Nazarbayev University Repository (NUR) is an institutional electronic archive designed for the long-term preservation, aggregation, and dissemination of scientific research outcomes and intellectual property produced by the Nazarbayev University community and affiliated organizations.

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    Tolstoy’s laboratory of marriage: from family happiness to Anna Karenina
    (Nazarbayev University School of Sciences and Humanities, 2026-05-13) Yerezhepova, Laura; Murphy, Amanda
    This thesis examines how, in "Family Happiness" and "Anna Karenina," Leo Tolstoy represents the experience of living within marriage across time. Rather than treating marriage as a stable institution or narrative resolution, Tolstoy portrays it as a condition in which emotional life is reshaped through domestic routine, social life, and continuous interaction between spouses. The thesis argues that marital instability in these texts emerges not simply from external social conditions but from the gradual mismatch between imagined love and the realities of shared domestic life, particularly when romantic idealization is subjected to duration, reflection, and routine. Introducing the concept of Tolstoy’s “laboratory of marriage,” the thesis defines marriage as a narrative environment in which relationships are tested under changing conditions and shifting perspectives. The thesis traces the development of this experimental method from the single retrospective consciousness of Masha in "Family Happiness" to the comparative and multi-perspectival structure of "Anna Karenina." In the latter, Tolstoy expands this narrative method through four major marriages, namely those of Stiva and Dolly, Anna and Karenin, Anna and Vronsky, and Levin and Kitty, each revealing a different attempt to reconcile desire, domesticity, and morality. Through shifting focalization and refracted perspectives, marriage is differently imagined, experienced, justified, and judged by multiple consciousnesses occupying conflicting moral and psychological positions. Drawing on narrative theory, feminist criticism, and scholarship on Tolstoyan temporality, the thesis argues that narration itself becomes central to the representation of marital instability. Together, the texts trace the movement from imagined love to lived marriage and from emotional idealization to accommodation, imbalance, endurance, or collapse, revealing how emotional life in Tolstoy’s fiction is never immediate or transparent but mediated through memory, interpretation, perspective, and social observation.
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    Adenosine modulates L-DOPA level during physical activity though NR4A2 (Nurr-1) – TYROSINE HYDROXYLASE–L-DOPA pathway
    (Nazarbayev University School of Medicine, 2026-04) Zhubashev, Olzhas; Ali, Syed; Abidi, Syed Hani Hassan
    Previously our research team found nine genes (ATF3, NR4A2, NFIL3, NR4A3, MAFF, SIK, SLC2A3, MYC, and SOCS3) that are differentially expressed in sedentary and physically active people. Another study of our team showed an affinity level of gut derived metabolites that interacted with these nine proteins. One of the strongest binding activities was observed between adenosine and NR4A2. NR4A2 is a nuclear orphan factor responsible for adaptation to physical activity and neuronal signaling. As a step towards understanding the mechanism of gut derived metabolites affecting mental function such as motivation to physical activity through gene modulation, this study was performed. To investigate the regulation of L-DOPA level through the NR4A2-TH-L-DOPA pathway through Adenosine, the qPCR analysis and Western blot analysis were used. Rhabdomyosarcoma (RD CCL-136) cells were used as a platform for gene expression analysis. The results showed the ability of adenosine to initiate expression of NR4A2. Further investigation of the proposed mechanism should be performed to clarify expression of NR4A2 in a time and dose dependent manner. The study will elucidate a broader understanding of gut-derived adenosine’s effect on NR4A2-TH-L-DOPA pathway and the potential mechanism of motivation it regulates.
