Twitter feed sends out compliments to high-school students

Friday 18 January 2013

London, Jan 18 : According to a study we just made up, 999 out of 1,000 adults wouldn't go back to high school if you paid them a million bucks. But a student in Iowa City, Iowa, apparently in the minority, has been working to change the perception that high school = horrible.

Jeremiah Anthony, a student from West High School, has started an unofficial Twitter feed that focuses on sending compliments to the school's students. It has been praised by locals as a way to support students who are having a rough day, have accomplished something special or could simply use a compliment.

Anthony started the account in 2011. Since the feed's inception, he has sent out over 3,100 messages to fellow students. All are well-intentioned and kindhearted—exactly the opposite of what you'd expect to hear in the age of cyberbullying.

A few examples of Anthony's positive messages:

    @StormsAbreuin even though you're known for your comedic skills you were excellent in the funeral scene. What a talented actor.

    @AMLincredible you know more about basketball than just about anyone, whether its high school or pro you know your stuff.

    @AbbeyManfull you don't get enough recognition so on behalf of West, thank you. Thank you for your unselfish attitude and bright smile.

    @AidanManaligod can't think of a better saxophonist. One day we'll all be buying your cds and watching you on SNL. Keep plowing on.

In an online video, Anthony explains how the movement began. "I built this up by first complimenting people I knew, my friends. They started telling their friends. And those people started telling their friends. Soon it became a pretty popular following."

He added: "I believe that showing the goodness in people is very integral to our account. So many people on Twitter and Facebook get cyberbullied because they’re less than perfect."

It almost makes us wish we could go back to high school. Almost.

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Police: 4 women fatally shot at Tulsa apartment

Tulsa, Jan 18: Four young women were found shot to death in the same apartment in a rugged part of south Tulsa, apparent victims of a midday shooting spree at a building near a park along the Arkansas River. A 4-year-old boy was found unharmed.

Police wouldn't say whether the victims — all in their late teens or early 20s — were related or how they would have known each other, and wouldn't say whether the boy was related to any of them. Police said they did not yet know not yet know why the women were shot, and officers were searching for whoever committed the crime.

"Right now, we have no clear-cut suspect we're looking at at this point," said police spokesman Leland Ashley. "I don't want to strike fear in the community tonight, but we do have an individual or individuals who murdered four people. Do we know if there was a motive, like a jealous lover? We don't know that. We can't say if it was random or if someone knew (the victims)."

Ashley said detectives and officers were "beating the bushes" to figure out what happened.

The neighborhood around the Fairmont Terrace Apartments is a seedy oasis in the rest of south Tulsa. The Southern Hills Country Club is a mile east and Oral Roberts University is two miles southeast.

At the apartment complex, bed sheets or cardboard hang as improvised draperies in many windows behind a black wrought-iron gate. The guard shack is empty and signs read: 
"Curfew 10 p.m. for everyone, everyday" and "Photo ID required to be on property."

The building's website says a courtesy safety patrol is available after dark, but police believe the killings occurred between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Officer Jill Roberson said police received a 911 call about 12:30 p.m., and Ashley said someone had spoken to someone at the apartment less than an hour earlier.

Frankie Williams, 25, an oil field worker, said his girlfriend lives about 100 feet from the apartment where the women were found dead.

"She's going to be moving out right quick. This is not the place to be raising a 3-month-old," he said. "This is pretty intense."

Sennie Anderson, 20, is soon to mark two years at the apartment complex.

"I've been afraid since I moved in this place," she said, clutching her visibly upset 3-year-old daughter, Da'Mya. "I think it's getting worse."

Ashley said police were hopeful someone in the community would come forward with more information about the shootings.

"We still have a lot of questions that need to be answered at this point. ... Our concern is for the small child, possibly having to witness this horrific tragedy," Ashley said.

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Chesapeake's McClendon will not receive 2012 bonus

New York, Jan 18 : Chesapeake Energy Corp (CHK), the U.S. oil and gas company battling a governance crisis and financial strain, said its chief executive officer, Aubrey McClendon, will not receive a bonus for 2012.

