[Babase] Re: Request for Susan's input on SCI5

Karl O. Pinc babase@www.eco.princeton.edu
Wed, 20 Jul 2005 22:30:28 +0000


On 07/20/2005 12:07:03 PM, Karl O. Pinc wrote:

> 
> 1) Ongoing pregnancies.  These have no associated biograph
> row and so won't show up when you're looking at
> BIOGRAPH.Birth to determine end-of-pregnancy date.
> 
> 2) Abortions/stillbirths.  On BIOGRAPH the Status is
> "dead" and the Birth = Statdate.
> 
> 3) Observation abandoned during pregnancy.  On BIOGRAPH
> the Status is "fetus" and the Birth = Statdate.

Jeanne has pointed out that there's no reason why
Birth must = Statdate in this case.  But I was just
thinking and chatting with Cathrine and don't
see why Birth shouldn't = Statdate and be
the last date the mother was observed (pregnant.)

Such a biograph row is an acknowledgement that
we're not going to follow the pregnancy/fetus
further, a record of the last observed date,
and a "pre-entry" of the biograph row that we
would insert if we'd have finished the
observation.  Pregnancies then become like
animal lifespans.  You can't just subtract
birthdate from statdate to get the a lifespan,
you also have to check Status to see
that the animal is dead.
Likewise with pregnancies, you can't subtract
Ddate (Z date really) from birthdate, you have
to check Status to see that the pregnancy
compleated.  There's no reason you'd want to,
but you could put such rows in biograph
for every pregnancy as soon as you observed
the pregnancy, and just keep updating it
from awareness of conception right
throgh birth/abortion all the way up to the
individual's death.

Perhaps we should switch over to the Chinese
system.  They count age from conception.  ;-)

> 
> 4) Births.  On BIOGRAPH Birth != Statdate.
> 
> 

Karl <kop@meme.com>
Free Software:  "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
                  -- Robert A. Heinlein