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Yeh ML, Chang GM, Juang YJ. Acoustofluidics-Assisted Coating of Microparticles. Polymers (Basel) 2023; 15:4033. [PMID: 37836082 PMCID: PMC10575235 DOI: 10.3390/polym15194033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2023] [Revised: 09/29/2023] [Accepted: 10/04/2023] [Indexed: 10/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Microparticles have been applied in many areas, ranging from drug delivery, diagnostics, cosmetics, personal care, and the food industry to chemical and catalytic reactions, sensing, and environmental remediation. Coating further provides additional functionality to the microparticles, such as controlled release, surface modification, bio-fouling resistance, stability, protection, etc. In this study, the conformal coating of microparticles with a positively charged polyelectrolyte (polyallylamine hydrochloride, PAH) by utilizing an acoustofluidic microchip was proposed and demonstrated. The multiple laminar streams, including the PAH solution, were formed inside the microchannel, and, under the traveling surface acoustic wave, the microparticles traversed through the streams, where they were coated with PAH. The results showed that the coating of microparticles can be achieved in a rapid fashion via a microfluidic approach compared to that obtained by the batch method. Moreover, the zeta potentials of the microparticles coated via the microfluidic approach were more uniform. For the unfunctionalized microparticles, the charge reversal occurred after coating, and the zeta potential increased as the width of the microchannel or the concentration of the PAH solution increased. As for the carboxylate-conjugated microparticles, the charge reversal again occurred after coating; however, the magnitudes of the zeta potentials were similar when using the microchannels with different widths or different concentrations of PAH solution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ming-Lin Yeh
- Department of Chemical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1 University Road, Tainan 70101, Taiwan
| | - Geng-Ming Chang
- Department of Chemical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1 University Road, Tainan 70101, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Je Juang
- Department of Chemical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1 University Road, Tainan 70101, Taiwan
- Core Facility Center, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1 University Road, Tainan 70101, Taiwan
- Research Center for Energy Technology and Strategy, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1 University Road, Tainan 70101, Taiwan
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2
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Microfluidic device for multilayer coating of magnetic microparticles. POWDER TECHNOL 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.powtec.2023.118223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
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Le TNQ, Tran NN, Escribà-Gelonch M, Serra CA, Fisk I, McClements DJ, Hessel V. Microfluidic encapsulation for controlled release and its potential for nanofertilisers. Chem Soc Rev 2021; 50:11979-12012. [PMID: 34515721 DOI: 10.1039/d1cs00465d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Nanotechnology is increasingly being utilized to create advanced materials with improved or new functional attributes. Converting fertilizers into a nanoparticle-form has been shown to improve their efficacy but the current procedures used to fabricate nanofertilisers often have poor reproducibility and flexibility. Microfluidic systems, on the other hand, have advantages over traditional nanoparticle fabrication methods in terms of energy and materials consumption, versatility, and controllability. The increased controllability can result in the formation of nanoparticles with precise and complex morphologies (e.g., tuneable sizes, low polydispersity, and multi-core structures). As a result, their functional performance can be tailored to specific applications. This paper reviews the principles, formation, and applications of nano-enabled delivery systems fabricated using microfluidic approaches for the encapsulation, protection, and release of fertilizers. Controlled release can be achieved using two main routes: (i) nutrients adsorbed on nanosupports and (ii) nutrients encapsulated inside nanostructures. We aim to highlight the opportunities for preparing a new generation of highly versatile nanofertilisers using microfluidic systems. We will explore several main characteristics of microfluidically prepared nanofertilisers, including droplet formation, shell fine-tuning, adsorbate fine-tuning, and sustained/triggered release behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tu Nguyen Quang Le
- School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. .,Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
| | - Nam Nghiep Tran
- School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. .,School of Chemical Engineering, Can Tho University, Can Tho City, Vietnam
| | - Marc Escribà-Gelonch
- Higher Polytechnic Engineering School, University of Lleida, Igualada (Barcelona), 08700, Spain
| | - Christophe A Serra
- Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, Institut Charles Sadron UPR 22, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
| | - Ian Fisk
- Division of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Loughborough, LE12 5RD, UK.,The University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | | | - Volker Hessel
- School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. .,School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Library Rd, Coventry, UK
