In light of the growing complexity of globally dispersed, multi-tier supply chains; sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has become instrumental in the quest for achieving sustainability ...compliance along the supply chain. This study investigates how sustainability capability develops within a firm, and then extends to SSCM. Using a fixed-effect model and a global dataset of 2206 firms between 2002 and 2015, this study shows that a firm's information environment, proxied by their customers awareness, has a significantly positive effect on their sustainability performance, and on their implementation of SSCM. Our analysis suggests that the influence of a firm's information environment on a firm's SSCM performance is mediated by the firm's own sustainability capability. We also find that this relationship is affected by stakeholder engagement. This research is relevant because, by investigating the factors that influence the development of SSCM, it provides guidance for firms that wish to achieve sustainability improvements in their supply chains during an era when the natural environment, social responsibility and the related strategic opportunities have increased in importance.
Using a large cross-sectional dataset comprising of FTSE 350 listed firms, this study investigates whether superior environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) disclosure affects firm value. ...We find a positive association between ESG disclosure level and firm value, suggesting that improved transparency and accountability and enhanced stakeholder trust play a role in boosting firm value. We also report that higher CEO power enhances the ESG disclosure effect on firm value, indicating that stakeholders associate ESG disclosure from firms with higher CEO power with greater commitment to ESG practice. This evidence is strong and consistent for three different measures of ESG-related disclosure: the ESG, environmental and social disclosure scores. The results are robust to the use of an instrumental variable approach, and the Heckman two-stage estimation procedure.
There has been an increasing interest in the use of decision-making models to achieve sustainability goal in recent decades. However, a systematic review of performance metrics, which are an ...important element of decision-making models to evaluate the outcomes regarding firm’s economic, environmental and social performance, is lacking. This study provides critical reflections on the current state of literature and industry development regarding sustainable performance metrics and offers concrete suggestions to guide future research. This study contributes to existing studies by (1) exploring the interrelationship between sustainable triple-bottom performance in the decision making process; (2) integrating corporate governance mechanism into decision making process for sustainable consideration; and (3) conducting a comparison between academic theory and industry practice regarding the performance metrics proposed and employed.
Waste management of nonhousehold end-use plastic waste receives considerably less attention compared to household waste. This article develops and applies a cost-benefit analysis model to develop ...potential business cases for selective collection and mechanical recycling scenarios of nonhousehold end-use plastic film waste from urban areas considering the City of Ghent in Belgium and 12 municipalities nearby as a case study. Three different collection frequencies (weekly, fortnightly, and monthly) and two different mechanical recycling plant layouts (basic and advanced configuration) are considered. Data on waste quantity, composition, and economic parameters are collected from real sampling from urban areas combined with information from the literature. In the most favorable scenarios, results show that the annual costs of collecting and recycling are estimated to be in the range of €635 to €1,445/tonne output, depending on the collection frequencies and plant configurations. Mechanical recycling yields 48–77% regranulates, depending on the plant configuration and feedstock quality. Scale is essential for plastic recycling plant development; a positive net economic balance (ranging from €5 to €537/tonne output) is achieved when at least 10 500 tonnes/year of waste is collected (fortnightly or monthly) and processed. The recycling systems become economically more effective as the processing capacity increases. It is imperative to maintain high feedstock quality as recycling systems become economically less favorable when the residue content in the collected plastic film waste exceeds 30–35%. A greenhouse gas emission calculation indicates that minimizing residue and promoting high-quality feedstock from collected waste are the key to increasing the carbon footprint savings of recycling.
Deubiquitinases, such as CYLD, A20 and Cezanne, have emerged as important negative regulators that balance the strength and the duration of NF-kB signaling through feedback mechanisms. However, how ...these serial feedback loops are simultaneously disrupted in cancers, which commonly exhibit constitutively activated NF-kB, remains puz-zling. Herein, we report that miR-486 directly suppresses NF-kB-negative regulators, CYLD and Cezanne, as well as multiple A20 activity regulators, including ITCH, TNIP-1, TNIP-2 and TNIP-3, resulting in promotion of ubiquitin conjugations in NF-kB signaling and sustained NF-kB activity. Furthermore, we demonstrate that upregulation of miR-486 promotes glioma aggressiveness both in vitro and in vivo through activation of NF-kB signaling pathway. Importantly, miR-486 levels in primary gliomas significantly correlate with NF-kB activation status. These findings uncover a novel mechanism for constitutive NF-kB activation in gliomas and support a functionally and clinically relevant epigenetic mechanism in cancer progression.
The DNA damage response (DDR) encompasses multi-step processes by which cells evolve to sense DNA damage, transduce the signal and initiate the repair of damaged DNA. Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated ...(ATM) Kinase, which functions as the primary sensor and transducer of DNA damage signal, has been demonstrated to play an important role in the DDR and cancer prevention. Hence, understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of ATM has received much attention. Here, we found that miR-18a was upregulated in both cell lines and patients' tissue samples of breast cancer. Furthermore, we demonstrated that ectopically expressing miR-18a downregulated ATM expression by directly targeting the ATM-3'-UTR and abrogated the IR-induced cell cycle arrest. Similar to the effect of ATM siRNA, overexpressing miR-18a in breast cancer cells reduced the DNA damage repair ability and the efficiency of homologous recombination-based DNA repair (HRR) and sensitized cells to γ-irradiation (IR) treatment. However, inhibition of miR-18a led to augmentation of DNA damage repair, increase of HRR efficiency and reduced cellular radiosensitivity. Moreover, we showed that the phorsphorylation level and nuclear foci formation of H2AX and 53BP1, the downstream substrates of ATM kinase, were significantly deceased in miR-18a overexpressing cells. Taken together, our results uncover a new regulatory mechanism of ATM expression and suggest that miR-18a might be a novel therapeutic target.
