Orality, multimodality and creativity in digital writing: Chinese users’ experiences and practices with bullet comments on <i>Bilibili</i>

Responding to recent calls in sociolinguistics and social semiotics to study the material, technological and embodied features of writing, this article examines Chinese users’ experiences and practices with the emergent technology of bullet comments on Bilibili, a major video-sharing platform and breeding ground for online subcultures. As one of the first studies based on in-depth interviews with its long term users, this article demonstrates that the unique design of bullet comments, by inserting writing into a moving screen, creates multimedia, multimodal semiotic affordances, reinforces “participatory spectacles,” and facilitates powerful multisensory, bonding experiences similar to the (secondary) orality culture. Users’ diverse range of adaptive and creative practices, which resemiotize available linguistic, visual and cultural resources to create new meaning-making possibilities, are analysed. Considering the recent “desubculturization” of Bilibili and its increased interactions with mainstream culture and the state media, this timely study is well positioned to capture users’ observations about this transition, and assess potential impacts on their experiences and writing practices. It is pointed out that the new synergy of youth nationalism and the technology of bullet comments reflects the complex interplay between writing as a technologized social-semiotic practice, and the wider social, cultural and political conditions.</p

The image corners responding to leaf teeth.

<p>The image corners responding to leaf teeth.</p

The obtained binary image.

<p>The obtained binary image.</p

Table_1_Case Report: TNF-Alpha Inhibitors to Rescue Pregnancy in Women With Potential Pregnancy Loss: A Report of Ten Cases.xlsx

Miscarriage poses a significant threat to pregnant women globally. Recurrent miscarriages or potential poor embryonic development indicated by early drops in serum human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) are even more catastrophic for pregnant women. However, these patients receive either individualized medical intervention supported by limited evidence or no treatment at all. In this study, we report ten patients who shared at least one episode of an early decline of hCG in the first trimester and were treated with compassionate use of tumor necrosis factor-alpha inhibitor (TNFi). They were then followed up regularly with caution. Their hCG trajectory all resumed a normal pattern within one week and the obstetric outcomes were promising. No adverse fetal, neonatal, or maternal health issues have been observed. This case series supports current safety evidence of TNFi and provides new insight into its use in pregnancy when the embryo is in danger. Further well-designed clinical trials should be carried out to consolidate the evidence.</p

A Novel Method of Automatic Plant Species Identification Using Sparse Representation of Leaf Tooth Features

<div><p>Automatic species identification has many advantages over traditional species identification. Currently, most plant automatic identification methods focus on the features of leaf shape, venation and texture, which are promising for the identification of some plant species. However, leaf tooth, a feature commonly used in traditional species identification, is ignored. In this paper, a novel automatic species identification method using sparse representation of leaf tooth features is proposed. In this method, image corners are detected first, and the abnormal image corner is removed by the PauTa criteria. Next, the top and bottom leaf tooth edges are discriminated to effectively correspond to the extracted image corners; then, four leaf tooth features (Leaf-num, Leaf-rate, Leaf-sharpness and Leaf-obliqueness) are extracted and concatenated into a feature vector. Finally, a sparse representation-based classifier is used to identify a plant species sample. Tests on a real-world leaf image dataset show that our proposed method is feasible for species identification.</p></div

The four leaf tooth features for four example images.

<p>The four leaf tooth features for four example images.</p

Illustration of the third and fourth leaf tooth features.

<p>Illustration of the third and fourth leaf tooth features.</p

List of important notations.

<p>List of important notations.</p

The example image for <i>Cyclobalanopsis glauca (Thunb</i>.<i>)</i> Oerst.

<p>The example image for <i>Cyclobalanopsis glauca (Thunb</i>.<i>)</i> Oerst.</p

The example image for <i>Duranta repens</i> Linn.

<p>The example image for <i>Duranta repens</i> Linn.</p