Deep Learning Neural Modelling as a Precise Method in the Assessment of the Chronological Age of Children and Adolescents Using Tooth and Bone Parameters

Dental age is one of the most reliable methods for determining a patient’s age. The timing of teething, the period of tooth replacement, or the degree of tooth attrition is an important diagnostic factor in the assessment of an individual’s developmental age. It is used in orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, endocrinology, forensic medicine, and pathomorphology, but also in scenarios regarding international adoptions and illegal immigrants. The methods used to date are time-consuming and not very precise. For this reason, artificial intelligence methods are increasingly used to estimate the age of a patient. The present work is a continuation of the work of Zaborowicz et al. In the presented research, a set of 21 original indicators was used to create deep neural network models. The aim of this study was to verify the ability to generate a more accurate deep neural network model compared to models produced previously. The quality parameters of the produced models were as follows. The MAE error of the produced models, depending on the learning set used, was between 2.34 and 4.61 months, while the RMSE error was between 5.58 and 7.49 months. The correlation coefficient R2 ranged from 0.92 to 0.96.

Social Transactions or Christian Ministry?: International and Customary Adoption in Vanuatu

The recent surge of Western interest in international adoption has arrived in the South Pacific. Yet the Christian faith, despite disparate views about adoption, has required both expatriate and Melanesian families to consider, or sometimes reconsider, their own parameters for the adoption or placement of children. Orphan care has become a top social issue especially for Christians in recent decades. However, international adoptions are costly in terms of time and money, and are often at the nexus of these diverging values and conceptualizations. All parties involved can find the process frustrating and disillusioning, even if the end goal is noble and satisfying. In fact, adoption “as a norm” in Vanuatu can positively shape western understandings of adoption. In some ways, ni-Vanuatu conventions regarding jural inclusivity and exchange are closer to biblical ideas of family, kinning, and adoption. This article should familiarize people from “receiving countries” with customary adoption in the Pacific, and should help Melanesians understand the hurdles involved in international adoption. Hopefully, a path can be forged for international adoptions to be arranged such that the best interest of all parties is served.

Support Needs and Post-Adoption Resources for Adopted Adults: A Systematic Review

Post-adoption services provide guidance to adoptive families concerning common and specific circumstances. Despite adoption is a lifelong experience, most of the post-adoption resources are oriented towards children, adolescents and their adoptive parents. However, it is also necessary to focus on the demands and interventions with adult adoptees. The aim of this article is to review adult adoptees’ demands for post-adoption resources, applicants’ characteristics and resources offered to them. A systematic search was conducted in several databases, finding forty studies that fulfilled the selection criteria (about adults, domestic/international adoptions and published between 2005 and 2018). The included studies showed mainly three needs: contact with birth family, ethnic identity and birth culture, and psychological support. Additionally, adoptees who demand post-adoption resources are a heterogeneous group. This review collects structured programmes focused on different topics: search for origins, attachment development and professionals’ training in adoption. In addition, we also found some specific post-adoption services and other tools, such as support groups or cultural events. Finally, adoptees also have access to other resources that are not specifically for them, such as mental health services. The scarce existence of evidence-based interventions is an important weakness in this work. Recommendations for future research and practice are included.

Direito Fundamental dos Adotandos à Nacionalidade na Adoção Internacional / Fundamenal Right of Adoptees to Nationality in Adoption between States in regard to Brazilian law and the Hague Convention on International Adoption

O artigo apresenta uma visão da importância de se garantir o direito à aquisição e a garantia de uma nacionalidade, no país de acolhida, para crianças e adolescentes nas adoções internacionais que se concretizam sob a égide da Convenção da Haia sobre Adoção Internacional. A primeira etapa da investigação se inicia pela pesquisa das normativas constitucionais e infraconstitucionais brasileiras que definem o instituto da nacionalidade. Em seguida, verifica-se até que ponto ocorreu uma constitucionalização do direito internacional no tocante a direitos fundamentais, em especial o de se tornar cidadão. Posteriormente, a pesquisa busca explicar como se dá a concessão de nacionalidade nos países de acolhida de crianças e adolescentes nas adoções entre Estados, com intuito de aferir se os ditames da Convenção da Haia sobre Adoção Internacional estão sendo respeitados. Dessa feita, a pesquisa visa demonstrar a importância de adequação de normas internas ao texto convencional com intuito de consolidar as reais necessidades dos adotandos para a plena fruição de direitos nos países dos adotantes. Abstract: The article presents a vision of the importance of guaranteeing the right to acquire and guarantee a nationality in the host country for children and adolescents in international adoptions that are carried out under the aegis of the Hague Convention on International Adoption. The first stage of the investigation begins with the research of constitutional and Brazilian norms that define the institute of nationality. Then there is the extent to which a constitutionalisation of international law has taken place with regard to fundamental rights, in particular that of becoming a citizen. Subsequently, the research seeks to explain how the granting of nationality in the countries of child and adolescent adoption in inter-state adoptions, in order to verify if the dictates of the Hague Convention on International Adoption are being respected. This research aims at demonstrating the importance of adapting internal norms to the conventional text in order to consolidate the real needs of adoptees for the full enjoyment of rights in adopter countries.

