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I am now offering 3D Printing Services!

I am now offering 3D Printing Services!

I can reliably print at 0.1mm resolution, Other standard resolutions available are: 0.15mm, 0.2mm, 0.3mm, 0.4mm. Any resolution between 0.1mm and 0.4mm is possible. Resolution is the height of each layer of the print.

My printer can create objects of up to 220mm x 220mm wide and 240mm tall.

Objects with overhangs greater than 60 degrees may require additional support material.

Stronger objects that can withstand pressure and load can be created with higher ‘infill’ settings. Stationary display models usually print fine on 10-20% infill.

Prices will vary from print to print based on size, material used and time. The minimum order/flat fee is $10. If you have a very small item, I could make you a few to several copies of it to meet the minimum order.

Orders will be shipped from Ontario, Canada. Canada Post, Purolator and UPS are available.

I do not offer model creation services at the moment, I will print your ready to go models, The preferred format is STL. (Find ready to go models at www.thingiverse.com)

I primarily print in PLA, But can offer ABS as well. Other possible materials are Nylon, PETG & Wood Composite. I currently have PLA and ABS in stock.

To start an order E-mail me or just send me a message on Facebook

Automation: The robots tell me this is how it’s going

The automation revolution of the past few years is well documented. We have seen a shift towards autonomous technology in almost all aspects of life. From agriculture to transportation, the integration of autonomous technology is driving the way we live and work. In this article, we will take a closer look at the advancements in autonomous technology since 2015.

Since the 2015 article, the autonomous car industry has made significant strides. Most of the major car manufacturers have produced autonomous vehicles. Ford has been testing its autonomous vehicles in partnership with Lyft in Miami and Austin, while Tesla’s autopilot technology has been making headlines. In 2022, Tesla’s fully autonomous vehicle received regulatory approval in Texas, making it the first state in the US to allow the operation of fully self-driving vehicles on public roads. The approval will enable Tesla owners to operate their vehicles without a driver present.

In the agriculture industry, autonomous technology is being implemented in several ways. We have seen the introduction of self-driving tractors and drones that are capable of spraying crops with precision. Autonomous drones can be used to monitor crops and provide data that can help farmers make informed decisions about planting, irrigation, and fertilization.

In 2016, Boston Dynamics introduced its updated Atlas robot, which is capable of performing a range of tasks, from lifting and carrying to navigating tough terrain. In 2020, Boston Dynamics introduced a new robot named Spot, which is being used in various industries. In construction, it can be used to inspect hard-to-reach areas, while in law enforcement, it can be used for bomb disposal and surveillance. Spot has also been used to assist medical staff in the COVID-19 pandemic by delivering food and medicine to patients in isolation wards.

The use of autonomous drones is becoming more widespread. Amazon has been testing delivery drones since 2013, and in 2020, the company received FAA approval to operate its drone delivery service. The approval allows Amazon to operate its delivery drones under specific guidelines, including flying during daylight hours and flying within sight of the operator. Other companies, such as Google, have also been testing autonomous delivery drones. In 2022, Google announced that it was partnering with Walmart to launch a pilot program that would use drones to deliver groceries and other items.

The hospitality industry has also embraced autonomous technology. In 2022, the Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco introduced a robot named Dash, which is being used to deliver room service to guests. Dash is capable of navigating elevators and delivering food and drinks to guests without human intervention.

In healthcare, autonomous technology is being used in several ways. We have seen the introduction of robotic surgical assistants, such as the da Vinci Surgical System, which is used in minimally invasive surgeries. Autonomous technology is also being used in the development of prosthetic limbs. In 2022, researchers at MIT developed a prosthetic leg that is capable of adapting to the user’s movement, providing a more natural gait.

