1

Comprehensive assessment of composted materials from different sources on 1

cultivating impatiens balsamina L in municipal solid waste management 2

Yonggen Chen1,2

, Chuanbin Zhou2*

, Wanying Xu2,3

3

1 School of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang Agricultural & forestry University, 4

Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province 311300, China; 2 State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional 5

Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 6

Beijing100085, China; 3 Key Laboratory of Biofuels, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and 7

Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, Shandong Province 266101, 8

China. 9

*Corresponding author, Email: cbzhou@rcees.ac.cn 10

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Abstract 12

At different stages of municipal solid waste management, several technologies could be used to 13

recycle organic matters. Assessing the quality of composted material is crucial for determining 14

where and how to recycle the organic fractions of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). Current 15

studies mainly focused on comparing their biochemical characteristics and environmental impacts, 16

however, Comprehensive effects on cultivating plants were rarely compared with composted 17

materials from different sources. Here, final products from home composting (HC), industrial 18

composting (IC), and landfill mining (LM), with different mixing ratios between OFMSW and soil 19

(25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%), were applied for cultivating impatiens balsamina L to examine the 20

growing and flowering features under 195 days of observation. We found that all types of 21

composted materials showed positive effects on growth of impatiens, however, their individual 22

profiles were significant different. Generally, compost from HC showed the best comprehensive 23

effects on the plant. Impatiens’ dry weight biomass and maximum number of leaves and flowers of 24

HC were1.5 and 2.8 times, 1.1 and 1.6 times, and 1.8 and 4.2 times than those of IC and LM, 25

respectively. Compost from IC was superior in prolonging leaf-growing phase and increasing 26

photosynthesis pigment contents of impatiens. Although comprehensive effect of fine fraction 27

from landfill mining was much lower than HC and IC compost, it still improved impatiens growth 28

and flowering compared to normal sandy soil. 29

2

Keywords: composted material; home composting; impatiens; industrial composting; landfill 30

mining; municipal solid waste. 31

1. Introduction 32

Recycling organic material from municipal solid waste (MSW) is crucial to urban nutrient 33

cycles and biomass resource conservation, owing to the estimation that more than 1.6 Gt of 34

organic fraction was wasted along with the waste stream in the world (Gustavsson et al. 2011; 35

Porter et al. 2016). In China, organic fractions accounts for around 60% of the total MSW from 36

Chinese cities (Chen et al. 2010), while and 70% of the MSW was buried in the landfills (Zhang et 37

al. 2010), resulting a massive waste of biogenetic nutrients (Zhou et al. 2015a). Due to the great 38

potential of recycling organic material from MSW, several technologies at different stages of 39

MSW management were developed, e.g. home composting, industrial composting, and landfill 40

mining (Colón et al. 2012; Yepsen 2012; Jones et al. 2013). Previous studies have proved that 41

composted material (e.g. compost and soil-like material from landfill mining) can improve 42

physiochemical properties of soil and therefore promote the yield of plants (Olowolafe 2008; 43

Hosseinpur et al. 2012). It suggested that composted material could increase enzymatic activity, 44

enrich microorganism groups, and supplement nutrients in soil (Khan & Joergensen 2009; Hu & 45

Qi 2010; Kalembasa & Symanowicz 2012). Therefore, many countries and cities are planning 46

programs aiming at recycling organic material from MSW in recent years (Institute for Local 47

Self-Reliance, 2014). 48

Assessing the quality of composted material and their environmental impacts are crucial for 49

determining where and how to recycle the organic fractions of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). 50

Industrial composting (IC) has better control on temperature, moisture, oxygen content, etc., but 51

the final products of IC contains a percentage of non-biodegradable fraction (Martínez-Blanco et 52

al. 2010). Home composting (HC) could skip collection and transportation and avoid mixing with 53

other non-biodegradable or even hazardous fractions, and therefore was proposed as an alternative 54

approach to manage OFMSW (Andersen et al. 2012; Barrena et al. 2014). Landfill mining 55

produces large amount of soil-like material (or fine fraction), a black and humus composted 56

material that can be used as soil amendment (Zhou et al. 2015b). Multiple physical, chemical, and 57

biological indicators have used to examine the quality of composted materials, such as nutrients 58

