september 2011issue 3

science and technology news and views magazineSlim

In This Slim Edition :

C H E M I S T R Y CROSSWORD

INSIDE

T H E B P C R I S I S

THE LHC & THE STANDARD MODEL

C Y B E R T E R R O R I S M

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EditorialSlim Issue 3 - September 2011

Greetings readers!

We present to you our most recent issue of SATNAV slim that coin-cides with the arrival of the new academic year! In addition to welcoming back our previous read-ers, this time of year enables us to extend our hands to a new influx of potential readers – the new fresh-ers of 2011. So as well as welcom-ing you to our magazine we would also like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the University itself – you are going to love it! For those of you who haven’t come across SATNAV before, whether that is because you are new to the Uni or just the magazine - we are the student run, official science magazine for the University (and we are awesome!).

The new academic year brings with it the resurrection of all that is stu-dent life – of course this will mean different things for each of us, but for many it will probably consist of an overwhelming sense of trying to cram in as many things as pos-sible in to each 24 hour period. So students, when you are next sitting at your desk cramming for an exam

in to the early hours of the morn-ing, trying to fit a gym session in before lectures or alternatively deciding between doing a shift at work or going to fab, you may be forgiven for wishing you were a Phreatichthys andruzzii. This cave-fish that has just been discovered living in the deep caves under the Somali desert has been isolated in complete darkness for almost two million years, evolving without a day-night cycle. The result of this is their circadian rhythm has evolved in response to this lack of light and consequently their body clock has shifted from the typical 24 hours to 47 hours – meaning each of their ‘days’ is almost twice as long as ours! If only evolution would be so kind to us…

Please read on and enjoy this issue where we continue our quest for protection of the plant, evaluate the growth of the mobile phone and give you an insight in to particle acceleration! Our writers have done a wonderful job again – so a huge thank you for that! We would also like to thank the SATNAV team for the produc-tion of this magazine. Check us

Editorial 2Biodiversity In Plants: Why Should I Care? 3Are We On The Edge Of A Mobile Phone Crunch? 4Cyberterrorism 5CERN Series Part1 Motivation For The LHC And The Standard Model 6The BP Crisis: When Are We Going To Stop? 8Crossword : Know Your Chemistry? 10

Cont

ents

out at www.satnavmag.co.uk for the full edition and search SATNAV on facebook where we can keep you updated with all that is going on! You will also find us around campus in the next couple of weeks recruiting new writers/designers for the SATNAV team, we are all very friendly and always welcome new members so come and say hello!

Enjoy!

Jade and Andy

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Biodiversity in Plants: Why Should I Care?

Conservation: ask the average person what this word means to them, and they might think of images of cute tigers, or a lonely polar bear balanced precariously on an ice floe. Indeed these are species at risk of extinction, but behind these charismatic icons, a greater and more pernicious danger lies: the staggering rate of loss of plant biodiversity.

Plants are vitally important. They provide food, medicines, orna-ments, habitats, raw materials, fuel, carbon sinks and myriads of other amenities to humans and other life forms. They produce oxygen through photosynthe-sis: 20% of the world’s oxygen is estimated to come from the Amazon rainforest alone. Rice is a staple food for over half the world’s population, and grains of all kinds are now the basis of the global human diet, feeding over six billion people. Many medi-cines, including aspirin, morphine, digitalis, quinine and the anti-cancer drugs vincristine and taxol all originated from plants, and it is estimated that 25-50% of medicines approved for use in the USA contain either plant-derived active ingredients, or synthetic or

modified versions of compounds originally identified in plants.

When reminded of the huge importance of plants as a natural resource, it is worrying that cur-rent rates of plant extinction have been estimated at 100-1000 times the natural background extinction rate. The Sampled Red List Index, a report published by Kew and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in September this year, described one out of every five known species of plant as threatened by extinction.

The crisis deepens when you consider that these figures are only for known species – many others we may never be aware of. A 25 acre plot of tropical rainforest can contain nearly 700 species of tree – equivalent to the total tree diversity in North America – and

yet this area of tropical rainforest is being lost approximately every 17 seconds.

