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Rowland Kao

@rowlandkao.bsky.social
747 followers 336 following 34 posts

University of Edinburgh, Roslin Institute & School of Physics & Astronomy. Interested in Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Modelling; Complex Networks; All views expressed here are my own.

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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
As one of the "we" very pleased to be part of this initiative. Thanks to @helcecilia.bsky.social @paulineezanno.bsky.social and @gaelbn.bsky.social for taking the lead on this one.
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
rdcu.be/euiRS. Spatial patterns of COVID-19 2nd booster uptake is well predicted from 1st booster patterns via deprivation, age & gender. Spatial patterns deviated w/ later boosters, w/ men under 60 showing markedly lower uptake than predicted. Kudos to Anthony Wood for his excellent analysis.
rdcu.be
Long-term spatial patterns in COVID-19 booster vaccine uptake
Communications Medicine - Long-term spatial patterns in COVID-19 booster vaccine uptake
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Interested in applying data science to practical health problems? At Lancaster University learn a mix of programming, stats, and health economics. For an international flavour there is a summer school on Pemba just beside Zanzibar. www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/postgr...
lancaster.ac.uk
Health Data Science MSc - Lancaster University
Find out more about studying Health Data Science MSc at Lancaster University
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Very proud of the links I have with scientists in BioSS - long may it continue
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
@ewancolman.bsky.social analysed the impact of individual person shedding variability on virus detection in #wastewater-based epidemiology and ability to identify rises and falls in COVID-19 trajectories in Scotland during the pandemic journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... Elegant analysis Ewan!
journals.plos.org
The impact of signal variability on COVID-19 epidemic growth rate estimation from wastewater surveillance data
Testing samples of wastewater for markers of infectious disease became a widespread method of surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic. While these data generally correlate well with other indicators...
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Thomas House @tah-sci.com · 02/04/2025
Great PhD opportunity with @edmhill.bsky.social @profbuchan.bsky.social and others, please circulate to anyone interested! www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/postgr...
liverpool.ac.uk
Optimising Vaccination Outreach Through Epidemiological-Behavioural Modelling and AI
Vaccine hesitancy is a complex, time-varying problem leading to suboptimal vaccination coverage for individuals, groups and populations. In turn, this has serious consequences for individuals and popu...
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Dr Edward Hill @edmhill.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
📰 DEFRA avian influenza update: 28 Mar 2025 #IDSky #IDEpi #OneHealth 2️⃣ premises with HPAI H5N1 confirmed 🐔 Commercial poultry at premises near Wymondham, Norfolk 🐦 Poultry & captive birds at premises near Blaydon, Durham (previously suspected case) 🔗 Avian influenza: latest situation in England👇
gov.uk
Bird flu (avian influenza): latest situation in England
Find out about the latest bird flu situation in England and guidance for bird keepers and the public.
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
With proper development Wastewater surveillance could be used to track epidemics even when driven by asymptomatic infections www-cbc-ca.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cbc....
www-cbc-ca.cdn.ampproject.org
Amid Canada's largest measles outbreak in more than a decade, experts say this COVID-era tool could help
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
H5N1 found in sheep for the first time - no obvious immediate risks but another indication of the potential for a well known virus to surprise. No indication yet of whether or not its an isolated case or evidence of onward transmission. www.gov.uk/government/n...
gov.uk
Influenza of avian origin confirmed in a sheep in Yorkshire
Influenza of avian origin (H5N1) has been confirmed in a single sheep in Yorkshire.
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Increasingly thinking about my research groups computing energy use. We are generating only a tiny fraction of the consumption of course but it’s just far too easy to let the computers do the work rather than thinking through what really needs to be done www.oneninenine.agency/articles/the....
oneninenine.agency
The Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry
The internet is now responsible for up to 4% of all total carbon emissions. So how can we make The Cloud green with our growing dependence on technology and AI?
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
It's been coming - but its still the end of an era: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Skype announces it will close in May
The internet chat and phone service, which is owned by Microsoft, made the announcement on X.
