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University at Albany, State University of New York

Theses/Dissertations

2014

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Parallel Adaptation Of Cd4 In Siv-Endemic Gorilla And Pan Lineages, Katie E. Brown Dec 2014

Parallel Adaptation Of Cd4 In Siv-Endemic Gorilla And Pan Lineages, Katie E. Brown

Biological Sciences

The simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) is homologous to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and naturally infects chimpanzees and gorillas in the wild. Some African primate species appear to have evolved resistance to SIV, in that the virus no longer is found in the species or, if infected, individuals within the species show no serious symptoms of simian AIDS (SAIDS). In contrast, Asian primate species do not appear to naturally harbor SIV and, like humans, often progress to AIDS following infection. CD4 is the primary T cell receptor that SIV/HIV interacts with to infect host T cells. Domain 1 (D1) of …

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Cyber Attacked: Could You Be Next?, Sarah Desjardins Dec 2014

Cyber Attacked: Could You Be Next?, Sarah Desjardins

Business/Business Administration

In today’s modern world, companies store the majority of their business information on computer systems. If not properly protected, private data such as customer financial records, trade secrets, and company financials, can be easily compromised. Major data breaches are becoming more frequent, as hackers are becoming more sophisticated. Cyber-attacks have a negative impact on customers, shareholders, employees, and of course the company itself. This paper examines several recent cyber-attacks and explores the reaction to these by the corporations. It examines the potential and verifiable consequences of these attacks and identifies a range of shareholders who can be injured by the …

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Cruise Industry: Size Matters, Christina Antoinette Wedderburn Dec 2014

Cruise Industry: Size Matters, Christina Antoinette Wedderburn

Business/Business Administration

This study investigates the relationships between several measures of market share and specific levels of financial performance. The study focuses directly on the cruise line industry and pairs two significant firms to test the hypothesis. The two firms are Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. When correlating higher market share with the return on assets, operating margin and book-to-market aspect of performance it was discovered that higher market share produces higher productivity and efficiency.

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Are You Trying To Recruit Suicide Bombers Or Something?, Suzanne Weedon Dec 2014

Are You Trying To Recruit Suicide Bombers Or Something?, Suzanne Weedon

Criminal Justice

Suicide terrorism has been extensively studied, although few researchers have been able to arrive at definitive conclusions. Often overlooked is the explanatory potential of evolutionary psychology. This study presents an evolutionary model of suicide terrorism using the principles of kin selection theory and inclusive fitness and offers several predictions about suicide terrorists. To test these predictions, an experimental design was constructed in which participants randomly received one of nine separate scenarios in which they were told that they were a member of a marginalized ethnic group and asked if they would be willing to commit a suicide bombing against their …

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The Politics Of Happiness In The Workplace, Jacob Shay Sherretts Dec 2014

The Politics Of Happiness In The Workplace, Jacob Shay Sherretts

Political Science

Although the realm of political theory has often focused on what makes an individual happy, there is a lack of analysis on what factors within a career environment best serve to increase an individual’s satisfaction. By comparing indicators such as the region a workplace is located in, the ability of an individual to pursue career goals and the amount of autonomy an employee is allowed, a better understanding can be made on what conditions are optimal for satisfaction in the workplace. After these factors are compared, the findings are then analyzed under the lens of respected political thinkers in order …

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Constituting A Revolution: Gouverneur Morris, John Quincy Adams, And The French Revolution’S Imprint On American Identity, Tyler Norton May 2014

Constituting A Revolution: Gouverneur Morris, John Quincy Adams, And The French Revolution’S Imprint On American Identity, Tyler Norton

History Honors Program

Much of the traditional scholarship of the Early American Republic agrees that the national identity of the United States was solidified in 1789. A government and nation emerged from the Constitutional Convention, they argue. While the framers produced a governing document and a system of institutions in Philadelphia that summer, notions of American identity remained fluid. In fact, contemporary events that occurred beyond the United States’ borders left a lasting imprinting on conceptualizations of self and identity. In particular, the French Revolution (1789 – 1794) played a defining role. This paper argues that the development of national identity in the …

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In Vivo Analysis Of Riboswitch Activity Using Luciferase Assays, Jason Kartis May 2014

