Synchronization errors, such as insertions and deletions, present a fundamental challenge in DNA-based data storage systems, arising from both synthesis and sequencing noise. These channels are often modeled as insertion-deletion-substitution (IDS) channels, for which designing maximum-likelihood decoders is computationally expensive. In this work, we propose a data-driven approach based on neural polar decoders (NPDs) to design low-complexity decoders for channels with synchronization errors. The proposed architecture enables decoding over IDS channels with reduced complexity $O(AN log N )$, where $A$ is a tunable parameter independent of the channel. NPDs require only sample access to the channel and can be trained without an explicit channel model. Additionally, NPDs provide mutual information (MI) estimates that can be used to optimize input distributions and code design. We demonstrate the effectiveness of NPDs on both synthetic deletion and IDS channels. For deletion channels, we show that NPDs achieve near-optimal decoding performance and accurate MI estimation, with significantly lower complexity than trellis-based decoders. We also provide numerical estimates of the channel capacity for the deletion channel. We extend our evaluation to realistic DNA storage settings, including channels with multiple noisy reads and real-world Nanopore sequencing data. Our results show that NPDs match or surpass the performance of existing methods while using significantly fewer parameters than the state-of-the-art. These findings highlight the promise of NPDs for robust and efficient decoding in DNA data storage systems.

Time series analysis has achieved great success in cyber security such as intrusion detection and device identification. Learning similarities among multiple time series is a crucial problem since it serves as the foundation for downstream analysis. Due to the complex temporal dynamics of the event-triggered time series, it often remains unclear which similarity metric is appropriate for security-related tasks, such as anomaly detection and clustering. The overarching goal of this paper is to develop an unsupervised learning framework that is capable of learning similarities among a set of event-triggered time series. From the machine learning vantage point, the proposed framework harnesses the power of both hierarchical multi-resolution sequential autoencoders and the Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) to effectively learn the low-dimensional representations from the time series. Finally, the obtained similarity measure can be easily visualized for the explanation. The proposed framework aspires to offer a stepping stone that gives rise to a systematic approach to model and learn similarities among a multitude of event-triggered time series. Through extensive qualitative and quantitative experiments, it is revealed that the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art methods considerably.

--In heterogeneous graphs, a metapath can be defined as a sequence of node or link types, allowing the learning of both semantic information and structural properties. From a structural perspective, various hierarchical or power-law structures, each corresponding to a specific metapath, can be observed in real-world heterogeneous graphs. Recent studies in heterogeneous graph embedding use hyperbolic space to capture such complex structures. The hyperbolic space, characterized by a constant negative curvature and exponentially expanding space, aligns well with the structural properties of heterogeneous graphs. However, although heterogeneous graphs inherently possess diverse power-law structures, most hyperbolic heterogeneous graph embedding models rely on a single hyperbolic space. This approach may fail to effectively capture the diverse power-law structures within heterogeneous graphs. T o address this limitation, we propose a M etapath-based H yperbolic C ontrastive L earning framework (MHCL), which uses multiple hyperbolic spaces to capture diverse complex structures within heterogeneous graphs. Specifically, by learning each hyperbolic space to describe the distribution of complex structures corresponding to each metapath, it is possible to capture semantic information effectively. Since metapath embeddings represent distinct semantic information, preserving their discriminability is important when aggregating them to obtain node representations. Therefore, we use a contrastive learning approach to optimize MHCL and improve the discriminability of metapath embed-dings. We conduct comprehensive experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of MHCL. The experimental results demonstrate that MHCL outperforms state-of-the-art baselines in various graph machine learning tasks, effectively capturing the complex structures of heterogeneous graphs.

Sequence-based recommendations models are driving the state-of-the-art for industrial ad-recommendation systems. Such systems typically deal with user histories or sequence lengths ranging in the order of O(10^3) to O(10^4) events. While adding embeddings at this scale is manageable in pre-trained models, incorporating them into real-time prediction models is challenging due to both storage and inference costs. To address this scaling challenge, we propose a novel approach that leverages vector quantization (VQ) to inject a compact Semantic ID (SID) as input to the recommendation models instead of a collection of embeddings. Our method builds on recent works of SIDs by introducing three key innovations: (i) a multi-task VQ-VAE framework, called VQ fusion that fuses multiple content embeddings and categorical predictions into a single Semantic ID; (ii) a parameter-free, highly granular SID-to-embedding conversion technique, called SIDE, that is validated with two content embedding collections, thereby eliminating the need for a large parameterized lookup table; and (iii) a novel quantization method called Discrete-PCA (DPCA) which generalizes and enhances residual quantization techniques. The proposed enhancements when applied to a large-scale industrial ads-recommendation system achieves 2.4X improvement in normalized entropy (NE) gain and 3X reduction in data footprint compared to traditional SID methods.

