Overview
Online Continual Learning: A Systematic Literature Review of Approaches, Challenges, and Benchmarks
Bidaki, Seyed Amir, Mohammadkhah, Amir, Rezaee, Kiyan, Hassani, Faeze, Eskandari, Sadegh, Salahi, Maziar, Ghassemi, Mohammad M.
Online Continual Learning (OCL) is a critical area in machine learning, focusing on enabling models to adapt to evolving data streams in real-time while addressing challenges such as catastrophic forgetting and the stability-plasticity trade-off. This study conducts the first comprehensive Systematic Literature Review (SLR) on OCL, analyzing 81 approaches, extracting over 1,000 features (specific tasks addressed by these approaches), and identifying more than 500 components (sub-models within approaches, including algorithms and tools). We also review 83 datasets spanning applications like image classification, object detection, and multimodal vision-language tasks. Our findings highlight key challenges, including reducing computational overhead, developing domain-agnostic solutions, and improving scalability in resource-constrained environments. Furthermore, we identify promising directions for future research, such as leveraging self-supervised learning for multimodal and sequential data, designing adaptive memory mechanisms that integrate sparse retrieval and generative replay, and creating efficient frameworks for real-world applications with noisy or evolving task boundaries. By providing a rigorous and structured synthesis of the current state of OCL, this review offers a valuable resource for advancing this field and addressing its critical challenges and opportunities. The complete SLR methodology steps and extracted data are publicly available through the provided link: https://github.com/kiyan-rezaee/ Systematic-Literature-Review-on-Online-Continual-Learning
A Survey on Path Planning Problem of Rolling Contacts: Approaches, Applications and Future Challenges
Tafrishi, Seyed Amir, Svinin, Mikhail, Tahara, Kenji
This paper explores an eclectic range of path-planning methodologies engineered for rolling surfaces. Our focus is on the kinematic intricacies of rolling contact systems, which are investigated through a motion planning lens. Beyond summarizing the approaches to single-contact rotational surfaces, we explore the challenging domain of spin-rolling multi-contact systems. Our work proposes solutions for the higher-dimensional problem of multiple rotating objects in contact. Venturing beyond kinematics, these methodologies find application across a spectrum of domains, including rolling robots, reconfigurable swarm robotics, micro/nano manipulation, and nonprehensile manipulations. Through meticulously examining established planning strategies, we unveil their practical implementations in various real-world scenarios, from intricate dexterous manipulation tasks to the nimble manoeuvring of rolling robots and even shape planning of multi-contact swarms of particles. This study introduces the persistent challenges and unexplored frontiers of robotics, intricately linked to both path planning and mechanism design. As we illuminate existing solutions, we also set the stage for future breakthroughs in this dynamic and rapidly evolving field by highlighting the critical importance of addressing rolling contact problems.
Integrating LLMs with ITS: Recent Advances, Potentials, Challenges, and Future Directions
Mahmud, Doaa, Hajmohamed, Hadeel, Almentheri, Shamma, Alqaydi, Shamma, Aldhaheri, Lameya, Khalil, Ruhul Amin, Saeed, Nasir
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are crucial for the development and operation of smart cities, addressing key challenges in efficiency, productivity, and environmental sustainability. This paper comprehensively reviews the transformative potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) in optimizing ITS. Initially, we provide an extensive overview of ITS, highlighting its components, operational principles, and overall effectiveness. We then delve into the theoretical background of various LLM techniques, such as GPT, T5, CTRL, and BERT, elucidating their relevance to ITS applications. Following this, we examine the wide-ranging applications of LLMs within ITS, including traffic flow prediction, vehicle detection and classification, autonomous driving, traffic sign recognition, and pedestrian detection. Our analysis reveals how these advanced models can significantly enhance traffic management and safety. Finally, we explore the challenges and limitations LLMs face in ITS, such as data availability, computational constraints, and ethical considerations. We also present several future research directions and potential innovations to address these challenges. This paper aims to guide researchers and practitioners through the complexities and opportunities of integrating LLMs in ITS, offering a roadmap to create more efficient, sustainable, and responsive next-generation transportation systems.
