scs
2D Stability Selection: Design Jittering for Doubly Stable Feature Selection
Nouraie, Mahdi, Zhu, Houying, Muller, Samuel
We study feature selection in high-dimensional regression under two distinct sources of instability: sampling variability and measurement error in the design matrix. Stability Selection addresses the former through sub-sampling and aggregation, but does not explicitly stress-test robustness to noisy predictors. We introduce doubly stable feature selection, a perturb-and-aggregate framework that targets features whose inclusion is stable both across randomization and across increasing levels of design noise. The method injects controlled additive noise into the design matrix, fits a fixed base selector such as the Lasso on the perturbed data, and aggregates selection frequencies. Sweeping over a grid of noise levels yields a stability path that summarizes robustness to measurement error while using the full sample size and isolating the effect of design perturbations. On the theory side, we show that classical model-selection conditions are preserved under sufficiently small perturbations, with a high-probability extension for Gaussian noise. Empirically, experiments on synthetic and real datasets show improved robustness compared with Stability Selection and standard base selectors.
Adapting to Fragmented and Evolving Data: A Fisher Information Perspective
Khan, Behraj, Syed, Tahir Qasim, Durrani, Nouman Muhammad
Modern machine learning systems operating in dynamic environments often face \textit{sequential covariate shift} (SCS), where input distributions evolve over time while the conditional distribution remains stable. We introduce FADE (Fisher-based Adaptation to Dynamic Environments), a lightweight and theoretically grounded framework for robust learning under SCS. FADE employs a shift-aware regularization mechanism anchored in Fisher information geometry, guiding adaptation by modulating parameter updates based on sensitivity and stability. To detect significant distribution changes, we propose a Cramer-Rao-informed shift signal that integrates KL divergence with temporal Fisher dynamics. Unlike prior methods requiring task boundaries, target supervision, or experience replay, FADE operates online with fixed memory and no access to target labels. Evaluated on seven benchmarks spanning vision, language, and tabular data, FADE achieves up to 19\% higher accuracy under severe shifts, outperforming methods such as TENT and DIW. FADE also generalizes naturally to federated learning by treating heterogeneous clients as temporally fragmented environments, enabling scalable and stable adaptation in decentralized settings. Theoretical analysis guarantees bounded regret and parameter consistency, while empirical results demonstrate FADE's robustness across modalities and shift intensities.
Structural Connectome Harmonization Using Deep Learning: The Strength of Graph Neural Networks
Patel, Jagruti, Bolton, Thomas A. W., Schรถttner, Mikkel, Tarun, Anjali, Tourbier, Sebastien, Alemร n-Gรฒmez, Yasser, Richiardi, Jonas, Hagmann, Patric
Small sample sizes in neuroimaging in general, and in structural connectome (SC) studies in particular limit the development of reliable biomarkers for neurological and psychiatric disorders - such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia - by reducing statistical power, reliability, and generalizability. Large-scale multi-site studies have exist, but they have acquisition-related biases due to scanner heterogeneity, compromising imaging consistency and downstream analyses. While existing SC harmonization methods - such as linear regression (LR), ComBat, and deep learning techniques - mitigate these biases, they often rely on detailed metadata, traveling subjects (TS), or overlook the graph-topology of SCs. To address these limitations, we propose a site-conditioned deep harmonization framework that harmonizes SCs across diverse acquisition sites without requiring metadata or TS that we test in a simulated scenario based on the Human Connectome Dataset. Within this framework, we benchmark three deep architectures - a fully connected autoencoder (AE), a convolutional AE, and a graph convolutional AE - against a top-performing LR baseline. While non-graph models excel in edge-weight prediction and edge existence detection, the graph AE demonstrates superior preservation of topological structure and subject-level individuality, as reflected by graph metrics and fingerprinting accuracy, respectively. Although the LR baseline achieves the highest numerical performance by explicitly modeling acquisition parameters, it lacks applicability to real-world multi-site use cases as detailed acquisition metadata is often unavailable. Our results highlight the critical role of model architecture in SC harmonization performance and demonstrate that graph-based approaches are particularly well-suited for structure-aware, domain-generalizable SC harmonization in large-scale multi-site SC studies.
A biconvex method for minimum-time motion planning through sequences of convex sets
Marcucci, Tobia, Halm, Mathew, Yang, Will, Lee, Dongchan, Marchese, Andrew D.