The board, in a filing to regulators, said it made several changes to the company's corporate governance structure and executive pay. The company said McClendon recommended he not receive a bonus.

Other actions taken include deep cuts to incentive pay, a ban on personal jet travel for top executives other than McClendon, and measures to increase shareholder influence.

Last year was rough for Chesapeake and McClendon. The company faced both a liquidity crisis brought on by low natural gas prices and heavy spending and a governance crisis that resulted in big shareholders effectively taking control of the board of directors in June.

McClendon is under scrutiny from federal regulators and his board for blurring the line between his personal dealings and that of the company. He was stripped of his title as chairman of the company he co-founded in 1989 last year.

An investigation published in April found that McClendon had arranged to personally borrow more than $1 billion from EIG Global Energy Partners, a firm that also is a big investor in Chesapeake.

The loans, arranged through McClendon's personal shell companies, were secured by his interest in company wells. McClendon is allowed to take a 2.5 percent stake in every single well Chesapeake drills under a controversial program called the Founders Well Participation Program (FWPP).

He must also shoulder the same percentage of the wells' costs. After the report on McClendon's personal loans, the company's board, at the urging of major shareholders, said in May it would end the well program 18 months early in June 2014.

The FWPP has also come under the scrutiny of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Internal Revenue Service and Chesapeake's board.

Other investigations found McClendon ran a $200 million hedge fund that traded in the same commodities the company produced and plotted with a competitor to suppress prices of oil and gas acreage in Michigan.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Chesapeake's land deals in Michigan.

In each of the prior three years, McClendon received a bonus of nearly $2 million.

Shareholders, who delivered a stringing rebuke of the executive and board in June at the company's annual meeting, have demanded change.

As part of the its efforts to shore up governance, McClendon will also reimburse the company for his personal use of company aircraft in excess of $250,000. Previously that amount was $500,000, according to a filing.

Chesapeake said it will also make deep cuts to other executive's incentive compensation and eliminate their personal use of company jets, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Oklahoma City, Oklahoma company also pledged to implement a shareholder proposal passed in June that would eliminate the staggered election of its board of directors.

Chesapeake originally lobbied for the Oklahoma statute mandating classified boards but said it will now seek to have all of its directors elected on a annual basis, beginning in 2013.

Among other changes, Chesapeake said will adopt a proxy access measure, action New York City Comptroller John Liu said will give shareholders a much stronger voice at the table. New York City pension funds hold 1.6 million Chesapeake shares.

Chesapeake also put in place a clawback provision on executive incentive compensation that can be exercised "in the event that the company is required to restate any financial statements ..."

Some viewed the changes as relatively minor. Mark Hanson, oil analyst at Morningstar said investors are more keenly focused on the outcome of the company's probe into the FWPP and McClendon's personal loans, as well as the 2013 budget and outlook.

"Cutting overhead and slashing bonuses won't do much for a company that's facing another potential multi-billion funding shortfall in 2013," Hanson said.

Shares of Chesapeake edged lower after the close of regular trading. The stock fell to $17.58 from its New York Stock Exchange close of $17.62.

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Wynn forms subsidiary to develop hotels outside of Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Jan 18 : Wynn Resorts Ltd (WYNN) will form a new subsidiary to develop hotels and casinos outside Las Vegas, to be headed by Gamal Aziz, the former president and CEO of MGM Hospitality, chairman Steve Wynn said.

The formation of Wynn Resorts Development LLC, continues Wynn's efforts to expand beyond Las Vegas, after opening properties in Macau, the world's largest gambling destination, and announcing plans to build a casino in the island's area known as the Cotai strip.

Steve Wynn said the company needed to expand its leadership given its activities in North America and Cotai, and Gamal would work with him to develop and operate future resorts.

The subsidiary would also oversee plans to develop casinos and hotels in Philadelphia and in Everett, Mass., according to Wynn spokeswoman Deanna Pettit-Irestone.

