Several domestic banks in Vietnam have 90% of their transactions conducted on digital platforms, surpassing the target of 70% set for 2025. Half of the country’s banking services are expected to be digitalised and 70% of transactions will be carried out online by 2025.
The Vietnamese Prime Minister, Pham Minh Chinh, recently stated that the banking sector has played a significant role in national digital transformation by deploying products and services for people and businesses. He urged the sector to further reform its management methods towards modernity and transparency and diversify and improve the quality of its products and services to curb money laundering.
Addressing an event called, “Digital Transformation Day of the Banking Sector” Chinh explained that the sector should work to understand more about the demands of people, businesses, and credit institutions to devise suitable legal documents, facilitating the application of digital technologies in banking services.
He asked the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to continue its close coordination with ministries and agencies to formulate a decree on cashless payments and submit it to the government. Common infrastructure such as payment and credit information infrastructure should be promoted. He said suggested stronger connectivity between banks and credit organisations.
Chinh also requested the sector ensure cybersecurity and safety in digital transformation, given the rise of high-tech crime. The sector should raise public awareness about the benefits of digital transformation, enhance personnel training capabilities, and boost international cooperation in digital transformation.
The Prime Minister also attended an exhibition showcasing products and services that promote the digital transformation of the banking sector. Chinh had a working session with representatives from the SBV and commercial banks. He congratulated the sector on its effective operations amid a host of difficulties, especially those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. He suggested the sector further cut interest rates to support businesses and actively engage in the state’s policies, particularly housing credit for workers and low-income earners. Participants attributed the developments of banks to supportive policies adopted by the state, the management of the government, and stability in the country.
Vietnam’s financial technology market could grow to US$ 18 billion by 2024. The country is a leader among ASEAN members in terms of the volume of financing for fintech, second only to Singapore. Over 93% of all venture investments in the country are directed at e-wallets and the e-money segment. The total number of fintech companies has grown to 97 since 2016, an 84.5% increase. However, the number of newly-launched start-ups each year decreased from 11 to 2.
As OpenGov Asia reported, the market features high competitiveness and a high entry bar. Transaction volume has seen a 152.8% growth since 2016, with 29.5 million new fintech users. As a result, every second Vietnamese citizen uses at least one fintech service. Demand for digital services (transactions, payments, and wallets) in the country is high. According to industry analysts, Vietnam’s fintech sector is young and promising. The market valuation has increased from US$ 0.7 billion to US$ 4.5 billion since 2016.
Michael G. Regino, President and CEO of SSS, announced that self-employed, volunteer, non-working spouses, and land-based Overseas Filipino Workers can pay their contributions through the online method of their choice. This was done in cooperation with the different financial and private sectors.
“We encourage our members and employers to pay their contributions using our online channels as through these payment facilities, they no longer must go to our branches. These can be accessed at the safety and convenience of their homes or offices,” says Michael.
Individual members may furthermore use the websites and mobile apps of other SSS-accredited collecting partners, such as most banks in the public and commercial sectors of the nation. However, both commercial and domestic employers have access to online payment methods.
SSS is a publicly funded social insurance programme that the Philippine government requires to provide coverage to all wage earners in the private, public, and unorganised sectors.
The agency is mandated to set up, develop, promote, and perfect a sound, tax-free social security system that fits the needs of everyone in the Philippines. This system should encourage social justice through savings and protect members and their beneficiaries from the risks of disability, illness, maternity, old age, death, and other things that could cause a loss of income or a financial burden.
OpenGov Asia earlier reported that digitalising SSS pension fund services remain one of the top priorities in the Philippines and that more online services will be added to its digital channels.
More than 30 member services and more than 20 employer services are currently easily accessible on the SSS website. Transactions for membership, contributions, loan granting and repayment, and benefit distributions are only a few examples of the services offered. Other SSS internet platforms also extend some of these features.
Further, almost all new online services are made available via the agency’s website, which serves as its main online platform. However, more work is being done to make the services on this portal accessible to smartphone users via the SSS Mobile App.
The agency is slowly making it mandatory for its programme to be done online. Those who don’t have their own way to do business online can use the e-Centres in branches.
