Adoption

Le présent article vise à appréhender la gestation pour autrui (GPA) sous l’angle de l’accès aux origines et à mettre en exergue les difficultés et les questions susceptibles de se poser lors de la recherche de ses origines par un enfant/adulte né par le
biais de cette méthode particulière.

A sequel to the groundbreaking volume Race and Racism in Modern East Asia: Western and Eastern Constructions, the present volume examines in depth interactions between Western racial constructions of East Asians and local constructions of race and their outcomes in modern times. Focusing on China, Japan and the two Koreas, it also analyzes the close ties between race, racism and nationalism, as well as the links race has had with gender and lineage in the region. Written by some of the field's leading authorities, this insightful and engaging 23-chapter volume offers a sweeping overview and analysis of racial constructions and racism in modern and contemporary East Asia that is unsurpassed in previous scholarship.


TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations and Tables
Conventions
Preface

1. Introduction: The Synthesis of Foreign and Indigenous Constructions of Race in Modern East Asia and Its Actual Operation, Rotem Kowner and Walter Demel
I. Antecedents: A Detailed Examination of Early Western Racial Constructions of East Asians
II. Interactions: The Fusion of European and Asian Constructions of Race
III. Nationalism: Interactions between Race and Ethnic Nationalism in East Asia
IV. Gender and Lineage: The Impact of Domestic and Foreign Racial Constructions

PART I: ANTECEDENTS
2. East Asians in the Linnaean Taxonomy: Sources and Implications of a Racial Image, Rotem Kowner and Christina Skott
The Linnaean Revolution and View of Humankind
Sources of Linnaeus’ Racial Perspective on East Asians
The Essence of Asia: Swedish Views of China
Swedish Reports and Linnaeus’ Revision of His Human Taxonomy
Linnaeus’ Legacy and the Unfolding Racial View of East Asians
3. Constructing Racial Theories on East Asians as a Transnational “Western” Enterprise, 1750-1850, Walter Demel
The Founding Fathers of Racial Theories: Linnaeus, Buffon, Kant and Camper
The Second Generation: Multiple Directions
4. The ‘Races’ of East Asia in Nineteenth-Century European Encyclopaedias, Georg Lehner
Classifying the Peoples of Asia
The Encyclopedias' Main Sources for Remarks on the “Races” of East Asia
Chinese, Japanese and Koreans: Descriptions of East Asian peoples
Stereotypes of East Asians in General Knowledge
Visual Representations of Race in Works of General Knowledge
Concluding Remarks
5. The Racial Image of the Japanese in the Western Press Published in Japan, 1861-1881, Olavi K. Fält
Background
The Oldest People on Earth
The Shining Japanese Race
Weak and Inferior Race
Praising the Endeavors of a Poor Race
Conclusion

PART II: INTERACTIONS
6. The Propagation of Racial Thought in Nineteenth-Century China, Daniel Barth
The Background: Imperial China and the “Other”
Stage I (1846-1851): Marques and Wei Yuan
Stage II (1851-1855): Hobson and Muirhead
Stage III (1855-1872): The Self-Strengthening Movement
Stage IV (1872-1892): John Fryer and the Chinese Scientific and Industrial Magazine
Conclusion: Chinese Intellectuals, Social Darwinism and Race
7. Learning from the South: Japan's Racial Construction of Southern Chinese, 1895-1941, Huei-Ying Kuo
The South Seas as Japan’s Backyard, 1895-1914
Japan's Expansion into the Southern Chinese Networks, 1914-1928
Chinese Anti-Japanese Nationalism and Japanese Discourses on South Seas Chinese, 1928-1936
Southern Chinese as Non-Han Races, 1936-1941
Conclusions
8. “The Great Question of the World Today”: Britain, the Dominions, East Asian Immigration and the Threat of Race War, 1905-11, Antony Best
Immigration and “the Awakening of Asia”
The Prophets of Race War
Critics of White Solidarity
Finessing the Racial Divide
Conclusions
9. “Uplifting the Weak and Degenerated Races of East Asia”: American and Indigenous Views of Sport and Body in Early Twentieth-Century East Asia, Stefan Hübner
Sportive Citizenship Training in the Philippines
Chinese Cooperation and Acceptance of American-Style Modernization
Japanese Resistance and its Defeat by American Style Modernization
Conclusion
10. Racism under Negotiation: The Japanese Race in the Nazi-German Perspective, Gerhard Krebs
Early Nazi Views on the Japanese Racial Position
Becoming More Aryan
The Problem with the Japanese in the Nazi Worldview
Continuing Mutual Mistrust
The End
11. Discourses of Race and Racism in Modern Korea, 1890s-1945 , Vladimir Tikhonov
Race and Its Uncertainties
The Emergence of Race Theories in Modern Korea: One of the Logics of the “Civilized World”
“Race” and “Ethnic Nation” in Colonial Korea, 1910-1945
Conclusion: Race as a Path to Modernist Self-assertion?
12. The United States Arrives: Racialization and Racism in Post-1945 South Korea, Nadia Y. Kim
Contextual Background: America Marches In and Mass Mediates
The American Military, Whiteness, and Imperialist Racial Formation
American Mass Media, White Heroes, and Counter-Hegemony
Blackness and Imperialist Racial Formation
Racism and Invisibility in Korean “America”
Concluding Remarks
13. A Post-Communist Coexistence in Northeast Asia? Mutual Racial Attitudes among Russians and Indigenous Peoples of Siberia, David Lewis
Discrimination against Siberian Peoples as an Outcome of Racial Prejudice
The Origin and Legacy of Russian Attitudes to Asians
Racial Attitudes among Indigenous Siberian Peoples
The Communist Model of Racial Modus Vivendi
The Impact of Prolonged Racism on Indigenous Siberian Peoples
Marriage as an Anti-Racist Means in a Multi-Racial Society

