There is a general assumption that permanent teeth in children are emerging into the oral cavity earlier than the dates given in published scientific studies conducted many years ago. In the course of this research a rigorous experimental protocol was devised to provide reliable data collection and analysis methods and give contemporary emergence rate estimations with a strong scientific basis. In addition equations are presented to predict the chronological age of children using only the sex of the child and the number of permanent teeth present. Data was collected between April 1998 and July 2001 from 12,395 children between 4 and 15 years of age, in the Colchester area of the UK. The results show that the ages of emergence of the permanent teeth are later than previously assumed. This research also confirms previous research showing that girl's teeth emerge before boy's teeth, that there is no statistical difference in the age of emergence contra-lateral teeth in the same arch and that there is a statistical difference in the age of emergence of ipsi-lateral teeth in opposing arches.

Invandring eller migration är ett hett politiskt ämne som ofta belyses i media, då det ofta målas upp som något negativt och fullt av problem. Studien syftar till att undersöka hur en del av asylprocessen kan se ut i Sverige. Till hjälp för detta har data insamlats med utgångspunkt från tre övergripande begrepp: åldersbedömning, sjukdomsdiagnostik och uppföljning. Datainsamlingen genomfördes med hjälp av en systematisk litteraturstudie. Resultatet tyder på att asylprocessen är en ytterst komplicerad process. Det är dock ett faktum att det finns problemområden exempelvis tillförlitligheten till radiologiska åldersbedömningar, men även konkreta exempel på förslag till förändringar.

Bone age assessment can be useful in a variety of ways. It can help pediatricians predict growth, puberty entrance, identify diseases, and assess if a person lacking proper identification is a minor or not. It is a time-consuming process that is also prone to intra-observer variation, which can cause problems in many ways. This thesis attempts to improve and speed up bone age assessments by using different object detection methods to detect and segment bones anatomically important for the assessment and using these segmented bones to train deep learning models to predict bone age. A dataset consisting of 12811 X-ray hand images of persons ranging from infant age to 19 years of age was used. In the first research question, we compared the performance of three state-of-the-art object detection models: Mask R-CNN, Yolo, and RetinaNet. We chose the best performing model, Yolo, to segment all the growth plates in the phalanges of the dataset. We proceeded to train four different pre-trained models: Xception, InceptionV3, VGG19, and ResNet152, using both the segmented and unsegmented dataset and compared the performance. We achieved good results using both the unsegmented and segmented dataset, although the performance was slightly better using the unsegmented dataset. The analysis suggests that we might be able to achieve a higher accuracy using the segmented dataset by adding the detection of growth plates from the carpal bones, epiphysis, and the diaphysis. The best performing model was Xception, which achieved a mean average error of 1.007 years using the unsegmented dataset and 1.193 years using the segmented dataset. / <p>Presentationen gjordes online via Zoom. </p>

The thesis explores on the negotiation of agency in experiences of age assessment of former unaccompanied refugee minors who seek asylum in Germany, as well as in their interaction with the situational context. As a combination of narrative and thematic analysis, the study is based on six online semi-structured interviews with young people and two with professionals working in Youth Welfare Offices. By employing the perspective of Emirbayer & Mische (1998), agency takes here the form of a temporal process. As a result of the juxtaposition between aspects embedded in the past: such as the fact of not having identity documents; their knowledge of age; images of childhood; experiences lived in the trajectory to Germany, and the interplay with the time, flexibility, and credibility in the practical implementation, the negotiation of agency at the time of the age assessment ranges between normalization and confusion. The findings contribute to the debate about age assessment in Germany unifying migration and childhood research. Furthermore, it advances with an empirical approach of agency in the sociology of youth.

The intention with this thesis is to improve the method to assess dental wear as an age indicator by examining its correlation with the closure of cranial suture and the influence diet has on dental wear. This thesis explores this correlation through a comparative study between a collection of skulls with unknown context and a control group with known context. Age assessment of cranial sutures is one of the oldest and most questionable methods of physical anthropology. The studies that were carried out in the beginning of the 21st century have shown a useful correlation between the cranial sutures closure and age assessment. Research on food is essential for understanding a society, and dental health has always been important for wellbeing. A difference between populations today and historical populations is the dental wear that causes infections. All these premises make this research interesting to explore further, to learn more about what the teeth can tell us about historic populations.

