Connect with us

Technology

Hospital PMI® at 58.6%; August 2024 Hospital ISM® Report On Business®

Published

on

TEMPE, Ariz., Sept. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Economic activity in the hospital subsector grew in August for the 12th consecutive month after contracting twice in the previous four-month period, with 35 consecutive months of growth prior to that, say the nation’s hospital supply executives in the latest Hospital ISM® Report On Business®.

The report was issued today by Nancy LeMaster, MBA, Chair of the Institute for Supply Management® (ISM®) Hospital Business Survey Committee: “The Hospital PMI® registered 58.6 percent in August, a 5.3-percentage point increase from the July reading of 53.3 percent, indicating a 12th consecutive month of growth after a contraction in August 2023. The Business Activity Index expanded for the 12th consecutive month. The New Orders Index expanded in August after an ‘unchanged’ reading the previous month, and the Employment Index remained in expansion territory for the fourth straight month. The Supplier Deliveries Index remained in expansion (which indicates slower delivery performance) for the 12th consecutive month. The Case Mix Index expanded in August, registering 52.5 percent, 0.5 percentage point lower than the previous month’s figure of 53 percent. The Days Payable Outstanding Index was ‘unchanged’ in August, registering 50 percent, down 1.5 percentage points from the July reading of 51.5 percent. The Technology Spend Index reading of 57 percent is an increase of 2.5 percentage points compared to the 54.5 percent recorded in July. The Touchless Orders Index returned to expansion territory in August, registering 53.5 percent, up 5 percentage points from the 48.5 percent reported in July.”

LeMaster continues, “Panelists commented on volumes exceeding historical August levels. Most indicated the volume was driven by a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, while a few mentioned increased elective surgical volumes. Hospitals were successful in increasing staffing levels to keep pace with the volumes. Overall, supplier delivery performance continued to improve, with limited shortages and back orders. Pricing pressure continued to have a negative effect on margins. One panelist indicated the facility was fully recovered from the Change Healthcare cyberattack, while another indicated the organization was shifting more focus and resources on cybersecurity.”

Hospital PMI® History

Month

Hospital PMI®

Month

Hospital PMI®

Aug 2024

58.6

Feb 2024

56.6

Jul 2024

53.3

Jan 2024

61.5

Jun 2024

55.8

Dec 2023

62.5

May 2024

58.4

Nov 2023

59.8

Apr 2024

53.5

Oct 2023

52.1

Mar 2024

52.3

Sep 2023

57.0

Average for 12 months – 56.8

High – 62.5

Low – 52.1

 

About This Report
The information compiled in this report is for the month of August 2024.

The Hospital PMI® was developed in collaboration with the Association for Health Care Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM), an association for the health care supply chain profession, and a professional membership group of the American Hospital Association (AHA).

The data presented herein is obtained from a survey of hospital supply executives based on information they have collected within their respective organizations. ISM® makes no representation, other than that stated within this release, regarding the individual company data collection procedures. The data should be compared to all other economic data sources when used in decision-making.

Data and Method of Presentation
The Hospital ISM® Report On Business® is based on data compiled from hospital purchasing and supply executives nationwide. Survey responses reflect the change, if any, in the current month compared to the previous month. For each of the indicators measured (Business Activity, New Orders, Employment, Supplier Deliveries, Inventories, Prices, Prices: Pharmaceuticals, Prices: Supplies, Backlog of Orders, Imports, Inventory Sentiment, Case Mix, Days Payable Outstanding, Technology Spend, and Touchless Orders), this report shows the percentage reporting each response and the diffusion index. Responses represent raw data and are never changed. Beginning in January 2021, the Report On Business® staff and consultants are gathering market information to better validate the Exports Index. Exports Index data are still being collected.

The Hospital PMI® is a composite index computed from the following, equally weighted indexes: Business Activity, New Orders, Employment and Supplier Deliveries. Diffusion indexes have the properties of leading indicators and are convenient summary measures showing the prevailing direction of change and the scope of change. A Hospital PMI® index reading above 50 percent indicates that the hospital sub-sector is generally expanding; below 50 percent indicates that it is generally declining. For the sub-indexes, except Supplier Deliveries, an index reading above 50 percent indicates that the sub-index is generally expanding; below 50 percent indicates that it is generally contracting. A Supplier Deliveries Index above 50 percent indicates slower deliveries and below 50 percent indicates faster deliveries.

