Prenatal maternal stress: triangulating evidence for intrauterine exposure effects on birth and early childhood outcomes across multiple approaches.

Background: Maternal stress during pregnancy may impact offspring development via changes in the intrauterine environment. However, genetic and environmental factors shared between mothers and children might skew our understanding of this pathway. This study assesses whether prenatal maternal stress has causal links to offspring outcomes: birthweight, gestational age, or emotional and behavioral difficulties, triangulating across methods that account for various measured and unmeasured confounders.

Illusion of control or passive superstition? A comparison of two explanations for irrational gambling beliefs.

Objective: The "illusion of control" is a dominant cognitive illusion in disordered gambling, but its role in shaping irrational gambling beliefs has been questioned by recent null experimental findings. Here, we aimed to test this recent work, in a preregistered Bayesian framework, by additionally correlating the dependent variable (nonuniform probabilistic beliefs) with self-reported gambling behavior and by exploring "passive superstition" as an alternative driver of these irrational gambling beliefs.

Method: A between-participants online experiment involving three boxes, one of which a $1 prize was randomly assigned to ( = 3,064; 49.

A guide for planning triangulation studies to investigate complex causal questions in behavioural and psychiatric research.

Aims: At the basis of many important research questions is causality - does X causally impact Y? For behavioural and psychiatric traits, answering such questions can be particularly challenging, as they are highly complex and multifactorial. 'Triangulation' refers to prospectively choosing, conducting and integrating several methods to investigate a specific causal question. If different methods, with different sources of bias, all indicate a causal effect, the finding is much less likely to be spurious.

Telerehabilitation Compared to Center-based Pulmonary Rehabilitation for People with Chronic Respiratory Disease: Economic Analysis of a Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial.

Rationale: New pulmonary rehabilitation models can improve access to this effective but underutilised treatment for people with chronic respiratory disease, however cost effectiveness has not been determined.

Objective: To compare the cost effectiveness of telerehabilitation, including videoconferencing and synchronous supervision, to standard center-based pulmonary rehabilitation.

Methods: Prospective economic analyses were undertaken from a societal perspective alongside a randomised controlled equivalence trial in which adults with stable chronic respiratory disease undertook an 8-week outpatient center-based program or telerehabilitation.

Exploring pleiotropy in Mendelian randomisation analyses: What are genetic variants associated with 'cigarette smoking initiation' really capturing?

Genetic variants used as instruments for exposures in Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses may have horizontal pleiotropic effects (i.e., influence outcomes via pathways other than through the exposure), which can undermine the validity of results.

A programmable and automated optical electrowetting-on-dielectric (oEWOD) driven platform for massively parallel and sequential processing of single cell assay operations.

Recently, there has been an increasing emphasis on single cell profiling for high-throughput screening workflows in drug discovery and life sciences research. However, the biology underpinning these screens is often complex and is insufficiently addressed by singleplex assay screens. Traditional single cell screening technologies have created powerful sets of 'omic data that allow users to bioinformatically infer biological function, but have as of yet not empowered direct functional analysis at the level of each individual cell.

An exploration into the causal relationships between educational attainment, intelligence, and wellbeing: an observational and two-sample Mendelian randomisation study.

Educational attainment is associated with a range of positive outcomes, yet its impact on wellbeing is unclear, and complicated by high correlations with intelligence. We use genetic and observational data to investigate for the first time, whether educational attainment and intelligence are causally and independently related to wellbeing. Results from our multivariable Mendelian randomisation demonstrated a positive causal impact of a genetic predisposition to higher educational attainment on wellbeing that remained after accounting for intelligence, and a negative impact of intelligence that was independent of educational attainment.

Assessing causal links between age at menarche and adolescent mental health: a Mendelian randomisation study.

Background: The timing of puberty may have an important impact on adolescent mental health. In particular, earlier age at menarche has been associated with elevated rates of depression in adolescents. Previous research suggests that this relationship may be causal, but replication and an investigation of whether this effect extends to other mental health domains is warranted.

Estimating the health impact of nicotine exposure by dissecting the effects of nicotine versus non-nicotine constituents of tobacco smoke: A multivariable Mendelian randomisation study.

The detrimental health effects of smoking are well-known, but the impact of regular nicotine use without exposure to the other constituents of tobacco is less clear. Given the increasing daily use of alternative nicotine delivery systems, such as e-cigarettes, it is increasingly important to understand and separate the effects of nicotine use from the impact of tobacco smoke exposure. Using a multivariable Mendelian randomisation framework, we explored the direct effects of nicotine compared with the non-nicotine constituents of tobacco smoke on health outcomes (lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD], forced expiratory volume in one second [FEV-1], forced vital capacity [FVC], coronary heart disease [CHD], and heart rate [HR]).

