Sharif Digital Repository

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, 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... 

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... 

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... 

Nowadays, due to the growing role that analytical, predictive and decision making activities perform in organizations, organizational data are very important. In order to utilizing organizational data, it should be transmitted from the operational and transactional environment to a dimensional or normal database. However, not only differences in platforms and data types are some issues that should be overcome, but also variety of data types such as non-structural and text format files should be considered. In this way, exploiting updated data storages is necessary for quick and accurate services and raising customers' satisfaction. Although real time data storages are frequently used in... 

In this paper, we propose a novel method for extracting fiducial points (FPs) of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. We propose the use of multi hidden Markov model (MultiHMM) as opposed to the traditional use of Classic HMM. In the MultiHMM method, each segment of an ECG beat is represented by a separate ergodic continuous density HMM. Each HMM has different state number and is trained separately. In the test step, the log-likelihood of two consecutive HMMs is compared and a path is estimated, which shows the correspondence of each part of the ECG signal to the HMM with the maximum log-likelihood. Fiducial points are estimated from the obtained path. For performance evaluation, the Physionet... 

Nowadays, a large volume of an organization's sensitive data is stored in databases making them attractive to attackers. The useful information attackers try to obtain in the preliminary steps, is the database structure or schema. One of the popular approaches to infer and extract the schema of a database is to analyze the returned error messages from its DBMS. In this paper, we propose a framework to handle and modify the error messages automatically in order to prevent schema revealing. To this aim, after identifying and introducing an appropriate set of categories of error messages, each error message that is returned from a DBMS is placed in a proper category. According to the policy... 

Dynamic thermal rating (DTR) of transmission system facilities is a way to maximally realize the equipment capacities while not threatening their health. With regards to transmission lines, the allowable current of conductors is forecasted based on the environmental situations expected in some forthcoming time periods. Due to the fact that weather conditions continuously vary, sampling points are very limited against many line spans, and the measurements have an inherent error, uncertainties must be appropriately included in the DTR determination. This paper adopts the fuzzy theory as a strong and simple tool to model uncertainties in the DTR calculation. Since DTR intends to determine the... 

The current double JPEG compression detection techniques identify whether or not an JPEG image file has undergone the compression twice, by knowing its embedded quantization table. This paper addresses another forensic scenario in which the quantization table of a JPEG file is not explicitly or reliably known, which may compel the forensic analyst to blindly reveal the recompression clues. To do this, we first statistically analyze the theory behind quantized alternating current (AC) modes in JPEG compression and show that the number of quantized AC modes required to detect double compression is a function of both the image’s block texture and the compression’s quality level in a fresh... 

This work presents a method to increase the face recognition accuracy using a combination of Wavelet, PCA, KPCA, and RBF Neural Networks. Preprocessing, feature extraction and classification rules are three crucial issues for face recognition. This paper presents a hybrid approach to employ these issues. For preprocessing and feature extraction steps, we apply a combination of wavelet transform, PCA and KPCA. During the classification stage, the Neural Network (RBF) is explored to achieve a robust decision in presence of wide facial variations. At first derives a feature vector from a set of downsampled wavelet representation of face images, then the resulting PCA-based linear features and... 

We propose an efficient and effective nonlinear feature domain noise suppression algorithm, motivated by the minimum mean square error (MMSE) optimization criterion. Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural network in the log spectral domain minimizes the difference between noisy and clean speech. By using this method as a pre-processing stage of a speech recognition system, the recognition rate in noisy environments is improved. We can extend the application of the system to different environments with different noises without re-training it. We need only to train the preprocessing stage with a small portion ofnoisy data which is created by artificially adding different types of noises from the... 

In this paper, we have proposed an efficient and effective nonlinear feature domain noise suppression algorithm, motivated by the minimum mean square error (MMSE) optimization criterion. A Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) neural network in the log spectral domain has been employed to minimize the difference between noisy and clean speech. By using this method, as a pre-processing stage of a speech recognition system, the recognition rate in noisy environments has been improved. We extended the application ofthe system to different environments with different noises without retraining HMMmodel. We trained the feature extraction stage with a small portion of noisy data which was created by... 

This work presents a method to increase the face recognition accuracy using a combination of Wavelet, PCA, and SVM. Pre-processing, feature extraction and classification rules are three crucial issues for face recognition. This paper presents a hybrid approach to employ these issues. For pre-processing and feature extraction steps, we apply a combination of wavelet transform and PCA. During the classification stage, SVMs incorporated with a binary tree recognition strategy are applied to tackle the multi-class face recognition problem to achieve a robust decision in presence of wide facial variations. The binary trees extend naturally, the pairwise discrimination capability of the SVMs to... 

In recent years, analyzing genome-wide expression profiles to find genetic markers has received much attention as a challenging field of research aiming at unveiling biological mechanisms behind complex disorders. The identification of reliable and reproducible markers has lately been achieved by integrating genome-scale functional relationships and transcriptome datasets, and a number of algorithms have been developed to support this strategy. In this paper, we present a promising and easily applicable tool to accomplish this goal, namely CytoGTA, which is a Cytoscape plug-in that relies on an optimistic game theoretic approach (GTA) for identifying subnetwork markers. Given transcriptomic... 

How can we optimally trade extra computing power to reduce the communication load in distributed computing? We answer this question by characterizing a fundamental tradeoff between computation and communication in distributed computing, i.e., the two are inversely proportional to each other. More specifically, a general distributed computing framework, motivated by commonly used structures like MapReduce, is considered, where the overall computation is decomposed into computing a set of “Map” and “Reduce” functions distributedly across multiple computing nodes. A coded scheme, named “Coded Distributed Computing” (CDC), is proposed to demonstrate that increasing the computation load of the... 

There are a vast number of cloud service providers, which offer virtual machines (VMs) with different configurations. From the companies perspective, an appropriate selection of VMs is an important issue, as the proper service selection leads to improved productivity, higher efficiency, and lower cost. An effective service selection cannot be done without a systematic approach due to the modularity of requests, the conflicts between requirements, and the impact of network parameters. In this paper, we introduce an innovative framework, called PCA, to solve service selection problem in the hybrid environment of peer-assisted, public, and private clouds. PCA detects the conflicts between the...