OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
World Models Unlock Optimal Foraging Strategies in Reinforcement Learning Agents
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2025
Year: 2025

Patch foraging involves the deliberate and planned process of determining the optimal time to depart from a resource-rich region and investigate potentially more beneficial alternatives. The Marginal Value Theorem (MVT) is frequently used to characterize this process, offering an optimality model for such foraging behaviors. Although this model has been widely used to make predictions in behavioral ecology, discovering the computational mechanisms that facilitate the emergence of optimal patch-foraging decisions in biological foragers remains under investigation. Here, we show that artificial foragers equipped with learned world models naturally converge to MVT-aligned strategies. Using a model-based reinforcement learning agent that acquires a parsimonious predictive representation of its environment, we demonstrate that anticipatory capabilities, rather than reward maximization alone, drive efficient patch-leaving behavior. Compared with standard model-free RL agents, these model-based agents exhibit decision patterns similar to many of their biological counterparts, suggesting that predictive world models can serve as a foundation for more explainable and biologically grounded decision-making in AI systems. Overall, our findings highlight the value of ecological optimality principles for advancing interpretable and adaptive AI.
Supervised Contrastive Frame Aggregation for Video Representation Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2025
Year: 2025

We propose a supervised contrastive learning framework for video representation learning that leverages temporally global context. We introduce a video to image aggregation strategy that spatially arranges multiple frames from each video into a single input image. This design enables the use of pre trained convolutional neural network backbones such as ResNet50 and avoids the computational overhead of complex video transformer models. We then design a contrastive learning objective that directly compares pairwise projections generated by the model. Positive pairs are defined as projections from videos sharing the same label while all other projections are treated as negatives. Multiple natural views of the same video are created using different temporal frame samplings from the same underlying video. Rather than relying on data augmentation these frame level variations produce diverse positive samples with global context and reduce overfitting. Experiments on the Penn Action and HMDB51 datasets demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms existing approaches in classification accuracy while requiring fewer computational resources. The proposed Supervised Contrastive Frame Aggregation method learns effective video representations in both supervised and self supervised settings and supports video based tasks such as classification and captioning. The method achieves seventy six percent classification accuracy on Penn Action compared to forty three percent achieved by ViVIT and forty eight percent accuracy on HMDB51 compared to thirty seven percent achieved by ViVIT.
Large Language Newsvendor: Decision Biases and Cognitive Mechanisms
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2025
Year: 2025

Problem definition: Although large language models (LLMs) are increasingly integrated into business decision making, their potential to replicate and even amplify human cognitive biases cautions a significant, yet not well-understood, risk. This is particularly critical in high-stakes operational contexts like supply chain management. To address this, we investigate the decision-making patterns of leading LLMs using the canonical newsvendor problem in a dynamic setting, aiming to identify the nature and origins of their cognitive biases. Methodology/results: Through dynamic, multi-round experiments with GPT-4, GPT-4o, and LLaMA-8B, we tested for five established decision biases. We found that LLMs consistently replicated the classic ``Too Low/Too High'' ordering bias and significantly amplified other tendencies like demand-chasing behavior compared to human benchmarks. Our analysis uncovered a ``paradox of intelligence'': the more sophisticated GPT-4 demonstrated the greatest irrationality through overthinking, while the efficiency-optimized GPT-4o performed near-optimally. Because these biases persist even when optimal formulas are provided, we conclude they stem from architectural constraints rather than knowledge gaps. Managerial implications: First, managers should select models based on the specific task, as our results show that efficiency-optimized models can outperform more complex ones on certain optimization problems. Second, the significant amplification of bias by LLMs highlights the urgent need for robust human-in-the-loop oversight in high-stakes decisions to prevent costly errors. Third, our findings suggest that designing structured, rule-based prompts is a practical and effective strategy for managers to constrain models' heuristic tendencies and improve the reliability of AI-assisted decisions.
Cryptographic transformations over polyadic rings
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2025
Year: 2025

