Vice President’s Discussion with Higher Education Leaders

Shantel Harris -
W a s h i n g t o n ,   D C ,   U S A - 

Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States

Vice President Mike Pence led a discussion with higher education leaders from across the country to discuss the all-of-America approach to respond to COVID-19 and drive America’s phased economic revival. Vice President Pence, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx discussed best practices to get students back to school in the Fall.

They discussed guidance released by President Trump and the CDC which calls upon colleges and universities to develop, implement and maintain a plan to ensure the health and safety of students, faculty and staff. The Vice President thanked everyone on the call for their hard work in accomplishing this goal.

President Trump’s leadership and the efforts of the American people have saved lives, slowed the spread of the coronavirus and allowed states to begin opening up. These college and university leaders discussed possible options to re-open their campuses for students, faculty and staff safely and responsibly. Many participants on the call discussed working groups they developed on campus to provide data-driven strategies for re-opening. Participants discussed the importance of opening and maintaining research labs to assist with COVID-19 research, testing and tracing.

The discussion provided insight into a new chapter of re-opening America, and what colleges and universities are doing to meet their individual needs, aligned with state leadership. The Vice President thanked the group for their commitment to safely re-open their institutions, and indicated he looked forward to additional updates on progress in the near future.

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Students Across Europe Learn Swift to Unlock New Opportunities

Peter Thomas -
L o n d o n ,   U K - 

Student at Layton Primary School are able to
explore the fundamentals of coding with iPad.

This month, in classrooms across Europe celebrating EU Code Week, students of all ages are living proof that coding opens doors to opportunities never before possible.

At Layton Primary School in Blackpool, England, coding principles are helping 5- and 6-year-olds track down a rogue dinosaur. And in Italy, at Milan’s Institute De Amicis, coding is the key that unlocked a life-changing career for 28-year-old Belinda Tagariello.

These schools are part of a growing number of European institutions relying on the power and versatility of iPad, Mac and Apple's Everyone Can Code and App Development with Swift curricula to teach coding to a new generation of students. Both schools say the programs have led to more engaged, innovative learning with proven results.

In Italy, Belinda Tagariello spent most of her 20s bouncing from one unfulfilling job to another. In 2017, she enrolled in a government-funded course that taught Swift, Apple’s powerful and easy-to-use programming language, to under- and unemployed young adults at the Institute De Amicis in Milan. As a first-time coder, Tagariello learned coding basics in Swift Playgrounds on iPad and quickly advanced to App Development with Swift on the Mac to start building something of her own. Fast forward to today and Tagariello now teaches that same course, has one app already on the App Store, and is working on developing her second.

“When I started to develop the app, I started to feel free because I could do it myself,” says Tagariello. “When I found this, I found my way.”

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Apples or Ice Cream - Who, or What, Determines What We Eat?

Peter Thomas -
L o n d o n ,   U K - 

Apples or Ice Cream?

Why, when presented with an apple or an ice cream, do we often go for the unhealthy option when our rational mind is telling us that the apple is the better choice? And how can we overcome the underlying automatic and habitual processes that often undermine healthy behaviours and drive the spread of illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease?

For Professor Paul Fletcher, Bernard Wolfe Professor of Health Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, the answer lies in understanding that our decision-making processes are not entirely rational, or even conscious, and so approaches that appeal only to logic may well not be successful.

Professor Fletcher will be speaking about the neuroscience of human behaviour as part of this year’s Cambridge Series at the Hay Festival on 31st May. His talk, Apples or ice-cream? Who - or what - determines what we eat?, will discuss the external stimuli - availability and promotion of cheap sweet, salty and fatty food - and internal processes - including stress and anxiety - that act against rational decision-making.

“The idea that the brain is a puppet master is often wrong,” says Fletcher, who is based at the Cambridge University Department of Psychiatry. “We face a lot of other influences, from our bodies, from the environment, many of which are often below the conscious level."

“Time and again we act in ways that go against our long-term goals, going for more immediate rewards. But most attempts to mitigate this tendency are largely based on education and information which play to the rational mind."

He says that those environmental stimuli include brands, which often become conflated with rewards. “Brands send out intrinsically powerful stimuli that generate pleasure in themselves,” he says. He mentions experiments in the US on young children which show that the mere presence of a McDonald’s logo on healthier food “seems to shift the value of those foods”, increasing liking for them.

In the past Professor Fletcher’s research has focused on psychosis, but to understand psychosis and psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations, he says we need to understand the brain basis for how associations are made and how we come to think of particular environmental stimuli as important.

