This research explores the meaning that older persons ascribe to the friendships in which they engage. Previous research mostly focuses on the strain that the older population places on the self-reliant community. The older person is faced by many challenges, such as sickness, loss of social and emotional support and death. Friendships serve as a support for physical and emotional needs which could not always be addressed by the family. The aim of this research is to explore the type of friendships in which older persons prefer to engage and the meanings they assign to it. A qualitative study was identified as the most appropriate method and focus groups and personal interviews were used as methods of data collection. Data was analysed by means of thematic content analysis. Findings indicated that different types of friendships exist and that different meanings were attached to friendships. Meaning in friendships is promoted by trustworthy friends who are able to form a deepened level of connection through the support and the compassion they are able to give each other. The experience of connection in friendships is furthermore enhanced through mobility, proximity and technology that facilitate better emotional as well as physical support for the older individual. Informal friendships with younger people ensure that older people are more mobile and are able to maintain their friendships. It is also a great source of support in cases where family members are not able to provide support, due to whatever reason. Further exploration of the value of friendships is recommended, so as to plan more specific intervention strategies. Some insights have already been gathered in this study concerning the way in which mobility, proximity and modern technology can make it possible to sustain a friendship. Further studies could explore ways to empower older people through providing better mobility, proximity and the use of modem technology. Such studies may also explore the needs which an old age home fulfils, such as improving the residents' access to one another, for mutual support. Proximity might be a solution for the immobility experienced in the older community, and when older people are taught to use modern technology they will be enabled to maintain their friendships better. / Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Business Intelligence (BI) techniques provide the potential to not only efficiently manage but further analyse and apply the collected information in an effective manner. Benefiting from research both within industry and academia, BI provides functionality for accessing, cleansing, transforming, analysing and reporting organisational datasets. This provides further opportunities for the data to be explored and assist organisations in the discovery of correlations, trends and patterns that exist hidden within the data. This hidden information can be employed to provide an insight into opportunities to make an organisation more competitive by allowing manager to make more informed decisions and as a result, corporate resources optimally utilised. This potential insight provides organisations with an unrivalled opportunity to remain abreast of market trends. Consequently, BI techniques provide significant opportunity for integration with Decision Support Systems (DSS). The gap which was identified within the current body of knowledge and motivated this research, revealed that currently no suitable framework for BI, which can be applied at a meta-level and is therefore tool, technology and domain independent, currently exists. To address the identified gap this study proposes a meta-level framework: - ‘KDDS-BI’, which can be applied at an abstract level and therefore structure a BI investigation, irrespective of the end user. KDDS-BI not only facilitates the selection of suitable techniques for BI investigations, reducing the reliance upon ad-hoc investigative approaches which rely upon ‘trial and error’, yet further integrates Knowledge Management (KM) principles to ensure the retention and transfer of knowledge due to a structured approach to provide DSS that are based upon the principles of BI. In order to evaluate and validate the framework, KDDS-BI has been investigated through three distinct case studies. First KDDS-BI facilitates the integration of BI within ‘Direct Marketing’ to provide innovative solutions for analysis based upon the most suitable BI technique. Secondly, KDDS-BI is investigated within sales promotion, to facilitate the selection of tools and techniques for more focused in store marketing campaigns and increase revenue through the discovery of hidden data, and finally, operations management is analysed within a highly dynamic and unstructured environment of the London Underground Ltd. network through unique a BI solution to organise and manage resources, thereby increasing the efficiency of business processes. The three case studies provide insight into not only how KDDS-BI provides structure to the integration of BI within business process, but additionally the opportunity to analyse the performance of KDDS-BI within three independent environments for distinct purposes provided structure through KDDS-BI thereby validating and corroborating the proposed framework and adding value to business processes.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1992 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / ASW-II (Advanced Satellite Workstation, Version II) has been developed and delivered as an operational prototype in support of the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Follow-On satellite. It provides unified and coordinated real time reception and storage of satellite telemetry, display of both real time and stored telemetry, expert-system analysis of spacecraft status, and an information navigator system that stores and presents information about the spacecraft. The architecture is modular and reconfigurable, and it provides support for multiple analyst workstations. There are several unusual aspects of the design. The entire telemetry history of the satellite is regarded as a continuum by the user, with ASW-II automatically tracking and displaying contact periods. A "streams" mechanism organizes the telemetry in such a way that the user can interactively define new derived parameters and have them presented graphically. Both real time and archived data can be displayed simultaneously. The user has very flexible controls for all display interfaces using mouse and window technologies.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / scheduling solutions for routing aircraft, crews and logistical support needed to successfully operate in this new environment. The opportunity exists for the DoD's private aircraft operation, the Joint Operational Support Airlift Center (JOSAC), to utilize some of the same system features used in commercial operations such as NetJets to improve operations. This thesis will analyze the use of commercial air operator strategies and DSS's to be used in JOSAC to improve operational effectiveness. It will look to add new capabilities and processes used in commercial DSS's along with the implementation of the disruptive technology, microjets. Some of the potential benefits include improved operational performance, solutions to scheduling inefficiencies and improved mission readiness. With these improvements the potential for a military microjet operation in the future is a real possibility. / 1st Lieutenant, United States Air Force

