Prevalence of dementia in ischaemic or mixed stroke populations: systematic review and meta-analysis

An understanding of the epidemiology of poststroke dementia (PSD) is necessary to inform research, practice and policy. With increasing primary studies, a contemporary review of PSD could allow for analyses of incidence and prevalence trends. Databases were searched using a prespecified search strategy. Eligible studies described an ischaemic or mixed stroke cohort with prospective clinical assessment for dementia. Pooled prevalence of dementia was calculated using random-effects models at any time after stroke (primary outcome) and at 1 year (range: 6–18 months), stratified for inclusion of prestroke dementia. Meta-regression explored the effect of year of study. Sensitivity analyses removed low-quality or outlier studies. Of 12 505 titles assessed, 44 studies were included in the quantitative analyses. At any time point after stroke, the prevalence of PSD was 16.5% (95% CI 10.4% to 25.1%) excluding prestroke dementia and 22.3% (95% CI 18.8% to 26.2%) including prestroke dementia. At 1 year, the prevalence of PSD was 18.4% (95% CI 7.4% to 38.7%) and 20.4% (95% CI 14.2% to 28.2%) with prestroke dementia included. In studies including prestroke dementia there was a negative association between dementia prevalence and year of study (slope coefficient=−0.05 (SD: 0.01), p<0.0001). Estimates were robust to sensitivity analyses. Dementia is common following stroke. At any point following stroke, more than one in five people will have dementia, although a proportion of this dementia predates the stroke. Declining prevalence of prestroke dementia may explain apparent reduction in PSD over time. Risk of dementia following stroke remains substantial and front-loaded, with high prevalence at 1 year post event

Hotels' dependency on online intermediaries and their chosen distribution channel portfolios: Three country insights

New intermediaries are entering the market, challenging the hospitality industry to find an appropriate distribution channel portfolio. This research investigates how many channels hotels in Austria, Germany and Switzerland choose and what role the various channels play. Findings based on 1014 questionnaires reveal an average mix of 8.06 offline and online channel categories. Traditional channels, such as walk-ins and telephone, still play a major role; however, about one fifth of the bookings are completely generated online. On average, 3.61 online travel agencies (OTAs) are used. With regards to OTA penetration, an oligopolistic market structure is prevalent. Swiss and German hotels' OTA dependency is higher than Austrian's. A series of a posteriori cluster analysis results in four distribution portfolio groups hoteliers choose: multi-channel-, electronic-, real time-, and traditional distributors. Distribution portfolio profiles facilitate learning from strategies used by hotels with certain characteristics such as target group and star-rating

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead