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A Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker is in central Labrador until Saturday to guide the Kamutik W ferry on its last freight deliveries of the season. Dave Leyden of Labrador Marine says the Kopit Hopson 1752 icebreaker is helping the Kamutik W navigate some ice in Lake Melville, near Happy Valley-Goose Bay, which empties into the Labrador Sea. Leyden says it would have been unthinkable even five years ago to have the ferry running into late December, but ice conditions are changing with the climate, and thick sea ice doesn't form as quickly as it used to. The Kamutik W brings freight, including groceries and other supplies, to the remote communities along Labrador's northeast coast, as long as ice conditions allow. Once the ocean freezes along the shores, groceries and supplies must be delivered by air, which makes the products much more expensive. The ferry's last delivery run of the season is scheduled for Saturday. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2024. 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Donald Trump Asks Supreme Court to Pause Potential TikTok BanThe Mariners need to upset another unbeaten team if they hope to claim the sixth section title in school history and advance to a CIF NorCal bowl game.South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, bottom center, shouts slogans during a news conference with his party members at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday. The signs read “Punish the rebellion leader.” Ahn Young-joon/Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol avoided an opposition-led attempt to impeach him over his short-lived imposition of martial law, as most ruling party lawmakers boycotted a parliamentary vote Saturday to deny a two-thirds majority needed to suspend his presidential powers. The scrapping of the motion is expected to intensify protests calling for Yoon’s ouster and deepen political chaos in South Korea, with a survey suggesting a majority of South Koreans support the president’s impeachment. Yoon’s martial law declaration drew criticism from his own ruling conservative People Power Party, but the party is also determined to oppose Yoon’s impeachment, apparently because it fears losing the presidency to liberals. After the motion fell through, members of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party rallied inside the National Assembly, chanting slogans calling for Yoon’s impeachment or resignation. The party’s floor leader, Park Chan-dae, said it will soon prepare for a new impeachment motion. Opposition parties could submit a new impeachment motion after a new parliamentary session opens next Wednesday. “We’ll surely impeach Yoon Suk Yeol, who is the greatest risk to Republic of Korea,” party leader Lee Jae-myung said. “We’ll surely bring back this country to normal before Christmas Day or year’s end.” Many experts doubt Yoon will be able to serve out his remaining 2 1⁄2 years in office. They say some PPP lawmakers could eventually join opposition parties’ efforts to impeach Yoon if public demands for it grow further. The ruling party risks “further public outrage and national confusion if they don’t find a formula fast for Yoon’s departure,” said Duyeon Kim, a senior analyst at the Center for a New American Security in Washington. PPP chair Han Dong-hun said his party will seek Yoon’s “orderly” early exit but didn’t say when he can resign. PROTESTS AGAINST YOON ARE SWELLING On Saturday, tens of thousands of people packed several blocks of roads leading to the National Assembly, waving banners, shouting slogans and dancing. Protesters also gathered in front of PPP’s headquarters near the Assembly, shouting for its lawmakers to vote to impeach Yoon. A smaller crowd of Yoon’s supporters, which still seemed to be in the thousands, rallied elsewhere in Seoul, calling the impeachment attempt unconstitutional. Impeaching Yoon required support from 200 of the National Assembly’s 300 members. The Democratic Party and five other small opposition parties, which filed the motion, have 192 seats combined. But only three lawmakers from PPP participated in the vote. The motion was scrapped without ballot counting because the number of votes didn’t reach 200. National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik called the result “very regrettable” and an embarrassing moment for the country’s democracy. If Yoon is impeached, his powers will be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides whether to remove him from office. If he is removed, an election to replace him must take place within 60 days. PRESIDENT APOLOGIZES FOR TURMOIL Earlier Saturday, Yoon issued an apology over the martial law decree, saying he won’t shirk legal or political responsibility for the declaration and promising not to make another attempt to impose it. He said would leave it to his party to chart a course through the country’s political turmoil, “including matters related to my term in office.” “The declaration of this martial law was made out of my desperation. But in the course of its implementation, it caused anxiety and inconveniences to the public. I feel very sorry over that and truly apologize to the people who must have been shocked a lot,” Yoon said. Since taking office in 2022, Yoon has struggled to push his agenda through an opposition-controlled parliament and grappled with low approval ratings amid scandals involving himself and his wife. In his martial law announcement Tuesday night, Yoon called parliament a “den of criminals” bogging down state affairs and vowed to eliminate “shameless North Korea followers and anti-state forces.” The declaration of martial law was the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea. The turmoil has paralyzed South Korean politics and sparked alarm among key diplomatic partners like the U.S. and Japan. “Yoon’s credibility overseas has been undermined by declaring martial law, so he won’t be able to exercise leadership in his foreign policies especially when his days are numbered,” said Kim, the Center for a New American Security analyst. “Its government bureaucracy will need to continue business as usual for existing alliance and foreign policy initiatives as best it can, because there is a lot of important work to do globally.” Tuesday night saw special forces troops encircle the parliament building as army helicopters hovered overhead, but the military withdrew after the National Assembly unanimously voted to overturn the decree, forcing Yoon to lift martial law before daybreak Wednesday. Eighteen lawmakers from the ruling party voted to reject Yoon’s martial law decree along with opposition lawmakers. PPP later decided to oppose Yoon’s impeachment motion. Yoon’s speech fueled speculation that he and his party may push for a constitutional amendment to shorten his term, instead of accepting impeachment, as a way to ease public anger over the marital law and facilitate Yoon’s early exit from office. Lee told reporters that Yoon’s speech was “greatly disappointing” and that the only way forward is his immediate resignation or impeachment. His party called Yoon’s martial law “unconstitutional, illegal rebellion or coup.” Lawmakers on Saturday first voted on a bill appointing a special prosecutor to investigate stock price manipulation allegations surrounding Yoon’s wife. YOON ACCUSED OF ORDERING POLITICIANS’ ARRESTS On Friday, Han, the PPP chair who criticized Yoon’s martial law declaration, said he had received intelligence that, during the brief period of martial law, Yoon ordered the country’s defense counterintelligence commander to arrest unspecified key politicians based on accusations of “anti-state activities.” Hong Jang-won, first deputy director of South Korea’s spy agency, told lawmakers Friday that Yoon had ordered him to help the defense counterintelligence unit to detain key politicians, including the ruling party leader, the main opposition party leader and the speaker of the National Assembly. The Defense Ministry said Friday it suspended three military commanders, including the head of the defense counterintelligence unit, over their involvement in enforcing martial law. Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon Ho has told parliament that Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun ordered the deployment of troops to the National Assembly. Opposition parties accused Kim of recommending to Yoon to enforce martial law. Kim Yong Hyun resigned as defense minister Thursday, and prosecutors imposed an overseas travel ban on him. We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website. By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use . More information is found on our FAQs . You can modify your screen name here . Comments are managed by our staff during regular business hours Monday through Friday as well as limited hours on Saturday and Sunday. Comments held for moderation outside of those hours may take longer to approve. Please sign into your Press Herald account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe . Questions? Please see our FAQs . Your commenting screen name has been updated. Send questions/comments to the editors. « Previous
This story was originally published on Nov. 26 and misreported fee changes related to renting SD 27 facilities, stating they had doubled when in fact they have been cut in half. Several organizers of events raising funds for student programs were surprised this year with a hefty bill in order to operate in School District 27 (SD 27) facilities. The annual Cariboo Hobby Con and Craft Fair was scheduled to run on Nov. 23 this year at Columneetza Jr. Secondary in Williams Lake, but with less than two weeks before the day organizers announced they would cancel the fair. “It is with great sadness we have to announce that this year’s Cariboo Hobby Con has been cancelled,” wrote the organizers on their Facebook page. They credited the cancellation to policy changes which led to “uncertain financial constraints that would be detrimental to our fundraiser.” The annual fair event raises funds for a volleyball club run by SD 27 employee Tim Hurley. The funds are used to buy equipment such as a referee stand and uniforms, as well as to help out students in need with travel and accommodation. Last year Hobby Con raised about $2,000 for the club, but Hurley told Black Press Media it’s more than just the money, as Hobby Con provides a space for other clubs to run their own fundraisers and for young entrepreneurs to set up their own vendors. He added that his volleyball club has served as a “turning point” for vulnerable students whose interest in the sport has kept them in school and safe. SD 27 updated its policy 730 – Community use of School Facilities – in August of this year. Changes to the policy include “more robust vetting” of events such as craft fairs, large sporting tournaments and Parent Advisory Council (PAC) events. In a statement sent to Black Press Media, SD 27 secretary-treasurer Brenda Hooker provided reasons for the policy updates. “The District updated AP730 to clarify our process and publish the applicable fees when applying for facilities use. In most cases, the cost to rent a space in our various facilities was decreased.” She wrote that fees were not always applied consistently in the past, such as whether or not the use of school equipment would be charged. When asked if the district took into account what impact the changes could have on events which benefit students, Hooker wrote the district recognized there were changes in fees “by applying our policy consistently and fairly.” “Some organizers have chosen to cancel instead of moving forward, which is their choice...The district recognizes that access to our schools is important to the community