German business confidence at highest level for some 16 months
GERMAN GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT EXPANDS 0.7% IN SECOND QUARTER OF 2013
German business confidence rose to the highest level in 16 months in August, beating forecasts and indicating the recovery in Europe’s largest economy is gathering pace.
The Info business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, climbed to 107.5 from 106.2 in July, the Munich-based institute said yesterday. That’s the highest since April 2012.
Economists had predicted an increase to 107.
German gross domestic product expanded 0.7 per cent in the second quarter, rebounding from a colder-than-usual winter that curbed output and helping the 17-nation euro zone emerge from its longest-ever recession.
Germany’s growth was led by private consumption and included the first increase in plant and machinery investment since 2011.
“The latest business sentiment readings confirm our viewthat the German economy will be able to maintain a somewhat more moderate but still robust momentum in the second half of 2013, following the exceptional rebound in the spring,” said Alexander Koch, an economist at UniCredit Group in Munich. “Domestic demand should remain a major growth pillar, currently adding to an overall broad-based recovery path.”
An assessment of construction activity slid to -4.2 from -1.5 the previous month and a measure of retailing dropped to 2.6 from 3, signalling a potential slowdown.
“The fall in the construction index seems to confirm that the second quarter’s sharp rise in activity was a temporary bounceback from bad weather in the first quarter,” said Jennifer McKeown, an economist at Capital Economics in London.
“The fall in the retail index is a reminder not to put too much faith in German consumers. Nonetheless, it seems that a moderate recovery is finally underway.”
The Bundesbank predicts German GDP will expand 0.3 per cent this year and 1.5 per cent in 2014.
Ryanair not happy with watchdog’s ‘bizarre’ decision
RYANAIR is to appeal a decision by the UK competition watchdog, which ordered the company to sell the majority of its Aer Lingus stake.
The Competition Commission found that Ryanair’s 29.8pc stake in Aer Lingus could affect competition on flights between Ireland and the UK.
Following an 11-month investigation, the body called on Ryanair to reduce its stake in Aer lingus to just 5pc.
But responding today, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary slammed the finding.
He said the low-cost airline will now appeal the decision.
“I don’t think we have any alternative. It’s a bizarre decision in a bizarre process.
“Here you have two Irish airlines, one of whom, the target, Aer Lingus operates just four routes to the UK, and we have the UK Competition Commission imposing an even more draconian remedy on Ryanair,” he said.
Faulty
“The decision is faulty because in seven-and-a-half years of all this minority stakes existence, they’ve come up with not one instance where Ryanair has influenced the behaviour of Aer Lingus,” said Mr O’Leary.
“Aer Lingus has managed to order €2.4bn worth of aircraft and then cancel the order; they’ve opened bases in Gatwick and Belfast only to cut them back.
“They’ve happily followed their own strategy without any influence from Ryanair.”
Earlier this year, the European Commission blocked Ryanair from purchasing the remaining stake in Aer Lingus.
The head of the investigation team, Simon Polito, said that Ryanair has an “incentive” to weaken the competitiveness of Aer Lingus.
Aer Lingus welcomed the Commission’s ruling.
Company chairman Colm Barrington said it showed that Ryanair’s stake in Aer Lingus is contrary to the interests of passengers.
Tourists here lift business for 25% of Irish city pubs
DESPITE ALL THE MARKETING IT SEEMS TOURISTS STILL COME HERE FOR THE SIMPLE OF THINGS – THE PUB.
Overseas visitors have boosted the incomes of one in four Dublin pubs in the past year.
Although an AIB report on the drinks sector shows 50pc of publicans have seen their income in the past year, some 30pc have reported a rise in turnover.
A change in drinking patterns has also resulted in 71pc of drinkers coming later to the pub and staying for a shorter time. The age profile, too, is higher, with only 30pc of all pub customers under 30.
Four out of five pub owners also believe their customers have a drink at home before going to the pub.
