Fair profit contract for a carrier collaboration framework in a green hub network under soft time-windows: Dual lexicographic max-min approach

, Article Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review ; Volume 91 , 2016 , Pages 129-151 ; 13665545 (ISSN) Niknamfar, A. H ; AkhavanNiaki, S. T ; Sharif University of Technology

Elsevier Ltd 2016

Abstract

This paper models a novel and practical bi-objective hub-location problem under a centralized carrier collaboration framework between one holding company and multiple carriers. The holding company first establishes a hub-and-spoke network in order to locate p hubs and to assign the center nodes to the located hubs. Then, it allocates the transportation routes of the hub network to the carriers. In contrast, the carriers should select an appropriate vehicle type to serve the transportation requests in a green hub network. The carriers are also able to meet the transportation requests within a certain time-window based on a soft time-window mechanism. Moreover, aiming to emphasize green...

A binary-continuous invasive weed optimization algorithm for a vendor selection problem

, Article Knowledge-Based Systems ; Volume 140 , 2018 , Pages 158-172 ; 09507051 (ISSN) Niknamfar, A. H ; Akhavan Niaki, T ; Sharif University of Technology

Elsevier B.V 2018

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel and practical vendor selection problem of a firm that cooperates with multiple geographically dispersed stores. In this problem, the firm entrusts some of its business process to external vendors, and each store can split the ordered quantity between one or more potential vendors, represented as a multi-sourcing strategies. Moreover, the Cobb–Douglas demand function is utilised to establish a relationship between the market demand and the selling price; representing price-sensitive demand. This paper seeks to choose the best vendors, to allocate the stores to them, and to find the optimal values for inventory-related decisions. The approach is based on the...

Soft time-windows for a bi-objective vendor selection problem under a multi-sourcing strategy: Binary-continuous differential evolution

, Article Computers and Operations Research ; Volume 76 , 2016 , Pages 43-59 ; 03050548 (ISSN) Niknamfar, A. H ; Akhavan Niaki, S. T ; Sharif University of Technology

Elsevier Ltd 2016

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel and practical integration of the inventory control and vendor selection problems for a manufacturing system that provides multiple products for several stores located in different places. The replenishment policy of each store is the economic order quantity under a multi-sourcing strategy in which the demand rate decreases as the selling price increases. In this strategy, the ordered quantity of each store for each product can be replenished by a set of selected vendors among all. In addition, the selected vendors can deliver the required products within a certain time window based on a soft time-window mechanism. The aim is to minimize the total system cost and...

Biofouling Reduction in Reverse Osmosis Membrane for the Purification Brackish Water

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Niknamfar, Rasool (Author) ; Soltanieh, Mohammad (Supervisor) ; Mousavi, Abbas (Supervisor)

Abstract

In this project, modification of reverse osmosis membrane was investigated in order to reduce the biofouling in treatment of brackish water. Furthermore, the technique which is used to attain the favorable results is graft polymerization to modify the membrane’s surface with grafting acrylic acid as hydrophilic monomer onto polyamide exploited as last layer in reverse osmosis membrane. This technique is a free radical grafting, andfree radicals which are needed for grafting are provided by the redox system potassium persulfate-sodium metabisulfite which was used as initiator. To figure out the best concentration of acrylic acid, initiator and process time in order to achieve a new membrane...

A knowledge-based genetic algorithm for a capacitated fuzzy p-hub centre network under uncertain information

, Article Expert Systems ; Volume 35, Issue 4 , 2018 ; 02664720 (ISSN) Niknamfar, A. H ; Akhavan Niaki, S. T ; Karimi, M ; Sharif University of Technology

Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2018

Abstract

In real applications of hub networks, the travel times may vary due to traffic, climate conditions, and land or road type. To facilitate this difficulty, in this paper, the travel times are assumed to be characterized by trapezoidal fuzzy variables to present a fuzzy capacitated single allocation p-hub centre transportation (FCSApHCP) with uncertain information. The proposed FCSApHCP is redefined into its equivalent parametric integer non-linear programming problem using credibility constraints. The aim is to determine the location of p capacitated hubs and the allocation of centre nodes to them in order to minimize the maximum travel time in a hub-and-centre network under uncertain...

