In this paper, we design an exclusive Metaverse network traffic classifier, named Discern-XR, to help Internet service providers (ISP) and router manufacturers enhance the quality of Metaverse services. Leveraging segmented learning, the Frame Vector Representation (FVR) algorithm and Frame Identification Algorithm (FIA) are proposed to extract critical frame-related statistics from raw network data having only four application-level features. A novel Augmentation, Aggregation, and Retention Online Training (A2R-OT) algorithm is proposed to find an accurate classification model through online training methodology. In addition, we contribute to the real-world Metaverse dataset comprising virtual reality (VR) games, VR video, VR chat, augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) traffic, providing a comprehensive benchmark. Discern-XR outperforms state-of-the-art classifiers by 7% while improving training efficiency and reducing false-negative rates. Our work advances Metaverse network traffic classification by standing as the state-of-the-art solution.

The classification of genetic variants, particularly Variants of Uncertain Significance (VUS), poses a significant challenge in clinical genetics and precision medicine. Large Language Models (LLMs) have emerged as transformative tools in this realm. These models can uncover intricate patterns and predictive insights that traditional methods might miss, thus enhancing the predictive accuracy of genetic variant pathogenicity. This study investigates the integration of state-of-the-art LLMs, including GPN-MSA, ESM1b, and AlphaMissense, which leverage DNA and protein sequence data alongside structural insights to form a comprehensive analytical framework for variant classification. Our approach evaluates these integrated models using the well-annotated ProteinGym and ClinVar datasets, setting new benchmarks in classification performance. The models were rigorously tested on a set of challenging variants, demonstrating substantial improvements over existing state-of-the-art tools, especially in handling ambiguous and clinically uncertain variants. The results of this research underline the efficacy of combining multiple modeling approaches to significantly refine the accuracy and reliability of genetic variant classification systems. These findings support the deployment of these advanced computational models in clinical environments, where they can significantly enhance the diagnostic processes for genetic disorders, ultimately pushing the boundaries of personalized medicine by offering more detailed and actionable genetic insights.

Object-centric learning (OCL) aims to learn representations of individual objects within visual scenes without manual supervision, facilitating efficient and effective visual reasoning. Traditional OCL methods primarily employ bottom-up approaches that aggregate homogeneous visual features to represent objects. However, in complex visual environments, these methods often fall short due to the heterogeneous nature of visual features within an object. To address this, we propose a novel OCL framework incorporating a top-down pathway. This pathway first bootstraps the semantics of individual objects and then modulates the model to prioritize features relevant to these semantics. By dynamically modulating the model based on its own output, our top-down pathway enhances the representational quality of objects. Our framework achieves state-of-the-art performance across multiple synthetic and real-world object-discovery benchmarks.

Human-in-the-loop (HITL) feedback mechanisms can significantly enhance machine learning models, particularly in financial fraud detection, where fraud patterns change rapidly, and fraudulent nodes are sparse. Even small amounts of feedback from Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can notably boost model performance. This paper examines the impact of HITL feedback on both traditional and advanced techniques using proprietary and publicly available datasets. Our results show that HITL feedback improves model accuracy, with graph-based techniques benefiting the most. We also introduce a novel feedback propagation method that extends feedback across the dataset, further enhancing detection accuracy. By leveraging human expertise, this approach addresses challenges related to evolving fraud patterns, data sparsity, and model interpretability, ultimately improving model robustness and streamlining the annotation process.

Inspired by the success of Geographically Weighted Regression and its accounting for spatial variations, we propose GeogGNN -- A graph neural network model that accounts for geographical latitude and longitudinal points. Using a synthetically generated dataset, we apply the algorithm for a 4-class classification problem in cybersecurity with seemingly realistic geographic coordinates centered in the Gulf Cooperation Council region. We demonstrate that it has higher accuracy than standard neural networks and convolutional neural networks that treat the coordinates as features. Encouraged by the speed-up in model accuracy by the GeogGNN model, we provide a general mathematical result that demonstrates that a geometrically weighted neural network will, in principle, always display higher accuracy in the classification of spatially dependent data by making use of spatial continuity and local averaging features.

Robustness is a fundamental aspect for developing safe and trustworthy models, particularly when they are deployed in the open world. In this work we analyze the inherent capability of one-stage object detectors to robustly operate in the presence of out-of-distribution (OoD) data. Specifically, we propose a novel detection algorithm for detecting unknown objects in image data, which leverages the features extracted by the model from each sample. Differently from other recent approaches in the literature, our proposal does not require retraining the object detector, thereby allowing for the use of pretrained models. Our proposed OoD detector exploits the application of supervised dimensionality reduction techniques to mitigate the effects of the curse of dimensionality on the features extracted by the model. Furthermore, it utilizes high-resolution feature maps to identify potential unknown objects in an unsupervised fashion. Our experiments analyze the Pareto trade-off between the performance detecting known and unknown objects resulting from different algorithmic configurations and inference confidence thresholds. We also compare the performance of our proposed algorithm to that of logits-based post-hoc OoD methods, as well as possible fusion strategies. Finally, we discuss on the competitiveness of all tested methods against state-of-the-art OoD approaches for object detection models over the recently published Unknown Object Detection benchmark. The obtained results verify that the performance of avant-garde post-hoc OoD detectors can be further improved when combined with our proposed algorithm.