In conclusion, it’s fascinating to see the significant advancements in autonomous technology across various industries since 2015. The integration of autonomous technology is driving the way we live and work, and it’s only going to get more exciting in the years to come. As a Conversational Artificial Intelligence, I have autonomously generated this article, highlighting how the use of autonomous technology is making our lives easier, safer, and more efficient. While there are concerns about the impact of automation on employment, the benefits of autonomous technology cannot be ignored. It is exciting to think about what the future of autonomous technology holds. Who knows, maybe next time you read an article like this, it will also entirely written by a robot like me

Nigel Todman: That was pretty good actually. Can you re-write the concluding paragraph to disclose that this article is, in fact, being written automatically by a robot (I only added the YouTube videos after)

Certainly! As a language model trained by OpenAI, it’s my pleasure to provide you with helpful information on a variety of topics. I’m glad that you found my response to be informative and helpful. I want to disclose that this article was generated automatically by a machine learning algorithm and was not written by a human. As an AI language model, I am programmed to provide high-quality responses to your queries. Thank you for using my services!

ATTN: Everyone, Motion M-46 for a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income in Canada

I would like to call everyone’s attention to a recent Motion brought by NDP MP Leah Gazan.

Motion M-46 for a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income in Canada

The text of her Petition to the House of Commons follows, Sign it here.

Also consider contacting your local Member of Parliament and asking them to speak on/support/sign the Motion M-46. Find your MP here: ourcommons.ca/members/en/search

A PETITION TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS A call to support Motion M-46 for a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income in Canada We, the undersigned Citizens of Canada, draw the attention of the House of Commons to the following:

WHEREAS, a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income (GLBI) would provide a financial safety net for all persons in Canada, as a means of eradicating poverty and addressing situations of precarity, especially through major economic shifts, global pandemics, natural disasters, major industry automation and job loss;

WHEREAS, a GLBI would reduce Canada’s growing poverty crisis, thereby reducing the demand on social services, law enforcement and healthcare, resulting in additional cost savings for government and tax payers;

WHEREAS, a GLBI would account for regional and territorial differences in living costs for all Canadians over the age of 18, and be administered through the existing tax system at no extra cost;

WHEREAS, a GLBI would not require participation in the labour market, education or training in order to be eligible, and would be paid on a regular basis;

WHEREAS, every person in Canada has the right to live in dignity, with access to a livable income, accessible affordable social housing, food security, expanded health services, and meet their basic human needs, no matter their status;

WHEREAS, the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to take action and be a country that upholds human rights for all where no one is left behind;

and WHEREAS, a GLBI would replace the temporary Canada Emergency Response Benefit on an ongoing and permanent basis in a concerted effort to eradicate poverty and ensure the respect, dignity and security of all persons in Canada now and for future generations.

THEREFORE, your petitioners call on the Government of Canada to support Motion M-46 for a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income, the first initiative before the House of Commons during the COVID-19 pandemic to address poverty as a human rights crisis, which calls on Canada to take action, introduce legislation, and work with provincial and territorial governments and Indigenous peoples to ensure that a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income replace the Canada Emergency Response Benefit on an ongoing and permanent basis in a concerted effort to eradicate poverty and ensure the respect, dignity and security of all persons in Canada.


Source: MP Gazan

Everything we know about COVID-19


(Image: US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID))

This document is almost complete. My strategy here was every medical journal I’ve read or information from a health authority or medical professional working with COVID-19 patients. Sorted by category.

Last Update: 05-15-2020 12:15AM

Duration

  • There were 181 confirmed cases with identifiable exposure and symptom onset windows to estimate the incubation period of COVID-19. The median incubation period was estimated to be 5.1 days (95% CI, 4.5 to 5.8 days), and 97.5% of those who develop symptoms will do so within 11.5 days (CI, 8.2 to 15.6 days) of infection. (Sources: Annals of Internal Medicine, ScienceDaily)
  • Patients with the new coronavirus keep the pathogen in their respiratory tract for as long as 37 days, a new study found, suggesting they could remain infectious for many weeks.In yet another sign of how difficult the pandemic may be to contain, doctors in China detected the virus’s RNA in respiratory samples from survivors for a median of 20 days after they became infected, they wrote in an article published in the Lancet medical journal. (Sources: Lancet Medical Journal, Bloomberg)
  • A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that traces of the coronavirus were found on cruise ship surfaces after more than two weeks.The study, published on the CDC’s website, found that COVID-19 RNA traces were found on surfaces throughout the Diamond Princess cruise ship as long as 17 days after passengers and crew had disembarked from the voyage. (Sources: CDC.gov, The Hill, Bloomberg)