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    FAST-AI: An AI-Based Biomechanical Analysis System for Tennis Serve Assessment
    (Nazarbayev University School of Medicine, 2026-04-18) Zeeshan; Jamwal, Prashant K; Rakhmanov, Yeltay
    The tennis serve is a high-velocity and complex movement that plays a critical role in performance and injury risk. Conventional biomechanical analysis relies on laboratory-based motion capture systems, which, although considered the gold standard, are costly, time-consuming, and lack ecological validity. Recent advances in markerless pose estimation and wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) offer practical alternatives; however, these approaches are often applied independently, limiting validation and interpretability. This study proposes FAST-AI, a hybrid framework combining video-based pose estimation and IMU-based measurements for biomechanical analysis of the tennis serve. The experiment involved 8 tennis players (18-35 years old) conducting 15 tennis serves (N = 120), wherein kinematics data were analyzed using MediaPipe Pose, and IMUs provided reference data for rotations and velocities. Serve accuracy was measured as a binary value. Pearson correlation and error metrics were used to analyze the similarity between data produced by AI algorithms and those recorded with the use of IMU devices. Elbow joint angle showed statistically significant moderate negative correlation with the angular velocity of the forearm (r = -0.302, p = 0.0008) with relatively small absolute error values (MAE = 1.317°, RMSE = 1.614°), making up less than 1% relative error. On the contrary, wrist joint pronation did not show significant similarity (r = -0.084, p = 0.3618). Comparing groups using the Mann-Whitney U test did not show any significant differences between accurate and inaccurate serves; however, some small to medium effect sizes were observed. This can be attributed to the substantial class imbalance, where the accuracy ratio was at 94.2%. Overall, FAST-AI demonstrates the feasibility of a hybrid AI–IMU framework for extracting interpretable upper-limb kinematics in a controlled setting. While agreement is variable-specific, the system shows potential as a scalable, validation-oriented approach for sports biomechanics, rather than a definitive performance assessment tool.
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    Curriculum Internationalization and National Identity: A Quantitative Study on the Perceived Impact of the IB Curriculum in Kazakhstani Schools
    (Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education, 2026-04) Kanafina, Ferizad
    This study examines how the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum is perceived in relation to national identity in Kazakhstan, with a particular focus on civic and ethnic identity dimensions. Situated within the broader context of curriculum internationalization and post-Soviet nation-building, the study addresses the tension between global educational frameworks and state-driven identity priorities. Adopting a quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 114 educational stakeholders across IB schools in Kazakhstan. The study utilized validated instruments to measure civic and ethnic identity alongside perceptions of IB curriculum implementation and related school- and classroom-level practices. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses, including correlation, t-tests, and ANOVA, were conducted to examine patterns and differences across demographic groups. The findings indicate that the IB curriculum is generally perceived to be associated with stronger civic identity, particularly through its emphasis on global citizenship, critical thinking, and intercultural understanding. In contrast, its relationship with ethnic identity appears weaker and less consistent, with concerns related to the marginalization of local language, culture, and historical narratives. The results also highlight the central role of teacher mediation and school-level practices in shaping how global curricular principles are interpreted and adapted within local contexts. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence from a post-Soviet context, demonstrating that the relationship between international curricula and national identity is not uniform but mediated through implementation processes. The findings point to a structural misalignment between policy objectives and curriculum practice, highlighting the need for more deliberate and systematic approaches to curriculum localization.
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    Agent-Based Modeling in Network Formation
    (Nazarbayev University School of Sciences and Humanities, 2026-04-22) Kurmanov, Meirzhan; Melo-Ponce, Alejandro; Esfahani, Amin
    This project studies network formation as the outcome of decentralized strategic interactions among heterogeneous agents. It introduces an agent-based modeling (ABM) framework that represents agents as automata with limited information and local decision rules. By lifting restrictive analytical assumptions, such as homogeneity, global interaction, and perfect information, the ABM approach allows network structures to emerge from micro-level behavior. This framework is applied to the distance-based utility model (DBUM), where agents optimize over a parameter space of decay, link cost, and myopic radius across 120 simulated configurations. Computational results confirm and extend analytical predictions. The decay parameter emerged as the primary determinant of network configuration: high decay values favor hub-dominated structures, while intermediate and low values produce complete networks when costs are low. The link cost determined the overall connectivity: low link formation cost was a necessary condition for complete network formation and high cost reliably produced empty networks. The myopic radius, on the other hand, had negligible effect on the distribution of emerging network topologies, which means that strategically relevant information is concentrated in the local neighborhood of an agent. These findings demonstrate that ABM can successfully reproduce and extend analytical predictions, and reveal dynamic properties that can not be tracked by closed-form methods.