Day 12 June 2 – Why XY?
So there was nothing special going on at the farm today until 9PM so we just relaxed. At around 11AM some guy drove up shook hands and came inside with a plastic bag. We sat down at the greeting room table and drank a cup of tea; the black plastic bag sitting on the table. Now keep in mind, I don’t speak Arabic, I have no idea what the hell is going on; I just roll with it till I can figure out what they are doing. It became clear with the new guy opened the plastic bag and poured 50,000 Egyptian pounds onto the table(that is a little over 10,000 USD$). Well this surprised me, not in the least what I was expecting. It was all the money he made off the harvest a few days ago. People here only work in cash I found out, the banks don’t work the same way here Egypt. People don’t write checks or wire money, its all cash.
Over lunch I remembered something Mohamed said on the first day and asked about it. He had mentioned an YY male. I’ll be honest, I had too many fun friends in my high school freshman biology class to really learn anything. So I didn’t know what that meant but it was obvious it meant something. Like in that Phil Collins song, “It all means something and yet nothing to me.” So I asked. They explained that they are creating what are known as SuperMales.
This is how it works now. Males are XY and Females are XX genetically. After fish eggs hatch, for twelve days they don’t have sexual organs yet. Fish that have male organs are physically male and fish that are XY are genetically male. A normal male is the wild is both physically and genetically male. Their sex is already decided in their genes but the organs have not yet formed. Because physically male fish grow larger faster, farmers only want to grow and sell male fish. Because of this fact fish farmers add testosterone to the baby fish so even if they are genetically female they will grow male sex organs. While this is safe, it is expensive and only 90% effective, which causes problems with the fish reproduce at the wrong time. Also, people don’t like it that the fish they eat are given hormones.
If people could genetically change the fish so all of the children are males it would be great. If it were possible for two males, two XYs, to have children all of their kids would be male. So the way to make all babies males without using hormones is simple, figure out how two males can have sex!?!?! Well SuperMales are that solution; they are genetically males with female sex organs, guys who have babies. During those twelve days that the baby fish don’t have sexual organs, give them estrogen. That way even if the fish is genetically male they will grow female sexual organs.
Unfortunately, this is not the end of the process. I don’t really understand what the problem is but this is what I got. When you give the estrogen to a bunch of fish about half are genetically male and half are genetically female. Now Supermales are ONLY the ones that are genetically males with female sexual organs. But the only way to distinguish a Supermale from a female is to either genetically test each fish or to see if their offspring are all males. This is a pain in the ass and cots lots of money. Dr. Ishmail had made at one time 30 SuperMales, but he estimates it would take 1000 to be effective on the farm.
On a different subject, at 9PM we walked across the street with Mohamed to the catfish farm Dr. Ishmail owns. There we smashed up the Pituitary gland we collected a few days ago and mixed it with saline water. We then injected this into female fish who’s eggs were not yet ripe. We did this so that tomorrow we would be able to artificially spawn catfish again.
The rest of the day was wonderfully uneventful; I sat around and read my book. I read the entire book Uncle Chris gave me, Riding With the Blue Moth today. Amazing book, It goes for tragic, to depressing, to hopeful, to heartwarming in a few hundred pages. And it’s lots of fun if you are super awesome and have ridden your bike across the country. P.S. I’m bragging but I got 5 As and 1 B this last semester. I got my only B in Marine Biology, Ironic? I think so.
ok so i guess i didn't understand this very well. If you want a good explanation read the comments, Kev Fitz and Mr. Bong know what they are talking about.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Adviser
Day 11 June 1 – 8.55 PM – Adviser
I left Mohamed’s beautiful home this morning and left with Dr. Ishmail as he went to another farm. We traveled an hour to a farm which grows not only fish but many other crops like Mangos, citrus, and peaches. Dr. Ishmail is an adviser for the aquaculture side of the farm.
Today was a harvest so Dr. Ishmail thought he should be there and keep an eye on things. It was a harvest almost exactly like the once at Ca-Fa-Shey except for one important factor. Dr. Ishmail experiments often to improve and perfect his methods. In the harvest at Ca-Fa-Shey the fish were pushed up hill towards to water inlet pipe, unlike usual where the fish are drawn from the deep end. Dr. Ishmail tried this because he was hoping that by running water past the fish during harvest would keep them cleaner. It worked wonderfully! This new method had not been implemented at this farm yet.