In the meantime, the Department of Education (DepEd) worked with the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) and exchanged alumni to improve education about climate change through an online programme called Climate Changemakers.
The National Educators Academy of the Philippines (NEAP) has recognised Climate Changemakers as the first climate change training course as part of the Department’s Professional Development Priorities.
Through online training and other digital education initiatives, the programme aims to make teachers better able to teach climate change skills, integrate climate change skills, and act on climate change in the country.
The ten-week online course, which used synchronous and asynchronous modalities to address common misconceptions about climate change, was successfully completed by 400 instructors. Additionally, it gave teachers a place to consider their own learning, exchange difficulties and effective methods.
The Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Professional Fellows Program (YSEALI PFP) is a two-way exchange programme run by the U.S. Department of State. Its goal is to help young leaders from different countries in Asia and the United States to get to know each other better and strengthen economic relationships.
Data is information that has been organised in a way that makes it simple to move or process. It is a piece of information that has been converted into binary digital form for computers and modern methods of information transmission.
Connected data, on the other hand, is a method of displaying, using, and preserving relationships between data elements. Graph technology aids in uncovering links in data that conventional approaches are unable to uncover or analyse.
Different sectors have invested in big data technologies because of the promise of valuable business insights. As a result, various industries express a need for connected data, particularly when it comes to connecting people such as employees or customers to products, business processes and other Internet-enabled devices (IoT).
In an exclusive interview with Mohit Sagar, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of OpenGov Asia, Chandra Rangan, Chief Marketing Officer of Neo4j shared his knowledge on how a connected data strategy becomes of paramount importance in building a smart nation.
Connected data enables businesses
A great example of the power of graph technology, and a very common use case for Neo4j, is its use in the financial sector to uncover fraud. Finding fraud is all about trying to make connections and understand relationships, Chandra elaborates. A graph-based system could detect if fraud is taking place in one location and determine if the same scenario has occurred in other locations.
“How does one make sense of this? Essentially, you are traversing a network of interconnected data using the relationships between that data. Then you begin to see patterns develop and these patterns provide you with answers so that you can conclude whether there is fraud.”
What is of great concern is that fraud is occurring with much greater frequency and with a higher success rate nowadays. The key to stopping and mitigating the impact is time. Instead of detecting a fraud that occurred hours or days ago,
“What if the organisation could detect it almost immediately and in real-time as it occurs?” asks Chandra. “Graph offers this kind of response and is why it’s a great example of value!”
Supply chain and management are other excellent examples of RoI. One of Neo4j’s clients, which operates arguably the largest rail network in the United States and North America created a digital twin of the entire rail network and all the goods. With graph technology across their network, they can now do all kinds of interesting optimisation much faster, leading to better, more efficient outcomes for their entire system.
The pandemic has taught the world about the value and fragility of supply chains. Systems across the globe are being reimagined as the world’s economy realise the need to become more digital and strategic. More supply sources, data, data sharing, customer demands, and increased complexity necessitate modern, purpose-built solutions.
Apart from all the new expectations and requirements for modern supply chains, systems need to and are becoming more interconnected because of new technologies.
Maintaining consistent profitability is difficult for firms with a high proportion of assets. Executives must oversee intricate worldwide supply chains, extensive asset inventories and field operations that dispatch workers to dangerous or inaccessible places.
With this, organisations need a platform that connects their workforces and makes them more capable, productive and efficient. A platform that provides enterprises with real-time visibility and connectivity, while also assuring efficiency, safety, and compliance.
Modern technologies are required to improve interconnectivity, maximise the value of data, automate essential procedures, and optimise the organisation’s most vital workflows.
Modern data applications require a connected platform
“When we programme, when we create applications, we think in what we are calling a graph. This is the most intuitive approach that you can have,” says Chandra.
Any application development begins with understanding the types of questions people want to solve and then mapping it to a wide range of outcomes that they want to achieve. These are typically mapped in what is known as an entity relationship diagram.
Individuals’ increased reliance on systems that work in a way that makes sense to them and supports them has increased criticality. And frequently, when these systems fail, Neo4j makes sense of complexity and simplifies what needs to be done, resulting in a significant acceleration.