Stochastic ensemble pruning method via simulated quenching walking

, Article International Journal of Machine Learning and Cybernetics ; Volume 10, Issue 7 , 2019 , Pages 1875-1892 ; 18688071 (ISSN) Taghavi, Z. S ; Akhavan Niaki, S. T ; Niknamfar, A. H ; Sharif University of Technology

Springer Verlag 2019

Abstract

Inspired by an upward stochastic walking idea, a new ensemble pruning method called simulated quenching walking (SQWALKING) is developed in this paper. The rationale behind this method is to give values to stochastic movements as well as to accept unvalued solutions during the investigation of search spaces. SQWALKING incorporates simulated quenching and forward selection methods to choose the models through the ensemble using probabilistic steps. Two versions of SQWALKING are introduced based on two different evaluation measures; SQWALKINGA that is based on an accuracy measure and SQWALKINGH that is based on a human-like foresight measure. The main objective is to construct a proper...

A Method for Querying on Encrypted XML Data

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Karimi, Maryam (Author) ; Jalili, Rasool (Supervisor)

Abstract

When organizations prefer to outsource their data, security protection of data will be more important. Using cryptography in addition to access control techniques is a natural way for saving confidentiality of data against untrusted server. However, encryption and decryption of data result in database performance degradation. In such a situation all the information stored in encrypted form, one cannot make the selection on the database content any more. Data should be decrypted first, so an unwilling tradeoff between the security and performance is normally forced. The appropriate approaches to increase the performance are methods to deal directly with the encrypted data without firstly...

Toward A Safe, Assured, and Dynamic Communication Protocol Stack

, Ph.D. Dissertation Sharif University of Technology Niamanesh, Mahdi (Author) ; Jalili, Rasool (Supervisor)

A Method for Searching on Encrypted Data

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Mansoori, Fatemeh (Author) ; Jalili, Rasool (Supervisor)

Abstract

Using database encryption to protect data in some situations where access control is not soleley enough is inevitable. Database encryption provides an additional layer of protecton to conventional access control techniques. It prevents unauthorized users, including intruders breaking into a network, from viewing the sensitive data. As a result data remains protected even in the event that database is successfully attacked or stolen. However, encryption and decryption of data result in database performance degradation. In the situation where all the information is stored in encrypted form, one cannot make the selection on the database content any more. Data should be decrypted first, so an...

An Intrusion Detection System for the Grid Environment

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Movahed, Amirvala (Author) ; Jalili, Rasool (Supervisor)

Abstract

Existing Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) are not designed to deal with all categories of processing environments. This thesis focuses on IDSs for the Grid computing environment, and concentrates on feature selection and performance. An existing framework, Globus, is used as the basis for the consideration and development of the research issue in Grid computing. The system is based on two engine designs: (a) Signature and (b) Support Vector Machine; SVM has been selected for pattern discovery in traffic analysis. We found that the performance of the system greatly depends on the efficiency of the underlying framework and the number of Intrusion Detection System instances. We demonstrate...

Alert Correlation Analysis For Intrusion Detection

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Farhadi, Hamid (Author) ; Jalili, Rasool (Supervisor)

Abstract

While intrusion detection systems (IDSs) are widely used, large number of alerts as well as high rate of false positive events make such a security mechanism insufficient. Accordingly, a track of recent security research, focused on alert correlation. This thesis proposes a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) based correlation method of intrusion alerts which have been fired from different IDS sensors across an enterprise. We used HMM to predict the next attack class of the intruder that is also known as plan recognition. Our method has two advantages. Firstly, it does not require any usage or modeling of network topology, system vulnerabilities, and system configurations. Secondly, as we perform high...

Security in Concurrent Execution of an Authentication Protocol

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Sobhdel, Yasser (Author) ; Jalili, Rasool (Supervisor)

Abstract

Today many communications take place over asynchronous insecure networks which do not provide any guarantee of security (as Internet); hence there is a must in authenticating party or parties with which we are going to interact. In many cases, more than two parties (entities) are going to interact, resulting in need of group authentication. Since authentication is inseparable from key exchange, we are going to introduce a new authenticated group key exchange protocol in this thesis which benefits from all known features for such a protocol in the literature such as contributiveness and deniability. To overcome the problem of concurrency, we use a framework dedicated to security in concurrent...

Providing Confidentiality of Outsourced Data through Fragmentation

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Dodangeh, Peyman (Author) ; Jalili, Rasool (Supervisor)

Abstract

Data outsourcing is considered as a promising approach in today computing and connected world. This approach enables organizations to outsource their data to anexternal third party server which is responsible for storing and propagation of outsourced data. Although data outsourcing offers many benefits, especially for those organizations with limited resources and increaseing data volume, but this approach in security aspects like providing confidentiality and privacy about curious external third party or other threats, is faced by serious challenges. In the recent decade many approaches for solving or at least decreasing the potential threats over providing confidentiality of outsourced...

