Search

IntroductionBased on established evidence of gender differences in friendship patterns, and the vulnerability associated with early reliance on friends, we hypothesized that in 13-year-olds, a preference for turning to friends rather than parents for emotional support contributes to the gender difference in depressive symptoms.MethodsUsing a cross-sectional design, 671 adolescents (53.7% girls; mean age 13.11 ± 0.52 years) in a UK birth cohort [Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS)] reported turning to their parents and to their friends when distressed [Network of Relationships Inventory (NRI)] and depressed [Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ)]. Preferentially turning to friends was assessed as turning to friends minus turning to parents for support. Analyses used path analysis using the gsem command in Stata.ResultsGirls had higher depressive symptoms than boys (p p p p p = .004).ConclusionsIn young adolescents, preferentially turning to friends over parents when distressed is common, and the association between preferentially turning and depressive symptoms is markedly higher in girls than in boys. This reflects either a gender difference in social vulnerability to depression or a greater impact of depression on the reliance on friends instead of parents in girls. While clarifying the directions of influence requires prospective study, these findings provide the first evidence that the assessment of depression in young adolescents should consider the degree of reliance on friends and parents.

Project governance is an important activity in agile software development (ASD) projects for project success. Middle managers are part of the governance structure in ASD projects. Despite the efficacy of project governance and existence of middle managers in agile teams, project governance and middle management in ASD projects are under-researched. This multiple-case study investigates the roles of middle managers in agile project governance activities within two Nigerian ASD projects through the lens of activity theory. We collected data in semi-structured interviews, observations, questionnaires, and company documents. Our findings show that middle managers performed 25 roles related to planning and coordination for project alignment and execution, continuous improvement and organisational change, agile and technical leadership, monitoring, and capability building. We conclude that middle managers are pivotal to project governance practice and the effectual functioning of agile teams in ASD projects. The study will help agile practitioners to better understand the roles of middle managers in agile project governance. Results from this work contribute to the ‘middle management in agile’ debate and offer an alternative view that may change beliefs about middle managers in agile project settings.

Transforming into an agile organization is challenging because it involves complex changes across the organization including changes to strategy, structure, culture, operations, and technology. Although much has been written about organizational\ud agility, practitioners still call for authentic accounts and concrete experiences to help them understand how to transform. This article is based on three case studies of diverse organizations transforming to agility and provides an account of each transformation. Each organization chose a different focus for their transformation: culture change, strategic change, and operational change. Each organization faced challenges that resulted in tensions. We present 13 tensions from three cases, which illustrate the kinds of tension that organizations face in agile transformations. We consider these 13 tensions through the lens of paradox theory and thereby produce both practical guidance and theoretical contributions. We show how questions generated from this perspective may be used to guide transformation leaders and managers in addressing the tensions they will meet. Our findings provide empirical evidence for the tension categories in paradox theory and show that tensions occur during transformations to agility and not just in fully agile organizations.

Introduction: Despite widespread belief that anxiety causes longer labor, evidence of association is inconsistent. Data gathered as part of a prospective epidemiological longitudinal study were used to investigate associations between antenatal anxiety and pregnancy-specific stress, and labor progression was assessed by duration and use of augmentation.\ud \ud Material and methods: Pregnant primiparous women completed measures for anxiety and pregnancy-specific stress at 20 weeks' gestation (n = 1145). Birth outcome data were extracted from medical records. Regression analyses and a path analysis assessed associations between antenatal anxiety and pregnancy-specific stress, and indices of labor progression (labor duration and augmentation).\ud \ud Results: Anxiety/pregnancy-specific stress were not directly associated with duration of stage 1 labor (HIGH/LOW anxiety: mean difference = 13.94 minutes, SD = 20.66, 95% CI -26.60 to 54.49, P < .50)/(HIGH/LOW pregnancy-specific stress: mean difference = 12.05 minutes, SD = 16.09, 95% CI -19.52 to 43.63, P < .45). However, anxiety/pregnancy-specific stress were associated with epidural use (HIGH/LOW anxiety: 39% vs 31%, P < .042; HIGH/LOW pregnancy-specific stress: 38% vs 29%, P < .001), which was itself associated with longer labor (mean difference: 158.79 minutes, SD = 16.76, 95% CI 125.89-191.68, P < .001). Anxiety and pregnancy-specific stress were associated with increased likelihood of augmentation but these associations were nonsignificant after accounting for epidural, which was itself highly associated with augmentation. However, path analysis indicated an indirect effect linking pregnancy-specific stress, but not general anxiety, to labor duration and augmentation: elevated pregnancy-specific stress led to greater use of epidural, which was linked to both increased rates of augmentation, and increased labor duration.\ud \ud Conclusions: Contrary to general belief, general anxiety and specific pregnancy stress were not directly linked to longer duration of stage one labor. However specific pregnancy stress was associated with epidural use, which in turn was significantly associated with risk of augmentation, and longer stage one labor. Identification of pregnancy-specific stress could help to identify women for whom psychological interventions could improve birth experience.

