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Cong Xu

Cong Xu contributes to research discovery and scholarly infrastructure.

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Published work

6 published item(s)

preprint2026arXiv

Explainable Knowledge Tracing via Probabilistic Embeddings and Pattern-based Reasoning

Knowledge Tracing (KT) models students' knowledge states based on learning interactions to predict performance. While deep learning-based KT models have boosted predictive accuracy, most models rely on deterministic vector embeddings and opaque latent state transitions, limiting interpretability regarding how specific past behaviors influence predictions. To address this limitation, we propose Probabilistic Logical Knowledge Tracing (PLKT), an interpretable KT framework that formulates prediction as a goal-conditioned evidence reasoning process over historical learning behaviors. Instead of representing knowledge states as deterministic vector embeddings, PLKT employs robust Beta-distributed probabilistic embeddings to represent student knowledge states. This probabilistic foundation allows us to model the uncertainty of historical behaviors and perform explicit logical operations (e.g., conjunction), constructing transparent reasoning paths that reveal how specific past interactions contribute to the prediction. Extensive experiments show that PLKT outperforms state-of-the-art KT methods while achieving superior interpretability. Our code is available at https://anonymous.4open.science/r/PLKT-D3CE/.

preprint2026arXiv

Markovian Pre-Trained Transformer for Next-Item Recommendation

We introduce the Markovian Pre-trained Transformer (MPT) for next-item recommendation, a transferable model fully pre-trained on synthetic Markov chains, yet capable of achieving state-of-the-art performance by fine-tuning a lightweight adaptor. This counterintuitive success stems from the observation of the `Markovian' nature: advanced sequential recommenders coincidentally rely on the latest interaction to make predictions, while the historical interactions serve mainly as auxiliary cues for inferring the user's general, non-sequential identity. This characteristic necessitates the capabilities of a universal recommendation model to effectively summarize the user sequence, with particular emphasis on the latest interaction. MPT inherently has the potential to be universal and transferable. On the one hand, when trained to predict the next state of Markov chains, it acquires the capabilities to estimate transition probabilities from the context (one adaptive manner for summarizing sequences) and attend to the last state to ensure accurate state transitions. On the other hand, unlike the heterogeneous interaction data, an unlimited amount of controllable Markov chains is available to boost the model capacity. We conduct extensive experiments on five public datasets from three distinct platforms to validate the superiority of Markovian pre-training over traditional recommendation pre-training and recent language pre-training paradigms.

preprint2022arXiv

Adversarial Momentum-Contrastive Pre-Training

Recently proposed adversarial self-supervised learning methods usually require big batches and long training epochs to extract robust features, which will bring heavy computational overhead on platforms with limited resources. In order to help the network learn more powerful feature representations in smaller batches and fewer epochs, this paper proposes a novel adversarial momentum contrastive learning method, which introduces two memory banks corresponding to clean samples and adversarial samples, respectively. These memory banks can be dynamically incorporated into the training process to track invariant features among historical mini-batches. Compared with the previous adversarial pre-training model, our method achieves superior performance with smaller batch size and less training epochs. In addition, the model outperforms some state-of-the-art supervised defensive methods on multiple benchmark datasets after being fine-tuned on downstream classification tasks.

preprint2022arXiv

Improve Deep Image Inpainting by Emphasizing the Complexity of Missing Regions

Deep image inpainting research mainly focuses on constructing various neural network architectures or imposing novel optimization objectives. However, on the one hand, building a state-of-the-art deep inpainting model is an extremely complex task, and on the other hand, the resulting performance gains are sometimes very limited. We believe that besides the frameworks of inpainting models, lightweight traditional image processing techniques, which are often overlooked, can actually be helpful to these deep models. In this paper, we enhance the deep image inpainting models with the help of classical image complexity metrics. A knowledge-assisted index composed of missingness complexity and forward loss is presented to guide the batch selection in the training procedure. This index helps find samples that are more conducive to optimization in each iteration and ultimately boost the overall inpainting performance. The proposed approach is simple and can be plugged into many deep inpainting models by changing only a few lines of code. We experimentally demonstrate the improvements for several recently developed image inpainting models on various datasets.

preprint2022arXiv

Sum uncertainty relations based on $(α,β,γ)$ weighted Wigner-Yanase-Dyson skew information

We introduce ($α,β,γ$) weighted Wigner-Yanase-Dyson (($α,β,γ$) WWYD) skew information and ($α,β,γ$) modified weighted Wigner-Yanase-Dyson (($α,β,γ$) MWWYD) skew information. We explore the sum uncertainty relations for arbitrary $N$ mutually noncommutative observables based on ($α,β,γ$) WWYD skew information. A series of uncertainty inequalities are derived. We show by detailed example that our results cover and improve the previous ones based on the original Wigner-Yanase (WY) skew information. Finally, we establish new sum uncertainty relations in terms of the ($α,β,γ$) MWWYD skew information for arbitrary $N$ quantum channels.

preprint2022arXiv

Uncertainty of quantum channels via modified generalized variance and modified generalized Wigner-Yanase-Dyson skew information

Uncertainty relation is a fundamental issue in quantum mechanics and quantum information theory. By using modified generalized variance (MGV), and modified generalized Wigner-Yanase-Dyson skew information (MGWYD), we identify the total and quantum uncertainty of quantum channels. The elegant properties of the total uncertainty of quantum channels are explored in detail. In addition, we present a trade-off relation between the total uncertainty of quantum channels and the entanglement fidelity and establish the relationships between the total uncertainty and entropy exchange/coherent information. Detailed examples are given to the explicit formulas of the total uncertainty and the quantum uncertainty of quantum channels. Moreover, utilizing a realizable experimental measurement scheme by using the Mach-Zehnder interferometer proposed in Nirala et al. (Phys Rev A 99:022111, 2019), we discuss how to measure the total/quantum uncertainty of quantum channels for pure states.