This article introduces a novel cryptographic paradigm based on nonderived polyadic algebraic structures. Traditional cryptosystems rely on binary operations within groups, rings, or fields, whose well-understood properties can be exploited in cryptanalysis. To overcome these vulnerabilities, we propose a shift to polyadic rings, which generalize classical rings by allowing operations of higher arity: an $m$-ary addition and an $n$-ary multiplication. The foundation of our approach is the construction of polyadic integers -- congruence classes of ordinary integers endowed with such $m$-ary and $n$-ary operations. A key innovation is the parameter-to-arity mapping $Φ(a,b)=(m,n)$, which links the parameters $(a,b)$ defining a congruence class to the specific arities required for algebraic closure. This mapping is mathematically intricate: it is non-injective, non-surjective, and multivalued. This complex, non-unique relationship forms the core of the proposed cryptosystem's security. We present two concrete encryption procedures that leverage this structure by encoding plaintext within the parameters of polyadic rings and transmitting information via polyadically quantized analog signals. In one method, plaintext is linked to the additive arity $m_{i}$ and secured using the summation of such signals; in the other, it is linked to a ring parameter $a_{i}$ and secured using their multiplication. In both cases, the "quantized" nature of polyadic operations generates systems of equations that are straightforward for a legitimate recipient with the correct key but exceptionally difficult for an attacker without it. The resulting framework promises a substantial increase in cryptographic security. This work establishes the theoretical foundation for this new class of encryption schemes and highlights their potential for constructing robust, next-generation cryptographic protocols.
Linear Binary Codes Correcting One or More Errors
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2025
Year: 2025

This paper examines linear binary codes capable of correcting one or more errors. For the single-error-correcting case, it is shown that the Hamming bound is achieved by a constructive method, and an exact expression for the minimal codeword length is derived. For the general case, a simple lower bound for the parameters of linear codes is derived from an analysis of the coset structure.
Beyond Static Scoring: Enhancing Assessment Validity via AI-Generated Interactive Verification
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2025
Year: 2025

Large Language Models (LLMs) challenge the validity of traditional open-ended assessments by blurring the lines of authorship. While recent research has focused on the accuracy of automated scoring (AES), these static approaches fail to capture process evidence or verify genuine student understanding. This paper introduces a novel Human-AI Collaboration framework that enhances assessment integrity by combining rubric-based automated scoring with AI-generated, targeted follow-up questions. In a pilot study with university instructors (N=9), we demonstrate that while Stage 1 (Auto-Scoring) ensures procedural fairness and consistency, Stage 2 (Interactive Verification) is essential for construct validity, effectively diagnosing superficial reasoning or unverified AI use. We report on the systems design, instructor perceptions of fairness versus validity, and the necessity of adaptive difficulty in follow-up questioning. The findings offer a scalable pathway for authentic assessment that moves beyond policing AI to integrating it as a synergistic partner in the evaluation process.
Patch-wise Retrieval: A Bag of Practical Techniques for Instance-level Matching
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2025
Year: 2025

Instance-level image retrieval aims to find images containing the same object as a given query, despite variations in size, position, or appearance. To address this challenging task, we propose Patchify, a simple yet effective patch-wise retrieval framework that offers high performance, scalability, and interpretability without requiring fine-tuning. Patchify divides each database image into a small number of structured patches and performs retrieval by comparing these local features with a global query descriptor, enabling accurate and spatially grounded matching. To assess not just retrieval accuracy but also spatial correctness, we introduce LocScore, a localization-aware metric that quantifies whether the retrieved region aligns with the target object. This makes LocScore a valuable diagnostic tool for understanding and improving retrieval behavior. We conduct extensive experiments across multiple benchmarks, backbones, and region selection strategies, showing that Patchify outperforms global methods and complements state-of-the-art reranking pipelines. Furthermore, we apply Product Quantization for efficient large-scale retrieval and highlight the importance of using informative features during compression, which significantly boosts performance. Project website: https://wons20k.github.io/PatchwiseRetrieval/
Spectral Sentinel: Scalable Byzantine-Robust Decentralized Federated Learning via Sketched Random Matrix Theory on Blockchain
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2025
Year: 2025

Decentralized federated learning (DFL) enables collaborative model training without centralized trust, but it remains vulnerable to Byzantine clients that poison gradients under heterogeneous (Non-IID) data. Existing defenses face a scalability trilemma: distance-based filtering (e.g., Krum) can reject legitimate Non-IID updates, geometric-median methods incur prohibitive $O(n^2 d)$ cost, and many certified defenses are evaluated only on models below 100M parameters. We propose Spectral Sentinel, a Byzantine detection and aggregation framework that leverages a random-matrix-theoretic signature: honest Non-IID gradients produce covariance eigenspectra whose bulk follows the Marchenko-Pastur law, while Byzantine perturbations induce detectable tail anomalies. Our algorithm combines Frequent Directions sketching with data-dependent MP tracking, enabling detection on models up to 1.5B parameters using $O(k^2)$ memory with $k \ll d$. Under a $(σ,f)$ threat model with coordinate-wise honest variance bounded by $σ^2$ and $f < 1/2$ adversaries, we prove $(ε,δ)$-Byzantine resilience with convergence rate $O(σf / \sqrt{T} + f^2 / T)$, and we provide a matching information-theoretic lower bound $Ω(σf / \sqrt{T})$, establishing minimax optimality. We implement the full system with blockchain integration on Polygon networks and validate it across 144 attack-aggregator configurations, achieving 78.4 percent average accuracy versus 48-63 percent for baseline methods.
LexRel: Benchmarking Legal Relation Extraction for Chinese Civil Cases
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2025
Year: 2025

