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== Ideation ==
== Ideation ==
Describe your ideation process. Include some images of your process, and include community ideation as well. You do not need photos of everything. Feel free to describe in words, and summarize/generalize repetitive processes.  
Describe your ideation process. Include some images of your process, and include community ideation as well. You do not need photos of everything. Feel free to describe in words, and summarize/generalize repetitive processes.
The whole journey was an ideation process and it was not just one idea that was followed it was everyone's contribution including the members of the community and the core team members.The journey was a long process and we had o break it in smaller and achievable goals in order to fulfill or try to solve a bigger problem and achieve a larger goal.


== Prototyping ==
== Prototyping ==

Revision as of 19:00, 4 February 2019

CAPTION TEXT

Abstract

Rural Youth Volunteers in India is a paired/ twinning program between Lady Irwin College (LIC), University of Delhi and Humboldt State University (HSU), California, which works in collaboration with different local organizations. This program is been conducted in two villages in 2018. This page explores one of two subgroups, product team. We aimed to create sustainable social entrepreneurship opportunities, spread awareness about environmental issues and solutions, and encourage a sustainable community in terms of solid waste management. We also worked towards creating social entrepreneurship opportunities by building different products from the waste of the community. Product team worked with community to understand what all products does the community want. We weighed all the products on the criteria developed by team. Then we prototyped different products and ultimately developed products out of waste. The next steps for Daula’s waste management initiative will be carried forth by the core team members that worked with us daily. In the future, we hope to see a more sustainable Daula driven by the integrity of its own community members.

Background

Rural Youth Volunteers in India is a paired/ twinning program between Lady Irwin College (LIC), University of Delhi and Humboldt State University (HSU), California, which works in collaboration with two local organizations: Environment and Social Research Organization (ESRO) and Grameen evam Pariyavaran Vikas Sansthan (GPVS). The program is supported by the US Mission to India. Both teams are comprised of 8 members, four students from HSU and four students from LIC who are working together for 10 weeks in two rural communities, Daula and Tavelagarhi, with the local NGOs GPVS & ESRO respectively. This page give details a`bout the Product team of Daula village.


Background of Village Daula Daula is located in the western Uttar Pradesh region with the population of 12,743 people (census, 2011). Primary livelihood of villagers is farming. There are some families in the village who are artisans. The village is diverse in terms of socioeconomic class, caste, and religion of its residents. (If we look at the history of Daula weavers (Julaha) community was early settler in the area. 700 hundreds year back one Rajput family from Chittorgarh (Rajasthan) migrated to Daula Village. Now 36 Caste in the area stay together. 300 families are staying in AGRA and 360 families are staying in Daula.)//data taken from CEC report.


Issues/problems/needs of the community As a part of formative research a partnered NGO Centre for Environment Communication CEC conducted a research/survey in Daula to assess the needs, resources, and priorities of the community in relation to social and environmental issues. One of the major finding of this formative research was that there is a problem of waste in this village.


When the rural youth volunteers arrived in Daula, they went in the community to get the full understanding of the waste in the village. For this regular community visits were done to people’s houses, fields, local community centers, religious places, water bodies and there waste dumping sites. Through this team understood what type of waste is found in the community, where is it dumped, are people reusing of upcycling there waste, how people are disposing there waste and many more questions related to waste, people, environment, livelihood. All this was done to triangulate the understanding and knowledge related to waste in Daula. This helped the team to interrelate and link people, waste, livelihood & environment. This led to initiating social entrepreneurial activities in Daula while working on environmental issues. The aim of the team is to encourage a sustainable community in terms of solid waste management by the technique of upcycling waste into something functional and resourceful. During the entire project, team worked closely with community members and seek their participation in bettering their economic and environmental well-being.


Goals and Objectives of the product team at Daula

  • Create sustainable social entrepreneurship opportunities
  • Initiate upcycling of waste within the community
  • Promote sustainability of the project (jobs and product) over subsequent years
  • Use only waste that already exists in the community and not to generate more waste in the process


With these goals and objectives in mind product team started listing possible products and then started prototyping with the core team and community members. This led to creating social entrepreneurial opportunities for the villagers.

