157 research outputs found

    Untangling the Evolution of Body-Part Terminology in Pano: Conservative versus Innovative Traits in Body-Part Lexicalization

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    Although language-family specific traits which do not find direct counterparts outside a given language family are usually ignored in quantitative phylogenetic studies, scholars have made ample use of them in qualitative investigations, revealing their potential for identifying language relationships. An example of such a family specific trait are body-part expressions in Pano languages, which are often lexicalized forms, composed of bound roots (also called body-part prefixes in the literature) and non-productive derivative morphemes (called here body-part formatives). We use various statistical methods to demonstrate that whereas body-part roots are generally conservative, body-part formatives exhibit diverse chronologies and are often the result of recent and parallel innovations. In line with this, the phylogenetic structure of body-part roots projects the major branches of the family, while formatives are highly non-tree-like. Beyond its contribution to the phylogenetic analysis of Pano languages, this study provides significative insights into the role of grammatical innovations for language classification, the origin of morphological complexity in the Amazon and the phylogenetic signal of specific grammatical traits in language families

    Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of Xyn30D from Paenibacillus barcinonensis

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    Xyn30D, a new member of a recently identified group of xylanases, has been purified and crystallized. Xyn30D is a bimodular enzyme composed of an N-terminal catalytic domain belonging to glycoside hydrolase family 30 (GH30) and a C-terminal family 35 carbohydrate-binding domain (CBM35) able to bind xylans and glucuronic acid. Xyn30D shares the characteristic endo mode of action described for GH30 xylanases, with the hydrolysis of the [beta]-(1,4) bonds of xylan being directed by [alpha]-1,2-linked glucuronate moieties, which have to be placed at the -2 subsite of the xylanase active site. Crystals of the complete enzyme were obtained and a full data set to 2.3 Å resolution was collected using a synchrotron X-ray source. This represents the first bimodular enzyme with the domain architecture GH30-CBM35. This study will contribute to the understanding of the role that the different xylanases play in the depolymerization of glucuronoxylan

    Alpha-taxonomy in the cricetid rodent Neomicroxus, a first assessment

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    Neomicroxus, a recently named genus, comprises small-bodied cricetid rodents patchily distributed in high-Andean ranges from Ecuador to Venezuela. Currently, two species of Neomicroxus are recognized, N. bogotensis, endemic to the Cordillera Oriental in Colombia and Cordillera de Mérida and Páramo de Tamá in Venezuela, and N. latebricola that occurs northern Andes of Ecuador. The genus is among the most poorly understood Neotropical rodents and to date no formal assessment about its alpha taxonomy was conducted. Based on DNA evidence of the first portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (cytb) and the first exon of the interphotoreceptor retinoid binding protein (IRBP), as well as craniodental measurements,we explored the divergence degree, genetic structure and phyletic relationships of the two species currently allocated under Neomicroxus. Our analyses support the monophyly of the genus as well as its uncertain tribal affiliation. Neomicroxus was retrieved as structured in two main branches, in agreement with the traditional recognition of two species. The populations referred to N. bogotensis exhibit deep divergence values (> 6 %) pointing to the existence of undescribed species under its concept. In contrast, populations of N. latebricola show a shallow genetic structure although implying recognizable geographical breaks. A moderate degree of genetic and morphological differentiation supports a new subspecies for the western populations of N. latebricola. Our contribution is the first attempt to better understanding the alpha taxonomy of Neomicroxus, highlighting the importance of the geographic complexity as a barrier to the genetic flow in N. bogotensis and the significance of the subspecies concept to formalize the geographic variation recovered in N. latebricola.Neomicroxus, un género recientemente nominado, agrupa roedores cricétidos de pequeño tamaño distribuidos en zonas altas de los Andes, desde Ecuador hasta Venezuela. Actualmente, se reconocen dos especies, N. bogotensis endémica de la Cordillera Oriental de Colombia, Cordillera de Mérida y Páramo de Tamá en Venezuela, y N. latebricola, que ocupa el norte de los Andes en Ecuador. Este género se encuentra entre los roedores neotropicales menos conocidos y, hasta la fecha, no se ha realizado ninguna evaluación formal sobre su taxonomía alfa. Basados en secuencias de ADN de la primera porción del gen mitocondrial del citocromo b (cytb) y el primer exón de la proteína de unión del interfotoreceptor del retinoide (IRBP) e información métrica cráneo-dentaria, exploramos el grado de divergencia, estructura genética y relaciones filogenéticas de las dos especies actualmente asignadas bajo Neomicroxus. Nuestros análisis apoyan la monofilia del género como así también su afiliación tribal incierta. Se recuperaron dos clados principales en concordancia con las especies reconocidas dentro del género. Las poblaciones referidas a N. bogotensis muestran valores de divergencia profunda (> 6 %) que sugieren la existencia de una especie no descrita. En contraste, las poblaciones de N. latebricola muestran una estructura genética somera pero que implica quiebres geográficos reconocibles. La diferenciación genética y morfológica moderada apoyan la existencia de una nueva subespecie para las poblaciones occidentales de N. latebricola. Nuestra contribución es el primer intento de comprender la taxonomía alfa de Neomicroxus, destacando la importancia de la complejidad geográfica como barrera para el flujo genético en N. bogotensis y la importancia del concepto de subespecie para formalizar la variación geográfica observada en N. latebricola.Fil: Cañón Valenzuela, Carola Patricia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto de Diversidad y Evolución Austral; ArgentinaFil: Curay, Jenny. Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad; EcuadorFil: Brito, Jorge. Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad; EcuadorFil: Colmenares-Pinzón, Javier E.. Universidad Industrial Santander; ColombiaFil: Pardiñas, Ulises Francisco J.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto de Diversidad y Evolución Austral; Argentina. Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad; Ecuado

