The Nelson-Oppen combination method can be used to combine decision procedures for the validity of quantifier-free formulae in first-order theories with disjoint signatures, provided that the theories to be combined are stably infinite. We show that, even though equational theories need not satisfy this property, Nelson and Oppen's method can be applied, after some minor modifications, to combine decision procedures for the validity of quantifier-free formulae in equational theories. Unfortunately, and contrary to a common belief, the method cannot be used to combine decision procedures for the word problem. We present a method that solves this kind of combination problem. Our method is based on transformation rules and also applies to equational theories that share a finite number of constant symbols.

This thesis investigates the relation between human and smartwatch by exploring the experiences of four Swedish long-distance runners who use digital technology to self-track their running activities. By examining the participating runners’ use of their smartwatches and smartwatch data as postphenomenological human-technology relations (Ihde, 1990), this thesis offers a perspective on the use of wearable self-tracking technology as augmenting human experience through digital data. The empirical material was gathered through semi-structured interviews with the participating runners. In the analysis of the material, a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software is used to transcribe and code the material following a concept-driven approach influenced by Ritchie and Lewis’ Thematic Framework Method (2003). The coded transcripts are summarized in thematic charts based on postphenomenological human-technology relations developed by Ihde (1990) and Verbeek (2008) along with an understanding of data influenced by the field of critical data studies and adjacent work (e.g. Iliadis & Russo, 2016; Kitchin, 2014; van Dijck, 2014; Edmond et al., 2022). The runner-smartwatch relations that are analyzed in this thesis showcase how the digital data produced in self-tracking practices become part of the self-tracker’s experiences by being incorporated in a runner-data assemblage. Viewing the runner-smartwatch relation as a type of augmentation relation (Verbeek, 2008), this thesis further suggests that the digital data function as an augmenting layer through which the running activity is experienced.

Industrie 4.0 und aktuelle Entwicklungen in dem Bereich der produzierenden Unternehmen erfordern hohe Anpassungsleistungen von Menschen und von Maschinen gleichermaßen. In Smart Factories werden Produktionsmitarbeiter zu Wissensarbeitern. Dazu bedarf es neben neuen, intelligenten, technischen Lösungen auch neuer Ansätze für Arbeitsorganisation, Trainings- und Qualifizierungskonzepte, die mit adaptierbaren technischen Systemen flexibel zusammenarbeiten. Das durch die EU geförderte Projekt Factory2Fit entwickelt Lösungen für die Mensch-Technik-Interaktion in automatisierten Produktionssystemen, welche eine hohe Anpassungsfähigkeit an die Fähigkeiten, Kompetenzen und Präferenzen der individuellen Mitarbeiter bieten und damit gleichzeitig den Herausforderungen einer höchst kundenindividuellen Produktion gewachsen sind. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden die grundlegenden Ziele und Ideen des Projektes vorgestellt sowie die Ansätze des Quantified-self im Arbeitskontext, die adaptive Automatisierung inklusive der verschiedenen Level der Automation sowie die spezifische Anwendung des partizipatorischen Designs näher beleuchtet. In den nächsten Arbeitsschritten innerhalb des Projektes gilt es nun, diese Konzepte um- und einzusetzen sowie zu validieren. Die interdisziplinäre Arbeitsweise sowie der enge Kontakt zwischen Wissenschafts-, Entwicklungs- und Anwendungspartnern sollten dazu beitragen, den Herausforderungen bei der Realisierung erfolgreich zu begegnen und zukunftsträchtige Smart Factory-Lösungen zu implementieren. Das Projekt Factory2Fit wird im Rahmen von Horizon 2020, dem EU Rahmenprogramm für Forschung und Innovation (H2020/2014-2020), mit dem Förderkennzeichen 723277 gefördert.

