Automatic detection of Covid-19 from chest X-ray and lung computed tomography images using deep neural networks and transfer learning.

The world has been undergoing the most ever unprecedented circumstances caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which is having a devastating global effect in different aspects of life. Since there are not effective antiviral treatments for Covid-19 yet, it is crucial to early detect and monitor the progression of the disease, thereby helping to reduce mortality. While different measures are being used to combat the virus, medical imaging techniques have been examined to support doctors in diagnosing the disease.

Seizures of New Psychoactive Substances on the Italian territory during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In recent years, the availability and the consequent consumption of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) have proliferated at an unprecedented rate, posing a significant risk to the public health and challenging the law enforcement efforts to tackle the black market. In particular, large availability on Internet and unmonitored shipping have facilitated the diffusion of NPS on national territories. In this scenario, the forensic activity based on the process of drug detection, including investigation, seizure, recognition and analytical identification is crucial to get insights into the drug black market transformation.

Observation of polarization-maintaining light propagation in depoled compositionally disordered ferroelectrics.

We investigate the evolution of the state of polarization of light propagating through bulk depoled composite ferroelectrics below the Curie temperature. In contrast to standard depoled ferroelectrics, where random birefringence causes depolarization and scattering, light is observed to suffer varying degrees of depolarization and remains fully polarized when linearly polarized along the crystal principal axes. The effect is found to be supported by the formation of polarized speckles organized into a spatial lattice and occurs as the ferroelectric settles into a spontaneous super-crystal, a three-dimensional coherent mosaic of ferroelectric clusters.

Continuous Solitons in a Lattice Nonlinearity.

We study theoretically and experimentally the propagation of optical solitons in a lattice nonlinearity, a periodic pattern that both affects and is strongly affected by the wave. Observations are carried out using spatial photorefractive solitons in a volume microstructured crystal with a built-in oscillating low-frequency dielectric constant. The pattern causes an oscillating electro-optic response that induces a periodic optical nonlinearity.

Effect of long-term near-normoglycemia on the progression of diabetic nephropathy.

The effect of prolonged restoration of near-normoglycemia on the progression of diabetic nephropathy was evaluated in a controlled study in which 10 insulin-dependent (type 1) diabetic patients with clinical proteinuria were randomized to continue with conventional insulin treatment (CIT) or to undertake more intensive diabetic therapy using continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII). The patients, mean age 33 +/- 8 yr, mean duration of diabetes 15 +/- 4 yr, were studied before and during 12 months of either CIT or CSII therapy. Glycemic control was assessed by means of mean blood glucose (MBG) +/- Standard deviation (SD), urinary glucose excretion and glycosylated hemoglobin, while renal function was assessed by albumin, IgG and beta-2-microglobulin urinary excretion rates, serum creatinine and creatinine clearance.