The survey, which was compiled with the help of the Vintners Federation of Ireland and the Licensed Vintners Association, says 50pc of publicans had a drop in turnover last year, particularly in rural areas.
Publicans are hitting back at the drop in sales however – 35pc increased the amount of food they serve and 79pc of pubs organised events such as comedy or quiz nights to attract more business.
More than half the publicans said they expect business to improve over thenext three years, while 37pc think it will take five years for the industry to fully recover.
Local authority rates, access to cheap alcohol in supermarkets and wage costs are the main worries of the pubs.
DELIGHTED: Chief executive of the VFI, Padraig Cribben, says the research demonstrates “a resilience and determination of behalf of many in the sector to overcome these challenges”.
Chief executive of the LVA Donall O’Keeffe is delighted the Dublin market is performing relatively well. “We are confident in the future of the Dublin pub,” he said.
Meanwhile the drinks industry has welcomed new research showing a “marked reduction” in the amount of alcohol pregnant women drink.
A Royal Academy of Medicine probe found that almost two-thirds of pregnant women abstain from alcohol compared to 28pc eight years ago.
An overload of screen time ‘causes depression in children’
Study claims there is a link between too much television and computer game-playing and lower self-esteem in the young
Children who spend most time in front of televisions and computer screens have lower self-esteem and greater emotional problems, according to a study published today by Public Health England.
The report found that excessive “screen time” – more than four hours a day – was linked to anxiety and depression and was responsible for limiting a child’s opportunity for social interaction and physical activity.
“The greater the time spent in front of the screen, the greater the negative impact on both behavioural and emotional issues relating to the child’s development,” said Professor Kevin Fenton, director of health and wellbeing at PHE. Professor Fenton said that too much screen time limited a child’s opportunities for physical activity and face-to-face social interaction with friends and family, which are key factors in reducing childhood anxiety.
British children spend disproportionately large amounts of time in front of screens, compared to counterparts in other Western European countries, the report observed.
“In the UK, 62 per cent of 11-year olds, 71 per cent of 13-year olds and 68 per cent of 15-year olds report watching more than two hours of TV a day on weekdays, compared to Switzerland where the figure is less than 35 per cent across all three age groups.”
Professor Fenton said there was a clear “dose-effect” in the impact of screen time on a child’s emotional state, and that “each additional hour of viewing increases children’s likelihood of experiencing socio-emotional problems and lower self-esteem”.
The report, titled ‘How healthy behaviour supports children’s wellbeing’, found that: “Higher levels of TV viewing are having a negative effect on children’s well-being, including lower self-worth, lower self-esteem and lower levels of self-reported happiness.”
The amount of time British children spend in front of televisions, computers and other screens is also increasingly rapidly, driven by the popularity of computer games. Between 2006 and 2010 “the proportion of young people playing computer games for two hours or more a night during the week increased from 42 per cent to 55 per cent among boys and 14 per cent to 20 per cent among girls”, the report said.
The study was based on research conducted by the Children’s Society among 42,000 eight to 15 year olds, and on other data. Lily Caprani, its director of policy, said that the children who were least likely to be happy with their lives tended to be the ones who spent longer in front of screens.
She said that social interaction via a computer or mobile phone did not deliver the same benefits in emotional well-being. “It’s nowhere near,” she said. “You have to be physically present with your friends to get the benefits of social interaction. Texting, Facebooking or even chatting on the phone has a remoteness that means you lose a lot of the positive impact.”
But the television industry last night rejected the idea that it impacts negatively on children. “We are proud that there is so much carefully created and curated TV content for children – to watch alone or with their families – that excites and inspires them. That might be watching Professor Brian Cox, Dora the Explorer or Hannah Cockcroft,” said Lindsey Clay, Managing Director of industry body Thinkbox.
“Watching professionally made TV content is one of the most beneficial uses of the many screens that children now have access to, and the average level of children’s TV viewing is totally compatible with a physically and emotionally healthy lifestyle.”