Empathy

Our team utilized various methods for collecting information from the community. We spent time listening to the community and their ideas, implemented their feedback and ideas into our prototyping process, and worked to engage them in the prototyping process with limitations based on our safety protocols. We have found that the community has a lot of good ideas and many of them are already in the process of upcycling waste to create products.

Community meetings

Our team conducted various community meetings and events to gauge the communities interest into products that we had brainstormed. We utilized these moments to ask the community for feedback and to assess the need of these products.

We held a community meeting to introduce 10 products and gauge what products the community were interested in. We presented information on compost, melting plastic into tiles, creating plastic string and rope, newspaper pen, bags from upcycled cloth, clipboard, plastic storage boxes, and a jewelry stand. We invited multiple community members and only men showed up. We held a second meeting in which we intentionally invited only women to get an accurate representation of the community’s interest. We gave each person in attendance 2 votes in which they could use to help us determine the what products were the most popular. This process helped us understand what products we were going to start prototyping. Compost/organic waste product gained the most votes in both sessions, with up cycled feed bag second, and plastics third. A few weeks later we took 8 prototyped products to the weekly Monday market in the village to gain feedback, asses interest, and find price points for these products. The products out of plastics were, a jewelry stand and bag, melted plastic into a tile and block, a lamp, plastic string from bottles, and a clipboard. We also took a newspaper pen, a grocery bag from upcycled cloth, and a sample of vermicompost from the local vermicompost farmer. This place of engagement was vital in helping us narrow down our 8 products to 4 products we would continue to prototype.After the meetings and market, we found that compost was still the most popular. We realized that compost is not a viable product for us to sell. We visited a local vermicompost farmer and asked if they would be willing to lead a training session in the future. We then moved to hold a training with them and the farmer who trained them. This training focused on the process of vermicomposting and its benefits and the harmful effects of pesticides. These trainings were vital in engaging the community in the process of making and using their own organic compost and becoming aware of the resources they have in their community.

Community Walks

During the brainstorming and prototyping phase of our project we spent time walking in the community, visiting various ponds, and local entrepreneurs. During our first visit to Daula, we visited many homes and observed that many people are already upcyling products for their own benefit such as cots, mats, bowls, hanging decorations, and more. This showed that the village has an understanding of waste management and up cycling. We observed that most of the waste gets dumped into the local ponds and clogs the drains, thus polluting the water in the village. The team went on a tour of the community to visit the local ponds, and observe the types of waste that pollute and dry up the ponds. We observed that a majority of the waste in the ponds includes; chip bags, polybags, and plastic bottles. This observation narrowed down our research as to what we could do with these types of waste to create a product. The product team also visited a local vermicompost farmer to learn more about the process and discuss our options around getting the community engaged with organic compost. After initial research, the product teamed moved forward to focus on plastics to create a product. Based on the criteria that was determined for product and observations made in the community, we decided to go out into the community to collect plastic from people’s homes and religious places. We spent 6 days going into the community via e-rickshaw, with a speaker for announcement, to ask people to donate plastic and unwanted cloths. In this time, we also visited religious places in the village to encourage them to spread awareness on waste management and collecting plastic.

Literature Review

I think we might skip this just this time... feel free to wait until I arrive to complete the literature review subsection. Introduce the literature review briefly and then use heading and subheadings for topics. This should focus on information… NO PLAGIARISM! [1] Copy and paste from this Practivistas India/literature review template.

Definition

Problem statement

The objective of this project is to create sustainable social entrepreneurship opportunities, initiate up cycling of waste within the community, promote sustainability of the project (jobs and product) over subsequent years, spread awareness about environmental issues and solutions, with a focus on waste management, and use only waste that already exists in the community and not to generate more waste in the process. We aim to encourage a sustainable community in terms of solid waste management by the technique of upcycling waste into something functional and resourceful. Throughout this project, we work closely with community members and seek their participation in bettering their economic and environmental well-being.

Criteria

The following criteria, constraints, and weights, were brainstormed and decided upon by the product team. They were decided upon after spending time in the community listening and observing community members.

