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Objective: To synthesize peer-reviewed primary research exploring factors associated with perceived stress impacting post-secondary students' academic success. Methods: A systematic review identified research conducted in North America, Europe, and Australia in the last ten years across 12 databases. Results: Of the 6,214 references screened, 14 English articles published between 2011 and 2018 were deemed relevant. Subsequent analysis characterized articles by study design, location, population, factors with a statistically significant relationship with both perceived stress and academic success, and future research directions. Findings reveal a complex relationship among overlapping factors associated with perceived stress on academic success at both the intrapersonal (eg, academic, demographic, psychological, attitudinal, and behavioral characteristics) and interpersonal levels (eg, social capital). Conclusions: Further research should measure the association of the identified factors to inform areas where resources could be targeted within post-secondary institutions to prevent stress from unduly impacting students' educational outcomes.

The Conference at the University of Oviedo, Spain, within the 44th Annual Meeting of the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities, was an excellent opportunity to share knowledge, explore perspectives and reflect on the study of neurodevelopmental disorders in Europe and elsewhere in the world. The William M. Cruickshank Memorial Keynote Address, "New Directions in the Study of Neurodevelopmental Disorders," covered a broad range of topics relevant to cognition, intelligence, and achievement. It also provided the opportunity to present parts of our current work pertinent to the study of neurodevelopmental dysfunctions and the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) ITN Neo-PRISM-C project. The presentation began by focusing on what we study and how and why we study what we study about neurodevelopmental disorders. This was followed by a discussion about the brain and (learning) behaviour, accompanied by some relevant evidence on the neurological basis for reading difficulties, particularly the phonological and visual deficits pathways in the framework of the magnocellular deficit theory. The session concluded with a discussion of the comorbidity of various disorders and the use of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework as an alternative to the traditional diagnostic categories for the study of neurodevelopmental disorders. Examples of how neuroscience research can contribute to this endeavour were also provided.

School classrooms within the EU are multilingual learning environments. The diversity of pupils in classrooms raises significant challenges for teachers, but to date, there are no data from large-scale surveys that compare views within and across European countries. A bespoke questionnaire was designed to examine views of current classroom learning environments with respect to the multilingualism. The questionnaire was piloted and subsequently completed by 2792 teachers across different European countries. Eleven countries provided sufficient data for analyses. Results from structural equation modelling showed that teachers' attitudes could be reliably measured across Europe with the use of carefully devised questionnaire, whose loading and factor structure remained invariant across countries. Teachers' views about multilingualism were most challenged by the numbers of children in their classes, not the percentage of multilingual pupils in the class. Countries differed in how they perceived multilingualism, with their differences leading to distinctive country clusters. Gender and education level (elementary vs. secondary) differences were also observed irrespective of country. These findings enhance our understanding of the role that the characteristics of teachers and their classrooms play in a multilingual setting across diverse European settings. The practical relevance of the results and new opportunities for teacher training are discussed.

Scientific and technological innovations have become increasingly important as we face the benefits and challenges of both globalization and a knowledge-based economy. Still, enrolment rates in STEM degrees are low in many European countries and consequently there is a lack of adequately educated workforce in industries. We believe that this can be mainly attributed to pedagogical issues, such as the lack of engaging hands-on activities utilized for science and math education in middle and high schools. In this paper, we report our work in the SciChallenge European project, which aims at increasing the interest of pre-university students in STEM disciplines, through its distinguishing feature, the systematic use of social media for providing and evaluation of the student-generated content. A social media-aware contest and platform were thus developed and tested in a pan-European contest that attracted > 700 participants. The statistical analysis and results revealed that the platform and contest positively influenced participants STEM learning and motivation, while only the gender factor for the younger study group appeared to affect the outcomes (confidence level -- p < 0.05).

