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In this article, we read and analyse selected young adult novels by Chinese-German author Wei Cheng that address the dilemmas faced by young female Chinese immigrants in Western countries. The aim is to explore the ways in which the construction of femininity and gender are inextricably bound up with categories of race and ethnicity in China-West encounters, and to probe the dynamics of such encounters embedded in the larger socio-political power structures. Through a critical analysis of the representation of Chinese femininity vis-à-vis Western masculinity, the essay interrogates the workings of the “Orientalist gaze” in relation to patriarchy and gender politics. The portrayals of the cross-racial encounter in Shaonv de Hong Chenyi (The Girl’s Red T-Shirt), which reiterate received ideas about the Orient, may be read as a product of self-Orientalisation, where the intriguing position of the adolescent Chinese girl prompts a rethinking of postcolonial gendered subjectivities. While self-Orientalisation may work to legitimate the discourse of Orientalism, the reading of Shaonv de Hong Faqia (The Girl’s Red Hairpin) reveals the ways in which self-Orientalisation could function as strategic essentialism that allows the female “Oriental” Other to gaze back and stand Orientalism on its head. The marriage between gendered and postcolonial approaches to children’s and young adult texts promises to act as a crucial intervention in the global struggle against hegemony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reads contemporary Chinese children's author Yin Jianling's novels The Paper Puppy (Zhiren) and Orange Fish (Juzi Yu) alongside her letter collection Fifteen Letters to Girls (Zhi Weilai de Ni) to explore the overarching themes of femininity, difference and female sexualities. The Paper Puppy weaves homoeroticism, heterosexuality, pre-marital sex and teenage pregnancy into one single novel. Homoeroticism, linked with the curiosity for the changing adolescent female body, marks the end of sexual innocence and the beginning of sexual awakening for protagonist Su, which is entwined intricately with the adolescent girl's physical, emotional and psychological maturation. In contrast, heterosexuality is portrayed in both novels as a deviant and potentially perilous site for adolescent girls. Fraught with the attendant risks of pregnancy, abortion and even suicide, adolescent heterosexual relationships are to be cautioned against. The analysis suggests that despite her self-proclaimed re-traditionalisation and anti-feminist stance in the letters, the sexual discourses in Yin's novels are much more subtle and complex, saturated with feminist and queer overtones. Significantly, in the development of adolescent female sexualities, whether homoerotic or heterosexual, the role of motherhood and adult mentorship is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reads the Chinese-language novel Fang Siqi's Paradise of First Love (Fang Siqi de Chulian Leyuan) against the English classic Lolita by focusing on three areas where the novels converge: the intertwinement of rape and romantic discourses of love, the relationship between rape and masculinity, and the dynamics of vulnerability, victimization and agency. The analysis reveals that as a time-tested classic in English literature, Lolita is in fact rather conventional as a rape text. In contrast, Fang Siqi articulates rape in a way that challenges conventional frames of thinking and representations of the experience of rape and sexual violation. In many ways, Fang Siqi can be read as a retort to Lolita. Despite the fact that the novel relies equally on the traditional binaries of the male sexual predator and the adolescent female victim, Fang Siqi nonetheless sabotages conventional rape paradigms embodied in Lolita – by turning the clichéd love narrative upside down, by subverting masculinity and male dominance on various levels, and by linking personal agency to collective resistance and action. Writing Fang Siqi with Lolita in mind, the Taiwanese author Lin Yihan stands in a rather provocative posture vis-à-vis Vladimir Nabokov, self-consciously pitting herself against theworld literary giant by bringing in the frequently-absent but much-needed female perspective to the rape narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the representation of the figure of the effeminate boy in two contemporary adolescent novels written in Chinese which break the silence in addressing alternative gender and sexual identities. In A Beautiful Heart, the transsexual and homosexual tendencies evinced by an effeminate boy are treated as forms of sexual perversion to be cured through professional psychotherapy. The narrative's tensions and contradictions, however, call into question the reductive discourse of pathology. Such questioning unsettles, but does not subvert, the text's explicit conservatism, nor does it attribute legitimacy to queer identities. The Dream of A Beautiful Lad, on the other hand, sets out expressly to interrogate and shatter the monopoly of received opinions about boyhood, gender, maturity and adulthood. In presenting cases of gender nonconformity, however, the text reveals its own complicity in binarism, carrying with it strong traces of androgynous humanism which, in its intention to validate queer existence, is inevitably coloured by heteronormative and heterosexist prejudices. It is