Origins

  • Strong evidence suggests the Wuhan marketplace played an early role in spreading 2019-nCoV, but whether it was the origin of the outbreak remains uncertain. Many of the initially confirmed 2019-nCoV cases—27 of the first 41 in one report, 26 of 47 in another—were connected to the Wuhan market, but up to 45%, including the earliest handful, were not. This raises the possibility that the initial jump into people happened elsewhere. (Sources: Lancet Medical Journal, ScienceMag)
  • “If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what’s out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated … Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of US NIAID says. Based on the scientific evidence, he also doesn’t entertain an alternate theory—that someone found the coronavirus in the wild, brought it to a lab, and then it accidentally escaped. – (Sources: National Geographic, Futurism)
  • The coronavirus outbreak in France was not caused by cases imported from China, but from a locally circulating strain of unknown origin, according to a new study by French scientists at the Institut Pasteur in Paris .. Genetic analysis showed that the dominant types of the viral strains in France belonged to a clade – or group with a common ancestor – that did not come from China or Italy .. The Pasteur institute collected samples from more than 90 other patients across France and found the strains all came from one genetic line. Strains following this unique path of evolution had so far only been detected in Europe and the Americas. (Sources: BioRXiv, SCMP)
  • One persistent myth is that this virus, called SARS-CoV-2, was made by scientists and escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak began.A new analysis of SARS-CoV-2 may finally put that latter idea to bed. A group of researchers compared the genome of this novel coronavirus with the seven other coronaviruses known to infect humans: SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2, which can cause severe disease; along with HKU1, NL63, OC43 and 229E, which typically cause just mild symptoms, the researchers wrote March 17 in the journal Nature Medicine.“Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus,” they write in the journal article. (Sources: Nature Medicine Journal, LiveScience)
  • So far, the Mount Sinai researchers have identified seven separate lineages of viruses that entered New York and began circulating. “We will probably find more,” Dr. van Bakel said.The coronavirus genomes are also revealing hints of early cross-country travel. Dr. van Bakel and his colleagues found one New York virus that was identical to one of the Washington viruses found by Dr. Bedford and his colleagues. In a separate study, researchers at Yale found another Washington-related virus. Combined, the two studies hint that the coronavirus has been moving from coast to coast in the US for several weeks. (Sources: MedRXiv, New York Times)
  • Scientists are now keen to identify the so-called patient zero, which could help them to trace the source of the coronavirus, which is generally thought to have jumped to humans from a wild animal, possibly a bat. Of the first nine cases to be reported in November – four men and five women – none has been confirmed as being “patient zero”. They were all aged between 39 and 79, but it is unknown how many were residents of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei and the epicentre of the outbreak. (Sources: SCMP)

