BeeVitamin Launches its 100% Raw Untouched and Delicious Greek Bee Pollen, a Natural Powerhouse for Organic Health, Wellness, and VitalityCHICAGO , Dec. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- In recognition of nearly 200,000 osteopathic physicians (DOs) and medical students in the U.S., more than 20 states and cities across the nation are observing December 2024 as Osteopathic Medicine Month. This designation recognizes the 150 th anniversary of osteopathic medicine, which applies a distinctive philosophy and approach to caring for patients in all areas of medicine, including primary care, surgery and specialty fields. DOs are fully licensed physicians who are trained to provide comprehensive care with a focus on preventive medicine and whole-person wellness. DOs hold some of the most distinguished positions in medicine today, caring for the U.S. President, overseeing the NASA medical team and leading some of the nation's top-ranked hospitals and health systems. The profession is one of the fastest-growing in health care, making up more than 10% of physicians and 28% of medical students in the U.S. Earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden issued a congratulatory letter to the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, recognizing the osteopathic profession's tremendous contributions to health care during the past 150 years. "As you celebrate this milestone anniversary, it is my hope that you are filled with pride in all the progress the osteopathic medical community has achieved—from pioneering medical discoveries to improving the health and well-being of Americans across the nation and so much more," the letter states. To date, more than 20 state and city leaders have issued proclamations declaring December 2024 as Osteopathic Medicine Month, including Alabama , Idaho , Illinois , Iowa , Michigan , Montana , Ohio , Oklahoma , Virginia , and West Virginia . "This remarkable achievement not only honors the rich history of our profession but also highlights the profound role of osteopathic medicine in health care today," said American Osteopathic Association President Teresa A. Hubka , DO, FACOOG (Dist). "Through patient-centered care and a commitment to understanding the root causes of illness, osteopathic physicians are shaping the future of medicine." For more information, visit www.osteopathic.org . About the AOA The American Osteopathic Association (AOA) represents more than 197,000 osteopathic physicians (DOs) and osteopathic medical students; promotes public health; encourages scientific research; serves as the primary certifying body for DOs; and is the accrediting agency for osteopathic medical schools. To learn more about DOs and the osteopathic philosophy of medicine, visit www.FindaDO.org . SOURCE American Osteopathic AssociationJoin our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More The recent release of OpenAI o1 has brought great attention to large reasoning models (LRMs), and is inspiring new models aimed at solving complex problems classic language models often struggle with. Building on the success of o1 and the concept of LRMs, researchers at Alibaba have introduced Marco-o1 , which enhances reasoning capabilities and tackles problems with open-ended solutions where clear standards and quantifiable rewards are absent. OpenAI o1 uses “inference-time scaling” to improve the model’s reasoning ability by giving it “time to think.” Basically, the model uses more compute cycles during inference to generate more tokens and review its responses, which improves its performance on tasks that require reasoning. o1 is renowned for its impressive reasoning capabilities, especially in tasks with standard answers such as mathematics, physics and coding. However, many applications involve open-ended problems that lack clear solutions and quantifiable rewards. “We aimed to push the boundaries of LLMs even further, enhancing their reasoning abilities to tackle complex, real-world challenges,” Alibaba researchers write. Marco-o1 is a fine-tuned version of Alibaba’s Qwen2-7B-Instruct that integrates advanced techniques such as chain-of-thought (CoT) fine-tuning, Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) and reasoning action strategies. The researchers trained Marco-o1 on a combination of datasets, including the Open-O1 CoT dataset; the Marco-o1 CoT dataset, a synthetic dataset generated using MCTS; and the Marco-o1 Instruction dataset, a collection of custom instruction-following data for reasoning tasks. MCTS is a search algorithm that has proven to be effective in complex problem-solving scenarios. It intelligently explores different solution paths by repeatedly sampling possibilities, simulating outcomes and gradually building a decision tree. It has proven to be very effective in complex AI problems, such as beating the game Go. Marco-o1 leverages MCTS to explore multiple reasoning paths as it generates response tokens. The model uses the confidence scores of candidate response tokens to build its decision tree and explore different branches. This enables the model to consider a wider range of possibilities and arrive at more informed and nuanced conclusions, especially in scenarios with open-ended solutions. The researchers also introduced a flexible reasoning action strategy that allows them to adjust the granularity of MCTS steps by defining the number of tokens generated at each node in the tree. This provides a tradeoff between accuracy and computational cost, giving users the flexibility to balance performance and efficiency. Another key innovation in Marco-o1 is the introduction of a reflection mechanism. During the reasoning process, the model periodically prompts itself with the phrase, “Wait! Maybe I made some