The Hospital ISM® Report On Business® survey is sent out to the Hospital Business Survey Committee respondents the first part of each month. Respondents are asked to ONLY report on U.S. operations for the current month. ISM® receives survey responses throughout most of any given month, with the majority of respondents generally waiting until late in the month to submit responses to give the most accurate picture of current business activity. ISM® then compiles the report for release on the fifth business day of the following month.

ISM ROB Content
The Institute for Supply Management® (“ISM”) Report On Business® (Manufacturing, Services, and Hospital reports) (“ISM ROB”) contains information, text, files, images, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, applications, and any other materials or content (collectively, “Content”) of ISM (“ISM ROB Content”). ISM ROB Content is protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, and other laws, and as between you and ISM, ISM owns and retains all rights in the ISM ROB Content. ISM hereby grants you a limited, revocable, nonsublicensable license to access and display on your individual device the ISM ROB Content (excluding any software code) solely for your personal, non-commercial use. The ISM ROB Content shall also contain Content of users and other ISM licensors. Except as provided herein or as explicitly allowed in writing by ISM, you shall not copy, download, stream, capture, reproduce, duplicate, archive, upload, modify, translate, publish, broadcast, transmit, retransmit, distribute, perform, display, sell, or otherwise use any ISM ROB Content.

Except as explicitly and expressly permitted by ISM, you are strictly prohibited from creating works or materials (including, but not limited to tables, charts, data streams, time-series variables, fonts, icons, link buttons, wallpaper, desktop themes, online postcards, montages, mashups and similar videos, greeting cards, and unlicensed merchandise) that derive from or are based on the ISM ROB Content. This prohibition applies regardless of whether the derivative works or materials are sold, bartered, or given away. You shall not either directly or through the use of any device, software, internet site, web-based service, or other means remove, alter, bypass, avoid, interfere with, or circumvent any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices marked on the Content or any digital rights management mechanism, device, or other content protection or access control measure associated with the Content including geo-filtering mechanisms. Without prior written authorization from ISM, you shall not build a business utilizing the Content, whether or not for profit.

You shall not create, recreate, distribute, incorporate in other work, or advertise an index of any portion of the Content unless you receive prior written authorization from ISM. Requests for permission to reproduce or distribute ISM ROB Content can be made by contacting Rose Marie Goupil in writing at: ISM Research, Institute for Supply Management, 309 W. Elliot Road, Suite 113, Tempe, AZ 85284-1556, or by emailing rgoupil@ismworld.org; Subject: Content Request.

ISM shall not have any liability, duty, or obligation for or relating to the ISM ROB Content or other information contained herein, any errors, inaccuracies, omissions or delays in providing any ISM ROB Content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. In no event shall ISM be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages, arising out of the use of the ISM ROB. Report On Business®, PMI®, Manufacturing PMI®, Services PMI®, and Hospital PMI® are registered trademarks and trademarks of Institute for Supply Management®. Institute for Supply Management® and ISM® are registered trademarks of Institute for Supply Management, Inc.

About Institute for Supply Management®
Institute for Supply Management® (ISM®) is the first and leading not-for-profit professional supply management organization worldwide. Its community of more than 50,000 in more than 100 countries manage about US$1 trillion in corporate and government supply chain procurement annually. Founded in 1915 by practitioners, ISM is committed to advancing the practice of supply management to drive value and competitive advantage for its members, contributing to a prosperous and sustainable world. ISM empowers and leads the profession through the ISM® Report On Business®, its highly-regarded certification and training programs, corporate services, events, and assessments. The ISM® Report On Business®, Manufacturing, Services, and Hospital, are three of the most reliable economic indicators available, providing guidance to supply management professionals, economists, analysts, and government and business leaders. For more information, please visit: www.ismworld.org.

The text version of the public Hospital ISM® Report On Business® is posted on ISM®’s website at www.ismrob.org on the fifth business day* of every month at 10:00 a.m. ET.

The next Hospital ISM® Report On Business® featuring September 2024 data will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET on Monday, October 7, 2024.

