This thesis is concerned with the uses of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) technologies in everyday domestic settings. In contrast to goal-oriented technology adoption (e.g. in the workplace), the integration of pervasive technology in the home faces not only social but also physical and technical constraints. We propose a design framework for the introduction of ubicomp technology into today’s homes that, firstly, considers a holistic approach to integrating pervasive technology; secondly, takes into account social factors and domestic activity when defining the nature of the system’s interaction; and thirdly, allows the user to adapt the system’s interaction and collaboration. Most of the work to date on domestic ubicomp takes the customization of domestic spaces for granted, presuming that the integration of sensing technologies can be accomplished to any required degree and usually assuming that context-aware systems have to be proactive, limiting users to the role of consumers of the system’s actions rather than allowing them a more participative or cooperative role. We have applied our framework to design a domestic ubicomp system to support parents with childcare in the home. The “Context-Aware Room” and the “The Parent-Child Companion Tool” prototypes are built to take account of the interaction between the social and physical and the social and digital contexts in order to address issues of integration of sensing technology, socially respectful collaboration and system adaptation. Two studies explore the potential social acceptance of the PChCT. The panel study considers parents’ overall perceptions of whether these kinds of ubicomp tools might help with parental tasks. The usability study considers the usefulness and usability of the PChCT. The results of the study reflect a positive attitude to the PChCT. Parents liked the collaborative resources and facilities to tailor collaboration. Further work might be done to assess how the system’s adaptation might fit within a wider context of user needs. Nevertheless, we argue that the use of our framework can lead to more socially acceptable ubicomp experiences in the home.

This dissertation is about effects and type theory. Functional programming languages such as Haskell illustrate how to encapsulate side effects using monads. Haskell compilers provide a handful of primitive effectful functions. Programmers can construct larger computations using the monadic return and bind operations. These primitive effectful functions, however, have no associated definition. At best, their semantics are specified separately on paper. This can make it difficult to test, debug, verify, or even predict the behaviour of effectful computations. This dissertation provides pure, functional specifications in Haskell of several different effects. Using these specifications, programmers can test and debug effectful programs. This is particularly useful in tandem with automatic testing tools such as QuickCheck. The specifications in Haskell are not total. This makes them unsuitable for the formal verification of effectful functions. This dissertation overcomes this limitation, by presenting total functional specifications in Agda, a programming language with dependent types. There have been alternative approaches to incorporating effects in a dependently typed programming language. Most notably, recent work on Hoare Type Theory proposes to extend type theory with axioms that postulate the existence of primitive effectful functions. This dissertation shows how the functional specifications implement these axioms, unifying the two approaches. The results presented in this dissertation may be used to write and verify effectful programs in the framework of type theory.

This thesis describes a multi-agent approach to generating narrative based on the activities of participants in large-scale persistent virtual environments, such as massivelymultiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). These environments provide diverse interactive experiences for large numbers of simultaneous participants. Involving such participants in an overarching narrative experience has presented challenges due to the difficulty of incorporating the individual actions of so many participants into a single coherent storyline. Various approaches have been adopted in an attempt to solve this problem, such as guiding players to follow pre-designed storylines, or giving them goals to achieve that advance the storyline, or by having developers (‘dungeon masters’) adapt the narrative to the real-time actions of players. However these solutions can be inflexible, and/or fail to take player interaction into account, or do so only at the collective level, for groups of players. This thesis describes a different approach, in which embodied witness-narrator agents observe participants’ actions in a persistent virtual environment and generate narrative from reports of those actions. The generated narrative may be published to external audiences, e.g., via community websites, Internet chatrooms, or SMS text messages, or fed back into the environment in real-time to embellish and enhance the ongoing experience with new narrative elements derived from participants’ own achievements. The design and implementation of this framework is described in detail, and compared to related work. Results of evaluating the framework, both technically, and through a live study, are presented and discussed.

