title: Architects as nowcasters of housing construction

authors: Holmes, Mark J.

subjects: nowcasting

abstract: For more than four decades, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) has conducted a two-question, quarterly survey of architect forecasts of public and private sector construction expenditure. This qualitative survey is published one week after the end of each quarter and nine weeks ahead of the official quantitative data thereby giving architect opinion nowcasting status. This paper covers selected aspects of this unexplored series with particular reference to residential housing construction and the value-added information from architects as nowcasters. Specifically, we consider several qualitative-to-quantitative conversion methods, in-sample and out-of-sample performance, cyclical features and respondent dynamics. Although our work relates to architects - a sub-sector of the service industry - our results have a wider application to business survey questions using ordered qualitative responses.

text: Architects as nowcasters of housing construction For more than four decades, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) has conducted a two-question, quarterly survey of architect forecasts of public and private sector construction expenditure. This qualitative survey is published one week after the end of each quarter and nine weeks ahead of the official quantitative data thereby giving architect opinion nowcasting status. This paper covers selected aspects of this unexplored series with particular reference to residential housing construction and the value-added information from architects as nowcasters. Specifically, we consider several qualitative-to-quantitative conversion methods, in-sample and out-of-sample performance, cyclical features and respondent dynamics. Although our work relates to architects - a sub-sector of the service industry - our results have a wider application to business survey questions using ordered qualitative responses.

year: 2009

title: Short-Term viscoelastic properties of bloodmeal-based thermoplastics

authors: Bier, James Michael

subjects: biopolymers

abstract: The effects of sodium sulfite (SS) content and injection molding temperature on the viscoelasticity of bloodmeal-based thermoplastics were assessed using creep, recovery, and stress relaxation. Both SS and processing temperature affected standard mechanical properties and time-dependent behavior. Increased SS content led to greater creep, greater strain at break, and reduced modulus and mechanical strength of the material. Furthermore, the use of a higher injection molding temperature also reduced modulus and strength. Higher molding temperature also caused an increase in the fraction of creep recovered in 20 min. These results confirmed that increased SS increased chain mobility and that injection molding at 140°C instead of 120°C did not cause excessive thermal cross-linking.

text: Short-Term viscoelastic properties of bloodmeal-based thermoplastics The effects of sodium sulfite (SS) content and injection molding temperature on the viscoelasticity of bloodmeal-based thermoplastics were assessed using creep, recovery, and stress relaxation. Both SS and processing temperature affected standard mechanical properties and time-dependent behavior. Increased SS content led to greater creep, greater strain at break, and reduced modulus and mechanical strength of the material. Furthermore, the use of a higher injection molding temperature also reduced modulus and strength. Higher molding temperature also caused an increase in the fraction of creep recovered in 20 min. These results confirmed that increased SS increased chain mobility and that injection molding at 140°C instead of 120°C did not cause excessive thermal cross-linking.

year: 2014

title: ‘Pakeha Bill’: William John McClear, a Pakeha who lived at Te Aroha

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: Born in Ireland to a Scottish soldier named McAleer, McClear, as he would re-name himself, was uncertain of his age, his birthplace, and the spelling of his name – for, like his parents, he was illiterate. After his drunken father, who abandoned his wife and family, sold him to unknown Maori at an unknown date, he was educated in a Maori school and was unable to speak English until the early 1870s, when he was living with Ngati Rahiri at Omahu pa, at Te Aroha. When Pakeha visitors first met him in 1877, he was a popular resident there and known as Pakeha Bill (or Pakeha William).
Possiby involved in mining before the Te Aroha rush, he both invested in and mined in several claims there from 1880 onwards, and at the end of that decade was one of a small group of Waiorongomai miners who took up a claim at Thames. When not mining, he took whatever jobs were available, struggling financially, in part because of a fondness for drink. As, unlike other Pakeha Maori, there was no evidence of his forming a close relationship with any Maori women, he did not benefit from a Maori wife’s landholdings, and he died in poverty.

text: ‘Pakeha Bill’: William John McClear, a Pakeha who lived at Te Aroha Born in Ireland to a Scottish soldier named McAleer, McClear, as he would re-name himself, was uncertain of his age, his birthplace, and the spelling of his name – for, like his parents, he was illiterate. After his drunken father, who abandoned his wife and family, sold him to unknown Maori at an unknown date, he was educated in a Maori school and was unable to speak English until the early 1870s, when he was living with Ngati Rahiri at Omahu pa, at Te Aroha. When Pakeha visitors first met him in 1877, he was a popular resident there and known as Pakeha Bill (or Pakeha William).
Possiby involved in mining before the Te Aroha rush, he both invested in and mined in several claims there from 1880 onwards, and at the end of that decade was one of a small group of Waiorongomai miners who took up a claim at Thames. When not mining, he took whatever jobs were available, struggling financially, in part because of a fondness for drink. As, unlike other Pakeha Maori, there was no evidence of his forming a close relationship with any Maori women, he did not benefit from a Maori wife’s landholdings, and he died in poverty.

year: 2016