PART III: NATIONALISM
14. Nationalism and Internationalism: Sino-American Racial Perceptions of the Korean War, Lü Xun
Descendants of the Mongolian Hordes: American Perceptions of the Chinese
The Ambitious Wolf: Chinese Perceptions of Americans
The Mirrored Self: A Nation-State in the Making
15. Gangtai Patriotic Songs and Racialized Chinese Nationalism, Yinghong Cheng
Gangtai Patriotic Songs: A “Colored” Political Genre of Pop Music
A Tacit Collaboration between the Party-State and Capitalist Cultural Producers in Hong Kong and Taiwan
The Interaction between Gangtai Patriotic Songs and Chinese Popular Nationalism
Analyses
Concluding Remarks
16. Japanese as Both a “Race” and a “Non-Race”: The Politics of Jinshu and Minzoku and the Depoliticization of Japaneseness, Yuko Kawai
The Historical Trajectories of Jinshu and Minzoku
Being a “Race” and a “Non-Race” in Present-day Japan: An Empirical Study
Conclusions and Implications
17. Ethnic Nationalism in Postwar Japan: Nihonjinron and Its Racial Facets, Rotem Kowner and Harumi Befu
Premises of Nihonjinron
Nihonjinron as a Manifestation of Japanese Nationalism
Nihonjinron and Its Concern with Origin, Blood and Racial Hierarchy
The Impact of Race-Related Tenets on Everyday Life
Functions of Ethnic Nationalism in Contemporary Japan
Concluding Remarks
18. Ethnic Nationalism and Internationalism in the North Korean Worldview, Tatiana Gabroussenko
The Soviet Discourse of the Outside World: Conditional Internationalism
The North Korean Worldview in the “Soviet Era”: Echoing the Soviet Paradigm
Mono-Ethnicity as a Special Korean Virtue: The Evolution of the North Korean World Vision under the Influence of Juche
North Korean Propaganda about Foreigners from Inclusive and Alienating Perspectives
Conclusion

PART IV: GENDER AND LINEAGE
19. In the Name of the Master: Race, Nationalism and Masculinity in Chinese Martial Arts Cinema, Kai-man Chang
From Anti-imperialist Nationalism to Cultural Nationalism
Masculinities That Matter
Conclusion
20. Sexualized Racism, Gender and Nationalism: The Case of Japan’s Sexual Enslavement of Korean “Comfort Women”, Bang-soon Yoon
Korean “Comfort Women”: Drawn in as Substitutes
The Nature of Victimization
Colonial Policies and the Mobilization of Korean Women
Treatment of Korean “Comfort Women”
Lives under Sexual Slavery
Nationalism, Gender and Sexual Violence
Conclusion
21. “The Guilt Feeling That You Exist”: War, Racism and Indisch-Japanese Identity Formation, Aya Ezawa
Power, Discourse, and “Mixed Blood”
The Indisch and the Dutch East Indies
The Indisch Community under Japanese Occupation
Indisch-Japanese Relationships
Indisch-Japanese Descendants
Conclusion
22. ‘The “Amerasian” Knot: Transpacific Crossings of “GI Babies” from Korea to the United States, W. Taejin Hwang
“An Act of Both Humanity and Patriotism”: The Amerasian Immigration Act of 1982
“Confucius’ Outcasts”: The Korean Amerasian “Plight”
Inter-country Adoption of Korean “GI Babies”
Living as a “Mixed-Blood Child” (Honhyeola) in Cold War Korea
“Half-American Also is American”: Towards Migration
Conclusion and Postscript

PART V: CONCLUSIONS
23. The Essence and Mechanisms of Race and Racism in Modern East Asia, Rotem Kowner and Walter Demel
The East Asian Contribution to the Study of Race and Racism
East Asia’s Role within the Rise of Racial Theory and the Resulting Hybridity
Sources and Manifestations of Racism
The Close Links between Racism and Nationalism
The Role of Gender and Lineage in Constructions of Race and Racism
East Asia and the Future of Race and Racism
Contributors
Bibliography
Index