3

contents, fine matter contents, heavy metal contents, pathogens, etc. (Sullivan & Miller 2001). 59

Stability is another vital indicator showing quality of compost product, furthermore, it was found 60

that HC can achieve excellent levels of stability comparing with centralized composting approach 61

(Barrena et al. 2014). Heavy metal contents in IC were several times of that in HC, indicating that 62

composted materials from IC is easier to be contaminated by hazardous fractions in MSW 63

(Richard & Woodbury 1992). Life cycle assessment was introduced to comprehensively compare 64

the environmental impacts between IC and HC, suggesting that HC has better performance in 65

several impact categories (Martínez-Blanco et al. 2010). One of the most vital properties for 66

composted material is the possibility to improve direct growth of plants, e.g., biomass yield, 67

feature (height and width), and flowering (for ornamental plants). However, comparison studies on 68

such comprehensive effects of composted materials on cultivating plant, which were produced at 69

different stages in MSW management, was very limited. In addition, output of soil-like material 70

from landfill mining was ordinarily considered as a compost material when doing life cycle 71

analysis, however, differences in comprehensive effect between them and compost were largely 72

ignored in current literature. 73

In this work, Comprehensive assessment of the composted materials from home composting, 74

industrial composting, and landfill mining were analyzed, trying to fill this knowledge gap. One of 75

the most widely cultivated garden plants in China, Impatiens balsamina L. was studied. Impatiens 76

was cultivated in the substrate with different types and concentrations of composted materials. A 77

195-day experiment was operated to observe its growth and physiological indicators including 78

width, height, leaves, flowering, and biomass weight, and a comprehensive assessment of those 79

organic fractions was also included. 80

2. Materials and Methods 81

2.1 Sampling and testing of composted materials 82

Three types of composted materials were analyzed, namely, home composting (HC), 83

industrial composting (IC), and landfill mining (LM). They represent the OFMSW separated, 84

treated, and recycled at different stages (communities, treatment facilities, and disposal sites) in 85

MSW management system (Fig. 1). Although all of these composted materials were biodegraded 86

from OFMSW, they were treated by different methods and may be mixed with other 87

4

non-biodegradable and even hazardous fractions in different levels. Composted materials from HC 88

and IC was sampled in Shaojiu community and Asuwei industrial composting plant in Beijing, 89

both of them have been composted for around six months. While the soil-like material from LM 90

was sampled from an old landfill, operated in 1989 and closed in 2004, with at least eight years of 91

biodegradation of stored waste. The concentrations of total nitrogen (TN) in the composted 92

material samples were determined using an element analyzer, Model Vario EL III. To measure the 93

total phosphorus (TP) concentration, 0.2 g of litter samples were digested in 10 mL of tri-acid 94

mixture (nitric, perchloric, and sulfuric acids; 5:1:1), and then cooled. The concentrations of 95

phosphorus were determined colorimetrically in the digested samples using the ammonium 96

molybdate method (Page 1982). Potassium was extracted with ammonium lactate and 97

hydrochloric acid according to the methods reported by (Egnér et al. 1960). Heavy metals of Cr, 98

Cd, and Pb were measured using the hot plate digestion with nitric acid following method 3050B 99

(USEPA, 1995). Samples with high metal concentrations were diluted to fit within the linear 100

region of the calibration curve, and then measured with inductively coupled plasma mass 101

spectrometry (ICP-MS), NexION 300, PerkinElmer, following method 6010B (USEPA, 1995). 102

