The Cost of Regulating Effort: Reward and Difficulty Cues With Longer Prediction Horizons Have a Stronger Impact on Performance.

Many theories on cognitive effort start from the assumption that cognitive effort can be expended at will, and flexibly up- or down-regulated depending on expected task demand and rewards. However, while effort regulation has been investigated across a wide range of incentive conditions, few investigated the cost of effort regulation itself. Across four experiments, we studied the effects of reward expectancy and task difficulty on effort expenditure in a perceptual decision-making task (random-dot-motion) and a cognitive control task (colour-naming Stroop), and within each task comparted cues between short (cueing the next trial) and long (cueing the next six trials) prediction horizons.

From Emergency Room to Operating Room: Multidisciplinary Simulation Training in Emergency Laparotomy for Ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm - Learning Outcomes and Costs.

Background: Opportunities to practice emergency laparotomy (EL) and open surgical repair (OSR) for a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA) are limited. While simulation-based training (SBT) is effective in educating healthcare professionals in medical emergencies, SBT specifically in EL and OSR for rAAA is scarce. It takes a team to diagnose a patient with massive abdominal bleeding, such as in rAAA, to organize primary care, and to provide definite treatment without unnecessary delays.

Associations of multiple lifestyle behaviors with allergic disease symptoms and sensitization in 9-11-year-old Finnish children.

Background: The increase in allergic diseases in children has coincided with the westernization of lifestyles. Although clustering of modifiable lifestyles has been frequently reported in children, there is limited research on how lifestyle factors collectively contribute to allergic conditions. Our aim was to identify lifestyle clusters among Finnish school-aged children and explore their associations with the prevalence of allergic disease symptoms and sensitization.

Efficiency and ecotoxicity of activated biochar in the treatment of artificial wastewater contaminated by pharmaceuticals.

Pharmaceuticals are emerging contaminants of global concern due to potential ecotoxicity and persistence in wastewater. Since conventional wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove micropollutants and the removal efficiency varies compound-specifically, pharmaceuticals pose a risk in the recipient aquatic environments. Adsorption by solid materials such as activated biochar has been suggested to offer a practical removal method.

Compensating for the mobile menace with extra effort: A pupillometry investigation of the mere presence effect of smartphones.

Previous research suggests that the mere presence of a smartphone can detrimentally affect performance. However, other studies failed to observe such detrimental effects. A limitation of existing studies is that no indexes of (potentially compensating) effort were included.

Fear of Childbirth Impairs Breastfeeding Success Independent of Mode of Birth.

The good qualities of breastfeeding are well known. The aim of this study was to closely examine the impact of specific maternal, prenatal, obstetric, and early neonatal factors on the success of breastfeeding. We used data from the Kuopio Birth Cohort study and analyzed 2,521 online questionnaires, which were answered by women 1 year after giving birth.

Long-term exposures to low concentrations of source-specific air pollution, road-traffic noise, and systemic inflammation and cardiovascular disease biomarkers.

Objectives: Air pollution and traffic noise are detrimental to cardiovascular health. However, the effects of different sources of these exposures on cardiovascular biomarkers remain unclear. We explored the associations of long-term exposure to source-specific air pollution (vehicular exhausts and residential woodsmoke) at low concentrations and road-traffic noise with systemic inflammation and cardiovascular disease biomarkers.

Mind the instructions: Reward cues are liked first, wanted later.

Current theories propose that mental effort is invested only when the anticipated benefits, such as rewards, outweigh the associated costs, like task difficulty. Yet, it remains unclear whether this motivational and mitigating aspect of reward processing is reflected in the evaluation of reward/difficulty cues as such, and to what extent it depends on task experience. In a pre-registered experiment (N = 84), we used the affect misattribution procedure (AMP) to gauge affective evaluations of nonword cues predicting reward and task difficulty levels.

Holistic evaluation of the environmental impacts of shipping in the sensitive region of Ria de Aveiro.

Shipping activity can be a substantial source of pollution and impact on the environment, including air, water and ecosystems, as well as adverse health and climatic effects. Due to the distribution of maritime transport activity routes in the EU, a large portion of the population is exposed to shipping pollution throughout Europe. The ongoing European project EMERGE aims to investigate and quantify these impacts over Europe, and in more detail, in specific case studies regions.

International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology CXIV: Orexin Receptor Function, Nomenclature and Pharmacology.

The orexin system consists of the peptide transmitters orexin-A and -B and the G protein-coupled orexin receptors OX and OX Orexin receptors are capable of coupling to all four families of heterotrimeric G proteins, and there are also other complex features of the orexin receptor signaling. The system was discovered 25 years ago and was immediately identified as a central regulator of sleep and wakefulness; this is exemplified by the symptomatology of the disorder narcolepsy with cataplexy, in which orexinergic neurons degenerate. Subsequent translation of these findings into drug discovery and development has resulted to date in three clinically used orexin receptor antagonists to treat insomnia.

Effects of ambient air pollution from shipping on mortality: A systematic review.

Background: Shipping contributes to air pollution causing adverse health effects. We conducted for the first time a systematic review on the health and economic impacts of ambient air pollution from shipping emissions.