We then headed to Dr. Ishmail’s other house, a farm house. There he grows mangos, oranges, peaches, and apricots. He is not trying to turn a large profit from the farm, it is more of a hobby. It was an amazing place and both I and Dr. Ishmail enjoyed a relaxing afternoon.
I left Mohamed’s beautiful home this morning and left with Dr. Ishmail as he went to another farm. We traveled an hour to a farm which grows not only fish but many other crops like Mangos, citrus, and peaches. Dr. Ishmail is an adviser for the aquaculture side of the farm.
Today was a harvest so Dr. Ishmail thought he should be there and keep an eye on things. It was a harvest almost exactly like the once at Ca-Fa-Shey except for one important factor. Dr. Ishmail experiments often to improve and perfect his methods. In the harvest at Ca-Fa-Shey the fish were pushed up hill towards to water inlet pipe, unlike usual where the fish are drawn from the deep end. Dr. Ishmail tried this because he was hoping that by running water past the fish during harvest would keep them cleaner. It worked wonderfully! This new method had not been implemented at this farm yet.
We then headed to Dr. Ishmail’s other house, a farm house. There he grows mangos, oranges, peaches, and apricots. He is not trying to turn a large profit from the farm, it is more of a hobby. It was an amazing place and both I and Dr. Ishmail enjoyed a relaxing afternoon.
Alexandria
Day 10 May 31 – Alexandria
Today I drove with Dr. Ishmail and son Mohamed to his home in Alexandria. Alexandria has about four million people and It stretches along the coast of the Mediterranean coast. Their home was on one of the middle stories of a building a few blocks back for the coast. We went up to meet Dr. Ishmail’s wife, four daughters, and only grandson. The grandson, Mohamed's son, is named Ishmail after his grandfather.
After a wonderful lunch and cookies, Dr. Ishmail’s son Mohamed took me to his place for some rest. After a nice nap we drove along the coastal road, the main drag in Alex, to a thousand year old castle from the Ottoman Empire. Because it was a Friday night the boardwalk was packed with people, children, and vendors. After a quick tour of the boardwalk we drove to the largest mall in Alex. The mall was just like the one in Cairo, huge and full of cool stuff. There was a famous perfume store which sells perfume that can cost thousands of dollars.
The next stop on the tour was the Library of Alexandria. I remembered that the library was famous but I couldn’t remember exactly for what. I expected to see a very old, massive library, but was surprised to see a concrete dome. They told me then that the library burned down, with most of its contents, during the Roman rule. Then I remembered it was famous in history as the most impressive library but it burned down with much of the documented history up to that point. It was famous because it was destroyed. So now the library looks like a dome with a slice taken out of it. It is on the coast, it is supposed to represent the sun rising off of the ocean horizon.
After a wonderful dinner and desert we headed home. Don’t get me wrong, I love Cairo, but Alexandria was great. It was much less hectic and I loved the ocean view.
Today I drove with Dr. Ishmail and son Mohamed to his home in Alexandria. Alexandria has about four million people and It stretches along the coast of the Mediterranean coast. Their home was on one of the middle stories of a building a few blocks back for the coast. We went up to meet Dr. Ishmail’s wife, four daughters, and only grandson. The grandson, Mohamed's son, is named Ishmail after his grandfather.
After a wonderful lunch and cookies, Dr. Ishmail’s son Mohamed took me to his place for some rest. After a nice nap we drove along the coastal road, the main drag in Alex, to a thousand year old castle from the Ottoman Empire. Because it was a Friday night the boardwalk was packed with people, children, and vendors. After a quick tour of the boardwalk we drove to the largest mall in Alex. The mall was just like the one in Cairo, huge and full of cool stuff. There was a famous perfume store which sells perfume that can cost thousands of dollars.
The next stop on the tour was the Library of Alexandria. I remembered that the library was famous but I couldn’t remember exactly for what. I expected to see a very old, massive library, but was surprised to see a concrete dome. They told me then that the library burned down, with most of its contents, during the Roman rule. Then I remembered it was famous in history as the most impressive library but it burned down with much of the documented history up to that point. It was famous because it was destroyed. So now the library looks like a dome with a slice taken out of it. It is on the coast, it is supposed to represent the sun rising off of the ocean horizon.
