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Markus Appel

@markusappel.bsky.social
311 followers 191 following 7 posts

Psychology of Communication, Media Psychology, Professor at the University of Würzburg, Germany. Father and former table tennis player.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Markus Appel
Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Why do white men become white nationalists? Interesting new empirical results in Nature: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
ere we show with three national surveys of non-Hispanic white adults (conducted from 2021 to 2025) that support for white nationalism is (1) higher among white people encountering personal hardship and local social distress, consistent with strain theories3,16; (2) unrelated to local racial composition or recent demographic change, complicating status threat accounts4,17,18; and (3) elevated among white people with close friendships primarily online, consistent with theories of extremism driven by online mobilization7,10,19.
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Markus Appel @markusappel.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Fantastic: Team Dresch
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Ulrike Klinger @ulrikeklinger.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Fantastic PostDoc job (100%, 4 years) in a cool project at @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social in Berlin funded by @volkswagenstiftung.de with brilliant colleagues @dscheykopp.bsky.social @thothiel.bsky.social @freiheitsrechte.org @wirsindderosten.bsky.social www.weizenbaum-institut.de/news/detail/...
weizenbaum-institut.de
Wissenschaftliche Projektleitung / Postdoctoral Re-searcher (m/w/d) zu Polarisierung auf digitalen Platt-formen
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Max Planck Institute for Human Development @mpib-berlin.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
📢 We're hiring! We're looking for new colleagues and have several open positions, ranging from Research Assistant to Research Scientist. If you're passionate about cutting-edge research and want to contribute to innovative projects, explore our current openings:🔗 www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/career
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Center for Open Science @cos.io · 11/08/2026
COS is announcing important changes to the Open Science Framework (OSF). OSF Projects—used for project collaboration, file mgmt, & storage—is being phased out as an active workspace over the next 6 months. This change does not affect persistence & accessibility of existing public projects. (🧵1/2)
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Fabian Hutmacher @fabianhutmacher.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Do you think about doing a PhD? Are you interested in understanding how individuals use digital technologies to cope with the prospect of their own mortality? Then let’s get morbid together. www.mcm.uni-wuerzburg.de/fileadmin/06...
mcm.uni-wuerzburg.de
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Andrew Przybylski @shuhbillskee.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
The first official data on the effectiveness of Australia's social media ban is out. Nothing unexpected, but it's worth reading. www.esafety.gov.au/research/soc...
The Office meme of two images from corporate comparing two plots from esafety data on the Australia social media ban.
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videogame history @vghistory.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
creative computing, cover, excerpt (1980) archive.org/details/Crea...
a little doll figurine is standing next to a little toy robot figurine. the doll is wearing a shawl-like thing and the robot looks like a slightly defective transformer.
the doll is thinking
robot: a collection of sensors and circuits sometimes mitaken for a human
the robot is thinking
doll: a collection of cloth and stuffing sometimes mistaken for a human
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Colson Whitehead @colsonwhitehead.com · 08/07/2026
NY Noise www.youtube.com/watch?v=phff...
youtube.com
Pussy Galore - Yü Gung
YouTube video by Shove Records
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 03/06/2026
1. How common is LLM use in scientific publishing, and how does it vary across field, publisher, journal prestige, author demographics etc.? @kylesiler.bsky.social has new paper in PNAS that addresses this question on a massive scale: 7.3 million papers from Elsevier, PLOS, MDPI, and Frontiers.
pnas.org
The diffusion of large language models in published academic articles | PNAS
Large language models (LLMs) are rapidly changing academic research, raising questions of who is adopting these tools and under what conditions. Th...
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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Rashid Johnson, Untitled (Anxious Man), 2018 whitney.org/collection/w...
Quasi-scribbled image, with vague image of rectangular-headed figure with wide open eyes and anxious expression
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Frau Büüsker @uedio.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
Die Forschungsministerin freut sich auf Insta darüber, dass jetzt "Porträts" von Frauen der Geschichte in ihrem Haus hängen. Nur: Die sind mit KI erstellt. Und schleifen die Gesichter der Frauen gemäß moderner westlicher Schönheitsideale glatt. Was für ein irres Projekt Z.B.
Ki-generierte VersionOriginalbild mit dem die KI gefüttert wurde
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Human Communication Research @hcr-journal.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
New in HCR: @markusappel.bsky.social et al. (2025) show that congeniality bias persisted regardless of fiction vs. non-fiction labeling, emerging for positive portrayals but not for negative ones, with non-fiction slightly preferred overall. Read the full article: doi.org/10.1093/hcr/...
doi.org
Can fictional stories beat the congeniality bias? Selective exposure to fiction and non-fiction
Abstract. People prefer attitude-consistent information over attitude-inconsistent information (congeniality bias). Connecting theory on the processing of
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Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
The strongest version of this illusion I’ve seen! Absolute head-wrecker!
