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ABSTRACTTwo important Spanish fruit and vegetable (F&V) producing areas of Almería and Valencia in which agricultural cooperatives and smallholder and family farmers play a vital role are compared. Their F&V cooperatives have distinct development paths and have adopted different structures and strategies, attributable to historical, cultural and political circumstance, infrastructure, regulation and policy measures and/or international exposure. In considering the factors which contribute to agricultural cooperative success or failure, persistent atomization is often cited as inhibiting the ability of cooperatives to thrive. While not discounting that economies of scale may be important, we argue for analysing agricultural cooperative activity using a neo‐endogenous approach (a mix of exogenous and endogenous factors wherein local level characteristics and actors interact with external or global forces), combined with insights from path dependency theory and a dynamic lifecycle approach. Agricultural cooperatives are presented as dynamic entities, capable of renewal, redeployment, regeneration and recombination.

This report identifies and describes the regulatory frameworks and policy instruments relevant for RES Prosumer initiatives in the EU and nine participating Member States.2 Taking the current state of the art on the legal challenges and opportunities for RES prosumers, this document explains recent developments of EU legislation related to renewable energy production and self-consumption (i.e. prosumerism). The analysis of the policy and regulatory frameworks of nine EU Member States (i.e. Belgium/Flanders, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Netherlands and United Kingdom/Great Britain) provides information necessary for understanding how the different regulatory frameworks are constraining or enabling the development of individual and collective forms of RES prosumerism. It will also be a useful tool for assessing whether and, if so, how prosumer provisions of the recent EU legislation are already integrated in the Member States' national regulatoryframeworks. The study focusses on countries from the South, Centre and North of Europe, which present very distinct levels of advancement in decentralised production of energy from renewable sources (RES) led by individual prosumers and prosumer collectives of various types (e.g. communities, cooperatives, companies, municipalities and villages). Regarding collective forms of self-consumption the focus ofthis report is on 'renewable energy communities' since the legal definition of these communities appears in the most recent EU legislation, but it is not yet commonly present in national legislations. Nevertheless, other forms of collective self-consumption (such as jointly acting renewables self- consumers) were also considered. All countries analysed have some sort of legislation aimed at regulating self-consumption, althoughthe term 'self-consumption' does not always include all elements, and the term 'prosumer' is neverused in any of the legal documents analysed. Yet, there is still a long way ahead for majority of the countries to translate ...

This report identifies and describes the regulatory frameworks and policy instruments relevant for RES Prosumer initiatives in the EU and nine participating Member States.2 Taking the current state of the art on the legal challenges and opportunities for RES prosumers, this document explains recent developments of EU legislation related to renewable energy production and self-consumption (i.e. prosumerism). The analysis of the policy and regulatory frameworks of nine EU Member States (i.e. Belgium/Flanders, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Netherlands and United Kingdom/Great Britain) provides information necessary for understanding how the different regulatory frameworks are constraining or enabling the development of individual and collective forms of RES prosumerism. It will also be a useful tool for assessing whether and, if so, how prosumer provisions of the recent EU legislation are already integrated in the Member States' national regulatoryframeworks. The study focusses on countries from the South, Centre and North of Europe, which present very distinct levels of advancement in decentralised production of energy from renewable sources (RES) led by individual prosumers and prosumer collectives of various types (e.g. communities, cooperatives, companies, municipalities and villages). Regarding collective forms of self-consumption the focus ofthis report is on 'renewable energy communities' since the legal definition of these communities appears in the most recent EU legislation, but it is not yet commonly present in national legislations. Nevertheless, other forms of collective self-consumption (such as jointly acting renewables self- consumers) were also considered. All countries analysed have some sort of legislation aimed at regulating self-consumption, althoughthe term 'self-consumption' does not always include all elements, and the term 'prosumer' is neverused in any of the legal documents analysed. Yet, there is still a long way ahead for majority of the countries to translate ...

