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Publications

2025

Can Personal KG-based RAG Empower Patients?

Authors
Dias, Mariana; Teixeira Lopes, Carla;

Publication

Abstract
The European Health Data Space (EHDS) sets out regulations for the management of electronic health data, distinguishing between its primary use in direct healthcare and patient data portability, and its secondary use for research, innovation, and policy-making. We aim to empower individuals to take control of their health by enhancing personal health data management. In this work, we discuss the challenges in electronic personal health data access and propose developing a system that leverages personal health knowledge graphs and retrieval-augmented generation to ensure FAIR personal electronic health data representation and personalized health information delivery.

2025

Tag questions in English and Portuguese monologues: types, features, and functions

Authors
Silvano, P; González, MG; Cordeiro, J;

Publication
LINGUISTICS VANGUARD

Abstract
This study investigates the characteristics of variable and invariable tag questions in monologues, comparing their usage in British English and European Portuguese. Through a corpus-based analysis, this paper provides valuable insights into the grammatical and functional properties of these linguistic constructions in spoken monologues in both languages. The findings reveal that tag questions are less frequently used in monologues than in dialogues, reflecting their interactional nature. However, their occurrence is notably higher in European Portuguese than in British English across both monologic and dialogic speech. Furthermore, tag questions in European Portuguese exhibit greater frequency and diversity in monologues, whereas in British English, they are less common and exclusively consist of variable tag questions. While some differences in the functional and grammatical features of variable and invariable tag questions were identified, these variations were not particularly pronounced. The analysis also highlights the limited availability of tag questions in the monologues dataset in English, underlining the need for further research to comprehensively explore these constructions across languages.

2025

Blockchain-enabled Secure Underwater Delay-Tolerant Communications

Authors
Costa, J; Teixeira, FB; Campos, R;

Publication
OCEANS 2025 BREST

Abstract
In the coming years, a wide range of underwater applications, including resource mining, marine research, and military operations will play an increasingly important role. The Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) extends IoT principles to underwater environments, enabling connectivity between underwater devices and the Internet. However, high latency, intermittent connectivity, and security risks, such as privacy breaches, data tampering, and unauthorized access, pose major challenges to IoUT adoption. Existing security mechanisms fail in Delay-Tolerant Networks (DTNs) due to their reliance on centralized trust models. Blockchain provides a decentralized, immutable, and transparent solution for securing underwater communications. This paper introduces the Blockchain-Based Underwater Messaging System (BUMS), an innovative solution that ensures message integrity, confidentiality, and resilience in DTNs. Messages are immutably stored in blockchain blocks, while malicious nodes are autonomously detected and excluded without the need for a central authority. To evaluate its feasibility, we developed the Underwater Blockchain Simulator (UBS), a custom-tailored open-source simulator designed to test blockchain algorithms in underwater networks. Simulation results demonstrate that BUMS enhances security and network reliability while maintaining efficiency in high-latency underwater environments, making it a viable solution for secure IoUT-based communications.

2025

CLEF 2025 JOKER Lab: Humour in the Machine

Authors
Ermakova, L; Bosser, AG; Miller, T; Campos, R;

Publication
ECIR (5)

Abstract
Over the last three years, the JOKER Lab series at CLEF has gathered an active community of researchers in natural language processing and information retrieval to collaborate on non-literal use of language in text. Such language can be a challenge for AI systems, but also sometimes for humans, as it requires understanding implicit cultural references and unorthodox interactions between form and meaning. In this paper, we discuss the lessons learned from the previous iterations of the Lab and describe how its upcoming edition will build upon those to address new challenges. In 2025, JOKER will provide novel tasks and update some previous ones with new data and new languages. This year we provide sandbox environments for experimenting with humour-aware information retrieval (Task 1), a previously featured task now enhanced with an all-new Portuguese corpus; wordplay translation in text (Task 2), another historical task for which we provide new corpora; onomastic wordplay (Task 3), a new task focussed on humorous proper names in fiction; and controlled creativity (Task 4), another novel task that aims at identifying and avoiding hallucinations.

2025

AI-assistant for intelligent design of controllers in power systems

Authors
Bost, L; Fernandes, FS; Bessa, RJ;

Publication
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY GRIDS & NETWORKS

Abstract
The increasing penetration of renewable energy sources in power systems has heightened the importance of grid-forming (GFM) converters, which emulate the dynamic behavior of synchronous machines and are crucial for ensuring stability in converter-dominated grids. However, the complexity of modern grids calls for innovative control mechanisms to unlock the full potential of GFM technology. This work presents a novel automated framework for control design in power systems. Simulated annealing is used to evolve the structural design of control systems represented as graph-based models. The method achieves greater flexibility by using control graphs instead of traditional tree-based representations, supporting complex feedback loop configurations. A simplification process is also included to reduce complexity and improve interpretability, ensuring practical applicability. Validation on a two-generator power system with one GFM converter demonstrates the method's ability to design robust controllers that enhance system stability, achieving better performance metrics, such as smoother frequency responses with significantly reduced frequency deviations compared to benchmark configurations. The improved frequency response arises from differing terminal angle profiles, enabling faster, stronger power responses that quickly arrest frequency deviations during disturbances.

2025

Correction to: A Review of Recent Advances and Challenges in Grocery Label Detection and Recognition (Applied Sciences, (2023), 13, 5, (2871), 10.3390/app13052871)

Authors
Guimarães, V; Nascimento, J; Viana, P; Carvalho, P;

Publication
Applied Sciences (Switzerland)

Abstract
There was an error in the original publication [1]. The statement in the Acknowledgments section is incorrect and should be removed because the official start of the project WATSON was after the paper’s publication date. The authors state that the scientific conclusions are unaffected. This correction was approved by the Academic Editor. The original publication has also been updated. © 2025 by the authors.

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