Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are increasingly being used for monitoring physical environments in lieu of tethered monitoring systems. Being power efficient and wirelessly accessible, WSNs find applications in a variety of domains like health, structural and climate monitoring systems. Despite such diverse use cases, more than often, WSNs are used by researchers with basic or no prior programming experience. Consequently, more time is spent learning to program the sensors than collecting and analysing domain-specific data. To cater to this generic user base, a multi-platform user-friendly programming framework for WSNs has been developed. This framework provides: 1) a visual network comparison tool that analyzes packet traces of two networks to generate a juxtaposed visual comparison of contrasting network characteristics, 2) a scripting language based on the TinyOS sensor network platform that aims at reducing code size and improving programming efficacy, and 3) a visual programming tool with basic sensor drag-and-drop modules for generating simple WSN programs. These tools were also developed to serve as a gentle introduction to the WSN programming environment for middle and high school students. In the absence of resources (sensors), the framework also allows programmers to verify program functionality by remotely simulating and verifying program behaviour in the OMNeT simulation environment.

As video game designers focus on immersive interactive stories, the number of game object interactions grows exponentially. Most games use manually-programmed scripts to control object interactions, although automated techniques for generating scripts from high-level specifications are being introduced. For example, ScriptEase provides designers with generative patterns that inject commonly-occurring interactions into games. ScriptEase patterns generate scripts for the game Neverwinter Nights. A kind of generative pattern, the quest pattern, generates scripting code controlling the plot in story-based games. I present my additions to the quest pattern architecture (meta quest points and abandonable subquests), a catalogue of quest patterns, and the results of two studies measuring their effectiveness. These studies show that quest patterns are easy-to-use, substantially reduce plot scripting errors, and their catalogue is highly-reusable between games. These studies demonstrate ScriptEase generative quest patterns are a desirable alternative to manual plot scripting in commercial, story-based games.

abstract: In geographical locations with hot-arid climates, sun control in buildings is one primary problem to solve for the building envelope design. Today's technological advances in building science bring with them the opportunity to design dynamic façade systems for sun radiation control and daylighting. Although dynamic systems can become an attractive visual element, they can be costly and challenging to maintain for building owners. Alternatively, fixed solar-shading systems can be designed to create dynamism in the façade of the building, while providing similar functionalities for sun control. The work presented in this project focuses on the use of a visual scripting editor for modeling software, Grasshopper, to develop a Solar Control Visual Script that evaluates building envelope surfaces with planar and non-uniform rational basis-spline (NURBS) forms and provides projections for fixed sun control systems. The design platform of Grasshopper allows individuals with no experience or prior computer coding education to build up programming-like capabilities; this feature permits users to discover new design possibilities within flexible frames that can contribute to the overall design being pursued, while also having an environmental response. The Solar Control Visual Script provides minimum sizing geometries that achieve shading in openings at a particular date and time of the year. The model for this method of analysis makes use of three components to derive the appropriate values for the projections of shading geometries: typical meteorological year (TMY) data, irradiation isotropic equations and shading profile angles equations for vertical and tilted surfaces. Providing an automatic visual of generated geometries uncovers the opportunity to test several model forms and reiterates the analysis when modifying control parameters. By employing building science as a set of environmental parameters, the design outcome bears a dynamic form that responds to natural force conditions. The optimized results promote an efficient environmental design solution for sun control as an integral alternative into the building envelope. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Built Environment 2012

abstract: Web applications are an incredibly important aspect of our modern lives. Organizations and developers use automated vulnerability analysis tools, also known as scanners, to automatically find vulnerabilities in their web applications during development. Scanners have traditionally fallen into two types of approaches: black-box and white-box. In the black-box approaches, the scanner does not have access to the source code of the web application whereas a white-box approach has access to the source code. Today’s state-of-the-art black-box vulnerability scanners employ various methods to fuzz and detect vulnerabilities in a web application. However, these scanners attempt to fuzz the web application with a number of known payloads and to try to trigger a vulnerability. This technique is simple but does not understand the web application that it is testing. This thesis, presents a new approach to vulnerability analysis. The vulnerability analysis module presented uses a novel approach of Inductive Reverse Engineering (IRE) to understand and model the web application. IRE first attempts to understand the behavior of the web application by giving certain number of input/output pairs to the web application. Then, the IRE module hypothesizes a set of programs (in a limited language specific to web applications, called AWL) that satisfy the input/output pairs. These hypotheses takes the form of a directed acyclic graph (DAG). AWL vulnerability analysis module can then attempt to detect vulnerabilities in this DAG. Further, it generates the payload based on the DAG, and therefore this payload will be a precise payload to trigger the potential vulnerability (based on our understanding of the program). It then tests this potential vulnerability using the generated payload on the actual web application, and creates a verification procedure to see if the potential vulnerability is actually vulnerable, based on the web application’s response. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2017

