Transfer learning in Reinforcement Learning (RL) enables agents to leverage knowledge from source tasks to accelerate learning in target tasks. While prior work, such as the Attend, Adapt, and Transfer (A2T) framework, addresses negative transfer and selective transfer, other critical challenges remain underexplored. This paper introduces the Generalized Adaptive Transfer Network (GATN), a deep RL architecture designed to tackle task generalization across domains, robustness to environmental changes, and computational efficiency in transfer. GATN employs a domain-agnostic representation module, a robustness-aware policy adapter, and an efficient transfer scheduler to achieve these goals. We evaluate GATN on diverse benchmarks, including Atari 2600, MuJoCo, and a custom chatbot dialogue environment, demonstrating superior performance in cross-domain generalization, resilience to dynamic environments, and reduced computational overhead compared to baselines. Our findings suggest GATN is a versatile framework for real-world RL applications, such as adaptive chatbots and robotic control.
Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) has achieved remarkable success in complex sequential decision-making tasks, such as playing Atari 2600 games and mastering board games. A critical yet underexplored aspect of DRL is the temporal scale of action execution. We propose a novel paradigm that integrates contextual bandits with DRL to adaptively select action durations, enhancing policy flexibility and computational efficiency. Our approach augments a Deep Q-Network (DQN) with a contextual bandit module that learns to choose optimal action repetition rates based on state contexts. Experiments on Atari 2600 games demonstrate significant performance improvements over static duration baselines, highlighting the efficacy of adaptive temporal abstractions in DRL. This paradigm offers a scalable solution for real-time applications like gaming and robotics, where dynamic action durations are critical.
Identifying instrument activities within audio excerpts is vital in music information retrieval, with significant implications for music cataloging and discovery. Prior deep learning endeavors in musical instrument recognition have predominantly emphasized instrument classes with ample data availability. Recent studies have demonstrated the applicability of hierarchical classification in detecting instrument activities in orchestral music, even with limited fine-grained annotations at the instrument level. Based on the Hornbostel-Sachs classification, such a hierarchical classification system is evaluated using the MedleyDB dataset, renowned for its diversity and richness concerning various instruments and music genres. This work presents various strategies to integrate hierarchical structures into models and tests a new class of models for hierarchical music prediction. This study showcases more reliable coarse-level instrument detection by bridging the gap between detailed instrument identification and group-level recognition, paving the way for further advancements in this domain.
Over the last decade, as we rely more on deep learning technologies to make critical decisions, concerns regarding their safety, reliability and interpretability have emerged. We introduce a novel Neural Argumentative Learning (NAL) architecture that integrates Assumption-Based Argumentation (ABA) with deep learning for image analysis. Our architecture consists of neural and symbolic components. The former segments and encodes images into facts using object-centric learning, while the latter applies ABA learning to develop ABA frameworks enabling predictions with images. Experiments on synthetic data show that the NAL architecture can be competitive with a state-of-the-art alternative.
Accurate weather forecasts are essential for supporting a wide range of activities and decision-making processes, as well as mitigating the impacts of adverse weather events. While traditional numerical weather prediction (NWP) remains the cornerstone of operational forecasting, machine learning is emerging as a powerful alternative for fast, flexible, and scalable predictions. We introduce PeakWeather, a high-quality dataset of surface weather observations collected every 10 minutes over more than 8 years from the ground stations of the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss's measurement network. The dataset includes a diverse set of meteorological variables from 302 station locations distributed across Switzerland's complex topography and is complemented with topographical indices derived from digital height models for context. Ensemble forecasts from the currently operational high-resolution NWP model are provided as a baseline forecast against which to evaluate new approaches. The dataset's richness supports a broad spectrum of spatiotemporal tasks, including time series forecasting at various scales, graph structure learning, imputation, and virtual sensing. As such, PeakWeather serves as a real-world benchmark to advance both foundational machine learning research, meteorology, and sensor-based applications.
Deep Learning Systems (DLSs) are increasingly deployed in real-time applications, including those in resourceconstrained environments such as mobile and IoT devices. To address efficiency challenges, Dynamic Deep Learning Systems (DDLSs) adapt inference computation based on input complexity, reducing overhead. While this dynamic behavior improves efficiency, such behavior introduces new attack surfaces. In particular, efficiency adversarial attacks exploit these dynamic mechanisms to degrade system performance. This paper systematically explores efficiency robustness of DDLSs, presenting the first comprehensive taxonomy of efficiency attacks. We categorize these attacks based on three dynamic behaviors: (i) attacks on dynamic computations per inference, (ii) attacks on dynamic inference iterations, and (iii) attacks on dynamic output production for downstream tasks. Through an in-depth evaluation, we analyze adversarial strategies that target DDLSs efficiency and identify key challenges in securing these systems. In addition, we investigate existing defense mechanisms, demonstrating their limitations against increasingly popular efficiency attacks and the necessity for novel mitigation strategies to secure future adaptive DDLSs.
