A boosted HP filter for business cycle analysis: evidence from New Zealand’s small open economy.

We investigate whether the boosted HP filter (bHP) proposed by Phillips and Shi (2021) might be preferred for New Zealand trend and growth cycle analysis, relative to using the standard HP filter (HP1600). We do this for a representative range of quarterly macroeconomic time series typically used in small theoretical and empirical macroeconomic models, and address the following questions. Tradition dictates that business cycle periodicities lie between 6 and 32 quarters (e.g. Baxter and King, 1999) (BK). In the context of more recent business cycle durations, should periodicities up to 40 quarters or more now be considered? Phillips and Shi (2021) propose two stopping rules for selecting a bHP trend. Does it matter which is applied? We propose other trend selection criteria based on the cut-off frequency and sharpness of the trend filter. Are stylised business cycle facts from bHP filtering materially different to those produced from HP1600? In particular, does bHP filtering lead to New Zealand growth cycles which are noticeably different from those associated with HP1600 or BK filtering? HP1600 is commonly used as an omnibus filter across all key macroeconomic variables. Does the greater flexibility of bHP filtering provide better alternatives? We conclude that the 6 to 32 quarter business cycle periodicity is sufficient to reflect New Zealand growth cycles and determine stylised business cycle facts and, for our representative 13-variable macroeconomic data set, using a bHP filter (2HP1600) as an omnibus filter is preferable to using the HP1600 filter

He kete hauora taiao: A Bicultural Ecological Assessment Framework

Ka mau tonu ngā taonga tapu o ngā matua tupuna Koinei ngā taonga i tuku iho, na te ātua Hold fast to the treasures of the ancestors For they are the treasures that have been handed down to us by God’ (Dymond, 2013, p. 274) Ecologists, resource managers, landowners and iwi generally strive to manage biodiversity on their whenua as obliged by legislation. This may include restoration, protection, the mitigation of negative human impacts, or the prevention of further habitat loss. Mainstream ecological science and resource management (ERM) usually guides management decisions and provides evidence of management effectiveness. However, ecological science can struggle with stochastic and complex biological systems. Māori have hundreds of years of environmental knowledge and understanding that could be utilised by mainstream resource managers to enhance society's combined knowledge. An assessment tool that places mātauranga at its core can introduce a Māori perspective, privilege Māori knowledge, enable holistic co-management, re/introduce social values and create a common ground on which the two paradigms can connect. He Kete Hauora Taiao is an environmental assessment framework for terrestrial habitats constructed on Māori ecological health indicators by applying them to quantitative ecological scientific data. He Kete Hauora Taiao is built on the Driver – Pressure – State/Condition – Indicator – Response framework (K. F. D. Hughey, Cullen, Kerr, & Cook, 2004). Māori ecological perspectives or ariā (indicators, perspectives or concepts) are placed at the ‘condition’ level. Ariā include concepts such as mauri, whakapapa, tapu, wairua and mahinga kai which are linked to environmental structures, processes, functions and services. These ecological indicators can then be assessed with recognised qualitative scientific tools, metrics and targets. ESAT, Ecological State Assessment Tool, is a database that accompanies He Kete Hauora Taiao and enables quantitative ecological data to be viewed through a Māori perspective and weighted according to its relevance to management objectives. Creating a new bicultural environmental assessment framework required the exploration of the intersection between Māori ecological knowledge (MEK) and ERM. To my knowledge this is the first MEK based ecological assessment framework created specifically for terrestrial habitats and the first one to attempt to quantify MEK ecological indicators, relate them to ecology and resource management metrics and develop an interface between the two epistemologies. He Kete Hauora Taiao and ESAT (Ecological Statement Assessment Tool) are valuable resource management tools. Together they can create resource management programmes informed by a Māori value framework and are tailored to specific whenua, iwi agendas and political reporting and management requirements. He Kete Hauora Taiao spans the intersection between ERM and MEK, enabling communication and translation. MEK may provide context to scientific data and the scientific data may help augment understanding of MEK. Combined, MEK and ERM may create a powerful force that could vastly improve our resource management and conservation efforts. He Kete Hauora Taiao is a framework that could be engaged with by territorial authorities, iwi kaitiaki and landowners nationwide to automatically build te ao Māori into our management practices

