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In response to the rapid growth of global videomtraffic and the limitations of traditional wireless transmission systems, we propose a novel dual-stage vector quantization framework, VQ-DeepVSC, tailored to enhance video transmission over wireless channels. In the first stage, we design the adaptive keyframe extractor and interpolator, deployed respectively at the transmitter and receiver, which intelligently select key frames to minimize inter-frame redundancy and mitigate the cliff-effect under challenging channel conditions. In the second stage, we propose the semantic vector quantization encoder and decoder, placed respectively at the transmitter and receiver, which efficiently compress key frames using advanced indexing and spatial normalization modules to reduce redundancy. Additionally, we propose adjustable index selection and recovery modules, enhancing compression efficiency and enabling flexible compression ratio adjustment. Compared to the joint source-channel coding (JSCC) framework, the proposed framework exhibits superior compatibility with current digital communication systems. Experimental results demonstrate that VQ-DeepVSC achieves substantial improvements in both Multi-Scale Structural Similarity (MS-SSIM) and Learned Perceptual Image Patch Similarity (LPIPS) metrics than the H.265 standard, particularly under low channel signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or multi-path channels, highlighting the significantly enhanced transmission capabilities of our approach.

Backdoor attacks, in which a model behaves maliciously when given an attacker-specified trigger, pose a major security risk for practitioners who depend on publicly released language models. Backdoor detection methods aim to detect whether a released model contains a backdoor, so that practitioners can avoid such vulnerabilities. While existing backdoor detection methods have high accuracy in detecting backdoored models on standard benchmarks, it is unclear whether they can robustly identify backdoors in the wild. In this paper, we examine the robustness of backdoor detectors by manipulating different factors during backdoor planting. We find that the success of existing methods highly depends on how intensely the model is trained on poisoned data during backdoor planting. Specifically, backdoors planted with either more aggressive or more conservative training are significantly more difficult to detect than the default ones. Our results highlight a lack of robustness of existing backdoor detectors and the limitations in current benchmark construction.

Nowadays, many applications do not exist independently but rely on various frameworks or libraries. The frequent evolution and the complex implementation of framework APIs induce many unexpected post-release crashes. Starting from the crash stack traces, existing approaches either perform direct call graph (CG) tracing or construct datasets with similar crash-fixing records to locate buggy methods. However, these approaches are limited by the completeness of CG or dependent on historical fixing records. Moreover, they fail to explain the buggy candidates by revealing their relationship with the crashing point. To fill the gap, we propose an explainable crashing fault localization approach by combining static analysis and LLM techniques. Our primary insight is that understanding the semantics of exception-throwing statements in the framework code can help find and apprehend the buggy methods in the app code. Based on this idea, first, we design the exception-thrown summary (ETS) that describes the key elements related to each framework-specific exception and extract ETSs by performing static analysis. Then we make data-tracking of its key elements to identify and sort buggy candidates for the given crash. After that, we introduce LLMs to improve the explainability of the localization results. To construct effective LLM prompts, we design the candidate information summary (CIS) that describes multiple types of explanation-related contexts and then extract CISs via static analysis. We apply our approach to one typical scenario, i.e., locating Android framework-specific crashing faults, and implement a tool CrashTracker. For fault localization, it exhibited an overall MRR value of 0.91 in precision. For fault explanation, compared to the naive one produced by static analysis only, the LLM-powered explanation achieved a 67.04% improvement in users' satisfaction score.

With a broad range of emerging applications in 6G networks, wireless traffic prediction has become a critical component of network management. However, the dynamically shifting distribution of wireless traffic in non-stationary 6G networks presents significant challenges to achieving accurate and stable predictions. Motivated by recent advancements in Generative AI (GAI)-enabled 6G networks, this paper proposes a novel self-refined Large Language Model (LLM) for wireless traffic prediction, namely TrafficLLM, through in-context learning without parameter fine-tuning or model training. The proposed TrafficLLM harnesses the powerful few-shot learning abilities of LLMs to enhance the scalability of traffic prediction in dynamically changing wireless environments. Specifically, our proposed TrafficLLM embraces an LLM to iteratively refine its predictions through a three-step process: traffic prediction, feedback generation, and prediction refinement. Initially, the proposed TrafficLLM conducts traffic predictions using task-specific demonstration prompts. Recognizing that LLMs may generate incorrect predictions on the first attempt, we subsequently incorporate feedback demonstration prompts designed to provide multifaceted and valuable feedback related to these initial predictions. Following this comprehensive feedback, our proposed TrafficLLM introduces refinement demonstration prompts, enabling the same LLM to further refine its predictions and thereby enhance prediction performance. The evaluations on two realistic datasets demonstrate that the proposed TrafficLLM outperforms state-of-the-art methods with performance improvements of 23.17% and 17.09%, respectively.

