Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai (Lecturer in Primary Mathematics Education) is featured in the new brochure of the University of Reading's Institute of Education. The brochure highlights a number of 'stories' featuring a few selected staff and students of the Institute. In Dr. Trakulphadetkrai's story, he explains how his research passion and expertise in mathematical story picture books are formed and the rationale behind his MathsThroughStories.org initiative. To access the full brochure, click here. 

Earlier this academic year, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai also made a brief appearance in the Institute's promotional video, called 'Transforming Lives', which can be watched here. 

The new promotional brochure of the University of Reading's Institute of Education
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​The new promotional video of the University of Reading's Institute of Education

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​To date, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai (founder of MathsThroughStories.org) has delivered the Maths Through Stories training workshop to almost 500 in-service teachers and around 2,000 teacher trainees at 30 universities cross the UK. 

​Consequently, MathsThroughStories.org has now officially become the largest and most trusted training provider on integrating story picture books in mathematics teaching and learning.

On this milestone, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai commented that "To run this series of training workshops on top of your full-time day job as a lecturer has been hard work, but also a truly rewarding one. I thoroughly enjoyed having opportunities to train both pre- and in-service teachers across the UK, and to convince them why teaching mathematics through storytelling, particularly in the picture book format, can be a pedagogically powerful strategy. I look forward to spending this academic year attempting to capture the impact of my workshop on these teachers." 

Photos of (and feedback on) some of Dr. Trakulphadetkrai's Maths Through Stories workshop can be found below. For photos of the rest of his workshops, click here.  ​

Friday 19th July 2019 was a special day for Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai as he celebrated the academic success of his doctoral and undergraduate students at the University of Reading’s graduation ceremony. 
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Steve Mvalo has successfully earned his EdD degree with his thesis titled ‘Developing Computer Network students’ computational thinking: The case for the use of simulation software’. Steve's research has been co-supervised by Dr. Yota Dimitriadi. Steve said:

With Steve Mvalo, one of Dr. Natthapoj's doctoral students
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Dr. Natthapoj's final-year BA Ed in Primary Education with Mathematics Specialism students 

In his role as the Director of Research Communications at the University of Reading's Institute of Education (IoE), Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai has successfully managed the production of a series of 14 short films featuring 14 IoE research staff talking about their research interests. 

Dr. Trakulphadetkrai said that "The purpose behind producing this research video series is to try to communicate IoE research to non-academic audiences. Drawing from our research interests, each of us sets out to answer a Big Question that wider society might be interested in learning more about."

The videos were filmed and edited by the University's Video & Film Management Executive team.

​Click here to watch the videos. 

​An article by Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai (Lecturer in Primary Mathematics Education) has recently been published in the Times Educational Supplement (TES).

The article, titled ‘How picture books help maths teaching’, sets out to convince teachers of older primary school pupils to teach mathematics using story picture books. Dr. Trakulphadetkrai comments that: “I have been arguing – and will continue to argue – that teaching mathematics using story picture books could also benefit mathematics learning of older pupils. Specifically, I would argue that the use of mathematical story picture books could foster pupils’ conceptual understanding through multi-representation of mathematical concepts and variation of mathematical situations. The approach could also help to develop language skills, and foster engagement with mathematics learning.”

​Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai’s ‘MathsThroughStories.org’ project sets out to raise teachers’ awareness of the power of storytelling to make mathematics learning more accessible and enjoyable. Drawing from the findings of his research on teachers’ self-reported key barriers that prevent them from teaching mathematics using storytelling, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai designed the website to try to eliminate those barriers. The website offers several free on-line resources, including the world’s largest database of 500+ recommendations for mathematical stories, book reviews, lesson ideas and monthly CPD newsletters.

​Since its launch in 2017, the website has been viewed over 280,000 times by more than 54,000 teachers and parents from over 180 countries. With over 3,700 Twitter followers, teachers are using the social media to praise Dr. Trakulphadetkrai’s initiative and share his recommended mathematical stories and other free resources with colleagues globally. A rapidly growing number of teachers have also been inspired by Dr. Trakulphadetkrai’s initiative, and have become on-line contributors sharing lesson ideas with other teachers on the website.

​Over the past two years, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai has also been running free workshops at 30+ universities nationally and internationally to model to teacher educators his Maths Through Stories training approach so they themselves can train the next generations of teachers. Nearly 2,000 teacher trainees have received his training. Dr. Trakulphadetkrai has also been invited to meet with representatives of Ireland’s National Council for Curriculum and Assessment in Dublin in March 2019 to explore how explicit recommendations for Irish teachers to use storytelling can be included in the country’s upcoming primary mathematics curriculum.