Criteria Constraints Weight (0-10)
Durability & Strength At least as strong/durable as existing similar products, if not more. 7
Cost/Affordability Costs to complete the reasonability within the budget. Startup costs should be as low as possible, as well as running costs, or at ;east affordable for a large majority of the community. 8
Safety End result should at least be as safe as existing similar products/process if not safer. 10
Aesthetic/Branding Visually & tactically pleasant to at least 70% of consumers. 6
Beneficial to Community Follows the basic standard of sustainability. Does not invalidate any existing jobs. Uses mostly, if not all, raw materials made from waste. Bolsters local economy. 8
Novelty/Desirable/Useful Is novel and people find it useful 7
Accessible Accessible to a vast majority of community members, independent of social stratification (i.e., socioeconomic status, religion, caste, gender) 8

Ideation

Describe your ideation process. Include some images of your process, and include community ideation as well. You do not need photos of everything. Feel free to describe in words, and summarize/generalize repetitive processes. The whole journey was an ideation process and it was not just one idea that was followed it was everyone's contribution including the members of the community and the core team members.The journey was a long process and we had o break it in smaller and achievable goals in order to fulfill or try to solve a bigger problem and achieve a larger goal.

Prototyping

The main goal for prototyping products was to determine a marketable product for social entrepreneurship that reduced, recused and recycled the community wastes. After observing the community for the first two weeks, the team decided to focus mainly on organic waste, plastic, newspaper and used clothe. Processes for prototyping of the products included: community feedback, brainstorming, online research, trial and error and group assessment. The finalize product that was most suitable for social entrepreneurship for the Daula village was the Seed Pen, also known as newspaper pen. Listed below are descriptions and photos of different prototypes that were produced throughout the project.

Seed Pen

Seed pen, which was originally called newspaper pen, was a product prototype that was initially created by a student who was also doing an internship in the Daula. Unfortunately, he only participated during the brainstorming process. The newspaper pen was inspired from the local men who kept their pens in their shirt pocket. It replaces the typical pen that has a plastic top, bottom and body with a newspaper body and leaving only the pen refill as plastic. Vegetable seeds has been added at the end of the pen and aesthetics was improved by the addition of wool and colors, hence seed pen. The seed pen is a marketable product that also spreads awareness about reducing plastic.

Molding and Melting of Plastic Bags

Plastic bags of various types and sizes were the most common waste that was polluting sidewalks, drains, ponds and landfills. We also found that plastic bags are being distributed by all the shopkeepers. As a result, we converted clean polyethylene plastic bags into different shapes through the method of melting and molding. We prototype two methods of melting, frying and baking and locally handcrafted wooden molds were used. The plastic bags that were used during this process were only waste plastic. Through this simple method, the community will be able to reduce and recycle the floating plastic bags within the village. Unfortunately,

Below are the results of melting and molding plastic bags:

Blocks and Tiles

Blocks and tiles were the first prototypes that were produced. They are simple in shape and required minimal materials during the melting process. These shapes can easily be tested, such as gluing two shapes together.

Below is the list of findings based on the two melting methods:

  • Frying and baking methods both resulted with the mold shape, smooth surfaces and vibrant colors similar to the plastic bag.
  • Frying method produced tiles and blocks that were oiler and denser tiles.
  • Baking method produced tiles that were harder, lighter in weight and less oil.
  • It was easier to fry than bake plastics.

Clipboard

Clipboard was a high demand product prototype due to the lack of plastic clipboards in Daula. Students typically use cardboard-based clipboard that gets damaged during rainy season.

[Image]

!!!!!Needs more content. Two experiments were successfully done on frying plastics and molding it to clipboards. Below are the findings:

  • 1st Test: less plastic bags, flexible board, dark color, easy to install the clip
  • 2nd Test: more plastic bags, harder board, bright color

Two failed experiments were done on baking plastics for all of the following reasons:

  • Not enough plastic
  • lack of electricity during baking process
  • cooled to quickly
  • not enough pressure during pressing of the mold

Gardening Pot

Triangular and square shaped gardening pots were also produced. !!!!!Needs more content.

[image]

Grocery Bag

Another way to reduce the plastic bags within the village and up cycle waste clothe was to prototype reusable grocery bag.

Describe the results of each of the prototypes.

Plastic Stringer

PET bottles are difficult to recycle at home (CITE)

Describe the results of each of the prototypes.

Vermicompost

Describe what you were trying to prototype, what questions you were hoping to answer, include photos in a gallery as shown below. Also, do not forget that all photos should have a very unique name, e.g. [image] Describe the results of each of the prototypes.