We aimed to assess comprehensively the prevalence of perinatal risks experienced by a potentially high-risk yet understudied population of children domestically adopted in the United States. Data are from participant report and medical records from mothers (n = 580) who completed a domestic adoption placement with nonrelatives at or near birth (Mean placement age = 7 days). We describe a comprehensive measure of perinatal risks, including divergences from previous assessment tools and the incorporation of multiple reporters, and report the prevalence of various types of perinatal risks. The prevalence of each specific risk factor was generally low, although several risks were more prevalent in this sample than estimates from nationally representative publicly available data. Nearly the entire sample (99%) experienced some type of risk exposure. Birth mothers who placed their children for adoption domestically in the US experience higher levels of perinatal risks than the national av...

Around the globe, various initiatives use the mobile phone to provide financial services to those without access to traditional banks. Yet relatively little scholarly research explores the use of these m-banking/m-payments systems. This paper calls attention to this gap in the research literature, emphasizing the need for research focusing on the context(s) of m-banking/mpayments use. Presenting illustrative data from exploratory work with small enterprises in urban India, it argues that contextual research is a critical input to effective "adoption" or "impact" research. Further, it suggests that the challenges of linking studies of use to those of adoption and impact reflect established dynamics within the Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) research community. The paper identifies three crosscutting themes from the broader literature-amplification vs. change, simultaneous causality, and a multidimensional definition of trust-each of which can offer increased theoretical clarity to future research on m-banking/m-payments systems. Notes on contributors Jonathan Donner is a researcher in the Technology for Emerging Markets Group at Microsoft Research, where he studies the social and economic impacts of mobile communication technologies in developing countries. Camilo Tellez is a doctoral student in the department of Information Systems at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he specializes in IT for development issues. m-banking Pre-publication draft. Edits possible.

The use of e-commerce in small medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has become an important topic in information systems research. At present, there is a large number of well-documented benefits derived from e-commerce for small-medium enterprises (SMEs) both in theoretical and practical literature. Despite the enormous attention given to encourage SMEs to adopt e-commerce both by academics as well as governments, little research has been carried out in identifying strategies of ecommerce adoption for SMEs in developing countries, especially Indonesia. It is, therefore, the aim of this paper to understand the factors and combinations of factors that SMEs need to be considered before embracing e-commerce into their business by providing a closer look at actual experience of Indonesian SMEs. Case study research was carried out to analyse and explain the underlying factors that are likely to determine the varying extent of e-commerce adoption in SMEs, especially the service sector. The findings of the case studies have further extended into the development of proposed practical framework to illustrate how e-commerce adoption should be carried out from a strategic perspective.

The Sistema de Normalizaç ão Contabilística [SNC] is the Portuguese title for the corpus of International Financial Reporting Standards [IFRS] that have been adapted for use in Portugal by unlisted companies. Based on an analytical framework that draws on aspects of new institutional theory, we surveyed 116 large unlisted Portuguese companies in September 2009 to identify factors associated with their preparedness to implement the SNC. Generally, their degree of preparedness was low. Institutional factors that influenced the degree of preparedness positively included the participation of a parent company in conversion procedure decisions, the presence of exclusively Portuguese shareholders, the conduct of export activities, and mimetic behaviors. The results reveal that important insights can be obtained from complementing a study of isomorphic influences with the concepts of resistance and institutional logic. Though coercive and mimetic institutional factors influenced levels of preparedness positively, the preparedness process was undermined by resistance within the Portuguese accounting profession and by the embeddedness of code-law practices in the prevailing logic.

The relationship between cognitive functioning and play behaviors of children residing in an orphanage was examined. Twenty-six young children (15 boys) between 10 and 38 months of age participated. More developmentally competent play behaviors were highly related to better performance on cognitive functioning as measured by the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (r = .78, p ≤ .01). The participants' play behaviors were less competent compared to previous data for children of the same chronological age living at home on four out of five levels of symbolic play (p ≤ .05). However, when compared to data for children living at home with similar cognitive development, the participants demonstrated no significant differences in symbolic play (p ≥.05). The findings suggest that the relationship between thinking and playing is robust, even in an institutional environment. Additionally, practitioners assessing children from institutions who cannot engage in standardized testing may consider observing play behaviors to make an initial estimate of developmental status.

The success of an intelligent sensor environment is mainly determined by the extent to which it is adopted by users. In order to understand how the adoption process works and when it is likely to be successful, we developed a general adoption model and applied it to the four main categories. Based on four case studies, we developed and tested questionnaires that contribute as an instrument for evaluating existing sensor environments, or during the design phase. It turns out that each specific type of intelligent sensor environment has its own adoption issues.

