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Great western development is a regional and preferential reform which began in the mid-1990s, and which intends to promote China's western economy. In this study, I statistically measure the effects of agricultural input growth, technological improvements and most importantly the improvement in institutional efficiency, which is attributed to great western development. This measurement is pursued by first discussing general aspects of Chinese agriculture, including a brief history of China's agricultural economy and politics as well as agricultural policy changes after the reforms. In order to estimate the effects of great western development on the Chinese agricultural production, I use the stochastic frontier production function. This approach is used widely in the field of economics in areas of measuring technical efficiency and policy effects in an industry with random shocks. I accompany this approach with several economic theories such as maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), measurement of technical inefficiency and estimation of technical change in the production function. An important contribution of this thesis is empirical estimation of stochastic frontier production function for great western development and a hypothesis test using the Monte-Carlo method. By maximum likelihood estimation with respect to the stochastic frontier production function, the measurement of the efficiency improvement is produced for the west and the east of China before and after great western development, respectively. A conclusion, made after the empirical analysis, is that great western development has positive effects on agricultural production and productivity in the western China.

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The origins of the British eugenics movement have often been investigated with reference to social, political and economic questions. Eugenics has been seen as a pseudo-scientific explanation for social problems--a response to the perceived imperial and economic decline of Britain in the late nineteenth century--concealing a number of class, racial and other prejudices. But eugenics can also be understood as the product of a certain type of scientific philosophy, derived in part from a Newtonian model of explanation and from scientific discoveries and advances in evolutionary theory, genetics and statistics. This thesis suggests that the credibility of eugenics rested on an interpretation of these scientific findings guided by a concept of scientific explanation which denied the legitimacy of teleological and non-physicalist approaches to the explanation of social life.

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This is a plan to further develop baseball in Great Britain. This model draws on the successes and failures from the long history of baseball across Europe, and also on government policies affecting youth sport. Two models are included: a comprehensive initial model to increase participation and create pathways for players and coaches to excel; and an intermediate stage for intensive development amongst teenagers with high potential. The first model focuses on the improvement of baseball coaches, empowering them to get more children involved in the game. It also aims to make the structures they coach and play in more efficient and accessible. The second model, the creation of an elite academy, creates opportunities for the players emerging with talent and dedication to reach their potential. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

This main body of this work consists of a gazetteer of all of the main, and many of the minor, place-names of Staffordshire (meaning any places which are or were at any time known to have been in what was, or became, Staffordshire), with early spellings, and observations on the likely or possible derivation of those names, often in a rather more discursive form than standard works on place-names, particularly where uncertainty exists as to the derivation. Early place-name spellings have been collected from many sources, primarily the volumes of the Staffordshire Historical Collections, but also the volumes of archive indexes at Staffordshire Record Office, supplemented by Staffordshire place-names extracted from other sources, such as the Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society and the printed Cartularies of Haughmond and Lilleshall Abbeys, both in Shropshire, and from the editorial notes produced during research by the Victoria County History of Staffordshire team. Those slips often contain early place-name spellings. The Staffordshire Encyclopaedia, a monumental compilation of material on the history and folk-lore of Staffordshire published in 2000, has provided a valuable key to material relating indirectly to place-name research, such as topographical and archaeological features. Other material has been extracted from early work on the place-names of Staffordshire and adjoining counties by W. H. Duignan and from other volumes on place-name research and the journals of The English Place-Name Society and The Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland. The analysis considers the early history of the county of Stafford, and reviews the place-name evidence under various headings, including the relationship of particular elements to Roman roads, the ancient boundaries, the Hundred meeting-places, and discussions on Scandinavian and French names and those considered to provide evidence of pagan religion. The analysis incorporates a list of personal names found in Staffordshire place-names, and of topographical and other elements.

The bronze age metalwork of northern East Anglia is well known, both for its quality and quantity. The main concentration occurs along the south-eastern fen edges which are recognised as one of the primary centres of metalwork in Britain. Due to the 'wet' nature of the fenland the metalwork from the area has formed one of the main supports for the belief, over the last 25 years, in a practice of bronze age wetland ritual or votive deposition. The main theme of this work examines this important issue. The fenland material has not been isolated but is put into a regional context by the examination of other finds from northern East Anglia. Although mainly using metalwork this study is principally concerned with the meaning of the metalwork assemblage rather than individual artefact analysis. Central to the work is the collation of important information on items reported earlier, together with a wealth of hitherto unrecorded material. Closely related is a detailed analysis of the locations of finds. An attempt is also made to resolve some of the problems that are basic to artifact research, such as the reasons for the distribution of finds and their interpretation. Several problems are highlighted by these studies, such as the need to research other contemporary material and analyse the effects of both depositional and post-depositional processes. In East Anglia the most important of these, which has probably caused enormous variation in the distribution of finds has been arable agriculture, some of the effects of which are examined and analysed. Whereas previous studies have been dependent on material not necessarily representative, accurately provenanced or numerically significant, this work provides, for the first time, a relatively sound basis, allowing some significant re-evaluations of the practices, organisation and settlement patterns of society in bronze age East Anglia.

A survey of archaeological sites was carried out across 60 km2 of the Black Mountain in south-east Dyfed, an upland common. These are described and placed in a putative chronological sequence against a palaeo-environmental backcloth. Sepulchral cairns are the earliest sites recorded, probably belonging to the early second millennium bc. House circles and homesteads may date to later prehistory and the early proto-historic period, while numerous rectangular foundations are probably the remains of Medieval, possibly later Medieval, settlement. Boundaries partition part of the landscape and there are stone clearance heaps and strips. Land-use is discussed up until the early Post-Medieval period, taking account of both the monuments and the palaeo-environmental data and informed by definition of some parameters within which exploitation of upland environments can take place. Seasonality of resources, the importance of the wider region and the requirements for mobility are amongst the factors considered. The historical model of transhumance which is frequently applied to the Welsh uplands is examined. Periodic hunting, gathering and husbandry is suggested in the area prior to c. 2000 bc after which perceptions of the landscape seemingly begin to change with evidence for episodes of more formal management relating to animal husbandry and limited cultivation. Although settlement may frequently have been transient, overwintering or longer periods of continuous occupation are not precluded in response to a combination of economic, social and environmental factors. Suggestions are made for further work.

This thesis establishes and defines, for the first time, the forms and fabric types of the medieval ceramics which have been found in North Lincolnshire. The pottery from the unstratified assemblages has been catalogued in Chapter 2 and that from the stratified assemblages in Chapter 3. As an intensive regional study, there have been opportunities to use this catalogued information, along with a study of the distributional evidence, to comment on some of the wider aspects of pottery study. The Saxon and medieval ceramic development of the region have been studied by means of a series of "regional traditions" each of which is discussed in detail in Chapter 4. The study of distribution on a proportional basis has enabled a detailed investigation of the various trade and marketing patterns within the region.