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Stephan Lewandowsky @lewan.uk · 22/02/2026
The latest freedom-loving impulse from the people who cry about "censorship" when Europeans oppose AI-generated child pornography:
theguardian.com
Trump warns Netflix of ‘consequences’ unless it pulls top Democrat from board
US president calls for removal of Susan Rice as streaming platform pursues takeover of Warner Bros Discovery
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Rabih Alameddine @rabihalameddine.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Helen Frankenthaler in her studio, photographed by David Parks for Life magazine in 1956.
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Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
New article in Nature describes a field experiment on X which shows that assigning users to an algorithmic feed pushes conservative content and demotes mainstream news. Sounds obvious but important in light of prior claims algorithms don't cause attitudinal changes. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Stephan Lewandowsky @lewan.uk · 24/01/2026
Difficult to see this as anything but an execution by a death squad in broad daylight. www.startribune.com/ice-raids-mi...
startribune.com
Live: Man shot by federal agent in south Minneapolis this morning, witnesses say
A video appears to shows federal agents wrestling a man to the ground then shooting him.
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Andrew Perfors @perfors.net · 22/01/2026
I just created a series of seven deep-dive videos about AI, which I've posted to youtube and now here. 😊 Targeted to laypeople, they explore how LLMs work, what they can do, and what impacts they have on learning, well-being, disinformation, the workplace, the economy, and the environment.
youtube.com
Part 1: How do LLMs work?
YouTube video by Andrew Perfors
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University of Cambridge @cam.ac.uk · 20/01/2026
Professor @orbenamy.bsky.social from @mrccbu.bsky.social will co-lead the world’s first major trial to test whether reducing social media use can improve teen mental health. Find out more about the IRL Trial: bit.ly/4a2FZmB #socialmedia #research
bit.ly
Thousands of UK schoolchildren to take part in major study of social media use and teen mental health
A trial that will put a daily limit on the social media use of thousands of Bradford teenagers is set to begin this year. It will be the largest study yet to investigate whether use of these online pl...
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Fabian Hutmacher @fabianhutmacher.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Great thread. Definitely worth reading!
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Eiko Fried @eikofried.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Would love to hear expert views on this paper. It appears to show that the operationalization of brain activity the field has relied on for 3 decades—the BOLD response—is not actually a sensible measure of brain activity. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
BOLD signal changes can oppose oxygen metabolism across the human cortex - Nature Neuroscience
Using quantitative brain imaging, the authors show opposite fMRI BOLD signal to metabolic activity due to variable oxygen extraction across the human cortex. This questions the canonical interpretatio...
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Mike Luckovich @mluckovich.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
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Bruce Little @brucedlittle.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
"The global wealth gap has become so staggering, and its impact on economies and democratic institutions so corrosive, that policymakers should treat it as an emergency."
commondreams.org
Richest 0.001% Now Own Three Times More Wealth Than Poorest Half of Humanity Combined | Common Dreams
A landmark report on global inequality shows that the chasm between the richest slice of humanity and everyone else continued to expand this year
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Colson Whitehead @colsonwhitehead.com · 20/11/2025
Work music, for real www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xuw...
youtube.com
Floating Points - 'Fast Forward' (Official Video)
YouTube video by Floating Points
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Timo Gnambs @tgnambs.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
💡 How do people in Germany perceive Artificial Intelligence (AI)? In our recent population survey in Germany, we examined attitudes, experiences, and usage intentions regarding AI in work, healthcare, and education. 🔗 Read the full open-access article here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Attitudes, experiences, and usage intentions of artificial intelligence: A population study in Germany
Artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly affects individuals’ private and professional lives. Importantly, both the acceptance and adoption of new AI…
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Alexia Katsanidou @alexiakatsanidou.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
The relationship between income and vote has reversed in the USA.