In his Hay talk he will outline the complexity of the problems faced by those seeking to tackle the problems associated with unhealthy eating. “The challenge is that we are living in a world that is populated by stimuli that can subtly but powerfully shape our behaviours. Given a lot of our drives towards consumption act at a very immediate, unreflective level it is likely that the best approaches to mitigating health-harming decisions and behaviours have to work on that level,” he says.

Some examples are research on plate and glass sizes, moves to replace sweets at checkouts with healthier foods and research on the impact of hormone levels on the brain’s reward system.

Another crucial factor in determining what and how much we eat comes from signals we are receiving from our bodies, says Professor Fletcher. These can be metabolic, hormonal and neural. Exploring how these signals interact with stimuli in the world is going to be an important part of a comprehensive understanding what drives behaviours, he states.

For Professor Fletcher there is no one panacea to tackling the problem of unhealthy eating, but he says it is clear that it cannot be left to individuals or food and drink manufacturers. Moralising and naming and shaming won’t work either and education alone is not enough. He says “strenuous legislation” is likely to be needed which is linked to a long term plan to tackle behaviour-related disease.

That means developing a deeper understanding of the neurobiological and psychological underpinnings of decision-making and behaviour. Professor Fletcher adds: “A great deal of psychological understanding and skill has gone into encouraging us to consume unhealthy foods. We need to apply the same levels of skill to help people resist these powerful factors.”

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Unique Iron Age Shield Gives Insight into Prehistoric Technology

Peter Thomas -
L o n d o n ,   U K - 

The Enderby shield after conservation
© Mike Bamforth / ULAS

A bark shield, thought to have been constructed with wooden laths during the Iron Age, has provided new insight into the construction and design of prehistoric weaponry.

The only one of its kind ever found in Europe, the shield was found south of Leicester on the Everards Meadows site, in what is believed to have been a livestock watering hole.

Following analysis of the construction of the shield by Michael Bamforth at the University of York, it became apparent that the shield had been carefully constructed with wooden laths to stiffen the structure, a wooden edging rim, and a woven boss to protect the wooden handle.

Although prior evidence has shown that prehistoric people used bark to make bowls and boxes, this is the first time researchers have seen the material used for a weapon of war.

The outside of the shield has been painted and scored in red chequerboard decoration. Radiocarbon dating has revealed that the shield was made between 395 and 255 BC.

The shield was severely damaged before being deposited in the ground, with some of the damage likely to have been caused by the pointed tips of spears. Further analysis is planned to help understand if this occurred in battle or as an act of ritual destruction.

Reconstruction of the alder shield © ULAS

Michael Bamforth, from the University of York’s Department of Archaeology, said: “This truly astonishing and unparalleled artefact has given us an insight into prehistoric technology that we could never have guessed at.

“Although we know that bark has many uses, including making boxes and containers it doesn't survive well in the archaeological record. Initially we didn't think bark could be strong enough to use as a shield to defend against spears and swords and we wondered if it could be for ceremonial use.

"It was only through experimentation that we realised it could be tough enough to protect against blows from metal weapons. Although a bark shield is not as strong as one made from wood or metal, it would be much lighter allowing the user much more freedom of movement."

The shield was first discovered by archaeologists at the University of Leicester's Archaeoligical Services in 2015 at an Iron Age site within a farming landscape known to have been used and managed by Iron Age communities, with the Fosse Way Roman road running close by.

Many cutting-edge analytical techniques have been used to understand the construction of the object, including CT scanning and 3D printing.

Dr Rachel Crellin, Lecturer in later Prehistory at the University of Leicester, who assessed the evidence for impact damage, said: “The first time I saw the shield I was absolutely awed by it: the complex structure, the careful decorations, and the beautiful boss.

The Enderby shield facedown in the ground © ULAS

“I must admit I was initially sceptical about whether the shield would have functioned effectively, however the experimental work showed that the shield would have worked very effectively, and analysis of the surface of the object has identified evidence of use.”

The shield has now been conserved by York Archaeological Trust and will be deposited with the British Museum on behalf of Everards of Leicestershire, who funded and supported the project.

Dr Julia Farley, Curator of British and European Iron Age Collections at the British Museum, said: “This is an absolutely phenomenal object, one of the most marvelous, internationally important finds that I've encountered in my career.

“Bark and basketry objects were probably commonplace in ancient Britain, but they seldom survive, so to be able to study this shield is a great privilege. It holds a rich store of information about Iron Age society and craft practices.”

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