mistakes! I need to rethink from scratch.” This causes the model to re-evaluate its reasoning steps, identify potential errors and refine its thought process. “This approach allows the model to act as its own critic, identifying potential errors in its reasoning,” the researchers write. “By explicitly prompting the model to question its initial conclusions, we encourage it to re-express and refine its thought process.” To evaluate the performance of Marco-o1, the researchers conducted experiments on several tasks, including the MGSM benchmark, a dataset for multi-lingual grade school math problems. Marco-o1 significantly outperformed the base Qwen2-7B model, particularly when the MCTS component was adjusted for single-token granularity. However, the primary objective of Marco-o1 was to address the challenges of reasoning in open-ended scenarios. To this end, the researchers tested the model on translating colloquial and slang expressions, a task that requires understanding subtle nuances of language, culture and context. The experiments showed that Marco-o1 was able to capture and translate these expressions more effectively than traditional translation tools. For instance, the model correctly translated a colloquial expression in Chinese, which literally means, “This shoe offers a stepping-on-poop sensation”, into the English equivalent, “This shoe has a comfortable sole.” The reasoning chain of the model shows how it evaluates different potential meanings and arrives at the correct translation. This paradigm can prove to be useful for tasks such as product design and strategy, which require deep and contextual understanding and do not have well-defined benchmarks and metrics. A new wave of reasoning models Since the release of o1, AI labs are racing to release reasoning models. Last week, Chinese AI lab DeepSeek released R1-Lite-Preview , its o1 competitor, which is currently only available through the company’s online chat interface. R1-Lite-Preview reportedly beats o1 on several key benchmarks. The open source community is also catching up with the private model market, releasing models and datasets that take advantage of inference-time scaling laws. The Alibaba team released Marco-o1 on Hugging Face along with a partial reasoning dataset that researchers can use to train their own reasoning models. Another recently released model is LLaVA-o1 , developed by researchers from multiple universities in China, which brings the inference-time reasoning paradigm to open-source vision language models (VLMs). The release of these models comes amidst uncertainty about the future of model scaling laws. Various reports indicate that the returns on training larger models are diminishing and might be hitting a wall. But what’s for certain is that we are just beginning to explore the possibilities of inference-time scaling. Stay in the know! Get the latest news in your inbox daily By subscribing, you agree to VentureBeat's Terms of Service. Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here . An error occured.jolibet download 。

(Reuters) – OpenAI said on Friday it was testing new reasoning AI models, o3 and o3 mini, in a sign of growing competition with rivals such as Google to create smarter models capable of tackling complex problems. CEO Sam Altman said the AI startup plans to launch o3 mini by the end of January, and full o3 after that, as more robust large language models could outperform existing models and attract new investments and users. Microsoft-backed OpenAI released o1 AI models in September designed to spend more time processing queries to solve hard problems. The o1 models are capable of reasoning through complex tasks and can solve more challenging problems than previous models in science, coding and math, the AI firm had said in a blog post. OpenAI’s new o3 and o3 mini models, which are in internal safety testing currently, will be more powerful than its previously launched o1 models, the company said. The GenAI pioneer said it was opening up an application process for external researchers to test o3 models ahead of the public release, which will close on Jan. 10. OpenAI had triggered an AI arms race after it launched ChatGPT in November 2022. The growing popularity of the company and new product launches helped OpenAI in closing a $6.6 billion funding round in October. Rival Alphabet’s Google released the second generation of its AI model Gemini earlier in December, as the search giant aims to reclaim the lead in the AI technology race. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore) Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content. var ytflag = 0;var myListener = function() {document.removeEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);lazyloadmyframes();};document.addEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);window.addEventListener('scroll', function() {if (ytflag == 0) {lazyloadmyframes();ytflag = 1;}});function lazyloadmyframes() {var ytv = document.getElementsByClassName("klazyiframe");for (var i = 0; i < ytv.length; i++) {ytv[i].src = ytv[i].getAttribute('data-src');}} Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );Trump's social media stock increases after posting on Truth Social