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
if you have to bet on when a randomly occurring event will occur always bet on the 1st day; any other day is conditional on the event having not yet occurred and therefore has lower probability. I.e. the 1st allowable day is the mode of the distribution
dist.is
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Dr Edward Hill @edmhill.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
📰 Recent highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 confirmations in other captive birds in England #IDSky #IDEpi 🐔 25 Feb 2025: Confirmed case at premises near Fownhope, Herefordshire 📊 22 cases of HPAI H5N1 in England in 2025 🔗 Avian influenza: latest situation👇 www.gov.uk/government/n...
gov.uk
Bird flu (avian influenza): latest situation in England
Find out about the latest bird flu situation in England and guidance for bird keepers and the public.
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IDDjobs @iddjobs.org · 26/02/2025
PhD position (Glasgow, UK) Quantifying the contribution of livestock movements to AMR in East Africa with @researcherJess at University of Glasgow More details: iddjobs.org/jobs/2277
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Some answers to my question about what would trigger use of #H5N1 vaccine being purchased by Canada. #NACI, the advisory group that recommends vaccine policy in Canada, has issued preliminary guidance on how/when to use H5 vaccine in a non-pandemic context. www.canada.ca/en/public-he...
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Giving poultry workers bird flu vaccines protects them and reduced the chances for either recombination with seasonal flu or further strain adaptation in humans www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
theglobeandmail.com
Ottawa purchases 500,000 doses of bird flu vaccine for people at higher risk of catching virus
The majority of the doses will be handed out to provinces and territories, which will decide when and where to deploy the shots
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
New spillover of HPAI into cattle. A regular event now ... www.aphis.usda.gov/news/program... - hard to know how much is about looking for it harder, how much is because there is so much circulating HPAI in US birds, and how much is due to the strain of virus itself.
aphis.usda.gov
APHIS Identifies Third HPAI Spillover in Dairy Cattle | Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
On February 13, 2025, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) confirmed by whole genome sequence a detection of highly pathogenic a...
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Given his approach to Gaza I’m sure we are in good hands www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Trump says he has spoken to Putin and agreed to negotiate Ukraine ceasefire
US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth says Ukraine would have to cede territory, alarming Kyiv and European allies
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Permanent PDRA position @pirbrightinst.bsky.social working in one of the most important disease systems/challenges we face lnkd.in/eR-27gNY
lnkd.in
The Pirbright Institute hiring Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Woking, England, United Kingdom | LinkedIn
Posted 10:37:37 AM. Postdoctoral Scientist – (24P-80)The Pirbright Institute Salary: £38,500 - £40,000 per…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
#USDA reported 5 new #H5N1 #birdflu infected herds today, 4 in ... wait for it ... Nevada! & 1 in California. The Nevada herds are the first there since early December. I hope the people who study sequences can find these & figure out if they are all part of the same outbreak or new introductions.
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Workshop for younger researchers interested in complexity science. There is a nice list of projects here in #complexsystems
complexity72h.com
Call for Participants – Complexity72h
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Ed Hutchinson @socialinfluenza.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Our study on pasteurising influenza viruses in milk is now out! It's a nice simple story: influenza viruses (including H5N1) are killed really effectively by pasteurisation, but in raw milk they stay infectious - obvious public health implications of both points... (1/2) rdcu.be/d73te
A picture of a Fresian cow whose markings resemble influenza viruses
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
New EU dashboard for Wastewater surveillance for infectious diseases joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and...
joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu
Tracking diseases from the sewer
The EU Wastewater Surveillance Dashboard provides near real-time insights into the spread of pathogens.
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Further twists in the bird flu saga www.reuters.com/business/hea...
reuters.com
U.S. reported first outbreak of H5N9 bird flu in poultry, WOAH says
The United States reported a first outbreak of H5N9 bird flu on a poultry farm, the World Organisation for Animal Health said on Monday.