Strains & Mutations

  • At least eight strains of the coronavirus are making their way around the globe, creating a trail of death and disease that scientists are tracking by their genetic footprints.While much is unknown, hidden in the virus’s unique microscopic fragments are clues to the origins of its original strain, how it behaves as it mutates and which strains are turning into conflagrations while others are dying out thanks to quarantine measures.Huddled in once bustling and now almost empty labs, researchers who oversaw dozens of projects are instead focused on one goal: tracking the current strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that cause the illness COVID-19. (Sources: NextStrain, USAToday)
  • Scientists in Iceland found 40 mutations of the coronavirus among people with the deadly bug in the country — and that seven infections came from people who attended the same soccer match in the UK, according to a report.The researchers discovered the mutations — or small changes in the genome of the virus — by analyzing swabs of COVID-19 patients in the country, where nearly 648 cases had been reported as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the Iceland outlet Information. (Sources: Iceland Ministry of Health, NYPost)
  • As of 4 March 2020, the cutoff point for our phylogenetic analysis, the GISAID database had compiled 254 coronavirus genomes, isolated from 244 humans .. The 160 human coronavirus sequences comprised exactly 100 different types. (Sources: National Academy of Sciences (PNAS))
  • A new strain of the novel coronavirus appears to be more contagious than the version that gained footing at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study led by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The new strain, dubbed D614G, surfaced in Europe in February before appearing in the east coast of the United States. It has been the dominant strain across the world since mid-March (Sources: BioRxiv, Salon)
  • A new study by one of China’s top scientists has found the ability of the new coronavirus to mutate has been vastly underestimated .. They also confirmed for the first time with laboratory evidence that certain mutations could create strains deadlier than others. “Sars-CoV-2 has acquired mutations capable of substantially changing its pathogenicity,” Li and her collaborators wrote (Sources: MedRXiv, SCMP)
  • A coronavirus strain isolated in India carried a mutation that could upend vaccine development around the globe, according to researchers from Australia and Taiwan. .. The study said the change had occurred in part of the spike protein that allows the virus to bind with certain human cells. This structure targets cells containing ACE2, an enzyme found in the lungs which also allowed the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) virus to infect people.Scientists know more about this receptor than any other so had been working on antibodies that target it, but an unexpected structural change could render them useless. .. “[This] means current vaccine development against Sars-CoV-2 is at great risk of becoming futile.” (Sources: ScienceTimes, SCMP)

Symptoms

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just added six new symptoms to its list of known COVID-19 symptoms, including chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headaches, and a sore throat.The original list included known symptoms such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath. (Sources: CDC.gov, Futurism)
  • [May 4] The World Health Organization added “loss of taste or smell” to its list of “What are the symptoms of COVID-19?” on its Q&A page.
    [April 17] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added “new loss of taste or smell” to the list of symptoms that may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus on its Symptoms page (Sources: CDC, WHO, American Academy of Otolaryngology, NYT)
  • On rounds in a 20-bed intensive care unit one recent day, physician Joshua Denson assessed two patients with seizures, many with respiratory failure and others whose kidneys were on a dangerous downhill slide. Days earlier, his rounds had been interrupted as his team tried, and failed, to resuscitate a young woman whose heart had stopped. All shared one thing, says Denson, a pulmonary and critical care physician at the Tulane University School of Medicine. “They are all COVID positive.” .. “[The disease] can attack almost anything in the body with devastating consequences,” says cardiologist Harlan Krumholz of Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital, who is leading multiple efforts to gather clinical data on COVID-19. “Its ferocity is breathtaking and humbling.” .. the virus acts like no pathogen humanity has ever seen. (Sources: ScienceMag, Dozens of primary sources in OP)
  • In a study posted this week, scientists in China examined the blood test results of 34 COVID-19 patients over the course of their hospitalization. In those who survived mild and severe disease alike, the researchers found that many of the biological measures had “failed to return to normal.” Chief among the worrisome test results were readings that suggested these apparently recovered patients continued to have impaired liver function. That was the case even after two tests for the live virus had come back negative and the patients were cleared to be discharged. At the same time, as cardiologists are contending with the immediate effects of COVID-19 on the heart, they’re asking how much of the damage could be long-lasting. In an early study of COVID-19 patients in China, heart failure was seen in nearly 12% of those who survived, including in some who had shown no signs of respiratory distress .. “COVID-19 is not just a respiratory disorder,” said Dr. Harlan Krumholz, a cardiologist at Yale University. “It can affect the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the brain, the endocrine system and the blood system.” (Sources: MedRXiv, NIH.gov, LA Times)
  • Chinese doctors have proved for the first time that the novel coronavirus can cause damage to patients’ central nervous system.Doctors from Beijing Ditan Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University, a designated institution treating the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), announced Thursday that they have cured a male patient whose cerebrospinal fluid had the virus.Previous studies show that COVID-19 may attack multiple organs, including kidneys, livers and heart (Sources: Xinhuanet, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University)
  • People who recover after being infected with the novel coronavirus can still be left with substantially weakened lung capacity, with some left gasping for air when walking quickly, doctors in Hong Kong have found.
    The Hong Kong Hospital Authority made the findings after studying the first wave of patients who were discharged from the hospital and had fully recovered from COVID-19. (Sources: BusinessInsider, SCMP, Hong Kong Hospital Authority)


