Using Large Language Models to Tackle Fundamental Challenges in Graph Learning: A Comprehensive Survey

Graphs are a widely used paradigm for representing non-Euclidean data, with applications ranging from social network analysis to biomolecular prediction. Conventional graph learning approaches typically rely on fixed structural assumptions or fully observed data, limiting their effectiveness in more complex, noisy, or evolving settings. Consequently, real-world graph data often violates the assumptions of traditional graph learning methods, in particular, it leads to four fundamental challenges: (1) Incompleteness, real-world graphs have missing nodes, edges, or attributes; (2) Imbalance, the distribution of the labels of nodes or edges and their structures for real-world graphs are highly skewed; (3) Cross-domain Heterogeneity, graphs from different domains exhibit incompatible feature spaces or structural patterns; and (4) Dynamic Instability, graphs evolve over time in unpredictable ways. Recent advances in Large Language Models (LLMs) offer the potential to tackle these challenges by leveraging rich semantic reasoning and external knowledge. This survey provides a comprehensive review of how LLMs can be integrated with graph learning to address the aforementioned challenges. For each challenge, we review both traditional solutions and modern LLM-driven approaches, highlighting how LLMs contribute unique advantages. Finally, we discuss open research questions and promising future directions in this emerging interdisciplinary field. To support further exploration, we have curated a repository of recent advances on graph learning challenges: https://github.com/limengran98/Awesome-Literature-Graph-Learning-Challenges.

MM-STFlowNet: A Transportation Hub-Oriented Multi-Mode Passenger Flow Prediction Method via Spatial-Temporal Dynamic Graph Modeling

Accurate and refined passenger flow prediction is essential for optimizing the collaborative management of multiple collection and distribution modes in large-scale transportation hubs. Traditional methods often focus only on the overall passenger volume, neglecting the interdependence between different modes within the hub. To address this limitation, we propose MM-STFlowNet, a comprehensive multi-mode prediction framework grounded in dynamic spatial-temporal graph modeling. Initially, an integrated temporal feature processing strategy is implemented using signal decomposition and convolution techniques to address data spikes and high volatility. Subsequently, we introduce the Spatial-Temporal Dynamic Graph Convolutional Recurrent Network (STDGCRN) to capture detailed spatial-temporal dependencies across multiple traffic modes, enhanced by an adaptive channel attention mechanism. Finally, the self-attention mechanism is applied to incorporate various external factors, further enhancing prediction accuracy. Experiments on a real-world dataset from Guangzhounan Railway Station in China demonstrate that MM-STFlowNet achieves state-of-the-art performance, particularly during peak periods, providing valuable insight for transportation hub management.

AttriReBoost: A Gradient-Free Propagation Optimization Method for Cold Start Mitigation in Attribute Missing Graphs

Missing attribute issues are prevalent in the graph learning, leading to biased outcomes in Graph Neural Networks (GNNs). Existing methods that rely on feature propagation are prone to cold start problem, particularly when dealing with attribute resetting and low-degree nodes, which hinder effective propagation and convergence. To address these challenges, we propose AttriReBoost (ARB), a novel method that incorporates propagation-based method to mitigate cold start problems in attribute-missing graphs. ARB enhances global feature propagation by redefining initial boundary conditions and strategically integrating virtual edges, thereby improving node connectivity and ensuring more stable and efficient convergence. This method facilitates gradient-free attribute reconstruction with lower computational overhead. The proposed method is theoretically grounded, with its convergence rigorously established. Extensive experiments on several real-world benchmark datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of ARB, achieving an average accuracy improvement of 5.11% over state-of-the-art methods. Additionally, ARB exhibits remarkable computational efficiency, processing a large-scale graph with 2.49 million nodes in just 16 seconds on a single GPU. Our code is available at https://github.com/limengran98/ARB.