Sharif Digital Repository

This paper introduces an efficient scheme to image steganography by introducing the hidden message (payload) insertion in spatial domain and transforming the stego-image to compressed domain. We apply a recently-proposed LSB method in order to obtain better statistical behavior of the stego-message and subsequently, the obtained stego-image is transformed and quantized in order to enhance the security of hiding. Performance analysis comparisons confirm a higher efficiency for our proposed method. Compared to recently-proposed approaches, our method offers the advantage that it combines an efficient LSB method with transform domain security. © 2009 IEEE  

One of the challenging problems in real-time data-parallel processing applications is to schedule tasks to different servers aiming to increase data locality for higher efficiency or lower delay, and at the same time, doing load balancing to stabilize the system of server-queues. We target this problem, and discuss efficient real-time task scheduling algorithms aimed not only to stabilize the system when the arrival rate is in the capacity region (i.e. throughput optimality condition), but also to minimize the mean delay of all tasks in heavy traffic regime when the arrival rate approaches the capacity boundary (i.e. heavy-traffic optimality condition). In this paper, we point out the data... 

Business processes perform a significant role in increasing the success of organizational processes and functionalities. Due to the ever increasing growth in the scale and complexity of processes in line with taking advantage of combinational methods and ideas to optimize workflows and gain higher efficiency, lack of a framework considering both business process semantic and structure for business process modeling is completely sensible. Adding semantic to business process models will result in more comprehensible and automatically-executable processes. Moreover, preparing a suitable structure by making use of software architectural concepts will lead to a major decrease in misunderstanding... 

Airlift pumps are devices which are widely used in industrial applications. Parameters such as diameter of the pipe, tapering angle of the upriser pipe, submergence ratio, the gas flow rate, bubble diameter, and inlet gas pressure affect the performance of this type of pumps. In this research, the performances of airlift pumps with a vertical upriser length of 914 mm and initial diameters of 6 and 8 mm and various heights for steps, range 0:2 to 0:9 m, in submergence ratio of 0:6 are investigated numerically. The results show the improvement in the performance of step airlift pump (SALP) in comparison with ordinary type (OALP). Considering the effect of height of steps and secondary pipe... 

Using a generalized Hubbard Hamiltonian, many-electron wavefunctions of negatively charged (NV -) and neutral nitrogen-vacancy (NV 0) centers in diamond were calculated. We report the effect of symmetric relaxation of surrounding atoms on the spin density, calculated from the many electron wavefunctions in the ground and excited states. We evaluated the error, that, arises in estimation of spin density when lattice relaxation effect is neglected in Electron Paramagnetic Resonance experiment and showed that the ground state spin density distribution is accessible in outward relaxations. The computed oscillator strengths give a higher efficiency for the 1.945 eV photoluminescence (PL) line of... 

The rising cost of energy and the global warming in recent years have highlighted the need of more advanced systems with higher efficiency and less gas emissions. Consequently, plenty of researches have done on waste heat recovery and renewable sources of energy recently. The target of the present research is feasibility study of heat recovery in automobiles' paint ovens and designing an efficient system to use the lost energy. Research has been carried out on the theory, evaluating the amount of lost and available energy through Thermodynamics and heat transfer principle and choosing applicable design and construction of heat exchanger, especially for their use in ovens for energy recovery,... 

Nowadays, the need for industrial processes with sufficient accuracy, efficiency, and flexibility to compete world markets is inevitable. On the other hand, the advent of control techniques and increased computation power of CPUs allow implementation of complex controllers using optimization techniques to provide higher efficiency and economic productivity. Model predictive control refers to a wide range of optimization-based control methods applying explicit models to predict its prospective use. These methods of control compute control signal by minimizing the cost function so that the process output becomes very close to the optimal path. In this paper, we use a new model predictive... 

Microfluidic experiments have found wide applications in medical sciences and engineering, such as cell separation and focusing. In the present study, focusing and separation of particles with different sizes and densities were investigated by designing inertial microfluidic devices. The microfluidic channel is designed by analyzing the induced forces on the particles. In the designing process, the objective was to focus and separate the particles in the shortest length of the channel with the lowest possible cycles and high efficiency. The simulation is then used for analyzing the two proposed geometries to evaluate their particle separation and focusing ability, named convergent and... 

Achieving high efficiency and throughput in droplet-based mixing over a small characteristic length, such as microfluidic channels, is one of the crucial parameters in Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) applications. One solution to achieve efficient mixing is to use active mixers in which an external power source is utilized to mix two fluids. One of these active methods is magnetic micromixers using ferrofluid. In this technique, magnetic nanoparticles are used to make one phase responsive to magnetic force, and then by applying a magnetic field, two fluid phases, one of which is magneto-responsive, will sufficiently mix. In this study, we investigated the effect of the magnetic field’s characteristics... 

Graphene, due to its unique excellent properties, is proposed as a developing method with high efficiency compared to classical water desalination methods. In this regard, charging the membrane is considered a promising and effective approach to enhance the performance of the graphene membrane. In this research, by using molecular dynamics simulations, the water desalination by charged multilayer graphene is evaluated and the influence of electric charge amount and geometric parameters, including the pore diameter and the interlayer distance, are investigated. According to the results, the multilayer nanoporous graphene with 16.35 Å pore diameter, in which the electric charge is distributed... 