Semantic segmentation is a significant perception task in autonomous driving. It suffers from the risks of adversarial examples. In the past few years, deep learning has gradually transitioned from convolutional neural network (CNN) models with a relatively small number of parameters to foundation models with a huge number of parameters. The segment-anything model (SAM) is a generalized image segmentation framework that is capable of handling various types of images and is able to recognize and segment arbitrary objects in an image without the need to train on a specific object. It is a unified model that can handle diverse downstream tasks, including semantic segmentation, object detection, and tracking. In the task of semantic segmentation for autonomous driving, it is significant to study the zero-shot adversarial robustness of SAM. Therefore, we deliver a systematic empirical study on the robustness of SAM without additional training. Based on the experimental results, the zero-shot adversarial robustness of the SAM under the black-box corruptions and white-box adversarial attacks is acceptable, even without the need for additional training. The finding of this study is insightful in that the gigantic model parameters and huge amounts of training data lead to the phenomenon of emergence, which builds a guarantee of adversarial robustness. SAM is a vision foundation model that can be regarded as an early prototype of an artificial general intelligence (AGI) pipeline. In such a pipeline, a unified model can handle diverse tasks. Therefore, this research not only inspects the impact of vision foundation models on safe autonomous driving but also provides a perspective on developing trustworthy AGI. The code is available at: https://github.com/momo1986/robust_sam_iv., Comment: Accepted to IAVVC 2024

With the rise of large language models (LLMs), researchers are increasingly exploring their applications in var ious vertical domains, such as software engineering. LLMs have achieved remarkable success in areas including code generation and vulnerability detection. However, they also exhibit numerous limitations and shortcomings. LLM-based agents, a novel tech nology with the potential for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), combine LLMs as the core for decision-making and action-taking, addressing some of the inherent limitations of LLMs such as lack of autonomy and self-improvement. Despite numerous studies and surveys exploring the possibility of using LLMs in software engineering, it lacks a clear distinction between LLMs and LLM based agents. It is still in its early stage for a unified standard and benchmarking to qualify an LLM solution as an LLM-based agent in its domain. In this survey, we broadly investigate the current practice and solutions for LLMs and LLM-based agents for software engineering. In particular we summarise six key topics: requirement engineering, code generation, autonomous decision-making, software design, test generation, and software maintenance. We review and differentiate the work of LLMs and LLM-based agents from these six topics, examining their differences and similarities in tasks, benchmarks, and evaluation metrics. Finally, we discuss the models and benchmarks used, providing a comprehensive analysis of their applications and effectiveness in software engineering. We anticipate this work will shed some lights on pushing the boundaries of LLM-based agents in software engineering for future research.

In this paper, we generalise several recent results by Archer and Geary on descents in powers of permutations, and confirm all their conjectures. Specifically, for all $k\in\mathbb{Z}^+$, we prove explicit formulas for the expected numbers of descents and inversions in the $k$-th powers of permutations in $\mathcal{S}_n$ for all $n\geq2k+1$. We also compute the number of Grassmanian permutations in $\mathcal{S}_n$ whose $k$-th powers remain Grassmanian, and the number of permutations in $\mathcal{S}_n$ whose $k$-th powers have the maximum number of descents., Comment: 10 pages, added new results

The $f(R)$ modified gravity theory can explain the accelerating expansion of the late Universe without introducing dark energy. In this study, we predict the constraint strength on the $f(R)$ theory using the mock data generated from the China Space Station Telescope (CSST) Ultra-Deep Field (UDF) Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) survey and wide-field slitless spectroscopic baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) survey. We explore three popular $f(R)$ models, and introduce a parameter $b$ to characterize the deviation of the f(R) theory from the $\Lambda$CDM theory. The Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method is employed to constrain the parameters in the $f(R)$ models, and the nuisance parameters and systematical uncertainties are also considered in the model fitting process. Besides, we also perform model comparisons between the $f(R)$ models and the $\Lambda$CDM model. We find that the constraint accuracy using the CSST SN Ia+BAO dataset alone is comparable to or even better than the result given by the combination of the current relevant observations, and the CSST SN Ia+BAO survey can distinguish the $f(R)$ models from the $\Lambda$CDM model. This indicates that the CSST SN Ia and BAO surveys can effectively constrain and test the $f(R)$ theory., Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables

During software evolution, it is advocated that test code should co-evolve with production code. In real development scenarios, test updating may lag behind production code changing, which may cause the project to fail to compile or bring other troubles. Existing techniques based on pre-trained language models can be adopted to repair obsolete tests caused by such unsynchronized code changes, especially syntactic-related ones. However, the lack of target-oriented contextual information affects repair accuracy on large-scale projects. Starting from an obsoleted test, the key challenging task is precisely identifying and constructing Test-Repair-Oriented Contexts (TROCtx) from the whole repository within a limited token size. In this paper, we propose SynBCIATR (Syntactic-Breaking-Change-Induced Automated Test Repair), a novel approach to automatically repair obsolete test cases via precise and concise TROCtx construction. Inspired by developers' programming practices of the task, we design three types of TROCtx: class contexts, usage contexts, and environment contexts. For every type of TROCtx, SynBCIATR automatically collects the changed-token-related code information through static analysis techniques. Then it generates reranking queries to identify the most relevant TROCtxs, which will be taken as the repair-required key context and be input to the Large Language Model for the final test repair. To evaluate the effectiveness of SynBCIATR, we construct a benchmark dataset that contains diverse syntactic breaking changes. The experimental results show that SynBCIATR outperforms baseline approaches both on textual- and intent-matching metrics. With the augmentation of TROCtx constructed by SynBCIATR, hallucinations are reduced by 57.1%.

