Africa
Feature-Wise Mixing for Mitigating Contextual Bias in Predictive Supervised Learning
Bias in predictive machine learning (ML) models is a fundamental challenge due to the skewed or unfair outcomes produced by biased models. Existing mitigation strategies rely on either post-hoc corrections or rigid constraints. However, emerging research claims that these techniques can limit scalability and reduce generalizability. To address this, this paper introduces a feature-wise mixing framework to mitigate contextual bias. This was done by redistributing feature representations across multiple contextual datasets. To assess feature-wise mixing's effectiveness, four ML classifiers were trained using cross-validation and evaluated with bias-sensitive loss functions, including disparity metrics and mean squared error (MSE), which served as a standard measure of predictive performance. The proposed method achieved an average bias reduction of 43.35% and a statistically significant decrease in MSE across all classifiers trained on mixed datasets. Additionally, benchmarking against established bias mitigation techniques found that feature-wise mixing consistently outperformed SMOTE oversampling and demonstrated competitive effectiveness without requiring explicit bias attribute identification. Feature-wise mixing efficiently avoids the computational overhead typically associated with fairness-aware learning algorithms. Future work could explore applying feature-wise mixing for real-world fields where accurate predictions are necessary.
Global Convergence of Iteratively Reweighted Least Squares for Robust Subspace Recovery
Lerman, Gilad, Li, Kang, Maunu, Tyler, Zhang, Teng
Robust subspace estimation is fundamental to many machine learning and data analysis tasks. Iteratively Reweighted Least Squares (IRLS) is an elegant and empirically effective approach to this problem, yet its theoretical properties remain poorly understood. This paper establishes that, under deterministic conditions, a variant of IRLS with dynamic smoothing regularization converges linearly to the underlying subspace from any initialization. We extend these guarantees to affine subspace estimation, a setting that lacks prior recovery theory. Additionally, we illustrate the practical benefits of IRLS through an application to low-dimensional neural network training. Our results provide the first global convergence guarantees for IRLS in robust subspace recovery and, more broadly, for nonconvex IRLS on a Riemannian manifold.
Robust Tensor Completion via Gradient Tensor Nulclear L1-L2 Norm for Traffic Data Recovery
Shu, Hao, Li, Jicheng, Lei, Tianyv, Sun, Lijun
In real-world scenarios, spatiotemporal traffic data frequently experiences dual degradation from missing values and noise caused by sensor malfunctions and communication failures. Therefore, effective data recovery methods are essential to ensure the reliability of downstream data-driven applications. while classical tensor completion methods have been widely adopted, they are incapable of modeling noise, making them unsuitable for complex scenarios involving simultaneous data missingness and noise interference. Existing Robust Tensor Completion (RTC) approaches offer potential solutions by separately modeling the actual tensor data and noise. However, their effectiveness is often constrained by the over-relaxation of convex rank surrogates and the suboptimal utilization of local consistency, leading to inadequate model accuracy. To address these limitations, we first introduce the tensor L1-L2 norm, a novel non-convex tensor rank surrogate that functions as an effective low-rank representation tool. Leveraging an advanced feature fusion strategy, we further develop the gradient tensor L1-L2 norm by incorporating the tensor L1-L2 norm in the gradient domain. By integrating the gradient tensor nuclear L1-L2 norm into the RTC framework, we propose the Robust Tensor Completion via Gradient Tensor Nuclear L1-L2 Norm (RTC-GTNLN) model, which not only fully exploits both global low-rankness and local consistency without trade-off parameter, but also effectively handles the dual degradation challenges of missing data and noise in traffic data. Extensive experiments conducted on multiple real-world traffic datasets demonstrate that the RTC-GTNLN model consistently outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods in complex recovery scenarios involving simultaneous missing values and noise.