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4
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Yang M, Luo L, Chen G. Microfluidic synthesis of ultrasmall Co nanoparticles over reduced graphene oxide and their catalytic properties. AIChE J 2020. [DOI: 10.1002/aic.16950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Mei Yang
- Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical PhysicsChinese Academy of Sciences Dalian China
| | - Lamei Luo
- Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical PhysicsChinese Academy of Sciences Dalian China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
| | - Guangwen Chen
- Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical PhysicsChinese Academy of Sciences Dalian China
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5
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Bayat P, Rezai P. Microfluidic curved-channel centrifuge for solution exchange of target microparticles and their simultaneous separation from bacteria. SOFT MATTER 2018; 14:5356-5363. [PMID: 29781012 DOI: 10.1039/c8sm00162f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
One of the common operations in sample preparation is to separate specific particles (e.g. target cells, embryos or microparticles) from non-target substances (e.g. bacteria) in a fluid and to wash them into clean buffers for further processing like detection (called solution exchange in this paper). For instance, solution exchange is widely needed in preparing fluidic samples for biosensing at the point-of-care and point-of-use, but still conducted via the use of cumbersome and time-consuming off-chip analyte washing and purification techniques. Existing small-scale and handheld active and passive devices for washing particles are often limited to very low throughputs or require external sources of energy. Here, we integrated Dean flow recirculation of two fluids in curved microchannels with selective inertial focusing of target particles to develop a microfluidic centrifuge device that can isolate specific particles (as surrogates for target analytes) from bacteria and wash them into a clean buffer at high throughput and efficiency. We could process micron-size particles at a flow rate of 1 mL min-1 and achieve throughputs higher than 104 particles per second. Our results reveal that the device is capable of singleplex solution exchange of 11 μm and 19 μm particles with efficiencies of 86 ± 2% and 93 ± 0.7%, respectively. A purity of 96 ± 2% was achieved in the duplex experiments where 11 μm particles were isolated from 4 μm particles. Application of our device in biological assays was shown by performing duplex experiments where 11 μm or 19 μm particles were isolated from an Escherichia coli bacterial suspension with purities of 91-98%. We envision that our technique will have applications in point-of-care devices for simultaneous purification and solution exchange of cells and embryos from smaller substances in high-volume suspensions at high throughput and efficiency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pouriya Bayat
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, York University, BRG 433B, 4700 Keele St, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada.
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Alorabi AQ, Tarn MD, Gómez-Pastora J, Bringas E, Ortiz I, Paunov VN, Pamme N. On-chip polyelectrolyte coating onto magnetic droplets - towards continuous flow assembly of drug delivery capsules. LAB ON A CHIP 2017; 17:3785-3795. [PMID: 28991297 DOI: 10.1039/c7lc00918f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
Polyelectrolyte (PE) microcapsules for drug delivery are typically fabricated via layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition of PE layers of alternating charge on sacrificial template microparticles, which usually requires multiple incubation and washing steps that render the process repetitive and time-consuming. Here, ferrofluid droplets were explored for this purpose as an elegant alternative of templates that can be easily manipulated via an external magnetic field, and require only a simple microfluidic chip design and setup. Glass microfluidic devices featuring T-junctions or flow focusing junctions for the generation of oil-based ferrofluid droplets in an aqueous continuous phase were investigated. Droplet size was controlled by the microfluidic channel dimensions as well as the flow rates of the ferrofluid and aqueous phases. The generated droplets were stabilised by a surface active polymer, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and then guided into a chamber featuring alternating, co-laminar PE solutions and wash streams, and deflected across them by means of an external permanent magnet. The extent of droplet deflection was tailored by the flow rates, the concentration of magnetic nanoparticles in the droplets, and the magnetic field strength. PVP-coated ferrofluid droplets were deflected through solutions of polyelectrolyte and washing streams using several iterations of multilaminar flow designs. This culminated in an innovative "Snakes-and-Ladders" inspired microfluidic chip design that overcame various issues of the previous iterations for the deposition of layers of anionic poly(sodium-4-styrene sulfonate) (PSS) and cationic poly(fluorescein isothiocyanate allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH-FITC) onto the droplets. The presented method demonstrates a simple and rapid process for PE layer deposition in <30 seconds, and opens the way towards rapid layer-by-layer assembly of PE microcapsules for drug delivery applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ali Q Alorabi
- School of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK.