The mathematical theory describing small assemblages of interacting species (community modules or motifs) has significantly improved our understanding of the emergent properties of ecological communities. It is not clear whether all interactions accounted for in such models will be realized in real communities. Here, we use community modules to experimentally explore whether the number of trophic links among species scales with community complexity (i.e. by adding species known to feed on each other from pairwise trials) in a simple mite community present in avocado orchards (Persea americana). By varying the presence of each of two predators (Euseius stipulatus and Neoseiulus californicus), one herbivore as shared prey (Oligonychus perseae) and pollen of Carpobrotus edulis as an alternative food resource, we mimicked communities with simple trophic chains, intraguild predation and/or apparent competition. We then assessed predation rates and the conversion of food into offspring in those communities. We found that increasing the number of potential interactions did not result in more complex realized community modules. Instead, all species effectively fed upon a single food item, hence all community modules actually corresponded to one or two linear trophic chains. Therefore, trophic links assumed to occur when species are assembled in pairs do not necessarily occur when other components of the community are present. Consequently, food web structure may be much less complex than predicted by theory. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. ; This work was conducted as part of the 'Completing the dryland puzzle: creating a predictive framework for biological soil crust function and response to climate change' Working Group supported by the John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, funded by the U.S. Geological Survey. We thank the University of Colorado Boulder Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), which helped support undergraduate researchers who assisted with data entry for this project. Particularly, we thank CU Boulder undergraduate researcher assistants Emma Brokyl, Julius Gayo and Whitney Gabbert for their invaluable work on database compilation and organization for this project. C.A.H. was supported by the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (award DGE‐1144083). V.B.C. was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (award DEB‐1844531) and the DePaul University College of Science and Health. E.H.S. was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (project SEP‐CONACYT 251388). J.B. was supported by the USGS Ecosystem and Land Change Sciences program. Any use of trade, firm or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

The significant energy demands of wine production pose both a challenge and an opportunity for adopting a low-carbon, more sustainable and potentially less expensive energy model. Nevertheless, the (dis)incentives for the wider adoption of local production and self-consumption of energy (also known as "prosumerism") from renewable energy sources (RESs) are still not sufficiently addressed, nor are the broader social-ecological benefits of introducing RES as part of a sustainable viticulture strategy. Drawing on the social-ecological systems (SESs) resilience framework, this article presents the results of a Living Lab (an action-research approach) implemented in Alentejo (South of Portugal), which is an important wine-producing Mediterranean region. The triangulation of results from the application of a multi-method approach, including quantitative and qualitative methods, provided an understanding of the constraining and enabling factors for individual and collective RES prosumer initiatives. Top enablers are related to society's expectation for a greener wine production, but also the responsibility to contribute to reducing carbon emissions and energy costs; meanwhile, the top constraints are financial, legal and technological. The conclusions offer some policy implications and avenues for future research. ; This research was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 764056.

Renewable energy (RE) prosumerism comes with promises and expectations of contributing to sustainable and just energy systems. In its current process of becoming mainstream, numerous challenges and doubts have arisen whether it will live up to these. Building on insights from sustainability transitions research and institutional theory, this article unpacks the mainstreaming by considering the range of institutional arrangements and logics through which these contributions might be secured. Taking a Multi-actor Perspective, it analyses the differences, combinations, and tensions between institutional logics, associated actor roles and power relations. Firstly, it unpacks how mainstreaming occurs through mechanisms of bureaucratisation and standardisation (state logic), marketisation and commodification (market logic), as well as socialisation and communalisation (community logic). Secondly, it highlights the concomitant hybridisation of institutional logics and actor roles. Such hybrid institutional arrangements try to reconcile not only the more known trade-offs and tensions between for-profit/non-profit logics (regarding the distribution of benefits for energy activities and resources), but also between formal/informal logics (gaining recognition) and public/private logics (delineating access). This institutional concreteness moves the scholarly discussion and policy debate beyond idealistic discussions of ethical principles and abstract discussions about power: Simplistic framings of 'prosumerism vs incumbents' are dropped in favour of a critical discussion of hybrid institutional arrangements and their capacity to safeguard particular transformative ideals and normative commitments.