On January 27th 2015, in the case of Paradiso and Campanelli v. Italy, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decided, by five votes to two, that a child born by surrogacy abroad and those who ordered him enjoy protection of the right to family life even though the child was obtained fraudulently, against payment, without genetic link and after a very short period of cohabitation. The Court concluded that Italy could refuse to recognise the filiation established in Russia, but that taking the child away from the sponsors infringed their right to private and family life.

Background: Disinhibited attachment is an important sequel of an institutional rearing, but questions remain regarding its measurement, its persistence, the specificity of the association with institutional rearing and on whether or not it constitutes a meaningful disorder. Method: Children initially reared in profoundly depriving institutions in Romania and subsequently adopted into UK families were compared with respect to findings at 11 years with children who had not experienced institutional deprivation and who had been adopted within the UK before the age of 6 months. Measures included parental reports, a Strange Situation procedure modified for use in the home and systematic standardised investigator ratings of the children's behaviour. Results: Disinhibited attachment, as reported by parents, showed a high degree of persistence from 6 to 11, but also a reduction over time in its frequency. Investigator ratings validated the parental reports but suggested that much of the fall in rate of disinhibited attachment was a function of the parental measure being less developmentally appropriate at 11 than it had been at 6. Disinhibited attachment was strongly associated with institutional rearing but there was not a significant increase in relation to duration of institutional deprivation beyond the age of 6 months. Mild, but not marked, disinhibited attachment was quite frequent in noninstitutionalised adopted children but both the course and correlates indicated that its meaning was probably quite different. In the institution-reared children, disinhibited attachment was associated with a marked increase in service usage and associations with other forms of psychopathology. Conclusions: Disinhibited attachment constitutes a valid, and handicapping, clinical pattern that is strongly associated with an institutional rearing.

Based on a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews of seven automobile dealerships in the City of Oulu, Finland, we uncovered four themes-strategic understanding of electronic commerce, technological understanding of electronic commerce, maturity of the website supporting electronic commerce, and electronic commerce developmental strategy-which allowed to make sense in a succinct way of the similarities and differences among seven automobile dealerships. Locating the seven dealerships on these four themes (dimensions) yielded quite consistent patterns, and led us to identify adopter categories of electronic commerce. We suggest three major adopter categories: " procrastinators," " followers," and " visionaries." " Followers" are divided further into " opportunists," " waverers," and " striders." The analysis of the histories of websites also showed that the existence of a website as such and its operational use are not sufficient to trigger effective learning about electronic commerce. We suggest that the learning at the levels of strategic and technological understanding of electronic commerce are joint outcomes of electronic commerce developmental strategy and the website maturity rather than either of them separately. The interviews also showed that the dealers with higher strategic and technological understanding tended to have a more active electronic commerce developmental strategy and more mature websites. This led us to conjecture that the developmental strategy and the website maturity are influenced by both strategic and technological understanding.

This study aims to analyze the adoption of agricultural contracts in Northeastern Benin, precisely in the communes of Tchaourou and N'Dali. The data collection was conducted on a sample of 144 producers (including 72 adopting farmers and 72 non-adopters) from the questionnaire. The information obtained was analyzed from the STATA 13 software. The analysis of the determinants of the adoption of agricultural contracts was based on a binary logistic regression model. Thus, the adoption of agricultural contracts by cashew producers is determined by variables such as: the age of the producer, the number of schooling years, the size of the household, the agreement on the quantity of nuts to be delivered under contract, the appreciation of the solidarity guarantee and the assessment of the risks presented by agricultural contracts. These determinants have a positive influence on the adoption of agricultural contracts by cashew producers, with the exception of the producer's assessm...

Outsiders Within makes powerful and fascinating reading. It contains thirty chapters written by thirty different authors. Twenty-five of them identify as adults who were transracially adopted as children. Most were raised in the United States, but six grew up in Europe and four in Australia. Their stories are sometimes tragic, sometimes uplifting, but always interesting. The other contributors have either a personal experience with or a personal interest in transracial adoption. The book also contains art work and poetry. Outsiders Within contains many powerful words and ideas. I have selected some of them to support my comments.

Aquí exploramos los modos de construir el parentesco por parte de las mujeres que adoptan en Buenos Aires como familias monoparentales. Estas reflexiones se desprenden de una investigación de mayor alcance, en la cual hemos observado frecuentemente en las parejas heterosexuales la presencia de sentidos que refuerzan la pertenencia del adoptado al nuevo grupo, sin desafiar el modelo tradicional de sustitución de familias. Sin embargo, durante el trabajo de entrevistas con mujeres que deciden adoptar independientemente de la conformación de pareja, hallamos que se les suelen otorgar niños de mayor edad, con vínculos afectivos más presentes. Planteamos que dadas estas circunstancias-a veces no deseadas-, las adopciones monoparentales, si bien no representan un modelo alternativo, pueden auspiciar construcciones más flexibles e inclusivas.