Plants are essentially the bottom of a house of cards: remove them and everything else collapses. For a top predator such as a tiger or bear to go extinct would be a shame, to be sure. But it would not be as catastrophic for bio-diversity and the ecosystem as a whole as the extinction of the 20% of plants that are currently threatened would be. Plants are relied upon by so many other species, from bacteria and fungi to herbivores large and small, and, ultimately, humans. So will we be seeing adverts to ‘sponsor a Lady’s Slipper Orchid’ or ‘donate just £2 a month to the Society for the Pro-tection of Vietnamese Conifers’? It seems unlikely, but action must be taken, and soon.

Stephanie SmithBiosciences MSci

Current rates

of plant extinction have been estimated at 100-1000 times the natural background

extinction rate.

Laura Nunes

We all have at least once experi-enced a break-down in our mobile network, especially in big crowds during sporting events or gigs. People living in big cities like London and New York face this problem increasingly more often. And it threatens to get worse. When the 3G network was rolled out a decade ago, cellphone con-gestion seemed almost unreason-able. Then Apple launched the iPhone and have sold 50 million devices since. Think of the mobile network as a motorway that is built for the BlackBerry of Mer-cedes and the iPhone of BMW. Hence it wasn’t especially crowd-ed 10 years ago. But every now and again traffic jams began oc-curring. The computing company Cisco predicted that if the growth in smartphone popularity contin-

ues in this vein, mobile traffic will double every year for the next four years. Thus the occasional congestions will get worse. ‘Something has to be done!’ scream the terrified social net-workers. Luckily, there are a few magical ways to widen the mo-torway. In a recent article, New Scientist explains that additional lanes could be added to the over-crowded road if the military, TV broadcasters and satellite communications give up a few pairs of 5MHz chunks of spectrum to the mobile operators. But that might take a lot of bureaucratic work, and yet not get close enough to the fill the

Are We On The Edge Of AMobile Phone Crunch?

If the growth

in smartphone popularity continues in this vein, mobile traffic

will double every year for the next four years.

quickly increasing demand. In the US they have found their answer – tax iPhone owners more or cap their internet allowance - are the days of unlimited browsing over? Fortunately, increasing the fees is not always the only way. Cheap mobile phone trans-mitters, similar to wireless routers, could be plugged into broadband connections already installed in almost every home and office. By shifting the traffic onto the internet, they would bypass smartphone transmitters even

when users are out. It would even make mobile communications more energy

efficient! But the operators need to sort out the expected technical struggles as soon as possible, because the demand for unlim-ited internet won’t fade away

that easily. Now that we’ve tried it, could we ever live without it?

Teodora Barzakova

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Know your Chemistry?AcrossA process commonly used to separate mixtures which contain mobile and stationary phases.The most abundant element that is liquid at room tempera-ture.A hard, porous material used in the Iron smelting process.Two compounds with the same molecular formula but differ-ent structural formulas are...The pigment that gives leaves their green colour.The thermodynamic property that is defined by the second

law of thermodynamics.

DownThe process of reacting many monomer molecules together to form a polymer chain.Smelly compounds containing rings of delocalised electrons.Non-polar molecules that repel water are...The most abundant element in our galaxy.A constant with value 1.38x10-23.A process involving the reaction of Nitrogen gas and Hydrogen gas over an enriched Iron or Ruthenium catalyst, resulting in the production of ammonia.A mixture of multiple liquids that are normally immiscible is commonly referred to as an...Latin for lead.A xanthine alkaloid that many people use as a psychoactive stimulant in the mornings.An element who’s name originates from the Greek word for Sun.

