Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) play a vital role in promoting decentralized, sustainable energy systems by enabling local stakeholders to collectively generate, share, and manage renewable energy resources. This enhances community resilience and environmental stewardship. The development and efficient functioning of RECs depend not only on technical or economic factors but also on numerous socio-psychological variables deeply rooted in local historical, political, economic, and cultural contexts. Our study aimed to understand the motivations and barriers to participation in RECs through thematic analysis of qualitative data obtained from in-depth interviews with current and prospective prosumers in Poland. The study’s findings are twofold. First, they offer a deeper understanding of the mechanisms shaping perceptions of RECs and the factors contributing to the success of future implementations and policies, structured according to Bronfenbrenner’s socio-ecological model. Second, the findings have broader methodological implications, highlighting the necessity of accounting for socio-cultural heterogeneity, embedding research practices in the local context, and promoting interdisciplinarity as the foundation for effectively shaping future policies.
Temporal landmarks - such as the beginning of a week or a month - may help individuals overcome present bias and promote delayed gratification in health-related decision-making. Drawing on the concept of negative discounting, wherein delayed consumption gains value through anticipation and imagination, this study investigates whether temporal landmarks function as psychological anchors that facilitate the initiation of real-life dietary change. We analyzed nearly one million orders from 27 diet catering companies in Poland (2022–2023), supplemented by detailed monthly data from August 2024. The results reveal that consumers systematically align the initiation of dietary changes with temporal landmarks. As confirmed by the yearly data analysis, they tend to place orders just before or just after the start of a new month or week. Additionally, there was a strong preference for Monday as the first delivery day, regardless of the length of the catering plan. These findings provide large-scale behavioral evidence supporting the role of negative discounting in health-related consumer behavior. They also demonstrate how temporal landmarks can be strategically leveraged to encourage long-term dietary change. The study offers practical insights for designing interventions that align with natural temporal rhythms to promote healthier eating habits.
Background: Externalizing and internalizing disorders are common in youth but are often studied separately, preventing researchers from identifying shared (i.e., transdiagnostic) alterations in brain structure. Using data from the ENIGMA Consortium, we conducted a mega-analysis to identify shared and distinct cortical and subcortical brain alterations across internalizing (anxiety disorders and depression) and externalizing disorders (attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD] and conduct disorder [CD]) in youth. Methods: 3D T1-weighted MRI data from youth (aged 4-21 years) with anxiety disorders (n=1,044), depression (n=504), ADHD (n=1,317), and CD (n=1,172), along with healthy controls (n=4,743) were analyzed. We assessed group differences in regional cortical thickness, surface area, and subcortical volume using linear models, adjusted for site, age, and sex, and total intracranial volume in the surface area and subcortical volume models. Results: We observed transdiagnostic associations, with both internalizing and externalizing disorders characterized by lower surface area in the insula, entorhinal cortex, and middle temporal gyrus, and lower amygdala volume (Cohen’s ds=-0.07 to -0.24), as well as total surface area and intracranial volume (ds=-0.11 to -0.25). Externalizing-specific reductions in surface area were observed in fronto-parietal regions (ds=-0.08 to -0.13), but no internalizing-specific associations were identified. Disorder-specific alterations were identified for ADHD, CD, and anxiety disorders, but not depression. Conclusions: Both common and disorder-specific alterations were identified, with regions involved in salience attribution and emotion processing implicated across internalizing and externalizing disorders. These findings can guide future research targeting common biological processes across youth psychiatric disorders as well as features unique to individual disorders.