In Vivo Analysis Of Riboswitch Activity Using Luciferase Assays, Jason Kartis

Biological Sciences

Riboswitches are a type of RNA structure found on messenger RNAs that function in gene expression regulation. The preQ1 riboswitch is particularly interesting to study because it contains a relatively small aptamer binding region and it is not essential in E. coli for the organism's survival, allowing in vivo experimentation in a viable organism. Upon ligand binding to the aptamer, a hairpin-type RNA pseudoknot forms, which functions to turn off the gene using a premature transcriptional termination mechanism. However, in some species studied, this terminator hairpin possesses enough thermodynamic stability that it is doesn't unfold upon release of the ligand. …

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The Effect Of Harsh Parenting On Anxiety Levels In Adolescents As Moderated By Rsa And Family Stability, Laura B. Welburn May 2014

The Effect Of Harsh Parenting On Anxiety Levels In Adolescents As Moderated By Rsa And Family Stability, Laura B. Welburn

Psychology

The present study examines the relation between harsh parenting experienced during adolescence on anxiety symptoms during adulthood as moderated by the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity and family stability. Participants completed questionnaires assessing parenting styles, the regularity or family activities, and current anxiety symptoms (61 adults; mean age = 19.39 years; 50.8% European American; 47.5% male). PNS activity was measured by resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). The results suggest that among males, relatively high RSA buffers the effects of harsh parenting on anxiety symptoms. Also, for males, the stability of home life at relatively high levels can be a protective …

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The Role Of Transfer-Appropriate Processing In The Testing Effect, Mary T. Veltre May 2014

The Role Of Transfer-Appropriate Processing In The Testing Effect, Mary T. Veltre

Psychology

The testing effect is the finding that taking a review test enhances performance on a final test relative to merely restudying the material. I investigated the role of transfer-appropriate processing in the testing effect using semantic cues to evoke conceptual processing and orthographic cues to evoke data-driven processing. After an initial study phase, subjects either restudied the material or took a cued recall test consisting of half semantic cues and half orthographic cues. Two days later, all of the subjects returned for a final cued recall test. The final test consisted of the exact same cue given for that target …

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The Effect Of Emotional Intelligence On The Relationship Between Negative Mood And Risk Taking, Gabriela Melillo May 2014

The Effect Of Emotional Intelligence On The Relationship Between Negative Mood And Risk Taking, Gabriela Melillo

Psychology

Emotional intelligence is conceptualized as encompassing perception, utilization, and management of emotion. Research suggests that the managing one’s own emotions subscale (MOE) may be particularly relevant to risky behaviors such as substance use and gambling. The present study examined the effects of emotional intelligence and mood manipulation on risk taking. Participants were randomly assigned to a positive, negative, or neutral mood condition. Baseline measures of mood state were obtained by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), followed by self-report questionnaires. Participants were then presented with a brief film clip for the mood manipulation. Immediately thereafter, a second PANAS was …

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The Role Of Social Expressiveness Expectancies And Body Image In College Students’ Alcohol Use: A Moderation Model, Ashley Zenner May 2014

The Role Of Social Expressiveness Expectancies And Body Image In College Students’ Alcohol Use: A Moderation Model, Ashley Zenner

Psychology

This study examined the role of social expressiveness expectancies in the relationship between body image and alcohol use and explored possible gender differences. Body image, social expressiveness expectancies, alcohol use and consequences from alcohol use were examined using a moderation model. Based on the responses of 265 college students (160 women and 88 men) to self-report questionnaires the findings showed that women with poor body image and high social expressiveness expectancies used alcohol significantly more than women who did not have a poor body image. For men, no such relationship was observed. Contrary to hypotheses, negative consequences from alcohol use …

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Are Un-Registered Hedge Funds More Likely To Misreport Returns?, Jorge Perez May 2014

Are Un-Registered Hedge Funds More Likely To Misreport Returns?, Jorge Perez

Financial Analyst

This paper seeks to introduce an empirical finance analysis of the relationship between misreporting behavior in hedge funds at the return level and registration as an investment adviser with the SEC, a law that has been enacted, overturned and re-enacted in the last decade. We hypothesize that hedge funds that are not registered with the SEC will be more likely to misreport returns so that a fund will seem as if it is generating positive returns more often than not. We test our hypothesis on the return level by conducting several statistical tests and regression models on hedge fund monthly …

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Tourism And Globalization In Latin America And The Caribbean: The Ethics And Concerns Of Mass Tourism And Ecotourism, Dana Kamens May 2014

