Bikini Atoll has been reshaped through time according to Western mythologies regarding “deserted” islands. Geographers have increasingly recognized that landscapes are shaped by the ways human agents conceptualize places. Ideals that shape places are not only based on interpretations of a given place, however, but are also formed by the semiotic linking of representations of similar landscapes. Conceptualizations of Bikini Atoll enabled the drastic alteration of the landscape by nuclear testing in the 1940s and 1950s as well as subsequent development projects such as the current tourism operation on the atoll. The information presented in this article stems from interview research conducted in the Marshall Islands in 2001 and 2002 as well as from a review of historical accounts of the atoll from 1945 to the present. The conceptualizations of Bikini Atoll held by members of the Bikinian community, U.S. military and government officials, other people living in the Marshall Islands, and visitors to the atoll explain the transformations of the atoll landscape. Going beyond the notion of landscapes as readable texts, places can be understood as discursive‐material formations where the semiotic meanings of places are intrinsically entwined with their reproduction.

This paper reviews and compares the most common approaches used to evaluate public agricultural research investment. Ex post studies fall into two major groups: (a) consumer and producer surplus analyses, estimating average rates of return to research, and (b) production function analyses, estimating marginal rates of return to research. Ex ante studies fall into four groups: (a) those using scoring models to rank research activities, (b) those employing benefit‐cost analysis to establish rates of return to research, (c) those using simulation models, and (d) those using mathematical programming to select an optimal mix of research activities.

Pressured by the decline of extractive industries and agriculture, many small towns are trying to acquire a share of the tourism industry. While some communities decide to develop tourism from within their towns, often rural places turn to large-scale privately owned tourism enterprises to act as engines of economic development. While many studies have examined how tourism can have negative social impacts in rural communities, few studies detail how rural communities’ attitudes toward tourism can suffer when locals feel alienated from planning/development decisions. In this study, the authors examined data from participant observation and semistructured interviews in Williams, Arizona, to determine whether changes in community attitudes toward tourism followed patterns suggested by the established theoretical models of social carrying capacity and community adaptation to a social disruption. We found that Williams is a case where the fast pace of tourism development causes community attitudes toward tourism to decline over time.

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BackgroundAldo-keto reductase (AKR) 1C family member 3 (AKR1C3), one of four identified human AKR1C enzymes, catalyzes steroid, prostaglandin, and xenobiotic metabolism. In the prostate, AKR1C3 is up-regulated in localized and advanced prostate adenocarcinoma, and is associated with prostate cancer (PCa) aggressiveness. Here we propose a novel pathological function of AKR1C3 in tumor angiogenesis and its potential role in promoting PCa progression.MethodsTo recapitulate elevated AKR1C3 expression in cancerous prostate, the human PCa PC-3 cell line was stably transfected with an AKR1C3 expression construct to establish PC3-AKR1C3 transfectants. Microarray and bioinformatics analysis were performed to identify AKR1C3-mediated pathways of activation and their potential biological consequences in PC-3 cells. Western blot analysis, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and an in vitro Matrigel angiogenesis assays were applied to validate the pro-angiogenic activity of PC3-AKR1C3 transfectants identified by bioinformatics analysis.ResultsMicroarray and bioinformatics analysis suggested that overexpression of AKR1C3 in PC-3 cells modulates estrogen and androgen metabolism, activates insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 and Akt signaling pathways, as well as promotes tumor angiogenesis and aggressiveness. Levels of IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R) and Akt activation as well as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression and secretion were significantly elevated in PC3-AKR1C3 transfectants in comparison to PC3-mock transfectants. PC3-AKR1C3 transfectants also promoted endothelial cell (EC) tube formation on Matrigel as compared to the AKR1C3-negative parental PC-3 cells and PC3-mock transfectants. Pre-treatment of PC3-AKR1C3 transfectants with a selective IGF-1R kinase inhibitor (AG1024) or a non-selective phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3K) inhibitor (LY294002) abolished ability of the cells to promote EC tube formation.ConclusionsBioinformatics analysis followed by functional genomics demonstrated that AKR1C3 overexpression promotes angiogenesis and aggressiveness of PC-3 cells. These results also suggest that AKR1C3-mediated tumor angiogenesis is regulated by estrogen and androgen metabolism with subsequent IGF-1R and Akt activation followed by VEGF expression in PCa cells.

In a multistage production system, research that reduces production costs at one stage provides benefits to producers at all stages and to consumers. Agricultural production is assumed to involve three stages: nonfarm input, farm, and marketing. Research causes a parallel drop of the supply curve. Benefits are measured as changes in economic surplus. With a competitive model, the distribution of research benefits is the same for research directed at each production stage. Implications for the distribution of research benefits of some forms of imperfect competition are investigated.

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Military activities have produced contaminated environments at many sites around the world. This contamination and the associated health risks play a large role in how these places can be redeveloped after military use. In this essay we focus on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico which was used as a bombing range by the US military for six decades until 2003. We examine the ways different groups of people perceive this formerly militarized landscape and the ways that these perceptions legitimatize certain redevelopment options over others. Through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and an analysis of textual materials we found that many local residents view the island as suffering from severe contamination while the large number of visitors, tourism promoters and North Americans now flocking to the post-militarized Vieques view it quite differently. These perceptions of purity and contamination, affected by different knowledges of the island's history, have led to differing valuation of the landscape and contentious economic, political, and cultural battles over an island often labeled ''natural'' despite a history of military use and social exclusion.