A glass couldn't contain water unless it contained H2O-molecules. Likewise, a man couldn't be a bachelor unless he was unmarried. Now, the latter is what we would call a conceptual or analytical truth. It's also what we would call a priori. But it's hardly a conceptual or analytical truth that if a glass contains water, then it contains H2O-molecules. Neither is it a priori. The fact that water is composed of H2O-molecules was an empirical discovery made in the eighteenth century. The fact that all bachelors are unmarried was not. But neither is a logical truth, so how do we explain the difference? Two-dimensional semantics is a framework that promises to shed light on these issues. The main purpose of this thesis is to understand and evaluate this framework in relation to various alternatives, to see whether some version of it can be defended. I argue that it fares better than the alternatives. However, much criticism of two-dimensionalism has focused on its alleged inability to provide a proper semantics for certain epistemic operators, in particular the belief operator and the a priori operator. In response to this criticism, a two-dimensional semantics for belief ascriptions is developed using structured propositions. In connection with this, a number of other issues in the semantics of belief ascriptions are addressed, concerning indexicals, beliefs de se, beliefs de re, and the problem of logical omniscience.

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le cadre de la programmation par contraintes quantifiées, un formalisme étendantla programmation par contraintes classique en ajoutant aux variables des quantificateurs existentiels ouuniversels, ce qui apporte en théorie une expressivité suffisante pour modéliser des problèmes avec adversaireou incertitude sur certains paramètres sous forme de problèmes appelés QCSP (Quantified Constraintsatisfaction Problem).Nous commençons par apporter une réponse aux difficultés de modélisation de problèmes réels dont estfrappée la programmation par contraintes quantifiées en introduisant une extension aux QCSP permettantd’expliciter les actions possibles de l’agent principal et de son adversaire. Puis, nous décrivons différentproblèmes grâce à ce formalisme, et discutons de la place de cette extension parmi les formalismes voisins créésen réponse à cette même difficulté de modélisation. Enfin, nous nous intéressons à la notion d’optimisationdans le cas des contraintes quantifiées, et apportons un formalisme d’optimisation de contraintes quantifiéespermettant d’exprimer des problèmes multi-niveaux non linéaires. / This thesis presents works in the research area of quantified constraint programming, which extends theconstraint programming framework by setting (existential and universal) quantifiers to the problem’s variables.This framework is theoretically expressive enough to model problems where an opponent or uncertainparameters are involved, under the form of Quantified Constraint Safisfaction Problems (QCSP).QCSPs suffer from a modeling difficulty that we solve by presenting an extension to this framework, in whichpossible moves for the principal agent and its opponent may be explicitely declared. Then, we describe realproblems using this extention, and discuss of its pros and cons against neighbour framework thar were createdto solve the same difficulty. Finally, we focus on quantifies optimization problems, and present a quantifiedoptimization framework thet allows the modeling of nonlinear multi-level problems.

Mobile devices have become a massively prevalent part of everyday life, as their capabilities and functionality have expanded into new domains. One form factor that has attracted recent renewed interest is the smartwatch.  This paper looks at how devices can be used to track the time, and in particular how we can invent new visualisations for timekeeping. It draws on different psychological theories of time to sketch out six new time visualisations, drawing on both old and new timekeeping devices as inspiration. These visualisations address linear time visualisations and cyclical time visualisations. The designs are contrasted with each other, with a final design selected and prototyped on the Apple Watch. The prototype is briefly evaluated through a 48 hour user test with one user. The design is then reiterated upon based on the feedback from this user test. / Mobila enheter har blivit en allt större del av våra vardagliga liv i samma takt som deras kapacitet och funktionalitet har ökat och spridit sig till nya områden. Ett av dessa områden som nyligen fått ett nyfunnet intresse är smarta klockor. Den här uppsatsen tittar på hur mobila enheter och framför allt smarta klockor kan användas för att hålla reda på tiden. Den undersöker framför allt på hur vi kan ta fram nya sätt att visualisera tid. Arbetet bygger på olika psykologiska teorier om tid för att skissa sex stycken olika tidsvisualiseringar, de olika visualiseringarna använder också historiska tidmätningsinstrument som inspiration. Dessa visualiseringar bygger också på ett framtaget koncept om att tid kan ses som konstant eller cyklisk. Designförslagen jämförs sedan med varandra och en slutgiltig design väljs ut. En prototyp för Apple Watch skapas, baserat på den slutgiltiga designen. Prototypen utvärderas genom att en användare bär klockan under 48 timmar. Därefter förbättras och förändras designen baserat på återkopplingen från testet.

