In his paper, The Paradoxes of Time Travel, David Lewis posits a defense for the possibility of time travel by arguing that the grandfather 'paradox' is not, in fact, paradoxical at all. Two alternative solutions to the grandfather paradox are discussed in this paper. The first is a result of Paul Horwich’s reply to Lewis and aims to pit the Lewisian conception of compatibility against Horwich’s improbability defense. Proposed by Nicholas Smith and C.G. Goddu, this theory explains that any attempt at backward time travel will lead to the creation of long strings of improbable coincidences. An alternative thesis of the multiverse is also discussed, wherein it was proposed that instead of traveling into his past, the time traveler enters an alternate, yet completely identical universe. The multiverse thesis did not stand up to any philosophical critique, and it was posited that the thesis changes the nature of the question entirely. It is evident that Lewis’ discussion of the grandfather paradox raises several fundamentally interesting philosophical questions regarding the logical and causal irregularities of changing the past. This paper aims to adress some of these questions through a metaphysical analysis of Lewis' view, backwards causality, and the nature of time itself.

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of grandfather in the lives of his adolescent grandchildren. A survey design was used to (1) obtain demographic data, (2) determine how the two generations perceive each other, (3) identify the types and frequencies of interaction between grandfathers and their adolescent grandchildren, and (4) compare the conceptions of an ideal grandfather by the two classes of subjects. Data were gathered from 47 adolescents and their 61 grandfathers. Most of the subjects were fr om the dominant religion in the Wasatch front area. The results confirm a viable adolescent grandchild/ grandfather relationship. Residential distance affects this relationship, but a majority of grandchildren enjoy both geographical and emotional closeness to a grandfather. The generations exhibit generally positive perceptions of each other and demonstrate mutual enjoyment of the relationship. Adolescent grandchildren find grandfather enjoyable to be with and grandfather is pleased with the moral development of his adolescent grandchildren. Some personal habits or behaviors of each generation are distasteful to the other. The generations exchange gifts at least once a year and visit either in person or by telephone on a regular basis . They seldom argue or get angry with one another, but neither do they join regularly in games, sports, or trips. Both generations express a need for increased contact and generally agree on the type of relationship desired. Insufficient evidence was found to conclude that the perception of the grandfather role by adolescent aged individuals varies by age or by sex. some trends were found, however, indicating a need for further research particularly in the area of differences by sex of the grandchild. A difference by age in grandfather's perception of adolescents or his perception of the grandfather role was also not supported.

User fees for federal Wilderness have been suggested as a way to reduce deficit spending on Wilderness recreation and supplement decreasing management budgets. This study examines the users of Linville Gorge Wilderness, a federal free area, and Grandfather Mountain Backcountry, a nearby private fee area, to determine if fees would exclude any socioeconomic or other user group who presently uses wilderness and determine if fees are acceptable to users. The study compares users' socioeconomic characteristics and travel cost demand functions and analyzes attitudes towards fees to determine the extent to which fees are likely to change use behavior. No difference is found in the socioeconomic characteristics of the users of the fee and the free area, suggesting fees excluding any for federal Wilderness are equitable, not excluding any socioeconomic group currently using Wilderness. The trip demand functions of the travel cost models for the two areas are statistically the same, suggesting users are making the same economic decision when visiting each area. Fees are found to be acceptable to users if Wilderness will deteriorate without fees and fee revenues are spent on Wilderness management. Users suggest about $25 for an annual Wilderness permit and about two dollars for a daily fee as reasonable amounts. Most users say the fee at Grandfather Mountain does not influence their decision to visit, suggesting fees will not greatly affect demand at federal Wilderness. The site demand function for Linville Gorge predicts a large decrease in demand, but this is common to most travel cost models and does not usually prove true. Further research of the travel cost model and the administrative feasibility of suggested fee levels is recommended. / M.S.

