In-situ detection of defect formation in organic flexible electronics by Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy

Organic semiconductor technology has attracted considerable research interest in view of its great promise for large area, lightweight, and flexible electronics applications. Owing to their advantages in processing and unique physical properties, organic semiconductors can bring exciting new opportunities for broad-impact applications requiring large area coverage, mechanical flexibility, low-temperature processing, and low cost. In order to achieve highly flexible device architecture it is crucial to understand on a microscopic scale how mechanical deformation affects the electrical performance of organic thin film devices. Towards this aim, I established in this thesis the experimental technique of Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) as a tool to investigate the morphology and the surface potential of organic semiconducting thin films under mechanical strain. KPFM has been employed to investigate the strain response of two different Organic Thin Film Transistor with active layer made by 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)-pentacene (TIPS-Pentacene), and Poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT). The results show that this technique allows to investigate on a microscopic scale failure of flexible TFT with this kind of materials during bending. I find that the abrupt reduction of TIPS-pentacene device performance at critical bending radii is related to the formation of nano-cracks in the microcrystal morphology, easily identified due to the abrupt variation in surface potential caused by local increase in resistance. Numerical simulation of the bending mechanics of the transistor structure further identifies the mechanical strain exerted on the TIPS-pentacene micro-crystals as the fundamental origin of fracture. Instead for P3HT based transistors no significant reduction in electrical performance is observed during bending. This finding is attributed to the amorphous nature of the polymer giving rise to an elastic response without the occurrence of crack formation.

Progettazione di Data Warehouse di dati genomici su piattaforma Hadoop

Negli ultimi anni la biologia ha fatto ricorso in misura sempre maggiore all’informatica per affrontare analisi complesse che prevedono l’utilizzo di grandi quantità di dati. Fra le scienze biologiche che prevedono l’elaborazione di una mole di dati notevole c’è la genomica, una branca della biologia molecolare che si occupa dello studio di struttura, contenuto, funzione ed evoluzione del genoma degli organismi viventi. I sistemi di data warehouse sono una tecnologia informatica che ben si adatta a supportare determinati tipi di analisi in ambito genomico perché consentono di effettuare analisi esplorative e dinamiche, analisi che si rivelano utili quando si vogliono ricavare informazioni di sintesi a partire da una grande quantità di dati e quando si vogliono esplorare prospettive e livelli di dettaglio diversi. Il lavoro di tesi si colloca all’interno di un progetto più ampio riguardante la progettazione di un data warehouse in ambito genomico. Le analisi effettuate hanno portato alla scoperta di dipendenze funzionali e di conseguenza alla definizione di una gerarchia nei dati. Attraverso l’inserimento di tale gerarchia in un modello multidimensionale relativo ai dati genomici sarà possibile ampliare il raggio delle analisi da poter eseguire sul data warehouse introducendo un contenuto informativo ulteriore riguardante le caratteristiche dei pazienti. I passi effettuati in questo lavoro di tesi sono stati prima di tutto il caricamento e filtraggio dei dati. Il fulcro del lavoro di tesi è stata l’implementazione di un algoritmo per la scoperta di dipendenze funzionali con lo scopo di ricavare dai dati una gerarchia. Nell’ultima fase del lavoro di tesi si è inserita la gerarchia ricavata all’interno di un modello multidimensionale preesistente. L’intero lavoro di tesi è stato svolto attraverso l’utilizzo di Apache Spark e Apache Hadoop.

The effects of a flexible visual acuity-driven ranibizumab treatment regimen in age-related macular degeneration: outcomes of a drug and disease model

Differences in treatment responses to ranibizumab injections observed within trials involving monthly (MARINA and ANCHOR studies) and quarterly (PIER study) treatment suggest that an individualized treatment regimen may be effective in neovascular age-related macular degeneration. In the present study, a drug and disease model was used to evaluate the impact of an individualized, flexible treatment regimen on disease progression.

Long-term effectiveness of canine-to-canine bonded flexible spiral wire lingual retainers

The flexible spiral wire (FSW) canine-to-canine lingual retainer bonded to all 6 anterior teeth is a frequently used type of mandibular fixed retainer. This study aimed to assess the long-term effectiveness of FSW canine-to-canine lingual retainers in maintaining the alignment of the mandibular anterior teeth after orthodontic treatment.

Spy: A Flexible Code Profiling Framework

Code profiling is an essential activity to increase software quality. It is commonly employed in a wide variety of tasks, such as supporting program comprehension, determining execution bottlenecks, and assessing code coverage by unit tests. Spy is an innovative framework to easily build profilers and visualize profiling information. The profiling information is obtained by inserting dedicated code before or after method execution. The gathered profiling information is structured in line with the application structure in terms of packages, classes, and methods. Spy has been instantiated on four occasions so far. We created profilers dedicated to test coverage, time execution, type feedback, and profiling evolution across version. We also integrated Spy in the Pharo IDE. Spy has been implemented in the Pharo Smalltalk programming language and is available under the MIT license.