Bridging the Gap with Retrieval-Augmented Generation: Making Prosthetic Device User Manuals Available in Marginalised Languages
Ogbonna, Ikechukwu, Davidson, Lesley, Banerjee, Soumya, Dasgupta, Abhishek, Kenney, Laurence, Nagaraja, Vikranth Harthikote
Millions of people in African countries face barriers to accessing healthcare due to language and literacy gaps. This research tackles this challenge by transforming complex medical documents -- in this case, prosthetic device user manuals -- into accessible formats for underserved populations. This case study in cross-cultural translation is particularly pertinent/relevant for communities that receive donated prosthetic devices but may not receive the accompanying user documentation. Or, if available online, may only be available in formats (e.g., language and readability) that are inaccessible to local populations (e.g., English-language, high resource settings/cultural context). The approach is demonstrated using the widely spoken Pidgin dialect, but our open-source framework has been designed to enable rapid and easy extension to other languages/dialects. This work presents an AI-powered framework designed to process and translate complex medical documents, e.g., user manuals for prosthetic devices, into marginalised languages. The system enables users -- such as healthcare workers or patients -- to upload English-language medical equipment manuals, pose questions in their native language, and receive accurate, localised answers in real time. Technically, the system integrates a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline for processing and semantic understanding of the uploaded manuals. It then employs advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) models for generative question-answering and multilingual translation. Beyond simple translation, it ensures accessibility to device instructions, treatment protocols, and safety information, empowering patients and clinicians to make informed healthcare decisions.
AGI Enabled Solutions For IoX Layers Bottlenecks In Cyber-Physical-Social-Thinking Space
Khelloufi, Amar, Ning, Huansheng, Dhelim, Sahraoui, Ding, Jianguo
The integration of the Internet of Everything (IoX) and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) has given rise to a transformative paradigm aimed at addressing critical bottlenecks across sensing, network, and application layers in Cyber-Physical-Social Thinking (CPST) ecosystems. In this survey, we provide a systematic and comprehensive review of AGI-enhanced IoX research, focusing on three key components: sensing-layer data management, network-layer protocol optimization, and application-layer decision-making frameworks. Specifically, this survey explores how AGI can mitigate IoX bottlenecks challenges by leveraging adaptive sensor fusion, edge preprocessing, and selective attention mechanisms at the sensing layer, while resolving network-layer issues such as protocol heterogeneity and dynamic spectrum management, neuro-symbolic reasoning, active inference, and causal reasoning, Furthermore, the survey examines AGI-enabled frameworks for managing identity and relationship explosion. Key findings suggest that AGI-driven strategies, such as adaptive sensor fusion, edge preprocessing, and semantic modeling, offer novel solutions to sensing-layer data overload, network-layer protocol heterogeneity, and application-layer identity explosion. The survey underscores the importance of cross-layer integration, quantum-enabled communication, and ethical governance frameworks for future AGI-enabled IoX systems. Finally, the survey identifies unresolved challenges, such as computational requirements, scalability, and real-world validation, calling for further research to fully realize AGI's potential in addressing IoX bottlenecks. we believe AGI-enhanced IoX is emerging as a critical research field at the intersection of interconnected systems and advanced AI.
Arabic Dialect Classification using RNNs, Transformers, and Large Language Models: A Comparative Analysis
Essameldin, Omar A., Elbeih, Ali O., Gomaa, Wael H., Elsersy, Wael F.
--The Arabic language is among the most popular languages in the world with a huge variety of dialects spoken in 22 countries. In this study, we address the problem of classifying 18 Arabic dialects of the QADI dataset of Arabic tweets. RNN models, Transformer models, and large language models (LLMs) via prompt engineering are created and tested. Among these, MARBERTv2 performed best with 65% accuracy and 64% F1-score. Through the use of state-of-the-art preprocessing techniques and the latest NLP models, this paper identifies the most significant linguistic issues in Arabic dialect identification. The results corroborate applications like personalized chatbots that respond in users' dialects, social media monitoring, and greater accessibility for Arabic communities.