and we are striving to balance the demand while covering the associated costs and conducting our due diligence for all involved,” she wrote. Hobby Con is not the only event which has been impacted by the changes. The annual Chilcotin Road Elementary School PAC Ladies Night, which raises money for the school to buy things like books, projectors and playground equipment, operated in SD 27 facilities for 11 years without cost. This year’s event, which was in April, the organizers found out they would have to pay $600 to run the Ladies Night at the school. Even the lakecity’s beloved Medieval Market, which raises money for student programs and also equips participating students with work experience, has seen quite the impact. Without any real change to the event’s layout, which as previous years was hosted at Lake City Secondary School, the total cost to run the market increased by more than $4,000 from 2019 until now. While in 2019 the market operated at a total cost of about $800, this year’s market came to a total of just under $5,000. Even in 2023, prior to SD 27’s policy changes, organizer Kirstin Lauren said custodial charges had doubled from the previous year. This was despite few, if any, changes being made to the market which would result in further custodial requirements. Custodial hours, organizers said, doubled from 24 to 48 hours without explanation. In fact, Lauren said it’s been difficult to get any clear answers from the district, and while she is hoping to maintain a relationship with the district and see the market thrive in its traditional location of several years, there needs to be better communication. Hooker told Black Press Media organizers are made aware of requirements and risks associated to holding their event before their application is approved. The biggest change the Medieval Market saw this year was in insurance fees. While costs going specifically to the district amounted to about $4,000, the market had to pay an extra $800 for third party liability insurance. Organizers were told they had to purchase the insurance this year, while in previous years this was not a concern. Lauren told Black Press Media students were still able to benefit from this year’s market, which attracted about 3,500 guests, 100 vendors and 100 student workers. “But the more money we have to pay out, the less money we have to give to students,” she said, adding all she wants is to figure out what’s going on and continue having a positive working relationship with the district. In her statement to Black Press Media, Hooker said insurance requirements have always existed. “The district is now clarifying these requirements with users and consistently ensuring the appropriate insurance is obtained. The cost to obtain liability insurance is minimal and is needed to cover both the organizers and the volunteers working any event that is not directly related to education. The district values all of our employees and volunteers and is simply trying to make sure organizers have appropriate insurance coverage in place in the case of an unexpected event,” Hooker wrote. She later clarified with Black Press that these events were simply not being insured previously, a fact which was overlooked, and the policy change was to ensure everyone’s safety. Lauren said she and other organizers are planning to meet with the district to understand why their costs have seen such an increase and what can be done to mitigate the impact on students for which the event is being hosted. Most of the fees related to renting SD 27 facilities have been cut in half, with some additional fees being added to the list. New fees include $200 for wireless access, which is available only to weekend sports tournaments and craft fairs. A small fee was added for access to the entire sports equipment room and $85 has been added for intruder alarm activation. Fees which have seen no change include non-profit adult sport groups’ use of multi-purpose spaces such as libraries and cafes, as well as field use by any type of group. Fees marked as “local delivery” and “out of town delivery” haven’t changed, nor have weekend custodial charges seen any changes. However, general custodial charges have seen a change. Non-profit groups used to be charged $30 per hour for custodial services, a custodian’s regular hourly pay, and now pay $30 per use. Other groups, such as private craft fairs and political parties, used to pay $30 per hour for custodial services and now pay $67.75 per hour. A $200 key deposit was also removed, replaced by a $30 charge to replace a fob or get an extra one. Hooker also told Black Press Media that the district does not profit from the fees. “The fees collected are applied to the direct staffing costs associated with approving the request. We are not charging rates that provide any funds towards repairs and maintenance of our facilities nor capital replacement costs,” she wrote. Tammy Woodcock Banks was one of more than 40 vendors registered to sell their crafts at Hobby Con. She told Black Press Media Hobby Con is one of the most important markets where she sells her wind chimes and Christmas cards which she makes under the name Tammy’s Creations. “I had loads of stock that I had worked on this year for the show,” she said. Banks said she was grateful to be welcomed as a vendor at the Cariboo Corner market instead, but only made about one third of what she would normally make at Hobby Con. However, she said the market’s cancellation is also a big loss for the students who benefit from Hobby Con. “It’s not only us that got let down, it was the kids,” she said. When they heard the news that Hobby Con was being cancelled, Bewitching Market organizers Wanda Sheppard and Sunny Dyck decided something needed to be done. They quickly organized a new market without using SD 27 facilities so local crafters and business owners can still benefit from the holiday season. “They’re quite happy with it, they’re excited,” Sheppard told the Tribune about the almost 40 vendors who have registered for the new market called A Misfits and Mistletoe Christmas Market. The market, which will be taking place on Dec. 15 at the Ramada Convention Centre, is open to everyone and any kind of item being sold. “If you want to do goth you can do goth, if you want to do Christmas you can do Christmas,” Sheppard said. She said all she wants is to be fair to the vendors, promote their works and have fun.
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By SARAH PARVINI, GARANCE BURKE and JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press President-elect Donald Trump will return to power next year with a raft of technological tools at his disposal that would help deliver his campaign promise of cracking down on immigration — among them, surveillance and artificial intelligence technology that the Biden administration already uses to help make crucial decisions in tracking, detaining and ultimately deporting immigrants lacking permanent legal status. While immigration officials have used the tech for years, an October letter from the Department of Homeland Security obtained exclusively by The Associated Press details how those tools — some of them powered by AI — help make life-altering decisions for immigrants, including whether they should be detained or surveilled. One algorithm, for example, ranks immigrants with a “Hurricane Score,” ranging from 1-5, to assess whether someone will “abscond” from the agency’s supervision. The letter, sent by DHS Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer Eric Hysen to the immigrant rights group Just Futures Law, revealed that the score calculates the potential risk that an immigrant — with a pending case — will fail to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The algorithm relies on several factors, he said, including an immigrant’s number of violations and length of time in the program, and whether the person has a travel document. Hysen wrote that ICE officers consider the score, among other information, when making decisions about an immigrant’s case. “The Hurricane Score does not make decisions on detention, deportation, or surveillance; instead, it is used to inform human decision-making,” Hysen wrote. Also included in the government’s tool kit is a mobile app called SmartLINK that uses facial matching and can track an immigrant’s specific location. Nearly 200,000 people without legal status who are in removal proceedings are enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program, under which certain immigrants can live in the U.S. while their immigration cases are pending. In exchange, SmartLINK and GPS trackers used by ICE rigorously surveil them and their movements. The phone application draws on facial matching technology and geolocation data, which has been used before to find and arrest those using the app. Just Futures Law wrote to Hysen earlier this year, questioning the fairness of using an algorithm to assess whether someone is a flight risk and raising concerns over how much data SmartLINK collects. Such AI systems, which score or screen people, are used widely but remain largely unregulated even though some have been found to discriminate on race, gender or other protected traits. DHS said in an email that it is committed to ensuring that its use of AI is transparent and safeguards privacy and civil rights while avoiding biases. The agency said it is working to implement the Biden administration’s requirements on using AI , but Hysen said in his letter that security officials may waive those requirements for certain uses. Trump has publicly vowed to repeal Biden’s AI policy when he returns to the White House in January. “DHS uses AI to assist our personnel in their work, but DHS does not use the outputs of AI systems as the sole basis for any law enforcement action or denial of benefits,” a spokesperson for DHS told the AP. Trump has not revealed how he plans to carry out his promised deportation of an estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally. Although he has proposed invoking wartime powers, as well as military involvement, the plan would face major logistical challenges — such as where to keep those who have been detained and how to find people spread across the country — that AI-powered surveillance tools could potentially address. Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for Trump, did not answer questions about how they plan to use DHS’ tech, but said in a statement that “President Trump will marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation” in American history. Over 100 civil society groups sent a letter on Friday urging the Office of Management and Budget to require DHS to comply with the Biden administration’s guidelines. OMB did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Just Futures Law’s executive director, Paromita Shah, said if immigrants are scored as flight risks, they are more likely to remain in detention, “limiting their ability to prepare a defense in their case in immigration court, which is already difficult enough as it is.” SmartLINK, part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, is run by BI Inc., a subsidiary of the private prison company The GEO Group. The GEO Group also contracts with ICE to run detention centers. ICE is tight-lipped about how it uses SmartLINK’s location feature to find and arrest immigrants. Still, public records show that during Trump’s first term in 2018, Manassas, Virginia-based employees of BI Inc. relayed immigrants’ GPS locations to federal authorities, who then arrested over 40 people. In a report last year to address privacy issues and concerns, DHS said that the mobile app includes security features that “prohibit access to information on the participant’s mobile device, with the exception of location data points when the app is open.” But the report notes that there remains a risk that data collected from people “may be misused for unauthorized persistent monitoring.” Such information could also be stored in other ICE and DHS databases and used for other DHS mission purposes, the report said. On investor calls earlier this month, private prison companies were clear-eyed about the opportunities ahead. The GEO Group’s executive chairman George Christopher Zoley said that he expects the incoming Trump administration to “take a much more aggressive approach regarding border security as well as interior enforcement and to request additional funding from Congress to achieve these goals.” “In GEO’s ISAP program, we can scale up from the present 182,500 participants to several hundreds of thousands, or even millions of participants,” Zoley said. That same day, the head of another private prison company told investors he would be watching closely to see how the new administration may change immigrant monitoring programs. “It’s an opportunity for multiple vendors to engage ICE about the program going forward and think about creative and innovative solutions to not only get better outcomes, but also scale up the program as necessary,” Damon Hininger, CEO of the private prison company CoreCivic Inc. said on an earnings call. GEO did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, CoreCivic said that it has played “a valued but limited role in America’s immigration system” for both Democrats and Republicans for over 40 years.