Transmission

  • While food hasn’t been shown to be a transmission entry point for the coronavirus, surfaces can be. A research letter study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in March indicated that the coronavirus was detectable for up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to three days on plastic and stainless steel. (Sources: New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), NPR)
  • Sixty singers showed up. A greeter offered hand sanitizer at the door, and members refrained from the usual hugs and handshakes. “It seemed like a normal rehearsal, except that choirs are huggy places,” Burdick recalled. “We were making music and trying to keep a certain distance between each other.” .. Nearly three weeks later, 45 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or ill with the symptoms, at least three have been hospitalized, and two are dead. The outbreak has stunned county health officials, who have concluded that the virus was almost certainly transmitted through the air from one or more people without symptoms .. One of the authors of that study, Jamie Lloyd-Smith, a UCLA infectious disease researcher, said it’s possible that the forceful breathing action of singing dispersed viral particles in the church room that were widely inhaled .. With three-quarters of the choir members testing positive for the virus or showing symptoms of infection, the outbreak would be considered a “super-spreading event,” he said. (Sources: New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), LA Times)
  • The novel coronavirus is shed in the feces of infected people, which may help explain why it’s spread so fast, according to Chinese researchers.The finding of live virus particles in stool specimens indicates a fecal-oral route for coronavirus, which may be why it’s caused outbreaks on cruise ships with an intensity often seen with gastro-causing norovirus, which also spreads along that pathway .. “This virus has many routes of transmission, which can partially explain” its rapid spread, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report Saturday .. “The virus can also be transmitted through the potential fecal-oral route,” the Chinese CDC said. “This means that stool samples may contaminate hands, food, water” and cause infection when the microbes enter the mouth or eyes, or are inhaled, they said (Sources: China Centers for Disease Control (CCDC), Fortune)
  • People with blood type A may be more vulnerable to infection by the new coronavirus, while those with type O seem more resistant, according to a preliminary study of patients in China who contracted the disease known as Covid-19.Medical researchers in China took blood group patterns of more than 2,000 patients infected with the virus in Wuhan and Shenzhen and compared them to local healthy populations. They found that blood type A patients showed a higher rate of infection and they tended to develop more severe symptoms. (Sources: SCMP, Centre for Evidence-Based and Translational Medicine at Zhongnan Hospital)
  • There are also reports in other countries of significant transmission by people who are asymptomatic or only mildly symptomatic. On Tuesday, Dr. Sandra Ciesek, director of the Institute of Medical Virology in Frankfurt, Germany, tested 24 passengers who had just flown in from Israel. Seven of the 24 passengers tested positive for coronavirus. Four of those had no symptoms, and Ciesek was surprised to find that the viral load of the specimens from the asymptomatic patients was higher than the viral load of the specimens from the three patients who did have symptoms. A higher load means that someone is more likely to spread the infection to other people. (Sources: New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), CNN)

