The purpose of this study was to determine if increasing physical activity to 100,000 steps/week would lead to improvements in cardiovascular risk factors for the "somewhat active" to "active" population. Thirty-one subjects, 13 male (mean age 43.5 ± 14.5 years) and 18 female (mean age 38.9 ± 12.6 years) who volunteered to participate in this study completed the full 16 weeks. Subjects were eligible for the study if they were healthy, could ambulate, and their baseline activity level met the step count criteria (> 7,500 - <12,500 steps/day). Subjects underwent laboratory testing comprised of resting heart rate, resting blood pressure, body composition, blood lipid analysis, bone mineral density, and a surrogate measure of cardio-respiratory fitness, prior to and 16 weeks after completing the 100,000 steps/week intervention. After the completion of preliminary assessments, subjects were asked to wear a pedometer continuously for 16 weeks; increasing their number of steps from baseline to 100,000 steps/week. Fifty-eight percent of subjects adhered (> 90,000 steps/week) to the 100,000 steps/week physical activity program. Subjects demonstrated significant reductions in body composition measurements overtime with increased physical activity. These improvements included body mass index 27.2 ± 3.6 to 26.8 ± 3.6 kg/m2, total percent body fat 35.4 ± 9.9 to 33.9 ± 10.3%, and waist circumference 83.9 ± 10.3 to 81.6 ± 10.1cm from pre to post measurements. In conclusion, individuals already meeting minimal physical activity recommendations (i.e. somewhat active/active) can gain health benefits particularly in body composition by increasing to 100,000 steps/week with the use of a pedometer.Key Words: physical activity, pedometer, walking, weight loss, adherence, dose-response, intervention. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science

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Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. / Religious terrorism, as most recently highlighted by the horrendous 9/11 attacks, is not a new phenomenon. It is not restricted to any one particular religion or belief system, nor is it reserved as a weapon against foreign lands. Domestic religious terrorism is just as prevalent throughout history and is brought about by certain converging factors at particularly susceptible times within the society, such as economic difficulties, new or modified technologies, and social uncertainties. Under these conditions, a charismatic leader with an appealing ideology and access to sufficient resources may become a very powerful threat to society, pitting the secular against the divine. This type of convergence may result in altogether new religious movements, or the unexpected growth of fringe groups that, until they act, are not even identified. Examining the historical convergences of the Reformation, First and Second Great Awakenings, and the trends of modern domestic society, we find that the threads which hold these movements together remain consistent throughout history. Enabled by the rapid growth of technology, these groups have unprecedented potential power. A group that decides to become offensive or use weapons of mass destruction, such as Japan's Aum Shinrikyo, may pose an unacceptable risk to our country. / Major, United States Air Force

Recent work in the area of social cognition has increasingly addressed the manner in which cognitive processes are affected by relatively long-term individual differences in the salience of certain social stimuli over others. The present set of studies explores the effects of differences in the relative personal importance of behavior domains on autobiographical memory and memory for frequency of occurrence — areas of memory deployed in day-to-day adaptation to the environment. Behavior domains of high and low personal importance were preassessed by means of questionnaire. In the autobiographical memory study, subjects were cued for positive, negative, rare, and commonplace personal memories in high and low importance domains. Memory dates and recall latencies were also collected. Subjects then evaluated their memories in terms of 18 attributes, including emotional and imagistic vividness, confidence of recall, pleasantness, frequency of rehearsal, and self-descriptiveness. In the frequency of occurrence study, each subject was presented with a list of 90 words that included target words representing his or her high and low importance domains. Whereas nontarget words varied in frequency, all domain words were presented with equal frequency. In the memory test, subjects were presented with pairs of target words and were asked to indicate which word in the pair had appeared most frequently. Subjects also ranked the frequency with which they have encountered domain words in various real-life social contexts. The autobiographical study yielded a large number of significant findings, many of them higher order interactions. In general, personal importance was found to mediate the effects of other variables on memory attributes; for instance, subjects judged positive memories as more descriptive of self than negative memories, but only in the case of high importance domains of behavior. Personal importance was also found to affect frequency estimates. Despite identical presentation frequencies, subjects estimated that high importance words were presented significantly more frequently in the list than were low importance words. Personal importance also had significant effects on estimates of frequency of encounter with domain words and behaviors in real-life contexts. The present findings underscore the need to examine further the impact of individual differences in the meaningfulness of stimuli on social cognitive and memorial processes. / This thesis was digitized as part of a project begun in 2014 to increase the number of Duke psychology theses available online. The digitization project was spearheaded by Ciara Healy.