We report data analysis results about the outburst evolution and spectral properties during the hard state of the recently discovered X-ray transient Swift J1727.8-163 as observed by \emph{Insight}-HXMT and NuSTAR. We find that the broadband X-ray spectrum of Swift J1727.8-163 is more complex than the most typical spectral patterns of black hole X-ray binary systems, with not only a comparatively weaker reflection component but also an additional spectral continuum component, manifesting itself as a hard X-ray tail beyond the thermal Comptonization description detectable below 100 keV. This additional component can be phenomenologically well fitted by adding an extra power-law model with high energy exponential cutoff in the 2-120 keV energy band. We made an attempt to explain the broadband X-ray spectral continuum with a thermal/non-thermal hybrid plasma corona scenario , and find an ultra high compactness parameter ($l_{\rm s}\sim2000$) and a steep non-thermal electron distribution ($\Gamma_{\rm inj}>4$), suggesting the source was accreting with high Eddington rates and that the electron acceleration mechanism is not very efficient. We also present a detailed multi-epoch analysis of spectral properties using \emph{Insight}-HXMT data to investigate the evolution of the key physical properties regarding the disk and corona during the hard states. No significant variation is found with the inner disk radius and the coronal temperature during this time period, and the weak reflection and hard X-ray tail features are persistent. We discuss the physical implications of our spectral analysis results in the context of disk-corona relation, particle acceleration, and jet contribution, during the rise of a black hole X-ray binary in outburst., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures

Automated penetration testing (AutoPT) based on reinforcement learning (RL) has proven its ability to improve the efficiency of vulnerability identification in information systems. However, RL-based PT encounters several challenges, including poor sampling efficiency, intricate reward specification, and limited interpretability. To address these issues, we propose a knowledge-informed AutoPT framework called DRLRM-PT, which leverages reward machines (RMs) to encode domain knowledge as guidelines for training a PT policy. In our study, we specifically focus on lateral movement as a PT case study and formulate it as a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) guided by RMs. We design two RMs based on the MITRE ATT\&CK knowledge base for lateral movement. To solve the POMDP and optimize the PT policy, we employ the deep Q-learning algorithm with RM (DQRM). The experimental results demonstrate that the DQRM agent exhibits higher training efficiency in PT compared to agents without knowledge embedding. Moreover, RMs encoding more detailed domain knowledge demonstrated better PT performance compared to RMs with simpler knowledge.

In the circuit quantum electrodynamics architectures, to realize a long-range quantum network mediated by flying photon, it is necessary to shape the temporal profile of emitted photons to achieve high transfer efficiency between two quantum nodes. In this work, we demonstrate a new single-rail and dual-rail time-bin shaped photon generator without additional flux-tunable elements, which can act as a quantum interface of a point-to-point quantum network. In our approach, we adopt a qubit-resonator-transmission line configuration, and the effective coupling strength between the qubit and the resonator can be varied by parametrically modulating the qubit frequency. In this way, the coupling is directly proportional to the parametric modulation amplitude and covers a broad tunable range beyond 20 MHz for the sample we used. Additionally, when emitting shaped photons, we find that the spurious frequency shift (-0.4 MHz) due to parametric modulation is small and can be readily calibrated through chirping. We develop an efficient photon field measurement setup based on the data stream processing of GPU. Utilizing this system, we perform photon temporal profile measurement, quantum state tomography of photon field, and quantum process tomography of single-rail quantum state transfer based on a heterodyne measurement scheme. The single-rail encoding state transfer fidelity of shaped photon emission is 90.32%, and that for unshaped photon is 97.20%, respectively. We believe that the fidelity of shaped photon emission is mainly limited by the qubit coherence time. The results demonstrate that our method is hardware efficient, simple to implement, and scalable. It could become a viable tool in a high-quality quantum network utilizing both single-rail and dual-rail time-bin encoding.

This paper reports on the NTIRE 2024 Quality Assessment of AI-Generated Content Challenge, which will be held in conjunction with the New Trends in Image Restoration and Enhancement Workshop (NTIRE) at CVPR 2024. This challenge is to address a major challenge in the field of image and video processing, namely, Image Quality Assessment (IQA) and Video Quality Assessment (VQA) for AI-Generated Content (AIGC). The challenge is divided into the image track and the video track. The image track uses the AIGIQA-20K, which contains 20,000 AI-Generated Images (AIGIs) generated by 15 popular generative models. The image track has a total of 318 registered participants. A total of 1,646 submissions are received in the development phase, and 221 submissions are received in the test phase. Finally, 16 participating teams submitted their models and fact sheets. The video track uses the T2VQA-DB, which contains 10,000 AI-Generated Videos (AIGVs) generated by 9 popular Text-to-Video (T2V) models. A total of 196 participants have registered in the video track. A total of 991 submissions are received in the development phase, and 185 submissions are received in the test phase. Finally, 12 participating teams submitted their models and fact sheets. Some methods have achieved better results than baseline methods, and the winning methods in both tracks have demonstrated superior prediction performance on AIGC.