Recent advances in artificial intelligence have demonstrated the learnability of symbolic computation through end-to-end deep learning. Given a sufficient number of examples of symbolic expressions before and after the target computation, Transformer models - highly effective learners of sequence-to-sequence functions - can be trained to emulate the computation. This development opens up several intriguing challenges and new research directions, which require active contributions from the symbolic computation community. In this work, we introduce Computer Algebra with Transformer (CALT), a user-friendly Python library designed to help non-experts in deep learning train models for symbolic computation tasks.
Symbolic regression (SR) aims to discover closed-form mathematical expressions that accurately describe data, offering interpretability and analytical insight beyond standard black-box models. Existing SR methods often rely on population-based search or autoregressive modeling, which struggle with scalability and symbolic consistency. We introduce LIES (Logarithm, Identity, Exponential, Sine), a fixed neural network architecture with interpretable primitive activations that are optimized to model symbolic expressions. We develop a framework to extract compact formulae from LIES networks by training with an appropriate oversampling strategy and a tailored loss function to promote sparsity and to prevent gradient instability. After training, it applies additional pruning strategies to further simplify the learned expressions into compact formulae. Our experiments on SR benchmarks show that the LIES framework consistently produces sparse and accurate symbolic formulae outperforming all baselines. We also demonstrate the importance of each design component through ablation studies.
Hyperbolic deep learning leverages the metric properties of hyperbolic spaces to develop efficient and informative embeddings of hierarchical data. Here, we focus on the solvable group structure of hyperbolic spaces, which follows naturally from their construction as symmetric spaces. This dual nature of Lie group and Riemannian manifold allows us to propose a new class of hyperbolic deep learning algorithms where group homomorphisms are interleaved with metric-preserving diffeomorphisms. The resulting algorithms, which we call Cartan networks, show promising results on various benchmark data sets and open the way to a novel class of hyperbolic deep learning architectures.
A proposition that connects randomness and compression put forward via Gibbs entropy over set of measurement vectors associated with a compression process. The proposition states that a lossy compression process is equivalent to {\it directed randomness} that preserves information content. The proposition originated from the observed behaviour in newly proposed {\it Dual Tomographic Compression} (DTC) compress-train framework. This is akin to tomographic reconstruction of layer weight matrices via building compressed sensed projections, so called {\it weight rays}. This tomographic approach is applied to previous and next layers in a dual fashion, that triggers neuronal-level pruning. This novel model compress-train scheme appear in iterative fashion and act as smart neural architecture search, Experiments demonstrated utility of this dual-tomography producing state-of-the-art performance with efficient compression during training, accelerating and supporting lottery ticket hypothesis. However, random compress-train iterations having similar performance demonstrated the connection between randomness and compression from statistical physics perspective, we formulated so called {\it Gibbs randomness-compression proposition}, signifying randomness-compression relationship via Gibbs entropy. Practically, DTC framework provides a promising approach for massively energy and resource efficient deep learning training approach.
Recent efforts toward developing trustworthy AI systems with accountability guarantees have led to a growing reliance on machine learning formulations that incorporate external requirements, or constraints. These requirements are often enforced through penalization--adding fixed-weight terms to the task loss. We argue that this approach is ill-suited, and that tailored constrained optimization methods should be adopted instead. In particular, no penalty coefficient may yield a solution that both satisfies the constraints and achieves good performance--i.e., one solving the constrained problem. Moreover, tuning these coefficients is costly, incurring significant time and computational overhead. In contrast, tailored constrained methods--such as the Lagrangian approach, which optimizes the penalization "coefficients" (the Lagrange multipliers) alongside the model--(i) truly solve the constrained problem and add accountability, (ii) eliminate the need for extensive penalty tuning, and (iii) integrate seamlessly with modern deep learning pipelines.
