Physical Traits

This section contains data about specific physical traits of the individuals.

In general, the data in this section tends to be collected "globally". That is, the data are collected for all living individuals in the study population (or as close to "all" as is possible). While many of the Darting tables could also easily be considered "physical traits", those data are only collected during dartings and therefore are not "global" but instead only available for individuals in that fraction of the population that has been darted.

WP_AFFECTEDPARTS (Body PARTS AFFECTED by Wounds/Pathologies)

Records which body parts were affected in each related wound or pathology Cluster, and the quantity of these wounds/pathologies affecting the specific part when that quantity is known. This table contains one row for each recorded body part, per associated wound/pathology (from WP_DETAILS) cluster. For example, if a report indicates two clusters affecting body part A and another cluster affecting body part B, this will be recorded in three rows in this table: two for body part A and one for body part B.

Each WPDId-Bodypart pair must be unique; a wound/pathology cluster can be associated with a particular body part only once.

The Quantity_Affecting_Part column records the quantity of individual wounds/pathologies in the related cluster that are affecting this row's body part. When this quantity is unknown or unclear from the report, or when the related wound/pathology is not obviously countable (e.g. "fatigue"), this column should be NULL. When a single wound/pathology affects more than one body part, this wound/pathology will be counted more than once: the Quantity_Affecting_Part column should be 1 for each of the affected parts' separate rows. For example, if there was a long slash/laceration extending from the arm to the trunk, this would be recorded with a Quantity_Affecting_Part of 1 in both the "arm" row and the "trunk" row, effectively counting a single wound twice.

Warning

Remember, the Quantity_Affecting_Part column indicates the number of wounds/pathologies that were affecting the specified body part. When aggregating data across multiple rows (e.g. sum, average, etc.), remember that individual wounds/pathologies affecting multiple body parts will be counted in more than one row of this table. Using this column to count the number[55]of discrete, independent wounds/pathologies may overestimate the true number.

Tip

When adding or updating data in this table, use the WP_DETAILS_AFFECTEDPARTS view. It is includes related columns from BODYPARTS to facilitate easy entry of Bodypart values, and from WP_DETAILS to determine the appropriate WPDId.

Tip

Use the WP_HEALS or WOUNDSPATHOLOGIES views to select data from this table. These views include related data from the other wound/pathology tables, respectively with and without related healing updates.

Column Descriptions

WPAId (WP_AffectedParts Identifier)

A unique identifier for the row. This is an automatically generated sequential number that uniquely identifies the row.

This column is automatically maintained by the database, cannot be changed, and must not be NULL.

WPDId (WP_Details Identifier)

The WP_DETAILS.WPDId of the wound/pathology associated with this body part.

This column may not be NULL.

Bodypart

The BODYPARTS.Bpid for this body part.

This column may not be NULL.

Quantity_Affecting_Part

A positive integer indicating how many wounds/pathologies of the related type are affecting this body part.

This column may be NULL, when the quantity is unknown, unclear, or uncountable.

When not NULL, this column cannot exceed 9[56].

Sys_Period

The timestamp range during which this row's data are considered valid. See The Sys_Period Column for more information.

WP_DETAILS (Wound/Pathology DETAILS)

This table contains one row for each cluster of wounds or pathologies that are indicated in a report.

Similar to our use of "report" in WP_REPORTS, a "cluster" of wounds/pathologies is mostly just a data management term: useful for bookkeeping but lacking biological relevance. For our uses, a "cluster" is a group of one or more co-occuring wounds/pathologies of the same type (same WoundPathCode). They are "co-occurring" in that these wounds/pathologies were observed to appear on the same date and were likely not acquired independently. The decision to divide multiple wounds/pathologies into separate one-wound/pathology clusters or to group them into clusters of multiple wounds/pathologies is mostly made by the data manager.

In many cases, how exactly to cluster a set of wounds/pathologies is not a decision, but a necessity. When multiple wounds/pathologies of the same type are indicated on a report, there may be particular MaxDimension, ImpairsLocomotion, and/or InfectionSigns values that apply to some but not all of the wounds/pathologies (e.g. "This one slash is impairing locomotion, those other three are not"). In these cases, it is necessary to divide the multiple wounds/pathologies into separate clusters.

Clusters are numbered in the Cluster column, which must be unique per WPRId.

Some WoundPathCode values may inherently imply that the ImpairsLocomotion or InfectionSigns column(s) be a particular value. For example, if an individual is limping, by definition this pathology is impairing the individual's locomotion so the ImpairsLocomotion value should always be Y for that pathology. Because of this possibility, some validation of the ImpairsLocomotion and InfectionSigns columns is controlled by values in the WP_WOUNDPATHCODES table and its ImpairsLocomotion and InfectionSigns columns. See the WP_WOUNDPATHCODES documentation for more details.