abstract: The advent of commercial inexpensive sensors and the advances in information and communication technology (ICT) have brought forth the era of pervasive Quantified-Self. Automatic diet monitoring is one of the most important aspects for Quantified-Self because it is vital for ensuring the well-being of patients suffering from chronic diseases as well as for providing a low cost means for maintaining the health for everyone else. Automatic dietary monitoring consists of: a) Determining the type and amount of food intake, and b) Monitoring eating behavior, i.e., time, frequency, and speed of eating. Although there are some existing techniques towards these ends, they suffer from issues of low accuracy and low adherence. To overcome these issues, multiple sensors were utilized because the availability of affordable sensors that can capture the different aspect information has the potential for increasing the available knowledge for Quantified-Self. For a), I envision an intelligent dietary monitoring system that automatically identifies food items by using the knowledge obtained from visible spectrum camera and infrared spectrum camera. This system is able to outperform the state-of-the-art systems for cooked food recognition by 25% while also minimizing user intervention. For b), I propose a novel methodology, IDEA that performs accurate eating action identification within eating episodes with an average F1-score of 0.92. This is an improvement of 0.11 for precision and 0.15 for recall for the worst-case users as compared to the state-of-the-art. IDEA uses only a single wrist-band which includes four sensors and provides feedback on eating speed every 2 minutes without obtaining any manual input from the user. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Computer Engineering 2019

What does the climate and the body have to do with each other? In some ways, they are widely different. The body is local, individual, a lived experience; the climate is global, collectively felt, and hard to observe in everyday life. In other ways, the body and the climate are inextricably linked. The ways in which we feed, dress and transport our bodies impact the climate, and the climate impacts the ways in which it is possible to feed, dress and transport our bodies. In this thesis, I aim to explore the connections between the body and the climate through two types of digital technology: web tests and apps for assessing and tracking different kinds of metrics related to the body and the climate. I use a theoretical framework centered on how the individual is presented as an arena for constant improvement, and study the interfaces through their different affordances and uses of metaphor. In my analysis, I find that these interfaces position the user as someone who can, and should, do more for both the body and the climate. They also position the user as someone in control and with the power to actually change and/or make an impact. Finally, I discuss two different ways to interpret these results. On one hand, it could be interpreted as a way to empower individuals and encourage them to act for the good of themselves and the world as a whole. On the other hand, the emphasis on individual actions may underplay the need for collective action on a systemic level. I conclude that digital technology for measuring ourselves and our behavior may offer us insights that could strengthen support for collective action, but we need to contextualize data in order to interpret it properly and act accordingly.

