Education
ScreenLLM: Stateful Screen Schema for Efficient Action Understanding and Prediction
Jin, Yiqiao, Petrangeli, Stefano, Shen, Yu, Wu, Gang
Graphical User Interface (GUI) agents are autonomous systems that interpret and generate actions, enabling intelligent user assistance and automation. Effective training of these agent presents unique challenges, such as sparsity in supervision signals, scalability for large datasets, and the need for nuanced user understanding. We propose stateful screen schema, an efficient representation of GUI interactions that captures key user actions and intentions over time. Building on this foundation, we introduce ScreenLLM, a set of multimodal large language models (MLLMs) tailored for advanced UI understanding and action prediction. Extensive experiments on both open-source and proprietary models show that ScreenLLM accurately models user behavior and predicts actions. Our work lays the foundation for scalable, robust, and intelligent GUI agents that enhance user interaction in diverse software environments.
Concept Map Assessment Through Structure Classification
Vossen, Laรญs P. V., Gasparini, Isabela, Oliveira, Elaine H. T., Czinczel, Berrit, Harms, Ute, Menzel, Lukas, Gombert, Sebastian, Neumann, Knut, Drachsler, Hendrik
Due to their versatility, concept maps are used in various educational settings and serve as tools that enable educators to comprehend students' knowledge construction. An essential component for analyzing a concept map is its structure, which can be categorized into three distinct types: spoke, network, and chain. Understanding the predominant structure in a map offers insights into the student's depth of comprehension of the subject. Therefore, this study examined 317 distinct concept map structures, classifying them into one of the three types, and used statistical and descriptive information from the maps to train multiclass classification models. As a result, we achieved an 86\% accuracy in classification using a Decision Tree. This promising outcome can be employed in concept map assessment systems to provide real-time feedback to the student.
From Annotation to Adaptation: Metrics, Synthetic Data, and Aspect Extraction for Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis with Large Language Models
Neveditsin, Nikita, Lingras, Pawan, Mago, Vijay
This study examines the performance of Large Language Models (LLMs) in Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis (ABSA), with a focus on implicit aspect extraction in a novel domain. Using a synthetic sports feedback dataset, we evaluate open-weight LLMs' ability to extract aspect-polarity pairs and propose a metric to facilitate the evaluation of aspect extraction with generative models. Our findings highlight both the potential and limitations of LLMs in the ABSA task.
Ancestral Mamba: Enhancing Selective Discriminant Space Model with Online Visual Prototype Learning for Efficient and Robust Discriminant Approach
Qin, Jiahao, Liu, Feng, Zong, Lu
In the realm of computer graphics, the ability to learn continuously from non-stationary data streams while adapting to new visual patterns and mitigating catastrophic forgetting is of paramount importance. Existing approaches often struggle to capture and represent the essential characteristics of evolving visual concepts, hindering their applicability to dynamic graphics tasks. In this paper, we propose Ancestral Mamba, a novel approach that integrates online prototype learning into a selective discriminant space model for efficient and robust online continual learning. The key components of our approach include Ancestral Prototype Adaptation (AP A), which continuously refines and builds upon learned visual prototypes, and Mamba Feedback (MF), which provides targeted feedback to adapt to challenging visual patterns. AP A enables the model to continuously adapt its prototypes, building upon ancestral knowledge to tackle new challenges, while MF acts as a targeted feedback mechanism, focusing on challenging classes and refining their representations. Extensive experiments on graphics-oriented datasets, such as CIF AR-10 and CIF AR-100, demonstrate the superior performance of Ancestral Mamba compared to state-of-the-art baselines, achieving significant improvements in accuracy and forgetting mitigation. 1. Introduction Online continual learning (OCL) aims to learn continuously from a non-stationary data stream while adapting to new data and mitigating catastrophic forgetting [1, 11, 17, 21]. Recently, online prototype Learning (OnPro) [22] has attracted a lot of attention with its brilliant performance in the OCL field. This paradigm holds immense potential for real-world applications, particularly in the realm of computer graphics, where the ability to process and adapt to evolving visual patterns, shapes, and colours is of paramount importance. Catastrophic forgetting [7, 22, 23, 25] stands as a major hurdle in online continual learning, akin to a visual artist abruptly losing previously acquired skills when adapting to new styles.
UniEDU: A Unified Language and Vision Assistant for Education Applications
Chu, Zhendong, Xie, Jian, Wang, Shen, Wang, Zichao, Wen, Qingsong
Education materials for K-12 students often consist of multiple modalities, such as text and images, posing challenges for models to fully understand nuanced information in these materials. In this paper, we propose a unified language and vision assistant UniEDU designed for various educational applications, including knowledge recommendation, knowledge tracing, time cost prediction, and user answer prediction, all within a single model. Unlike conventional task-specific models, UniEDU offers a unified solution that excels across multiple educational tasks while maintaining strong generalization capabilities. Its adaptability makes it well-suited for real-world deployment in diverse learning environments. Furthermore, UniEDU is optimized for industry-scale deployment by significantly reducing computational overhead-achieving approximately a 300\% increase in efficiency-while maintaining competitive performance with minimal degradation compared to fully fine-tuned models. This work represents a significant step toward creating versatile AI systems tailored to the evolving demands of education.
Comparative analysis and evaluation of ageing forecasting methods for semiconductor devices in online health monitoring
Villalobos, Adrian, Barrutia, Iban, Pena-Alzola, Rafael, Dragicevic, Tomislav, Aizpurua, Jose I.