Loneliness and depression: bidirectional mendelian randomization analyses using data from three large genome-wide association studies.

Major depression (MD) is a serious psychiatric illness afflicting nearly 5% of the world's population. A large correlational literature suggests that loneliness is a prospective risk factor for MD; correlational assocations of this nature may be confounded for a variety of reasons. This report uses Mendelian Randomization (MR) to examine potentially causal associations between loneliness and MD.

Exploring the Bidirectional Causal Pathways Between Smoking Behaviors and Headache: A Mendelian Randomization Study.

Introduction: Although observational data suggest a relationship between headache and smoking, there remain questions about causality. Smoking may increase headache risk, individuals may smoke to alleviate headaches, or smoking and headache may share common risk factors. Mendelian randomization (MR) is a method that uses genetic variants as instruments for making causal inferences about an exposure and an outcome.

Extensions of the causal framework to Mendelian randomisation and gene-environment interaction.

In our commentary we ask whether we should ultimately endeavour to find the deep causes of behaviours? Then we discuss two extensions of the proposed framework: (1) Mendelian randomisation and (2) hypothesis-free gene-environment interaction (leveraging heterogeneity in genetic associations). These complementary methods help move us towards second-generation causal knowledge, ultimately understanding mechanistic pathways and identifying more effective intervention targets.

Educational inequality in multimorbidity: causality and causal pathways. A mendelian randomisation study in UK Biobank.

Background: Multimorbidity, typically defined as having two or more long-term health conditions, is associated with reduced wellbeing and life expectancy. Understanding the determinants of multimorbidity, including whether they are causal, may help with the design and prioritisation of prevention interventions. This study seeks to assess the causality of education, BMI, smoking and alcohol as determinants of multimorbidity, and the degree to which BMI, smoking and alcohol mediate differences in multimorbidity by level of education.

Cognitive functioning in anxiety and depression: results from the ALSPAC cohort.

Anxiety and depression are associated with a range of impairments in cognitive functioning. Understanding the nature of these deficits may identify targets for intervention and prevent functional decline. We used observational and genetic methods to investigate the relationship of anxiety and depression with three cognitive domains: emotion recognition, response inhibition, and working memory, in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

A survey of patient informational preferences when choosing between medical and surgical therapy for ulcerative colitis: a sub-study from the DISCUSS project.

Aim: People living with ulcerative colitis (UC) have two broad treatment avenues, namely medical or surgical therapy. The choice between these can depend on patient preference as well as the receipt of relevant information. The aim of this study was to define the informational needs of patients with UC.

Associations between health behaviours, fertility and reproductive outcomes: triangulation of evidence in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa).

Background: Guidance to improve fertility includes reducing alcohol and caffeine consumption, achieving healthy weight-range and stopping smoking. Advice is informed by observational evidence, which is often biased by confounding.

Methods: This study primarily used data from a pregnancy cohort, the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study.

Proxy gene-by-environment Mendelian randomization study of the association between cigarette smoking during pregnancy and offspring mental health.

Background: Smoking prevalence is higher among individuals with schizophrenia or depression, and previous work has suggested this relationship is causal. However, this may be due to dynastic effects, for example reflecting maternal smoking during pregnancy rather than a direct effect of smoking. We used a proxy gene-by-environment Mendelian randomization approach to investigate whether there is a causal effect of maternal heaviness of smoking during pregnancy on offspring mental health.

The effect of maternal BMI, smoking and alcohol on congenital heart diseases: a Mendelian randomisation study.

Background: Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) remain a significant cause of infant morbidity and mortality. Epidemiological studies have explored maternal risk factors for offspring CHDs, but few have used genetic epidemiology methods to improve causal inference.

Methods: Three birth cohorts, including 65,510 mother/offspring pairs (N = 562 CHD cases) were included.

Prenatal Mercury Exposure and Infant Weight Trajectories in a UK Observational Birth Cohort.

Mercury is highly toxic metal found in trace quantities in common foods. There is concern that exposure during pregnancy could impair infant development. Epidemiological evidence is mixed, but few studies have examined postnatal growth.

Perceived Autonomy Support in Telerehabilitation by People With Chronic Respiratory Disease: A Mixed Methods Study.

Background: Autonomy-supportive health environments can assist patients in achieving behavior change and can influence adherence positively. Telerehabilitation may increase access to rehabilitation services, but creating an autonomy-supportive environment may be challenging.

Research Question: To what degree does telerehabilitation provide an autonomy-supportive environment? What is the patient experience of an 8-week telerehabilitation program?

Study Design And Methods: Individuals undertaking telerehabilitation or center-based pulmonary rehabilitation within a larger randomized controlled equivalence trial completed the Health Care Climate Questionnaire (HCCQ; short form) to assess perceived autonomy support.