--We consider the problem of designing a smooth trajectory that traverses a sequence of convex sets in minimum time, while satisfying given velocity and acceleration constraints. This problem is naturally formulated as a nonconvex program. T o solve it, we propose a biconvex method that quickly produces an initial trajectory and iteratively refines it by solving two convex subproblems in alternation. This method is guaranteed to converge, returns a feasible trajectory even if stopped early, and does not require the selection of any line-search or trust-region parameter . Exhaustive experiments show that our method finds high-quality trajectories in a fraction of the time of state-of-the-art solvers for nonconvex optimization. In addition, it achieves runtimes comparable to industry-standard waypoint-based motion planners, while consistently designing lower-duration trajectories than existing optimization-based planners. Selecting the most effective motion-planning algorithm for a robotic system often requires balancing three competing objectives: reliability, computational efficiency, and trajectory quality. Consider Sparrow, the robot arm in Figure 1 that sorts individual products into bins before they get packaged in the Amazon warehouses. The algorithms that move Sparrow must be extremely reliable, as these robots handle millions of diverse products every day, and each failure requires expensive interventions. They must be efficient, since every millisecond spent planning is taken away from other crucial computations, and limits the robot reactivity to sensor observations. Finally, they should generate trajectories that push the robot to its physical limits, so that the work-cell throughput is maximized and the hardware is fully utilized. Unfortunately, general-purpose methods for motion planning do not excel in all of these areas at once. Sampling-based methods like PRM [18], RRT [19], and their asymptotically optimal versions [17] can be fast enough for real-time applications. They are also reliable in low-dimensional spaces, where dense sampling is computationally feasible. However, they become significantly less effective as the space dimension grows. Additionally, although their kino-dynamic variants support differential constraints [20, 16, 22], sampling-based methods remain considerably less practical for designing smooth continuous trajectories than producing polygonal paths. Trajectory-optimization methods based on nonconvex programming [1, 33] scale well to high-dimensional spaces and explicitly factor in the robot kinematics and dynamics. Over the years, these techniques have become significantly faster [39, 13] and, with the advent of specialized GPU implementations [35], they are now even viable for real-time motion planning.
Quality of explanation of xAI from the prespective of Italian end-users: Italian version of System Causability Scale (SCS)
Attanasio, Carmine, Mortezapour, Alireza
Background and aim: Considering the scope of the application of artificial intelligence beyond the field of computer science, one of the concerns of researchers is to provide quality explanations about the functioning of algorithms based on artificial intelligence and the data extracted from it. The purpose of the present study is to validate the Italian version of system causability scale (I-SCS) to measure the quality of explanations provided in a xAI. Method: For this purpose, the English version, initially provided in 2020 in coordination with the main developer, was utilized. The forward-backward translation method was applied to ensure accuracy. Finally, these nine steps were completed by calculating the content validity index/ratio and conducting cognitive interviews with representative end users. Results: The original version of the questionnaire consisted of 10 questions. However, based on the obtained indexes (CVR below 0.49), one question (Question 8) was entirely removed. After completing the aforementioned steps, the Italian version contained 9 questions. The representative sample of Italian end users fully comprehended the meaning and content of the questions in the Italian version. Conclusion: The Italian version obtained in this study can be used in future research studies as well as in the field by xAI developers. This tool can be used to measure the quality of explanations provided for an xAI system in Italian culture.
Rapid analysis of point-contact Andreev reflection spectra via machine learning with adaptive data augmentation
Lee, Dongik, Stanev, Valentin, Zhang, Xiaohang, Kang, Mijeong, Takeuchi, Ichiro, Lee, Seunghun
Delineating the superconducting order parameters is a pivotal task in investigating superconductivity for probing pairing mechanisms, as well as their symmetry and topology. Point-contact Andreev reflection (PCAR) measurement is a simple yet powerful tool for identifying the order parameters. The PCAR spectra exhibit significant variations depending on the type of the order parameter in a superconductor, including its magnitude ($\mathit{\Delta}$), as well as temperature, interfacial quality, Fermi velocity mismatch, and other factors. The information on the order parameter can be obtained by finding the combination of these parameters, generating a theoretical spectrum that fits a measured experimental spectrum. However, due to the complexity of the spectra and the high dimensionality of parameters, extracting the fitting parameters is often time-consuming and labor-intensive. In this study, we employ a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm to create models for rapid and automated analysis of PCAR spectra of various superconductors with different pairing symmetries (conventional $s$-wave, chiral $p_x+ip_y$-wave, and $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave). The training datasets are generated based on the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk (BTK) theory and further modified and augmented by selectively incorporating noise and peaks according to the bias voltages. This approach not only replicates the experimental spectra but also brings the model's attention to important features within the spectra. The optimized models provide fitting parameters for experimentally measured spectra in less than 100 ms per spectrum. Our approaches and findings pave the way for rapid and automated spectral analysis which will help accelerate research on superconductors with complex order parameters.
