OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
TrajSelector: Harnessing Latent Representations for Efficient and Effective Best-of-N in Large Reasoning Model
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2025
Year: 2025

Large language models (LLMs) have shown remarkable progress in complex reasoning tasks, largely enabled by test-time scaling (TTS) paradigms that allocate additional compute during inference. Among these, external TTS (particularly the Best-of-N selection paradigm) yields scalable performance improvements by selecting from multiple independently generated reasoning trajectories. However, this approach faces key limitations: (i) the high computational overhead of deploying process reward models, (ii) the underutilization of the LLM's intrinsic latent representations. We introduce TrajSelector, an efficient and effective Best-of-N framework that exploit the hidden states in the sampler LLM for process-level scoring. A lightweight verifier (with only 0.6B parameters) evaluates the quality of step-wise trajectory, and then aggregates these scores to identify the optimal reasoning trajectory. Our framework employs a fully data-driven, end-to-end training recipe that eliminates reliance on massive step-level annotations. Experiential results across five benchmarks demonstrate that TrajSelector delivers consistent performance gains. In Best-of-32 settings, it surpasses majority voting by 4.61% accuracy and outperforms existing process reward models by 4.31% to 12.21%, all while maintaining lower inference costs.
Edge-Based Speech Transcription and Synthesis for Kinyarwanda and Swahili Languages
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2025
Year: 2025

This paper presents a novel framework for speech transcription and synthesis, leveraging edge-cloud parallelism to enhance processing speed and accessibility for Kinyarwanda and Swahili speakers. It addresses the scarcity of powerful language processing tools for these widely spoken languages in East African countries with limited technological infrastructure. The framework utilizes the Whisper and SpeechT5 pre-trained models to enable speech-to-text (STT) and text-to-speech (TTS) translation. The architecture uses a cascading mechanism that distributes the model inference workload between the edge device and the cloud, thereby reducing latency and resource usage, benefiting both ends. On the edge device, our approach achieves a memory usage compression of 9.5% for the SpeechT5 model and 14% for the Whisper model, with a maximum memory usage of 149 MB. Experimental results indicate that on a 1.7 GHz CPU edge device with a 1 MB/s network bandwidth, the system can process a 270-character text in less than a minute for both speech-to-text and text-to-speech transcription. Using real-world survey data from Kenya, it is shown that the cascaded edge-cloud architecture proposed could easily serve as an excellent platform for STT and TTS transcription with good accuracy and response time.
On the Use of Large Language Models for Qualitative Synthesis
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2025
Year: 2025

Large language models (LLMs) show promise for supporting systematic reviews (SR), even complex tasks such as qualitative synthesis (QS). However, applying them to a stage that is unevenly reported and variably conducted carries important risks: misuse can amplify existing weaknesses and erode confidence in the SR findings. To examine the challenges of using LLMs for QS, we conducted a collaborative autoethnography involving two trials. We evaluated each trial for methodological rigor and practical usefulness, and interpreted the results through a technical lens informed by how LLMs are built and their current limitations.
OOS-DSD: Improving Out-of-stock Detection in Retail Images using Auxiliary Tasks
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2025
Year: 2025

Out-of-stock (OOS) detection is a very important retail verification process that aims to infer the unavailability of products in their designated areas on the shelf. In this paper, we introduce OOS-DSD, a novel deep learning-based method that advances OOS detection through auxiliary learning. In particular, we extend a well-established YOLOv8 object detection architecture with additional convolutional branches to simultaneously detect OOS, segment products, and estimate scene depth. While OOS detection and product segmentation branches are trained using ground truth data, the depth estimation branch is trained using pseudo-labeled annotations produced by the state-of-the-art (SOTA) depth estimation model Depth Anything V2. Furthermore, since the aforementioned pseudo-labeled depth estimates display relative depth, we propose an appropriate depth normalization procedure that stabilizes the training process. The experimental results show that the proposed method surpassed the performance of the SOTA OOS detection methods by 1.8% of the mean average precision (mAP). In addition, ablation studies confirm the effectiveness of auxiliary learning and the proposed depth normalization procedure, with the former increasing mAP by 3.7% and the latter by 4.2%.
Image Categorization and Search via a GAT Autoencoder and Representative Models
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2025
Year: 2025