Understanding Before Reasoning: Enhancing Chain-of-Thought with Iterative Summarization Pre-Prompting
Zhu, Dong-Hai, Xiong, Yu-Jie, Zhang, Jia-Chen, Xie, Xi-Jiong, Xia, Chun-Ming
Chain-of-Thought (CoT) Prompting is a dominant paradigm in Large Language Models (LLMs) to enhance complex reasoning. It guides LLMs to present multi-step reasoning, rather than generating the final answer directly. However, CoT encounters difficulties when key information required for reasoning is implicit or missing. This occurs because CoT emphasizes the sequence of reasoning steps while overlooking the early extraction of essential information. We propose a pre-prompting method called Iterative Summarization Pre-Prompting (ISP^2) to refine LLM reasoning when key information is not explicitly provided. First, entities and their corresponding descriptions are extracted to form potential key information pairs. Next, we use a reliability rating to assess these pairs, then merge the two lowest-ranked pairs into a new entity description. This process is repeated until a unique key information pair is obtained. Finally, that pair, along with the original question, is fed into LLMs to produce the answer. Extensive experiments demonstrate a 7.1% improvement compared to existing methods. Unlike traditional prompting, ISP^2 adopts an inductive approach with pre-prompting, offering flexible integration into diverse reasoning frameworks. The code is available at https://github.com/zdhgreat/ISP-2.
LLM4SR: A Survey on Large Language Models for Scientific Research
Luo, Ziming, Yang, Zonglin, Xu, Zexin, Yang, Wei, Du, Xinya
In recent years, the rapid advancement of Large Language Models (LLMs) has transformed the landscape of scientific research, offering unprecedented support across various stages of the research cycle. This paper presents the first systematic survey dedicated to exploring how LLMs are revolutionizing the scientific research process. We analyze the unique roles LLMs play across four critical stages of research: hypothesis discovery, experiment planning and implementation, scientific writing, and peer reviewing. Our review comprehensively showcases the task-specific methodologies and evaluation benchmarks. By identifying current challenges and proposing future research directions, this survey not only highlights the transformative potential of LLMs, but also aims to inspire and guide researchers and practitioners in leveraging LLMs to advance scientific inquiry. Resources are available at the following repository: https://github.com/du-nlp-lab/LLM4SR
CONTINUUM: Detecting APT Attacks through Spatial-Temporal Graph Neural Networks
Bahar, Atmane Ayoub Mansour, Ferrahi, Kamel Soaid, Messai, Mohamed-Lamine, Seba, Hamida, Amrouche, Karima
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) represent a significant challenge in cybersecurity due to their sophisticated and stealthy nature. Traditional Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) often fall short in detecting these multi-stage attacks. Recently, Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have been employed to enhance IDS capabilities by analyzing the complex relationships within networked data. However, existing GNN-based solutions are hampered by high false positive rates and substantial resource consumption. In this paper, we present a novel IDS designed to detect APTs using a Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Network Autoencoder. Our approach leverages spatial information to understand the interactions between entities within a graph and temporal information to capture the evolution of the graph over time. This dual perspective is crucial for identifying the sequential stages of APTs. Furthermore, to address privacy and scalability concerns, we deploy our architecture in a federated learning environment. This setup ensures that local data remains on-premise while encrypted model-weights are shared and aggregated using homomorphic encryption, maintaining data privacy and security. Our evaluation shows that this system effectively detects APTs with lower false positive rates and optimized resource usage compared to existing methods, highlighting the potential of spatio-temporal analysis and federated learning in enhancing cybersecurity defenses.
Sustainable and Intelligent Public Facility Failure Management System Based on Large Language Models
Bi, Siguo, Zhang, Jilong, Ni, Wei
This paper presents a new Large Language Model (LLM)-based Smart Device Management framework, a pioneering approach designed to address the intricate challenges of managing intelligent devices within public facilities, with a particular emphasis on applications to libraries. Our framework leverages state-of-the-art LLMs to analyze and predict device failures, thereby enhancing operational efficiency and reliability. Through prototype validation in real-world library settings, we demonstrate the framework's practical applicability and its capacity to significantly reduce budgetary constraints on public facilities. The advanced and innovative nature of our model is evident from its successful implementation in prototype testing. We plan to extend the framework's scope to include a wider array of public facilities and to integrate it with cutting-edge cybersecurity technologies, such as Internet of Things (IoT) security and machine learning algorithms for threat detection and response. This will result in a comprehensive and proactive maintenance system that not only bolsters the security of intelligent devices but also utilizes machine learning for automated analysis and real-time threat mitigation. By incorporating these advanced cybersecurity elements, our framework will be well-positioned to tackle the dynamic challenges of modern public infrastructure, ensuring robust protection against potential threats and enabling facilities to anticipate and prevent failures, leading to substantial cost savings and enhanced service quality.