This thesis is about Martin-Löf's intuitionistic theory of types (type theory). Type theory is at the same time a formal system for mathematical proof and a dependently typed programming language. Dependent types are types which depend on data and therefore to type check dependently typed programming we need to perform computation(normalisation) in types. Implementations of type theory (usually some kind of automatic theorem prover or interpreter) have at their heart a type checker. Implementations of type checkers for type theory have at their heart a normaliser. In this thesis I consider type checking as it might form the basis of an implementation of type theory in the functional language Haskell and then normalisation in the more rigorous setting of the dependently typed languages Epigram and Agda. I investigate a method of proving normalisation called Big-Step Normalisation (BSN). I apply BSN to a number of calculi of increasing sophistication and provide machine checked proofs of meta theoretic properties.

Virtual Environments offer the potential for users to explore social situations and experience different behaviour responses for a variety of simulated social interactions. One of the challenges for the VE developer is how to construct the VE to allow freedom of exploration and flexibility in interactive behaviour, without the risk of users deliberately or inadvertently missing important learning goals. The program has to be structured to guide the user in their learning and to take into account different levels of ability. This embedded ‘scaffolding’ within the VE software can aid the user’s learning in different contexts, such as individual, tutored or group learning situations. This thesis looks at the design and implementation of desktop VEs in a classroom for teaching social skills to people with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS). The first part of the thesis looks at work carried out as part of the AS Interactive project, a multidisciplinary research project using User Centred Design principles. VEs developed with the help of teachers and users were constantly refined in an iterative design process with evaluations and observations of the use of the VEs in the classroom to assess the effectiveness of elements used to scaffold the VEs. The last part of the thesis looks at work continued by the author after the end of the AS Interactive project after recommendations in that project for the VEs to fit the needs of the individual. Individualisation is researched with a number of demonstration and prototype VEs developed to help obtain information from autism experts and teachers on how best to individualise a learning VE for people with autism. The outcomes of this thesis include an exploration of the role of the programmer within a multi-disciplinary research group and the iterative development of VEs. A number of recommendations on how to scaffold VEs and make them usable in the classroom are then made. Finally recommendations are made on features and scenarios that could be useful in individualised learning VEs for people with autism and which require further evaluation in a classroom.

