scholarly journals Makespan minimization with OR-precedence constraints

Author(s):  
Felix Happach

AbstractWe consider a variant of the NP-hard problem of assigning jobs to machines to minimize the completion time of the last job. Usually, precedence constraints are given by a partial order on the set of jobs, and each job requires all its predecessors to be completed before it can start. In this paper, we consider a different type of precedence relation that has not been discussed as extensively and is called OR-precedence. In order for a job to start, we require that at least one of its predecessors is completed—in contrast to all its predecessors. Additionally, we assume that each job has a release date before which it must not start. We prove that a simple List Scheduling algorithm due to Graham (Bell Syst Tech J 45(9):1563–1581, 1966) has an approximation guarantee of 2 and show that obtaining an approximation factor of $$4/3 - \varepsilon $$ 4 / 3 - ε is NP-hard. Further, we present a polynomial-time algorithm that solves the problem to optimality if preemptions are allowed. The latter result is in contrast to classical precedence constraints where the preemptive variant is already NP-hard. Our algorithm generalizes previous results for unit processing time jobs subject to OR-precedence constraints, but without release dates. The running time of our algorithm is $$O(n^2)$$ O ( n 2 ) for arbitrary processing times and it can be reduced to O(n) for unit processing times, where n is the number of jobs. The performance guarantees presented here match the best-known ones for special cases where classical precedence constraints and OR-precedence constraints coincide.

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Waeldchen ◽  
Jan Macdonald ◽  
Sascha Hauch ◽  
Gitta Kutyniok

For a d-ary Boolean function Φ: {0, 1}d → {0, 1} and an assignment to its variables x = (x1, x2, . . . , xd) we consider the problem of finding those subsets of the variables that are sufficient to determine the function value with a given probability δ. This is motivated by the task of interpreting predictions of binary classifiers described as Boolean circuits, which can be seen as special cases of neural networks. We show that the problem of deciding whether such subsets of relevant variables of limited size k ≤ d exist is complete for the complexity class NPPP and thus, generally, unfeasible to solve. We then introduce a variant, in which it suffices to check whether a subset determines the function value with probability at least δ or at most δ − γ for 0 < γ < δ. This promise of a probability gap reduces the complexity to the class NPBPP. Finally, we show that finding the minimal set of relevant variables cannot be reasonably approximated, i.e. with an approximation factor d1−α for α > 0, by a polynomial time algorithm unless P = NP. This holds even with the promise of a probability gap.


10.29007/v68w ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Zhu ◽  
Mirek Truszczynski

We study the problem of learning the importance of preferences in preference profiles in two important cases: when individual preferences are aggregated by the ranked Pareto rule, and when they are aggregated by positional scoring rules. For the ranked Pareto rule, we provide a polynomial-time algorithm that finds a ranking of preferences such that the ranked profile correctly decides all the examples, whenever such a ranking exists. We also show that the problem to learn a ranking maximizing the number of correctly decided examples (also under the ranked Pareto rule) is NP-hard. We obtain similar results for the case of weighted profiles when positional scoring rules are used for aggregation.


Author(s):  
Bengt J. Nilsson ◽  
Paweł Żyliński

We present new results on two types of guarding problems for polygons. For the first problem, we present an optimal linear time algorithm for computing a smallest set of points that guard a given shortest path in a simple polygon having [Formula: see text] edges. We also prove that in polygons with holes, there is a constant [Formula: see text] such that no polynomial-time algorithm can solve the problem within an approximation factor of [Formula: see text], unless P=NP. For the second problem, we present a [Formula: see text]-FPT algorithm for computing a shortest tour that sees [Formula: see text] specified points in a polygon with [Formula: see text] holes. We also present a [Formula: see text]-FPT approximation algorithm for this problem having approximation factor [Formula: see text]. In addition, we prove that the general problem cannot be polynomially approximated better than by a factor of [Formula: see text], for some constant [Formula: see text], unless P [Formula: see text]NP.


