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Alan Burghard Celebrated for Dedication to the Field of Entertainment

Alan Burghard lent years of firsthand expertise in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to his work as a technical adviser for the television show "NCIS: Los Angeles"




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iuvo Technologies recognized as one of the Best Companies for Work-Life Balance

For the first time ever, iuvo Technologies is proud to announce we've been named as one of the Best Companies for Work-Life Balance by Comparably. We're honored to be recognized this year.




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Mew Mews Women's Clothing: The Perfect Balance of High Fashion and Affordability

Mew Mews Women's Clothing blends high fashion with affordability, offering unique designs that highlight individuality. With a focus on quality craftsmanship and eco-friendly fabrics, the brand provides stylish dresses and bold pieces for women.




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Navigating AI Regulation: Balancing Innovation and Protection

In this article, we will learn how to navigate the fine balance building AI regulation while simultaneously fostering innovation.




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1 Key Reason Palantir Stock Has the Potential to Be the "Next Nvidia Stock"




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Palantir Stock vs. Super Micro Stock: Billionaire Israel Englander Buys 1 and Sells the Other.




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Inside Companies that Get the Purpose-Profit Balance Right

Purpose has become a corporate buzzword over the past decade. Leaders are embracing the idea that companies can’t just do well financially; they also have to do good for society. But how many organizations are really walking the talk? Ranjay Gulati, professor at Harvard Business School, has studied how dozens of purpose-driven companies -- from Etsy in the United States to Recruit in Japan -- simultaneously pursue profits. He argues that while we all want a win-win, leaders must also sometimes learn to make thoughtful tradeoffs. Gulati is the author of the book "Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies” and the HBR article “The Messy but Essential Pursuit of Purpose.”




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Balancing Image Speed and Quality with imgix

Users expect a website to load fast. An average web page loads in about 2.5 seconds. The longer the user has to wait, the higher the user bounce rate. There are a lot of factors that go into site speed, but images account for about 75% of the page weight on an application or website. Google’s Core Web Vitals uses several metrics to rank sites. Visual site speed or largest contentful paint affects ROI as slower sites have fewer repeat users and fewer sales.

Without properly sized images, both site speed and image quality are affected. Accordingly, we use several methods to deliver properly sized images. Our primary solution is imgix because it is easy to implement and saves managers and clients time and effort. 

Imgix Key Features

Imgix provides a lot of features — some we consistently use on projects, and others we use in very specific situations. 

Responsive Images

Setting up responsive images can be complex. As the variety of devices and their screen resolutions continue to expand, managing all the different image requirements is increasingly challenging.

Consider this scenario: a website’s images look crisp and clear on a high-resolution monitor. When that same page is viewed on a mobile device, the images are so large the page takes forever to load. A solution could be to upload a smaller image for mobile, right? It's not quite that simple. We need eight or more different sizes of the same image to account for different screen sizes and retina screens. Keeping track of all the image sizes and saving each size gets complex and would be nearly impossible to do manually on a site that has hundreds or thousands of images. 

One of our clients, National Park Foundation (NPF), wanted to clarify its message to better target major donors. Their gorgeous, large scenic images are essential to their website strategy.  NPF needed the images throughout their site to be crisp and clear at all screen sizes. Using imgix, NPF content managers can load high-resolution images to the CMS and not worry about the site's speed or performance. They rely on imgix to deliver the correctly resized image for any user's screen.

Imgix does this with their Device Pixel Ratio and Client Hints which automatically sets the pixel density for the image based on the user's device. Those API parameters can be easily set in the URLs for the image’s `srcset`. This allows developers to set an image width for an image `srcset` and then imgix delivers the right pixel ratio image to the user. We use `srcset` with imgix on other client sites like Bezos Earth Fund and Human Rights Campaign as well.

Resize and Cropping

Imgix allows you to crop images in addition to setting an image’s focal point. So, only one image needs to be uploaded and it can be used at multiple sizes and croppings throughout the site. Let's say we upload a large landscape image, but on some pages we only need to use a portion of the image cropped as a square. Imgix will crop the image and deliver the smaller versions on the pages we need while persisting the larger versions on other pages.

