FinMe: A Performance-Enhanced Large Language Model Trading Agent with Layered Memory and Character Design

Recent advancements in Large Language Models (LLMs) have exhibited notable efficacy in question-answering (QA) tasks across diverse domains. Their prowess in integrating extensive web knowledge has fueled interest in developing LLM autonomous agents. While LLMs are efficient in decoding human instructions and deriving solutions by holistically processing historical inputs, transitioning to purpose-driven agents requires a supplementary rational architecture to process multi-source information, establish reasoning chains, and prioritize critical tasks. Addressing this, we introduce \textsc{FinMe}, a novel LLM-based agent framework devised for financial decision-making, encompassing three core modules: Profiling, to outline the agent's characteristics; Memory, with layered processing, to aid the agent in assimilating realistic hierarchical financial data; and Decision-making, to convert insights gained from memories into investment decisions. Notably, \textsc{FinMe}'s memory module aligns closely with the cognitive structure of human traders, offering robust interpretability and real-time tuning. Its adjustable cognitive span allows for the retention of critical information beyond human perceptual limits, thereby enhancing trading outcomes. This framework enables the agent to self-evolve its professional knowledge, react agilely to new investment cues, and continuously refine trading decisions in the volatile financial environment. We first compare \textsc{FinMe} with various algorithmic agents on a scalable real-world financial dataset, underscoring its leading trading performance in stocks and funds. We then fine-tuned the agent's perceptual spans to achieve a significant trading performance. Collectively, \textsc{FinMe} presents a cutting-edge LLM agent framework for automated trading, boosting cumulative investment returns.

Multi-mode OAM Convergent Transmission with Co-divergent Angle Tailored by Airy Wavefront

Wireless backhaul offers a more cost-effective, time-efficient, and reconfigurable solution than wired backhaul to connect the edge-computing cells to the core network. As the amount of transmitted data increases, the low-rank characteristic of Line-of-Sight (LoS) channel severely limits the growth of channel capacity in the point-to-point backhaul transmission scenario. Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM), also known as vortex beam, is considered a potentially effective solution for high-capacity LoS wireless transmission. However, due to the shortcomings of its energy divergence and the specificity of multi-mode divergence angles, OAM beams have been difficult to apply in practical communication systems for a long time. In this work, a novel multi-mode convergent transmission with co-scale reception scheme is proposed. OAM beams of different modes can be transmitted with the same beam divergent angle, while the wavefronts are tailored by the ring-shaped Airy compensation lens during propagation, so that the energy will converge to the same spatial area for receiving. Based on this scheme, not only is the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) greatly improved, but it is also possible to simultaneously receive and demodulate OAM channels multiplexed with different modes in a limited space area. Through prototype experiments, we demonstrated that 3 kinds of OAM modes are tunable, and different channels can be separated simultaneously with receiving power increasing. The measurement isolations between channels are over 11 dB, which ensures a reliable 16-QAM multiplexing wireless transmission demo system. This work may explore the potential applications of OAM-based multi-mode convergent transmission in LoS wireless communications.

Spike-time encoding of gas concentrations using neuromorphic analog sensory front-end

Gas concentration detection is important for applications such as gas leakage monitoring. Metal Oxide (MOx) sensors show high sensitivities for specific gases, which makes them particularly useful for such monitoring applications. However, how to efficiently sample and further process the sensor responses remains an open question. Here we propose a simple analog circuit design inspired by the spiking output of the mammalian olfactory bulb and by event-based vision sensors. Our circuit encodes the gas concentration in the time difference between the pulses of two separate pathways. We show that in the setting of controlled airflow-embedded gas injections, the time difference between the two generated pulses varies inversely with gas concentration, which is in agreement with the spike timing difference between tufted cells and mitral cells of the mammalian olfactory bulb. Encoding concentration information in analog spike timings may pave the way for rapid and efficient gas detection, and ultimately lead to data- and power-efficient monitoring devices to be deployed in uncontrolled and turbulent environments.