Methods: We performed a systematic search in PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCO (Medline), and Scopus of all time up to December 2023.

Maternal caffeine intake during pregnancy and the risk of delivering a small for gestational age baby: Kuopio Birth Cohort.

Purpose: High caffeine intake during pregnancy is associated with restricted fetal growth. We aimed to evaluate the association between maternal caffeine intake during early and late pregnancy and the risk of delivering a small for gestational age (SGA) baby.

Methods: Kuopio Birth Cohort (KuBiCo) is a prospective cohort study including women whose pregnancies and deliveries were treated at the prenatal clinics in outpatient healthcare centers and in Kuopio University Hospital, Finland.

A Low Cost Emergency Laparotomy Task Trainer for Major Abdominal Bleeding: An Option for Surgical Residents to Learn Lifesaving Basic Surgical Skills.

Objective: To instantly stop life threatening abdominal bleeding (e.g., a ruptured abdominal aneurysm), every surgeon should be familiar with the principles of emergency laparotomy (EL) and aortic clamping.

Attentional set and explicit expectations of perceptual load determine flanker interference.

Task-irrelevant stimuli often capture our attention despite our best efforts to ignore them. It has been noted that tasks involving perceptually complex displays can lead to reduced interference from distractors. The mechanism behind this effect is debated, with some accounts emphasizing the "perceptual load" of the stimuli themselves and others emphasizing the role of proactive control.

Early-life gut microbiota associates with allergic rhinitis during 13-year follow-up in a Finnish probiotic intervention cohort.

Perinatal and early-life factors reported to affect risk of allergic diseases may be mediated by changes in the gut microbiota. Here, we explored the associations between the infant gut microbiota and allergic morbidity in childhood until 13 years of age in a subgroup of the FLORA probiotic intervention cohort. A mixture of four probiotic strains with galacto-oligosaccharides was administrated to the mothers from the 36th week of the pregnancy and later to their infants until 6 months of age.

The 1000 Mitoses Project: A Consensus-Based International Collaborative Study on Mitotic Figures Classification.

The identification of mitotic figures is essential for the diagnosis, grading, and classification of various different tumors. Despite its importance, there is a paucity of literature reporting the consistency in interpreting mitotic figures among pathologists. This study leverages publicly accessible datasets and social media to recruit an international group of pathologists to score an image database of more than 1000 mitotic figures collectively.

Prenatal and early life exposure to air pollution and the risk of severe lower respiratory tract infections during early childhood: the Espoo Cohort Study.

Background: There is inconsistent evidence of the effects of exposure to ambient air pollution on the occurrence of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in early childhood. We assessed the effects of individual-level prenatal and early life exposure to air pollutants on the risk of LRTIs in early life.

Methods: We studied 2568 members of the population-based Espoo Cohort Study born between 1984 and 1990 and living in 1991 in the City of Espoo, Finland.

Characterization of a putative orexin receptor in Ciona intestinalis sheds light on the evolution of the orexin/hypocretin system in chordates.

Tunicates are evolutionary model organisms bridging the gap between vertebrates and invertebrates. A genomic sequence in Ciona intestinalis (CiOX) shows high similarity to vertebrate orexin receptors and protostome allatotropin receptors (ATR). Here, molecular phylogeny suggested that CiOX is divergent from ATRs and human orexin receptors (hOX).

Maternal caffeine, coffee and cola drink intake and the risk of gestational diabetes - Kuopio Birth Cohort.

Aims: Coffee intake is associated with a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes among non-pregnant people. We aimed to investigate the association between caffeine, coffee and cola drink intake in early pregnancy and the risk of gestational diabetes (GDM).

Methods: Kuopio Birth Cohort (KuBiCo) is a prospective cohort study including pregnant women who were followed at the prenatal clinics in outpatient healthcare centers and gave birth in Kuopio University Hospital, Finland (n=2214).

Designs on consciousness: literature and predictive processing.

Predictive processing is a recent approach in cognitive science that describes the brain as an engine of probabilistic hierarchical inference. Initially proposed as a general theory of brain function, predictive processing has recently been expanding to account for questions of consciousness in philosophy and neuroscience. In my previous work (Kukkonen 2020 .

Gene expression analysis of Chironomus riparius in response to acute exposure to tire rubber microparticles and leachates.

Tire rubber microparticles (TRPs) entering aquatic ecosystems through stormwater runoffs is a significant challenge. TRPs are formed by the abrasion of tires with the road surface and include chemical additives that are an additional cause for concern. Currently, information on the molecular effects of TRPs, or especially its additives, in freshwater organisms is scarce.

Effect of cold winters on the risk of new asthma: a case-crossover study in Finland.

Background: Cold weather increases respiratory symptoms and provokes exacerbations of asthma, but there are no previous studies on its role in the aetiology of asthma.

Objective: We tested the hypothesis that a cold winter increases the risk of developing asthma during the following 1 to 2 years.

Methods: We conducted a case-crossover study of 315 newly diagnosed cases of asthma from the population-based Espoo Cohort Study from birth to the age of 27 years.