Income and Extratropical Cyclones in New Zealand

Aotearoa New Zealand is highly vulnerable to extratropical cyclones because of its unique location in the midlatitude south pacific region. This study empirically investigates the impact of the extratropical cyclones on individual income, combining the data from Statistics New Zealand’s Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) and the weather-related insurance claims data from the Earthquake Commission. Our sample covers the administrative longitudinal panel data of all the IRD registered individual taxpayers between 2010 and 2019. We estimate a set of panel regressions with individual and time-fixed effects to assess the impact of extratropical cyclones on the affected individual’s annual income. We find that income from salaries and wages is negatively affected by the cyclones across various specifications. Extratropical cyclones also negatively affect the total individual income from wages and salaries, benefit and compensation, and sole tradership. However, we have limited success in identifying individual characteristics influencing the affected people's income level in our study

ANIMATED ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING Designing Dynamic Exhibits with 3D Printing & Pixel Displays

Physical moving parts are prone to wear and tear. A pixel display can manifest complex motion and realistic images in full colour offering a form of tangibly while being less likely to suffer from wear and tear however, it remains restricted to 2D surfaces. The recent development in voxel-based printing (voxel = 3D pixel) allows multi-material and multi-colour 3D printing to transform images into physical objects. However, during the printing process the capacity to change the pixels colour and position in the future are lost, effectively fusing the digital information. The high demand for immersive experiences in video games, films, museums and interactive products are omnipresent. The combination of pixel display technology and multi-material 3D printing is a potential avenue to create immersive experiences to feed this high demand

Comparing Income Distributions Using Atkinson’s Measure of Inequality

This paper is aimed at undergraduate and graduate economics students, and public sector economists, who are interested in inequality measurement. It examines the use of the Atkinson inequality measure to compare income distributions. A major feature of this measure is that distributional value judgements are made explicit, via the use of a particular form of Social Welfare Function. Emphasis is given to the interpretation of changes in inequality and the role of the relative inequality aversion parameter, which reflects an important feature of those value judgements

Extracellular matrix derived peptides and mesenchymal stem cell motility

Biomaterials derived from decellularised extracellular matrices have shown promise as tools in tissue regeneration and wound healing. Such materials display biocompatibility as well as inherent bioactivity, promoting constructive remodelling in healing tissues. In this study, the bioactivity of ovine forestomach matrix (a decellularised extracellular matrix biomaterial) is assessed based on its ability to affect the proliferation and migration of wound healing cells. This material supported cell attachment and proliferation, but did not allow cell infiltration in vitro. Enzymatic digestion of the material rendered soluble components that were able to induce proliferation and migration of some cell types. Cell-mediated processing of the material generated a protein or proteins with chemotactic activity for mesenchymal stem cells in vitro. Mass spectrometry analysis indicated the bioactive component consisted of the proteoglycan decorin, or fragments thereof. Decorin has not previously been shown to induce mesenchymal stem cell motility, and these findings may add to what is known about decorin and its role in constructive remodelling. Furthermore, this cell-mediated approach for ECM breakdown could lead to the discovery of other bioactive peptides involved in ECM remodelling and wound healing

Illustrating Income Mobility and Poverty Persistence

This paper is aimed at graduate and undergraduate economics students interested in income inequality and mobility. It summarises several diagrams introduced in recent literature to illustrate income mobility. The illustrations relate to various mobility concepts: those based on relative income growth, positional change within an income distribution, and poverty persistence. The diagrams are easy to produce and, at a glance, provide valuable information about income mobility and poverty dynamics, given information about the incomes of a cohort of individuals in two or more time periods

