Vitor Santos

Background: This study developed a photo and video database of 4-to-6-year-olds expressing the seven induced and posed universal emotions and a neutral expression. Children participated in photo and video sessions designed to elicit the emotions, and the resulting images were further assessed by independent judges in two rounds. Methods: In the first round, two independent judges, experts in the Facial Action Coding System, firstly analysed 3,668 emotions facial expressions stimuli from 132 children. Both judges reached 100% agreement regarding 1,985 stimuli, which were then selected for a second round of analysis between judges 3 and 4. Results: The result was 1,985 stimuli were produced from 124 participants. A Kappa index of 0.70 and an accuracy of 73% between experts were observed. Lower accuracy was found for emotional expression by 4-year-olds than 6-year-olds. Happiness, disgust and contempt had the highest agreement. After a sub-analysis evaluation of all four judges, 100% agreement was reached for 1,381 stimuli which compound the ChildEFES database with 124 participants and 51% induced photographs. The number of stimuli of each emotion were: 87 for neutrality, 363 for happiness, 170 for disgust, 104 for surprise, 152 for fear, 144 for sadness, 157 for anger 157, and 183 for contempt. Conclusions: The findings show that this photo and video database can facilitate research on the mechanisms involved in early childhood recognition of facial emotions in children, contributing to the understanding of facial emotion recognition deficits which characterise several neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.

Machado de Assis was the 19th century Brazilian writer whose work registered the nihilism with greater consistency. Despite the fact that the presence of nihilism in his works has already been recognized, the subject received little attention from critics and scholars, remaining an unexplored field. This paper aims to fill this gap in the critical fortune, and not only argue for the relevance of the subject, but also in favor of the thesis that the Brazilian writer had an acute awareness of the complex and multifaceted nature of the nineteenth-century nihilism. Attentive to the rise of nihilism in 19th century, Machado de Assis approached the problem in a critical and comic tone, contrasting their approach with the philosophical tradition seriousness. By writing with a playful pen, he used humor as one of the main principles of literary composition in his work. He enriched this feature using it as a kind of centerpiece to criticize and deride the spirit of his time, demonstrating that the problem of nihilism may be responded to with an attitude of good humor and irony.