Desde la crisis que experimentó la cultura europea a finales del siglo XIX en el lenguaje de las artes, las correspondencias entre arquitectura y literatura que se formulan alrededor del estudio micro histórico de la gestación de las Duineser Elegien (1912-1922) de Rainer Maria Rilke, plantean un triple interrogante: ¿existe un origen a la figura del ángel en el mencionado ciclo? ¿Qué arquitecturas acogen su presencia? ¿Es dicha presencia un pretexto del poeta para reformular los límites de la mirada del hombre a través del lenguaje? Hasta el momento, como respuesta a la primera cuestión, tres tesis avalaban un posible origen dispar a la presencia del ángel en el ciclo de Duino. La primera, presentada por el jesuita Jaime Ferreiro Alemparte, defendía un origen místico y literario a la figura alada. La segunda, del investigador japonés Ito Takatatsu, sostenía su origen desde las representaciones pictóricas de El Greco. Y una última, defendida por Helmunt Naumann, encontraba en Chartres el origen primordial de dicha figura. Literatura, pintura y arquitectura se articulaban como tres de las materias desde las que Rilke construyó un imaginario poético en el que “el ángel de las Elegías no tenía nada que ver con el ángel del cielo cristiano”. Es en la carta de 13 de noviembre de 1925 en la que Rilke, una vez concluido el ciclo, parece querer transmitir a Witold V. Hulewicz el sentido último de éste: “el ángel de las Elegías es esa criatura en que aparece ya cumplida la transformación de lo visible en invisible que nosotros realizamos”. ¿No es tarea del lenguaje transformar la realidad visible del mundo en invisible a través de las palabras? No es de extrañar que las arquitecturas que acogen la presencia del ángel en el ciclo sean precisamente eso: palabras. Atender a la raíz estructural de las arquitecturas que recorrían cada una de las fuentes del ángel en las Elegías, respondía al segundo interrogante, y suponía someter tales secuencias arquitectónicas al orden cronológico de su gestación. Diez años que vieron nacer una nueva imagen del mundo. Así, una primera etapa de creación, entre enero y marzo de 1912 en el Castillo de Muzot, acogerá desde los textos místicos una arquitectura celestial, que como imagen interior, corresponde a la estructura circular de un tiempo eterno: son las arquitecturas de la I y II Elegía, junto a fragmentos de la VI, la IX y la X. Una segunda etapa, ya en tierras españolas por noviembre de 1912, constataba a través de la experiencia de la pintura la necesaria nupcia entre el cielo y la tierra, y las palabras que hasta entonces generaban un espacio a interpretar desde un tiempo Sub Specie Aeternitatis, son ahora vistas como un tránsito tras la caída: son las arquitecturas de la III Elegía junto a fragmentos de la X. Estructuras que insisten en la profunda crisis que sufre la mirada del poeta frente a la transitoriedad del mundo, y que arrojarían a Rilke a la más estéril improductividad. No sería hasta febrero de 1922 cuando, encerrado en el torreón de Muzot, culminaría el ciclo de Duino: son el umbral de la V y VII Elegía, junto al final de la IX y X. Y el tiempo solar como devenir, movimiento, sombra y muerte encontraba en Chartres su primera estructura de la inversión. Le seguiría Munich, ciudad en la que la tradición oriental operaba con fuerza, y de ella un mundo nunca más dual. Los límites de la mirada del hombre a través del lenguaje quedaban entonces reformulados. Auguste Rodin, Alexander von Bernus, Karl du Prel, Georg Simmel, Sigmund Freud, Rudolf Kassner, Paul Klee, Hermann Haller, Lotte Pritzel, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Frank Kafka o Paul Valéry constituyen algunos de sus compañeros de viaje. El guía no fue otro que el ángel. Y el espacio y el tiempo tanto para la poesía como para la arquitectura del futuro, aquél que media hacia la última acepción de la expresión rilkeana "Das Offen" (lo abierto) en su obra: la estética de un nuevo umbral de la creación quedaba así constituida. / Ever since the crisis experienced by European culture in the late nineteenth century in the language of the arts, the correlation between architecture and literature formulated around the micro-historical study of the gestation of Duineser Elegien (1912-1922) by Rainer Maria Rilke, poses a threefold question: is there an origin to the figure of the angel in this cycle? Which constructs include his presence? Is that presence a pretext for the poet to reformulate the boundaries of man's viewpoint through language? Thus far, in response to the first question, three disparate theses support a possible origin for the presence of the angel in the Duino cycle. The first, presented by the Jesuit, Jaime Ferreiro Alemparte, defended a mystical and literary origin for the winged figure. Second, the Japanese researcher, Takatatsu Ito, claimed its origin was from the pictorial representations of El Greco. Lastly, the theory defended by Helmut Naumann, found the primary source of that figure in Chartres. Literature, painting and architecture were laid out as three of the subject areas from which Rilke built a poetic mindset in which, ¿The angel of the Elegies had nothing to do with an angel from the Christian Heaven? It is in the letter dated 13 November 1925 in which Rilke, having completed the cycle, seems to wish to convey to Witold V. Hulewicz the ultimate meaning of this figure, ¿The angel of the Elegies is that creature in which the now complete transformation of that which we have visibly created becomes that which is invisible.? Is it not language's task to transform the word's visible reality into something invisible through words? It is no wonder that the architectures that include the presence of the angel in the cycle are just that: words. The second question was answered by addressing the structural roots of the architectures that ran throughout each of the sources of the angel in the Elegies, and supposed submitting those architectural sequences to the chronological order of their gestation. Those ten years saw the birth of a new image of the world. Hence, a first stage of creation, between January and March 1912 at Duino Castle, will host, based on the mystical texts, a celestial architecture that, as an interior image, corresponds to the circular structure of an eternal time: they are the architectures of Elegies I and II, along with fragments from Elegies VI, IX and X. A second stage, and now on Spanish soil in November 1912, he observed through experiencing painting the necessary marriage between heaven and earth, and words that, until then, created a space for interpreting from a time "Sub Specie Aeternitatis" are now seen as a transition after the fall. They are the architectures of Elegy III together with fragments from Elegy X. They are the constructs that emphasize the profound crisis of the poet's point of view when facing the transience of the world, which would cast Rilke into completely sterile unproductiveness. It was not until February 1922 when, closed in the tower of Muzot, the Duino cycle would culminate. They are the threshold of Elegies V and VII, together with the end of Elegies IX and X. And it was solar time as transformation, movement, shadows and death he found in Chartres his first structure of reversal. Later he came to Munich, a city in which Eastern tradition ran strong, and from it a dual world no more. The limits of man's viewpoint through language were then reshaped. Auguste Rodin, Alexander von Bernus, Karl du Prel, Georg Simmel, Sigmund Freud, Rudolf Kassner, Paul Klee, Hermann Haller, Lotte Pritzel, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Frank Kafka and Paul Valéry are some of his fellow travellers. The guide was none other than the angel. And space and time both for poetry and for the architecture of the future, one that mediated to the last meaning of the rilkeana expression Das Offen (The Open) in his work: the aesthetics of a new threshold of creation was thus established.

