HONG KONG, Jan. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The exhibition and awards ceremony for the 2nd Generative AI Art Creation Competition “Words as Brushstrokes – Poetry in Motion,” organized by DigiGear and honorably sponsored by Payment Asia, was successfully held today at the Leung Kwan Yick Yau Ma Tei Community Centre Hall. As the event sponsor, Payment Asia consistently upholds its long-term commitment to nurturing local innovation talent and fostering deep integration between art and technology through concrete actions, promoting the application of artificial intelligence and the development of STEM education. Ms. Tanya Yeung, Hong Kong Sales Director of Payment Asia, attended the ceremony to present awards, demonstrating support for the fusion of local innovation technology and arts education.

Building on the success and enthusiastic response of the inaugural competition, this year’s edition saw significant expansion in scale, attracting participation from over 240 primary and secondary schools and receiving more than 2,000 student submissions. This fully demonstrates the immense potential of generative AI in stimulating creativity, advancing interdisciplinary education, and promoting Chinese culture. The competition continued its theme of generating AI works based on classical Chinese poetry, using “Art-Tech” as a bridge to guide students in applying artificial intelligence technology. This year also introduced an AI video creation category for the first time, encouraging students to explore diverse expressions by combining dynamic imagery with poetry, thereby deepening the integration of technology and art.

During the event, numerous award-winning and outstanding works were exhibited, allowing the public to experience firsthand how students transformed the imagery, emotions, and imagination from poetry into vivid visual art through AI technology. The awards ceremony was conducted separately for primary, junior secondary, and senior secondary school categories, with public exhibition sessions attracting many educators, parents, and art-tech enthusiasts to appreciate the works and engage in exchanges.

The ceremony also featured other distinguished guests who presented awards and shared insights, including Dr. Tian Liang, Council Member of the Hong Kong STEAM Education Association, and Ms. Sharon Guan, Founder of LAFAVEUR and Deputy Director of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Textiles. The guests exchanged views with attending students, teachers, and the audience on trends in the integration of culture, creativity, and technology, creating a vibrant atmosphere.

Ms. Tanya Yeung, stated, “Payment Asia has long been committed to supporting the development and application of artificial intelligence technology. We firmly believe that technology is a vital force driving social innovation. Our sponsorship of the ‘Words as Brushstrokes’ competition aims to encourage the younger generation to boldly embrace AI tools, combining profound cultural heritage with cutting-edge technology to create artistic expressions unique to this era. Seeing students vividly interpret the essence of classical poetry through AI is the best manifestation of the achievements in Art-Tech integrated education.”

Mr. Eric Suen, Founder of event organizer DigiGear, stated, “We launched the ‘Words as Brushstrokes’ competition to provide a platform for students to freely explore the creative potential of AI. By integrating classical poetry with generative AI, we have witnessed not only the new vitality technology brings to traditional culture but also the boundless creativity of Hong Kong students in merging humanities and technology. Moving forward, DigiGear will continue to promote more Art-Tech education initiatives to support the development of Hong Kong’s innovation and technology ecosystem.”

The exhibition and awards ceremony featured a compact yet rich schedule: the primary school awards ceremony began at 10:30 AM, followed by an exhibition session. The junior secondary and senior secondary school ceremonies were held in the afternoon, with public viewings arranged in between, allowing attendees to appreciate the creative achievements of each category in detail.

As artificial intelligence technology becomes increasingly prevalent, the education sector is actively exploring its potential integration with traditional disciplines. This competition not only provided students with a platform to showcase their creativity but also opened new horizons for STEAM education and cultural arts education in Hong Kong, demonstrating the infinite possibilities arising from the convergence of technology and humanities.

PRAGUE, Jan. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — BTL Group, a global leader in medical technologies, today announced the successful resolution of multiple patent infringement proceedings against Lexter Microelectronic Engineering Systems S.L. (“Lexter”), the manufacturer of the WonderFace device.