Legal relations form a highly consequential analytical framework of civil law system, serving as a crucial foundation for resolving disputes and realizing values of the rule of law in judicial practice. However, legal relations in Chinese civil cases remain underexplored in the field of legal artificial intelligence (legal AI), largely due to the absence of comprehensive schemas. In this work, we firstly introduce a comprehensive schema, which contains a hierarchical taxonomy and definitions of arguments, for AI systems to capture legal relations in Chinese civil cases. Based on this schema, we then formulate legal relation extraction task and present LexRel, an expert-annotated benchmark for legal relation extraction in Chinese civil law. We use LexRel to evaluate state-of-the-art large language models (LLMs) on legal relation extractions, showing that current LLMs exhibit significant limitations in accurately identifying civil legal relations. Furthermore, we demonstrate that incorporating legal relations information leads to consistent performance gains on other downstream legal AI tasks.
Bayesian Optimization Parameter Tuning Framework for a Lyapunov Based Path Following Controller
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2025
Year: 2025

Parameter tuning in real-world experiments is constrained by the limited evaluation budget available on hardware. The path-following controller studied in this paper reflects a typical situation in nonlinear geometric controller, where multiple gains influence the dynamics through coupled nonlinear terms. Such interdependence makes manual tuning inefficient and unlikely to yield satisfactory performance within a practical number of trials. To address this challenge, we propose a Bayesian optimization (BO) framework that treats the closed-loop system as a black box and selects controller gains using a Gaussian-process surrogate. BO offers model-free exploration, quantified uncertainty, and data-efficient search, making it well suited for tuning tasks where each evaluation is costly. The framework is implemented on Honda's AI-Formula three-wheeled robot and assessed through repeated full-lap experiments on a fixed test track. The results show that BO improves controller performance within 32 trials, including 15 warm-start initial evaluations, indicating that it can efficiently locate high-performing regions of the parameter space under real-world conditions. These findings demonstrate that BO provides a practical, reliable, and data-efficient tuning approach for nonlinear path-following controllers on real robotic platforms.
A Systematic Analysis of Higher Education on Software Engineering in the Netherlands
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2025
Year: 2025

Software engineering educators strive to continuously improve their courses and programs. Understanding the current state of practice of software engineering higher education can empower educators to critically assess their courses, fine-tune them by benchmarking against observed practices, and ultimately enhance their curricula. In this study, we aim to provide an encompassing analysis of higher education on software engineering by considering the higher educational offering of an entire European country, namely the Netherlands. We leverage a crowd-sourced analysis process by considering 10 Dutch universities and 207 university courses. The courses are analysed via knowledge areas adopted from the SWEBOK. The mapping process is refined via homogenisation and internal consistency improvement phases, and is followed by a data analysis phase. Given its fundamental nature, Construction and Programming is the most covered knowledge area at Bachelor level. Other knowledge areas are equally covered at Bachelor and Master level (e.g., software engineering models), while more advanced ones are almost exclusively covered at Master level. We identify three clusters of tightly coupled knowledge areas: (i) requirements, architecture, and design, (ii) testing, verification, and security, and (iii) process-oriented and DevOps topics. Dutch universities generally cover all knowledge areas uniformly, with minor deviations reflecting institutional research strengths. Our results highlight correlations among key knowledge areas and their potential for enhancing integrated learning. We also identify underrepresented areas, such as software engineering economics, which educators may consider including in curricula. We invite researchers to use our research method in their own geographical region, in order to contrast software engineering education programs across the globe.
Progressive Conditioned Scale-Shift Recalibration of Self-Attention for Online Test-time Adaptation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2025
Year: 2025

Online test-time adaptation aims to dynamically adjust a network model in real-time based on sequential input samples during the inference stage. In this work, we find that, when applying a transformer network model to a new target domain, the Query, Key, and Value features of its self-attention module often change significantly from those in the source domain, leading to substantial performance degradation of the transformer model. To address this important issue, we propose to develop a new approach to progressively recalibrate the self-attention at each layer using a local linear transform parameterized by conditioned scale and shift factors. We consider the online model adaptation from the source domain to the target domain as a progressive domain shift separation process. At each transformer network layer, we learn a Domain Separation Network to extract the domain shift feature, which is used to predict the scale and shift parameters for self-attention recalibration using a Factor Generator Network. These two lightweight networks are adapted online during inference. Experimental results on benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed progressive conditioned scale-shift recalibration (PCSR) method is able to significantly improve the online test-time domain adaptation performance by a large margin of up to 3.9\% in classification accuracy on the ImageNet-C dataset.
Fine-Tuning Causal LLMs for Text Classification: Embedding-Based vs. Instruction-Based Approaches
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2025
Year: 2025