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Over the past few months ever in-creasing hype has been surround-ing the emergence of a new type of battlefield; one that does not exist in the tangible world. The threat of cyber warfare and cyber terrorism has been the subject of intense debate and media inter-est, gaining significant presence in The National Security Strategy outlined by HM Government in October of last year and in the Security Threat Report published by Sophos (an internet security company) in January 2010.If a fully fledged cyber attack were to be implemented against this country, we could expect all the following systems to be potential targets:

-Financial markets-Communication networks (including those used by the emergency services)-Smart power grids -Nuclear power stations-Social networking sites-Traffic systems-Water and sewerage systems

New targets could also now include certain industrial control systems, which have also been identified as under threat. Attack-ers in the know could change vital settings on an untold number of

industrial systems across the UK. They could potentially change anything from food distribution routes, by feeding the drivers with false information, to reducing the safety of any vulnerable machine, by disabling safety features and safe-guards. A more cunning ter-rorist could exploit vulnerabilities in the financial sectors and skim off undetectable amounts of money, with the aim of funding other devious exploits.At the moment, fears that fully fledged cyber war will break out between sovereign states such as the US, UK, Russia and China are being downplayed. However, all of these nations now see the In-ternet as a useful extension of the conventional battleground; using it to infiltrate security systems to gain information about other nations activities. For example, the Sophos report suggests that such techniques were used to target suspected nuclear sites in both Korea and Syria.Cyber terrorism on the other hand is perceived to be a much greater threat, with attacks such as those experienced by Twitter in December 2009, where visitors to the site were redirected to a website claiming to belong to the “Iranian Cyber Army”, becoming

Cyberterrorismmore common. But this is not the extent of what malevolent hackers could potentially do. It has been identified that many computer applications running vital national services and financial computer systems are open to attack by competent hackers. The risks posed by the cyber savvy harbingers of doom are not taken lightly, with the formation of the US Cyber Command in June 2010 with the UK soon to follow with a similar system; global govern-ments are taking the situation very seriously. Both the UK and In-dia have confirmed plans to set up online tracking systems designed to sniff out criminal and danger-ous behaviour on the Internet.Although cyber attacks could potentially wreak havoc on this country, those in the know sug-gest that most of our enemies do not possess the core skills required to hack such sophisti-cated systems. With the global eye firmly on the information security sector, we can be sure that both British and Global security agen-cies will have many teams of cyber do-gooders watching our backs, protecting us from the dastardly misdoings of the dark side.

James Churm

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SATNAV Magazine at the University of Birmingham

CERN Series:Part I

Motivation For The LHC And The Standard Model

So why do scientists want to accelerate particles anyway? When this was first achieved in the early 1930s, the eventual goal was to induce nuclear fission (splitting the atom) by firing an energetic particle into a large atomic nucleus. However, during some of these early experiments, new particles such as the muon were discovered. This prompted advances in particle acceleration and detection, to reach higher energies and to see what other particles could be found. By col-liding two fast-moving particles together, the energy available to create new particles is even higher. The 1950s and 1960s saw the observation of a whole raft

of new particles. Initially it was supposed that they had no sub-structure and that there could be an infinite number of these, but theoretical physicists concluded that all matter is made from a total of 12 quarks and leptons, and that antimatter (particles which have the same properties as matter but with opposite electric charge) is made of 12 antimatter equiva-lents. All interactions between particles occur due to four dif-ferent forces, which have carrier particles called bosons. However, not all of these had been discov-ered at the time. The theory based on these particles has become known as the Standard Model, and it still describes most of parti-

cle physics as we know it today.Quarks form the bulk of what we see. There are six types (or “flavours”): down, up, strange,

charm, bottom and top. The light-est, most stable are the down and up quarks, which form the protons and neutrons which make up the nuclei of atoms. The strange and charm quarks are less stable, and particles made from these, such as the kaon and lambda, were first discovered around 1947. The unusual choices of name repre-sent the strange quark being quite unexpected, and the charm quark being a very welcome find due to it making the theory symmetric. The bottom quark was not discov-ered until 1977 and the top quark not until 1995, both at Fermilab in Illinois, USA. They have much

jcf/flickr

The Large Hadron Collider is the most ambitious particle accelerator ever created. However, the basic principle of accelerating particles to learn about advanced physics is not new. The LHC builds on several decades of success in particle physics, both at CERN and elsewhere, Julian Evans explains some of the physics they hope to understand from this.