At Viget we use resizing and cropping on our own website, including our articles, to crop the staff photo to a smaller size at the top of the articles. This makes it possible for us to upload the staff photo once and the article image gets created automatically. 

Color Palette 

Another feature that we've used on client sites is the Color Palette API which allows you as many colors as you want from an image. For example, the Shedd Aquarium website that we built uses this feature by pulling a vibrant color from the image and setting it as the background color for the page hero. Aside from taking the manual work out of closely aligning photography with a page’s design, there’s an additional benefit: if you are on a slow connection, you will see a dynamic colored banner at the top before the image loads.

Image Upscaling

Another valuable feature is the ability to upscale images. Even if you upload an image that is low resolution, it can still be used at a higher resolution. This is especially useful for e-commerce sites or applications where users are uploading their images.  The upscale feature uses Generative AI to take a pixelated image and create a higher-resolution image. The final image will not be perfect, but it looks more professional. See the upscale demo on imgix.

Non-upscaled image
Upscaled image using Imgix

PDF Preview Images

There is also a PDF page to image option in imgix. The API enables the generation of a page-specific image preview from the PDF, which can serve as both a thumbnail and a full-size preview. When we built AHIP.org, they had a resources section for their members containing quite a few PDFs. To help with clarity and findability, we used imgix to show previews of the PDF documents to non-members. This feature allows AHIP to upload resource PDFs without having to also upload any thumbnail images. 

Face Detection

Another nice feature is a face detection parameter that you can pass to the API. This allows you to upload a photo and no matter the cropping or size it will keep the face as the focal point of the image. We used this feature on NEA for their team member page. It's great for user profile images that are used in different contexts throughout the site. 

Video Streaming

Videos have become a key design element on websites. However, determining which service to use for embedding those videos is an ongoing topic of discussion. Video platforms enable you to integrate the video onto the page, yet they introduce scripts that may impede page loading speed. Imgix offers a video embed service that allows content managers to keep all the images and videos in one place. The videos are automatically encoded to Adaptive Bitrate Streaming to get the best compression and video quality. So, videos load fast and look great on mobile and desktop. 

Imgix Video API with Adaptive Bitrate Streaming

Performance 

A lot of CMSs have image transformations built in. An image transformation encompasses everything for that image including responsive sizes, cropping, resizing, and face detection from the original. This is great for small sets of images, but transformations quickly get out of hand the more images there are on a site. For example, the homepage of the National Park Foundation has a minimum of 96 image transformations. 

Processing all of those image transformations uses a lot of server resources. Imgix saves the images and delivers them through their CDN. The imgix image CDN has an average of 0.15 milliseconds return on requests which enables images to load as quickly as possible. The CDN also caches the images on CDN edge nodes making them immediately available for future requests. 

Flexibility

Imgix is flexible enough to work with almost any site structure; including WordPress, Craft CMS, Shopify, React, Ruby on Rails, Python, and more (see the full list). So, whether a site is a WordPress site or a Rails application, imgix fits right into the ecosystem. And, even better: you don’t have to rebuild your web app or website to gain the benefits of image performance, which can save you a lot of time and money.

Setting up imgix on an existing website is easy. Imgix can connect to existing asset storage sources like AWS, Azure, or a web folder on the same domain. Once the image source is set up, a developer can start passing parameters to the API

Cost

Imgix is free for 1,000 images which makes it easy to integrate and grow with your site. Pricing goes to $750/yr for 5,000 images and $3,000/yr for 25,000 images. In their pricing structure, “images” are categorized as origin images, so the count only includes original images and not transformed ones. So, you could have hundreds of images and thousands of image transformations all being delivered through a CDN for free.

Conclusion

Ensuring fast site speed isn't just important. It is vital. It's the cornerstone of a successful online presence, directly influencing search engine rankings, user satisfaction, and ultimately, your return on investment. Properly sized and optimized images are key to ensuring your site loads quickly and displays correctly for users across various devices.

We have found that imgix enables our team to efficiently create projects with diverse image options, saving managers and developers valuable time. Our clients benefit from reduced server space and an increased site speed. Imgix’s API is comprehensive, so you can use one tool for all features and options around site images — from cropping and resizing to face detection and automated color palettes, to video and beyond. Having used imgix for the past five years to support the wide-ranging needs of our clients, we feel confident recommending it and using it again and again. 