The system will return a warning for any WP_DETAILS rows that do not have at least one related row in WP_AFFECTEDPARTS.

Tip

When adding or updating data in this table, use the WP_DETAILS_AFFECTEDPARTS view. It facilitates inserting or updating data with the related WId instead of the WPRId.

Tip

Use the WP_HEALS or WOUNDSPATHOLOGIES views to select data from this table. These views include related data from the other wound/pathology tables, respectively with and without related healing updates.

Column Descriptions

WPDId (WP_Details Identifier)

A unique identifier for this row. This is an automatically generated sequential number that uniquely identifies the row.

This column is automatically maintained by the database, cannot be changed, and must not be NULL.

WPRId (WP_Reports Identifier

The WP_REPORTS.WPRId of the report in which this wound/pathology cluster was recorded.

This column may not be NULL.

WoundPathCode (Wound/Pathology Code)

The WP_WOUNDPATHCODES.WoundPathCode for this wound/pathology cluster.

This column may not be NULL.

Cluster (Cluster identifier)

A positive integer identifying this cluster of wounds/pathologies.

This column may not be NULL.

MaxDimension

The estimated maximum dimension of this cluster's wound or wounds (e.g. length, depth, etc., as applicable), in centimeters.

This column may be NULL, when a dimension is not recorded or not applicable.

ImpairsLocomotion

A character, indicating if this cluster's wound/pathology impairs the individual's locomotion. Legal values are Y, N, or U, meaning "Yes", "No", and "Unknown" (or Uncertain, or Unspecified), respectively.

This column may not be NULL.

InfectionSigns

A character, indicating if signs of infection (e.g. oozing, stiffness, redness) were observed. Legal values are Y, N, or U, meaning "Yes", "No", and "Unknown" (or Uncertain, or Unspecified), respectively.

This column may not be NULL.

Notes

Comments or descriptive notes about this wound/pathology.

This column may be NULL. This column may not be empty, it must contain characters, and it must contain at least one non-whitespace character.

Sys_Period

The timestamp range during which this row's data are considered valid. See The Sys_Period Column for more information.

WP_HEALUPDATES (Wound/Pathology HEAL UPDATES)

This table contains one row for each instance where an observer provides an update on a report. These updates discuss how the wounds/pathologies have healed (or possibly how they haven't healed), so these updates are generally referred to as "heal updates".

Heal updates may be very specific, referring to a particular body part (a WP_AFFECTEDPARTS row). They may be a bit more vague and refer only to a particular wound/pathology (a WP_DETAILS row). They may even be so vague that the identity of the report (a WP_REPORTS row) being updated is the only "known" datum. To flexibly accommodate this variation, this table includes the WPRId, WPDId, and WPAId columns. These columns allow the recording of the report being updated, the particular wound/pathology from that report, or the body part affected by that wound/pathology, respectively. In each row of this table, one of these columns (WPRId, WPDId, and WPAId) must not be NULL, and the others must be NULL.

The Date in this table must be on or after the associated report's Date.

A heal update may indicate that an individual is missing, or presumed dead. For this reason, the Date may be after the individual's Statdate. However, the system will send a warning when the Date is more than 90 days after the individual's Statdate.

When wounds/pathologies are especially severe or life-changing, heal updates may continue for years after the related Date. However, these are rare. The system will return a warning when a Date is more than 365 days after its related Date.

Tip

Use the WP_HEALS view instead of this table. It presents the data in a format more hospitable for humans to read, and performs the somewhat-tricky task of joining the different ID columns to their respective wound/pathology tables.

Column Descriptions

WPHId (WP_HealUpdates Identifier)

A unique identifier for the row. This is an automatically generated sequential number that uniquely identifies the row.

This column is automatically maintained by the database, cannot be changed, and must not be NULL.

WPRId (WP_Reports Identifier)

The WP_REPORTS.WPRId of the related wound/pathology report, if a more specific indicator is not known.

WPDId (WP_Details Identifier)

The WPDId of the related wound/pathology cluster, if known and if the related body part being updated is not known.

WPAId (WP_AffectedParts Identifier)

The WPAId of the related body part, if known.

Date

The date of this heal update.

This column may not be NULL.

HealStatus

The WP_HEALSTATUSES.HealStatus indicating how well the related wound(s)/pathology(ies) have healed.

This column may not be NULL.

Notes

Textual notes about the healing (or lack thereof) in this update.

This column may be NULL. This column may not be empty, it must contain characters, and it must contain at least one non-whitespace character.

Sys_Period

The timestamp range during which this row's data are considered valid. See The Sys_Period Column for more information.

WP_OBSERVERS (Wound/Pathology OBSERVERS)

This table records the observers of the wound/pathology reports, one row for each observer. When a report has multiple observers, each of them is recorded in this table in a separate row.

