60 research outputs found
Application of partial evaluation in dynamic code generation for Java
Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-66).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Java is a popular new language with enormous potential; however, its lack of speed is a major drawback. Staged compilation and runtime specialization through procedure cloning are techniques used to improve code generation and execution performance. The research described in this paper applies these techniques in the design and implementation of a runtime system to improve Java performance. Analyses indicate that staged compilation results in a major improvement in performance. In this current implementation, runtime specialization and constant propagation provides a smaller incremental benefit, but with more aggressive and new forms of specialization, the benefits of dynamic specialization will likely increase.by Tony Chao.M.Eng
Crossroads of Enlightenment 1685-1850 : exploring education, science, and industry across the Delessert network
The Enlightenment did not end with the French Revolution but extended into the
nineteenth century, effecting a transformation to modernity. By 1850, science became increasingly institutionalized and technology hastened transmission of cultural exchange. Restricting Enlightenment to solitary movements, philosophic text, or national contexts ultimately creates insular interpretations. The Enlightenment was instead a transnational phenomenon, of interconnected communities, from diverse geographical and cultural spaces. A revealing example is the Delessert family. Their British-Franco-Swiss network demonstrates the uniqueness, extent, and duration of the Enlightenment.
This networkâs origins lie in the 1680s. French and British desires for stability resulted in contrasting policies. Toleration, through partial rights, let British Dissenters become leading educators, manufacturers, and natural philosophers by 1760. Conversely, Huguenots were stripped of rights. Thousands fled persecution, and Franceâs rivals profited by welcoming waves of industrious Huguenots. French refugee communities became vital printing centres, specializing in Enlightenment attacks on the Ancien reÌgime, and facilitated the expansion of the Delessert network. The Delessert banking family made a generational progression from Geneva to Lyon to Paris, linking them to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His friendship fostered passions for botany and education. The Delesserts parlayed this into participation in Enlightenment science and industry, connecting them to the Lunar Society, Genevan radicals, and British reformers.
By 1780, a transition toward modernity began. Grand Tours shifted from places of erudition to practical sites of production. Lunar men sent sons to the Continent for practical education, as Franco-Swiss visited English manufactories and Scottish universities to expand knowledge.
Moderates greeted the French Revolution with enthusiasm. In the early 1790s this changed significantly. Royalist mobs threatened Lunar men, destroying property, in Birmingham. In France, moderates tried to defend the monarchy from republican mobs. Even so, the network, fragmented both by revolution and war, continued espousing reform and assisting members who were jailed, endangered, or escaping to America.
The Delessert network reconnected in 1801. Franco-Swiss toured Britain as Britons visited Paris, gathering at the hoÌtel Delessert, a crossroads of the Enlightenment. New societies encouraged science, industry, and philanthropy. Enlightenment exchange continued, despite warfare, into the nineteenth century. Industrial partnerships and scientific collaborations, formed during the peace, circumvented trade barriers. Over three generations (1760-1850) cosmopolitanism helped usher in a transition to modernity. Ultimately, the Delessert networkâs endurance challenges traditional interpretations of the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution
A modular programming language for engineering design
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-142).We introduce a new universal model of computation called MDPL that generalizes other functional models like the lambda calculus and combinatory logic. This model leads naturally to a new type of programming language that combines the key strengths of imperative and functional languages for development and analysis of programs. These strengths have particular relevance for rapid analysis of large-scale engineering design problems. MDPL uses a novel approach to provide not only the flexibility to easily change relationships among elements in a program (as in imperative languages), but also the power to easily reuse and redeploy existing structures of such relationships in new places within a program (as in functional languages). The core formalism of MDPL is highly structured, but can be operated on by a family of formally defined algorithmic transformations that can automatically modify the structure of MDPL programs in useful ways to alter the relationships between essentially arbitrary program elements. These operations change the structure of a program to either change its functional interpretation, or to provide a different representation with the same interpretation, which may be used to make further changes. These algorithmic transformations play a critical role in rapid, incremental development of MDPL programs. We describe a prototype implementation of an MDPL-based graphical programming environment targeted at engineering modeling tasks. This environment is used to conduct an experimental case study comparing the performance of the MDPL-based environment with a mainstream spreadsheet-based environment in the hands of engineers addressing a space systems design analysis task in a time-critical setting. The results of the case study illustrate some of the practical advantages of MDPL and confirm the intuition behind its design.