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Urciuoli A, Alba DM. Systematics of Miocene apes: State of the art of a neverending controversy. J Hum Evol 2023; 175:103309. [PMID: 36716680 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2022] [Revised: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 12/09/2022] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Hominoids diverged from cercopithecoids during the Oligocene in Afro-Arabia, initially radiating in that continent and subsequently dispersing into Eurasia. From the Late Miocene onward, the geographic range of hominoids progressively shrank, except for hominins, which dispersed out of Africa during the Pleistocene. Although the overall picture of hominoid evolution is clear based on available fossil evidence, many uncertainties persist regarding the phylogeny and paleobiogeography of Miocene apes (nonhominin hominoids), owing to their sparse record, pervasive homoplasy, and the decimated current diversity of this group. We review Miocene ape systematics and evolution by focusing on the most parsimonious cladograms published during the last decade. First, we provide a historical account of the progress made in Miocene ape phylogeny and paleobiogeography, report an updated classification of Miocene apes, and provide a list of Miocene ape species-locality occurrences together with an analysis of their paleobiodiversity dynamics. Second, we discuss various critical issues of Miocene ape phylogeny and paleobiogeography (hylobatid and crown hominid origins, plus the relationships of Oreopithecus) in the light of the highly divergent results obtained from cladistic analyses of craniodental and postcranial characters separately. We conclude that cladistic efforts to disentangle Miocene ape phylogeny are potentially biased by a long-branch attraction problem caused by the numerous postcranial similarities shared between hylobatids and hominids-despite the increasingly held view that they are likely homoplastic to a large extent, as illustrated by Sivapithecus and Pierolapithecus-and further aggravated by abundant missing data owing to incomplete preservation. Finally, we argue that-besides the recovery of additional fossils, the retrieval of paleoproteomic data, and a better integration between cladistics and geometric morphometrics-Miocene ape phylogenetics should take advantage of total-evidence (tip-dating) Bayesian methods of phylogenetic inference combining morphologic, molecular, and chronostratigraphic data. This would hopefully help ascertain whether hylobatid divergence was more basal than currently supported.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessandro Urciuoli
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain; Division of Palaeoanthropology, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
| | - David M Alba
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain.
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Carn D, Lanaspa MA, Benner SA, Andrews P, Dudley R, Andres-Hernando A, Tolan DR, Johnson RJ. The role of thrifty genes in the origin of alcoholism: A narrative review and hypothesis. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 2021; 45:1519-1526. [PMID: 34120350 PMCID: PMC8429132 DOI: 10.1111/acer.14655] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2021] [Revised: 05/26/2021] [Accepted: 05/31/2021] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
In this narrative review, we present the hypothesis that key mutations in two genes, occurring 15 and 10 million years ago (MYA), were individually and then collectively adaptive for ancestral humans during periods of starvation, but are maladaptive in modern civilization (i.e., "thrifty genes"), with the consequence that these genes not only increase our risk today for obesity, but also for alcoholism. Both mutations occurred when ancestral apes were experiencing loss of fruit availability during periods of profound climate change or environmental upheaval. The silencing of uricase (urate oxidase) activity 15 MYA enhanced survival by increasing the ability for fructose present in dwindling fruit to be stored as fat, a consequence of enhanced uric acid production during fructose metabolism that stimulated lipogenesis and blocked fatty acid oxidation. Likewise, a mutation in class IV alcohol dehydrogenase ~10 MYA resulted in a remarkable 40-fold increase in the capacity to oxidize ethanol (EtOH), which allowed our ancestors to ingest fallen, fermenting fruit. In turn, the EtOH ingested could activate aldose reductase that stimulates the conversion of glucose to fructose, while uric acid produced during EtOH metabolism could further enhance fructose production and metabolism. By aiding survival, these mutations would have allowed our ancestors to generate more fat, primarily from fructose, to survive changing habitats due to the Middle Miocene disruption and also during the late-Miocene aridification of East Africa. Unfortunately, the enhanced ability to metabolize and utilize EtOH may now be acting to increase our risk for alcoholism, which may be yet another consequence of once-adaptive thrifty genes.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Miguel A. Lanaspa
