Quantitative social historical research in the Netherlands: past, present and future

Quantitative sozialgeschichtliche Forschung wurde in den Niederlanden in der Wageningse-Schule entwickelt. Schon in den 50er Jahren starteten Slicher van Bath und ihre Mitarbeiter mit der Analyse sozialer wirtschaftlicher und kultureller Veränderungen, in einer landwirtschaftlich strukturierten Gesellschaft von einem historisch demographischen Blickwinkel her. Ihre Forschungsmethode war der Annales-Tradition ähnlich. In den 70er Jahren wurde der Anwendungsbereich der quantitativen sozialgeschichtlichen Forschung breiter. Zum einen weil die Einführung einer strukturellen Methode historischer Forschung erfolgte, zum anderen weil sich die Möglichkeiten der Computerisierung beschleunigten. Die Beschreibung einiger aktueller Forschungsthemen und die statistischen Verfahren, die benutzt wurden, führten zu dem Schluß, das quantitative sozialgeschichtliche Forschung, obwohl eine sinnvolle Fortführung historiographischer Forschungsmethoden darstellend, nicht zum Kern der Geschichtswissenschaft zählen. Dies ist ein ernsthafter Rückschlag für die Ausbildung von Geschichtsstudenten in diesem Forschungsfeld. Darüber hinaus sind die finanziellen Ressourcen begrenzt, deshalb ist die Zukunft auf quantitativer sozialgeschichtlicher Forschung in den Niederlanden vergleichsweise eingeschränkt. (KW)'Quantitative social historical research originated in the Netherlands at the 'Wageningse' school. Already in de 1950's Slicher van Bath and Associates started to analyse social, economic and cultural changes in an agricultural society from a historical-demographic point of view. Its research method was analogous to the Annalestradition. During the 1970's the scope of quantitative social historical research got broader: first, because of the introduction of a structural methodology of historical research, secondly, because of the accelerating possibilities of computerization. The description of some actual themes under study and statistical procedures employed leads to the conclusion that quantitative social historical research, although being a useful extension of historiography, does not belong to the core of historical science. This is a serious drawback for the education of history students in this field of research. Next to that, financial resources are limited. Therefore, the futures of quantitative social historical research in the Netherlands is rather restrained.' (author's abstract

Source Oriented Harmonization of Aggregate Historical Census Data: a Flexible and Accountable Approach in RDF

Historical censuses are one of the most challenging datasets to compare over time. While many (successful) efforts have been made by researchers to harmonize these types of data, a lack of a generic workflow thwarts other researchers in their endeavors to do the same. In order to use historical census data for longitudinal analysis, a common process currently often loosely referred to as harmonization is inevitable. This process becomes even more challenging when dealing with aggregate data. Current approaches, whether focusing on micro or aggregate data, mainly provide specific, goal-oriented solutions to solve this problem. The nature of our data calls for an approach which allows different interpretations and preserves the link to the underlying sources at all times. To realize this we need a flexible, bottom-up harmonization process which allows us to iteratively discover the peculiarities of these types of data and provide different interpretations on the same data in an accountable way. In this article, we propose an approach which we refer to as source-oriented harmonization. We use the Resource Description Framework from (RDF) as the technological backbone of our efforts and aim to make the process of harmonization more graspable for others to stimulate similar efforts

Past, present and future of historical information science

Der Bericht evaluiert Entwicklungen und Einflüsse von Forschungen im Bereich der empirisch orientierten Geschichtswissenschaft und deren rechnergestützten Methoden. Vorgestellt werden ein Forschungsparadigma und eine Forschungsinfrastruktur für die zukünftige historisch orientierte Informationswissenschaft. Die entscheidenden Anstöße dafür kommen eher von Außen, also nicht aus der scientific community der Assoziation for History and Computing (AHC). Die Gründe hierfür liegen darin, dass die AHC niemals klare Aussagen darüber gemacht hat, welches ihre Adressaten sind: Historiker, die sich für EDV interessieren, oder historisch orientierte Informationswissenschaftler. Das Ergebnis war, dass sich keine dieser Fraktionen angesprochen fühlte und kein Diskurs mit der 'traditionellen' Geschichtswissenschaft und der Informationswissenschaft zustande kam. Der Autor skizziert ein Forschungsprogramm, das diese Ambiguitäten vermeidet und die Ansätze in einer Forschungsinfrastruktur integriert. (ICAÜbers)'This report evaluates the impact of two decades of research within the framework of history and computing, and sets out a research paradigm and research infrastructure for future historical information science. It is good to see that there has been done a lot of historical information research in the past, much of it has been done, however, outside the field of history and computing, and not within a community like the Association for History and Computing. The reason is that the AHC never made a clear statement about what audience to address: historians with an interest in computing, or historical information scientists. As a result, both parties have not been accommodated, and communications with both 'traditional' history and 'information science' have not been established. A proper research program, based on new developments in information science, is proposed, along with an unambiguous scientific research infrastructure.' (author's abstract

Patterns of injury and outcomes in the elderly patient with rib fractures: a multicenter observational study

Background: High rates of pneumonia and death have been reported among elderly patients with rib fractures. This study aims to identify patterns of injury and risk factors for pneumonia and death in elderly patients with rib fractures. Methods: A retrospective multicenter observational study was performed using data registered in the national trauma registry between 2008 and 2015 in the South West Netherlands Trauma region. Data regarding demographics, mechanism of injury, pulmonary and cardiovascular history, pattern of extra-thoracic and intrathoracic injuries, ICU admission, length of stay, and morbidity and mortality following admission were collected. Results: Eight hundred eighty-four patients were included. Median age was 76 years (P25–P75 70–83). 235 patients (26.6%) were 81 years or older. Moderate or worse extra-thoracic injuries were present in 456 patients (51.6%), of whom 146 (16.6%) had severe head injuries and 45 (5.1%) severe spinal injuries. Median ISS was 9 (P25–P75 5–18). The rate of pneumonia was 10% (n = 84). Ten percent of patients (n = 88) died. Risk factors for in-hospital mortality included age (OR 3.4; p = 0.003), presence of COPD (OR 1.3; p = 0.01), presence of cardiac disease (OR 2.6; p = 0.003), severe or worse head (OR 3.5; p < 0.001), abdominal (OR 6.8; p = 0.004) and spinal injury (OR 4.6; p = 0.011) by AIS, number of rib fractures (OR 2.6; p = 0.03), and need for chest tube drainage (OR 2.1; p = 0.021). Conclusions: Pneumonia and death occur in about 10% of elderly patients with rib fractures. Apart from the severity of thoracic injuries, the presence and severity of extra-thoracic injuries and cardiopulmonary comorbidities are associated with poor outcome