Characterizing and Detecting State-Sponsored Troll Activity on Social Media

The detection of state-sponsored trolls acting in information operations is an unsolved and critical challenge for the research community, with repercussions that go beyond the online realm. In this paper, we propose a novel AI-based solution for the detection of state-sponsored troll accounts, which consists of two steps. The first step aims at classifying trajectories of accounts' online activities as belonging to either a state-sponsored troll or to an organic user account. In the second step, we exploit the classified trajectories to compute a metric, namely "troll score", which allows us to quantify the extent to which an account behaves like a state-sponsored troll. As a study case, we consider the troll accounts involved in the Russian interference campaign during the 2016 US Presidential election, identified as Russian trolls by the US Congress. Experimental results show that our approach identifies accounts' trajectories with an AUC close to 99\% and, accordingly, classify Russian trolls and organic users with an AUC of 97\%. Finally, we evaluate whether the proposed solution can be generalized to different contexts (e.g., discussions about Covid-19) and generic misbehaving users, showing promising results that will be further expanded in our future endeavors.Comment: 15 page

Fournier’s gangrene and intravenous drug abuse: an unusual case report and review of the literature

Fournier’s gangrene is a potentially fatal emergency condition characterized by necrotizing fasciitis and supported by an infection of the external genital, perineal and perianal region, with a rapid and progressive spread from subcutaneous fat tissue to fascial planes

Safety and Efficacy of a Modified Technique of Holmium Laser Enucleation of the Prostate (HoLEP) for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) is a valid alternative to transurethral resection of the prostate and open simple prostatectomy for the treatment of a larger prostate, demonstrating comparable efficacy and lower morbidity. One of the most bothersome symptoms after HoLEP is urinary incontinence (UI), which is present in almost 20% of patients, with a recovery rate of over 80% at 3 months. A relevant risk factor linked to UI is the damage of the external sphincter during the enucleation of adenoma tissue close to it. In our modified HoLEP technique named Cap HoLEP, we preserve the anterior prostate portion proximal to the external sphincter. This cap of adenoma could reduce mechanical stress and laser energy widespread on the sphincter, acting as a protective barrier. The aim of this study was to describe the Cap HoLEP technique and to evaluate its safety and efficacy by assessing peri-operative and functional outcomes. We enrolled all patients who consecutively underwent Cap HoLEP from December 2017 to October 2019 in our hospital. Baseline characteristics; the International Prostate Symptom Score; uroflow findings; intraoperative data, intraoperative, and postoperative complications; and UI were all assessed. The median operative time was 122 min with 138 kJ of laser energy delivered. Median ∆Hb was 0.8 gr/dL. Seven low-grade complications were recorded. At 1 month, 34.8% of patients presented UI, 16.7% urge incontinence, 13.6% stress incontinence, and 4.5% mixed incontinence. At 3 months, UI showed a significant improvement, decreasing to 12.1%. At 6 and 12 months, UI was 7.6% and 3%, respectively. Our modified HoLEP technique is safe and effective, allowing significant improvement in the postoperative UI rate

An innovative architecture for wide band transient monitor on board HERMES nano-satellite constellations

The HERMES-TP/SP mission, based on a nanosatellite constellation, has very stringent constraints of sensitivity and compactness, and requires an innovative wide energy range instrument. The instrument technology is based on the "siswich" concept, in which custom-designed, low-noise Silicon Drift Detectors are used to simultaneously detect soft X-rays and to readout the optical light produced by the interaction of higher energy photons in GAGG:Ce scintillators. To preserve the inherent excellent spectroscopic performances of SDDs, advanced readout electronics is necessary. In this paper, the HERMES detector architecture concept will be described in detail, as well as the specically developed front-end ASICs (LYRA-FE and LYRA-BE) and integration solutions. The experimental performance of the integrated system composed by scintillator+SDD+LYRA ASIC will be discussed, demonstrating that the requirements of a wide energy range sensitivity, from 2 keV up to 2 MeV, are met in a compact instrument

Design, integration, and test of the scientific payloads on-board the HERMES constellation and the SpIRIT mission