David Hilzenrath, Jodie Fleischer, Cox Media Group | (TNS) KFF Health News In March, newly installed Social Security chief Martin O’Malley criticized agency “injustices” that “shock our shared sense of equity and good conscience as Americans.” He promised to overhaul the Social Security Administration’s often heavy-handed efforts to claw back money that millions of recipients — including people who are living in poverty, are elderly, or have disabilities — were allegedly overpaid, as described by a KFF Health News and Cox Media Group investigation last year. “Innocent people can be badly hurt,” O’Malley said at the time. Nearly eight months since he appeared before Congress and announced a series of policy changes, and with two months left in his term, O’Malley’s effort to fix the system has made inroads but remains a work in progress. For instance, one change, moving away from withholding 100% of people’s monthly Social Security benefits to recover alleged overpayments, has been a major improvement, say advocates for beneficiaries. “It is a tremendous change,” said Kate Lang of Justice in Aging, who called it “life-changing for many people.” The number of people from whom the Social Security Administration was withholding full monthly benefits to recoup money declined sharply — from about 46,000 in January to about 7,000 in September, the agency said. Asked to clarify whether those numbers and others provided for this article covered all programs administered by the agency, the SSA press office did not respond. Another potentially significant change — relieving beneficiaries of having to prove that an overpayment was not their fault — has not been implemented. The agency said it is working on that. Meanwhile, the agency seems to be looking to Congress to take the lead on a change some observers see as crucial: limiting how far back the government can reach to recover an alleged overpayment. Barbara Hubbell of Watkins Glen, New York, called the absence of a statute of limitations “despicable.” Hubbell said her mother was held liable for $43,000 because of an SSA error going back 19 years. “In what universe is that even legal?” Hubbell said. Paying down the overpayment balance left her mother “essentially penniless,” she added. In response to questions for this article, Social Security spokesperson Mark Hinkle said legislation is “the best and fastest way” to set a time limit. Establishing a statute of limitations was not among the policy changes O’Malley announced in his March congressional testimony. In an interview at the time, he said he expected an announcement on it “within the next couple few months.” It could probably be done by regulation, without an act of Congress, he said. Speaking generally, Hinkle said the agency has “made substantial progress on overpayments,” reducing the hardship they cause, and “continues to work diligently” to update policies. The agency is underfunded, he added, is at a near 50-year low in staffing, and could do better with more employees. The SSA did not respond to requests for an interview with O’Malley. O’Malley announced the policy changes after KFF Health News and Cox Media Group jointly published and broadcast investigative reporting on the damage overpayments and clawbacks have done to millions of beneficiaries. When O’Malley, a former Democratic governor of Maryland, presented his plans to three congressional committees in March, lawmakers greeted him with rare bipartisan praise. But the past several months have shown how hard it can be to turn around a federal bureaucracy that is massive, complex, deeply dysfunctional, and, as it says, understaffed. Now O’Malley’s time may be running out. Lang of Justice in Aging, among the advocacy groups that have been meeting with O’Malley and other Social Security officials, said she appreciates how much the commissioner has achieved in a short time. But she added that O’Malley has “not been interested in hearing about our feelings that things have fallen short.” One long-standing policy O’Malley set out to change involves the burden of proof. When the Social Security Administration alleges someone has been overpaid and demands the money back, the burden is on the beneficiary to prove they were not at fault. Cecilia Malone, 24, a beneficiary in Lithonia, Georgia, said she and her parents spent hundreds of hours trying to get errors corrected. “Why is the burden on us to ‘prove’ we weren’t overpaid?” Malone said. It can be exceedingly difficult for beneficiaries to appeal a decision. The alleged overpayments, which can reach tens of thousands of dollars or more, often span years. And people struggling just to survive may have extra difficulty producing financial records from long ago. What’s more, in letters demanding repayment, the government does not typically spell out its case against the beneficiary — making it hard to mount a defense. Testifying before House and Senate committees in March, O’Malley promised to shift the burden of proof. “That should be on the agency,” he said. The agency expects to finalize “guidance” on the subject “in the coming months,” Hinkle said. The agency points to reduced wait times and other improvements in a phone system known to leave beneficiaries on hold. “In September, we answered calls to our national 800 number in an average of 11 minutes — a tremendous improvement from 42 minutes one year ago,” Hinkle said. Still, in response to a nonrepresentative survey by KFF Health News and Cox Media Group focused on overpayments, about half of respondents who said they contacted the agency by phone since April rated that experience as “poor,” and few rated it “good” or “excellent.” The survey was sent to about 600 people who had contacted KFF Health News to share their overpayment stories since September 2023. Almost 200 people answered the survey in September and October of this year. Most of those who said they contacted the agency by mail since April rated their experience as “poor.” Jennifer Campbell, 60, a beneficiary in Nelsonville, Ohio, said in late October that she was still waiting for someone at the agency to follow up as described during a phone call in May. “VERY POOR customer service!!!!!” Campbell wrote. “Nearly impossible to get a hold of someone,” wrote Kathryn Duff of Colorado Springs, Colorado, who has