The paper investigates four ways to grow a classifier—adding a tree level, a hidden unit, a leaf split, and a statistically significant split—under a fixed protocol for tree‑structured and constructive models. It shows that the most natural method of deepening a soft decision tree by duplicating a leaf’s class distribution leaves the gradient of new gates identically zero, preventing learning, and proposes a small random perturbation as a fix. The other three growth decisions each provide a distinct benefit: fitting a new hidden unit to residual error yields a smaller network, splitting the leaf with the largest expected error adds sparsity, and requiring statistical significance before splitting adds no value and reduces accuracy.
arXiv:2605.06240v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Forward-Forward (FF) training lets each layer learn from a local goodness criterion. In cumulative-goodness variants, later layers can inheri...
arXiv:2607. 13874v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Decision trees generate interpretable if--then rules, yet they contain irrelevant conditions (IRCs).
Decision trees generate interpretable if--then rules, yet they contain irrelevant conditions (IRCs). These IRCs arise from the structural mechanism of tree splitting and persist even in modern optimal sparse tree induction algorithms.
arXiv:2605. 22740v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Decision trees assign identical confidence to instances near and far from each split threshold.
arXiv:2608. 03111v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Double descent is commonly studied by scaling an explicit capacity parameter, such as neural-network width.
arXiv:2608.29262v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Decision trees are attractive for tabular prediction tasks because each prediction follows an interpretable sequence of feature-threshold tests. Unde...
arXiv:2608. 15565v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Experience-learning agents for optimization modeling improve by storing verified skills, but existing learners admit knowledge by checking against known answers, which real ticket streams do not provide.
The paper introduces MACCHIATO, a training algorithm that builds a ReLU‑MLP from partial truth‑table data while simultaneously constructing an explicit Boolean circuit over AND, OR, and XOR gates that certifies the network’s computation. The method iteratively projects residuals onto low‑dimensional Boolean classes, compiles the resulting circuit into a ReLU‑MLP, and uses logic minimization and influence‑based variable selection to achieve a six‑layer network with provable truth‑table error bounds. Experiments on synthetic random‑junta tasks show that these certified networks outperform Adam‑trained MLPs in data‑sparse or projection‑aligned regimes and complete faster than flat ESPRESSO in certain settings.
The paper investigates why neural network surrogates sometimes improve and sometimes worsen derivative‑free optimisation performance. It identifies three key factors—role (whether the surrogate proposes candidates or replaces gradients), radius (the neighbourhood within which a local model is reliable), and room (whether the base method can still progress)—that determine when a learned local model is beneficial. Experiments on 117 benchmark instances show that providing surrogate‑approved candidates boosts success rates, while replacing gradients or ignoring the radius can reduce them.
arXiv:2605. 20716v5 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Random forests construct each tree with a different, randomised representation of the feature space.
arXiv:2607. 05791v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Boosting is a fundamental technique for generically improving the accuracy of learning algorithms (Schapire 1989).
The study evaluates how the choice of test boundary affects feature‑based hardware Trojan detection across Trust‑Hub families. Using a corpus of 49,124 gates from 16 netlists, the authors compare three test settings—pooled gates, a single netlist held out, and an entire host family held out—showing that performance drops markedly when a host family is excluded. The results demonstrate that sibling benchmark variants can inflate detection metrics, and the authors recommend reporting family‑aware holdouts alongside pooled scores.