In this paper research about dynamic scripting and the top culling difficulty scaling enhancement in the game Neverwinter Nights is investigated. A comparison between both a static and a dynamic opponent is made. The human opinion about dynamic scripting is also highlighted. To get an understanding of what the players think about and how they approach an opponent, two experiments were made. One where tests are made on a static opponent and a dynamic opponent, then a second where differences in behavior of the dynamic opponent using top culling and an ordinary dynamic opponent are analyzed. Results from the first test shows the static opponent is more preferable whereas the dynamic opponent using top culling is preferred in the second experiment. Since comparing the two experiments the results are ambiguous. The conclusion is that further investigation is needed in order to answer the question if human players prefer static or dynamic opponents when playing computer games. / I detta arbete undersöks tekniken "Dynamic Scripting" och en metod för att skala svårigheten hos motståndare, kallad "Top Culling". Detta har testats i spelet "Neverwinter Nights". En jämförelse mellan en statisk och en dynamisk motståndare har gjorts där den mänskliga synen på dynamic scripting är en huvudfaktor. För att få förståelse hur spelare tänker och bemöter olika motstånd gjordes två experiment. I ett av experimenten testas en statisk och en dynamisk motståndare. I ett annat experiment görs en analys av skillnaderna i beteende mellan en dynamisk motståndare med svårighetsskalning och en dynamisk motståndare utan. Det första experimentet gav resultat som visar att den statiska motståndaren föredras medan i det andra experimentet föredras den dynamiska motståndaren som skalade sin svårighetsgrad. Slutsatsen är att vidare undersökning krävs för att kunna besvara frågan huruvida en spelare hellre vill möta en statisk eller en dynamisk motståndare.

[pt] Expressões regulares são um formalismo utilizado para descrever linguagens regulares e compõem a base de diversas bibliotecas de casamento de padrão. No entanto, existem determinados padrões úteis que são complexos ou impossíveis de serem descritos com expressões regulares puras. Devido a essas limitações, linguagens de script modernas disponibilizam bibliotecas de casamento de padrões baseadas em regexes, isto é, extensões de expressões regulares compostas, principalmente, por construções ad-hoc que focam em problemas específicos. Apesar de serem muito úteis na prática, os regexes possuem implementações complexas e distantes do formalismo original de expressões regulares. Parsing Expression Grammars (PEG) são uma alternativa formal para reconhecer padrões e possuem mais expressividade que expressões regulares sem necessitar de contruções ad-hoc. O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar formas de conversão de regexes para PEGs. Para isso, estudamos as implementações atuais de regexes e mostramos a conversão de algumas construções para PEGs. Por fim, apresentamos uma implementação da conversão de regexes para PEGs para a linguagem Lua. / [en] Regular expressions are a formalism used to describe regular languages and form the basis of several pattern-matching libraries. However, many interesting patterns either are difficult to describe or cannot be described by pure regular expressions. Because of these limitations, modern scripting languages have pattern matching libraries based on regexes, ie, extensions of regular expressions mainly composed by a set of ad-hoc constructions that focus on specific problems. Although very useful in practice, these implementations are complex and distant from the original formalism of regular expressions. Parsing Expression Grammars (PEG) are a formal alternative to recognize patterns and it is much more expressive than pure regular expressions and does not need use ad-hoc constructions. The goal of this work is to study the convertion of regexes to PEGs. To accomplish this task, we studied the current implementations of regexes and show how to convert some constructions to PEGs. Finally, we present an implementation that convert regexes to PEGs for the Lua language.

Television programs continue to play a significant role in a teenager's life as they become involved in dating relationships. Adolescence is a pivotal period of life. Teenagers' usage of media, especially television, provides a source of norms and scripts of what a relationship looks like. The portrayals of sexual content in teen programs has become a source of sexual information instead of parents and peers. Many parents are unaware of the sexual content teen programs deliver to their audiences. This study analyzes how teen dramas create expectations through their portrayal of relationships and intimacy on television. Five teen television programs were gathered to analyze the frequency of sexual behaviors depicted to a teen audience. This study investigates the ages, genders, types of relationships, and sexual behaviors shown and implied. The findings show all five programs consisted of high amounts of sexual behavior throughout their first seasons, which suggest that the entertainment industry for teen viewers is a powerful tool that plays a significant role in a teenager's sexual socialization.

No description available.

The mechanical behavior of timber beams with a slotted-in steel plate connection is studied by creating a numerical model that is able to simulate the global bending behavior, the global load carrying capacity and the nonlinear plastic fastener force distribution in the connection. Experimental results from Material Testing Institute (MPA), University of Stuttgart were used to verify the simulation results from this study. The modeling of both the timber beams and the mechanical connections is performed with shell, beam and nonlinear connector elements. Three models were created, where the first model was a single-dowel double shear joint model to study the ability to use structural elements in the modeling of the test beams. It was used to simulate some of the basic failure modes in Eurocode 5 (EC5). The second model was a beam model used to simulate the bending of a jointed timber beam with a slotted-in steel plate connection, where only two connector elements were used to model the joint behavior of each dowel group. It can be used to study the global deflection and the load carrying capacity of the jointed timber beams. The third model was a combined beam-shell model where the beam elements are used for the timber parts outside the connection area and the fasteners, while the shell elements are used for the slotted-in steel plate and the timber parts within the connection area. It uses two nonlinear connectors to connect each dowel to the wood and a pure coupling constraint to connect the dowels to the slotted-in steel plate. This model can simulate the same phenomena as model two and also the development of the elasto-plastic shear force distribution in all the dowels. All the models were created using parameterized Python scripts, which makes it possible to easily change different input parameters. Most of the modeling results show good agreement with both experimental results and with calculated load carrying capacity results for individual dowels according to EC5. The use of the structural elements (beam, shell, and connector elements) was found to result in much less computational time compared to the use of solid elements.

Ziel der Arbeit war es, eine Client-Server-basierte Loesung zu entwickeln, welche eine Backupfunktionalitaet in einer heterogenen Workstationumgebung mit dezentralen Filesystemen bereitstellt. Das System sollte mit Hilfe einer Scriptsprache implemetiert werden, um die Systemunabhaengigkeit der Komponenten zu gewaehrleisten. Zu diesem Zwecke wurde als Grundlage das ¨Remote Scripting Environment¨, welches Gegenstand der Diplomarbeit von Andre Glaesz am Lehrstuhl Betriebssysteme war, gewaehlt.