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By Neha Mathur Sep 26 2023 Reviewed by Lily Ramsey, LLM

In a recent article published in BMC Geriatrics, researchers examined the association between traumatic life events (TLE) and the risk of all-cause dementia in individuals aged ≥60. 

Studies included in the review encompassed outcomes of 276,570 participants with median age ranging from 50.3 to 77 years and a follow-up time ranging between two to 37 years (average = 9.5 years). 

Study:  Traumatic life events and risk for dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis . Image Credit:  fizkes /Shutterstock.com Background

Studies have suggested that experiencing TLEs, such as actual/threatened death, injury, and sexual violence, might contribute to dementia risk.

Globally, the care and treatment cost of dementia is estimated to be around one trillion USD annually. Given that >150 million people will be living with dementia by 2050, it has become crucial to identify and target modifiable risk factors that could prevent dementia.

Systematic reviews have reported an association between PTSD and dementia; however, none, so far, have examined the same between dementia risk and TLE.

It is crucial to understand whether TLE identified during PTSD diagnosis or diagnosed separately is a risk factor for dementia to help find interventions to mitigate dementia risk and prevent/delay its onset. About the study

In the current study, researchers carried out a systematic review and generic inverse variance random effects meta-analysis to estimate TLE's impact on dementia risk, which they presented as risk, odds, and hazards ratios (HRs). The team utilized the Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC-5) criterion to identify TLE. Related StoriesCould your daily routine lead to dementia? New research points to sedentary lifestyle as potential risk factorIs exposure to infections or autoimmune diseases associated with dementia incidence?Eye-tracking technology can help improve quality of life assessment for older people with dementia

All included studies were original research articles published in peer-reviewed journals with case-control and cohort study designs that specified dementia diagnosis as an outcome in a study population of a minimum of 60 people.

All were related to all-cause dementia, with varying severities, and across all recruitment settings but excluded early onset dementia, having different etiology. They collected information regarding various forms of TLE (e.g., childhood trauma) from participants, their informants, or medical records.

The search strategy involved searching PsychINFO, Embase, and MEDLINE databases from inception until 20 April 2022 using keywords for "dementia,” "risk," and "traumatic events."

The team exported all retrieved studies to Covidence systematic review software. Next, two reviewers independently screened all articles at all stages, adhering to rigorous inclusion and exclusion criteria.

They used the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale for quality assessment of the studies and evaluated non-randomized epidemiological studies (NOS) having three domains: selection, comparability, and outcome. Further, they used a funnel plot to assess publication bias in the included studies.

The researchers classified a study as good if it had ≥3 and ≥1 stars in the selection and comparability domains and ≥ 3 stars in the outcome domain. Likewise, they also classified studies as 'Fair' and 'Poor' quality. 

Finally, the team meta-analyzed all studies and then conducted sub-analyses, stratifying by type of trauma, and used I2-statistic to measure heterogeneity. In sensitivity analyses, they included studies reporting HRs and having high quality. Results

The reviewers screened 3,523 studies and identified 29 research papers for full-text screening. Finally, they included seven studies in the meta-analysis; one was a cross-sectional study, three were prospective cohort studies, and three were retrospective cohort studies.

Pooled results from the meta-analysis of seven studies demonstrated that TLE increased the risk of all-cause dementia (HR = 1.21). The results showed significant heterogeneity (I2 = 78%).

Further, the authors noted that trauma subtypes, like trauma occurring in war and childhood, also increased the risk of all-cause dementia (pooled HR = 1.28), albeit based on fewer studies (n=3). These results also showed significant heterogeneity (I2 = 75%).  Conclusions

Overall, the current study recognized TLEs as potentially modifiable risk factors associated with increased risk of all-cause dementia.

Understanding the mechanisms by which TLEs increase susceptibility to dementia could help devise targeted interventions that reduce the effect of trauma, including PTSD, on dementia.