    Like the Machete the Snake: Integration of Topic and Vehicle in Poetry Comprehension Reveals Meaning Construction Processes

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    Metaphor and simile research has traditionally focused on the projection of content from vehicle to topic, thereby revealing new meaning in the topic. We show that the meaning of vehicles also changes during figurative language understanding. Participants read a poem that likens the temporal self to a snake being divided by a machete, and were asked to draw the snake. Against prototypical snake drawings, their snakes showed central characteristics of timelines: they were straight and oriented towards the right. These results suggest that figurative language understanding, and possibly all language understanding, is an integrative and creative process of the kind proposed by Blending Theory. The results also suggest that entrenched, conventional patterns for mapping and integrating conceptual structures, such as the timeline, can play a central role in the meaning of highly creative figurative language

    Quantifying the speech-gesture relation with massive multimodal datasets: informativity in time expressions

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    The development of large-scale corpora has led to a quantum leap in our understanding of speech in recent years. By contrast, the analysis of massive datasets has so far had a lim- ited impact on the study of gesture and other visual communicative behaviors. We utilized the UCLA-Red Hen Lab multi-billion-word repository of video recordings, all of them showing communicative behavior that was not elicited in a lab, to quantify speech-gesture co-occur- rence frequency for a subset of linguistic expressions in American English. First, we objec- tively establish a systematic relationship in the high degree of co-occurrence between gesture and speech in our subset of expressions, which consists of temporal phrases. Sec- ond, we show that there is a systematic alignment between the informativity of co-speech gestures and that of the verbal expressions with which they co-occur. By exposing deep, systematic relations between the modalities of gesture and speech, our results pave the way for the data-driven integration of multimodal behavior into our understanding of human communication

    Management of progressive pulmonary fibrosis associated with connective tissue disease

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    Introduction: Fibrotic interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a frequent and severe complication of connective tissue disease (CTD). Areas covered: In this narrative review, we update the most relevant differential characteristics of fibrotic ILD associated with CTD (CTD-ILD) and propose a diagnostic and therapeutic approach based on a review of the articles published between 2002 and 2022 through PubMed. Expert opinion: The subset of ILD, mainly the radiological/histological pattern and the degree of fibrotic component, usually determines the prognosis and therapeutic strategy for these patients. Some patients with CTD-ILD can develop progressive pulmonary fibrosis (PPF) with severe deterioration of lung function, rapid progression to chronic respiratory failure, and high mortality. PPF has been described in many CTDs, mainly in systemic sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, and requires a multidisciplinary diagnostic and therapeutic approach to improve patient outcomes

    Constraints on the structure and seasonal variations of Triton’s atmosphere from the 5 October 2017 stellar occultation and previous observations

