Tetrafenilciclopentadienon-derivati ed analoghi: sintesi, "self-assembly" e caratterizzazione reologica

Gels are materials that are easier to recognize than to define. For all practical purpose, a material is termed a gel if the whole volume of liquid is completely immobilized as usually tested by the ‘tube inversion’ method. Recently, supramolecular gels obtained from low molecular weight gelators (LMWGs) have attracted considerable attention in materials science since they represent a new class of smart materials sensitive to external stimuli, such as temperature, ultrasounds, light, chemical species and so on. Accordingly, during the past years a large variety of potentialities and applications of these soft materials in optoelectronics, as electronic devices, light harvesting systems and sensors, in bio-materials and in drug delivery have been reported. Spontaneous self-assembly of low molecular weight molecules is a powerful tool that allows complex supramolecular nanoscale structures to be built. The weak and non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding, π–π stacking, coordination, electrostatic and van der Waals interactions are usually considered as the most important features for promoting sol-gel equilibria. However, the occurrence of gelation processes is ruled by further “external” factors, among which the temperature and the nature of the solvents that are employed are of crucial importance. For example, some gelators prefer aromatic or halogenated solvents and in some cases both the gelation temperature and the type of the solvent affect the morphologies of the final aggregation. Functionalized cyclopentadienones are fascinating systems largely employed as building blocks for the synthesis of polyphenylene derivatives. In addition, it is worth noting that structures containing π-extended conjugated chromophores with enhanced absorption properties are of current interest in the field of materials science since they can be used as “organic metals”, as semiconductors, and as emissive or absorbing layers for OLEDs or photovoltaics. The possibility to decorate the framework of such structures prompted us to study the synthesis of new hydroxy propargyl arylcyclopentadienone derivatives. Considering the ability of such systems to give π–π stacking interactions, the introduction on a polyaromatic structure of polar substituents able to generate hydrogen bonding could open the possibility to form gels, although any gelation properties has been never observed for these extensively studied systems. we have synthesized a new class of 3,4-bis (4-(3-hydroxy- propynyl) phenyl) -2, 5-diphenylcyclopentadienone derivatives, one of which (1a) proved to be, for the first time, a powerful organogelator. The experimental results indicated that the hydroxydimethylalkynyl substituents are fundamental to guarantee the gelation properties of the tetraarylcyclopentadienone unit. Combining the results of FT-IR, 1H NMR, UV-vis and fluorescence emission spectra, we believe that H-bonding and π–π interactions are the driving forces played for the gel formation. The importance of soft materials lies on their ability to respond to external stimuli, that can be also of chemical nature. In particular, high attention has been recently devoted to anion responsive properties of gels. Therefore the behaviour of organogels of 1a in toluene, ACN and MeNO2 towards the addition of 1 equivalent of various tetrabutylammonium salts were investigated. The rheological properties of gels in toluene, ACN and MeNO2 with and without the addition of Bu4N+X- salts were measured. In addition a qualitative analysis on cation recognition was performed. Finally the nature of the cyclic core of the gelator was changed in order to verify how the carbonyl group was essential to gel solvents. Until now, 4,5-diarylimidazoles have been synthesized.

Internazionalizzazione e traduzione: Un'esperienza presso l'azienda TR Turoni S.R.L.

This dissertation was conducted within the project Language Toolkit, which has the aim of integrating the worlds of work and university. In particular, it consists of the translation into English of documents commissioned by the Italian company TR Turoni and its primary purpose is to demonstrate that, in the field of translation for companies, the existing translation support tools and software can optimise and facilitate the translation process. The work consists of five chapters. The first introduces the Language Toolkit project, the TR Turoni company and its relationship with the CERMAC export consortium. After outlining the current state of company internationalisation, the importance of professional translators in enhancing the competitiveness of companies that enter new international markets is highlighted. Chapter two provides an overview of the texts to be translated, focusing on the textual function and typology and on the addressees. After that, manual translation and the main software developed specifically for translators are described, with a focus on computer-assisted translation (CAT) and machine translation (MT). The third chapter presents the target texts and the corresponding translations. Chapter four is dedicated to the analysis of the translation process. The first two texts were translated manually, with the support of a purpose-built specialized corpus. The following two documents were translated with the software SDL Trados Studio 2011 and its applications. The last texts were submitted to the Google Translate service and to a process of pre and post-editing. Finally, in chapter five conclusions are drawn about the main limits and potentialities of the different translations techniques. In addition to this, the importance of an integrated use of all available instruments is underlined.