Aziz previously worked with Wynn on developing the Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas, which opened in 1998. He then spent 15 years at MGM, where he helped secure 27 hotel projects around the world, according to Wynn Resorts.

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Kanlibagh- Sangri road in shambles

Baramulla, Jan 18 : Despite patchwork carried out recently by the department of Roads and Buildings the Kanlibagh- Sangri road near mini-secretariat Baramulla here in held Kashmir is still in shambles.

Large potholes have emerged again at the same place where the patchwork was recently done by the R&B department. Locals said that continuous leakage of underground pipes leads to reemergence of pot holes.

 "We approached the officials of Public Health Engineering department on many occasions and apprised them about the leakage but our pleas fell on deaf ears as no action has been taken till date,” they added. 

 Locals are also furious over the lack of coordination between the different departments operating in the area. According to locals the patchwork should have been carried out after changing the underground pipes. “Water has got accumulated in large potholes making it difficult for motorists and the pedestrians to pass through this stretch," said Arif Hussain.

 Residents of Kanlibagh have urged the PHE authorities to take immediate measures to stop the leakage of water in the underground pipes.

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SEC probes Ernst & Young over audit client lobbying

Washington, Jan 18 : The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether auditing company Ernst & Young violated auditor rules by letting its lobbying unit perform work for several major audit clients, people familiar with the matter said.

The SEC inquiry began shortly after media reported in March 2012 that Washington Council Ernst & Young, the E&Y unit, was registered as a lobbyist for several corporate audit clients including Amgen Inc, CVS Caremark Corp and Verizon Communications Inc, according to one of the sources.

The SEC's enforcement division and its Office of the Chief Accountant are looking in to the issue, according to the two sources, who spoke in recent days and who could not be named because the investigation is not public.

It is unclear how far along the probe is, or whether it could result in the SEC filing civil charges against Ernst & Young, one of the world's largest audit and accounting firms.

Ernst & Young spokeswoman Amy Call Well declined to comment on whether the company was being investigated. "All of our services for audit clients undergo considerable scrutiny to confirm they are consistent with applicable rules," she said.

U.S. independence rules bar auditors from serving in an "advocacy role" for audit clients. The goal is to allow auditors to maintain some degree of objectivity regarding the companies they audit, based on the idea that auditors are watchdogs for investors and should not be promoting management's interests.

The SEC's rule does not definitively say whether lobbying could compromise an auditor's independence. It is more focused on barring legal advocacy, such as expert witness testimony.

In interviews last year, former SEC Chief Accountant Jim Kroeker said that certain lobbying activities could potentially be covered under the general prohibition on advocacy. Kroeker is now an executive at Deloitte, a rival of Ernst & Young.

Harvard Business School Professor Max Bazerman said that it was "abundantly clear" that a firm that is lobbying for a company is no longer capable of independently auditing that company.

Ernst & Young has previously said it complied with independence rules. It also said that it did not act in an advocacy role and that the work performed by its lobbying unit was limited to tax issues.

Tax consulting is a permissible activity under auditor independence rules if it does not involve public advocacy.

About two months after publication of the story, federal records showed Washington Council Ernst & Young was no longer registered as a lobbyist for Amgen, CVS Caremark or Verizon Communications.

A spokesman for Amgen did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment. Verizon and CVS spokesmen declined to comment.

Ernst & Young also terminated a lobbying relationship with a fourth company, Nomura Holdings Inc, which also used an E&Y affiliate for auditing services.

Obtaining an independent view on the books is the main reason companies are required to hire outside auditors, said Richard Kaplan, law professor at the University of Illinois.

Ernst & Young was suspended in 2004 from accepting new public company audit clients for six months because of alleged violations of independence rules. The suspension stemmed from a joint venture that Ernst had in the 1990s with business software provider PeopleSoft, now part of Oracle Corp, when Ernst was also auditing PeopleSoft's books.

An SEC administrative law judge ordered Ernst & Young to give back $1.7 million in audit fees and issued a cease-and- desist order against future independence violations.

