Sharif Digital Repository

A passive universal image steganalysis method is proposed that is shown to be of higher detection accuracy than existing truly blind steganalysis methods including Farid's and the WAM. This is achieved by improving some weaknesses of Farid's steganalysis scheme in feature extraction, that is, instead of deriving an over-determined equation system for each sub band of the wavelet decomposition, the sub bands are divided into overlapping blocks and an over-determined equation system is constructed for each block. To guarantee the existence of finite answers, the over-determined equation systems are solved in a way different from Farid's by using Moore-Penrose pseudo-inverse concept. Further... 

One of the most prominent uses of ground tire rubber (GTR) is in rubber-modified asphalt industry. Besides improving performance properties of binders, GTR induces some drawbacks like weak storage stability and inferior low temperature (LT) performance. This study sought to rectify these shortcomings through using devulcanized rubber (DVR) in place of common GTR. Binder performance grading, multiple stress creep and recovery, and storage stability tests were conducted. More resistance against traffic loads at high temperatures was observed as DVR's advantages over GTR, while its weaker LT characteristics and lower storage stability can prevent it from being a viable alternative. © 2017... 

Glycerol might be converted into hydrogen through a catalytic reforming process. In order to design an effective route, the choice of reaction conditions and in particular its medium considered yet a crucial issue still needing further investigations. In this research, a mathematical model of reforming processes in vapor (i.e., steam reforming (SR) and liquid phase (i.e.; aqueous phase reforming (APR)) were developed. This was performed in terms of understudying effects of parameters including the reactor diameter, catalyst morphology (i.e., particle size) and mass flow rate on the glycerol conversion. Then, a superior reaction medium in terms of these variables was determined. For data... 

A low-power high-speed two-stage dynamic comparator is presented. In this circuit, PMOS transistors are used at the input of the first and second stages of the comparator. At the evaluation phase, the second stage is activated after the first stage with a predetermined delay to achieve a controllable pre-amplifier gain. Also, the first stage is turned off after the delay to reduce overall power consumption. Simulation results in 0.18 μτη CMOS technology, prove that the proposed circuit reduces the power consumption by a factor of two and reduces comparison time as large as 210ps in the same budget of offset voltage compared to the conventional circuit. Moreover, the offset voltage and power... 

Relative novelty and wide functionality of ionic liquids (ILs) have led to a surge in the studies devoted to experimental determination of their physicochemical properties. Systematic collection and analysis of the available data and development of predictive models to address the extreme diversity of IL systems are of great value in this regard. In the present work, the significance of speed of sound in ILs and their mixtures was outlined and related theoretical concepts were surveyed. A comprehensive database was utilized for the construction of predictive models based on least square support vector machine. By constructing four different models, the influence of temperature, molecular... 

Despite a diverse range of active pharmaceutical agents currently at our disposal, high morbidity rate diseases continue to pose a major health crisis globally. One of the important parameters in this regard is the controlled cargo delivery at desired sites. Among a variety of synthetic and natural macromolecular systems, chitosan, an abundant biopolymer, offers a platform for tailored architectures that could have high loading capacity of cargo, target and deliver. Stimuli directed accumulation of vehicles and drug release is an area of direct relevance to biomedical applications. In this review, we highlight essential characteristics of modified chitosan that present themselves for... 

Different lifting analysis tools are commonly used to assess spinal loads and risk of injury. Distinct musculoskeletal models with various degrees of accuracy are employed in these tools affecting thus their relative accuracy in practical applications. The present study aims to compare predictions of six tools (HCBCF, LSBM, 3DSSPP, AnyBody, simple polynomial, and regression models) for the L4-L5 and L5-S1 compression and shear loads in twenty-six static activities with and without hand load. Significantly different spinal loads but relatively similar patterns for the compression (R2>0.87) were computed. Regression models and AnyBody predicted intradiscal pressures in closer agreement with...