Scheduling multiple divisible loads on a linear processor network

Min, Veeravalli, and Barlas have recently proposed strategies to minimize the overall execution time of one or several divisible loads on a heterogeneous linear network, using one or more installments. We show on a very simple example that their approach does not always produce a solution and that, when it does, the solution is often suboptimal. We also show how to find an optimal schedule for any instance, once the number of installments per load is given. Then, we formally state that any optimal schedule has an infinite number of installments under a linear cost model as the one assumed in the original papers. Therefore, such a cost model cannot be used to design practical multi-installment strategies. Finally, through extensive simulations we confirmed that the best solution is always produced by the linear programming approach, while solutions of the original papers can be far away from the optimal

The edge-disjoint path problem on random graphs by message-passing

We present a message-passing algorithm to solve the edge disjoint path problem (EDP) on graphs incorporating under a unique framework both traffic optimization and path length minimization. The min-sum equations for this problem present an exponential computational cost in the number of paths. To overcome this obstacle we propose an efficient implementation by mapping the equations onto a weighted combinatorial matching problem over an auxiliary graph. We perform extensive numerical simulations on random graphs of various types to test the performance both in terms of path length minimization and maximization of the number of accommodated paths. In addition, we test the performance on benchmark instances on various graphs by comparison with state-of-the-art algorithms and results found in the literature. Our message-passing algorithm always outperforms the others in terms of the number of accommodated paths when considering non trivial instances (otherwise it gives the same trivial results). Remarkably, the largest improvement in performance with respect to the other methods employed is found in the case of benchmarks with meshes, where the validity hypothesis behind message-passing is expected to worsen. In these cases, even though the exact message-passing equations do not converge, by introducing a reinforcement parameter to force convergence towards a sub optimal solution, we were able to always outperform the other algorithms with a peak of 27% performance improvement in terms of accommodated paths. On random graphs, we numerically observe two separated regimes: one in which all paths can be accommodated and one in which this is not possible. We also investigate the behaviour of both the number of paths to be accommodated and their minimum total length.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure

Perceptions of gender balance of IS journal editorial positions

An analysis of 18,854 editorial positions on IS journals was undertaken to examine the perceived gender balance of those positions as an indication of their contribution towards a positive role model for females considering an IS academic career. The nature and extent of perceived gender balance is examined in terms of overall composition of editorial positions, journal prestige and the specific area within IS covered by a journal. The results indicate that perceived gender balance of editorial positions reflects that of ICT academia generally, and that female representation appears to be concentrated in journals covering areas that are traditionally seen as female occupations, e.g., health, education, librarianship. As such, little or no encouragement is given to females considering an IS academic career.<br /