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Enhanced early childhood education pays long-term dividends in better health

Islamabad, Jan 18: Intensive early education programs for low-income children have been shown to yield numerous educational benefits, but few studies have looked more broadly at their impact on health and health behaviors.

A new study conducted by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health examines this issue, using data from a the well-known Carolina Abecedarian Project (ABC), a randomized control study that enrolled 111 infants in the 1970s and continued to follow them through age 21.


Researchers found that individuals who had received the intensive education intervention starting in infancy had significantly better health and better health behaviors as young adults.

The study is only the second to explore the relationship of early childhood education and adult health benefits. The first study, based on the Perry Preschool Program, also was conducted by Columbia professors Peter Muennig, MD, and Matthew Neidell, PhD, on a similarly small cohort of children, and found behavioral benefits, but no overall health benefits. The current study is the first randomized control study to definitively show the health benefit of education.

Findings are online in the American Journal of Public Health.

The original study enrolled infants from 1972 to 1977 at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute in Chapel Hill, NC, where they received an age-appropriate curriculum designed to enhance cognition and language development starting in infancy. Researchers had found that infants enrolled in the program had higher IQ by age three and higher reading and math achievement by 15 years of age, lower rates of teen depression and greater likelihood of college enrollment compared with a control group.

The current study expands on the original study to examine the impact of ABC on three health measures and 11 measures of behavioral risk factors. The health measures were the number of self-reported health problems since 15 years of age, a depression index score, and the number of hospitalizations in the past year. Behavioral risk factors concerned traffic safety, drug use, and access to primary care. Researchers found that participants had significantly better health and health behaviors and that these findings were independent of IQ, educational attainment or health insurance status.

The original study was small, but it had a very strong effect on education. Until it came along, the benefit of education had never been proven using the gold standard in research methods-the randomized controlled trial. What we have found is that this educational intervention also reduced health risks like smoking and improved health outcomes as early as age 21," said Dr. Muennig, assistant professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia's Mailman School and principal investigator of the new study. "The health benefits were quite dramatic."

"While much remains to be learned about both the pathways linking education to health and the overall effect sizes of education on health, our study provides causal evidence in support of the hypothesis that early education enhancements may improve income, reduce crime, and even enhance the global competitiveness of the American workforce," suggests Dr. Muennig. "These interventions may be more cost effective than many traditional medical and public health approaches to improving population health.

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Baramulla demands traffic signals, dividers

Baramulla, Jan 18 : Residents of this held Kashmir town have urged the authorities to install traffic signals and road dividers to curb the frequent traffic jams in the area.

"The need of the hour is to install traffic signal system at least at  identified junctions and  introduce  road dividers, these measures will streamline the traffic movement to a great extent," said Farooq Ahmad, a shopkeeper.

Locals believe that the mushroom growth of street vendors, wrong parking and parking of commercial vehicles like Sumos on Tehsil road and at the Cement Bridge indicate that district administration is not serious to address the issues pertaining to common people.

 "Wrong parking of the vehicles especially, Sumos, has affected the overall traffic system in the town. Vendors occupy main portion of the road, even pedestrians find it difficult to walk safely," said Bashir Ahmad.

 Surprisingly, the Cement Bridge which connects Baramulla uptown with the old town and is also the main link connecting Rafiabad and district Kupwara with Baramulla town has been converted into a Sumo stand, where from scores of Sumos ferry passengers to Kupwara and Rafiabad areas.

 Locals urged the authorities to allow the district administration to make Court Road functional for the traffic movement. “If traffic is allowed to move on the Court Road it would ease the traffic rush and it can be pivotal in streamlining the traffic movement in the town,” they added.

 "If Court Road is thrown open for traffic movement it will ease pressure in the town. All kinds of vehicles moving from Baramulla town towards Srinagar should be allowed to pass through the Court Road and similarly vehicles coming from Srinagar towards Baramulla should be allowed to pass through the highway at Kantbagh. This way traffic movement can be well managed,” said Muhammad Syed, a resident.