Studien undersöker volontärers upplevelser kring att ha öppnat upp sina hem för att ta emot en ensamkommande ungdom som blivit uppskriven till över 18 år av Migrationsverket. Studien har fokus på betydelsen av det ideella engagemang som nätverket “Blomman” bidrog med för ensamkommande unga. En kvalitativ metod användes bestående av sex semistrukturerade intervjuer, som hölls med sju informanter. Målgruppen är de frivillighem inom Blomman, som under 2017 tog emot eller hade ett ensamkommande barn hos sig som blivit uppskriven i ålder. Resultatet visade att ideellt engagemang är av stor vikt när det kommer till hanterandet av ensamkommande unga. Frivillighem bidrar med medmänsklighet och emotionellt engagemang. Det framkom dock att teoretisk kunskap krävs för att kunna se till de mest utmanande behoven. / This study is about volunteer workers and their experiences about having an unaccompanied that has been written up in age to over 18 years by the Swedish Migration Agency. The study focuses on the importance of the volunteering that the network “Blomman” has done for the unaccompanied. The study is based on six semistructured interviews that we had with seven individuals. The informants are volunteers that have opened their homes for the unaccompanied. The result shows the importance of volunteering when it comes to the handling of unaccompanied. The volunteers contribute with human compassion and emotional commitment. However it appeared that theoretical knowledge might be required to handle the challenges that the volunteers will encounter.

SammanfattningMineralisering och utveckling av visdomständer kan användas som åldersindikator i övre tonåren och används för asylsökande utan identifikation eller födelseattest. Utvärderingen görs med hjälp av dentala röntgenbilder och olika tolkningsmodeller.Målet med den aktuella studien var att undersöka åldersbedömningsmetoder på röntgenbilder av visdomständers tillförlitlighet och överensstämmelse med fokus på populationsgrupper och etnicitet. Detta är av vikt då resultat från en sådan bedömning ligger till grund för juridiska beslut huruvida en individ är vuxen eller ett barn (över eller under 18 år).En systematisk sökning genomfördes i PubMed, Embase och Cochrane enligt PRISMA-modellen, och 23 artiklar som uppfyllde inklusionskriterierna granskades av två observatörer enligt en modifierad QUADAS 2 och tio artiklar bedömdes ha låg risk för bias.Populationsbeskrivningarna var bristande. Detta leder till svårigheter att utföra bedömningar av artiklars resultat och precision, därmed också jämförelser mellan olika studier. Problemet ligger på en generell nivå då definitioner är osäkra, men samtidigt i de separata artiklarna då de inte redovisat någon definition.Det var svårt att jämföra de inkluderade artiklarna då deras syften och metoder varierade. Huvudfyndet var att de flesta artiklarna konkluderade att användningen av visdomstanden som en åldersindikator i de övre tonåren är en otillräcklig metod. Användning och betydelse av dess resultat bör därför ifrågasättas. / AbstractThe mineralization and development of the third molars can be used as an indicator of age in the upper teens and is used in purpose of assessing age in asylum seekers without identification or birth certificates. The evaluation is determined with dental radiographs and different methods of interpretation.The aim of the study was to investigate the accuracy and precision of different age estimation models of radiographs of third molars, focusing on population groups and ethnicity. This is of great importance since the results of an age assessment constitute the basis in a juridical outcome, deciding whether an individual is an adult or a child (over or under 18 years of age). A systematic search of PubMed, Embase and Cochrane was made according to the PRISMA-statement, and 23 articles which met the inclusion criteria were assessed using a modified QUADAS 2 by two observers, ten of these were graded as having low risk of bias.Population groups were poorly described, leading to difficulties in evaluating results and precision, thereby also comparisons between different studies. The problem both lay at a general level where definitions are ambivalent, but also in the separate articles where definitions are missing.It was hard to compare the included papers since their aims and methods varied. The main finding was that most of the articles concluded that the use of the third molar as an age indicator in the upper teens is an insufficient system. The use and impact of the results should thereby be questioned.

