Time series forecasting remains a challenging task, particularly in the context of complex multiscale temporal patterns. This study presents LLM-Mixer, a framework that improves forecasting accuracy through the combination of multiscale time-series decomposition with pre-trained LLMs (Large Language Models). LLM-Mixer captures both short-term fluctuations and long-term trends by decomposing the data into multiple temporal resolutions and processing them with a frozen LLM, guided by a textual prompt specifically designed for time-series data. Extensive experiments conducted on multivariate and univariate datasets demonstrate that LLM-Mixer achieves competitive performance, outperforming recent state-of-the-art models across various forecasting horizons. This work highlights the potential of combining multiscale analysis and LLMs for effective and scalable time-series forecasting.

Large Language Models (LLMs) are gaining significant popularity in recent years for specialized tasks using prompts due to their low computational cost. Standard methods like prefix tuning utilize special, modifiable tokens that lack semantic meaning and require extensive training for best performance, often falling short. In this context, we propose a novel method called Semantic Knowledge Tuning (SK-Tuning) for prompt and prefix tuning that employs meaningful words instead of random tokens. This method involves using a fixed LLM to understand and process the semantic content of the prompt through zero-shot capabilities. Following this, it integrates the processed prompt with the input text to improve the model's performance on particular tasks. Our experimental results show that SK-Tuning exhibits faster training times, fewer parameters, and superior performance on tasks such as text classification and understanding compared to other tuning methods. This approach offers a promising method for optimizing the efficiency and effectiveness of LLMs in processing language tasks.

Rice disease classification is a critical task in agricultural research, and in this study, we rigorously evaluate the impact of integrating feature extraction methodologies within pre-trained convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Initial investigations into baseline models, devoid of feature extraction, revealed commendable performance with ResNet-50 and ResNet-101 achieving accuracies of 91% and 92%, respectively. Subsequent integration of Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) yielded substantial improvements across architectures, notably propelling the accuracy of EfficientNet-B7 from 92\% to an impressive 97%. Conversely, the application of Local Binary Patterns (LBP) demonstrated more conservative performance enhancements. Moreover, employing Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) unveiled that HOG integration resulted in heightened attention to disease-specific features, corroborating the performance enhancements observed. Visual representations further validated HOG's notable influence, showcasing a discernible surge in accuracy across epochs due to focused attention on disease-affected regions. These results underscore the pivotal role of feature extraction, particularly HOG, in refining representations and bolstering classification accuracy. The study's significant highlight was the achievement of 97% accuracy with EfficientNet-B7 employing HOG and Grad-CAM, a noteworthy advancement in optimizing pre-trained CNN-based rice disease identification systems. The findings advocate for the strategic integration of advanced feature extraction techniques with cutting-edge pre-trained CNN architectures, presenting a promising avenue for substantially augmenting the precision and effectiveness of image-based disease classification systems in agricultural contexts.

Efficiently fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLMs) for specific tasks presents a considerable challenge in natural language processing. Traditional methods, like prompt or prefix tuning, typically rely on arbitrary tokens for training, leading to prolonged training times and generalized token use across various class labels. To address these issues, this paper introduces L-Tuning, an efficient fine-tuning approach designed for classification tasks within the Natural Language Inference (NLI) framework. Diverging from conventional methods, L-Tuning focuses on the fine-tuning of label tokens processed through a pre-trained LLM, thereby harnessing its pre-existing semantic knowledge. This technique not only improves the fine-tuning accuracy and efficiency but also facilitates the generation of distinct label embeddings for each class, enhancing the model's training nuance. Our experimental results indicate a significant improvement in training efficiency and classification accuracy with L-Tuning compared to traditional approaches, marking a promising advancement in fine-tuning LLMs for complex language tasks. \\ Code is available at: \textcolor{red}{\href{https://github.com/Kowsher/L-Tuning}{\texttt{https://github.com/Kowsher/L-Tuning}}}.