After a wonderful dinner and desert we headed home. Don’t get me wrong, I love Cairo, but Alexandria was great. It was much less hectic and I loved the ocean view.
Ca-Fa-Shey
Day 9 May 30 – 11.02 PM - Ca-Fa-Shey
The plan was to see the harvest at 5AM, come back to my room at 7AM and leave to go to Ca-Fa-Shey. Well the driver showed up to take me to the harvest at around 6.50 so that didn’t work out. But I took the hour drive to Ca-Fa-Shey, a private farm owned by Dr. Ishmail. I found out later Dr. Ismail is famous in Egypt as the father of aquaculture. At the height of his production he was personally responsible for over 2 million pounds of fish production a year. He became wealthy years ago when he was the first to implement a new aquaculture technique.
The trip to Ca-Fa-Shey was a harrowing story in itself. Once again I feared for my life, three VERY near serious crash incidents. The drive was about an hour long through rural Egypt.
The first thing I saw was the beautiful garden in front of the home. A very nice home; the largest I have seen in Egypt by far. There is a full time cook, house cleaners, and a gardener. The house lies in front of a very sophisticated tilapia farm.
The hatcheries are made of cement with plastic covers. The plastic covers create a greenhouse effect dramatically raising the temperature. This allows the Tilapia to thrive in winter, normally their growth would slow and they would not spawn. While this temperature increase is great in winter it is very uncomfortable in summer. Inside it is probably 110 degrees with 70 percent humidity; instant sweat.
After the tour Dr. Ishmail’s son in law Mohamed, who is also a dentist, took me and showed me how to artificially spawn catfish. This is pretty nasty but it’s easy to do and the results are amazing. The first step is to get however many female catfish you need, then get 1/3 that number of males. Then massage/squeeze all of the females’ eggs out into a bowl. Next the males; this requires surgery. While the females survive the operation the males do not. It is important to keep the male catfish alive as long as possible, unfortunately for the fish. To keep the male catfish relatively calm during the operation, keep him upside down and his eyes and sensors covered. While holding the fish tightly, cut a three inch incision along the soft belly of the fish. Next, remove both of the gonads and place them off on the side. Holding the gonads above the bowl of eggs, stab and squeeze the gonads until you get the sperm all over the eggs. Then add water to the bowl of eggs and carefully mix it all together. You must work quickly because the sperm are only active for 30 to 60 seconds. Now just leave the eggs in warm water and you’re done.
Natural spawning means you just put some males and females together and let “the magic” happen. The reason people go to the trouble of artificially spawning fish is you get nearly double the fertilization, meaning twice the fish, and hopefully twice the money.
The reason the male fish must be alive for the operation is because later you can cut open its brain and remove the pituitary gland. If the fish was killed early in the operation the pituitary gland would decay quickly. The pituitary gland can be mixed with saline water to crate a fish hormone injection. This pituitary gland injection can be given to female fish to make their eggs ripen faster. This allows the fish to be spawned on the peoples schedule rather than the fish’s.
At 4PM we harvested one of Dr. Ishmail’s Tilapia ponds. When I came to the pond the water level was already so low you could see most of the fish. The previous Tilapia farm I worked at had plastic covers along the bottom of the ponds, these were muddy bottoms. This allowed me to observe the results of normal Tilapia spawning procedures. The male fish had half spherical holes in the bottom of the pond. In these holes the females would lay her eggs and the males would fertilize them. I assumed many of the Tilapia would be caught in these holes as the water level dropped, Dr. Ishmail told me that they would not because it is in their nature to find adequate water.
The worker dragged nets along the bottom to round all the fish up in a round pen. Then a worker got in with the fish and began to scoop them up in basket nets. The fish were then placed in a trailer pulled by a tractor. Once this was finished the fish were taken to a sorting station and graded into their appropriate sizes. I was surprised to see that no matter how small, all of the fish are sold.
I just found that Dr. Ishmail and Mohamed are leaving the farm to go to Alexandria this Friday and Saturday weekend. They asked me to come with them to Alexandria and I was thrilled to accept.
Catfish gain almost 1 pound for every pound of food they eat
Tilapia gain a pound of every 1.3 to 1.7 pounds of food they eat
Beef gain only 1 pound for every 10 pounds of food they eat.