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3d Systems ( DDD -9.68% ) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Nov 27, 2024 , 8:30 a.m. ET Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks: Operator Greetings and welcome to the 3D Systems third-quarter 2024 earnings conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. [Operator instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mick McCloskey, vice president, investor relations. Please go ahead, Mick. Mike McCloskey -- Vice President, Investor Relations Hello, and welcome to 3D Systems' third-quarter 2024 conference call. With me on today's call are Dr. Jeffrey Graves, president and CEO; and Jeff Creech, EVP and CFO. The webcast portion of this call contains a slide presentation that we will refer to during the call. Those following along on the phone who wish to access the slide portion of this presentation may do so on the Investor Relations section of our website. The following discussion and responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today only and will include forward-looking statements as described on this slide. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial results is included in our latest press release and our recent filings with the SEC, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. During this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP measures. In our press release and slides accompanying this webcast, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations with comparable GAAP measures. Finally, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of 2023. With that, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Jeff Graves, for opening remarks. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Thank you, Mick, and good morning, everyone. Today, I'll begin with an overview of our third-quarter results and then touch on some recent key accomplishments and announcements. I'll then ask our CFO, Jeff Creech, to take us through the Q3 in greater detail before closing the call with comments on our outlook, after which we're happy to take questions. So, let's start on Slide 5. At a high level, our third-quarter revenue largely represents a continuation of the trends that we and the additive industry broadly have been contending with for several quarters now. Very simply, macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties have caused our customers to reduce capex spending for new capacity in their factories, which in turn has created a persistent headwind to hardware system sales. It's really that simple. As a consequence, our revenues were essentially flat on a sequential basis. This was slightly weaker than we had anticipated as a few key installations of new systems, which were targeted for acceptance late in Q3, slipped into the fourth quarter. However, while the sale of new printing systems is still sluggish, what is changing for the better is the utilization rate of our installed base as indicated by rising sales of consumables to our customers. Consumable materials grew approximately 10% from the prior year and demonstrated sustained sequential growth, a trajectory that has consistently improved since the beginning of the year, most recently growing 9% sequentially in the third quarter versus Q2. In a similar vein, interest in new application development has been on a very robust trajectory. As many of you know, we have one of the largest and most capable application engineering groups in the world. These engineers work directly with our customers on new applications for both metal and polymer 3D printing. Year to date, revenues from our industrial application group are up 26% from last year and continue to rise. We monitor this activity level as a directional indicator of growth potential for new applications. The performance we experienced in Q3 is a strong indicator of continuing growth in customer interest in 3D printing for their production needs. We expect this interest to ultimately translate into more robust sales as the economic environment improves. To provide a little more color on where this interest is coming from -- leading the way or what we refer to as the high-reliability markets, such as energy, oil and gas, semiconductor equipment manufacturing, and aerospace and defense, all of which have a very high standard for component quality, performance, reliability, and traceability. For these customers, which are often subject to strict regulatory requirements, the ability of both our polymer and metal printing solutions to meet their needs and to do so with compelling economics is a cornerstone of our value proposition. As an example of markets that I'm particularly excited about these days are those driven by the trillion-dollar investments being made in AI. These investments cascade directly into several of our targeted end markets, ranging from semiconductor equipment manufacturing to data centers, to the power generation equipment needed to provide electricity critical to their operation. As just one example, the management of heat is absolutely essential to both the manufacturer of silicon chips as well as their performance and life in the data center environment. The nanoscale of advanced microprocessors, combined with the extraordinary number used in a modern data center, creates an extremely challenging environment to keep the processors cool in operation. One way to effectively do so is through the use of high-purity copper elements that can be placed in or very near the heart of a GPU, combining the inherent capability of 3D printing to manufacture complex high-surface area components with our unique capability to ultra-high purity copper with our advanced metal printing systems gives GPU and data center architects, a powerful means of removing heat effectively from the system. Given that the power consumed by data centers now exceeds that of many small countries, this cooling capability is increasingly valuable. And this is just one example of our increasing focus on the full semiconductor ecosystem that we believe will provide one avenue for meaningful growth for our company in the future. Another market we continue to be excited about is high-performance automotive, an example of which is F1 racing. As an example, you may have seen our announcement earlier this month with Sauber Motorsports. In this case, we updated the entire Sauber production facility as they added 10 of our newest production printer systems to their manufacturing workflow. This included eight of our market-leading SLA 750 dual laser printers and two of our just released PSLA 270 platform, all enabled by a host of industry-leading high-performance materials. Sauber will use these systems in large part to validate their aerodynamic designs through rapid fabrication of production components for wind tunnel testing. This award builds on a nearly 20-year relationship between our companies, reflecting the trust they have in our technological leadership and outstanding service capabilities, both of which are essential to their success in this challenging industry. This important win as a strong new element to our automotive foundation, a market which is expected to grow to almost $8 billion in the next few years. Since I mentioned it, let me take a moment to focus on our newest photopolymer printing platform the PSLA 270. This is the first of what will be a family of new projector over Vat printing systems, combining the superior surface quality associated with our flagship SLA printing platform with the blazing speeds offered by the latest high-resolution projector technology. This technology is an outgrowth of our work in regenerative medicine which incorporates a very high-resolution projection system. By replacing a single-point laser with a full field projection system, we attain high precision at much higher print speeds. In fact, the closest competitive solution today would have to run two machines simultaneously to achieve the same output as one PSLA 270. In addition, this system is designed to use our entire portfolio of advanced polymers originally developed for the Figure 4 system. By offering this exceptional platform as a part of a complete factory workflow, we believe our PSLA platforms will lead the industry forward in photopolymer applications. From a healthcare standpoint, the third quarter was strong with solid growth on a sequential and year-over-year basis. We attribute this growth to a meaningful recovery in dental, up well over 30%, and another impressive performance in personalized healthcare, which was up almost 20%. Given the momentum we have in our healthcare business broadly and our strong pipeline of new products and applications ahead, we remain very excited about the future of this portion of our business. From a gross margin standpoint, the third quarter was softer than we had anticipated, predominantly driven by an increase in inventory reserves and continued lower factory utilization, both driven by softness in printer volumes. Jeff Creech will take you through the specifics in more detail shortly. But after normalizing for inventory reserves, our third-quarter operating margins were roughly in line with recent performance. We continue to target a business model that can deliver mid-40% margins or greater over time once the benefits of our in-sourcing and restructuring initiatives are fully realized with increasing volume. Operating expenses for the quarter were consistent with our expectations. We're pleased that our restructuring actions have started to more positively influence performance, representing a nearly $3 million sequential improvement. And while our overall opex expenses are declining, we continue to invest extensively in our R&D activities, which is fueling a historic year of product innovation for our company. More on this in just a few moments. While we're encouraged by some of the leading indicators that we're now seeing, we also recognize that the revenue environment we're operating in today demands an even greater degree of operational efficiency to gain sustained profitability, which is our clear goal. As such, operating expenses remain a strong focus and a lever largely within our direct control in this environment. With that in mind, we maintain our goal of reducing operating expenses