The potential of digitally fabricated concrete (DFC) to produce terrain responsive designs has not been thoroughly investigated. Existing research indicates diverse benefits of DFC, such as the rapid fabrication of customized geometries. This research clarifies the advantages and design processes involved in creating site-specific DFC structures. Existing literature is analyzed to provide an overview of fabrication methods and their impacts and constraints on design. Parametric scripting is used to develop an interactive toolkit that integrates aesthetic, structural, and fabrication considerations into the design process. This toolkit specifically focuses on unreinforced retaining walls with interchangeable modules for terrain analysis, wall form generation, structural analysis, and fabrication analysis. The toolkit provides valuable feedback, such as identifying optimum wall proportions, and enables rapid design explorations. The findings affirm the value of exploratory design tools in managing fabrication complexities. Additionally, by recreating an existing amphitheater, the research indicates that DFC can create site-specific geometries that draw from the surrounding terrain.

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The subject of this thesis is a qualitative analysis of the usability of three contemporary programming languages: Perl, Python, and Tcl. The relative usability of these languages was assessed by implementing two representative applications — a paint program and a chat program — in all three languages; using PSP to collect data on program development; and then comparing development times, defect counts, and defect fix times. Overall, Python was the easiest of the three languages to use, especially for new users. Perl is the hardest, and Tcl is somewhere between. Specifically, Perl's basic language constructs are the hardest to learn and to use. Python's are the easiest. Tcl's are closer to Python's. Python's and Tcl's mechanisms for supporting OO are much easier to learn for new users than Perl's. Python's Tk libraries are easier to use than Perl's and Tcl's. Tcl's [Incr Widget] (megawidgets) library is by far the hardest to master. Perl's Tk library is somewhere in between. Perl's I/O and Socket libraries are much harder to use than Python's and Tcl's. The primary recommendations of this study are as follows: For Perl, a better OO support will reduce a significant number of OO-related defects, especially to new users. For Tcl, Tcl's [Incr Tcl] megawidget library should wrap the standard raw Tk widgets into [Incr Tk] classes, to prevent a significant number of defects from mixture uses of raw Tk widgets and [incr Tk] megawidgets classes. Tcl's eventloop mechanism is a good model for handling non-blocking sockets and I/Os. Both Perl and Python should also provide such an easy model.

Today, new web applications are made every single day with increasingly more sensitive data to manage. To ensure that no security vulnerabilities such as data leakage in web applications exist, developers are using tools such as a web vulnerability scanner. This type of tool can detect vulnerabilities by automatically finding input fields where data can be injected and performing different attacks on these fields. One of the most common web vulnerability scanners is OWASP ZAP. Web vulnerability scanners were first developed during a time when traditional multi-page applications were prominent. Nowadays, when modern single-page applications have become the de facto standard, new challenges for web vulnerability scanners have arisen. These problems include identifying dynamically updated web pages. This thesis aims to evaluate the techniques used by OWASP ZAP and several other web vulnerability scanners for identifying two of the most common vulnerabilities, SQL injections and cross-site scripting. This issue is approached by testing the selected web vulnerability scanners on deliberately vulnerable web applications, to assess the performance and techniques used, and to determine if the performance of OWASP ZAP could be improved. If an identified technique in another web vulnerability scanner performed better than the counterpart in OWASP ZAP, it will be implemented in OWASP ZAP and evaluated. From the tests performed, it could be concluded that the performance of OWASP ZAP was lacking in the search for input fields, where a depth-first search algorithm was used. The breadth-first search algorithm used by other scanners was shown to be more effective in specific cases and was therefore implemented in OWASP ZAP. The result shows that the use case for the two algorithms differs between web applications and by using both of the algorithms to find vulnerabilities, better performance is achieved.

In most video games today that focus on a single story, scripting languages are used for controlling the artificial intelligence of the virtual actors. While scripting is a great tool for reliably performing a story, it has many disadvantages; mainly, it is limited by only being able to respond to those situations that were explicitly declared, causing unreliable responses to unknown situations, and the believability of the virtual actor is hindered by possible conflicts between scripted actions and appropriate responses as perceived by the viewer. This paper presents a novel method of storytelling by manipulating the environment, whether physically or the agent's perception of it, around the goals and behaviors of the virtual actor in order to advance the story rather than controlling the virtual actor explicitly. The virtual actor in this method is completely autonomous and the environment is manipulated by a story manager so that the virtual actor chooses to satisfy its goals in accordance with the direction of the story. Comparisons are made between scripting, traditional autonomy, Lionhead Studio's Black & White, Mateas and Stern's Façade, and autonomy with environmental manipulation in terms of design, performance, believability, and reusability. It was concluded that molding an environment around a virtual actor with the help of a story manager gives the actor the ability to reliably perform both event-based stories while preserving the believability and reusability of the actor and environment. While autonomous actors have traditionally been used solely for emergent storytelling, this new storytelling method enables them to be used reliably and efficiently to tell event-based stories as well while reaping the benefits of their autonomous nature. In addition, the separation of the virtual actors from the environment and story manager in terms of design promotes a cleaner, reusable architecture that also allows for independent development and improvement. By modeling artificial intelligence design after Herbert Simon's “artifact,” emphasizing the encapsulation of the inner mechanisms of virtual actors, the next era of digital storytelling can be driven by the design and development of reusable storytelling components and the interaction between the virtual actor and its environment.