High-efficiency Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs) are widely used in industry. Subsequently, resolvers' employment is increasing in the drive of PMSMs. Measuring the rotor angle using a resolver needs a costly Resolver to Digital Converter (RDC). Therefore, a low-cost analog RDC is designed against the conventional Angle Tracking Observers (ATOs) in the following study. The designed RDC has satisfactory accuracy, simplicity, and enduring against excitation frequency. Firstly, an overview of the resolver is shown, and subsequently, the circuit of the designed RC is described thoroughly. Ultimately, the simulations' outcomes are displayed, and comparing our design with others... 

The hydrodynamics and energetics of bioinspired oscillating mechanisms have received significant attentions by engineers and biologists to develop the underwater and air vehicles. Undulating and pure heaving (or plunging) motions are two significant mechanisms which are utilized in nature to provide propulsive, maneuvering, and stabilization forces.This study aims to elucidate and compare the propulsive vortical signature and performance of these two important natural mechanisms through a systematic numerical study. Navier-Stokes equations are solved, by a pressure-based finite volume method solver, in an arbitrary Lagrangian- Eulerian (ALE) framework domain containing a 2D NACA0012 foil... 

In this brief, a transformer-type power combiner for a fully integrated high-power CMOS power amplifier (PA) is presented. The proposed power combiner is composed of a number of transformers that, unlike the ones in conventional approaches, have different sizes. This leads to higher efficiency and smaller chip area. After considering several power stage topologies, analysis and optimization of the transformer network (the power combiner) are presented. To demonstrate the advantages of the proposed architecture, a 900-MHz CMOS PA with the proposed power combiner was implemented with a 0.18-μm radio-frequency CMOS process. The amplifier achieved an efficiency value of 24% at the maximum output... 

This paper presents the theoretical introduction and experimental validation of the "Class-J2 Mode Power Amplifier," which provides higher efficiency and output power compared with conventional class-J mode counterpart. This mode of operation is realized by injection of the second-harmonic current to drain node of a class-J power amplifier (PA) to reduce the 45° phase shift between drain current and voltage signals. Similar to class-J PAs, the second-harmonic impedance of class-J2 PAs is purely reactive to simplify the design of the output matching network. The auxiliary second-harmonic injection circuit comprises a transistor biased in class-B mode followed by a class-C biased amplifier to... 

Today’s the technology based on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) has an important role in all photovoltaic system technologies. DSSCs can generate electricity with various degrees of transparency; this makes it suitable for use in various industries, especially in construction industry as smart windows. In fact DSSC can produce electricity and having natural light, simultaneously. It is obvious that DSSCs need to absorb solar radiation as much as possible. Since, the effective use of all incident lights leads to an increase in cell efficiency and this increase in efficiency is related to the amount of dye adsorbed on the surface of nanostructured electrode, so higher amount of dye for... 

Multi-port converters (MPC), used in multi-input/multi-output power electronic systems have low cost, low weight and low mass integrated control system. Besides these converters offer bidirectional and isolated ports, which are inevitable in some applications. Three-Port Half Bridge Converters (TPHBC) are the ones which have the lowest component count. But these converters suffer from a low Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) range that is lost in medium to low load powers. Low ZVS range cause low efficiency, especially in low output powers. In this paper a modified Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technique is introduced to increase the ZVS range of main switches which results higher efficiency and... 

Because of the compatibility with tandem devices and the ability to be manufactured at low temperatures, inverted perovskite solar cells have generated far-ranging interest for potential commercial applications. However, their efficiency remains inadequate owing to various traps in the perovskite film and the restricted hole blocking ability of the electron transport layer. Thus, in this work, a wide-bandgap n-type semiconductor, 4,6-bis(3,5-di(pyridin-4-yl)phenyl)-2-phenylpyrimidine (B4PyPPM), to modify a perovskite film via an anti-solvent method is introduced. The nitrogen sites of pyrimidine and pyridine rings in B4PyPPM exhibit strong interactions with the undercoordinated lead ions in... 

Engineering earth-rich, high-efficiency, and nonprecious electrocatalysts is an essential demand for water electrolysis to obtain clean and sustainable fuels. In this research, novel hybrid electrocatalysts based on coupling a hierarchical porous NiCo-mixed metal sulfide with a nanosheet structure (denoted as NiCoS) and a novel three-dimensional (3D) mesoporous open-cage/framelike structure of CoFeS are designed for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In this regard, the single-step synthesis of a cobalt iron Prussian blue analog (CoFe PBA) frame/cagelike structure was performed without any etching step. Following a comparative study, CoFe PBA precursors were converted and doped with S, Se, and... 

High-efficiency Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs) are widely used in industrial applications. Subsequently, resolvers as position sensors experience increasing usage in the drive of PMSMs. Measuring the rotor's position using a resolver needs a costly Resolver to Digital Converter (RDC). Therefore, in this paper, a software-based, low-cost RDC is presented against the conventional Angle Tracking Observers (ATOs). The proposed RDC is a high-Accuracy two-stage Deep Neural Network (DNN)-based one. In this regard, an overview of the resolvers' function and the general methodology to DNN training is given. Then, the case study is done on the gathered data from the set of the resolver... 

In this study, spinel CuCo2O4 (CCO) with a hierarchical hollow sphere morphology was encapsulated in V2O5-decorated ultra-wrinkled graphitic carbon-nitride (VO-UCN) for the first time via a facile glycerol-assisted solvothermal method in the interest of developing a novel high-efficiency double Z-type nano-photocatalyst (denoted as VO-UCN@CCO). The remarkable physicochemical features of the as-prepared nano-photocatalysts were verified using diverse characterization techniques including TGA, XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, TEM, BET, UV–vis DRS, PL, EIS, and transient photocurrent techniques. Herein, VO-UCN@CCO nanocomposite was employed for the photodisintegration of levofloxacin (LVOF) antibiotic under...