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Background: We examine whether there has been an increase in young adolescent and maternal mental health problems from pre to post-onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Methods: Children aged 11 - 12 years and their mothers participating in a UK population-based birth cohort (Wirral Child Health and Development Study) provided mental health data between December 2019 and March 2020 and again 3 months after lockdown, 89% (N = 202) of 226 assessed pre-COVID-19. Emotional and behavioural problems were assessed by self- and maternal report, and long-term vulnerability by maternal report of prior child adjustment, and maternal prenatal depression. A range of COVID-19 associated risks were assessed as potential moderators. Findings: The young adolescents reported a 44% increase in symptoms of depression and 26% for PTSD. After adjustment for her own depression, the corresponding maternal reports of child symptoms gave increases of 71% and 43%. Both female gender and having had high internalising symptoms earlier in childhood were associated with elevated rates of depression pre-pandemic, and with greater absolute increases during COVID-19. Disruptive behaviour problems increased particularly in children without previous externalising symptoms. Mothers’ own depression increased by 42%, and this change was greater among those who had been depressed during pregnancy. No change in anxiety was observed among children or mothers. None of these increases was moderated by COVID-19 related experiences such as front-line worker status of a parent or financial impacts. Prior to the pandemic, rates of maternal and child depression were greater in families experiencing higher deprivation, but changed only in less deprived families, raising their rates to those of the high deprivation group. Interpretation: In the UK COVID-19 has led to a marked increase in mental health problems in young adolescents and their mothers. Funding: Medical Research Council and CWP NHS Foundation Trust Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: Ethical approval for the study was granted by the Cheshire North and West Research Ethics Committee on the 27 June 2006 (reference no. 05/Q1506/107), and 7th June 2010 (reference no. 10/H1010/4) and on 22nd December 2014 and 8th June 2020 (reference no. 14/NW/1484).

Genomic wide association studies identified the CACNA1C locus as genetically associated with both schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder. CACNA1C encodes Cav1.2, one of four subunits of L-type voltage gated calcium channels. Variation resides in non-coding regions of CACNA1C which interact with the promoter and are validated expression quantitative trait loci. Using reporter gene constructs we demonstrate the CACNA1C promoter is a major mediator of inducible regulation of CACNA1C activity in the SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line. Exposure of SH-SY5Y cells to lithium and cocaine modulated both the endogenous CACNA1C gene and the promoter in reporter gene constructs. Deletion analysis of the promoter demonstrated the actions of both lithium and cocaine were mediated by the proximal promoter. Initial interrogation of ENCODE ChIP-seq data over the CACNA1C promoter indicated binding of the transcription factor ‘Enhancer of zeste homolog 2’ (EZH2), which was consistent with our data that overexpression of EZH2 repressed CACNA1C promoter reporter gene expression. Array data from the Human Brain Transcriptome demonstrated that EZH2 was highly expressed across the developing brain, but subsequently maintained at low levels after birth and adulthood. RNA-seq data obtained from PD_NGSAtlas, a reference database for epigenomic and transcriptomic data for psychiatric disorders, demonstrated a 3-fold increase in EZH2 expression in the anterior cingulate cortex of individuals with schizophrenia compared to controls. We propose that EZH2 may contribute to schizophrenia risk at two distinct time points either through disruption in development leading to neurodevelopmental changes, or through anomalous reactivation of expression in the adult brain.

This paper presents the results of a video diary study that was conducted with ten novice interaction designers in Botswana, to investigate socio-cultural factors (SCFs) in interaction design. The overall aim of this research is to gain new insights into design behaviour in different cultures in order to inform international interaction design capacity building. To this end, this research investigates what SCFs are considered during the design process, which are accounted for in prototype designs and which interaction design concepts participants use to implement SCFs in their designs. The results reveal 13 categories of SCFs considered during the design process, 10 of which were implemented in prototypes. Participants used five main interaction design concepts to implement SCFs: simplicity, wearable devices, accessibility, universal design, and conversational interaction. In addition, they tended to rely on adaptations to existing products rather than creating new designs. Recommendations for capacity building include the need to identify concrete examples and alternative interaction design concepts that focus on a wider set of SCFs; and to draw upon the synergy between local product design practices and interaction design practices in order to learn how to transition SCFs into interactive products.