The settlement follows patent infringement litigation initiated by BTL in multiple jurisdictions to protect its proprietary EMFACE® technology. As a result of the settlement, Lexter has agreed to cease the manufacture, global marketing and distribution, and use of facial treatment technologies and associated disposables that simultaneously combine radiofrequency and electrical muscle stimulation.

As a leader in medical innovation, BTL owns a robust international patent portfolio protecting fundamental aspects of energy-based technologies.

“The global and definitive impact of this settlement testifies to our dedication to defending BTL’s intellectual property and protecting the investments of our customers,” said Tomas Schwarz, CEO of the BTL Group.

For more information about EMFACE®, visit www.emface.com.

About BTL
Founded in 1993, BTL is a global leader in medical device innovation, providing advanced solutions across aesthetic medicine, dermatology, plastic surgery, rehabilitation, orthopaedics, joint and spine care, dentistry, primary care, and OB/GYN. With more than 200 patents and over 600 in-house engineers, BTL leverages science and technology to advance non-invasive and therapeutic medical treatments worldwide. Its product portfolio includes EMFACE®, EXION®, EMSCULPT NEO®, EXOMIND®, EMSELLA®, EMVITAL®, and others.

Clarivate Nexus integrates academic content and services into the AI tools increasingly used by students and researchers, helping libraries and institutions remain central to trusted scholarship.

LONDON, Jan. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Clarivate Plc (NYSE: CLVT), a leading global provider of transformative intelligence, today announced Clarivate Nexus, the first academic assistant designed to reconnect students and researchers with library content and services directly in the AI tools they use. Its development represents the next step in the Clarivate Academic AI portfolio, extending Clarivate gold-standard intelligence across the AI ecosystem.

AI tools have become a common part of research and learning workflows, often in place of library or institutional systems. These environments offer speed and convenience but lack the depth, accuracy and authoritative grounding of the trusted resources that libraries provide. As a result, users miss critical scholarly resources, valuable library collections go underused, and academic work is less firmly grounded in authoritative sources.

Oren Beit-Arie, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Innovation, Academia & Government at Clarivate said: “While AI might change academic work and research practices, our goal is to ensure it doesn’t change the rigor of research and learning. We’re excited to collaborate with our customers to shape a new path for academic AI. Nexus will help students and researchers benefit from trusted sources and services, wherever they are and enable libraries and institutions to bring their expertise into the environments where users work.”

Meeting users where they are

Clarivate Nexus acts as a bridge between the convenience of AI and the rigor of academic libraries, embedding institutional resources and services into AI tools, web environments, and campus systems where research and learning often takes place.

Evan Simpson, Associate Dean, Experiential Learning and Academic Engagement, Northeastern University Library said: “Our students and researchers are already working in AI environments. That’s not going to change. What we can influence is whether they’re working with confidence, grounded in trusted sources. We need solutions that meet users where they are and help ensure the materials they rely on are sound, keeping the library central to their research.”

Core capabilities include:

• Library front door: Clarivate Nexus provides a unified entry point to library resources across collections and products, based on their entitlements
• Full text access: Identifies scholarly references and academic context within AI-generated responses and web environments, and provides easy access to library-curated content.
• Source verification: Verifies academic references in AI outputs and enables users to cite them with confidence.
• Recommendations: Suggests relevant scholarly literature based on the user’s research context and institutional sources.
• Library visibility: Surfaces library services and information, such as research guides, expert support and opening hours, as well as other information deemed relevant by the library.

Clarivate Nexus is powered by industry-leading indexes and content collections, including the Primo and Summon Central Discovery Index, Web of Science citation index and ProQuest collections. It is developed as a flexible connecting layer that can be implemented across multiple environments. It will first be available as a browser extension, allowing it to operate directly within AI and research tools. A future release will support direct integration into campus systems, including learning management systems and library portals.

Customizable and library-branded

Libraries and institutions can use Clarivate Nexus to extend reach into AI-driven research and learning workflows without compromising academic standards. Libraries can also configure Nexus to reflect their unique priorities and branding, making it a seamless extension of the library experience.

The academic assistant is designed to protect user privacy and respect institutional access rights, ensuring secure, entitlement-aware access to content and services.

