Psychiatric disorders involve complex neural activity changes, with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data serving as key diagnostic evidence. However, data scarcity and the diverse nature of fMRI information pose significant challenges. While graph-based self-supervised learning (SSL) methods have shown promise in brain network analysis, they primarily focus on time-domain representations, often overlooking the rich information embedded in the frequency domain. To overcome these limitations, we propose Frequency-Enhanced Network (FENet), a novel SSL framework specially designed for fMRI data that integrates time-domain and frequency-domain information to improve psychiatric disorder detection in small-sample datasets. FENet constructs multi-view brain networks based on the inherent properties of fMRI data, explicitly incorporating frequency information into the learning process of representation. Additionally, it employs domain-specific encoders to capture temporal-spectral characteristics, including an efficient frequency-domain encoder that highlights disease-relevant frequency features. Finally, FENet introduces a domain consistency-guided learning objective, which balances the utilization of diverse information and generates frequency-enhanced brain graph representations. Experiments on two real-world medical datasets demonstrate that FENet outperforms state-of-the-art methods while maintaining strong performance in minimal data conditions. Furthermore, we analyze the correlation between various frequency-domain features and psychiatric disorders, emphasizing the critical role of high-frequency information in disorder detection.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by atypical brain maturation. However, the adaptation of transfer learning paradigms in machine learning for ASD research remains notably limited. In this study, we propose a computer-aided diagnostic framework with two modules. This chapter presents a two-module framework combining deep learning and explainable AI for ASD diagnosis. The first module leverages a deep learning model fine-tuned through cross-domain transfer learning for ASD classification. The second module focuses on interpreting the model decisions and identifying critical brain regions. To achieve this, we employed three explainable AI (XAI) techniques: saliency mapping, Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping, and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis. This framework demonstrates that cross-domain transfer learning can effectively address data scarcity in ASD research. In addition, by applying three established explainability techniques, the approach reveals how the model makes diagnostic decisions and identifies brain regions most associated with ASD. These findings were compared against established neurobiological evidence, highlighting strong alignment and reinforcing the clinical relevance of the proposed approach.

--Approximate multipliers (AppMults) are widely used in deep learning accelerators to reduce their area, delay, and power consumption. However, AppMults introduce arithmetic errors into deep learning models, necessitating a retraining process to recover accuracy. A key step in retraining is computing the gradient of the AppMult, i.e., the partial derivative of the approximate product with respect to each input operand. Existing approaches typically estimate this gradient using that of the accurate multiplier (AccMult), which can lead to suboptimal retraining results. T o address this, we propose two methods to obtain more precise gradients of AppMults. The first, called LUT -2D, characterizes the AppMult gradient with 2-dimensional lookup tables (LUTs), providing fine-grained estimation and achieving the highest retraining accuracy. The second, called LUT -1D, is a compact and more efficient variant that stores gradient values in 1-dimensional LUTs, achieving comparable retraining accuracy with shorter runtime. Experimental results show that on CIF AR-10 with convolutional neural networks, our LUT -2D and LUT -1D methods improve retraining accuracy by 3.83% and 3.72% on average, respectively. On ImageNet with vision transformer models, our LUT -1D method improves retraining accuracy by 23.69% on average, compared to a state-of-the-art retraining framework. Modern artificial intelligence ( AI) technologies excel in a wide range of areas such as natural language processing and computer vision. However, this rapid growth raises serious concerns about power consumption [1]. To achieve energy-efficient deep learning accelerators, researchers have adopted an emerging design paradigm called approximate computing, which reduces power consumption at the cost of errors [2], [3]. Approximate computing is particularly suitable for deep learning accelerators, since they are inherently resilient to errors and noise.

Offline preference optimization methods are efficient for large language models (LLMs) alignment. Direct Preference optimization (DPO)-like learning, one of the most popular approaches, stands out for its efficiency in reward modeling. However, these methods typically follow the convention to use Bradley-Terry (BT) reward modeling that faces several critical assumptions, including the requirement for pairwise training data, model distribution shifting, human rationality assumption, etc. To address these limitations, we propose a general framework for offline preference optimization methods, Adaptive Preference Optimization with Utility Anchor (UAPO), which introduces an anchoring function to estimate the uncertainties brought from preference data annotation. Our method enables training even in scenarios where the data is unpaired, significantly enhancing data utilization efficiency. Moreover, the anchor design makes UAPO more robust in the training process. Experimental results demonstrate that UAPO achieves competitive outcomes without the strict dependency on data pairing, paving the way for more flexible and effective preference optimization methods.

Continuous attractors are critical for information processing in both biological and artificial neural systems, with implications for spatial navigation, memory, and deep learning optimization. However, existing research lacks a unified framework to analyze their properties across diverse dynamical systems, limiting cross-architectural generalizability. This study establishes a novel framework from the perspective of differential manifolds to investigate continuous attractors in artificial neural networks. It verifies compatibility with prior conclusions, elucidates links between continuous attractor phenomena and eigenvalues of the local Jacobian matrix, and demonstrates the universality of singular value stratification in common classification models and datasets. These findings suggest continuous attractors may be ubiquitous in general neural networks, highlighting the need for a general theory, with the proposed framework offering a promising foundation given the close mathematical connection between eigenvalues and singular values.

A sparse Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture has emerged as a highly scalable solution by conditionally activating sub-modules without a proportional increase in computational costs. However, improving expert specialization to enhance performance and generalization remains a challenge for MoE, especially in instruction tuning scenarios characterized by significant input heterogeneity. In this work, we propose the Mixture-of-Clustered-Experts (MoCE) to address this limitation through a dual-stage routing mechanism. The first stage in the mechanism performs expert group routing based on sequence-level features, while the second stage activates the top-$k$ experts within the group at the token level. This approach enables the effective partitioning of heterogeneous inputs based on their knowledge requirements, encouraging expert group specialization while maintaining the advantages of token-level routing. We evaluate MoCE across a comprehensive set of benchmarks, demonstrating its consistent superiority over strong baselines and its enhanced generalization capabilities. Detailed analysis further highlights the robustness and effectiveness of MoCE.