El Street Art será la espina dorsal sobre la que se articulará esta tesis doctoral, podremos extrapolar ciertas conclusiones y teorías desarrolladas en la presente tesis hacia aquellas opciones plásticas que surjan de la aceptación por parte de la sociedad de nuevas formas y códigos de expresión. La aceptación de los códigos no siempre está de acuerdo con las directrices de lo políticamente correcto, sucede un fenómeno de adecuación y adaptación mutua tanto por parte del Street Art hacia la sociedad y viceversa. Los códigos dentro del Street Art adquieren un carácter orgánico y se transforman junto con la sociedad que los requiere, al mismo tiempo esta corriente visual e ideológica se incorpora en la sociedad ejerciendo con su presencia transformaciones en la conducta hacia la aceptación de nuevas tendencias. El concepto de persistencia de la imagen será una constante en los procesos de adaptación de los nuevos códigos plásticos así como la idea que ello genera a través del objeto original, convertido en lo que llamaremos pseudo objeto. Mediante la insistencia repetitiva de la imagen, que llamaremos persistencia de la imagen, la belleza se reinterpreta en cada momento, sus parámetros son elásticos y adaptables ante quienes ven en ello un objeto de deseo. Por otro lado como elemento indispensable de la llamada persistencia de la imagen, encontramos un importante fenómeno que ayuda de manera inequívoca a la difusión de esa idea de imagen, hablamos del pseudo objeto. Un elemento que se separa de su imagen matriz y que adquiere las características de objeto por sí mismo; el pseudo objeto llega al público de una manera aséptica tras el filtro que supone el registro de la imagen, su manipulación y su puesta en escena. A través de las redes sociales, el pseudo objeto se convierte en persistente. Aquello que se ve, la imagen, es una dimensión alterada y extrapolada de la realidad. Convierte en bello lo cotidiano y urbano e influye en posteriores intervenciones de artistas en la propia calle. El concepto de lo bello varía según las necesidades de quienes lo requieren y con el Street Art se aprecia toda esta transformación de lo odiado a lo deseado. Desde los primeros momentos del Street Art, éste sobrevivió dentro de una cierta marginalidad en un tiempo muy corto con los nuevos medios de comunicación. El stencil, como reproductividad técnica seriada del Street Art, implica una plataforma de difusión de nuevos registros gráficos. Conceptos académicos intervienen en el stencil, y las nuevas corrientes adquieren una nueva vía hacia un cierto virtuosismo en la depuración de las formas, algo que permite al público general un acceso a los códigos anteriormente vetados gracias a la intervención de la publicidad. La difusión de sus códigos es inmediata en todo el mundo, se globalizan estilos, ideas y formas de interpretación. El concepto de belleza se globaliza nuevamente y se adapta a esos parámetros derivados del Street Art.