​As another keynote speaker was one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMIs) who talked about the new school inspection framework, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai explained to school leaders how the idea of teaching mathematics through storytelling aligns nicely with the focus of the new framework, particularly in relation to the expectation that “Pupils’ mathematical knowledge is developed and used, where appropriate, across the curriculum.”

Gavin Evans (the Head of Primary Education of all primary schools within the Skills For Life Trust) commented that “The keynote talk given by Dr. Vince was truly inspirational. Both the content and his presentation style engaged the whole audience for 50 minutes and was one of the key, positive feedback points at the end of the conference. The detail provided about how story books can be used to deliver Maths concepts was enlightening and I know will begin to have a huge impact across Medway schools. Thank you!”
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Dr. Trakulphadetkrai was also asked by the conference organiser to bring along a range of mathematical story picture books to show to school leaders, after his keynote talk, appropriate materials for their schools to consider using in their mathematics teaching.
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​Dr. Trakulphadetkrai used a portion of the awarded fund to organise a free 3-hour workshop training Mathematics Subject Co-ordinators of local schools on how to teach mathematics using story picture books, which is his research expertise. The event took place on 1 May 2019 and attracted Mathematics Subject Co-ordinators of around 30 primary schools across Berkshire.
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Following this event, the teachers are expected to deliver a mathematics lesson using a story picture book and to write up their lesson idea and share it with other teachers from around the world on Dr. Trakulphadetkrai’s research project website (MathsThroughStories.org). The rest of the fund will be spent on creating a training video with the help of teachers and pupils from Redlands Primary School. This video will be made available on the MathsThroughStories.org website and will be used as part of Dr. Trakulphadetkrai’s future training workshops and those delivered by teacher educators in the UK and abroad.

​Comments from some of the workshop participants include:

“Thought provoking, engaging. I will share the resources [on MathsThroughStories.org] with the rest of the teaching team. As Mathematics Coordinator, I will include stories as part of the Mathematics curriculum planning overview.”

“Thoroughly engaging due to its inspiring concept, workshop leader and immersive material. I feel inspired to implement the strategy of mathematics teaching through stories.”

“Really interesting and useful. I am excited to trial a story picture book within a Maths unit. I think my school setting from Reception to Year 6 will find this exhilarating. I look forward to sharing this!”

“It was really engaging and inspiring to realise the wealth of resources out there! I will endeavour to use story picture books in my mathematics teaching to help children make links.”

Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai (Lecturer in Primary Mathematics Education) has recently been awarded the University of Reading’s Research Fellowship (£10,000) for the 2019/2020 academic year. Twenty Fellowship applications were submitted, and only five applications were chosen across the university’s five research themes. According to the University’s press release, “Five Reading academics at the top of their game have been awarded University Research Fellowships to develop their work in the arts, humanities and social sciences over the next year.”
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Applications were assessed in terms of originality, rigour and significance of the proposed Fellowship project as well as the extent to which it shows ambition and constitute a ‘step change’ in the work of the applicant. The Fellowship is for the duration of one year.

Dr. Trakulphadetkrai’s project, titled ‘Learning Mathematics through Creating Story Picture books: A New Mathematics Teaching Strategy for Primary School Children’  will be built on his pilot study. The study aims to investigate the effectiveness of an innovative mathematics teaching strategy whereby children creating their own mathematical story picture books (MSPB). Specifically, it sets out to measure the extent to which asking Year 4 (8-9 years old) children to create MSPB about multiplication can help to develop their conceptual understanding of the topic. Finally, the study will also explore key stakeholders’ perceptions of this teaching strategy.

Dr. Trakulphadetkrai said: “Existing studies on this topic tend to be conducted in the early years (3-5 years old) and Key Stage 1 (5-7 years old) settings and they treated children as only consumers rather than producers of MSPB. This study will be the first empirical study of its kind to investigate the effect of treating children as producers of MSPB.” He also added that “This study will form part of my research underpinning my non-profit MathsThroughStories.org initiative, which sets out to encourage teachers and parents globally to teach mathematics using storytelling.”

To learn more about Dr. Trakulphadetkrai’s research interests, click here.