Filter Like You Test: Data-Driven Data Filtering for CLIP Pretraining
We introduce Filter Like You Test (FLYT), a method for curating large-scale vision-language datasets that learns the usefulness of each data point as a pretraining example. FLYT trains a scoring model that learns to weigh each example using gradient signals from downstream tasks training sets. Using the same training methodology, we develop Mixing-FLYT (M-FLYT), which takes the per-example scores generated by different scoring methods and learns to unify them into a single score. Our training methodology naturally produces a distribution over the training examples, which we leverage through Soft Cap Sampling (SCS), a strategy for obtaining a filtered pretraining dataset from per-example probabilities that samples examples while preventing over-representation through a repetition penalty. Using all three methods, we achieve 40.1% ImageNet zero-shot accuracy on the DataComp medium scale filtering benchmark, a 1.9% absolute accuracy increase over all previous results and a 5.5% increase over results that -- like us -- use only public resources.
Integrating Artificial Open Generative Artificial Intelligence into Software Supply Chain Security
Alevizos, Vasileios, Papakostas, George A, Simasiku, Akebu, Malliarou, Dimitra, Messinis, Antonis, Edralin, Sabrina, Xu, Clark, Yue, Zongliang
While new technologies emerge, human errors always looming. Software supply chain is increasingly complex and intertwined, the security of a service has become paramount to ensuring the integrity of products, safeguarding data privacy, and maintaining operational continuity. In this work, we conducted experiments on the promising open Large Language Models (LLMs) into two main software security challenges: source code language errors and deprecated code, with a focus on their potential to replace conventional static and dynamic security scanners that rely on predefined rules and patterns. Our findings suggest that while LLMs present some unexpected results, they also encounter significant limitations, particularly in memory complexity and the management of new and unfamiliar data patterns. Despite these challenges, the proactive application of LLMs, coupled with extensive security databases and continuous updates, holds the potential to fortify Software Supply Chain (SSC) processes against emerging threats.
MapEval: Towards Unified, Robust and Efficient SLAM Map Evaluation Framework
Hu, Xiangcheng, Wu, Jin, Jia, Mingkai, Yan, Hongyu, Jiang, Yi, Jiang, Binqian, Zhang, Wei, He, Wei, Tan, Ping
Evaluating massive-scale point cloud maps in Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) remains challenging, primarily due to the absence of unified, robust and efficient evaluation frameworks. We present MapEval, an open-source framework for comprehensive quality assessment of point cloud maps, specifically addressing SLAM scenarios where ground truth map is inherently sparse compared to the mapped environment. Through systematic analysis of existing evaluation metrics in SLAM applications, we identify their fundamental limitations and establish clear guidelines for consistent map quality assessment. Building upon these insights, we propose a novel Gaussian-approximated Wasserstein distance in voxelized space, enabling two complementary metrics under the same error standard: Voxelized Average Wasserstein Distance (AWD) for global geometric accuracy and Spatial Consistency Score (SCS) for local consistency evaluation. This theoretical foundation leads to significant improvements in both robustness against noise and computational efficiency compared to conventional metrics. Extensive experiments on both simulated and real-world datasets demonstrate that MapEval achieves at least \SI{100}{}-\SI{500}{} times faster while maintaining evaluation integrity. The MapEval library\footnote{\texttt{https://github.com/JokerJohn/Cloud\_Map\_Evaluation}} will be publicly available to promote standardized map evaluation practices in the robotics community.
Coverage Metrics for a Scenario Database for the Scenario-Based Assessment of Automated Driving Systems
de Gelder, Erwin, Buermann, Maren, Camp, Olaf Op den
Automated Driving Systems (ADSs) have the potential to make mobility services available and safe for all. A multi-pillar Safety Assessment Framework (SAF) has been proposed for the type-approval process of ADSs. The SAF requires that the test scenarios for the ADS adequately covers the Operational Design Domain (ODD) of the ADS. A common method for generating test scenarios involves basing them on scenarios identified and characterized from driving data. This work addresses two questions when collecting scenarios from driving data. First, do the collected scenarios cover all relevant aspects of the ADS' ODD? Second, do the collected scenarios cover all relevant aspects that are in the driving data, such that no potentially important situations are missed? This work proposes coverage metrics that provide a quantitative answer to these questions. The proposed coverage metrics are illustrated by means of an experiment in which over 200000 scenarios from 10 different scenario categories are collected from the HighD data set. The experiment demonstrates that a coverage of 100 % can be achieved under certain conditions, and it also identifies which data and scenarios could be added to enhance the coverage outcomes in case a 100 % coverage has not been achieved. Whereas this work presents metrics for the quantification of the coverage of driving data and the identified scenarios, this paper concludes with future research directions, including the quantification of the completeness of driving data and the identified scenarios.