Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Analysis of storage system workloads is important for a number of reasons. The analysis might be performed to understand the usage patterns of existing storage systems. It is very important for the architects to understand the usage patterns when designing and developing a new, or improving upon the existing design of a storage system. It is also important for a system administrator to understand the usage patterns when configuring and tuning a storage system. The analysis might also be performed to determine the relationship between any two given workloads. Before a decision is taken to pool storage resources to increase the throughput, there is need to establish whether the different workloads involved are correlated or not. Furthermore, the analysis of storage system workloads can be done to monitor the usage and to understand the storage requirements and behavior of system and application software. Another very important reason for analyzing storage system workloads, is the need to come up with correct workload models for storage system evaluation. For the evaluation, based on simulations or otherwise, to be reliable, one has to analyze, understand and correctly model the workloads. In our work we have developed a general tool, called ESSWA (Enterprize Storage System Workload Analyzer) for analyzing storage system workloads, which has a number of advantages over other storage system workload analyzers described in literature. Given a storage system workload in the form of an I/O trace file containing data for the workload parameters, ESSWA gives statistics of the data. From the statistics one can derive mathematical models in the form of probability distribution functions for the workload parameters. The statistics and mathematical models describe only the particular workload for which they are produced. This is because storage system workload characteristics are sensitive to the file system and buffer pool design and implementation, so that the results of any analysis are less broadly applicable. We experimented with ESSWA by analyzing storage system workloads represented by three sets of I/O traces at our disposal. Our results, among other things show that: I/O request sizes are influenced by the operating system in use; the start addresses of I/O requests are somewhat influenced by the application; and the exponential probability density function, which is often used in simulation of storage systems to generate inter-arrival times of I/O requests, is not the best model for that purpose in the workloads that we analyzed. We found the Weibull, lognormal and beta probability density functions to be better models.

No description available.

This study examines the value of literary interpretation. A case is argued on the basis of the possibility of literary works being understood as 'about' diverse 'themes'. The process of understanding literature, it is argued, inevitably involves the concerns and the personal and historical situatedness of the interpreter. In the performance history of Shakespeare's The Tempest we see clearly how the thematic focus and the representation of the elements of the work changes, sometimes radically, over time. An interpretation of The Tempest with an emphasis on today's concerns is the basis for a discussion which shows the interdependence of the questions of why literary works have survived as valued objects of attention over time, and how literature can matter to the reader. Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics shows, in its emphasis on the historical situatedness of understanding, how the reader'S situation and concerns feeds into the process of making sense of literary works and thereby makes literary interpretation interact with the life of the interpreter. 'Themes', or what the work is seen to 'be about', is central to the process of literary interpretation. This, in particular, is where literature has its openness to accommodate application to diverse concerns and situations. To remedy the deficiency of Gadamer's hermeneutics on this point, the role of themes in literary interpretation is first illustrated by an interpretation of Conrad's Heart of Darkness and then analyzed. The study argues that while different literary interpreters may have different purposes, for their procedures to constitute interpretations three criteria need to be observed. In having to reach an equilibrium between the requirements of faithfulness to the literary work on the one hand, and the understanding of it through one's own situation and concerns on the other, the process of literary interpretation makes a valuable contribution to understanding.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The thesis begins by examining the philosophical underpinnings of Foucault's 'constitutionalist' methodology. It argues that the archaeological method of The Order of Things derives principally neither from phenomenology nor structuralism, but from a philosophical and scholarly tradition (that of Kant, Cassirer, Duhem, Koyré) in which mathematics, the scientific revolution of Galileo et al, and an a priori conceptualism are paramount. It suggests that the rigid gathering of conceptual energies into the notion of episteme finds an echo in the subsequent genealogical work on prisons. The thesis challenges the widely-held view that Foucault is a Nietzschean thinker, maintaining that his overstatement of the constitutionalist powers of 'discipline' is conditioned as much by a strong Cartesianism as by his residual structuralism. The thesis shows how the Classical theme of order informs Foucault's attempt to develop a modern theory of the constitution of the subject in discourse. It postulates that the much-traduced first volume on sexuality, which introduces time into his theory and embraces many of the truisms of twentieth-century theoretical science, exhibits a less rigid understanding of constitutionalist powers. The penultimate chapter addresses, in the context of accusations of Eurocentrism levelled at Foucault's work, some of the shortcomings of theoretico-political work which fails to think through the 'deconstitution' of power, the play between order and disorder. Finally, a profound continuity is posited between the archaeological method of The Order of Things and his treatment of sexuality. Rejecting the suggestion of an epistemological break, the thesis discovers the strategic invocation, in the final two volumes, of a very traditional understanding of reason. Diverging from those critics who only hear in Foucault the insistent theme of specificity and the persistent denunciation of reason and (technological) rationality, the thesis maintains that his writings effect a constant appeal to logos as order and reason.

I formulate what I believe to be a correct account of the normativity of rationality. I identify two opposing doctrines which I call instrumentalism and rationalism. Instrumentalism says there are no obligations to be rational intrinsic to rationality, but that being rational is instrumental to doing what ought to be done. Rationalism says there are intrinsically rational obligations. I give arguments for instrumentalism and show how a bifurcation in normativity undermines characteristic Aristotelian and Kantian arguments in support of rationalism. I concede that the confrontation between instrumentalism and rationalism cannot be settled in the thesis, since it depends in part on a fundamental dispute about the nature of rationality. However, the doctrine of instrumentalism gives a particularly clear picture of how obligation and rationality are related, and I believe I have shown instrumentalism to be a doctrine which must be taken seriously. Consequently, I believe my thesis to be a contribution to the Humean view of the relation of obligation and reason.

This thesis traces the evolution of the concept of African philosophy through three phases: the cultural essentialism of Léopold Senghor, founder of Négritude, the universalist critical reaction of Paulin Hountondji and the professional philosophers, and the sophisticated particularism of Valentin Mudimbé. The three stages are contextualized with discussion of the socio-political positioning of each writer, his motives, and his particular understanding of what is at stake in the definition of African philosophy. The initial need to bring about a revalorization of African culture and a recognition of African philosophical capabilities is met by a flamboyant and highly vocal cultural movement, Négritude, which is, however, intrinsically limited in scope and lifespan, and sets up a number of persistent, dogmatic suppositions about the ‘essentially African reason’. A demonstration of the Western origins of this essentialism debunks but does not dispel its influence, since it is firmly anchored to the themes of authenticity, colonial influence, and postcolonial independence. This leads to a dilemma where any move to separate African philosophy from the notion of a distinctly African reason is perceived as a Eurocentric attempt at acculturation, or a capitulation to the false universalism of ‘Enlightenment philosophy’, and on the other hand, the view that African thought is essentially different from European thought is also criticized as deriving from the Western colonial discourse. There is no definitive answer to this problem, and even the search for such an answer is itself part of the problem, a further twist in the ruse that Mudimbé believes is inherent to the colonial discourse. The practical solution Mudimbé proposes is to introduce an écart between African scientific practice and the West, to create a new space within which Africans might investigate the field of their experience in an Afrocentric way which will preserve their cultural specificity.