Sharif Digital Repository

People use social networks to share millions of stories every day, but these stories rarely become viral. Can we estimate the probability that a story becomes a viral cascade If so, can we find a set of users that are more likely to trigger viral cascades These estimation and maximization problems are very challenging since both rare-event nature of viral cascades and efficiency requirement should be considered. Unfortunately, this problem still remains largely unexplored to date. In this paper, given temporal dynamics of a network, we first develop an efficient viral cascade probability estimation method, VICE, that leverages an special importance sampling approximation to achieve high... 

People use social networks to share millions of stories every day, but these stories rarely become viral. Can we estimate the probability that a story becomes a viral cascade? If so, can we find a set of users that are more likely to trigger viral cascades? These estimation and maximization problems are very challenging since both rare-event nature of viral cascades and efficiency requirement should be considered. Unfortunately, this problem still remains largely unexplored to date. In this paper, given temporal dynamics of a network, we first develop an efficient viral cascade probability estimation method, ViCE, that leverages an special importance sampling approximation to achieve high... 

Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities and people shares millions of message in a short time; however this information rarely goes viral. The diffusion process begins with an initial set of source nodes and continues with other nodes. In addition, the viral cascade is triggered when the number of infected nodes exceeds a specific threshold. Then, we find an initial set of source nodes that maximizes the number of infected nodes given the source nodes. This study aims to answer the following questions: how does a spread like a viral cascade propagate in a network? Do the structural properties of the propagation pattern play an important role in virality? If so, can we... 

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) are well-promising future networks especially for ubiquitous connection to Internet. In this paper, we propose an analytical model in order to evaluate the maximum stable throughput of a WMN based on a simplified version of IEEE 802.11s MAC protocol. Our modeling approach is based on a multi-class open queueing network. In this respect, we map some of the important features of IEEE 802.11s MAC protocol, esp., its contention-based and contention-free periods onto different parameters of the proposed queueing network. By solving the related traffic equations and applying the stability condition, we determine the maximum stable throughput, i.e., the maximum packet... 

An inductorless low noise amplifier (LNA) with active balun for digital TV (DTV) applications is presented. The LNA exploits a noise cancellation technique which allows for simultaneous wide-band impedance matching and low noise design. The matching and amplifier stages in the LNA topology perform single-ended to differential signal conversion with balanced output. The second and third-order nonlinearity of the individual amplifiers as well as the distortion caused by the interaction between the stages are suppressed to achieve high IIP2 and IIP3. A method for intrinsic cancellation of the second-order interaction is employed to reduce the dependence of the IIP3 on the frequency spacing... 

A multi-band frequency synthesizer for In-phase and Quadrature (I/Q) LO signal generation in Digital TV tuners is presented. Using divisor numbers other than powers of 2 (2 n ) for quadrature generation, reduces the required frequency range of the VCO, hence the number of VCO circuits, in multi-band frequency synthesizers. In the proposed synthesizer, VHF, UHF and L-band frequencies are covered with only one VCO. This is achieved by using a novel divide-by-3 circuit which produces precise I/Q LO signals. The VCO tuning range in this design is 2,400-3,632 MHz which is covered by a 6-bit switched-capacitor bank. A fast adaptive frequency calibration block selects the closest VCO frequency to... 

A technique for simultaneous cancellation of noise, second-order distortion and third-order distortion in CMOS LNAs is presented. The proposed LNA topology consists of a matching stage and two common-source amplifier stages, performing single-ended to differential signal conversion with balanced output. The second and third-order nonlinearity of the individual amplifiers as well as the distortion caused by the interaction between the stages are suppressed to achieve high IIP3. A method for intrinsic cancellation of the second-order interaction is employed to reduce the dependence of the IIP3 on the frequency spacing between the interfering signals in the two-tone test. © IEICE 2009  

A fully integrated multi-band frequency synthesizer for Inphase and Quadrature local oscillator signal generation in Digital Video Broadcasting to Handheld receivers is presented. In the proposed PLL-based integer-N synthesizer, all of the allocated frequencies for DVB tuners, in VHF, UHF and L bands, are generated. Two voltage controlled oscillators cover a frequency range of 1880-3632 MHz by using switched-capacitor banks. The VCO frequency is divided by 2, 4 and 16 to generate the quadrature signals at the synthesizer output. A fast adaptive frequency calibration block selects the closest VCO frequency to the target frequency by setting the capacitor bank control code prior to the start...