(cont) We also discuss the theoretical capabilities of MDPL in relation to general-purpose computer programming, and explain how it captures or supersedes many of the important features of existing programming languages from multiple paradigms. Finally, we discuss opportunities for future research and development, including: efficient implementation of the MDPL formalism; an effective graphical user interface for programming in MDPL-based languages; and potential extensions to MDPL for specialized application areas.by Thomas Merritt Coffee.S.M
Analyse et optimisation globales de modules compilés séparément
ThÚse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothÚques de l'Université de Montréal
Making and unmaking difference: a study of expatriate womenâs relationship with domestic workers in Singapore
This thesis is based upon ethnographic research conducted in Singapore between September 2008 and October 2009 and over a decade of observation and experience as an expatriate woman. It explores the relationship between two migrant women, an expatriate woman and a migrant domestic worker (MDW), focusing on interrelated processes shaping migrant subjectivities. The relationship between between 'upper circuit' transnational elites and 'lower circuit' migrants is an area of transnationalism that has received little attention. Yet, expatriates and MDWs routinely live together. I consider how overlapping transnational fields impact how both groups of women deal with class, racial and cultural differences and how they negotiate versions of femininity in their domestic interactions. I argue that the womenâs dual migrant status renders visible coexisting and competing forms of power that are often overlooked in studies of domestic work. A crucial aspect of my research design is that I include the perspectives of both expatriate women and MDWs as well as those of expatriate men. Most studies of domestic work focus on either the employerâs (usually female) or the employeeâs (usually female) viewpoint and overlook male influence on household dynamics and the shaping of domestic femininities. My approach allows for a richer analysis of how class, racial/ethnic and sexual positionings (among others) both motivate and constrain how individuals identify themselves vis-Ă -vis 'others' across national, racial, class and cultural divides.
My findings are organised along four dimensions. First, I examine how shared migrant status is utilised by expatriate women and MDWs in their respective distance-making
processes. Second, I explain how through performing domestic labour both groups of women are 'doing' different versions of femininity that are simultaneously accomplishments of class and racial identities. Third, I focus on how sexualised and racialised discourses about migrant womenâs bodies permeate expatriate womenâs and MDWsâ relationships. Finally, I link my study of the micro-politics of migrant womenâs relationships with the larger context of increasing transnational migration and globalisation
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Denotational Translation Validation
In this dissertation we present a simple and scalable system for validating the correctness of low-level program transformations. Proving that program transformations are correct is crucial to the development of security critical software tools. We achieve a simple and scalable design by compiling sequential low-level programs to synchronous data-flow programs. Theses data-flow programs are a denotation of the original programs, representing all of the relevant aspects of the program semantics. We then check that the two denotations are equivalent, which implies that the program transformation is semantics preserving. Our denotations are computed by means of symbolic analysis. In order to achieve our design, we have extended symbolic analysis to arbitrary control-flow graphs. To this end, we have designed an intermediate language called Synchronous Value Graphs (SVG), which is capable of representing our denotations for arbitrary control-flow graphs, we have built an algorithm for computing SVG from normal assembly language, and we have given a formal model of SVG which allows us to simplify and compare denotations. Finally, we report on our experiments with LLVM M.D., a prototype denotational translation validator for the LLVM optimization framework.Engineering and Applied Science
A Beggarâs Ride: Tales From Within the Herd
This story suite is a work of autobiographical fiction, a coming of age tale which uses a young girlâs relationship to horsesâalong with various people and places connected to the horse worldâas its narrative theme. The collection is comprised of twelve chapters, including an Introduction and Prologue and much later, an Interlude and Conclusion. While the first person narrative voice is maintained through most of the chapters herein, the Interlude uses second-person perspective. Additionally, NOW DEPARTING is written in the present narrative tense. Poems are interspersed throughout the work, between chapters, as transitional bridges for the reader
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