We explore efficient strategies to fine-tune decoder-only Large Language Models (LLMs) for downstream text classification under resource constraints. Two approaches are investigated: (1) attaching a classification head to a pre-trained causal LLM and fine-tuning on the task (using the LLM's final token embedding as a sequence representation), and (2) instruction-tuning the LLM in a prompt->response format for classification. To enable single-GPU fine-tuning of models up to 8B parameters, we combine 4-bit model quantization with Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) for parameter-efficient training. Experiments on two datasets - a proprietary single-label dataset and the public WIPO-Alpha patent dataset (extreme multi-label classification) - show that the embedding-based method significantly outperforms the instruction-tuned method in F1-score, and is very competitive with - even surpassing - fine-tuned domain-specific models (e.g. BERT) on the same tasks. These results demonstrate that directly leveraging the internal representations of causal LLMs, along with efficient fine-tuning techniques, yields impressive classification performance under limited computational resources. We discuss the advantages of each approach while outlining practical guidelines and future directions for optimizing LLM fine-tuning in classification scenarios.
Memoria: A Scalable Agentic Memory Framework for Personalized Conversational AI
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2025
Year: 2025

Agentic memory is emerging as a key enabler for large language models (LLM) to maintain continuity, personalization, and long-term context in extended user interactions, critical capabilities for deploying LLMs as truly interactive and adaptive agents. Agentic memory refers to the memory that provides an LLM with agent-like persistence: the ability to retain and act upon information across conversations, similar to how a human would. We present Memoria, a modular memory framework that augments LLM-based conversational systems with persistent, interpretable, and context-rich memory. Memoria integrates two complementary components: dynamic session-level summarization and a weighted knowledge graph (KG)-based user modelling engine that incrementally captures user traits, preferences, and behavioral patterns as structured entities and relationships. This hybrid architecture enables both short-term dialogue coherence and long-term personalization while operating within the token constraints of modern LLMs. We demonstrate how Memoria enables scalable, personalized conversational artificial intelligence (AI) by bridging the gap between stateless LLM interfaces and agentic memory systems, offering a practical solution for industry applications requiring adaptive and evolving user experiences.
Efficient Vision-Language Reasoning via Adaptive Token Pruning
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2025
Year: 2025

Real-world deployment of Vision-Language Models (VLMs) is hindered by high computational demands, as existing architectures inefficiently process all tokens uniformly. We introduce Adaptive Token Pruning (ATP), a dynamic inference mechanism that retains only the most informative tokens based on contextual relevance. ATP operates at the vision-language interface, assigning a hybrid importance score combining ViT CLS attention (intra-modal saliency) and CLIP text-image similarity (inter-modal relevance) to keep top-K tokens for the LLM. Unlike static compression, ATP adapts to each input without modifying the backbone. Proposed as a lightweight gating module, ATP is compatible with popular backbones like BLIP-2, LLaVA, and Flamingo. Preliminary evaluations across VQAv2, GQA, and COCO indicate that ATP reduces inference FLOPs by around 40% and achieves roughly 1.5x speedups in end-to-end latency with negligible accuracy loss (less than 1%). Qualitative analyses suggest ATP preserves visual grounding and enhances interpretability. Beyond efficiency, we investigate robustness under corruptions; observations suggest adaptive pruning suppresses spurious correlations, improving stability. These findings imply that resource-constrained inference and model reliability are not competing objectives. Finally, we discuss ATP's role in efficient multimodal edge computing pipelines.
Self-Motivated Growing Neural Network for Adaptive Architecture via Local Structural Plasticity
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2025
Year: 2025

Control policies in deep reinforcement learning are often implemented with fixed-capacity multilayer perceptrons trained by backpropagation, which lack structural plasticity and depend on global error signals. This paper introduces the Self-Motivated Growing Neural Network (SMGrNN), a controller whose topology evolves online through a local Structural Plasticity Module (SPM). The SPM monitors neuron activations and edge-wise weight update statistics over short temporal windows and uses these signals to trigger neuron insertion and pruning, while synaptic weights are updated by a standard gradient-based optimizer. This allows network capacity to be regulated during learning without manual architectural tuning. SMGrNN is evaluated on control benchmarks via policy distillation. Compared with multilayer perceptron baselines, it achieves similar or higher returns, lower variance, and task-appropriate network sizes. Ablation studies with growth disabled and growth-only variants isolate the role of structural plasticity, showing that adaptive topology improves reward stability. The local and modular design of SPM enables future integration of a Hebbian plasticity module and spike-timing-dependent plasticity, so that SMGrNN can support both artificial and spiking neural implementations driven by local rules.