BACKGROUND This study compared outcomes following fingolimod or BRACE treatments (beta-interferons/glatiramer acetate) in patients with active MS (≥ 1 relapse in the previous year) following previous BRACE treatment. METHODS AND FINDINGS Patients with active MS who previously received BRACE were identified from German prospective, observational studies, PANGAEA and PEARL. A novel methodology ...

We assessed whether students’ reasoning about historical causality is biased by accessibility and previous knowledge. Undergraduates in Canada provided explanations for historical events: the attacks on Pearl Harbor and September 11, 2001. Participants were then given several explanations for these events, including conventional historical and alternative conspiracist explanations, and reported...

We present recent simulations on charged polymers in poor solvent in the dilute concentration range, with and without imposed extension constraints. The resulting pearl-necklace polymer conformations are analyzed in detail. We find strong pearl number and size fluctuations leading only to minimal signatures in the form factor and the force-extension relation. We see no sign of instability of th...

The pearl oyster, “Pinctada radiate”, is a native species of Persian Gulf area, which has always been attractive for its ability of producing pearl. Thus, studying the gonadal maturation of the pearl oyster has been important for nucleus implantation to pearl production. In this study, samples were taken in winter and spring from Lavan and Kish Islands. The classic histological methods were use...

Pearl millet is one of the most important small-grained C4 Panicoid crops with a large genome size (∼2352 Mb), short life cycle and outbreeding nature. It is highly resilient to areas with scanty rain and high temperature. Pearl millet is a nutritionally superior staple crop for people inhabiting hot, drought-prone arid and semi-arid regions of South Asia and Africa where it is widely grown and...

The pearl industry in French Polynesia is based on exploitation of natural stocks of the blacklip pearl oyster (Pinctada margaritifera). It generates an annual turnover of €90 million. Improvements in pearl quality need genetic studies to improve the populations. This pearl oyster is a protandric species, in which the sex ratio normally is biased toward males. There is an increasing interest in...

Japanese female pearl divers called Ama specialize in free diving in the cold sea for collecting foods and pearls in oysters. Exercising in the water combined with marked bradycardia and pressor responses provides a circulatory challenge to properly buffer or cushion elevated cardiac pulsations. Because Ama perform repeated free dives throughout their lives, it is possible that they may have ad...

PEARL MILLET Pearl millet is one of the two major crops grown to feed people living in the semi-arid, low input dryland agriculture regions of Africa and southeast Asia. People in northern Nambia are almost entirely dependent on pearl millet for food. Four countries in the Sahel of Africa, with a total population of 38 million, depend on pearl millet to provide over 1,000 calories per person pe...