2026
Authors
Loureiro, G; Dias, A; Silva, E;
Publication
JOURNAL OF MARINE SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Abstract
The automated detection of deep-sea polymetallic nodules is critical for processing large volumes of benthic imagery. However, its scalability faces challenges from cross-expedition covariate shifts, such as changes in lighting, altitude, and camera payloads, which lower zero-shot model performance. While semi-supervised pseudo-labelling presents a potential alternative to time-consuming re-annotation, simple implementations can quickly lead to confirmation bias. This study identifies two primary sources of this degradation: spatial noise from tiling fragmentation at tile borders and an architecture-agnostic interior false positive floor caused by semantic domain shift. This work proposes using a multi-model ensemble for pseudo-labelling to reduce the noise impact. Using a spatial border filter and confidence stratification, three architecturally distinct teacher models (YOLOv8, Faster R-CNN, and DINO) are employed to determine a reliable and domain-invariant subspace. Under a strict anti-leakage Leave-One-Partition-Out protocol, the proposed approach surpasses the supervised fine-tuning baseline at 100-tile pseudo-label budget across four random seeds (macro mAP50:95 of 0.4745 +/- 0.0042 versus 0.4467 +/- 0.0079), with gains concentrated in the most domain-shifted fold. Beyond this budget, our findings highlight two important adaptation trends: a pool-size degradation trend where excessive pseudo-label volume actively degrades generalisation, and the observation that the fine-tuned models reduce pseudo-label fidelity despite higher precision, providing evidence for the advantage of using frozen source checkpoints for cross-domain adaptation.
2026
Authors
Teixeira, AAC; Pinto, A;
Publication
RESEARCH POLICY
Abstract
Understanding how structural change drives long-run growth requires jointly considering the dynamics of productive and scientific specialisations, and science-industry alignment. This paper develops and tests a unified framework that integrates evolutionary, structuralist, complexity, and innovation-systems perspectives to assess how productive and scientific specialisations, science-industry alignment, diversification, and global value chain integration shape economic performance. To operationalize this framework, we construct new indicators, including a Science-Industry Matching (SIM) index, measures of dynamic entry and relatedness density, and specialisation-based diversity indices, and apply them to a panel of up to 142 countries over 2000-2018/2023. Estimation relies on country fixed effects with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors to address heteroskedasticity, autocorrelation, and cross-sectional dependence. The results reveal that persistent specialisation in high- and medium-high-tech industries fosters growth, while low-tech dependence constrains it. Scientific specialisation in enabling fields such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and energy/environmental sciences supports growth, but excessive concentration risks lock-in. Science-industry alignment enhances growth in advanced economies with strong absorptive capacity but penalises weaker systems. Industrial diversification often dilutes resources, whereas scientific diversification consistently promotes growth by broadening the knowledge base for recombination. Finally, integration into global value chains is growth-enhancing in developing economies, while advanced economies can sustain higher domestic value added without significant penalties.
2026
Authors
Costa, L; Barbosa, S; Cunha, J;
Publication
FUTURE GENERATION COMPUTER SYSTEMS-THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ESCIENCE
Abstract
In recent years, the research community, but also the general public, has raised serious questions about the reproducibility and replicability of scientific work. Since many studies include some kind of computational work, these issues are also a technological challenge, not only in computer science, but also in most research domains. Computational replicability and reproducibility are not easy to achieve due to the variety of computational environments that can be used. Indeed, it is challenging to recreate the same environment via the same frameworks, code, programming languages, dependencies, and so on. We propose a framework, known as SciRep, that supports the configuration, execution, and packaging of computational experiments by defining their code, data, programming languages, dependencies, databases, and commands to be executed. After the initial configuration, the experiments can be executed any number of times, always producing exactly the same results. Our approach allows the creation of a reproducibility package for experiments from multiple scientific fields, from medicine to computer science, which can be re-executed on any computer. The produced package acts as a capsule, holding absolutely everything necessary to re-execute the experiment. To evaluate our framework, we compare it with three state-of-the-art tools and use it to reproduce 18 experiments extracted from published scientific articles. With our approach, we were able to execute 16 (89%) of those experiments, while the others reached only 61%, thus showing that our approach is effective. Moreover, all the experiments that were executed produced the results presented in the original publication. Thus, SciRep was able to reproduce 100% of the experiments it could run.
2026
Authors
Balvers, S; Amorim, P; Fransoo, JC;
Publication
SSRN Electronic Journal
Abstract
2026
Authors
Koprinska, I; Mendes-Moreira, J; Branco, P;
Publication
Communications in Computer and Information Science
Abstract
2026
Authors
Carvalho, R; Ashofteh, A; Campos, P;
Publication
PROCEEDINGS OF 20TH IBERIAN CONFERENCE ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES, CISTI 2025, VOL 2
Abstract
Researchers rely on confidential and sensitive microdata provided by national statistical institutes and other organizations, making disclosure control a critical challenge. Manual output checking processes are time-consuming and require expert knowledge, limiting scalability. This paper presents an automated framework that integrates large language models (LLMs), prompt engineering, and workflow automation (n8n) for statistical disclosure control (SDC). The system introduces an AI-driven output validation, including code generation, data processing, and risk assessment, allowing researchers to pre-check their outputs via a Seamless Within-Activity Review (SWAR) approach. Key challenges such as computational costs, confidentiality concerns, and the need for human oversight are addressed, and reinforcement learning is proposed to enhance future risk evaluation. The framework marks a step toward scalable, privacy-compliant, AI-assisted disclosure control in official statistics.
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