This work investigates the finite-time stability (FTS) issue for a class of inertial neural networks (INNs) with mixed-state time-varying delays, proposing a novel analytical approach. Firstly, we establish a novel FTS lemma, which is entirely different from the existing FTS theorems, and extend the current research results. Secondly, an improved discontinuous reliable control mechanism is developed, which is more valid and widens the application scope compared to previous results. Then, by using a novel non-reduced order approach (NROA) and the Lyapunov functional theory, novel sufficient criteria are established using FTS theorems to estimate the settling time with respect to a finite-time stabilization of INNs. Finally, the simulation results are given to validate the usefulness of the theoretical results.

Symmetric matrix factorization (SMF) plays an important role in clustering and representation learning. Nevertheless, most existing SMF-based approaches are formulated as non-convex optimization problems, which often leads to unstable convergence and high computational costs. In this paper, we develop a fast unconstrained convex symmetric matrix factorization framework, termed FUCSMF, for semi-supervised learning. By incorporating label information into the symmetric factorization formulation, the proposed model is transformed into a convex objective, which guarantees global optimality and enables efficient optimization using standard unconstrained solvers. To further improve scalability, a bipartite graph structure is introduced into SMF from a hypergraph-inspired perspective, significantly reducing the computational burden. The resulting computational complexity is reduced to $O\left(nmd\right)$, which is substantially lower than the $O(nmd+m^{2}n+m^3)$ complexity required by existing bipartite graph-based methods, where n, m, and d denote the numbers of samples, anchor points, and feature dimensions, respectively. In addition, we propose a correntropy-based graph construction strategy to alleviate the sensitivity of conventional adaptive neighbor bipartite graph methods. Extensive experiments on six benchmark datasets, involving comparisons with eleven state-of-the-art methods, demonstrate that FUCSMF achieves superior clustering performance while requiring significantly less computational time. Empirical results further show that the proposed method converges rapidly, typically within ten iterations.

This paper further investigates the problem of stability for a general linear system with time-varying delays. Firstly an improved type of Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional is introduced with integral and nonintegral terms and time-correlation terms. Referring a few existing papers, some valid inequalities mathematical analysis techniques are used in this paper in order to reduce the conservatism of the system. Finally, two examples are presented to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed tactics in this paper.