The As concentrations were analyzed using a Perkin-Elmer 5100 graphite furnace atomic 103

absorption spectrometer (GFAA), following method 7060A (USEPA, 1995). The Hg 104

concentrations were measured using the cold-vapor atomic absorption technique, following 105

method 7471 of SW-846 (USEPA, 1995). 106

Households

Municipal solid

waste treatment

facilities

Municipal solid

waste disposal

sites

Collection Disposal

Collection & transportation

Home

composting

Industrial

compostingLandfill mining

Organic

fraction

Organic

fraction

Organic

fraction

Recycling

organic and

nutrients

Compost

Compost

Fine fractions

Municipal solid waste streams

Different stages of organic waste recycling 107

Figure1 Concept of recycling organic fractions in different stage of MSW management 108

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2.2 Experimental design for cultivating impatiens 109

Impatiens balsamina L., an annual herb widely cultivated as a horticultural plant in China, 110

was selected for this study. It was planted in a greenhouse located in Beijing with constant 111

temperature of 25-30ºC and humidity of 80-90%. Composted materials from HC, IC, and LM 112

were mixed with soil at concentrations of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% to prepare the substrates for 113

cultivating impatiens. A blank control group (CK) only with soil was also included. In total, there 114

are 13 experimental groups, which were labeled as HC1-HC4, IC1-IC4, LM1-IC4, and CK, with 115

three repeat samples for each group, symbols “1” to “4” refers to the mixed ratio between organic 116

fraction and soil (25% to 100%). At the beginning of the experiment, two seedlings of impatiens 117

with 5-7 blades were transplanted in April 15th, 2013. 118

Indicators such as height, width, and number of leaves were recorded for every six days. 119

Height refers to the highest distance from the surface of cultivating substrate to the top of the 120

vertical extension, while width refers to the widest distance of horizontal extension of the leaves. 121

Impatiens started to bloom after 36 days of cultivation, and then number of flowers was recorded. 122

The cultivating experiment was ended in November 2th

, 2013 and lasted for 195 days in total. 123

Finally, cultivated impatiens were dug out, cleaned, and separated into leaf, stem, and root for 124

weight testing. Each part of the impatiens was oven dried at 45℃ for 24h to determine the dry 125

basis weight. Around 1 g of fresh leaves for each group was used to determine the photosynthesis 126

pigments (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and carotene) contents. Spectrophotography was employed 127

to determine chlorophyll a (662nm), chlorophyll b (644nm), and carotenoid (440nm). 128

2.3 Statistical analysis 129

SPSS 16.0 was used for the statistical analysis. One-way ANOVA was used to analyze 130

whether there are statistically significant differences among different experimental groups in 131

maximum height, maximum width, maximum number of leaves, accumulative number of flowers, 132

dry weight biomass, and photosynthesis pigment content. Groups HC3, IC3, and LM3 (with 75% 133

concentration of organic fraction in the substrate) were selected to represent the group with best 134

growth performance and to do further comparisons. Finally, a radar chart was displayed to show 135

the comprehensive assessment for the effects of all types of composted materials. Eight indicators 136

were used to present comprehensive effects including maximum height, maximum width, 137

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maximum number of leaves, maximum number of flowers, dry weight biomass, photosynthesis 138

pigment content, flower phase, and leaf-growing phase. The value in radar chart for each group 139

was determined by Equation (1). These values were relative amounts between composted material 140

groups and CK group. 141

𝑃𝐺𝑖𝑗 =(𝑃𝐺𝑖𝑗 − Min�𝑃𝐺𝑖𝑗 )

(Max�𝑃𝐺𝑖𝑗 − Min�𝑃𝐺𝑖𝑗 )

Equation (1) 142

where PG is indicators showing plants growth, Min is the minimum value, Max is the 143

maximum value, symbol i means different indicators, symbol j means different groups, including 144

HC3, IC3, LM3, and CK. 145

3. Results 146

3.1 Chemical profiles of different composted materials 147

Chemical profiles of each type of composted materials are shown in Table 1. Generally, HC 148

had higher concentrations of organic matter, TN, and TP (2.1, 2.1, and 1.2 times) and lower 149

concentrations of heavy metals (6-81%) than those of IC. While IC had higher nutrients contents 150

than LM, TN, TP, and TK of IC were 1.9-6.5 times than those of LM, however, Pb and Hg 151

contents of IC were higher than those of LM. pH of IC and LM was slightly alkaline, while pH of 152