been helping a disabled family member. Letters from SSA have left Duff mystified. One was postmarked July 9, 2024, but dated more than two years earlier. Another, dated Aug. 18, 2024, said her family member was overpaid $31,635.80 in benefits from the Supplemental Security Income program, which provides money to people with little or no income or other resources who are disabled, blind, or at least 65. But Duff said her relative never received SSI benefits. What’s more, for the dates in question, payments listed in the letter to back up the agency’s math didn’t come close to $31,635.80; they totaled about a quarter of that amount. Regarding the 100% clawbacks, O’Malley in March said it’s “unconscionable that someone would find themselves facing homelessness or unable to pay bills, because Social Security withheld their entire payment for recovery of an overpayment.” He said that, starting March 25, if a beneficiary doesn’t respond to a new overpayment notice, the agency would default to withholding 10%. The agency warned of “a short transition period.” That change wasn’t automated until June 25, Hinkle said. The number of people newly placed in full withholding plummeted from 6,771 in February to 51 in September, according to data the agency provided. SSA said it would notify recipients they could request reduced withholding if it was already clawing back more than 10% of their monthly checks. Nonetheless, dozens of beneficiaries or their family members told KFF Health News and Cox Media Group they hadn’t heard they could request reduced withholding. Among those who did ask, roughly half said their requests were approved. According to the SSA, there has been almost a 20% decline in the number of people facing clawbacks of more than 10% but less than 100% of their monthly checks — from 141,316 as of March 8 to 114,950 as of Oct. 25, agency spokesperson Nicole Tiggemann said. Meanwhile, the number of people from whom the agency was withholding exactly 10% soared more than fortyfold — from just over 5,000 to well over 200,000. And the number of beneficiaries having any partial benefits withheld to recover an overpayment increased from almost 600,000 to almost 785,000, according to data Tiggemann provided. Lorraine Anne Davis, 72, of Houston, said she hasn’t received her monthly Social Security payment since June due to an alleged overpayment. Her Medicare premium was being deducted from her monthly benefit, so she’s been left to pay that out-of-pocket. Davis said she’s going to need a kidney transplant and had been trying to save money for when she’d be unable to work. A letter from the SSA dated April 8, 2024, two weeks after the new 10% withholding policy was slated to take effect, said it had overpaid her $13,538 and demanded she pay it back within 30 days. Apparently, the SSA hadn’t accounted for a pension Davis receives from overseas; Davis said she disclosed it when she filed for benefits. In a letter to her dated June 29, the agency said that, under its new policy, it would change the withholding to only 10% if she asked. Davis said she asked by phone repeatedly, and to no avail. “Nobody seems to know what’s going on” and “no one seems to be able to help you,” Davis said. “You’re just held captive.” In October, the agency said she’d receive a payment — in March 2025. Marley Presiado, a research assistant on the Public Opinion and Survey Research team at KFF, contributed to this report. ©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Social Security tackles overpayment ‘injustices,’ but problems remain

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. , Dec. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers business online, today announced it has completed its acquisition of select assets from Edgio, including certain customer contracts from Edgio's businesses in content delivery and security, and non-exclusive license rights to patents in Edgio's portfolio. On Nov. 26, 2024 , the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware approved Akamai's bid to acquire the aforementioned assets following Edgio's 363 bankruptcy auction on Nov. 13, 2024 , as part of its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief. The transaction does not include the acquisition of Edgio personnel, technology, or assets related to the Edgio network. Akamai can now offer several hundred net new Akamai customers a clear path and the necessary support to smoothly migrate to a best-in-class and reliable provider of the services they need prior to Edgio ceasing operations of its content delivery network. The Company also plans to offer the new customers the opportunity to take advantage of Akamai's full range of security and cloud solutions, which run on the world's most distributed platform. About Akamai Akamai is the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business online. Our market-leading security solutions, superior threat intelligence, and global operations team provide defense-in-depth to safeguard enterprise data and applications everywhere. Akamai's full-stack cloud computing solutions deliver performance and affordability on the world's most distributed platform. Global enterprises trust Akamai to provide the industry-leading reliability, scale, and expertise they need to grow their business with confidence. Learn more at akamai.com and akamai.com/blog , or follow Akamai Technologies on X and LinkedIn . Contacts Akamai Public Relations AkamaiPR@akamai.com Akamai Investor Relations IR-InvestorRelations@akamai.com Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act This press release contains statements that are not statements of historical fact and constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements about the potential benefits of the transaction