Over the past few decades, the substantial growth in enterprise-data availability and the advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have allowed companies to solve real-world problems using Machine Learning (ML). ML Operations (MLOps) represents an effective strategy for bringing ML models from academic resources to useful tools for solving problems in the corporate world. The current literature on MLOps is still mostly disconnected and sporadic. In this work, we review the existing scientific literature and we propose a taxonomy for clustering research papers on MLOps. In addition, we present methodologies and operations aimed at defining a ML pipeline to simplify the release of ML applications in industry. The pipeline is based on ten steps: business problem understanding, data acquisition, ML methodology, ML training & testing, continuous integration, continuous delivery, continuous training, continuous monitoring, explainability, and sustainability. The scientific and business interest and the impact of MLOps have grown significantly over the past years. The definition of a clear and standardized methodology for conducting MLOps projects is the main contribution of this paper.

Recent advances in deep learning and imaging technologies have revolutionized automated medical image analysis, especially in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease through neuroimaging. Despite the availability of various imaging modalities for the same patient, the development of multi-modal models leveraging these modalities remains underexplored. This paper addresses this gap by proposing and evaluating classification models using 2D and 3D MRI images and amyloid PET scans in uni-modal and multi-modal frameworks. Our findings demonstrate that models using volumetric data learn more effective representations than those using only 2D images. Furthermore, integrating multiple modalities enhances model performance over single-modality approaches significantly. We achieved state-of-the-art performance on the OASIS-3 cohort. Additionally, explainability analyses with Grad-CAM indicate that our model focuses on crucial AD-related regions for its predictions, underscoring its potential to aid in understanding the disease’s causes.

This paper provides an overview of some of the most relevant deep learning approaches to pattern extraction and recognition in visual arts, particularly painting and drawing. Recent advances in deep learning and computer vision, coupled with the growing availability of large digitized visual art collections, have opened new opportunities for computer science researchers to assist the art community with automatic tools to analyse and further understand visual arts. Among other benefits, a deeper understanding of visual arts has the potential to make them more accessible to a wider population, ultimately supporting the spread of culture.

Studying the effects of neurodegeneration on handwriting has emerged as an interdisciplinary research topic and has attracted considerable interest from psychologists to neuroscientists and from physicians to computer scientists. The complexity of handwriting, in fact, appears to be sensitive to age-related impairments in cognitive functioning; thus, analyzing handwriting in elderly people may facilitate the diagnosis and monitoring of these impairments. A large body of knowledge has been collected in the last thirty years thanks to the advent of new technologies which allow researchers to investigate not only the static characteristics of handwriting but also especially the dynamic aspects of the handwriting process. The present paper aims at providing an overview of the most relevant literature investigating the application of dynamic handwriting analysis in neurodegenerative disease assessment. The focus, in particular, is on Parkinon’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), as the two most widespread neurodegenerative disorders. More specifically, the studies taken into account are grouped in accordance with three main research questions: disease insight, disease monitoring, and disease diagnosis. The net result is that dynamic handwriting analysis is a powerful, noninvasive, and low-cost tool for real-time diagnosis and follow-up of PD and AD. In conclusion of the paper, open issues still demanding further research are highlighted.

Machine learning techniques are tailored to build intelligent systems to support clinicians at the point of care. In particular, they can complement standard clinical evaluations for the assessment of early signs and manifestations of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Patients suffering from PD typically exhibit impairments of previously learned motor skills, such as handwriting. Therefore, handwriting can be considered a powerful marker to develop automatized diagnostic tools. In this paper, we investigated if and to which extent dynamic features of the handwriting process can support PD diagnosis at earlier stages. To this end, a subset of the publicly available PaHaW dataset has been used, including those patients showing only early to mild degree of disease severity. We developed a classification framework based on different classifiers and an ensemble scheme. Some encouraging results have been obtained; in particular, good specificity performances have been observed. This indicates that a handwriting-based decision support tool could be used to administer screening tests useful for ruling in disease.