Data Quality Issues in Multilingual Speech Datasets: The Need for Sociolinguistic Awareness and Proactive Language Planning
Lau, Mingfei, Chen, Qian, Fang, Yeming, Xu, Tingting, Chen, Tongzhou, Golik, Pavel
Our quality audit for three widely used public multilingual speech datasets - Mozilla Common Voice 17.0, FLEURS, and Vox Populi - shows that in some languages, these datasets suffer from significant quality issues, which may obfuscate downstream evaluation results while creating an illusion of success. We divide these quality issues into two categories: micro-level and macro-level. We find that macro-level issues are more prevalent in less institutionalized, often under-resourced languages. We provide a case analysis of Taiwanese Southern Min (nan_tw) that highlights the need for proactive language planning (e.g. orthography prescriptions, dialect boundary definition) and enhanced data quality control in the dataset creation process. We conclude by proposing guidelines and recommendations to mitigate these issues in future dataset development, emphasizing the importance of sociolinguistic awareness and language planning principles. Furthermore, we encourage research into how this creation process itself can be leveraged as a tool for community-led language planning and revitalization.
Searching Efficient Deep Architectures for Radar Target Detection using Monte-Carlo Tree Search
Lallouet, Noรฉ, Cazenave, Tristan, Enderli, Cyrille, Gourdin, Stรฉphanie
Recent research works establish deep neural networks as high performing tools for radar target detection, especially on challenging environments (presence of clutter or interferences, multi-target scenarii...). However, the usually large computational complexity of these networks is one of the factors preventing them from being widely implemented in embedded radar systems. We propose to investigate novel neural architecture search (NAS) methods, based on Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS), for finding neural networks achieving the required detection performance and striving towards a lower computational complexity. We evaluate the searched architectures on endoclutter radar signals, in order to compare their respective performance metrics and generalization properties. A novel network satisfying the required detection probability while being significantly lighter than the expert-designed baseline is proposed.
Transfer Learning for Assessing Heavy Metal Pollution in Seaports Sediments
Lai, Tin, Farid, Farnaz, Kuan, Yueyang, Zhang, Xintian
Detecting heavy metal pollution in soils and seaports is vital for regional environmental monitoring. The Pollution Load Index (PLI), an international standard, is commonly used to assess heavy metal containment. However, the conventional PLI assessment involves laborious procedures and data analysis of sediment samples. To address this challenge, we propose a deep-learning-based model that simplifies the heavy metal assessment process. Our model tackles the issue of data scarcity in the water-sediment domain, which is traditionally plagued by challenges in data collection and varying standards across nations. By leveraging transfer learning, we develop an accurate quantitative assessment method for predicting PLI. Our approach allows the transfer of learned features across domains with different sets of features. We evaluate our model using data from six major ports in New South Wales, Australia: Port Yamba, Port Newcastle, Port Jackson, Port Botany, Port Kembla, and Port Eden. The results demonstrate significantly lower Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) of approximately 0.5 and 0.03, respectively, compared to other models. Our model performance is up to 2 orders of magnitude than other baseline models. Our proposed model offers an innovative, accessible, and cost-effective approach to predicting water quality, benefiting marine life conservation, aquaculture, and industrial pollution monitoring.
Universal Retrieval for Multimodal Trajectory Modeling
Zhang, Xuan, Jiang, Ziyan, Meng, Rui, Leng, Yifei, Xiao, Zhenbang, Wang, Zora Zhiruo, Shang, Yanyi, Kong, Dehan
Trajectory data, capturing human actions and environmental states across various modalities, holds significant potential for enhancing AI agent capabilities, particularly in GUI environments. However, how to model the representation of trajectory-level data presents a significant challenge that has not been systematically addressed amid explosive trajectory data growth. In this work, we introduce Multimodal Trajectory Retrieval, bridging the gap between universal retrieval and agent-centric trajectory modeling. We construct the Unified Agent Trajectory Dataset (UATD) from annotated demonstrations and states across diverse real-world scenarios. Based on this, we present GAE-Bench, a benchmark containing a large number of trajectory-based retrieval pairs. In addition, we propose GAE-Retriever, a multimodal retrieval framework that adopts vision-language models and incorporates optimized contrastive learning through a token selection and the GradCache mechanism. Comprehensive evaluations across multiple datasets show that GAE-Retriever consistently outperforms strong baselines in retrieval recall, highlighting its effectiveness in advancing multimodal trajectory retrieval.