'If ladies smoke like guys, they die like males,' review writer says

A latest review finds that females are catching as much as guys with regards to the chance of death from smoking.

The research, published earlier this week while in the New England Journal of Medicine, examines the primary generation of U.S. ladies who began smoking early in lifestyle and continued smoking for decades.

Even though reports through the 1980s recommended smoking hazards in females have been lower, this research located that as women's smoking routines started to mirror men's, so have their mortality charges.

"The hazards amid girls who carry on to smoke now approximate people amid male smokers," the study's authors mentioned.

Seeing that the 1980s, a woman's danger of dying from lung cancer, persistent obstructive lung condition and also other smoking-related triggers improved by 50 per cent.

"Basically, if girls smoke like males, they die like males," research writer Dr. Prhabhat Jha informed CTV News. "That usually means about a decade of daily life lost. Not several many years, but a complete decade -- a nutritious decade of lifestyle lost."

The research, which looked at wellness records from your U.S. Nationwide Well being Interview Survey, observed that individuals who hardly ever smoked had been twice as probable to reside to age 80 than people that had.

And whilst the research uncovered that smoking cuts close to ten many years off a person's lifespan, in addition, it located that smokers who quit just before the age of 40 can regain a lot of these many years back.

In line with the exploration, people that quit smoking amongst 35 and 44 many years of age gained about 9 many years of lifestyle back. Those that quit in between ages 45-54 and 55-64 gained 6 and 4 many years of existence, respectively.

Dr. Tim McAfee on the U.S. Center for Illness Manage stated the findings are amazing.
"Somebody quits prior to the age of 40, they obtain a great deal of that back. They achieve just about a decade of existence, that is amazing," McAfee mentioned.

Jha mentioned these findings never indicate that it truly is Okay to smoke right up until you are 40. Even so, it'll dispel the notion that if you have been smoking for in excess of a decade, it can be also late to quit, he stated.

"Quitting at any age may have added benefits, but especially in case you quit in advance of age 40, you will get near to never-smoker death charges," Jha explained.

"The most critical message is quitting performs," he extra. "Cessation of smoking at an early age -- even as much as age 40 -- avoids about 90 per cent with the chance of continuing to smoke."

The review examined information through the U.S. Nationwide Death Index, concentrating on 16,000 records of individuals who had died and had reported smoking earlier in daily life.

But smoking cessation gurus say the review is troubling.

Manitoba Tobacco Reduction Alliance President Murray Gibson explained there is no this kind of factor being a "safe" volume of smoking, and quite a few struggle to quit the addictive habit.

"A great deal of youthful people today, or younger aged individuals, will say ??Oh, when I get to get 40 I will just quit. What they do not recognize will be the problems which they could encounter in making an attempt to accomplish that,'" he mentioned.

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Right hand-washing critical through flu season

Flu season is in complete force, with 47 states reporting widespread influenza and 24 states displaying substantial ailment action, as outlined by government estimates released Friday.

Even though the Centers for Condition Handle and Prevention nonetheless says the very best strategy to reduce influenza is always to obtain a flu vaccine -- which it mentioned Friday was about 62 % productive primarily based on preliminary study -- other each day actions like hand-washing could go an extended way.

Dr. Elaine Larson, associate dean of investigation at Columbia University College of Nursing, explains to CBSNews.com that a lot of people might not be practicing correct hand-washing approaches within the midst of flu season.

"The most significant error is simply not covering the surfaces more than likely to touch, that are the fingertips," mentioned Larson. "People rub their palms with each other, when fingertips would be the most significant."

Folks ought to wet their hands with clean operating water -- warm or cold does not matter -- and apply soap well before rubbing their hands collectively to type a lather, based on the CDC. Spend particular interest towards the backs of one's hands, amongst your fingers and underneath your nails. The agency explained a very good rule of thumb is usually to hum the "Happy Birthday" song from begin to finish twice, to make certain which you wash your hands for no less than twenty seconds. Then rinse underneath operating water and dry.

Because operating water is not often nearby solution, Larson suggests carrying a bottle of hand sanitizer though to the go, this kind of as within a automobile or when traveling with public transportation, the later on of which might be specially useful in flu-affected big cities like Boston, Chicago and New York. She says to generate positive the sanitizer consists of 60 % alcohol, for the reason that other substances haven't been confirmed as powerful.