concluded that the various forms of gender-crossing and trans-phenomena represented as accompanying queer boyhood do not necessarily entail transcendence or subversion. The figure of the effeminate boy is nonetheless a welcome presence in children's and adolescent literature, unleashing possibilities for resistance and intervention in a rigidly gender-defined society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School stories in contemporary China, which target a pre- and early-adolescent readership, frequently evoke representations of girlhood and boyhood in normative gender terms. The present article considers issues of femininity and gender in Tomboy Dai An (Jia Xiaozi Dai An), one among a series of commercially successful school stories by the popular female author Yang Hongying. Drawing on contemporary theories of gender and sexuality with a primary focus on Judith Butler's work, the article examines critically the text's representations of femininity, its construction of ideal womanhood, and the strenuous labour invested in correcting gender deviations. It is posited that, on the one hand, Yang's text, written with the overt intention to enhance children's gender awareness, serves to guide female children into traditional feminine roles, and as such, risks reaffirming gender stereotypes and perpetuating patriarchal values. On the other hand, by revealing the contingency associated with gendered identities, and by acknowledging that deliberate—and sometimes even violent—efforts need to be made to preempt and correct gender deviations, the text sets out to question, paradoxically and inadvertently, the very stability and authority of gender as a natural fact, calling attention instead to its improvisatory and performative nature. Despite its effort to shape the thinking of young readers, the text nonetheless presents the pre- and early-adolescent years as a potentially deviant site where different possibilities of gender play out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern children’s literature in China has largely been dominated by narratives of the nation and nationalism. The present article sets out to question the dominance of that nationalist stance as the country transitioned into the modern era in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By examining poetic children’s literature, the author unravels distinct non-nationalist intellectual sentiments in competition with the mainstream nationalist discourse that point to an imaginative envisioning of modernity. The article starts with a discussion of children’s poems and school songs imbued with a strong patriotic zeal in the late Qing and early Republican periods, and then moves on to the May Fourth period when lyricism and romanticism drew the attention of children’s literature advocates. Romantic-minded translators and writers, such as Bing Xin, embraced love as a humanist cosmopolitan vision while others, such as Zhou Zuoren and Liu Bannong, turned to local literary heritage, giving rise to a form of children’s songs with strong local consciousness. The article concludes by addressing the relevance of the insights derived from the historical case studies for contemporary children’s literature in China and beyond. It highlights the possibilities of envisaging modernity in non-nationalist terms and stresses the importance of cultivating in children alternative sentiments in the age of rising nationalism, both past and present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipoblastoma is a rare neoplasm of embryonal adipose tissue most often encountered on the trunk and extremities of children. It commonly presents as a painless subcutaneous soft tissue mass, but there are other unique clinical presentations that are important to recognize. The differential is broad and includes sarcoma, vascular tumor, myofibroma, and other fibromatoses. We present three varied, distinct cases of pediatric lipoblastoma and review the literature on this condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are numerous skin conditions that occur commonly in children with ethnic skin, including vitiligo, progressive macular hypomelanosis, pityriasis alba, acne keloidalis nuchae, pseudofolliculitis barbae, and keloids. Though these conditions occur in both children and adults, children may have different patterns of clinical presentation and response to therapy. In caring for such patients, important treatment considerations include side effects of systemic medications and tolerability of invasive procedures. Quality of life is an important measure and should not be compromised by either the skin disease or its treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infantile fistula-in-ano is a well-known entity to pediatric surgeons but less recognized by dermatologists. Because these patients may initially present to a dermatologist or pediatric dermatologist, familiarity with the presentation is important. We present two infants with fistula-in-ano and review the literature on this condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many recent studies have been conducted on the implementation and results of patron-driven acquisition (PDA) initiatives at academic libraries, very few have focused on whether, or how, patrons’ selections vary from selection choices librarians would have made. This study compares titles selected by patrons during a PDA pilot program against titles chosen by subject librarians from the same