A tardiness-augmented approximation scheme for rejection-allowed multiprocessor rescheduling

In the multiprocessor scheduling problem to minimize the total job completion time, an optimal schedule can be obtained by the shortest processing time rule and the completion time of each job in the schedule can be used as a guarantee for scheduling revenue. However, in practice, some jobs will not arrive at the beginning of the schedule but are delayed and their delayed arrival times are given to the decision-maker for possible rescheduling. The decision-maker can choose to reject some jobs in order to minimize the total operational cost that includes three cost components: the total rejection cost of the rejected jobs, the total completion time of the accepted jobs, and the penalty on the maximum tardiness for the accepted jobs, for which their completion times in the planned schedule are their virtual due dates. This novel rescheduling problem generalizes several classic NP-hard scheduling problems. We first design a pseudo-polynomial time dynamic programming exact algorithm and then, when the tardiness can be unbounded, we develop it into a fully polynomial time approximation scheme. The dynamic programming exact algorithm has a space complexity too high for truthful implementation; we propose an alternative to integrate the enumeration and the dynamic programming recurrences, followed by a depth-first-search walk in the reschedule space. We implemented the alternative exact algorithm in C and conducted numerical experiments to demonstrate its promising performance.

     

Who is my family?: A comparative study of the family boundary in East Asia

Most Asian countries are regarded as Confucian countries although each has its own historical and cultural background. Little is known about how people in different Asian countries perceive their family boundaries. This study is an attempt to compare the perception of the family in China, Japan, and Korea. We examined the family perception and found substantial differences among the three. Chinese people showed the widest and paternally extended perception of family. Data from people in Korea nearly matched data from China, but family perception developed bilaterally. People in Japan, however, perceived only blood-tied, intimate relations as family members. In addition, the perception of the family was not substantially different between the genders in Japan and China, but in South Korea, men perceived family boundaries more widely than women, implying that women have a greater family burden than men in Korea. Considering the heterogeneity in family perceptions in these countries, this paper tries to explain how social institutions interact with individuals and impact the perception of family. Finally, this paper concludes that it is inappropriate to tie the three East Asian countries as ‘Confucian civilizations’ in terms of family perception.     

大学生考试作弊的成因分析及对策

大学生考试作弊的产生、盛行与社会上弄虚作假的不良风气、学校教育上的缺陷、学习评价体系不科学以及扩大招生引发的教学管理失衡等客观原因有关,也与大学生自身的道德修养、人生价值观、是非判断能力和心理素质等方面存在着比较严重的问题有着密切的关系。文章在分析大学生考试作弊成因的基础上,指出了大学生考试作弊的性质、特点和危害,并提出了遏制考试作弊歪风的对策。     

实物期权理论与方法在企业并购投资中的应用

企业并购是一种高风险的投资项目 ,采用正常环境下传统的 NPV法对并购投资进行经济评价有许多不足之处。而实物期权理论是一种针对柔性投资进行经济评价的有效方法 ,尤其适应于非正常的经济环境 ,从而给企业并购投资创造了弹性。