Automated bioacoustic analysis is essential for biodiversity monitoring and conservation, requiring advanced deep learning models that can adapt to diverse bioacoustic tasks. This article presents a comprehensive review of large-scale pretrained bioacoustic foundation models and systematically investigates their transferability across multiple bioacoustic classification tasks. We overview bioacoustic representation learning including major pretraining data sources and benchmarks. On this basis, we review bioacoustic foundation models by thoroughly analysing design decisions such as model architecture, pretraining scheme, and training paradigm. Additionally, we evaluate selected foundation models on classification tasks from the BEANS and BirdSet benchmarks, comparing the generalisability of learned representations under both linear and attentive probing strategies. Our comprehensive experimental analysis reveals that BirdMAE, trained on large-scale bird song data with a self-supervised objective, achieves the best performance on the BirdSet benchmark. On BEANS, BEATs$_{NLM}$, the extracted encoder of the NatureLM-audio large audio model, is slightly better. Both transformer-based models require attentive probing to extract the full performance of their representations. ConvNext$_{BS}$ and Perch models trained with supervision on large-scale bird song data remain competitive for passive acoustic monitoring classification tasks of BirdSet in linear probing settings. Training a new linear classifier has clear advantages over evaluating these models without further training. While on BEANS, the baseline model BEATs trained with self-supervision on AudioSet outperforms bird-specific models when evaluated with attentive probing. These findings provide valuable guidance for practitioners selecting appropriate models to adapt them to new bioacoustic classification tasks via probing.

In the age of large language models (LLMs), autonomous agents have emerged as a powerful paradigm for achieving general intelligence. These agents dynamically leverage tools, memory, and reasoning capabilities to accomplish user-defined goals. As agent systems grow in complexity, agent workflows-structured orchestration frameworks-have become central to enabling scalable, controllable, and secure AI behaviors. This survey provides a comprehensive review of agent workflow systems, spanning academic frameworks and industrial implementations. We classify existing systems along two key dimensions: functional capabilities (e.g., planning, multi-agent collaboration, external API integration) and architectural features (e.g., agent roles, orchestration flows, specification languages). By comparing over 20 representative systems, we highlight common patterns, potential technical challenges, and emerging trends. We further address concerns related to workflow optimization strategies and security. Finally, we outline open problems such as standardization and multimodal integration, offering insights for future research at the intersection of agent design, workflow infrastructure, and safe automation.

Textual reviews enrich recommender systems with fine-grained preference signals and enhanced explainability. However, in real-world scenarios, users rarely leave reviews, resulting in severe sparsity that undermines the effectiveness of existing models. A natural solution is to impute or generate missing reviews to enrich the data. However, conventional imputation techniques -- such as matrix completion and LLM-based augmentation -- either lose contextualized semantics by embedding texts into vectors, or overlook structural dependencies among user-item interactions. To address these shortcomings, we propose TWISTER (ToWards Imputation on Sparsity with Textual Edge Graph Representation), a unified framework that imputes missing reviews by jointly modeling semantic and structural signals. Specifically, we represent user-item interactions as a Textual-Edge Graph (TEG), treating reviews as edge attributes. To capture relational context, we construct line-graph views and employ a large language model as a graph-aware aggregator. For each interaction lacking a textual review, our model aggregates the neighborhood's natural-language representations to generate a coherent and personalized review. Experiments on the Amazon and Goodreads datasets show that TWISTER consistently outperforms traditional numeric, graph-based, and LLM baselines, delivering higher-quality imputed reviews and, more importantly, enhanced recommendation performance. In summary, TWISTER generates reviews that are more helpful, authentic, and specific, while smoothing structural signals for improved recommendations.

Modern Electronic Design Automation (EDA) workflows, especially the RTL-to-GDSII flow, require heavily manual scripting and demonstrate a multitude of tool-specific interactions which limits scalability and efficiency. While LLMs introduces strides for automation, existing LLM solutions require expensive fine-tuning and do not contain standardized frameworks for integration and evaluation. We introduce AutoEDA, a framework for EDA automation that leverages paralleled learning through the Model Context Protocol (MCP) specific for standardized and scalable natural language experience across the entire RTL-to-GDSII flow. AutoEDA limits fine-tuning through structured prompt engineering, implements intelligent parameter extraction and task decomposition, and provides an extended CodeBLEU metric to evaluate the quality of TCL scripts. Results from experiments over five previously curated benchmarks show improvements in automation accuracy and efficiency, as well as script quality when compared to existing methods. AutoEDA is released open-sourced to support reproducibility and the EDA community. Available at: https://github.com/AndyLu666/MCP-EDA-Server

The proposal introduces an innovative drone swarm perception system that aims to solve problems related to computational limitations and low-bandwidth communication, and real-time scene reconstruction. The framework enables efficient multi-agent 3D/4D scene synthesis through federated learning of shared diffusion model and YOLOv12 lightweight semantic extraction and local NeRF updates while maintaining privacy and scalability. The framework redesigns generative diffusion models for joint scene reconstruction, and improves cooperative scene understanding, while adding semantic-aware compression protocols. The approach can be validated through simulations and potential real-world deployment on drone testbeds, positioning it as a disruptive advancement in multi-agent AI for autonomous systems.