Context: A stable team is deemed optimal for agile software development project success; however, all teams change membership over time. Newcomers joining an agile project team must rapidly assimilate into the organisational and project environment. They must do this while learning how to contribute effectively and without seriously interrupting project progress. Objective: This paper addresses how newcomers integrate into an established agile project team and how agile practices assist with onboarding. Method: A single, qualitative case study approach was used, investigating a co-located agile project team in a large IT department who regularly onboard inexperienced newcomers. Analysis was abductive, consisting of inductive coding and theming using categories from an existing onboarding theory. Results: We describe the team’s onboarding practices and adjustments and present an agile onboarding model that encompasses onboarding activities, individual adjustments, and workplace adjustments. Conclusions: A mixture of general and specific agile onboarding practices contribute to successful onboarding in an agile team. We provide practical guidelines to improve onboarding practice in agile teams. Our major new contribution is an extended model of onboarding for agile teams.

Although a stable team is deemed optimal for agile project success, new team members need to join ongoing agile projects. New- comers must rapidly assimilate into the organisational and project envi- ronment while learning how to contribute effectively to the project and integrate into the team without seriously interrupting project progress. This paper addresses how newcomers integrate into an established agile project team and the challenges newcomers and the team face during this process. This paper is a single case study of a co-located agile project team in a large IT department who regularly onboard inexperienced new- comers. We found a mixture of traditional onboarding practices and spe- cific agile practices contribute to the onboarding process. Onboarding challenges include empowerment and mindset change, accommodating part-timers, conveying agile principles, and adjusting to changes in team composition.

This study examined the contributions of antenatal anxiety, depression, and partner violence to low birth weight (LBW) in infants and to sex-specific birth weight outcomes among mothers from a cohort in urban India. Data from 700 mothers from the PRAMMS cohort (Prospective Assessment of Maternal Mental Health Study) were used. Pregnant women were assessed in each trimester—T1, T2 and T3, for symptoms of anxiety, and depression as well as partner violence. Multivariate analyses were performed for the whole sample and then for male and female infants separately. The final multivariable logistic regression models were each built using a backward selection procedure and controlling for confounders. To accommodate longitudinally measured data, change in scores (T2–T1 and T3–T2) of anxiety and depression were included in the model. Of the 583 women with a singleton live birth, birth weight was available for 514 infants and LBW was recorded in 80 infants (15.6%). Of these, 23 infants were preterm. Overall, higher T1 Depression scores (OR: 1.11; 95% CI 1.040, 1.187) and an increase in both Depression scores (OR: 1.12; 95% CI 1.047, 1.195) from T1 to T2 and Anxiety scores (OR: 1.32; 95% CI 1.079, 1.603) between T2 and T3 were predictors of LBW. Female infants had a higher chance of LBW with increase in maternal anxiety between T1–T2 (OR: 1.69; 95% CI 1.053, 2.708) and T2–T3 (OR: 1.49; 95% CI 1.058, 2.086); partner violence during pregnancy just failed to reach conventional statistical significance (OR: 2.48; 95% CI 0.810, 7.581) in girls. Male infants had a higher chance of LBW with higher baseline depression scores at T1 (OR: 1.23; 95% CI 1.042, 1.452) and an increase in depression scores (OR: 1.25; 95% CI 1.060, 1.472) from T1 to T2. Increasing prenatal anxiety and depressive symptoms in different trimesters of pregnancy were associated with LBW with sex-specific patterns of association in this sample from a Low and Middle Income Country.