to Akamai and its customers and management's expectations regarding new customer additions and customer migration in connection with the transaction. Each of the forward-looking statements is subject to change as a result of various important factors, many of which are beyond the company's control, including, but not limited to: Akamai being unable to achieve the anticipated benefits of the transaction; the risk that customer migration may be more difficult, time-consuming or costly than expected; the retention of key personnel during the transition period; potential adverse reactions or changes to business relationships resulting from the announcement or completion of the proposed transaction; effects of competition, including pricing pressure and changing business models; impact of macroeconomic trends, including economic uncertainty, turmoil in the financial services industry, the effects of inflation, rising and fluctuating interest rates, foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, securities market volatility and monetary supply fluctuations; continuing supply chain and logistics costs, constraints, changes or disruptions; defects or disruptions in Akamai's products or IT systems, including cyber-attacks, data breaches or malware; changes to economic, political and regulatory conditions in the United States or internationally; and other factors that are discussed in the company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Akamai does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/akamai-completes-acquisition-of-select-assets-of-edgio-302331398.html SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.Burton, Muntu score 18 as Western Michigan defeats Youngstown State 73-62Liverpool's Conor Bradley, Ibrahima Konate to be assessed ahead of Manchester City

Albertsons Companies, Inc. (NYSE:ACI) Stock Position Reduced by Quest Partners LLC

Wisconsin at Nebraska: How we see the game playing out, and over/under picksShare Tweet Share Share Email Printed Circuit Boards are crucial for almost any type of modern electronic device as they connect the components and make sure the devices work smoothly. However, it is not easy to understand how they actually work and how to find a reliable manufacturer if you have no idea how they work. This article provides some of the essential information and helps you understand how important such a small thing can be for any device. Types of PCBs First, you need to understand the different types and what kind of electronic devices they are suitable for. For example, there are single-sided PCBs, which are good for simple devices but might not be used for some more complex appliances. As such, you can use double-sided PCBs which provide everything you might need. However, if you are looking for a PCB for high-performance electronics, you should choose multilayer PCBs as they incorporate multiple layers of conductive material. How to Find the Right Manufacturer? This is quite an important question regarding how to find the right and reliable manufacturer. You need to make sure that the manufacturer can handle your production needs and designs so that you do not encounter unpleasant situations or arguments. Set your needs clear from the very beginning. Another important thing you need to keep in mind is to find someone for both PCB fabrication and assembly , as this is much safer and easier if one company manages both. Make sure they do quality inspections to ensure high-quality PCBs and also do not forget to communicate regarding the deadline of the delivery. Key Steps Many wonder what the process of PCB fabrication looks like. Here you can see that everything starts with the designing of the PCB, and this is usually done by computer software, and that design is then applied to the board using a special film. As the PCB connects different components , small holes are drilled making this possible. Once this is done, a solder mask is added to cover the circuits and prevent any damage, and then a protective coating, such as gold or tin, is applied to some of the exposed parts for durability. Latest Trends in PCB Manufacturing As PCBs are essential for electronic devices, and they are becoming smaller and smaller each year, one of the most important trends is to make smaller boards, which make electronics more compact. As this requires paying attention to small details, nowadays the focus is on better automation and using machines for faster and more precise work. Still, they try to use eco-friendly materials in order to reduce environmental impact and accept their responsibility of doing everything they can to save the environment. PCB fabrication is an extremely complicated process that is nowadays advanced with the help of technology and robots. Many people do not know anything about what this process looks like, but now, after reading this article, you will be able to recognize different types of PCBs and know some essential steps in how they are made . Related Items: Manufacturing Techniques , PCB Fabrication Share Tweet Share Share Email Comments

Reviewing Holiday Island (HIHI) & The Competition

Lifetime Pet Insurance Market Likely to Boost in Future: Petplan, ASPCA, Embrace