As the world becomes more collaborative, integrated, and networked, nations must respond more quickly to changes in their business environment brought on by the digital era; otherwise, they risk falling behind or entering survival mode.
The proliferation of new technologies, platforms, and devices, as well as the evolving nature of work, are compelling businesses to recognise the significance of leveraging the most recent technology to achieve greater operational efficiencies and business agility.
A graph platform connects individuals to what they require, and when and when they require it. It augments their existing process by facilitating the effective recording and management of personnel data. Neo4j Graph Data Science assists data scientists in finding connections in huge data to resolve important business issues and enhance predictions.
Businesses employ insights from graph data science to discover activities that point to fraud, find entities or people who are similar, enhance customer happiness through improved suggestions, and streamline supply chains. The dedicated workspace combines intake, analysis, and management for simple model improvement without workflow reconstruction.
As a result, people are more engaged, productive, and efficient with connected data. Nations can bridge information and communication gaps between executive teams, field technicians, plant operators, warehouse operators and maintenance engineers. Increasing agility and productivity offers obvious commercial benefits.
In short, organisations easily integrate their whole industrial workforce to increase operational excellence and decrease plant downtime, hence maximising revenues. This methodology is based on a collaborative platform direction.
Contextualising data increases its value
According to Chandra, data is a representation of the world in which people live, and people use data to represent this world. As a result, the world is becoming more connected, and people no longer live in silos and continue to be associated in society.
“If you think about data as the representation of the world that we live in, it is connected data and we can deal with all the complexities that we need to deal with when we try to make sense out of it,” explains Chandra.
Closer to home, connected data is crucial to Singapore’s development as a smart nation. “Connected data is at the centre of each of those conversations around developing the nation. When you think of Singapore as a connected ecosystem and when you think about citizens, services, logistics, contract tracing, and supply chain.”
Chandra believes that the attributes have saved the connection between data and people, which is why connections are important. Once people understand those connections, it becomes much easier and much faster to derive the insights that are required.
Without connected data, organisations lack key information needed to gain a deeper understanding of their customers, build a complete network topology, deliver relevant recommendations in real-time, or gain the visibility needed to prevent fraud.
Thus, “knowing your customer is understanding connected data.” With the right tools, data may be a real-time, demand-driven asset that a financial institution can utilise to reinvent ineffective processes and procedures and change how it interacts with and comprehends its consumers.
“Me as a person – who I am, my name, where I live – these are all properties of who I am. But what really makes me me, are the relationships I have built over time. And so, the notion that almost every problem has data that you can really make sense of with graphs is the larger “Aha” moment,” Chandra ends.
Legacy systems are still in use pieces of hardware or software that are out of date. These systems frequently have problems and are incompatible with more modern ones. Although they can be used in the manner intended by their creators, they cannot be improved.
It is the backbone of many excellent organisations, since they utilise software, apps, and IT solutions that are crucial to the general operation of the business but are obsolete and, in some cases, no longer supported by the original software vendor or developer.
While running legacy systems may not appear to be a big deal, they do present a unique set of challenges and potential issues that organisations would be remiss to ignore.
Thus, obsolete legacy systems are at best a nuisance and, at worst, can undermine an organisation’s entire IT security strategy, severely impeding productivity. Furthermore, the longer a company waits to modernise a legacy system, the more difficult the transition becomes.
However, system modernisation is always a prerequisite for digital transformation. Most firms will be unable to fully grasp the benefits of new technologies and solutions without it.
Due to the rapid development of technology, businesses must maintain compatibility with legacy systems that impede the implementation of contemporary technologies.
With this, the Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies (CSIT) employs technology to facilitate and advance Singapore’s national security. Due to the environment’s highly secret nature, it must be air-gapped.
This means that development and deployment are conducted in networks that are not connected to the internet. Consequently, all platforms had to be installed on-premises.
Despite not being able to utilise internet-connected services, CSIT has a Cloud Infrastructure and Services section that offers developers the necessary infrastructure to concentrate on software development.
Further, a monolith system is a big application consisting of code built by several developers over many years. Frequently, the code is inadequately maintained. Some of these developers may have left the development team or the organisation, leaving knowledge gaps.
