ABSTRACT
William Petty's work has usually been regarded as an epistemic break in the history of statistical and politico-economic thought. In this paper, I argue that Petty's statistical notions stemmed from the natural-historical techniques he originally implemented to manage the Down Survey. Following Bacon, who viewed the description of trades as a paramount branch of natural history, Petty approached the art of surveying itself as an object of natural-historical analysis. He partitioned the surveying work into individual tasks and implemented a meticulous division of labour, employing hundreds of disbanded soldiers as surveyors and using questionnaires to calibrate the responses of his 'instruments', as he called his specialized workers. By borrowing these methods from natural history to organize surveying work, Petty was able to conceptualize Ireland as a political body defined by tables of aggregate data. I then compare the Down Survey with John Graunt's observations on the bills of mortality to show that both are representative of a particular style of natural history, aimed at describing the natural and political state of a circumscribed territory. I close by considering other manifestations of 'territorial natural history', indicating a continuity between this research tradition and the appearance of statistics in the British Isles.
Subject(s)
Natural History , Natural History/history , Ireland , Statistics as Topic/history , History, 19th Century , History, 18th Century , PoliticsSubject(s)
Biomedical Research/history , Research Design , Statistics as Topic/history , Germany , History, 19th Century , Humans , ProbabilitySubject(s)
Biological Science Disciplines , Clinical Trials as Topic/history , Rheumatology/history , Statistics as Topic/history , Biological Science Disciplines/history , Biological Science Disciplines/statistics & numerical data , Clinical Trials as Topic/methods , Education, Medical/history , History, 20th Century , Humans , United Kingdom , United StatesABSTRACT
TITLE: L'épidémiologie entre le terrain des épidémies et l'approche populationnelle, XIX-XXe siècle. ABSTRACT: L'émergence d'une épidémiologie moderne est fréquemment associée au basculement de la discipline, d'une science des épidémies vers une science des populations. L'avènement et le développement d'une épidémiologie fondée sur une approche statistique et mathématique n'exclut cependant pas la persistance d'une épidémiologie sur le terrain des épidémies, dans le sillage de l'hygiène publique et de la bactériologie triomphante du tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles. De plus, l'histoire de l'épidémiologie ne saurait être cantonnée à une histoire de savoirs scientifiques ou de savoir-faire techniques et organisationnels. Elle doit intégrer, plus sans doute encore que d'autres branches de la médecine, les dimensions économiques et politiques qui participèrent à l'institutionnalisation et au développement de la discipline et à son inscription dans les processus de décision.
Subject(s)
Epidemics/history , Epidemiology/history , Commerce/history , Communicable Diseases/epidemiology , Communicable Diseases/history , Epidemiologic Methods , France , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Humans , Military Hygiene/history , Public Health/history , Risk Factors , Social Determinants of Health/history , Statistics as Topic/historySubject(s)
Physicians/history , Statistics as Topic/history , Epidemiology/history , History, 20th Century , HumansABSTRACT
The Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Education recognizes an individual or group that has had significant, sustained impact on genetics education at any level, from K-12 through graduate school and beyond. Bruce Weir (University of Washington) is the 2019 recipient in recognition of his work training thousands of researchers in the rigorous use of statistical analysis methods for genetic and genomic data. His contributions fall into three categories: the acclaimed Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics, which has been held continuously for 23 years and has trained > 10,000 researchers worldwide; the popular graduate-level textbook Genetic Data Analysis; and the training of a growing number of forensic geneticists during the rise of DNA evidence in courts around the world.
Subject(s)
Awards and Prizes , Genetics/history , Statistics as Topic/history , History, 21st Century , United StatesABSTRACT
The Student-t-test, one of the most used statistical tests in medicine, was developed by a beer brewer. From around 1900, the Irish Guinness brewery started recruiting scientists for the position of brewer in order to apply science to the production of beer in large quantities while maintaining consistency in terms of quality. One of these brewers was mathematician and chemist William Sealy Gosset (1876-1937). He developed statistical methods to deal with small sample surveys. Gosset's methods, and the accompanying t-distribution tables, enabled Guinness to take intelligent decisions about which ingredients to use, allowing them to produce high-quality beer that consistently tasted the same. Gosset wanted to publish his findings in scientific journals; however, the Guinness brewery was unwilling, as this could jeopardise their advantage over other breweries. They came to a compromise, in which Guinness allowed Gosset to publish his findings, as long as he used a pseudonym: Student. The Student's t-distribution remains one of the cornerstones of modern statistics.
Subject(s)
Beer/history , Quality Control , Statistics as Topic/history , Beer/standards , Beer/statistics & numerical data , History, 20th Century , HumansSubject(s)
Clinical Trials as Topic/history , Hypnotics and Sedatives , Research Design , Scopolamine , Statistics as Topic/history , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Humans , Hypnotics and Sedatives/chemistry , Hypnotics and Sedatives/therapeutic use , Isomerism , Scopolamine/chemistry , Scopolamine/therapeutic useABSTRACT
Fundamento: La Estadística como disciplina que contribuye al desempeño del profesional del perfil humanístico. Objetivo: Identificar rasgos del comportamiento del proceso de formación estadística en las carreras de perfil humanístico que limitan el desarrollo de una dinámica estadístico profesional, en relación con la integración de los contenidos estadísticos y los de la profesión en la solución de problemas afines al perfil de las carreras humanísticas. Desarrollo: Se realizó un análisis histórico lógico del proceso de formación estadística en las carreras de perfil humanístico. Análisis que transita por tres etapas acorde con los siguientes indicadores: el vínculo del proceso de formación estadística con el contexto y la profesión, la relación entre lo académico, lo laboral y lo investigativo y la perspectiva de análisis de los problemas abordados. Las etapas son: Orientación al procesamiento de la información social, sustentado en el paradigma positivista y solución de problemas modelados, Indicios del establecimiento de una perspectiva cualitativo-cuantitativa y solución de ejercicios integradores de materias, por último el Acercamiento entre los paradigmas cualitativo y cuantitativo con sesgos en la modelación de problemas profesionales a partir de la indagación estadística. Se delimitó el año 1977 como génesis temporal, porque a partir de esta fecha se produjeron transformaciones en la educación superior cubana que incidieron en una naciente orientación hacia el vínculo de los contenidos de las asignaturas básicas con la profesión. Conclusiones: En el proceso de formación estadística en las carreras de perfil humanístico prevaleció un tránsito gradual desde una dinámica tradicional academicista del proceso de formación estadística, hacia el establecimiento de lo académico, investigativo y laboral, pero con limitaciones en la solución de problemas modelados por el estudiante, mediante la indagación interpretativa profesionalizada (AU)
