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Background This paper investigates how the COVID-19 school closure has affected the gender gap in grade-8 students' performance and what are the drivers behind this. By analysing four different countries (i.e., the Russian Federation, Slovenia, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates), the paper represents the first study addressing the issue from a comparative perspective. Methods The study uses data from the Responses to Educational Disruption Survey (REDS) survey, which comprises international comparable data on how students approached remote learning during the COVID-19 disruption. The extent of the gender gap is estimated by employing an ordered logit model, while the Karlson-Holm-Breen (KHB) decomposition method is used to analyse the different potential channels that could account for the gender gap during COVID-19. Results The empirical results reveal that, during the COVID-19 school closure, girls tended to perceive changes in their learnings less favourably than boys, both in terms of improvement in self-perceived learning and self-reported improvement in grades—with odds of a more affirmative response between 20 and 25% lower for girls relative to boys. The main drivers explaining this gender gap are physical activity and psychological distress of students during the COVID-19 disruption, as well as the perceived family climate. Conclusions The paper shows systematic gender differences in how students perceived their educational outcomes changed due to the COVID-19 disruption, providing evidence on the factors driving these differences. The findings could be employed to design policy actions aimed at increasing gender equality in education.

The occurrence of colic could be influenced by the characteristics of a population, geographical area, and feeding management. The aim of this study was to report the short-term postoperative complications and survival rates and to identify factors that might affect the outcome of horses that underwent colic surgery in three Italian surgical referral centres. Data of horses subjected to colic surgery in three referral centres (2018–2021) were analysed. Comparisons of the outcomes were performed using a Mann–Whitney or a Chi square test. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and multivariable logistic regression analysis were used for parameters that were significant in the previous univariate analysis. The goodness-of-fit of the model was assessed using the Akike information criterion (AIC). Significance was defined as p < 0.05, and odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated as percentages. A total of 451 horses were included. The survival rate was 68.5% of all of the horses that underwent colic surgery and 80% of the horses surviving anaesthesia. Age, BCS, PCV and TPP before and after surgery, amount of reflux, type of disease, type of lesion, duration of surgery, surgeon’s experience, and amount of intra- and postoperative fluids administered influenced the probability of short-term survival. The multivariate analysis revealed that PCV at arrival, TPP after surgery, and BCS had the highest predictive power. This is the first multicentre study in Italy. The results of this study may help surgeons to inform owners regarding the prognosis of colic surgery.

The disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic generated an unprecedented situation, in which digital learning, in the form of Emergency Remote Teaching, was the only possible form of schooling. Italy soon decided to close schools as a measure to counter the spread of the virus. Although the Ministry of Education suggested general guidelines, school principals and teachers were autonomous in deciding how to best organise their educational activities. The first objective of our study is to identify subgroups of teachers, based on the use of digital tools during the Covid-19 emergency. Secondly, we explore how subgroups differ in terms of teachers’ satisfaction and students’ performance. To this end, we integrate information from an ad hoc survey completed by 1,407 primary and lower secondary teachers in Italy, with the students’ standardised test scores provided by INVALSI. Data have been analysed through a 3-step latent class analysis. The findings reveal that one third of the teachers showed resistance to the use of digital technologies and focused mainly on asynchronous teaching. Teachers that used a broader set of digital instruments, instead, were more satisfied with their teaching practices. A more articulated use of technology for teaching activities was also positively associated with higher students’ performance in 2021.

This paper investigates the determinants of mathematics performance by gender, exploiting a multilevel random forest approach. OECD PISA 2018 data from 28 European countries are employed to explore the performance of male and female students as a function of students’ family characteristics, their attitudes towards education, and class and school environment. Results show that the gender gap in favour of boys persists in most European countries. However, teacher and school practices like fostering student reading and creating a cooperative environment allow mitigating the influence of family background in countries without gender gap. Policy implications to foster performance equality are provided.

We examine the determinants of university involvement in knowledge transfer activities, focusing on the value of external services provided by higher education institutions. Data come from 164 universities in the UK and are drawn from the HE Business and Community Interaction Survey (HE-BCI), with a variety of university- and region- specific explanatory variables grafted onto the data from other official sources. The production function for such external services is estimated using the appropriate stochastic frontier methods, and unobserved heterogeneity across institutions of higher education is accommodated by adopting a latent class framework for the modelling. We find strong effects of scale and of research orientation on the level of knowledge transfer. There are, however, two distinct latent classes of higher education institutions, and these differ especially in terms of how external service provision responds to subject specialization of universities and to economic conditions in the region. Research-intensive universities are concentrated in one of the latent classes and, in these institutions, the provision of external services appears to be highly efficient, while in the second latent class there is greater variation in the efficiency of universities.