to below $6 million for the first quarter with the majority of this improvement coming from reductions in G&A. Lastly, to our balance sheet where we've been focused on optimizing working capital as we position ourselves for future growth, we entered 2024 with a goal to deliver inventory reductions as a healthy generator of cash throughout the year. Today, we remain on pace to reach our target of a 20% inventory reduction by year-end. Over the course of the third quarter, cash on our balance sheet declined $3 million from the prior quarter, a significant rate improvement from prior quarters. This leaves us with one of the strongest cash positions of any company in our industry. On Slide 6, I'd like to take a few moments to reflect on the historic year progress across our technology road map. You've heard this from us many times before, but as the inventor of the technology that birthed the 3D printing industry, our dedication to innovation is a core element of our company culture, maintaining momentum with mission-critical R&D even through a challenging sales environment is not only fundamentally different than most of our peers, but it's embedded deeply in our DNA. This is the primary reason customers turn to 3D Systems first in assessing the capability of 3D printing to meet their metal and polymer production needs. Reflecting this commitment, you witnessed an unprecedented pace of innovation from our company over the last 12 months, contributing nearly 40 new materials, software enhancements, and metal and polymer printing platform since Q3 of last year, '25, and this year alone. And the momentum will continue as we exit this year and move into '25. This represents the culmination of three years of focus and investment, and we're refreshing our entire portfolio of printing platforms and the materials and software that enable their outstanding production performance. From a key application standpoint, during the third quarter, we announced QuickCast Air, which is targeted for the investment casting market. This casting method is essential to aircraft and rocket propulsion systems and other high-performance applications. It's expected to reach nearly $34 billion over the next 10 years. QuickCast Air reliably delivers a large high-precision investment casting pattern in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional methods, providing up to a 50% reduction in resin usage in some cases, while maintaining the inherent advantage of virtually unlimited geometric complexity of design. The result for our customers is higher performing components at lower cost and in much shorter production cycle times for their most demanding applications. On the software front, we announced a significant milestone in commercializing our Oqton industrial MOS platform with our strategic partner, Baker Hughes. Our software, which is now utilized in Bakers Houston, Texas manufacturing facility, is enabling on-demand additive manufacturing to provide full factory floor workflow integration, automation, control, and optimization. Its production implementation is providing key proof points such as a 98% reduction in active monitoring engineering time, a savings of 136 engineering hours per printer annually and an 18% reduction in costs associated with scrap due to real-time actionable alerts during component production. Turning to healthcare. Our personalized healthcare business delivered another quarter of meaningful growth. During the quarter, we were very pleased to announce that we're once again expanding our orthopedic surgical planning portfolio, this time with FDA clearance for our new total ankle patient-matched guides to pair with Smith+Nephew's total ankle replacement solution. This expands our patient-specific surgical solution capabilities in a market anticipated to grow to over $5 billion in the next few years. Today, we're exceptionally well positioned in the craniomaxillofacial and spinal markets and new FDA-approved solutions such as this, highlight our ability to expand our orthopedic applications much further in the human body. We're also leveraging our expertise in surgical solutions into adjacent markets, rolling out expanded capabilities to address the needs of trauma patients in addition. We see opportunities to expand our personalized health service in Europe and elsewhere and are investing accordingly to ensure regulatory approvals are acquired. These growth elements reinforce our enthusiasm about our growth in this key area of our company. For our dental activities, a key growth engine for the future is the multibillion-dollar dentures market. In an important milestone, we secured FDA clearance in September for our first-to-market multi-material single-piece jetted denture solution. Our unique denture offers -- offering provides unparalleled combination of toughness to ensure long-term reliability with outstanding aesthetics for enhanced patient experience. As previously shared, we found an excellent launch partner in Glidewell, one of the world's largest producers of restorative dental devices, who's hit the ground running with implementing Jetted dentures into its workflow following our clearance with the FDA. We're excited to see this product enter the market in the coming months. To wrap up my introduction, undoubtedly, 2024 has been a difficult sales environment. But with our strong balance sheet, we've delivered tremendous progress transforming our technology portfolio. Form next, the largest AM conference of the year that was just held last week, gave us an opportunity to highlight this journey with the announcement of several new product introductions. In addition to our metal and PSLA polymer platforms, we highlighted our newest Titan extrusion platform, which is our inroad into the industrial extrusion printing market. The EXT family, as we call it, includes the 1270, the 1070, and our newest addition, the 800, provides novel approach to extrusion technology, offering a hybrid solution that can accommodate pellets, filaments, and traditional CNC machining, all in one platform. Delivering speeds of five to 10 times faster and having raw material costs roughly 10 times lower than its closest competitor, we see increasing interest from our customers around the world for this family of products. Rounding things out, we've also announced a plethora of new materials supporting our SLA, MJP, and SLS platforms, further expanding the broadest portfolio of additive solutions in the industry and setting the stage for us to drive increased adoption in the years ahead. So, with that, I'll turn things over to our CFO, Jeff Creech, for more on the quarter. Jeff? Jeff Creech -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Thank you, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin with our revenue summary on Slide 8. Third-quarter revenues of $112.9 million declined 9% from prior year, driven primarily by a continuation of macroeconomic pressures impacting hardware system sales, partially offset by growth in materials sales. On a sequential basis, revenues were roughly flat and impacted by a few large dollar orders that fell outside of our third-quarter close. Within our segments, industrial revenues were $57.9 million and down about 19%, predominantly driven mostly by a decline in printer sales. In our healthcare segment, revenues were $55.1 million for the quarter and grew 5% from prior year. As Jeff just mentioned, growth in the third quarter was primarily driven by a healthy rebound in dental and our personalized healthcare business. Now, let's turn to Slide 9. Non-GAAP gross margin for the third quarter was 37.6% and included an increase in inventory obsolescence reserves taken in the quarter, representing approximately $3 million. Normalizing for the impact related to inventory reserves would result in a margin of 40.2% for the third quarter. Comparing to prior year, margin was 44.8%, which included a significant benefit of regenerative medicine milestone revenue recognition. Excluding the impacts of inventory reserve increases and the milestone recognition in the current and prior quarters, respectively, gross margins would have been 40.2% and 42.7% with a year-on-year decline primarily driven by unfavorable absorption given lower sales volumes. Now, let's move to Slide 10 for operating expense. Non-GAAP operating expense for the third quarter was $61.4 million, increasing $5.6 million from prior year but declining $2.7 million consecutively, in line with our expectations. As an important reminder, the prior-year quarter comparison benefited from a tailwind associated with lower incentive compensation expense in addition to other benefits that were more one-time in nature. Third-quarter operating expense benefited from our previously discussed restructuring actions, and we continue to expect an additional sequential reduction, targeting opex below $60 million for the fourth quarter. Now to Slide 11 to finish up the P&L. We reported adjusted EBITDA of negative $14.3 million for the third quarter, compared to a gain of $4.7 million for the same quarter last year. Declines in adjusted EBITDA primarily reflect lower sales volumes, margin, and higher operating expenses as just discussed. The prior year profitability performance was also significantly impacted by the milestone revenue recognition from our RegMed business, as I just mentioned. In line with my commentary on expected opex savings in the fourth quarter, we would also expect an improvement in adjusted EBITDA sequentially as we continue to move toward our longer-term goal of consistent profitability. For the third quarter, we reported a fully diluted loss per share of $1.35, and this includes noncash charges of approximately $144 million associated with the impairment of goodwill and other long-lived assets as a result of our interim valuation testing during the third quarter of this year. This compared to a loss per share of $0.09 in the third quarter of prior year. Non-GAAP loss per share was $0.12 compared to a gain per share of $0.01 in the prior year. Now to Slide 12 for the balance sheet. We closed the quarter with $190 million of cash and cash equivalents, compared to $193 million at the end of the second quarter of this year. As expected, cash performance represented an improvement in working capital management, particularly as we look to continue driving down inventories as a result of our in-sourcing actions from prior years. As noted on previous calls, we've been highly proactive in repurchasing our debt and have reduced our 0% convertible notes down by over 50% since Q3 of last year, fortifying our position to continue supporting critical R&D investments for the new product releases combined with a keen focus on reducing expenses to drive profitability. Looking forward, we continue to view inventory as a source of cash in the fourth quarter. I'll conclude my remarks on Slide 13. As you heard from us this morning, we continue to make strides across our portfolio to emerge stronger from the current economic cycle when pent-up demand for additive solutions returns. We've been consistent in fueling our R&D engines through a tougher macro environment, driving an acceleration of applications and new product development to emerge stronger in the years ahead. However, we are adjusting our guidance expectations for the full year 2024 as follows. We expect full-year revenues between the range of $440 million to $450 million, which implies a mid- to high-single-digit percentage sequential recovery in the second half revenues from the first half of this year. While the fourth quarter has historically reflected a higher degree of year-end capital budget spending, given current uncertainty in the near term as well as indications of timing adjustments related to inventory management among a few customers, we expect the benefits to be more modest ending the year. Full-year gross margins are expected to be in the range of 38% to 40%, given the impact of short-term inventory reserve adjustments as we continue to integrate our in-sourcing capabilities that we believe, longer term, will improve gross margins to the mid-40% range as volumes recover, and we are able to reap the full benefits of our in-sourcing and restructuring actions. We are maintaining our expectations to deliver opex at or below $60 million for the fourth quarter, continuing its trend of sequential improvement and reflecting the benefits of our previous restructuring. As a result, adjusted EBITDA is expected to improve on a sequential basis, primarily driven by the reduction in operating expense. Jeff, I'll hand it back to you. