1,328 research outputs found
Cascading Failures in Power Grids - Analysis and Algorithms
This paper focuses on cascading line failures in the transmission system of
the power grid. Recent large-scale power outages demonstrated the limitations
of percolation- and epid- emic-based tools in modeling cascades. Hence, we
study cascades by using computational tools and a linearized power flow model.
We first obtain results regarding the Moore-Penrose pseudo-inverse of the power
grid admittance matrix. Based on these results, we study the impact of a single
line failure on the flows on other lines. We also illustrate via simulation the
impact of the distance and resistance distance on the flow increase following a
failure, and discuss the difference from the epidemic models. We then study the
cascade properties, considering metrics such as the distance between failures
and the fraction of demand (load) satisfied after the cascade (yield). We use
the pseudo-inverse of admittance matrix to develop an efficient algorithm to
identify the cascading failure evolution, which can be a building block for
cascade mitigation. Finally, we show that finding the set of lines whose
removal has the most significant impact (under various metrics) is NP-Hard and
introduce a simple heuristic for the minimum yield problem. Overall, the
results demonstrate that using the resistance distance and the pseudo-inverse
of admittance matrix provides important insights and can support the
development of efficient algorithms
Quest for Knowledge and Pursuit of Grades: Information, Course Selection, and Grade Inflation at an Ivy League School
This paper exploits a unique natural experiment — Cornell University’s 1996 decision to publish course median grades online - to examine the effect of grade information on course selection and grade inflation. We model students’ course selection as dependent on their tastes, abilities, and expected grades. The model yields three testable hypotheses: (1) students will tend to be drawn to leniently graded courses once exposed to grade information; (2) the most talented students will be less drawn to leniently graded courses than their peers; (3) the change in students’ behavior will contribute to grade inflation. Examining a large dataset that covers the period 1990-2004 our study provides evidence consistent with these predictions
A Fast Distributed Stateless Algorithm for -Fair Packing Problems
Over the past two decades, fair resource allocation problems have received
considerable attention in a variety of application areas. However, little
progress has been made in the design of distributed algorithms with convergence
guarantees for general and commonly used -fair allocations. In this
paper, we study weighted -fair packing problems, that is, the problems
of maximizing the objective functions (i) when , and (ii) when , over linear constraints , ,
where are positive weights and and are non-negative. We consider
the distributed computation model that was used for packing linear programs and
network utility maximization problems. Under this model, we provide a
distributed algorithm for general that converges to an
approximate solution in time (number of distributed iterations)
that has an inverse polynomial dependence on the approximation parameter
and poly-logarithmic dependence on the problem size. This is the
first distributed algorithm for weighted fair packing with
poly-logarithmic convergence in the input size. The algorithm uses simple local
update rules and is stateless (namely, it allows asynchronous updates, is
self-stabilizing, and allows incremental and local adjustments). We also obtain
a number of structural results that characterize fair allocations as
the value of is varied. These results deepen our understanding of
fairness guarantees in fair packing allocations, and also provide
insight into the behavior of fair allocations in the asymptotic cases
, , and .Comment: Added structural results for asymptotic cases of \alpha-fairness
(\alpha approaching 0, 1, or infinity), improved presentation, and revised
throughou
Employment Restrictions and Political Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Following the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000, Israel imposed severe restrictions on the employment of Palestinians within its borders. We study the effect of this policy change on the involvement of West Bank Palestinians in fatal confrontations during the first phase of the Intifada. Identification relies on the fact that variation in the pre-Intifada employment rate in Israel across Palestinian localities was not only considerable but also unrelated to prior levels of involvement in the conflict. We find robust evidence that localities that suffered from a sharper drop in employment opportunities were more heavily involved in the conflict
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