Semiconductor devices, especially MOSFETs (Metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor), are crucial in power electronics, but their reliability is affected by aging processes influenced by cycling and temperature. The primary aging mechanism in discrete semiconductors and power modules is the bond wire lift-off, caused by crack growth due to thermal fatigue. The process is empirically characterized by exponential growth and an abrupt end of life, making long-term aging forecasts challenging. This research presents a comprehensive comparative assessment of different forecasting methods for MOSFET failure forecasting applications. Classical tracking, statistical forecasting and Neural Network (NN) based forecasting models are implemented along with novel Temporal Fusion Transformers (TFTs). A comprehensive comparison is performed assessing their MOSFET ageing forecasting ability for different forecasting horizons. For short-term predictions, all algorithms result in acceptable results, with the best results produced by classical NN forecasting models at the expense of higher computations. For long-term forecasting, only the TFT is able to produce valid outcomes owing to the ability to integrate covariates from the expected future conditions. Additionally, TFT attention points identify key ageing turning points, which indicate new failure modes or accelerated ageing phases.
High Quality Diffusion Distillation on a Single GPU with Relative and Absolute Position Matching
Zhang, Guoqiang, Niwa, Kenta, Lewis, J. P., Mesnage, Cedric, Kleijn, W. Bastiaan
We introduce relative and absolute position matching (RAPM), a diffusion distillation method resulting in high quality generation that can be trained efficiently on a single GPU. Recent diffusion distillation research has achieved excellent results for high-resolution text-to-image generation with methods such as phased consistency models (PCM) and improved distribution matching distillation (DMD2). However, these methods generally require many GPUs (e.g.~8-64) and significant batchsizes (e.g.~128-2048) during training, resulting in memory and compute requirements that are beyond the resources of some researchers. RAPM provides effective single-GPU diffusion distillation training with a batchsize of 1. The new method attempts to mimic the sampling trajectories of the teacher model by matching the relative and absolute positions. The design of relative positions is inspired by PCM. Two discriminators are introduced accordingly in RAPM, one for matching relative positions and the other for absolute positions. Experimental results on StableDiffusion (SD) V1.5 and SDXL indicate that RAPM with 4 timesteps produces comparable FID scores as the best method with 1 timestep under very limited computational resources.
Dynamic Learning and Productivity for Data Analysts: A Bayesian Hidden Markov Model Perspective
Data analysts are essential in organizations, transforming raw data into insights that drive decision-making and strategy. This study explores how analysts' productivity evolves on a collaborative platform, focusing on two key learning activities: writing queries and viewing peer queries. While traditional research often assumes static models, where performance improves steadily with cumulative learning, such models fail to capture the dynamic nature of real-world learning. To address this, we propose a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) that tracks how analysts transition between distinct learning states based on their participation in these activities. Using an industry dataset with 2,001 analysts and 79,797 queries, this study identifies three learning states: novice, intermediate, and advanced. Productivity increases as analysts advance to higher states, reflecting the cumulative benefits of learning. Writing queries benefits analysts across all states, with the largest gains observed for novices. Viewing peer queries supports novices but may hinder analysts in higher states due to cognitive overload or inefficiencies. Transitions between states are also uneven, with progression from intermediate to advanced being particularly challenging. This study advances understanding of into dynamic learning behavior of knowledge worker and offers practical implications for designing systems, optimizing training, enabling personalized learning, and fostering effective knowledge sharing.
Learning Adaptive Dexterous Grasping from Single Demonstrations
Shi, Liangzhi, Liu, Yulin, Zeng, Lingqi, Ai, Bo, Hong, Zhengdong, Su, Hao
How can robots learn dexterous grasping skills efficiently and apply them adaptively based on user instructions? This work tackles two key challenges: efficient skill acquisition from limited human demonstrations and context-driven skill selection. We introduce AdaDexGrasp, a framework that learns a library of grasping skills from a single human demonstration per skill and selects the most suitable one using a vision-language model (VLM). To improve sample efficiency, we propose a trajectory following reward that guides reinforcement learning (RL) toward states close to a human demonstration while allowing flexibility in exploration. To learn beyond the single demonstration, we employ curriculum learning, progressively increasing object pose variations to enhance robustness. At deployment, a VLM retrieves the appropriate skill based on user instructions, bridging low-level learned skills with high-level intent. We evaluate AdaDexGrasp in both simulation and real-world settings, showing that our approach significantly improves RL efficiency and enables learning human-like grasp strategies across varied object configurations. Finally, we demonstrate zero-shot transfer of our learned policies to a real-world PSYONIC Ability Hand, with a 90% success rate across objects, significantly outperforming the baseline.
Most Japanese high school textbooks to include QR codes
Almost all textbooks to be used by first- and second-year high school students in Japan from fiscal 2026 will include quick response (QR) codes that link to websites with video and audio learning aid materials, sources said Tuesday. The education ministry said the same day that a total of 253 textbooks in 13 subjects have passed the second screenings under the current curriculum guidelines. In response to the rapid progress of digitalization, many of the textbooks include descriptions on information ethics and generative artificial intelligence. The average number of pages per textbook in 11 commonly taught subjects came to 321, slightly up from the previous screenings in 2021. All geography-history and civics textbooks take up the Northern Territories, which are effectively controlled by Russia; Takeshima, the Sea of Japan islets controlled by South Korea; and the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, which are also claimed by China.