Introduction: Poor educational quality in Secondary Schools is still regarded as one of the major struggles in 21st century Uganda - especially in rural areas. Research identifies several problems, including low quality or absent teacher lesson planning. As the government pushes towards the implementation of a new curriculum, exiting lesson plans become obsolete and the problem is worsened. Using a Retrieval Augmented Generation approach, we developed a prototype that generates customized lesson plans based on the government-accredited textbooks. This helps teachers create lesson plans more efficiently and with better quality, ensuring they are fully aligned the new curriculum and the competence-based learning approach. Methods: The prototype was created using Cohere LLM and Sentence Embeddings, and LangChain Framework - and thereafter made available on a public website. Vector stores were trained for three new curriculum textbooks (ICT, Mathematics, History), all at Secondary 1 Level. Twenty-four lessons plans were generated following a pseudo-random generation protocol, based on the suggested periods in the textbooks. The lesson plans were analyzed regarding their technical quality by three independent raters following the Lesson Plan Analysis Protocol (LPAP) by Ndihokubwayo et al. (2022) that is specifically designed for East Africa and competence-based curriculums. Results: Evaluation of 24 lesson plans using the LPAP resulted in an average quality of between 75 and 80%, corresponding to "very good lesson plan". None of the lesson plans scored below 65%, although one lesson plan could be argued to have been missing the topic. In conclusion, the quality of the generated lesson plans is at least comparable, if not better, than those created by humans, as demonstrated in a study in Rwanda, whereby no lesson plan even reached the benchmark of 50%.

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which focuses on training agents to make decisions by interacting with their environment to maximize cumulative rewards. An overview of RL is provided in this paper, which discusses its core concepts, methodologies, recent trends, and resources for learning. We provide a detailed explanation of key components of RL such as states, actions, policies, and reward signals so that the reader can build a foundational understanding. The paper also provides examples of various RL algorithms, including model-free and model-based methods. In addition, RL algorithms are introduced and resources for learning and implementing them are provided, such as books, courses, and online communities. This paper demystifies a comprehensive yet simple introduction for beginners by offering a structured and clear pathway for acquiring and implementing real-time techniques.

End-to-end interpretation is currently the prevailing paradigm for remote sensing fine-grained ship classification (RS-FGSC) task. However, its inference process is uninterpretable, leading to criticism as a black box model. To address this issue, we propose a large vision-language model (LVLM) named IFShip for interpretable fine-grained ship classification. Unlike traditional methods, IFShip excels in interpretability by accurately conveying the reasoning process of FGSC in natural language. Specifically, we first design a domain knowledge-enhanced Chain-of-Thought (COT) prompt generation mechanism. This mechanism is used to semi-automatically construct a task-specific instruction-following dataset named TITANIC-FGS, which emulates human-like logical decision-making. We then train the IFShip model using task instructions tuned with the TITANIC-FGS dataset. Building on IFShip, we develop an FGSC visual chatbot that redefines the FGSC problem as a step-by-step reasoning task and conveys the reasoning process in natural language. Experimental results reveal that the proposed method surpasses state-of-the-art FGSC algorithms in both classification interpretability and accuracy. Moreover, compared to LVLMs like LLaVA and MiniGPT-4, our approach demonstrates superior expertise in the FGSC task. It provides an accurate chain of reasoning when fine-grained ship types are recognizable to the human eye and offers interpretable explanations when they are not.

"Artificial Neural Network and Deep Learning: Fundamentals and Theory" offers a comprehensive exploration of the foundational principles and advanced methodologies in neural networks and deep learning. This book begins with essential concepts in descriptive statistics and probability theory, laying a solid groundwork for understanding data and probability distributions. As the reader progresses, they are introduced to matrix calculus and gradient optimization, crucial for training and fine-tuning neural networks. The book delves into multilayer feed-forward neural networks, explaining their architecture, training processes, and the backpropagation algorithm. Key challenges in neural network optimization, such as activation function saturation, vanishing and exploding gradients, and weight initialization, are thoroughly discussed. The text covers various learning rate schedules and adaptive algorithms, providing strategies to optimize the training process. Techniques for generalization and hyperparameter tuning, including Bayesian optimization and Gaussian processes, are also presented to enhance model performance and prevent overfitting. Advanced activation functions are explored in detail, categorized into sigmoid-based, ReLU-based, ELU-based, miscellaneous, non-standard, and combined types. Each activation function is examined for its properties and applications, offering readers a deep understanding of their impact on neural network behavior. The final chapter introduces complex-valued neural networks, discussing complex numbers, functions, and visualizations, as well as complex calculus and backpropagation algorithms. This book equips readers with the knowledge and skills necessary to design, and optimize advanced neural network models, contributing to the ongoing advancements in artificial intelligence.

This works investigates the generalization capabilities of MeshGraphNets (MGN) [Pfaff et al. Learning Mesh-Based Simulation with Graph Networks. ICML 2021] to unseen geometries for fluid dynamics, e.g. predicting the flow around a new obstacle that was not part of the training data. For this purpose, we create a new benchmark dataset for data-driven computational fluid dynamics (CFD) which extends DeepMind's flow around a cylinder dataset by including different shapes and multiple objects. We then use this new dataset to extend the generalization experiments conducted by DeepMind on MGNs by testing how well an MGN can generalize to different shapes. In our numerical tests, we show that MGNs can sometimes generalize well to various shapes by training on a dataset of one obstacle shape and testing on a dataset of another obstacle shape.

Quantum Graph Neural Networks (QGNNs) represent a novel fusion of quantum computing and Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), aimed at overcoming the computational and scalability challenges inherent in classical GNNs that are powerful tools for analyzing data with complex relational structures but suffer from limitations such as high computational complexity and over-smoothing in large-scale applications. Quantum computing, leveraging principles like superposition and entanglement, offers a pathway to enhanced computational capabilities. This paper critically reviews the state-of-the-art in QGNNs, exploring various architectures. We discuss their applications across diverse fields such as high-energy physics, molecular chemistry, finance and earth sciences, highlighting the potential for quantum advantage. Additionally, we address the significant challenges faced by QGNNs, including noise, decoherence, and scalability issues, proposing potential strategies to mitigate these problems. This comprehensive review aims to provide a foundational understanding of QGNNs, fostering further research and development in this promising interdisciplinary field.

We discuss the teaching of the discussion surrounding Bender and Koller's prominent ACL 2020 paper, "Climbing toward NLU: on meaning form, and understanding in the age of data" \cite{bender2020climbing}. We present what we understand to be the main contentions of the paper, and then recommend that the students engage with the natural counter-arguments to the claims in the paper. We attach teaching materials that we use to facilitate teaching this topic to undergraduate students.

Accurately segmenting different organs from medical images is a critical prerequisite for computer-assisted diagnosis and intervention planning. This study proposes a deep learning-based approach for segmenting various organs from CT and MRI scans and classifying diseases. Our study introduces a novel technique integrating momentum within residual blocks for enhanced training dynamics in medical image analysis. We applied our method in two distinct tasks: segmenting liver, lung, & colon data and classifying abdominal pelvic CT and MRI scans. The proposed approach has shown promising results, outperforming state-of-the-art methods on publicly available benchmarking datasets. For instance, in the lung segmentation dataset, our approach yielded significant enhancements over the TransNetR model, including a 5.72% increase in dice score, a 5.04% improvement in mean Intersection over Union (mIoU), an 8.02% improvement in recall, and a 4.42% improvement in precision. Hence, incorporating momentum led to state-of-the-art performance in both segmentation and classification tasks, representing a significant advancement in the field of medical imaging.

Wanna hear something totally insane? Not only does learning a new language make you smarter (duh, you'll know how to speak French or something), but it essentially rewires your brain. That's if you trust the findings from Harvard University. That means if you've been meaning to pick up some German for this year's Oktoberfest, it's time to say, "Oui oui!" Your language skills seem to need some work, so you should grab an app like Babbel. Get Babbel lifetime access here for 139.97 (reg.

Text-to-image (TTI) systems, particularly those utilizing open-source frameworks, have become increasingly prevalent in the production of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated visuals. While existing literature has explored various problematic aspects of TTI technologies, such as bias in generated content, intellectual property concerns, and the reinforcement of harmful stereotypes, open-source TTI frameworks have not yet been systematically examined from a cultural perspective. This study addresses this gap by analyzing the CivitAI platform, a leading open-source platform dedicated to TTI AI. We introduce the Civiverse prompt dataset, encompassing millions of images and related metadata. We focus on prompt analysis, specifically examining the semantic characteristics of text prompts, as it is crucial for addressing societal issues related to generative technologies. This analysis provides insights into user intentions, preferences, and behaviors, which in turn shape the outputs of these models. Our findings reveal a predominant preference for generating explicit content, along with a focus on homogenization of semantic content. These insights underscore the need for further research into the perpetuation of misogyny, harmful stereotypes, and the uniformity of visual culture within these models.