Ordnung des europäischen Königshofes (Ahnentafel) und der dynamisch verfassten sowie auf Brüderlichkeit gegründeten amerikanischen Demokratie (moving frontier). Dieses Muster diskutiert die Arbeit anhand von Mark Twains Roman "A Yankee from Connecticut on King Arthur''s Court" und Herman Melvilles "Moby Dick". Letzterer belegt, wie die phantasmatische Energie des Frontier-Mythos auch dann noch insistiert, als der Kontinent erschlossen und der Pazifik erreicht ist: als Kreiselbewegung um den Globus selbst. Hier scheint bereits ein imperialistisches Muster auf, das die USA im Zentrum einer neuen Weltordnung sieht. "Als ob sich die Welt gerade in Amerika gerundet hätte", dieses titelgebende Diktum entstammt Deleuze/Guattaris "Mille Plateaux", das im Hinblick auf seine psychogeographischen Implikationen eine Rahmentheorie der Arbeit bildet. Wie sehr die grundlegende mythische Narration vom Wilden Westen weltpolitische Konsequenzen zeitigt, belegt exemplarisch der letzte Teil der Arbeit, der den Einsatz des Hollywoodregisseurs und Westernspezialisten John Ford in Diensten des Auslandsgeheimdienstes OSS während des Zweiten Weltkriegs zum Thema hat. / The study examines the frontier myth, a narration that is of fundamental importance for the culture of the United States. The path from East to West, which includes the conquering and cultivation of the continent, forms on various levels a mythological narration: in literary and political history as well as in the entertainment culture that arose in the middle of the nineteenth century through penny novels and Wild West shows. The study’s main thematic areas focus on geography, technology, and transportation. In Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, which narrates the history of the frontier as the battle between civilization and nature (i.e., between modern Americans and Native Americans), the cowboy as personified by the show’s impresario William F. Cody takes center stage. American show business, which was literally underway, thus corresponded with the story/history it told. Several tours to Europe additionally succeeded in transporting the myth from the new to the old world. In particular, this myth-transportation emphasizes a difference between temporally vertical and spatially horizontal planes, i.e., between the static order of the European royal court (family tree) and the dynamically conceptualized American democracy founded on fraternity (moving frontier). The study discusses this model through Mark Twain’s novel A Yankee from Connecticut on King Arthur’s Court and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. The latter novel evinces how the phantasmagoric energy of the frontier myth even persists when the continent has been conquered and the Pacific Ocean reached – persists as the circular movement around the globe itself. An imperial model thus comes to light that sees the USA at the center of a new world order. The title of this study – “As if the world first became round in America” – comes from Deleuze and Guattari’s Mille Plateaux and its psycho-global implications offers a guiding theory for the work. The extent to which the foundational, mythical narration of the Wild West bears world-political consequences is demonstrated in the last part of the study, which investigates the deployment of the Hollywood director and Western specialist John Ford in the foreign secret service (OSS) during the Second World War.