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Thanks, Jeff. So, we believe that the broader macro trends negatively impacting our industry to the greatest extent are beginning now to move behind us. With our strong cash position, we've been able to maintain our core investments for the future while consistently restructuring our company to maximize operating efficiencies. Our determination to support key R&D investments are fundamentally different from many others in the industry, and we believe position us well for accelerated growth and profitability as our end markets inevitably strengthen. While we will not be providing explicit comments on 2025 yet, looking beyond this year, as much of our critical R&D work is behind us, we will continue to evaluate incremental actions that can strategically remove costs from our business and drive sustainable profitability. In doing so, I believe we'll deliver meaningful value to all of our stakeholders. So, with that, we'll now open the line for questions. Kevin, if you'd open the line for us, please? Questions & Answers: Operator Certainly. We'll now be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator instructions] One moment please while we poll for questions. Our first question is coming from Jim Ricchiuti from Needham and Company. Your line is now live. James Ricchiuti -- Analyst Hi, good morning. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Good morning, Jim. James Ricchiuti -- Analyst So, looking at your implied revenue guidance for Q4, it's a little surprising with only a month left in the quarter that there's a relatively wide range of scenarios. I'm hoping you could help us understand what's driving that. I mean, it sounds like potentially some of your customers may be working through inventories and maybe that's on the material side. But maybe if you could help us understand that a little? And then I have a quick follow-up. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah, Jim. I think there's two factors. One of it clearly is inventory management from our customers. They're in good shape, but they want to make sure they don't get out over their skis with the -- all the changes coming in '25 with the -- in the political environment and the geopolitical issues, I think nobody wants to be overly exposed on inventories. So, I don't think it's a massive problem, but certainly, they'll be managing them customer by customer. The big unknown, Jim, is really how much capex they'll be willing to spend in the fourth quarter and at what rate. Even if they cut lose capex late in the quarter as we saw in Q3, some of those installations aren't been completed until the following quarter, which delays revenue recognition on many of them. So, there can be a timing issue on their capital spend. In normal times, they try to -- a lot of them would try to spend their capital up in the fourth quarter and get it done as early as possible for planning. Right now, what we're seeing is a bit of trepidation, a bit of slowness in issuing POs. I expect this quarter to certainly be up and -- but not quite -- if I had to guess, Jim, not quite in line with historical norms. But there is some upside for us versus our midpoint. But given the Q3, there was some slippage at the end of the quarter into the following quarter. I just don't want us to get out ahead of ourselves. So, that's why you'd see a little bit of a wider range and a little bit more modesty, if you will, on the growth rate in Q4. So, we believe it will be up and up nicely for the quarter. But capex, inventory management are just unknowns, and we want a buffer for those. That makes sense? James Ricchiuti -- Analyst It's helpful. And maybe we could just turn to gross margins because the guidance for the year, I guess, 38%, 40%. Again, a little surprising given that your nine-month gross margin was 39.5%. Is this all a case of unfavorable absorption if the Q4 revenues come in at the low end of your implied guidance? Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah, there's two factors, Jim. One of them is that, one of them is factory absorption. The other one really is mix because -- and I'm keeping my fingers crossed here, we should see an uptick in printer sales, and that's good for the long term from a materials utilization standpoint. I'm a little concerned that customers will be managing inventory on materials, and it's an unknown. So, you could see a mix effect, and you certainly will still see a factory utilization effect. So, I'd say there's two factors in that. And both of them lead to a little modestly on the gross margin for the quarter. Nicely, the in-sourcing work we've done, I think, will pay real dividends for us from a printer manufacturing standpoint as volumes rise again, hopefully in '25. But for right now, it's -- any uptick in printer sales in Q4 would be a drag on gross margins. James Ricchiuti -- Analyst Got it. Thank you. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Thanks, Jim. Have a good Thanksgiving. Operator Thank you. Next question is coming from Greg Palm from Craig-Hallum. Your line is now live. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Good morning, Greg. Danny Eggerichs -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group -- Analyst Yeah, thanks. Hey, guys. This is Danny Eggerichs on for Greg today. Thanks for taking my questions. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Hey, Danny. Sure. Danny Eggerichs -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group -- Analyst I know you kind of said you're not going to touch on '25 yet, but just thinking about maybe profitability, I know in the release, maybe some commentary, it was like trajectory toward profitability in quarters ahead. Are we thinking about it as something that can be a '25 event? Or is it just kind of too early to tell? How should we be thinking about breakeven into profitability? Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah, Danny. It's the art of prediction. So, I'm very encouraged by the number of new application customers are talking about. If they put real capital behind that, we could see a nice lift in revenues in '25. It's a question of how quickly will they spend the money for it. Nicely, I have no doubt these applications are things they really want to put in their factories. That's a good thing. It's a timing issue. So, we're hopeful revenues will be rising in '25, which will be helpful. Factory utilizations then improve. The inventory reduction plan we have will be great for cash. So, those are all positive factors. And we have -- I'll be candid with you, we have real opportunities for cost management, which I think will really help in '25. So, I can't give you a number, but I think you'll see significant movement in '25. If those things come to pass, you'll see significant movement in '25 toward profitability. And hopefully, at some point during the year, you'd see a swing to positive EBITDA and growth from there. So, it's just too early to tell, and we won't put out guidance until we get to our fourth quarter results. But I'm encouraged by the trends, and we'll see if they continue. Danny Eggerichs -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group -- Analyst Yeah. That makes total sense. Maybe if we can just touch on the AIG, the application innovation group. You know, sounds like it was really strong in the quarter. Just maybe trying to size up that opportunity, maybe where contribution currently is and when the cycle eventually returns, how should we be thinking about that opportunity going forward? Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer And, Danny, I would tell you the revenue we generate from AIG, so these are obviously -- their applications customers are paying for us to develop with them. So, there is a revenue stream there. The important thing about that is the trend of the revenue stream. So, if it's growing, it's not -- it may not be a material -- actually, it may not be a material number on the overall P&L. But if it's growing, then customers are demanding more and more of our time to develop new applications. And we're picking and choosing those very carefully to make sure they're the highest volume, highest value components that we can help them develop for their factories. So, I would tell you the magnitude of revenue is not really important. It's the direction that it's headed in that 26 -- I think we quoted a 26% rise is fabulous. I mean our guys are swamped. And we have -- we have 80-plus applications here is the biggest -- I believe it's the biggest in the industry. And, certainly, I'm very proud of, I think they're the best in the industry. And these new applications they're working on are tremendous. The amount of interest we have related to semiconductors broadly and data centers and things, all driven by, I believe, this overall AI investment in the use of AI. That, I think, is going to be a nice way for us and for anybody in this industry that's positioned for primarily in the metal side of the business. I think the ability to print basically heat sinks, heat conduction, capability is very, very positive. So, you could see some large applications flowing through in the future for those. And that goes all the way down to semiconductor equipment manufacturing. We can consolidate the number of parts in the machine. These are extremely expensive machines, as you might know. We can consolidate a number of parts. We can make them higher-performing parts, all by 3D printing them. And so, we've got all of the major semiconductor equipment manufacturers working with us. We have people that are using GPUs and data centers working with us. In fact, at Formnext, I wish I'd put this on a slide you would have seen a copper heat sync that was incredibly interesting. It's out on the website, I believe, but it was designed using AI, quite frankly, and it can conduct heat away 3x more efficiently than any other high-purity copper heat sync in the world. And so, we're tremendously excited about markets like that because they are very valuable high payoff components, which will help the whole supply chain. So, I quoted the AIG rise not because it's material impactful on the P&L, but because the trend is really positive in terms of customer interest in 3D printing. So, I can't really help you from a timing standpoint on revenue specifically, but the trend is very positive. Danny Eggerichs -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group -- Analyst OK. That's great. Appreciate the color. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer OK. Stay warm, Danny. Have a good Thanksgiving. Operator Thank you. Our next question is coming from Troy Jensen from Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is now live. Troy Jensen -- Analyst Hey, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my questions here. I guess, Jeff, one thing I picked up at Formnext that I thought was kind of new was a lot of positive talk about Oqton. You did mention it in your kind of prepaid remarks, but could you just kind of talk -- give us an update on software in general and 3DXpert? Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah. Sure, Troy. And thanks for the call, and thanks for the interest at Formnext, too. Yes, you asked about two things there, and I'd throw in a third. So, our 3D Sprint software, which drives our polymer machines and 3DXpert on the metal side, tremendously valuable tools for people that want to apply 3D printing. And what we've done now with Oqton is basically integrate 3DXpert into the Oqton workflow. And we've really targeted and focused Oqton on the high-reliability markets like oil and gas we're doing with Baker Hughes and others. But that software platform, Troy will allow us to monitor the entire workflow, not us, but customers that like the entire workflow from raw materials to fished part. And what we're seeing in the Baker Hughes production lines right now is a tremendous improvement in the productivity and quality of parts they can get out. The real-time monitoring, the feedback control, the traceability required. So, it impacts everything from setup time to the time of part is produced, and it gives you full traceability to the part when it's finished. So, you make -- we're making 3D printing a true production process with this. Interesting feedback from Baker Hughes as also a customer of the software was this industry is now starting to really think about how to use 3D printing and production, whereas before it mainly went into laboratories for prototyping and even demo parts. Now, it's being used in -- on the factory floor. Those requirements are so different and so much more rigorous in terms of monitoring the job, monitoring the actual production of the part. So, I'm really pleased with Oqton's progress. I think we'll demo very nicely with Baker Hughes and then we're rolling it out broadly to other primarily industrial applications that have to make high reliability parts. So, energy, aero, certainly, the medical markets, anybody that has to make a high reliability parts at high productivity. Troy Jensen -- Analyst OK. How about two other questions here. Did you have a 10% customer in the quarter? Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer We do. Jeff -- I have to -- yeah, I'm sure -- I don't have the number in front of me, Troy, but it would be in our queue, I believe, Jeff, right? So, it's in our queue and certainly, it will be related to dental, Troy, as it has been historically true. So, that's -- that relationship remains very strong. The indirect printing aligners is a great way to make them, and we continue to be a key supplier in that market. So, yes, I mean -- and I don't have a number Troy, but it's in the queue, and we can certainly get back to you. Troy Jensen -- Analyst Yep. I'm just glad to hear they're back. But -- and then just last question, regenerative business. Can you just talk about when you expect to hit the next milestones? Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah, Troy. I think we'll see some additional milestones in '25. I wish we could talk more about it. The -- both the precision and the speed at which we can print extremely fine structure now is amazing. We have multiple paths to the design of those printers for production applications for organs in the human body, specifically lungs. So, I am really pleased with progress on the technology and the implementation of that for lung manufacturing. So, you can expect we'll be talking about milestones in 2025 that we're hitting. And I continue to believe we're on track to be in a position to get the human demonstration on a reasonable timeline. United Therapeutics, our partner in this, we'll have to speak to that milestone. But in terms of the printing technology and things and the materials that go with it, extremely pleased with progress. And, Troy, just one more -- one more advertisement for that. It's really cool applications that are going to bring a lot of benefit to humanity. It's also generating some great technology that we can transition into our industrial printers. For example, the PSLA with this high-precision projection system over Vat, that's a direct outgrowth of our work on regenerative. So, if you take a hardened projector that's used for industrial applications for workflow. It's a direct transfer and a drop-in. So, you'll see some real technology synergy coming out of our work on regenerative into our industrial markets. Troy Jensen -- Analyst Awesome. All right, guys. Good luck going forward. Happy Thanksgiving. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Thanks, Troy. Happy Thanksgiving to you too, bud. Operator Thank you. Next question today is coming from Ananda Baruah from Loop Capital Markets. Your line is now live. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Good morning, Ananda. Ananda Baruah -- Analyst Good morning. Good morning. Yes, thanks for taking the question. Happy Thanksgiving. Yes, I appreciate you guys taking the question here. I guess a couple, if I could. The first is on just sort of the core healthcare business and industrial solutions sort of taking the backwards sort of the softer sellout notwithstanding, you guys do seem like the last three quarters, you kind of baselined at this high 50s, low 60s run rate. And in healthcare, you've picked up both because of the dental business and then also here's kind of a question, is there anything in personalized healthcare as the state from dental that we should be aware of? And so, really, with that as a backdrop and sort of the supplies business continuing to grow, what does the baseline business look like into '25, understanding, yes, you're not giving guidance yet. But in industrial solutions as baseline right now and as you're seeing a pickup in healthcare, and if you're also seeing a pickup in ongoing growth in supplies, what does that say structurally about going into '25? Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah. Yes. So, on that, I'll start with the last point, Ananda. Yeah, all of that would lead you to say, look, '25 should be a better year. As long as I think the whole world feels a bit snakebit -- as long as the geopolitical climate calms down and the economies continue moving in the direction they are, the unknown is that we have a change in administrations in not only in the U.S., but potentially other countries and these wars tend to flare up periodically. So, all of that said, which are unknowns, the trends are moving in the right direction in terms of both printer platform sales and consumable sales over the future. So, hopefully, we'll be sitting here when we announced Q4 results, we'll talk about a stronger '25. And also, I think we've got some real cost opportunities, quite frankly. So, we've made -- we've been consistent in our investments in R&D. Those are paying dividends now. And we've got some flexibility going into '25 to really manage our cost structure in a more optimum way. So, I think there's some real opportunities within the four walls and then also in the external environment. In terms of healthcare, Ananda it's a great business. The orthopedic business, as I call it, the work we do for surgical planning on bone repair and surgeries is terrific. We continue to gain FDA approvals for other areas of the body. We're very strong in everything above the neck fundamentally and on the spine. We're continuing to grow throughout the body elsewhere, and it's a clear strategy. We're going to expand those applications below the neck just as quickly as we can develop them because all the same basic tools apply. So, I can -- I expect to continue to see growth or may be noise quarter to quarter. We continue to see growth in that business, and it's a very good business. very hard for others to get into unless it takes time. So, I think that's a great business. The dental business -- we've got a good foundation with indirect aligners. And I think you'll see a lot of new products hit the market. And I mentioned dentures on the call, great business. I think 3D printing is a natural for those, and we have a great offering. So, I'm excited about '25 for dentures -- funny as that sounds. And then you've got other dental applications, night guards, and others. So, I love the healthcare business. It continues to be a core focus of the company. On the industrial side, these high-reliability markets were swamped with interest on new applications from customers. And I would hope '25 would see them start spending some real capital money in those directions because the payoff is clear. So -- and that gets back to the world economy and their factory utilization. So, hopefully, in all of that, I answered your questions. If I can clarify anything, I'm happy to do it, Ananda. Ananda Baruah -- Analyst No, that's really great. And just a quick follow-up on tariffs. Anything to be aware of in the tariffs that have been announced so far or supposed to be announced? Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer You know, Ananda -- yeah. It's very interesting, and this is all public. If you look at the tariffs that have been talked about and particularly with respect to China, the Chinese metal printing companies have sprung up over the years and, I think, aim toward Chinese markets and others. They're increasingly looking to export those products into the U.S. And a lot of the U.S. applications are defense-oriented. So, I think both the tariff situation and the focus on defense will help us as a U.S. company. I think that's -- it's a great thing because the influx of those printers, and I've shared this information, it's all publicly available, has been high. And I would hope as onshoring and supply chain shortening effects take hold, if we do see tariffs coming in and certainly the growth in defense and aerospace, those are all positives for us as a U.S. company. Ananda Baruah -- Analyst Super helpful. Thanks a lot. Have a great holiday, you guys. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Thanks, Ananda. You have a great Thanksgiving as well. Operator Thank you. [Operator instructions] Our next question is coming from Brian Drab from William Blair. Your line is now live. Tyler Hutin -- William Blair and Company -- Analyst Good morning. Tyler here filling in for Brian. It was great color on the data center equipment. It sounds like additive would be great for the gold plates that go on GPUs and the other data center infrastructure, but I only have two questions today. First, what are your plans for convertible debt coming due in 2026? And then second, you mentioned a target of mid-40s gross margin. What revenue rate would need to be to support those levels, assuming that on historically similar revenue levels going forward, you'd probably do higher margin just driven by the in-sourcing efforts? If you could just elaborate on that situation. I appreciate the time, and happy Thanksgiving. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Thanks so much for the question, and Happy Thanksgiving to you as well. So, you touched on the key points. It's -- the factory, basically, our gross margins, if you look at COGS, our factory -- that's going to be a direct outgrowth of factory volumes and the increased benefit from in-sourcing. So, clearly, as volumes rise, it's a good thing for factory utilization rates. And the other benefit that brings us is a lower propensity to write down inventory. We absorbed -- the reality is we absorbed a lot of inventory when we insourced manufacturing aggressively over the last two years. And I would tell you, for everybody listening on this call, I think it's a tremendous move for a low-volume, high-mix company like ours in this industry taking full control over your product from the start-up design to the time you ship and install to a customer is critically important in controlling the pace of new product introduction and the quality of the product you ship. I firmly believe that. So, we spent great effort in sourcing. And unfortunately, with that, we had to absorb a lot of inventory from our contract manufacturing partners that they had purchased, and we're working that inventory down. We'll bring it down 20% this year from a starting point, we'll continue to do that. Unfortunately, if volumes stay low in the plant, you're more exposed to inventory write-offs due to just aging of the parks. They don't go bad, but they age out according to your policy. So, we have some headwinds on the last two quarters from that. Hopefully, as volumes pick up, that effect that kind of over-the-top effect will go away, and you'll see improvements in factory utilization. So, both of those will really help gross margin significantly. And then on top of that, we're rolling out new materials all the time. So, new consumables we're also really driving services because the customers that have factories want great service. So, the increase in services revenue, the increase in materials revenue will all support higher gross margins. So, fundamentally, those are the levers. And I have no doubt we can get to mid-40s. That's our near-term goal. We have a long-term goal of getting over 50, which given the growth in metals in the world right now and the relatively lower materials pull-through on metals, that's a challenge. And -- but we're getting there. We're headed that direction. And I have confidence over the long term, we will get there. And then eventually, metals -- some of the metal materials will probably evolve to match 3D printing as well. But for now, there's not a lot of materials pull-through from our standpoint on the metal side. So, it is a drag on the overall gross margin. But we're getting there. It's improving. And I'm thrilled to have both metals and polymers in our portfolio. Some of the most exciting applications we're seeing on the industrial side are hard core metal applications with difficult materials like copper, which are hard to print. So, long-winded way of saying those are the elements that get us to mid-40s and then up to 50%, which is our ultimate goal. Tyler Hutin -- William Blair and Company -- Analyst Thank you, Jeff. That's great color. I just wanted to follow up. Do you have -- on the plans for the convertible debt coming due in 2026, just any color you can provide there. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah. It's certainly a work in progress, I would tell you right now. I mean, that's been a lovely debt instrument for us. We obviously went to market at a great time, and it's a zero coupon piece of paper. It's been terrific for us. It will come to at some point, we've got to deal with that. And so, we're looking at -- how do we do that with the most traditional methods we can, OK? So, we're looking at how we can really reduce that debt. I'm not in a position to talk about it today. But clearly, we want to deal with it as early as possible and not get into -- get toward maturity dates. So, you'll hear a lot more about that in '25, OK? Tyler Hutin -- William Blair and Company -- Analyst All right. Sounds good. Looking forward to 2025 for you guys, and have a happy Thanksgiving again. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Thank you. And happy Thanksgiving to you and Brian as well, OK? Operator Thank you. Next question is coming from Jacob Stephan from Lake Street Capital Markets. Your line is now live. Jacob Stephan -- Lake Street Capital Markets -- Analyst Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Just curious on the healthcare business. Obviously, nice to see that return to growth this quarter. But maybe just kind of give us a sense on the order patterns now that we're kind of two-thirds of the way through Q4, I mean do you feel like kind of the revenue level where you guys were at in Q3 year's a good, I guess, a place to build off of? Or do you expect to see stability here? Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah. Yeah. So, good morning, Jacob, and a happy Thanksgiving to you coming up. Thanks for calling today. Yes, I think that's -- this is the foundation to build from. It's -- healthcare is -- on the orthopedic side of our business, of the healthcare business, it's a good, steady business. And the nice thing for us, we're doing two things to grow that business. Number one is developing more applications below the neck -- for the skeleton below the neck, and it's really a great business. It continues to grow nicely, steadily over time. We work closely with the FDA to get certifications on those, and it's a great business. We are moving with our partners -- our channel partners into the trauma field in that, which I'm really excited about. Obviously, it's tragic when someone comes to an emergency physician with trauma into the skeleton. And our technology can apply there. It challenges us on speed because those people need very fast treatment. But it's a lovely growth area for our business, so I like that. And we've been stronger in the U.S. than Europe on -- in that personalized health service. So, Europe remains a strong focus as well and in fact, some other parts of the world. But -- so, I look at all the growth factors. I like the foundation of the business today. It's a terrific business, a strong brand, very happy. I see it growing from here. The dental business, obviously, a little bit more volatile. We've been very primary in indirect printing of aligners, and we're diversifying that portfolio now as we move into dentures and elsewhere. So, a little bit more volatility as those markets rise and fall. But the diversification of the portfolio will really help in dental over time, and you'll see that over the next two years. So, again, expect quarter-to-quarter noise like any business, but by and large, that healthcare business in total is going to continue to grow for us, and we're thrilled with it. It's a terrific business to be in. Jacob Stephan -- Lake Street Capital Markets -- Analyst Got it. And then maybe just kind of on the -- I guess, in-sourcing initiative, requiring more inventory to be repurchased back from your contract manufacturers. I'm just curious, I guess, what percentage of that kind of inventory surplus was repurchased from the contract manufacturers and maybe any kind of -- Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Oh, gosh. Yeah, Jacob. We had to buy -- and I don't have a real number for you, but we had to buy, I think, Jeff, well over $100 million of inventory. We had to bring back in-house. I wasn't -- I'll be frank with you, Jacob. I was not pleased, and I'm not blaming them. We were a small customer to these very large-contract manufacturers. I was not pleased with their inventory management, their supply chain management and the quality of the product they were shipping on our behalf and the speed at which you could introduce a new product. So, those four things drove us to insource, OK? And we're headquartered in South Carolina, it's a lovely place to build product. We've insourced 80%, 90% of our business now, largely in South Carolina. We do some manufacturing in Europe as well. But as a part of that whole taking it back in, we needed to buy the good inventory that they had purchased on our behalf. So, it created a small mountain -- not Mount Everest -- but a small mountain of inventory that we've been burning down. So, we'll continue to work away at that. It's all good stuff, but in good parts, but we just got to continue to work it down, and it's been difficult in a low sales environment. That's been challenging. So, I'm proud of the 20% reduction we'll attain by the end of the year, but we've got more to go. And on the bright side, when you do it, it's a good source of cash. It frees up cash. But it has -- we've been able to make the investment because we had a lot of cash on the balance sheet. So, we did that at a time where we could afford it. And as we work it down, we'll realize the benefit from a cash and from a gross margin standpoint on COGS. Jacob Stephan -- Lake Street Capital Markets -- Analyst Got it. Very helpful. I appreciate all the color. Happy Thanksgiving, and looking forward to '25 for you guys. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer We are, too. Thanks so much for calling in. Operator Thank you. We've reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Jeff for any further closing comments. Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Hey, Kevin. First of all, I want to wish you a very happy Thanksgiving as well. You've been terrific at moderating our calls for many, many quarters now. So, thank you for that. And for everybody else that's tuned in, I want to thank you all for joining our call today. For those in the U.S., I wish you all a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday with your families. For those outside of the U.S., I wish you a very happy holiday season coming up. We'll look forward to talking to you again at least in the New Year. Operator [Operator signoff] Duration: 0 minutes Call participants: Mike McCloskey -- Vice President, Investor Relations Jeff Graves -- President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Creech -- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer James Ricchiuti -- Analyst Jim Ricchiuti -- Analyst Danny Eggerichs -- Craig-Hallum Capital Group -- Analyst Troy Jensen -- Analyst Ananda Baruah -- Analyst Tyler Hutin -- William Blair and Company -- Analyst Jacob Stephan -- Lake Street Capital Markets -- Analyst More DDD analysis All earnings call transcripts
Appalachian State hires South Carolina offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains as head coach
JERUSALEM — Israel approved a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon's Hezbollah militants on Tuesday that would end nearly 14 months of fighting linked to the war in the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire, starting at 4 a.m. local time Wednesday, would mark the first major step toward ending the regionwide unrest triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. But it does not address the devastating war in Gaza , where Hamas is still holding dozens of hostages and the conflict is more intractable. Hours before the ceasefire with Hezbollah was to take effect, Israel carried out the most intense wave of strikes in Beirut and its southern suburbs since the start of the conflict and issued a record number of evacuation warnings. At least 42 people were killed in strikes across the country, according to local authorities. Another huge airstrike shook Beirut shortly after the ceasefire was announced. Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. There appeared to be lingering disagreement over whether Israel would have the right to strike Hezbollah if it believed the militants had violated the agreement, something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted was part of the deal but which Lebanese and Hezbollah officials have rejected. Israel's security Cabinet approved the U.S.