ALBERT

Description: Extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation in the United States, which currently only exists on the state level, now includes three mattress EPR acts, which intend to shift the financial and operational burden of mattress end-of-life (EOL) management away from local and state government. It is important to keep in mind, however, that the original objective behind EPR is to reduce the environmental life cycle impacts of products. This article therefore quantifies the greenhouse gas (GHG) savings potential of mattress and boxspring recycling and reuse in the United States and also discusses labor implications and mattress design issues. We find that all three acts are unlikely to generate redesign incentives, but are expected to dramatically increase mattress collection and recycling. The collection and recycling of all 35 million EOL mattress and boxspring units estimated to reach the end of their lives in the United States every year would generate in the order of 10,000 jobs and GHG savings between 1 and 1.5 million metric tonnes.

Description: The Cdk12/CycK complex promotes expression of a subset of RNA polymerase II genes, including those of the DNA damage response. CDK12 is among only nine genes with recurrent somatic mutations in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma. However, the influence of these mutations on the Cdk12/CycK complex and their link to cancerogenesis remain ill-defined. Here, we show that most mutations prevent formation of the Cdk12/CycK complex, rendering the kinase inactive. By examining the mutations within the Cdk12/CycK structure, we find that they likely provoke structural rearrangements detrimental to Cdk12 activation. Our mRNA expression analysis of the patient samples containing the CDK12 mutations reveals coordinated downregulation of genes critical to the homologous recombination DNA repair pathway. Moreover, we establish that the Cdk12/CycK complex occupies these genes and promotes phosphorylation of RNA polymerase II at Ser2. Accordingly, we demonstrate that the mutant Cdk12 proteins fail to stimulate the faithful DNA double strand break repair via homologous recombination. Together, we provide the molecular basis of how mutated CDK12 ceases to function in ovarian carcinoma. We propose that CDK12 is a tumor suppressor of which the loss-of-function mutations may elicit defects in multiple DNA repair pathways, leading to genomic instability underlying the genesis of the cancer.

Description: Summary Proponents of material recycling typically point to two environmental benefits: disposal (landfill/incinerator) reduction and primary production displacement. However, in this paper we mathematically demonstrate that, without displacement, recycling can delay but not prevent any existing end‐of‐life material from reaching final disposal. The only way to reduce the amount of material ultimately landfilled or incinerated is to produce less in the first place; material that is not made needs not be disposed. Recycling has the potential to reduce the amount of material reaching end of life solely by reducing primary production. Therefore, the “dual benefits” of recycling are in fact one, and the environmental benefit of material recycling rests in its potential to displace primary production. However, displacement of primary production from increased recycling is driven by market forces and is not guaranteed. Improperly assuming all recycled material avoids disposal underestimates the environmental impacts of the product system. We show that the potential magnitude of this error is substantial, though for inert recyclables it is lower than the error introduced by improperly assuming all recycled material displaces primary material production. We argue that life cycle assessment end‐of‐life models need to be updated so as not to overstate the benefits of recycling. Furthermore, scholars and policy makers should focus on finding and implementing ways to increase the displacement potential of recyclable materials rather than focusing on disposal diversion targets.

Description: The Drosophila Suppressor of Hairy-wing [Su(Hw)] protein is a globally expressed, multi-zinc finger (ZnF) DNA-binding protein. Su(Hw) forms a classic insulator when bound to the gypsy retrotransposon and is essential for female germline development. These functions are genetically separable, as exemplified by Su(Hw) f that carries a defective ZnF10, causing a loss of insulator but not germline function. Here, we completed the first genome-wide analysis of Su(Hw)-binding sites (SBSs) in the ovary, showing that tissue-specific binding is not responsible for the restricted developmental requirements for Su(Hw). Mapping of ovary Su(Hw) f SBSs revealed that female fertility requires binding to only one third of the wild-type sites. We demonstrate that Su(Hw) f retention correlates with binding site affinity and partnership with Modifier of (mdg4) 67.2 protein. Finally, we identify clusters of co-regulated ovary genes flanked by Su(Hw) f bound sites and show that loss of Su(Hw) has limited effects on transcription of these genes. These data imply that the fertility function of Su(Hw) may not depend upon the demarcation of transcriptional domains. Our studies establish a framework for understanding the germline Su(Hw) function and provide insights into how chromatin occupancy is achieved by multi-ZnF proteins, the most common transcription factor class in metazoans.

Description: Although the existing body of empirical literature on the relation between corporate environmental performance (CEP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) is continuously growing, results are still inconclusive about this fundamental question in industrial ecology. Comparisons are difficult because of various estimation methods as well as the overall heterogeneous and complex interaction between the two constructs, but especially because of country-specific data sets. Consequently, we raise the question of whether regional differences are the driving force buried underneath the inconclusiveness. Therefore, the aim of this article is to explore this heterogeneity by aggregating 893 existing results from 142 empirical primary studies that are based on more than 750,000 firm-year observations. Our findings suggest a convex impact of a country's economic development on the magnitude of the CEP-CFP effect (i.e., the effect is positive in developing countries, disappears in emerging countries, and is again positive in highly developed countries). We also find that the overall positive relation strengthens for market-based CFP measures and diminishes for countries with civil law systems, firms from the service sector, reactive environmental activities, and process-based CEP measures. Further, several aspects of the examined data sample and the inclusion of relevant control variables explain heterogeneity in previous research results.