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Dr Edward Hill @edmhill.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
1/ 📣 Two funded PhDs available as part of UKRI Research Hub in AI for Collective Intelligence (ai4ci.ac.uk) #PhDSky 🧪 Interdisciplinary work between infectious disease epidemiology & AI (Pandemic Resilience research theme) #IDSky #IDEpi 🏫 Based at University of Bristol & supervised by Leon Danon
findaphd.com
Developing Artificial Intelligence methods for infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics (AI for Collective Intelligence – Pandemic Resilience) at University of Bristol on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Developing Artificial Intelligence methods for infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics (AI for Collective Intelligence – Pandemic Resilience) at University of Bristol, listed on...
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
I’m very pleased and honoured to continue my involvement with Defra’s Science Advisory Council - slightly daunted that it is now as Chair www.gov.uk/government/n...
gov.uk
Defra’s Science Advisory Council Chair appointed
Professor Rowland Kao has been appointed as the Chair of Defra’s Science Advisory Council
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Michael G. Ison, MD MS @michaelisonmd.bsky.social · 01/01/2025
It was an honor to write this contextualizing editorial with @drjeannem.bsky.social for the @nejm.bsky.social along with 2 important reports of recent human cases of influenza A(H5N1). #H5N1 #IDSky www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.... www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.... www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.... 🧵1/3
nejm.org
The Emerging Threat of H5N1 to Human Health | NEJM
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) emerged in 1997.1 Since then, it has spread globally by migratory birds, resulting in infections in animals on every continent. HPAI A(H5N1) clade 2...
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
Stunning!
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Good to see Cal. taking this seriously. Shouldn't overestimate risk but need to acknowledge the high uncertainty that the combination of raw milk consumption, possibly short evolutionary pathways to human adaptation & interaction with seasonal flu really mean. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...
theguardian.com
Why California declared a state of emergency over bird flu
The virus has spread for years in wild birds and commercial poultry, and was detected for the first time in US dairy cattle in March
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
#USDA reports 1 new #H5N1 #birdflu infected herd, in California. That brings CA's total to 650 herds, 56 of which have been released from quarantine, per CDFA. Cumulative national total: 866 herds in 16 states. Still no confirmations from the new national milk testing program.
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
As I sit in a funding panel meeting reminds me how unfair reliance on English as the international language of science is, even for funding bodies in non English speaking countries
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Infectious Disease Tracker @hmpxvt.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
⚠️ BREAKING: Nevada reported its first case of H5N1-infected dairy herds, becoming the 16th state to be affected, according to the Department of Agriculture.
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Infectious Disease Tracker @hmpxvt.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
⚠️ BREAKING: H5 bird flu has been found at 3 wastewater testing sites in Iowa, according to WastewaterSCAN. The state doesn't have any known active outbreaks of bird flu in dairy cattle or poultry.
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
LA Times' Susanne Rust reports that Raw Farms LLC has been ordered to stop distributing raw milk products after 2 recalls of product containing #H5N1 #birdflu. She reports testing of commercial product has been positive, though the farm's bulk tank testing is not. www.latimes.com/environment/...
latimes.com
Sales of Raw Farm's products suspended amid bird flu concerns
As contradictory and confusing bird flu test results come back from various county and state agencies, the state's agriculture department has instructed raw milk producer Raw Farm to withhold sales.
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Thomas House @tah-sci.com · 30/11/2024
About 1% and rising of the UK has mixed European and Asian heritage, and the trend is towards younger people being more positive about immigration across the board. Multiculturalism works and voters want Labour to improve public services not chase Farage's coat tails. natcen.ac.uk/how-are-atti...
natcen.ac.uk
How are attitudes to Immigration in Britain changing? | National Centre for Social Research
Findings from the European Social Survey show how attitudes towards immigration in Britain are changing.