Continuing a long tradition of community-led development, Clarivate partners with leading libraries to guide and inform product development and future vision.

Clarivate Nexus will be released for early access in Q3, 2026.

Sign up for updates to stay informed about early access and partnership opportunities.

About Clarivate
Clarivate™ is a leading global provider of transformative intelligence. We offer enriched data, insights & analytics, workflow solutions and expert services in the areas of Academia & Government, Intellectual Property and Life Sciences & Healthcare. For more information, please visit www.clarivate.com

Media contact:
newsroom@clarivate.com

DUBAI, UAE, Jan. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Mantle, the high-performance distribution layer bridging traditional finance (TradFi), real-world assets (RWAs) and on-chain liquidity, today announced a pivotal protocol transition to utilize Ethereum blobs as its primary data availability (DA) layer. This shift marks a significant milestone in Mantle’s evolution toward a full Ethereum ZK rollup architecture, further aligning its infrastructure with Ethereum’s long-term scaling roadmap.

This strategic move follows the successful implementation of the Fusaka upgrade on the Ethereum mainnet. Fusaka has revolutionized Ethereum’s data capacity, offering up to an eightfold increase in theoretical blob throughput. By leveraging this enhanced infrastructure, Mantle is now able to provide the highest level of security guarantees while maintaining the low-latency, low-fee environment its users expect.

From Validium to Ethereum ZK Rollup: A Security Evolution
Mantle’s transition represents a shift from a Validium-based configuration to a ZK rollup architecture secured directly by Ethereum. By settling rollup data on Ethereum blobs, Mantle ensures that its transaction data is fully available and verifiable on the world’s most secure settlement layer.

“This evolution is a natural progression for Mantle,” said Joshua Cheong, Head of Product of Mantle. “As Ethereum’s blob infrastructure matures through milestones like the Fusaka upgrade, we are now able to support production-scale applications with the full security of Ethereum’s data availability, without compromising on performance.”

Synergizing with EigenLayer and the EigenCloud Ecosystem
While Mantle is adopting Ethereum blobs for its core DA needs, the project remains deeply committed to its partnership with EigenLayer. Mantle will continue to utilize EigenCloud for specialized use cases where verifiable compute and crypto-economic security provides a competitive edge.

Mantle remains a key collaborator in the EigenLayer ecosystem, focusing on high-performance sectors including:

• Perpetuals: Leveraging specialized execution environments.
• Prediction Markets: Utilizing high-fidelity data feeds.
• AI Agent Infrastructure: Building on the intersection of decentralized compute and restaking.
• Ecosystem Shared Security: Deepening integrations with the mETH protocol to reinforce Ethereum’s economic model.

Strengthening Ethereum’s Scaling Vision
By adopting Ethereum blobs, Mantle reinforces its dedication to an Ethereum-native future. This transition demonstrates how Layer 2 (L2) solutions can dynamically adapt to Ethereum’s base-layer improvements to deliver the best possible experience for developers and end-users.

Mantle’s commitment to this ZK rollup architecture ensures a resilient and scalable foundation for the next generation of decentralized applications (dApps). As the ecosystem grows, Mantle will continue to work alongside Ethereum core contributors and modular partners to push the boundaries of what is possible in the Web3 space.

About Mantle

Mantle positions itself as the premier distribution layer and gateway for institutions and TradFi to connect with on-chain liquidity and access real-world assets, powering how real-world finance flows.

With over $4B+ in community-owned assets, Mantle combines credibility, liquidity and scalability with institutional-grade infrastructure to support large-scale adoption. The ecosystem is anchored by $MNT within Bybit, and built out through core ecosystem projects like mETH, fBTC, MI4 and more. This is complemented by Mantle Network’s partnerships with leading issuers and protocols such as Ethena USDe, Ondo USDY, and OP-Succinct.

For more information about Mantle, please visit: mantle.xyz
For more social updates, please follow: Mantle Official X & Mantle Community Channel  
For media enquiries, please contact: contact@mantle.xyz