Background There is good evidence that female infants are particularly vulnerable to poor emotional outcomes following in utero glucocorticoid exposure. It is currently unclear whether such effects might persist into the postnatal period for breastfed infants, as maternal cortisol is expressed in breastmilk and is influenced by maternal psychological distress. We pre-registered hypotheses that maternal postnatal depression would be associated with infant negative emotionality, and that this effect would be moderated by breastfeeding status and infant sex. Methods We analysed data from the Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS), a prospective epidemiological study starting in pregnancy. Nine weeks after birth mothers self-reported depressive symptoms and breastfeeding status, and reported infant negative emotionality using the distress to limits subscale of the infant behaviour questionnaire (IBQ-R) when their infant was aged 9 weeks and 14 months. Maximum likelihood estimations made use of data from 857 mother-infant pairs. Results At 9 weeks of age, maternal postnatal depressive symptoms were positively associated with infant distress to limits; however, this effect was not moderated by infant sex or breastfeeding. At age 14 months, the association between postnatal depression symptoms and distress to limits was greatest in the breastfed females, whereas the association was smaller, but still significant, in the non-breastfed females. For males, the association was non-significant in both the breastfed and non-breastfed groups. A test of sex difference between breastfed males and females was significant. Conclusions We provide evidence that effects of maternal postnatal depression on child emotional outcomes are moderated by breastfeeding status and differ by infant sex. Female vulnerability to elevated maternal breastmilk glucocorticoids may, at least in part, explain these effects., Highlights Female infants breastfed by mothers with high depressive symptoms showed the highest levels of negative emotionality at age 14 months. Conversely, female infants breastfed by mothers with very low depressive symptoms showed the lowest negative emotionality. Negative emotionality of males was unrelated to maternal postnatal depression and breastfeeding at 14 months of age. We provide novel evidence that effects of maternal postnatal depression on infant emotional outcomes is moderated by breastfeeding status and differs by infant sex.

Despite the availability of various methods and tools to facilitate secure coding, developers continue to write code that contains common vulnerabilities. It is important to understand why technological advances do not sufficiently facilitate developers in writing secure code. To widen our understanding of developers' behaviour, we considered the complexity of the security decision space of developers using theory from cognitive and social psychology. Our interdisciplinary study reported in this article (1) draws on the psychology literature to provide conceptual underpinnings for three categories of impediments to achieving security goals, (2) reports on an in-depth meta-analysis of existing software security literature that identified a catalogue of factors that influence developers' security decisions, and (3) characterises the landscape of existing security interventions that are available to the developer during coding and identifies gaps. Collectively, these show that different forms of impediments to achieving security goals arise from different contributing factors. Interventions will be more effective where they reflect psychological factors more sensitively and marry technical sophistication, psychological frameworks, and usability. Our analysis suggests “adaptive security interventions” as a solution that responds to the changing security needs of individual developers and a present a proof-of-concept tool to substantiate our suggestion.

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with severe and stable antisocial behaviour in childhood and adolescence. In order to understand the earliest origins of CU traits we need first to know whether measurement is reliable and valid in young children. This study evaluated the psychometric properties and validity of a CU traits measure generated from existing child problem behaviour scales at age 2.5 years. The participants were members of an epidemiological longitudinal study starting in pregnancy. Items from the Antisocial Process Screening Device and other problem behaviour scales were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Structural equation modelling was used to test whether age 2.5 CU traits showed incremental validity in predicting aggression at age 5. The CU measure showed acceptable psychometric properties, factorial invariance by sex and good stability. Incremental prediction to later aggression was evident in girls, whereas boys showed strong continuity in aggression not found for girls.

Incremental prediction of aggression from callous–unemotional (CU) traits is well established, but cross-cultural replication and studies of young children are needed. Little is understood about the contribution of CU traits in children who are already aggressive. We addressed these issues in prospective studies in the United Kingdom and Colombia. In a UK epidemiological cohort, CU traits and aggression were assessed at age 3.5 years, and aggression at 5.0 years by mothers (N = 687) and partners (N = 397). In a Colombian general population sample, CU traits were assessed at age 3.5 years and aggression at 3.5 and 5.0 years by mother report (N = 220). Analyses consistently showed prediction of age-5.0 aggression by age-3.5 CU traits controlling for age-3.5 aggression. Associations between age-3.5 CU traits and age-5.0 aggression were moderated by aggression at 3.5 years, with UK interaction terms, same informant, β = .07 p = .014 cross-informant, β = .14 p = .002, and in Colombia, β = .09 p = .128. The interactions arose from stronger associations between CU traits and later aggression in those already aggressive. Our findings with preschoolers replicated across culturally diverse settings imply a major role for CU traits in the maintenance and amplification of already established aggression, and cast doubt on their contribution to its origins.