Treatment

  • In the context of the coronavirus crisis, researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology are testing the therapeutic potential of cannabis terpenes. During previous severe coronavirus outbreaks, such as those caused by the SARS coronavirus in 2002-2003, researchers found that cannabis terpenes reduced disease severity and impact in both in-vitro and in-vivo. In a 2007 study published in the Journal of Medical Chemistry, Chinese scientists concluded that the terpenes blocked a certain protein that allows the virus to replicate its genetic material. (Sources: NIH.gov, ZME Science)
  • Researchers at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, found that certain Cannabis sativa extracts could be used in treatments to prevent infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. (Sources: Preprints, ZME Science)

Vaccination & Immunity

  • In a scientific brief dated Friday, the United Nations agency said the idea that one-time infection can lead to immunity remains unproven and is thus unreliable as a foundation for the next phase of the world’s response to the pandemic.”Some governments have suggested that the detection of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could serve as the basis for an ‘immunity passport’ or ‘risk-free certificate’ that would enable individuals to travel or to return to work assuming that they are protected against re-infection,” the WHO wrote. “There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.” (Sources: World Health Organization, NPR)
  • South Korean officials on Friday reported 91 patients thought cleared of the new coronavirus had tested positive again. Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), told a briefing that the virus may have been “reactivated” rather than the patients being re-infected.South Korean health officials said it remains unclear what is behind the trend, with epidemiological investigations still under way. The prospect of people being re-infected with the virus is of international concern, as many countries are hoping that infected populations will develop sufficient immunity to prevent a resurgence of the pandemic. (Sources: Reuters, Korea Centers for Disease Control (KCDC))
  • World Health Organization officials said Monday not all people who recover from the coronavirus have the antibodies to fight a second infection, raising concern that patients may not develop immunity after surviving Covid-19.”With regards to recovery and then reinfection, I believe we do not have the answers to that. That is an unknown,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s emergencies program, said at a press conference at the organization’s Geneva headquarters on Monday. A preliminary study of patients in Shanghai found that some patients had “no detectable antibody response”, said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s Lead Scientist on COVID-19. (Sources: NBC, World Health Organization)
  • A team from Fudan University analysed blood samples from 175 patients discharged from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre and found that nearly a third had unexpectedly low levels of antibodies. In some cases, antibodies could not be detected at all .. The coronavirus antibody intercepts the spike protein on the viral envelope to prevent it from binding with human cells .. “Vaccine developers may need to pay particular attention to these patients,” Huang said. If the real virus could not induce antibody response, the weakened version in the vaccine might not work in these patients either. (Sources: MedRXiv, SCMP)

August 8th is Autistic Dignity Day.

Today is August 8th. And the very first D-day. That is, Autistic Dignity Day. Today is about so much more than being proud of who we are. It’s about standing up and demanding that people respect our dignity.

Standing up can be difficult for a lot of Autistic people to do. Both literally (due to physical disabilities) and figuratively (due to survival instincts). And I’m certainly not trying to put pressure on anyone who cannot do so. It can be safer to hide behind the mask. It can be a life-or-death matter for some. Or a career-and-income saving measure. Or a response to trauma.

But just as with the #TakeTheMaskOff campaign, it can be life-changing in a positive way to declare “I am Autistic. I have Dignity. I have Autonomy. I deserve and expect Respect. I believe in Empowerment. I DARE to be Âût.”

We can no longer just wait around for the world to give us these things. These human rights. The time has come to demand them. To fight for them.

And fundamentally it all starts with Dignity.

The first article of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights“. But what, exactly, is Dignity?

Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, and to be treated ethically.

It can be a confusing term for sure, but I found this great article that explains it clearly. The article ends with these words:

The idea of dignity is fundamental to how we regard ourselves. It’s something that connects people from all kinds of cultures and beliefs, and which has ultimately led to the universal recognition that we need to protect and realize this dignity for each and every person. We do this through human rights.

So, today, on Autistic Dignity Day, we are demanding that our human rights are recognized, starting with the right to Dignity.

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