HC and CK was slightly acidity. 153

Table 1 Chemical profile of composted materials. HC, home composting; IC, industrial composting; LM, landfill 154

mining; CK, blank control. 155

Experimental group HC IC LM CK

Organic matter (%) 36.7 17.2 9.1 NA

TN (g∙kg-1) 21.6 10.4 1.6 1.2

TP (g P2O5eq∙kg-1) 16.7 14.1 4.9 0.01

TK (g K2Oeq∙kg-1) 9.8 10.3 1.8 0.15

pH 6.4 7.9 8.2 6.8

Cd (mg∙kg-1) 0.22 1.2 0.14 NA

Cr (mg∙kg-1) 4.2 29.7 10.0 NA

Pb (mg∙kg-1) 5.7 89.2 21.5 NA

As (mg∙kg-1) 1.6 11.9 29.6 NA

Hg (mg∙kg-1) 0.17 1.4 0.17 NA

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3.2 Features of impatiens growth 156

Maximum height, maximum width, maximum number of leaves, accumulated number of 157

flowers, dry weight biomass, and photosynthesis pigment contents of each group are shown in Fig. 158

2. Three repeat samples of IC4 and two repeat samples of LM2 were withered around July, while 159

all impatiens in all experimental groups have survived to the end of this experiment (November). 160

Generally, in HC and IC, impatiens grew better in the substrate with moderate concentration 161

(50-75%) of organic fraction; while in LM substrate with higher concentration of organic fraction 162

(75-100%) was better for cultivating impatiens. 163

In case of height, HC3, HC4, IC2, IC3 were significantly higher than other groups (p<0.05), 164

varying from 21.0±0.7 to 21.7±0.9 cm. Maximum height of HC, LC, and LM were 1.2-2.0 times 165

higher than CK (11.0±0.6 cm). Maximum width of impatiens in HC1, HC3, HC4, and IC2 were 166

significantly longer than other groups (p<0.05), varying from 42.2±2.4 to 44.0±0.9 cm. Maximum 167

width of HC, LC, and LM were 1.1-1.5 times bigger than CK (29.5±0.8 cm). 168

HC2 and HC3 have largest number of leaves and flowers, compared to other groups (p<0.05). 169

Maximum numbers of leaves in HC2 and HC3 were 842±26 and 813±31, and 760±82 and 170

687±147, separately. Maximum leaves numbers of HC, IC, and LM were1.8-3.8 times larger than 171

CK. Accumulative numbers of flowers of HC and IC were 6.2-18.5 times larger than CK, 172

indicating the great influence of composted materials on impatiens’ flowering. However, in LM 173

groups, impatiens cultivated in substrates with low and moderate organic fractions (25-75%) 174

didn’t show significant difference with CK. 175

With respect to biomass, dry weight biomass of HC, IC, and LM were 1.3-5.2 times than that 176

of CK, showing the effects on helping plant’s biomass accumulation by applying recycled organics. 177

Differences among HC, IC, and LM were significant. Total dry biomass weight of HC2, HC3, and 178

HC4, varying from 12.35±0.14 g to 13.12±0.78 g, were higher than all the IC and LM groups. Dry 179

biomass of IC1 and IC2 (8.77±0.76 g and 9.15±0.54 g) were higher than that of all LM groups. 180

Interestingly, the weight of root and leaf in each group increases along with the concentration of 181

recycled organics in the substrates. The root and leaf weight of the groups with 100% 182

concentration were 1.8-3.7 times and 1.2-2.1 times larger than those of the groups with 25% 183

concentration. Similarly, photosynthesis pigment contents in impatiens’ leaves showed a trend of 184