Others

Describe what you were trying to prototype, what questions you were hoping to answer, include photos in a gallery as shown below. Also, do not forget that all photos should have a very unique name, e.g. Communityname_Prototypename_1.jpg.

  • These products were eliminated in the process due to the lack of resources and interest, appropriateness of the location and sensitivity of time (program)
  • Plastic extruder, jewelry stand and box,

Describe the results of each of the prototypes.

Seed Pen

Men and Women Community Engagement Feedback Session The seed pen placed third in the men feedback session with 6 votes. For the women feedback session, seed pen placed second along with up cycling of feed bags and plastic rope with 6 votes.


Market Feedback There were women, men and children during the market. Many of the feedback was on the aesthetics of the pen. They commented that the newspaper pen is unattractive and needs better colors and decorations. Also, the pen needs a cover or cap. The suggested price range was between 2 to 10 rupees.

Educational Fair The community liked the pen specially children. Their was a lot of people that were interested in attending the workshop on how to make a seed pen. Three students were willing to buy the pens during the fair. One out of the three students paid 5 rupees and the other paid 2 rupees. The aesthetics were approved. Everyone liked the seed, colors and wool.

Anna's Test Anna, one of the team member, used the pen for four weeks from July 12th to August 9th. She observed that the pen refill did not detach to the newspaper body. The newspaper was peeling at the grip area. Otherwise, she liked the pen. The size and thickness of the newspaper body was good.