We propose a method for image categorization and retrieval that leverages graphs and a graph attention network (GAT)-based autoencoder. Our approach is representative-centric, that is, we execute the categorization and retrieval process via the representative models we construct for the images and image categories. We utilize a graph where nodes represent images (or their representatives) and edges capture similarity relationships. GAT highlights important features and relationships between images, enabling the autoencoder to construct context-aware latent representations that capture the key features of each image relative to its neighbors. We obtain category representatives from these embeddings and categorize a query image by comparing its representative to the category representatives. We then retrieve the most similar image to the query image within its identified category. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our representative-centric approach through experiments with both the GAT autoencoders and standard feature-based techniques.
Hey Pentti, We Did It Again!: Differentiable vector-symbolic types that prove polynomial termination
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2025
Year: 2025

We present a typed computer language, Doug, in which all typed programs may be proved to halt in polynomial time, encoded in a vector-symbolic architecture (VSA). Doug is just an encoding of the light linear functional programming language (LLFPL) described by (Schimanski2009, ch. 7). The types of Doug are encoded using a slot-value encoding scheme based on holographic declarative memory (HDM; Kelly, 2020). The terms of Doug are encoded using a variant of the Lisp VSA defined by (Flanagan, 2024). Doug allows for some points on the embedding space of a neural network to be interpreted as types, where the types of nearby points are similar both in structure and content. Types in Doug are therefore learnable by a neural network. Following (Chollet, 2019), (Card, 1983), and (Newell, 1981), we view skill as the application of a procedure, or program of action, that causes a goal to be satisfied. Skill acquisition may therefore be expressed as program synthesis. Using Doug, we hope to describe a form of learning of skilled behaviour that follows a human-like pace of skill acquisition (i.e., substantially faster than brute force; Heathcote, 2000), exceeding the efficiency of all currently existing approaches (Kaplan, 2020; Jones, 2021; Chollet, 2024). Our approach brings us one step closer to modeling human mental representations, as they must actually exist in the brain, and those representations' acquisition, as they are actually learned.
Ripple Effect Protocol: Coordinating Agent Populations
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2025
Year: 2025

Modern AI agents can exchange messages using protocols such as A2A and ACP, yet these mechanisms emphasize communication over coordination. As agent populations grow, this limitation produces brittle collective behavior, where individually smart agents converge on poor group outcomes. We introduce the Ripple Effect Protocol (REP), a coordination protocol in which agents share not only their decisions but also lightweight sensitivities - signals expressing how their choices would change if key environmental variables shifted. These sensitivities ripple through local networks, enabling groups to align faster and more stably than with agent-centric communication alone. We formalize REP's protocol specification, separating required message schemas from optional aggregation rules, and evaluate it across scenarios with varying incentives and network topologies. Benchmarks across three domains: (i) supply chain cascades (Beer Game), (ii) preference aggregation in sparse networks (Movie Scheduling), and (iii) sustainable resource allocation (Fishbanks) show that REP improves coordination accuracy and efficiency over A2A by 41 to 100%, while flexibly handling multimodal sensitivity signals from LLMs. By making coordination a protocol-level capability, REP provides scalable infrastructure for the emerging Internet of Agents
ViT-Transformer: Self-attention mechanism based constitutive modeling for nonlinear heterogeneous materials
Venue: arXiv cs.CE 2025
Year: 2025