[pt] A pesquisa investiga, em determinadas obras da literatura contemporânea, em sua maioria brasileiras, uma tensão entre as noções de contar e de expor, ou, ainda, entre os gestos de narrar, associar eventos e os de reunir e mostrar elementos. Cada vez mais lidamos com arquivos, coleções, inventários, listas, pastas e com interfaces com suas próprias modulações representativas do humano. Cada vez mais produzimos passado e vivemos uma enxurrada de informações no presente, encontrando desafios para construir sentido. A hipótese principal da pesquisa é a de que vivemos uma reformulação na estruturação da experiência, por meio de um diálogo da forma narrativa com a forma do banco de dados, e, na expressão poética, entre o lírico e conceitual. O gesto da pesquisa é olhar para tal mudança por meio de contos, poemas e escritas artísticas que, ao nosso ver, carregam em si sinais desses diálogos e tensões. O corpus de obras literárias trará textos de Alex Hamburguer, André Sant Anna, Diego Pansini, Carol Rodrigues, Marta Barcellos, Nicholas Feltron, Raphael Sassaki, Reginaldo Pujol Filho e do próprio autor, entre outros. / [en] The research investigates, in certain works of contemporary literature, mostly Brazilian, a tension between the notions of counting and exposing, or even between the gestures of narrating and associating events and those of gathering and exhibiting elements. We increasingly deal with files, collections, inventories, lists, folders. We increasingly produce the past and live a flood of information in the present, and we find ourselves in difficulties to make sense of it. The main hypothesis of the research is that we are experiencing a change in the structuring of the experience, from the narrative form to the form of the database and, in poetic expression, between lyric and conceptual. The gesture of the research is to look for such a change through short stories, poems and conceptual poetry that, in our view, carry signs of this transformation. Our literary corpus will bring texts by Alex Hamburguer, André Sant Anna, Diego Pansini, Carol Rodrigues, Marta Barcellos, Nicholas Feltron, Raphael Sassaki, Reginaldo Pujol Filho and the author, among others.

Quantifying personal information is a rapidly emerging lifestyle that has now extended to tracking non-personal information as well. The Quantified Pet (QP) domain enablespet owners to gain insights in their pet’s behavior and wellbeing. This study investigates how to design a QP application using the User Centered Design Method. To gain understanding in the inner drivers that form the human-pet relationship, five dog owners are interviewed. Three inner drivers that trigger interaction are revealed: habits, love and guilt. By surveying 104 users of existing QP applications, this study examined what motivates users to use a pet activity tracker and what sustains this usage. After performing a thematic analysis on this data, it was found that Activities,interest in activity data, and Health, improving and ensuringthe dog’s health, are dominantly portraited in the results. These themes provide the foundation for the establishment of two personas, of which the Health persona is chosen to be the primary design target. Next to user requirements following from the persona design, a heuristic evaluation is performed on one QP application (FitBark) to provide an additional set of design requirements. From these requirements, a design solution is proposed and evaluated amongst ten participants by means of a task list, semi- structured interview and a questionnaire. This revealed high usability for navigation and successful implementation of most requirements. However, design flaws, in specific of data visualization, and some misunderstanding of informational components remain. Future work proposes an improved design and provides additional suggestions for implementation and examination. / Att kvantifiera personlig information är en starkt växande uppkommande livsstil och har nu även utökats till att följa icke-personlig information. Quantified Pet (QP) domänen möjliggör husdjursägare att få insikter i deras husdjurs beteende och välmående. I denna studie undersöks hur en QP-applikation ska designas genom att använda metoden User Centered Design. För att få förståelse för de innersta drivkrafterna till det som formar relationen mellan människa och husdjur blev fem hundägare intervjuade. Tre innre drivkrafter som triggar interactionen klarlades: vanor, kärlek och skuldkänslor. Genom att studera 104 användare av redan existerande QP-applikationer, denna studie undersökte vad som motiverar användare till att använda en pet activity tracker och vad som upperäthåller ett fortsatt användande. Efter att ha genomfört en tematisk analys av denna data visade det sig att Aktiviteter, intresse av aktivitetsdata, och Hälsa, förbättra och säkerställa hundens hälsa är de mest framträdande i resultaten. Dessa teman bidrar till grunden för etableringen av två personas, där personan för Hälsa är vald som primärt mål för designen. Utöver de användarkrav som uppkommit från personadesignen, har en hueristisk evaluering av en QR-applikation (Fitbark) gjorts för att bidra till ett ytterligare antal designkrav. Utifrån dessa krav föreslås en designlösning som evalueras bland tio deltagare genom en uppdragslista, semistrukturerad intervju och frågeformulär. Detta visade på en hög användbarhet för navigering och en lyckad implementation av de flesta av kraven. Dock existerar fortfarande brister i designen, specifikt för datavisualisering och några missförstånd över informationskomponenter. Framtida arbeten föreslår en förbättrad design och bidrar med ytterligare förslag på implementation och examinering.