The present study was aimed at clarifying the expression of astrocyte elevated gene-1 (AEG-1), one of the target genes of oncogenic Ha-ras, in breast cancer and its correlation with clinicopathologic ...features, including the survival of patients with breast cancer.
The expression of AEG-1 in normal breast epithelial cells, breast cancer cell lines, and in four cases of paired primary breast tumor and normal breast tissue was examined using reverse transcription-PCR and Western blot. Real-time reverse transcription-PCR was applied to determine the mRNA level of AEG-1 in the four paired tissues, each from the same subject. Furthermore, AEG-1 protein expression was analyzed in 225 clinicopathologically characterized breast cancer cases using immunohistochemistry. Statistical analyses were applied to test for the prognostic and diagnostic associations.
Western blot and reverse transcription-PCR showed that the expression level of AEG-1 was markedly higher in breast cancer cell lines than that in the normal breast epithelial cells at both mRNA and protein levels. AEG-1 expression levels were significantly up-regulated by up to 35-fold in primary breast tumors in comparison to the paired normal breast tissue from the same patient. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed high expression of AEG-1 in 100 of 225 (44.4%) paraffin-embedded archival breast cancer biopsies. Statistical analysis showed a significant correlation of AEG-1 expression with the clinical staging of the patients with breast cancer (P = 0.001), as well as with the tumor classification (P = 0.004), node classification (P = 0.026), and metastasis classification (P = 0.001). Patients with higher AEG-1 expression had shorter overall survival time, whereas patients with lower AEG-1 expression had better survival. Multivariate analysis suggested that AEG-1 expression might be an independent prognostic indicator for the survival of patients with breast cancer.
Our results suggest that AEG-1 protein is a valuable marker of breast cancer progression. High AEG-1 expression is associated with poor overall survival in patients with breast cancer.
Constitutive activation of NF-κB signaling plays vital roles in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) progression. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of miR-138 on NF-κB activation ...and ESCC progression.
Expression of miR-138 in ESCC cell lines, ESCC tissues, and 205 archived ESSC specimens was determined using real-time PCR analysis. Anchorage-independent growth, chicken chorioallantoic membrane, Transwell matrix invasion and Annexin V-binding assays, and a xenograft tumor model were used to determine the role of miR-138 in ESCC progression. The effect of miR-138 on NF-κB activation was investigated using IKK in vitro kinase, electrophoretic mobility shift, lipid raft isolation, and luciferase reporter assays.
miR-138 was downregulated and inversely correlated with tumor progression and patient survival in ESCCs. Downregulation of miR-138 enhanced, whereas upregulation of miR-138 reduced, the aggressive phenotype of ESCC cells both in vitro and in vivo. Silencing miR-138 promoted K63-linked polyubiquitination of the NF-κB signaling intermediaries TRAF2 and RIP1 and sustained NF-κB activation. Furthermore, downregulation of miR-138 induced lipid raft formation via upregulating multiple components of lipid rafts, including FLOT1, FLOT2, and caveolin-1. Importantly, the in vitro analysis was consistent with a significant inverse correlation between miR-138 expression and NF-κB hyperactivation in a cohort of human ESCC specimens.
Our results show that miR-138 functions as a tumor-suppressive miRNA and that downregulation of miR-138 contributes to constitutive NF-κB activation and ESCC progression.
To characterize the expression of sphingosine kinase-1 (SPHK1) in human astrocytomas and to investigate the association between SPHK1 expression and progression of astrocytomas.
The expression of ...SPHK1 in normal human astrocytes, astrocytoma cell lines, and four pairs of matched astrocytoma tissues and their adjacent normal brain tissues were detected by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR and Western blot. In addition, SPHK1 protein expression was examined in 243 cases of histologically characterized astrocytomas by immunohistochemistry. Statistical analyses were applied to test for prognostic and diagnostic associations.
SPHK1 in astrocytoma cell lines was elevated at both mRNA and protein levels, and the SPHK1 mRNA and protein were significantly up-regulated by up to 6.8- and 40-fold, respectively, in primary astrocytomas compared with those in the adjacent noncancerous brain tissues. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that 100 of 243 (41.2%) paraffin-embedded archival astrocytoma biopsies exhibited high expression of SPHK1. Statistical analysis suggested that the up-regulation of SPHK1 was significantly correlated with the histologic grade of astrocytoma (P=0.000) and that patients with high SPHK1 level exhibited shorter survival time (P<0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that SPHK1 up-regulation might be an independent prognostic indicator for the survival of patients with astrocytoma.
SPHK1 might represent a novel and useful prognostic marker for astrocytoma and play a role during the development and progression of the disease.
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