Hand-washing can go an extended way, she pointed out, since the virus could be uncovered on lots of surfaces in the course of flu season.

A research co-authored by Larson from the Sept. 2012 matter of American Journal of Infection Handle identified the flu virus lives on hands and surfaces during the setting for about 5 to 10 minutes just before it really is gone. To achieve that conclusion, researchers asked twenty persons with confirmed instances of your flu to cough and sneeze inside their hands and touch nearby surfaces.

She says her examine suggests that there is no time for you to waste when trying to keep your hands clean.

"The primary factor is finding your hands clean straight away, simply because there is quite fantastic proof if a person coughs and sneezes, you will get contaminated."

Aside from suitable hand-washing approaches, Larson says it is essential for folks that are sick to cough or sneeze into their elbows alternatively of their hands, a habit she concedes is difficult to break. If someone coughs into her or his hands and expels the flu virus, recontamination is often a probability when the individual then touches their nose.

Other folks who may possibly desire to be mindful are individuals operating out in the gymnasium, considering the fact that tools can spread germs. She notes a lot of people could consider the flu can be a respiratory infection total with coughing and sneezing, but far more subtle signs like muscle aches in addition to a slight fever might seem 1st when individuals carry about their each day lives.

"People are hugely infectious well before they get started coughing stuff," she stated.

Other handy strategies presented from the CDC incorporate steering clear of individuals that are sick and never touching your eyes, nose and mouth when attainable. In the event you turn out to be sick with flu or a different respiratory illness, remain residence (or hold your youngster at your home) for at the very least 24 hrs just after fever is gone unless of course needed, like needing to look for healthcare care.

For anyone functioning in an workplace exactly where flu may perhaps spread, the CDC suggests regular cleansing of touched objects and surfaces this kind of as doorknobs, keyboards and phones.

"Everyday preventive actions may help slow the spread of germs which will bring about numerous distinct illnesses and may well provide some safety against the flu," in line with CDC.

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Seau Endured Brain Sickness

The findings have been steady with persistent traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain ailment broadly linked to athletes who've absorbed regular blows for the head, the N.I.H. explained inside a statement. Seau would be the most up-to-date and most prominent player to become linked together with the ailment, which has bedeviled the sport in recent times as being a proliferation of reports have exposed the probable long-term cognitive effect of head injuries sustained about the field.

"The sort of findings noticed in Mr. Seau's brain happen to be just lately reported in autopsies of folks with exposure to repetitive head injury," the N.I.H. mentioned, "including experienced and amateur athletes who played speak to sports activities, folks with many concussions, and veterans exposed to blast injury along with other trauma."

Due to the fact C.T.E. was diagnosed from the brain with the former Eagles defensive back Andre Waters just after his suicide in 2006, the ailment continues to be identified in almost just about every former player whose brain was examined posthumously. (C.T.E. could be diagnosed only posthumously.)

Researchers at Boston University, who pioneered the examine of C.T.E., have observed it in 18 with the 19 brains of former N.F.L. gamers they've got examined.

The N.I.H. started its examination of Seau's brain tissue in July. On top of that to becoming reviewed by two federal neuropathologists, Seau's brain was reviewed by 3 outdoors neuropathology gurus who didn't have information of your supply on the tissue. On first examination "the brain looked regular," based on the N.I.H. It had been not till medical professionals looked beneath the microscope and made use of staining methods the C.T.E. abnormalities have been observed.

Just about every with the neuropathologists examined tissue samples from 3 unidentified brains. The choice with regards to Seau's brain was "unanimous," based on the N.I.H. They observed "abnormal, tiny clusters known as neurofibrillary tangles of the protein often known as tau inside many areas of Mr. Seau's brain," based on the statement. Tau has become observed from the brains of people with Alzheimer's ailment and also other progressive neurological issues. The health professionals also discovered a modest area inside the left frontal lobe of Seau's brain with proof of scarring that may be "consistent having a little, old, traumatic brain injury."