B. Experiment 2: The Anti-Ouroboros Effect in an LLM In the LLM experiment, the results falsified the hypothesis. The Quality Filter arm demonstrated robust and statistically significant improvement across all three evaluation metrics, as shown in Table II. In contrast, both the unfiltered Control arm and the Random Filter arm exhibited performance degradation, proving that the improvement is due to intelligent selection, not merely training on less data. The performance trajectories for all three arms are visualized in Figure 1 C. Human Evaluation To provide an independent verification of our automated metrics, we conducted a small, blinded human study. Two evaluators rated 30 anonymized and shuffled summaries from the final generation of the Control and Quality Filter arms on a 1-5 scale. The Quality Filter arm significantly outperformed the Control arm on coherence (4.2 vs 3.5) and factuality (4.5 vs 3.8), confirming the quantitative results. D. Analysis of the Mechanism The emergence of the Anti-Ouroboros Effect in the LLM suggests a dynamic unique to high-dimensional systems. We propose two non-exclusive hypotheses: Error Propagation Shutdown, where the filter acts as a ratchet, preventing the reinforcement of errors, and Latent Space Guidance, where selection guides the fine-tuning process toward more robust regions of the model's parameter space.

Heterogeneous Vehicular Networks (HetVNets) play a key role by stacking different communication technologies such as sub-6GHz, mm-wave and DSRC to meet diverse connectivity needs of 5G/B5G vehicular networks. HetVNet helps address the humongous user demands-but maintaining a steady connection in a highly mobile, real-world conditions remain a challenge. Though there has been ample of studies on beam prediction models a dedicated solution for HetVNets is sparsely explored. Hence, it is the need of the hour to develop a reliable beam prediction solution, specifically for HetVNets. This paper introduces a lightweight deep learning-based solution termed-"CAR-BRAINet" which consists of convolutional neural networks with a powerful multi-head attention (MHA) mechanism. Existing literature on beam prediction is largely studied under a limited, idealised vehicular scenario, often overlooking the real-time complexities and intricacies of vehicular networks. Therefore, this study aims to mimic the complexities of a real-time driving scenario by incorporating key factors such as prominent MAC protocols-3GPP-C-V2X and IEEE 802.11BD, the effect of Doppler shifts under high velocity and varying distance and SNR levels into three high-quality dynamic datasets pertaining to urban, rural and highway vehicular networks. CAR-BRAINet performs effectively across all the vehicular scenarios, demonstrating precise beam prediction with minimal beam overhead and a steady improvement of 17.9422% on the spectral efficiency over the existing methods. Thus, this study justifies the effectiveness of CAR-BRAINet in complex HetVNets, offering promising performance without relying on the location angle and antenna dimensions of the mobile users, and thereby reducing the redundant sensor-latency.

--Internet of Intelligent Things (IoIT), an emerging field, combines the utility of Internet of Things (IoT) devices with the innovation of embedded AI algorithms. However, it does not come without challenges, and struggles regarding available computing resources, energy supply, and storage limitations. In particular, many impediments to IoIT are linked to the energy-efficient deployment of machine learning (ML)/deep learning (DL) models in embedded devices. Research has been conducted to design energy-efficient IoIT platforms, but these papers often focus on centralized systems, in which some central entity processes all the data and coordinates actions. This can be problematic, e.g., serve as bottleneck or lead to security concerns. In a decentralized system, nodes/devices would self-organize and make their own decisions. Therefore, to address such issues, we propose a heterogeneous, decentralized sensing and monitoring IoIT peer-to-peer mesh network system model. Nodes in the network will coordinate towards several optimization goals: reliability, energy efficiency, and latency. The system employs federated learning to train nodes in a distributed manner, metaheuristics to optimize task allocation and routing paths, and multi-objective optimization to balance conflicting performance goals. Internet of Intelligent Things (IoIT), an emerging field, combines the utility of Internet of Things (IoT) devices with the innovation of embedded AI algorithms. It provides predictive and faster data analytics in IoT platforms thanks to machine learning algorithms which enable intelligent processing of huge amounts of sensor-generated data. However, it does not come without challenges, and struggles regarding available computing resources, energy supply, and storage limitations. In particular, many impediments to IoIT are linked to the energy-efficient deployment of machine learning (ML)/deep learning (DL) models in embedded devices.

Forecasting product demand in retail supply chains presents a complex challenge due to noisy, heterogeneous features and rapidly shifting consumer behavior. While traditional gradient boosting decision trees (GBDT) offer strong predictive performance on structured data, they often lack adaptive mechanisms to identify and emphasize the most relevant features under changing conditions. In this work, we propose AttnBoost, an interpretable learning framework that integrates feature-level attention into the boosting process to enhance both predictive accuracy and explainability. Specifically, the model dynamically adjusts feature importance during each boosting round via a lightweight attention mechanism, allowing it to focus on high-impact variables such as promotions, pricing, and seasonal trends. We evaluate AttnBoost on a large-scale retail sales dataset and demonstrate that it outperforms standard machine learning and deep tabular models, while also providing actionable insights for supply chain managers. An ablation study confirms the utility of the attention module in mitigating overfitting and improving interpretability. Our results suggest that attention-guided boosting represents a promising direction for interpretable and scalable AI in real-world forecasting applications.