Sharif Digital Repository

Recent studies in the field of text-steganography shows a promising future for linguistic driven stegosystems. One of the most common techniques in this field is known as lexical substitution which provides the requirements for security and payload capacity. However, the existing lexical substitution schemes need an enormous amount of shared data between sender and receiver which acts as the stego key. In this paper, we propose a novel encoding method to overcome this problem. Our proposed approach preserves the good properties of lexical substitution schemes while it provides short length stego keys and significant robustness against active adversary attacks. We demonstrate high efficiency... 

One of the most important systems for providing anonymous communication is the Mix nets which should provide correctness and privacy as security requirements against active adversaries. In 2009, Zhong proposed a new mix net scheme which uses identity-based cryptographic techniques and proved that it has 'correctness' and 'privacy' properties in the semi-honest model. Since the semi-honest model is a very strong assumption for practical application, we show that if a user or the last mix server is corrupted, Zhong scheme does not provide privacy against an active adversary  

Universal Re-encryption Cryptosystems do not require the knowledge of the recipient's public key for re-encrypting a ciphertext whereas conventional Re-encryption Cryptosystems need that knowledge. In this paper, we present the first Identity-based Universal Re-encryption Cryptosystem scheme whose re-encryption algorithm does not need to have the knowledge of the recipient's identity. By generalizing the definition of Universal Semantic Security to Identity Based Universal Cryptosystems, we prove the security of our scheme. There are some applications for universal re-encryption cryptosystems which cannot be made using conventional cryptosystems. One significant application of these... 

In order to provide anonymity, universal cryptosystems have been used in various applications, including mixnets with multiple receivers. Unlike ordinary re-encryption cryptosystems, universal cryptosystems for re-encryption of ciphertexts do not require knowledge of the public key of the receiver. Golle et al. introduced universal cryptosystems for public key cryptography. Contrary to public key cryptography, in ID-based cryptography, a public key infrastructure is not needed, which makes it suitable for situations where it is not cost-effective to distribute certificates or establish a public key infrastructure. In this paper, we first generalize the definition of universal cryptosystems... 

In this paper, we evaluate the capacity of Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems using directional antennas in non-isotropic scattering environments. Our analytical analysis approach results in closed-form approximate formulas in low Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) regime (in contrast to previous research works which have investigated the same problem by employing experimental or simulation frameworks). We propose an upper bound for the introduced approximate error. Our results show that MIMO systems equipped with directional antennas may have much higher capacity in nonisotropic scattering environments compared to MIMO systems equipped with omni-directional antennas. We also evaluate... 

This paper addresses dynamic cell formation problem (DCFP) which has been explored vastly for several years. Although a considerable body of literature in this filed, two remarkable aspects have been significantly ignored so far, as uncertainty and human-related issues. In order to compensate such a shortage, this paper develops a bi-objective stochastic model. The first objective function of the developed model seeks to minimize total cost of machine procurement, machine relocation, inter-cell moves, overtime utilization, worker hiring/laying-off, and worker moves between cells; while the second objective function maximizes labor utilization of the cellular manufacturing system. In the... 

In this paper, trace locality of reference (LoR) is identified as a mechanism to predict the behavior of a variety of systems. If two objects were accessed nearby in the past and the first one is accessed again, trace LoR predicts that the second one will be accessed in near future. To capture trace LoR, trace graph is introduced. Although trace LoR can be observed in a variety of systems, but the focus of this paper is to characterize it for data accesses in memory management systems. In this field, it is compared with recency-based prediction (LRU stack) and it is shown that not only the model is much simpler, but also it outperforms recency-based prediction in all cases. The paper... 

It is now known that at least 10% of samples with pancreatic cancers (PC) contain a causative mutation in the known susceptibility genes, suggesting the importance of identifying cancer-associated genes that carry the causative mutations in high-risk individuals for early detection of PC. In this study, we develop a statistical pipeline using a new concept, called gene-motif, that utilizes both mutated genes and mutational processes to identify 4211 3-nucleotide PC-associated gene-motifs within 203 significantly mutated genes in PC. Using these gene-motifs as distinguishable features for pancreatic cancer subtyping results in identifying five PC subtypes with distinguishable phenotypes and... 

This paper has been prepared, based on reports regarding extraordinary induced ac voltage on buried gas pipelines in residential and industrial areas of the capital city of Tehran, especially in densely populated central areas. Also, some reports are considered on the existence of ac induced voltage in buried gas pipelines under the overhead transmission lines, for example, one case located 80 Km to the west of Tehran, in an agricultural region of the town of Abyek. In this paper, the results of an extensive theoretical, experimental and practical investigation and implementation of methods carried out during the last two years are introduced. Furthermore, this paper includes evaluation of... 

