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Italy and Niger will strengthen and promote their relations and cooperation. Sant’Anna School with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation will provide the “Training of Trainers” for 20 Nigerien magistrates and judges. In Niamey, on Tuesday, August 28, experts and trainers from Sant’Anna School will emphasize the importance of proactive judicial cooperation and give new judges-trainers the background knowledge of international cooperation mechanisms to create synergies and achieve a thorough and effective collaboration.

As part of a training project led by Professor Andrea de Guttry (Sant’Anna School Dirpolis Institute) to contribute to the reinforcement the country's security, as well as the fight against irregular migration and trafficking in human beings, the workshop also aims to support the development of accessible, effective and accountable justice system in Niger.

As a landlocked country located between Libya, Mali and Nigeria, an increasing number of trafficking activities affects Niger. Despite having taken several concrete initiatives with the support of EU and UN organizations, Niger remains exposed to terrorism and human rights violation.

“Niger, a priority country in the framework of the EU Strategy for Security and Development in the Sahel, is facing many challenges, both in terms of development and in terms of security” said Professor de Guttry, “and Sant’Anna School wants to play a significant role as regards the support to confront those challenges”.

Professor Paolo Barberi (Institute of Life Sciences) and the Sant'Anna School Group of Agroecology (GOA) will participate in the 15th Congress of the European Society for Agronomy in Geneva on August 27-31, 2018. 

ESA congress 2018 covers a wide area of topics such as innovative cropping and farming systems, sustainable and quality food production, biodiversity and crop protection.

Through their work and research on agro-ecology, 310 European representatives will discuss the integrity of natural systems and the collective efforts of European farmers, scientists and governments to advance ecological resilience. Marzia Ranaldo and Fernando Pellegrini, postdoctoral researchers at GOA will give their talks on “Legume Biological Nitrogen Fixation Rate is Increased by Functional Composition of Cover Crop Mixtures” and “An On-Farm Experiment on Wheat/Clover Temporary Intercropping in Italy: Effects on Yield and Nitrogen use”. 

The Sant'Anna School Group of Agroecology is supporting the development of a shared action framework for agricultural biodiversity and quality food systems as part of the EU overall strategy to foster a transition to sustainable food systems.

The research results on biocompatible tattoo electrodes from printable inks are described in journal Advanced Science. The new electrodes have been developed at the IIT Centre - Pontedera, Sant’Anna School BioRobotics Institute, and University of Milan.

Francesco Greco, assistant professor at the University of Technology - Graz (Austria), led the development of this research for electromyography applications, which is based on novel materials that retain electrical conductivity. Tattoo electrodes have been successfully applied to measure electromyogram, electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram. In addition, progresses in printed electronics provided suitable techniques for fabrication of biocompatible devices providing important information about health conditions through the cell signalling.

Researchers Virgilio Mattoli of IIT Centre- Pontedera, Paolo Cavallari at University of Milan and the team coordinated by Christian Cipriani at Sant’Anna School BioRobotics Institute, achieved results that are critical to numerous applications in biomedical engineering.

Combined with screen-printing technologies, these new flexible skin surface electrodes can easily read electrical signals, such as signals from the brain. They can incorporate other sensors and show stable adhesion on the body: face, arm, fingers, and legs. The tattoo dry (with no gel layer) electrodes may adhere to the skin and monitor electromyography recordings for three days. After their use, the tattoo electrodes can be removed with soap and water, as in the case of temporary tattoos. These novel tattoo electrodes, as perforable skin-contact electrode through which hair can grow, permit to measure long-term recordings on areas with high hair density.

"With the advance in the “epidermal electronics” field, which developed the wearable biological sensors, the new tattoo electrodes have demonstrated to be low-cost, highly comfortable and suitable for various electrophysiological measurements. However, in order to meet the requirements of biomedical applications, the tattoo electrode technology needs to be advanced without the fabrication cost becoming prohibitive” said Francesco Greco.

“Our future goal is to fabricate wireless tattoo electrodes – said Laura Ferrari, researcher at the IIT Centre – Pontedera and the first-author of the paper – and integrate all the necessary components and transmitters to collect high-quality signals”.

“As the Inkjet printing was adopted for fabrication, this method can allow for long-term and multi-site recording devices suitable for different electrophysiological applications (patients/professional athletes/sportsmen in clinical and daily activities)” said Paolo Cavallari.

“We think that universities and research centres can engage more effectively to face future challenges and provide innovative ideas on how partners could collaborate about potential saleable products, research outputs and publications combining the best academic thinking with the laboratory expertise – said Christian Cipriani, director of Sant’Anna School BioRobotics Institute.

Cover photo: Tattoo electrodes.