All matter is

made from a total of 12 quarks and leptons,

and that antimatter (par-ticles which have the same

properties as matter but with opposite electric charge) is

made of 12 antimatter equivalents.

SATNAV Magazine at the University of Birmingham

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greater mass and cannot exist for more than a trillionth of a second before decaying, particularly the top quark. The Standard Model had predicted their existence be-fore they were discovered, to fit the mathematics. Quarks are only ever found in nature in groups of three (baryons), or in a quark-antiquark pair (mesons), which are collectively called hadrons. For instance, a proton is made of two “up” quarks and one “down” quark, and a neutron from two downs and an up. Most other combinations are far less stable.The other family of particles are the leptons: the electron, muon, tau particle and three neutrinos. They differ from quarks in that they are found alone. The muon and tau are similar to the electron in that they have the same charge, but are heavier and unstable, hence them not being detected often – the tau was only discov-ered in 1975. Each of the neutri-nos represents one of the other leptons. They have an extremely low mass and do not interact with much – their presence can only be inferred from the laws of physics. Every lepton also has an antimat-ter counterpart.The four forces of nature are grav-ity, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear interac-tions. Each is carried by a particle, except for gravity. Electromag-netism is carried by the photon, a “packet” of light. The strong interaction is carried by gluons, which act on the so-called colour charge of quarks. The weak inter-action is carried by the W and Z bosons, which were discovered in the late 1970s at CERN, shortly af-ter they had been theorised. This was another major success for the Standard Model. It is still not com-plete, however. The one theorised particle yet to be discovered is the Higgs boson, which gives mass to the others, and is needed to

justify the very existence of mass. If the Higgs is not discovered (and if it exists, the LHC will almost certainly find it), a new theory will have to be developed, which may

predict yet more particles. Any future particle accelerators would have to be tailored to search for these.Other insights should be gained from the LHC, such as proof of the existence (or non-existence) of supersymmetric particles, which were first suggested in the 1960s, although no attempts were made to combine it with the Standard Model until around 1981. These would help greatly to explain

The one theorised particle

yet to be discovered is the Higgs boson, which

gives mass to the others, and is needed to justify

the very existence of mass.

some more of particle physics’s current mysteries. For example, one might reasonably expect that due to the symmetrical nature of much of physics, that there might be equal amounts of matter and antimatter in the universe – how-ever significantly more matter has been observed. Much of the mass in the universe is dark mat-ter, the composition of which is still unknown, and it is thought that this may be supersymmetric. There is no direct evidence for the existence of supersymmetry yet though, and there are many other theories which attempt to explain the nature of the universe. All we can do for now is wait for the right collision.

Julian Evans

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School of BiosciencesMSc in Analytical Genomics

MSc in Biological Recording: Collection and ManagementMSc in Molecular Biotechnology

MSc/Diploma in OrnithologyMSc in Toxicology

MRes in Molecular Mechanistic ToxicologyMRes in Conservation and Utilisation of Plant Genetic

ResourcesMRes in Molecular and Cellular Biology

School of Physics and AstronomyMSc Taught 1 year course in Physics and Technology of

Nuclear ReactorsMSc Taught 1 year course in Medical and Radiation Physics

PhD/MPhil in Astrophysics and Space ResearchPhD/MPhil in Cold Atoms

PhD/MPhil in Condensed MatterPhD/MPhil in Nanoscale Physics

PhD/MPhil in Nuclear PhysicsPhD/MPhil in Particle Physics

PhD/MPhil in Solar and Stellar PhysicsPhD/MPhil in Theoretical Physics

School of Chemical EngineeringPhD with integrated study in hydrogen, fuel cells and their

applications PhD/MPhil Bioprocessing

PhD/MPhil Energy Engineering PhD/MPhil Food Processing

PhD/MPhil Speciality Chemical Products PhD with Integrated Study in Chemical Engineering

MRes in Chemical Engineering Science MRes in Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and their Applications

MSc/Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Chemical Engi-neering

MSc/Postgraduate Diploma in Biochemical EngineeringMSc/Postgraduate Diploma in Food Safety, Hygiene and

