Deep Learning
Geo-R1: Unlocking VLM Geospatial Reasoning with Cross-View Reinforcement Learning
Xu, Chenhui, Yu, Fuxun, Bianco, Michael J., Kovarskiy, Jacob, Tang, Raphael, Zhang, Qi, Xu, Zirui, LeVine, Will, Dubbs, Brandon, Liao, Heming, Burgess, Cassandra, Bag, Suvam, Patravali, Jay, Kukal, Rupanjali, Figueroa, Mikael, Madhok, Rishi, Karianakis, Nikolaos, Xiong, Jinjun
We introduce Geo-R1, a reasoning-centric post-training framework that unlocks geospatial reasoning in vision-language models by combining thinking scaffolding and elevating. In the scaffolding stage, Geo-R1 instills a "geospatial thinking paradigm" via supervised fine-tuning on synthetic chain-of-thought exemplars, enabling models to connect visual cues with geographic priors without costly human reasoning annotations. In the elevating stage, it uses GRPO-based reinforcement learning on a weakly-supervised cross-view pairing proxy. This design supplies a verifiable and scalable reward signal: teaching models to capture and reconcile features across modalities, and harnessing reasoning for accurate prediction. Geo-R1 extends geospatial modeling from domain pretraining / supervised finetuning to reasoning-first post-training, and achieves state-of-the-art performance across various geospatial reasoning benchmarks. Our model is available at https://huggingface.co/miniHui/Geo-R1. Figure 1: Geo-R1 significantly outperforms baseline Bai et al. (2025) across 13 verifiable geo-reasoning tasks on the GeoChain benchmark (Y er-ramilli et al., 2025) in the zero-shot setting. See Table 6 for detailed description of these tasks. Geospatial reasoning is fundamental to a wide range of scientific and societal applications, spanning disaster response, search and rescue, urban planning, environmental monitoring, and sociocultural study. Unlike common vision-language reasoning (Li et al., 2024) centering around object recognition, captioning and general question-answering, geospatial reasoning spans many modalities (e.g., aerial imagery, streetview photos, location metadata, place information, etc.), and varied tasks (e.g., geographical, environmental, sociocultural, etc.) as shown in Figure 1. This blend of multimodal evidence and knowledge-intensive tasking makes general reasoning both crucial for geospatial understanding, and also uniquely challenging. While effective in natural domains, SFT is poorly suited in geospatial settings. Geospatial raw data can be plentiful, but supervisions are sparse, usually limited to coordinate metadata without descriptive content.
Efficient CNN Compression via Multi-method Low Rank Factorization and Feature Map Similarity
Kokhazadeh, M., Keramidas, G., Kelefouras, V.
Abstract--Low-Rank Factorization (LRF) is a widely adopted technique for compressing deep neural networks (DNNs). However, it faces several challenges, including optimal rank selection, a vast design space, long fine-tuning times, and limited compatibility with different layer types and decomposition methods. This paper presents an end-to-end Design Space Exploration (DSE) methodology and framework for compressing convolu-tional neural networks (CNNs) that addresses all these issues. We introduce a novel rank selection strategy based on feature map similarity, which captures non-linear interactions between layer outputs more effectively than traditional weight-based approaches. Unlike prior works, our method uses a one-shot fine-tuning process, significantly reducing the overall fine-tuning time. The proposed framework is fully compatible with all types of convolutional (Conv) and fully connected (FC) layers. T o further improve compression, the framework integrates three different LRF techniques for Conv layers and three for FC layers, applying them selectively on a per-layer basis. We demonstrate that combining multiple LRF methods within a single model yields better compression results than using a single method uniformly across all layers. Finally, we provide a comprehensive evaluation and comparison of the six LRF techniques, offering practical insights into their effectiveness across different scenarios. The proposed work is integrated into T ensorFlow 2.x, ensuring compatibility with widely used deep learning workflows. Experimental results on 14 CNN models across eight datasets demonstrate that the proposed methodology achieves substantial compression with minimal accuracy loss, outperforming several state-of-the-art techniques. Impact Statement--Deep neural network (DNN) compression is a critical challenge in artificial intelligence (AI), especially for deploying models in resource-constrained environments. This article addresses the limitations of existing low-rank factorization (LRF) methods, such as suboptimal rank selection, long fine-tuning times, and limited applicability across different layers. A novel end-to-end compression framework is proposed, featuring a feature map similarity-based rank selection strategy, one-shot fine-tuning, and hybrid decomposition support. Unlike prior works, the framework applies different LRF methods per layer and supports six decomposition algorithms across convolutional and fully connected layers. Integrated into T ensorFlow 2.x, it achieves superior compression and accuracy trade-offs across 14 CNN models and eight datasets, outperforming state-of-the-art techniques such as V ariational Bayesian Matrix Factorization and filter-based pruning. This contribution enables scalable, architecture-agnostic compression and offers a practical tool for accelerating DNN deployment in mobile AI, embedded systems, and edge computing scenarios.