Framed by relational dialectics theory, discursive constructions of the meaning of “family” were examined in 100 online foster adoption narratives. Parental narratives manifested struggles between biogenetic and discursive constructions of “family,” identified here as the discourse of biological normativity (DBN) and discourse of constitutive kinning (DCK). The DBN reinscribes the dominant cultural and foster care system preference for biogenetically connected families. The DCK resists the DBN, maintaining that enacted behaviors and shared affections, rather than shared genetics, constitute legitimate families. Contrapuntal analysis revealed a high degree of polemic interplay; both discourses competed to be centered rather than marginalized through the discursive practices of negating, countering, and entertaining. Implications for theorizing definitions of family and studying families in context are discussed

ABSTRACT The need to reduce operational costs and meet the increasing expectations of customers while remaining competitive has forced banks to deploy information technologies into the provision of banking services. The adoption rate of some of these electronic banking services is, however, not as good as initially hoped for. This study expanded the Technology Acceptance Model by including trust, subjective norm and demographic variables to understand the factors that influence retail banking customers’ attitude towards cell phone banking services. Data was collected from retail banking customers in Gauteng, South Africa, using a self filling structured questionnaire. A total of 394 usable responses were received. Result of the analysis show that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust and subjective norm are all significantly related to attitude towards cell phone banking. Trust was, however, found to have the strongest predictive power on customers’ attitude towards cell phone banking than all the other variables. Furthermore, attitude was found to contribute significantly to customers’ intention to start using/continue using cell phone banking services. These findings have wider implications on efforts aimed at encouraging more customers to make use of cell phone banking and these have been highlighted in the paper.

This Grand Rounds presents the case of a girl who, at the age of 1 year, witnessed her mother's violent death. She was first seen by a child psychiatrist at age 4 years and has remained symptomatic for more than 5 years after the traumatic event. The case is discussed from the standpoint of the interrelationships among posttraumatic stress, memory, attachment, and mourning. J. Am. Acad. Child Ado/esc. Psychiatry, 1995, 34, 4:520-528.

This paper posits adoption as a function of failed political, economic, and social policies. These policies derive historically from injurious views of populations not ascribed political embodiment. As a tool of dispossession, displacement, and disinheritance, adoption joins other extirpating practices. Given this history, the current focus on Muslim-majority countries as sources for adoptable infants is neither charitable nor coincidental. In this regard, Islamophobia is defined as an additional prejudicial justification for adoption. Islamophobia promulgates this justification based in part on faulty readings of the Quran. This maps readily onto similar use of the Bible. This paper offers a contingent, expansive, and corrective reading of these Books. It advances a countervailing argument for child welfare that questions and resists adoption's negation of family, community, and place.

Six and a half years after adoption, 6-to 12-year-old children reared in Romanian orphanages for more than 8 months in their first years of life (RO, n = 18) had higher cortisol levels over the daytime hours than did early adopted (EA, ≤ 4 months of age, n = 15) and Canadian born (CB, n = 27) children. The effect was marked, with 22% of the RO children exhibiting cortisol levels averaged over the day that exceeded the mean plus 2 SD of the EA and CB levels. Furthermore, the longer beyond 8 months that the RO children remained institutionalized the higher their cortisol levels. Cortisol levels for EA children did not differ in any respect from those of CB comparison children. This latter finding reduces but does not eliminate concerns that the results could be due to prenatal effects or birth family characteristics associated with orphanage placement. Neither age at cortisol sampling nor low IQ measured earlier appeared to explain the findings. Because the conditions in Romanian orphanages at the time these children were adopted were characterized by multiple risk factors, including gross privation of basic needs and exposure to infectious agents, the factor(s) that produced the increase in cortisol production cannot be determined. Nor could we determine whether these results reflected effects on the limbic-hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal axis directly or were mediated by differences in parent-child interactions or family stress occasion by behavioral problems associated with prolonged orphanage care in this sample.

With the development of faster means of communication, better quality computers and rapid transportation systems, manufacturing is no longer restricted at local level, but has become global in character. As a manufacturing company has to become competitive for its survival, it has to supply products of consistent high quality at reliable and reduced delivery time. Market also demands more product variants that means reduced lot size and high flexibility in operations. Manpower cost has also risen. All these factors tend to increase the product cost. However, the industry has to maintain the cost at a reasonable level. Confronting these challenges, companies worldwide are forced to find ways to reduce costs, improve quality, and meet the everchanging needs of their customers. One successful solution has been the adoption of Justintime (JIT) manufacturing strategy in which many functional areas of a company such as manufacturing, engineering, marketing, purchasing etc. are involved. In this paper, literature review on research works based on JIT was carried out and presented. The introductory section deals with the philosophy of JIT, and the concept involved in Kanban optimization and later this paper reviews literature on optimization Technique in JIT implementation.

