Gun violence is a leading cause of premature deaths in the United States. Evidence has linked higher levels of firearm ownership to an increased risk for violent crimes perpetrated with a firearm. Given that connection, the goal of this study is to use mathematical modeling techniques to better understand how different social conditions may impact gun-ownership rate. To accomplish that goal, we...

Gene vaccines represent a new and promising approach to control infectious diseases, inducing a protective immune response in the appropriate host. Several routes and methods of genetic immunization have been shown to induce antibody production as well as T helper (Th) cell and cytotoxic T lymphocyte activation. However, few studies have compared the nature of the immune responses generated by ...

This article is describing the nine principle techniques for the gene transfection, which are: (1) lipid-mediated method; (2) calcium-phosphate mediated; (3) DEAE-dextran-mediated; (4) electroporation; (5) biolistics (gene gun); (6) viral vectors; (7) polybrene; (8) laser transfection; (9) gene transfection enhanced by elevated temperature, as the references for the researchers who are interest...

OBJECTIVE Racism is related to policies preferences and behaviors that adversely affect blacks and appear related to a fear of blacks (e.g., increased policing, death penalty). This study examined whether racism is also related to gun ownership and opposition to gun controls in US whites. METHOD The most recent data from the American National Election Study, a large representative US sample, ...

This paper provides new estimates of the effect of household gun prevalence on homicide rates, and infers the marginal external cost of handgun ownership. The estimates utilize a superior proxy for gun prevalence, the percentage of suicides committed with a gun, which we validate. Using countyand state-level panels for 20 years, we estimate the elasticity of homicide with respect to gun prevale...

This paper examines the merit of two propositions at the center of the debate on gun control in the aftermath of mass shootings in the United States: (1) gun violence and mass shootings are a cultural artifact (gun enthusiast perspective); (2) gun violence and mass shootings are more prevalent due to lax regulations (pro-gun control perspective). To evaluate the value of each proposition, the s...

The purpose of the present study is to determine the effects of gun control laws and gun ownership rates on state-level suicide rates. Using the most recent data on suicide rates, gun control measures, and gun ownership rates, the results of the present study suggest that states that require handgun permits have lower gun-related suicide rates, and states that have higher gun ownership rates ha...

Our aim is the biolistic transfection of organotypic cultures of rat visual cortex with plasmids coding for neurotrophic factors, which then become expressed for limited periods of time during postnatal ontogenesis. Out of two commercially available devices, we adopted the handheld 'Helios Gene Gun' instead of the stationary PDS-1000He (both Biorad, Munich, Germany). This device allows multiple...

The protective efficacy of a DNA vaccine against hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection was tested in cynomolgus macaques (cynos) vaccinated with a plasmid containing a full-length HEV open-reading frame 2 (ORF2) sequence (Burmese strain) and subsequently challenged with a heterologous strain of HEV (Mexican strain). Cynos administered vaccine by gene gun developed antibodies to HEV (anti-HEV), wher...