<SYSTEM_TASK:>
Solve the following problem using Python, implementing the functions described below, one line at a time
<END_TASK>
<USER_TASK:>
Description:
 def check_schedule(self, node, duration=0):
 """Maybe schedule new items on the node If there are any globally pending nodes left then this will check if the given node should be given any more tests. The ``duration`` of the last test is optionally used as a heuristic to influence how many tests the node is assigned. """

        if node.shutting_down:
            return

        if self.pending:
            # how many nodes do we have?
            num_nodes = len(self.node2pending)
            # if our node goes below a heuristic minimum, fill it out to
            # heuristic maximum
            items_per_node_min = max(2, len(self.pending) // num_nodes // 4)
            items_per_node_max = max(2, len(self.pending) // num_nodes // 2)
            node_pending = self.node2pending[node]
            if len(node_pending) < items_per_node_min:
                if duration >= 0.1 and len(node_pending) >= 2:
                    # seems the node is doing long-running tests
                    # and has enough items to continue
                    # so let's rather wait with sending new items
                    return
                num_send = items_per_node_max - len(node_pending)
                self._send_tests(node, num_send)
        else:
            node.shutdown()

        self.log("num items waiting for node:", len(self.pending))