2,005 research outputs found
Citation Counts and Evaluation of Researchers in the Internet Age
Bibliometric measures derived from citation counts are increasingly being
used as a research evaluation tool. Their strengths and weaknesses have been
widely analyzed in the literature and are often subject of vigorous debate. We
believe there are a few fundamental issues related to the impact of the web
that are not taken into account with the importance they deserve. We focus on
evaluation of researchers, but several of our arguments may be applied also to
evaluation of research institutions as well as of journals and conferences.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 3 table
A Faster Distributed Single-Source Shortest Paths Algorithm
We devise new algorithms for the single-source shortest paths (SSSP) problem
with non-negative edge weights in the CONGEST model of distributed computing.
While close-to-optimal solutions, in terms of the number of rounds spent by the
algorithm, have recently been developed for computing SSSP approximately, the
fastest known exact algorithms are still far away from matching the lower bound
of rounds by Peleg and Rubinovich [SIAM
Journal on Computing 2000], where is the number of nodes in the network
and is its diameter. The state of the art is Elkin's randomized algorithm
[STOC 2017] that performs rounds. We
significantly improve upon this upper bound with our two new randomized
algorithms for polynomially bounded integer edge weights, the first performing
rounds and the second performing rounds. Our bounds also compare favorably to the
independent result by Ghaffari and Li [STOC 2018]. As side results, we obtain a
-approximation -round algorithm for directed SSSP and a new work/depth trade-off for exact
SSSP on directed graphs in the PRAM model.Comment: Presented at the the 59th Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of
Computer Science (FOCS 2018
Linear-Space Approximate Distance Oracles for Planar, Bounded-Genus, and Minor-Free Graphs
A (1 + eps)-approximate distance oracle for a graph is a data structure that
supports approximate point-to-point shortest-path-distance queries. The most
relevant measures for a distance-oracle construction are: space, query time,
and preprocessing time. There are strong distance-oracle constructions known
for planar graphs (Thorup, JACM'04) and, subsequently, minor-excluded graphs
(Abraham and Gavoille, PODC'06). However, these require Omega(eps^{-1} n lg n)
space for n-node graphs. We argue that a very low space requirement is
essential. Since modern computer architectures involve hierarchical memory
(caches, primary memory, secondary memory), a high memory requirement in effect
may greatly increase the actual running time. Moreover, we would like data
structures that can be deployed on small mobile devices, such as handhelds,
which have relatively small primary memory. In this paper, for planar graphs,
bounded-genus graphs, and minor-excluded graphs we give distance-oracle
constructions that require only O(n) space. The big O hides only a fixed
constant, independent of \epsilon and independent of genus or size of an
excluded minor. The preprocessing times for our distance oracle are also faster
than those for the previously known constructions. For planar graphs, the
preprocessing time is O(n lg^2 n). However, our constructions have slower query
times. For planar graphs, the query time is O(eps^{-2} lg^2 n). For our
linear-space results, we can in fact ensure, for any delta > 0, that the space
required is only 1 + delta times the space required just to represent the graph
itself
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