An efficient mechanism for processing similarity search queries in sensor networks

The similarity search problem has received considerable attention in database research community. In sensor network applications, this problem is even more important due to the imprecision of the sensor hardware, and variation of environmental parameters. Traditional similarity search mechanisms are both improper and inefficient for these highly energy-constrained sensors. A difficulty is that it is hard to predict which sensor has the most similar (or closest) data item such that many or even all sensors need to send their data to the query node for further comparison. In this paper, we propose a similarity search algorithm (SSA), which is a novel framework based on the concept of Hilbert curve over a data-centric storage structure, for efficiently processing similarity search queries in sensor networks. SSA successfully avoids the need of collecting data from all sensors in the network in searching for the most similar data item. The performance study reveals that this mechanism is highly efficient and significantly outperforms previous approaches in processing similarity search queries.     

ETI: an efficient index for set similarity queries

Set queries are an important topic and have attracted a lot of attention. Earlier research mainly concentrated on set containment queries. In this paper we focus on the T-Overlap query which is the foundation of the set similarity query. To address this issue, unlike traditional algorithms that are based on an inverted index, we design a new paradigm based on the prefix tree (trie) called the expanded trie index (ETI) which expands the trie node structure by adding some new properties. Based on ETI, we convert the TOverlap problem to finding query nodes with specific query depth equaling to T and propose a new algorithm called TSimilarity to solve T-Overlap efficiently. Then we carry out a three-step framework to extend T-Overlap to other similarity predicates. Extensive experiments are carried out to compare T-Similarity with other inverted index based algorithms from cardinality of query, overlap threshold, dataset size, the number of distinct elements and so on. Results show that T-Similarity outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms in many aspects.     

An efficient scheduling scheme using estimated execution time for heterogeneous computing systems

Computing systems should be designed to exploit parallelism in order to improve performance. In general, a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) can provide more parallelism than a CPU (Central Processing Unit), resulting in the wide usage of heterogeneous computing systems that utilize both the CPU and the GPU together. In the heterogeneous computing systems, the efficiency of the scheduling scheme, which selects the device to execute the application between the CPU and the GPU, is one of the most critical factors in determining the performance. This paper proposes a dynamic scheduling scheme for the selection of the device between the CPU and the GPU to execute the application based on the estimated-execution-time information. The proposed scheduling scheme enables the selection between the CPU and the GPU to minimize the completion time, resulting in a better system performance, even though it requires the training period to collect the execution history. According to our simulations, the proposed estimated-execution-time scheduling can improve the utilization of the CPU and the GPU compared to existing scheduling schemes, resulting in reduced execution time and enhanced energy efficiency of heterogeneous computing systems.     

UMOTS: an uncertainty-aware multi-objective genetic algorithm-based static task scheduling for heterogeneous embedded systems

Increasing manufacturing process variations due to aggressive technology scaling in addition to heterogeneity in design components are expected to cause serious challenges for future embedded system design steps including task scheduling. Process variation effects along with increased complexity in embedded applications result in design uncertainties, which in turn, reduce the accuracy and efficiency of traditional design approaches with deterministic values for the design component parameters. In this paper, a multi-objective task scheduling framework is proposed for embedded systems considering uncertainties in both hardware and software component parameters. The tasks which are modeled as a task graph are scheduled on a specific hardware platform consisting of processors and communication parts. Uncertainty is considered in both software (task parameters) and hardware (processor and communication parameters) of the embedded system. UMOTS takes advantages of a Monte-Carlo-based approach within a multi-objective genetic algorithm to handle the uncertainties in model parameters. The proposed approach finds the Pareto frontier, which is robust against uncertainties, in the objective space formed by performance, energy consumption, and reliability. The efficiency of UMOTS is investigated in the experimental results using real-application task graphs. In terms of Scheduling Length Ratio (SLR) and speedup, UMOTS provides 27.8% and 28.6% performance improvements in comparison to HSHD, one state-of-the-art task scheduling algorithm. Additionally, UMOTS, which is based on a multi-objective genetic optimization algorithms, finds robust Pareto frontier with 1%, 5% and 10% uncertainty in design indicators with respect to design limitations.

