The climate of the Waikato Basin

The topography of the Waikato Valley and its position in relation to the large-scale weather system give it warm humid summers, mild winters and a moderate rainfall with a winter maximum. Some typical meteorological situations affecting the valley are described and the individual climatic elements are considered in detail

Why are women more likely than men to extend paid work? : The impact of work-family history on a decision to extend working life

Extending working life, and enabling and encouraging people to work longer, is a key policy area. That women are more likely than men to work beyond state pension age indicates that factors other than the state pension age play a role in extending working life. Financial factors are likely to be a key reason why women, and especially divorced women, are more likely than men to extend working life. It is well documented that women are less able to build a pension income due to their role as carer within the family, with their marital and fertility histories impacting upon work history. It therefore follows that gender inequalities over the life course continue into older age to influence need, capacity and desire to undertake paid work after state pension age. This paper explores how work, marital and fertility history impact upon the likelihood of working beyond state pension age, focusing upon differences between men and women. It uses the British Household Panel Survey’s retrospective data from the first 14 waves to summarise work-family histories, and logistic regression to understand the impact of work and family histories on working beyond state pension age. Findings show that, for women, family history is important for explaining a greater propensity to work beyond state pension age, with short breaks due to caring, lengthy marriages, and late divorce and remaining single with children all being important. However, lengthy dis-attachment (due to caring) from the labour market, and thus lowered negotiating power, makes working longer more difficult. For men, even short periods out of the labour market reduce their odds of working longer. This indicates that, on the one hand, policy needs to focus upon reducing the financial need to work longer by tackling gender inequalities in the labour market. On the other, to enable those most in financial need to work longer, more help needs to be given to increase their negotiating power in the labour market

The river model of black holes

This paper presents an under-appreciated way to conceptualize stationary black holes, which we call the river model. The river model is mathematically sound, yet simple enough that the basic picture can be understood by non-experts. %that can by understood by non-experts. In the river model, space itself flows like a river through a flat background, while objects move through the river according to the rules of special relativity. In a spherical black hole, the river of space falls into the black hole at the Newtonian escape velocity, hitting the speed of light at the horizon. Inside the horizon, the river flows inward faster than light, carrying everything with it. We show that the river model works also for rotating (Kerr-Newman) black holes, though with a surprising twist. As in the spherical case, the river of space can be regarded as moving through a flat background. However, the river does not spiral inward, as one might have anticipated, but rather falls inward with no azimuthal swirl at all. Instead, the river has at each point not only a velocity but also a rotation, or twist. That is, the river has a Lorentz structure, characterized by six numbers (velocity and rotation), not just three (velocity). As an object moves through the river, it changes its velocity and rotation in response to tidal changes in the velocity and twist of the river along its path. An explicit expression is given for the river field, a six-component bivector field that encodes the velocity and twist of the river at each point, and that encapsulates all the properties of a stationary rotating black hole.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures. The introduction now refers to the paper of Unruh (1981) and the extensive work on analog black holes that it spawned. Thanks to many readers for feedback that called attention to our omissions. Submitted to the American Journal of Physic

Information based diagnostics for the optimal construction of Multi-environment trial datasets

The objectives of this thesis are to present novel approaches for optimising the construction of multi environment trial (MET) datasets from a series of plant variety trials. These include evaluating varieties in designed trials at various locations and typically across many years. The MET datasets are then analysed to evaluate how well each variety performs in each environment. Although sophisticated and relevant statistical analyses have been proven to increase the reliability of predicted variety by environment (VE) effects, there has been little research into how to construct an appropriate dataset. This thesis fills a void in the literature by providing information-based diagnostics for the optimal construction of the MET dataset. The approaches are demonstrated using two motivating datasets: the first is a Oat (Avena sativa) dataset and the other is a Durum wheat (Triticum durum L. ssp. Durum Desf.) dataset. The former is used as an example of a dataset with independent variety effects, whereas the latter is used as an example of a dataset with related variety effects. These are also used for their attributes in the development of real-world grounded simulation studies to examine the performance of the proposed diagnostics and also to investigate established methodologies and concerns

Global Projects Program: Corporate

STEP Category: InternshipsAn overview of my Corporate Global Projects Program in Auckland, New Zealand. I developed a project with five other peers and created a market analysis for American-owned Fortune 500 companies.The Ohio State University Second-year Transformational Experience Program (STEP)Academic Major: Financ