Sharif Digital Repository

Demand-side management (DSM) and the integration of the energy hub concept as a main part of future energy networks play an essential role in the process of improving the efficiency and reliability of the power grids. In this paper, we consider a smart multi-carrier energy system in which users are equipped with energy storage and conversion devices (i.e., an energy hub). Users intend to reduce their energy payment by shifting energy consumption to off-peak hours and switching between different energy carriers. This system enables both users with shiftable loads and must-run loads to be active in a DSM program. We apply game theory to formulate the energy consumption and conversion for a... 

ARX algorithms are a class of symmetric-key algorithms constructed by Addition, Rotation, and XOR, which achieve the best software performances in low-end microcontrollers. To evaluate the resistance of an ARX cipher against differential cryptanalysis and its variants, the recent automated methods employ constraint satisfaction solvers, such as SMT solvers, to search for optimal characteristics. The main difficulty to formulate this search as a constraint satisfaction problem is obtaining the differential models of the non-linear operations, that is, the constraints describing the differential probability of each non-linear operation of the cipher. While an efficient bit-vector differential... 

We investigate a new version of sandpile model which is very similar to Abelian Sandpile Model (ASM), but the height variables are continuous ones. With the toppling rule we define in our model, we show that the model can be mapped to ASM, so the general properties of the two models are identical. Yet the new model allows us to investigate some problems such as the effect of very small mass on the height probabilities, different boundary conditions  

To limit the peak power consumption of a cluster, a centralized power capping system typically assigns power caps to the individual servers, which are then enforced using local capping controllers. Consequently, the performance and throughput of the servers are affected, and the runtime of jobs is extended as a result. We observe that servers in big data processing clusters often execute big data applications that have different tolerance for approximate results. To mitigate the impact of power capping, we propose a new power-Capping aware resource manager for Approximate Big data processing (CAB) that takes into consideration the minimum Quality-of-Result (QoR) of the jobs. We use... 

Graceful labeling is one of the best known labeling methods of graphs. Despite the large number of papers published on the subject of graph labeling, there are few particular techniques to be used by researchers to gracefully label graphs. In this paper, first a new approach based on the mathematical programming technique is presented to model the graceful labeling problem. Then a “branching method” is developed to solve the problem for special classes of graphs. Computational results show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm for different classes of graphs. One of the interesting results of our model is in the class of trees. The largest tree known to be graceful has at most 27 vertices... 

Graceful labeling is one of the best known labeling methods of graphs. Despite the large number of papers published on the subject of graph labeling, there are few particular techniques to be used by researchers to gracefully label graphs. In this paper, first a new approach based on the mathematical programming technique is presented to model the graceful labeling problem. Then a “branching method” is developed to solve the problem for special classes of graphs. Computational results show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm for different classes of graphs. One of the interesting results of our model is in the class of trees. The largest tree known to be graceful has at most 27 vertices... 

The present study is focused on CFD simulation of constrained melting of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) in a spherical container. To investigate the melting process of the PCM, its melting fraction was analyzed at different times. The results indicated the existence of thermally stable layers on the top of the sphere. Moreover, inspection of the calculated temperatures at different points along the vertical axis indicates the existence of some disturbances at the bottom of the sphere due to the natural convection. After the validation of the results, the effects of different parameters such as the surface temperature of the capsule, the initial temperature and the size of the spherical... 

In this study, a new two-way relaying scheme based on compute-and-forward (CMF) framework and relay selection strategies is proposed, which provides a higher throughput than the conventional two-way relaying schemes. Two cases of relays with or without feedback transmission capability are considered. An upper bound on the computation rate of each relay is derived, and based on that, a lower bound on the outage probability of the system is presented assuming block Rayleigh fading channels. Numerical results show that while the average sum rate of the system without feedback, named as max-CMF (M-CMF), reaches the derived upper bound only in low SNRs, that of the system with feedback, named as... 

This paper develops a stochastic geometry-based approach for the modeling, analysis, and optimization of wireless cloud caching networks comprised of multiple-antenna radio units (RUs) inside clouds with coordinated multi-point transmissions and guard zones. We consider Poisson cluster processes to model RUs and users, and the probabilistic content placement to cache files in RUs. Accordingly, we study the exact hit probability for a user of interest for two strategies; closest selection, where the user is served by the closest RU that has its requested file, and best power selection, where the serving RU having the requested file provides the maximum instantaneous received power at the... 

We insert some asymmetries into the continuous Abelian sandpile models, such as directedness and ellipticity. We analyze probability distribution of different heights and also find the corresponding field theories. Also we find the fields associated with some height variables. © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd  

The NF-κB family includes some transcription factors which have important functions in the regulation of immune responses, therefore participating in the pathophysiology of inflammatory conditions such as peripheral neuropathies. We have quantified expression of a number of NF-κB-related transcripts in patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) or chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) versus healthy subjects. These transcripts have been previously shown to be functionally related with this family of transcription factors. Expressions of ATG5, DICER-AS1, PACER, DILC, NKILA and ADINR have been increased in both CIDP and GBS patients compared with controls. However,... 