*Unless the New York Stock Exchange is closed.

Contact:

Rose Marie Goupil

Report On Business® Analyst

ISM®, ROB/Program Manager

Tempe, Arizona

+1 480.752.6276, ext. 3005

Email: rgoupil@ismworld.org

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hospital-pmi-at-58-6-august-2024-hospital-ism-report-on-business-302240038.html

SOURCE Institute for Supply Management

Continue Reading

Technology

IQuest Research Releases IQuest-Q1 Technical Report, Detailing Training from Scratch and Results Across 30 Benchmarks

Published

on

By

BEIJING, Oct. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — IQuest Research has published IQuest-Q1: Advancing Foundation Capabilities for Agentic CLI Systems, detailing the model’s architecture, complete training pipeline, results across 30 benchmarks, and role in iterative model development.

IQuest-Q1 is an open-source agentic foundation model optimized for command-line interface (CLI) interaction, software engineering, and complex multi-step tasks. Its sparse Mixture-of-Experts architecture comprises 320 billion total parameters, with 15 billion activated per token.

A Complete Training Pipeline, Beginning with Pre-Training

Developed from scratch, IQuest-Q1 progresses through pre-training, mid-training, and post-training. Pre-training and mid-training together cover approximately 29 trillion tokens, with context length progressively extended to 512K.

The architecture incorporates Stable SplitNorm, the Muon optimizer, and μP parameterization. In controlled experiments using identical training data, it required approximately 52% of the compute needed by a Qwen3-30B-A3B-style MoE baseline to reach the same training loss, corresponding to 1.93× scaling efficiency. The report also introduces Critical Model Size (CMS) to examine scaling limits under training-stability and optimization-efficiency constraints.

Post-training combines supervised fine-tuning, domain-specific reinforcement learning, Multi-Teacher On-Policy Distillation (MOPD), and model merging. Training spans multiple agent harnesses and versions, including Claude Code and Codex, to strengthen performance across different execution environments.

The report also describes Recursive Multi-Token Prediction, which adapts an MTP layer into a reusable drafter for speculative decoding, extending the drafting horizon within a fixed parameter budget.

Evaluations Across Coding and Agentic Workflows

The 30-benchmark evaluation suite covers software engineering, terminal operation, tool use, professional workflows, search, and reasoning. IQuest-Q1 scores 52.7 on AutomationBench, 51.8 on τ³-Banking, 74.1 on SkillsBench, 78.4 on MCP-Atlas, and 75.0 on Toolathlon-Verified.

The report also evaluates sustained interaction through Claw-Eval and IQuest-CLIBench, the team’s internal assessment combining user simulation, execution traces, and environment-state checks.

Full results, comparison baselines, and evaluation configurations are disclosed in the report.

Environment Integrity and Reward Hacking Mitigation

The team constructed more than one million executable, containerized task instances, retaining valid and complete trajectories for mid-training. Post-training environments use task-specific verifiers to ground learning in execution outcomes.

Environment preparation, execution-time checks, and trajectory auditing help mitigate reward hacking, including attempts to access hidden tests or leaked solutions. Confirmed cheating trajectories are excluded from training.

The report also documents model-assisted research under human supervision. In one experiment, an IQuest-Q1-based agent traced 6,054 tool calls to investigate 35 errors, identified training-data inconsistencies, and implemented a reviewed data-cleaning and augmentation plan. Validated methods and research assets will support subsequent model development.

Project resources are available through:

Technical Report: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.30949Blog: iquestlab.github.ioHugging Face: IQuestLab/IQuest-Q1GitHub: IQuestLab/IQuest-Q1

CONTACT: IQuest Research
research@iquestlab.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/iquest-research-releases-iquest-q1-technical-report-detailing-training-from-scratch-and-results-across-30-benchmarks-302917967.html

SOURCE IQuest Research

Continue Reading

Technology

HoneyNaps Selected for 2026 Eurostars International R&D Project

Published

on

By

Korean-Swedish consortium brings together Yonsei University, Dankook University, Uppsala University and Xantage AB Project to develop a non-invasive platform for neurological monitoring Skin-mounted sensors aim to track changes in intracranial pressure continuously, alongside sleep signal analysis

BOSTON, Oct. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — HoneyNaps, a South Korean sleep medicine AI company, announced today that it has been selected for a 2026 Eurostars international R&D project supported in Korea by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT).