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increasing with the concentration of recycled organics in the substrates. In HC, IC, and LM groups, 185

groups with 75-100% concentration of recycled organics were significantly higher than groups 186

with 25-50% concentrations. 187

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Figure 2 Height, width, number of leaves and flowers, final dry weight biomass, and photosynthesis pigment 191

contents of impatiens cultivated by different organic fractions. HC, home composting; IC, industrial composting; 192

LM, landfill mining; CK, blank control; numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 mean 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% mixing-ratio of 193

organic fraction and soil. 194

3.3 Growing and flowering phase of impatiens 195

The growing and flowering phases of impatiens in HC3, IC3, LM3, and CK are presented in 196

Fig. 3. In case of height, width, and leaf number, all of composted material could prolong 197

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impatiens’ growth, comparing to CK, which stopped increasing in terms of height, width, and leaf 198

number since 48 days. LM3 stopped growing wider since 86 days, and leaf numbers and height 199

stopped to increase since 134 days. Differently, HC3 and IC3 were continuously growing of height 200

and width until around 180 days, but the number of leaves started to decrease since 130-150 days. 201

Interestingly, CK and LM3 grew faster in height, width and leaf number in the early stage; and 202

then they were surpassed by HC3 since 60-110 days and by IC3 since 110-150 days. With respect 203

to the flower phase, all of the groups started to bloom after 36 days of cultivation. HC3 surpassed 204

other groups and has largest number of accumulative flowers since 80 days, while LM3 bloomed 205

more than IC3 and CK before 100 days and then maintained in the same level. IC3 started to 206

bloom faster since 140 days and surpassed LM3 around 180 days, but still much lower than HC3. 207

However, CK stopped to bloom since 50 days, indicating that composted materials could 208

significant prolong the flowering phase. 209

0

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Figure 3 Height, width, number of leaves and flowers along with the growing days of impatiens cultivated by 212

different organic fractions. HC, home composting; IC, industrial composting; LM, landfill mining; CK, blank 213

control; numbers 3 means 75% mixing-ratio of organic fraction and soil. 214

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3.4 Comprehensive assessment of the composted materials from different sources 215

Eight indicators (maximum height, maximum width, maximum number of leaves, maximum 216

number of flowers, dry weight biomass, photosynthesis pigment content, flower phase, and 217

leaf-growing phase) were used to do a comprehensive assessment of the effects on impatiens (Fig. 218

4). According to this radar chart, we found that organic fractions from HC have a better 219

comprehensive effects than other two recycled organics, followed by IC, which was superior in 220

prolonging leaf-growing phase and increasing photosynthesis pigment content. Impatiens’ dry 221

weight biomass and maximum number of leaves and flowers of HC were1.5 and 2.8 times, 1.1 and 222

1.6 times, and 1.8 and 4.2 times than those of IC and LM, respectively. In terms of height and 223

width of impatiens, HC and IC were in the same level. Organic fractions from HC and IC have 224

stronger effects than that form LM. The only indicator of LM that comparable to HC and IC was 225

flowering phase, however, the value of accumulative number of flowers for LM was 73% and 226

28% lower than that of HC and IC. Although the differences existed among HC, IC, and LM, the 227

composted material from MSW showed better effects than normal soil (CK), indicating its great 228

potential on promoting biomass productivity and improving growth feature on impatiens. 229

230

0.0

0.5

1.0

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2.0

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height

Maximum

width

Maximum

number of

leaves

Accumulative

number of

flowers

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biomass

Photosynthesis

pigment

contents

Flowering phase

Leaf-growing

phase

CK HC3 IC3 LM3

231

Figure 4 Comprehensive assessments of composted materials from MSW on cultivating impatiens balsamina L. 232

HC, home composting; IC, industrial composting; LM, landfill mining; CK, blank control; numbers 3 means 75% 233

mixing-ratio of organic fraction and soil. 234

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4. Discussion 235

4.1 Influential factors on impatiens growth 236

Chemical properties of composted materials determine the performance of their 237

Comprehensive effects, thus influence the growth and flowering of impatiens. It has been 238

demonstrated that nutrients contents in composted material could promote the growth plants 239

