Concealed carry weapon permits and their relationship to crime in Las Vegas

Permits allowing qualified citizens to legally carry a concealed weapon ( CCWs ) in public have become increasingly popular. Nevada adopted more lenient CCW standards in October of 1995, and an unprecedented number of legally armed citizens in the public has resulted. Supporters of CCWs claim the right to self-defense with less crime resulting. Critics claim more armed citizens will only produce more violence and crime; To answer this debate, the following was conducted; (1) a literature review of private firearm ownership, including CCWs, and crime, (2) an analysis based on Las Vegas\u27 Uniform Crime Reports rates before and after adopting these more lenient CCW standards, and (3) a survey of recent Las Vegas CCW applicants; This study failed to conclusively show that more CCWs increase or decrease crime. The CCW survey, however, suggested that most CCW applicants believe obtaining a CCW is an effective deterrent to crime

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field