GRASP: Grounded CoT Reasoning with Dual-Stage Optimization for Multimodal Sarcasm Target Identification

Moving beyond the traditional binary classification paradigm of Multimodal Sarcasm Detection, Multimodal Sarcasm Target Identification (MSTI) presents a more formidable challenge, requiring precise localization of fine-grained targets such as textual phrases and visual regions. Existing approaches predominantly rely on implicit cross-modal alignment, offering limited interpretability and suboptimal fine-grained localization. To address these limitations, we propose GRASP, Grounded Chain-of-Thought ReAsoning with Dual-Stage Optimization for Multimodal Sarcasm Prediction and Target Identification, a framework that integrates visual grounding with explicit Chain-of-Thought (CoT) reasoning to move beyond black-box MSTI. Specifically, we curate MSTI-MAX, a refined dataset that mitigates class imbalance and enriches multimodal sarcasm cues. We introduce Grounded CoT reasoning, which explicitly anchors sarcasm-related visual regions within the reasoning trajectory and prompts the model to articulate rationales before predicting the final classification labels and sarcasm targets. Furthermore, we employ a dual-stage outcome-supervised joint optimization strategy: Supervised Fine-Tuning with a coordinate-aware weighted loss, followed by Fine-Grained Target Policy Optimization. Extensive experiments demonstrate that GRASP outperforms existing baselines in fine-grained sarcasm target identification across modalities, and an LLM-as-a-Judge evaluation quantitatively measures the quality of internal reasoning chains. Our dataset and source code will be released on GitHub.

From Measurement to Mitigation: Quantifying and Reducing Identity Leakage in Image Representation Encoders with Linear Subspace Removal

Frozen visual embeddings (e.g., CLIP, DINOv2/v3, SSCD) power retrieval and integrity systems, yet their use on face-containing data is constrained by unmeasured identity leakage and a lack of deployable mitigations. We take an attacker-aware view and contribute: (i) a benchmark of visual embeddings that reports open-set verification at low false-accept rates, a calibrated diffusion-based template inversion check, and face-context attribution with equal-area perturbations; and (ii) propose a one-shot linear projector that removes an estimated identity subspace while preserving the complementary space needed for utility, which for brevity we denote as the identity sanitization projection ISP. Across CelebA-20 and VGGFace2, we show that these encoders are robust under open-set linear probes, with CLIP exhibiting relatively higher leakage than DINOv2/v3 and SSCD, robust to template inversion, and are context-dominant. In addition, we show that ISP drives linear access to near-chance while retaining high non-biometric utility, and transfers across datasets with minor degradation. Our results establish the first attacker-calibrated facial privacy audit of non-FR encoders and demonstrate that linear subspace removal achieves strong privacy guarantees while preserving utility for visual search and retrieval.

TuneShift-KD: Knowledge Distillation and Transfer for Fine-tuned Models

To embed domain-specific or specialized knowledge into pre-trained foundation models, fine-tuning using techniques such as parameter efficient fine-tuning (e.g. LoRA) is a common practice. However, as new LLM architectures and pre-trained models emerge, transferring this specialized knowledge to newer models becomes an important task. In many scenarios, the original specialized data may be unavailable due to privacy or commercial restrictions, necessitating distillation and transfer of this specialized knowledge from the fine-tuned base model to a different pre-trained model. We present TuneShift-KD, a novel approach that automatically distills specialized knowledge from a fine-tuned model to a target model using only a few examples representative of the specialized information. Our key insight is that specialized knowledge can be identified through perplexity differences between base and fine-tuned models: prompts where the fine-tuned model responds confidently (low perplexity), but the base model struggles (high perplexity), indicate queries corresponding to the specialized knowledge learned by the fine-tuned model. TuneShift-KD leverages this insight to create a synthetic training dataset to transfer the specialized knowledge. Using an iterative process, TuneShift-KD generates more prompts similar to those that generated responses with specialized knowledge. TuneShift-KD does not require training discriminators or access to training datasets. It is an automated approach that only requires the initial fine-tuned and base models and a few representative prompts. Our experiments demonstrate that models fine-tuned using TuneShift-KD achieve higher accuracy than prior approaches, enabling ease of deployment and more effective transfer of the specialized knowledge.