Survey of AI-Powered Approaches for Osteoporosis Diagnosis in Medical Imaging
Osteoporosis silently erodes skeletal integrity worldwide; however, early detection through imaging can prevent most fragility fractures. Artificial intelligence (AI) methods now mine routine Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA), X-ray, Computed Tomography (CT), and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans for subtle, clinically actionable markers, but the literature is fragmented. This survey unifies the field through a tri-axial framework that couples imaging modalities with clinical tasks and AI methodologies (classical machine learning, convolutional neural networks (CNNs), transformers, self-supervised learning, and explainable AI). Following a concise clinical and technical primer, we detail our Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)-guided search strategy, introduce the taxonomy via a roadmap figure, and synthesize cross-study insights on data scarcity, external validation, and interpretability. By identifying emerging trends, open challenges, and actionable research directions, this review provides AI scientists, medical imaging researchers, and musculoskeletal clinicians with a clear compass to accelerate rigorous, patient-centered innovation in osteoporosis care. The project page of this survey can also be found on Github.
FSDENet: A Frequency and Spatial Domains based Detail Enhancement Network for Remote Sensing Semantic Segmentation
Fu, Jiahao, Yu, Yinfeng, Wang, Liejun
To fully leverage spatial information for remote sensing image segmentation and address semantic edge ambiguities caused by grayscale variations (e.g., shadows and low-contrast regions), we propose the Frequency and Spatial Domains based Detail Enhancement Network (FSDENet). Our framework employs spatial processing methods to extract rich multi-scale spatial features and fine-grained semantic details. By effectively integrating global and frequency-domain information through the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) in global mappings, the model's capability to discern global representations under grayscale variations is significantly strengthened. Additionally, we utilize Haar wavelet transform to decompose features into high- and low-frequency components, leveraging their distinct sensitivity to edge information to refine boundary segmentation. The model achieves dual-domain synergy by integrating spatial granularity with frequency-domain edge sensitivity, substantially improving segmentation accuracy in boundary regions and grayscale transition zones. Comprehensive experimental results demonstrate that FSDENet achieves state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance on four widely adopted datasets: LoveDA, Vaihingen, Potsdam, and iSAID.
DPsurv: Dual-Prototype Evidential Fusion for Uncertainty-Aware and Interpretable Whole-Slide Image Survival Prediction
Xing, Yucheng, Huang, Ling, Ma, Jingying, Hong, Ruping, Qiu, Jiangdong, Liu, Pei, He, Kai, Fu, Huazhu, Feng, Mengling
Pathology whole-slide images (WSIs) are widely used for cancer survival analysis because of their comprehensive histopathological information at both cellular and tissue levels, enabling quantitative, large-scale, and prognostically rich tumor feature analysis. However, most existing methods in WSI survival analysis struggle with limited interpretability and often overlook predictive uncertainty in heterogeneous slide images. In this paper, we propose DPsurv, a dual-prototype whole-slide image evidential fusion network that outputs uncertainty-aware survival intervals, while enabling interpretation of predictions through patch prototype assignment maps, component prototypes, and component-wise relative risk aggregation. Experiments on five publicly available datasets achieve the highest mean concordance index and the lowest mean integrated Brier score, validating the effectiveness and reliability of DPsurv. The interpretation of prediction results provides transparency at the feature, reasoning, and decision levels, thereby enhancing the trustworthiness and interpretability of DPsurv. Survival analysis, which predicts survival probabilities and outcomes over time, is a critical task in oncology for guiding therapeutic decision-making and improving patient outcomes. As a direct reflection of tumor progression, whole-slide images (WSIs) have recently emerged as an essential source of information for survival prediction in computational pathology (Zhang et al., 2025). The major challenges for identifying reliable prognostic patterns from WSIs lie in the gigapixel scale and the tissue heterogeneity (Wang et al., 2022; Xu et al., 2024). Failing to model and address these challenges can result in incomplete risk assessments, leading to suboptimal treatment planning and potentially compromised survival outcomes (Liu et al., 2025b; Shi et al., 2024b).
