A Talented Person.

Summers schools.

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1. A highly mutated COVID-19 variant called BA.2.86 has now been detected in Switzerland and South Africa in addition to Israel, Denmark, the U.S. and the U.K., according to a leading World Health Organization official. The omicron offshoot carries more than 35 mutations in key portions of the virus compared with XBB.1.5, the dominant variant through most of 2023 — a number roughly on par with the omicron variant that caused record infections compared to its predecessor. (Source: Reuters via japantimes.co.jp)

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2. Scientists have identified 11 risk factors for dementia and used them to develop a tool that can predict whether someone will develop the condition in the next 14 years. The number of people living with dementia globally is forecast to nearly triple to 153 million by 2050, and experts have said that it presents a rapidly growing threat to future health and social care systems. But targeting key risk factors, several of which involve lifestyle, could avert about 40% of cases. A new dementia risk score, drawing on 11 mostly modifiable risk factors, can identify people at risk – from mid-life onwards – of developing the disease within the next 14 years. The findings were published in the open access journal BMJ Mental Health. (Sources: theguardian.com, mentalhealth.bmj.com)

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