Fast Controllable Diffusion Models for Undersampled MRI Reconstruction

Supervised deep learning methods have shown promise in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) undersampling reconstruction, but their requirement for paired data limits their generalizability to the diverse MRI acquisition parameters. Recently, unsupervised controllable generative diffusion models have been applied to MRI undersampling reconstruction, without paired data or model retraining for different MRI acquisitions. However, diffusion models are generally slow in sampling and state-of-the-art acceleration techniques can lead to sub-optimal results when directly applied to the controllable generation process. This study introduces a new algorithm called Predictor-Projector-Noisor (PPN), which enhances and accelerates controllable generation of diffusion models for MRI undersampling reconstruction. Our results demonstrate that PPN produces high-fidelity MR images that conform to undersampled k-space measurements with significantly shorter reconstruction time than other controllable sampling methods. In addition, the unsupervised PPN accelerated diffusion models are adaptable to different MRI acquisition parameters, making them more practical for clinical use than supervised learning techniques.

Optimal Hyperparameter $ε$ for Adaptive Stochastic Optimizers through Gradient Histograms

Optimizers are essential components for successfully training deep neural network models. In order to achieve the best performance from such models, designers need to carefully choose the optimizer hyperparameters. However, this can be a computationally expensive and time-consuming process. Although it is known that all optimizer hyperparameters must be tuned for maximum performance, there is still a lack of clarity regarding the individual influence of minor priority hyperparameters, including the safeguard factor $\epsilon$ and momentum factor $\beta$, in leading adaptive optimizers (specifically, those based on the Adam optimizers). In this manuscript, we introduce a new framework based on gradient histograms to analyze and justify important attributes of adaptive optimizers, such as their optimal performance and the relationships and dependencies among hyperparameters. Furthermore, we propose a novel gradient histogram-based algorithm that automatically estimates a reduced and accurate search space for the safeguard hyperparameter $\epsilon$, where the optimal value can be easily found.

On the Communication Complexity of Decentralized Bilevel Optimization

Decentralized bilevel optimization has been actively studied in the past few years since it has widespread applications in machine learning. However, existing algorithms suffer from large communication complexity caused by the estimation of stochastic hypergradient, limiting their application to real-world tasks. To address this issue, we develop a novel decentralized stochastic bilevel gradient descent algorithm under the heterogeneous setting, which enjoys a small communication cost in each round and small communication rounds. As such, it can achieve a much better communication complexity than existing algorithms. Moreover, we extend our algorithm to the more challenging decentralized multi-level optimization. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time achieving these theoretical results under the heterogeneous setting. At last, the experimental results confirm the efficacy of our algorithm.

Span-Based Optimal Sample Complexity for Average Reward MDPs

We study the sample complexity of learning an $\varepsilon$-optimal policy in an average-reward Markov decision process (MDP) under a generative model. We establish the complexity bound $\widetilde{O}\left(SA\frac{H}{\varepsilon^2} \right)$, where $H$ is the span of the bias function of the optimal policy and $SA$ is the cardinality of the state-action space. Our result is the first that is minimax optimal (up to log factors) in all parameters $S,A,H$ and $\varepsilon$, improving on existing work that either assumes uniformly bounded mixing times for all policies or has suboptimal dependence on the parameters. Our result is based on reducing the average-reward MDP to a discounted MDP. To establish the optimality of this reduction, we develop improved bounds for $\gamma$-discounted MDPs, showing that $\widetilde{O}\left(SA\frac{H}{(1-\gamma)^2\varepsilon^2} \right)$ samples suffice to learn a $\varepsilon$-optimal policy in weakly communicating MDPs under the regime that $\gamma \geq 1 - \frac{1}{H}$, circumventing the well-known lower bound of $\widetilde{\Omega}\left(SA\frac{1}{(1-\gamma)^3\varepsilon^2} \right)$ for general $\gamma$-discounted MDPs. Our analysis develops upper bounds on certain instance-dependent variance parameters in terms of the span parameter. These bounds are tighter than those based on the mixing time or diameter of the MDP and may be of broader use.