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    J.M.O. acknowledges financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the European Social Fund (ESF) through the PhD grant SFRH/BD/131700/2017. The work leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Community's H2020 2014-2021 ERC grant Agreement nffi 669416 "Lucky Star". We thank S. Para who supported some travels to observe the 5 October 2017 occultation. T.B. was supported for this research by an appointment to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Post-Doctoral Program at the Ames Research Center administered by Universities Space Research Association (USRA) through a contract with NASA. We acknowledge useful exchanges with Mark Gurwell on the ALMA CO observations. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium).Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. J.L.O., P.S.-S., N.M. and R.D. acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the "Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa" award to the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709), they also acknowledge the financial support by the Spanish grant AYA-2017-84637-R and the Proyecto de Excelencia de la Junta de Andalucia J.A. 2012-FQM1776. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, under Grant Agreement no. 687378, as part of the project "Small Bodies Near and Far" (SBNAF). P.S.-S. acknowledges financial support by the Spanish grant AYA-RTI2018-098657-J-I00 "LEO-SBNAF". The work was partially based on observations made at the Laboratorio Nacional de Astrofisica (LNA), Itajuba-MG, Brazil. The following authors acknowledge the respective CNPq grants: F.B.-R. 309578/2017-5; R.V.-M. 304544/2017-5, 401903/2016-8; J.I.B.C. 308150/2016-3 and 305917/2019-6; M.A. 427700/20183, 310683/2017-3, 473002/2013-2. This study was financed in part by the Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior -Brasil (CAPES) -Finance Code 001 and the National Institute of Science and Technology of the e-Universe project (INCT do e-Universo, CNPq grant 465376/2014-2). G.B.R. acknowledges CAPES-FAPERJ/PAPDRJ grant E26/203.173/2016 and CAPES-PRINT/UNESP grant 88887.571156/2020-00, M.A. FAPERJ grant E26/111.488/2013 and A.R.G.Jr. FAPESP grant 2018/11239-8. B.E.M. thanks CNPq 150612/2020-6 and CAPES/Cofecub-394/2016-05 grants. Part of the photometric data used in this study were collected in the frame of the photometric observations with the robotic and remotely controlled telescope at the University of Athens Observatory (UOAO; Gazeas 2016). The 2.3 m Aristarchos telescope is operated on Helmos Observatory by the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing of the National Observatory of Athens. Observations with the 2.3 m Aristarchos telescope were carried out under OPTICON programme. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730890. This material reflects only the authors views and the Commission is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. The 1. 2m Kryoneri telescope is operated by the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing of the National Observatory of Athens. The Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley (OAVdA) is managed by the Fondazione Clement Fillietroz-ONLUS, which is supported by the Regional Government of the Aosta Valley, the Town Municipality of Nus and the "Unite des Communes valdotaines Mont-Emilius". The 0.81 m Main Telescope at the OAVdA was upgraded thanks to a Shoemaker NEO Grant 2013 from The Planetary Society. D.C. and J.M.C. acknowledge funds from a 2017 'Research and Education' grant from Fondazione CRT-Cassa di Risparmio di Torino. P.M. acknowledges support from the Portuguese Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia ref. PTDC/FISAST/29942/2017 through national funds and by FEDER through COMPETE 2020 (ref. POCI010145 FEDER007672). F.J. acknowledges Jean Luc Plouvier for his help. S.J.F. and C.A. would like to thank the UCL student support observers: Helen Dai, Elise Darragh-Ford, Ross Dobson, Max Hipperson, Edward Kerr-Dineen, Isaac Langley, Emese Meder, Roman Gerasimov, Javier Sanjuan, and Manasvee Saraf. We are grateful to the CAHA, OSN and La Hita Observatory staffs. This research is partially based on observations collected at Centro Astronomico HispanoAleman (CAHA) at Calar Alto, operated jointly by Junta de Andalucia and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (IAA-CSIC). This research was also partially based on observation carried out at the Observatorio de Sierra Nevada (OSN) operated by Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (CSIC). This article is also based on observations made with the Liverpool Telescope operated on the island of La Palma by Liverpool John Moores University