Sharif Digital Repository

Purpose: Online ride-hailing platforms match drivers with passengers by receiving ride requests from passengers and forwarding them to the nearest driver. In this context, the low acceptance rate of offers by drivers leads to friction in the process of driver and passenger matching. What policies by the platform may increase the acceptance rate and by how much? What factors influence drivers' decisions to accept or reject offers and how much? Are drivers more likely to turn down a ride offer because they know that by rejecting it, they can quickly receive another offer, or do they reject offers due to the availability of outside options? This paper aims to answer such questions using a novel... 

Security constrained Preventive Maintenance (PM) scheduling is addressed as a crucial issue especially coping with new challenges of smart grids. Under the smart grid environment, Demand Response Resources (DRRs) are considered as virtual power plants in energy policy decisions which affect the controllability of power system ranging from short-term to long-term. Here, DRRs are regarded as a virtual resource of capacity reserve acquisition. Furthermore, under new environment, multifarious objectives will be imposed to PM scheduling which can be replicated into a single objective problem via a weighted approach with consideration of arbitrary weighting coefficients. In this paper, a new... 

In this paper, a new method is proposed for motion vector steganalysis using the entropy value and its combination with the features of the optimized motion vector. In this method, the entropy of blocks is calculated to determine their texture and the precision of their motion vectors. Then, by using a fuzzy cluster, the blocks are clustered into the blocks with high and low texture, while the membership function of each block to a high texture class indicates the texture of that block. These membership functions are used to weight the effective features that are extracted by reconstructing the motion estimation equations. Characteristics of the results indicate that the use of entropy and... 

Landmark extraction is used as the first step of many vision tasks such as tracking, image registration, localization, image matching and recognition. Furthermore, landmarks are used to reduce the data flow and consequently the computational costs. In this paper we extracted landmarks from echocardiography sequence, our algorithm is based on corner extraction, and then we evaluate our algorithm with applying some test. For this purpose, we evaluated the detectors according to their repeatability, stability and landmark localization under changes in noise. © 2009 IEEE  

Landmark extraction is used as the first step of many vision tasks such as tracking, image registration, localization, image matching and recognition. Furthermore, landmarks are used to reduce the data flow and consequently the computational costs. In this paper we extracted landmarks from echocardiography sequence, our algorithm is based on corner extraction, and then we evaluate our algorithm with applying some test. For this purpose, we evaluated the detectors according to their repeatability, stability and landmark localization under changes in noise. © 2009 IEEE  

The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of a set of 58 alkylsulfates, alkylsulfonates, alkyltrimethyl ammonium and alkylpyridinium salts were predicted using an artificial neural network (ANN). The multiple linear regression (MLR) technique was used to select the important descriptors that act as inputs for artificial neural network. These descriptors are Balaban index, heat of formation, maximum distance between the atoms in the molecule, Randic index and volume of the molecule. Designed artificial neural network is a fully connected back-propagation network that has a 5-5-1 architecture. The results obtained using neural network were compared with those obtained using MLR technique.... 

In this paper, genetic algorithm (GA) and stepwise multiple regression variable selection methods were used as a feature-selection tools and neural network was employed for feature mapping. To provide an extended test of these hybrid methods, a data set consists of the bioconcentration factors (BCF) for 53 molecules were selected. Suitable set of molecular descriptors were calculated and the important descriptors were selected by genetic algorithm and stepwise multiple regression methods. These variables serve as inputs to generated neural networks. After optimization and training of the networks, they were used for the calculation of bioconcentration factors for the prediction set.... 

This paper presents a new group key management protocol, CKC (Code for Key Calculation) for secure IP multicast. In this protocol which is based on logical key hierarchy, only the group key needs to be sent to new member at join. Then, using the group key current members and the new member calculate the necessary keys by node codes and one-way hash function. A node code is a random number assigned to each node to help users calculate necessary keys. Again, at leave server just sends the new group key to the remaining members. By this key, members calculate necessary keys using node codes and one-way hash function. The security of the keys is based on one-wayness of hash function. The results... 

This paper presents a new group key management protocol, CKC (Code for Key Calculation). This protocol is based on logical key hierarchy. When a new member joins the group, server sends only the group key for that member. Then, current members and the new member calculate the necessary keys using node codes and one-way hash function. Node code is a code which is assigned to each node of the key tree. Again at leave, server just sends the new group key to remaining members. By this key, members calculate necessary keys using node codes and one-way hash function. The security of the keys is based on one-wayness of hash function. The results show that CKC reduces computational and communication... 

We study the kidney market in Iran. The most effective treatment for end-stage renal disease is a kidney transplant. While the supply of cadaveric kidneys is limited, the debate has been focused on the effects of the existence of a free market for human organs. Economists as well as medical and legal researchers are divided over the issue. Iran has a unique kidney market which has been in place for over 20 years, frequently reporting surprising success in reducing the waiting list for kidneys. This paper demonstrates how the Iranian system works  

Many bitumen reservoirs contain shale layers of varying thickness, lateral extent, and frequency. These shale layers, depending on their size, vertical and horizontal locations, and continuity throughout the reservoir, may act as a flow barrier and severely reduce vertical permeability of the pay zone and slow down the steam-assisted gravity drainage steam chamber development. Therefore, to improve productivity in these reservoirs, understanding of the effects of reservoir heterogeneities has become necessary. This work presents numerical investigation of the effects of shale barriers on steam-assisted gravity drainage performance when applied to produce mobile heavy oil. The most concern of... 

The aim of this contribution is to evaluate the performance of an expanding solvent steam assisted gravity drainage (ES-SAGD) process in naturally fractured systems. Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) and ES-SAGD processes have been investigated in both conventional and fractured reservoir models and the effect of networked fractures on the recovery mechanism and performance of ES-SAGD has been investigated. Operational parameters such as steam quality, vertical distances between wells, and steam injection temperature have been also evaluated. Finally, to study the effect of a well's horizontal offset, a staggered ES-SAGD well configuration has been compared to a stacked ES-SAGD  

The Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) process, a developed Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) process to recover oil and bitumen, has been studied theoretically and experimentally in conventional reservoirs and models and is found a promising EOR method for certain heavy oil reservoirs. In this work simulation studies of the SAGD process were made on different fractured models consisting of fractures in both Near Well Region (NWR) and Above Well Region (AWR) and even in the presence of networked fractures. At early stage of the SAGD process in fractured system, steam moves through the fractures first and then the matrix blocks are heated primarily by conduction and possibly some steam... 

This letter adopts an atomistic modeling approach to study free vibrational characteristics of C60, C70, and C80 fullerenes. In this regard, we use the molecular structural mechanics consisting of equivalent structural beams to calculate the nonzero natural frequencies. The simulation results indicate that the first natural frequency of the fullerene is in the order terahertz and decreases nonlinearly with respect to the number of the carbon atoms