Converging evidence suggests that human systems of semantic categories achieve near-optimal compression via the Information Bottleneck (IB) complexity-accuracy tradeoff. Large language models (LLMs) are not trained for this objective, which raises the question: are LLMs capable of evolving efficient human-aligned semantic systems? To address this question, we focus on color categorization -- a key testbed of cognitive theories of categorization with uniquely rich human data -- and replicate with LLMs two influential human studies. First, we conduct an English color-naming study, showing that LLMs vary widely in their complexity and English-alignment, with larger instruction-tuned models achieving better alignment and IB-efficiency. Second, to test whether these LLMs simply mimic patterns in their training data or actually exhibit a human-like inductive bias toward IB-efficiency, we simulate cultural evolution of pseudo color-naming systems in LLMs via a method we refer to as Iterated in-Context Language Learning (IICLL). We find that akin to humans, LLMs iteratively restructure initially random systems towards greater IB-efficiency. However, only a model with strongest in-context capabilities (Gemini 2.0) is able to recapitulate the wide range of near-optimal IB-tradeoffs observed in humans, while other state-of-the-art models converge to low-complexity solutions. These findings demonstrate how human-aligned semantic categories can emerge in LLMs via the same fundamental principle that underlies semantic efficiency in humans.

Anomaly detection in multivariate time series is crucial to ensure the quality of data coming from a physics experiment. Accurately identifying the moments when unexpected errors or defects occur is essential, yet challenging due to scarce labels, unknown anomaly types, and complex correlations across dimensions. To address the scarcity and unreliability of labelled data, we use the Lorenzetti Simulator to generate synthetic events with injected calorimeter anomalies. We then assess the sensitivity of several time series anomaly detection methods, including transformer-based and other deep learning models. The approach employed here is generic and applicable to different detector designs and defects.

Fine-tuning large language models (LLMs) is crucial for adapting them to specific tasks, yet it remains computationally demanding and raises concerns about correctness and privacy, particularly in untrusted environments. Although parameter-efficient methods like Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) significantly reduce resource requirements, ensuring the security and verifiability of fine-tuning under zero-knowledge constraints remains an unresolved challenge. To address this, we introduce VeriLoRA, the first framework to integrate LoRA fine-tuning with zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), achieving provable security and correctness. VeriLoRA employs advanced cryptographic techniques -- such as lookup arguments, sumcheck protocols, and polynomial commitments -- to verify both arithmetic and non-arithmetic operations in Transformer-based architectures. The framework provides end-to-end verifiability for forward propagation, backward propagation, and parameter updates during LoRA fine-tuning, while safeguarding the privacy of model parameters and training data. Leveraging GPU-based implementations, VeriLoRA demonstrates practicality and efficiency through experimental validation on open-source LLMs like LLaMA, scaling up to 13 billion parameters. By combining parameter-efficient fine-tuning with ZKPs, VeriLoRA bridges a critical gap, enabling secure and trustworthy deployment of LLMs in sensitive or untrusted environments.

This paper introduces a novel research direction for model-to-text/code transformations by leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) that can be enhanced with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines. The focus is on quantum and hybrid quantum-classical software systems, where model-driven approaches can help reduce the costs and mitigate the risks associated with the heterogeneous platform landscape and lack of developers' skills. We validate one of the proposed ideas regarding generating code out of UML model instances of software systems. This Python code uses a well-established library, called Qiskit, to execute on gate-based or circuit-based quantum computers. The RAG pipeline that we deploy incorporates sample Qiskit code from public GitHub repositories. Experimental results show that well-engineered prompts can improve CodeBLEU scores by up to a factor of four, yielding more accurate and consistent quantum code. However, the proposed research direction can go beyond this through further investigation in the future by conducting experiments to address our other research questions and ideas proposed here, such as deploying software system model instances as the source of information in the RAG pipelines, or deploying LLMs for code-to-code transformations, for instance, for transpilation use cases.

The ubiquity of missing data in urban intelligence systems, attributable to adverse environmental conditions and equipment failures, poses a significant challenge to the efficacy of downstream applications, notably in the realms of traffic forecasting and energy consumption prediction. Therefore, it is imperative to develop a robust spatio-temporal learning methodology capable of extracting meaningful insights from incomplete datasets. Despite the existence of methodologies for spatio-temporal graph forecasting in the presence of missing values, unresolved issues persist. Primarily, the majority of extant research is predicated on time-series analysis, thereby neglecting the dynamic spatial correlations inherent in sensor networks. Junbo Zhang is the corresponding author. This research was done when the first author was an intern at JD Intelligent Cities Research & JD iCity under the supervision of the fifth author. The model is comprised of three principal components: an input preprocessing module, an attention-based spatio-temporal forecasting network (STAFN), and an auxiliary learning task, which draws inspiration from Masking AutoEncoders to enhance the robustness of spatio-temporal representation learning. Empirical evaluations on real-world datasets demonstrate that GeoMAE significantly outperforms existing benchmarks, achieving up to 13.20% relative improvement over the best baseline models. Introduction Spatio-temporal representation learning has emerged as a pivotal research area, underpinning various intelligent applications in smart cities that play crucial roles across multiple domains. For instance, precise weather forecasting can significantly mitigate the detrimental impacts of natural disasters through early prevention; advanced traffic prediction systems help optimize traffic flow and substantially reduce congestion; environmental monitoring enables rapid identification of pollution hotspots within urban environments.

