Optimal processing of surface facial EMG to identify emotional expressions: A data-driven approach.

Surface facial electromyography (EMG) is commonly used to detect emotions from subtle facial expressions. Although there are established procedures for collecting EMG data and some aspects of their processing, there is little agreement among researchers about the optimal way to process the EMG signal, so that the study-unrelated variability (noise) is removed, and the emotion-related variability is best detected. The aim of the current paper was to establish an optimal processing pipeline for EMG data for identifying emotional expressions in facial muscles. We identified the most common processing steps from existing literature and created 72 processing pipelines that represented all the different processing choices. We applied these pipelines to a previously published dataset from a facial mimicry experiment, where 100 adult participants observed happy and sad facial expressions, whilst the activity of their facial muscles, zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii, was recorded with EMG. We used a resampling approach and subsets of the original data to investigate the effect and robustness of different processing choices on the performance of a logistic regression model that predicted the mimicked emotion (happy/sad) from the EMG signal. In addition, we used a random forest model to identify the most important processing steps for the sensitivity of the logistic regression model. Three processing steps were found to be most impactful: baseline correction, standardisation within muscles, and standardisation within subjects. The chosen feature of interest and the signal averaging had little influence on the sensitivity to the effect. We recommend an optimal processing pipeline, share our code and data, and provide a step-by-step walkthrough for researchers.

The effect of maternal immunization on female oxidative status, yolk antioxidants and offspring survival in a songbird.

Immune defense involves inflammatory reactions in which immune cells produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) to fight pathogens. ROS may however cause damage to the host if they are not balanced by antioxidant defenses. Therefore, one should expect individuals undergoing an immune reaction to use antioxidants to prevent oxidative stress. Antioxidants are vital compounds that provide important protection against oxidative damage of embryos and newly hatched chicks. Thus, during egg laying a female that contracted an infection may face a trade-off between the allocation of antioxidants into self-maintenance and into her offspring via the eggs. In our study we investigated whether immunized females face this trade-off and consequently modify the antioxidant allocation into the eggs and whether this allocation affects offspring performance. We injected female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) with lipopolysaccharide prior to egg laying while some females were left unimmunized. We removed the second egg of each clutch, while we allowed the other eggs to hatch. We assessed oxidative stress in females 24h after immunization, yolk antioxidant capacity of the second egg of the clutch and survival success of the offspring until adulthood. Compared to controls, immunized females had higher oxidative damage, but similar plasma non-enzymatic antioxidant levels. The treatment did not affect yolk antioxidants, clutch size, laying date and offspring survival. However, we found a positive correlation between yolk antioxidant capacity and offspring survival, irrespective of the treatment. Our study suggests that our immune challenge may not have changed female strategy of antioxidant allocation between self-maintenance and offspring survival.

Interstitial ectopic pregnancy after salpingectomy due to previous tubal pregnancy - a case report.

Ectopic pregnancy is the development of the embryo outside the uterine cavity. In recent years an increase in the incidence of ectopic pregnancies has been observed. It is mainly related to the increased number of IVF procedures. The most frequent localization is the ampulla of the fallopian tube. In cases of intramural or cornual ectopic pregnancies, many patients have a history of ectopic pregnancy on the same side or underwent partial salpingectomy in the past. Treatment of such pregnancies involves laparotomy and removal of the uterus or comu of the uterus. This case concerns a patient operated because of intramural pregnancy. She had a salpingectomy in the past because of tubal ectopic pregnancy on the same side. This case shows that even after removal of the fallopian tube there is still a risk of ectopic pregnancy in the intramural part of this tube.

All eggs are made equal: meta-analysis of egg sexual size dimorphism in birds.

Sex-biased resource allocation in avian eggs has gained increasing interest. The adaptive explanations of such allocation are often related to life-history strategies of the studied species. In some species, egg sexual size dimorphism (SSD) was suggested to promote future size differences between adults of each sex. In other species, egg SSD was invoked as an adaptive means by which a mother balances sex-specific nestling mortality. According to the first scenario, mothers should produce bigger eggs for the bigger sex, thus across species, adult SSD should be a significant positive predictor of egg SSD. Under the second scenario, mothers should produce bigger eggs for the smaller sex. If different species use contrasting strategies, then a universal expectation is that there should be a significant relationship between the magnitude of adult SSD and the magnitude of egg SSD, irrespective of the direction of those differences. Our aim was to examine whether the direction of egg SSD is predicted by the direction of adult SSD or whether degree of egg SSD is related to degree of adult SSD. To answer that question, we performed meta-analysis of 63 studies, which included information on egg SSD of 65 effect sizes from 51 avian species. We found that across species, adult SSD does not predict egg SSD. More importantly, the observed variation in effect sizes in our data set was largely explained by sampling error (variance). Although adult SSD is undoubtedly a prominent feature of birds, there is little evidence for egg SSD across avian species.

Rapid increase in the incidence of type 1 diabetes in Polish children from 1989 to 2004, and predictions for 2010 to 2025.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: We analysed the temporal changes in the incidence of childhood type 1 diabetes and its demographic determinants in Poland from 1989 to 2004, validating the model with data from 1970 to 1989. We also estimated a predictive model of the trends in childhood diabetes incidence for the near future. METHODS: Children under 15 years with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes mellitus and drawn from seven regional registries in Poland were ascertained prospectively using the Epidemiology and Prevention of Diabetes study (EURODIAB) criteria. The type 1 diabetes incidence rates (IRs) were analysed in dependency of age, sex, seasonality, geographical region and population density. Time trends in IR were modelled using several approaches. RESULTS: The average incidence, standardised by age and sex, for 1989 to 2004 was 10.2 per 100,000 persons per year and increased from 5.4 to 17.7. No difference was found between boys and girls, or between urban and rural regions. In children above 4 years, IR was significantly higher in the population of northern Poland than in that of the country's southern part, as well as in the autumn-winter season, this finding being independent of child sex. Based on the trend model obtained, almost 1,600 Polish children aged 0 to 14 years are expected to develop type 1 diabetes in 2010, rising to more than 4,800 in 2025. The estimates suggest at least a fourfold increase of IR between 2005 and 2025, with the highest dynamics of this increment in younger children. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: These estimates show that Poland will have to face a twofold higher increase in childhood type 1 diabetes than predicted for the whole European population. The dramatic increase could have real downstream effects on Poland's healthcare system.