Timeline

Date Description
May 28th-30th, 2018 Arrived in New Delhi, India
May 30th-June 3rd, 2018 American Center and LIC Welcome Presentation| Travel and Welcome Ceremony: Baraut, Tavelagarhi and Daula
June 4th-10th, 2018 Community Engagement and Interviews| Empathy/Rapport/Ideate| Individual Online Research
June 11th, 2018 created sub-teams to start narrowing down project ideas| met with community members to focus in on our project| checked in with each other twice throughout class| did a class meditation to center ourselves
June 12th, 2018 Men Community meeting
June 13th, 2018 Select product to prototype| Plan prototyping| Plan testing of prototype| Start prototype with stringer| Meeting with Krishan Pal ji to discuss regarding compost| Site visit and meeting with Satpal ji at his vermicompost site.
June 14th, 2018 Half Day| Planning for the women community meeting| Material List
June 15th, 2018 Off Day
June 16th, 2018 Eid Day| Solar Panel Installation
June 17th, 2018 Start prototyping& Test prototyping | Research cleaning plastics& Firms| Meet satpal ji (vermicompost)
June 18th, 2018 Meeting with Women Community| Call WildWestMedia | Umang Call Rajiv| individual prototyping
June 19th, 2018 Prototype Plastic Products| discuss compost product ideas | compost for community engagement
June 20th, 2018 update on the extruder and finalize | pick exhibition date | discuss market and what to prototype | wash plastic, cut and weave it. | LIC Professor Visit
June 21st, 2018 Yoga day | Research Plastic| Class
June 22nd, 2018 Go to Tarrun's and request for mold and frame| Off Day
June 23rd, 2018 Frying and Molding platic: Tiles and Blocks
June 24th, 2018 Finalize Products for Market time
June 25th, 2018 Late Start| Market Time
June 26th, 2018 Market time debrief| Reasses Products| Improve Products
June 27th, 2018 Prepare V-compost | V-compost Advertisement | Split Teams | Prep for temple
June 28th, 2018 Worked on Calendar as the whole team| Late Meeting with NABARD| Half Day
June 29th, 2018 Off Day
June 30th, 2018 possibly shopping | prioritize products| work on top priority product (vermicompost bag) | @ 11am work on the remaining daily goals up to fair | After lunch: research on plastic (melting methods & types) & determine next step| Ask a community member to make a compost bag | Find a woodworker and make a clipboard| Clean the supply corner
July 1st, 2018 Shopping for supplies @ Baraut: Srishti| Filter oil: Research how, what materials and buy materials | create announcement for plastic collection| Check in with KP about bags for plastic collection | Prototype Grocery Bag
July 2nd, 2018 paste together plastics | Vermicompost Workshop| build and filter out the oil| continue with grocery bag prototype | Design and Prototype molds| Umang Call Oil Refinery After Lunch| Finalize the Oil: Refinery or Filter?
July 3rd, 2018 Checking the glued cubed and tile| Glue tile to tile| Finalize: temperature, time, mold| Decide on what should be molded and Order it to a woodworker| Plastic bag collection| Choose a grocery bag| Go to the Temple to show the bags| Update KP about calendar and schedule
July 4th, 2018 Reassess and Discuss the progress of the molded plastic, grocery bags, pen and plastic bottle stringer | Design , finalize, and order the molds| Record announcement for collection drive| Plastic Bag Collection Update | Email Oil Refinery (Meenal)| Improve the design of the plastic stringer and update material list (table)| Find a weaver in community
July 5th, 2018 Product: Pens: Update material list, gluing and painting method| Finalize molded plastic, grocery bags, pen and plastic bottle stringer| walk around the community and ask for plastic| bring a box with us| order the molds: triangle and trapezoid| weaver: give the plastic string
July 6th to 8th, 2018 Off Days
July 9th, 2018 find and order a community member that can stitch the grocery | quantity and price| Check on plastic collection and check if they are clean | Talk about improving plastic stringer | Break into two teams;| work on pens (make wheat paste, roll pens, buy seeds, paint pens) | Order molds |
July 10th, 2018 *Glo is working on highlighted items on Monday*| make fake money system for fair | Secure a system to assess possible entrepreneurs at fair | marketing strategies & layout of fair (shifts?)| Build Stringer and write the instructions and/or troubleshoot| look at computer literacy and marketing strategy| Send team member to engagement team for school activity prototyping
July 11th, 2018 Continue looking at computer literacy and marketing strategy (price)| Reassessing All the Products| Brainstorm & begin planning workshops | fake money system| assessment of future entrepreneurs | continue working on pens| create banners/stand for products (children)
July 12th, 2018 Mid program Debriefing in Delhi (Day trip)
July 13th, 2018 Collect Plastic from community| Pass out flyers| Advertise the fair| Continue research marketing strategy, looking at computer literacy and marketing strategy (check drive)| Continue assessment for future entrepreneurs| continue working on pens | Check on Grocery bags (Hindi and Muslim Community) & Molds (Tarun, Doula)| Brainstorm & begin planning workshops| Fair announcement|
July 14th, 2018 Inter-school assembly | Collect Plastic from community| Pass out flyers| Announce Fair| Oven and Fry Plastic (gelatin) | Fair announcement| Work on Fair logistics | assessment of entrepreneurs| how the booths will run | supplies needed for each booth | plan workshops | Check drive for computer literacy document| pick up grocery bag✔ & molds this evening
July 15th, 2018 Collect Plastic from community| pass out flyers (shopkeepers by the community boys) | Announce Fair (e-rickshaw and community leaders) | Oven and Fry Plastic (gelatin) | plan workshops | rest of the team look @ and add | Call people for the fair: Satpal, vendors (Uma)| computer literacy (review and add comments)| Clean Plastic Collection
July 16th, 2018 Collect Plastic from community| Pass out flyers| oven & fry plastic| finalize pens & pen workshop| assessment of entrepreneurs| plan workshops
July 17th, 2018 Day Off
July 18th, 2018 Collect Plastic from community| pass out flyers| Work on Presentation for American Center| what are we showing them| who is coming as far as community members? research marketing strategy for the workshops| Visit location | Create fair layout| Fair logistics
July 19th,2018 <no>