The development of Large Language Models (LLM) and Diffusion Models brings the boom of Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC). It is essential to build an effective quality assessment framework to provide a quantifiable evaluation of different images or videos based on the AIGC technologies. The content generated by AIGC methods is driven by the crafted prompts. Therefore, it is intuitive that the prompts can also serve as the foundation of the AIGC quality assessment. This study proposes an effective AIGC quality assessment (QA) framework. First, we propose a hybrid prompt encoding method based on a dual-source CLIP (Contrastive Language-Image Pre-Training) text encoder to understand and respond to the prompt conditions. Second, we propose an ensemble-based feature mixer module to effectively blend the adapted prompt and vision features. The empirical study practices in two datasets: AIGIQA-20K (AI-Generated Image Quality Assessment database) and T2VQA-DB (Text-to-Video Quality Assessment DataBase), which validates the effectiveness of our proposed method: Prompt Condition Quality Assessment (PCQA). Our proposed simple and feasible framework may promote research development in the multimodal generation field., Comment: Published in CVPR-2024's NTIRE: New Trends in Image Restoration and Enhancement workshop and challenges

Trajectory prediction is critical for the safe planning and navigation of automated vehicles. The trajectory prediction models based on the neural networks are vulnerable to adversarial attacks. Previous attack methods have achieved high attack success rates but overlook the adaptability to realistic scenarios and the concealment of the deceits. To address this problem, we propose a speed-adaptive stealthy adversarial attack method named SA-Attack. This method searches the sensitive region of trajectory prediction models and generates the adversarial trajectories by using the vehicle-following method and incorporating information about forthcoming trajectories. Our method has the ability to adapt to different speed scenarios by reconstructing the trajectory from scratch. Fusing future trajectory trends and curvature constraints can guarantee the smoothness of adversarial trajectories, further ensuring the stealthiness of attacks. The empirical study on the datasets of nuScenes and Apolloscape demonstrates the attack performance of our proposed method. Finally, we also demonstrate the adaptability and stealthiness of SA-Attack for different speed scenarios. Our code is available at the repository: https://github.com/eclipse-bot/SA-Attack., Comment: This work is published in IEEE IV Symposium

In this paper, we mainly study two notions of pattern avoidance in parking functions. First, for any collection of length 3 patterns, we compute the number of parking functions of size $n$ that avoid them under the first notion. This is motivated by the recent work of Adeniran and Pudwell, who obtained analogous results using a second notion of pattern avoidance. Then, we provide new purely bijective proofs for two of their results, and improve the formula of another one. Finally, we apply similar enumeration techniques to the work of Novelli and Thibon on certain Hopf algebras of generalised parking functions, and compute their graded dimensions., Comment: 35 pages, 6 figures, published on Enumerative Combinatorics and Applications; minor typos corrected

With a high-loss resonator supplying the non-Hermiticity, we study the Energy level degeneracy and quantum state evolution in tunable coupling superconducting quantum circuit. The qubit's effective energy level and damping rate can be continually tuned in superconducting circuit, and the positions and numbers of level degenerate points are controllable. The efficient of quantum state exchange and the asymmetry of quantum state evolution can be tuned with non-hermitian and nonreciprocal coupling between two qubits. The controllable non-Hermiticity provides new insights and methods for exploring the unconventional quantum effects in superconducting quantum circuit., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

Complete quantum control of a stationary quantum bit embedded in a quantum emitter is crucial for photonic quantum information technologies. Recently, the orbital degree of freedom in optically active semiconductor quantum dots emerged as a promising candidate. However, the crucial ability to perform arbitrary rotation on orbital qubits remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate complete control of hole orbital states in a quantum dot. This is enabled by successfully inducing stimulated Raman transitions within $\Lambda$ systems connected via radiative Auger transitions. This new capability allows manipulations of polar and azimuth angles of the Bloch vector, as evidenced by Rabi oscillations and Ramsey interference, respectively. Simultaneous control of both parameters is achieved by concurrently varying the amplitude and phase of picosecond Raman pulses, enabling arbitrary unitary rotation of the Bloch vector. Our results establish the orbital states in solid-state quantum emitters as a potentially viable resource for applications in quantum information processing and quantum communication., Comment: Manuscript with 7 pages and 4 figures plus supplementary Information comprising 8 pages and 8 figures