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Tarn MD, Pamme N. On-Chip Magnetic Particle-Based Immunoassays Using Multilaminar Flow for Clinical Diagnostics. Methods Mol Biol 2017; 1547:69-83. [PMID: 28044288 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-6734-6_6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Magnetic particles have become popular in recent years for immunoassays due to their high surface-to-volume ratio and the ease of their manipulation. However, such assays also require multiple reaction and washing steps that are both time-consuming and manually laborious. Here, we describe a setup and methodology for performing rapid immunoassays on magnetic particles in continuous flow via their deflection through multiple laminar flow streams of reagents and washing solutions. In particular, we focus on the use of the microfluidic platform for a C-reactive protein (CRP) sandwich immunoassay in less than 60 s.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark D Tarn
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK
| | - Nicole Pamme
- Department of Chemistry, The University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK.
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8
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Armada-Moreira A, Taipaleenmäki E, Itel F, Zhang Y, Städler B. Droplet-microfluidics towards the assembly of advanced building blocks in cell mimicry. NANOSCALE 2016; 8:19510-19522. [PMID: 27858045 DOI: 10.1039/c6nr07807a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/07/2023]
Abstract
Therapeutic cell mimicry is an approach in nanomedicine aiming at substituting for missing or lost cellular functions employing nature-inspired concepts. Pioneered decades ago, only now is this technology empowered with the arsenal of nanotechnological tools and ready to provide radically new solutions such as assembling synthetic organelles and artificial cells. One of these tools is droplet microfluidics (D-μF), which provides the flexibility to generate cargo-loaded particles with tunable size and shape in a fast and reliable manner, an essential requirement in cell mimicry. This minireview aims at outlining the developments in D-μF from the past four years focusing on the assembly of nanoparticles, Janus-shaped and other non-spherical particles as well as their loading with biological payloads.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam Armada-Moreira
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark. and Instituto de Farmacologia e Neurociências, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-028 Lisboa, Portugal and Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, 1649-028 Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Essi Taipaleenmäki
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - Fabian Itel
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - Yan Zhang
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
| | - Brigitte Städler
- Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 14, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
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Jones SG, Abbasi N, Moon BU, Tsai SSH. Microfluidic magnetic self-assembly at liquid-liquid interfaces. SOFT MATTER 2016; 12:2668-2675. [PMID: 26854215 DOI: 10.1039/c5sm03104d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
We present a microfluidic method that controllably self-assembles microparticles into clusters at an aqueous two-phase liquid-liquid interface. The liquid-liquid interface is formed between converging flows of aqueous dextran and polyethylene glycol, in a microfluidic cross-slot device. We control the size of the self-assembled particle clusters as they pass through the liquid-liquid interface, by systematically varying the applied magnetic field gradient, and the interfacial tension of the liquid-liquid interface. We find that upon penetration through the interface, the number of particles within a cluster increases with increasing interfacial tension, and decreasing magnetic field gradient. We also develop a scaling model of the number of particles within a cluster, and observe an inverse scaling of the number of particles within a cluster with the dimensionless magnetic Bond number. Upon cluster penetration across the liquid-liquid interface, we find magnetic Bond number regimes where the fluid coating drains away from the surface of the cluster, and where the clusters are encapsulated inside a thin film coating layer. This self-assembly technique may find application in controlling the size of microscale self-assemblies, and coating such assemblies; for example, in clustering and coating of cells for immunoisolated cell transplants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steven G Jones
- Ryerson University, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Toronto, Canada.
