title: Five imperial adventures in the Waikato

authors: Moffat, Kirstine

abstract: Some late nineteenth-century exponents of the 'Novel of Adventure', or imperial adventure-romance, regarded colonial New Zealand as an attractive canvas for their tales of masculine daring in an exotic, rugged environment.3 Five such authors set their narratives, in part or in full, in the Waikato of the 1860s, drawn to the backdrop of inter-racial conflict provided by the New Zealand Wars. While references to specific events and people associated with colonial Waikato do ground many of these texts in historical reality, it has to be said that, regardless of whether the authors write from experience, careful research, or flights of imaginative fantasy, the Waikato that is described in their narratives has been selected for its frontier possibilities rather than its distinctive geography.

text: Five imperial adventures in the Waikato Some late nineteenth-century exponents of the 'Novel of Adventure', or imperial adventure-romance, regarded colonial New Zealand as an attractive canvas for their tales of masculine daring in an exotic, rugged environment.3 Five such authors set their narratives, in part or in full, in the Waikato of the 1860s, drawn to the backdrop of inter-racial conflict provided by the New Zealand Wars. While references to specific events and people associated with colonial Waikato do ground many of these texts in historical reality, it has to be said that, regardless of whether the authors write from experience, careful research, or flights of imaginative fantasy, the Waikato that is described in their narratives has been selected for its frontier possibilities rather than its distinctive geography.

year: 2013

title: Tephras and New Zealand archaeology

authors: Lowe, David J.

subjects: tephrochronology

abstract: Establishing an accurate date for earliest Polynesian settlement in New Zealand is essential for understanding patterns of settlement and associated environmental impacts, and the processes and rates of cultural change in Eastern Polynesia. Tephra deposits from five volcanic centres, together with exotic sea-rafted pumice, provide isochronous constraints on the timing of earliest settlement and human impacts in northern New Zealand. A local basaltic tephra from Rangitoto Island (Auckland) and locally distributed andesitic tephras from Egmont volcano directly date human occupation to c. AD 1400–1450. Distal andesitic tephras (Tufa Trig Formation) from Mt Ruapehu, Tongariro volcanic centre, help constrain the timing of earliest anthropogenic deforestation signals in Hawke's Bay. Sea-rafted Loisels Pumice(s), although of uncertain stratigraphic reliability in places, overlies cultural remains that can be no younger than c. AD 1350 along the east coast, North Island. The regionally extensive rhyolitic Kaharoa Tephra, which erupted from Okataina volcano between c. AD  1300–1390, is the critical “settlement layer” datum for dating prehistory in the North Island: no human artefacts are recorded beneath it and the earliest inferred environmental impacts by humans are dated to c. AD  1280, just prior to its deposition. This maximum date matches the earliest radiocarbon dates derived for both settlement and human impacts from archaeological and natural sites (c. AD 1250), and implies that the onset of deforestation was essentially contemporaneous with initial settlement.
The widespread rhyolitic Taupo Tephra, which erupted from Taupo volcano c. AD 200, provides an isochronous benchmark well before earliest settlement. The tephra may coincide approximately with a putative earlier transient contact in New Zealand based on Pacific rat-bone (Rattus exulans) dates. More precise calendrical dates on the tephras—via dendrochronology or ice-core records or other dating methods—would help refine assessment of the timing of earliest settlement, while extending the distributional range of critical tephra layers, through application of crypto-tephra analysis, could lead to a greater understanding of settlement patterns.

text: Tephras and New Zealand archaeology Establishing an accurate date for earliest Polynesian settlement in New Zealand is essential for understanding patterns of settlement and associated environmental impacts, and the processes and rates of cultural change in Eastern Polynesia. Tephra deposits from five volcanic centres, together with exotic sea-rafted pumice, provide isochronous constraints on the timing of earliest settlement and human impacts in northern New Zealand. A local basaltic tephra from Rangitoto Island (Auckland) and locally distributed andesitic tephras from Egmont volcano directly date human occupation to c. AD 1400–1450. Distal andesitic tephras (Tufa Trig Formation) from Mt Ruapehu, Tongariro volcanic centre, help constrain the timing of earliest anthropogenic deforestation signals in Hawke's Bay. Sea-rafted Loisels Pumice(s), although of uncertain stratigraphic reliability in places, overlies cultural remains that can be no younger than c. AD 1350 along the east coast, North Island. The regionally extensive rhyolitic Kaharoa Tephra, which erupted from Okataina volcano between c. AD  1300–1390, is the critical “settlement layer” datum for dating prehistory in the North Island: no human artefacts are recorded beneath it and the earliest inferred environmental impacts by humans are dated to c. AD  1280, just prior to its deposition. This maximum date matches the earliest radiocarbon dates derived for both settlement and human impacts from archaeological and natural sites (c. AD 1250), and implies that the onset of deforestation was essentially contemporaneous with initial settlement.
The widespread rhyolitic Taupo Tephra, which erupted from Taupo volcano c. AD 200, provides an isochronous benchmark well before earliest settlement. The tephra may coincide approximately with a putative earlier transient contact in New Zealand based on Pacific rat-bone (Rattus exulans) dates. More precise calendrical dates on the tephras—via dendrochronology or ice-core records or other dating methods—would help refine assessment of the timing of earliest settlement, while extending the distributional range of critical tephra layers, through application of crypto-tephra analysis, could lead to a greater understanding of settlement patterns.

year: 2000

title: Algorithm selection on data streams

authors: van Rijn, Jan N.

subjects: Data Stream Mining

abstract: We explore the possibilities of meta-learning on data streams, in particular algorithm selection. In a first experiment we calculate the characteristics of a small sample of a data stream, and try to predict which classifier performs best on the entire stream. This yields promising results and interesting patterns. In a second experiment, we build a meta-classifier that predicts, based on measurable data characteristics in a window of the data stream, the best classifier for the next window. The results show that this meta-algorithm is very competitive with state of the art ensembles, such as OzaBag, OzaBoost and Leveraged Bagging. The results of all experiments are made publicly available in an online experiment database, for the purpose of verifiability, reproducibility and generalizability.

text: Algorithm selection on data streams We explore the possibilities of meta-learning on data streams, in particular algorithm selection. In a first experiment we calculate the characteristics of a small sample of a data stream, and try to predict which classifier performs best on the entire stream. This yields promising results and interesting patterns. In a second experiment, we build a meta-classifier that predicts, based on measurable data characteristics in a window of the data stream, the best classifier for the next window. The results show that this meta-algorithm is very competitive with state of the art ensembles, such as OzaBag, OzaBoost and Leveraged Bagging. The results of all experiments are made publicly available in an online experiment database, for the purpose of verifiability, reproducibility and generalizability.

year: 2014