Tourism And Globalization In Latin America And The Caribbean: The Ethics And Concerns Of Mass Tourism And Ecotourism, Dana Kamens

Anthropology

The ethics of ecotourism and mass tourism have different implications on the local populations and environment in developing regions, such as in Latin America and the Caribbean. This paper explores the ethics related to these two types of tourism, what the advantages and disadvantages of combining them would be, how they affect the local populations and environment, and the necessary actions to successfully change and create a sustainable tourism industry. Information and examples from various authors and their scholarly research were used to formulate a discussion about the ethics of ecotourism and mass tourism. Overall, the importance of creating a …

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Mjo Influence In Continental United States Temperatures, Ernesto W. Findlay May 2014

Mjo Influence In Continental United States Temperatures, Ernesto W. Findlay

Atmospheric & Environmental Sciences

Heat and cold episodes in the continental United States (U.S.) affect millions of people each year. Severe episodes can cause crop damage, power failure, heat stress and hypothermia. The predictability of these extreme events decreases significantly after one week. It is, therefore, essential for scientists to discover new ways to forecast these events weeks in advance, which will provide society ample of prior warning to prepare. The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is one of the largest drivers of weather in the tropics (Madden and Julian 1971, 1994). Previous studies have found relationships between the MJO and midlatitude modes of climatic variability, …

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“Southerly Mohawk Hudson Convergence”- An Exploratory Case Study Of Terrain-Induced Wind Convergence On The Formation Of Thunderstorms In New York’S Capital Region, Christine Elizabeth Bloecker May 2014

“Southerly Mohawk Hudson Convergence”- An Exploratory Case Study Of Terrain-Induced Wind Convergence On The Formation Of Thunderstorms In New York’S Capital Region, Christine Elizabeth Bloecker

Atmospheric & Environmental Sciences

Southerly Mohawk-Hudson Convergence (SMHC) is a mesoscale phenomenon over New York’s Capital Region whereby a southwesterly wind flow over Eastern New York is channeled by the mountainous terrain westerly through the Mohawk River Valley and southerly through the Hudson River Valley. When these winds converge over the Capital Region, thunderstorms may suddenly erupt, disrupting air and ground traffic in the area. On rare occasions, these storms may be severe. This is the first comprehensive study to be conducted on this phenomenon. Climatology was compiled and showed that SMHC occurs on average at least twice a year. A case study was …

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The Effects Of Downsloping On Storm Precipitation Distributions In The Capital District Of New York State, Kyle James Pallozzi May 2014

The Effects Of Downsloping On Storm Precipitation Distributions In The Capital District Of New York State, Kyle James Pallozzi

Atmospheric & Environmental Sciences

Downsloping is a process which has an impact on many precipitation events in the Capital District of New York State. This study examines the effect of 850 hPa and 925 hPa mean vector wind direction, as well as the individual 850 hPa and 925 hPa wind directions observed through soundings, during precipitation events on precipitation distributions in the Capital District of New York State. Results from this study suggests that 850 hPa and 925 hPa mean vector wind as well as the 850 hPa and 925 hPa wind favor downsloping off of the Greens and Taconics, and therefore lower precipitation …

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Theoretical Consequence Of Social Media And Retail Marketing, Jessica Wald May 2014

Theoretical Consequence Of Social Media And Retail Marketing, Jessica Wald

Business/Business Administration

Social media has become a focus of marketing within the past few years. Companies have changed their advertising approach to adapt to the new audience utilizing social media. Social media itself is such a vague phrase, but it encompasses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr, and countless more websites. Throughout the course of this thesis, I look at two well-known companies, Starbucks and McDonald’s, and compare them, focusing on their social media usage. My focus is looking at how these two worldwide companies use their Facebook pages, Twitter pages, and Instagram accounts to promote their own brand image and …

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The Cost Of Corporate Carelessness, Genesis Tejeda May 2014

The Cost Of Corporate Carelessness, Genesis Tejeda

Business/Business Administration

In this thesis, I will be discussing the financial ramifications of the parties affected by BP’s carelessness in the days preceding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. Before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred, there were a series of strategic decisions that BP and its executives made that caused the Macondo well to explode approximately 48 miles off the coast of Louisiana at 9:56 pm on April 20, 2010. After the explosion of the well and the subsequent 5 million gallons of oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, there were …

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What Effect Do Rumors Have On Publicly Traded Sports Teams?, Paul Karasaridis May 2014