​To learn more about the Fellowship and details of the other Fellowship recipients, click here.
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​Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai presented their research at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference in Toronto. The AERA conference is one of the world’s largest education conferences and this year it was held between Friday 5 April Tuesday 9 April 2019 in Toronto, Canada.

Dr. Trakulphadetkrai’s presentation (titled ‘Irish Teachers’ Perceptions on the Integration of Children’s Literature in Mathematics Teaching and Learning’) was based on a recent research project that he collaborated with Dr. Mark Prendergast (Trinity College Dublin) as well as Dr. Lorraine Harbison and Sue Miller (Dublin City University). This study explored Irish pre-service and in-service teachers’ views on the use of children’s literature to support mathematics teaching and learning and to investigate perceived barriers to and enablers for the integration of children’ literature in the mathematics classroom.

As part of the Institute of Education’s ‘Big Questions’ research video series, Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai (Lecturer in Primary Mathematics Education) answers the following Big Question: ‘What if maths was taught through storytelling?’.
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In this video, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai explains that students sometimes complain that learning mathematics is boring and difficult as mathematical concepts are sometimes taught in a very formulaic and abstract way – very different from how students might experience them in real life. He argues that teaching mathematics through storytelling particularly in the picture book format can work much better.

Later in the video, he highlights his MathsThroughStories.org initiative which encourages teachers and parents globally to teach mathematics using story picture books. The website also provides several free on-line resources. Since it was launched in March 2017, the website has been viewed over 250,000 times by more than 48,000 teachers and parents from 180 countries.
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To watch the video, click here.

​On Tuesday 12 March 2019, Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai (in his role as the Director of Research Communications of the University of Reading’s Institute of Education, organised the Education Research Showcase event at Westminster. The objective of this event is to create a platform where IoE research staff were able to present their research directly to Westminster colleagues whose role is to support policy makers. Moreover, the event allowed members of these two parties to learn how they can support each other.

​In addition to IoE research staff, the event was also attended by the IoE Research Division Lead, the Head of IoE, the Impact Development Manager (Prosperity & Resilience Research Theme) and the Research Dean (Prosperity & Resilience Research Theme). The Westminster colleagues included representatives of the Department for Education, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Education, the Education Select Committee, the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, and the House of Common Library.

​The event was kindly hosted by Matt Rodda, MP for Reading East.

​The event was very well received with some comments highlighted below:

Professor Robert Van de Noort (Vice-Chancellor):
“I would like to commend the Institute of Education for leading by example in using research communications to try to generate research impact at the policy level. Creating an opportunity where (education) academics and Westminster colleagues whose role is to support policy makers can come together in the same room to learn how they can support each other is a great idea that we all can learn from.”


Professor Parveen Yaqoob (Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation):
“The Institute of Education demonstrates outstanding leadership in impactful research, as demonstrated recently in an Education Research Showcase event at Westminster, which brought together representatives from the Department for Education, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Education, the Education Select Committee, the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, and the House of Commons Library. The Institute of Education showcased its research and demonstrated how it communicates that research to influence national educational policies.”


Dr. Alaster Smith (Head of Department for Education’ s Research Knowledge and Insight Unit):
“The meeting had promise as the start of a productive working relationship between academics at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education and the Department for Education. It was good to meet all those involved and hear first-hand about their areas of work, and how they operate. I thought that the Institute’s academics raised good points about engaging with policy makers, and how to have impact and I’d like to continue the conversation with them; we can explore making further contacts with people who can use their research and think of more ways to develop productive engagement.”
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​On Friday 8 March 2019, Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai (Lecturer in Primary Mathematics Education) was invited to meet with representatives of Ireland’s National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) in Dublin including Dr. Jacqueline Fallon (Director of Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA) and other NCCA representatives in charge of developing Ireland’s new primary mathematics curriculum to be rolled out in 2022.

Dr. Fallon has recently read a research article co-authored by Dr. Trakulphadetkrai reporting key perceived barriers to and enablers for the integration of story picture books in mathematics teaching as reported by Irish primary teachers. Since then, Dr. Fallon and NCCA are interested to learn more about the approach, particularly its adoption across the primary curriculum and not just at the pre-school level.

Dr. Trakulphadekrai said “What I hope, of course, is for there to be explicit recommendations in Ireland’s new primary mathematics curriculum for teachers (particularly of older primary school children) to consider using story picture books to enrich their mathematics teaching. This would clearly signal to Irish primary teachers that the use of such resource is not something that only pre-school teachers use, but that it is something that primary teachers could use and benefit from as well."

