This work is a study of the concept of progress in Bukhara between approximately 1860 and 1920. It is based on unpublished and published sources from this period. The study suggests that not only the technological and social developments that took place on a global scale between 1860 and 1920 affected the conceptualization of progress in Bukhara, but that globalized narratives on progress did so as well. Cosmographical concepts and explanations that previously were more common were notably absent in what during the 1910s became a discourse on progress, but the concept of progress still had an important eschatological dimension and was closely related to apocalypticism. Chapter One presents the context of the study. The second chapter discusses the theoretical framework and the analytical concepts. The next chapter continues by outlining the political, economic and cultural conditions in Bukhara during this period as well as providing a short historiographical discussion. The fourth chapter discusses the concept of geography and how it affected metaphorical constructions of time. Chapter Five is a study of how Bukharan travellers conceived of novelties. The following chapter discusses the direction of discontinuity and its eschatological implications. Chapter Seven studies how knowledge was temporalized and affected by a shift in the direction of discontinuity. Chapter Eight discusses the lexeme taraqqī, in which the concept of progress later was embedded, as well as various synchronic and diachronic orders. Chapter Nine discusses the eschatological and apocalyptic discourse in Bukhara during the 1910s. The last chapter contains general conclusions in the form of a discussion of the operational environment of progress in Bukhara between approximately 1860 and 1920.

PRADŽIA - tai instaliacija apie kūrybą, mano kūrybos pradžią. Nuo didžiojo sprogimo atsiradus mūsų visatai joje yra terpė egzistuoti mums, o toje kosiminėje erdvėje yra vieta ir kūrėjui, tapytojui (ne tik asmeniui). Mąstymai apie didžiąsias visatos paslaptis, apie mūsų vietą pasaulyje, apie kūrėjo, menininko poziciją, apie kūrinį, inspiraciją, - tai laukas, kuriame radosi šie darbai, kiekvienas iš jų nešantis informaciją apie tam tikrą kūrybos etapą, tam tikras kūrybos pradžios ištakas. Studijų metu siekiau konceptualaus temos pagrindimo: savo teoriniame darbe „Instaliacija konceptualiojo meno kontekste“ domėjausi konceptualizmo ištakomis it instaliacinais elementais. Konceptualūs ir technologiniai ieškojimai suformavo mano magistrantūros studijų temos turinį. Kūrybinio proceso pradedamoji stadija – pradžia – man yra gruntuojama drobė, šiuo atveju popierius, eskizavimas, meditatyvus buvimas studijoje su kūriniais ir darbo priemonėmis, eksperimentavimas: vinys paliekantys Kristaus kontūrus studijos sienoje, sapno įvaizdinimas ir pan. Temos turinį stengiausi perteikti ne tik vizualinėmis priemonėmis, bet ir ekspozicjos galimybėmis: kiekvieną naują erdvę apmąsčiusi darbus taikiau pagal diktuojamas erdvės technines ir emocines sąlygas. Nors ir tokios pačios tematikos, skirtingose erdvėse taikomi darbai perteikė ir papildomą informaciją, kaip, pavyzdžiui, Homo Ludens menų forume rodyta instaliacija „Pradžia. Tikėjimas“ buvo apie tikėjimo pradžią, jo pobūdį kiekvienam... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / It‘s an installation about creation, about my own ouvre. Ever since the Big Bang our universe is place where we egsist, and in this space we also have place for a crator, painter (not only as a person). Thoughts about the big wonders of the universe, about our position in the world, about creator‘s, artist‘s position, thinking about inspiration and creation, - this is the field in with these works were created, each of them bearing specific information about specific part of creation. Conceptual and technological research helped to form my master studies‘ concept. The beginning to me is new canvas, in this case paper, skeching, maditation in my studio space, being with my works and matterials, constant experimenting: nails that leave a trace of Jesus‘s figure on the wall, visualisation of a dream, etc. To express the content of my concept, I‘ve not only used visual measures, but also different expositions: thinking through every exposition space, I decided on individual expositions that expressed slightly different concept each time. Intuition, spontaneity, visual vaguesness, skechiness, etc. are very important in my work process. I try to avoid using very direct pictures, to me it‘s important to match visual and emotional perceptions.

AbstractPAINT MEDIATIONS Theresa Faye Pfarr, Master of Fine ArtA thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Art at Virginia Commonwealth University.Virginia Commonwealth University, 2004Major Director: Ruth Bolduan Associate Professor, Painting and Printmaking DepartmentMy paintings are contentions. I work in response, answer, and reaction to the media world. I carry a collection of incongruent images in my mind, bits and parts of the images I deal with everyday. The images stuff my mailbox, clutter my space and get in my head. I am questioning, though praising, the exploits of advertising and its mode of symbolic function. Whether their exploits are ethical is really of no concern to me in comparison to our cultural belief systems, which allow them. Advertising doesn't exploit children more than they are exploited already. In my paint investigations I forge and draw parallels to relocate meaning, as does the media. Through painting figure into space and space into figure things begin to dissolve or evolve, making the paintings both figure and of figure. The children in my paintings claim their spaces and close out the adult world.

This paper is a discussion of certain philosophical issues that have informed the progression of my work to date.