An Exploration of Ludonarrative Consistent Game Systems

Video games are increasingly seen as a meaningful form of art and storytelling. A common critique of video games is that the player’s in-game actions can easily become disconnected from their character and the storyline, referred to as Ludo-narrative dissonance. To date, no published academic research has been carried out on how to avoid Ludo-narrative dissonance from a game systems level. Yet, the development of Ludo-narrative consistent game systems have the potential to enhance gameplay and player satisfaction. The aim of this research was to develop a prototype ludo-narrative consistent game system, and to explore the design requirements, strengths and challenges of this prototype system. This was achieved through the development of a prototype video game. The prototype incorporated a trait system that assigned personality traits to the player character based on their style of gameplay, consequently altering the storyline in a way that was aligned with the player’s actions. This prototype was user tested by twenty-one participants, who were recruited via convenience sampling. The participants played the prototype three times, then completed an anonymous survey on their experience of playing the game. I observed their play remotely via Zoom and was available to them for answering questions. The prototype was updated based on my observations and user testing survey responses. The prototype development process, my observations of user testers, and the survey results, provided unique insights into the design requirements, strengths and weaknesses of the prototype trait system. My research illustrates that narrative systems and game mechanics are closely interconnected in the development of a trait system. Furthermore, my research shows that when implementing a trait-based system it is important to consider the following design requirements, including; trait interaction, action weighting, mechanical cohesion and consideration of player intentions. User testing observations and survey results highlighted some design challenges that provided insights for the improvement of the prototype. One insight was how the mechanical difficulty of the game affected the assignment of traits, making some personality traits easier to achieve than their counterparts. This was addressed by increasing the difficulty and adjusting the action weighting of opposing traits. Another insight was from situations when participants falsely attributed certain play behaviours to the traits they were assigned. These false attributions provided additional ideas for the updated prototype. In conclusion, this research contributes to the overall body of knowledge in game design, by illustrating the design requirements, challenges and strengths of a prototype Ludo-narrative consistent game system

Toward Engineering the Substrate Specificity of a PHA Synthase (PhaC)

Manufacturing of high-grade plastics from petroleum-based feedstocks is a high-cost, unsustainable process resulting in expensive products. My overall goal was to engineer the pathway of bacterial bio-polyester formation, in order to produce high-grade bioplastics. More specifically, the aim was to introduce aromatic rings into the main-chain of the polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) polymer currently produced by specialist bacteria. This research aimed to create these bio-plastics from renewable resources, rather than relying on petroleum-based sources. A key enzyme for this process is the polyhydroxyalkanoate synthase, PhaC. This enzyme is capable of polymerizing activated hydroxybutyrate-CoA monomers. I began with the establishment of a system that allowed the use of directed evolution. I constructed a minimal plasmid for the expression of PhaC and a second plasmid with the CoA ligase genes required for substrate activation. I generated error-prone PCR libraries of the Cupriavidus necator phaCa, Chromobacterium sp. USM2 phaCb and an ancestrally reconstructed phaCb-LCA that contained differing spectra of mutations. A life-or-death selection was employed to select for PhaC variants able to polymerise aromatic substrates based upon the toxicity of the un-polymerized aromatic hydroxyacid monomers. I determined the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for six of these monomers in Escherichia coli for downstream selection. Lastly, I adapted a Nile red screening method to test wild-type PHA accumulation of PhaC enzymes. Selections for mutants capable of polymerizing aromatic monomers were implemented on the libraries generated from phaCa and phaCb. Whereas, the library generated from phaCb-LCA was screened for variants with increased wild-type activity. Selections yielded no candidates for further testing. However, the screen isolated several variants with increased wild-type activity. These variants may serve as a new scaffold for further mutagenesis experiments to achieve the overall goal; to produce a high-grade bioplastic

The Impacts Of A Free Health Insurance Policy In Vietnam

Social Health Insurance (SHI) is promoted as a policy that tackles the impoverishing effects of catastrophic spending that results from unexpected health shocks. This thesis contributes to the literature on the impact of social health insurance by examining the impact of a policy introduced in Vietnam in 2005. The new policy provided free health insurance for all children under six years. Using a difference-in-difference estimation strategy and eight national household surveys conducted between 2002 and 2016, I examine a variety of direct, indirect, and spill over effects of the policy. The direct effects of the policy are on insurance coverage, health care use, health care expenses, and self-reported morbidity of targeted children. The indirect effects are the persistent effects of the policy on the same set of health outcomes (and education outcomes) beyond the period of exposure to the policy. A third set of impacts cover spill over effects of the policy - on the health and education outcomes of older children living with targeted children, and a variety of household-level outcomes that reflect various dimensions of the wellbeing of household members. The results show that a free health insurance policy for young children has significant impacts on the health outcomes of children while they are covered by the policy and these persist, and also extend to educational outcomes beyond the age of eligibility. The policy also has positive spill over effects on older (untargeted) children living in targeted households, and positive effects on household wage income, and income per capita. On the other hand, the policy has no effects on the standard of living, household health expenditure, caloric consumption, and the likelihood of household spending on catastrophic healthcare