(Olowolafe 2008; Hosseinpur et al. 2012). In our study, we found that HC had higher 240

concentrations of organic matter, TN, and TP (2.1, 2.1, and 1.2 times) than those of IC and LM, 241

and this finding was consistent with the results of fertilizer effects. Interestingly, different from the 242

biomass weight, the width, height, and leaf numbers of impatiens in HC and IC were similar. The 243

reason for this phenomenon may be that TK and TP concentrations of composted materials were 244

known to be helpful for building the stem and branches of plants (Fageria 2016), and TK and TP 245

concentration in HC and IC were almost in the same level. Previous studies found that 246

waste-oriented nutrients increase flowering of impatiens. Cultivating Angiosperm crossandra with 247

compost increase the number of flowers from 19.4 to 26.8 (Gajalakshmi & Abbasi 2002). 248

Irrigating impatiens by composting leachates, the number of flowers was almost doubled (Zhou et 249

al. 2010). TP and TK could contribute to increase the number of flowers, however, in our study 250

HC and IC have significant difference in flowering but have the same level of TP and TK 251

concentrations in the substrates. Some studies suggested that TP and TK concentrations are not the 252

only reasons for flowering, trace elements (e.g boron, B), humic acid, and microorganism could 253

contribute to increase the number of flowers and blooming phase (Gaur et al. 2000). Furthermore, 254

during our 195-days experiment, five pots of impatiens withered on July (3 month after the 255

experiment started). The slightly alkaline of the composted material may be the main reason. Most 256

impatiens is oxylophyte (Brunet et al. 1998), but the pH of the substrate in IC4 was 7.9, 257

resulting in the withering of impatiens. 258

4.2 Implications for recycling OFMSW 259

Previous studies have demonstrated that home composting could be a substitute to industrial 260

composting, with consideration of greenhouse gas emission, stability and chemical properties of 261

the composted material, and economic feasibility. Our study further suggested that Comprehensive 262

12

effects of the composted material from home is better than that from industrial composting and 263

landfill mining, with comparison of most impatiens growth indicators. In addition, although 264

landfill mining was demonstrated to capable to produce large amount of stored biogenetic organics, 265

the comprehensive effect of the soil-like materials from landfill mining was far less than compost. 266

It indicates that OFMSW should be recycled in the early stage of MSW management, for the 267

purpose of producing high quality composted materials. Our work also highlights a simple but 268

direct method to assess the recycling of composted materials. The individual properties (e.g. 269

nutrient or heavy metal contents) could not directly distinguish the quality difference among 270

waste-oriented composted materials, owing to their complicated composition, e.g. one with higher 271

TN concentration but the other with higher TK concentration (as HC and IC in this work). In this 272

case, Comprehensive effects on certain types of plants, which may be most widely cultivated in a 273

place or most likely to cultivated by composted materials, could be a supplement indicator. It calls 274

for further studies on the correlation between applying waste-oriented composted material and 275

plant growing feature and physiology, to help decision makers and practitioners choose 276

appropriate technology for recycling OFMSW. 277

5. Conclusions 278

Composted materials from MSW have significant comprehensive effects on cultivating 279

impatiens balsamina L. However, they also show different profiles on promoting biomass 280

productivity and improving growth feature. Generally, composted materials from home 281

composting have the best comprehensive effects, followed by that from industrial composting, 282

which is superior in prolonging leaf-growing phase and increase photosynthesis pigment content. 283

Although organic fractions from landfill mining are not comparable with home and industrial 284

recycled compost, they still could improve impatiens growth and flowering comparing to normal 285

soil. This result suggests that when we compare different approach to recycle organics from MSW, 286

direct comprehensive effect on plants growth, flowering, and physiological influences could be 287

introduced as an indicator, along with other indicators such as biochemical characteristics, 288

greenhouse gas emission, and life cycle environmental impacts. 289

Acknowledgement 290

This project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 291

13

71533004), Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LY14D010011), and Youth 292

Innovation Promotion Association CAS. 293

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