<p>This thesis studies the development of the Hindu god Skanda-Karttikeya from the fourth century BCE to the fourth century CE in north India. I argue that during this time period the deity is transformed from a demonic being associated with childhood diseases to a respected divine ge1eral and son to Siva. I begin with a discussion of the earliest written material about the deity found in the two Sanskrit Epics (The Mahabharata and The Ramayana) and other texts. These texts establish Skallda-Kal1tikeya's origins in demonic beings and illustrate his transformation into a martial deity. These texts also demonstrate how Brahminical redactors assimilated this deity into their own traditions. This process; of assimilation takes an inauspicious and unorthodox deity and transforms him into an auspicious and orthodox deity.</p> <p>1 go on to argue that this transformation did not result in the increased popularity of this deity, but brings about the end of his popular cult in the north of India. Based on ancient coinage, statuary and inscriptions I demonstrate that this deity's popularity was related to his earlier terrible image and a propitiatory cult designed to appease him. Once the dangerous aspect of his image was removed, so was the main source of his popular cult. As opposed to previous scholarship on this deity, I argue that the Brahminization of this deity's cult brings about its end.</p> <p>I also demonstrate, based on this deity's depiction on ancient coinage, statuary and epigraphy, that there were also political forces at work in this process. My research demonstrates that the most important groups in this process were non-Indian. Primarily, I identify the Kusanas as the main political group who transform this deity. This conclusion related to the foreign influence~e 'in the development of this deity lie in stark contrast to previous studies of this deity.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Demon Code (One-Hour, Sci-Fi) - After a teenaged hacker summons a sardonic demon through her computer, the two band together to hunt down legions of escaped hellspawn in order restore her mother’s sanity.

This study is about Lilith, a demonic character from Mesopotamian mythology. She was originally described as a wind demon that caused desolation and destruction everywhere she went. According to some Jewish folklore Lilith was Adam’s first wife, though she refused to submit to him and fled to the desert. Throughout history Lilith has been given a lot of different forms and this study aims to map some of her various forms in modern time. The purpose of this study is to look into how Lilith has been used in modern litterateur. The study will examine which forms that appear and if some are more prominent than others. In order to fulfill the purpose, a qualitative content analysis has been implemented — based on the concept of archetypes that also make up the study’s theoretical foundation. The results show three authors’ books that focus on the usage of Lilith. The material consist of three occult and esoteric books and the result shows that Lilith has been used and presented in various ways. The main theme that all books supports is that Lilith is a mean to reclaim the female sexuality. It’s about interpretative prerogative, especially concerning strong female characters.

This diploma thesis follows the personality and art of a Russian painter from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Michail Vrubel. It analyzes the artist as unconventional appearance in the so called Silver Age of the Russian art, a pionier of modernism not only in terms of developing the style but also the inovative technique he used, abandoning the tradition and traditionalist paintings. The first part of thesis focused on the main biography of Michail Vrubel and the view of his art, devided into three periods, as well as the main milestones that influenced him. Next the focus moves to the overview of Russia at the end of 19th and beginning of 20th centuries, the ,,Silver Age", with special attention to symbolism, with which Michail Vrube lis often associated, even though he does not fit the symbolist characteristics completely. In the following part, the focus shifts to the innovative painting style of the artist and his trademark reduction of forms, best seen in two of his prominent pieces - Seated Demon and Fallen Demon. The final part lists the artist's contribution to the world of art and his influence on the following generations. The goal of this thesis is not to criticize the work of Michail Vrubel. Rather, it enables the views of his personality and art through the eyes of his...

Registration of medical images is technique, which is developing with new hybrid diagnostic imaging systems. Nowadays is a trend in image registration focused on monomodality and multimodality images registration. The first part of this master’s thesis is intent on present basic information about image registration. Concretely is intending on image transformation, interpolation, criteria function and at optimalization. Further part present realized Optical Flow technique and used “Demon” algorithm for image registration. The next part is focused on presentation of program solution and GUI. In the last section of this master’s thesis is verifying of created program on usual images and real CT images.