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Previous research has suggested an association between living environment during the first 15 years of life and brain structure. More precisely, urbanicity during upbringing has been shown to be negatively related to prefrontal cortex grey matter. The present study focusses instead on the current living environment of 677 younger adults recruited from different cities across Europe. We observed a positive association between amount of tree cover density, in a radius of 500m around the current home address and grey matter volume in right orbitofrontal cortex (rOFC). Of note, the volume of the rOFC cluster identified, showed a positive association with cognitive performance in the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, namely in the verbal and spatial ability domain (Vocabulary, Block Design), and a negative association with both, self-reported and behavioural markers of impulsivity (delay discounting). Moreover, rOFC volume showed a negative association with self-reported alcohol use problems. The data provide strong evidence in favour of a link between geographical features of the current living environment (particularly trees) and brain structure above and beyond childhood and upbringing. Interestingly, the respective brain correlates are associated with cognitive, behavioural and personality characteristics which have been considered as risk factors for several psychiatric disorders. Environmental neuroscience may in the long run provide a knowledge base for evidence-based urban landscape planning to facilitate mental health. • Urbanicity during upbringing is negatively associated with prefrontal cortex volume • We used data from 677 younger adults from different European cities • Current tree cover density at home was positively related to orbitofrontal cortex • The lOFC cluster was positively associated to cognitive performance • The lOFC cluster was negatively associated with markers of impulsivity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a multicenter European retrospective study including 162 patients with COVID-19 occurring in essential thrombocythemia (ET, n = 48), polycythemia vera (PV, n = 42), myelofibrosis (MF, n = 56), and prefibrotic myelofibrosis (pre-PMF, n = 16), 15 major thromboses (3 arterial and 12 venous) were registered in 14 patients, of whom all, but one, were receiving LMW-heparin prophylaxis. After adjustment for the competing risk of death, the cumulative incidence of arterial and venous thromboembolic events (VTE) reached 8.5% after 60 days follow-up. Of note, 8 of 12 VTE were seen in ET. Interestingly, at COVID-19 diagnosis, MPN patients had significantly lower platelet count (p < 0.0001) than in the pre-COVID last follow-up.This decline was remarkably higher in ET (-23.3%, p < 0.0001) than in PV (-16.4%, p = 0.1730) and was associated with higher mortality rate (p = 0.0010) for pneumonia. The effects of possible predictors of thrombosis, selected from those clinically relevant and statistically significant in univariate analysis, were examined in a multivariate model. Independent risk factors were transfer to ICU (SHR = 3.73, p = 0.029), neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (SHR = 1.1, p = 0.001) and ET phenotype (SHR = 4.37, p = 0.006). The enhanced susceptibility to ET-associated VTE and the associated higher mortality for pneumonia may recognize a common biological plausibility and deserve to be delved to tailor new antithrombotic regimens including antiplatelet drugs.

We report the clinical presentation and risk factors for survival in 175 patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) and COVID-19, diagnosed between February and June 2020. After a median follow-up of 50 days, mortality was higher than in the general population and reached 48% in myelofibrosis (MF). Univariate analysis, showed a significant relationship between death and age, male gender, decreased lymphocyte counts, need for respiratory support, comorbidities and diagnosis of MF, while no association with essential thrombocythemia (ET), polycythemia vera (PV), and prefibrotic-PMF (pre-PMF) was found. Regarding MPN-directed therapy ongoing at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis, Ruxolitinib (Ruxo) was significantly more frequent in patients who died in comparison with survivors (p = 0.006). Conversely, multivariable analysis found no effect of Ruxo alone on mortality, but highlighted an increased risk of death in the 11 out of 45 patients who discontinued treatment. These findings were also confirmed in a propensity score matching analysis. In conclusion, we found a high risk of mortality during COVID-19 infection among MPN patients, especially in MF patients and/or discontinuing Ruxo at COVID-19 diagnosis. These findings call for deeper investigation on the role of Ruxo treatment and its interruption, in affecting mortality in MPN patients with COVID-19.

The self-organizing mechanism is a universal approach that is widely followed in nature. In this work, a novel self-organizing model describing diffusion over a lattice is introduced. Simulation results for the model's active lattice sites demonstrate an evolution curve that is very close to those describing the evolution of infected European populations by COVID-19. The model was further examined against real data regarding the COVID-19 epidemic for seven European countries (with a total population of 290 million) during the periods in which social distancing measures were imposed, namely Italy and Spain, which had an enormous spread of the disease; the successful case of Greece; and four central European countries: France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. The value of the proposed model lies in its simplicity and in the fact that it is based on a universal natural mechanism, which through the presentation of an equivalent dynamical system apparently documents and provides a better understanding of the dynamical process behind viral epidemic spreads in general-even pandemics, such as in the case of COVID-19-further allowing us to come closer to controlling such situations. Finally, this model allowed the study of dynamical characteristics such as the memory effect, through the autocorrelation function, in the studied epidemiological dynamical systems.