Simple Summary The entrapment of the left large colon in the nephrosplenic space is a common cause of colic in horses but not in miniature horses and pony breeds. Different techniques have been proposed to prevent this problem, such as colopexy, large colon resection or nephrosplenic space (NSS) ablation. The most recent methods involve closing the NSS with a minimally invasive technique with the horse standing. Multiple techniques have been described for laparoscopic NSS ablation, among which are ablation with a barbed suture and ablation with prosthetic mesh. Although these two methods have been proposed as valid and effective, no direct comparison has yet been made between them. In this study, the two techniques are compared in terms of duration of surgery, short- and long-term complications, and costs. Abstract Nephrosplenic space (NSS) ablation has been demonstrated to be an effective technique for prevention of left dorsal displacement of the large colon and multiple laparoscopic techniques, among which ablation with mesh or with a barbed suture, have been proposed. Our objective was to compare two laparoscopic techniques for closure of the NSS in twenty-eight horses diagnosed with nephrosplenic entrapment. Medical records of horses that had laparoscopic NSS ablation in two referral centers between 2017–2019 were retrieved. Duration of surgery, complications, and short- and long-term follow-up information were collected and compared. Costs were also calculated and compared. All horses met the inclusion criteria: 9 had NSS ablation with a mesh implant (group M), 19 with barbed suture material (group B). One horse in group B had recurrent colic after discharge. At control laparoscopy after 5 months, the NSS resulted in still not being ablated because of a failure of the suture. In group M, three horses had recurrent colic. One was successfully treated medically, one died of unknown causes and the third required a second laparoscopic suturing at 3–6 months because of failure of the mesh implant. The mean time of surgery and costs were lower in group B compared to group M. The barbed suture technique was faster, more cost-effective and had a lower complication rate than the mesh implant.

Figure 1 Supplementary. Case 2. Cranial cervical ganglion. Severe neuronal chromatolysis and satellitosis, along with occasional lymphocytic cells (arrow head). (FFPE, Cresil violet, x20).

Figure 2 Supplementary. Case 2. Caudal mesenteric ganglion. A number of ganglion cells contain abnormal accumulation of yellowish pigments consistent with lipofuscins (FFPE, H&E, x40).

Teratoma is a rare germ cell testicular cancer composed of cells that are not normally present in the site where it originates. These tumors are rarely described in horses, where they may develop due to cryptorchidism. Teratomas consist of cells originating from different germinal layers, arising from germinal multi-potential cells with differentiation defects, and can simultaneously contain several tissues from two or more embryonic layers. Testicular teratomas are described in horses, cats, dogs, wild boars, bulls, and humans. In the rare descriptions found in literature of testicular teratoma in stallions, they occur frequently in cryptorchid testicles, as a consequence of congenital neoplasm. To our knowledge there is no other report of a dentigerous equine teratoma in a stallion. We describe here a successful laparoscopic removal of a testicular teratoma and its clinic-pathological features.

Figure 3 Supplementary. Case 4. Cranial mesenteric ganglion. Many ganglion cells show complete loss of Nissl���s substance replaced by a diffuse eosinophilic cytoplasm. In these cells the nucleus is not apparent. A marked gliosis is associated with neuronal degeneration (FFPE, H&E, x10)

This article deals with the relationships between the performance of higher education systems (HESs) and their potential determinants. The research employed data relating to twenty-nine European countries, within a time span of 15 years. The empirical work is based on a conceptual framework that has been tested through Structural Equation Modelling. The data was selected from a novel data set that we have built by gathering HES indicators from the major international databases. Among the more noteworthy results, we found no statistically significant correlation between graduation rates and research performance. Additionally, we found a moderate effect of public expenditure on HES performance. The article addresses the issue of the lack of a comprehensive set of systemic indicators for HES performance, providing a holistic picture of the relationship between HES determinants and performance, which, in turn, could help to provide an adequate evaluation of the policies in the field of higher education.