Users expect a website to load fast, and imgix is a reliable way to make sure that happens. 




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Alan Robiette (2000)

Alan Robiette works as Programme Director for JISC's rapidly developing interests in authentication and security. He began his career as a physical scientist but became increasingly involved in IT planning and management, and directed IT services in a number of HEIs for a period of some 15 years before taking up his current position. He is a former member of the Computer Board and of a number of JISC committees and working groups, and was closely associated with the eLib Programme throughout much of its existence.




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Alan Collins

Alan Collins is a Web programmer with the Information Services Directorate at the Queen's University Belfast. Prior to joining the University in Autumn 1997 he was a Health Service Clinical Scientist, specialising in the diagnosis of opthalmic disease by electrical methods.




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States That Raise Minimum Wage May Counterbalance Inflation

Paul Piccigallo talks about considerations for employers when raising minimum wage in the midst of rising inflation.

SHRM Online

View (Subscription required.)




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The Coming Regulatory Avalanche: Engineering Practical Employment and Labor Law Compliance Solutions

The focus of this 2011 Littler Report is to provide employers with information to prepare and plan for regulations recently passed and those currently making their way through the agency rulemaking process. Part One of this Littler Report will set the stage and define the challenge employers will face in the coming years as the Obama Administration enters the second half of its term.




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Detailed Data on Balance of Issuers in ninth Staff Review of Disclosure regarding Women on Boards and in Executive Officer Positions




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Batman, the Dark Knight detective. Volume 5 / Alan Grant, Archie Goodwin, writers ; pencilers, Norm Breyfogle, Dan Jurgens ; Steve Mitchell, Dick Giordano, inkers ; Adrienne Roy, colorist ; Todd Klein, letterer.

"Bruce Wayne's latest ward, Tim Drake, has all the makings of becoming the greatest Robin yet. He's intelligent, athletic, and levelheaded, and his detective skills rival those of his mentor. However, every Boy Wonder who has come before has endured tragedy, and Tim may be no exception when his parents are marked for death by the sinister Obeah Man. Will the Dark Knight stop the Obeah Man in time, or must Tim face a deadly rite of passage in order to be worthy of inheriting the mantle of Robin?"--Provided by publisher.




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Batman, the adventures continue. Season 1 / Alan Burnett and Paul Dini, writers ; Ty Templeton, artist ; Monica Kubina, colorist ; Josh Kubina, letterer ; Dave Johnson, collection cover artist.

"Starting off with an attack on S.T.A.R. Labs in Gotham City by a giant robot that steals an entire room of the laboratory— Batman is going to have to stop it before it can cause more harm … and with Lex Luthor freshly back in Gotham— he knows where to start his search. Will Batman be able to topple the billionaire before he leaves Gotham?" -- Provided by publisher.




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CTA Proposes Balanced 2025 Operating Budget That Charts the Course for a Transit Riding Experience Better Than Pre-Pandemic/2019

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) today proposed a $2.16 billion operating budget that keeps fares at current levels, delivers more bus and rail service hours than provided in 2019, and fuels new and ongoing investments to either expand or modernize existing infrastructure, while also evolving current systems to meet modern transit riding needs.




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Real Talk: Black Women on Balancing Pressure, Fatigue, and New Opportunities in Uncertain Times

Black women are often “the onlys” in their organizations, putting tremendous pressure on them in uncertain times, but also offering unique opportunities.




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Palantir’s CTO Sankar Issues Treatise On Reforming DoD Acquisition

A top Palantir [PLTR] executive last week offered a sweeping set of recommendations—he calls them theses—for transforming the way the Defense Departments buys weapons and systems, and how U.S. industry […]




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Palantir’s Sales To DoD Up 21 Percent In Third Quarter

Palantir Technologies [PLTR] on Monday reported surging sales in its third quarter that included strong revenue from Defense Department contracts and the U.S. government overall. Sales to the DoD were […]




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Three-Phase Power and Voltage Imbalances

In HVAC, we rarely need to have a deep understanding of electrical design. But there are a few cases where a little understanding can go a long way in identifying issues before they cause trouble, and that is the intent of this short article.




