Several studies on opiates demonstrated that selected brain areas as cerebellum and limbic system have the greatest density of opioid receptors. Recently, few cases of severe cerebellitis following methadone poisoning have been reported in children. We present the case of a 30-month-old girl who developed a delayed encephalopathy after methadone intoxication. She was admitted to our emergency department in coma, and after naloxone infusion, she completely recovered. Five days after intoxication, she developed psychomotor agitation, slurred speech, abnormal movements, and ataxia despite a negative neuroimaging finding. A repeat magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed 19 days after the intoxication for persistent symptoms showed signal abnormalities in the temporomesial regions, basal ganglia, and substantia nigra. To our knowledge, this is the first report of these delayed MRI findings associated with synthetic opioid intoxication.

Overall bacteremia rate is currently <0.5% in well-appearing children aged 3-36 months with FWS attending the PED in areas with PCV-7 widespread vaccination and is sufficiently low to preclude laboratory testing in favour of close follow-up. Further research is needed to evaluate a more conservative approach in infants 2-3 months of age.

The knowledge about tendons and tenocyte biological behaviour during aging and, especially, oestrogen deficiency is limited. Women differ from men with regard to muscle and tendon, most likely due to differences in sex hormones activity and tissue response. To-date the interest in metabolic factors that may induce tendon disorders is growing. The aim of this paper is to elucidate the current findings in the correlation between oestrogen deficiency, aging and tendon pathology and to encourage future researches to ameliorate assessment and management of tendinopathies in postmenopausal women.

The present work consists in an experimental research based on teaching and learning Biology in primary school. The aims of this research are two. First, it wants to support the current scientific evidence that underlines the effectiveness of laboratory didactics. Secondly, it aims to prove that this method makes it possible to deal with several topics which are not currently mentioned in the Italian Guidelines. Nowadays, scientific evidence demonstrates that laboratory didactics has a stronger impact on lifelong learning than traditional didactic approaches, based on frontal lessons only. The epistemological and methodological structure is clear: Science, especially Biology, should not just be taught for their products (concepts, theories, innovations,) but also, and especially, for their processes. Therefore, laboratory activities, conducted through experimental methods, represent one of the best resources in order to develop problem-solving skills, which underline a scientific mind. In the laboratory, every question or curiosity opens to new discoveries. In this way students gradually come to formalize their scientific knowledge. The teacher's role is to suspend his immediate explanation. He should be able to support spontaneous questions by students and the possibility to make hypothesis based on their naive theories. Starting from children's curiosity, it also makes possible to consider aspects that really intrigue them but which are usually omitted by school programs, as they are considered too "far" from pupils' actual cognitive ability. Children, unlike adults, do not tend to take anything for granted and are fascinated and intrigued by everything is around them, regardless of its hypothetical complexity. For this reason, teaching Biology in this way means to support students' intrinsic motivation, giving them not only scientific notions, but also concrete answers with practical implications in their daily lives. In this research, we followed children's interest for the microscopic world and we treated microbiology and its biotechnological applications in food industry. We started from bread and yogurt productions, which are very close to students' reality, in order to introduce the topic of biotechnological applications using yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and bacteria (Streptococcus termophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus). It was surprising for children to "discover" that the dough of a bakery product or a dairy product is actually a living material. As a matter of fact, the billion cells of living microorganisms, the yeasts and the bacteria, are in fact the protagonists of fermentation processes. In conclusion, considering the outcomes of our research, it is clear that the educational implications of laboratory didactics are very significant and therefore not negligible. Moreover, this work would be an exhortation to teachers to use this method and to become a potential changing agent.

BackgroundConcerns regarding vaccine safety are increasing along with lack of compliance to vaccination schedules. This study aimed to assess vaccination-related risks and the impact of a Special Immunization Service (SIS) at the Pediatric Emergency Department (PED) of Padua on vaccination compliance among participants.Materials and methodsThis retrospective cohort study included all children attending the SIS from January 1st 2002 to December 31st 2015. The Service is divided into a clinic (SIS-C) where all referred children undergo a pre-vaccination visit and an area within the Pediatric Emergency Department (SIS-PED) where children are vaccinated if indicated. During each SIS-C visit, age, gender, admission criteria and scheduled vaccinations were recorded, with any vaccine-related adverse events captured during SIS-PED visits. Follow-up was conducted to evaluate vaccination plan completion.Results359 children received 560 vaccine administrations (41.3% MMR/MMRV, 17.5% hexavalent) at the SIS during the 14 year study. Admission criteria were adverse events after previous vaccination (immediate, IgE/not IgE mediated, and late) in 27.2% of cases, non-anaphylactic allergies (mostly egg allergy) in 42.7% and anaphylaxis in 10.3%. After vaccination, 15/560 (2.7%) mild adverse events were observed. 96.3% of children vaccinated at least once at the SIS-PED and available for follow-up completed their vaccination plan, in contrast to 55.5% of children referred to the SIS-C who were not vaccinated in SIS-PED.ConclusionsFor children referred to SIS-C and available for follow-up, vaccination in SIS-PED was associated with more frequent completion of vaccination plans, indicating a benefit of the service to vaccine coverage. The low number and mild severity of adverse events reported after vaccination of high-risk children in SIS-PED attest to the safety of the service