Patients with type 2 diabetes need to closely monitor blood sugar levels as their routine diabetes self-management. Although many treatment agents aim to tightly control blood sugar, hypoglycemia often stands as an adverse event. In practice, patients can observe hypoglycemic events more easily than hyperglycemic events due to the perception of neurogenic symptoms. We propose to model each patient's observed hypoglycemic event as a lower-boundary crossing event for a reflected Brownian motion with an upper reflection barrier. The lower-boundary is set by clinical standards. To capture patient heterogeneity and within-patient dependence, covariates and a patient level frailty are incorporated into the volatility and the upper reflection barrier. This framework provides quantification for the underlying glucose level variability, patients heterogeneity, and risk factors' impact on glucose. We make inferences based on a Bayesian framework using Markov chain Monte Carlo. Two model comparison criteria, the Deviance Information Criterion and the Logarithm of the Pseudo-Marginal Likelihood, are used for model selection. The methodology is validated in simulation studies. In analyzing a dataset from the diabetic patients in the DURABLE trial, our model provides adequate fit, generates data similar to the observed data, and offers insights that could be missed by other models.

Energy Internet (EI) is emerging as new share economy platform for flexible local energy supplies in smart cities. Empowered by the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), EI aims to unlock peer-to-peer energy trading and sharing among prosumers, who can adeptly switch roles between providers and consumers in localized energy markets with rooftop photovoltaic panels, vehicle-to-everything technologies, packetized energy management, etc. The integration of prosumers in EI, however, will encounter many challenges in modelling, analyzing, and designing an efficient, economic, and social-optimal platform for energy sharing, calling for advanced AI/IoT-based solutions to resource optimization, information exchange, and interaction protocols in the context of the share economy. In this study, we aim to introduce a recently emerged paradigm, Machina Economicus, to investigate the economic rationality in modelling, analysis, and optimization of AI/IoT-based EI prosumer behaviors. The new paradigm, built upon the theory of machine learning and mechanism design, will offer new angles to investigate the selfishness of AI through a game-theoretic perspective, revealing potential competition and collaborations resulting from the self-adaptive learning and decision-making capacity. This study will focus on how the introduction of AI will reshape prosumer behaviors on the EI, and how this paradigm will reveal new research questions and directions when AI meets the share economy. With an extensive case analysis in the literature, we will also shed light on potential solutions for advancements of AI in future smart cities., Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure

The Monte Carlo algorithm is increasingly utilized, with its central step involving computer-based random sampling from stochastic models. While both Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and Reject Monte Carlo serve as sampling methods, the latter finds fewer applications compared to the former. Hence, this paper initially provides a concise introduction to the theory of the Reject Monte Carlo algorithm and its implementation techniques, aiming to enhance conceptual understanding and program implementation. Subsequently, a simplified rejection Monte Carlo algorithm is formulated. Furthermore, by considering multivariate distribution sampling and multivariate integration as examples, this study explores the specific application of the algorithm in statistical inference.

Economic structure comparisons between China and Japan have long captivated development economists. To delve deeper into their sectoral differences from 1995 to 2018, we used the annual input-output tables (IOTs) of both nations to construct weighted and directed input-output networks (IONs). This facilitated deeper network analyses. Strength distributions underscored variations in inter-sector economic interactions. Weighted, directed assortativity coefficients encapsulated the homophily among connecting sectors' features. By adjusting emphasis in PageRank centrality, key sectors were identified. Community detection revealed their clustering tendencies among the sectors. As anticipated, the analysis pinpointed manufacturing as China's central sector, while Japan favored services. Yet, at a finer level of the specific sectors, both nations exhibited varied structural evolutions. Contrastingly, sectoral communities in both China and Japan demonstrated commendable stability over the examined duration.

In this study, thermal-fluid-solid coupled simulations on the gas-phase pre-cooling operation of the corrugated cryogenic hoses were performed. Attention was focused on the temporal evolution and spatial distribution of transient thermal stress in the hose structure caused by convective heat transfer of the cooling medium, Liquefied Natural Gas Boil-Off Gas (BOG). The effects of different corrugated hose parameters, i.e., boundary conditions, hose lengths, BOG inlet flow rates, and corrugation shapes (C-type and U-type), on the transient thermal stress behavior were thoroughly assessed. The thermal stress developed at different locations of the corrugated hoses with these parameters is found to be governed by two major factors: the boundary constraint and local temperature gradient. The objective of this study is to offer practical insights for the structural strength design of corrugated cryogenic hoses and effective pre-cooling strategies, aiming to mitigate structural safety risks caused by excessive thermal stress.

Large Language Models (LLMs) possess the potential to exert substantial influence on public perceptions and interactions with information. This raises concerns about the societal impact that could arise if the ideologies within these models can be easily manipulated. In this work, we investigate how effectively LLMs can learn and generalize ideological biases from their instruction-tuning data. Our findings reveal a concerning vulnerability: exposure to only a small amount of ideologically driven samples significantly alters the ideology of LLMs. Notably, LLMs demonstrate a startling ability to absorb ideology from one topic and generalize it to even unrelated ones. The ease with which LLMs' ideologies can be skewed underscores the risks associated with intentionally poisoned training data by malicious actors or inadvertently introduced biases by data annotators. It also emphasizes the imperative for robust safeguards to mitigate the influence of ideological manipulations on LLMs.