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DGPS: Media Psychology @mepsy.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
📣Job alert 📣 11 positions for PhD candidates (100%) open in the RTG "The Experience of Stories in the Digital Age"(Wuerzburg). You can apply for 3 areas: ✅ Immersive virtual reality ✅New (Para-)Social Encounters ✅Epistemic challenges Topics: VR/XR, storytelling robots, influencers, misinformation 👇
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Markus Appel @markusappel.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
We are hiring 11 Doctoral Researchers (100%) in the DFG-RTG "The Experience of Stories in the Digital Age". Uni Wuerzburg, Germany. Disciplines: Communication, Psychology, Computer Science. Topics: VR / XR, storytelling robots, influencers, misinformation. More: go.uniwue.de/rtg3087jobs Please share
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Fernando Blanco 🦋 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ @fernandoblancopsy.com · 16/09/2025
We are offering a 2-year postdoctoral position at CIMCyC (Granada, Spain) to work on the psychology of dis(mis)information. Apply before 26th September. Nice city, great environment ☺️ Please share! 🔃 cimcyc.ugr.es/en/informati... #socialpsychology #cogpsyc #PsychSciSky #PsychJob #PhDJob
cimcyc.ugr.es
Job Offer: Postdoctoral Researcher in Disinformation
As part of the strategic plan linked to the María de Maeztu Seal of Excellence award, the CIMCYC is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher with experience in the field of the psychology of disinformatio...
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samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 31/08/2025
Our posting is now up for a Lecturer (Asst prof) in Social Psych at the University of Auckland Please apply! Portal closes 20 Oct NZT. That's the 19th stateside bc here in New Zealand we live in the future I'm not on the committee so am unconflicted and happy to chat with interested folks
jobs.smartrecruiters.com
Lecturer in Social Psychology - Faculty of Science
Company Description: Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of AucklandKo te whare Pūtaiao | The Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland is the largest and most highly ranke...
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Wilhelm Hofmann @wilhelmhofmann.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
🚨 We’re hiring! 🚨 The Social&Environmental Psychology Group @ruhr-uni-bochum.de is recruiting 2 PhDs and 1 Postdoc as part of the ERC-funded SUSCON project on sustainable consumption. Details here: PhDs:👉 jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/7... Postdoc:👉 jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/e...
jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de
Doctoral Researcher (m,f,x)
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New York Transit Museum @nytransitmuseum.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
While riding the B or Q trains between Dekalb Ave station and the Manhattan Bridge, you may catch a glimpse of "Masstransiscope," a public art installation by Bill Brand. It was added to the #NYCsubway system in 1980.
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Fabian Hutmacher @fabianhutmacher.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
We snap photos of everything. But does more documentation mean better memories? 📸📲🤳 Not necessarily. Too many photos can drown out what really matters. Remembering is all about selection. Talked about this with Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German): www.sueddeutsche.de/projekte/art...
sueddeutsche.de
Erinnerungen: Fotografieren wir zu viel?
Dank des Smartphones können wir jeden Moment festhalten. Warum das nicht unbedingt bedeutet, dass wir uns besser erinnern.
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Stephan Lewandowsky @lewan.uk · 19/06/2025
I am privileged to announce the publication of the Anti-Autocracy Handbook: sks.to/autocracy 1/12
sks.to
The Anti-Autocracy Handbook: A Scholars' Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding
The Anti-Autocracy Handbook is a call to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism. It tries to provide guidance to ...
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Oliver Genschow @olivergenschow.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Are you passionate about #scicomm & psychology in the context of #Sustainability? We are looking for a PhD-candidate (75%; 4 yrs) for the Hub Science project "Psychology of Transformation" at Leuphana University Lüneburg! www.leuphana.de/universitaet...
leuphana.de
Hub Science Project “Psychology of Transformation towards Sustainability”: Doctoral Research Associate with a background in Psychology or a related field
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Fabian Hutmacher @fabianhutmacher.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
New paper on autobiographical #memory in the #digitalage 🚨 What do individuals do when being asked to remember past events? We show that they repeatedly switch between information stored in their minds and information stored in external resources (e.g., their smartphones) doi.org/10.1186/s412...
doi.org
Mediated autobiographical remembering in the digital age: insights from an experimental think-aloud study - Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications
Autobiographical remembering may undergo significant transformations in the digital age, in which the omnipresence of digital tools has led to an increased density of recorded life episodes. To gain d...
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Linda Tropp @lindatropp.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
@davidryanmiller.com thought you might appreciate this work by @johnjost.bsky.social, which I see as very aligned with what you suggest spsp.org/news/charact...
spsp.org
Debunking “Both-Sideology” for the Sake of Democracy and Social Science | SPSP
Conservative-rightists in the U.S. are more prejudiced, less democratic, and more violent than liberal-leftists.