Air quality forecasting (AQF) is critical for public health and environmental management, yet remains challenging due to the complex interplay of emissions, meteorology, and chemical transformations. Traditional numerical models, such as CMAQ and WRF-Chem, provide physically grounded simulations but are computationally expensive and rely on uncertain emission inventories. Deep learning models, while computationally efficient, often struggle with generalization due to their lack of physical constraints. To bridge this gap, we propose PCDCNet, a surrogate model that integrates numerical modeling principles with deep learning. PCDCNet explicitly incorporates emissions, meteorological influences, and domain-informed constraints to model pollutant formation, transport, and dissipation. By combining graph-based spatial transport modeling, recurrent structures for temporal accumulation, and representation enhancement for local interactions, PCDCNet achieves state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance in 72-hour station-level PM2.5 and O3 forecasting while significantly reducing computational costs. Furthermore, our model is deployed in an online platform, providing free, real-time air quality forecasts, demonstrating its scalability and societal impact. By aligning deep learning with physical consistency, PCDCNet offers a practical and interpretable solution for AQF, enabling informed decision-making for both personal and regulatory applications.
Accurate prediction of wildfire spread is crucial for effective risk management, emergency response, and strategic resource allocation. In this study, we present a deep learning (DL)-based framework for forecasting the final extent of burned areas, using data available at the time of ignition. We leverage a spatio-temporal dataset that covers the Mediterranean region from 2006 to 2022, incorporating remote sensing data, meteorological observations, vegetation maps, land cover classifications, anthropogenic factors, topography data, and thermal anomalies. To evaluate the influence of temporal context, we conduct an ablation study examining how the inclusion of pre- and post-ignition data affects model performance, benchmarking the temporal-aware DL models against a baseline trained exclusively on ignition-day inputs. Our results indicate that multi-day observational data substantially improve predictive accuracy. Particularly, the best-performing model, incorporating a temporal window of four days before to five days after ignition, improves both the F1 score and the Intersection over Union by almost 5% in comparison to the baseline on the test dataset. We publicly release our dataset and models to enhance research into data-driven approaches for wildfire modeling and response.
Ultra-high-definition (UHD) image restoration aims to specifically solve the problem of quality degradation in ultra-high-resolution images. Recent advancements in this field are predominantly driven by deep learning-based innovations, including enhancements in dataset construction, network architecture, sampling strategies, prior knowledge integration, and loss functions. In this paper, we systematically review recent progress in UHD image restoration, covering various aspects ranging from dataset construction to algorithm design. This serves as a valuable resource for understanding state-of-the-art developments in the field. We begin by summarizing degradation models for various image restoration subproblems, such as super-resolution, low-light enhancement, deblurring, dehazing, deraining, and desnowing, and emphasizing the unique challenges of their application to UHD image restoration. We then highlight existing UHD benchmark datasets and organize the literature according to degradation types and dataset construction methods. Following this, we showcase major milestones in deep learning-driven UHD image restoration, reviewing the progression of restoration tasks, technological developments, and evaluations of existing methods. We further propose a classification framework based on network architectures and sampling strategies, helping to clearly organize existing methods. Finally, we share insights into the current research landscape and propose directions for further advancements. A related repository is available at https://github.com/wlydlut/UHD-Image-Restoration-Survey.
Efficient task scheduling is paramount in the Linux kernel, where the Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS) meticulously manages CPU resources to balance high utilization with interactive responsiveness. This research pioneers the use of deep learning techniques to predict the sequence of tasks selected by CFS, aiming to evaluate the feasibility of a more generalized and potentially more adaptive task scheduler for diverse workloads. Our core contributions are twofold: first, the systematic generation and curation of a novel scheduling dataset from a running Linux kernel, capturing real-world CFS behavior; and second, the development, training, and evaluation of a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network designed to accurately forecast the next task to be scheduled. This paper further discusses the practical pathways and implications of integrating such a predictive model into the kernel's scheduling framework. The findings and methodologies presented herein open avenues for data-driven advancements in kernel scheduling, with the full source code provided for reproducibility and further exploration.
Peer review is vital in academia for evaluating research quality. Top AI conferences use reviewer confidence scores to ensure review reliability, but existing studies lack fine-grained analysis of text-score consistency, potentially missing key details. This work assesses consistency at word, sentence, and aspect levels using deep learning and NLP conference review data. We employ deep learning to detect hedge sentences and aspects, then analyze report length, hedge word/sentence frequency, aspect mentions, and sentiment to evaluate text-score alignment. Correlation, significance, and regression tests examine confidence scores' impact on paper outcomes. Results show high text-score consistency across all levels, with regression revealing higher confidence scores correlate with paper rejection, validating expert assessments and peer review fairness.