HERMES (high energy rapid modular ensemble of satellites) is a space-borne mission based on a constellation of nano-satellites flying in a low-Earth orbit (LEO). The six 3U CubeSat buses host new miniaturized instruments hosting a hybrid silicon drift detector/GAGG:Ce scintillator photodetector system sensitive to x-rays and gamma-rays. HERMES will probe the temporal emission of bright high-energy transients such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), ensuring a fast transient localization (with arcmin-level accuracy) in a field of view of several steradians exploiting the triangulation technique. With a foreseen launch date in late 2023, HERMES transient monitoring represents a keystone capability to complement the next generation of gravitational wave experiments. Moreover, the HERMES constellation will operate in conjunction with the space industry responsive intelligent thermal (SpIRIT) 6U CubeSat, to be launched in early 2023. SpIRIT is an Australian-Italian mission for high-energy astrophysics that will carry in a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) an actively cooled HERMES detector system payload. On behalf of the HERMES collaboration, in this paper we will illustrate the HERMES and SpIRIT payload design, integration and tests, highlighting the technical solutions adopted to allow a wide-energy-band and sensitive x-ray and gamma-ray detector to be accommodated in a 1U CubeSat volume

The scientific payload on-board the HERMES-TP and HERMES-SP CubeSat missions

none103siHERMES (High Energy Rapid Modular Ensemble of Satellites) Technological and Scientific pathfinder is a space borne mission based on a LEO constellation of nano-satellites. The 3U CubeSat buses host new miniaturized detectors to probe the temporal emission of bright high-energy transients such as Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). Fast transient localization, in a field of view of several steradians and with arcmin-level accuracy, is gained by comparing time delays among the same event detection epochs occurred on at least 3 nano-satellites. With a launch date in 2022, HERMES transient monitoring represents a keystone capability to complement the next generation of gravitational wave experiments. In this paper we will illustrate the HERMES payload design, highlighting the technical solutions adopted to allow a wide-energy-band and sensitive X-ray and gamma-ray detector to be accommodated in a CubeSat 1U volume together with its complete control electronics and data handling system.noneEvangelista, Yuri; Fiore, Fabrizio; Fuschino, Fabio; Campana, Riccardo; Ceraudo, Francesco; Demenev, Evgeny; Guzman, Alejandro; Labanti, Claudio; La Rosa, Giovanni; Fiorini, Mauro; Gandola, Massimo; Grassi, Marco; Mele, Filippo; Morgante, Gianluca; Nogara, Paolo; Piazzolla, Raffaele; Pliego Caballero, Samuel; Rashevskaya, Irina; Russo, Francesco; Sciarrone, Giulia; Sottile, Giuseppe; Milankovich, Dorottya; Pál, András; Ambrosino, Filippo; Auricchio, Natalia; Barbera, Marco; Bellutti, Pierluigi; Bertuccio, Giuseppe; Borghi, Giacomo; Cao, Jiewei; Chen, Tianxiang; Dilillo, Giuseppe; Feroci, Marco; Ficorella, Francesco; Lo Cicero, Ugo; Malcovati, Piero; Morbidini, Alfredo; Pauletta, Giovanni; Picciotto, Antonino; Rachevski, Alexandre; Santangelo, Andrea; Tenzer, Chistoph; Vacchi, Andrea; Wang, Lingjun; Xu, Yupeng; Zampa, Gianluigi; Zampa, Nicola; Zorzi, Nicola; Burderi, Luciano; Lavagna, Michèle; Bertacin, Roberto; Lunghi, Paolo; Monge, Angel; Negri, Barbara; Pirrotta, Simone; Puccetti, Simonetta; Sanna, Andrea; Amarilli, Fabrizio; Amelino-Camelia, Giovanni; Bechini, Michele; Citossi, Marco; Colagrossi, Andrea; Curzel, Serena; Della Casa, Giovanni; Cinelli, Marco; Del Santo, Melania; Di Salvo, Tiziana; Feruglio, Chiara; Ferrandi, Fabrizio; Fiorito, Michele; Gacnik, Dejan; Galgóczi, Gabor; Gambino, Angelo Francesco; Ghirlanda, Giancarlo; Gomboc, Andreja; Karlica, Mile; Efremov, Pavel; Kostic, Uros; Clerici, Aurora; Lopez Fernandez, Borja; Maselli, Alessandro; Nava, Lara; Ohno, Masanori; Ottolina, Daniele; Pasquale, Andrea; Perri, Matteo; Piccinin, Margherita; Prinetto, Jacopo; Riggio, Alessandro; Ripa, Jakub; Papitto, Alessandro; Piranomonte, Silvia; Scala, Francesca; Selcan, David; Silvestrini, Stefano; Rotovnik, Tomaz; Virgilli, Enrico; Troisi, Ivan; Werner, Norbert; Zanotti, Giovanni; Anitra, Alessio; Manca, Arianna; Clerici, AuroraEvangelista, Yuri; Fiore, Fabrizio; Fuschino, Fabio; Campana, Riccardo; Ceraudo, Francesco; Demenev, Evgeny; Guzman, Alejandro; Labanti, Claudio; La Rosa, Giovanni; Fiorini, Mauro; Gandola, Massimo; Grassi, Marco; Mele, Filippo; Morgante, Gianluca; Nogara, Paolo; Piazzolla, Raffaele; Pliego Caballero, Samuel; Rashevskaya, Irina; Russo, Francesco; Sciarrone, Giulia; Sottile, Giuseppe; Milankovich, Dorottya; Pál, András; Ambrosino, Filippo; Auricchio, Natalia; Barbera, Marco; Bellutti, Pierluigi; Bertuccio, Giuseppe; Borghi, Giacomo; Cao, Jiewei; Chen, Tianxiang; Dilillo, Giuseppe; Feroci, Marco; Ficorella, Francesco; Lo Cicero, Ugo; Malcovati, Piero; Morbidini, Alfredo; Pauletta, Giovanni; Picciotto, Antonino; Rachevski, Alexandre; Santangelo, Andrea; Tenzer, Chistoph; Vacchi, Andrea; Wang, Lingjun; Xu, Yupeng; Zampa, Gianluigi; Zampa, Nicola; Zorzi, Nicola; Burderi, Luciano; Lavagna, Michèle; Bertacin, Roberto; Lunghi, Paolo; Monge, Angel; Negri, Barbara; Pirrotta, Simone; Puccetti, Simonetta; Sanna, Andrea; Amarilli, Fabrizio; Amelino-Camelia, Giovanni; Bechini, Michele; Citossi, Marco; Colagrossi, Andrea; Curzel, Serena; Della Casa, Giovanni; Cinelli, Marco; Del Santo, Melania; Di Salvo, Tiziana; Feruglio, Chiara; Ferrandi, Fabrizio; Fiorito, Michele; Gacnik, Dejan; Galgóczi, Gabor; Gambino, Angelo Francesco; Ghirlanda, Giancarlo; Gomboc, Andreja; Karlica, Mile; Efremov, Pavel; Kostic, Uros; Clerici, Aurora; Lopez Fernandez, Borja; Maselli, Alessandro; Nava, Lara; Ohno, Masanori; Ottolina, Daniele; Pasquale, Andrea; Perri, Matteo; Piccinin, Margherita; Prinetto, Jacopo; Riggio, Alessandro; Ripa, Jakub; Papitto, Alessandro; Piranomonte, Silvia; Scala, Francesca; Selcan, David; Silvestrini, Stefano; Rotovnik, Tomaz; Virgilli, Enrico; Troisi, Ivan; Werner, Norbert; Zanotti, Giovanni; Anitra, Alessio; Manca, Arianna; Clerici, Auror