- Division of Nephrology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, Aurora, CO, USA
| | - Steven A. Benner
- The Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, Alachua, FL, USA
| | - Peter Andrews
- Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK
| | - Robert Dudley
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Ana Andres-Hernando
- Division of Nephrology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, Aurora, CO, USA
| | - Dean R. Tolan
- Department of Biochemistry, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Richard J. Johnson
- Division of Nephrology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, Aurora, CO, USA,The Rocky Mountain VA Medical Center, Aurora CO, USA
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Abstract
The relationship of evolution with diet and environment can provide insights into modern disease. Fossil evidence shows apes, and early human ancestors were fruit eaters living in environments with strongly seasonal climates. Rapid cooling at the end of the Middle Miocene (15-12 Ma: millions of years ago) increased seasonality in Africa and Europe, and ape survival may be linked with a mutation in uric acid metabolism. Climate stabilized in the later Miocene and Pliocene (12-5 Ma), and fossil apes and early hominins were both adapted for life on ground and in trees. Around 2.5 Ma, early species of Homo introduced more animal products into their diet, and this coincided with developing bipedalism, stone tool technology and increase in brain size. Early species of Homo such as Homo habilis still lived in woodland habitats, and the major habitat shift in human evolution occurred at 1.8 Ma with the origin of Homo erectus. Homo erectus had increased body size, greater hunting skills, a diet rich in meat, control of fire and understanding about cooking food, and moved from woodland to savannah. Group size may also have increased at the same time, facilitating the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next. The earliest fossils of Homo sapiens appeared about 300 kyr, but they had separated from Neanderthals by 480 kyr or earlier. Their diet shifted towards grain-based foods about 100 kyr ago, and settled agriculture developed about 10 kyr ago. This pattern remains for many populations to this day and provides important insights into current burden of lifestyle diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- P Andrews
- From the, Natural History Museum, London University College, London, UK
| | - R J Johnson
- University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, USA
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TAKANO TOMO, NAKATSUKASA MASATO, PINA MARTA, KUNIMATSU YUTAKA, NAKANO YOSHIHIKO, MORIMOTO NAOKI, OGIHARA NAOMICHI, ISHIDA HIDEMI. New forelimb long bone specimens of Nacholapithecus kerioi from the Middle Miocene of northern Kenya. ANTHROPOL SCI 2020. [DOI: 10.1537/ase.200116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - MASATO NAKATSUKASA
- Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto
| | - MARTA PINA
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona
| | | | - YOSHIHIKO NAKANO
- Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Department of Human Sciences, Osaka University, Osaka
| | - NAOKI MORIMOTO
- Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto
| | - NAOMICHI OGIHARA
- Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo
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Kunimatsu Y, Nakatsukasa M, Shimizu D, Nakano Y, Ishida H. Loss of the subarcuate fossa and the phylogeny of Nacholapithecus. J Hum Evol 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.03.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
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TAKANO TOMO, NAKATSUKASA MASATO, KUNIMATSU YUTAKA, NAKANO YOSHIHIKO, OGIHARA NAOMICHI, ISHIDA HIDEMI. Forelimb long bones of Nacholapithecus (KNM-BG 35250) from the middle Miocene in Nachola, northern Kenya. ANTHROPOL SCI 2018. [DOI: 10.1537/ase.181022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - MASATO NAKATSUKASA
- Laboratory of Physical Anthropology, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto
| | | | - YOSHIHIKO NAKANO
- Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Department of Human Science, Osaka University, Suita
| | - NAOMICHI OGIHARA
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, Yokohama
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Nowak MG, Reichard UH. Locomotion and Posture in Ancestral Hominoids Prior to the Split of Hylobatids. DEVELOPMENTS IN PRIMATOLOGY: PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-5614-2_3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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de Bonis L, Koufos GD. First discovery of postcranial bones of Ouranopithecus macedoniensis (Primates, Hominoidea) from the late Miocene of Macedonia (Greece). J Hum Evol 2014; 74:21-36. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.05.