The plan was to see the harvest at 5AM, come back to my room at 7AM and leave to go to Ca-Fa-Shey. Well the driver showed up to take me to the harvest at around 6.50 so that didn’t work out. But I took the hour drive to Ca-Fa-Shey, a private farm owned by Dr. Ishmail. I found out later Dr. Ismail is famous in Egypt as the father of aquaculture. At the height of his production he was personally responsible for over 2 million pounds of fish production a year. He became wealthy years ago when he was the first to implement a new aquaculture technique.
The trip to Ca-Fa-Shey was a harrowing story in itself. Once again I feared for my life, three VERY near serious crash incidents. The drive was about an hour long through rural Egypt.
The first thing I saw was the beautiful garden in front of the home. A very nice home; the largest I have seen in Egypt by far. There is a full time cook, house cleaners, and a gardener. The house lies in front of a very sophisticated tilapia farm.
The hatcheries are made of cement with plastic covers. The plastic covers create a greenhouse effect dramatically raising the temperature. This allows the Tilapia to thrive in winter, normally their growth would slow and they would not spawn. While this temperature increase is great in winter it is very uncomfortable in summer. Inside it is probably 110 degrees with 70 percent humidity; instant sweat.
After the tour Dr. Ishmail’s son in law Mohamed, who is also a dentist, took me and showed me how to artificially spawn catfish. This is pretty nasty but it’s easy to do and the results are amazing. The first step is to get however many female catfish you need, then get 1/3 that number of males. Then massage/squeeze all of the females’ eggs out into a bowl. Next the males; this requires surgery. While the females survive the operation the males do not. It is important to keep the male catfish alive as long as possible, unfortunately for the fish. To keep the male catfish relatively calm during the operation, keep him upside down and his eyes and sensors covered. While holding the fish tightly, cut a three inch incision along the soft belly of the fish. Next, remove both of the gonads and place them off on the side. Holding the gonads above the bowl of eggs, stab and squeeze the gonads until you get the sperm all over the eggs. Then add water to the bowl of eggs and carefully mix it all together. You must work quickly because the sperm are only active for 30 to 60 seconds. Now just leave the eggs in warm water and you’re done.
Natural spawning means you just put some males and females together and let “the magic” happen. The reason people go to the trouble of artificially spawning fish is you get nearly double the fertilization, meaning twice the fish, and hopefully twice the money.
The reason the male fish must be alive for the operation is because later you can cut open its brain and remove the pituitary gland. If the fish was killed early in the operation the pituitary gland would decay quickly. The pituitary gland can be mixed with saline water to crate a fish hormone injection. This pituitary gland injection can be given to female fish to make their eggs ripen faster. This allows the fish to be spawned on the peoples schedule rather than the fish’s.
At 4PM we harvested one of Dr. Ishmail’s Tilapia ponds. When I came to the pond the water level was already so low you could see most of the fish. The previous Tilapia farm I worked at had plastic covers along the bottom of the ponds, these were muddy bottoms. This allowed me to observe the results of normal Tilapia spawning procedures. The male fish had half spherical holes in the bottom of the pond. In these holes the females would lay her eggs and the males would fertilize them. I assumed many of the Tilapia would be caught in these holes as the water level dropped, Dr. Ishmail told me that they would not because it is in their nature to find adequate water.
The worker dragged nets along the bottom to round all the fish up in a round pen. Then a worker got in with the fish and began to scoop them up in basket nets. The fish were then placed in a trailer pulled by a tractor. Once this was finished the fish were taken to a sorting station and graded into their appropriate sizes. I was surprised to see that no matter how small, all of the fish are sold.
I just found that Dr. Ishmail and Mohamed are leaving the farm to go to Alexandria this Friday and Saturday weekend. They asked me to come with them to Alexandria and I was thrilled to accept.
Catfish gain almost 1 pound for every pound of food they eat
Tilapia gain a pound of every 1.3 to 1.7 pounds of food they eat
Beef gain only 1 pound for every 10 pounds of food they eat.
Babies and Genetics
Day 8 May 29 – Babies and Genetics
Today was pretty relaxed, started with watching the workers catch some Tilapia from the brood stock. They then removed the eggs and fry from their mouths. After separating the eggs and fry from the fish that escaped last time (bigger).