A Recall-First CNN for Sleep Apnea Screening from Snoring Audio
Mallick, Anushka, Noorain, Afiya, Menon, Ashwin, Solanki, Ashita, Balaji, Keertan
Sleep apnea is a serious sleep-related breathing disorder that is common and can impact health if left untreated. Currently the traditional method for screening and diagnosis is overnight polysomnography. Polysomnography is expensive and takes a lot of time, and is not practical for screening large groups of people. In this paper, we explored a more accessible option, using respiratory audio recordings to spot signs of apnea.We utilized 18 audio files.The approach involved converting breathing sounds into spectrograms, balancing the dataset by oversampling apnea segments, and applying class weights to reduce bias toward the majority class. The model reached a recall of 90.55 for apnea detection. Intentionally, prioritizing catching apnea events over general accuracy. Despite low precision,the high recall suggests potential as a low-cost screening tool that could be used at home or in basic clinical setups, potentially helping identify at-risk individuals much earlier.
AI-Based Stroke Rehabilitation Domiciliary Assessment System with ST_GCN Attention
Lim, Suhyeon, Kim, Ye-eun, Choi, Andrew J.
Abstract--Effective stroke recovery requires continuous rehabilitation integrated with daily living. T o support this need, we propose a home-based rehabilitation exercise and feedback system. The system consists of (1) hardware setup with RGB-D camera and wearable sensors to capture Stroke movements, (2) a mobile application for exercise guidance, and (3) an AI server for assessment and feedback. When Stroke user exercises following the application guidance, the system records skeleton sequences, which are then Assessed by the deep learning model, RAST -G@. The model employs a spatio-temporal graph con-volutional network (ST -GCN) to extract skeletal features and integrates transformer-based temporal attention to figure out action quality. For system implementation, we constructed the NRC dataset, include 10 upper-limb activities of daily living (ADL) and 5 range-of-motion (ROM) collected from stroke and non-disabled participants, with Score annotations provided by licensed physiotherapists. Results on the KIMORE and NRC datasets show that RAST -G@ improves over baseline in terms of MAD, RMSE, and MAPE. Furthermore, the system provides user feedback that combines patient-centered assessment and monitoring. The results demonstrate that the proposed system offers a scalable approach for quantitative and consistent domiciliary rehabilitation assessment. ECENT advancements in Neurology, particularly in motor control and learning, have revealed different mechanisms that induce changes in brain plasticity and behavior over both short-and long-term periods. Physical rehabilitation can be seen as a form of motor learning that occurs under specific conditions [1]-[4], and patients with motor impairments, such as those following a stroke, are capable of limited motor learning, although with variations in learning speed and volume. In particular, usage-based and reward-based learning, which are shaped by habitual, repetitive actions and rewards, play a key role in determining long-term brain and behavioral changes in stroke patients after they are discharged and resume daily activities.
Reinforcement Learning-Based Prompt Template Stealing for Text-to-Image Models
Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) have transformed text-to-image workflows, allowing designers to create novel visual concepts with unprecedented speed. This progress has given rise to a thriving prompt trading market, where curated prompts that induce trademark styles are bought and sold. Although commercially attractive, prompt trading also introduces a largely unexamined security risk: the prompts themselves can be stolen. In this paper, we expose this vulnerability and present RLStealer, a reinforcement learning based prompt inversion framework that recovers its template from only a small set of example images. RLStealer treats template stealing as a sequential decision making problem and employs multiple similarity based feedback signals as reward functions to effectively explore the prompt space. Comprehensive experiments on publicly available benchmarks demonstrate that RLStealer gets state-of-the-art performance while reducing the total attack cost to under 13% of that required by existing baselines. Our further analysis confirms that RLStealer can effectively generalize across different image styles to efficiently steal unseen prompt templates. Our study highlights an urgent security threat inherent in prompt trading and lays the groundwork for developing protective standards in the emerging MLLMs marketplace.