Future studies should investigate the impact of TLE-specific factors, such as chronicity and severity, and individual factors, such as age effect and association of TLEs with dementia subtypes.  Journal reference:

Severs, E., James, T., Letrondo, P., Løvland, L., Marchant, N. L. and Mukadam, N. (2023) BMC Geriatrics, 23(1). doi: 10.1186/s12877-023-04287-1. https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12877-023-04287-1

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Musk says Tesla is expanding Austin robotaxi service, adding Grok to cars

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Musk says Tesla is expanding Austin robotaxi service, adding Grok to cars

Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends an opening ceremony for Tesla China-made Model Y program in Shanghai, China, on Jan. 7, 2020.

Aly Song | Reuters

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company is expanding its robotaxi service area and bringing xAI’s Grok to vehicles as it rolled out a new iteration of the artificial intelligence chatbot.

Shares gained about 3%.

Musk said on X that Grok, his AI chatbot that praised Adolf Hitler and posted a barrage of antisemitic comments recently, will be available in Tesla vehicles “next week at the latest.”

xAI officially launched the Grok 4 update overnight as the company continued to face backlash for the vitriol written by the chatbot.

In response to a user post on his social media platform X, Musk said the company is expanding its Austin, Texas robotaxi service area this weekend. He also said Tesla is awaiting regulatory approval for a launch in the Bay Area “probably in a month or two.”

Read more CNBC tech news

The expansion of robotaxi and Grok integration comes at a fraught time for Musk and his empire.

Tesla set its annual shareholder meeting for Nov. 6, a Thursday filing showed. A group of investors recently called on the electric vehicle company to schedule the meeting.

Its last shareholder meeting was in June 2024, as Musk established himself as a major backer of President Donald Trump‘s reelection campaign. Musk later led the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.

After stepping down from DOGE at the end of May, Musk has openly feuded with Trump on social media over the major tax bill, with the president suggesting the government look at cutting contracts for Musk’s companies.

Shares have tanked from their post-election high over investor concerns that the public fight could hamper Tesla. Slowing sales and rising competition also stifled some investor appetite.

Tesla shares fell Monday, with the company losing $68 billion in value after Musk continued to blast Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and said he was establishing his own political party, the “America Party.”

The world’s richest man suffered another blow Wednesday when Linda Yaccarino stepped down as CEO of his social media platform X, leaving the role after a turbulent two years for the company.

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The Hyundai IONIQ 6 N is here and it’s even better than expected

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The Hyundai IONIQ 6 N is here and it's even better than expected

The Hyundai IONIQ 6 N is finally here, and it delivers. Hyundai’s electric sports car is loaded with fun new features, a sleek design (including a massive rear wing), 641 horsepower, and much more.

Meet the Hyundai IONIQ 6 N

After teasing the new model for the first time last month, Hyundai created quite a buzz. Now, we are finally getting our first look at the upgraded high-performance EV.

Hyundai unveiled the new IONIQ 6 N at the famed Goodwood Festival of Speed on Thursday in West Sussex, England. The upgraded model follows Hyundai’s first high-performance EV, the IONIQ 5 N.

At the event, the company boasted that its new electric sports car marks “a pivotal milestone in Hyundai N’s electrification journey,” adding “Hyundai N is once again redefining the boundaries of high-performance electrification with the debut of the IONIQ 6 N.”

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The IONIQ 6 N delivers an impressive 641 horsepower (478 kW) and 77 Nm of torque, enabling a 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) sprint in just 3.2 seconds. Its top speed is about 160 mph (257 km/h).

Hyundai-IONIQ-6-N-EV
Hyundai IONIQ 6 N (Source: Hyundai)

That’s when using Hyundai’s Launch Control, one of the many performance features the new EV offers. Like its other N models, the IONIQ 6 is based on three pillars: Corner Rascal, Racetrack Capability, and, of course, an Everyday Sportscar.

Powered by two electric motors, a 223 hp (166 kW) at the front and another 378 hp (282 kW) motor at the rear, for a combined 600 hp (448 kW).