This research investigates the feasibility and effectiveness of assessing students programming solutions to Graphical User Interface exercises in an automated fashion. Automated marking systems ease the burden on the staff involved in running a course and allow students to get results and feedback in a timely fashion. Several automated marking systems exist but are currently unable to mark GUIs. The inherent complexity of GUIs and the need for aesthetic analysis has rendered GUIs beyond the scope of most marking systems. The marking approach described in this thesis implements a number of novel concepts. By exploiting language design properties such as the hierarchical relationship between components, it was possible to develop a framework capable of testing and marking students' GUI programs. Introspectively analysing the interface enables the marking system to obtain access to the intrinsic elements contained within the GUI. Once access has been obtained, the tests can be performed on the actual interface components themselves rather than a mere representation. GUI assessment is more than functional testing, aesthetics play a major role in the creation of an interface. Existing aesthetic metrics do not provide the analytical capabilities required due to their failure to include colour. The distractive effects that colours have were quantified and incorporated into the metrics. The results of the dynamic and aesthetic testing show that through the implementation of the novel components detailed, the creation of a GUI marking system is feasible and its marking both consistent and effective. The design enables the system to return results in a timely fashion and the effects that colour has can be seen in the results of basic aesthetic testing.

Monads have become a fundamental tool for structuring denotational semantics and programs by abstracting a wide variety of computational features such as side-effects, input/output, exceptions, continuations and non-determinism. In this setting, the notion of a monad is equipped with operations that allow programmers to manipulate these computational effects. For example, a monad for side-effects is equipped with operations for setting and reading the state, and a monad for exceptions is equipped with operations for throwing and handling exceptions. When several effects are involved, one can employ the incremental approach to mod- ular monadic semantics, which uses monad transformers to build up the desired monad one effect at a time. However, a limitation of this approach is that the effect-manipulating operations need to be manually lifted to the resulting monad, and consequently, the lifted operations are non-uniform. Moreover, the number of liftings needed in a system grows as the product of the number of monad transformers and operations involved. This dissertation proposes a theory of uniform lifting of operations that extends the incremental approach to modular monadic semantics with a principled technique for lifting operations. Moreover the theory is generalized from monads to monoids in a monoidal category, making it possible to apply it to structures other than monads. The extended theory is taken to practice with the implementation of a new extensible monad transformer library in Haskell, and with the use of modular monadic semantics to obtain modular operational semantics.

The hypertext paradigm offers a powerful way of modelling complex knowledge structures. Information can be arranged into networks, and connected using hypertext links. This has led to the development of more open hypertext design, which allow hypertext services to be integrated seamlessly into the user's environment. Recent research has also seen the emergence of adaptive hypertext, which uses feedback from the user to modify objects in the hypertext. The research presented in this thesis describes the HIPPO hypertext model which combines many of the ideas in open hypertext research, with existing work on adaptive hypertext systems. The idea of fuzzy anchors are introduced which allow authors to express the uncertainty and vagueness which is inherent in a hypertext anchor. Fuzzy anchors use partial truth values which allow authors to define a "degree of membership" for anchors. Anchors no longer have fixed, discrete boundaries, but have more in common with contour lines used in map design. These fuzzy anchors are used as the basis for an adaptive model, so that anchors can be modified in response to user actions. The HIPPO linking model introduces linkbase trees which combine link collections into inheritance hierarchies. These are used to construct reusable inheritance trees, which allow authors to reuse and build on existing link collections. An adaptive model is also presented to modify these linkbase hierarchies. Finally, the HIPPO system is re-implemented using a widely distributed architecture. This distributed model implements a hypertext system as a collection of lightweight, distributed services. The benefits of this distributed hypertext model are discussed, and an adaptive model is then suggested.