Global information technology infrastructure for a global non-profit organisation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology at Massey University

Page 103 missing from vault and scanned copyWith the recent worldwide growth of the Internet, computers are becoming interconnected in a global communications network. Most people view the Internet as a universal communications medium that can replace telephone, television, and radio. Historically, for organisations and enterprises that could afford to do so, expensive telecommunication lines and Wide Area Network technologies were used for global communications, which allowed computers to communicate using proprietary protocols. For non-profit organisations in particular, the Internet has made it possible to connect offices and individuals, using open standard protocols, at a fraction of the cost of other alternatives. This study focuses on the investigation and development of a global communication system and information technology (IT) infrastructure that uses the Internet as its communication platform for a particular non-profit organisation, OMF International. Without a clear understanding of the limitations of the technologies involved, the development of an IT project is likely to be flawed or fail. (Standish Group, 1995) The findings from this investigation revealed that a global communication system and IT infrastructure, suitable for OMF International, needed to overcome limitations in the use and access of the Internet, the unreliability of different email systems to deliver email messages, and financial and human resource constraints. The study found that methods used in 'for-profit' organisations for the development of an IT infrastructure, were applicable to this non-profit organisation, resulting in the successful implementation of a global communication system and IT infrastructure. The choice of IT solutions and technologies within OMF was often based on functionality rather than feasibility, and its global IT infrastructure requirements were overlooked. The study found that by comparison Lotus Notes' client/server IT infrastructure requirements were considerably less than that of Microsoft Exchange client/server, however, alternative low-cost open standard messaging options were more affordable. Conclusively, open standard IT solutions for global communications are better suited that for this non-profit organisation, than proprietary solutions. The study also highlighted the need for an IT architecture, that would provide a plan and strategic context for future IT development within OMF International, which would overcome problems with concurrent IT projects using different technologies

Polarisation Measurement on Three Alternatives

This bachelor thesis adresses the principle of polarisation on three different alternatives. It finds three different functions that find a measure for polarisation, that satisfy certain constraints. Then it argues about the usefulness of these function

'Bridge workers' werken door na hun pensioen

Door de economische crisis laat het tekort aan medewerkers langer op zich wachten dan voorheen werd aangenomen, maar dit tekort komt eraan. Medewerkers worden gestimuleerd om langer te blijven werken. Ook is een groeiende groep 65+-medewerkers aan het werk, de zogenaamde ‘bridge workers’. Ondanks de mogelijkheid om (volledig) met pensioen te kunnen gaan, kiezen deze medewerkers er vrijwillig voor om (deels) nog enkele jaren te blijven werken. Hoe organisaties omgaan met werken na de AOW-leeftijd is afhankelijk van (cao-)afspraken tussen werkgever en werknemer. Het roept bij deze groeiende groep medewerkers de vraag op hoe organisaties met de inzet van human resource management (hrm) kunnen bijdragen aan de bevlogenheid, inzetbaarheid, en ervaren gezondheid van de bridge worker

Gait and electromyographic analysis of patients recovering after limb-saving surgery

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Fusion of Imaging and Inertial Sensors for Navigation

The motivation of this research is to address the limitations of satellite-based navigation by fusing imaging and inertial systems. The research begins by rigorously describing the imaging and navigation problem and developing practical models of the sensors, then presenting a transformation technique to detect features within an image. Given a set of features, a statistical feature projection technique is developed which utilizes inertial measurements to predict vectors in the feature space between images. This coupling of the imaging and inertial sensors at a deep level is then used to aid the statistical feature matching function. The feature matches and inertial measurements are then used to estimate the navigation trajectory using an extended Kalman filter. After accomplishing a proper calibration, the image-aided inertial navigation algorithm is then tested using a combination of simulation and ground tests using both tactical and consumer- grade inertial sensors. While limitations of the Kalman filter are identified, the experimental results demonstrate a navigation performance improvement of at least two orders of magnitude over the respective inertial-only solutions