ManagementMSc Air Pollution Management and Control

Engineering Doctorate in Formulation Engineering

School of Mechanical EngineeringPostgraduate Certificate/Diploma/Masters in Engineering

ManagementPostgraduate Certificate/Diploma/Masters in Operations

ManagementPostgraduate Certificate/Diploma/Masters in Project

Management

 School of Civil Engineering PhD/MPhil in Railways and Resilience and SustainabilityMSc/Diploma/Certificate in Construction Management MSc/Diploma/Certificate in Geotechnical Engineering

MSc/Diploma/Certificate in Geotechnical Engineering and Management

MSc/Diploma/Certificate in Railway Systems Engineering and Integration

MSc/Diploma/Certificate in Road Management and Engi-neering

MSc/Diploma/Certificate in Water Resources Technology and Management

School of Electronic, Electrical and Computer EngineeringMSc in Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering

MSc in Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering with Industrial Studies

MSc in Communication EngineeringMSc in Communications Engineering with Industrial Studies

MSc in Satellite and Mobile CommunicationsMSc in Satellite and Mobile Communications with Industrial

StudiesMSc in Communications Networks

MSc in Communications Networks with Industrial StudiesMSc in Embedded Systems

MSc in Embedded Systems with Industrial StudiesMSc in Electromagnetic Sensor Networks

MSc in Electromagnetic Sensor Networks with Industrial Studies

MSc in Radio Frequency EngineeringMSc in Radio Frequency Engineering with Industrial Studies

 MSc in Digital Entrepreneurship MRes in Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering

PhD and MPhil research degrees also available

School of Metallurgy and MaterialsPhD with Integrated Studies in Structural Metallic Systems

for Gas Turbine ApplicationsPhD in Metallurgy and Materials

MRes in the Science and Engineering of MaterialsMRes in Biomaterials

MRes in Materials and Sustainable Energy TechnologyMPhil in Metallurgy and Materials

School of ChemistryPhD/MPhil in Chemistry

As of June 2010

Postgraduate Courses at the University of Birmingham

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avlxyz/flickr

The BP Crisis :When are we going to stop?

In the aftermath of another devastating oil spill, Andrew Wright invites readers to discuss the world’s environmental crisis and if it can be addressed before it’s too late.

After BP set about trying to fix what is now another painful chapter in our planet’s growing list of man-made disasters, the old question of energy sources and usage is arising once more, and some are beginning to won-der how much longer we can keep using oil and fossil fuels to sate our world’s ever growing demand for power.

Disaster Strikes

The most recent environmental disaster, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, occurred last sum-mer, on April 20th 2010 when an offshore drilling unit - the Deepwater Horizon - exploded 40 miles off the coast of Louisi-ana and sunk, causing the rig to leak thousands of gallons of oil, rapidly becoming the largest environmental disaster in US History.The leak lasted for 88 days, with estimates of about 35,000

- 60,000 barrels of oils flowing into the Gulf each day, eventu-ally covering approximately 2500 square miles of ocean, not including the large amount of dissolved oil lingering far below the surface.

Although BP are rightly tak-ing responsibility in a cleanup project estimated to cost them about $20 billion, it highlights how dangerous oil and other similar non-renewable sub-stances can be even when not polluting the air.Of course situations like these are rare, and BP will indeed work hard to increase the safety of oil drilling and transportation; however instances like these can be so deadly and so harm-ful to our environment that when they do happen (and in cases like the Deepwater Horizon it was only a matter of time, see http://gizmodo.com/5551175/bp-knew-of-deepwater-horizon-safety-risks-almost-a-year-ago), the consequences are usually catastrophic.

The planet is running out of fuel reserves, and energy compa-nies continue to use every last drop of non-renewable fuel to save themselves in the short term. This serves not only to make the cost of living more expensive each year, but also continues to harm our planet, whilst other energy sources such as nuclear and solar power may not be progressing

quickly enough to serve as a re-placement when the time does come to fully utilise them.

What options do we have?