Do you know that feeling? That feeling when the music you are listening to a concert or a new record and it just seems right? When you think, that’s it! That’s what music should sound like! When the music seems to touch your soul or mirror it, or…. something. And when you feel that, nothing else seems to exist and you are purely experiencing the music. My thesis work explores the way in which we try to capture this ephemeral moment of pure experience in order to keep it with us to revisit at our leisure. This, however, is a futile endeavor. No matter how many photos you take, records you collect, or days of music on your iPod, that initial feeling, that visceral experience, cannot be replicated. In this work I use both materials that evoke this idea of the ephemeral (transparent plastic and glass) and materials are ephemeral themselves (water and wax) to convey the inability to capture music and the feelings it evokes in us. I have also chosen to add elements to the space, such as a wooden floor, stage lights, and fabric panels, to suggest a performance stage or sound studio and to further this connection to the music which the work was inspired by.

In the present work we analyze the algorithm that was introduced in [4]. The algorithm performs a translation of a conceptual schema to an XML schema expressed in the XML Schema language. We look for limitations of the algorithm and try to discover parameters that can be potentially used to influence its behavior. We propose solutions to the most serious limitations. Also, we introduce a concept of a translation profiling. The concept is based on a configuration that contains a set of parameters. We modify the algorithm to use the user requirements specified in the configuration. Thanks to the improvements, the new algorithm works with the concept of XML Namespaces, uses XML Schema designs and also, focuses on an elimination of redundancy. The elimination of redundancy in an output of the algorithm is an important part of this work and we create a formal model that helps us to solve this task.

In the present work we study possibilities in the area of automatic construction of Schematron schemas from a conceptual model for XML and possibilities in reverse-engineering of Schematron schemas. The work introduces the reader to conceptual schemas for XML and to rule-based validation of XML documents. Existing techniques for mutual conversions between XML schema languages and conceptual model are also included. The main part of the work is a design and implementation of a new method for deriving Schematron schemas from conceptual schemas for XML. This method allows to get XML schemas, which in some respects outperforms the possibilities of other popular schema languages.The work also discusses the issue of Schematron schema reverse-engineering and shows possibilities in the area and establishing basis for further research.

In the present work we study conceptual modeling of business ar- tifacts and their implementation in Active XML. Business artifacts are key con- ceptual entities of business processes that develop in their lifecycle during these processes. There are several possible methods for definition of artifact lifecycles. In this work, we make use of emerging method called Guard-Stage-Milestone meta- model and we study the question on how to appropriately use and extend current framework for conceptual modeling of XML schemas in order to support modeling of business artifacts. We also deal with the issue of design of suitable represen- tation of business artifacts using Active XML. Last but not least, we study the question how to translate defined model into proposed Active XML representation, so that it was possible to immediately use and demonstrate functionality of defined model. Important part of this work is an implementation of proposed extension and a prototype implementation of system for execution of Active XML repre- sentations of translated models. The present work also introduces the reader in individual used concepts and describes similar existing approach for Active XML representation of business artifacts. 1

The purpose of this study is to inform instruction by increasing the body of knowledge regarding the relationship between college physics students' knowledge about models in science and their conceptual understanding with regard to electricity and magnetism. The data for this study was obtained through the administration of two instruments: Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism, a multiple choice assessment, and Student Understanding of Models in Science, a Likert-scale survey. Both traditional statistics and an innovative technique called Model Analysis were used to analyze the data. Analysis of the data revealed that there is a relationship between student understanding of models in science and conceptual understanding of electricity and magnetism topics. However, the results of this study also suggest that without specific instruction on models in science, overall understanding of models in science does not improve after a traditional electricity and magnetism course. Additionally, this study demonstrated that not only does student conceptual understanding of electricity and magnetism topics improve after a traditionally taught electricity and magnetism course, but also, students demonstrate more sophistication in their understanding of some electricity and magnetism topics. In the latter case, students showed improvement in their application of the expert rather than the naïve or null model of electricity and magnetism topics.

ABSTRACT The theoretical argument that emerges from my empirical study argues that food provisioning systems in Johannesburg, as a potential lens to further investigation of food supply systems in the developing south cannot be classified within a traditional-modern dichotomy. This dissertation proposes a new conceptual device – a food provisioning continuum – which should inform research on African food supply systems in the future. The process of locating this rich case within a broader theoretical paradigm to validate it and to provide it discursive space, however, is not objective or without friction. I argue that it is possible to choose to locate rich empirical material in different conceptual frameworks, related not only to its applicability, but also to how the research may be valued and seen to extend knowledge. The expectation of the research community and the epistemological demand of new research, for a Masters dissertation is that the scholarly work will build on and extend existing knowledge. It is assumed that thorough research will challenge the boundaries of knowledge and that the candidate, after having undergone this academic rite of passage, will graduate from being a student to being a colleague within a research community. However, the process of creating new theory and advancing existing theory is not quite an objective or frictionless process as it first appears. Research in the south is validated more highly if it is located within, or builds upon international/northern theory even by research forums in the south like the NRF. The pressure for researchers from the south to locate their research in conceptual frameworks from the north – in order to be validated – appears to be one of the rules of the game. While this is validation as part of an academic exercise may be necessary, the practise entrenches spatial or geographical hierarchies within academia and academic discourse. The epistemological process of forging new theoretical frontiers is thus a constructed, unnatural space fraught with less critical valuing systems than are expected to be present within academia, no less within the discipline of geography.