Special thanks go to Dr. Lorraine Harbison (Associate Professor in Mathematics Education​ at Dublin City University and a co-author of the research paper) for organising and hosting this meeting.

​Upon Dr. Harbison’s earlier invitation, Dr. Trakulphadekrai also ran his popular Maths Through Stories training workshop for around 70 primary teacher trainees from both Dublin City University (Dublin, Republic of Ireland) and Ulster University (Coleraine, Northern Ireland, UK) later that afternoon. The workshop was also attended by the NCCA representatives.

​The workshop was very successful and well received. Jacinta Regan (Education Officer, NCCA), for example, commented that:
“Maths Through Stories is a fantastic and practical workshop that enables practitioners to think about how Mathematics can be taught in an integrated and enjoyable way through the use of picture books. Picture books are an essential part of every classroom and this course challenges practitioners to consider their additional use outside of the English reading lesson. My participation in the course was very informative and will assist me in my work with primary school teachers moving forward. I look forward to sharing this playful pedagogy with our teacher networks.”


Dr. Lorraine Harbison (Associate Professor in Mathematics Education​ at Dublin City University, Republic of Ireland)​ commented on the event that:
“The Maths through Stories workshop was skilfully facilitated by Vincent where two cohorts of student teachers from Northern and Southern Ireland collaborated for the first time on a SCoTENS project on the use of story picture books in the primary school mathematics classroom. There was a senses of fun and excitement throughout the day with a lively exchange of learning. Students went away with not only a positive experience of the workshop, but also with some very rich ideas that they intend to implement on school placement over the coming weeks​” 


Shauna McGill (PGCE Primary Course Director at Ulster University, Northern Ireland, UK) said:
“The Maths Through Stories workshop offered a cross-curricular platform to demonstrate connecting learning between Numeracy and Literacy. The range of supporting maths stories were expertly evaluated and the potential for using them effectively in the primary classroom excitedly explored. Vince’s delivery was dynamic and enthusiastic. We were very grateful for his contribution to our Scotens University collaboration project.​” 


Some of the trainees’ comments included:
“It was a great workshop. Vincent gave me lots of good ideas. He is so enthusiastic and made me want to be a better teacher and be creative all the time :-)”  

“I found it very interesting and extremely helpful for my placement. I will now try to use more story picture books in maths lessons as I never really thought to use them before with maths.”

​“Very informative, active and fun experience. Vince is very engaging and inspiring. Really enjoyed this :-) ” ​ 

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Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai (Lecturer in Primary Mathematics Education) has recently been appointed as Co-Deputy Directors of Postgraduate Research Studies (PGS) at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education. He will be working alongside his Co-Deputy Director, Dr. Billy Wong. 

​PGS oversees a range of areas relevant to doctoral students, including recruitment and admissions, induction and training and the monitoring of progress.

Dr. Trakulphadetkrai already met with Viv Lloyd, NCETM’s Assistant Director for Primary and Early Years, on Tuesday 20th November 2018 to develop the resource which is drawn from his research expertise in the area of using storytelling, particularly story picture books, to enhance mathematics teaching and learning.
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In addition to being invited to develop the resource, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai was also invited to deliver a Maths Through Stories training workshop to early years teachers in January 2019. On the workshop, Viv commented that: 

“As part of some pilot early mathematics work in the Northern Powerhouse region in the UK, it was felt that an important aspect of pedagogy to explore was the role stories can play in developing mathematical understanding. MathsThroughStories.org (Vince) was approached to support with the development and delivery of this session. Vince was keen to share his expertise and to support in sharing the work of this organisation. The session was well delivered and the practitioners had the opportunity to think about the ways in which they could develop the use of carefully selected stories in their mathematics practice. Practitioners gave positive verbal feedback about the ways in which they were going to further explore their use of stories to support mathematical understanding. Thank you​!”

​Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai (Lecturer in Primary Mathematics Education, University of Reading’s Institute of Education) has recently been elected as the new Co-Convenor of the British Educational Research Association’s (BERA) Mathematics Education Special Interest Group (SIG). This three-year term will primarily involve helping BERA to organise its annual conference by assigning submitted conference abstracts relating to mathematics education to reviewers and timetabling mathematics education research presentations. Moreover, the role will also involve organising an annual mathematics teachers’ research showcase event. Due to the size and scope of the SIG, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai will be sharing his role with Dr. Alison Clark-Wilson (Principal Research Associate, UCL Institute of Education) and Dr. Colin Foster (Reader in Mathematics Education, Loughborough University).