Eurostars is a multilateral R&D funding programme operated by the Eureka Network and co-funded by the European Union. The selected project, titled “Development of a Spectroscopic Electromagnetic Sensing and Artificial Intelligence Platform for Non-Invasive Neurological Monitoring, “will bring together HoneyNaps, Yonsei University, Dankook University, Sweden’s Uppsala University and Xantage AB.

The consortium will develop and validate an integrated platform to monitor changes in intracranial pressure (ICP) and sleep status non-invasively. The project combines the expertise of participating institutions in South Korea and Sweden across sensor technology, artificial intelligence and clinical platforms.

The project aims to develop an integrated platform at Technology Readiness Level 6 (TRL 6), combining a compact chip-scale vector network analyzer (VNA), SansEC microwave resonant sensors, physics-informed AI and wireless polysomnography (PSG) signal analysis. The platform is intended to continuously estimate changes in ICP and automatically analyze sleep stages and events. The project will also establish the technical and documentation framework needed to prepare for submission under the European Union Medical Device Regulation (MDR).

As part of the project, HoneyNaps will work on the wireless collection and analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG), electrooculogram (EOG), electromyogram (EMG), electrocardiogram (ECG), oxygen saturation (SpO₂) and respiratory signals. The goal is to combine the clinical information provided by laboratory-based PSG with the convenience of home-based testing, enabling automated analysis of sleep stages and key sleep events.

“By combining electromagnetic sensing with sleep biosignal analysis, this project will evaluate the potential of non-invasive neurological monitoring,” said Sean Ha (Taekyoung Ha), President of HoneyNaps USA. “Together with our partners in South Korea and Sweden, we will validate the sensors, AI and platform in stages and build a foundation for clinical use and global market entry.”

For further information, please contact:
HoneyNaps USA, Inc.
Christine Kwon / Managing Director
Email: sleep@honeynaps.com
Address: 14th Floor, One Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
Website: www.honeynaps.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/honeynaps-selected-for-2026-eurostars-international-rd-project-302917794.html

SOURCE HoneyNaps

Continue Reading

Technology

Hyperscale Data Reaffirms 2027 Guidance of $300 Million to $350 Million in Revenue and $60 Million to $80 Million in Adjusted EBITDA

Published

on

By

Initial Michigan AI compute capacity expected to be energized and begin revenue-generating activities in December 2026; operating momentum and expanding blockchain and digital asset initiatives support outlook

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Hyperscale Data, Inc. (NYSE American: GPUS), an artificial intelligence (“AI”) data center company (“Hyperscale Data” or the “Company”), today reaffirmed its preliminary consolidated financial guidance for the year ending December 31, 2027, of $300 million to $350 million in revenue and $60 million to $80 million in Adjusted EBITDA.

The outlook reflects management’s current expectations for three principal operating platforms: data center, AI infrastructure and robotics; lending, financial services and digital assets; and portfolio companies operated through the Company’s hybrid private equity platform, where the latter two are housed within Ault Capital Group, Inc. (“ACG”), a direct wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.

The Company expects the first phase of AI compute capacity at its Michigan campus to be energized in December 2026, with revenue-generating activities expected to commence in connection with that milestone. This initial deployment represents an important step in the Company’s transition toward a larger AI infrastructure business, with additional growth anticipated as capacity is developed and customer deployments progress.

“We are seeing encouraging progress across our businesses as we prepare to begin revenue-generating AI operations at our Michigan campus,” said William B. Horne, Chief Executive Officer of Hyperscale Data. “Our operating forecasts support our reaffirmed 2027 guidance. We remain focused on delivering contracted capacity, securing the resources needed for development and meeting the milestones that support our outlook.”

The Company previously announced preliminary consolidated revenue of approximately $40 million for the third quarter ended September 30, 2026, an increase of approximately 64% compared to $24.3 million for the third quarter of 2025. The increase reflected stronger contributions from crane operations, defense, lending and trading, and other revenue, including software supporting blockchain network operations. Defense revenue reflected the inclusion of Gresham Worldwide, Inc. following its reconsolidation. These increases were partially offset by lower Bitcoin mining revenue.