With just three weeks left in the year (as of this writing), the S&P 500 is up nearly 27% in 2024. To illustrate how great this gain is, if someone invested $10,000 and gained 27% annually, they'd have over $100,000 in just 10 years. In short, 2024 was a great year to earn merely "average" stock market returns. But, alas, not all stocks are performing as well as the average for the stock market. This includes shoe company Crocs ( CROX -1.08% ) , sporting goods retailer Academy Sports and Outdoors ( ASO 1.90% ) , and display technology company Universal Display ( OLED 1.05% ) . All three are underperforming the S&P 500 in 2024, and two of them have actually lost money for investors this year. ^SPX data by YCharts. This trio has provided investors with lackluster returns in 2024. But I believe 2025 will be quite different. Here's why. 1. Crocs Crocs is a cheap stock, trading at just 8 times earnings whereas many stocks trade at over 20 times earnings. But whether Crocs stock is also undervalued has a lot to do with the sustainability of its profits and how management uses cash. After all, Crocs wouldn't be a good investment if profits plunged in the future or capital was mismanaged. But there's good reason for optimism here. Crocs owns the HeyDude shoe brand, but 80% of the business is still the Crocs brand. This core brand is still growing, with 8% year-over-year revenue growth expected this year. Moreover, profit margins for this brand are stable, which allows the company to earn plenty of operating income . Regarding its use of cash, Crocs took on loads of debt when it acquired HeyDude, but it's already paid back more than $1 billion over just the past two years. Now that its debt is getting more under control, it's started repurchasing shares at these cheap levels. I believe Crocs can be a good performer on the strength of its core brand alone. The HeyDude brand is admittedly performing quite poorly, with a 15% drop in revenue expected this year. But if management can turn things around for HeyDude, then this will be the icing on the cake for an already attractive opportunity. 2. Academy Sports Also trading at about 8 times earnings, Academy Sports stock is as cheap as Crocs stock. I believe Crocs can perform well by simply maintaining its current level of business, and the same could be true of Academy Sports as well. That said, Academy Sports stock is positioned for much better growth, making the long-term opportunity even more attractive. Academy Sports attempts to differentiate itself from competitors by offering more localized merchandise as opposed to merchandise with broader appeal. The strategy appears to be working. In 2023, its stores generated $22 million in sales on average, far outpacing peers. Moreover, its net profit margin has improved to over 7%, whereas its profit margin was lower than 2% five years ago. It only has about 300 stores today, but Academy Sports is aiming for more than 800 locations in the long term. In 2025, management plans to open up to 25 new stores, which is almost 8% growth. Of course, there are a lot of important details here. But at the risk of oversimplifying things, the company's profits should also be higher in 2025, thanks to these new locations. Since the stock is already cheap, I believe these higher profits will push shares higher next year. Profitability is such an important thing for investors in the long term, not just with Academy Sports but for Crocs as well. Both companies are paying down debt fast, and both are repurchasing shares, as the two-year chart below shows. These two stocks might not necessarily go up in 2025 -- predicting the timing is tough. But this combination of debt reduction and stock buybacks will likely provide a big boost sooner or later. CROX Total Long Term Debt (Quarterly) data by YCharts. 3. Universal Display Many people own an electronic device with an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display. The technology isn't new. But Universal Display has a competitive advantage in the space with over 6,000 patents, and it's one breakthrough away from kicking off a new lucrative cycle in the space. Technology hardware companies -- particularly those that make mobile devices -- are interested in extending battery life more than anything. It's a problem as mobile devices become more powerful. That's why they turn to OLED technology in the first place. First and foremost, it's more energy-efficient. Through licensing its technology and selling the materials, Universal Display is a high-margin business with a net -profit margin of 37%. Management plows a lot of cash into research and development to stay in front of competition. Right now, it's working on the next iteration of OLED tech, called phosphorescent OLED, or PHOLED. Universal Display needs three primary colors to make its displays work: Red, green, and blue. It already has PHOLED red and green. But PHOLED blue has been a hard challenge to overcome. Management had hoped to have it this year but ultimately couldn't make it happen. But management says it's "very close" to commercialization. According to Universal Display's management, PHOLED blue alone will make its displays 25% more energy-efficient, making them a no-brainer upgrade for device manufacturers. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the technology for blue to be ready in 2025, unlocking fresh growth for the business. At over 30 times earnings, I'm not necessarily saying that Universal Display stock is cheap. I do nevertheless believe it's undervalued (there's a difference) when considering the long-term potential as adoption of its products soars in future years. Here's to 2025 Crocs, Academy Sports, and Universal Display are among my highest-conviction investment ideas for 2025. I believe all three could do very well, and I believe the downside risk is low in each case. My conviction is based on the strengths of the businesses and the belief that each stock is undervalued. Stocks can be underappreciated and consequently undervalued for years. Therefore, it's possible that shares of Crocs, Academy Sports, and Universal Display will all underperform again next year even if the businesses do well. That's fine with me. Investing is about the long term. And I feel good about these businesses for the next five years, at least.