We investigate a square-lattice architecture of superconducting transmon qubits with inter-qubit interactions mediated by inductive couplers. Therein, the inductive couling between the qubit and couplers is suggested to be designed into the gradiometer form to intigimate the flux noise orginating from the environment. Via periodically modulating the couplers,the Abelian gauge potential, termed effective magnetic flux, can be synthesized artificially, making the system an excellent platform for simulating two-dimensional topological physics. In the simplest two-dimensional model, the double (or three-leg) ladder, the staggered vortex-Meissner phase transition different from that in the two-leg ladder can be found in the single-particle ground state as the effective magnetic flux varies. Besides, the large coupling ratio between the interleg and intraleg coupling strengths also makes the chiral current resemble squeezed sinusoidal functions. If the row number is further increased, the topological band structure anticipated at massive rows begins to occur even for a relatively small number of rows (ten or so for the considered parameters). This heralds a small circuit scale to observe the topological band. The edge state in the band gap is determined by the topological Chern number and can be calculated through integrating the Berry curvature with respect to the first Brillouin zone. Besides, we present a systematic method on how to measure the topological band structure based on time- and space-domain Frourier transformation of the wave function after properly excited. The result offers an avenue for simulating two-dimensional topological physics on the state-of-the-art superconducting quantum chips.

Combing the weak KAM method for contact Hamiltonian systems and the theory of viscosity solutions for Hamilton-Jacobi equations, we study the Lyapunov stability and instability of viscosity solutions for evolutionary contact Hamilton-Jacobi equation in the first part. In the second part, we study the existence and multiplicity of time-periodic solutions.

This paper mainly deals with the Sturm-Liouville operator \begin{equation*} \mathbf{H}=\frac{1}{w(x)}\left( -\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}x}p(x)\frac{ \mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}x}+q(x)\right) ,\text{ }x\in \Gamma \end{equation*} acting in $L_{w}^{2}\left( \Gamma \right) ,$ where $\Gamma $ is a metric graph. We establish a relationship between the bottom of the spectrum and the positive solutions of quantum graphs, which is a generalization of the classical Allegretto-Piepenbrink theorem. Moreover, we prove the Persson-type theorem, which characterizes the infimum of the essential spectrum.

The implementation of complex software systems usually depends on low-level frameworks or third-party libraries. During their evolution, the APIs adding and removing behaviors may cause unexpected compatibility problems. So, precisely analyzing and constructing the framework/ library's API lifecycle model is of great importance. Existing works have proposed the API existence-changing model for defect detection, while not considering the influence of semantic changes in APIs. In some cases, developers will not remove or deprecate APIs but modify their semantics by adding, removing, or modifying their exception-thrown code, which may bring potential defects to upper-level code. Therefore, besides the API existence model, it is also necessary for developers to be concerned with the exception-related code evolution in APIs, which requires the construction of exception-aware API lifecycle models for framework/library projects. To achieve automatic exception-aware API lifecycle model construction, this paper adopts a static analysis technique to extract exception summary information in the framework API code and adopts a multi-step matching strategy to obtain the changing process of exceptions. Then, it generates exception-aware API lifecycle models for the given framework/library project. With this approach, the API lifecycle extraction tool, JavaExP, is implemented, which is based on Java bytecode analysis. Compared to the state-of-the-art tool, JavaExP achieves both a higher F1 score (+60%) and efficiency (+7x), whose precision of exception matching and changing results is 98%. Compared to the exception-unaware API lifecycle modeling on 60 versions, JavaExp can identify 18% times more API changes. Among the 75,433 APIs under analysis, 20% of APIs have changed their exception-throwing behavior at least once after API introduction, which may bring many hidden compatibility issues., Comment: in Chinese language

In this study, we showcased the detection of the wake vortex produced by a medium aircraft at distances exceeding 10 km using an X-band pulse-Doppler radar. We analyzed radar signals within the range profiles behind a Boeing 737 aircraft on February 7, 2021, within the airspace of the Runway Protection Zone (RPZ) at Tianhe Airport, Wuhan, China. The findings revealed that the wake vortex extended up to 6 km from the aircraft, which is 10 km from the radar, displaying distinct stages characterized by scattering patterns and Doppler signatures. Despite the wake vortex exhibiting a scattering power approximately 10 dB lower than that of the aircraft, its Doppler Signal-to-Clutter Ratio (DSCR) values were only 5 dB lower, indicating a notably strong scattering power within a single radar bin. Additionally, certain radar parameters proved inconsistent in the stable detection and tracking of wake vortex, aligning with our earlier concept of cognitive micro-Doppler radar.

