Generische Webwissenschaften in der Praxis : Prüfung und Reflexion von Forschungsmethoden und -instrumenten

The following paper is based on the field of web science. More precisely, it builds upon a web-native research method created by Richard Rogers, called “search as research”. This paper explains how to gather data “born” in the web, via web search engines. It aims to show, that culture is reflected in the use of the web, particularly employing Google, to develop various methods, in regard to gather the relevant data. With these different appraoches of the method, data representative for 20 European countries are generated, explored and evaluted. Therefore representative studies of European Institutions (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction – “European Drug Report 2015”, European Values Project – “European Values Study”, World Health Organisation – “Global status report on alcohol and health”) are used to compare the outcomes and evaluate the reliability and validity of the data generated via Google. Further it aims to show, that based on this data, it is possible to conduct a cultural comparison of countries. While the comparisson of the representative studies with the Google data shows, that Google does not necessarily reflect a culture in line with the above mentioned studies, it yet clearly can be shown, that with the use of different methods, cultural differences between countries can be gathered and evaluated. Therefore some of the methods provide a possibility to uplift a first glimps when comparing different countries on a cultural basis and may for instance be helpful to enhance the quality when constructing questionnaires. Nevertheless it is also shown, that further research is needed to improve the developed methods, especially in regards to improve the data quality on basis of reliability and validity

Serological lymphocytic activity and patient-reported outcomes in Sjögren's syndrome.

This study was set to investigate whether serum markers of lymphocytic activity are associated with patient-reported outcomes in Sjögren's syndrome (SS). Forty-six patients with SS were included in this cross-sectional study. Patients with monoclonal gammopathy, history of malignant lymphoma, or with secondary SS were excluded. Serum levels of IgG, β2-microglobulin (β2M), soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sIL2-R), and free light chains (FLC) were assessed. Systemic disease activity was measured by the EULAR SS disease activity index (ESSDAI). Patient-reported symptoms were recorded by visual analogue scales (VAS) of pain, fatigue, and dryness, as compiled in the EULAR SS patient-reported index (ESSPRI). Depressive symptoms were determined by the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9). Serum concentrations of κFLC (r = 0.491, p = 0.001), λFLC (r = 0.326, p = 0.027), and β2M (r = 0.421, p = 0.004) correlated with the ESSDAI, whereas sIL-2R and IgG did not. No correlations between serum markers of lymphocytic activity and the ESSPRI, or single VAS measures of pain, dryness, or fatigue, were found. In patients with VAS fatigue scores in the upper quartile, sIL-2R serum levels were even decreased (p = 0.019). Only depressive symptoms as determined by PHQ-9 were positively correlated with fatigue (r = 0.536, p < 0.001). In this well-defined cohort of patients with SS, serological lymphocytic activity was not correlated with patient-reported outcomes and sIL-2R levels were even decreased in patients with high fatigue scores. Only depressive symptoms were correlated with fatigue. This highlights the need to further understand the link between inflammation and disease characteristics in SS