The effect of rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus cuniculus) (Linnaeus, 1758) browsing on seedling survival : a thesis presented in part fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Zoology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

The European rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus (Linnaeus 1758) is a small 2-4 kg cutherian mammal introduced into New Zealand from the United Kingdom in the mid 1800's. By the 1950's the range of the rabbit had covered nearly 95% of the available land resulting in millions of dollars of damage. It was noticed by the 1970's that some populations were stable without any control measures being applied, and with increasing research and a changing attitude towards pest management away from extermination to control, it became policy that the status of this pest was downgraded to a regional pest rather than a pest of national importance. Control became the responsibly of the landowner rather than a national body except where populations occurred in high densities. However, even rabbit numbers at low densities do exert a pressure on vegetation, and in some bush remnants rabbits are blamed for the lack of regeneration that occurs even when larger herbivores are excluded. Four bush remnants within the Manawatu-Rangitikei region of New Zealand, two in the coastal sand country and two inland at Marton, were studied for the causes of seedling mortality over five seasons from August 1999 to December 2000. One hundred and fifty seedlings were identified and numbered to species level and were placed in five treatments and controls at each site, except Legg Estate bush remnant where ninety seedlings were used in unbalanced numbers in each replicate The data were analysed using logistic regression with scores for rabbit densities and deaths of seedlings per bush remnant within the treatments and controls. The analysis suggests that there is a seasonal effect (P<0.0001) and a treatment /control effect (P=0.0002) on seedling survival with treatments at Legg Estate bush remnant surviving consistently better over the five seasons. At Himatangi Block Scientific Reserve seedlings in the treatment survived better than seedlings in the controls, except for winter 1999. At Monkton's and Fulleton-Smith bush remnants, treatments survived better than in the controls. Overall the treatment (protecting seedlings against rabbits by fencing) improves seedling survivability. This trial was conducted at a time of regionally low pest numbers because of the prior introduction of Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease (RHD), and treatment results should be interpreted with this in mind. Key Words: Rabbit, Treatment effect, Bush remnant, RHD, Exclosure, Seedling survival

Temporal Intelligence Leadership.

Research has demonstrated time to be an important variable within an organization at both an individual and group level of analysis (Francis-Smythe & Robertson, 1999; Gevers et al, 2006; Rutoski et al, 2007). In fact a number of researchers have called for further work to be done in this domain (Ancona, Goodman, Lawrence, & Tushman, 2001; George & Jones, 2000). In response to this call, this paper will explore the role of time in leadership. Given the increased interest into leadership that has prevailed over the past few years, it is somewhat surprising that there is a limited understanding of how time permeates leadership. Moreover, the importance organizations attach to time is only too clear when organizational economic goals and measures of performance (such as monthly targets, productivity measures) are considered. However, organizations have limited capability to understand how time impacts in everyday work practices. This paper will present an account of time in leadership by introducing a model of Temporal Intelligence (TI). This model in current developmental progress integrates empirical and conceptual work to represent an individual difference factor in regards to a leader’s behavioural awareness to different dimensions of time in workplace processes and behavioural responses to this awareness. There is concern within the contemporary research arena that a preponderance of attention is directed towards the outcomes of leadership effectiveness rather than relevant individual characteristics (Gawith & Flaxman, 2007; Judge & Bono, 2000; Rubin et al. 2005). The importance of operationizing leadership effectiveness as a research variable is reflected in the end-goal of this project. At the same time it is also recognised there is a need to identify a leader’s temporally related individual characteristics that may potentially provide a fruitful basis for explaining leadership as a phenomenon and predicting effectiveness; this has clear implications on selection and development

Development of the Temporal Intelligence Questionnaire.

Research has demonstrated that the temporal characteristics of individuals and jobs significantly predict outcome variables such as well-being and performance (Francis-Smythe & Robertson, 2003; Hecht & Allen, 2003; Slocombe & Bluedorn; 1999). This paper will present an account of the development of the Temporal Intelligence Questionnaire (TI-Q). This instrument is proposed to represent individual differences in leaders’ (including management roles) time related thoughts, attitudes and behaviours directed towards followers; which are known as follower-referenced temporal practices. These practices are broken down into two typologies called: global and adaptive temporal typologies. The global form of temporal practices refers to how a leader thinks and behaves on 13 dimensions of time in the workplace, in the context of interactions with individual followers and teams/groups of followers. The adaptive form of temporal practices represents a leaders’ process of awareness and behavioural adaptation, based on knowledge of the time related, dispositional characteristics of followers and the time demands of their respective jobs

Role of Time in Leader-Follower Interactions.

Research has demonstrated time to be an important variable within an organization at an individual, group and cultural level of analysis (Francis-Smythe & Robertson, 1999; Schriber & Gutek, 1987; Gevers et al, 2006; Rutoski et al, 2007). In fact a number of researchers have called for further work to be done in this domain (Ancona, Goodman, Lawrence, & Tushman, 2001; George & Jones, 2000). In response to this call, this paper will explore the role of time in leadership and management. The importance organizations attach to time is only too clear when organizational economic goals and measures of performance (such as monthly targets, productivity measures) are considered. However, it is somewhat surprising that organizations have a limited capability to understand how time permeates and impacts in everyday work practices. This paper will explore the role of time in leadership by introducing the notion of Temporal Intelligence (TI). TI is a developing concept that represents an individual difference factor in regards to a leader’s temporal practices. Specifically, this paper will present the findings from a qualitative research investigation into the role of time in leader-follower interactions. There is concern within the contemporary research arena that a preponderance of attention is directed towards the outcomes of leadership effectiveness rather than relevant individual characteristics (Gawith & Flaxman, 2007; Judge & Bono, 2000; Rubin et al. 2005). The importance of operationizing leadership effectiveness as a research variable is reflected in the end-goal of this project. At the same time it is also recognised there is a need to identify a leader’s temporally related individual characteristics that may potentially provide a fruitful basis for explaining leadership as a phenomenon and predicting effectiveness; this has clear implications for selection and development processes

Optimal Two Player LQR State Feedback With Varying Delay

This paper presents an explicit solution to a two player distributed LQR problem in which communication between controllers occurs across a communication link with varying delay. We extend known dynamic programming methods to accommodate this varying delay, and show that under suitable assumptions, the optimal control actions are linear in their information, and that the resulting controller has piecewise linear dynamics dictated by the current effective delay regime.Comment: Extended version of IFAC '14 submissio