Due to a lack of expertise and the difficulty of modifying a system that is constantly in use in production, refactoring the code is comparable to replacing the tyres on a moving car.
Having a legacy system result in greater maintenance and support costs and decreased efficiency. Since the monolith system was still essential, CSIT opted to adopt a more manageable strategy by decomposing it into smaller services using the microservices methodology.
Microservices, on the other hand, are software programmes that execute a business function as part of a larger system yet are separate services. These services are intended to be lightweight and straightforward to implement.
Microservices have the following advantages: each service is independently scalable; services have smaller code bases that make them easier to maintain and test; and problems are isolated to a single service, allowing for faster troubleshooting.
In addition, there are two main microservice architectures to consider when implementing the microservices approach. Each has advantages and disadvantages that correspond to specific use cases as Orchestration, as the name suggests, necessitates an orchestrator actively controlling the work of each service, whereas Choreography takes a less stringent method by allowing each service to carry out its work freely.
Microservices architecture may not be appropriate for all projects and choosing an architecture should be based on the needs of the project; therefore, CSIT advised to expect new problems to arise and be prepared to adapt to them.
A partner company of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) that specialises in end-to-end artificial intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery, announced that the company’s Hong Kong team has identified multiple potential therapeutic targets for the fatal and incurable amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), using its proprietary biology AI platform, PandaOmics™. The research was in collaboration with Answer ALS, the largest and most comprehensive ALS research project ever. The findings were published in the June 28 issue of Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.
The team of researchers leveraged massive datasets to find genes relevant to disease, which could serve as potential targets for new therapeutics. The target discovery engine helped analyse the expression profiles of central nervous system (CNS) samples from public datasets, and direct iPSC-derived motor neurons (diMN) from Answer ALS.
The study resulted in the identification of 17 high-confidence and 11 novel therapeutic targets from CNS and diMN samples. These targets were further validated in the c9ALS Drosophila model, mimicking the most common genetic cause of ALS, of which 18 targets (64%) have been validated to have functional correlations to ALS. Notably, eight unreported genes, including KCNB2, KCNS3, ADRA2B, NR3C1, P2RY14, PPP3CB, PTPRC, and RARA, strongly rescued neurodegeneration through their suppression. All the potential therapeutic targets were disclosed in the paper and at ALS.AI.
The Director, Robert Packard Center for ALS Research and Answer ALS stated that he is excited to see the Answer ALS data being used to identify possible ALS disease-causing pathways and candidate drugs. The work done by the HKSTP partner company is how this unprecedented program was envisioned to help change the course of ALS.
A Professor at Tsinghua University and Founder of 4B Technologies stated that from AI-powered target discovery based on massive datasets to biological validation by multiple model systems (fly, mouse, human iPS cells), to rapid clinical testing through investigator-initiated trials (IIT), this represents a new trend that may dramatically reduce the costs and duration and more importantly the success rate of developing medicines, especially for neurodegenerative diseases.
The Co-CEO and CSO of an end-to-end AI-driven drug discovery firm stated that this demonstrates the power of their biology AI platform, PandaOmics, in target discovery. It is impressive that around 70% of targets identified by AI were validated in a preclinical animal model.
The team is now working with collaborators to progress some targets toward clinical trials for ALS, while also further expanding the utilisation of the drug discovery engine to identify new targets for other disease areas including oncology, immunology, and fibrosis.
The Head of the Institute for Translational Research at HKSTP noted, “We are thrilled to witness Insilico Medicine Hong Kong team’s breakthrough in the application of AI-powered drug discovery and development in ALS.”
The global study led by multidisciplinary experts in ALS and AI has revealed new aspects of our understanding of the disease and opens a new window of opportunities for developing potentially new treatment options, demonstrating the importance of a collaborative approach and the potential of AI with deep insights in addressing clinical unmet needs, she said.
She added that HKSTP will continue to build a thriving I&T ecosystem for accelerating and commercialising innovative solutions and nurturing local and global I&T talent.
The HKSTP partner firm has been conducting research on ALS target discovery and drug repurposing with other interested parties using PandaOmics™ since 2016. This study further validates the drug discovery engine as an AI tool capable of identifying therapeutic targets with potential roles in ALS neurodegeneration and creating new avenues for drug discovery and a better understanding of this rare and fatal neuromuscular disease.