Although marriage and family therapists are being called on to help at-risk families, some say that clinicians have insufficient knowledge about the impact of policies on families involved in the foster care system. The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to identify how the Adoption and Safe Families Act informs decision making, to recognize trends in decisions regarding termination of parental rights of parents with mental health issues, and to explore treatment issues of families involved in the foster care system. Results indicate that court cases decided after the implementation of the Adoption and Safe Families Act are likely to result in termination of parental rights. Implications for clinicians and researchers are discussed. Family violence, child maltreatment, poverty, and the child welfare system have led some to call the realities of foster care "the mean streets of family therapy" (Crenshaw & Barnum, 2001, p. 30). Some of the most important judiciary decisions about the futures of families are made in the foster care system (Azar, Benjet, Fuhrmann, & Cavallero, 1995). To assist with these critical decisions, a number of people, such as judges, caseworkers, and families, are looking to family therapists for assistance in addressing the needs of foster care families (Azar, Lauretti, & Loding, 1998). Judges are seeking therapists' opinions about parental competency and are increasingly mandating families to seek treatment specifically from marriage and family therapists (MFTs; Northey, 2004). Caseworkers are obtaining therapists' input about placement decisions and treatment, and parents are searching for help with custody and parenting issues (Azar et al., 1998). Despite the number of ways in which therapists can assist with issues related to foster care, some argue that too few therapists have devoted time to understanding the foster care system, policies, and the implications of such policies on families involved in the foster care system (

We criticize a view of maternity that equates the natural with the genetic and biological and show how such a practice overdetermines the maternal body and the maternal experience for women who are mothers through adoption and ART (Assisted Reproductive Technologies). As an alternative, we propose a new framework designed to rethink maternal bodies through the lens of feminist embodiment. Feminist embodied maternity, as we call it, stresses the particularity of experience through subjective embodiment. A feminist embodied maternity emphasizes the physical relations of the subjective lived-body rather than the genetic or biological connections. Instead of universalizing claims about the maternal body, embodied maternity looks to communicable experiences and empathetic understanding.

Little research has examined change in perceived parenting skill across the transition to parenthood or predictors of change in perceived skill. The current study used an ecological framework to examine predictors of self-perceived parenting skill among 47 lesbian, 31 gay, and 56 heterosexual couples who were adopting their first child. Findings revealed that, on average, all new parents perceived themselves as becoming more skilled, although gay men increased the most and lesbians the least. Participants who were female, reported fewer depressive symptoms, expected to do more child care, and reported higher job autonomy viewed themselves as more skilled pre-adoption. With regard to change, parents who reported more relational conflict and parents who expected to do more child care experienced lesser increases in perceived skill. These findings suggest that regardless of gender, sexual orientation, and route to parenthood, new parents experience similar, positive changes in perceived skill, thereby broadening our understanding of parenting skill in diverse groups. The findings also highlight the importance of examining how gender, sexual orientation, and the family context may shape perceived skill across the transition to parenthood.

Today more than ever, banks are facing the race for innovation in mobile financial services. Several studies have focused on the factors driving the adoption of mobile money, but the aspect of deposit collection activity by banks, essential as a basis for granting an account and providing financial services to customers, has been neglected.  This study aims to examine the effect of perceived cost, relative advantage and perceived ubiquity on the intention to adopt mobile money for bank deposits, as well as the effect of its use on financial inclusion in Cameroun. A quantitative approach based on the PLS-SEM algorithm is used on a sample of 310 Cameroonian respondents. Results show that these factors positively influence the intention to adopt Mobile Money for bank deposits and that its use has a significant positive effect on financial inclusion. The study will help bank managers to develop effective marketing approaches and to improve their offer with adapted products and services, more specifically to enhance customer proximity and produce effective channels to suck up potential bank deposits not yet captured by banks.

Objective  This study examined the attachment patterns of late-adopted children (aged 4–7) and their adoptive mothers during the first 7- to 8-month period after adoption and aimed to evaluate the effect of adoptive mothers' attachment security on the revision of the attachment patterns of their late-adopted children.Design  We assessed attachment patterns in 20 adoptive dyads and 12 genetically related dyads at two different times: T1 (time 1) within 2 months of adoption and T2 (time 2) 6 months after T1.Methods  The children's behavioural attachment patterns were assessed using the Separation-Reunion Procedure and the children's representational (verbal) attachment patterns using the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task. The attachment models of the adoptive mothers were classified using the Adult Attachment Interview.Results  We found that there was a significant enhancement of the late-adopted children's attachment security across the time period considered (P= 0.008). Moreover, all the late-adopted children who showed a change from insecurity to security had adoptive mothers with secure attachment models (P= 0.044). However, the matching between maternal attachment models and late-adopted children's attachment patterns (behaviours and representations) was not significant.Conclusions  Our data suggest that revision of the attachment patterns in the late-adopted children is possible but gradual, and that the adoptive mothers' attachment security makes it more likely to occur.