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are evolving beyond passive tools into autonomous agents capable of reasoning, adapting, and acting with minimal human intervention. Despite their growing presence, a structured framework is lacking to classify and compare these systems . This paper develops a typology of agentic AI systems, introducing eight dimensions that define their cognitive and environmental agency in an ordinal structure. Using a multi - phase methodological approach, we construct and refine this typology, which is then evaluated through a human - AI hybrid approach and further distilled into constructed types. The framework enables researchers and practitioners to analyze varying levels of agency in AI systems. By offering a structured perspective on the progression o f AI capabilities, the typology provides a foundation for assessing current systems and anticipating future developments in agentic AI.

Masked Face Recognition (MFR) is an increasingly important area in biometric recognition technologies, especially with the widespread use of masks as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This development has created new challenges for facial recognition systems due to the partial concealment of basic facial features. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the latest developments in the field, with a focus on deep learning techniques, especially convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and twin networks (Siamese networks), which have played a pivotal role in improving the accuracy of covering face recognition. The paper discusses the most prominent challenges, which include changes in lighting, different facial positions, partial concealment, and the impact of mask types on the performance of systems. It also reviews advanced technologies developed to overcome these challenges, including data enhancement using artificial databases and multimedia methods to improve the ability of systems to generalize. In addition, the paper highlights advance in deep network design, feature extraction techniques, evaluation criteria, and data sets used in this area. Moreover, it reviews the various applications of masked face recognition in the fields of security and medicine, highlighting the growing importance of these systems in light of recurrent health crises and increasing security threats. Finally, the paper focuses on future research trends such as developing more efficient algorithms and integrating multimedia technologies to improve the performance of recognition systems in real-world environments and expand their applications.

The concept of the Web of Agents (WoA), which transforms the static, document-centric Web into an environment of autonomous agents acting on users' behalf, has attracted growing interest as large language models (LLMs) become more capable. However, research in this area is still fragmented across different communities. Contemporary surveys catalog the latest LLM-powered frameworks, while the rich histories of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) and the Semantic Web are often treated as separate, legacy domains. This fragmentation obscures the intellectual lineage of modern systems and hinders a holistic understanding of the field's trajectory. We present the first comprehensive evolutionary overview of the WoA. We show that modern protocols like A2A and the MCP, are direct evolutionary responses to the well-documented limitations of earlier standards like FIPA standards and OWL-based semantic agents. To systematize this analysis, we introduce a four-axis taxonomy (semantic foundation, communication paradigm, locus of intelligence, discovery mechanism). This framework provides a unified analytical lens for comparing agent architectures across all generations, revealing a clear line of descent where others have seen a disconnect. Our analysis identifies a paradigm shift in the 'locus of intelligence': from being encoded in external data (Semantic Web) or the platform (MAS) to being embedded within the agent's core model (LLM). This shift is foundational to modern Agentic AI, enabling the scalable and adaptive systems the WoA has long envisioned. We conclude that while new protocols are essential, they are insufficient for building a robust, open, trustworthy ecosystem. Finally, we argue that the next research frontier lies in solving persistent socio-technical challenges, and we map out a new agenda focused on decentralized identity, economic models, security, and governance for the emerging WoA.

Objective: This review aims to explore the potential and challenges of using Natural Language Processing (NLP) to detect, correct, and mitigate medically inaccurate information, including errors, misinformation, and hallucination. By unifying these concepts, the review emphasizes their shared methodological foundations and their distinct implications for healthcare. Our goal is to advance patient safety, improve public health communication, and support the development of more reliable and transparent NLP applications in healthcare. Methods: A scoping review was conducted following PRISMA guidelines, analyzing studies from 2020 to 2024 across five databases. Studies were selected based on their use of NLP to address medically inaccurate information and were categorized by topic, tasks, document types, datasets, models, and evaluation metrics. Results: NLP has shown potential in addressing medically inaccurate information on the following tasks: (1) error detection (2) error correction (3) misinformation detection (4) misinformation correction (5) hallucination detection (6) hallucination mitigation. However, challenges remain with data privacy, context dependency, and evaluation standards. Conclusion: This review highlights the advancements in applying NLP to tackle medically inaccurate information while underscoring the need to address persistent challenges. Future efforts should focus on developing real-world datasets, refining contextual methods, and improving hallucination management to ensure reliable and transparent healthcare applications.

Time plays a critical role in how information is generated, retrieved, and interpreted. In this survey, we provide a comprehensive overview of Temporal Question Answering (TQA), a research area that focuses on answering questions involving temporal constraints or context. As the amount of time-stamped content from sources like news articles, web archives, and knowledge bases increases, systems must address challenges such as detecting temporal intent, normalizing time expressions, ordering events, and reasoning over evolving or ambiguous facts. We focus on recent advances in TQA enabled by neural architectures, especially transformer-based models and Large Language Models (LLMs), highlighting progress in temporal language modeling, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and temporal reasoning. We also discuss benchmark datasets and evaluation strategies designed to test temporal robustness, recency awareness, and generalization.