     

Discrepancy search for the flexible job shop scheduling problem

The flexible job shop scheduling problem (FJSP) is a generalization of the classical job shop problem in which each operation must be processed on a given machine chosen among a finite subset of candidate machines. The aim is to find an allocation for each operation and to define the sequence of operations on each machine, so that the resulting schedule has a minimal completion time. We propose a variant of the climbing discrepancy search approach for solving this problem. We also present various neighborhood structures related to assignment and sequencing problems. We report the results of extensive computational experiments carried out on well-known benchmarks for flexible job shop scheduling. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms the best-known algorithms for the FJSP on some types of benchmarks and remains comparable with them on other ones.     

Tabu search and lower bound for an industrial complex shop scheduling problem

This paper deals with an industrial shop scheduling problem that arises in a metal goods production group. The scheduling problem can be seen as a multi-mode job shop with assembly. Jobs have additional constraints such as release date, due date and sequence-dependent setup times. The aim of the decision-makers is to minimize the maximum lateness. This article introduces a tabu search procedure to solve the whole problem and a valid lower bound used to evaluate the tabu search procedure.     

Using an enhanced scatter search algorithm for a resource-constrained project scheduling problem

The resource-constrained project scheduling problem is one of the classical problems in the field of operations research. There are many criteria to efficiently determine the desired schedule of a project. In this paper, a well-known criterion namely project’s makespan is considered. Due to the complexity of the problem, it is very difficult to obtain optimum solution for this kind of problems by means of traditional methods. Therefore, an enhanced scatter search, based on a new path relinking and two prominent permutation-based and crossover operators, is devised to solve the problem. In order to validate the performance of the proposed algorithm, in terms of solution quality, the algorithm is applied to various test problems available on the literature and the reliability of it, is compared with well-reported benchmark algorithms. The computational results reveal that the proposed algorithm has appropriate results in comparison with the existing benchmark algorithms.     

Towards the disintermediation of creative music search: analysing queries to determine important facets

Creative professionals search for music to accompany moving images in films, advertising, television. Some larger music rights holders (record companies and music publishers) organise their catalogues to allow online searching. These digital libraries are organised by various subjective musical facets as well as by artist and title metadata. The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of written queries relating to creative music search, contextualised and discussed within the findings of text analyses of a larger research project whose aim is to investigate meaning making in this search process. A facet analysis of a collection of written music queries is discussed in relation to the organisation of the music in a selection of bespoke search engines. Subjective facets, in particular Mood, are found to be highly important in query formation. Unusually, detailed Music Structural aspects are also key. These findings are discussed in relation to disintermediation of this process. It is suggested that there are barriers to this, both in terms of classification and also commercial/legal factors.     

An efficient search mechanism for supporting partial filename queries in structured peer-to-peer overlay

Accompanying the growth of the Internet, computers throughout the world can connect to each other and exchange information, increasing the convenience and efficiency of information-based work. The advent of data-sharing applications, such as Napster and Gnutella, has made peer-to-peer (P2P) systems popular for widespread exchange of resources and voluminous information between millions of users. In recent years, research issues associated with P2P systems have been discussed widely. To resolve the file-availability problem and improve the workload, a method called the Distributed Hash Table (DHT) has been proposed. However, DHT-based systems in structured architectures cannot support efficient queries, such as a similarity query, range query, and partial-match query, due to the characteristics of the hash function. This study presents a novel scheme that supports filename partial-matches in structured P2P systems. The proposed approach supports complex queries and guarantees result quality. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

An improved lexicographic search algorithm for the flowshop scheduling problem

This paper describes an improved lexicographic search algorithm for the solution of the n-job, M-machine flowshop scheduling problem. The proposed improved algorithm is capable of generating all optimal schedules for any monotonically non-decreasing optimality criterion and is computationally more efficient than the basic lexicographic search algorithm. A numerical example is solved to illustrate the decrease in the computational effort by the proposed algorithm.     

