Sharif Digital Repository

We propose a novel image steganalysis method, based on singular value decomposition and noise estimation, for the spatial domain LSB embedding families. We first define a content independence parameter, DS, that is calculated for each LSB embedding rate. Next, we estimate the DS curve and use noise estimation to improve the curve approximation accuracy. It is shown that the proposed approach gives an estimate of the LSB embedding rate, as well as information about the existence of the embedded message (if any). The proposed method can effectively be applied to a wide range of the image LSB steganography families in spatial domain. To evaluate the proposed scheme, we applied the method to a... 

This paper addresses the problem of finding the nearest neighbor (or one of the R-nearest neighbors) of a query object q in a database of n objects, when we can only use a comparison oracle. The comparison oracle, given two reference objects and a query object, returns the reference object most similar to the query object. The main problem we study is how to search the database for the nearest neighbor (NN) of a query, while minimizing the questions. The difficulty of this problem depends on properties of the underlying database. We show the importance of a characterization: combinatorial disorder D which defines approximate triangle inequalities on ranks. We present a lower bound of Ω(Dlog... 

In this Paper a new approach is proposed for electrocardiogram (ECG) based human identification using wavelet distance measurement. The main advantage of this method is that it guarantees high accuracy even in abnormal cases. Furthermore, it possesses low sensitivity to noise. The algorithm was applied on 11 normal subjects and 10 abnormal subjects of MIT-BIH Database using single lead data, and a 100% human identification rate was on both normal and abnormal subjects. Adding artificial white noise to signals shows that the method is nearly accurate in SNR level above 5dB in normal subjects and 20dB in abnormal subjects  

The goal of image segmentation is to find regions that represent objects or meaningful parts of objects. In this paper a new method is presented for color image segmentation which involves the ideas used for community detection in social networks. In the proposed method an initial segmentation is applied to partition input image into small homogeneous regions. Then a weighted network is constructed from the regions, and a community detection algorithm is applied to it. The detected communities represent segments of the image. A remarkable feature of the method is the ability to segments the image automatically by optimizing the modularity value in the constructed network. The performance of... 

Automatic translation of a high-level specification language to an executable implementation would be highly useful in maximizing the benefits of formal methods. We will introduce a set of translation functions to fill the specification-implementation gap in the domain of database applications. Because the mathematical foundation of Z has many properties in common with SQL, a direct mapping from Z to SQL structures can be found. We derive a set of translation functions from Z to SQL for the generation of a database. The proposed methodology results in reducing the expenses and duration of the software development, and also, prevents the errors originated from the manual translation of... 

There are some elements such as competition among companies and changes in demands which result in changes of customers' behaviors. Therefore, paying no attention to these changes may lead to a reduction in company benefits and loss of customers. Since data and their analyses determine the activities and decision makings of companies, data quality is of paramount in analyzing them because misinformation leads to wrong decision making. Since data mining has been designed to find out multi repetition patterns, it can be used to improve the product sales violations by sales people and increase the quality of data. Most of data mining models available try to find patterns in one table, but the... 

In this paper, we present a novel multilinear algebra based feature extraction approach for face recognition which preserves some implicit structural or locally-spatial information among elements of the original images. We call this method three-dimensional modular discriminant analysis (3DMDA). Our approach uses a new data model called third-order tensor model (3TM) for representing the face images. In this model, each image is partitioned into the several equal size local blocks, and the local blocks are combined to represent the image as a third-order tensor. Then, a new optimization algorithm called direct mode (d-mode) is introduced for learning three optimal projection axes. Extensive... 

A probabilistic formulation for semantic image annotation and retrieval is proposed. Annotation and retrieval are posed as classification problems where each class is defined as the group of database images labeled with a common semantic label. It is shown that, by establishing this one-to-one correspondence between semantic labels and semantic classes, a minimum probability of error annotation and retrieval are feasible with algorithms that are 1) conceptually simple and 2) computationally efficient. In this article, a content-based image retrieval and annotation architecture is proposed. Its attitude is decreasing the semantic gap by partitioning the image to its semantic regions and using... 

Isolated Word Recognition (IWR) is becoming increasingly attractive due to the improvement of speech recognition techniques. However, the accuracy of IWR suffers when large databases or words with similar pronunciation are used. The criterion for accurate speech recognition is suitable segmentation. However, the traditional method of segmentation equal segmentation does not produce the most accurate result. Furthermore, utilizing manual segmentation based on events is not possible in large databases. In this paper, we introduce an intelligent segmentation based on Hierarchical Temporal Decomposition (HTD). Based on this method, a temporal decomposition (TD) algorithm can be used to... 

In recent years, IWR (Isolated Word Recognition) was one of the main concerns of speech processing. The challenging problems in this field appear when the database become so large or when we have a lot of word with similarly pronounce in the database. This paper introduces a general solution for a traditional problem in isolated similarly pronounced word recognition, especially in large databases. One the important problem of traditional IWR is referred to their segmentation algorithm, their methods were lacking in efficiency due to the following reasons: First, using equal segmentation is not at all intelligent at all and as a result, cannot produce accurate results; besides, utilizing... 