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[pt] À medida que mais recursos vêm sendo disponibilizados online, a Internet está se tornando um participante de grande importância na vida dos indivíduos. No entanto, nem todo segmento das distintas populações mundiais é capaz de acessá-la e usá-la livremente. Uma nova abordagem de navegação na web, na qual os usuários fazem uso de processos automáticos criados por uma comunidade de voluntários, é apresentada nesta dissertação. O primeiro objetivo desta abordagem é ajudar usuários cegos e analfabetos funcionais a navegar na web e acessar tais recursos. Isto, no entanto, é o passo inicial para futuras investigações com outros públicos de necessidades especiais. Esta dissertação apresenta um sistema web colaborativo, desenhado sobre uma ferramenta já existente, para melhorar a acessibilidade na web. / [en] As more and more resources become available online, the World Wide Web is turning into an important stakeholder in every individuals lives. Nevertheless, not every segment of the distinct populations worldwide is able to freely access and use it. A new approach of navigating the web, in which users make use of automated processes created by a community of volunteers, is presented in this dissertation. The primary intent of this approach is to help blind and functionally-illiterate users in navigating the web and accessing its resources. This, though, is only the starting point for further investigations with other populations with special needs. This dissertation presents a collaborative web system, designed on top of an existing tool, for improving web accessibility.

Managing large quantities of aging nodes can be as burdensome and daunting task to an administrator. This is the reality for operation administrators and technicians working with Telias older xDSL network where linecards in nodes behaves irreguarly after a long uptime, resulting in faulty connections for the customers. One of the tasks is simply to restart these linecards when a customer or a technician files a complaint if the uptime of the linecard is an issue. This project aims to solve this issue by using scripting to take inventory of the linecards in the nodes and the corresponding uptime for these linecards. By storing this information in a database one can then query the database about wich linecards that are in need of a restart, before the customer experiences any trouble. By automating some of these manual management tasks with scripting, one can free up more time for personnel to handle other duties, as well as saving resources and cost for maintenance. / Att administrera stora mängder utav åldrande noder kan vara en betungande och skrämmande uppgift. Detta är verkligheten för driftpersonalen och teknikerna som arbetar med Telias äldre xDSL-nätverk där linjekort i noder beter sig oregelbundet efter en lång upptid, något som resulterar i bristfälliga anslutningar för kunderna. En av uppgifterna är helt enkelt att starta om dessa linjekort när en kund eller tekniker lämnar in klagomål om upptiden för linjekortet är ett problem. Detta projekt har som mål att lösa denna problematik genom användandet av scripting för att inventera linjekorten och dess motsvarande upptid. Genom att lagra denna information i en databas kan en sedan fråga databasen angående vilka linjekort som är i behov av omstart, innan kunder upplever problem. Genom att automatisera vissa av dessa manuella administrativa sysslor genom script kan en frigöra tid för personalen att utföra andra sysslor samt att spara in resurser och kostnader för underhåll.

The main question posed in this study is: How do black mineworkers in the goldmining industry conceptualise and experience fatherhood in present-day South Africa? The following four subsidiary research questions were formulated to address this: * How do the respondents characterise fatherhood? * What are the respondents' own recollections of being fathered? * How do migrant and resident respondents' experiences of fatherhood differ? * What influence do biological mothers or female partners have on father-child relationships as described by the respondents? The scripting perspective chosen underscores this study because it is a multilevel approach that takes the fathers' social milieu into account without ignoring their agency. This perspective focuses on three levels - cultural scenarios, interpersonal and intrapsychic scripting. During 2002 a qualitative study was undertaken by way of in-depth interviews conducted with 30 respondents, with ten being re-interviewed in 2003. These interviews were augmented with general observations and fact-finding interviews conducted with key informants. In terms of the first research question regarding the way in which the respondents characterise fatherhood, it was found that the breadwinner role is salient. However, traces of patriarchy and the so-called "new fatherhood" are often intertwined with the economic aspect of fatherhood. The respondents' own recollections of being fathered were found to include a stern disciplinarian pattern ("father is like a lion"), a "bad fatherhood" pattern and a "good fatherhood" pattern. Resident respondents related more involvement with their children compared with migrant respondents, although varying degrees of distant and involved fatherhood could be detected amongst the migrant respondents. Resident respondents conveyed active involvement in father-child activities such as giving guidance to children and playing with them. Some respondents have little contact with those children they fathered with a woman other than their current partner. Female partners tend to hinder any type of relationship with children born as a result of adulterous relationships but children born from previous relationships may be taken care of. However, respondents who openly stated double standards regarding sexual practices for men and women tend to take care of all their biological children and show little concern for their wives' views. / Sociology / D. Litt et Phil (Sociology)

Code written in the DigitalMicrograph® scripting language enables a new experimental design for acquiring the magnetic dichroism in EELS. Called the q-E STEM setup, it provides simultaneous acquisition of the dichroic pairs of spectra (eliminating major error sources) while preserving the real-space resolution of STEM. This gives the setup great potential for real-space maps of magnetic momenta which can be instrumental in furthering the understanding of e.g. interfacial magnetic effects. The report includes a thorough presentation of the created acquisition routine, a detailed outline of future work and a fast introduction to the DMscript language.