Then I went to see some geneticists working with blue Tilapia. I wont lie and say I understood what they were doing but it sounded interesting.
After this I had a few wonderful hours of internet. I sat around and read email, the news, and downloaded music.
I learned the Arabic words for water, fish, net, tea, one, sugar, family, coffee, and thanks.
Tomorrow I will be going to Dr. Ismyal Radwan’s private fish farm for about a week in cafrashake. (that is how it sounds.)
THE FARM HAS CELL PHONE INTERNET AND CHANGES BY THE MEG SO I WILL UPLOAD PICS LATER.
Today was pretty relaxed, started with watching the workers catch some Tilapia from the brood stock. They then removed the eggs and fry from their mouths. After separating the eggs and fry from the fish that escaped last time (bigger).
Then I went to see some geneticists working with blue Tilapia. I wont lie and say I understood what they were doing but it sounded interesting.
After this I had a few wonderful hours of internet. I sat around and read email, the news, and downloaded music.
I learned the Arabic words for water, fish, net, tea, one, sugar, family, coffee, and thanks.
Tomorrow I will be going to Dr. Ismyal Radwan’s private fish farm for about a week in cafrashake. (that is how it sounds.)
THE FARM HAS CELL PHONE INTERNET AND CHANGES BY THE MEG SO I WILL UPLOAD PICS LATER.
Tell Americans
Day 7 May 28 – 1.46 AM – Tell Americans…
I began my day at 8:30 when I went to the World Fish Center and meet with the Director of Hatcheries. We spent the day moving cat fish fry from an approx. 1000ft^3 tank into a larger concrete tank. The usual way to do this would be to lower the water lever to about 8 inches then catch them all with a net, out them in buckets, and carry them to the new tank. Instead they siphoned the water from the raised tank (on bricks) to the lower buckets. They believed this would put less trauma on the fry. They used a bucket with holes inside of another bucket. The inner bucket had a net to keep the fry inside, so the water would overflow but the fry would stay inside.
Because I cannot get the internet to work in my room I went to a study room in the World Fish Center. As I was on the web a man came in by the name of Mustafa. He was a translator and English teacher. We talk about everything from Iraq to Islam. He gave me a very interesting and through explanation of mosque procedure and customs.
Mustafa told me that the procedure for praying is as follows.
A caller climbs the tower of the mosque and uses a speaker system to call all Muslims to prayer. This occurs five times a day before dawn, noon, around 2:30, at sunset, and late at night. Before the Muslims enter the mosque they must be very clean.
Mustafa stressed that before you go into the presence of god (pray) you must be as clean and pure as you can. This is because god is perfectly clean and beautiful so people in his presence you must also be clean. The procedure for cleaning your body includes washing yours hands three times and cleaning under your finger nails. Then you wash from your hands up to your elbows three times. Cleaning your face, inside the ear, and behind the ear three times each is the next step. Splashing water on your hair is next. Shoes are not worn in the mosque at any time and feet must also be washed three times. After the legs are washed three times, perfume should be applied. Males who enter the mosque must wash their genitals with clean water. Women who are menstruating can not enter a mosque or take part in any religious activities because they are considered unclean. Once this process in complete you are clean enough to enter the mosque and the presence of god.
Inside the Mosque there is no representation of Allah or any of the prophets. I thought this was amazing that Jesus and Moses are Muslim prophets; this means the Christian representation of Jesus is an affront to Islam. The reason images or representation of God and prophets are forbidden is because artists would never be able to get the picture perfect.
The only thing inside the mosque of importance is the Priest (I cannot remember what they are called in Islam) and a marker pointing the direction Mecca. All prayer is physically directed toward the holy shrine of Mecca. This is the source of the saying “Mt. Everest is the Mecca of mountain climbing. Mecca is the most important, most powerful place in all of Islam. All Muslims are supposed to take a pilgrimage, a hadge (spelling?), to Mecca at one time in their lives’.
The process of actually praying is very important but would take pages to explain, so I will save it for one of my 5 required essays.
Excerpt or conversation (as well as I can remember it)
How do you feel about the U.S. military?
I know some people from the Pentagon through my work as a translator and am friendly towards them. But, how would you feel if strangers came into your home with guns, to your city, and told you what to do? They say they are here to protect us, but from what?
How do Muslims feel about Atheists?
