The Human Flesh Search Engine in China: a case-oriented approach to understanding online collective action

There has been a growing interest in online politics in China. The research mostly focuses on the role of the Internet in two areas, one is its creation of a public sphere and the challenges it poses to the existing communication and political system, and the other one is online censorship undertaken by Chinese authorities to reduce the scope of political discussion online and keep the domestic cyberspace from being merged with foreign cyberspace. However, some political uses of the Internet in China have tended to be overlooked. This thesis seeks to redress this lacuna in research by examining the political focus of a recent Internet phenomenon the Human Flesh Search Engine (HFSE). This term might be more at home in pages of a horror novel but was originally applied by the Chinese media to refer to the practice of online searching for people or human hunting. While existing examinations have focused on breaches of individual privacy by these so called online vigilantes this study mainly focuses on the ability of HFSE to reveal norms transgressions by public officials and lead to their removal. As the politically-focused HFSE is part of the tendency of Chinese popular protest, it is necessary to explore how the HFSE differs from and is similar to those offline protests in China. A case-oriented approach is applied to the research on HFSE. More specifically, the first part of this research puts the understanding of HFSE in Chinese historical context, with the aim of exploring the common dynamics between HFSE and those historical examples of Chinese bottom-up collective action. Then in the second part, a comparison between HFSE and recent Chinese offline popular protests is conducted in order to establish the pattern of politically-focused HFSE. In the third part, based on the empirical cases, the research on HFSE continues with an exploration of HFSE s underlying causal mechanisms to answer a key question of this research: why did HFSE occur? The study implies that there are continuities with respect to the Chinese bottom-up collective action as HFSE and Chinese rural resistances as well as urban labour strikes in the twentieth century of China tend to show similar dynamics, which are determined by the power structure they are exposed to. Moreover, the internal process of politically-focused HFSE differs largely from that of recent Chinese offline popular protests, which indicates that HFSE does not have an offline equivalent, although some of its stages can be witnessed offline. Furthermore, HFSE s occurrence is brought about by a combination of online and offline factors, which are relevant to not only the Internet and Chinese cyberspace, but also the political system that has contributed to the growth of official corruption and low government credibility in China

Hunting corrupt officials online: the human flesh search engine and the search for justice in China

While there is growing research on online politics in China some political uses of the Internet have tended to be overlooked. The focus of this article is on an emerging phenomenon in Chinese cyberspace, the human flesh search engine (HFSE), a term first used by the Chinese media to refer to the practice of online searching for people or 'human hunting'. While existing examinations have focused on breaches of individual privacy by these so-called online 'vigilantes' this study focuses on the ability of HFSE to reveal norm transgressions by public officials and lead to their removal. In order to give readers a comprehensive overview of what an HFSE is, the first section of this article provides basic information about it. In the second part, 20 well-documented HFSE examples are listed to show their varying aims and then HFSEs which focus on local governments and officials are shown to highlight the political dimensions of HFSE. In the third section, four case studies of government/official-focused HFSE are explored in detail to show political HFSEs' internal processes and underlying mechanisms

25.当院における内視鏡的乳頭切開術の臨床的検討(第617回千葉医学会例会・第1内科教室同門会例会)

Primer sequences and amplicon sizes. (DOCX 15 kb

Phylogeny and comparative genomic analysis of Pteriomorphia (Mollusca: Bivalvia) based on complete mitochondrial genomes

<p>The subclass Pteriomorphia is a morphologically diverse and economically important group of Mollusca. We retrieved 42 mitochondrial genomes (mtGenomes) of Pteriomorphia and concatenated protein-coding genes, rRNAs and tRNAs to assess phylogenetic relationships and divergence times among the families with maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) analyses. Both ML and BI analyses strongly support the same topology except for the position of <i>Atrina pectinata</i>. Our study confirms the monophyly of the families Arcidae, Mytilidae, Pteriidae, Ostreidae and Pectinidae. Within Pteriomorphia, we recovered two clusters, one comprising Mytilidae, Arcidae and Pectinidae, the other consisting of Ostreidae, Pteriidae and Pinnidae, but we did not confirm a basal position for any family. The phylogenetic trees suggest that Ostreidae, Pteriidae and Pinnidae should be grouped as the order Ostreoida. Divergence times of major families are estimated as follows: Arcidae, 315.9 Ma; Pectinidae, 384.4 Ma; Ostreidae, 240.8 Ma; Mytilidae, 390.8 Ma. Comparative analysis indicates a low-level codon usage bias (with an average of 50.29) in mtGenomes of Pteriomorphia. In Mytilidae and Ostreidae, the codon usage bias was under mutation pressure rather than selection. Contrastingly, mutation is not the main factor in defining the codon usage in Pectinidae and Pteriidae. Among Ostreidae, Pectinidae and Mytilidae, Ka/Ks ratios range from 0.00 to 1.22 and most values (89.11%) are less than 0.20, indicating that most genes are under strong negative or purifying selection. The protein-coding gene orders show dramatically different patterns in Pteriomorphia. There is no gene block even consisting of two genes that is shared by five families.</p

Drivers’ Visual Characteristics when Merging onto or Exiting an Urban Expressway

<div><p>The aim of this study is to examine drivers’ visual and driving behavior while merging onto or exiting an urban expressway with low and high traffic densities. The analysis was conducted according to three periods (approaching, merging or exiting, and accelerating or decelerating). A total of 10 subjects (8 males and 2 females) with ages ranging from 25 to 52 years old (M = 30.0 years old) participated in the study. The research was conducted in a natural driving situation, and the drivers’ eye movements were monitored and recorded using an eye tracking system. The results show that the influence of traffic density on the glance duration and scan duration is more significant when merging than when exiting. The results also demonstrate that the number of glances and the mean glance duration are mainly related to the driving task (e.g., the merging period). Therefore, drivers’ visual search strategies mainly depend on the current driving task. With regard to driving behavior, the variation tendencies of the duration and the velocity of each period are similar. These results support building an automated driving assistant system that can automatically identify gaps and accelerate or decelerate the car accordingly or provide suggestions to the driver to do so.</p></div

Distribution of the position of the maximum displacement amplitudes within the pulse duration.

<p>a) position of the maximum displacement within the pulse as a function of pulse length, b) histogram of the position of the maximum displacement within each pulse in percent of pulse duration. In a), different marker shapes denote different individuals and different gray levels of the marker faces (including black and white) signify different pulse sequences. The dashed line in a) marks the pulse duration, i.e., all the points falling below this line indicates that the maximum displacement never occurred after the end of the pulse.</p

The velocity of the merging or exiting behavior with high and low traffic densities.

<p>The velocity of the merging or exiting behavior with high and low traffic densities.</p

Mean glance duration of each <i>DIR</i> with high and low traffic densities at the entrance or exit.

<p>Mean glance duration of each <i>DIR</i> with high and low traffic densities at the entrance or exit.</p

Experimental regression model.

<p>Experimental regression model.</p

Deformation pattern of the anterior leaf.

<p>a,b) two subsequent frames (spacing 1/30 s) from a video recording of the anterior leaf vibration. The horizontal white lines provide a reference for comparing the positions of the anterior rim of the leaf. c) schematic cross-section through the deforming anterior leaf, gray: cross-section of the anterior leaf at rest, black: cross-section of the anterior leaf when twitching forward.</p