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District hospital faces staff shortage

Baramulla, Jan 18 : At a time when state won accolades for providing better health care in the primary and secondary health institutions, the Baramulla District hospital is almost crippling in the wake of shortage of doctors and the paramedical staff.

Against the sanctioned posts of 67 doctors, the hospital is short of 27 doctors which includes 18 posts of Medical officers (Assistant Surgeons) and 9 posts of B- Grade specialists.

 "The dearth of doctors is putting extra burden on the existing staff. Be it day or night, we are overburdened. Despite that we are trying to give our best. However, the shortage of staff hits patient care," said a doctor, requesting not to be quoted.

 The gynecologist section of the district hospital is also facing enormous hardships. Around three posts of gynecologist are lying vacant.

 The shortage of paramedics has also affected the better health services in the district. As per available data, against the sanctioned posts of 124 paramedics, the hospital is short of 56 in various categories which include 8 posts of Junior theatre technician, 6 Anesthesia assistants and 4 posts of Junior pharmacists.

 All the vacant posts of doctors and the paramedics according to sources have not been filled from the past several years, despite several reminders from the hospital administration.

 "Despite, severe shortage of doctors and the paramedical staff, around 38,424 patients visited OPD during the last year. We conducted around 3043 and 1894 major and minor surgeries and during the same year, around 3157 deliveries and 966 Cesareans were conducted in the hospital," claimed an official of the district hospital.

“If a patient is referred from any area to district hospital, the hospital refers him to Srinagar," said a local.

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More intensive methods needed to identify TB in HIV-prone populations

Islamabad, Jan 18 : Identifying tuberculosis patients in Africa using passive methods is leaving many cases undiagnosed, according to researchers from the Netherlands, Kenya and the United States, who studied case detection methods in HIV-prone western Kenya. Tuberculosis (TB) occurs commonly in men and women with HIV, but in these patients TB can be more difficult to detect.

The findings were published online ahead of the print edition of the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

"Limited information exists on the prevalence of tuberculosis and the best methods of identifying TB patients in African populations with high rates of HIV," said study author Anja van't Hoog, MD, MSc, physician-researcher and epidemiologist, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam. "In this study, our goals were to estimate how many individuals have TB confirmed by bacteriological testing and the number of cases which occur along with HIV, as well as to evaluate case detection."

In passive detection, which has been the method predominantly used in Kenya and globally since the 1970s, diagnoses are made only after patients present to health clinics and report a prolonged period of coughing. Dr. van't Hoog, who conducted the study while serving as an epidemiologist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, said more aggressive, intensive methods of detection are needed to help identify more cases, and identify them earlier.

"Previous studies have suggested that passive case finding might be adequate for TB control," she noted. "However, TB epidemiology has changed dramatically as a result of the HIV epidemic, and there is little information available regarding the prevalence of tuberculosis and the effectiveness of case-finding in African populations with high rates of TB and HIV."

The researchers recruited 20,566 adults from 40 randomly sampled village clusters in a rural area of western Kenya and collected two sputum samples from each adult. Samples were evaluated using a smear microcopy test. Participants also were given questionnaires about their exposure to TB and nearly all participants agreed to undergo a chest X-ray. Those with abnormal X-ray findings or symptoms suggesting TB each provided an additional sputum sample for examination by sputum culture, a testing method which is much more sensitive than smear microscopy.

Following evaluation, 123 participants were identified as having tuberculosis. TB prevalence was greater among men, those who had received prior TB treatment and those in the lowest socioeconomic level. HIV information was available for 101 of the 123 TB-positive participants, of whom 51 percent were identified as being infected with HIV. The researchers estimated 48 percent of the undiagnosed burden of TB in the population is due to HIV.

Diagnosing TB earlier and more accurately can help prevent severe illness and death from TB, and reduce transmission of TB to other community members, Dr. van't Hoog said. Men and women with HIV infection are at much greater risk of getting TB, but the presentation of TB is more often atypical in patients with HIV, making diagnosis more difficult, she added.