Traduzione tecnica e internazionalizzazione d'impresa: Il caso di Technologica S.r.l.

This dissertation is part of the Language Toolkit project which is a collaboration between the School of Foreign Languages and Literature, Interpreting and Translation of the University of Bologna, Forlì campus, and the Chamber of Commerce of Forlì-Cesena. This project aims to create an exchange between translation students and companies who want to pursue a process of internationalization. The purpose of this dissertation is demonstrating the benefits that translation systems can bring to businesses. In particular, it consists of the translation into English of documents supplied by the Italian company Technologica S.r.l. and the creation of linguistic resources that can be integrated into computer-assisted translation (CAT) software, in order to optimize the translation process. The latter is claimed to be a priority with respect to the actual translation products (the target texts), since the analysis conducted on the source texts highlighted that the company could streamline and optimize its English language communication thanks to the use of open source CAT tools such as OmegaT. The work consists of five chapters. The first introduces the Language Toolkit project, the company (Technologica S.r.l ) and its products. The second chapter provides some considerations about technical translation, its features and some misconceptions about it. The difference between technical translation and scientific translation is then clarified and an overview is offered of translation aids such as those used for computer-assisted translation, machine translation, termbases and translation memories. The third chapter contains the analysis of the texts commissioned by Technologica S.r.l. and their categorization. The fourth chapter describes the translation process, with particular attention to terminology extraction and the creation of a bilingual glossary based on a specialized corpus. The glossary was integrated into the OmegaT software in order to facilitate the translation process both for the present task and for future applications. The memory deriving from the translation represents a sort of hybrid resource between a translation memory and a glossary. This was found to be the most appropriate format, given the specific nature of the texts to be translated. Finally, in chapter five conclusions are offered about the importance of language training within a company environment, the potentialities of translation aids and the benefits that they would bring to a company wishing to internationalize itself.

User centered retrofit: The case of kadk campus, Copenhagen, (dk)

The following research thesis is about a retrofit project made in Denmark, Copenhagen, and carried out on one of the buildings belonging to the Royal Danish Academy. The key assumption and base of the entire research process is that, up to now, the standard procedure in retrofit cases like this provides as comparative method between de facto and design, the use of Energy Simulation software. These programs generally divide the space into different thermal zones, assigning to each of them different levels of employment, activities, set-point temperatures set for cooling and heating analysis and so on, but always providing average and constant values, usually taken in the middle point of the single thermal zone. Therefore, the project and its research path stems from the attempt to investigate the potentialities of this kind of designing for retrofit process, as previously anticipated not antithetical but complementary to that classic energy-based retrofit, thus passing from the building scale, and all its thermal zones, to the users' scale, related to humans and microclimates. The main software used in this process is Autodesk Simulation CFD. The idea behind the project is that in certain situations, for example, it will not be necessary to add throughout insulation layers (previously parameterized and optimized with Design Builder), and that even in Winter conditions, due maybe to the users' activities, the increased level of clothing (clo) and the heat produced by equipments, thermal comfort could be achieved also in areas characterized by considerably lower MRT. After the analysis of the State of Art and its simulations, the project has still been supported by the tool itself, the CFD Software, in an iterative process aimed at achieving visible improvements in terms of MRT, on spaces with different needs and characteristics, both in Winter and Summer regimes.