Greenhouse gas emission, fast depletion of fossil fuels, the oil crisis and the increased cost of petroleum products are the major factors that need a shift from internal combustion engines to Electric Vehicles. The use of electric cars is an active action in conserving the environment. The use of these cars promotes the protection of the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions while promoting renewable energy sources that are less likely to amount to the carbon footprint. Electric cars function by plugging into a charge point and taking electricity from the grid. They store the electricity in rechargeable batteries that power an electric motor, which turns the wheels. Electric cars accelerate faster than vehicles with traditional fuel engines so they feel lighter to drive. India launched "National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020" in 2013, which aims promotion of hybrid and EVs in the country to achieve national energy security. Even after this the total sales of EV's in India was only about 0.0068% of the total sales of vehicles in India. Increasing long-term gasoline price and concerns on the impact of emissions have inspired alternative technologies like electric vehicles (EVs). The automotive manufacturers are facing difficulties in understanding the needs and wants of the customer. This research aims at helping the automobile manufacturers to understand the customer better. The insights gained from this research will help policymakers around the world in crafting transportation and energy policies in the EV transportation system. Lack of study on this topic in India is the reason for a gap in consumer adoption and scientific research EVs. Filling that gap is the motive of this research overall, this project involves processes like design, analysis, fabrication and assembling of different components.

This paper suggests that long-term foster care, especially when it is provided within an American Indian Cultural Environment (AICE), may be a culturally-appropriate alternative form of permanency for American Indian children. Administrative data on foster care placements of children from four California counties over a five-year period indicate that children in the county with the strongest AICE had fewer placements and placements that were, on average, significantly longer. Within counties that had recognized tribes, children from local tribes had longer placements. Data on individual placements were available for one county and indicated that children whose home tribes were within that county and who were placed on Rancherias had significantly longer placements than other children. These relationships remained significant when children's demographic characteristics were controlled. Implications for policy and practice related to ICWA are discussed.

The purpose of the present study was to verify whether there are some differences in parent±child communication and in adolescent self-esteem among adoptive, separated and intact non-adoptive families and to investigate the extent to which parent±child communication is related to adolescent self-esteem in the three types of families. The study sample was composed of 450 adolescents aged between 11 and 17 years (160 from intact non-adoptive families, 140 from separated or divorced families and 150 from intercountry adoptive families). Subjects completed the Parent±Adolescent Communication Scale by Barnes and Olson, the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale and some socio-demographic items. The results show that adolescents from separated families have more difficulties in their relationships with both the mother and the father than their peers, and that adoptive children perceive a more positive communication with their parents than biological children. Moreover, adoptees showed lower self-esteem than the other two groups of adolescents. Lastly, it emerged that male and female adolescents' self-esteem is related to positive communication with both parents in intact non-adoptive families, while no link was significant for male and female children of divorced parents or for adoptees.

„ბავშვის შვილად აყვანასთან დაკავშირებული პრობლემების სამართლებრივი ანალიზი“, ნაშრომში თემა წარმოდგენილია პრობლემათა კომპლექსის სახით და ასახავს ავტორისეულ, ანალიზს იმ ნორმატიული აქტებისა რომლებიც ეხება საკითხს, ასევე მათი გადაჭრის გზებს. მასში წარმოდგენილია პრობლემათა ის ფართო სპექტრი, რომელიც გადაუჭრელია და რომლებიც საჭიროებენ სწორ რეგულირებას. საზოგადოებას აინტერესებს საკითხის მოგვარება, რასაც მოწმობს სხვადასხვა სოციალურ ქსელებზე გამართული მსჯელობები და უამრავი საგაზეთო პუბლიკაცია, რომელიც ამ თემისადმია მიძღვნილი.

პრობლემა აქტუალურია  გამომდინარე იქიდან, რომ საქართველოს კონსტიტუციითა და საერთაშორისო შეთანხმებებით  გარანტირებულია ბავშვის ოჯახში აღზრდის უპირატესობა, მაგრამ შიდა ნორმატიული აქტები ხშირად იმდენად შემზღუდავია, რომ  ვერ ხერხდება საკითხის სწრაფი და მართებული გადაწყვეტა. სახელმწიფოს პოლიტიკა მიმართულია იქითკენ, რომ რაც შეიძლება ნაკლები ბავშვი დარჩეს ბავშვთა სახლებში და სხვა აღმზრდეოლობით დაწესებულებებში, სადაც შეიძლება ითქვას, რომ ბავშვის აღზრდისთვის შეუფერებელი ვითარებაა. საკანონმდებლო დონეზე საკითხის სწორი რეგულირება უამრავ პრობლემას აგვარიდებდა თავიდან. პრობლემის აქტუალურობას ასევე განაპირობებს ბავშვთა სახლებსა და სხვა აღმზრდელობით დაწესებულებებში მოთავსებული ბავშვების რაოდენობა. სახელმწიფოს პრევენციისა  და რეინტეგრაციის  სისტემა ვერ იძლევა ისეთ სრულყოფილ შედეგს, რომ საკითხი ძირეულად იქნეს გადაწყვეტილი.

