The rate of convergence to optimality of the LPT rule

The LPT rule is a heuristic method to distribute jobs among identical machines so as to minimize the makespan of the resulting schedule. If the processing times of the jobs are assumed to be independent identically distributed random variables, then (under a mild condition on the distribution) the absolute error of this heuristic is known to converge to 0 almost surely. In this note we analyse the asymptotic behaviour of the absolute error and its first and higher moments to show that under quite general assumptions the speed of convergence is proportional to appropriate powers of (log log n)/n and 1/n. Thus, we simplify, strengthen and extend earlier results obtained for the uniform and exponential distribution.

The rate of convergence to optimality of the LPT rule

The LPT rule is a heuristic method to distribute jobs among identical machines so as to minimize the makespan of the resulting schedule. If the processing times of the jobs are assumed to be independent identically distributed random variables, then (under a mild condition on the distribution) the absolute error of this heuristic is known to converge to 0 almost surely. In this note we analyse the asymptotic behaviour of the absolute error and its first and higher moments to show that under quite general assumptions the speed of convergence is proportional to appropriate powers of (log log n)/n and 1/n. Thus, we simplify, strengthen and extend earlier results obtained for the uniform and exponential distribution

On the rate of convergence to optimality of the LPT rule - postscript

This postscript contains the proofs of two results listed in the paper 'On the rate of convergence to optimality of the LPT rule'

Towards Dual-functional Radar-Communication Systems: Optimal Waveform Design

We focus on a dual-functional multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) radar-communication (RadCom) system, where a single transmitter communicates with downlink cellular users and detects radar targets simultaneously. Several design criteria are considered for minimizing the downlink multi-user interference. First, we consider both the omnidirectional and directional beampattern design problems, where the closed-form globally optimal solutions are obtained. Based on these waveforms, we further consider a weighted optimization to enable a flexible trade-off between radar and communications performance and introduce a low-complexity algorithm. The computational costs of the above three designs are shown to be similar to the conventional zero-forcing (ZF) precoding. Moreover, to address the more practical constant modulus waveform design problem, we propose a branch-and-bound algorithm that obtains a globally optimal solution and derive its worst-case complexity as a function of the maximum iteration number. Finally, we assess the effectiveness of the proposed waveform design approaches by numerical results.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures. This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

Functional quantization rate and mean regularity of processes with an application to L\'evy processes

We investigate the connections between the mean pathwise regularity of stochastic processes and their L^r(P)-functional quantization rates as random variables taking values in some L^p([0,T],dt)-spaces (0 < p <= r). Our main tool is the Haar basis. We then emphasize that the derived functional quantization rate may be optimal (e.g., for Brownian motion or symmetric stable processes) so that the rate is optimal as a universal upper bound. As a first application, we establish the O((log N)^{-1/2}) upper bound for general It\^o processes which include multidimensional diffusions. Then, we focus on the specific family of L\'evy processes for which we derive a general quantization rate based on the regular variation properties of its L\'evy measure at 0. The case of compound Poisson processes, which appear as degenerate in the former approach, is studied specifically: we observe some rates which are between the finite-dimensional and infinite-dimensional ``usual'' ratesComment: 43p., issued in Annals of Applied Probability, 18(2):427-46

A stochastic programming approach for chemotherapy appointment scheduling

Chemotherapy appointment scheduling is a challenging problem due to the uncertainty in pre-medication and infusion durations. In this paper, we formulate a two-stage stochastic mixed integer programming model for the chemotherapy appointment scheduling problem under limited availability and number of nurses and infusion chairs. The objective is to minimize the expected weighted sum of nurse overtime, chair idle time, and patient waiting time. The computational burden to solve real-life instances of this problem to optimality is significantly high, even in the deterministic case. To overcome this burden, we incorporate valid bounds and symmetry breaking constraints. Progressive hedging algorithm is implemented in order to solve the improved formulation heuristically. We enhance the algorithm through a penalty update method, cycle detection and variable fixing mechanisms, and a linear approximation of the objective function. Using numerical experiments based on real data from a major oncology hospital, we compare our solution approach with several scheduling heuristics from the relevant literature, generate managerial insights related to the impact of the number of nurses and chairs on appointment schedules, and estimate the value of stochastic solution to assess the significance of considering uncertainty

Non-Reversible Parallel Tempering: a Scalable Highly Parallel MCMC Scheme

Parallel tempering (PT) methods are a popular class of Markov chain Monte Carlo schemes used to sample complex high-dimensional probability distributions. They rely on a collection of $N$ interacting auxiliary chains targeting tempered versions of the target distribution to improve the exploration of the state-space. We provide here a new perspective on these highly parallel algorithms and their tuning by identifying and formalizing a sharp divide in the behaviour and performance of reversible versus non-reversible PT schemes. We show theoretically and empirically that a class of non-reversible PT methods dominates its reversible counterparts and identify distinct scaling limits for the non-reversible and reversible schemes, the former being a piecewise-deterministic Markov process and the latter a diffusion. These results are exploited to identify the optimal annealing schedule for non-reversible PT and to develop an iterative scheme approximating this schedule. We provide a wide range of numerical examples supporting our theoretical and methodological contributions. The proposed methodology is applicable to sample from a distribution $\pi$ with a density $L$ with respect to a reference distribution $\pi_0$ and compute the normalizing constant. A typical use case is when $\pi_0$ is a prior distribution, $L$ a likelihood function and $\pi$ the corresponding posterior.Comment: 74 pages, 30 figures. The method is implemented in an open source probabilistic programming available at https://github.com/UBC-Stat-ML/blangSD

Fault diagnostics for advanced cycle marine gas turbine using genetic algorithm

The major challenges faced by the gas turbine industry, for both the users and the manufacturers, is the reduction in life cycle costs , as well as the safe and efficient running of gas turbines. In view of the above, it would be advantageous to have a diagnostics system capable of reliably detecting component faults (even though limited to gas path components) in a quantitative marmer. V This thesis presents the development an integrated fault diagnostics model for identifying shifts in component performance and sensor faults using advanced concepts in genetic algorithm. The diagnostics model operates in three distinct stages. The rst stage uses response surfaces for computing objective functions to increase the exploration potential of the search space while easing the computational burden. The second stage uses the heuristics modification of genetics algorithm parameters through a master-slave type configuration. The third stage uses the elitist model concept in genetic algorithm to preserve the accuracy of the solution in the face of randomness. The above fault diagnostics model has been integrated with a nested neural network to form a hybrid diagnostics model. The nested neural network is employed as a pre- processor or lter to reduce the number of fault classes to be explored by the genetic algorithm based diagnostics model. The hybrid model improves the accuracy, reliability and consistency of the results obtained. In addition signicant improvements in the total run time have also been observed. The advanced cycle Intercooled Recuperated WR2l engine has been used as the test engine for implementing the diagnostics model.SOE Prize winne