Multi-scale simulations of nonlinear heterogeneous materials and composites are challenging due to the prohibitive computational costs of high-fidelity simulations. Recently, machine learning (ML) based approaches have emerged as promising alternatives to traditional multiscale methods. However, existing ML surrogate constitutive models struggle in capturing long-range dependencies and generalization across microstructures. The recent advancements in attention-based Transformer architectures open the door to a more powerful class of surrogate models. Attention mechanism has demonstrated remarkable capabilities in natural language processing and computer vision. In this work, we introduce a surrogate (meta) model, namely ViT-Transformer, using a Vision Transformer (ViT) encoder and a Transformer-based decoder which are both driven by the self-attention mechanism. The ViT encoder extracts microstructural features from material images, while the decoder is a masked Transformer encoder that combines the latent geometrical features with the macroscopic strain input sequence to predict the corresponding stress response. To enhance training, we propose a random extract training algorithm that improves robustness to sequences of variable length. We design and construct a compact yet diverse dataset via data augmentation, and validate the surrogate model using various composite material images and loading scenarios. Several numerical examples are provided to show the effectiveness and accuracy of the ViT-Transformer model and the training algorithm.
Prior Makes It Possible: From Sublinear Graph Algorithms to LLM Test-Time Methods
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2025
Year: 2025

Test-time augmentation, such as Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) or tool use, critically depends on an interplay between a model's parametric knowledge and externally retrieved information. However, the theoretical underpinnings of this relationship remain poorly understood. Specifically, it is not clear how much pre-training knowledge is required to answer queries with a small number of augmentation steps, which is a desirable property in practice. To address this question, we formulate multi-step reasoning as an $s$-$t$ connectivity problem on a knowledge graph. We represent a model's pre-training parametric knowledge as a partial, potentially noisy subgraph. We view augmentation as querying an oracle for true edges that augment the model's knowledge. Then, we characterize the necessary and sufficient number of augmentation steps for the model to generate an accurate answer given partial prior knowledge. One key result shows a phase transition: if the prior knowledge graph over $n$ vertices is disconnected into small components, then finding a path via augmentation is inefficient and requires $Ω(\sqrt{n})$ queries. On the other hand, once the density of correct knowledge surpasses a threshold, forming a giant component, we can find paths with an expected constant number of queries.
Count Counts: Motivating Exploration in LLM Reasoning with Count-based Intrinsic Rewards
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2025
Year: 2025

Reinforcement Learning (RL) has become a compelling way to strengthen the multi step reasoning ability of Large Language Models (LLMs). However, prevalent RL paradigms still lean on sparse outcome-based rewards and limited exploration, which often drives LLMs toward repetitive and suboptimal reasoning patterns. In this paper, we study the central question of how to design exploration for LLM reasoning and introduce MERCI (Motivating Exploration in LLM Reasoning with Count-based Intrinsic Rewards), a novel RL algorithm that augments policy optimization with a principled intrinsic reward. Building on the idea of count-based exploration, MERCI leverages a lightweight Coin Flipping Network (CFN) to estimate the pseudo count and further epistemic uncertainty over reasoning trajectories, and converts them into an intrinsic reward that values novelty while preserving the learning signal from task rewards. We integrate MERCI into some advanced RL frameworks like Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO). Experiments on complex reasoning benchmarks demonstrate that MERCI encourages richer and more varied chains of thought, significantly improves performance over strong baselines, and helps the policy escape local routines to discover better solutions. It indicates that our targeted intrinsic motivation can make exploration reliable for language model reasoning.
Feedback Lunch: Deep Feedback Codes for Wiretap Channels
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2025
Year: 2025

We consider reversely-degraded wiretap channels, for which the secrecy capacity is zero if there is no channel feedback. This work focuses on a seeded modular code design for the Gaussian wiretap channel with channel output feedback, combining universal hash functions for security and learned feedback-based codes for reliability to achieve positive secrecy rates. We study the trade-off between communication reliability and information leakage, illustrating that feedback enables agreeing on a secret key shared between legitimate parties, overcoming the security advantage of the wiretapper. Our findings also motivate code designs for sensing-assisted secure communication, to be used in next-generation integrated sensing and communication methods.
On the Impossibility of Retrain Equivalence in Machine Unlearning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2025
Year: 2025