Plan the itinerary for the Workshops Go through Checklist for the Fair </nowiki>

July 20th, 2018 American Center Visit| Revisit Criterias and Constraints| Showcase products| briefing on ed fair| Target market and strategy| call people to brief on fair
July 21st, 2018 Educational Fair
July 22nd, 2018 Assessment Fair
July 23rd, 2018 Education fair in Tavelagarhi (Daula team joins them)
July 24th, 2018 Debrief Tavelargarhi| Prep for plastic workshop
July 25th, 2018 Plastic workshop logistics| Test run of plastic workshop with everyone| Identify Key Community members| Evaluate and Document results
July 26th, 2018 Discuss last day to find social entrepreneurs| Going out into community to find social entrepreneurs
July 27th, 2018 Went to Tarun’s place to melt and mold plastic
July 28th, 2018 Plastic Workshop| Identify Key Community members| Evaluate and Document results
July 29th, 2018 Documentation| Appropedia| Powerpoint Presentation
July 30th, 2018 COMPUTER LITERACY - MS office (no internet): MS word @ 2:30 Gloria, Powerpoint @ 3:00 Uma ,Excel @ 3:30 Lorenz |Documentation |Appropedia |Powerpoint Presentation
July 31st, 2018 COMPUTER LITERACY - Google tools (cell phones & computer internet)| Google tools @ 2:30 Anna | Website (part of google tools) @ 2:30 Tanvi| Plan and Design cement/plastic stool
August 1st, 2018 COMPUTER LITERACY - social media (cell phones & computer internet)| Social Media (Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Amazon) @ 2:30 Srishti/Jasmine|Apps/marketing @ 3:30 Umang
August 2nd, 2018 Day Off
August 3rd APPROPEDIA FIRST DRAFT DUE 11:59pm |rally & fair preparation | Allow the community members to ask questions and troubleshoot products. |August 4th, 2018 |<tt><nowiki> PFK’s Rally in afternoon
August 5th, 2018 PFK’s Environmental Fair
August 6th, 2018 Clean up

Conclusion

Describe your tangible findings.

Daula village is a very large village in terms of population as well as area. It has various culture, caste and religious dynamics. Solid waste management is one of the need which is not recognised by the community as important to be worked on a whole community. But our core team of Lady Irwin college students and Humboldt State University students with the support of the local NGO, GPVS is able to penetrate within the community and work on the issue with the people of the community itself. Now the team is moving towards the sustainability of the project, by finding the social entrepreneurs who can create the products of clipboard, plant pot or paper pen by not only making the use of the waste that is already present in their homes, but also by selling and earning from the product which they create, to boost their economy, therefore our core team of community members is now the lead and the team of HSU and LIC is playing the role of a facilitator. The project intends to end with a fair where community members will demonstrate their project to the community, with the children and the youth demonstrating the products which they have created using the waste in their home and taking the lead. In future Dr. Amod is interested in taking forward the project in the village.


Instructions

This is how to make, use and/or maintain it. The step by step how to template {{How to}} is most likely best for this part as shown below:

NOTE- the raw material used in all the products should we maximum waste

NOTE- how to clean products

1. Pen Things required- newspaper, glue, seed, pen refills, wool (to decorate)

Steps-

2. Plastic pot

Things required - • Things required for frying- oven/ gas stove, cooking refined oil (Dalda Sunflower refined oil recommended), frying pan/ oven utensil, gloved/ oven mate, wooden spatula, thermometer • material for frying- plastic polybags • molds- different shape of pot molds (here we used square and triangle mold for making pot

dimensions of molds-

Steps-

3. Clipboard Things required- same materials as required for plastic pot + clips for clipboard

Mold- clipboard shape mold

Dimensions of clipboard mold-

Steps-

4. Cloth/ grocery bag

Things required- cloth, thread, stitching machine, zipper or buttons

Dimensions

Steps-

5. Plastic stringer machine

Things required-

Steps-

Troubleshooting

This is only how to troubleshoot basic operation. For complex issues, the solution might just say contact ________. In addition, this might not be relevant to your project... if that is the case, just delete this section. It should be a table in this format:

Problem Suggestion
Example issue Example solution or suggestion
Does not turn on Make sure it is plugged in
Another issue Et cetera

Discussion

As a product team, we learned valuable lessons throughout this project.

Lessons learned

Describe your collective lessons learned in the project.... most likely in a numbered bullet format as shown below:

  1. Importance of safety protocols when melting of plastic
  2. Importance of research before and during the prototyping process
  3. Using each other’s strengths and skill sets to accomplish a goal
  4. Importance of accountability when the team splits up to work on a project
  5. Setting goals with timelines to complete
  6. Merging of ideas and prototypes can lead to something better
  7. We are our toughest critique
  8. Team attitudes and feelings can influence the quality of work
  9. Hands on experience is an opportunity to learn
  10. Listen to the community & include everyone

Next steps

Discuss any next steps for the project as it goes on into the future.

Team

Introduce team member name in the following format:

References

Template:Reflist

Make sure to include other relevant categories at the bottom, e.g. [[Category:Rainater]], [[Category:Upcycling]], etc.

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