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Thomas House @tah-sci.com · 29/11/2024
**Please Circulate!** Opportunity to join the project team for the co-produced Mathematical Modelling of Epidemics Together (COMMET) project. We are looking for two people to join our team and help co-produce this project. www.coproductioncollective.co.uk/news/commetp...
coproductioncollective.co.uk
Opportunity to join the project team for the co-produced Mathematical Modelling of Epidemics Together (COMMET) project | Co-Production Collective
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NetSci 2026 @netsciconf.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
📢 NetSci 2025 Speaker announcement: Jari Saramäki, Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science, Aalto University "Networks in Time and Space" #NetSci2025 @jsaramak.bsky.social
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
As I use this paper once again, though I’d share this absolute classic - if you want to know more about the reasoning behind R0 and what it really means (with a bit of math) you could do much worse than this doi.org/10.1098/rsif... ignore the beetle!
doi.org
The construction of next-generation matrices for compartmental epidemic models | Journal of The Royal Society Interface
The basic reproduction number ℛ0 is arguably the most important quantity in infectious disease epidemiology. The next-generation matrix (NGM) is the natural basis for the definition and calculation of...
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Adam Kucharski @adamjkucharski.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
UKHSA hiring a Deputy Director of Modelling: www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi...
civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk
Deputy Director of Modelling - Civil Service Jobs - GOV.UKGOV.UK
Search and apply for jobs in the UK Civil Service
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Edinburgh Infectious Diseases @uoe-eid.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
⭐NEW PUBLICATION⭐ Modelling plausible scenarios for the Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant from early-stage surveillance @banks.ac @rowlandkao.bsky.social Read the full publication below ⤵️ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39571488/
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Infectious Disease Tracker @hmpxvt.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Last wastewater readings found H5 bird flu in Davis, Los Angeles, Marina, Napa, Novato, San Francisco, Ontario, Paso Robles, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Sunnyvale and Turlock.
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NetSci 2026 @netsciconf.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
📢 NetSci 2025 Speaker announcement: Manlio de Domenico, Associate Professor at UniPD & Head of CoMuNe Lab & President of CSS Italy & Co-founder and Co-director of MSCX "Network science in a complex world: broken, lost and future links" #NetSci2025 @manlius.bsky.social
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Congratulations to the newly minted Dr Tijani Sulaimon @tijanis.bsky.social - Edinburgh/Glasgow PhD with Paul Johnson on future RVF risks in Tanzania under land use and climate change. Well done on an excellent PhD
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
BREAKING: #CDC reports it has confirmed that a child in California tested positive for #H5N1. The child had no known exposures to infected animals or poultry. The child had mild illness and is recovering. I discuss in this video what cases like this mean, and why they are a bit unsettling.
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
As @banks.ac said - Tom Doherty was a fantastic software engineer, a good man and a fine friend who contributed to so many projects - you are missed Tom.
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Edinburgh Infectious Diseases @uoe-eid.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Welcome to our brand new Blue Sky page! We are really excited to be here to engage with our network in friendly, informative and productive ways! Join us 😊
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Brandon Hayes @brandonhayes.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
Welcome to all the newcomers! I will maintain the list of folks in animal health/animal welfare/veterinary medicine. If you want to be included, please message me or reply to this post and i'll add you. Also, please share with your network! go.bsky.app/6wvTJFK
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Rowland Kao @rowlandkao.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Originally seen post by @hmpxvt.bsky.social here is the original story www.statnews.com/2024/11/18/b...
statnews.com
H5N1 bird flu virus in Canadian teenager displays mutations demonstrating virus’ risk
The H5N1 virus that infected a Canadian teen appears not to have spread, but it shows signs of mutation that makes flu virologists nervous.
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Infectious Disease Tracker @hmpxvt.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
The H5N1 bird flu virus in Canadian teenager displays mutations that would make it easier to infect people, according to STAT News. There have been no further cases associated with the teenager with the infection.
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NetSci 2026 @netsciconf.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Announcing our first speaker for NetSci 2025... Linda Douw, Associate Professor at Amsterdam UMC and Head of the Multiscale Network Neuroscience Lab 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: "𝘔𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘯𝘦𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦: 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘶𝘮𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴"
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