Continuing to use Non-Renew-able Sources: At the current rate of usage, fossil fuels have predicted to last approximately another 250-350 years maxi-mum (not taking into account in-dustrial expansion from growing countries such as China). This will mean that all the problems associated with global warming and air pollution are only going to get worse, and could put our planet at serious risk.Pollution is not the sole problem when thinking of fossil fuels, the excavation and drilling to obtain these fossil fuels is destroy-ing dwindling animal habitats, and destroying earth’s precious ecosystems. Some people believe that the earth’s ecosys-tem will adapt to this change; but for many, it is a huge risk to take - and it is not one human-ity has ever needed to take before. For everything on the planet, the continuing use of non-renewable fuel provides a bleak prospect for the future, as companies dig deeper into our planet to hunt down the last remaining deposits of oil, gas and coal.

Nuclear Energy: The main prob-lem with nuclear energy at the current time is cost. Expensive

BPfutureatlas/flickr

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to build and to run, the power stations tend to split opinion to whether the nuclear industry should be allowed to grow or to be stopped altogether. Nuclear energy is a very efficient form of gathering energy, and technolo-gy has certainly improved since the 1990’s to ensure the safe use and security of radioactive substances. But like oil, accidents at nuclear power plants can be so dev-astating that it causes many people to be very wary of using nuclear power. However nuclear power is much less destruc-tive than using non-renewable sources, and at the current time other cleaner sources cannot compete with the power output of nuclear energy. Couple this with the amount of land us-age it would take to establish enough wind and solar farms to compete with nuclear energy, nuclear seems like a sensible option that will most likely be a major source of our energy in the near future.

Renewable Energy: Clearly the most favourable option, but as of yet we are struggling to efficiently harness many clean forms of energy which are viable for the future. Wind farms are the best option when we consider renewable en-ergy, turbines can be installed offshore, and farmers can lease tiny amounts of land to install a turbine on their property. It is free and the cost of setup can be recuperated in about 9 months. However, because of the amount of land that wind turbines use, large scale wind farms may not be feasible, and at the current time fossil fuel plants are still used to backup wind energy due to the intermit-tent nature of harnessing it. Solar energy is another popular choice, but converting the pow-er to useful energy in houses is very inefficient with the cur-rent technology, however new technologies are being used to

increase the efficiency and over the next century we may start to see solar power as one of our main sources of energy.Hydrogen fuel cells will be a direct step in trying to replace the use of oil for fuel, but may still require energy plants to create the hydrogen to be used for fuel, unless cleaner ways of harnessing hydrogen are found.

Choices are still yet to be made regarding new forms of energy and this writer thinks that we may be leaving our decisions too late. In such an important phase in mankind’s history, we should be planning well ahead to try and avoid any problems in obtaining energy in the future - problems which could include the denial of fuel to large coun-tries which could result in politi-cal tension and even war.

Who is to blame for this?

It is easy to make an example out of BP for such carelessness when dealing with such a dam-aging substance, but we are surely all to blame for this. We ourselves waste huge amounts of energy each day. Govern-ments across the globe have only recently started to really fo-cus towards making our planet cleaner, a decision which should

have been taken about 20 years ago when the first clear signs of trouble emerged.With fuel poorly taxed and emis-sions poorly regulated, com-panies such as BP are put under immense pressure to drill in more danger-ous places, and with the obvious risks attached, maybe we should not be so surprised to hear that the Gulf Oil Spill is our fault too. We demand cheap oil, and are aghast when petrol rises by a few pence. Many of us have no qualms when driving to work when a bus or a bike is better. We all know how to be more environmentally friendly, but maybe we’re not trying hard enough.In one way or another, we are all intrinsically linked to that oil spill, and hopefully this terrible accident will serve as a mes-sage to some that we all need to shoulder the blame for the spill and what we are doing to our planet.

Andrew Wright

BPjoeszilagyi/flickr

We should be planning well

ahead to avoid any problems in obtain-

ing energy in the future

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NASA's Terra satellite captured this false-colour view of the Mississippi River Delta. The silver patches represent the oil that was leaked from the Deepwater Horizon well offshore, the water is light blue and the vegetation is red. Find out more:http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=44078

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