GFT: Gradient Focal Transformer

Fine-Grained Image Classification (FGIC) remains a complex task in computer vision, as it requires models to distinguish between categories with subtle localized visual differences. Well-studied CNN-based models, while strong in local feature extraction, often fail to capture the global context required for fine-grained recognition, while more recent ViT-backboned models address FGIC with attention-driven mechanisms but lack the ability to adaptively focus on truly discriminative regions. TransFG and other ViT-based extensions introduced part-aware token selection to enhance attention localization, yet they still struggle with computational efficiency, attention region selection flexibility, and detail-focus narrative in complex environments. This paper introduces GFT (Gradient Focal Transformer), a new ViT-derived framework created for FGIC tasks. GFT integrates the Gradient Attention Learning Alignment (GALA) mechanism to dynamically prioritize class-discriminative features by analyzing attention gradient flow. Coupled with a Progressive Patch Selection (PPS) strategy, the model progressively filters out less informative regions, reducing computational overhead while enhancing sensitivity to fine details. GFT achieves SOTA accuracy on FGVC Aircraft, Food-101, and COCO datasets with 93M parameters, outperforming ViT-based advanced FGIC models in efficiency. By bridging global context and localized detail extraction, GFT sets a new benchmark in fine-grained recognition, offering interpretable solutions for real-world deployment scenarios.

Advancing Eurasia Fire Understanding Through Machine Learning Techniques

Modern fire management systems increasingly rely on satellite data and weather forecasting; however, access to comprehensive datasets remains limited due to proprietary restrictions. Despite the ecological significance of wildfires, large-scale, multi-regional research is constrained by data scarcity. Russian diverse ecosystems play a crucial role in shaping Eurasian fire dynamics, yet they remain underexplored. This study addresses existing gaps by introducing an open-access dataset that captures detailed fire incidents alongside corresponding meteorological conditions. We present one of the most extensive datasets available for wildfire analysis in Russia, covering 13 consecutive months of observations. Leveraging machine learning techniques, we conduct exploratory data analysis and develop predictive models to identify key fire behavior patterns across different fire categories and ecosystems. Our results highlight the critical influence of environmental factor patterns on fire occurrence and spread behavior. By improving the understanding of wildfire dynamics in Eurasia, this work contributes to more effective, data-driven approaches for proactive fire management in the face of evolving environmental conditions.

ELENA: Epigenetic Learning through Evolved Neural Adaptation

Despite the success of metaheuristic algorithms in solving complex network optimization problems, they often struggle with adaptation, especially in dynamic or high-dimensional search spaces. Traditional approaches can become stuck in local optima, leading to inefficient exploration and suboptimal solutions. Most of the widely accepted advanced algorithms do well either on highly complex or smaller search spaces due to the lack of adaptation. To address these limitations, we present ELENA (Epigenetic Learning through Evolved Neural Adaptation), a new evolutionary framework that incorporates epigenetic mechanisms to enhance the adaptability of the core evolutionary approach. ELENA leverages compressed representation of learning parameters improved dynamically through epigenetic tags that serve as adaptive memory. Three epigenetic tags (mutation resistance, crossover affinity, and stability score) assist with guiding solution space search, facilitating a more intelligent hypothesis landscape exploration. To assess the framework performance, we conduct experiments on three critical network optimization problems: the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), and the Maximum Clique Problem (MCP). Experiments indicate that ELENA achieves competitive results, often surpassing state-of-the-art methods on network optimization tasks.

CharNet: Generalized Approach for High-Complexity Character Classification

Handwritten character recognition (HCR) is a challenging problem for machine learning researchers. Unlike printed text data, handwritten character datasets have more variation due to human-introduced bias. With numerous unique character classes present, some data, such as Logographic Scripts or Sino-Korean character sequences, bring new complications to the HCR problem. The classification task on such datasets requires the model to learn high-complexity details of the images that share similar features. With recent advances in computational resource availability and further computer vision theory development, some research teams have effectively addressed the arising challenges. Although known for achieving high efficiency, many common approaches are still not generalizable and use dataset-specific solutions to achieve better results. Due to complex structure and high computing demands, existing methods frequently prevent the solutions from gaining popularity. This paper proposes a straightforward, generalizable, and highly effective approach (CharNet) for detailed character image classification and compares its performance to that of existing approaches.