Water resources limitation in arid and semi arid regions on one hand and water demand increase on the other, have made the optimum utilization of existing water resources and systems necessary. In this context, researchers are trying to increase the accuracy and lag time of prediction by using various statistic and empirical models as well as different local and long-range variables in the last decades. Karoon River is the greatest and most important river in Iran because of agricultural water demand supply and hydroelectric power production. Therefore streamflow prediction of this river has considerable economical and social benefits. In this study the relationship between Karoon stramflow... 

Petroleum monoaromatics including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) are among the notorious volatile organic compounds that contaminate water and soil. In this study, a surfactant- modified natural zeolite and its relevant granulated nanozeolites were evaluated as potential adsorbents for removal of petroleum monoaromatics from aqueous solutions. All experiments performed in batch mode at constant temperature of 20°C and pH of 6.8 for 48 h. The results revealed that the amount of BTEX uptake on granulated zeolites nanoparticles were remarkably higher than the parent micron size natural zeolite (in the order of four times). The isotherms data were analyzed using five models... 

This paper analyzes the Piccolo family of lightweight block ciphers against the impossible differential cryptanalysis. A combination of some ploys such as decreasing the S-box computations, finding an appropriate propagation of differentials, utilizing hash tables and using the linearity of the key-schedule as well as disregarding subkeys of two rounds lead to 12-round and 13-round impossible differential attack on Piccolo-80 and 15-round attack on Piccolo-128. The time and data complexity of the attack against Piccolo-80 is 255.18 and 236.34 for 12-round and 269.7 and 243.25 for 13-round, respectively. Moreover, the time and data complexity for 15 rounds cryptanalysis of Piccolo-128 are... 

Background: Pedicle screw (PS) placement has been widely used in fusion surgeries on the thoracic spine. Achieving cost-effective yet accurate placements through nonradiation techniques remains challenging. Questions/Purposes: Novel noncovering lock-mechanism bilateral vertebra-specific drill guides for PS placement were designed/fabricated, and their accuracy for both nondeformed and deformed thoracic spines was tested. Methods: One nondeformed and 1 severe scoliosis human thoracic spine underwent computed tomographic (CT) scanning, and 2 identical proportions of each were 3-dimensional (3D) printed. Pedicle-specific optimal (no perforation) drilling trajectories were determined on the CT... 

CFD simulation of cylindrical bubble column including air as dispersed phase and water as continuous phase operating in churn-turbulent flow regime with diameter of 0.49 m, height of 3.6 m and gas superficial velocity of 0.14 m/s have been conducted. All simulations have been carried out in a 2D axisymmetric, unsteady and Euler/Euler framework with the aid of commercial software FLUENT v. 14.5. Simulations were validated by our experimental results through residence time distribution (RTD) data. Effect of bubble size distribution at inlet on column hydrodynamic was investigated and results clearly showed that equilibrium bubble size distribution in most parts of column is independent of... 

In this paper, we propose a new transmission scheme, called integer forcing-and-forward (IFF), for communications among multipair multiple-antenna users in which each pair exchanges their messages with the help of a single multiple-antenna relay in the multiple-access and broadcast phases. The proposed scheme utilizes integer forcing linear receiver (IFLR) at the relay, which uses equations, i.e., linear integer combinations of messages, to harness intrapair interference. Accordingly, we propose the design of a mean square error (MSE)-based transceiver, including precoder and projection matrices for the relay and users, assuming that perfect channel state information (CSI) is available. In... 

We check the universality properties of the two-dimensional Abelian sandpile model by computing some of its properties on the honeycomb lattice. Exact expressions for unit-height correlation functions in the presence of boundaries and for different boundary conditions are derived. Also, we study the statistics of the boundaries of avalanche waves by using the theory of SLE and suggest that these curves are conformally invariant and described by SLE 2  

This paper develops a stochastic geometry-based approach for the modeling and analysis of finite millimeter wave (mmWave) wireless networks where a random number of transmitters and receivers are randomly located inside a finite region. We consider a selection strategy to serve a reference receiver by the transmitter providing the maximum average received power among all transmitters. In our system model, we employ the unique features of mmWave communications such as directional transmit and receive beamforming and different channels for line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) links. Accordingly, deploying a blockage process suitable for mmWave networks, we study the coverage... 

HIGHT is a lightweight block cipher introduced in CHES 2006 by Hong et al as a block cipher suitable for low-resource applications. In this paper, we propose improved impossible differential and biclique attacks on HIGHT block cipher both exploiting the permutation-based property of the cipher's key schedule algorithm as well as its low diffusion. For impossible differential attack, we found a new 17-round impossible differential characteristic that enables us to propose a new 27-round impossible differential attack. The total time complexity of the attack is 2120.4 where an amount of 259.3 chosen plaintext-ciphertext pairs and 2107.4 memory are required. We also instantiate a new biclique...