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  • Clinical manifestations and neural basis of semantic dementia: Converg

    Clinical manifestations and neural basis of semantic dementia: Converg

    Introduction

    Semantic dementia (SD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by impaired confrontation naming, receptive vocabulary deterioration and impaired single-word comprehension as core clinical manifestations. Individuals…

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  • EXPEDIA GROUP B2B SUPERCHARGES PARTNER GROWTH WITH NEW AI-POWERED TRIP PLANNER AND MULTIPLE APIS – Business Wire

    1. EXPEDIA GROUP B2B SUPERCHARGES PARTNER GROWTH WITH NEW AI-POWERED TRIP PLANNER AND MULTIPLE APIS  Business Wire
    2. Perplexity Throws Open the Doors to Its Comet AI Browser, Now Free for Everyone  TechRepublic
    3. Expedia partners with OpenAI for Access…

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  • Researchers quantify forced labor risk in five dietary patterns

    Researchers quantify forced labor risk in five dietary patterns

    Many Americans choose food based on cost and nutrition, but personal values, such as animal welfare and environmental concerns, also shape what ends up on our plates. 

    Now, researchers at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman…

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  • Guan Xiao: Teenager / Sophie von Hellermann: Get Your Head Around It – Announcements

    Guan Xiao: Teenager / Sophie von Hellermann: Get Your Head Around It – Announcements

    Guan Xiao: Teenager 
    Kunsthalle Wien presents the first solo exhibition in Austria by Guan Xiao. Comprising an entirely new body of sculpture and painting, it takes what Guan Xiao describes as an ambiguous life stage as a starting point for…

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  • Prior incarceration linked to poor health in older adults

    Prior incarceration linked to poor health in older adults

    A recent analysis reveals that older adults with prior incarceration report worse physical and mental health than their peers, even if they were incarcerated in the distant past. The findings are published in the Journal of the…

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  • Chinese Surgeons Perform First Pig-to-Human Liver Transplant – The New York Times

    1. Chinese Surgeons Perform First Pig-to-Human Liver Transplant  The New York Times
    2. A man in China lived more than 170 days after transplant with pig liver, doctors report  CNN
    3. Pig’s liver transplanted to human in world first  Yahoo News UK
    4. Pig liver…

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  • Europeans risk cold showers in EU red tape snafu

    Europeans risk cold showers in EU red tape snafu

    Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

    Europeans are at risk of cold showers after materials critical to hot water tanks were not included on an EU list of authorised substances, which was revised as part of the bloc’s sprawling environmental legislation.

    Applia, the home appliance lobby group, has estimated that more than 90 per cent of hot water storage tanks would no longer be marketable in the EU if hafnium, a highly heat resistant metal, and its sister element zirconium are not recognised as safe for household use.

    The two elements were not listed in the bloc’s rules for drinking water, which enter into force in 2027 and aim to protect consumers and improve water quality standards. The European Commission appears to have overlooked the fact that hot water tanks also hold potable water, with manufacturers warning they risk fines if they do not comply with the list of authorised substances.

    “[Hafnium] is absolutely safe to use,” said Paolo Falcioni, director-general of Applia, stressing that the element had been used for more than 100 years in enamelled hot water tanks. If hafnium or zirconium are not mixed with the enamel, he explained, the glazing “cracks and the hot water is not hot”.

    The two elements are also used in enamelling heat pumps, which have become more popular in recent years as households move away from gas boilers.

    Falcioni said alternatives to hafnium, such as steel or copper, cost four to five times as much, which would be transferred to consumers at a time when household finances are tight.

    “The impact would be huge,” said Jérôme Martel, regulatory affairs manager at the French heating and ventilation company Groupe Atlantic. Italy’s Ariston, another major manufacturer of hot water tanks, raised similar concerns.

    European companies have pushed the commission to simplify the bloc’s regulatory burden, arguing it only adds to their woes ranging from high energy prices to US tariffs and cheap Chinese competition. Falcioni warned, however, that the complexity of the existing rule book also meant that more oversights, such as the exclusion of hafnium, were likely unless the commission paid greater attention to industry concerns.

    The commission said it was up to member states to notify it of the need to authorise hafnium and so far none had done so. Brussels previously told companies they can apply for toxicological assessments to get them approved.

    But industry argues this process would take too long and they would be forced to make costly changes to their production lines in the interim.

    “This would place European manufacturers at a severe disadvantage compared to non-EU competitors,” said an industry executive, who asked not to be named.

    Member states can approve hafnium’s use on a national level but this option is also costlier and more time-consuming than EU authorisation.

    Falcioni warned the lack of regulatory clarity in this area risked deterring foreign investors, too.

    “There are companies that are willing to reshore the manufacturing to Europe but without this certainty they may not,” he said.

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  • Boosting SCN2A expression reduces seizures in mice

    Boosting SCN2A expression reduces seizures in mice

    By compensating for a missing copy of SCN2A, one of the genes most strongly linked to autism, a variant of the gene-editing technology CRISPR can reduce susceptibility to seizures, according to a new study in mice.