PDA list. The findings may serve as a starting point for other researchers interested in the impact of user-oriented selection initiatives on a library's collection development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objectives: In acoustic voice analysis, the fact that reproducible methods of sample selection have not been defined impedes research study generalizability and clinical assessment of treatment efficacy. Because perturbation results differ along a single signal, this study sought to establish objective methods of sample selection by use of a moving window to determine the most stable regions of phonation. Methods: Voice signals obtained from 21 patients affected by laryngeal conditions associated with Parkinson's disease were analyzed to study jitter, shimmer, signal-to-noise ratio, and correlation dimension parameters when various sample selection procedures were used. Objectively selected voice samples were chosen based upon 5%, 10%, and 20% variance from a signal's minimum perturbation value. The stability of these samples, defined by the standard deviations of the acoustic measurements, was compared to the stability of unselected samples and subjectively selected samples. Results: A significant decrease in standard deviation values of acoustic parameters was found in comparing the objectively selected samples (particularly those selected with 5% and 10% variance) to the subjectively selected and unselected samples. Conclusions: These results suggest that the development of an objective sample selection method may have significant effects on the stability and reliability of acoustic voice measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Substance use treatment providers have increasingly developed novel engagement and low-threshold treatment services (such as mobile treatment units) to meet the needs of people with opioid use disorder (OUD). Use of these service models has outpaced the research on their effectiveness. The current study examines the effectiveness of a mobile engagement unit in connecting individuals with OUD to a treatment program.Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 468 Medicaid-enrolled individuals served through a managed care behavioral health system. Analyses used administrative data from 2018 to 2019 to compare the characteristics and service use of individuals transported to an intake appointment by a mobile engagement unit with individuals who arrived through typical referral routes such as walk-in, other providers, and court order. The authors employed a difference-in-differences analysis to adjust for prior service history. The outcomes of interest were any utilization of substance use treatment services.Results: The groups were virtually identical in age and gender, prior to matching, except for race where there was a lower proportion of Black individuals (17% versus 44%) and lower pre-service utilization of outpatient and methadone services by the mobile group. Following intake, mobile participants used significantly more outpatient substance use treatment services (23 percentage point relative increase) and methadone maintenance (32 percentage point relative increase) than the comparison group.Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that mobile engagement units designed to identify and serve individuals with OUD in the community hold promise for reaching underserved high-risk populations and reduce barriers to treatment entry and recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how 8th-grade civics teachers kept their students engaged in learning during the abrupt shift to remote teaching caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. We analyzed the interview transcripts of 10 teachers who were piloting a new civics curriculum during the 2019–2020 school year. We found that three of 10 teachers leveraged technological tools to offer more authentic learning experiences for their students, which led to increased student engagement online. Implications for practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on usage of electronic books (e-books) among advanced researchers, including graduate students and faculty, at a four-year academic institution. The researchers aimed to highlight differences in behavior, perception, and attitude between users and non-users of e-books. The survey findings suggest that, while a majority of these researchers do not necessarily favor e-books over print books, they do appreciate the convenience of the electronic format. Moreover, the results also indicate that many researchers may be entirely unaware of the library e-books available in their areas of study or may not fully realize all the features already being offered by some of these e-books, such as highlighting, note-taking, accessibility options, and downloading. These findings provide timely and practical applications for librarians interested in increasing library e-book usage with focused marketing plans targeting the needs of specific patron segments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article describes the case of a 25-year-old woman with type 2 diabetes mellitus who came to the emergency department for evaluation of a hyperpigmented lesion on the shin and was diagnosed to have necrobiosis lipoidica. Topics covered include the performance of punch biopsy of the lesion to confirm the diagnosis, the characteristic appearance of necrobiosis lipoidica, and treatment of the disease.