Recent neural heuristics for the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) primarily rely on node coordinates as input, which may be less effective in practical scenarios where real cost metrics-such as edge-based distances-are more relevant. To address this limitation, we introduce EFormer, an Edge-based Transformer model that uses edge as the sole input for VRPs. Our approach employs a precoder module with a mixed-score attention mechanism to convert edge information into temporary node embeddings. We also present a parallel encoding strategy characterized by a graph encoder and a node encoder, each responsible for processing graph and node embeddings in distinct feature spaces, respectively. This design yields a more comprehensive representation of the global relationships among edges. In the decoding phase, parallel context embedding and multi-query integration are used to compute separate attention mechanisms over the two encoded embeddings, facilitating efficient path construction. We train EFormer using reinforcement learning in an autoregressive manner. Extensive experiments on the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) and Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) reveal that EFormer outperforms established baselines on synthetic datasets, including large-scale and diverse distributions. Moreover, EFormer demonstrates strong generalization on real-world instances from TSPLib and CVRPLib. These findings confirm the effectiveness of EFormer's core design in solving VRPs.

This paper presents a novel system for monitoring cattle behavior and detecting estrus (heat) periods using sensor data and machine learning. We designed and deployed a low-cost Bluetooth-based neck collar equipped with accelerometer and gyroscope sensors to capture real-time behavioral data from real cows, which was synced to the cloud. A labeled dataset was created using synchronized CCTV footage to annotate behaviors such as feeding, rumination, lying, and others. We evaluated multiple machine learning models -- Support Vector Machines (SVM), Random Forests (RF), and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) -- for behavior classification. Additionally, we implemented a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model for estrus detection using behavioral patterns and anomaly detection. Our system achieved over 93% behavior classification accuracy and 96% estrus detection accuracy on a limited test set. The approach offers a scalable and accessible solution for precision livestock monitoring, especially in resource-constrained environments.

Increasing global energy demand and renewable integration complexity have placed buildings at the center of sustainable energy management. We present a three-step reinforcement learning(RL)-based Building Energy Management System (BEMS) that combines clustering, forecasting, and constrained policy learning to address scalability, adaptability, and safety challenges. First, we cluster non-shiftable load profiles to identify common consumption patterns, enabling policy generalization and transfer without retraining for each new building. Next, we integrate an LSTM based forecasting module to anticipate future states, improving the RL agents' responsiveness to dynamic conditions. Lastly, domain-informed action masking ensures safe exploration and operation, preventing harmful decisions. Evaluated on real-world data, our approach reduces operating costs by up to 15% for certain building types, maintains stable environmental performance, and quickly classifies and optimizes new buildings with limited data. It also adapts to stochastic tariff changes without retraining. Overall, this framework delivers scalable, robust, and cost-effective building energy management.

Bayesian optimization with Gaussian processes (GP) is commonly used to optimize black-box functions. The Matérn and the Radial Basis Function (RBF) covariance functions are used frequently, but they do not make any assumptions about the domain of the function, which may limit their applicability in bounded domains. To address the limitation, we introduce the Beta kernel, a non-stationary kernel induced by a product of Beta distribution density functions. Such a formulation allows our kernel to naturally model functions on bounded domains. We present statistical evidence supporting the hypothesis that the kernel exhibits an exponential eigendecay rate, based on empirical analyses of its spectral properties across different settings. Our experimental results demonstrate the robustness of the Beta kernel in modeling functions with optima located near the faces or vertices of the unit hypercube. The experiments show that our kernel consistently outperforms a wide range of kernels, including the well-known Matérn and RBF, in different problems, including synthetic function optimization and the compression of vision and language models.

Atmospheric sciences are crucial for understanding environmental phenomena ranging from air quality to extreme weather events, and climate change. Recent breakthroughs in sensing, communication, computing, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have significantly advanced atmospheric sciences, enabling the generation of vast amounts of data through long-term Earth observations and providing powerful tools for analyzing atmospheric phenomena and predicting natural disasters. This paper contributes a critical interdisciplinary overview that bridges the fields of atmospheric science and computer science, highlighting the transformative potential of AI in atmospheric research. We identify key challenges associated with integrating AI into atmospheric research, including issues related to big data and infrastructure, and provide a detailed research roadmap that addresses both current and emerging challenges.

Causal discovery from observational data typically assumes full access to data and availability of domain experts. In practice, data often arrive in batches, and expert knowledge is scarce. Language Models (LMs) offer a surrogate but come with their own issues-hallucinations, inconsistencies, and bias. We present BLANCE (Bayesian LM-Augmented Causal Estimation)-a hybrid Bayesian framework that bridges these gaps by adaptively integrating sequential batch data with LM-derived noisy, expert knowledge while accounting for both data-induced and LM-induced biases. Our proposed representation shift from Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) to Partial Ancestral Graph (PAG) accommodates ambiguities within a coherent Bayesian framework, allowing grounding the global LM knowledge in local observational data. To guide LM interaction, we use a sequential optimization scheme that adaptively queries the most informative edges. Across varied datasets, BLANCE outperforms prior work in structural accuracy and extends to Bayesian parameter estimation, showing robustness to LM noise.