FLAGSTAR FINANCIAL, INC. APPOINTS BRIAN CALLANAN TO BOARD OF DIRECTORSWisconsin at Nebraska: How we see the game playing out, and over/under picksInternational Mountain Day, celebrated on December 11, focuses in 2024 on sustainable solutions for mountain regions, emphasizing innovation, climate adaptation, and youth participation to address the challenges faced by mountain communities. For centuries, mountain communities have developed strategies to adapt to harsh conditions while protecting and restoring biodiversity. In 2024, International Mountain Day highlights three key priorities: innovation, climate adaptation, and youth engagement. Innovations are essential to solve the complex challenges in mountain areas, combining technological advances with creative approaches like climate-smart agriculture. Climate change continues to threaten mountain ecosystems, making adaptation strategies critical to reduce vulnerability and improve resilience. These strategies include disaster risk reduction tailored to specific ecosystems and leveraging indigenous knowledge. Youth participation plays a key role in ensuring long-term sustainability. The 2024 theme calls for providing opportunities such as decent jobs, accessible education, and entrepreneurial initiatives to enable youth to contribute to the sustainable management of mountain resources. Mountains are vital ecosystems, supporting 15% of the global population and hosting half of the world's biodiversity hotspots. They are also a crucial source of water, food, and energy for nearly half of humanity. However, mountains are increasingly threatened by climate change, land degradation, natural disasters, and overexploitation. Rising global temperatures have accelerated the melting of mountain glaciers, endangering freshwater supplies for millions of people. Land degradation affects over 311 million people in mountainous areas of developing countries, with 178 million facing food insecurity. International Mountain Day was established in 1992 following the adoption of Agenda 21 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. The day was first observed in 2003 after the UN declared 2002 as the International Year of Mountains. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) leads the global coordination for the preparation and implementation of the event. International Mountain Day continues to raise awareness about the significance of mountain regions, calling for global action to safeguard these natural treasures. On International Mountain Day, the Ambassador of the Kyrgyz Republic to Iran, Turdakun Sydykov, highlighted Kyrgyzstan’s initiatives to promote sustainable development in mountain regions, addressing climate challenges and international cooperation. Here is the full text of his statement about the international initiatives of the Kyrgyz Republic on promoting sustainable development of mountain regions: 1. Mountain agenda Climate change poses a serious threat to the most important aspects of life in mountain countries. These include an increase in natural disasters, threats to food security, growing hungry populations, the most vulnerable of whom are women and girls, slower economic growth, water scarcity and growing tensions between countries. In the 21st century, mountain countries will face many challenges and problems. In this regard, it is necessary to build in advance a system of joint actions of mountain countries to prevent and mitigate them. The first thing that should be done to achieve this goal is to unite their efforts. Only joint efforts can stop the processes of gradual degradation of mountain regions in the light of climate change. Kyrgyzstan, as a mountainous country, deeply realizes its responsibility to ensure the well-being of mountain regions and their sustainable development. Kyrgyzstan is taking consistent steps within the framework of the UN to gradually build up the global agenda for sustainable mountain development. Since the early 2000s, Kyrgyzstan has been actively working to attract the attention of the world community to mountain issues, in particular, by the initiative of the Kyrgyz Republic the following events were held: 1. Declaring 2002 as the International Year of Mountains; 2. Holding the first Bishkek Global Mountain Summit in Bishkek in 2002; 3. Establishment of December 11 as the International Mountain Day at the 57th session of the UN General Assembly; 4. Adoption from 1998 to 2019 by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) of the 13th International Day of Mountains. Adoption by the UN General Assembly (GA) of 13 resolutions on mountain countries (A/RES/53/24, A/RES/55/189, A/RES/57/245, A/RES/58/216, A/RES/59/238, A/RES/60/198, A/RES/62/196, A/RES/64/205, A/RES/66/205, A/RES/68/217, A/71/463/Add.10, A/74/209, A/RES/77/172); 5. Formation of the Group of Friends of Mountain Countries on 29 August 2019, comprising 26 States (Afghanistan, Andorra, Kyrgyzstan, Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bolivia, Canada, Georgia, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Morocco, Nepal, Norway, Peru, Romania, Rwanda, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey and Switzerland); 6. At the initiative of the Kyrgyz Republic, the 76th session of the UNGA adopted a resolution to declare 2022 the International Year of Sustainable Mountain Development. 