Student Number : 0311005K - MA dissertation - School of Social Sciences - Faculty of Humanities / In this paper I track the work of Alvin Goldman, the American epistemologist, from 1979 to 1992 to assess its adequacy as a theory of justified belief. Many philosophers have pointed out that the theory faces problems, the three most important of which I consider. The first is the “clairvoyance problem.” In this case we intuitively deny the status of “justified” to certain beliefs produced by the reliable process of clairvoyance. This indicates that reliable belief formation is not sufficient for justification. The “generality problem,” the second problem, concerns the correct identification and description of the process forming each belief. If the process cannot be identified, then no assessment can be made of a belief’s epistemic status. Moreover, if the process is described too narrowly such that each process only has one output belief, then all true beliefs will be “justified” and all false beliefs “unjustified,” an unacceptable result. If the process is described too broadly then all output beliefs of that process will share an equal epistemic status, also an unacceptable result. Finally, it is possible to challenge the necessity of reliable formation for justification using the case of a cognizer in an evil demon world such that his unreliable visual beliefs are intuitively “justified” since those beliefs are produced by the same reliable processes in our world where they produce justified beliefs. I defend Goldman against these challenges by elucidating subtleties in Goldman’s work that answer these problems and by adding three necessary conditions to his theory. I argue that by modifying Goldman’s early work and rejecting parts of his later work, we can formulate a version of his theory that counts as an adequate theory of justified belief immune to the foregoing problems.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta dissertação é um estudo comparativo do legado vitoriano deixado para as escritoras do século XX, Virginia Woolf e Sylvia Plath. Primeiro discutem-se as agências controladoras do corpo feminino na era vitoriana e a formação de um ideal de feminilidade que chamamos de Anjo do Lar. Em seguida, discute-se como Virginia Woolf apreende essa imagem e a subverte, criando seu duplo, que chamamos de Demônio do Lar. Por fim, promovemos o diálogo entre Sylvia Plath e Virginia Woolf. Plath parece escrever aos moldes de Woolf, criando uma literatura de morte, feita para assassinar o Anjo do Lar. Usamos para tal estudo o conceito de écriture féminine, criado pelas francófonas Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray, e Julia Kristeva, entre outras, para traçar os paralelos entre um lugar para o feminino na escrita e a busca de uma tradição por Woolf. A abjeção de Kristeva, a dinâmica de poder entre alma e corpo de Foucault e o conceito de duplo de Otto Rank nos ajudarão, por fim, a entender como se dá a morte do Anjo na literatura, especificamente no romance A redoma de vidro (1963) de Sylvia Plath / This dissertation is a comparative study of the legacy left behind by the Victorians to the twentieth-century woman writers Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath. Firstly, we shall discuss the controlling agencies governing the female body in the Victorian Era and the rise of an ideal, the Angel in the House. Secondly, we expose how Virginia Woolf apprehends and subverts this Victorian ideal, duplicating it into what we call the Demon in the House. At last we encourage the dialogue between Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf. Plath seems to write in accordance with Woolfs parameters, creating a literature of death, a literature that is the killer of the Angel. We use the concept of écriture féminine promoted by the French critics Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray, and Julia Kristeva, among others, to parallel a feminine space for writing to Woolfs search for a feminine literary tradition. Kristevas abjection, Foucaults power dynamics between the soul and the body, and Otto Ranks work on the double, shall foster our discussion on the death of the Angel in literature, especially in Sylvia Plaths The Bell Jar (1963)

A time-reversible Maxwell's demon is demonstrated which creates a density difference between two chambers initialized to have equal density. The density difference is estimated theoretically and confirmed by computer simulations. It is found that the reversible Maxwell's demon compresses phase space volume even though its dynamics are time reversible. The significance of phase space volume compression in operating a microscopic heat engine is also discussed.