    SCN2A…

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  • Currency gains help to relieve inflationary pressures in sub-Saharan Africa

    Currency gains help to relieve inflationary pressures in sub-Saharan Africa

    A number of economies in sub-Saharan Africa have seen
    inflationary pressures wane in recent months amid currency
    appreciation versus the US dollar. In turn, this is allowing
    central banks to lower interest rates, helping business activity in
    the region to expand solidly. PMI® data and the anecdotal evidence
    provided by our survey respondents can help to illustrate the
    impact of currency movements.

    Range of currencies gain versus the US dollar in 2025

    Of the seven economies in sub-Saharan Africa for which S&P
    Global compile PMI surveys, five have seen currency appreciation
    against the US dollar over the course of 2025 so far. While this to
    some extent reflects the weakness of the dollar itself this year,
    there have also been positive factors supporting local currencies,
    including support from IMF programmes, fiscal consolidation and
    tight monetary policy.

    In particular, the Ghanaian cedi and Zambian kwacha have each
    appreciated by 15% against the US dollar in 2025 so far, while the
    South African rand and Nigerian naira have also seen gains.

    Currency appreciation has contributed to a sustained easing of
    inflationary pressures in the sub-Saharan Africa business sector.
    PMI data showed that overall input costs increased at the slowest
    pace since the COVID-19 pandemic in September. While selling prices
    rose at a slightly faster pace than in August, here too the pace of
    inflation was among the weakest in the past five years.

    Country level PMI data show that most of the economies we cover
    in sub-Saharan Africa have seen either a slowdown in inflation of
    purchase costs or outright falls in prices over the course of 2025.
    Those countries seeing the strongest currency appreciations against
    the US dollar – Ghana and Zambia – have recorded periods of
    decreasing purchase prices. Such price falls are rarely seen among
    the sub-Saharan Africa PMIs, which normally suffer from marked
    inflationary pressures. Even Nigeria, where purchase costs
    continued to rise sharply during the third quarter, posted the
    weakest pace of inflation since March 2020.

    Survey comments highlight impact of currency gains

    Anecdotal evidence from our PMI surveys can help us to see what
    is driving the drop in price pressures in the region, with comments
    from panellists highlighting the impact of currency appreciation on
    purchase costs.

    Normally we see any references to exchange rates or the dollar
    being linked to rises in purchase prices as downward pressure on
    local currencies feeds through to higher costs for imported items
    and those priced in dollars. But between June and August this year
    we recorded more mentions of these factors pushing down
    prices rather than lifting them; the only time this has been the
    case since we have had the full complement of seven sub-Saharan
    Africa PMI surveys.

    Similarly, recent months have seen above-average mentions of
    either exchange rates or the dollar causing a drop in purchase
    prices, to a degree second only to that seen in April 2024, when
    firms in Kenya were responding to a substantial appreciation of the
    shilling against the US dollar.

    Central banks lower interest rates amid waning inflation

    Easing inflationary pressures have enabled central banks across
    much of the region to lower their interest rates over the course of
    2025. Of the seven economies we cover, five have lower levels of
    interest rates now than at the start of the year. Most notably is
    Ghana, where the central bank has cut rates by 650 basis points in
    the past two meetings. Interest rates in Uganda are at the same
    level as they were at the start of 2025, while only Zambia has
    posted an increase. Here though, S&P Global Market Intelligence
    expects a cut of 50-100 basis points at the upcoming November
    monetary policy committee meeting.

    Output rises solidly at end of third quarter

    The softening inflation environment has coincided with a period
    of solid growth in the sub-Saharan Africa private sector. September
    saw output increase at the fastest pace in five months in response
    to higher inflows of new orders. Employment rose for the twelfth
    month running, while firms increased their purchasing activity and
    inventory holdings.

    Most notably, the Stanbic Bank Zambia PMI signalled the fastest
    rise in business activity since June 2023, while Stanbic Bank PMI
    data for Kenya signalled a return to growth following mid-year
    disruptions caused by protests. The only economy covered by PMI
    data to see a drop in output during September was Ghana, but even
    here new orders expanded and business confidence remained elevated,
    meaning that we could potentially see renewed growth in the months
    ahead.

    Overall, the sub-Saharan Africa private sector enters the final
    quarter of the year on a solid footing, in part at least due to the
    currency gains seen over the course of 2025 so far.

    Access the global PMI press releases.

    Andrew Harker, Economics Director, S&P Global Market
    Intelligence

    Tel: +44 134 432 8196

    andrew.harker@spglobal.com

    © 2025, S&P Global. All rights reserved. Reproduction in
    whole or in part without permission is prohibited.


    Purchasing Managers’ Index™ (PMI®) data are compiled by S&P Global for more than 40 economies worldwide. The monthly data are derived from surveys of senior executives at private sector companies, and are available only via subscription. The PMI dataset features a headline number, which indicates the overall health of an economy, and sub-indices, which provide insights into other key economic drivers such as GDP, inflation, exports, capacity utilization, employment and inventories. The PMI data are used by financial and corporate professionals to better understand where economies and markets are headed, and to uncover opportunities.

    Learn more about PMI data

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    This article was published by S&P Global Market Intelligence and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.

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  • Changes in the gastric microbiota linked to growth of neuroendocrine tumors

    Changes in the gastric microbiota linked to growth of neuroendocrine tumors

    Researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University have discovered how the balance of bacteria in the stomach affects the growth of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). By identifying the specific bacteria involved and the biochemical…

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