Hyundai-IONIQ-6-N-EV
Hyundai IONIQ 6 N (Source: Hyundai)

Redefining the EV driving experience

The upgraded IONIQ 6 “redefines the EV driving experience,” according to Hyundai, thanks to its advanced in-house vehicle control software.

Central to this is Hyundai’s N Active Sound + system, which mimics the feel and sound of a traditional engine. An added N e-Shift simulates shifting gears.

Hyundai-IONIQ-6-N-EV
Hyundai IONIQ 6 N interior (Source: Hyundai)

And that’s just the start. Other performance features, such as N Drift Optimizer, N Grin Boost, and N Torque Distribution, give you even more control over the vehicle while delivering increased power.

The IONIQ 6 N is powered by an 84 kWh battery, providing a WLTP range of up to 291 miles (469 km). However, EPA figures will be revealed closer to launch. Given the IONIQ 5 N has an EPA-estimated range of up to 221 miles, you can expect it to be slightly higher when it arrives.

With a 350 kW DC fast charger, Hyundai’s new performance EV can recharge from 10% to 80% in about 18 minutes.

With a length of 4,935 mm, a width of 1,940 mm, and a height of 1,495 mm, the IONIQ 6 N is about the size of the Porsche Taycan.

Hyundai will showcase the new high-performance EV during the hillclimb event alongside other models like the IONIQ 5 N, IONIQ 6 N Drift Spec, and IONIQ 6 N with N Performance parts. Hyundai promises each vehicle brings unique capabilities to the event, “guaranteeing a dynamic and thrilling on-track experience for all attendees.” Check back soon for more info.

What do you think of Hyundai’s new electric sports car? Would you buy one over the Porsche Taycan? Let us know in the comments.

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Elon Musk says Grok is coming to Tesla vehicles just after it went full Hitler

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Elon Musk says Grok is coming to Tesla vehicles just after it went full Hitler

Elon Musk said that Tesla owners will “soon” have access to Grok, a large language developed by Musk’s xAI startup, days after the AI started calling itself ‘MechaHitler’.

Yesterday, xAI launched Grok 4, the latest version of its large language model.

The new model is benchmarking very well, but that’s generally the case with the latest model to come out. It edges the latest models from Google and OpenAI on intelligence by a few points, but it falls behind on speed:

At the launch event, Musk announced that Grok will “soon” be integrated into Tesla vehicles.

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This is something that the CEO has been discussing since founding xAI, which has been controversial because Musk has also positioned Tesla to compete in the AI space. He even stepped down from his role at OpenAI due to a “conflict of interest with Tesla.”

The announcement of the imminent integration of Grok into Tesla vehicles comes just days after the language model went haywire on X and started praising Hitler, referring to itself as ‘MechaHitler’, and made several antisemitic comments.

xAI acknowledge the issue and put Grok on timeout while they fixed it:

We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts. Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X. xAI is training only truth-seeking and thanks to the millions of users on X, we are able to quickly identify and update the model where training could be improved.

The “bug” came just a few weeks after Musk stated that he was displeased with Grok supporting left-wing narratives, even though it didn’t say anything inncurate, and that he would update Grok to “fix” it.

Now, the large language model (LLM) is expected to power the new voice assistant inside Tesla vehicles.

LLMs are becoming quite common in cars, especially premium vehicles. Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and a few others have all integrated Chat-GPT in some models.

Many Chinese automakers have also developed their own and deployed them in cars, even entry-level ones.

Tesla is playing catch up on that front.

Electrek’s Take

As I have previously stated, I think Musk is setting up Tesla to invest or even merge with xAI at a ridiculous valuation – making Tesla shareholders virtually pay twice for Twitter, which is now part of xAI.

This is how he will be able to gain wider control over the company’s share.

Of course, it will be widely challenged in court. In fact, shareholders have already filed a lawsuit alleging that Musk was in breach of fiduciary duties to Tesla shareholders when he started xAI.

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