Description: The so-called circular economy—the concept of closing material loops to preserve products, parts, and materials in the industrial system and extract their maximum utility—has recently started gaining momentum. The idea of substituting lower-impact secondary production for environmentally intensive primary production gives the circular economy a strong intuitive environmental appeal. However, proponents of the circular economy have tended to look at the world purely as an engineering system and have overlooked the economic part of the circular economy . Recent research has started to question the core of the circular economy—namely, whether closing material and product loops does, in fact, prevent primary production. In this article, we argue that circular economy activities can increase overall production, which can partially or fully offset their benefits. Because there is a strong parallel in this respect to energy efficiency rebound, we have termed this effect “circular economy rebound.” Circular economy rebound occurs when circular economy activities, which have lower per-unit-production impacts, also cause increased levels of production, reducing their benefit. We describe the mechanisms that cause circular economy rebound, which include the limited ability of secondary products to substitute for primary products, and price effects. We then offer some potential strategies for avoiding circular economy rebound. However, these strategies are unlikely to be attractive to for-profit firms, so we caution that simply encouraging private firms to find profitable opportunities in the circular economy is likely to cause rebound and lower or eliminate the potential environmental benefits.

Description: The bromodomain protein Brd4 regulates the transcription of signal-inducible genes. This is achieved by recruiting the positive transcription elongation factor P-TEFb to promoters by its P-TEFb interaction domain (PID). Here we show that Brd4 stimulates the kinase activity of P-TEFb for phosphorylation of the C-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II over basal levels. The CTD phosphorylation saturation levels, the preferences for pre-phosphorylated substrates, and the phosphorylation specificity for Ser5 of the CTD however remain unchanged. Inhibition of P-TEFb by Hexim1 is relieved by Brd4, although no mutual displacement with the Cyclin T-binding domain of Hexim1 was observed. Brd4 PID shows a surprising sequence motif similarity to the trans -activating Tat protein from HIV-1, which includes a core RxL motif, a polybasic cluster known as arginine-rich motif, and a C-terminal leucine motif. Mutation of these motifs to alanine significantly diminished the stimulatory effect of Brd4 and fully abrogated its activation potential in presence of Hexim1. Yet the protein was not found to bind Cyclin T1 as Tat, but only P-TEFb with a dissociation constant of 0.5 μM. Our data suggest a model where Brd4 acts on the kinase subunit of P-TEFb to relieve inhibition and stimulate substrate recognition.

Description: The most significant environmental benefit of recycling or reusing a wide range of products and materials is typically the potential to displace primary material production; lack of displacement significantly reduces the environmental benefits of these activities. Because no consensus method to estimate displacement rate has emerged, environmental assessments have tended to assume that displacement occurs on a one-to-one basis. However, displaced production is a complex phenomenon governed primarily by market mechanisms, rather than physical relationships. This article advances the understanding of displacement by presenting a market-based framework describing the displacement relationship and a methodology for quantifying displacement rate based on partial equilibrium modeling. Using this methodology, a general symbolic equation for displacement rate after an increase in recycling is derived. The model highlights the market mechanisms that govern displaced production and identifies five price response parameters that affect displacement rate. Results suggest that one-to-one displacement occurs only under specific parameter restrictions that are unlikely in competitive commodity markets, but zero displacement is possible if secondary materials are poor substitutes for primary materials; displacement is likely to be reduced if secondary materials have inferior technical properties. The presented methodology can be generally applied to any system in which recycled or reused materials are substitutes or complements for primary materials. Implications for improving recycling and reuse efficacy and environmental assessment methodology are discussed, and suggestions are presented for expanding the displacement methodology in future research.

Description: The recycling of material resources lies at the heart of the industrial ecology (IE) metaphor. The very notion of the industrial ecosystem is motivated by the idea that we should learn from natural ecosystems how to “close the loop.” Recycling is not just central to IE, it is part of everyday life. Unfortunately, how the IE community and the public at large think about recycling includes several misconceptions that have the potential to misguide environmental assessments, policies, and actions that deal with recycling and thus undermine its environmental potential. One misconception stems from naïve assumptions regarding recycled material displacing primary production. Two others assert the environmental advantages of recycling material multiple times, or at least in a closed loop. A final misconception is the assumption that the distinction between closed and open recycling loops is generally useful. This article explains why these misconceptions are flawed, discusses the implications, and presents an alternative set of principles to better harness the potential environmental benefits of closing material loops.