The integration of agile software development and user experience (UX) design has been a topic of investigation for practitioners and researchers for many years, and agile teams have become increasingly aware of the importance of UX design. Most studies have focused so far on the integration of UX theories and methods with agile practices. The objective of this research is to investigate whether and how UX information is embedded in the daily work of an agile team. We conducted an ethnographic study of an agile team based in the UK. We performed a qualitative analysis using different data sources and three complementary analytical lenses: Distributed Cognition of Teamwork, Garrett's set of UX elements and planes, and Hassenzahl's content-oriented model of UX. This combination provided an understanding of the different types of UX information available to the agile team through artefacts and face-to-face meetings, how the information flowed within and around the agile team, and the type of engagement they have with UX information. The findings reveal that: (1) agile team members were consumers of UX information not producers; (2) the most common type of UX information found in the system related to how the user interacts with the product rather than to user goals or needs; (3) information focusing on the user perspective appears in verbal communication rather than being captured in artefacts; and, (4) the flow of UX information around the team is complex. In combination, these factors indicate a potential breakdown in the communication of UX information. We argue that these findings have relevance for other agile teams because the artefacts and methods used by this team are commonly used by other agile teams. To improve the situation, we suggest a number of recommendations to engage agile team members in UX work, and reduce the complexity of UX information flow.

© 2020 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Objective: Atypical emotion recognition (ER) is characteristic of children with high callous unemotional (CU) traits. The current study aims to 1) replicate studies showing ER difficulties for static faces in relation to high CU-traits; 2) test whether ER difficulties remain when more naturalistic dynamic stimuli are used; 3) test whether ER performance for dynamic stimuli is moderated by eye-gaze direction and 4) assess the impact of co-occurring autistic traits on the association between CU and ER. Methods: Participants were 292 (152 male) 7-year-olds from the Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS). Children completed a static and dynamic ER eye-tracking task, and accuracy, reaction time and attention to the eyes were recorded. Results: Higher parent-reported CU-traits were significantly associated with reduced ER for static expressions, with lower accuracy for angry and happy faces. No association was found for dynamic expressions. However, parent-reported autistic traits were associated with ER difficulties for both static and dynamic expressions, and after controlling for autistic traits, the association between CU-traits and ER for static expressions became non-significant. CU-traits and looking to the eyes were not associated in either paradigm. Conclusion: The finding that CU-traits and ER are associated for static but not naturalistic dynamic expressions may be because motion cues in the dynamic stimuli draw attention to emotion-relevant features such as eyes and mouth. Further, results suggest that ER difficulties in CU-traits may be due, in part, to co-occurring autistic traits. Future developmental studies are required to tease apart pathways toward the apparently overlapping cognitive phenotype.

Background\ud Based on previous findings from the Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS), and on evolutionary hypotheses, we preregistered analyses of data from a large epidemiological sample (https://osf.io/fn5g9/register/564d31db8c5e4a7c9694b2be), to test for sex‐dependent moderation by prenatal maternal depressive symptoms of the association between postnatal maternal depressive symptoms and child emotional problems.\ud \ud Methods\ud A total of 8,354 mothers and children were followed from pregnancy to 3.5 years in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Self‐report measures of prenatal and postnatal maternal depressive symptoms, and maternal report of child emotional symptoms were administered.\ud \ud Results\ud There was a three‐way interaction between maternal prenatal and postnatal depression, and child sex (Coeff .042 95% CI 0.015 to 0.068, p = .002). This arose from moderation by prenatal depression, in opposite directions in boys and in girls. In boys, the association between postnatal depression and child emotional symptoms was weaker following lower prenatal depressive symptoms (interaction term coeff = .030, p = .001), and in girls, to a lesser extent, the association was stronger following lower prenatal depressive symptoms (interaction term coeff = −.012, p = .221).\ud \ud Conclusions\ud We replicated the finding from the WCHADS that prenatal depression modifies the association between postnatal depression and children's emotional problems in a sex‐dependent fashion. In ALSPAC, the sex difference was explained mainly by a protective effect of low prenatal depression in boys, while in WCHADS, it arose from greater vulnerability of girls to postnatal depression following low prenatal depression. In the light of these findings, in evaluating and implementing early interventions, there is need to consider that risks associated with postnatal depression may vary depending on maternal mood during pregnancy and may differ between boys and girls.

