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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Durstige Landwirtschaft: Übermäßige Grundwassernutzung bedroht Lebensmittelversorgung weltweit

Der Anbau international gehandelter Lebensmittel zapft immer größere Mengen an nicht-erneuerbarem Grundwasser an. Dies führt dazu, dass die Grundwasservorräte schrumpfen – die zukünftige Verfügbarkeit von Lebensmitteln und Wasser gerät damit weltweit in Gefahr, warnt ein internationales Forscherteam im Fachblatt „Nature”. Laut den Expertinnen und Experten des University College of London, des Senckenberg, der Alpen-Adria-Universität, der NASA and des International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, ist die Menge an nicht-erneuerbarem Grundwasser, das zur Bewässerung genutzt wird, von 2000 bis 2010 um knapp ein Viertel angestiegen.

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