The HERMES-technologic and scientific pathfinder

HERMES-TP/SP (High Energy Rapid Modular Ensemble of Satellites Technologic and Scientific Pathfinder) is a constellation of six 3U nano-satellites hosting simple but innovative X-ray detectors, characterized by a large energy band and excellent temporal resolution, and thus optimized for the monitoring of Cosmic High Energy transients such as Gamma Ray Bursts and the electromagnetic counterparts of Gravitational Wave Events, and for the determination of their positions. The projects are funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research and by the Italian Space Agency, and by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under Grant Agreement No. 821896. HERMES-TP/SP is an in-orbit demonstration, that should be tested starting from 2022. It is intrinsically a modular experiment that can be naturally expanded to provide a global, sensitive all sky monitor for high-energy transients

Timing techniques applied to distributed modular high-energy astronomy: the H.E.R.M.E.S. project

The association of GW170817 with GRB170817A proved that electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave events are the key to deeply understand the physics of NS-NS merges. Upgrades of the existing GW antennas and the construction of new ones will allow to increase sensitivity down to several hundred Mpc vastly increasing the number of possible electromagnetic counterparts. Monitoring of the hard X-ray/soft gamma-ray sky with good localisation capabilities will help to effectively tackle this problem allowing to fully exploit multi-messenger astronomy. However, building a high energy all-sky monitor with large collective area might be particularly challenging due to the need to place the detectors onboard satellites of limited size. Distributed astronomy is a simple and cheap solution to overcome this difficulty. Here we discuss in detail dedicated timing techniques that allow to precisely locate an astronomical event in the sky taking advantage of the spatial distribution of a swarm of detectors orbiting Earth