The aim of the present study is to provide an Atlas of IRAN Offshore Renewable Energy Resources (hereafter called 'the Atlas') to map out wave and tidal resources at a national scale, extending over the area of the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman. Such an Atlas can provide necessary tools to identify the areas with greatest resource potential and within reach of present technology development. To estimate available tidal energy resources at the site, a two-dimensional tidally driven hydrodynamic numerical model of Persian Gulf was developed using the hydrodynamic model in the MIKE 21 Flow Model (MIKE 21HD), with validation using tidal elevation measurements and tidal stream diamonds from... 

Graph Matching (GM) plays an essential role in computer vision and machine learning. The ability of using pairwise agreement in GM makes it a powerful approach in feature matching. In this paper, a new formulation is proposed which is more robust when it faces with outlier points. We add weights to the one-to-one constraints, and modify them in the process of optimization in order to diminish the effect of outlier points in the matching procedure. We execute our proposed method on different real and synthetic databases to show both robustness and accuracy in contrast to several conventional GM methods  

Apnea bradycardia (AB) is an outcome of apnea occurrence in preterm infants and is an observable phenomenon in cardiovascular signals. Early detection of apnea in infants under monitoring is a critical challenge for the early intervention of nurses. In this paper, we introduce two switching Kalman filter (SKF) based methods for AB detection using electrocardiogram (ECG) signal. The first SKF model uses McSharry's ECG dynamical model integrated in two Kalman filter (KF) models trained for normal and AB intervals. Whereas the second SKF model is established by using only the RR sequence extracted from ECG and two AR models to be fitted in normal and AB intervals. In both SKF approaches, a... 

A major challenge organizations face when hosting or moving their data to the Cloud is how to support complex queries over outsourced data while preserving their confidentiality. In principle, encryption-based systems can support querying encrypted data, but their high complexity has severely limited their practical use. In this paper, we propose an efficient yet secure secret sharing-based approach for outsourcing relational data to honest-but-curious data servers. The problem with using secret sharing in a data outsourcing scenario is how to efficiently search within randomly generated shares. We present multiple partitioning methods that enable clients to efficiently search among shared... 

With the growing presence of computers in everyday life, communication improvement between human and machines is inevitable. Talking faces are the faces whose movements are synchronized to speech. They have an effective role in many applications. Lip is the most important part of a talking face. The main goal of this project is implementing a natural and human-like lip movement synthesis system for the Farsi language. For this purpose, a comprehensive audio visual database called SFAVD1 was designed and used. After extracting the sufficient features and designing a parallel Hidden Markov Model, the speech driven lip movement sequence generator system for Farsi input speech was implemented.... 

Recently XML has become a standard for data representation and the preferred method of encoding structured data for exchange over the Internet. Moreover it is frequently used as a logical format to store structured and semi-structured data in databases. We propose a model-driven and configurable approach for modeling hierarchical XML data using object role modeling (ORM) as a flat conceptual model. First a non-hierarchical conceptual schema of the problem domain is built using ORM and then different hierarchical views of the conceptual schema or parts of it are specified by the designer using transformation rules. A hierarchical modeling notation called H-ORM is proposed to show these... 

Identifying and measuring the impact and value of scientific output plays an important role in today's world of information overload. On one side, governments are trying to distribute research funds in ways that support research in strategically important fields, on the other side, researchers and scientists are seeking to access only relevant and quality information that have mainly worthy of their attention. Nowadays, countries are evaluated not only by their national products, military power, geographical area, etc., but also by such factors as the production and consumption of scientific information. Scientometric approaches are used to provide appropriate tools for evaluating scientific... 

The authors deal with the robust design of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) space-time transmit code (STTC) and space-time receive filter (STRF) for a point-like target embedded in signal-dependent interference. Specifically, they assume that the radar exploits knowledge provided by dynamic environmental database, to roughly predict the actual scattering scenario. Then, they devise an iterative method to optimise the (constrained) STTC and the (constrained) STRF which sequentially improves the worst-case (over interfering scatterers statistics) signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). Each iteration of the algorithm is handled via solving two (hidden) convex optimisation... 

In this study, we are proposing a novel nonlinear classification approach to discriminate between Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and a control group using T1-weighted and T2-weighted Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI's) of brain. Since T1-weighted images and T2-weighted images have inherent physical differences, obviously each of them has its own particular medical data and hence, we extracted some specific features from each. Then the variations of the relevant eigenvalues of the extracted features were tracked to pick up the most informative ones. The final features were assigned to two parallel systems to be nonlinearly categorized. Considering the fact that AD defects the white and gray regions... 

Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model is developed and maintained by the Supply Chain Council (SCC). The model is a reference model which can be used to map, benchmark and improve the supply chain operations. SCOR model provides companies with a basic process modeling tool, an extensive benchmark database and defines a set of supply chain metrics. Mobarakeh Steel Company (located in Isfahan, Iran) initiated the project of studying and analyzing its supply chain performance based on the SCOR model. This paper explains the steps and the results of the project. Interviews with the managers and considering the documents on the four major subjects of planning, logistics, information flow...