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2012] [Revised: 03/20/2014] [Accepted: 05/16/2014] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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DeMiguel D, Alba DM, Moyà-Solà S. Dietary specialization during the evolution of Western Eurasian hominoids and the extinction of European Great Apes. PLoS One 2014; 9:e97442. [PMID: 24848272 PMCID: PMC4029579 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097442] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2014] [Accepted: 04/14/2014] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Given the central adaptive role of diet, paleodietary inference is essential for understanding the relationship between evolutionary and paleoenvironmental change. Here we rely on dental microwear analysis to investigate the role of dietary specialization in the diversification and extinction of Miocene hominoids from Western Eurasian between 14 and 7 Ma. New microwear results for five extinct taxa are analyzed together with previous data for other Western Eurasian genera. Except Pierolapithecus (that resembles hard-object feeders) and Oreopithecus (a soft-frugivore probably foraging opportunistically on other foods), most of the extinct taxa lack clear extant dietary analogues. They display some degee of sclerocarpy, which is most clearly expressed in Griphopithecus and Ouranopithecus (adapted to more open and arid environments), whereas Anoiapithecus, Dryopithecus and, especially, Hispanopithecus species apparently relied more strongly on soft-frugivory. Thus, contrasting with the prevailing sclerocarpic condition at the beginning of the Eurasian hominoid radiation, soft- and mixed-frugivory coexisted with hard-object feeding in the Late Miocene. Therefore, despite a climatic trend towards cooling and increased seasonality, a progressive dietary diversification would have occurred (probably due to competitive exclusion and increased environmental heterogeneity), although strict folivory did not evolve. Overall, our analyses support the view that the same dietary specializations that enabled Western Eurasian hominoids to face progressive climatic deterioration were the main factor ultimately leading to their extinction when more drastic paleoenvironmental changes took place.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel DeMiguel
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- * E-mail:
| | - David M. Alba
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Torino, Torino, Italy
| | - Salvador Moyà-Solà
- ICREA at Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont and Unitat d’Antropologia Biològica (Dept. BABVE), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
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Nelson SV. Chimpanzee fauna isotopes provide new interpretations of fossil ape and hominin ecologies. Proc Biol Sci 2013; 280:20132324. [PMID: 24197413 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.2324] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Carbon and oxygen stable isotopes within modern and fossil tooth enamel record the aspects of an animal's diet and habitat use. This investigation reports the first isotopic analyses of enamel from a large chimpanzee community and associated fauna, thus providing a means of comparing fossil ape and early hominin palaeoecologies with those of a modern ape. Within Kibale National Park forest, oxygen isotopes differentiate primate niches, allowing for the first isotopic reconstructions of degree of frugivory versus folivory as well as use of arboreal versus terrestrial resources. In a comparison of modern and fossil community isotopic profiles, results indicate that Sivapithecus, a Miocene ape from Pakistan, fed in the forest canopy, as do chimpanzees, but inhabited a forest with less continuous canopy or fed more on leaves. Ardipithecus, an early hominin from Ethiopia, fed both arboreally and terrestrially in a more open habitat than inhabited by chimpanzees.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sherry V Nelson
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, , MSC01-1040, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001, USA
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Venkataraman VV, Rolian C, Gordon AD, Patel BA. A resampling approach and implications for estimating the phalangeal index from unassociated hand bones in fossil primates. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2013; 151:280-9. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2013] [Accepted: 03/19/2013] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Vivek V. Venkataraman
- Department of Biological Sciences; Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center, Dartmouth College; Hanover; NH; 03755
| | - Campbell Rolian
- Department of Comparative Biology and Experimental Medicine; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine; University of Calgary; Calgary; Alberta; Canada; T2N4N1
| | - Adam D. Gordon
- Department of Anthropology; University at Albany-SUNY; Albany; NY; 12222
| | - Biren A. Patel
- Department of Cell and Neurobiology; Keck School of Medicine; University of Southern California; Los Angeles; CA; 90033