To investigate the feasibility of zero-shot self-supervised learning reconstruction for reducing breath-hold times in magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP). Breath-hold MRCP was acquired from 11 healthy volunteers on 3T scanners using an incoherent k-space sampling pattern, leading to 14-second acquisition time and an acceleration factor of R=25. Zero-shot reconstruction was compared with parallel imaging of respiratory-triggered MRCP (338s, R=3) and compressed sensing reconstruction. For two volunteers, breath-hold scans (40s, R=6) were additionally acquired and retrospectively undersampled to R=25 to compute peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). To address long zero-shot training time, the n+m full stages of the zero-shot learning were divided into two parts to reduce backpropagation depth during training: 1) n frozen stages initialized with n-stage pretrained network and 2) m trainable stages initialized either randomly or m-stage pretrained network. Efficiency of our approach was assessed by varying initialization strategies and the number of trainable stages using the retrospectively undersampled data. Zero-shot reconstruction significantly improved visual image quality over compressed sensing, particularly in SNR and ductal delineation, and achieved image quality comparable to that of successful respiratory-triggered acquisitions with regular breathing patterns. Improved initializations enhanced PSNR and reduced reconstruction time. Adjusting frozen/trainable configurations demonstrated that PSNR decreased only slightly from 38.25 dB (0/13) to 37.67 dB (12/1), while training time decreased up to 6.7-fold. Zero-shot learning delivers high-fidelity MRCP reconstructions with reduced breath-hold times, and the proposed partially trainable approach offers a practical solution for translation into time-constrained clinical workflows.

Although large language models (LLMs) hold significant promise in psychotherapy, their direct application in patient-facing scenarios raises ethical and safety concerns. Therefore, this work shifts towards developing an LLM as a supervisor to train real therapists. In addition to the privacy of clinical therapist training data, a fundamental contradiction complicates the training of therapeutic behaviors: clear feedback standards are necessary to ensure a controlled training system, yet there is no absolute "gold standard" for appropriate therapeutic behaviors in practice. In contrast, many common therapeutic mistakes are universal and identifiable, making them effective triggers for targeted feedback that can serve as clearer evidence. Motivated by this, we create a novel therapist-training paradigm: (1) guidelines for mistaken behaviors and targeted correction strategies are first established as standards; (2) a human-in-the-loop dialogue-feedback dataset is then constructed, where a mistake-prone agent intentionally makes standard mistakes during interviews naturally, and a supervisor agent locates and identifies mistakes and provides targeted feedback; (3) after fine-tuning on this dataset, the final supervisor model is provided for real therapist training. The detailed experimental results of automated, human and downstream assessments demonstrate that models fine-tuned on our dataset MATE, can provide high-quality feedback according to the clinical guideline, showing significant potential for the therapist training scenario.

Generative world models have become essential data engines for autonomous driving, yet most existing efforts focus on videos or occupancy grids, overlooking the unique LiDAR properties. Extending LiDAR generation to dynamic 4D world modeling presents challenges in controllability, temporal coherence, and evaluation standardization. To this end, we present LiDARCrafter, a unified framework for 4D LiDAR generation and editing. Given free-form natural language inputs, we parse instructions into ego-centric scene graphs, which condition a tri-branch diffusion network to generate object structures, motion trajectories, and geometry. These structured conditions enable diverse and fine-grained scene editing. Additionally, an autoregressive module generates temporally coherent 4D LiDAR sequences with smooth transitions. To support standardized evaluation, we establish a comprehensive benchmark with diverse metrics spanning scene-, object-, and sequence-level aspects. Experiments on the nuScenes dataset using this benchmark demonstrate that LiDARCrafter achieves state-of-the-art performance in fidelity, controllability, and temporal consistency across all levels, paving the way for data augmentation and simulation. The code and benchmark are released to the community.

Hump crossings, or high-profile Highway Railway Grade Crossings (HRGCs), pose safety risks to highway vehicles due to potential hang-ups. These crossings typically result from post-construction railway track maintenance activities or non-compliance with design guidelines for HRGC vertical alignments. Conventional methods for measuring HRGC profiles are costly, time-consuming, traffic-disruptive, and present safety challenges. To address these issues, this research employed advanced, cost-effective techniques and innovative modeling approaches for HRGC profile measurement. A novel hybrid deep learning framework combining Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Transformer architectures was developed by utilizing instrumentation and ground truth data. Instrumentation data were gathered using a highway testing vehicle equipped with Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors, while ground truth data were obtained via an industrial-standard walking profiler. Field data was collected at the Red Rock Railroad Corridor in Oklahoma. Three advanced deep learning models Transformer-LSTM sequential (model 1), LSTM-Transformer sequential (model 2), and LSTM-Transformer parallel (model 3) were evaluated to identify the most efficient architecture. Models 2 and 3 outperformed the others and were deployed to generate 2D/3D HRGC profiles. The deep learning models demonstrated significant potential to enhance highway and railroad safety by enabling rapid and accurate assessment of HRGC hang-up susceptibility.

Hateful memes aimed at LGBTQ\,+ communities often evade detection by tweaking either the caption, the image, or both. We build the first robustness benchmark for this setting, pairing four realistic caption attacks with three canonical image corruptions and testing all combinations on the PrideMM dataset. Two state-of-the-art detectors, MemeCLIP and MemeBLIP2, serve as case studies, and we introduce a lightweight \textbf{Text Denoising Adapter (TDA)} to enhance the latter's resilience. Across the grid, MemeCLIP degrades more gently, while MemeBLIP2 is particularly sensitive to the caption edits that disrupt its language processing. However, the addition of the TDA not only remedies this weakness but makes MemeBLIP2 the most robust model overall. Ablations reveal that all systems lean heavily on text, but architectural choices and pre-training data significantly impact robustness. Our benchmark exposes where current multimodal safety models crack and demonstrates that targeted, lightweight modules like the TDA offer a powerful path towards stronger defences.