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This paper takes Friedrich Engels 200th birthday on 28 November 2020 as occasion to ask: How relevant are Friedrich Engels's works in the age of digital capitalism? It shows that Engels class-struggle oriented theory can and should inform 21st century social science and digital social research. Based on a reading of Engels's works, the article discusses how to think of scientific socialism as critical social science today, presents a critique of computational social science as digital positivism, engages with foundations of digital labour analysis, the analysis of the international division of digital labour, updates Engels's Condition of the Working Class in England in the age of digital capitalism, analyses the role of trade unions and digital class struggles in digital age, analyses the social murder of workers in the COVID-19 crisis, engages with platform co-operatives, digital commons projects and public service Internet platforms are concrete digital utopias that point beyond digital capital(ism). Engels's analysis is updated for critically analysing the digital conditions of the working class today, including the digital labour of hardware assemblers at Foxconn and Pegatron, the digital labour aristocracy of software engineers at Google, online freelance workers, platform workers at capitalist platform corporations such as Uber, Deliveroo, Fiverr, Upwork, or Freelancer, and the digital labour of Facebook users. Engels's 200th birthday reminds us of the class character of digital capitalism and that we need critical digital social science as a new form of scientific socialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: High body mass index (BMI) is an important contributor to the global burden of ill-health and health inequality. Lower socioeconomic position (SEP) in both childhood and adulthood is associated with higher adult BMI, but how these associations have changed across time is poorly understood. We used longitudinal data to examine how childhood and adult SEP relates to BMI across adulthood in three national British birth cohorts.Methods and Findings: The sample comprised up to 22,810 participants with 77,115 BMI observations in the 1946 MRC National Survey of Health and Development (ages 20 to 60-64), the 1958 National Child Development Study (ages 23 to 50), and the 1970 British Cohort Study (ages 26 to 42). Harmonized social class-based SEP data (Registrar General's Social Class) was ascertained in childhood (father's class at 10/11 y) and adulthood (42/43 years), and BMI repeatedly across adulthood, spanning 1966 to 2012. Associations between SEP and BMI were examined using linear regression and multilevel models. Lower childhood SEP was associated with higher adult BMI in both genders, and differences were typically larger at older ages and similar in magnitude in each cohort. The strength of association between adult SEP and BMI did not vary with age in any consistent pattern in these cohorts, but were more evident in women than men, and inequalities were larger among women in the 1970 cohort compared with earlier-born cohorts. For example, mean differences in BMI at 42/43 y amongst women in the lowest compared with highest social class were 2.0 kg/m2 (95% CI: -0.1, 4.0) in the 1946 NSHD, 2.3 kg/m2 (1.1, 3.4) in the 1958 NCDS, and 3.9 kg/m2 (2.3, 5.4) the in the 1970 BCS; mean (SD) BMI in the highest and lowest social classes were as follows: 24.9 (0.8) versus 26.8 (0.7) in the 1946 NSHD, 24.2 (0.4) versus 26.5 (0.4) in the 1958 NCDS, and 24.2 (0.3) versus 28.1 (0.8) in the 1970 BCS. Findings did not differ whether using overweight or obesity as an outcome. Limitations of this work include the use of social class as the sole indicator of SEP-while it was available in each cohort in both childhood and adulthood, trends in BMI inequalities may differ according to other dimensions of SEP such as education or income. Although harmonized data were used to aid inferences about birth cohort differences in BMI inequality, differences in other factors may have also contributed to findings-for example, differences in missing data.Conclusions: Given these persisting inequalities and their public health implications, new and effective policies to reduce inequalities in adult BMI that tackle inequality with respect to both childhood and adult SEP are urgently required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore problems involving the measurement of the performance of a system. We outline two systemic approaches that have come from different epistemological positions: one from the interpretivist paradigm (soft systems methodology) and the other from the cybernetic paradigm (viable systems model). These two systemic methodologies that have tackled problems involving performance measurement are considered and discussed: (a) Checkland’s systems ideas of ‘managing and controlling’ a system throughout a set of three measures of performance: efficacy, efficiency and effectiveness; and (b) Beer’s concepts of Actuality, Capability, Potentiality of the firm and his claims that the performance of a system needs to be quantifiable and resumed on ‘pure’ numbers which should reflect the survivability of the firm. A parallel is drawn between the two approaches concluding that although the paradigms underpinning them are in some way different, the practicalities of these approaches to control, measure and improve the performance of a system are very similar. A case involving the measurement of a proposed research strategic plan for a Manchester Metropolitan University Business School’s department is used to illustrate the systemic approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article empirically validates an existing content analysis scheme and addresses a main concern of researchers about text-based, online transcripts in the form of code-recoding by mapping our scheme to the practical inquiry, cognitive presence model's five phases directly to realise higher-order thinking or critical thinking aspects for our software engineering students at London Metropolitan University. Two case studies are presented from final year undergraduate students. We also evaluated a semi-structured CMC environment called SQUAD, developed in-house for scaffolding small group collaborative learning. We argue that the empirical study conducted with software engineering students in Hong Kong and London gives an indication that critical thinking or higher-order thinking certainly exists within online collaborative learning teams where knowledge emerges and is shared. We claim that responses in the integration and resolution categories are more pertinent to critical thinking or higher-order thinking in the context of online, small group, collaborative learning environments when using the cognitive presence model as a framework for measurement purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the structure and characteristics of the software engineering (SE) curriculum at Open University, Milton Keynes, England. It relates that the SE curriculum in an open university system is designed to cater to information technology professionals who intend to undergo further studies for the advancement of their careers. It as well discusses the structure and levels of program offerings in terms of accreditation for students in part-time, open or distance learning. The program allows students to develop coursework assignments and projects around their work experience. Furthermore, it stresses that its curriculum is on constant academy scrutiny and is very dynamic as it adjusts to the needs of its geographically distributed student body.

