Economic Impact of Foreign-owned Firms in the EU and Germany. Bertelsmann Policy Brief #2020/02

In times of Trump and Brexit, protectionist tendencies seem to be a global trend. The advantages that economic interconnectedness implies are increasingly receding into the background. Foreign-owned firms in the EU and Germany, however, make a considerable contribution to employment and gross domestic product (GDP). Nowadays

Phosphorylation-Elicited Quaternary Changes of GA Binding Protein in Transcriptional Activation

Enrichment of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) on the tip of the subjunctional folds of the postsynaptic membrane is a central event in the development of the vertebrate neuromuscular junction. This is attained, in part, through a selective transcription in the subsynaptic nuclei, and it has recently been shown that the GA binding protein (GABP) plays an important role in this compartmentalized expression. The neural factor heregulin (HRG) activates nAChR transcription in cultured cells by stimulating a signaling cascade of protein kinases. Hence, it is speculated that GABP becomes activated by phosphorylation, but the mechanism has remained elusive. To fully understand the consequences of GABP phosphorylation, we examined the effect of heregulin-elicited GABP phosphorylation on cellular localization, DNA binding, transcription, and mobility. We demonstrate that HRG-elicited phosphorylation dramatically changes the transcriptional activity and mobility of GABP. While phosphorylation of GABPβ seems to be dispensable for these changes, phosphorylation of GABPα is crucial. Using fluorescence resonance energy transfer, we furthermore showed that phosphorylation of threonine 280 in GABPα triggers reorganizations of the quaternary structure of GABP. Taken together, these results support a model in which phosphorylation-elicited structural changes of GABP enable engagement in certain interactions leading to transcriptional activation

Doughnut Biotool - Life cycle biodiversity impact assessment tool for urban projects

The Doughnut Biotool is a tool to calculate a building project's impacts on biodiversity over the entire life cycle. The tool was developed as part of the "Doughnut for Urban Development" project and manual. For more information, as well as a video tour of the spreadsheet tools, visit https://www.home.earth/doughnutThe tool calculates the project's impacts on ecosystems as a local loss of species. It takes into account impacts caused by the transformation and occupation of land on the building site (direct impacts), as well as the use of construction materials (indirect impacts)