REDS: Resource-Efficient Deep Subnetworks for Dynamic Resource Constraints

Deep models deployed on edge devices frequently encounter resource variability, which arises from fluctuating energy levels, timing constraints, or prioritization of other critical tasks within the system. State-of-the-art machine learning pipelines generate resource-agnostic models, not capable to adapt at runtime. In this work we introduce Resource-Efficient Deep Subnetworks (REDS) to tackle model adaptation to variable resources. In contrast to the state-of-the-art, REDS use structured sparsity constructively by exploiting permutation invariance of neurons, which allows for hardware-specific optimizations. Specifically, REDS achieve computational efficiency by (1) skipping sequential computational blocks identified by a novel iterative knapsack optimizer, and (2) leveraging simple math to re-arrange the order of operations in REDS computational graph to take advantage of the data cache. REDS support conventional deep networks frequently deployed on the edge and provide computational benefits even for small and simple networks. We evaluate REDS on six benchmark architectures trained on the Google Speech Commands, FMNIST and CIFAR10 datasets, and test on four off-the-shelf mobile and embedded hardware platforms. We provide a theoretical result and empirical evidence for REDS outstanding performance in terms of submodels' test set accuracy, and demonstrate an adaptation time in response to dynamic resource constraints of under 40$\mu$s, utilizing a 2-layer fully-connected network on Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense.

Attention Mechanism for Lithium-Ion Battery Lifespan Prediction: Temporal and Cyclic Attention

Accurately predicting the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is pivotal for optimizing usage and preventing accidents. Previous studies in constructing prediction models often relied on inputs challenging to measure in real-time operations and failed to capture intra-cycle and inter-cycle data patterns, essential features for accurate predictions, comprehensively. In this study, we employ attention mechanisms (AM) to develop data-driven models for predicting LIB lifespan using easily measurable inputs such as voltage, current, temperature, and capacity data. The developed model integrates recurrent neural network (RNN) and convolutional neural network (CNN) components, featuring two types of attention mechanisms: temporal attention (TA) and cyclic attention (CA). The inclusion of TA aims to identify important time steps within each cycle by scoring the hidden states of the RNN, whereas CA strives to capture key features of inter-cycle correlations through self-attention (SA). This enhances model accuracy and elucidates critical features in the input data. To validate our method, we apply it to publicly available cycling data consisting of three batches of cycling modes. The calculated TA scores highlight the rest phase as a key characteristic distinguishing LIB data among different batches. Additionally, CA scores reveal variations in the importance of cycles across batches. By leveraging CA scores, we explore the potential to reduce the number of cycles in the input data. The single-head and multi-head attentions enable us to decrease the input dimension from 100 to 50 and 30 cycles, respectively.

Talent-Interview: Web-Client Cheating Detection for Online Exams

Online exams are more attractive after the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, during recruitment, online exams are used. However, there are more cheating possibilities for online exams. Assigning a proctor for each exam increases cost. At this point, automatic proctor systems detect possible cheating status. This article proposes an end-to-end system and submodules to get better results for online proctoring. Object detection, face recognition, human voice detection, and segmentation are used in our system. Furthermore, our proposed model works on the PCs of users, meaning a client-based system. So, server cost is eliminated. As far as we know, it is the first time the client-based online proctoring system has been used for recruitment. Online exams are more attractive after the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, during recruitment, online exams are used. However, there are more cheating possibilities for online exams. Assigning a proctor for each exam increases cost. At this point, automatic proctor systems detect possible cheating status. This article proposes an end-to-end system and submodules to get better results for online proctoring. Object detection, face recognition, human voice detection, and segmentation are used in our system. Furthermore, our proposed model works on the PCs of users, meaning a client-based system. So, server cost is eliminated. As far as we know, it is the first time the client-based online proctoring system has been used for recruitment. Furthermore, this cheating system works at https://www.talent-interview.com/tr/.