This survey of graduate students' and faculty's use and non-use of ebooks is a follow-up to the data captured in 2011 from the same mid-sized public university in southeast Texas. In addition to providing a change comparison of faculty and graduate students' ebooks usage over the past decade, the study also aims to contribute to the growing ebook literature examining faculty and graduate students' perception and use of ebooks for different academic activities. Survey results showed that while the proportion of respondents who are library ebook users had increased significantly over the past decade, both ebook users and non-users' attitude towards e- and print books remained consistent. Most ebook users appreciated features such as keyword searches and copy and pasting, but the majority also valued the option to print out pages and chapters. Respondents' format preferences also shifted based on their academic needs, although some of the feature limitations that prompted some users to switch from or avoid library ebooks were caused by DRM restrictions that could be removed by publishers. The findings have implications beyond the institution for academic library ebook acquisition and communication with local user populations. Other marketing and future research implications of the findings are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lymphomatoid papulosis (LyP) type E is a rare variant of the primary cutaneous CD30+ lymphoproliferative disorders, characterized clinically by large necrotic eschar‐like lesions and histopathologically by angiodestructive and angioinvasive infiltrates of CD30+ lymphocytes. As in other forms of lymphomatoid papulosis, type E lesions may undergo spontaneous regression after weeks, with frequent recurrences. We report a 21‐year old male with an angiodestructive infiltrate of CD30+ lymphocytes manifesting as a papular eruption rather than ulceration, and suggest that this clinical phenotype might be related to the presence of CD4+ lymphocytes in the inflammatory cell infiltrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study serves as an update to a previous study by Sam Houston State University librarians about the use and preferences of Internet, communication, and educational technologies among students. Since the previous study was initiated in 2010, the iPad has made its debut and significantly altered the educational technology landscape. In this new landscape, this study investigates student usage of such technologies as instant messaging, cell phones, e-readers, social networking, RSS feeds, podcasts, and tablets. In addition, this study aims to determine which technologies students prefer the library to utilize for a variety of services, such as reference assistance or book renewals, and which technologies may not be worth the investment, such as geosocial networking. The information gained from this survey is intended to provide guidance for libraries looking to provide services utilizing the most popular technologies with the most efficient use of resources. Survey results show an increasing use and dependence on educational technologies and a desire for basic library services to be available on a variety of platforms and technologies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article analyzes data gathered over a year-long survey of library employees' opinions of sexually related materials in library collections. Surveys generally examine patron attitudes rather than the attitudes of library employees, whose attitudes and beliefs can have a strong effect on the collection. The researchers discovered themes in the data, such as varying definitions and differences between pornography and erotica, legality issues and misconceptions, differing perceptions of censorship dependent on library type, and a possible lack of acceptance of non-heteronormative material. The survey and analysis serve as a contribution to the ongoing discussion of appropriateness of sexually related materials in libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The researchers conducted task-based usability testing of the EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) with 20 students. While most participants felt positively about EDS, a few usability issues emerged. Confusion arose regarding source types and icons, facets/limiters, relevancy ranking, integrated search connectors, and more. Students encountered difficulty with spelling corrections and a failure to understand terminology, and they demonstrated an unwillingness to view additional pages of search results. Findings indicate the need for changes to the local implementation of EDS as well as to those features and structures under EBSCO's control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines technology trends in higher education and how they impact student habits and preferences in college libraries. A study was conducted among students at the Sam Houston State University in East Texas to investigate their usage of electronic devices and technologies such as text messaging, Twitter, podcasts, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, and social networks. Results indicate that students do wish that basic library services were available through the most popular social networking sites and Internet technologies. Topics include a review of literature consulted, methods used, and the demographics of the student body researched.

An abstract of the article "New World Screw-Worm Infestation in a Teenager with Darier Disease," by Gil Abramovici and colleagues is presented.