A Low-Footprint Class Loading Mechanism for Embedded Java Virtual Machines

This paper shows that it is possible to dramatically reduce the memory consumption of classes loaded in an embedded Java virtual machine without reducing its functionalities. We describe how to pack the constant pool by deleting entries which are only used during the class loading process. We present some benchmarks which demonstrate the efficiency of this mechanism. We finally suggest some additional optimizations which can be applied if some restrictions to the functionalities of the virtual machine can be tolerated

Romization: Early Deployment and Customization of Java Systems for Restrained Devices

Memory is the scarcest ressource of embedded and restrained devices. This paper studies the memory footprint benefit of pre-deploying embedded Java systems up to their activation. We find out that the more the system is deployed off-board, the more it can be efficiently and automatically customized in order to reduce its final size. This claim is validated experimentally through the production of memory images that are between 10% and 45% the size of their J2ME CLDC counterparts, while using the J2SE API and being ready-to-run without any further on-board initialization. Embedded solutions like J2ME degrade the Java environment and API right fromtheir specification, limiting their usage perspectives. By contrast, our romization scheme generates and specializes a custom-tailored Java system and API for embedded applications being deployed in a full-fledged J2SE environment

Ahead of time deployment in ROM of a Java-OS

This article shows how it is possible to place a great part of a Java system in read-only memory in order to fit with the requirements of tiny devices. Java systems for such devices are commonly deployed off-board, then embedded on the target device in a ready-to-run form. Our approach is reach an advanced state of deployment off-board, which allows us to maximize the amount of data placed in read-only memory. Doing so, we are also able to reduce the overall size of the system

Base de données prosopographique : de la conception à la réalisation

La construction d’une base de données informatisée à caractère prosopographique soulève des difficultés très particulières, qui ne peuvent être résolues que par une étroite coopération entre informaticiens et historiens. Le présent article expose les éléments qui ont conduit au choix d’une base relationnelle comportant un noyau de type généalogique ainsi que les solutions adoptées pour les problèmes spécifiques de données manquantes ou incomplètes. L’accent est mis sur les techniques mises en oeuvre pour tenter de concilier les modes de pensée et de travail des historiens avec la réduction indispensable à l’informatisation de ce travail.The construction of a computerized prosopographical data base raises very particular difficulties, which can be solved only by a narrow cooperation among computer and history specialists. The present paper explains the elements which led to the choice of a relational base containing a genealogical type core as well as the solutions adopted for the specific problems of missing or incomplete data. The stress is laid upon techniques used to try to reconcile the ways of thinking and work of the historians with the reduction indispensable to data computerizations

AtHMA4 drives natural variation in leaf Zn concentration of Arabidopsis thaliana

Zinc (Zn) is an essential element for plant growth and development, and Zn derived from crop plants in the diet is also important for human health. Here, we report that genetic variation in Heavy Metal-ATPase 4 (HMA4) controls natural variation in leaf Zn content. Investigation of the natural variation in leaf Zn content in a world-wide collection of 349 Arabidopsis thaliana wild collected accessions identified two accessions, Van-0 and Fab-2, which accumulate significantly lower Zn when compared with Col-0. Both quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis and bulked segregant analysis (BSA) identified HMA4 as a strong candidate accounting for this variation in leaf Zn concentration. Genetic complementation experiments confirmed this hypothesis. Sequence analysis revealed that a 1-bp deletion in the third exon of HMA4 from Fab-2 is responsible for the lose of function of HMA4 driving the low Zn observed in Fab-2. Unlike in Fab-2 polymorphisms in the promoter region were found to be responsible for the weak function of HMA4 in Van-0. This is supported by both an expression analysis of HMA4 in Van-0 and through a series of T-DNA insertion mutants which generate truncated HMA4 promoters in the Col-0 background. In addition, we also observed that Fab-2, Van-0 and the hma4-2 null mutant in the Col-0 background show enhanced resistance to a combination of high Zn and high Cd in the growth medium, raising the possibility that variation at HMA4 may play a role in environmental adaptation

“Many Rivers to Cross:” Orphic Confluences of Fred D’Aguiar’s Children of Paradise and Wilson Harris’ Palace of the Peacock