Each WPRId-Observer combination must be unique; a report cannot have the same observer more than once.

Tip

Use the WP_REPORTS_OBSERVERS view to insert data into this table. It provides a simple way to determine the appropriate WPRId value to use, and for a human data enterer to provide multiple observers in a single row.

Tip

Use the WP_HEALS or WOUNDSPATHOLOGIES views to select data from this table. These views include related data from the other wound/pathology tables, respectively with and without related healing updates.

Column Descriptions

WPOId (WP_Observers Identifier)

A unique identifier for the row. This is an automatically generated sequential number that uniquely identifies the row.

This column is automatically maintained by the database, cannot be changed, and must not be NULL.

WPRId (WP_Reports Identifier)

The WP_REPORTS.WPRId of the related report.

This column may not be NULL.

Observer

The OBSERVERS.Initials of the observer.

This column may not be NULL.

Sys_Period

The timestamp range during which this row's data are considered valid. See The Sys_Period Column for more information.

WP_REPORTS (Wound/Pathology REPORTS)

Records each distinct report of wounds/pathologies for an individual. When a wound or pathology is first seen, field observers usually report it with a specialized form that helps systematically report various pieces of pertinent data. These data may include but are not limited to which kind(s) of wound/pathology was observed, which body part(s) was affected, wound size (if applicable), and updates on later dates describing how well the individual has healed. These reports may describe something small like a single scrape or limp, or something larger like a set of bleeding wounds on several body parts. This table contains one row for each of these wound/pathology "reports".

It is difficult to provide a precise definition of a "report" in this sense. The aforementioned specialized forms are not always used, so a "report" does not always refer to these forms. Some wounds may be especially serious or life-altering, and pathologies may be chronic or reoccuring, meaning that some wounds/pathologies may recur throughout life in several reports. Because of this, each "report" is not necessarily a distinct "instance" of wound/pathology. Frankly, the distinction between "reports" made in this table is mostly artificial, useful for bookkeeping but lacking biological relevance. In general, each "report" is a discrete observation of wounds/pathologies for an individual on a specific date. A "report" may be an elaborate form, a brief note, or something in between.

Each combination of Sname, Date, and non-NULL Time must be unique; an individual can have multiple reports on the same date, but not at the same time.

The Date must be between the individual's Entrydate and Statdate, inclusive; the individual must be alive and in the study population when the report was created. The system will return a warning if the Date is before theindividual's LatestBirth.

The Grp indicates the group written on the form by the observer. For a variety of reasons (e.g. immigrations, group fissions/fusions), the Grp column may be different from the individual's Grp on this Date. Because of this, validation of the Grp column is limited: the Date must be on or after the group's Start date. The system will return a warning when a report occurs after its Grp has ceased to exist; that is, the system will return a warning when the report's Date is after the group's Cease_To_Exist.

The system will return a warning for any WP_REPORTS rows that do not have at least one related row in WP_DETAILS.

Tip

When adding new data to this table, use the WP_REPORTS_OBSERVERS view. It simplifies the process of adding multiple observers to WP_OBSERVERS.

Tip

Use the WP_HEALS or WOUNDSPATHOLOGIES views to select data from this table. These views include related data from the other wound/pathology tables, respectively with and without related healing updates.

Column Descriptions

WPRId (WP_Reports Identifier)

A unique identifier for this report. This is an automatically generated sequential number that uniquely identifies the row.

This column is automatically maintained by the database, cannot be changed, and must not be NULL.

WId (Wound/pathology report Identifier, non-automated)

A unique identifier for this report, generated by data management.

This column may not be NULL.

Date

The date that the wounds/pathologies in this report were first observed.

This column may not be NULL.

Time

The time that the wounds/pathologies in this report were first observed, if known.

This column may be NULL, when the time is unknown.

Sname

The BIOGRAPH.Sname of the individual whose wounds/pathologies are described in this report.

This column may not be NULL.

Grp (Group)

The GROUPS.Gid of the group in which the individual was located when the wounds/pathologies were recorded, according to the observer(s).

This column may not be NULL.

ObserverComments

Comments or descriptive notes about the wounds/pathologies from the observers on initial observation.

This column may be NULL. This column may not be empty, it must contain characters, and it must contain at least one non-whitespace character.

ReportState

The WP_REPORTSTATES.ReportState of this report.

This column may not be NULL.

Sys_Period

The timestamp range during which this row's data are considered valid. See The Sys_Period Column for more information.



[55] ...or average, or standard deviation, etc....

[56] This value was chosen somewhat arbitrarily. It's certainly possible to have more than 9 of a particular wound or pathology affecting a body part, but for our uses such a high number is implausible. This value may need to be adjusted in the future.


Page generated: 2024-03-06T15:02:22-05:00.