What Effect Do Rumors Have On Publicly Traded Sports Teams?, Paul Karasaridis

Business/Business Administration

This paper explores the effects of rumors on stock prices. It targets publicly traded soccer teams to see what impact rumors of players transferring, in and out of teams, has on their respective stock returns. A total of 56 rumors are being used in the analysis. An event study is conducted around the dates of each transfer rumor in order to examine what types of abnormalities exist in the returns of the stock. To further investigate this study, a cross sectional analysis is being performed to see whether player reputation, player status, and future validity of the rumors had more …

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Long-Term Hospitalization And The Impact On Emotional Well-Being Of A Child, Ashley Chung May 2014

Long-Term Hospitalization And The Impact On Emotional Well-Being Of A Child, Ashley Chung

Sociology

The question I attempt to answer with my research is: How does long-term hospitalization impact the emotional well-being of a child? I am measuring the impact on development and emotional state that hospitalization has on an individual that is still in the process of determining their self-identity, while also identifying the consequences of childhood illness. A necessary emphasis is placed on the vulnerability created by long-term hospitalization and the separation from home; a focus on the feelings of isolation and loss of security created by loved ones is essential in understanding the role that family plays in the hospitalization of …

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Bio Roll-Up: Self-Assembling Scaffolds For Tissue Engineering, Chase Austyn Brisbois May 2014

Bio Roll-Up: Self-Assembling Scaffolds For Tissue Engineering, Chase Austyn Brisbois

Nanoscale Science & Engineering (discontinued with class year 2014)

There is an unmet need for controlled, dynamic cell scaffolds that will generate 3-D monolayers of epithelial cells for medical research and tissue engineering. Here we describe a system that uses photoimageable and biocompatible HEMA-based hydrogel bilayers that self-assemble from 2-D substrates into 3-D tube-shaped structures. These structures are patterned on top of another layer that demonstrates an ability to anchor the assembled structure and control the direction and extent of selfassembly. Cell viability was determined by MTT assay which shows material components comparable with the positive control (80-110%). Finally, the masks used in the experiments herein were redesigned to …

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Y Et Là En Français Franco-Américain, Matthew Kelly May 2014

Y Et Là En Français Franco-Américain, Matthew Kelly

Languages, Literatures & Cultures

L’usage de y et là en français franco-américain diffère considérablement de celui du français standard. Là où les locuteurs de la variété standard utilise le clitique pronominal y pour exprimer l’anglais there, les Franco-Américains souvent choisit de utiliser l’adverbe là, ce qui représente de plus proche la structure syntaxique en anglais. Cette variation des mots ainsi que les environnements où y est le plus probable d’être trouvé sont souvent imprévisibles, et le manque de recherche précédente sur ce phénomène dans les variétés de français autre que le standard ne facilite pas la création d’une hypothèse qui peut expliquer l’usage.

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Ideophones In Manyika Shona: A Descriptive Analysis Of Ideophones And Their Function In Manyika (Bantu), Genevieve E. Franck May 2014

Ideophones In Manyika Shona: A Descriptive Analysis Of Ideophones And Their Function In Manyika (Bantu), Genevieve E. Franck

Linguistics

Ideophones are a class of words which occur in many languages throughout the world, but are relatively uncommon in English. Though often mimetic, ideophones are not to be confused with onomatopoeia since they extend well beyond the narrow scope of sound only symbolism. In the past, ideophones have been difficult for linguists to categorize and understand due to their limited usage in many of their native European languages. These words are marked due to their divergent phonology, morphology, syntax, or all of the above. Ideophones often vividly depict one or more sensory events, ranging from sight to emotion. This paper …

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Adjectives, Be Verbs, And Derterminers In Manyika Shona, Grace Teubl May 2014

Adjectives, Be Verbs, And Derterminers In Manyika Shona, Grace Teubl

Linguistics

Manyika is a dialect of Shona, a Bantu language spoken in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Like many Bantu languages, Manyika has a noun class system, which affects the morphology and phonology of many parts of speech including nouns, verbs, adjectives, and determiners. In this paper, noun class is studied in relation to adjectives, stative verbs, and determiners. In addition, there is a section on the use of the be-verb in Manyika Shona, and a section on combinations of determiners and the syntax of the determiner phrases.