Chapter 1 introduces the dissertation’s thesis and highlights its methodology. This dissertation argues that the divine design for suffering in Christ-followers is to decrease self-rule through mortification, increase God’s rule through engendering spiritual maturity, with both of these functions serving the ultimate purpose of God glorifying himself in the individual lives of his covenant people. This chapter also sets the argument within the contemporary context of biblical counseling. Chapter 2 explores the first major element of the thesis, that God designs suffering to decrease self-rule in his covenant people through mortification. This theme is traced through the lamenting psalmists, the Suffering King’s attack on self-rule via the cross, and Jesus’ imperative to self-denial. Chapter 3 argues the second major element of the thesis, that God designs suffering to increase his rule in his covenant people by engendering the blessings consistent with spiritual maturity. This thought is developed by examining the spiritual maturity suffering produced in the lamenting psalmists and Jesus. Six New Testament passages are examined which indicate suffering is instrumental in engendering spiritual maturity in the Christ-follower. Chapter 4 demonstrates the third major thesis element that suffering that the ultimate purpose of suffering in Christ-followers is to glorify God. This conclusion is reached by examining the lamenting psalmists glorification of God, Jesus glorifying the Father in his sufferings, Christ-followers’ glorification of Christ through suffering, and how God glorifies himself when suffering ceases. Chapter 5 defends the dissertation thesis against the challenges forwarded by open theism. The main arguments focus on open theism’s contention that no divine design for suffering exists and suffering is purposeless. The last section critiques the implications open theistic beliefs has on trusting God, Christ and the gospel, prayer, and eternal hope. Chapter 6 proposes that the cognitions, affections, and volitions of the heart are each mortified of their unchristlikenesses, conformed to Christlikeness, both for the glory of God through suffering. The last section is directed to biblical counselors to give indicators of self-rule in sufferers and to suggest how they may minister to all the suffering heart’s functions. Chapter 7 concludes the dissertation by giving a summary of its arguments, suggestions for further research, and some concluding thoughts.

Pour profiter des nombreux matériels actuellement, les logiciels s’exécutant sur des téléphones mobiles doivent devenir sensibles au contexte, c'est-à-dire, qu’ils doivent surveiller les événements provenant de leur environnement et réagir en conséquence. Nous considérons que ces logiciels peuvent  bénéficier d'une approche basée sur les Lignes de Produits Logiciels (LPL). Les LPLs sont définies pour exploiter les points communs par la définition d’éléments réutilisables. Néanmoins, les LPLs ne prennent pas en compte  les modifications à l'exécution des applications. Cette thèse propose une ligne de produits logiciels dynamique (LPLD) qui étend une LPL classique en fournissant des mécanismes pour adapter les produits à l'exécution. Notre objectif principal est d'unifier les adaptations à la conception et à l'exécution en utilisant des artefacts logiciels de haut niveau. Concrètement, nous introduisons un modèle de variabilité et un modèle de composition pour modulariser les produits sous forme de modèles d'aspect. Chaque modèle d'aspect a trois parties : l’architecture, les modifications, et le point de coupe. Ensuite, nous proposons deux processus de dérivation du produit : un pour la conception que vise à construir un produit, et un pour l'exécution que vise à adapter un produit. Ce travail de recherche s’est déroulé dans le cadre du projet FUI CAPPUCINO. Nous avons défini une LPLD pour une étude de cas de vente sensible au contexte d’un hypermarché.  Le scénario démontre les avantages de notre approche et, en particulier, l'unification réalisée par les modèles d'aspect utilisés à la fois à la conception et à l'exécution. / In order to take advantage of new hardware capabilities in mobile devices, software has to be context aware, i.e. it has to monitor the events and information coming from its environment and react accordingly. Moreover, often such mobile applications share characteristics regarding its architecture and implementation. This leads us to consider that context-aware systems can benefit from the Software Product Line (SPL) paradigm. However, SPLs are limited regarding the runtime modifications implied by context awareness. This dissertation investigates on Dynamic Software Product Lines (DSPL). A DSPL extends a classic SPL by providing mechanisms to adapt products at runtime. Our main goal is to unify design and runtime adaptations under the same definition through high-level artifacts. Concretely, as the first contribution of this dissertation, we introduce a variability model, and a composition model that realizes variability. We use these models to divide the products in several modules called aspect models. Each aspect model is formed by three parts: architecture, changes, and places. As a second contribution, we propose two processes of product derivation: design weaving and runtime weaving. Design weaving aims at building a single product. Runtime weaving aims at adapting a product being executed. To validate our approach we define and implement a DSPL. Concretely, this research is part of the FUI CAPPUCINO project where we developed a DSPL for a retail case study. The validation shows the versatility of our approach and in particular the unification achieved through the aspect models used at design time as well as at runtime.

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M.A. / An investigation of existing research literature was undertaken to explore the experience of bereavement of parents whose child has died. The review comprises an overview of theoretical approaches to bereavement and the various factors which determine the grief experience. These include an examination of factors surrounding the loss, personal factors and coping skills, as well as an outline of familial, cultural and social aspects. A further focus of the review, is on the process of meaning making in the aftermath of a traumatic event, such as parental bereavement following on the loss of offspring. A particular focal point in this respect is the exploration of how the experience of parental bereavement motivates the search for meaning and the possible significance of this meaning in the continued life of the bereaved parent.

D.Com. (Business Economics) / In the modern social context private enterprise is expected not only to pursue profitability but also social objectives. The fact that business is expected to be involved in the social welfare of society has important implications for the division of responsibility between government and private enterprise within society. Traditionally it used to be the sole responsibility of government to see to the social welfare of society. Due to the view that business has a social responsibility uncertainty exists as to the respective roles of government and private enterprise. The objective of this research was to obtain an indication of the scope and nature of the social responsibility of business in South Africa. For this purpose the attitude of the white community in South Africa regarding corporate social responsibility was measured. In this respect the attitude of managers of companies registered on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange was also measured...