The Relationships Between Executive Function and Positive Reappraisal Abilities in Adulthood

Positive reappraisal, a type of emotion regulation that involves cognitively reframing negative information in a positive light, has been shown to promote resilience in stressed individuals (i.e., it decreases depression and enhances well-being). The ability to use positive reappraisal (PRA) varies widely across individuals, raising the question of which cognitive functions might support this ability. Only a few studies have investigated this question, and they have not yet examined the relationships between PRA and executive functions that involve emotional materials ( valence-specific executive functions; EF). The first part of the present study examined the relationships between PRA and two types of valence-specific EF theorized to be involved in PRA: inhibition of negative information and working memory for positive information. A community sample of 250 men and women (age 18 to 72 years) completed a PRA task and several valence-specific EF tasks. Results indicated no associations between PRA and valence-specific EF. To take a step further, the second part of the study investigated whether age moderated the relationships between PRA and valence-specific EF. Previous studies have documented decline in cognitive function but well-preserved emotional function in old age. This raises the question of whether the relationships between PRA and valence-specific EF change as a function of age. Regression analyses indicated an interaction between age and inhibition of negative information, such that older adults with better inhibition of negative information demonstrated higher PRA, whereas younger adults with better inhibition of negative information showed lower PRA. These results have important implications for understanding how valence-specific EF supports PRA in adulthood. Potential explanations, methodological and theoretical implications, and future directions are discussed

A STUDY ON DEVELOPMENT AND CURRENT APPLICATION OF MOTION GRAPHIC IN TAIWAN’S POPULAR MUSIC

With the advances in technology, the way of communications has become more diverse. Motion graphic combines graphic design, animation design, and film languages. Motion graphic is a new industry with intense performance styles and can be used in different media and platforms, such as commercials, music videos, film and television titles, web pages, and various display screen sizes, etc. Because motion graphic is a non-narrative time-based media, mostly it combines with music. The Taiwan 25th Golden Melody Awards introduced motion graphic design for the first time in 2014. This changed the monotony of past awards ceremony and reignited audience’s attention and discussion, as well as sparked a wave of motion graphic within the country. Through in-depth interviews with some industry experts, this study has defined the concept of motion graphic, analyzed its applications and development in popular music, and explored its future trends. The results of the study show that motion graphic is a cross-domain integration. With the appearance of interactive technology products, motion graphic strengthens the connection between the media and the audience, bringing different interactive experiences to the audience. The development of the Internet has also led to the spread of motion graphic due to high image quality, which has changed the speed of message dissemination and the way people listen to music. Because motion graphic has the advantage of actively transmitting messages, it has three main applications in popular music, which are music videos, concert video design, and the visual presentation of award ceremony. It is an inevitable trend that future music will be presented in the form of motion graphic

Gender Determination using Fingerprint Features

Several previous studies have investigated the gender difference of the fingerprint features. However, regarding to the statistical significance of such differences, inconsistent results have been obtained. To resolve this problem and to develop a method for gender determination, this work proposes and tests three fingertip features for gender determination. Fingerprints were obtained from 115 normal healthy adults comprised of 57 male and 58 female volunteers. All persons were born in Taiwan and were of Han nationality. The age range was18-35 years. The features of this study are ridge count, ridge density, and finger size, all three of which can easily be determined by counting and calculation. Experimental results show that the tested ridge density features alone are not very effective for gender determination. However, the proposed ridge count and finger size features of left little fingers are useful, achieving a classification accuracy of 75% (P-valu