In his Expression of Interest statement, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai wrote: “I would like to become the Convenor of BERA’s Mathematics Education Special Interest Group (ME-SIG), because I am passionate in supporting researchers to communicate about their research widely and accessibly. In my role as the Research Communications Director of the University of Reading’s Institute of Education, my job is to support both experienced and early career researchers as well as doctoral students to share their research within and beyond the world of academia. If given the opportunity to convene the ME-SIG, I will apply the same passion in research communications to encourage and support more mathematics education researchers in the UK and abroad to use the BERA conference, blog and magazine as their key platforms to disseminate their mathematics education research.”
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In addition to his lectureship, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai is also the founder of MathsThroughStories.org, a non-profit international initiative set out to encourage teachers and parents globally to teach mathematics using story picture books. Moreover, he also currently serves as an executive committee member and trustee of the UK Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM). Previously, he has served as an executive committee member of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics (BSRLM); as Chair of the British Congress of Mathematics Education’s (BCME) Communications Committee as well as Co-Editor of the Mathematical Association’s (MA) Primary Mathematics Journal.

​Since its inception in 1974, BERA has become the UK’s largest education research association. Every September, it organises the country’s largest education research conference attracting conference delegates from within the UK and internationally (800+ conference delegates and 500+ presenters). BERA also publishes the British Educational Research Journal (BERJ), British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET), Curriculum Journal (CJ) and Review of Education (RoE).

Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai (Director of Research Communications at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education) was invited to celebrate the fifth anniversary of a charity, called Education Media Centre (EMC) at the House of Lords on Thursday 22nd November 2018.

Founded in 2013, EMC sets out to help journalists reach relevant evidence and research, and connect them with academic experts who are “clear, knowledgeable and media-friendly”.

Hosted by EMC’s Founding Patron, Baroness Estelle Morris (former Secretary of State for Education), the celebration was attended by over 30 representatives of charities, academic institutions, research centres, think tanks and companies within the education sector in the UK.

During the drinks reception, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai had a chance to privately speak to Baroness Estelle Morris about ways to get education research into the Parliament.

​He was joined by Pete Castle from the University’s Research Communications office at this event.

EMC’s Founding Patron, Baroness Estelle Morris, with Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai (Director of Research Communications at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education)

​In his role as Founder of MathsThroughStories.org, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai used his talk to highlight and advocate for an innovative mathematics learning approach, namely learning mathematics by creating mathematical story picture books, to his audience. Drawing from the findings of his pilot research on this topic, he showed how promising this pedagogical approach could be.
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Dr. Trakulphadetkrai was joined by two mathematics teachers in this roundtable discussion, which was chaired by Ann Mroz (Editor of Times Educational Supplement). The event was held at Pearson’s headquarter in central London, and attended by representatives of educational organisations in both the public and private sectors.

​Dr. Trakulphadetkrai's key arguments are subsequently highlighted in the post-event report below and can be accessed in full here. Moreover, two short videos featuring Dr. Trakulphadetkrai talking about his MathsThroughStories.org initiative and his talk at the Roundtable event can also be watched here and here respectively. 

​On Wednesday 7th November 2018, Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai (Director of Research Communications at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education) was invited to share the Institute’s research communications activities with Research Division Leads (RDLs) from across the University’s Prosperity & Resilience (P&R) research theme at the theme’s termly meeting.

Led by Professor Adrian Bell, the P&R research theme is the largest of the University’s five research themes and is made up of 11 research divisions. Six of these divisions are affiliated with Henley Business School (Business Informatics Systems, and Accounting; ICMA Centre International Business Association; Leadership, Organisations and Behaviour; Marketing and Reputation; Real Estate and Planning), with the other five divisions being Economics, Global Development, Law, Politics and International Relations, as well as our research division of Education, Language, and Learning (ELL).

As the idea of having the Director of Research Communications (DRC) role specific to a research division is a new and innovative idea, not least because this role is served by a research / academic member of staff (as opposed to a Communications professional), Dr. Trakulphadetkrai’s presentation generated a lot of interest and questions from RDLs.
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Dr. Trakulphadetkrai has since met up with two of the RDLs at their request to offer them one-to-one support, specifically in thinking strategically about how some of the research communications activity ideas within the ELL research division could be transferred to theirs. He has also been invited by one of the RDLs to inspire their research staff to become more actively engaged in communicating about their research to non-academic audiences at their Research Away Day in Spring 2019.
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