"I assume it is vital for everybody to learn that Junior did certainly have problems with C.T.E.," Seau's ex-wife, Gina, stated in an interview with ABC News and ESPN. "It's essential that we consider measures to aid these gamers. We surely will not choose to see something like this transpire once more to any of our athletes." Shortly immediately after Seau's death of the self-inflicted gunshot wound to your chest at his Oceanside, Calif., household in Could, members of his loved ones announced they would donate his brain for the N.I.H. to become studied. The release on the outcomes Thursday was on the request of your loved ones, the N.I.H. stated.

For almost a decade, a great deal of your groundbreaking do the job within the research of head trauma and its effect on athletes continues to be finished with the Center for that Examine of Traumatic Encephalopathy in the Boston University College of Medication. The determination by Seau's family members to donate his brain to your N.I.H. was an acknowledgment the review of head trauma has grown properly past the province of the handful of pathologists, and grow to be a public wellness matter of nationwide relevance. Financing to the exploration has expanded, as well; the N.F.L. donated $30 million to your N.I.H. as element of its battle to tackle head trauma as well as the long-term wellness concerns that stem from it. The prominence of soldiers returning from battlefields with head trauma has also prompted the Defense Division to perform a bigger function.

"What's been coming out has raised lots of issues about public wellbeing," mentioned Dr. Walter J. Koroshetz, the deputy director from the Nationwide Institute of Neurological Issues and Stroke, that is portion of your N.I.H. and finances traumatic brain injury investigation. "What we've now is really a tip on the iceberg and we will not know what is beneath."

The N.I.H. is simply not the sole government organization learning head trauma. In September, the Nationwide Institute of Occupational Security and Overall health, and that is component from the Centers for Illness Handle and Prevention, released a research that showed that a disproportionate quantity of males who played at the very least 5 seasons within the N.F.L. from 1959 to 1988 created Alzheimer's sickness or Lou Gehrig's condition. Gamers in "speed" positions extra susceptible to high-speed collisions had been 3 times much more most likely to get died due to a neurodegenerative sickness, based on the examine. The Institute of Medication, that's aspect in the Nationwide Academies of Science, has also undertaken a 15-month investigation into sports-related concussions sustained by youthful athletes.

Researchers and advocates for retired gamers who now have degenerative brain illnesses welcome the government's higher part, in element as a result of its deep pockets and capability to shine a brighter light on the intricate subject. Previously, the improved focus to the problem has created it less difficult to have athletes and soldiers to commit to donating their brains to science.

"That's what the C.T.E. field wants, funding and consideration of your country's prime scientists," mentioned Chris Nowinski, the executive director in the Sports activities Legacy Institute as well as co-director of your Center for your Examine of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University College of Medication. "Our researchers are good, but there is extra get the job done that has to be carried out."

Seau's suicide was one among numerous by former N.F.L. gamers, which include Waters, raising concern about head injuries while in the sport. In February 2011, Dave Duerson, a former Chicago Bears player, shot himself inside the chest, saying within a note that he needed his brain donated for exploration. Health professionals established that Duerson had C.T.E.

Duerson's son, Tregg, is suing the N.F.L., claiming the league didn't meaningfully warn gamers regarding the probable hazards of concussions.

Ray Easterling, a security for that Atlanta Falcons inside the 1970s along with a plaintiff within a lawsuit against the league more than its dealing with of concussion-related injuries, died of the self-inflicted gunshot wound two weeks just before Seau. Countless gamers and their spouses have joined the suit.

"The getting underscores the acknowledged want for more exploration to accelerate a fuller knowing of C.T.E.," the N.F.L. explained Thursday inside a statement. Pointing towards the income it has committed to your N.I.H. and also the $100 million the league ideas to invest in health care exploration, the N.F.L. additional, "We have operate to complete, and we're performing it."

The final group Seau played for, the New England Patriots, is preparing to get a playoff game against the Houston Texans on Sunday. Gamers asked about Seau on Thursday expressed sympathy but didn't dwell around the news.

"It's the playoffs appropriate now, so that is the least of our worries appropriate now," offensive lineman Logan Mankins explained. "You could likely say we're meatheaded and ignorant to not think of it, but perhaps in February, following the season, we will contemplate that."