Seldom does criticism address cross-cultural issues in terms of confluence. In fact, scholars tend to use chaos theory (Glissant, Benitez-Rojo), oceanic tropes (Gilroy, Brathwaite), and linguistic foci (Chamoiseau, Bhabha) to deal with them. This is peculiar, first of all because many cities, on all continents, owe their cosmopolitanism to their having been founded on riverbanks and seashores. Moreover, the word fluency and its derivatives can metaphorically relate watery patterns and linguistic phenomena: metaphor itself can be described as the confluence of a syntagm with an unusual paradigm. As a consequence, if the flowing together of two rivers, springing from different topoi, potentially populated with different cultural groups, can be translated into metaphor, it is likely that topographical confluence lead to tropological manifestations of the cross-cultural: fluid topos and fluent tropos, tropics and tropes, would intertwine into what I tentatively call tropicality. However, although scholars in cross-cultural fields rarely address the fluvial theme, Caribbean novelists Wilson Harris and Fred D’Aguiar show, in their novels, an exceptional awareness of the poetic potential of looking at creolization through the lens of confluence, which is apt, knowing that both authors are of Guyanese upbringing, Guyana meaning “land of many waters” in the language of one of its indigenous tribes: it is in these fluvial waters that Harris, originally a land-surveyor, found his source of inspiration for novels that would, in the next generation of Guyanese authors, greatly influence Fred D’Aguiar. This suggests that in addition to metaphoricity and topography, intertextuality might be looked upon as a third type of confluence, and it is these three types of confluence that I propose to track in D’Aguiar’s latest novel Children of Paradise (2014) and Wilson Harris’ Palace of the Peacock (1962), paying particular attention to how both novels themselves gather into a confluence founded on romantic and Orphic subtexts that, in turn, suggest that romanticism and magic(al) realism might consist in analogous translations of a common, Orphic perception of the environment.La critique aborde rarement les questions d’interculturalité en termes de confluence. En effet, les chercheurs ont tendance à recourir à la théorie du chaos (Glissant, Benitez-Rojo), aux tropes océaniques (Gilroy, Brathwaite) et aux phénomènes langagiers en tant que tels (Chamoiseau, Bhabha) pour parler de ces sujets. C’est en partie étrange, tout d’abord parce que nombre de villes, sur tous les continents, dérivent leur cosmopolitisme de leur fondation sur les rives de fleuves et les littoraux. Qui plus est, le suffixe -fluence et les mots formés à l’aide de celui-ci peuvent lier, de manière métaphorique, phénomènes fluviaux et structures linguistiques: la métaphore elle-même peut être décrite comme confluence d’un syntagme avec un paradigme inhabituel. Par conséquent, si la confluence de deux fleuves jaillissant de lieux distincts potentiellement peuplés par des groupes culturels différents peut être transformée en métaphore, alors il est probable que la confluence topographique ainsi traduite devienne une manifestation tropologique de l’interculturalité: topos fluvial et tropos langagier, les tropiques et les tropes, se mêleraient en ce que je propose d’appeler une tropicalité. Cependant, malgré le fait que la critique s’appuie rarement sur ces métaphores fluviales, les romanciers Wilson Harris et Fred D’Aguiar font preuve, dans leurs œuvres respectives, d’une exceptionnelle prise de conscience du potentiel poétique découlant d’une observation de la créolisation depuis l’angle de la confluence : il est intéressant, alors, de noter que les deux auteurs en question sont d’origine guyanaise, puisque « Guyane » signifie « territoire inondé » ou « territoire plein d’eau » et servait, dans une langue indigène et avant de définir le territoire en question par son vaste réseau fluvial, à désigner un affluant de l’Orénoque. C’est d’ailleurs dans ces eaux fluviales que Harris, en tant qu’explorateur et avant de devenir écrivain, a puisé son inspiration pour écrire des romans qui, dans la génération d’écrivains guyanais lui succédant, influenceraient profondément Fred D’Aguiar. Cette influence suggère aussi qu’en plus de la métaphore et de la topographie, l’intertextualité pourrait-être perçue comme une troisième forme de confluence, et ce sont ces trois types de confluence que je propose d’étudier dans le dernier roman de Fred D’Aguiar, intitulé Children of Paradise (2014), et dans le premier roman de Wilson Harris, Palace of the Peacock (1962), en prêtant une attention toute particulière à la façon dont ces deux romans eux-mêmes forment une confluence définie par des textures romantique et Orphique communes qui, à leur tour, laissent à penser que le romantisme et le réalisme merveilleux pourraient, en fait, être des traductions analogues d’une même perception Orphique de l’environnement

The Analytic Stockwell Transform and its Zeros

A recent original line of research in time--frequency analysis has shifted the interest in energy maxima toward zeros. Initially motivated by the intriguing uniform spread of the zeros of the spectrogram of white noise, it has led to fruitful theoretical developments combining probability theory, complex analysis and signal processing. In this vein, the present work proposes a characterization of the zeros of the Stockwell Transform of white noise, which consists in an hybrid time--frequency multiresolution representation. First of all, an analytic version of the Stockwell Transform is designed. Then, analyticity is leveraged to establish a connection with the hyperbolic Gaussian Analytic Function, whose zero set is invariant under the isometries of the Poincar\'e disk. Finally, the theoretical spatial statistics of the zeros of the hyperbolic Gaussian Analytic Function and the empirical statistics of the zeros the Analytic Stockwell Transform of white noise are compared through intensive Monte Carlo simulations, supporting the established connection. A publicly available documented Python toolbox accompanies this work

Extensions Temps-Réel pour Exo-Noyau Embarqué

Les cartes à puces sont des petits objets portables axés principalement sur la sécurité ($10^9$ unités vendues principalement en Asie et en Europe). Afin de permettre aux logiciels encartés de supporter plus de services, les systèmes d'exploitation pour cartes ont évolué d'une plateforme d'exécution monolithique dédiée vers des architectures systèmes plus ouvertes qui supportent le chargement dynamique de code. Cet article présente les problèmes temps-réel du système d'exploitation pour carte Camille, qui présente les caractéristiques suivantes : chargement dynamique de code, vérification de type embarquée, compilation à la volée, et chargement dynamique de composants systèmes. D'une manière plus générale, il traite des difficultés à accorder les extensions temps-réel avec les principes des exo-noyaux