Assessment and Orff Schulwerk Pedagogy

This chapter on assessing student learning and Orff Schulwerk examines the foundations of this approach, its focus on creativity, and practical applications of this pedagogy. By reviewing current research literature and international adoptions of the Schulwerk, the chapter focuses on three assessment-related challenges: a lack of clearly defined teaching practices, a de-emphasis of evaluation in the Orff process, and inherent challenges related to assessing creativity. An examination of professional resource documents and recent developments in national standards provides ways to address each of these assessment challenges in Orff-based instruction. A discussion of curricular levels offers more possibilities for enhancing authentic assessment strategies. Practical recommendations for Orff Schulwerk teachers to improve their assessment protocols and implications for teacher-educators conclude this chapter.

El “nuevo racismo” desde la lente de la “migración silenciosa”: la adopción interracial en España

The increase in international adoptions of minors (quiet migration) all over Spain has coincided in time with the rise of immigration. The links between these two phenomena give rise to a hybrid line of research focused on the racial experiences shared by both the adopted population and the immigrant population. A comparative analysis of data coming from three public opinion research sources reveals: (a) the presence of “racism without race” within Spanish society, even though phenotypic differences play a determining role in the social construction of race; and (b) a low “racial awareness” amongst interracial adoptive parents, which leads them to reproduce the ideology of “color-blind racism.”

Microfictions and Microaggressions: Counselors’ Work With Transracial Adoptees in Schools

In the United States, transracial adoptions make up 85% of international adoptions and 40% of all domestic adoptions, and most consist of White parents and adoptees of color. This article describes transracial adoptee population trends, provides a transracial adoptee student case illustration, and outlines suggestions for school counselors working with transracial adoptees, whose unique experiences include microfictions and microaggressions (transracial, racial, and adoption-related).

Globalization effects on the reports of non-endemic parasitosis in Italy

Protozoa and helminths are responsible for several intestinal parasite infections (IPIs). Generally, helminth infections are very unsafe but scarcely reported in high-income countries, while protozoa and helminth co-infections are usually reported in children living in inadequate hygienic-sanitary conditions and in rural areas. However, the impact of growing globalization, intense travelling, international adoptions and high levels of immigrants and refugees has significantly incremented the incidence of orofecal parasitosis in non-endemic areas. Although most IPs clear without treatment when population, even children, emigrate from endemic to different geographical areas, some IPIs such as strongyloidiasis may persist for decades as subclinical infections or as low-grade disease with nonspecific clinical manifestations, unless to reappear under impairment conditions. Herein we report an unusual case of Giardia lamblia and Trichuris spp. chronic asymptomatic co-infection in a healthy adopted Romanian child, living in a Central Italy rural area, and a hidden case of Strongyloides stercoralis in an adopted Burundian child, resident in South Italy, long misdiagnosed as a recurrent undefined dermatitis. Our report suggests the need to review primary care practitioner guidelines and children’s hospital procedures for appropriate IPIs screening and follow-up, hence providing new screening and prevention strategies, in agreement with international guidelines.

Globalization Effects on the Reports of Non-Endemic Parasitosis in Italy

Protozoa and helminths are responsible for several intestinal parasite infections (IPIs). Generally helminth infections are very unsafe but scarcely reported in high-income countries, while protozoa and helminth co-infections are usually reported in children living in inadequate hygienic-sanitary conditions and in rural areas. However, the impact of growing globalization, intense travelling, international adoptions and high levels of immigrants and refugees has significantly incremented the incidence of oro-faecal parasitosis in non endemic areas. Although most IPs clear without treatment when population, even children, emigrate from endemic to different geographical areas, some IPIs such as strongyloidiasis may persist for decades as subclinical infections or as low-grade disease with nonspecific clinical manifestations, unless to reappear under impairment conditions. Herein we report an unusual case of Giardia lamblia and Trichuris spp. chronic asymptomatic co-infection in a healthy adopted Romanian child, living in a Central Italy rural area, and an hidden case of Strongyloides stercoralis in an adopted Burundian child, resident in South Italy, long misdiagnosed as a recurrent undefined dermatitis. Our report suggests the need to review primary care practitioner guidelines and children's hospital procedures for appropriate IPIs screening and follow-up, hence providing new screening and prevention strategies, in agreement with international guidelines.