PEDOT:PSS thin films: Applications in Bioelectronics

Owing to their capability of merging the properties of metals and conventional polymers, Conducting Polymers (CPs) are a unique class of carbon-based materials capable of conducting electrical current. A conjugated backbone is the hallmark of CPs, which can readily undergo reversible doping to different extents, thus achieving a wide range of electrical conductivities, while maintaining mechanical flexibility, transparency and high thermal stability. Thanks to these inherent versatility and attracting properties, from their discovery CPs have experienced incessant widespread in a great plethora of research fields, ranging from energy storage to healthcare, also encouraging the spring and growth of new scientific areas with highly innovative content. Nowadays, Bioelectronics stands out as one of the most promising research fields, dealing with the mutual interplay between biology and electronics. Among CPs, the polyelectrolyte complex poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly (styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), especially in the form of thin films, has been emphasized as ideal platform for bioelectronic applications. Indeed, in the last two decades PEDOT:PSS has played a key role in the sensing of bioanalytes and living cells interfacing and monitoring. In the present work, development and characterization of two kinds of PEDOT:PSS-based devices for applications in Bioelectronics are discussed in detail. In particular, a low-cost amperometric sensor for the selective detection of Dopamine in a ternary mixture was optimized, taking advantage of the electrocatalytic and antifouling properties that render PEDOT:PSS thin films appealing tools for electrochemical sensing of bioanalytes. Moreover, the potentialities of this material to interact with live cells were explored through the fabrication of a microfluidic trapping device for electrical monitoring of 3D spheroids using an impedance-based approach.

Performance Analysis of Topological Quantum Error Correcting Codes

In the last few years there has been a great development of techniques like quantum computers and quantum communication systems, due to their huge potentialities and the growing number of applications. However, physical qubits experience a lot of nonidealities, like measurement errors and decoherence, that generate failures in the quantum computation. This work shows how it is possible to exploit concepts from classical information in order to realize quantum error-correcting codes, adding some redundancy qubits. In particular, the threshold theorem states that it is possible to lower the percentage of failures in the decoding at will, if the physical error rate is below a given accuracy threshold. The focus will be on codes belonging to the family of the topological codes, like toric, planar and XZZX surface codes. Firstly, they will be compared from a theoretical point of view, in order to show their advantages and disadvantages. The algorithms behind the minimum perfect matching decoder, the most popular for such codes, will be presented. The last section will be dedicated to the analysis of the performances of these topological codes with different error channel models, showing interesting results. In particular, while the error correction capability of surface codes decreases in presence of biased errors, XZZX codes own some intrinsic symmetries that allow them to improve their performances if one kind of error occurs more frequently than the others.

Analysis ot the road barriers maintenance: the Bologna Case Study

This thesis deals with the topic of Road Safety when maintaining its road elements. The aim of the work is the prioritization of maintenance for each barrier that depends on some factors that are related to the topography of the site, deformations, degradation of the composing elements, and the compliance of the barrier installation with the original situation. Based on these components a final coefficient by which the maintenance priority was highlighted, calculated, and associated to each barrier. For easy study and visualization, information was uploaded and processed in a GIS environment, in order to create analyses and choropleth maps. Analyses were exploited by using free and open-source GIS software, namely QGIS. Information on the barriers' features was registered with both on-site and online (i.e., web mapping providers) inspections. With regards to the on-site inspections, a complete geotagged photos database was created, in order to improve the survey. GIS potentialities were fully exploited by applying some geoprocessing tools which allowed deep analyses.

Study of an advanced transport system exploiting magnetic levitation: the Beckhoff XPlanar

The transport system is one of the most important components to be chosen in the design of an automatic machine. There is a wide variety of different choices that can be made in picking this element, each one having its own strengths and its own drawbacks. If it is desired to obtain some elaborate behaviour from the transport system, it is a good idea to think about some flexible and advanced solutions. Among these transport systems, the newest is the Beckhoff XPlanar. This transport system exploits magnetic levitation to move some passive magnetic movers on a completely customizable plane, in an entirely contact-free way. This provides a fast, clean, and noiseless motion, which is extremely desirable in a modern automatic machine. The purpose of this Thesis is to analyse the potentialities and the problems of this new device, starting from the basics. After having presented in detail the topic, an analysis on the hardware components needed to build this system is performed. Then, it is conducted a study on the concepts needed to know how to build a controller having the purpose of dealing with this system. After that, the various types of motion are studied and executed and, later on, some experiments on the real kit are carried out. These studies start from the diagnostic and involve other analyses that are used to test the limits of this transport system. In performing these analyses, it is noticed how the kit presents some problems in reaching the limits of the dynamics. Finally, two different types of station cycle are implemented, which are useful to get a rough idea on the potentialities of this new advanced transport system.