Machine unlearning seeks to selectively remove the "influence" of specific training data on a model's outputs. The ideal goal is Retrain Equivalence--behavior identical to a model trained from scratch on only the retained data. This goal was formulated for models trained on i.i.d. data batches, but modern pipelines often involve multi-stage training, with each stage having a distinct data distribution and objective. Examples include LLM fine-tuning for alignment, reasoning ability, etc. Our study shows via theory and experiments that this shift to multi-stage training introduces a fundamental barrier for machine unlearning. The theory indicates that the outcome of local unlearning--methods that only use gradients computed on the forget set--is path-dependent. That is, a model's behavior during unlearning is influenced by the order of its training stages during learning, making it impossible for path-oblivious algorithms to universally achieve Retrain Equivalence. We empirically demonstrate the same phenomenon in LLM post-training across Llama and Qwen models (1B to 14B) with gradient ascent, NPO, and SimNPO local unlearning algorithms. Models fine-tuned via different orderings of identical training stages diverge in behavior during unlearning, with the degradation in GSM8K accuracy after unlearning varying by over 20% across paths. We also observe that some learning paths consistently produce models that unlearn slowly. During unlearning, whether the probability mass gets squeezed into paraphrasing or alternative concepts is also path-dependent. These results consistently show that Retrain Equivalence is an ill-posed target for local unlearning algorithms, so long as the target models are trained in stages. In situations where access to models' training histories is hard, the current work calls for rethinking the definition and desiderata of machine unlearning.
Unleashing Diverse Thinking Modes in LLMs through Multi-Agent Collaboration
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2025
Year: 2025

Large Language Models (LLMs) demonstrate strong performance but often lack interpretable reasoning. This paper introduces the Multi-Agent Collaboration Framework for Diverse Thinking Modes (DiMo), which enhances both performance and interpretability by simulating a structured debate among four specialized LLM agents. Each agent embodies a distinct reasoning paradigm, allowing the framework to collaboratively explore diverse cognitive approaches. Through iterative debate, agents challenge and refine initial responses, yielding more robust conclusions and an explicit, auditable reasoning chain. Across six benchmarks and under a unified open-source setup, DiMo improves accuracy over widely used single-model and debate baselines, with the largest gains on math. We position DiMo as a semantics-aware, Web-native multi-agent framework: it models human-machine intelligence with LLM agents that produce semantically typed, URL-annotated evidence chains for explanations and user-friendly interactions. Although our experiments use standard reasoning benchmarks, the framework is designed to be instantiated over Web corpora and knowledge graphs, combining retrieval-augmented reasoning with structured justifications that downstream systems can inspect and reuse.
Simulation-free Structure Learning for Stochastic Dynamics
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2025
Year: 2025

Modeling dynamical systems and unraveling their underlying causal relationships is central to many domains in the natural sciences. Various physical systems, such as those arising in cell biology, are inherently high-dimensional and stochastic in nature, and admit only partial, noisy state measurements. This poses a significant challenge for addressing the problems of modeling the underlying dynamics and inferring the network structure of these systems. Existing methods are typically tailored either for structure learning or modeling dynamics at the population level, but are limited in their ability to address both problems together. In this work, we address both problems simultaneously: we present StructureFlow, a novel and principled simulation-free approach for jointly learning the structure and stochastic population dynamics of physical systems. We showcase the utility of StructureFlow for the tasks of structure learning from interventions and dynamical (trajectory) inference of conditional population dynamics. We empirically evaluate our approach on high-dimensional synthetic systems, a set of biologically plausible simulated systems, and an experimental single-cell dataset. We show that StructureFlow can learn the structure of underlying systems while simultaneously modeling their conditional population dynamics -- a key step toward the mechanistic understanding of systems behavior.
Robust Dynamic Staffing with Predictions
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2025
Year: 2025