Conservation agriculture is claimed to be a panacea for the problems of poor agricultural productivity and soil degradation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It is actively promoted by international research and development organisations, with such strong advocacy that critical debate is stifled. Claims for the potential of CA in Africa are based on widespread adoption in the Americas, where the effects of tillage were replaced by heavy dependence on herbicides and fertilizers. CA is said to increase yields, to reduce labour requirements, improve soil fertility and reduce erosion. Yet empirical evidence is not clear and consistent on many of these points nor is it always clear which of the principles of CA contribute to the desired effects. Although cases can be found where such claims are supported there are equally convincing scientific reports that contradict these claims. Concerns include decreased yields often observed with CA, increased labour requirements when herbicides are not used, an important gender shift of the labour burden to women and a lack of mulch due to poor productivity and due to the priority given to feeding of livestock with crop residues. Despite the publicity claiming widespread adoption of CA, the available evidence suggests virtually no uptake of CA in most SSA countries, with only small groups of adopters in South Africa, Ghana and Zambia. We conclude that there is an urgent need for critical assessment under which ecological and socioeconomic conditions CA is best suited for smallholder farming in SSA. Critical constraints to adoption appear to be competing uses for crop residues, increased labour demand for weeding, and lack of access to, and use of external inputs.

In this paper, we investigate the level of penetration of electronic banking in a provincial city of Greece, Halkida. We use descriptive and inferential statistics (Pearson Chi-Square test, crosstabulation or contingency table) in order to identify the percentage of electronic banking adoption. A random sample of 100 adults were asked to fill in a questionnaire, based on previous investigations concerning internet and electronic banking (e.g. Munusamy et al., 2012, Chau & Ngai 2010], Durkin 2004, modified to the specific circumstances. We used the SPSS 22 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). The results of studies show that customers under certain conditions are receptive to the adoption of electronic banking. Gender, education and the purchase of products through the Internet, affect the usage of electronic banking. Level of
education and safety are the factors influencing the intention to use electronic banking. Finally, characteristics such as cost, support/service, computer knowledge and effort made, have significant impact on perceived performance regarding the usage of online banking. The findings of this paper have practical implications for the banking industry in order to understand their own customers better and improve their services.

Este artículo analiza las narrativas de un grupo de mujeres que adoptaron monoparentalmente en Chile, producidas en el contexto de una investigación cualitativa más amplia sobre esta temática. Los resultados dan cuenta del paso de estas adoptantes por diversos dispositivos jurídico-judiciales, institucionales y técnicos durante el proceso adoptivo, en los que se pone en evidencia el tratamiento diferencial y discriminatorio del que la mayoría de ellas son objeto, así como las narrativas y prácticas de resistencia puestas en juego para cuestionar dichos dispositivos y legitimar sus proyectos adoptivos. Se discuten los antecedentes y hallazgos, a fin de incidir en el análisis y transformación de las políticas públicas y las intervenciones profesionales vinculadas a este fenómeno. This article analyzes the narratives of a group of women who are the single parents of adopted children, in the broader context of the qualitative investigation of this subject. Their stories speak of the var...

My theory of "baby love" has developed from my own experience of reunion with my mother from whom I was separated at birth. After reunion I had a real feeling of "this woman is so familiar, so much like me, we were part of each other, yet she is a complete stranger - how can I ever love her?" This feeling of being unable to "love my mother" is then followed by a feeling of an unsought and unasked for rage against those who made this so, whomever they may be. If I had never loved my mother then I have no doubt I would not feel this rage - I would feel "Oh yes, I completely understand, she just wasn't able to parent at this time." So what my rage says to me - and what the rage of adoptees say to the world - is that babies love their gestational mothers at birth and that the permanent separation of mother and neonate destroys something that is already there. It follows that to deliberately destroy this love without good cause should be considered a violation of the human rights of the child. If it is not, then we need to enshrine the relationship between gestational mother and child in human rights legislation.

When returning home is not a viable option, adoption is the primary means by which youth in substitute care achieve permanency. Therefore, understanding the factors that impact adoption is critical to both evaluating and improving the child welfare system. Prior research has mostly studied "main effects" in regard to adoption rates and has not explored the ways in which youth and foster family variables might interact in complex ways to predict adoption. This study uses a classification tree analysis approach known as Optimal Data Analysis (ODA) to predict probability of adoption in 2003 using Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) data. 30,000 adopted youth and 30,000 non-adopted youth were randomly selected for participation in the study. Similar to previous studies, univariate analyses revealed that age, foster parent race/ethnicity, foster parent marital status, and number of previous placements all predicted probability of adoption. However, going further, several combinations of individual variables (multivariate ODA) improved prediction accuracy (e.g., age × structure of foster family × number of previous placements). Results also suggested that the impact of the state on adoption rates varied when essentially controlling for youth and family variables, supporting concerns regarding the crude use of AFCARS data when comparing states.