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Lukas Otto @lukotto.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
🚀 The GESIS AppKit is live! 🚀 Three years ago we started the project of providing "an App" for Social Scientists @gesis.org . Today, it is much more than that. It is a management system for mobile, intensive-longitudinal studies. Interested? ✅ Register here: www.gesis.org/gesis-appkit...
gesis.org
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GESIS Training @gesistraining.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
📱 Interested in collecting data with smartphones? Join this #GESISworkshop with @lukotto.bsky.social @gesis.org for a hands-on guide to planning, conducting & analyzing mobile, intensive-longitudinal surveys. ➡️ More info & registration: tinyurl.com/mobiledata25
GESIS Workshop
Design and Methods for Mobile Data Collection
31 March to 02 April 2025 | Online
Lukas Otto (GESIS)
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Wai Yen Tang Ph.D. @wytang.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
My fellow communication scientists, can you point to scientific articles about what @techconnectify.bsky.social is concerned about Some parts I believe relate to @fabianhutmacher.bsky.social & @markusappel.bsky.social's paper, but I know I'm missing other parts journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com
The Psychology of Personalization in Digital Environments: From Motivation to Well-Being – A Theoretical Integration - Fabian Hutmacher, Markus Appel, 2023
The personalization of digital environments is becoming ubiquitous due to the rise of AI-based algorithms and recommender systems. Arguably, this technological ...
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Michael W. Kraus @mwkraus.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
I don't plan to read it, but this is what they mean by anxious generation, yes? 🫠 From here: www.apa.org/pubs/reports...
Graph showing age groups who find environment as a source of stress. Younger folks are more stressed by enivronment.
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German Neubaum @germanneubaum.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
📢📢📢 #MediaPsych2025 It's time to update your to do lists! Submission system is open: www.conftool.net/mediapsych20... (Deadline February 15) @unidue.bsky.social @mepsy.bsky.social @CAIS
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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 07/01/2025
"When conspiracy theories and nonsense cures are widely accepted, the evidence-based concepts of guilt and criminality vanish quickly too." www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
theatlantic.com
The New Rasputins
Anti-science mysticism is enabling autocracy around the globe.
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Gamer Lab Wuerzburg @gamerlab.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Nice to see that my employer has finally left this toxic place #eXit
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Pablo Jost @pjost.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Hej journalists, Elmo, Alice, and Hitler hit news values, but amplifying far-right provocations plays right into their hands. It might bring short-term clicks, but the long-term boomerang will hit—not only grabbing attention, fueling their agenda, but also undermining trust in the media.
Title of the paper: How Right-Wing Populists Instrumentalize News Media: Deliberate Provocations, Scandalizing Media Coverage, and Public Awareness for the Alternative for Germany (Afd)

Abstract
The rise of right-wing populist parties in Western democracies is often attributed to populists’ ability to instrumentalize news media by making deliberate provocations (e.g., verbal attacks on migrants or politicians from other parties) that generate media coverage and public awareness. To explain the success of populists’ deliberate provocations, we drew from research on populism and scandal theory to develop a theoretical framework that we tested in two studies examining the rise of German right-wing populist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) between January 2015 and December 2018. In Study 1, an input–output analysis of 17 deliberate provocations by AfD politicians in German news media revealed much more coverage about their attacks on migrants than about their attacks on political elites, although all were covered in predominantly scandalizing ways. Next, Study 2, involving media database research and an analysis of Google Trends data, showed that the provocations had increased overall media coverage about the AfD and influenced public awareness of the party
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Cas Mudde @casmudde.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
A less discussed aspect of normalization of the far right is the attacks on anyone using pre-normalization assessments and terminology. This has been going on for over a decade, in Europe and the U.S., where the term “far right” is being squeezed tighter and tighter until it only refers to Nazis.
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David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
🚨In Nature🚨 Meta is dropping fact-checking to avoid anti-conservative bias- but is there actually evidence of bias? We this test empirically & find that conservatives * ARE suspended more * BUT share more misinfo So suspension isn't necessarily evidence of bias www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Differences in misinformation sharing can lead to politically asymmetric sanctions - Nature
We find that conservatives tend to share more low-quality news through social media than liberals, and so even if technology companies enact politically neutral anti-misinformation policies, political...
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Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 05/01/2025
#JobAlert: Full-time position as University Professor of ‹Interface Cultures/Critical Data› at the University of Arts Linz, application deadline: 7 February 2025 www.kunstuni-linz.at/en/current/j...
kunstuni-linz.at
Professor of “Interface Cultures/Critical Data” according to Section 98 of the Austrian Universities Act (UG 2002)
Applikation deadline: 07/02/2025
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Daniel P. Moriarity @dpmoriarity.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
"A study of federally funded research projects in the United States estimated that principal investigators spend on average about 45% of their time on administrative activities related to applying for and managing projects rather than conducting active research" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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