"Most of the identified TB cases in this study would not have been identified by the current case detection approach, which includes symptom recognition, sputum smear microscopy and chest X-ray," Dr. van't Hoog noted. "Culturing sputum samples offers more accurate results, but is a more complicated, costlier procedure, making it largely unavailable in resource-limited settings.

"This study identified a considerable prevalence of infectious and largely undiagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis in western Kenya, where rates of HIV infection are high," she said. "The goals for TB control are unlikely to be met without continued improvements in case detection. Intensified case finding is required to control TB in this resource-limited, high HIV-prevalence setting, and future research should focus on ensuring these goals are met."

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MicroRNA suppresses prostate cancer stem cells and metastasis

Islamabad, Jan 18: A small slice of RNA inhibits prostate cancer metastasis by suppressing a surface protein commonly found on prostate cancer stem cells. miR-34a targets a surface protein common to cancer stem cells and associated with tumor development and metastasis.

When the micro RNA stifles CD44, it inhibits formation of prostate stem cells. Researchers blocked tumor formation, shrunk tumors and inhibited metastasis in mouse models.

A research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported January 16 in an advance online publication at Nature Medicine.

"Our findings are the first to profile a microRNA expression pattern in prostate cancer stem cells and also establish a strong rationale for developing the microRNA miR-34a as a new treatment option for prostate cancer," said senior author Dean Tang, Ph.D., professor in MD Anderson's Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis.

MicroRNAs, or miRNAs, are short, single-stranded bits of RNA that regulate the messenger RNA expressed by genes to create a protein.

Cancer stem cells are capable of self-renewal, have enhanced tumor-initiating ability and are generally more resistant to treatment than other cancer cells. They are associated with tumor recurrence and metastasis, the lethal spreading of cancer to other organs. These capacities are more prevalent in cancer cells that feature a specific cell surface protein called CD44, Tang said.

"CD44 has long been linked to promotion of tumor development and, especially, to cancer metastasis," Tang said. "Many cancer stem cells overexpress this surface adhesion molecule. Another significant finding from our study is identifying CD44 itself as a direct and functional target of miR-34a."

MicroRNA goes up, CD44 and cancer stem cells fall.

In a series of lab experiments with cell lines, human xenograft tumors in mice and primary human prostate cancer samples, the researchers demonstrated that miR-34a inhibits prostate cancer stem cells by suppressing CD44.

miR-34a is greatly reduced in prostate cancer cells that express high levels of CD44 on the cell surface. In 18 human prostate tumors, the microRNA was expressed at 25 to 70 percent of the levels found in cells without CD44.

Prostate tumors in mice that also received miR-34a treatment were one third to half the average size of those in control group mice.
In CD44-positive prostate cancer cell lines, treatment with miR-34a resulted in greatly reduced tumor incidence. Most dramatically, in one cell line, tumor regeneration was blocked in all 10 treated animals, while tumors formed in all 10 animals treated with the control miRNAs.

Many characteristics of cancer stem cells -- formation of self-renewing cells, clonal growth capacity and formation of spheres -- were suppressed when miR-34a was overexpressed in prostate cancer cell lines.

Most significantly, intravenous treatment of tumor-bearing mice with synthetic miR-34a reduced tumor burden by half in one tumor type. It also steeply reduced lung metastases in another tumor type, resulting in increased animal survival.

Interestingly, the researchers observed a consistent, inverse relationship between miR-34a levels and CD44, the surface marker used to enrich prostate cancer stem cells. For example, the CD44 protein and CD44-expressing cancer cells were reduced in tumors treated with the microRNA. Tumors with miR-34a blocked had higher levels of CD44 protein and messenger RNA.

Finally, knocking down CD44 with a short hairpin RNA produced the same results as treating cells with miR-34a did -- reduced tumor development, tumor burden and metastases.

"There are many companies developing microRNA-based drugs," Tang said. "Delivery of miRNAs is a challenge, but the field is moving fast through the preclinical stage."

Scientists from Austin-based Mirna Therapeutics collaborated on the study. Mirna has eight microRNAs in preclinical development, including miR-34a.

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