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Almécija S, Alba DM, Moyà-Solà S. The thumb of Miocene apes: new insights from Castell de Barberà (Catalonia, Spain). AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2012; 148:436-50. [PMID: 22552874 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2011] [Accepted: 03/09/2012] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Primate hands display a major selective compromise between locomotion and manipulation. The thumb may or may not participate in locomotion, but it plays a central role in most manipulative activities. Understanding whether or not the last common ancestor of humans and Pan displayed extant-ape-like hand proportions (i.e., relatively long fingers and a short thumb) can be clarified by the analysis of Miocene ape hand remains. Here we describe new pollical remains-a complete proximal phalanx and a partial distal phalanx-from the middle/late Miocene site of Castell de Barberà (ca., 11.2-10.5 Ma, Vallès-Penedès Basin), and provide morphometric and qualitative comparisons with other available Miocene specimens as well as extant catarrhines (including humans). Our results show that all available Miocene taxa (Proconsul, Nacholapithecus, Afropithecus, Sivapithecus, Hispanopithecus, Oreopithecus, and the hominoid from Castell de Barberà) share a similar phalangeal thumb morphology: the phalanges are relatively long, and the proximal phalanges have a high degree of curvature, marked insertions for the flexor muscles, a palmarly bent trochlea and a low basal height. All these features suggest that these Miocene apes used their thumb with an emphasis on flexion, most of them to powerfully assist the fingers during above-branch, grasping arboreal locomotion. Moreover, in terms of relative proximal phalangeal length, the thumb of Miocene taxa is intermediate between the long-thumbed humans and the short-thumbed extant apes. Together with previous evidence, this suggests that a moderate-length hand with relatively long thumb-involved in locomotion-is the original hand morphotype for the Hominidae.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sergio Almécija
- Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History and NYCEP, New York, NY 10024, USA.
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Updated chronology for the Miocene hominoid radiation in Western Eurasia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2011; 108:5554-9. [PMID: 21436034 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1018562108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Extant apes (Primates: Hominoidea) are the relics of a group that was much more diverse in the past. They originated in Africa around the Oligocene/Miocene boundary, but by the beginning of the Middle Miocene they expanded their range into Eurasia, where they experienced a far-reaching evolutionary radiation. A Eurasian origin of the great ape and human clade (Hominidae) has been favored by several authors, but the assessment of this hypothesis has been hampered by the lack of accurate datings for many Western Eurasian hominoids. Here we provide an updated chronology that incorporates recently discovered Iberian taxa and further reevaluates the age of many previously known sites on the basis of local biostratigraphic scales and magnetostratigraphic data. Our results show that identifiable Eurasian kenyapithecins (Griphopithecus and Kenyapithecus) are much younger than previously thought (ca. 14 Ma instead of 16 Ma), which casts serious doubts on the attribution of the hominoid tooth from Engelswies (16.3-16.5 Ma) to cf. Griphopithecus. This evidence is further consistent with an alternative scenario, according to which the Eurasian pongines and African hominines might have independently evolved in their respective continents from similar kenyapithecin ancestors, resulting from an early Middle Miocene intercontinental range extension followed by vicariance. This hypothesis, which would imply an independent origin of orthogrady in pongines and hominines, deserves further testing by accurately inferring the phylogenetic position of European dryopithecins, which might be stem pongines rather than stem hominines.
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Locomotor inferences in Pierolapithecus and Hispanopithecus: Reply to Deane and Begun (2008). J Hum Evol 2010; 59:143-9; discussion 150-4. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.02.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2008] [Revised: 10/13/2009] [Accepted: 10/01/2009] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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Almécija S, Alba DM, Moyà-Solà S. Pierolapithecus and the functional morphology of Miocene ape hand phalanges: paleobiological and evolutionary implications. J Hum Evol 2009; 57:284-97. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.02.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2008] [Revised: 02/03/2009] [Accepted: 02/18/2009] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Nakatsukasa M, Kunimatsu Y. Nacholapithecusand its importance for understanding hominoid evolution. Evol Anthropol 2009. [DOI: 10.1002/evan.20208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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Kelley J, Andrews P, Alpagut B. The hominoid remains from the middle Miocene site of Paşalar, Turkey. J Hum Evol 2008; 54:453-4. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2007.08.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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