2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ger Koole ◽  
Rhonda Righter

We consider a batch scheduling problem in which the processing time of a batch of jobs equals the maximum of the processing times of all jobs in the batch. This is the case, for example, for burn-in operations in semiconductor manufacturing and other testing operations. Processing times are assumed to be random, and we consider minimizing the makespan and the flow time. The problem is much more difficult than the corresponding deterministic problem, and the optimal policy may have many counterintuitive properties. We prove various structural properties of the optimal policy and use these to develop a polynomial-time algorithm to compute the optimal policy.


Author(s):  
Alexander A. Lazarev ◽  
Nikolay Pravdivets

In this chapter, we consider the single machine scheduling problem with given release dates, processing times, and due dates with two objective functions. The first one is to minimize the maximum lateness, that is, maximum difference between each job due date and its actual completion time. The second one is to minimize the maximum completion time, that is, to complete all the jobs as soon as possible. The problem is NP-hard in the strong sense. We provide a polynomial time algorithm for constructing a Pareto-optimal set of schedules on criteria of maximum lateness and maximum completion time, that is, problem 1 ∣ r j ∣ L max , C max , for the subcase of the problem: d 1 ≤ d 2 ≤ … ≤ d n ; d 1 − r 1 − p 1 ≥ d 2 − r 2 − p 2 ≥ … ≥ d n − r n − p n .


2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (02) ◽  
pp. 341-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSEPH Y.-T. LEUNG ◽  
HAIBING LI ◽  
HAIRONG ZHAO

We consider two-machine flow shop problems with exact delays. In this model, there are two machines, the upstream machine and the downstream machine. Each job j has two operations: the first operation has to be processed on the upstream machine and the second operation has to be processed on the downstream machine, subject to the constraint that the time interval between the completion time of the first operation and the start time of the second operation is exactly [Formula: see text]. We concentrate on the objectives of makespan and total completion time. For the makespan objective, we first show that the problem is strongly NP-hard even if there are only two possible delay values. We then show that some special cases of the problem are solvable in polynomial time. Finally, we design efficient approximation algorithms for the general case and some special cases. For the total completion time objective, we give optimal polynomial-time algorithm for a special case and an efficient approximation algorithm for another one.


2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (04) ◽  
pp. 1750015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shi-Sheng Li ◽  
De-Liang Qian ◽  
Ren-Xia Chen

We consider the problem of scheduling [Formula: see text] jobs with rejection on a set of [Formula: see text] machines in a proportionate flow shop system where the job processing times are machine-independent. The goal is to find a schedule to minimize the scheduling cost of all accepted jobs plus the total penalty of all rejected jobs. Two variations of the scheduling cost are considered. The first is the maximum tardiness and the second is the total weighted completion time. For the first problem, we first show that it is [Formula: see text]-hard, then we construct a pseudo-polynomial time algorithm to solve it and an [Formula: see text] time for the case where the jobs have the same processing time. For the second problem, we first show that it is [Formula: see text]-hard, then we design [Formula: see text] time algorithms for the case where the jobs have the same weight and for the case where the jobs have the same processing time.


2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (05) ◽  
pp. 1450036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji-Bo Wang ◽  
Ming-Zheng Wang

We consider a single-machine common due-window assignment scheduling problem, in which the processing time of a job is a function of its position in a sequence and its resource allocation. The window location and size, along with the associated job schedule that minimizes a certain cost function, are to be determined. This function is made up of costs associated with the window location, window size, earliness, and tardiness. For two different processing time functions, we provide a polynomial time algorithm to find the optimal job sequence and resource allocation, respectively.


2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (03) ◽  
pp. 225-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID KIRKPATRICK ◽  
BOTING YANG ◽  
SANDRA ZILLES

Given an arrangement A of n sensors and two points s and t in the plane, the barrier resilience of A with respect to s and t is the minimum number of sensors whose removal permits a path from s to t such that the path does not intersect the coverage region of any sensor in A. When the surveillance domain is the entire plane and sensor coverage regions are unit line segments, even with restricted orientations, the problem of determining the barrier resilience is known to be NP-hard. On the other hand, if sensor coverage regions are arbitrary lines, the problem has a trivial linear time solution. In this paper, we study the case where each sensor coverage region is an arbitrary ray, and give an O(n2m) time algorithm for computing the barrier resilience when there are m ⩾ 1 sensor intersections.


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