Allah tells us through the prophet Mohammed, Allah’s peace be upon him, that we should not deal with atheists and ask them not to interact with us.
Would Muslims get along better with Christians or Atheists?
Christians
What does Salam mean?
It is what you say when you see somebody, it tells them you are a friend and you come in peace. It is a religious term, saying Salam is like saying “friend, may the peace of Allah be upon you.
“Terrorists are killers, they are not Muslims. You cannot be a Muslim and believe in terror and attacking innocent people. All Muslims hate terrorist; Islam promotes peace, hard work, brotherhood. Tell your family this, tell America this; we are peaceful people. All we want is to praise Allah and live in peace. Goodbye, Salam ” -Mustafa
I began my day at 8:30 when I went to the World Fish Center and meet with the Director of Hatcheries. We spent the day moving cat fish fry from an approx. 1000ft^3 tank into a larger concrete tank. The usual way to do this would be to lower the water lever to about 8 inches then catch them all with a net, out them in buckets, and carry them to the new tank. Instead they siphoned the water from the raised tank (on bricks) to the lower buckets. They believed this would put less trauma on the fry. They used a bucket with holes inside of another bucket. The inner bucket had a net to keep the fry inside, so the water would overflow but the fry would stay inside.
Because I cannot get the internet to work in my room I went to a study room in the World Fish Center. As I was on the web a man came in by the name of Mustafa. He was a translator and English teacher. We talk about everything from Iraq to Islam. He gave me a very interesting and through explanation of mosque procedure and customs.
Mustafa told me that the procedure for praying is as follows.
A caller climbs the tower of the mosque and uses a speaker system to call all Muslims to prayer. This occurs five times a day before dawn, noon, around 2:30, at sunset, and late at night. Before the Muslims enter the mosque they must be very clean.
Mustafa stressed that before you go into the presence of god (pray) you must be as clean and pure as you can. This is because god is perfectly clean and beautiful so people in his presence you must also be clean. The procedure for cleaning your body includes washing yours hands three times and cleaning under your finger nails. Then you wash from your hands up to your elbows three times. Cleaning your face, inside the ear, and behind the ear three times each is the next step. Splashing water on your hair is next. Shoes are not worn in the mosque at any time and feet must also be washed three times. After the legs are washed three times, perfume should be applied. Males who enter the mosque must wash their genitals with clean water. Women who are menstruating can not enter a mosque or take part in any religious activities because they are considered unclean. Once this process in complete you are clean enough to enter the mosque and the presence of god.
Inside the Mosque there is no representation of Allah or any of the prophets. I thought this was amazing that Jesus and Moses are Muslim prophets; this means the Christian representation of Jesus is an affront to Islam. The reason images or representation of God and prophets are forbidden is because artists would never be able to get the picture perfect.
The only thing inside the mosque of importance is the Priest (I cannot remember what they are called in Islam) and a marker pointing the direction Mecca. All prayer is physically directed toward the holy shrine of Mecca. This is the source of the saying “Mt. Everest is the Mecca of mountain climbing. Mecca is the most important, most powerful place in all of Islam. All Muslims are supposed to take a pilgrimage, a hadge (spelling?), to Mecca at one time in their lives’.
The process of actually praying is very important but would take pages to explain, so I will save it for one of my 5 required essays.
Excerpt or conversation (as well as I can remember it)
How do you feel about the U.S. military?
I know some people from the Pentagon through my work as a translator and am friendly towards them. But, how would you feel if strangers came into your home with guns, to your city, and told you what to do? They say they are here to protect us, but from what?
How do Muslims feel about Atheists?
Allah tells us through the prophet Mohammed, Allah’s peace be upon him, that we should not deal with atheists and ask them not to interact with us.
Would Muslims get along better with Christians or Atheists?
Christians
What does Salam mean?
It is what you say when you see somebody, it tells them you are a friend and you come in peace. It is a religious term, saying Salam is like saying “friend, may the peace of Allah be upon you.
“Terrorists are killers, they are not Muslims. You cannot be a Muslim and believe in terror and attacking innocent people. All Muslims hate terrorist; Islam promotes peace, hard work, brotherhood. Tell your family this, tell America this; we are peaceful people. All we want is to praise Allah and live in peace. Goodbye, Salam ” -Mustafa
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