As software-intensive digital systems become an integral part of modern life, ensuring that these systems are developed to satisfy security and privacy requirements is an increasingly important societal concern. Integrating security into software development involves more than learning security principles or applying techniques. Security in practice is shaped through experience. It can be integrated into software development by following a middle path, through which developers draw together formal knowledge and software development techniques. Social interactions facilitate this process. This article recommends four strategies developers can use to maximise security in practice using online communities like Stack Overflow, including approaching security from within specific tasks, critically assessing content in posts, actively participating, and bringing online information into real-world situations.

Strategic agility enables an organisation to sense and seize opportunities, manage uncertainty and adapt to changes. This paper presents one case study of a traditional charitable organisation taking a strategy-focused approach to agile transformation. Interview data was collected over a 13-month period through interviews at different stages and with different members of the transformation team and Heads of Department. This case study illustrates the challenges faced in such a transformation, and shows that strategic agility requires different time horizons to co-exist: a future vision, a medium term set of objectives and a short term performance monitoring perspective.

The monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) uVNTR (upstream variable number tandem repeat) is one of the most often cited examples of a gene by environment interaction (GxE) in relation to behavioral traits. However, MAOA possesses a second VNTR, 500 bp upstream of the uVNTR, which is termed d- or distal VNTR. Furthermore, genomic analysis indicates that there are a minimum of two transcriptional start sites (TSSs) for MAOA, one of which encompasses the uVNTR within the 5′ untranslated region of one of the isoforms. Through expression analysis in semi-haploid HAP1 cell lines genetically engineered in order to knockout (KO) either the uVNTR, dVNTR, or both VNTRs, we assessed the effect of the two MAOA VNTRs, either alone or in combination, on gene expression directed from the different TSSs. Complementing our functional analysis, we determined the haplotype variation of these VNTRs in the general population. The expression of the two MAOA isoforms was differentially modulated by the two VNTRs located in the promoter region. The most extensively studied uVNTR, previously considered a positive regulator of the MAOA gene, did not modulate the expression of what it is considered the canonical isoform, while we found that the dVNTR positively regulated this isoform in our model. In contrast, both the uVNTR and the dVNTR were found to act as negative regulators of the second less abundant MAOA isoform. The haplotype analysis for these two VNTRs demonstrated a bias against the presence of one of the potential variants. The uVNTR and dVNTR differentially affect expression of distinct MAOA isoforms, and thus, their combined profiling offers new insights into gene-regulation, GxE interaction, and ultimately MAOA-driven behavior. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s12031-018-1044-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The communication of requirements within software development is vital for project success. Requirements engineering and testing are two processes that when aligned can enable the discovery of issues and misunderstandings earlier, rather than later, and avoid costly and time-consuming rework and delays. There are a number of practices that support requirements-test alignment. However, each organisation and project is different and there is no one-fits-all set of practices. The software process improvement method called Gap Finder is designed to increase requirements-test alignment. The method contains two parts: an assessment part and a prescriptive part. It detects potential communication gaps between people and between artefacts (the assessment part), and identifies practices for mitigating these gaps (the prescriptive part). This paper presents the design and formative evaluation of the prescriptive part; an evaluation of the assessment part was published previously. The Gap Finder method was constructed using a design science research approach and is built on the Theory of Distances for Software Engineering, which in turn is grounded in empirical evidence from five case companies. The formative evaluation was performed through a case study in which Gap Finder was applied to an on-going development project. A qualitative and mixed-method approach was taken in the evaluation, including ethnographically-informed observations. The results show that Gap Finder can detect relevant communication gaps and seven of the nine prescribed practices were deemed practically relevant for mitigating these gaps. The project team found the method to be useful and supported joint reflection and improvement of their requirements communication. Our findings demonstrate that an empirically-based theory can be used to improve software development practices and provide a foundation for further research on factors that affect requirements communication.