EmoLLM: Appraisal-Grounded Cognitive-Emotional Co-Reasoning in Large Language Models

Large language models (LLMs) demonstrate strong cognitive intelligence (IQ), yet many real-world interactions also require emotional intelligence (EQ) to produce responses that are both factually reliable and emotionally appropriate. In settings such as emotional support, technical assistance, and consultation, effective dialogue depends on how situations are appraised with respect to the user's needs, goals, and coping capacity. Inspired by appraisal theory, we propose EmoLLM, an appraisal-grounded framework for IQ/EQ co-reasoning in dialogue. EmoLLM uses an explicit Appraisal Reasoning Graph (ARG) to structure intermediate reasoning over contextual facts, inferred user needs, appraisal dimensions, emotional states, and response strategies before generating a reply. We train EmoLLM in a multi-turn role-play environment with reinforcement learning, where reverse-perspective reasoning provides reward signals based on predicted user-side consequences of responses. Across diverse dialogue settings, EmoLLM improves emotional state outcomes and response quality over strong baselines while preserving strong factual reliability.

FT-Dojo: Towards Autonomous LLM Fine-Tuning with Language Agents

Fine-tuning large language models for vertical domains remains a labor-intensive and expensive process, requiring domain experts to curate data, configure training, and iteratively diagnose model behavior. Despite growing interest in autonomous machine learning, no prior work has tackled end-to-end LLM fine-tuning with agents. Can LLM-based agents automate this complete process? We frame this as a substantially open problem: agents must navigate an open-ended search space spanning data curation from diverse data sources, processing with complex tools, building a training pipeline, and iteratively refining their approach based on evaluation outcomes in rapidly growing logs--an overall scenario far more intricate than existing benchmarks. To study this question, we introduce FT-Dojo, an interactive environment comprising 13 tasks across 5 domains. We further develop FT-Agent, an autonomous system that mirrors human experts by leveraging evaluation-driven feedback to iteratively diagnose failures and refine fine-tuning strategies. Experiments on FT-Dojo demonstrate that purpose-built fine-tuning agents significantly outperform general-purpose alternatives, with FT-Agent achieving the best performance on 10 out of 13 tasks across all five domains. Ablations show that the approach generalizes effectively to 3B models, with additional insights on data scaling trade-offs and backbone sensitivity. Case analyses reveal that agents can recover from failures through cumulative learning from historical experience, while also exposing fundamental limitations in causal reasoning--highlighting both the promise and current boundaries of autonomous LLM fine-tuning.

Reasoning as Gradient: Scaling MLE Agents Beyond Tree Search

LLM-based agents for machine learning engineering (MLE) predominantly rely on tree search, a form of gradient-free optimization that uses scalar validation scores to rank candidates. As LLM reasoning capabilities improve, exhaustive enumeration becomes increasingly inefficient compared to directed updates, analogous to how accurate gradients enable efficient descent over random search. We introduce \textsc{Gome}, an MLE agent that operationalizes gradient-based optimization. \textsc{Gome} maps structured diagnostic reasoning to gradient computation, success memory to momentum, and multi-trace execution to distributed optimization. Under a closed-world protocol that isolates architectural effects from external knowledge, \textsc{Gome} achieves a state-of-the-art 35.1\% any-medal rate on MLE-Bench with a restricted 12-hour budget on a single V100 GPU. Scaling experiments across 10 models reveal a critical crossover: with weaker models, tree search retains advantages by compensating for unreliable reasoning through exhaustive exploration; as reasoning capability strengthens, gradient-based optimization progressively outperforms, with the gap widening at frontier-tier models. Given the rapid advancement of reasoning-oriented LLMs, this positions gradient-based optimization as an increasingly favorable paradigm. We release our codebase and GPT-5 traces.

