title: Navigating a pandemic: Exploring housing, homelessness, and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic

authors: Hall, Anthony

abstract: It has been almost four and a half years since Covid-19 emerged and changed everyday life for people in New Zealand. The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in an unprecedented health response, which included lockdowns, social distancing measures and restrictions on the everyday lives of New Zealanders. Focusing on New Zealand, this thesis explores housing, homelessness and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic. I aimed to provide a snapshot of the experiences of people who lived in emergency housing or were otherwise homeless during the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, I wanted to understand the experiences of those housing case workers who supported the homeless during the Covid-19 pandemic. I undertook a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with five participants. Some themes that emerged from these interviews included challenges in access to services, healthcare and information concerning Covid-19. The concept of autonomy in the context of public health policies also emerged, and the impacts of social isolation and feelings of powerlessness as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions were explored. Analysis of the participants’ experiences revealed underlying neoliberal narratives and internalised delegitimization. The participants demonstrated a variety of coping strategies, including familial connections, positive fatalism and humour, that were used to navigate their lives and the challenging Covid-19 pandemic. This study emphasises the importance of understanding the lived experiences of individuals facing homelessness, particularly during unprecedented events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, in order to produce equitable policy change that considers the diverse needs and challenges of vulnerable populations.

text: Navigating a pandemic: Exploring housing, homelessness, and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic It has been almost four and a half years since Covid-19 emerged and changed everyday life for people in New Zealand. The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in an unprecedented health response, which included lockdowns, social distancing measures and restrictions on the everyday lives of New Zealanders. Focusing on New Zealand, this thesis explores housing, homelessness and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic. I aimed to provide a snapshot of the experiences of people who lived in emergency housing or were otherwise homeless during the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, I wanted to understand the experiences of those housing case workers who supported the homeless during the Covid-19 pandemic. I undertook a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with five participants. Some themes that emerged from these interviews included challenges in access to services, healthcare and information concerning Covid-19. The concept of autonomy in the context of public health policies also emerged, and the impacts of social isolation and feelings of powerlessness as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions were explored. Analysis of the participants’ experiences revealed underlying neoliberal narratives and internalised delegitimization. The participants demonstrated a variety of coping strategies, including familial connections, positive fatalism and humour, that were used to navigate their lives and the challenging Covid-19 pandemic. This study emphasises the importance of understanding the lived experiences of individuals facing homelessness, particularly during unprecedented events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, in order to produce equitable policy change that considers the diverse needs and challenges of vulnerable populations.

year: 2024

title: Tensile properties and fracture behaviour of an ultrafine grained Ti–47Al–2Cr (at.%) alloy at room and elevated temperatures

authors: Nadakuduru, Vijay Navaratna

subjects: brittle to ductile transition temperature

abstract: An ultrafine grained (UFG) Ti–47Al–2Cr (at.%) alloy has been synthesized using a combination of high energy mechanical milling and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) of a Ti/Al/Cr composite powder compact. The material produced has been tensile tested at room temperature, 700 and 800 °C, respectively, and the microstructure of the as-HIPed material and the microstructure and fracture surfaces of the tensile tested specimens have been examined using X-ray diffractometry, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The alloy shows no ductility during tensile testing at room temperature and 700 °C, respectively, but very high ductility (elongation to fracture 70–100%) when tensile tested 800 °C, indicating that its brittle to ductile transition temperature (BDTT) falls within the temperature range of 700–800 °C. The retaining of ultrafine fine equiaxed grain morphology after the large amount of plastic deformation of the specimens tensile tested at 800 °C and the clear morphology of individual grains in the fractured surface indicate that grain boundary sliding is the predominant deformation mechanism of plastic deformation of the UFG TiAl based alloy at 800 °C. Cavitation occurs at locations fairly uniformly distributed throughout the gauge length sections of the specimens tensile tested at 800 °C, again supporting the postulation that grain boundary sliding is the dominant mechanism of the plastic deformation of the UFG TiAl alloys at temperatures above their BDTT. The high ductility of the UFG alloy at 800 °C and its fairly low BDTT indicates that the material a highly favourable precursor for secondary thermomechanical processing.

text: Tensile properties and fracture behaviour of an ultrafine grained Ti–47Al–2Cr (at.%) alloy at room and elevated temperatures An ultrafine grained (UFG) Ti–47Al–2Cr (at.%) alloy has been synthesized using a combination of high energy mechanical milling and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) of a Ti/Al/Cr composite powder compact. The material produced has been tensile tested at room temperature, 700 and 800 °C, respectively, and the microstructure of the as-HIPed material and the microstructure and fracture surfaces of the tensile tested specimens have been examined using X-ray diffractometry, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The alloy shows no ductility during tensile testing at room temperature and 700 °C, respectively, but very high ductility (elongation to fracture 70–100%) when tensile tested 800 °C, indicating that its brittle to ductile transition temperature (BDTT) falls within the temperature range of 700–800 °C. The retaining of ultrafine fine equiaxed grain morphology after the large amount of plastic deformation of the specimens tensile tested at 800 °C and the clear morphology of individual grains in the fractured surface indicate that grain boundary sliding is the predominant deformation mechanism of plastic deformation of the UFG TiAl based alloy at 800 °C. Cavitation occurs at locations fairly uniformly distributed throughout the gauge length sections of the specimens tensile tested at 800 °C, again supporting the postulation that grain boundary sliding is the dominant mechanism of the plastic deformation of the UFG TiAl alloys at temperatures above their BDTT. The high ductility of the UFG alloy at 800 °C and its fairly low BDTT indicates that the material a highly favourable precursor for secondary thermomechanical processing.

year: 2012

title: Dendroarchaeology in New Zealand: extending the range of archaeologically useful species beyond kauri (Agathis australis)

authors: Boswijk, Gretel

abstract: Accurately establishing calendar dates for Māori wooden objects would place them in a secure temporal context and enable aspects of manufacturing and use to be explored within and between sites, and across time. Dendrochronology has the potential to produce accurate and precise calendar dates for wooden artefacts but in New Zealand application of this technique to Māori cultural material is limited as there is almost no overlap between wood species found in archaeological contexts and tree-species with proven suitability for tree-ring dating. Here we identify five archaeologically-useful species – kahikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides), matai (Prumnopitys taxifolia), miro (Prumnopitys ferruginea), rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum) and totara (Podocarpus totara) – and assess their potential for dendrochronology. Of these, matai, miro and totara are identified as species that should be the subject of further comprehensive dendrochronological investigation.

text: Dendroarchaeology in New Zealand: extending the range of archaeologically useful species beyond kauri (Agathis australis) Accurately establishing calendar dates for Māori wooden objects would place them in a secure temporal context and enable aspects of manufacturing and use to be explored within and between sites, and across time. Dendrochronology has the potential to produce accurate and precise calendar dates for wooden artefacts but in New Zealand application of this technique to Māori cultural material is limited as there is almost no overlap between wood species found in archaeological contexts and tree-species with proven suitability for tree-ring dating. Here we identify five archaeologically-useful species – kahikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides), matai (Prumnopitys taxifolia), miro (Prumnopitys ferruginea), rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum) and totara (Podocarpus totara) – and assess their potential for dendrochronology. Of these, matai, miro and totara are identified as species that should be the subject of further comprehensive dendrochronological investigation.

year: 2019