Partitioning of finite strains in different domains within the limb and hinge regions of a fold can be used to understand the deformation processes operative during fold formation. Samples taken from the limb and hinge regions of a gently plunging, asymmetric, tight, mesoscale fold in the Erwin formation of the Blue Ridge in North Carolina were analyzed to determine the deformation mechanisms and strains associated with the folding event. Rf/phi grain shape fabric analysis was conducted for each sample and used to calculate the orientation and magnitude of the final grain shape fabric ellipsoids. Flexural folding and passive-shear folding models predict that the highest finite strains will be recorded in the hinge of a fold. The highest grain shape magnitudes recorded in the North Carolina fold, however, lie along the overturned fold limb. The final geometry of many folds indicates that hinge plane migration processes are active during compressive deformation events. Numeric, conceptual, and analogue based studies have demonstrated the migration of fold hinges during deformation. However, documentation of these processes in field based studies is rare and limited to techniques that are frequently site specific. Methods proven successful in natural studies include the analysis of superposed folding; the migration of earlier hinge-related features such as fractures, cleavage planes, and boudinaged bedding planes; and the kinematic analysis of syntectonic pressure shadows. The magnitude and orientation of the grain shape ellipsoids calculated for the North Carolina fold indicate that rocks in the overturned limb were once located in the hinge of the fold. Subsequent noncoaxial deformation processes operative during folding resulted in the migration of the hinge to its present orientation and position. This relationship indicates that it is possible to use strain/shape fabric analysis as a test for hinge migration in folds, and that this technique may be more generally applicable in natural settings than previously proposed tests. / Master of Science

No description available.

Planning departments are besieged with temporal/historical information. While for many institutions historical information can be relegated to archives, planning departments have a constant need to access and query their historical information, particularly their historical spatial information such as zoning. This can be a cumbersome process fraught with inaccuracies due to the changing organizational methods and the extended historical legacies of most municipalities. Geographic Information Systems can be a tool to provide a solution to the difficulties in querying spatio-temporal planning data. Using a data model designed specifically to facilitate the querying of historical zoning information, queries can be performed to answer basic zoning questions such as "what is the zoning history for a specific parcel of land?" This work outlines this zoning data model, its implementation, and its testing using queries basic to the needs of planning departments.

The aim of master thesis was to create a program for the quantitative analysis of data backup schemes and with its help to identify and analyze the properties of commonly used schemes for different loads. Based on the obtained results, compile a set of principles for choosing the optimal data backup scheme. The program was created by Matlab. It can be used to find out parameters for individual backup schemes: Parameters C (total backup volume) and E (medium volume of recovery backups), backups size of individual days, workload of individual storages, cost of storages and cost of overall backup scheme, size the total amount of data written per storage per time slot. At the end of the thesis is defined a scheme for choosing the optimal backup scheme.

A tragic massacre in May 1921, commonly referred to as the Bulhoek Massacre, was associated with the ecclesiology of the Church of God and Saints of Christ, founded by Enoch Mgijima. If it were not for the theology of eschatology that this church adhered to, the so-called Bulhoek Massacre would not have happened. The theology of eschatology which Mgijima was focussing on caused the ecclesiology of the amaSirayeli to be the victims of the circumstances. Dulles defines ecclesiology as the church in the process of self actualisation. There is self understanding of worshippers. In the case of the Church of God and Saints of Christ, such self-understanding caused the Bulhoek Massacre. It is said that when people fervently believe in an Ultimate Being, whether such belief is a construction in their minds or a reality, then those people will be willing to defend their belief and die for, if it needs to be. For such a believer, it is because of the hope for a better life in the future that they are willing to even defy earthly authorities. When that believer follows a voice of the supernatural, which is revealed only to him and sounds much louder, much clearer and more authoritative than human voices, it is then that he cannot be void. Such an authoritative voice may be transmitted either through ancestors, known as the living dead, or directly from the Supreme Being. In the case of the said church, it is both. Secondly, an ecclesiology of the Church of God and Saints of Christ should be understood in the light of their mother church in America under the leadership of Crowdy the founder. Such ecclesiology should also be understood against the religious backdrop of the African Initiated Churches (AIC). These two factors, the mother church in America and the religion of the African Initiated Churches, will be the main components that drive this thesis, and thus illuminate the spark in the said church. Owing to the proliferation of the African Initiated Churches in the continent of Africa, there is a wide speculation that Africa, of the 21st century, will be the centre of World Christianity. Whether this is just a dream or a reality remains to be realized. But the fact remains that, these churches continue to be a religious force that forms part of the church history in Africa. While this thesis will constantly be referring to the 1921 events, an ecclesiology of the said church is a present phenomenon because the church survived the massacre and is still active today. The two researchers, Robert Edgar from Los Angeles University in the USA, and Martin Mandew from the University of Natal, completed their doctoral theses on the Bulhoek Massacre. Edgar was researching on, The Fifth Seal. Enoch Mgijima, The amaSirayeli Bulhoek Massacre, 1921. Mandew concentrated on, War, Memory and Salvation, The Bulhoek Massacre and the Construction of a Contextual Soteriology. Since both researchers come from a distance, and are unable to speak the language of the people they were researching, there were of obviously unfilled gaps in between. As mentioned about cultural differences, therefore, knowing the language of the worshippers makes a big difference. There needs some analysis of idiomatic expressions, enunciated and other formal and informal expressions that tend to be important during communication. However, I acknowledge their research programme but I will go further from their product. This thesis examines the ecclesiology of this church and then relates it to the massacre where they were killed for their own beliefs. It is also important to analyse, as this thesis does, the church-state relations in South Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in order to establish how other religious bodies related to the governments of the said period. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)

