<SYSTEM_TASK:>
Solve the following problem using Python, implementing the functions described below, one line at a time
<END_TASK>
<USER_TASK:>
Description:

def _process_items(cls, vals):
        "Processes list of items assigning unique paths to each."
        if type(vals) is cls:
            return vals.data
        elif not isinstance(vals, (list, tuple)):
            vals = [vals]
        items = []
        counts = defaultdict(lambda: 1)
        cls._unpack_paths(vals, items, counts)
        items = cls._deduplicate_items(items)
        return items