Beyond the Prompt: Gender Bias in Text-to-Image Models, with a Case Study on Hospital Professions
Vandewiele, Franck, Synave, Remi, Delepoulle, Samuel, Cozot, Remi
Text-to-image (TTI) models are increasingly used in professional, educational, and creative contexts, yet their outputs often embed and amplify social biases. This paper investigates gender representation in six state-of-the-art open-weight models: HunyuanImage 2.1, HiDream-I1-dev, Qwen-Image, FLUX.1-dev, Stable-Diffusion 3.5 Large, and Stable-Diffusion-XL. Using carefully designed prompts, we generated 100 images for each combination of five hospital-related professions (cardiologist, hospital director, nurse, paramedic, surgeon) and five portrait qualifiers ("", corporate, neutral, aesthetic, beautiful). Our analysis reveals systematic occupational stereotypes: all models produced nurses exclusively as women and surgeons predominantly as men. However, differences emerge across models: Qwen-Image and SDXL enforce rigid male dominance, HiDream-I1-dev shows mixed outcomes, and FLUX.1-dev skews female in most roles. HunyuanImage 2.1 and Stable-Diffusion 3.5 Large also reproduce gender stereotypes but with varying degrees of sensitivity to prompt formulation. Portrait qualifiers further modulate gender balance, with terms like corporate reinforcing male depictions and beautiful favoring female ones. Sensitivity varies widely: Qwen-Image remains nearly unaffected, while FLUX.1-dev, SDXL, and SD3.5 show strong prompt dependence. These findings demonstrate that gender bias in TTI models is both systematic and model-specific. Beyond documenting disparities, we argue that prompt wording plays a critical role in shaping demographic outcomes. The results underscore the need for bias-aware design, balanced defaults, and user guidance to prevent the reinforcement of occupational stereotypes in generative AI.
AutoPK: Leveraging LLMs and a Hybrid Similarity Metric for Advanced Retrieval of Pharmacokinetic Data from Complex Tables and Documents
Sholehrasa, Hossein, Ghanaatian, Amirhossein, Caragea, Doina, Tell, Lisa A., Riviere, Jim E., Jaberi-Douraki, Majid
Abstract--Pharmacokinetics (PK) plays a critical role in drug development and regulatory decision-making for human and veterinary medicine, directly affecting public health through drug safety and efficacy assessments. However, PK data are often embedded in complex, heterogeneous tables with variable structures and inconsistent terminologies, posing significant challenges for automated PK data retrieval and standardization. In the first stage, AutoPK identifies and extracts PK parameter variants using large language models (LLMs), a hybrid similarity metric, and LLMbased validation. The second stage filters relevant rows, converts the table into a key-value text format, and uses an LLM to reconstruct a standardized, machine-readable table. Evaluated on a real-world dataset of 605 annotated PK tables, including captions and footnotes, AutoPK demonstrates significant improvements in precision and recall over direct LLM baselines. For instance, AutoPK with LLaMA 3.1-70B achieved an F1-score of 0.92 on half-life and 0.91 on clearance parameters, outperforming direct use of LLaMA 3.1-70B by margins of 0.10 and 0.21, respectively. Smaller models such as Gemma 3-27B and Phi 3-12B with AutoPK achieved 2-7 fold F1 gains over their direct use, with Gemma's hallucination rates reduced from 60-95% down to 8-14%. Notably, AutoPK enabled open-source models like Gemma 3-27B to outperform commercial systems such as GPT -4o Mini on several PK parameters. AutoPK enables scalable and high-confidence PK data extraction, making it well-suited for critical applications in veterinary pharmacology, drug safety monitoring, and public health decision-making, while addressing heterogeneous table structures and terminology and demonstrating generalizability across key PK parameters. Personal use of this material is permitted. This is the author's version of the work accepted for publication in: Proceedings of the 2025 IEEE 37th International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICT AI). The final published version will be available via IEEE Xplore.