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True Home Comfort Requires Well-Balanced Ventilation, Clean Air

Residential air movement and ventilation can be a challenge that requires multiple callbacks. There is a way to fix that, though.




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2024 Top Women in HVAC: Alana Ward

The most rewarding aspects of working in the HVACR field is being able to solve comfort and efficiency issues for homeowners. I love to look back at a job upon completion and say, “Yeah! We did that!”




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Defining and Calculating Voltage Imbalance

Saving one compressor will cover the cost of a voltage monitor and then some.




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SE-Radio Episode 347: Daniel Corbett on Load Balancing and HAProxy

Guest Daniel Corbett discusses how to scale your application with the help of load balancing. Hear details on HAProxy and the load balancing ecosystem as a whole.




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SE Radio 565: Luca Galante on Platform Engineering

Luca Galante, head of product at Humanitec, joins host Jeff Doolittle for a conversation about platform engineering. They begin by defining platform engineering and its relationship to, and distinction from, DevOps. Tracing platform engineering's history, Luca describes how internal developer platforms are fundamental, and then explores the goals of addressing complexity and reducing the cognitive load on developers by creating golden paths.





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GAMINE XR galantamine (as hydrobromide) 16mg modified release capsules blister pack (galantamine hydrobromide)

Manufacturing




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Houston Center Selects Balanced Doors for Renovation Project




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Clint Eastwood And Paul Newman Declined Roles In This M. Night Shyamalan Classic

M. Night Shyamalan had his eye on casting Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman in Signs at one point. Here's why they passed on his alien invasion thriller.




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New Zealand Television profiles sailor-author-filmmaker, Lin Pardey

Lin Pardey resides on a picturesque island along New Zealand's coast. Recently, New Zealand TV filmed Lin as she reminisced about her sailing career with husband, Larry.
Lin and Larry Pardey are among America's (and the world's) most knowledgeable and recognized cruising sailors. During their 40 plus year career, they sailed over 200,000 miles, including two circumnavigations east to west and west to east aboard two self-built, wooden, engine-free cutters under 30 feet. Authors of a dozen books, countless magazine articles, and co-creators of five cruising documentaries, Lin and Larry have shared their sailing experiences with tens of thousands around the globe prompting many to take up sailing and live the dream of the cruising lifestyle. The Pardey's motto is "Go simple, go modest, go small--just go".
Check out the Pardey Offshore Sailing 5 Video Series.

Brought to you by TheSailingChannel.TV

     

Recent Podasts

 




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New Zealand Television profiles sailor-author-filmmaker, Lin Pardey

Lin Pardey resides on a picturesque island along New Zealand's coast. Recently, New Zealand TV filmed Lin as she reminisced about her sailing career with husband, Larry.
Lin and Larry Pardey are among America's (and the world's) most knowledgeable and recognized cruising sailors. During their 40 plus year career, they sailed over 200,000 miles, including two circumnavigations east to west and west to east aboard two self-built, wooden, engine-free cutters under 30 feet. Authors of a dozen books, countless magazine articles, and co-creators of five cruising documentaries, Lin and Larry have shared their sailing experiences with tens of thousands around the globe prompting many to take up sailing and live the dream of the cruising lifestyle. The Pardey's motto is "Go simple, go modest, go small--just go".
Check out the Pardey Offshore Sailing 5 Video Series.

Brought to you by TheSailingChannel.TV

     

Recent Podasts

 




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[ K.147 (07/23) ] - Protection of digital ports connected to balanced pairs of conductors

Protection of digital ports connected to balanced pairs of conductors




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[ V.11/X.27 (03/93) ] - Electrical characteristics for balanced double-current interchange circuits operating at data signalling rates up to 10 Mbit/s

Electrical characteristics for balanced double-current interchange circuits operating at data signalling rates up to 10 Mbit/s




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[ V.10/X.26 (11/88) ] - Electrical characteristics for unbalanced double-current interchange circuits for general use with integrated circuit equipment in the field of data communications

Electrical characteristics for unbalanced double-current interchange circuits for general use with integrated circuit equipment in the field of data communications




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[ V.11/X.27 (11/88) ] - Electrical characteristics for balanced double-current interchange circuits for general use with integrated circuit equipment in the field of data communications

Electrical characteristics for balanced double-current interchange circuits for general use with integrated circuit equipment in the field of data communications




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[ V.28 (11/88) ] - Electrical characteristics for unbalanced double-current interchange circuits

Electrical characteristics for unbalanced double-current interchange circuits





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Balancing Your Entrepreneurial Roofing Life and Career

Striking a balance between work and life can be difficult, but learning to do so results in victories in both spheres.




