Vitamin D in pediatric age: consensus of the Italian Pediatric Society and the Italian Society of Preventive and Social Pediatrics, jointly with the Italian Federation of Pediatricians.

Vitamin D plays a pivotal role in the regulation of calcium-phosphorus metabolism, particularly during pediatric age when nutritional rickets and impaired bone mass acquisition may occur.Besides its historical skeletal functions, in the last years it has been demonstrated that vitamin D directly or indirectly regulates up to 1250 genes, playing so-called extraskeletal actions. Indeed, recent data suggest a possible role of vitamin D in the pathogenesis of several pathological conditions, including infectious, allergic and autoimmune diseases. Thus, vitamin D deficiency may affect not only musculoskeletal health but also a potentially wide range of acute and chronic conditions. At present, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is high in Italian children and adolescents, and national recommendations on vitamin D supplementation during pediatric age are lacking. An expert panel of the Italian Society of Preventive and Social Pediatrics reviewed available literature focusing on randomized controlled trials of vitamin D supplementation to provide a practical approach to vitamin D supplementation for infants, children and adolescents

New Approaches in Presentation and Popularization of Archaeology. Research of the Didactic Aspects of the Archaeological Contribution to Contemporary Society

This thesis concentrates on new approaches in the popularization of archaeology in the light of its social contribution to the society of the 21st century. Its main research issue is the problem of didactical transformation of the archaeological data and knowledge for the needs of an efficient popularization of the discipline. An effective popularization is considered to be a complex of interdisciplinary processes leading to a multi-layered usage of archaeological in-formation and data by the general public. The author as well emphasizes the substantial educational dimension of archaeological popularization. According to this fact she tries to apply the pieces of knowledge gained from field didactics, museum education and experiential learning on the duplex communication with general public. Thesis consists form a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part deals with information and experiences from public archaeology, history, sociology and philosophy and analyses both familiar and neglected roles of archaeology within the contemporary society and situates them into a broader educational context. The second - practical - part of the thesis focuses on new approaches, methods and themes within the research issue, and introduces several model examples of good praxis as well as seven..