Publications by authors named "Porteous D"

Dissecting the genetic mechanisms underlying urinary metabolite concentrations can provide molecular insights into kidney function and open possibilities for causal assessment of urinary metabolites with risk factors and disease outcomes. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics provides a high-throughput means for urinary metabolite profiling, as widely applied for blood biomarker studies. Here we report a genome-wide association study meta-analysed for 3 European cohorts comprising 8,011 individuals, covering both people with type 1 diabetes and general population settings.

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Copy-number variants (CNVs) that increase the risk for neurodevelopmental disorders also affect cognitive ability. However, such CNVs remain challenging to study due to their scarcity, limiting our understanding of gene-dosage-sensitive biological processes linked to cognitive ability. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in 258,292 individuals, which identified-for the first time-a duplication at 2q12.

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  • The article discusses a study on a 6-week summer program aimed at helping nursing students who paused their studies, part of the Health Education England RePAIR project.
  • The program included academic guidance, mental health workshops, and practical training, running from May to July 2022, supported by ongoing communication and services.
  • Despite varied attendance, 67 out of 135 students returned to studies, revealing four themes—anticipation, outreach, preparation, and wellbeing—which highlight the need for personalized support to improve student retention and address workforce shortages.
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  • Scientists studied how certain genes affect height and body mass index (BMI) by looking at families with siblings.
  • They found that links between genes and these traits could be seen both in family studies and in studies that look at a lot of DNA variations (called SNPs).
  • They discovered that there are still many genetic factors influencing height and BMI that haven't been identified yet, showing that genetics is really complex and involves many genes working together.
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  • Genome-wide association studies have found numerous genetic loci linked to glycemic traits, but connecting these loci to specific genes and biological pathways remains a challenge.
  • Researchers conducted meta-analyses of exome-array studies across four glycemic traits, analyzing data from over 144,000 participants, which led to the identification of coding variant associations in more than 60 genes.
  • The study revealed significant pathways related to insulin secretion, zinc transport, and fatty acid metabolism, enhancing understanding of glycemic regulation and making data available for further research.
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Health professional education stands to gain substantially from collective efforts toward building video databases of skill performances in both real and simulated settings. An accessible resource of videos that demonstrate an array of performances - both good and bad-provides an opportunity for interdisciplinary research collaborations that can advance our understanding of movement that reflects technical expertise, support educational tool development, and facilitate assessment practices. In this paper we raise important ethical and legal considerations when building and sharing health professions education data.

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  • Respiratory infections are a major global health issue, but the genetic factors influencing them are not well understood, leading to this study that aimed to investigate genetic determinants through genome-wide association studies (GWAS).
  • The research analyzed data from 19,459 patients with respiratory infections and 101,438 controls in Stage 1, discovering 56 significant genetic signals, including one strong signal related to a gene important for immune response, but the follow-up Stage 2 study did not replicate these findings.
  • Possible reasons for the lack of replication include variations in how the studies were conducted and differences in patient populations, but the research suggests a novel gene may be linked to susceptibility to respiratory infections, warranting further investigation.
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Purpose: Generation Scotland (GS) is a large family-based cohort study established as a longitudinal resource for research into the genetic, lifestyle and environmental determinants of physical and mental health. It comprises extensive genetic, sociodemographic and clinical data from volunteers in Scotland.

Participants: A total of 24 084 adult participants, including 5501 families, were recruited between 2006 and 2011.

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This scoping review aimed to synthesize the analytical techniques used and methodological limitations encountered when undertaking secondary research using residual neonatal dried blood spot (DBS) samples. Studies that used residual neonatal DBS samples for secondary research (i.e.

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Introduction: Rare copy number variants (CNVs) and polygenic risk for intelligence (PRS-IQ) both confer susceptibility for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but have opposing effects on cognitive ability. The field has struggled to disentangle the effects of these two classes of genomic variants on cognitive ability from their effects on ASD susceptibility, in part because previous studies did not include controls with cognitive measures. We aim to investigate the impact of these genomic variants on ASD risk while adjusting for their known effects on cognitive ability.