Detecting Neurocognitive Disorders through Analyses of Topic Evolution and Cross-modal Consistency in Visual-Stimulated Narratives
Li, Jinchao, Wang, Yuejiao, Li, Junan, Kang, Jiawen, Zheng, Bo, Wong, Simon, Mak, Brian, Fung, Helene, Woo, Jean, Mak, Man-Wai, Kwok, Timothy, Mok, Vincent, Gong, Xianmin, Wu, Xixin, Liu, Xunying, Wong, Patrick, Meng, Helen
Early detection of neurocognitive disorders (NCDs) is crucial for timely intervention and disease management. Speech analysis offers a non-intrusive and scalable screening method, particularly through narrative tasks in neuropsychological assessment tools. Traditional narrative analysis often focuses on local indicators in microstructure, such as word usage and syntax. While these features provide insights into language production abilities, they often fail to capture global narrative patterns, or microstructures. Macrostructures include coherence, thematic organization, and logical progressions, reflecting essential cognitive skills potentially critical for recognizing NCDs. Addressing this gap, we propose to investigate specific cognitive and linguistic challenges by analyzing topical shifts, temporal dynamics, and the coherence of narratives over time, aiming to reveal cognitive deficits by identifying narrative impairments, and exploring their impact on communication and cognition. The investigation is based on the CU-MARVEL Rabbit Story corpus, which comprises recordings of a story-telling task from 758 older adults. We developed two approaches: the Dynamic Topic Models (DTM)-based temporal analysis to examine the evolution of topics over time, and the Text-Image Temporal Alignment Network (TITAN) to evaluate the coherence between spoken narratives and visual stimuli. DTM-based approach validated the effectiveness of dynamic topic consistency as a macrostructural metric (F1=0.61, AUC=0.78). The TITAN approach achieved the highest performance (F1=0.72, AUC=0.81), surpassing established microstructural and macrostructural feature sets. Cross-comparison and regression tasks further demonstrated the effectiveness of proposed dynamic macrostructural modeling approaches for NCD detection.
A Survey on Federated Learning in Human Sensing
Li, Mohan, Gjoreski, Martin, Barbiero, Pietro, Slapničar, Gašper, Luštrek, Mitja, Lane, Nicholas D., Langheinrich, Marc
Human Sensing, a field that leverages technology to monitor human activities, psycho-physiological states, and interactions with the environment, enhances our understanding of human behavior and drives the development of advanced services that improve overall quality of life. However, its reliance on detailed and often privacy-sensitive data as the basis for its machine learning (ML) models raises significant legal and ethical concerns. The recently proposed ML approach of Federated Learning (FL) promises to alleviate many of these concerns, as it is able to create accurate ML models without sending raw user data to a central server. While FL has demonstrated its usefulness across a variety of areas, such as text prediction and cyber security, its benefits in Human Sensing are under-explored, given the particular challenges in this domain. This survey conducts a comprehensive analysis of the current state-of-the-art studies on FL in Human Sensing, and proposes a taxonomy and an eight-dimensional assessment for FL approaches. Through the eight-dimensional assessment, we then evaluate whether the surveyed studies consider a specific FL-in-Human-Sensing challenge or not. Finally, based on the overall analysis, we discuss open challenges and highlight five research aspects related to FL in Human Sensing that require urgent research attention. Our work provides a comprehensive corpus of FL studies and aims to assist FL practitioners in developing and evaluating solutions that effectively address the real-world complexities of Human Sensing.
TOAST Framework: A Multidimensional Approach to Ethical and Sustainable AI Integration in Organizations
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative technology with the potential to revolutionize various sectors, from healthcare to finance, education, and beyond. However, successfully implementing AI systems remains a complex challenge, requiring a comprehensive and methodologically sound framework. This paper contributes to this challenge by introducing the Trustworthy, Optimized, Adaptable, and Socio-Technologically harmonious (TOAST) framework. It draws on insights from various disciplines to align technical strategy with ethical values, societal responsibilities, and innovation aspirations. The TOAST framework is a novel approach designed to guide the implementation of AI systems, focusing on reliability, accountability, technical advancement, adaptability, and socio-technical harmony. By grounding the TOAST framework in healthcare case studies, this paper provides a robust evaluation of its practicality and theoretical soundness in addressing operational, ethical, and regulatory challenges in high-stakes environments, demonstrating how adaptable AI systems can enhance institutional efficiency, mitigate risks like bias and data privacy, and offer a replicable model for other sectors requiring ethically aligned and efficient AI integration.