Large language models demonstrate limited capability in proficiency-controlled sentence simplification, particularly when simplifying across large readability levels. We propose a framework that decomposes complex simplifications into manageable steps through dynamic path planning, semantic-aware exemplar selection, and chain-of-thought generation with conversation history for coherent reasoning. Evaluation on five languages across two benchmarks shows our approach improves simplification effectiveness while reducing computational steps. Human evaluation confirms the fundamental trade-off between simplification effectiveness and meaning preservation. Notably, even human annotators struggle to agree on semantic preservation judgments, highlighting the inherent complexity of this task. Our work shows that while step-by-step simplification improves control, preserving semantic fidelity during extensive simplification remains an open challenge.

Object detection is a core challenge in computer vision. Traditional methods primarily rely on intermediate modalities such as text, speech, or visual cues to interpret user intent, leading to inefficient and potentially distorted expressions of intent. Brain signals, particularly fMRI signals, emerge as a novel modality that can directly reflect user intent, eliminating ambiguities introduced during modality conversion. However, brain signal-based object detection still faces challenges in accuracy and robustness. To address these challenges, we present BrainLoc, a lightweight object detection model guided by fMRI signals. First, we employ a multi-modal alignment strategy that enhances fMRI signal feature extraction by incorporating various modalities including images and text. Second, we propose a cross-domain fusion module that promotes interaction between fMRI features and category features, improving the representation of category information in fMRI signals. Extensive experiments demonstrate that BrainLoc achieves state-of-the-art performance in brain signal-based object detection tasks, showing significant advantages in both accuracy and convenience.