Approximation, Randomization and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques: 8th International Workshop on Approximation Algorithms for Compinatorial Optimization Problems, APPROX 2005 and 9th International Workshop on Random(3624 Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

This volume contains the papers presented at the 8th International Workshop on Approximation Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization Problems (APPROX 2005) and the 9th International Workshop on Randomization and Computation(RANDOM2005),whichtookplaceconcurrentlyattheUniversity of California in Berkeley, on August 22-24, 2005. APPROX focuses on algori- mic and complexity issues surrounding the development of e?cient approximate solutions to computationally hard problems, and APPROX 2005 was the eighth in the series after Aalborg (1998), Berkeley (1999), Saarbru ..cken (2000), Ber- ley (2001),Rome (2002),Princeton(2003),and Cambridge(2004).RANDOM is concerned with applications of randomness to computational and combinatorial problems, and RANDOM 2005 was the ninth workshop in the series foll- ing Bologna (1997), Barcelona (1998), Berkeley(1999), Geneva (2000), Berkeley (2001), Harvard (2002), Princeton (2003), and Cambridge (2004). Topics of interest for APPROX and RANDOM are: design and analysis of approximation algorithms, hardness of approximation, small space and data streaming algorithms, sub-linear time algorithms, embeddings and metric space methods, mathematical programming methods, coloring and partitioning, cuts and connectivity, geometric problems, game theory and applications, network designandrouting,packingand covering,scheduling,designandanalysisofr- domized algorithms, randomized complexity theory, pseudorandomness and - randomization,random combinatorialstructures, randomwalks/Markovchains, expander graphs and randomness extractors, probabilistic proof systems, r- dom projections and embeddings, error-correcting codes, average-case analysis, property testing, computational learning theory, and other applications of - proximation and randomness. The volume contains 20 contributed papers selected by the APPROX P- gram Committee out of 50 submissions, and 21 contributed papers selected by the RANDOM Program Committee out of 51 submissions.

Table of Contents:
Contributed Talks of APPROX.- The Network as a Storage Device: Dynamic Routing with Bounded Buffers.- Rounding Two and Three Dimensional Solutions of the SDP Relaxation of MAX CUT.- What Would Edmonds Do? Augmenting Paths and Witnesses for Degree-Bounded MSTs.- A Rounding Algorithm for Approximating Minimum Manhattan Networks.- Packing Element-Disjoint Steiner Trees.- Approximating the Bandwidth of Caterpillars.- Where’s the Winner? Max-Finding and Sorting with Metric Costs.- What About Wednesday? Approximation Algorithms for Multistage Stochastic Optimization.- The Complexity of Making Unique Choices: Approximating 1-in-k SAT.- Approximating the Distortion.- Approximating the Best-Fit Tree Under L p Norms.- Beating a Random Assignment.- Scheduling on Unrelated Machines Under Tree-Like Precedence Constraints.- Approximation Algorithms for Network Design and Facility Location with Service Capacities.- Finding Graph Matchings in Data Streams.- A Primal-Dual Approximation Algorithm for Partial Vertex Cover: Making Educated Guesses.- Efficient Approximation of Convex Recolorings.- Approximation Algorithms for Requirement Cut on Graphs.- Approximation Schemes for Node-Weighted Geometric Steiner Tree Problems.- Towards Optimal Integrality Gaps for Hypergraph Vertex Cover in the Lovász-Schrijver Hierarchy.- Contributed Talks of RANDOM.- Bounds for Error Reduction with Few Quantum Queries.- Sampling Bounds for Stochastic Optimization.- An Improved Analysis of Mergers.- Finding a Maximum Independent Set in a Sparse Random Graph.- On the Error Parameter of Dispersers.- Tolerant Locally Testable Codes.- A Lower Bound on List Size for List Decoding.- A Lower Bound for Distribution-Free Monotonicity Testing.- On Learning Random DNF Formulas Under the Uniform Distribution.-Derandomized Constructions of k-Wise (Almost) Independent Permutations.- Testing Periodicity.- The Parity Problem in the Presence of Noise, Decoding Random Linear Codes, and the Subset Sum Problem.- The Online Clique Avoidance Game on Random Graphs.- A Generating Function Method for the Average-Case Analysis of DPLL.- A Continuous-Discontinuous Second-Order Transition in the Satisfiability of Random Horn-SAT Formulas.- Mixing Points on a Circle.- Derandomized Squaring of Graphs.- Tight Bounds for String Reconstruction Using Substring Queries.- Reconstructive Dispersers and Hitting Set Generators.- The Tensor Product of Two Codes Is Not Necessarily Robustly Testable.- Fractional Decompositions of Dense Hypergraphs.