@classmethod
def explicit_cutoff(cls, cutoff_byte):
    """
        Extracts the explicit cutoff value from the cutoff byte of a serialized HLL.

        :param byte cutoff_byte: the cutoff byte of the serialized HLL
        :returns: the explicit cutoff value
        :rtype: int
        """
    return cutoff_byte & cls.EXPLICIT_CUTOFF_MASK