A tragic massacre in May 1921, commonly referred to as the Bulhoek Massacre, was associated with the ecclesiology of the Church of God and Saints of Christ, founded by Enoch Mgijima. If it were not for the theology of eschatology that this church adhered to, the so-called Bulhoek Massacre would not have happened. The theology of eschatology which Mgijima was focussing on caused the ecclesiology of the amaSirayeli to be the victims of the circumstances. Dulles defines ecclesiology as the church in the process of self actualisation. There is self understanding of worshippers. In the case of the Church of God and Saints of Christ, such self-understanding caused the Bulhoek Massacre. It is said that when people fervently believe in an Ultimate Being, whether such belief is a construction in their minds or a reality, then those people will be willing to defend their belief and die for, if it needs to be. For such a believer, it is because of the hope for a better life in the future that they are willing to even defy earthly authorities. When that believer follows a voice of the supernatural, which is revealed only to him and sounds much louder, much clearer and more authoritative than human voices, it is then that he cannot be void. Such an authoritative voice may be transmitted either through ancestors, known as the living dead, or directly from the Supreme Being. In the case of the said church, it is both. Secondly, an ecclesiology of the Church of God and Saints of Christ should be understood in the light of their mother church in America under the leadership of Crowdy the founder. Such ecclesiology should also be understood against the religious backdrop of the African Initiated Churches (AIC). These two factors, the mother church in America and the religion of the African Initiated Churches, will be the main components that drive this thesis, and thus illuminate the spark in the said church. Owing to the proliferation of the African Initiated Churches in the continent of Africa, there is a wide speculation that Africa, of the 21st century, will be the centre of World Christianity. Whether this is just a dream or a reality remains to be realized. But the fact remains that, these churches continue to be a religious force that forms part of the church history in Africa. While this thesis will constantly be referring to the 1921 events, an ecclesiology of the said church is a present phenomenon because the church survived the massacre and is still active today. The two researchers, Robert Edgar from Los Angeles University in the USA, and Martin Mandew from the University of Natal, completed their doctoral theses on the Bulhoek Massacre. Edgar was researching on, The Fifth Seal. Enoch Mgijima, The amaSirayeli Bulhoek Massacre, 1921. Mandew concentrated on, War, Memory and Salvation, The Bulhoek Massacre and the Construction of a Contextual Soteriology. Since both researchers come from a distance, and are unable to speak the language of the people they were researching, there were of obviously unfilled gaps in between. As mentioned about cultural differences, therefore, knowing the language of the worshippers makes a big difference. There needs some analysis of idiomatic expressions, enunciated and other formal and informal expressions that tend to be important during communication. However, I acknowledge their research programme but I will go further from their product. This thesis examines the ecclesiology of this church and then relates it to the massacre where they were killed for their own beliefs. It is also important to analyse, as this thesis does, the church-state relations in South Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in order to establish how other religious bodies related to the governments of the said period. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)