A new program supports the mental health of children in Southeast Europe

Nearly half of all psychological disorders can be traced back to the early years of the affected individuals, i.e. to the time before they reached the age of 14. In adulthood, this frequently leads to chronic illnesses, which may in turn exert negative effects on the individuals’ social lives, economic productivity and quality of life. A new project supported by H2020 (European Union) aims to prevent the occurrence of these illnesses during the childhood years. The project’s geographical focus lies on Southeast Europe.

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Pharmaceutical advertising can empower patients

Autumn is flu season and that means it is high season for pharmacies selling over-the-counter cold and flu remedies. Those who aren’t reminded by their own running noses, are sure to be alerted to these types of pharmaceutical drugs by advertisements and posters. A team of researchers has recently studied the extent to which pharmaceutical advertising supports the so-called self-empowerment of patients. The investigation focused on Brazil, the fastest-growing pharmaceutical drug market in the world.

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Efficient and intelligent: Drones get to grips with planning the delivery of goods


When goods are needed urgently, for instance, in rural areas poorly served by transport infrastructure, or in large, heavily congested cities, they could be delivered by drones. In 2013, Amazon was one of the first to declare the intention to work towards the automated delivery of goods by small autonomous helicopters. A multi-disciplinary research team at the Alpen-Adria-Universität assembled by Christian Bettstetter and Friederike Wall is due to deliver initial insights on the efficient operation of (self-organised) delivery of goods. Doctoral student Pasquale Grippa will present the results at the conference “Robotics: Science and Systems”, which is scheduled to take place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from July 12th.

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Current insights into social ecology: special issue of the journal ‚Sustainability‘ published

In the last decades social ecology has made important contributions to sustainability research. As the science of societal relationship to nature it evolved in the late 1980s. Today, the approach that understands complex environmental problems to be rooted in the critical relationship between society and nature is regarded to be fundamental for research dealing with sustainable development. Now, with a special issue of the renowned international journal ‘Sustainability’ a comprehensive insight is given to the state of the art of social-ecological research.

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