The state of Punjab has launched inaugurated its first hi-tech integrated command and control centre (ICCC), which will supervise 1,401 closed-circuit television cameras that have been installed across the city of Ludhiana.
The ICCC will monitor traffic, LED lights, sewage treatment plants, common effluent treatment plants (CETPs), rooftop solar panels, and encroachments and defacements. It will oversee the revenue collection of the municipal corporation, including property tax, water and sewerage, disposal, and pet registration. It will measure air quality with data sourced from the central and state pollution control boards. It also has a GPS-based vehicle tracking system to monitor solid waste trucks, corporation vehicles, and city bus services.
As per reports, the centre was set up at a total cost of US $4.5 million. According to the state’s Local Bodies Minister, Inderbir Singh Nijjar, 330 more cameras are being installed in the city that will be linked to the ICCC. The cameras will also help to monitor secondary garbage collection points, compactors along the Buddha Nullah stream, and stray animals.
About 30 vehicle-mounted camera systems are also being installed on police and municipal corporation vehicles that will provide live-feed surveillance footage during protests, public gatherings, or other functions in the city. Additionally, 600 external IR illuminators with a 200-metre range would ensure better monitoring even during zero visibility. Officials believe the centre will bring sweeping change in the functioning of the civic body and police administration.
Punjab has been exploring the use of emerging technology in governance over the past few years. In 2020, it became the first state to roll out a business intelligence tool for big data collection. The tool was provided for free by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). In 2021, the state announced it would integrate crime and criminal tracking networks and systems (CCTNS) following the roll-out of two data analytic tools. The systems enabled police officials in the field to analyse data in a web and mobile-based application. 1,100 tablets were given to police officials in the field and 1,500 mobile phones providing access to a comprehensive database were procured.
Other states around the country are also deploying technology to support public administration activities. Earlier this week, the southern state of Telangana inaugurated a US$ 75 million police ICCC, which will function as a nerve centre for operations and disaster management. It will collect information from multiple applications, CCTVs, and traffic systems for predictive policing.
The ICCC is divided into five blocks. Tower A is the headquarters of the Hyderabad City Police Commissionerate. Tower B is the Technology Fusion Tower that hosts backups-related units like Dial-100, SHE safety, cyber and narcotics cells, and crimes and incubation centres.
Tower C has an auditorium on the ground floor and Tower D has a media and training centre. Tower E houses a command control and data centre for multi-department coordination and CCTV monitoring. The CCTV room will have access to around 922,000 cameras installed across the state.
Police can check footage of 100,000 cameras at the same time. The ICCC has a space for artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, and social media units. The building also has a sewerage treatment plant and solar panels that can generate up to 0.5 megawatts and. As much as 35% of the land area is dedicated to greenery and other amenities such as a gym and health and wellness centre.
By using a 19th-century colour photography technique on modern holographic materials, engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have printed large-scale images on elastic materials that change colour when stretched and reflect distinct wavelengths as strained.
“Scaling these materials is not trivial, because you need to control these structures at the nanoscale,” says Benjamin Miller, a graduate student in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.
The method could lead to the development of touch-sensing equipment for applications like virtual augmented reality or medical education, as well as the creation of robotic skin with a human-like feeling of touch.
The researchers made stretchy films with detailed flower bouquets printed on them. When the films are stretched, the colours of the bouquets change from warm to cool. They also made films that show how things like a strawberry, a coin, or a fingerprint are shaped.
The team’s results give us the first scalable way to make large-scale, detailed materials with “structural colour.” This is a colour that comes from the microscopic structure of a material, not from chemical additives or dyes.
Researchers have looked at how mollusk shells, butterfly wings, and other iridescent organisms reflect light. These organisms seem to shimmer and change colour because of microscopic surface structures. Engineers call these structures “Bragg reflectors” as they are angled and stacked to reflect light like tiny, coloured mirrors.
Researchers used a variety of methods to try to make this natural, structural colour in materials. Some efforts have led to small samples with precise nanoscale structures, while others have led to larger samples with less optical precision.