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The Black And The Blue: Comedy, Laughter, And Deformity In Ellison’S Invisible Man, Olivia Grace Popiel May 2014

The Black And The Blue: Comedy, Laughter, And Deformity In Ellison’S Invisible Man, Olivia Grace Popiel

English

In Ralph Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man, comedy plays an important yet convoluted role. In his own rendering of the Blues Aesthetic, Ellison is able to present laughter and humor as a healthy and natural reaction to painful and distressing events. The significance of this technique, which builds upon double consciousness , is evident in Ellison’s many essays, where he suggests that laughter may be the only way for America to accept the crude reality of its foundations and move forward. In my thesis, I differentiate between four general types of comedy found in Invisible Man. These can be summarized as …

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Breaking Bad: On The Western Genre And Audience Reception, Marisa Mazart May 2014

Breaking Bad: On The Western Genre And Audience Reception, Marisa Mazart

English

“Breaking Bad: on the Western Genre and Audience Reception” examines the recent TV series Breaking Bad making use of cultural scholar Stuart Hall’s encoding and decoding theories in order to better understand what meaning is imbued into the series and what meaning is extracted by the audiences. By treating Breaking Bad as a cultural artifact moving across what Hall defines as the parts of the circuit of culture – production, identification, representation, consumption and regulation – I will be able to answer the question of why the show is so popular and to consider the significance of that popularity. While …

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The Sanity Of Furor Poeticus: Romanticism’S Demystification Of Madness And Creativity, Joseph Meringolo May 2014

The Sanity Of Furor Poeticus: Romanticism’S Demystification Of Madness And Creativity, Joseph Meringolo

English

Art and medicine have historically exchanged axioms for understanding mental illness, negotiating a lexicon with which afflicted artists can articulate their experience. This exchange, however, has been problematic. The mentally ill have had to conform to explanatory paradigms that are often inadequate, and cultural mores stemming from the scientific misunderstanding of “madness” have often stigmatized mental illness. These include misconceptions about the source of creative genius as residing in either the divine or the unconscious, the cultural fashioning of the “mad poet” identity, and the idealization of certain types of mental illness as “artistically valuable.” This study will show, however, …

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The Isolated Self: A Re-Imaging Of The Individual In Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein And Mamoru Oshii’S Ghost In The Shell, Emily Wierzbowski May 2014

The Isolated Self: A Re-Imaging Of The Individual In Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein And Mamoru Oshii’S Ghost In The Shell, Emily Wierzbowski

English

Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein and Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell films (1995 and 2004) were both created in times of great upheaval in scientific communities, and show that the further away we get from the organic body, the harder it becomes to articulate what is specifically human through dualisms. Shelley was writing during a period of secularization. Human identity and relations were no longer strictly based on one’s relationship to God or one’s family’s standing. Oshii’s work comes in the midst of the arrival of the new digital age. Medical enhancements and the proliferation of communication technologies such as …

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Riffing On The Past: Jazz And Signifying In Ishmael Reed’S Mumbo Jumbo, Kevin Wheeler May 2014

Riffing On The Past: Jazz And Signifying In Ishmael Reed’S Mumbo Jumbo, Kevin Wheeler

English

Jazz. A word that today signifies cool cats in dark sunglasses and black turtlenecks, a word that brings to mind the—predominantly white—big bands of World War yore, or that singular, immediately recognizable rasp of Louis Armstrong. It’s a word that reminds one of names like Miles, Coltrane and Coleman. Maybe even a man whose last name, for most intents and purposes, is the letter G. Many, however, do not associate jazz with racism, repression, and, perhaps most surprising, a disease that renders its victims hysteric and prone to fits of dance. But if they were to read either Ishmael Reed’s …

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Ideology And Subversion: Linguistic Registers In Barbara Kingsolver’S The Poisonwood Bible, Natalie Wallace May 2014

Ideology And Subversion: Linguistic Registers In Barbara Kingsolver’S The Poisonwood Bible, Natalie Wallace

English

Effective colonial regimes have employed language to control and incapacitate their colonial subjects. However, anti-colonialist and Africanist authors have conversely used language as a significantly powerful tool in resisting colonial and neo-colonial discourses. Despite this subversive sentiment in contemporary literature about Africa, many scholars criticize Western authors, in particular, for their works about African nations, peoples, and struggles, noting their tendencies to generalize about a diverse continent, to project Western paradigms onto African contexts, and to disregard their own associations with colonial governments. Barbara Kingsolver’s 1998 novel The Poisonwood Bible has received much critical attention as a work that deplores …

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