This paper reports on the introduction of a large-scale software engineering group project (in excess of 8 students per group) into the modular undergraduate degree scheme at the University of the West of England, Bristol. The approach taken aims to provide an experience of the coherent nature of software engineering and to develop project and group management skills in undergraduate students. A representational model of this approach is described, together with its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on several congresses and conventions related to software testing to be held. The Second International Conference on Reliability and Quality in Designs to be held in Orlando, Florida during March 8-10, 1995. The Second IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering will be held in York, England during March 27-29. Requirements Engineering is the branch of software engineering concerned with the real-world goals for, functions of, and constraints on software systems.

This article presents information on several congresses and conventions related to software testing to be held. The Sixth International Workshop on Computer-aided Software Engineering (CASE) will be conducted at the Institute for System Science in Singapore during July 19-23, 1993. This workshop will consist of pre-workshop tutorials, keynotes by CASE technology leaders, focused workshops in parallel tracks, expert speakers within workshops, toots fair, forums for special interest groups and other activities. The Software Engineering Standards Symposium will be held in Brighton, England during August 30-September 3.

The article profiles Rachel Harrison, the new Editor-in Chief of the "Software Quality Journal." It states that Harrison is the Managing Director of Stratton Edge Consulting, a Visiting Professor at the University of Reading in England, and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at The Open University. It mentions that she has taken many leadership roles in the software engineering communmity, and her practical experience demonstrates that she understands the needs of practitioners. It relates that Harrison's research centered on empirical software engineering with an emphasis on requirements, software evolution, software architecture, and software measurement.

The article features Simon Rogerson, professor of computer ethics at De Montfort University in Leicester, England. He cites ethical issues that are significant to organisations as they apply information technology (IT) to business problems, including how an organisational structure and the location of its work can be affected by technology. He has developed a voluntary code of ethics of professional practice for software engineers, and those who set policies related to their work.

The article provides information regarding the Global Research Awards, given by the Royal Academy of Engineering in London, England. According to the author, in recent years, more and more software engineers have discovered the award to be an opportunity to support their own research overseas, with a maximum of £40,000 awarded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new approach to preparing IT students for work is being pioneered at Sheffield University – and both graduates and local firms are benefiting. John Kavanagh reports [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]