Researchers looked at transparent, elastic holographic film that was stuck to a surface that looked like a mirror (in this case, a sheet of aluminium). They then put a standard projector a few feet away from the film and projected images onto it.
As they thought, the films made large, detailed pictures in a few minutes instead of days. The colours in the original pictures were also very true to life.
Next, they took the film off the mirror and stuck it to a black, stretchy silicone backing to give it support as the researchers stretched the film and watched as the colours changed. This was because of the way the material was made.
When the material is stretched and thinned out, the nanoscale structures change so that they reflect slightly different wavelengths. For example, they might change from reflecting red light to reflecting blue light.
The team discovered that the colour of the film is extremely sensitive to strain. They created an entirely red film and adhered it to a silicone backing of varying thickness. The film remained red where the backing was thinnest, whereas thicker sections strained the film, causing it to turn blue.
Similarly, they discovered that pressing various objects into samples of red film left detailed green imprints, such as strawberry seeds and fingerprint wrinkles. Thus, the researchers were also able to project hidden images by tilting the film at an angle with respect to the incoming light when creating the coloured mirrors. This tilt essentially caused the nanostructures of the material to reflect a red-shifted spectrum of light.
For example, using green light during material exposure and development would result in red light being reflected, and red-light exposure would result in structures reflecting infrared — a wavelength that humans cannot see. When the material is stretched, this otherwise invisible image becomes visible in red.
Aside from fashion and textiles, the researchers are looking into colour-changing bandages for use in monitoring bandage pressure levels when treating conditions like venous ulcers and certain lymphatic disorders.
Malaysia’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation recently witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between two leading firms. Under this MoU, one of the firms, a leading company from Japan and well-known internationally, has been granted the exclusive right to distribute the graphite and graphene produced by a Malaysia-based graphene and graphite producer in Japan.
Looking at the Japanese firm’s strong track record and Japan as one of the main hubs of the automotive industry, this collaboration is seen to be able to promote Malaysian-made graphene materials.
The graphene producer, meanwhile, has pioneered an innovative approach to producing graphene from palm kernels. This patented technology is a solution that will advance the development of graphene. The technology that uses the palm kernel as the main ingredient in the production of graphene also gives Malaysia an advantage to supply raw materials in the production of graphene since Malaysia is one of the world’s largest producers of palm oil.
According to the Minister, this collaboration can provide great benefits to both firms since they are major players in their respective industries. It will provide significant revenue growth to both companies, further driving the Malaysian and Japanese economies.
In the long term, the aim is to the marketing of graphene produced by the Malaysian firm will benefit Malaysia because it has the potential to supply local companies with graphene products under the ‘Graphenovation’ program and enable Malaysia to become one of the world’s graphene exporters one day. In addition, it will also be an incentive for companies that want to take advantage of the great potential of graphene to invest in Malaysia.
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) also suggested that the firm establish a partnership with business development service in Malaysia, particularly in the supply chain and development of downstream products and applications with graphene, in addition to obtaining GrapheneVerify certification for the product to strengthen its presence with domestic recognition and international.
The global graphene market size is valued at US$ 87.5 million in 2019 and is projected to reach US$ 876.8 million by 2027, growing at a CAGR% of 40.2% from 2020 to 2027.
Graphene, the first 2-D carbon material in the world, widely regarded as a “wonder material” is ideal for many applications. Graphene is resistant to fire, an effective conductor, extremely versatile and 200 times stronger than steel and a substance of ultra-lightness.
Moreover, graphene is regarded in the chemical industry as an effective catalyst because of its properties such as high surface area and adsorption power. The rise in demand for chemicals worldwide is expected to increase graphene demand and thus, drive the growth of the global graphene industry.
Factors that are expected to fuel the growth of the graphene market are growing purchasing power and increasing consumer electronics demand such as tablets and mobile phones. In addition, graphene oxide-based transparent conductive films are used as a raw material in automobiles to make them safer and lighter.
However, the toxic nature of graphene and the risk involved in the graphene production process are expected to hamper the global graphene market growth over the projected period. Furthermore, continuous R&D activities around the globe and large-scale graphene production through renewable sources, in particular the use of value-added chemicals, are expected to give the industry enormous opportunities for growth.
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