Austerity and financial constraints have been threatening the public sector in the UK for a number of years. Foreseeing the threat of continued budget cuts, and addressing the situation many local councils face, requires internal transformations for financial stability without losing the key focus on public service. Agile transformations have been undertaken by organisations wanting to learn from the software development community and bringing agile principles into the wider organisation. This paper describes and analyses an ongoing behaviour-led transformation in a district council in the UK. It presents the results of the analysis of 19 interviews with internal stakeholders at the council, of observations of meetings among senior and middle management in a five-month period. The paper explores the successes and the challenges encountered towards the end of the transformation process and reflects on balancing acts to address the challenges, between: disruption and business as usual, empowerment and goal setting, autonomy and processes and procedures, and behaviours and skills. Based on our findings, we suggest that behaviours on their own cannot guarantee a sustained agile culture, and that this is equally important for enterprise agility and for large-scale agile software development transformations. © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

BackgroundThis study aimed to assess how maternal mental health mediates the association between childhood socio-economic conditions at birth and subsequent child behavioural and emotional problem scores.MethodsAnalysis of the Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS), a prospective epidemiological longitudinal study of the early origins of child mental health (n = 664). Household income at 20-weeks gestation, a measure of socio-economic conditions (SECs) in pregnancy, was the main exposure. The outcome measure was externalising and internalising problems, as measured by the Child Behaviour Checklist at 5 years. We assessed the association of household income with child behavioural outcomes in sequential linear models adjusting for maternal mental health in the pre- and post- natal period.ResultsChildren of mothers in more disadvantaged households had higher scores for externalising behaviour with a difference of 3.6 points comparing the most affluent to the most disadvantaged families (the socio-economic (SEC) gap). In our regression model adjusting for baseline confounders, comparing children of mothers in the most disadvantaged households to the least disadvantaged, we found that most disadvantaged children scored 45 percentage points (95% CI 9, 93) higher for externalising problems, and 42% of this difference was explained in the fully adjusted model. Adjusting for prenatal maternal depressive symptomology attenuated the SEC gap in externalising problems by about a third, rendering the association non-significant, whilst adjusting for pre- and post-natal maternal mental health attenuated the SEC gap by 42%. There was no significant relationship between household income and internalising problems.ConclusionSocial disadvantage is associated with higher child externalising behaviour problems score at age 5, and about 40% of this was explained by maternal perinatal mental health. Policies supporting maternal mental health in pregnancy are important to address the early emergence of inequalities in child mental health.

Highlights • Prenatal maternal cortisol predicts child behaviours up to age 5 years. • The association shows marked sex differences. • Higher cortisol is associated with lower callous-unemotional traits only in girls. • Higher cortisol is not associated with child anxious-depressed symptoms., Background Elevated maternal glucocorticoids during pregnancy may impact on fetal development in a sex-dependent way, leading to increased amygdala activation and increased risk for internalising disorders in females. Based on evidence implicating reduced amygdala activation in callous-unemotional (CU) traits, we predicted that elevated maternal cortisol in pregnancy would be associated with lower CU traits and elevated anxious-depressed symptoms, only in girls. Methods Participants were 225 members of a stratified subsample within an epidemiological longitudinal cohort (WCHADS). Salivary cortisol was measured over two days at 32 weeks gestation (on waking, 30-min post-waking and during the evening) and the log of the area under the curve (LogAUC) was calculated as an index of diurnal cortisol. Mothers reported on child CU traits and anxious-depressed symptoms at 2.5, 3.5 and 5.0 years of age. Results As predicted there was a sex of child by cortisol interaction (p

peer-reviewed As software-intensive digital systems become an integral part of modern life, ensuring that these systems are developed to satisfy security and privacy requirements is an increasingly important societal concern. This paper examines how secure coding practice is supported on Stack Overflow. Although there are indications that on-line environments are not robust or accurate sources of security information, they are used by large numbers of developers. Findings demonstrate that developers use conversation within the site to actively connect with and tend to security problems, fostering knowledge, exchanging information and providing assistance to one another.

peer-reviewed Security of software systems is of general concern, yet breaches caused by common vulnerabilities still occur. Software developers are routinely called upon to ”do more” to address this situation. However there has been little focus on the developers’ point of view, and understanding how security features in their day-to-day activities. This paper reports preliminary findings of semi-structured interviews taken during an ethnographic study of professional software developers in one organization who are not security experts. The overall study aims to understand how security features in day-to-day practice, while analysis of the interview data asks whether developers are responsible for security. The study reveals that awareness around security matters is raised through several paths including processes, standards, practices and company training and that a focus on security is driven by contextual factors. Security is taken care of with policies and through safeguards, and is handled differently depending on whether a team is developing new features, and hence ”looking forward”, or working with existing code and hence ”looking back”. Developers take and share responsibility for security in the code, but suggest that their responsibility has limits, and relies on collective practice.