Concrete carbonation is one of the main triggers of the corrosion process and hence of the premature deterioration of concrete reinforcements. In order to monitor and control the carbonation process, a potentiometric sensor using thick-film technology was developed. This paper includes the results of the research carried out to characterise the pH sensor, including the materials, response time, sensitivity, detection limit, reproducibility, reversibility and the study of chloride interference. The sensors have been studied in pore solutions and concrete specimens. The study shows that the thick-film sensor has a potentiometric response to variations in pH and is capable of providing continuous, real-time information on the progress of the carbonation front. ; The pre-doctoral scholarship was granted to Roman Bataller Prats by the Research Staff Training Program, "Formacion de Personal Investigador (FPI) 2012" from Universitat Politecnica de Valencia and to Jose Enrique Ramon Zamora by the University Faculty Training Program FPU13/0091, "Formacion del Profesorado Universitario (FPU) 2013" from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. The financial support from the Spanish Government and the European FEDER funds MAT2012-38429-004-04. ETSIE (UPV) by their support to the laboratory is also gratefully acknowledged. ; Gandía-Romero, JM.; Campos, I.; Valcuende Payá, MO.; García Breijo, E.; Marcos Martínez, MD.; Paya Bernabeu, JJ.; Soto Camino, J. (2016). Potentiometric thick-film sensors for measuring the pH of concrete. Cement and Concrete Composites. 68(2016):66-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2016.02.006 ; S ; 66 ; 76 ; 68 ; 2016

A key strategy in the European Union's ambition to establish an 'Energy Union' that is not just clean, but also fair, consists of empowering citizens to actively interact with the energy market as self-consumers or prosumers. Although renewable energy sources (RES) prosumerism has been growing for at least a decade, two new EU directives are intended to legitimise and facilitate its expansion. However, little is known about the full range of prosumers against which to measure policy effectiveness. We carried out a documentary study and an online survey in nine EU countries to shed light on the demographics, use of technology, organisation, financing, and motivation as well as perceived hindering and facilitating factors for collective prosumers. We identified several internal and external obstacles to the successful mainstreaming of RES prosumerism, among them a mismatch of policies with the needs of different RES prosumer types, potential organisational weaknesses as well as slow progress in essential reforms such as decentralising energy infrastructures. Our baseline results offer recommendations for the transposition of EU directives into national legislations and suggest avenues for future research in the fields of social, governance, policy, technology, and business models.

This deliverable develops a comprehensive overview of the incentive structures that shape the mainstreaming of RES prosumerism. The Incentive Structures Framework (ISF) presented here identifies and describes 17 key societal conditions, classified along the three clusters of regulatory-financial conditions, technological-material conditions and cultural-discursive conditions. The relevance is empirically substantiated through brief summaries of observations from PROSEU thematic work packages, Living Labs, and survey results. The ISF also clarifies how these societal conditions can give rise to different forms of RES prosumerism and to tensions and crossroads in the mainstreaming process. The ISF is substantiated through three analyses of political-economical, technological-infrastructural, and organisational crossroads in the mainstreaming process. ; H2020 project PROSEU - Prosumers for the Energy Union: Mainstreaming active participation of citizens in the energy transition. Work package 6 (WP6) - Participatory Integrated Assessment of Incentive Structures

Molecular epidemiology of circulating clinical isolates is crucial to improve prevention strategies. The Spanish Working Group on multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a network that monitors the MDR-TB isolates in Spain since 1998. The aim of this study was to present the study of the MDR-TB and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) patterns in Spain using the different recommended genotyping methods over time by a national coordinated system. Based on the proposed genotyping methods in the European Union until 2018, the preservation of one method, MIRU-VNTR, applied to selected clustered strains permitted to maintain our study open for 20 years. The distribution of demographic, clinical and epidemiological characteristics of clustered and non-clustered cases of MDR/XDR tuberculosis with proportion differences as assessed by Pearson's chi-squared or Fisher's exact test was compared. The differences in the quantitative variables using the Student's-t test and the Mann–Whitney U test were evaluated. The results obtained showed a total of 48.4% of the cases grouped in 77 clusters. Younger age groups, having a known TB case contact (10.2% vs 4.7%) and XDR-TB (16.5% vs 1.8%) were significantly associated with clustering. The largest cluster corresponded to a Mycobacterium bovis strain mainly spread during the nineties. A total of 68.4% of the clusters detected were distributed among the different Spanish regions and six clusters involving 104 cases were grouped in 17 and 18 years. Comparison of the genotypes obtained with those European genotypes included in The European Surveillance System (TESSy) showed that 87 cases had become part of 20 European clusters. The continuity of MDR strain genotyping in time has offered a widespread picture of the situation that allows better management of this public health problem. It also shows the advantage of maintaining one genotyping method over time, which allowed the comparison between ancient, present and future samples.