Xikai Yang
Current Organizations / Institutes
The organizations/institutes from the scholar's latest article
Xikai Yang has a total of 9 co-authors. Here are the top co-authors by number of shared publications:
- Chi Zhang
Northeastern University, USA
1 shared publication - Hengguang Cui
Brown University, USA
1 shared publication - Hongrui Liu
University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, USA
1 shared publication - Jixiao Yang
Westcliff University, USA
1 shared publication - Lei Mao
University of Maryland, College Park, USA
1 shared publication - Yang Wang
University of Michigan, USA
1 shared publication
Latest Publications
- Open Access
- 13 October 2026
- Published by MDPI AG in Preprints.org
Calib-Abstain: Uncertainty-Calibrated Self-Checking to Reduce Hallucinations in LLM Reasoning
Hallucinations in large language models (LLMs) remain a critical challenge for deploying these systems in high-stakes domains. We introduce Calib-Abstain, a framework that combines token-level uncertainty estimation with multi-path consistency checking to generate calibrated confidence scores. When confidence falls below a learned threshold, the system triggers tiered mitigation actions: retrieval augmentation, query reformulation, or abstention with explanation. Our approach employs temperature scaling and isotonic regression to minimize Expected Calibration Error (ECE). Experiments on mathematical reasoning (GSM8K, MATH), code generation (HumanEval), and general knowledge tasks (MMLU) demonstrate that Calib-Abstain reduces hallucination rates among answered queries by 24--31% while maintaining 80--88% coverage, with ECE improvements of 0.08--0.12 across datasets.
- 13 October 2026
- Published by MDPI AG in Preprints.org
Open AccessCalib-Abstain: Uncertainty-Calibrated Self-Checking to Reduce Hallucinations in LLM Reasoning
Hallucinations in large language models (LLMs) remain a critical challenge for deploying these systems in high-stakes domains. We introduce Calib-Abstain, a framework that combines token-level uncertainty estimation with multi-path consistency checking to generate calibrated confidence scores. When confidence falls below a learned threshold, the system triggers tiered mitigation actions: retrieval augmentation, query reformulation, or abstention with explanation. Our approach employs temperature scaling and isotonic regression to minimize Expected Calibration Error (ECE). Experiments on mathematical reasoning (GSM8K, MATH), code generation (HumanEval), and general knowledge tasks (MMLU) demonstrate that Calib-Abstain reduces hallucination rates among answered queries by 24--31% while maintaining 80--88% coverage, with ECE improvements of 0.08--0.12 across datasets.
- Open Access
- 6 February 2026
- Published by MDPI AG in Preprints.org
Semantic Alignment and Output Constrained Generation for Reliable LLM-Based Classification
To address the limited controllability, unstable output consistency, and weakly constrained decision processes of large language models in text classification tasks, this work proposes a controllable prompt-driven text classification method that establishes an end-to-end unified modeling framework from instruction alignment to constrained decoding. Text classification is reformulated as an instruction-conditioned generative discriminative problem. Input texts and task instructions are jointly encoded to form a unified internal representation that integrates textual semantics with classification constraints. On this basis, a category semantic alignment mechanism is introduced to ensure that the model explicitly follows category boundaries and decision criteria defined by the instructions, thereby reducing classification inconsistency caused by prompt variation or implicit bias. To further improve output reliability, a structured constrained decoding strategy is designed to restrict the generation space to a predefined set of valid categories, preventing redundant text or invalid outputs from interfering with classification results. Comparative analysis under unified data and evaluation settings demonstrates that the proposed method achieves more consistent advantages in classification accuracy, discriminative stability, and overall separability. These findings indicate that deeply integrating instruction understanding and output control into the decision process of large language models effectively transforms their generative capacity into stable, interpretable, and controllable text classification capability, providing a systematic solution for building reliable intelligent text analysis systems.
- 6 February 2026
- Published by MDPI AG in Preprints.org
Open AccessSemantic Alignment and Output Constrained Generation for Reliable LLM-Based Classification
To address the limited controllability, unstable output consistency, and weakly constrained decision processes of large language models in text classification tasks, this work proposes a controllable prompt-driven text classification method that establishes an end-to-end unified modeling framework from instruction alignment to constrained decoding. Text classification is reformulated as an instruction-conditioned generative discriminative problem. Input texts and task instructions are jointly encoded to form a unified internal representation that integrates textual semantics with classification constraints. On this basis, a category semantic alignment mechanism is introduced to ensure that the model explicitly follows category boundaries and decision criteria defined by the instructions, thereby reducing classification inconsistency caused by prompt variation or implicit bias. To further improve output reliability, a structured constrained decoding strategy is designed to restrict the generation space to a predefined set of valid categories, preventing redundant text or invalid outputs from interfering with classification results. Comparative analysis under unified data and evaluation settings demonstrates that the proposed method achieves more consistent advantages in classification accuracy, discriminative stability, and overall separability. These findings indicate that deeply integrating instruction understanding and output control into the decision process of large language models effectively transforms their generative capacity into stable, interpretable, and controllable text classification capability, providing a systematic solution for building reliable intelligent text analysis systems.