The preliminary third-quarter revenue figures have not been audited or reviewed by the Company’s independent auditor and remain subject to completion of quarter-end financial closing procedures and review. Actual results may differ materially from the estimate, which does not present a complete assessment of the Company’s third-quarter financial results.

“We believe the Company’s current market valuation does not reflect the progress across our businesses or the value of the platform we have assembled,” said Milton “Todd” Ault III, Executive Chairman of Hyperscale Data. “Alongside the Michigan AI data center, we see significant opportunity in tokenization and our broader blockchain and digital asset activities. We believe growth in these activities can contribute meaningfully to revenue and improve our profitability profile as we execute our operating plans.”

The preliminary guidance reflects management’s current expectations regarding future business performance, including anticipated customer deployments, financing activities, digital asset initiatives and the performance of its portfolio businesses. Actual results may differ materially.

Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure. The Company is unable to reconcile projected Adjusted EBITDA quantitatively to GAAP net income or loss without unreasonable effort because certain necessary components cannot currently be reasonably estimated. These include future interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation, impairment charges, acquisition-related expenses and changes in the fair value of financial instruments. These items are expected to be material to future GAAP results.

For more information on Hyperscale Data and its subsidiaries, Hyperscale Data recommends that stockholders, investors and any other interested parties read Hyperscale Data’s public filings and press releases available under the Investor Relations section at hyperscaledata.com or available at www.sec.gov.

About Hyperscale Data, Inc.

Through its wholly owned subsidiary Sentinum, Inc., Hyperscale Data owns and operates a data center at which it offers colocation and hosting services for the emerging AI ecosystems and other industries. Another of Hyperscale Data’s wholly owned subsidiaries, ACG, is a hybrid private equity firm and operating company that acquires, finances, builds and actively manages businesses across financial services, digital assets, industrial services, hospitality, defense technologies and other sectors.

Hyperscale Data currently expects the divestiture of ACG (the “Divestiture”) to occur in 2027. Upon the occurrence of the Divestiture, the Company would be an owner and operator of data centers to support high-performance computing services, as well as a holder of the digital assets and the third wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, Omnipresent Robotics, LLC. Until the Divestiture occurs, the Company will continue to provide, through ACG and its wholly and majority-owned subsidiaries and strategic investments, mission-critical products that support a diverse range of industries, including an AI software platform, equipment rental services, defense/aerospace, industrial, automotive and hotel operations. In addition, ACG is actively engaged in private credit and structured finance through Ault Lending, LLC, a licensed lending subsidiary. Hyperscale Data’s headquarters are located at 11411 Southern Highlands Parkway, Suite 190, Las Vegas, NV 89141.

On December 23, 2024, the Company issued one million (1,000,000) shares of a newly designated Series F Exchangeable Preferred Stock (the “Series F Preferred Stock”) to all common stockholders and holders of the Series C Preferred Stock on an as-converted basis. The Divestiture will occur through the voluntary exchange of the Series F Preferred Stock for shares of Class A Common Stock and Class B Common Stock of ACG (collectively, the “ACG Shares”). The Company reminds its stockholders that only those holders of the Series F Preferred Stock who agree to surrender such shares, and do not properly withdraw such surrender, in the exchange offer through which the Divestiture will occur, will be entitled to receive the ACG Shares and consequently be shareholders of ACG upon the occurrence of the Divestiture.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements generally include statements that are predictive in nature and depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, and include words such as “believes,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “projects,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “potential,” or similar expressions. Statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on current beliefs and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties.

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any of them publicly in light of new information or future events. Actual results could differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement as a result of various factors. More information, including potential risk factors, that could affect the Company’s business and financial results are included in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, the Company’s Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K. All filings are available at www.sec.gov and on the Company’s website at hyperscaledata.com.

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hyperscale-data-reaffirms-2027-guidance-of-300-million-to-350-million-in-revenue-and-60-million-to-80-million-in-adjusted-ebitda-302917679.html

SOURCE Hyperscale Data Inc.

Continue Reading

Trending