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1. Will power be local? The role of local power organizations in energy transition acceleration

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121884  

   Trahan, Ryan Thomas ; Hess, David J. ( October 2022 , Technological Forecasting and Social Change)

   A salient problem faced by governments and industry alike is how to accelerate energy transitions to enhance affordability, accessibility, and greenhouse-gas reduction. Bringing together acceleration processes and spatial scale dynamics, this study highlights the potential for electricity distribution to play a keystone role in the energy transition. We present and examine survey data of electricity distribution utilities in a region of the U.S. to show how trends in decentralization and digitization are intertwined with decarbonization. These trends rebalance economic value toward distribution networks and away from centralized infrastructure. The survey data show that electricity distribution organizations are deploying local, renewable generation projects that produce electricity for one-third (1/3) less than the cost from a centralized generation-and-transmission entity. We suggest that this change and others are likely to transform distribution operators into more broad-based local power organizations. Although the cost advantage of distributed generation seemingly marks a future of local control and decentralized organizational forms, spatial scale dynamics indicate countervailing centralization trends, including that distribution networks may evolve to dependency on external digital, engineering, and capital providers. The outcome of the resulting conflicts will affect the potential for transition acceleration to be enabled or reduced. 

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2. Local and non-local modeling aspects of three-dimensional cracks growth initiation

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10704-020-00424-8  

   Rodin, Gregory J. ( January 2020 , International Journal of Fracture)

   null (Ed.)
3. Growing pains in local food systems: a longitudinal social network analysis on local food marketing in Baltimore County, Maryland and Chester County, Pennsylvania

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-021-10199-w  

   Brinkley, Catherine ; Manser, Gwyneth M. ; Pesci, Sasha ( January 2021 , Agriculture and Human Values)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Local food systems are growing, and little is known about how the constellation of farms and markets change over time. We trace the evolution of two local food systems (Baltimore County, Maryland and Chester County, Pennsylvania) over six years, including a dataset of over 2690 market connections (edges) between 1520 locations (nodes). Longitudinal social network analysis reveals how the architecture, actor network centrality, magnitude, and spatiality of these supply chains shifted during the 2012–2018 time period. Our findings demonstrate that, despite growth in the number of farmers’ markets, grocery stores, farms and restaurants in both counties, each local food system also experienced high turnover rates. Over 80% of the market connections changed during the study period. Farms, farmers’ markets, and grocery stores showed a 40–50% ‘survival’ rate, indicating their role in sustaining local food systems over longer time periods. Other actors, such as restaurants, had a much higher turnover rate within the network. Both food systems became more close-knit and consolidated as the center of gravity for both local food systems pulled away from urban areas toward rural farmland. Evidence of both growth and decay within local food systems provides a new understanding of the social networks behind local food markets. 

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4. COVID-19 controlled human infection studies: worries about local community impact and demands for local engagement

   https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2021-107229  

   Lee, Kyungdo ; Eyal, Nir ( July 2021 , Journal of Medical Ethics)

   In spring, summer and autumn 2020, one abiding argument against controlled human infection (CHI) studies of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines has been their impact on local communities. Leading scientists and bioethicists expressed concern about undue usage of local residents’ direly needed scarce resources at a time of great need and even about their unintended infection. They recommended either avoiding CHI trials or engaging local communities before conducting any CHIs. Similar recommendations were not made for the alternative—standard phase III field trials of these same vaccines. We argue that the health effects of CHI studies on local residents not participating in the study tend to be smaller and more positive than those of field trials. That is all the more so now that tested vaccines are being rolled out. Whether or not local community engagement is necessary for urgent vaccine studies in the pandemic, the case for its engagement is stronger prior to field trials than prior to CHI studies. 

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5. Boundedness of non-local operators with spatially dependent coefficients and $$L_p$$-estimates for non-local equations

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00526-022-02392-4  

   Dong, Hongjie ; Jung, Pilgyu ; Kim, Doyoon ( March 2023 , Calculus of Variations and Partial Differential Equations)