-France-brokered ceasefire agreement after Netanyahu presented it, his office said. U.S. President Joe Biden, speaking in Washington, called the agreement “good news” and said his administration would make a renewed push for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Biden administration spent much of this year trying to broker a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza but the talks repeatedly sputtered to a halt . President-elect Donald Trump vowed to bring peace to the Middle East without saying how. Still, any halt to the fighting in Lebanon is expected to reduce the likelihood of war between Israel and Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas and exchanged direct fire with Israel on two occasions earlier this year. In this screen grab image from video provide by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a televised statement Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Jerusalem, Israel. Netanyahu presented the ceasefire proposal to Cabinet ministers after a televised address in which he listed accomplishments against Israel’s enemies across the region. He said a ceasefire with Hezbollah would further isolate Hamas in Gaza and allow Israel to focus on its main enemy, Iran. “If Hezbollah breaks the agreement and tries to rearm, we will attack,” he said. “For every violation, we will attack with might.” The ceasefire deal calls for a two-month initial halt in fighting and would require Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a broad swath of southern Lebanon, while Israeli troops would return to their side of the border. Thousands of additional Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers would deploy in the south, and an international panel headed by the United States would monitor compliance. Biden said Israel reserved the right to quickly resume operations in Lebanon if Hezbollah breaks the terms of the truce, but that the deal "was designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.” A police bomb squad officer inspects the site where a rocket fired from Lebanon landed in a backyard in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, Tuesday Nov. 26, 2024. Netanyahu’s office said Israel appreciated the U.S. efforts in securing the deal but “reserves the right to act against every threat to its security.” Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati welcomed the ceasefire and described it as a crucial step toward stability and the return of displaced people. Hezbollah has said it accepts the proposal, but a senior official with the group said Tuesday it had not seen the agreement in its final form. “After reviewing the agreement signed by the enemy government, we will see if there is a match between what we stated and what was agreed upon by the Lebanese officials,” Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chair of Hezbollah’s political council, told the Al Jazeera news network. “We want an end to the aggression, of course, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of the state," he said, referring to Israel's demand for freedom of action. “Any violation of sovereignty is refused.” Rescuers and residents search for victims Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted a building in Beirut, Lebanon. Even as ceasefire efforts gained momentum in recent days, Israel continued to strike what it called Hezbollah targets across Lebanon while the militants fired rockets, missiles and drones across the border. An Israeli strike on Tuesday leveled a residential building in central Beirut — the second time in recent days warplanes have hit the crowded area near downtown. At least seven people were killed and 37 wounded, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Israel also struck a building in Beirut's bustling commercial district of Hamra for the first time, hitting a site around 400 meters (yards) from Lebanon’s Central Bank. There were no reports of casualties. The Israeli military said it struck targets linked to Hezbollah's financial arm. The evacuation warnings covered many areas, including parts of Beirut that previously were not targeted. The warnings sent residents fleeing. Traffic was gridlocked, with mattresses tied to some cars. Dozens of people, some wearing pajamas, gathered in a central square, huddling under blankets or standing around fires as Israeli drones buzzed overhead. Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee issued evacuation warnings for 20 buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a major presence, as well as a warning for the southern town of Naqoura where the U.N. peacekeeping mission, UNIFIL, is headquartered. UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said peacekeepers will not evacuate. Israeli soldiers inspect the site Tuesday Nov. 26, 2024, where a rocket fired from Lebanon landed in a backyard in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel. The Israeli military also said its ground troops clashed with Hezbollah forces and destroyed rocket launchers in the Slouqi area on the eastern end of the Litani River, a few miles from the Israeli border. Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah would be required to move its forces north of the Litani, which in some places is about 20 miles north of the border. Hezbollah began firing into northern Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, saying it was showing support for the Palestinians, a day after Hamas carried out its attack on southern Israel, triggering the Gaza war. Israel returned fire on Hezbollah, and the two sides have exchanged barrages ever since. Israeli security officers and army soldiers inspect the site Tuesday Nov. 26, 2024, where a rocket fired from Lebanon landed in a backyard in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel. Israel escalated its bombardment in mid-September and later sent troops into Lebanon, vowing to put an end to Hezbollah fire so tens of thousands of evacuated Israelis could return to their homes. More than 3,760 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon the past 13 months, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The bombardment has driven 1.2 million people from their homes. Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members. Hezbollah fire has forced some 50,000 Israelis to evacuate in the country’s north, and its rockets have reached as far south in Israel as Tel Aviv. At least 75 people have been killed, more than half of them civilians. More than 50 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive in Lebanon. Chehayeb and Mroue reported from Beirut and Federman from Jerusalem. Associated Press reporters Lujain Jo and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.Then Paige Greco busted a move in 3-on-3 overtime to give the Union women’s hockey team a 3-2 win over RPI. Replicating a stickhandle/shot sequence she had been working on in practice for two weeks, Greco beat RPI goalie Reese Keating at 3:39 on a play that started with a tough save by Sophie Matsoukas at the other end and advanced on a lead pass from Ashley Adams to Greco for an undefended shot from the left circle on the rush. “I’ve been really honing down on this one move, and it came to life today,” the senior from Burlington, Ontario, said. “The second I saw that puck get chipped to me, I knew right away that I was going to do it.” The Garnet Chargers improved to 4-3-0 for 12 points in ECAC Hockey, 7-9-0 overall, and avoiding a split of three points with the Engineers (2-4-1, 8-7-2), who came back from a 2-0 deficit and killed a two-minute minor penalty with 2:05 left in the third period to get to overtime. Also, Union won at Houston Field House for just the third time in 27 games all-time. Union carried the play in the first 10 minutes of regulation, scoring twice on long possessions down low with a grinding forecheck. On the first goal, Mikayla Blomquist pitched forward to the ice while crossing the blueline on the right wing, and in doing so, she blocked a clearing attempt. She subsequently helped Union maintain possession and pressure on the RPI goalmouth, and after two shot attempts from in close, she flipped a backhand over Keating’s left shoulder to make it 1-0 at 2:54. Union’s second goal also came from solid puck possession around the RPI net, and Maren Friday got it in the right circle and had time to slide to her left into the slot for a wrist shot off the right post for a 2-0 lead at 8:42. RPI got one back quickly when Aylah Cioffi scored at 10:26 to get within 2-1. “We’ve been working on our O-zone stuff trying to get on teams quicker, create those turnovers low so that we can have some of those quicker plays down low,” Union head coach Tony Maci said. “They did a pretty good job of stretching us out after the first 10 minutes and getting us out of our comfort zone.” “Union played really well,” RPI head coach Bryan Vines said. “They played with great pace and put us under pressure with their forecheck. We fed into that a little bit early in the game, but were able to adjust as the game went on. Then it was a back-and-forth, grinding rivalry type of game that you’d expect.” The best scoring chance of the second period came just as the period was ending, on a partial breakaway by the Garnet Chargers’ Maddie Leaney, who was thwarted by RPI captain Taylor Larsen with a nifty stick check from behind as Leaney tried to shoot. The Engineers wasted no time tying it in the third. Morgann Skoda got behind the defense on the rush and slide the puck under Matsoukas just 59 seconds into the period. “I was proud of our resilience,” Vines said. “It’s not easy going down two-nothing that quickly, especially to your rival, especially in a game like this, where you’ve got a thousand kids in the stands screaming and going crazy, which was great to see. “I like how we settled down. We started managing the puck better and found a way to at least get it to overtime and get a really, really valuable league point.” After Keating made a tough save on Leaney in overtime, Matsoukas matched it at the other end on a high shot by Ellie Kaiser, and Adams was able to use that for a lead pass to Greco. When Greco got close to Keating, she dragged the puck to her right, then flipped a shot over Keating’s right shoulder for the game-winner. “It’s hard in OT. It’s only 3-on-3, so there’s people flying everywhere,” Matsoukas said. “The girl kind of opened up and came down for a shot, so I tried to challenge her as much as I could, and then she shot high, so it kind of went off my neck and went up. “Then Ash beat her to it for the breakaway, and we scored.” “Ash made a nice chip to me, and I’ve been practicing this move for awhile in practice and in some shootouts we’ve been doing,” Greco said. “I knew when I got the puck that I was going to pull and go short side high. “So it was a really exciting moment, and I’ve been waiting to get a goal like this for awhile. I only have one goal this year, so I’ve really been waiting for a moment like this.” “We know that our skill sessions are going to kind of replicate themselves in games,” Maci said. “For it to actually come to fruition maybe a day or two after she actually was doing it all the time speaks volumes to the effort she’s putting in.” The loss for the Engineers was compounded by the fact that their captain was injured 55 seconds before Greco scored. Larsen went down in the corner of RPI’s defensive end and eventually was helped off the ice without putting weight on her right skate. “It’s an unfortunate part of our game,” Vines said. “It was just kind of a nothing play. She got tangled up a little bit. It’s never easy to see your captain go down, especially in a big moment, 3-on-3 against your crosstown rival. We’ll hope for the best moving into Sunday against Assumption.” Union 2 0 0 1 — 3 RPI 1 0 1 0 — 2 First period — 1, Union, Blomquist 2 (Mauracher), 2:54. 2, Union, Friday 4 (Bourque, Mauracher), 8:42. 3, RPI, Cioffi 6 (Bailey), 10:26. Penalties — Kenttala, UNI (body checking), 15:08. Second period — None. Third period — 4, RPI, Skoda 5 (Erbenova, Keating), :59. Penalties — Mackay, RPI (tripping), 10:26; Trnkova, RPI (elbowing), 17:55. Overtime — 5, Union, Greco 2 (Adams), 3:39 Shots on goal — Union 10-8-10-3 — 31; RPI 8-6-5-2 — 21. Power-play Opportunities — Union, 0 of 2 ; RPI, 0 of 1. Goaltenders — Union, Matsoukas 6-7-0 (21 shots-19 saves); RPI, Keating 5-7-1 (31-28). A — 1,960. Referees — Jason Englehart, Dan Gosselin. Linesmen — Matthew White, Marc Silva.
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