Knowledge distillation aims to train a compact student network using soft supervision from a larger teacher network and hard supervision from ground truths. However, determining an optimal knowledge fusion ratio that balances these supervisory signals remains challenging. Prior methods generally resort to a constant or heuristic-based fusion ratio, which often falls short of a proper balance. In this study, we introduce a novel adaptive method for learning a sample-wise knowledge fusion ratio, exploiting both the correctness of teacher and student, as well as how well the student mimics the teacher on each sample. Our method naturally leads to the intra-sample trilateral geometric relations among the student prediction ($S$), teacher prediction ($T$), and ground truth ($G$). To counterbalance the impact of outliers, we further extend to the inter-sample relations, incorporating the teacher's global average prediction $\bar{T}$ for samples within the same class. A simple neural network then learns the implicit mapping from the intra- and inter-sample relations to an adaptive, sample-wise knowledge fusion ratio in a bilevel-optimization manner. Our approach provides a simple, practical, and adaptable solution for knowledge distillation that can be employed across various architectures and model sizes. Extensive experiments demonstrate consistent improvements over other loss re-weighting methods on image classification, attack detection, and click-through rate prediction.

The forbidden number forb$(m,F)$, which denotes the maximum number of distinct columns in an $m$-rowed $(0,1)$-matrix with no submatrix that is a row and column permutation of $F$, has been widely studied in extremal set theory. Recently, this function was extended to $r$-matrices, whose entries lie in $\{0,1,\cdots,r-1\}$. forb$(m,r,F)$ is the maximum number of distinct columns in an $r$-matrix with no submatrix that is a row and column permutation of $F$. While forb$(m,F)$ is polynomial in $m$, forb$(m,r,F)$ is exponential for $r\geq 3$. Recently, forb$(m,r,F)$ was studied for some small $(0,1)$-matrices $F$, and exact values were determined in some cases. In this paper we study forb$(m,r,M)$ for $M=\begin{bmatrix}0&1\\0&1\\1&0\end{bmatrix}$, which is the smallest matrix for which this forbidden number is unknown. Interestingly, it turns out that this problem is closely linked with the following optimisation problem. For each triangle in the complete graph $K_m$, pick one of its edges. Let $m_e$ denote the number of times edge $e$ is picked. For each $\alpha\in\mathbb{R}$, what is $H(m,\alpha)=\max\sum_{e\in E(K_m)}\alpha^{m_e}$? We establish a relationship between forb$(m,r,M)$ and $H(m,(r-1)/(r-2))$, find upper and lower bounds for $H(m,\alpha)$, and use them to significantly improve known bounds for forb$(m,r,M)$., Comment: 35 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics

Existing studies in backdoor defense have predominantly focused on the training phase, overlooking the critical aspect of testing time defense. This gap becomes particularly pronounced in the context of Large Language Models (LLMs) deployed as Web Services, which typically offer only black-box access, rendering training-time defenses impractical. To bridge this gap, our work introduces defensive demonstrations, an innovative backdoor defense strategy for blackbox large language models. Our method involves identifying the task and retrieving task-relevant demonstrations from an uncontaminated pool. These demonstrations are then combined with user queries and presented to the model during testing, without requiring any modifications/tuning to the black-box model or insights into its internal mechanisms. Defensive demonstrations are designed to counteract the adverse effects of triggers, aiming to recalibrate and correct the behavior of poisoned models during test-time evaluations. Extensive experiments show that defensive demonstrations are effective in defending both instance-level and instruction-level backdoor attacks, not only rectifying the behavior of poisoned models but also surpassing existing baselines in most scenarios.

Automatically evaluating vision-language tasks is challenging, especially when it comes to reflecting human judgments due to limitations in accounting for fine-grained details. Although GPT-4V has shown promising results in various multi-modal tasks, leveraging GPT-4V as a generalist evaluator for these tasks has not yet been systematically explored. We comprehensively validate GPT-4V's capabilities for evaluation purposes, addressing tasks ranging from foundational image-to-text and text-to-image synthesis to high-level image-to-image translations and multi-images to text alignment. We employ two evaluation methods, single-answer grading and pairwise comparison, using GPT-4V. Notably, GPT-4V shows promising agreement with humans across various tasks and evaluation methods, demonstrating immense potential for multi-modal LLMs as evaluators. Despite limitations like restricted visual clarity grading and real-world complex reasoning, its ability to provide human-aligned scores enriched with detailed explanations is promising for universal automatic evaluator.

For every $k\ge 2$ and $\Delta$, we prove that there exists a constant $C_{\Delta,k}$ such that the following holds. For every graph $H$ with $\chi(H)=k$ and every tree with at least $C_{\Delta,k}|H|$ vertices and maximum degree at most $\Delta$, the Ramsey number $R(T,H)$ is $(k-1)(|T|-1)+\sigma(H)$, where $\sigma(H)$ is the size of a smallest colour class across all proper $k$-colourings of $H$. This is tight up to the value of $C_{\Delta,k}$, and confirms a conjecture of Balla, Pokrovskiy, and Sudakov.