Above his 20-year N.F.L. occupation, Seau played for 3 teams, most prominently the San Diego Chargers, and manufactured twelve Pro Bowls. He played in two Super Bowls and was named towards the 1990s All-Decade Group from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Right after he retired from football following the 2009 season, Seau, normally a cheery presence in and close to San Diego, was regarded for his do the job with his foundation and his restaurant. But buddies stated they struggled to comprehend several of Seau's darker moments. In October 2010, he drove his sport utility car off a cliff along the seaside in Carlsbad, Calif., exactly where it landed some one hundred feet under the roadside. Seau claimed he fell asleep, however the timing seemed odd. That morning he had been arrested on suspicion of domestic violence.

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Genetic make-up founder John Watson requires aim at "cancer establishments"

A day right after an exhaustive nationwide report on cancer located the United states of america is generating only slow progress against the condition, on the list of country's most iconic - and iconoclastic - scientists weighed in on "the war against cancer." And he isn't going to like what he sees.

James Watson, co-discoverer with the double helix structure of DNA, lit into targets significant and modest. On government officials who oversee cancer study, he wrote inside a paper published on Tuesday during the journal Open Biology, "We now have no basic of impact, substantially much less electrical power ... main our country's War on Cancer."

Around the $100 million U.S. task to find out the DNA alterations that drive 9 kinds of cancer: It really is "not most likely to deliver the genuinely breakthrough medicines that we now so desperately need to have," Watson argued. For the plan that antioxidants this kind of as people in colorful berries battle cancer: "The time has come to critically request irrespective of whether antioxidant use a great deal extra very likely leads to than prevents cancer."

That Watson's impassioned plea came within the heels of your yearly cancer report was coincidental. He worked around the paper for months, and it represents the culmination of decades of considering the topic. Watson, 84, taught a program on cancer at Harvard University in 1959, 3 many years prior to he shared the Nobel Prize in medication for his part in finding the double helix, which opened the door to knowing the function of genetics in ailment.

Other cancer luminaries gave Watson's paper mixed evaluations.

"There really are a large amount of intriguing strategies in it, a number of them sustainable by present proof, other individuals that merely conflict with well-documented findings," explained 1 eminent cancer biologist who asked to not be identified so as to not offend Watson. "As is usually the situation, he's stirring the pot, almost certainly inside a really productive way."

You can find broad agreement, on the other hand, that present approaches aren't yielding the progress they promised. Significantly on the decline in cancer mortality inside the United states of america, as an example, reflects the truth that fewer men and women are smoking, not the advantages of clever new therapies.

GENETIC HOPES

"The excellent hope on the contemporary targeted strategy was that with DNA sequencing we could be in a position to locate what distinct genes, when mutated, brought on every cancer," explained molecular biologist Mark Ptashne of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The following phase was to style a drug to block the runaway proliferation the mutation brought on.

But pretty much none from the resulting remedies cures cancer. "These new therapies operate for only a couple of months," Watson informed Reuters inside a uncommon interview. "And we've absolutely nothing for important cancers this kind of since the lung, colon and breast which have develop into metastatic."

The principle purpose medicines that target genetic glitches are certainly not cures is the fact that cancer cells possess a work-around. If 1 biochemical pathway to development and proliferation is blocked by a drug this kind of as AstraZeneca's Iressa or Genentech's Tarceva for non-small-cell lung cancer, mentioned cancer biologist Robert Weinberg of MIT, the cancer cells activate a unique, equally productive pathway.

That's why Watson advocates a diverse technique: targeting capabilities that all cancer cells, in particular these in metastatic cancers, have in widespread.

One particular this kind of commonality is oxygen radicals. These types of oxygen rip apart other parts of cells, this kind of as DNA. That is certainly why antioxidants, which have grown to be near-ubiquitous additives in grocery meals from snack bars to soda, are considered to get healthful: they mop up damaging oxygen radicals.

That easy image gets much more difficult, even so, when cancer is present. Radiation treatment and lots of chemotherapies destroy cancer cells by creating oxygen radicals, which set off cell suicide. If a cancer patient is binging on berries as well as other antioxidants, it might essentially preserve therapies from doing work, Watson proposed.

"Everyone considered antioxidants have been fantastic," he stated. "But I am saying they will protect against us from killing cancer cells."

'ANTI-ANTIOXIDANTS'

Investigation backs him up. Many reports have shown that taking antioxidants this kind of as vitamin E don't decrease the chance of cancer but can truly improve it, and might even shorten existence. But medicines that block antioxidants - "anti-antioxidants" - may possibly make even current cancer medicines much more productive.

Something that keeps cancer cells filled with oxygen radicals "is probable a significant part of any powerful treatment method," mentioned cancer biologist Robert Benezra of Sloan-Kettering.

Watson's anti-antioxidant stance consists of a single historical irony. The 1st high-profile proponent of consuming plenty of antioxidants (exclusively, vitamin C) was biochemist Linus Pauling, who died in 1994 at age 93. Watson and his lab mate, Francis Crick, famously beat Pauling towards the discovery in the double helix in 1953.

One particular elusive but promising target, Watson stated, is actually a protein in cells termed Myc. It controls far more than one,000 other molecules within cells, such as lots of associated with cancer. Scientific studies propose that turning off Myc triggers cancer cells to self-destruct within a procedure known as apoptosis.

"The notion that targeting Myc will remedy cancer continues to be about for any prolonged time," explained cancer biologist Hans-Guido Wendel of Sloan-Kettering. "Blocking production of Myc is surely an exciting line of investigation. I believe there is guarantee in that."

Targeting Myc, on the other hand, is a backwater of drug advancement. "Personalized medicine" that targets a patient's precise cancer-causing mutation attracts the lion's share of exploration bucks.

"The greatest obstacle" to a accurate war against cancer, Watson wrote, may perhaps be "the inherently conservative nature of today's cancer investigate establishments." Provided that which is so, "curing cancer will usually be ten or twenty many years away."

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Mom Virtually Dies; Twins' Amniotic Fluid Leaks Into Her Blood

Angela Cottam was inside the middle of heavy labor which has a set of twins when she all of a sudden started choking and turned blue.

"I felt like I had a tickly cough," stated the 32-year-old elementary college teacher from Flintshire in Wales.

She did not know it with the time, however the amniotic fluid surrounding the babies in her womb had leaked into her blood process and was rapidly killing her. Cottam's lungs collapsed and she almost bled to death.

Cottam and her twin women survived, despite the fact that she spent 22 hrs within a coma at Countess of Chester Hospital in Britain. She had a tube inserted into her throat so she could breathe, lost 7 pints of blood and desired 22 transfusions.

Her household was informed she may not reside.

"As I lay in ICU, Peter, my husband, went to hell and back with thoughts about existence alone with twins and our 4-year-old daughter to bring up," she wrote in an e mail to ABCNews.com.

Cottam suffered a uncommon, but particularly harmful occasion in childbirth -- an amniotic fluid embolism, which happens only in about one in ten,000 pregnancies.

"It's a poor illness," explained Dr. Maurice Druzin, chief of obstetrics at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University. "The bottom line is it truly is a sudden catastrophic occasion that brings about mortality at an exceptionally substantial price -- above 80 %. But it really is not really popular.

"Essentially, a considerable level of amniotic fluid from your sac throughout the infant entered the maternal circulation. It can be truly rather intricate as well as the complete cause for what takes place is simply not one hundred % clear," he stated. "It typically kills you fairly rapidly."

Cottam and her now 8-month-old child women -- Amelie and Ava -- are healthier. However it was a scary and grueling practical experience. Ava went 3 minutes without the need of oxygen and needed to be resuscitated.

"My husband and moms and dads feared the worst, but in the course of the ordeal I was calm, as I knew I was within the greatest achievable spot," she wrote. "The employees with the hospital had been so calm and attentive and exceptionally speedy to react."

Cottam was informed the amniotic fluid contained cells this kind of as sloughed off skin, fingernail or hair from one of many twins.

"The consultant could not say what it had been specifically, but mentioned it had been probably one among these matters," she wrote. "The emphasis was that it had been so unusual."

The British newspapers exclaimed within their news coverage: "Mum practically killed by unborn baby's fingernail," a headline Druzin referred to as, "ridiculous."

"Amniotic fluid is made up of fetal cells and hair and perhaps a fingernail, but it truly is a stretch to say it brought on the embolism," Druzin mentioned. "A rather huge quantity of amniotic fluid is simply not supposed to become inside the maternal circulation and it acts like a pulmonary embolism -- if it goes on the lungs it could bring about an quick reaction from a mechanical obstruction point of view."

Dr. Leo Brancazio, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and head of maternal/fetal medication at Duke University Healthcare Center, explained amniotic fluid embolisms are "poorly understood."

"When it does happen, individuals deteriorate pretty rapidly, so formal research are incredibly needed to do," he explained. "For some purpose, there may be an influx of amniotic fluid in the pregnancy in to the mother's circulation. It occurs a lot more than we feel, nevertheless it is of no consequence."

In pregnancy, big blood vessels in the mom feed to the placenta and a few of them are veins.

"If there may be a tear from the amniotic sac all around or with the placenta, the amniotic fluid enters the mother's blood stream," Brancazio explained.

The embolism sets off an anaphylactic reaction, constricting the bronchial tubes and shutting down the mother's airways. Simultaneously, a phenomenon referred to as disseminated intravascular coagulation or DIC happens: The blood loses its capability to kind a steady clot as well as the mom experiences a "profound" drop in blood strain.

"The lining from the patient's blood vessels develop into temporarily injured and bleed, so you can not end the bleeding," he stated. There may also be brain injury as a consequence of lack of oxygen.

Historically, the situation was normally fatal, but nowadays with heightened awareness and greater group approaches to obstetrics and anesthesia, extra ladies like Cottam is often saved. Supportive care -- a respirator for breathing, drugs to boost blood stress; and fluids and blood goods to begin coagulation -- can restore the mother's cardiovascular process.

This kind of was the situation with Cottam, who spent every week inside the hospital, then was in a position to return property. The twins stayed two weeks in intensive care.

Given that then, she has become in counseling for trauma, which Cottam explained, "has assisted me a fantastic deal."

But she stated her point of view on daily life has transformed, and she is a lot more relaxed as being a mom to her 4-year-old daughter Olivia and also the now the twins.

"The hospital after-care was incredible," Cottam wrote to ABCNews.com. "My women are performing fine and producing nicely. I'm physically pretty properly and back to standard. I believe about my practical experience every single evening just before I head to rest and shed a tear every single now after which but hey, I am right here and which is all that issues."

The fluid, filled with foreign cells through the unborn babies, traveled to her lung, setting off a rapid chain reaction of occasions that may have led to cardiovascular collapse.

"It's a negative condition," explained Dr. Maurice Druzin, chief of obstetrics at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University. "The bottom line is it really is a sudden catastrophic occasion that triggers mortality at an incredibly large price -- above 80 %. But it truly is not extremely widespread.

"Essentially, a sizable quantity of amniotic fluid from your sac across the child entered the maternal circulation. It is truly fairly complex and also the complete explanation for what occurs just isn't a hundred % clear," he stated. "It commonly kills you very immediately."

Cottam and her now 8-month-old infant women -- Amelie and Ava -- are healthier. However it was a scary and grueling expertise. Ava went 3 minutes without having oxygen and needed to be resuscitated.

"My husband and mothers and fathers feared the worst, but for the duration of the ordeal I was calm, as I knew I was during the most effective achievable location," she wrote. "The workers on the hospital have been so calm and attentive and really brief to react."

Cottam was informed the amniotic fluid contained cells this kind of as sloughed off skin, fingernail or hair from one of many twins.

"The consultant could not say what it had been specifically, but mentioned it had been quite possibly among people factors," she wrote. "The emphasis was that it had been so uncommon."

The British newspapers exclaimed inside their news coverage: "Mum just about killed by unborn baby's fingernail," a headline Druzin referred to as, "ridiculous."

"Amniotic fluid has fetal cells and hair and possibly a fingernail, but it is a stretch to say it triggered the embolism," Druzin explained. "A fairly substantial quantity of amniotic fluid isn't supposed to get within the maternal circulation and it acts like a pulmonary embolism -- if it goes for the lungs it could bring about an instant reaction from a mechanical obstruction point of view."

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