Evaluation of Security Features of an E-voting Protocol in a Semi-operational Environment

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Es'haghi, Mahdi (Author) ; Jalili, Rasool (Supervisor)

Abstract

Electronic voting refers to voting methods that is done using electronic devices or via the Internet or Web. Helios and Civitas protocols are among the recent protocols introduced in this field. Importance and high sensitivity of electronic voting protocols has led researchers to pay high attention about their security analysis. In recent years, different approaches have been used to inspect and analyze electronic voting protocols. In many of such approaches, analysis had been done in a very abstract environment and without considering the operational requirements.The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the security features of electronic voting protocols, considering their operational and...

Optimizing the Total Cost of Inventory Control System in Integrated Multi-Echelon Supply Chain With Time-sensitive Deteriorating Rates

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Mohammadi, Vahid (Author) ; hajji, Rasool (Supervisor)

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a three-echelon supply chain consisting of a producer, a distributor and a retailer. Generally each echelon tends to minimize his own inventory costs. On the other hand, competitive environment of business market, force companies to develop strategic alliances. In order to boost their partnership, separated echelons must integrate their policies, so that the total cost of the system be minimized. The model, extends the research of Wang et al.(2011) by changing the No shortage assumption into backlog shortage model.
This study assumes different deterioration rates among different echelons, and deterioration rates are time-sensitive, which is very helpful in...

Inventory Ordering System with Fuzzy Parameters in Supply Chain

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Nasiri, Mohsen (Author) ; Hajji, Rasool (Supervisor)

Abstract

Inventory control has been always considered important due to its prominent role in managing and better application of resources in the field of operational systems. Ordering system or review stock policy in supply chain management can be mentioned as one of the inventory control study fields of management. A lot of researches have been done in investigating ordering system in supply chain under certainty conditions; however, since the real world is full of uncertainties, parameters such as demand cannot be predicted exactly and we encounter with ambiguity. In this case, using crisp (exact) values can cause to decide wrongly (a wrong decision). On the other hand, due to absence of sufficient...

Analysis of End-to-End Electronic Voting Systems

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Takhtaei, Benyamin (Author) ; Jalili, Rasool (Supervisor)

Abstract

End-to-end electronic voting protocols for electronic voting systems are used to hold a secure election with the two features of anonymity and veriﬁability. Veriﬁable mixnets are a fundamental element of electronic voting systems, which can keep the voters anonymous by mixing their votes, and provide a veriﬁability mechanism to prove their performance correctness. As the design of electronic voting protocols is error-prone, researchers consider the use of mathematics-based and systematic methods for their analysis. Therefore, based on formal methods and the process algebra approach, several studies have been conducted to analyze these systems, but none have properly analyzed veriﬁable...

Optimization of Raw Material Inventory Control System in Khorramshahr Oil Extraction Company Based on ( r,Q ) Optimal Inventory Policy

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Rezaie, Mojtaba (Author) ; Hajji, Rasool (Supervisor)

Abstract

This thesis is related to applying survey of scientific inventory control methods in Khoramshahr Oil Extraction Company (KHOEC). KHOEC is the producer of edible oils in I.R of Iran and is a subset of E.T.K.A holding organization. The inventory costs of high consuming items are studied and optimized based on the optimal ordering policy (r, Q). First, the company raw materials are identified and classified based on ABC analysis method. For developing the new method of inventory control, the demand for each item is predicted, and the probability distribution of demand during the lead time is determined. Then according to this information and the desired service level of management, order point...

Development of Location-Inventory Model in Dual Channel Supply Chain and Solving the Model by Tabu Search Algorithm

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Baghestani, Hamideh (Author) ; Hajji, Rasool (Supervisor)

Abstract

This thesis presents a location- inventory model for dual-channel supply chains .Dual-channel supply chains have two channels for sale the traditional in-store (retail) channel and the online (retail) channel.The model assigns online demands to the capacitated stores currently serving in-store demands. Keeping the delivery network of the in-store demands unchanged, the model aims at minimizing the summation of transportation cost, inventory cost, and fixed handling cost in the system while assigning the online demands. We assume that at the beginning of each period a distribution center which just distributes products to the stores, follows an order-up-to policy which increases the total...

A Trust-based Approach for Correctness Verification of Query Results in Data Outsourcing Scenario

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Ghasemi, Simin (Author) ; Jalili, Rasool (Supervisor)

Abstract

One of the security issues in database outsourcing scenario is the correctness of the query results. Correctness verification includes integrity, completeness and freshness of the results. Most of the proposed approaches for correctness verification impose high overhead on the components of the scenario which prevents the scenario to implemented in practical applications. In this thesis, we have proposed a probabilistic approach which imposes acceptable overhead for correctness verification of returned results of service provider. The approach uses the previous behavior of the service provider to calculate a trust value toward it which is used to adjust the imposed overhead. In other words,...