We consider a natural dynamic staffing problem in which a decision-maker sequentially hires workers over a finite horizon to meet an unknown demand revealed at the end. Predictions about demand arrive over time and become increasingly accurate, while worker availability decreases. This creates a fundamental trade-off between hiring early to avoid understaffing (when workers are more available but forecasts are less reliable) and hiring late to avoid overstaffing (when forecasts are more accurate but availability is lower). This problem is motivated by last-mile delivery operations, where companies such as Amazon rely on gig-economy workers whose availability declines closer to the operating day. To address practical limitations of Bayesian models (in particular, to remain agnostic to the underlying forecasting method), we study this problem under adversarial predictions. In this model, sequential predictions are adversarially chosen uncertainty intervals that (approximately) contain the true demand. The objective is to minimize worst-case staffing imbalance cost. Our main result is a simple and computationally efficient online algorithm that is minimax optimal. We first characterize the minimax cost against a restricted adversary via a polynomial-size linear program, then show how to emulate this solution in the general case. While our base model focuses on a single demand, we extend the framework to multiple demands (with egalitarian/utilitarian objectives), to settings with costly reversals of hiring decisions, and to inconsistent prediction intervals. We also introduce a practical "re-solving" variant of our algorithm, which we prove is also minimax optimal. Finally we conduct numerical experiments showing that our algorithms outperform Bayesian heuristics in both cost and speed, and are competitive with (approximate or exact) Bayesian-optimal policies when those can be computed.
Contrasting the Hyperparameter Tuning Impact Across Software Defect Prediction Scenarios
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2025
Year: 2025

Software defect prediction (SDP) is crucial for delivering high-quality software products. Recent research has indicated that prediction performance improvements in SDP are achievable by applying hyperparameter tuning to a particular SDP scenario. However, the positive impact resulting from the hyperparameter tuning step may differ based on the targeted SDP scenario. Comparing the impact of hyperparameter tuning across SDP scenarios is necessary to provide comprehensive insights and enhance the robustness, generalizability, and, eventually, the practicality of SDP modeling for quality assurance. Therefore, in this study, we contrast the impact of hyperparameter tuning across two pivotal and consecutive SDP scenarios: (1) Inner Version Defect Prediction (IVDP) and (2) Cross Version Defect Prediction (CVDP). The main distinctions between the two scenarios lie in the scope of defect prediction and the selected evaluation setups. This study's experiments use common evaluation setups, 28 machine learning (ML) algorithms, 53 post-release software datasets, two tuning algorithms, and five optimization metrics. We apply statistical analytics to compare the SDP performance impact differences by investigating the overall impact, the single ML algorithm impact, and variations across different software dataset sizes. The results indicate that the SDP gains within the IVDP scenario are significantly larger than those within the CVDP scenario. The results reveal that asserting performance gains for up to 24 out of 28 ML algorithms may not hold across multiple SDP scenarios. Furthermore, we found that small software datasets are more susceptible to larger differences in performance impacts. Overall, the study findings recommend software engineering researchers and practitioners to consider the effect of the selected SDP scenario when expecting performance gains from hyperparameter tuning.
Filtering of Small Components for Isosurface Generation
Venue: arXiv cs.GR 2025
Year: 2025

Let $f: \mathbb{R}^3 \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ be a scalar field. An isosurface is a piecewise linear approximation of a level set $f^{-1}(σ)$ for some $σ\in \mathbb{R}$ built from some regular grid sampling of $f$. Isosurfaces constructed from scanned data such as CT scans or MRIs often contain extremely small components that distract from the visualization and do not form part of any geometric model produced from the data. Simple prefiltering of the data can remove such small components while having no effect on the large components that form the body of the visualization. We present experimental results on such filtering.