Ambient Assistive Technologies (AAT): socio-technology as a powerful tool for facing the inevitable sociodemographic challenges?

Due to the socio-demographic change in most developed western countries, elderly populations have been continuously increasing. Therefore, preventive and assistive systems that allow elderly people to independently live in their own homes as long as possible will become an economical if not ethical necessity. These respective technologies are being developed under the term "Ambient Assistive Technologies" (AAT). The EU-funded AAT-project Ambient Lighting Assistance for an Ageing Population (ALADIN) has established the long-term goal to create an adaptive system capable of improving the residential lighting conditions of single living elderly persons also aiming at supporting the preservation of their independence

Can we break the addiction to fossil energy? : Proceedings of the 7th Biennial International Workshop Advances in Energy Studies

Sponsored by Obra Social "la Caixa", Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and LIPHE4 Scientific Association, Generalitat de Catalunya.From 1998 onwards, every other two years, the Biennial International Workshop "Advances in Energy Studies" (BIWAES) gathers experts in what can be called energy analysis to present and discuss advances, innovations and visions in energy and energy-related environmental and socioeconomic issues and models. Renowned energy experts and ecologists, such as H.T. Odum, James Kay, Charles Hall, Tim Allen, Vaclav Smil, Robert Herendeen, Jan Szargut, Joseph Tainter and Robert Ulanowicz among others, have discussed at the BIWAES the importance of energy in our society and ecosystems and the ways to better analyze and model their complex relationships. Previous editions of BIWAES have focused on energy flows in ecology and economy; analysis of the supply side; the ecological consequences of energy sources exploitation; and the role of renewable energy sources and new energy carriers. The present Book of Proceedings refers to the seventh Edition, which took place in the month of October 2010 in Barcelona and addressed society's addiction to fossil energy