Abstract
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming every aspect of modern society. It demonstrates a high potential to contribute to more flexible operations of safety-critical network infrastructures under deep transformation to tackle global challenges, such as climate change, energy transition, efficiency, and digital transformation, including increasing infrastructure resilience to natural and human-made hazards. The widespread adoption of AI creates the conditions for a new and inevitable interaction between humans and AI-based decision systems. In such a scenario, creating an ecosystem in which humans and AI interact healthily, where the roles and positions of both actors are well-defined, is a critical challenge for research and industry in the coming years. This perspective article outlines the challenges and requirements for effective human-AI interaction by taking an interdisciplinary point of view that merges computer science, decision-making sciences, psychological constructs, and industrial practices. The work focuses on three emblematic safety-critical scenarios from two different domains: energy (power grids) and mobility (railway networks and air traffic management).

Abstract
Audio-visual correlation learning aims at capturing and understanding natural phenomena between audio and visual data. The rapid growth of Deep Learning propelled the development of proposals that process audio-visual data and can be observed in the number of proposals in the past years. Thus encouraging the development of a comprehensive survey. Besides analyzing the models used in this context, we also discuss some tasks of definition and paradigm applied in AI multimedia. In addition, we investigate objective functions frequently used and discuss how audio-visual data is exploited in the optimization process, i.e., the different methodologies for representing knowledge in the audio-visual domain. In fact, we focus on how human-understandable mechanisms, i.e., structured knowledge that reflects comprehensible knowledge, can guide the learning process. Most importantly, we provide a summarization of the recent progress of Audio-Visual Correlation Learning (AVCL) and discuss the future research directions.

Abstract
Accurate demand forecasting is essential for retail operations as it directly impacts supply chain efficiency, inventory management, and financial performance. However, forecasting retail time series presents significant challenges due to their irregular patterns, hierarchical structures, and strong dependence on external factors such as promotions, pricing strategies, and socio-economic conditions. This study evaluates the effectiveness of Transformer-based architectures, specifically Vanilla Transformer, Informer, Autoformer, ETSformer, NSTransformer, and Reformer, for probabilistic time series forecasting in retail. A key focus is the integration of explanatory variables, such as calendar-related indicators, selling prices, and socio-economic factors, which play a crucial role in capturing demand fluctuations. This study assesses how incorporating these variables enhances forecast accuracy, addressing a research gap in the comprehensive evaluation of explanatory variables within multiple Transformer-based models. Empirical results, based on the M5 dataset, show that incorporating explanatory variables generally improves forecasting performance. Models leveraging these variables achieve up to 12.4% reduction in Normalized Root Mean Squared Error (NRMSE) and 2.9% improvement in Mean Absolute Scaled Error (MASE) compared to models that rely solely on past sales. Furthermore, probabilistic forecasting enhances decision making by quantifying uncertainty, providing more reliable demand predictions for risk management. These findings underscore the effectiveness of Transformer-based models in retail forecasting and emphasize the importance of integrating domain-specific explanatory variables to achieve more accurate, context-aware predictions in dynamic retail environments.

Abstract
Yield forecasting is of immeasurable value in modern viticulture to optimize harvest scheduling and quality management. The number of inflorescences and flowers per vine is one of the main components and their assessment serves as an early predictor, which can explain up to 85-90% of yield variability. This study introduces a sophisticated framework that integrates the benchmark of different advanced deep learning and classic image processing to automate the segmentation of grapevine inflorescences and the detection of single flowers, to achieve precise, early, and non-invasive yield predictions in viticulture. The YOLOv8n model achieved superior performance in localizing inflorescences ( F1-Score (Box) = 95.9%) and detecting individual flowers (F1-Score = 91.4%), while the YOLOv5n model excelled in the segmentation task ( F1-Score (Mask) = 98.6%). The models demonstrated a strong correlation (R-2 > 90.0%) between detected and visible flowers in inflorescences. A statistical analysis confirmed the robustness of the framework, with the YOLOv8 model once again standing out, showing no significant differences in error rates across diverse grapevine morphologies and varieties, ensuring wide applicability. The results demonstrate that these models can significantly improve the accuracy of early yield predictions, offering a noninvasive, scalable solution for Precision Viticulture. The findings underscore the potential for Computer Vision technology to enhance vineyard management practices, leading to better resource allocation and improved crop quality.

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to ascertain the hierarchical importance of a patent's characteristics to licensing. This research has a causal-exploratory purpose, in that it sought to establish relationships between variables. This research aims to identify which characteristics are influential in the licensing of Brazilian academic patents in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical technology fields, based on the mining of data contained in licensed and unlicensed patent documents. Which characteristics of Brazilian academic patents are most influential in their licensing potential? An analysis through Random Forest was performed. To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies in Brazil using machine learning to identify which characteristics are influential in licensing a particular academic patent, especially given the difficulty of gathering this information. We found that regardless of the measure used, the three most critical licensing characteristics for the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical patents analysed are Patent Scope, Life Cycle, and Claims. At the same time, the least important is the Patent Cooperation Treaty. The relevance of this research is based on the fact that after identifying which intrinsic characteristics influence the final value and licensing probabilities of a given patent, it will be possible to develop mathematical models that provide accurate information for establishing technology transfer agreements. In practical terms, the results suggest that greater patent versatility, combined with lifecycle management and a technical effort to build strong claims, increases the licensing potential of academic biopharmaceutical patents.

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.