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Dynamic work hour optimization for casual workers

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Abstract

An original online problem named the work-break problem is proposed to optimize the work hours of casual workers. The algorithm for our problem has to answer for a casual worker about when he should have a break for his efficiency declines with the growing duration of current work period. We consider the online uncertainty of the work efficiency and present a periodic algorithm for the problem. Then our algorithm is proved to be 2-competitive by a novel form of competitive analysis.

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Acknowledgements

The work of this paper was partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71071113), a Ph.D. Programs Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (20100072110011), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

    Weimin Ma & Wei Shao

  2. School of Management, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai, China

    Xiaodong Ji

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  1. Weimin Ma
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  2. Wei Shao
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  3. Xiaodong Ji
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Correspondence to Xiaodong Ji.

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Ma, W., Shao, W. & Ji, X. Dynamic work hour optimization for casual workers. J Comb Optim 35, 1185–1201 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10878-018-0263-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10878-018-0263-0

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