Whilst knowledge transfer is one of the most widely-claimed benefits of pair programming, little is known about how knowledge transfer is achieved in this setting. This is particularly pertinent for novice−expert constellations, but knowledge transfer takes place to some degree in all constellations. We ask “what does it take to be a good “expert” and how can a “novice” best learn from a more experienced developer?”. An in-depth investigation of video and audio excerpts of professional pair programming sessions using Interaction Analysis reveals: six teaching strategies, ranging from “giving direct instructions” to “subtle hints”; and challenges and benefits for both partners. These strategies are instantiations of some but not all teaching methods promoted in cognitive apprenticeship; novice articulation, reflection and exploration are not seen in the data. The context of pair programming influences the strategies, challenges and benefits, in particular the roles of driver and navigator and agile prioritisation which considers business value rather than educational progression. Utilising these strategies more widely and recognizing the challenges and benefits for both partners will help developers to maximise the benefits from pairing sessions.

Motivation in software engineering is recognized as a key success factor for software projects, but although there are many papers written about motivation in software engineering, the field lacks a comprehensive overview of the area. In particular, several models of motivation have been proposed, but they either rely heavily on one particular model (the job characteristics model), or are quite disparate and difficult to combine. Using the results from our previous systematic literature review (SLR), we constructed a new model of motivation in software engineering. We then compared this new model with existing models and refined it based on this comparison. This paper summarises the SLR results, presents the important existing models found in the literature and explains the development of our new model of motivation in software engineering.

OBJECTIVE - In this paper we present a systematic literature review of motivation in Software Engineering.\ud The objective of this review is to plot the landscape of current reported knowledge in terms of what motivates\ud developers, what de-motivates them and how existing models address motivation.\ud \ud METHOD - We perform a systematic literature review of peer reviewed published studies that focus on motivation in Software Engineering. Systematic reviews are well established in medical research and are used to systematically analyse the literature addressing specific research questions.\ud \ud RESULTS - We found 92 papers related to motivation in Software Engineering. 56% of the studies reported that\ud Software Engineers are distinguishable from other occupational groups. Our findings suggest that Software\ud Engineers are likely to be motivated according to three related factors: their 'characteristics' (for example, their need for variety); internal 'controls' (for example, their personality) and external 'moderators' (for example, their career stage). The literature indicates that de-motivated engineers may leave the organisation or take more sickleave, while motivated engineers will increase their productivity and remain longer in the organisation. Aspects of the job that motivate Software Engineers include problem solving, working to benefit others and technical challenge. Our key finding is that the published models of motivation in Software Engineering are disparate and do not reflect the complex needs of Software Engineers in their career stages, cultural and environmental settings.\ud \ud CONCLUSIONS – The literature on motivation in Software Engineering presents a conflicting and partial picture of the area. It is clear that motivation is context-dependent and varies from one engineer to another. The most commonly cited motivator is the job itself, yet we found very little work on what it is about that job that Software Engineers find motivating. Furthermore, surveys are often aimed at how Software Engineers feel about 'the organisation', rather than 'the profession'. Although models of motivation in Software Engineering are reported in the literature, they do not account for the changing roles and environment in which Software Engineers operate. Overall, our findings indicate that there is no clear understanding of the Software Engineers' job, what motivates Software Engineers, how they are motivated, or the outcome and benefits of motivating Software Engineers.

Over the past decade we have performed a sustained series of qualitative studies of software development practice, focusing on social factors. Using an ethnographically-informed approach, we have addressed four areas of software practice: software quality management systems, the emergence of object technology, professional end user development and agile development. Several issues have arisen from this experience, including the nature of research questions that such studies can address, the advantages and challenges associated with being a member of the community under study, and how to maintain rigour in data collection. In this paper, we will draw on our studies to illustrate our approach and to discuss these and other issues.

This paper reports some results from a project to uncover the non-technical factors that affect the adoption and evolution of software quality management systems (SQMS). The data which the paper discusses comes from interviews with people involved in the quality effort in four different companies. Our approach to data collection was to use semi-structured interviews and to encourage interviewees to talk about their experiences of quality management and software development in their own organizations. We analysed this data using discourse analysis, informed by ethnographic observation, and identified a number of themes, one of which was the tensions that exist around the adoption and evolution of SQMS. In this paper, we present and discuss our approach to discourse analysis and some results that illustrate the tensions we found. We hope, thereby, to demonstrate how software engineers may use a technique from the social sciences to better understand their own practices.