The categories of accuracy of the birth date estimates.
BSTATUSES defines values for the Bstatus column of BIOGRAPH. Except for the "unknown" Bstatus
(9.0), this column indicates
the length in years of the estimated range of an
individual's possible birth dates.
For example, a Bstatus
1 indicates that the individual is
estimated to have been born within 1
year of the Birth date, or the
Birth date plus or minus at most
6 months.
The value 9.0
(unknown) has a special meaning to the system. This is the
only BIOGRAPH.Bstatus value that indicates that the
individual's birth date is "unknown", i.e. not able to be
estimated with any meaningful confidence. It is the only
Bstatus value that allows an
individual to have a NULL EarliestBirth and LatestBirth.
The value 9.0
(unknown) is also the only Bstatus value whose numeric value has
no actual meaning as a number. All
other numbers added to BSTATUSES are
presumed to indicate a number of years of accuracy in a
birth date estimate.
The possible degrees of confidence in the nature and agent of the recorded cause of death (the recorded BIOGRAPH.Dcause values), recorded disperse date (the recorded DISPERSEDATES.Dispersed), and recorded maternal group assignment (the recorded BIOGRAPH.Matgrp) values.
The values in this table are used to indicate confidence in several different tables, so it is necessary to describe these values in general terms. Unfortunately, this intentional lack of specificity in description may cause an unintentional lack of clarity. For this reason, the textual column Usage is included, in which table-specific comments or clarifications may be added.
CONFIDENCES defines values for the DcauseNatureConfidence and DcauseAgentConfidence columns of the BIOGRAPH table, the Dispconfidence column of the DISPERSEDATES table, and the Matgrpconfidence column of the BIOGRAPH table.
The value 0
(not applicable) has a special meaning to the system. This
is the only BIOGRAPH.DcauseNatureConfidence and DcauseAgentConfidence value allowed to be
associated with individuals having no cause of death, having
a Dcause of
0.
This support table indicates the apparent completeness of a paternity assignment.
DADS_COMPLETENESS defines values for the Completeness column of DADS_CONSENSUS.
The possible kinds of data from paternity analyses.
DADS_EVIDENCE_TERMS defines values for the Term column of DADS_EVIDENCE.
This column indicates what kind of data is expected to be recorded as a Datum with this Term. Its legal values are:
BOOL
This Data_Type indicates that the Datum is expected to be a
boolean, either TRUE or FALSE.
DATE
This Data_Type indicates that the Datum is expected to be a date, recorded in YYYY-MM-DD format.
NUM
This Data_Type indicates that the Datum is expected to be a
number, e.g. 12 or
12.0 but not
twelve.
TEXT
This Data_Type indicates that the Datum is expected to be plain text, i.e. it has no restrictions.
It is an error if the Datum value does not match the
format of its Term's
Data_Type. For example, if the Term PCR
DATE has a data type of
DATE, then a DADS_EVIDENCE row will return an error if its
Datum is anything other than a date in YYYY-MM-DD
format.
This column may not be NULL.
This boolean column indicates whether this row's Term
is unique per analysis. When TRUE, this Term cannot be
used in DADS_EVIDENCE more than once per
analysis.
This column cannot be NULL and is TRUE by
default.
This support table categorizes the type(s) of genetic mismatches that are observed in a paternity assignment.
DADS_MISMATCHES defines values for the Mismatch column of DADS_CONSENSUS.
The different causes of death, classified by Nature and Agent.
A Dcause's Nature describes in general terms the reason that the individual died, e.g. “violence”. A Dcause's Agent indicates the source or cause of the indicated nature, e.g. “predator”.
When an individual's Dcause is assigned, the assignment is often not certain, but is instead a CONFIDENCES-qualified inference based on available evidence at the time of the individual's death or disappearance. Because of this, an individual's Dcause should be read as "if Nature, then Agent".
The combination of Nature and Agent is unique.
See the note in the STATUSES: Special Values section for an explanation of what it means to be alive.[231]
The value 0 (no cause of death) has a special meaning to the system. This is the only Dcause allowed to be associated with living individuals.
Indicates the data source of demography notes.
DEMOG_REFERENCES defines values for the Reference column of DEMOG.
The different natures, or reasons, for death. See DCAUSES for more info about the difference between causes, natures, and agents of death.
DEATHNATURES defines values for the Nature column of DCAUSES.
Indicates the different ways individuals enter the study population.
ENTRYTYPES defines values for the Entrytype column of BIOGRAPH.
A boolean that indicates if individuals with this Entrytype should automatically be assigned residency on their Entrydate. See Entrydate is Special for more information.
The value of B
(birth) has a special meaning to the system. When an
individual has this Entrytype,
their BIOGRAPH.Entrydate must also be the date of
their Birth. In the residency rules,
individuals with Entrytype
B are assigned a LowFrequency of FALSE on their Entrydate and subsequent
28 days, regardless of the actual
number of censuses that occurred during that period. No
other value should be used in BIOGRAPH.Entrytype to
indicate birth as the method for entry into the
population.
The Residency_Special_Case for Entrytype
B must be
TRUE.
The different meanings of various maturity marker date values.
MSTATUSES defines values for MATUREDATES.Matured and RANKDATES.Ranked columns.
May be O (ON) or
B
(BY). O indicates a known
date. B indicates that we know
that the animal had reached that maturational marker BY
the given date but we have no information about the actual
date on which the marker was attained.
The different categories of rankings that order individuals by dominance within a group within a month. Each category of ranking is identified with a row of this table.
This table contains a “special” column, Query. The Query column is an SQL query which defines which individuals are eligible for inclusion in this category of ranking. The SQL statement determines which individuals are included in any given ranking. It must return distinct Snames of individuals to be ranked within a given group over a given time period. In general the query is a SELECT statement which uses the BIOGRAPH and MEMBERS tables to determine who is to be ranked within a group over a month. A number of “special symbols” may be, and will need to be, included in the SQL query. Each “special symbol” represents a value which changes depending on the month or group ranked. The “special symbols” are:
| Notation | Mnemonic | Data type | Description of usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| %g | Group id | number | The Gid of the group being ranked. |
| %s | Start date | date | (Should not be quoted in the SQL statement.) Date of the first day of the interval over which the individuals are ranked (inclusive.) |
| %f | Finish date | date | (Should not be bracketed in the SQL statement. Date of the last day of the interval over which the individuals are ranked (inclusive.) Note that ages, maturation dates, and so forth are often computed using or compared to the Finish Date value. |
The different states of an individual, reflecting what sort of record keeping needs to be done on the individual in the future.
A boolean that indicates if individuals with this Status should be able to retain residency through their Statdate when terminal absences might suggest otherwise. See Statdate is (also) special for more information.
The value 0 (alive) has a
special meaning to the system. No other codes should be
created to indicate that the individual is alive.
“Alive” has a particular meaning to Babase. It does not mean “alive in real life”, a concept which itself is complicated when it is qualified by a time because there are not always recorded observations.
Alive in the context of Babase means “an individual on which data is continuing to be collected”. The foremost implication of this is that living individuals can have data added to Babase after the individuals' BIOGRAPH.Statdate and the BIOGRAPH.Statdates will automatically change. Babase will hold no data on an individual that postdates the individual's death. The only way the BIOGRAPH.Statdate of a dead individual changes is when the change is made manually.