in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias with financial support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. Partially based on observations made with the Tx40 and Excalibur telescopes at the Observatorio Astrofisico de Javalambre in Teruel, a Spanish Infraestructura Cientifico-Tecnica Singular (ICTS) owned, managed and operated by the Centro de Estudios de Fisica del Cosmos de Aragon (CEFCA). Tx40 and Excalibur are funded with the Fondos de Inversiones de Teruel (FITE). A.R.R. would like to thank Gustavo Roman for the mechanical adaptation of the camera to the telescope to allow for the observation to be recorded. R.H., J.F.R., S.P.H. and A.S.L. have been supported by the Spanish projects AYA2015-65041P and PID2019-109467GB-100 (MINECO/FEDER, UE) and Grupos Gobierno Vasco IT1366-19. Our great thanks to Omar Hila and their collaborators in Atlas Golf Marrakech Observatory for providing access to the T60cm telescope. TRAPPIST is a project funded by the Belgian Fonds (National) de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS) under grant PDR T.0120.21. TRAPPIST-North is a project funded by the University of Liege, and performed in collaboration with Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakesh. E.J. is a FNRS Senior Research Associate.Context. A stellar occultation by Neptune's main satellite, Triton, was observed on 5 October 2017 from Europe, North Africa, and the USA. We derived 90 light curves from this event, 42 of which yielded a central flash detection. Aims. We aimed at constraining Triton's atmospheric structure and the seasonal variations of its atmospheric pressure since the Voyager 2 epoch (1989). We also derived the shape of the lower atmosphere from central flash analysis. Methods. We used Abel inversions and direct ray-tracing code to provide the density, pressure, and temperature profiles in the altitude range similar to 8 km to similar to 190 km, corresponding to pressure levels from 9 mu bar down to a few nanobars. Results. (i) A pressure of 1.18 +/- 0.03 mu bar is found at a reference radius of 1400 km (47 km altitude). (ii) A new analysis of the Voyager 2 radio science occultation shows that this is consistent with an extrapolation of pressure down to the surface pressure obtained in 1989. (iii) A survey of occultations obtained between 1989 and 2017 suggests that an enhancement in surface pressure as reported during the 1990s might be real, but debatable, due to very few high S/N light curves and data accessible for reanalysis. The volatile transport model analysed supports a moderate increase in surface pressure, with a maximum value around 2005-2015 no higher than 23 mu bar. The pressures observed in 1995-1997 and 2017 appear mutually inconsistent with the volatile transport model presented here. (iv) The central flash structure does not show evidence of an atmospheric distortion. We find an upper limit of 0.0011 for the apparent oblateness of the atmosphere near the 8 km altitude.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology SFRH/BD/131700/2017European Social Fund (ESF) SFRH/BD/131700/2017European Research Council under the European Community's H2020 2014-2021 ERC grant 669416Spanish Government SEV-2017-0709 AYA-2017-84637-R AYA-RTI2018-098657-J-I00Junta de Andalucia 2012-FQM1776European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, as part of the project "Small Bodies Near and Far" (SBNAF) 687378Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPQ)Fundacao de Apoio a Pesquisa do Distrito Federal (FAPDF) 309578/2017-5 304544/2017-5 401903/2016-8 308150/2016-3 305917/2019-6 427700/2018-3 310683/2017-3 473002/2013-2Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES) 001Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPQ) 465376/2014-2 CAPES-FAPERJ/PAPDRJ grant E26/203.173/2016 CAPES-PRINT/UNESP grant 88887.571156/2020-00Fundacao Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio De Janeiro (FAPERJ) E26/111.488/2013Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP) 2018/11239-8Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (CNPQ) 150612/2020-6European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme 730890Regional Government of the Aosta ValleyTown Municipality of NusUnite des Communes valdotaines Mont-EmiliusPlanetary SocietyFondazione CRT-Cassa di Risparmio di TorinoPortuguese Foundation for Science and Technology PTDC/FISAST/29942/2017FEDER through COMPETE 2020 POCI010145 FEDER007672UK Research & Innovation (UKRI)Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC)Fondos de Inversiones de Teruel (FITE)Spanish Government AYA2015-65041P PID2019-109467GB-100Grupos Gobierno Vasco IT1366-19Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique - FNRS PDR T.0120.21University of LiegeCAPES/Cofecub-394/2016-0