A Mini ‘human brain’ grown in lab to help understand neurological disorders
THE “MINI BRAIN” IS ROUGHLY THE SIZE AND DEVELOPMENTAL LEVEL OF A NINE-WEEK FOETUS
Miniature “human brains” have been grown in a lab in a feat scientists hope will transform the understanding of neurological disorders.
The pea-sized structures reached the same level of development as in a nine-week-old foetus, but are incapable of thought.
The study, published in the journal Nature, has already been used to gain insight into rare diseases.
Neuroscientists have described the findings as astounding and fascinating.
The human brain is one of the most complicated structures in the universe.
Scientists at Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have now reproduced some of the earliest stages of the organ’s development in the laboratory.
Brain bath: They used either embryonic stem cells or adult skin cells to produce the part of an embryo that develops into the brain and spinal cord – the neuroectoderm.
This was placed in tiny droplets of gel to give a scaffold for the tissue to grow and was placed into a spinning bioreactor, a nutrient bath that supplies nutrients and oxygen.
A cerebral organoid – the brown pigments are a developing retina
The cells were able to grow and organise themselves into separate regions of the brain, such as the cerebral cortex, the retina, and, rarely, an early hippocampus, which would be heavily involved in memory in a fully developed adult brain.
The researchers are confident that this closely, but far from perfectly, matches brain development in a foetus until the nine week stage.
The tissues reached their maximum size, about 4mm (0.1in), after two months.
The “mini-brains” have survived for nearly a year, but did not grow any larger. There is no blood supply, just brain tissue, so nutrients and oxygen cannot penetrate into the middle of the brain-like structure.
One of the researchers, Dr Juergen Knoblich, said: “What our organoids are good for is to model development of the brain and to study anything that causes a defect in development.
“Ultimately we would like to move towards more common disorders like schizophrenia or autism. They typically manifest themselves only in adults, but it has been shown that the underlying defects occur during the development of the brain.”
The technique could also be used to replace mice and rats in drug research as new treatments could be tested on actual brain tissue.
‘Mindboggling’ Researchers have been able to produce brain cells in the laboratory before, but this is the closest any group has come to building a human brain.
The breakthrough has excited the field.
Prof Paul Matthews, from Imperial College London, told the BBC: “I think it’s just mindboggling. The idea that we can take a cell from a skin and turn it into, even though it’s only the size of a pea, is starting to look like a brain and starting to show some of the behaviours of a tiny brain, I think is just extraordinary.
“Now it’s not thinking, it’s not communicating between the areas in the way our brains do, but it gives us a real start and this is going to be the kind of tool that helps us understand many of the major developmental brain disorders.”
The team has already used the breakthrough to investigate a disease called microcephaly. People with the disease develop much smaller brains.
A much smaller brain develops with microcephaly
By creating a “mini-brain” from skin cells of a patient with this condition, the team were able to study how development changed.
It’s a long way from conscience or awareness or responding to the outside world. There’s always the spectre of what the future might hold, but this is primitive territory”
Dr Zameel Caderohn Radcliffe Hospital
They showed that the cells were too keen to become neurons by specialising too early. It meant the cells in the early brain did not bulk up to a high enough number before specialising, which affected the final size of even the pea-sized “mini-brains”.
The team in Vienna do not believe there are any ethical issues at this stage, but Dr Knoblich said he did not want to see much larger brains being developed as that would be “undesirable”.
he said “It’s a long way from conscience or awareness or responding to the outside world. There’s always the spectre of what the future might hold, but this is primitive territory.”
Dr Martin Coath, from the cognition institute at Plymouth University, said: “Any technique that gives us ‘something like a brain’ that we can modify, work on, and watch as it develops, just has to be exciting.
“If the authors are right – that their ‘brain in a bottle’ develops in ways that mimic human brain development – then the potential for studying developmental diseases is clear. But the applicability to other types of disease is not so clear – but it has potential.
“Testing drugs is, also, much more problematic. Most drugs that affect the brain act on things like mood, perception, control of your body, pain, and a whole bunch of other things. This brain-like-tissue has no trouble with any of these things yet.”
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