New cosmological constraints from a weak lensing analysis of the AMICO galaxy cluster catalogue in the Kilo-Degree Survey

The spatial and dynamical properties of the large-scale structures of the Universe provide one of the most powerful probes to constrain the cosmological framework. In particular, the gravitational lensing of galaxy clusters can be efficiently exploited to constrain the main cosmological parameters. In this work, we present new cosmological constraints inferred from the analysis of weak lensing shear data, extracted from the KiDS-DR3 photometric survey. The galaxy cluster sample used in this work was extracted using the Adaptive Matched Identifier of Clustered Objects (AMICO) algorithm (Bellagamba et al., 2018) by Maturi et al., 2018. This cluster catalogue has been constructed by selecting only the objects with signal-to-noise ratio larger than 3.5, in the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.6. The final sample consists of 6972 galaxy clusters in total. A full Bayesian analysis (MCMCs) is performed to model the stacked shear profiles. We mainly exploit the clusters 2-halo term to constrain the matter density contrast Ω_m. We find that the adopted modelling is successful to assess both the cluster masses and the matter density parameter, when fitting shear profiles up to the largest scales probed. The derived masses of the cluster samples are in good agreement with those estimated by Bellagamba et al. (2019). Our work confirms the reliability of AMICO and of the KiDS-DR3 data. Moreover, our results provide a strong observational evidence of the 2-halo signal in the stacked gravitational lensing of galaxy clusters, and demonstrate the reliability of this probe for constraining cosmological model parameters. The main result of this thesis work is a new, robust constraint on Ω_m , assuming a flat ΛCDM cosmology. Specifically, we find a Ω_m= 0.285 ± 0.023, estimated from the full posterior probability distribution. This value is consistent and competitive with that estimated by WMAP9 (0.273 ± 0.049), but slightly in tension with Planck18 constraints, (0.317 ± 0.008)

Il sonno della Storia produce miti Il Seicento e le origini della xilografia

The scarce space that Giorgio Vasari dedicates in his Vite to the woodcut technique meant a long exclusion of wood engraving from Italian artistic historiography, a silence that survived its author for at least two centuries. Only from the second half of the 18th century did a debate on the origins of woodcut begin to develop in Italy. However, the void of historiography was partly filled between the 16th and 17th centuries by significant episodes of interest in 15th-century woodcut, linked not so much to their artistic aspect, but rather to their devotional one. The analysis of a series of cases highlights a certain need at the time to deal with the origins of woodcut. Despite the silence of the official treatises, responses offered often surprising results

Behind the Image, Beyond the Image

The volume includes papers presented at the III International Conference of PhD students of the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the State Institute for Art Studies of Moscow (Venice, 22-24 September 2021). The word ‘image’ derives from the Latin imago, a word that has many different meanings that go from ‘portrait’ to ‘ghost’, from ‘idea’ to ‘dream’, from ‘memory’ to ‘reflection’. We most commonly associate the word ‘image’ with a picture, but its etymology keeps reminding us of its infinite conceptual potential. In his famous book Behind the Image: The Art of Reading Paintings, Federico Zeri argues that there are infinite ways to observe the work of art as an image. But since the image is something that goes beyond its mere material and physical form and refers to the categories of perception and thought, the expression “beyond the image” encourages new formulations related to this polyvalent concept. The image, the imagination and the imaginable are the transversal categories that the papers collected in this volume aim to explore, inquiring the concept of image as a metaphor, a model, a method, a representation, a tool for a new understanding of reality

Validation of a guideline to reduce variability in diagnosing cervical dystonia

Background: Cervical dystonia is characterized by a variable pattern of neck muscle involvement. Due to the lack of a diagnostic test, cervical dystonia diagnosis is based on clinical examination and is therefore subjective. The present work was designed to provide practical guidance for clinicians in confirming or refuting suspected cervical dystonia. Methods: Participants were video recorded according to a standardized protocol to assess 6 main clinical features possibly contributing to cervical dystonia diagnosis: presence of repetitive, patterned head/neck movements/postures inducing head/neck deviation from neutral position (item 1); sensory trick (item 2); and red flags related to conditions mimicking dystonia that should be absent in dystonia (items 3-6). Inter-/intra-rater agreement among three independent raters was assessed by k statistics. To estimate sensitivity and specificity, the gold standard was cervical dystonia diagnosis reviewed at each site by independent senior neurologists. Results: The validation sample included 43 idiopathic cervical dystonia patients and 41 control subjects (12 normal subjects, 6 patients with isolated head tremor, 4 with chorea, 6 with tics, 4 with head ptosis due to myasthenia or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, 7 with orthopedic/rheumatologic neck diseases, and 2 with ocular torticollis). The best combination of sensitivity and specificity was observed considering all the items except for an item related to capability to voluntarily suppress spasms (sensitivity: 96.1%; specificity: 81%). Conclusions: An accurate diagnosis of cervical dystonia can be achieved if, in addition to the core motor features, we also consider some clinical features related to dystonia mimics that should be absent in dystonia