The overall aim of the thesis is to explore legislators’ perceptions of unaccompanied children in the development of migration law, and how case-officers transform the policy in arguments for and against residency in asylum-cases. More specifically, this thesis explores how Swedish legislators experienced parliamentary work when putting in place the 2005 Aliens Act and the new system for appeals and procedures. In addition, it explores legislators understanding of the concept of unaccompanied minors, and how the Swedish Migration Agency (SMA) case-officers understand unaccompanied minors’ credibility. It draws on interview data with 15 legislators of the Swedish parliament and an analysis of 916 decisions in asylum cases concerning unaccompanied minors. The thesis is theoretically informed by interpretative phenomenology and social constructionism. The method used builds on detailed coding procedures in qualitative social research as they are applied in interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), thematic analysis and text analysis. Study 1 examines the experiences of 15 legislators when negotiating migration reform in parliament. The findings indicate that the preceding political negotiations can be one of the reasons for unclear aims when politicians’ propose new legislation. In addition, it seems that other policy areas, such as fiscal considerations and state-municipality relations, took precedence in the negotiations when the legislators were attempting to make sense of their experiences in discussing asylum policy. Study 2 explores legislators’ perceptions of unaccompanied minors arriving in Sweden. The findings show that chronological age is a key reference point concerning how legislators understand unaccompanied minors’ claims for asylum and other needs. In addition, the findings suggest that legislators perceive unaccompanied minors as an ambivalent category and that this understanding is influenced by deep-rooted welfare ideology. Furthermore, the findings indicate that legislators develop policy concerning unaccompanied children without considering that they need to be recognised as individuals with different backgrounds, agendas and needs. Study 3 scrutinises how SMA case-officers construct unaccompanied minors credibility in asylum decisions. It shows that case-officers use similar techniques both when approving and rejecting decisions. These techniques consistently question the competence and political agency of the chid in such a way that the element of individual assessment in asylum procedure can become severely restricted. In brief, this thesis identifies that the connection between migration and child policy is complex as legislators appear to struggle with “drawing the limits” of who to include or exclude in policy aims. Hence, the juridical field was seen as the answer to improve legitimation. This also means that the concept of asylum has become de-politicised. In addition, case-officers also seem to use a limited repertoire of arguments when drawing the limits for unaccompanied minors’ credibility in asylum decisions. This thesis points to possible dilemmas in asylum policy and procedure concerning unaccompanied minors. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Accepted. Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

During the Viking Age, the burials on Gotland consisted of both cremations and inhumations. However, inhumation became increasingly common at the end of that period. Furthermore, several children have been identified around the island, but almost all of them are in inhumation graves. Only a few analyses of cremations from the Viking Age have been conducted. At the moment, there are only two burial grounds, dating to the Viking Age on Gotland, where the remains of cremated children have been noted. This study aims to try to locate children's graves, or possible children's graves, by studying cremations from the burial ground in Stora Ihre, Hellvi parish. Hopefully, this will contribute to future studies of cremations from Gotland in the early Iron Age and bring more knowledge on how children were treated. A total of 60 cremations have been analyzed, where only two graves contain the remains of non-adult individuals, but only one of these dates to the Viking age. At Stora Ihre, children of several ages have been buried in inhumation graves, like many other places in the rest of Gotland. In several cases, they have been buried together or secondarily next to an older individual, both in or around an inhumation or cremation grave, but in some cases, children have been given their own grave. This may indicate that a shift in burial traditions of children took place from the Vendel period to the Viking age, but it may also reflect social differences between the ages.

Abstrakt De senaste decennierna har antalet ensamkommande barn som söker asyl i Europa ökat. Ensamkommande barn beskrivs ofta som en utsatt grupp som kan ha erfarenheter av fruktansvärda händelser med sig. De flesta har varit med om traumatiserande händelser i hemlandet och/eller på vägen till Europa, och de möter ytterligare svårigheter när de anländer i destinationslandet i Europa och söker asyl, vilka kan påverka deras psykiska mående. Det finns studier som visar att effekten av tidigare traumatiserande händelser och utmaningar under asylprocessen i värdlandet ökar risken för utvecklingen av PTSD hos denna målgrupp. Syftet med denna studie är att genom en systematisk litteraturöversikt identifiera faktorer som påverkar ensamkommande barns psykiska ohälsa i form av PTSD under asylprocessen. Data och material samlades från 15 vetenskapliga artiklar baserade på primärkällor där målgruppens problematik illustrerades utifrån ett ensamkommande barns perspektiv. Resultatet visar att effekten av tidigare traumatiserande händelser innan migration och ytterligare svårigheter i destinationslandet bland annat, asylprocess, åldersbedömning, kvalitet på boende, socialt stöd, vård och dagliga stressfaktorer har en markant effekt på ensamkommande barns psykiska ohälsa och ökar risken för utvecklingen av PTSD. / Abstract In recent decades, the incidence of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in Europe has increased. Often characterized as a vulnerable group, these unaccompanied children are likely to carry the burden of horrendous experiences. The majority have endured traumatic events in their countries of origin and/or during their journey to Europe, and they face additional adversities upon arrival in their destination countries in Europe while seeking asylum. These challenges can significantly impact their mental health. Research indicates that the cumulative effect of prior traumatic experiences and hurdles faced during the asylum process in the host countries heightens the risk of developing PTSD among this demographic. The objective of this study is to identify, through a systematic literature review, the factors influencing the mental health of unaccompanied minors, specifically regarding PTSD, during the asylum process. Data and materials were compiled from 15 scholarly articles based on primary sources that depict the challenges faced by this group from the perspective of unaccompanied children. The findings reveal that the impact of previous traumatic events prior to migration and additional difficulties in the destination countries, such as the asylum process, age assessment procedures, quality of accommodation, social support, healthcare, and daily stressors, significantly affect the mental well-being of unaccompanied minors and increase the risk of developing PTSD.