7. The 77th session of the UNGA adopted a resolution to declare 2023-2027 as the “Five Years of Action for Development”. “Five Years of Action for the Development of Mountain Regions“ (”the Five Years"). The Resolution was adopted unanimously without a vote. 109 UN Member States co-sponsored it. On our initiative and with the broad support of our mountain partners, the “Five-Year Action Plan for the Development of Mountain Regions for the period from 2023 to 2027” is currently being implemented. We have taken a systematic approach to its implementation: at the national level we are implementing the Roadmap, at the international level - the Global Action Plan, which in 2023 and 2024 were presented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic at the UN headquarters in New York. It is important for us to ensure access to health care and education, economic and social systems for the inhabitants of mountainous areas. In addition, Kyrgyzstan is initiating the creation of a Global Mountain University, the purpose of which is to create an educational platform for solving current problems facing mountain regions, training personnel, and improving the level of knowledge and qualifications of specialists who contribute to sustainable mountain development. In turn, Kyrgyzstan does not stand aside, in this year we decided to make a modest voluntary contribution to the budget of the Secretariat of the Mountain Partnership in Rome. Mountain initiatives of the Kyrgyz Republic were reflected in the final reports of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Thanks to the efforts of many mountain countries, the mountain agenda was included in the final document and includes five references to mountains and contains a formal request for a dialog on mountains and climate change. Also, as a result of the forum on the role of mountains under the Nairobi Work Program of the UNFCCC, “Mountains, high latitudes and the cryosphere” was declared a priority thematic area for 2024. The key event to promote the mountain agenda on a global scale was the participation of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic H.E. Mr. Sadyr Zhaparov in the UN Climate Change Conference - COP29 World Leaders Summit in Baku, which demonstrated the commitment of Kyrgyzstan to address climate issues within the framework of membership in the UNFCCC and the goals of the Paris Agreement, readiness to participate in international climate processes and consistent focus in promoting the mountain agenda at the global level. Kyrgyzstan organized its national pavilion for the first time and an extensive program of side events was held on thematic days. On the margins of the COP29 on November 13 this year in Baku with the participation of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic H.E. Mr. Sadyr Zhaparov a High-Level Meeting/Dialogue on Mountains and Climate was held. This High-level event was co-organized by Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Azerbaijan, and it was also attended by the Presidents of Mongolia and Nepal. 33 countries supported the initiative of the Kyrgyz Republic on the “Call to Action to consolidate the Mountains and Climate Dialogue in the annual calendar of the UNFCCC”. The Kyrgyz side initiated the “Declaration on Climate Change, Mountains and Glaciers”, presented on the margins of the COP29 in Baku, which was supported by 15 countries as the Final Document of the High-Level Dialogue. Kyrgyzstan actively promotes the mountain agenda at three international platforms: the UN in New York, the FAO Mountain Partnership in Rome and the UNFCCC, a group of friends to promote mountain initiatives: the Group of Friends of Mountain Countries of the UN in New York (29 countries), at the invitation of Kyrgyzstan in this year Lesotho joined the group. Member countries of the Mountain Partnership under the chairmanship of the Mountain Partnership Secretariat in Rome (65 countries). In this year, work was carried out to expand the Negotiating Group of the UNFCCC Mountain Partnership, established in December 2023, which initially had Kyrgyzstan and Andorra as members. Also, this year Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Mongolia joined this group. Nepal, Italy, Bhutan, Zimbabwe have expressed their willingness to join thi8s group. The Second Global Bishkek Mountain Summit “Bishkek+25” to be held in Bishkek in 2027 was announced by the President of the Kyrgyz Republic H.E. Mr. Sadyr Zhaparov at the General debates of the 78th and 79th session of the UNGA in New York. The Kyrgyz Republic is actively announcing the holding of the Second Mountain Summit among foreign partners. Active work is being carried out to attract investments from international partners. We count on the support of the UN member states and other international and regional organizations in providing practical assistance in holding the Mountain Summit in 2027. The Kyrgyz Republic invites all countries, including, of course, the friendly Islamic Republic of Iran, to participate in the Mountain Summit at a high level. Climate finance We, the UN Member States, meet regularly to discuss climate issues and find solutions. No country remains indifferent and indifferent. But not all of us have equal conditions and opportunities to solve them and realize our climate commitments, including those undertaken within the framework of the UN Convention on Climate Change. In this context, Kyrgyzstan fully supports the position of the esteemed UN Secretary-General on the need to reform the international financial architecture and reduce the debt burden on developing and vulnerable states.