We study the problem of designing a distributed voting scheme for electing a candidate that maximizes the preferences of a set of agents. We assume the preference of agent i for candidate j is a real number xi,j, and we do not make any assumptions on the mechanism generating these preferences. We show simple randomized voting schemes guaranteeing the election of a candidate whose expected total preference is nearly the highest among all candidates. The algorithms we consider are designed so that...

Recently, a new measurement – the advice complexity – was introduced for measuring the information content of online problems. The aim is to measure the bitwise information that online algorithms lack, causing them to perform worse than offline algorithms. Among a large number of problems, a well-known scheduling problem, job shop scheduling with unit length tasks, and the paging problem were analyzed within this model. We observe some connections between advice complexity and randomization. Our...

Recently, a new measurement – the advice complexity – was introduced for measuring the information content of online problems. The aim is to measure the bitwise information that online algorithms lack, causing them to perform worse than offline algorithms. Among a large number of problems, a well-known scheduling problem, job shop scheduling with unit length tasks, and the paging problem were analyzed within this model. We observe some connections between advice complexity and randomization....

A vertex i of a graph G = (V,E) is said to be controlled by $M\subseteq V$ if the majority of the elements of the neighborhood of i (including itself) belong to M. The set M is a monopoly in G if every vertex $i\in V$ is controlled by M. Given a set $M\subseteq V$ and two graphs G1 = ($V,E_1$) and G2 = ($V,E_2$) where $E_1\subseteq E_2$, the monopoly verification problem (mvp) consists of deciding whether there exists a sandwich graph G = (V,E) (i.e., a graph where $E_1\subseteq E\subseteq E_2$) such that M is a monopoly in G = (V,E). If the answer to the mvp is No, we then consider...

A vertex i of a graph G = (V,E) is said to be controlled by $M\subseteq V$ if the majority of the elements of the neighborhood of i (including itself) belong to M. The set M is a monopoly in G if every vertex $i\in V$ is controlled by M. Given a set $M\subseteq V$ and two graphs G1 = ($V,E_1$) and G2 = ($V,E_2$) where $E_1\subseteq E_2$, the monopoly verification problem (mvp) consists of deciding whether there exists a sandwich graph G = (V,E) (i.e., a graph where $E_1\subseteq E\subseteq E_2$) such that M is a monopoly in G = (V,E). If the answer to the mvp is No, we then consider...

We analyse a natural edge exchange Markov chain on the set of spanning trees of an undirected graph by the method of multicommodity flows. The analysis is then refined to obtain a canonical path analysis. The construction of the flow and of the canonical paths is based on related path constructions in a paper of Cordovil and Moreira (1993) on block matroids. The estimates of the congestion measure imply a polynomial bound on the mixing time. The canonical paths for spanning trees also yield polynomial...

In this paper, we consider a class of scheduling problems that are among the fundamental optimization problems in operations research. More specifically, we deal with a particular version called job shop scheduling with unit length tasks. Using the results of Hromkovič, Mömke, Steinhöfel, and Widmayer presented in their work Job Shop Scheduling with Unit Length Tasks: Bounds and Algorithms, we analyze the problem setting for 2 jobs with an unequal number of tasks. We contribute a deterministic algorithm...

In this paper, we consider a class of scheduling problems that are among the fundamental optimization problems in operations research. More specifically, we deal with a particular version called job shop scheduling with unit length tasks. Using the results of Hromkovič, Mömke, Steinhöfel, and Widmayer presented in their work Job Shop Scheduling with Unit Length Tasks: Bounds and Algorithms, we analyze the problem setting for 2 jobs with an unequal...

Consider Glauber dynamics for the Ising model on a graph of n vertices. Hayes and Sinclair showed that the mixing time for this dynamics is at least nlog n/f(Δ), where Δ is the maximum degree and f(Δ) = Θ(Δlog2Δ). Their result applies to more general spin systems, and in that generality, they showed that some dependence on Δ is necessary. In this paper, we focus on the ferromagnetic Ising model and prove that the mixing time of Glauber dynamics on any n-vertex graph is at least (1/4 + o(1))nlog n....

In the job shop scheduling problem $k$-units-$J_m$, there are $m$ machines and each machine has an integer processing time of at most $k$ time units. Each job consists of a permutation of $m$ tasks corresponding to all machines and thus all jobs have an identical dilation $D$. The contribution of this paper are the following results; (i) for $d=o\left(\sqrt{D}\right)$ jobs and every fixed $k$, the makespan of an optimal schedule is at most $D+o\left(D\right)$, which extends the result of [3] for $k=1$; (ii) a randomized on-line approximation algorithm for $k$-units-...

In the job shop scheduling problem k-units-Jm, there are m machines and each machine has an integer processing time of at most k time units. Each job consists of a permutation of m tasks corresponding to all machines and thus all jobs have an identical dilation D. The contribution of this paper are the following results; (i) for $d=o\left(\sqrt{D}\right)$ jobs and every fixed k, the makespan of an optimal schedule is at most D+ o(D), which extends the result of [3] for k=1; (ii) a randomized on-line approximation...