Emotions of subject and object affect beauty differently for images and music.

What role do the emotions of subject and object play in judging the beauty of images and music? Eighty-one participants rated perceived beauty, liking, perceived happiness, and perceived sadness of 24 songs, 12 art images, and 12 nature photographs. Stimulus presentation was brief (2 seconds) or prolonged (20 seconds). The stimuli were presented in two blocks, and participants took the Positive and Negative Affect Score (PANAS) mood questionnaire before and after each block. They viewed a mood induction video between blocks either to increase their happiness or sadness or to maintain their mood. Using linear mixed-effects models, we found that perceived object happiness predicts an increase in image and song beauty regardless of duration. The effect of perceived object sadness on beauty, however, is stronger for songs than images and stronger for prolonged than brief durations. Subject emotion affects brief song beauty minimally and prolonged song beauty substantially. Whereas past studies of beauty and emotion emphasized sad music, here we analyze both happiness and sadness, both subject and object emotion, and both images and music. We conclude that the interactions between emotion and beauty are different for images and music and are strongly moderated by duration.

Characteristics of neonatal herpes simplex virus infections in Germany: results of a 2-year prospective nationwide surveillance study.

OBJECTIVE: To assess incidence and burden of neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections and to explore possible transmission routes. METHODS: A 2-year prospective nationwide surveillance study performed in 2017 and 2018. All German paediatric departments (n=464 in 2017, n=441 in 2018) were contacted on a monthly basis to report potential cases of neonatal HSV infections. Infants with a postnatal age of ≤60 days and a positive HSV PCR or HSV culture from skin, mucous membrane, vesicles or conjunctival smear, blood or cerebrospinal fluid were included in the study. RESULTS: 37 cases were analysed. 29 patients who exhibited no or only mild clinical symptoms were discharged home without organ damage or neurological abnormalities. Four patients showed significant neurological impairment, one patient required liver transplantation and two patients died during in-patient treatment. The 2-year incidence of neonatal HSV infections was 2.35 per 100 000 live births (95% CI 1.69 to 3.02) and disease-specific mortality was 0.13 per 100 000 live births (95% CI 0.04 to 0.21). Data on possible transmission routes were available in 23 cases. In 20 cases, an orofacial HSV infection was present in one or more family members. An active maternal genital HSV infection was reported in 3 cases. CONCLUSION: Neonatal HSV infections are rare in Germany. Most infants have a benign clinical course, but some infants are severely affected. Postnatal HSV exposure may account for a considerable number of neonatal HSV infections.