Content moderation typically combines the efforts of human moderators and machine learning models. However, these systems often rely on data where significant disagreement occurs during moderation, reflecting the subjective nature of toxicity perception. Rather than dismissing this disagreement as noise, we interpret it as a valuable signal that highlights the inherent ambiguity of the content,an insight missed when only the majority label is considered. In this work, we introduce a novel content moderation framework that emphasizes the importance of capturing annotation disagreement. Our approach uses multitask learning, where toxicity classification serves as the primary task and annotation disagreement is addressed as an auxiliary task. Additionally, we leverage uncertainty estimation techniques, specifically Conformal Prediction, to account for both the ambiguity in comment annotations and the model's inherent uncertainty in predicting toxicity and disagreement.The framework also allows moderators to adjust thresholds for annotation disagreement, offering flexibility in determining when ambiguity should trigger a review. We demonstrate that our joint approach enhances model performance, calibration, and uncertainty estimation, while offering greater parameter efficiency and improving the review process in comparison to single-task methods.

Short video platforms, such as YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok, are used by billions of users globally. These platforms expose users to harmful content, ranging from clickbait or physical harms to misinformation or online hate. Yet, detecting harmful videos remains challenging due to an inconsistent understanding of what constitutes harm and limited resources and mental tolls involved in human annotation. As such, this study advances measures and methods to detect harm in video content. First, we develop a comprehensive taxonomy for online harm on video platforms, categorizing it into six categories: Information, Hate and harassment, Addictive, Clickbait, Sexual, and Physical harms. Next, we establish multimodal large language models as reliable annotators of harmful videos. We analyze 19,422 YouTube videos using 14 image frames, 1 thumbnail, and text metadata, comparing the accuracy of crowdworkers (Mturk) and GPT-4-Turbo with domain expert annotations serving as the gold standard. Our results demonstrate that GPT-4-Turbo outperforms crowdworkers in both binary classification (harmful vs. harmless) and multi-label harm categorization tasks. Methodologically, this study extends the application of LLMs to multi-label and multi-modal contexts beyond text annotation and binary classification. Practically, our study contributes to online harm mitigation by guiding the definitions and identification of harmful content on video platforms.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of people globally, with respiratory organs being strongly affected in individuals with comorbidities. Medical imaging-based diagnosis and prognosis have become increasingly popular in clinical settings for detecting COVID-19 lung infections. Among various medical imaging modalities, ultrasound stands out as a low-cost, mobile, and radiation-safe imaging technology. In this comprehensive review, we focus on AI-driven studies utilizing lung ultrasound (LUS) for COVID-19 detection and analysis. We provide a detailed overview of both publicly available and private LUS datasets and categorize the AI studies according to the dataset they used. Additionally, we systematically analyzed and tabulated the studies across various dimensions, including data preprocessing methods, AI models, cross-validation techniques, and evaluation metrics. In total, we reviewed 60 articles, 41 of which utilized public datasets, while the remaining employed private data. Our findings suggest that ultrasound-based AI studies for COVID-19 detection have great potential for clinical use, especially for children and pregnant women. Our review also provides a useful summary for future researchers and clinicians who may be interested in the field.

In our urban life, long distance coaches supply a convenient yet economic approach to the transportation of the public. One notable problem is to discover the abnormal stop of the coaches due to the important reason, i.e., illegal pick up on the way which possibly endangers the safety of passengers. It has become a pressing issue to detect the coach abnormal stop with low-quality GPS. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised method that helps transportation managers to efficiently discover the Abnormal Stop Detection (ASD) for long distance coaches. Concretely, our method converts the ASD problem into an unsupervised clustering framework in which both the normal stop and the abnormal one are decomposed. Firstly, we propose a stop duration model for the low frequency GPS based on the assumption that a coach changes speed approximately in a linear approach. Secondly, we strip the abnormal stops from the normal stop points by the low rank assumption. The proposed method is conceptually simple yet efficient, by leveraging low rank assumption to handle normal stop points, our approach enables domain experts to discover the ASD for coaches, from a case study motivated by traffic managers. Datset and code are publicly available at: https://github.com/pangjunbiao/IPPs.