Este trabalho tem como finalidade apresentar o fenômeno da possessão e exorcismo na tradição judaico-cristã, ao longo da história; partindo da antiguidade judaica até os dias atuais. A possessão demoníaca, bem como a prática do exorcismo, são temas estudados desde a antiguidade até os dias atuais. Pretende-se apresentar uma síntese, em chave historiográfica, desses fenômenos do Campo Religioso, além de uma análise crítica apoiada nos estudos de biblistas como Karl Kertelge, Antônio Lazarini Neto, Irineu José Rabuske e Luigi Schiavo e historiadores como Jaccques Le Goff e Jean Delumeau. Para que isso seja feito, o trabalho foi dividido em três capítulos: no primeiro, analisaremos a questão do panorama histórico do fenômeno; no segundo, retrataremos as evoluções sofridas no fenômeno mediante as crenças do mundo medieval e moderno, culminando na análise teológica do fenômeno de possessão e do exorcismo no último capítulo. / This work aims to present the phenomenon of possession and exorcism in the Judeo-Christian tradition throughout history; starting from the Jewish antiquity to the present day. Demonic possession, as well as the practice of exorcism, are studied themes from antiquity to the present day. It is intended to provide a summary, in historiographical key, these phenomena of Religious Realm, and a critical analysis supported in studies by scholars like Karl Kertelge, Antonio Lazarini Neto, José Irenaeus Rabuske and Luigi Schiavo and historians as Jaccques Le Goff and Jean Delumeau . For this to be done, the work was divided into three chapters: the first, we analyze the question of the historical overview of the phenomenon; in the second, portray the developments in the phenomenon suffered by the beliefs of the medieval and modern world, culminating in the theological analysis of the possession and exorcism phenomenon in the last chapter.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta dissertação é um estudo comparativo do legado vitoriano deixado para as escritoras do século XX, Virginia Woolf e Sylvia Plath. Primeiro discutem-se as agências controladoras do corpo feminino na era vitoriana e a formação de um ideal de feminilidade que chamamos de Anjo do Lar. Em seguida, discute-se como Virginia Woolf apreende essa imagem e a subverte, criando seu duplo, que chamamos de Demônio do Lar. Por fim, promovemos o diálogo entre Sylvia Plath e Virginia Woolf. Plath parece escrever aos moldes de Woolf, criando uma literatura de morte, feita para assassinar o Anjo do Lar. Usamos para tal estudo o conceito de écriture féminine, criado pelas francófonas Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray, e Julia Kristeva, entre outras, para traçar os paralelos entre um lugar para o feminino na escrita e a busca de uma tradição por Woolf. A abjeção de Kristeva, a dinâmica de poder entre alma e corpo de Foucault e o conceito de duplo de Otto Rank nos ajudarão, por fim, a entender como se dá a morte do Anjo na literatura, especificamente no romance A redoma de vidro (1963) de Sylvia Plath / This dissertation is a comparative study of the legacy left behind by the Victorians to the twentieth-century woman writers Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath. Firstly, we shall discuss the controlling agencies governing the female body in the Victorian Era and the rise of an ideal, the Angel in the House. Secondly, we expose how Virginia Woolf apprehends and subverts this Victorian ideal, duplicating it into what we call the Demon in the House. At last we encourage the dialogue between Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf. Plath seems to write in accordance with Woolfs parameters, creating a literature of death, a literature that is the killer of the Angel. We use the concept of écriture féminine promoted by the French critics Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray, and Julia Kristeva, among others, to parallel a feminine space for writing to Woolfs search for a feminine literary tradition. Kristevas abjection, Foucaults power dynamics between the soul and the body, and Otto Ranks work on the double, shall foster our discussion on the death of the Angel in literature, especially in Sylvia Plaths The Bell Jar (1963)