    Diseño y validación de un instrumento de observación de las conductas que alteran la convivencia en educación física

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    El objetivo del presente trabajo fue diseñar y validar un instrumento de observación de conductas que alteran la convivencia en las clases de Educación Física, que permita definirlas, categorizarlas y medirlas cuantitativamente. Este proceso de validación se llevó a cabo en varias fases y contó con la participación de seis jueces expertos en el ámbito de la enseñanza de la Educación Física y cuatro observadores formados en el análisis de las conductas que alteran el clima de convivencia en las clases de Educación Física. Observaron un total de diez clases de Educación Física, de sexto de Educación Primaria y de tercero de la Educación Secundaria de diez centros escolares diferentes, analizando la estructura del instrumento mediante procedimientos confirmatorios. El instrumento final estuvo formado por ocho conductas que alteran la convivencia en las clases de Educación Física, agrupadas en dos factores (conductas violentas y conductas de indisciplina y desinterés). Los resultados obtenidos en el proceso de validez, fiabilidad y consistencia interna indican que el instrumento diseñado es válido para registrar las conductas que alteran la convivencia en las clases de Educación Física y permite su aplicación sin la presencia del observador en el aula, minimizando así el efecto de esa presencia en el comportamiento del alumnado.The aim of this study was to design and validate an instrument of observation that would allow us to measure and quantify student misconduct during classes of physical education. This process of validation was carried out in several phases. Six expert judges in physical education teaching and four observers trained to measure student misconduct in physical education lessons participated in the process, analysing ten physical education lessons of sixth and ninth grade from ten different schools, settings the structure of the instrument through confirmatory procedures. The final instrument consisted of eight items describing different kinds of student misconduct during physical education classes, grouped into two categories (violent behaviours and undisciplined and disinterested behaviours). The results obtained in the process of validation, reliability and internal consistency suggest that the instrument designed is optimally useful and reliable to measure student misconduct during physical education classes, allowing its application without the presence of the investigator in the classroom, thus minimizing its effect on the behaviour of the student body

    SIRT3-mediated inhibition of FOS through histone H3 deacetylation prevents cardiac fibrosis and inflammation.

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    Sirtuin 3 (SIRT3) is a deacetylase that modulates proteins that control metabolism and protects against oxidative stress. Modulation of SIRT3 activity has been proposed as a promising therapeutic target for ameliorating metabolic diseases and associated cardiac disturbances. In this study, we investigated the role of SIRT3 in inflammation and fibrosis in the heart using male mice with constitutive and systemic deletion of SIRT3 and human cardiac AC16 cells. SIRT3 knockout mice showed cardiac fibrosis and inflammation that was characterized by augmented transcriptional activity of AP-1. Consistent with this, SIRT3 overexpression in human and neonatal rat cardiomyocytes partially prevented the inflammatory and profibrotic response induced by TNF-alpha. Notably, these effects were associated with a decrease in the mRNA and protein levels of FOS and the DNA-binding activity of AP-1. Finally, we demonstrated that SIRT3 inhibits FOS transcription through specific histone H3 lysine K27 deacetylation at its promoter. These findings highlight an important function of SIRT3 in mediating the often intricate profibrotic and proinflammatory responses of cardiac cells through the modulation of the FOS/AP-1 pathway. Since fibrosis and inflammation are crucial in the progression of cardiac hypertrophy, heart failure, and diabetic cardiomyopathy, our results point to SIRT3 as a potential target for treating these diseases

    Comorbidities in Chilean patients with psoriasis: a Global Healthcare Study on Psoriasis

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    Background: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease associated with several important medical comorbidities. There are scant data available on the comorbidities of patients with psoriasis in South America. Aim: To examine the comorbidity profile of adult patients with psoriasis in Chile and its association with severity of psoriasis. Methods: This was a multicentre, cross-sectional study involving 16 hospitals and clinics in Chile, which used a 48-item questionnaire to study clinician- and patient-reported outcomes and comorbidities. Inferential analyses were performed by psoriasis severity, using Fisher exact test, Student t-test and multivariable logistic regression. Results: In total, 598 adult patients with psoriasis were included (51.1% male; mean age 49.2 ± 15.1 years); 48.5% mild and 51.4% moderate to severe; Psoriasis Area and Severity Index 11.6 ± 11.5; body surface area 14.7 ± 18.2%. Plaque psoriasis was the most common phenotype (90.2%), followed by guttate (13.4%). Psoriatic arthritis occurred in 27.3% of patients. Comorbidities were reported in 60.2% of all patients with psoriasis. Frequent concomitant diseases were obesity (25.3%), hypertension (24.3%), Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) (18.7%), dyslipidaemia (17.4%), metabolic syndrome (16.7%) and depression (14.4%). After adjustment, significant associations were found between moderate to severe psoriasis and obesity, T2DM and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) compared with mild psoriasis. Conclusions: We report a large study of comorbidities, including depression, dyslipidaemia, T2DM and NAFLD, in people with psoriasis in Chile. The prevalence of comorbidities with psoriasis in Chile appears similar to that found in Western countries, and emphasizes the importance of assessing patients with psoriasis for risk factors for and presence of, comorbid disease in a multidisciplinary setting
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