Recent findings highlight that there are prenatal risks for affective disorders that are mediated by glucocorticoid mechanisms, and may be specific to females. There is also evidence of sex differences in prenatal programming mechanisms and developmental psychopathology, whereby effects are in opposite directions in males and females. As birth weight is a risk for affective disorders, we sought to investigate whether maternal prenatal cortisol may have sex-specific effects on fetal growth. Participants were 241 mothers selected from the Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS) cohort (n=1233) using a psychosocial risk stratifier, so that responses could be weighted back to the general population. Mothers provided saliva samples, which were assayed for cortisol, at home over 2 days at 32 weeks gestation (on waking, 30-min post-waking and during the evening). Measures of infant birth weight (corrected for gestational age) were taken from hospital records. General population estimates of associations between variables were obtained using inverse probability weights. Maternal log of the area under the curve cortisol predicted infant birth weight in a sex-dependent manner (interaction termP=0.029). There was a positive and statistically significant association between prenatal cortisol in males, and a negative association in females that was not statistically significant. A sex interaction in the same direction was evident when using the waking (P=0.015), and 30-min post-waking (P=0.013) cortisol, but not the evening measure. There was no interaction between prenatal cortisol and sex to predict gestational age. Our findings add to an emerging literature that suggests that there may be sex-specific mechanisms that underpin fetal programming.

© 2018 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Background: Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by a lack of responsiveness to the emotions of others, particularly negative emotions. A parenting environment where the child's own distress emotions are sensitively responded to may help foster the child's ability to respond to the emotions of others. We tested whether maternal sensitivity to distress, and other parenting characteristics, were associated with CU traits over the preschool period, and examined whether this was mediated via infant attachment status. Method: In an epidemiological cohort, CU traits were assessed at age 2.5, 3.5, and 5.0 years by mother report. Dimensions of parenting were assessed in free play at age 29 weeks in a stratified subsample of 272, and attachment status at 14 months (n = 265). Structural equation modelling with maximum likelihood estimation was used to examine predictions from parenting dimensions and attachment status. Results: A parenting factor comprised of sensitivity to distress (n = 207), sensitivity to non-distress, positive regard toward the infant (or warmth), and intrusiveness, predicted child CU traits (p =.023). This effect was accounted for mainly by sensitivity to distress (p =.008) and positive regard (p =.023) which showed a synergistic effect as evidenced by a significant interaction (p =.01). This arose because the combination of low sensitivity to distress and low positive regard created the risk for elevated CU traits. Although sensitivity and positive regard predicted attachment security and disorganization, there were no associations between attachment status and CU traits. Conclusions: The finding of contributions from both sensitivity to distress and positive regard to reduced CU traits suggests that children's responsiveness to others’ emotions may be increased by their own mothers’ responsiveness to them and their mothers’ warmth. There was no evidence that this was mediated via attachment status. Implications for intervention and future directions are discussed.

Agile approaches are adopted in industry to improve outcomes from software development, and are increasingly the subject of research studies. However, adoption is not the end of the story. Agile requires on-going change and commitment in order to become sustainable and embedded within teams and organisations. This study explores current perceptions of post-adoptive agility. We asked 50 practitioners 'what does agile sustainability mean to you?'. Analysis of practitioner comments identified four themes: being completely agile, independent, focused on business value and need, and consistent across time. Post-adoptive agile is an under-researched area, there is inconsistent use of terminology, and there is a gap between practitioners' and researchers' perceptions about what is important for sustaining agile.

This paper explores Research through Design (RtD) as a potential methodology for developing new interactive experiences for animals. We present an example study from an on-going project and examine whether RtD offers an appropriate framework for developing knowledge in the context of Animal-Computer Interaction, as well as considering how best to document such work. We discuss the design journey we undertook to develop interactive systems for captive elephants and the extent to which RtD has enabled us to explore concept development and documentation of research. As a result of our explorations, we propose that particular aspects of RtD can help ACI researchers gain fresh perspectives on the design of technology-enabled devices for non-human animals. We argue that these methods of working can support the investigation of particular and complex situations where no idiomatic interactions yet exist, where collaborative practice is desirable and where the designed objects themselves offer a conceptual window for future research and development.