A tabu search heuristic for the quay crane scheduling problem

This paper proposes a tabu search heuristic for the Quay Crane Scheduling Problem (QCSP), the problem of scheduling a fixed number of quay cranes in order to load and unload containers into and from a ship. The optimality criterion considered is the minimum completion time. Precedence and non-simultaneity constraints between tasks are taken into account. The former originate from the different kind of operations that each crane has to perform; the latter are needed in order to avoid interferences between the cranes. The QCSP is decomposed into a routing problem and a scheduling problem. The routing problem is solved by a tabu search heuristic, while a local search technique is used to generate the solution of the scheduling problem. This is done by minimizing the longest path length in a disjunctive graph. The effectiveness of our algorithm is assessed by comparing it to a branch-and-cut algorithm and to a Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP).     

A beam search heuristics to solve the parcel hub scheduling problem

In this paper, a beam search scheduling heuristic (BSSH) is presented to solve the parcel hub scheduling problem (PHSP), which is a scheduling problem that is common in the parcel delivery industry (PDI). Companies in the PDI include the United States Postal Service, United Parcel Services, Federal Express, and Deutsche Post. Together, these companies move more than one trillion dollars of the United States’ Gross Domestic Product. The PHSP involves scheduling a set of inbound trailers each containing a set of heterogeneous parcels to a set of unload docks. At the unload docks, the parcels are unloaded, sorted, and moved to the appropriate outbound trailers at the load docks. At the load docks, the parcels are loaded onto the outbound trailers. The objective is to minimize the timespan of the transfer operation at the transshipment terminal. The BSSH is compared to various scheduling approaches: random scheduling algorithm (RSA), genetic-based scheduling algorithm (GBSA), and simulation-based scheduling algorithm (SBSA). While GBSA and SBSA offer solutions that are superior to BSSH for smaller size problems, BSSH outperforms these algorithms on larger size problems requiring much less computational time. The results show that for larger size problems the BSSH is able to produce solutions that are from 4% to 8% of the known optimum solutions. In contrast, GBSA and SBSA, respectively offer solutions from 23% to 38% and from 6% to 47% of the known optimum solutions. The contribution of this paper is a scheduling heuristic to solve the PHSP.     

A polynomial-time approximation scheme for the two-machine flow shop scheduling problem with an availability constraint

We study the problem of scheduling n preemptable jobs in a two-machine flow shop where the first machine is not available for processing during a given time interval. The objective is to minimize the makespan. We propose a polynomial-time approximation scheme for this problem. The approach is extended to solve the problem in which the second machine is not continuously available.     

A high performance algorithm for static task scheduling in heterogeneous distributed computing systems

Effective task scheduling is essential for obtaining high performance in heterogeneous distributed computing systems (HeDCSs). However, finding an effective task schedule in HeDCSs requires the consideration of both the heterogeneity of processors and high interprocessor communication overhead, which results from non-trivial data movement between tasks scheduled on different processors. In this paper, we present a new high-performance scheduling algorithm, called the longest dynamic critical path (LDCP) algorithm, for HeDCSs with a bounded number of processors. The LDCP algorithm is a list-based scheduling algorithm that uses a new attribute to efficiently select tasks for scheduling in HeDCSs. The efficient selection of tasks enables the LDCP algorithm to generate high-quality task schedules in a heterogeneous computing environment. The performance of the LDCP algorithm is compared to two of the best existing scheduling algorithms for HeDCSs: the HEFT and DLS algorithms. The comparison study shows that the LDCP algorithm outperforms the HEFT and DLS algorithms in terms of schedule length and speedup. Moreover, the improvement in performance obtained by the LDCP algorithm over the HEFT and DLS algorithms increases as the inter-task communication cost increases. Therefore, the LDCP algorithm provides a practical solution for scheduling parallel applications with high communication costs in HeDCSs.     

Local search and lower bounds for the patient admission scheduling problem

We propose a multi-neighborhood local search procedure to solve a healthcare problem, known as the Patient Admission Scheduling problem. We design and experiment with different combinations of neighborhoods, showing that they have diverse effectiveness for different sets of weights of the cost components that constitute the objective function. We also compute many lower bounds based on the relaxation of some constraints. The outcome is that our results compare favorably with the previous work on the problem, improving all available instances, and in some cases are also quite close to the lower bounds. Finally, we propose the application of the technique to the dynamic case, in which admission and discharge dates are not predictable in advance.     