The axial turbine is one of the most challenging components of gas turbines for industrial and aerospace applications. With the ever-increasing requirement for high-aerodynamic performance blades, three-dimensional aerodynamic shape optimization is of great importance. In this research, the rear part of a gas turbine consisting of a one-stage axial turbine is optimized numerically. A useful optimization algorithm is presented to improve the efficiency and/or pressure ratio of the axial turbine with two different objective functions. The three-dimensional blade-shape optimization is employed to study the effects of the turbine stator and rotor lean and sweep angles on the turbine performance.... 

A high quality joint of zinc based pressure die cast alloys can be hardly achieved by conventional fusion welding. In this study, a novel technique to achieve the globular weld structure using stirring the localized semisolid zone during butt joining of Zamak-3 pressure die cast alloy is proposed and effect of welding parameters on mechanical and microstructural properties are investigated. A gas heating system was designed to heat up the nitrogen gas to desired temperature accurately to create a localized semisolid pool. At this stage a fine stirrer was introduced into the weld seam in order to mix the two sides into a single uniform joint. By presented process, globular microstructure of... 

The human protein disulfide isomerase (hPDI), is an essential four-domain multifunctional enzyme. As a result of disulfide shuffling in its terminal domains, hPDI exists in two oxidation states with different conformational preferences which are important for substrate binding and functional activities. Here, we address the redox-dependent conformational dynamics of hPDI through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Collective domain motions are identified by the principal component analysis of MD trajectories and redox-dependent opening-closing structure variations are highlighted on projected free energy landscapes. Then, important structural features that exhibit considerable differences... 

Background MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are frequently deregulated in various types of cancer. While antisense oligonucleotides are used to block oncomiRs, delivery of tumour-suppressive miRNAs holds great potential as a potent anti-cancer strategy. Here, we aim to determine, and functionally analyse, miRNAs that are lowly expressed in various types of tumour but abundantly expressed in multiple normal tissues. Methods The miRNA sequencing data of 14 cancer types were downloaded from the TCGA dataset. Significant differences in miRNA expression between tumor and normal samples were calculated using limma package (R programming). An adjusted p value < 0.05 was used to compare normal versus tumor miRNA... 

As noteworthy properties of amine aqueous solutions, the densities and viscosities of aqueous N-Methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) solutions and mixtures of MDEA with 2-Amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP), Diisopropanolamine (DIPA), Monoethanolamine (MEA), and Diethanolamine (DEA) were estimated under CO2 gas loading using Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), Multi-Layer Perceptron Artificial Neural Network (MLPANN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Least Square Support Vector Machine (LSSVM). The density and viscosity were estimated as a function of temperature, CO2 loading, pressure, and molecular weight of mixtures. In this regard, the actual data points were collected from the... 

A technique to achieve the globular weld structure using stirring the localized semisolid zone during butt-joining of zinc AG40A (Zamak-3) die cast alloy is reported. Since the semisolid temperature range of this alloy is very narrow, the accurate controlling of weld pool temperature must be considered. By presented process, globular microstructure of the weld zone can be achieved. Moreover the near weld zone would have the globular structure due to semisolid holding. A gas heating system was designed to heat up the nitrogen gas to desired temperature accurately. A heating element was embedded in a castable ceramic block while a stream of gas could pass closely around the hot element length.... 

Mechanical looseness is one of the common faults in rotating machinery. Wearing in the inner surface of the housing and outer race of the rolling element bearing (REB) increases the clearance and mechanical looseness that may lead to abnormal vibration in the machine. Mechanical looseness reduces the equivalent stiffness of the bearings leading to a reduction in the system's natural frequencies. In this study, finite element analysis (FEA) is used for numerical modeling of the mechanical looseness effect on the vibration characteristics of an industrial electrofan. To this aim, the variation of the shaft center displacement resulting from a specific load is investigated in terms of the... 

Four 5-, 10-, 20- and 30-story moment frames, representing low-, mid-, and two high-rise structures, were subjected to a great number of idealized directivity pulses. The amplitudes and periods of pulses vary from 0.02 g to 1.0 g and 0.5 to 12 sec, respectively. Over 1400 nonlinear dynamic analyses of low- to high-rise moment frames were performed which were feasible through using modified fish-bone model. The distribution of interstory drift along the height was studied and two applied contours were proposed: (i) the maximum interstory drift contour, and (ii) the critical story contour. These contours were demonstrated versus the ratio of natural period of the structure to the pulse period... 

The polysaccharide, kappa-carrageenan (κC) was chemically modified to achieve a novel superabsorbent hydrogel via graft copolymerization of methacrylamide (MAM) onto the substrate followed by alkaline hydrolysis. Ammonium persulfate (APS) and N,N′-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) were used as a free-radical initiator and a crosslinker, respectively. The saponification reaction was carried out using sodium hydroxide aqueous solution. Either κC-g-PMAM or hydrolyzed κC-g-PMAM (PMAM: polymethacrylamide) was characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy. The effect of grafting variables (i.e. concentration of MBA, MAM, and APS) and alkaline hydrolysis conditions (i.e. NaOH concentration, hydrolysis time and...