Weather forecasting is essential but remains computationally intensive and physically incomplete in traditional numerical weather prediction (NWP) methods. Deep learning (DL) models offer efficiency and accuracy but often ignore physical laws, limiting interpretability and generalization. We propose PhyDL-NWP, a physics-guided deep learning framework that integrates physical equations with latent force parameterization into data-driven models. It predicts weather variables from arbitrary spatiotemporal coordinates, computes physical terms via automatic differentiation, and uses a physics-informed loss to align predictions with governing dynamics. PhyDL-NWP enables resolution-free downscaling by modeling weather as a continuous function and fine-tunes pre-trained models with minimal overhead, achieving up to 170x faster inference with only 55K parameters. Experiments show that PhyDL-NWP improves both forecasting performance and physical consistency.
Deep learning is significantly advancing the analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) data by effectively discovering highly nonlinear patterns within the signals. Data partitioning and cross-validation are crucial for assessing model performance and ensuring study comparability, as they can produce varied results and data leakage due to specific signal properties (e.g., biometric). Such variability leads to incomparable studies and, increasingly, overestimated performance claims, which are detrimental to the field. Nevertheless, no comprehensive guidelines for proper data partitioning and cross-validation exist in the domain, nor is there a quantitative evaluation of their impact on model accuracy, reliability, and generalizability. To assist researchers in identifying optimal experimental strategies, this paper thoroughly investigates the role of data partitioning and cross-validation in evaluating EEG deep learning models. Five cross-validation settings are compared across three supervised cross-subject classification tasks (BCI, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's disease detection) and four established architectures of increasing complexity (ShallowConvNet, EEGNet, DeepConvNet, and Temporal-based ResNet). The comparison of over 100,000 trained models underscores, first, the importance of using subject-based cross-validation strategies for evaluating EEG deep learning models, except when within-subject analyses are acceptable (e.g., BCI). Second, it highlights the greater reliability of nested approaches (N-LNSO) compared to non-nested counterparts, which are prone to data leakage and favor larger models overfitting to validation data. In conclusion, this work provides EEG deep learning researchers with an analysis of data partitioning and cross-validation and offers guidelines to avoid data leakage, currently undermining the domain with potentially overestimated performance claims.
Clustering tabular data remains a significant open challenge in data analysis and machine learning. Unlike for image data, similarity between tabular records often varies across datasets, making the definition of clusters highly dataset-dependent. Furthermore, the absence of supervised signals complicates hyperparameter tuning in deep learning clustering methods, frequently resulting in unstable performance. To address these issues and reduce the need for per-dataset tuning, we adopt an emerging approach in deep learning: zero-shot learning. We propose ZEUS, a self-contained model capable of clustering new datasets without any additional training or fine-tuning. It operates by decomposing complex datasets into meaningful components that can then be clustered effectively. Thanks to pre-training on synthetic datasets generated from a latent-variable prior, it generalizes across various datasets without requiring user intervention. To the best of our knowledge, ZEUS is the first zero-shot method capable of generating embeddings for tabular data in a fully unsupervised manner. Experimental results demonstrate that it performs on par with or better than traditional clustering algorithms and recent deep learning-based methods, while being significantly faster and more user-friendly.
The rapid decline of Arctic sea ice resulting from anthropogenic climate change poses significant risks to indigenous communities, ecosystems, and the global climate system. This situation emphasizes the immediate necessity for precise seasonal sea ice forecasts. While dynamical models perform well for short-term forecasts, they encounter limitations in long-term forecasts and are computationally intensive. Deep learning models, while more computationally efficient, often have difficulty managing seasonal variations and uncertainties when dealing with complex sea ice dynamics. In this research, we introduce IceMamba, a deep learning architecture that integrates sophisticated attention mechanisms within the state space model. Through comparative analysis of 25 renowned forecast models, including dynamical, statistical, and deep learning approaches, our experimental results indicate that IceMamba delivers excellent seasonal forecasting capabilities for Pan-Arctic sea ice concentration. Specifically, IceMamba outperforms all tested models regarding average RMSE and anomaly correlation coefficient (ACC) and ranks second in Integrated Ice Edge Error (IIEE). This innovative approach enhances our ability to foresee and alleviate the effects of sea ice variability, offering essential insights for strategies aimed at climate adaptation.