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Moon BU, Jones SG, Hwang DK, Tsai SSH. Microfluidic generation of aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) droplets by controlled pulsating inlet pressures. LAB ON A CHIP 2015; 15:2437-44. [PMID: 25906146 DOI: 10.1039/c5lc00217f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 68] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
We present a technique that generates droplets using ultralow interfacial tension aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS). Our method combines a classical microfluidic flow focusing geometry with precisely controlled pulsating inlet pressure, to form monodisperse ATPS droplets. The dextran (DEX) disperse phase enters through the central inlet with variable on-off pressure cycles controlled by a pneumatic solenoid valve. The continuous phase polyethylene glycol (PEG) solution enters the flow focusing junction through the cross channels at a fixed flow rate. The on-off cycles of the applied pressure, combined with the fixed flow rate cross flow, make it possible for the ATPS jet to break up into droplets. We observe different droplet formation regimes with changes in the applied pressure magnitude and timing, and the continuous phase flow rate. We also develop a scaling model to predict the size of the generated droplets, and the experimental results show a good quantitative agreement with our scaling model. Additionally, we demonstrate the potential for scaling-up of the droplet production rate, with a simultaneous two-droplet generating geometry. We anticipate that this simple and precise approach to making ATPS droplets will find utility in biological applications where the all-biocompatibility of ATPS is desirable.
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Affiliation(s)
- Byeong-Ui Moon
- Ryerson University, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Toronto, Canada.
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11
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Tarn MD, Elders LT, Peyman SA, Pamme N. Diamagnetic repulsion of particles for multilaminar flow assays. RSC Adv 2015. [DOI: 10.1039/c5ra21867e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
A continuous multilaminar flow reaction was performed on functionalised polymer particlesviadiamagnetic repulsion forces, using a simple, inexpensive setup.
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Chou CF, Wei PK, Chen YL. Preface to Special Topic: Selected Papers from the Advances in Microfluidics and Nanofluidics 2014 Conference in Honor of Professor Hsueh-Chia Chang's 60th Birthday. BIOMICROFLUIDICS 2014; 8:051901. [PMID: 25538799 PMCID: PMC4241881 DOI: 10.1063/1.4900715] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2014] [Accepted: 10/19/2014] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Pei-Kuen Wei
- Research Center for Applied Sciences , Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
| | - Yeng-Long Chen
- Institute of Physics , Academia Sinica, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
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Moon BU, Hakimi N, Hwang DK, Tsai SSH. Microfluidic conformal coating of non-spherical magnetic particles. BIOMICROFLUIDICS 2014; 8:052103. [PMID: 25332731 PMCID: PMC4189426 DOI: 10.1063/1.4892542] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2014] [Accepted: 07/28/2014] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
We present the conformal coating of non-spherical magnetic particles in a co-laminar flow microfluidic system. Whereas in the previous reports spherical particles had been coated with thin films that formed spheres around the particles; in this article, we show the coating of non-spherical particles with coating layers that are approximately uniform in thickness. The novelty of our work is that while liquid-liquid interfacial tension tends to minimize the surface area of interfaces-for example, to form spherical droplets that encapsulate spherical particles-in our experiments, the thin film that coats non-spherical particles has a non-minimal interfacial area. We first make bullet-shaped magnetic microparticles using a stop-flow lithography method that was previously demonstrated. We then suspend the bullet-shaped microparticles in an aqueous solution and flow the particle suspension with a co-flow of a non-aqueous mixture. A magnetic field gradient from a permanent magnet pulls the microparticles in the transverse direction to the fluid flow, until the particles reach the interface between the immiscible fluids. We observe that upon crossing the oil-water interface, the microparticles become coated by a thin film of the aqueous fluid. When we increase the two-fluid interfacial tension by reducing surfactant concentration, we observe that the particles become trapped at the interface, and we use this observation to extract an approximate magnetic susceptibility of the manufactured non-spherical microparticles. Finally, using fluorescence imaging, we confirm the uniformity of the thin film coating along the entire curved surface of the bullet-shaped particles. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of conformal coating of non-spherical particles using microfluidics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Byeong-Ui Moon
- Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Ryerson University , 350 Victoria St., Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3, Canada
| | - Navid Hakimi
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Ryerson University , 350 Victoria St., Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3, Canada
| | - Dae Kun Hwang
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Ryerson University , 350 Victoria St., Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3, Canada
| | - Scott S H Tsai
- Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Ryerson University , 350 Victoria St., Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3, Canada
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