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited / This thesis is primarily concerned with automation support for an organization in charge of the construction and modification of buildings for military bases and civilian construction during disaster relief. The first issue at hand is the need to know how this organization functions manually and the participation of each department in daily work. Use Case Analysis was applied to understand the business process and an UML model was created to appraise the domain concepts. Architecture for a decision support system was then developed to provide the necessary automation support and a prototype for the user interface of the proposed system was constructed to evaluate the architectural design. The proposal software will improve the decision-making ability of the leader of this organization and the heads of each department. It will make the routine tasks easier, and provide the necessary and accurate data in a timely manner. / Captain, Tunisia Army

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / Complex Humanitarian Emergencies are usually military conducted activities where participants must be able to react to a very dynamic and unfriendly environment. National and international participating forces require cooperation and coordination between civilian and military entities. The continuous need to share huge amounts of information requires a technological framework to allow legacy and new hardware and software interconnection, rapid network installation and flexible bandwidth availability. To improve the speed and the quality of the decision-making a scientific approach must be applied to the process. Maximizing both the effectiveness and efficiency in decision-making can be obtained by developing decision support systems capable of providing access to existing databases and expert systems. Databases usually contain raw information available for retrieval and processing according to the needs of the decision makers. Expert systems embed human expertise and allow the propagation of scarce expert resources throughout an organization to increase the consistency and quality of the decisions. Sharing access to these types of information within a Complex Humanitarian Emergency environment provides for better situational awareness and improves the decision-making process. This thesis will gather and combine the information from different sources and will suggest a model for integrating remote databases and expert sources with situational awareness tools. / Lieutenant Colonel, Romanian Air Force

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between organizational support and Effectiveness, Empowerment, and team characteristics. Support was operationalized by nine systems: Executive Management, Direct Supervision, Group Design, Performance Definition, Performance Review, Training, Rewards, Information, and Integration. Support was rated in two ways: how important is support for performing work (Importance scales), and how does support describe work environments (Presence scales).

A project report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering Johannesburg, 1996 / Current practice of'the rural water sector in Mozambique does not generally consider all factors that have influenc.eon project sustainability, The urgent need to provide returnees in rural areas with safe water, does not give adequate time to engineers, technicians and those involved in the sector, to conceive and plan a water project property. A Decision Support System (DSS) for rural water supply has been proposed to assist the decision making process to be more systematic, fast and comprehensive. It requires a number of input cata variables which are not difficult to obtain and these variables have been selected to ensure that most aspects inherent in a successful project are considered. The main achievement of this system is the project report, similar to a project preliminary design, and the financial results which are important for project assessment and ranking. The Decision Support System is a computational model which uses engineering and economics approach to combine and process input data and information contained in its database. While the calculation method does not need constant updating, the database has to be verified frequently to produce reliable results. South African prices have been used in the database construction but a correction factor facility was incorporated to adjust and make the model useable in Mozambique. The model has been designed to be used by planners, engineers and technicians, and funding agencies. The model can be used by planners to assess implication of policy decisions on future water supplies and water resources development. For engineers and technicians, the model estimates water demands, project components sizes and quantities, and water source development and reliability. To funding agencies, the model is a tool to determine the best investment scenario of a rural water supply project.

by Chan Kok-Wing, Chu Ming-Cheung. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1985. / Bibliography: leaves 100-102.

This study explores how resilience is gained in childhood. Therefore the question becomes does resilience occur from predisposed characteristics or does it occur from experiences, moments, and people the individual encounters during their childhood. This project presents the results of a qualitative study of 15 master degree student participants that gave responses based on their childhood experiences. One of the requirements for this study, was that each participant had to have suffered from being at risk of factors that could have decreased their resilience, called contextual risks. There were three themes that emerged from this study and they are strengths, realizations, and support systems. Within the strengths theme, there were several variables to gaining resilience: descriptions that were given to the participants growing up, coping skills, and self-control. These themes suggest that resilience is gained through a combination of predisposed characteristics, life changing moments, and influential people.