NEAT: Neuron-Based Early Exit for Large Reasoning Models

Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) often suffer from \emph{overthinking}, a phenomenon in which redundant reasoning steps are generated after a correct solution has already been reached. Existing early reasoning exit methods primarily rely on output-level heuristics or trained probing models to skip redundant reasoning steps, thereby mitigating overthinking. However, these approaches typically require additional rollout computation or externally labeled datasets. In this paper, we propose \textbf{NEAT}, a \textbf{N}euron-based \textbf{E}arly re\textbf{A}soning exi\textbf{T} framework that monitors neuron-level activation dynamics to enable training-free early exits, without introducing additional test-time computation. NEAT identifies exit-associated neurons and tracks their activation patterns during reasoning to dynamically trigger early exit or suppress reflection, thereby reducing unnecessary reasoning while preserving solution quality. Experiments on four reasoning benchmarks across six models with different scales and architectures show that, for each model, NEAT achieves an average token reduction of 22\% to 28\% when averaged over the four benchmarks, while maintaining accuracy.

Attention-Based Variational Framework for Joint and Individual Components Learning with Applications in Brain Network Analysis

Brain organization is increasingly characterized through multiple imaging modalities, most notably structural connectivity (SC) and functional connectivity (FC). Integrating these inherently distinct yet complementary data sources is essential for uncovering the cross-modal patterns that drive behavioral phenotypes. However, effective integration is hindered by the high dimensionality and non-linearity of connectome data, complex non-linear SC-FC coupling, and the challenge of disentangling shared information from modality-specific variations. To address these issues, we propose the Cross-Modal Joint-Individual Variational Network (CM-JIVNet), a unified probabilistic framework designed to learn factorized latent representations from paired SC-FC datasets. Our model utilizes a multi-head attention fusion module to capture non-linear cross-modal dependencies while isolating independent, modality-specific signals. Validated on Human Connectome Project Young Adult (HCP-YA) data, CM-JIVNet demonstrates superior performance in cross-modal reconstruction and behavioral trait prediction. By effectively disentangling joint and individual feature spaces, CM-JIVNet provides a robust, interpretable, and scalable solution for large-scale multimodal brain analysis.

ATOD: An Evaluation Framework and Benchmark for Agentic Task-Oriented Dialogue System

Recent advances in task-oriented dialogue (TOD) systems, driven by large language models (LLMs) with extensive API and tool integration, have enabled conversational agents to coordinate interleaved goals, maintain long-horizon context, and act proactively through asynchronous execution. These capabilities extend beyond traditional TOD systems, yet existing benchmarks lack systematic support for evaluating such agentic behaviors. To address this gap, we introduce ATOD, a benchmark and synthetic dialogue generation pipeline that produces richly annotated conversations requiring long-term reasoning. ATOD captures key characteristics of advanced TOD, including multi-goal coordination, dependency management, memory, adaptability, and proactivity. Building on ATOD, we propose ATOD-Eval, a holistic evaluation framework that translates these dimensions into fine-grained metrics and supports reproducible offline and online evaluation. We further present a strong agentic memory-based evaluator for benchmarking on ATOD. Experiments show that ATOD-Eval enables comprehensive assessment across task completion, agentic capability, and response quality, and that the proposed evaluator offers a better accuracy-efficiency tradeoff compared to existing memory- and LLM-based approaches under this evaluation setting.

ES4R: Speech Encoding Based on Prepositive Affective Modeling for Empathetic Response Generation

Empathetic speech dialogue requires not only understanding linguistic content but also perceiving rich paralinguistic information such as prosody, tone, and emotional intensity for affective understandings. Existing speech-to-speech large language models either rely on ASR transcription or use encoders to extract latent representations, often weakening affective information and contextual coherence in multi-turn dialogues. To address this, we propose \textbf{ES4R}, a framework for speech-based empathetic response generation. Our core innovation lies in explicitly modeling structured affective context before speech encoding, rather than relying on implicit learning by the encoder or explicit emotion supervision. Specifically, we introduce a dual-level attention mechanism to capture turn-level affective states and dialogue-level affective dynamics. The resulting affective representations are then integrated with textual semantics through speech-guided cross-modal attention to generate empathetic responses. For speech output, we employ energy-based strategy selection and style fusion to achieve empathetic speech synthesis. ES4R consistently outperforms strong baselines in both automatic and human evaluations and remains robust across different LLM backbones.