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671 Karna-Seal Silicone White Roof Sealant

671 Karna-Seal Silicone White Roof Sealant resists weathering, hardening, chalking, and cracking and can be used to repair all roof types. IRE Booth #5725.




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Dos informes jurídicos avalan los contratos de emergencia sanitaria del Gobierno de Juanma Moreno que denunció el PSOE

Letrados de la Junta ven "evidentes razones de interés general" en las adjudicaciones de emergencia Leer




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Familias denuncian a colegios catalanes por impartir menos castellano del que fija la ley: "El español desaparece"

Los padres llevan a centros a la Inspección Educativa por impartir sólo hora y media semanal Leer



  • Artículos Víctor Mondelo

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Mazón (PP) responde a la 'Commonwealth' pancatalana de Puig (PSOE) con una alianza con Murcia

Bajo la premisa de garantizar agua para Alicante y Murcia a través de la defensa del trasvase del Tajo, el presidente provincial sella un pacto con López Miras mientras lamenta que la elección del presidente de la Generalitat "sea Cataluña y el independentismo" Leer




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Vicente Salaner, tan cerca de las estrellas

 Leer




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Zimbabwe: Choosing the Best Goat Housing . . . Balancing Safety, Comfort and Cost

[The Herald] Somewhere in the rugged and picturesque village of Nyamaropa, Nyanga, nestled in the heart of Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands, old Saunyama sits with a faraway look in his eyes as he recalls a fateful day that still haunts him.




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Ayushmann Khurrana on U.S. Tour and Balancing Music With Acting: It’s ‘My Parallel Passion’ (EXCLUSIVE)

“Instant gratification” isn’t a phrase typically associated with Bollywood’s methodical star Ayushmann Khurrana — except when he’s talking about live performance. Speaking with Variety ahead of his November U.S. tour with band Ayushmann Bhava, the actor-singer opens up about his return to American stages after an eight-year hiatus. “As an artiste, I always look forward […]




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Prime Video in New Zealand Expands With Add-On Bundles, Movie Store for Non-Members

Prime Video has launched a raft of add-on subscriptions and its Prime Video Store in New Zealand. These expand the selection of content available with the aim of making the platform into a one-stop entertainment destination for Amazon customers and for non-subscribing members. For a monthly subscription fee, payable directly to Prime Video, subscribing members […]




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Palantir, DataRobot partner to bring speed and agility to demand forecasting models

AI developers DataRobot and Palantir Technologies Inc have entered into a new partnership designed to create unique, agile and real-time solutions to help solve the most pressing demand forecasting problems.




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Checks and balances

Demand Forecasting and Planning/Sales and Operations Planning Technology report.

Manufacturing & Logistics IT spoke with leading industry spokespeople from the analyst and vendor community about how modern Demand Forecasting & Planning/Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) solutions and other planning-related technology can help to provide a more efficient supply chain, manufacturing and distribution regime.




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Beyond balance: A call for work-life integration in the federal workplace for Suicide Prevention Month

By embracing work-life integration, we can unlock the potential for our work to foster connection, purpose, and meaning.

The post Beyond balance: A call for work-life integration in the federal workplace for Suicide Prevention Month first appeared on Federal News Network.




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Bitcoin Ever Closer To $90K! MicroStrategy Adds $2B Worth BTC To Balance Sheet

Bitcoin (BTC), the flagship cryptocurrency, is nearing the $90,000 mark for the first time in its decade-long history after breaking past the $80,000 level.  According to Coin Metrics data, Bitcoin’s price had risen by 12% earlier in the day to change hands at $89,100 on various exchanges. On Tuesday, the apex cryptocurrency recorded a new [...]