A large neighborhood search approach for the paint shop scheduling problem

Journal of Scheduling - Minimizing the setup costs caused by color changes is one of the main concerns for paint shop scheduling in the automotive industry. Yet, finding an optimized color sequence...     

An efficient genetic algorithm for solving the quay crane scheduling problem

This paper addresses the quay crane scheduling problem (QCSP), which has been shown to be NP-complete. For this reason, a number of studies have proposed the use of genetic algorithm (GA) as the means to obtain the solution in reasonable time. This study extends the research in this area by utilizing the GA that is available in the latest version of Global Optimization Toolbox in MATLAB 7.13 to facilitate development. It aims to improve the efficiency of the GA search by (1) using an initial solution based on the S-LOAD rule developed by Sammarra, Cordeau, Laporte, and Monaco (2007), (2) using a new approach for defining the chromosomes (i.e., solution representation) to reduce the number of decision variables, and (3) using new procedures for calculating tighter lower and upper bounds for the decision variables. The effectiveness of the developed GA is tested using several benchmark instances proposed by Meisel and Bierwirth (2011). Compared to the current best-known solutions, experimental results show that the proposed GA is capable of finding the optimal or near-optimal solution in significantly shorter time for larger problems.     

Towards a more efficient implementation of OpenMP for clusters via translation to global arrays

This paper discusses a novel approach to implementing OpenMP on clusters. Traditional approaches to do so rely on Software Distributed Shared Memory systems to handle shared data. We discuss these and then introduce an alternative approach that translates OpenMP to Global Arrays (GA), explaining the basic strategy. GA requires a data distribution. We do not expect the user to supply this; rather, we show how we perform data distribution and work distribution according to the user-supplied OpenMP static loop schedules. An inspector–executor strategy is employed for irregular applications in order to gather information on accesses to potentially non-local data, group non-local data transfers and overlap communications with local computations. Furthermore, a new directive INVARIANT is proposed to provide information about the dynamic scope of data access patterns. This directive can help us generate efficient codes for irregular applications using the inspector–executor approach. We also illustrate how to deal with some hard cases containing reshaping and strided accesses during the translation. Our experiments show promising results for the corresponding regular and irregular GA codes.     

An efficient memetic algorithm for solving the job shop scheduling problem

The job shop scheduling problem (JSP) is well known as one of the most complicated combinatorial optimization problems, and it is a NP-hard problem. Memetic algorithm (MA) which combines the global search and local search is a hybrid evolutionary algorithm. In this paper, an efficient MA with a novel local search is proposed to solve the JSP. Within the local search, a systematic change of the neighborhood is carried out to avoid trapping into local optimal. And two neighborhood structures are designed by exchanging and inserting based on the critical path. The objective of minimizing makespan is considered while satisfying a number of hard constraints. The computational results obtained in experiments demonstrate that the efficiency of the proposed MA is significantly superior to the other reported approaches in the literature.     

Linking identical neighborly partitions for efficient high-dimensional similarity search in unstructured peer-to-peer systems

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) computing has recently attracted a great deal of research attention. In a P2P system, a large number of nodes can potentially be pooled together to share their resources, information, and services. However, existing unstructured P2P systems lack support for content-based search over data objects which are generally represented by high-dimensional feature vectors. In this paper, we propose an efficient and effective indexing mechanism to facilitate high-dimensional similarity query in unstructured P2P systems, named Linking Identical Neighborly Partitions (LINP), which combines both space partitioning technique and routing index technique. With the aid of LINP, each peer can not only process similarity query efficiently over its local data, but also can route the query to the promising peers which may contain the desired data. In the proposed scheme, each peer summarizes its local data using the space partitioning technique, and exchanges the summarized index with its neighboring peers to construct routing indices. Furthermore, to improve the system performance with peer updates, we propose an extension of the LINP, named LINP⁺, where each peer can reconfigure its neighboring peers to keep relevant peers nearby. The performance of our proposed scheme is evaluated over both synthetic and real-life high-dimensional datasets, and experimental results show the superiority of our proposed scheme.