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  • X-chromosomal genetic variants can provide important information about differences in human traits and diseases between sexes.
  • A large-scale study analyzed kidney-related traits in nearly 909,000 individuals, finding 23 genetic loci linked to uric acid levels and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), including four new genes that may play a role in kidney function.
  • The research also discovered five novel sex-specific interactions, with variations showing different effects in males and females, and highlighted genes that are responsive to androgens (male hormones), indicating a complex relationship between sex and kidney-related genetics.
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Rare copy number variants (CNVs) and polygenic risk for intelligence (PRS-IQ) both confer risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but have opposing effects on cognitive ability. The field has struggled to disentangle the effects of these two classes of genomic variants on cognitive ability from their effects on ASD risk, in part because previous studies did not include controls with cognitive measures. We aim to investigate the impact of these genomic variants on ASD risk while adjusting for their known effects on cognitive ability.

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Aim: This study aimed to investigate students' learning journeys across the duration of a new registered nurse degree apprenticeship programme and to develop an understanding of the contextual factors, mechanisms and outcomes involved.

Background: Registered nurses are the largest group of healthcare workers globally, but shortages exist. To encourage existing UK healthcare employees into nursing, national investment was made into Registered Nurse Degree Apprenticeships.

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  • The study examines the mental health effects on individuals with significant people (family or close friends) who had COVID-19, analyzing data from prospective cohorts in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the UK from March 2020 to March 2022.
  • It found that having someone close who was hospitalized or died from COVID-19 led to increased rates of depression and anxiety, with prevalence ratios of 1.15 for depression and 1.24 for anxiety in case of hospitalization, escalating further with ICU admission and death.
  • The research highlights that these elevated mental health issues persist for at least a year following the COVID-19 diagnosis of the significant person, indicating a substantial emotional toll on affected individuals.*
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Introduction: This research explores how emergency nurse practitioners (ENPs) become role proficient given experience variation and lack of role standardisation.

Aim: To understand how ENPs experiences in practice influence their feelings of role proficiency.

Methods: A hermeneutic phenomenological study was undertaken utilizing an interpretive standpoint.

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  • This study examines the relationship between resting heart rate and cardiovascular diseases, identifying 493 genetic variants linked to this trait through a large-scale analysis of 835,465 individuals.
  • It highlights the significance of higher genetically predicted resting heart rates, which are associated with an increased risk of dilated cardiomyopathy but lower risk for conditions like atrial fibrillation and ischemic strokes.
  • The study also challenges previous findings on resting heart rate and all-cause mortality, suggesting earlier results may have been influenced by biases, ultimately enhancing our understanding of the biological implications of resting heart rate in cardiovascular health.
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  • The study investigates how early life events impact aging through specific genomic regions influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, focusing on parent-of-origin effects (POE) on DNA methylation.
  • Researchers conducted a wide-ranging analysis identifying 92 associations between POE-influenced methylation and various health and aging traits, with a notable concentration on the effects of maternal smoking and cognitive functions.
  • The findings support the idea that atypical POE influences on DNA methylation are linked to aging mechanisms, highlighting the importance of early development in determining health outcomes in later life.
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Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) presents a major health and economic burden that could be alleviated with improved early prediction and intervention. While standard risk factors have shown good predictive performance, we show that the use of blood-based DNA methylation information leads to a significant improvement in the prediction of 10-year T2D incidence risk. Previous studies have been largely constrained by linear assumptions, the use of cytosine-guanine pairs one-at-a-time and binary outcomes.

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Background: Home working has increased since the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic's onset with concerns that it may have adverse health implications. We assessed the association between home working and social and mental wellbeing among the employed population aged 16 to 66 through harmonised analyses of 7 UK longitudinal studies.

Methods And Findings: We estimated associations between home working and measures of psychological distress, low life satisfaction, poor self-rated health, low social contact, and loneliness across 3 different stages of the pandemic (T1 = April to June 2020 -first lockdown, T2 = July to October 2020 -eased restrictions, T3 = November 2020 to March 2021 -second lockdown) using modified Poisson regression and meta-analyses to pool results across studies.

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Data discovery, the ability to find datasets relevant to an analysis, increases scientific opportunity, improves rigour and accelerates activity. Rapid growth in the depth, breadth, quantity and availability of data provides unprecedented opportunities and challenges for data discovery. A potential tool for increasing the efficiency of data discovery, particularly across multiple datasets is data harmonisation.

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  • * Findings highlight important pathways connected to heart development, muscle contraction, and overall heart health related to these angles.
  • * The research also shows genetic links between QRS-T angles and various heart conditions like atrial fibrillation and blockages, suggesting potential areas for future research and risk assessments in cardiovascular health.
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