A simple graph is triangular if every edge is contained in a triangle. A sequence of integers is graphical if it is the degree sequence of a simple graph. Egan and Nikolayevsky recently conjectured that every graphical sequence whose terms are all at least 4 is the degree sequence of a triangular simple graph, and proved this in some special cases. In this paper we state and prove the analogous version of this conjecture for multigraphs., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics

This paper presents a brief examination of Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) technology within ground-based radar systems. It offers a lucid comprehension of the ATR concept, delves into its historical milestones, and categorizes ATR methods according to different scattering regions. By incorporating ATR solutions into radar systems, this study demonstrates the expansion of radar detection ranges and the enhancement of tracking capabilities, leading to superior situational awareness. Drawing insights from the Russo-Ukrainian War, the paper highlights three pressing radar applications that urgently necessitate ATR technology: detecting stealth aircraft, countering small drones, and implementing anti-jamming measures. Anticipating the next wave of radar ATR research, the study predicts a surge in cognitive radar and machine learning (ML)-driven algorithms. These emerging methodologies aspire to confront challenges associated with system adaptation, real-time recognition, and environmental adaptability. Ultimately, ATR stands poised to revolutionize conventional radar systems, ushering in an era of 4D sensing capabilities.

This paper concerns with the time periodic viscosity solution problem for a class of evolutionary contact Hamilton-Jacobi equations with time independent Hamiltonians on the torus $\mathbb{T}^n$. Under certain suitable assumptions we show that the equation has a non-trivial $T$-periodic viscosity solution if and only if $T\in D$, where $D$ is a dense subset of $[0,+\infty)$. Moreover, we clarify the structure of $D$. As a consequence, we also study the existence of Bohr almost periodic viscosity solutions.

Radar echoes from bird flocks contain modulation signals, which we find are produced by the flapping gaits of birds in the flock, resulting in a group of spectral peaks with similar amplitudes spaced at a specific interval. We call this the formation wing-beat modulation (FWM) effect. FWM signals are micro-Doppler modulated by flapping wings and are related to the bird number, wing-beat frequency, and flight phasing strategy. Our X-band radar data show that FWM signals exist in radar signals of a seagull flock, providing tools for quantifying the bird number and estimating the mean wingbeat rate of birds. This new finding could aid in research on the quantification of bird migration numbers and estimation of bird flight behavior in radar ornithology and aero-ecology.

An edge colouring of $K_n$ with $k$ colours is a Gallai $k$-colouring if it does not contain any rainbow triangle. Gy\'arf\'as, P\'alv\"olgyi, Patk\'os and Wales proved that there exists a number $g(k)$ such that $n\geq g(k)$ if and only if for any colour distribution sequence $(e_1,\cdots,e_k)$ with $\sum_{i=1}^ke_i=\binom{n}{2}$, there exist a Gallai $k$-colouring of $K_n$ with $e_i$ edges having colour $i$. They also showed that $\Omega(k)=g(k)=O(k^2)$ and posed the problem of determining the exact order of magnitude of $g(k)$. Feffer, Fu and Yan improved both bounds significantly by proving $\Omega(k^{1.5}/\log k)=g(k)=O(k^{1.5})$. We resolve this problem by showing $g(k)=\Theta(k^{1.5}/(\log k)^{0.5})$. Moreover, we generalise these definitions by considering rainbow $H$-free colourings of $K_n$ for any general graph $H$, and the natural corresponding quantity $g(H,k)$. We prove that $g(H,k)$ is finite for every $k$ if and only if $H$ is not a forest, and determine the order of $g(H,k)$ when $H$ contains a subgraph with minimum degree at least 3., Comment: 15 pages. Submitted to SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics

Degree-preserving rewiring is a widely used technique for generating unweighted networks with given assortativity, but for weighted networks, it is unclear how an analog would preserve the strengths and other critical network features such as sparsity level. This study introduces a novel approach for rewiring weighted networks to achieve desired directed assortativity. The method utilizes a mixed integer programming framework to establish a target network with predetermined assortativity coefficients, followed by an efficient rewiring algorithm termed "strength and sparsity preserving rewiring" (SSPR). SSPR retains the node strength distributions and network sparsity after rewiring. It is also possible to accommodate additional properties like edge weight distribution with extra computational cost. The optimization scheme can be used to determine feasible assortativity ranges for an initial network. The effectiveness of the proposed SSPR algorithm is demonstrated through its application to two classes of popular network models.

The construction of a large-scale quantum internet requires quantum repeaters containing multiple entangled photon sources with identical wavelengths. Semiconductor quantum dots can generate entangled photon pairs deterministically with high fidelity. However, realizing wavelength-matched quantum-dot entangled photon sources faces two difficulties: the non-uniformity of emission wavelength and exciton fine-structure splitting induced fidelity reduction. Typically, these two factors are not independently tunable, making it challenging to achieve simultaneous improvement. In this work, we demonstrate wavelength-tunable entangled photon sources based on droplet-etched GaAs quantum dots through the combined use of AC and quantum-confined Stark effects. The emission wavelength can be tuned by ~1 meV while preserving an entanglement fidelity f exceeding 0.955(1) in the entire tuning range. Based on this hybrid tuning scheme, we finally demonstrate multiple wavelength-matched entangled photon sources with f>0.919(3), paving a way towards robust and scalable on-demand entangled photon sources for quantum internet and integrated quantum optical circuits., Comment: Main text: 11 pages, 6 figures, Supplementary information: 7 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables