Rebuilding the Great Britain Historical GIS,Part 1: Building an Indefinitely Scalable Statistical Database

Abstract

The Great Britain Historical Geographical Information System (GIS) has been rebuilt around a single central table holding all statistics in one column, currently containing 14,541,491 data values. This architecture enables extremely flexible data handling, but requires that the context of each data value be captured entirely as metadata. Statistical reporting areas are defined via an ontology of administrative units, in which hierarchical relationships are compulsory while boundary polygons are optional. What a number measures is recorded via a relational implementation of the Data Documentation Initiative standard, locating each value within an n-dimensional matrix, or nCube, whose dimensions are variables such as age, gender, and occupation. The data library can be extended to additional countries or more statistical topics without adding any database tables.     

Winter Daily Precipitation Variability over Northern Scotland

Daily winter (December, January and February) precipitation variability over mainland Northern Scotland (1994–2004) is analysed using 99 rain gauges. Principal component analysis (PCA) is used to identify four main patterns of rainfall variability that collectively account for nearly 75% of the variance. The most important pattern (PC 1) shows a west to east decline in rainfall; and is associated with a westerly wind flow, orographic enhancement and rain shadow effects. PC 2 shows a south to north decline in rainfall, a distribution that is generated disproportionately by southerly winds and a more southerly storm track than PC 1's pattern. PC 3 produces the most rainfall in Aberdeenshire and the least in Inverness-shire and Argyll. This spatial distribution is caused mostly by south-easterly flows, with the lowest pressure occurring in eastern Scotland or over the North Sea. PC 4 exhibits a localised precipitation maximum in Nairnshire and Moray, which tends to occur on days with a north to north-easterly wind. Cluster analysis is used to identify six rainfall regions, with regionalisations being derived for each wind direction. The most important sub-division in the region's rainfall climatology is between Aberdeen and Banff and the remainder of the mainland; rainfall variability over time in these two eastern counties thus differs considerably from other parts of Northern Scotland. The Caithness Plain also emerges as a distinct region despite its small area. Distinct rainfall regions are most evident on days when the wind blows from the westerly quadrant.     

李大钊与历史哲学理论

对历史哲学的研究是李大钊在学术研究领域中探索的最主要方面。他对历史哲学的地位进行科学的解说 ,并对历史本体论、历史认识论作了研究 ,为建立历史哲学的中国学派做出了贡献。李大钊是中国马克思主义历史哲学的开创者     

历史唯物主义的新范畴:创新史观

所谓创新史观,就是用创新的观点去判断历史进步的动力,分析推动历史进步的主体,评价推动历史进步合力中的核心力量、主导力量,进而倡导创新、激励创新、推动创新,以引导社会更快更好更节省更顺利更稳定更和谐地发展。创新史观的提出,是对唯物史观的继承和发展,对于建设中国特色社会主义,对于贯彻科学发展观具有重要意义。     

HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDING AND HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION AS CONTEXTUALIZATION

This article discusses the theoretical problems pertaining to the relationship between historical contextualization and historical understanding and interpretation. On the one hand, there is the view that documents need to be understood in relation to their historical context; on the other, it is not clear how a historian can get out of his or her own historical context in order to be able to engage with the conceptual frameworks, beliefs, or ways of reasoning that are radically different from his or her own. The paper proposes a resolution to this dilemma; its upshot is that historical understanding is constituted by contextualization.     

STORY MAKES HISTORY,THEORY MAKES STORY: DEVELOPING RÜSEN'S HISTORIK IN LOGICAL AND SEMIOTIC DIRECTIONS

This essay will argue that the traditional opposition between narrative and theory in historical sciences is dissolved if we conceive of narratives as theoretical devices for understanding events in time through special concepts that abridge typical sequences of events. I shall stress, in the context of the Historical Knowledge Epistemological Square (HKES) that emerged with the scientization of history, that history is always narrative, story has a theoretical ground of itself, and scientific histories address the need for a conceptual progression in ever‐improved narratives. This will lead to identification of three major theoretical levels in historical stories: naming, plotting (or emplotment), and formalizing. We revisit Jörn Rüsen's theory of history as the best starting point, and explore to what extent it could be developed by (i) taking a deeper look into narratological knowledge, and (ii) reanalyzing logically the conceptual strata in order to bridge the overrated Forschung/Darstellung (research/exposition) divide. The corollary: we should consider (scientific) historical writing as the last step of historical research, not as the next step after research is over. This thesis will drive us to a reconsideration of the German Historik regarding the problem of interpretation and exposition. Far from alienating history from science, narrative links history positively to anthropology and biology. The crossing of our triad name‐plot‐model with Rüsen's four theoretical levels (categories‐types‐concepts‐names) points to the feasibility of expanding Rüsen's Historik in logical and semiotic directions. Story makes history, theory makes story, and historical reason may proceed.     

唯物史观视野中的历史必然性问题

历史必然性是唯物史观理论体系所要论证的核心问题之一。历史必然性思想具有重要的本体论和认识论依据,历史必然性与人的历史主动性有逻辑关联,历史必然性与偶然性之间存在着辩证统一的关系,强调历史必然性思想是人类推动社会进步的强大理论武器,在未来预测中具有重要的科学意义。     

近三十年来中国历史气候研究方法的进展——以文献资料为中心

过去30年里,中国历史气候的研究取得了世所瞩目的成就。这一研究领域中每次重要的进展,都伴随着资料的开拓和方法的创新。有鉴于此,本文主要对近三十年来历史气候研究中文献资料的收集整理、资料中存在问题的甄别和处理,温度序列、干湿序列的重建及其它相关历史气候研究领域中研究方法的进展做了回顾总结。指出研究方法的进步主要体现在更有效地提取和利用历史文献中的有效信息,尽量减少重建过程和结果的不确定性。而一定的方法总是适用于一定的资料。并认为新资料的继续开拓和集成方法的发展完善将进一步推动研究的进步。     

历史事实:史学家建构过去的图景

中外历史哲学界对“历史事实”存在严重的争论,主要问题是关于历史事实的应用范围与含义上的分歧。其实,“历史事实”只能限制在历史认识论的范围内才有意义,而历史事实与史料中的事实也不能等同。从历史学家与“历史事实”的关系来看,历史事实依历史学家的存在而存在,“历史事实”是史学家建立的关于过去的图景,是一个关于过去历史实际的知识体系。     

对冯筱才先生"回应"的几点说明

冯筱才《对沈晓敏〈也谈浙江省自治运动〉一文的回应》对沈晓敏《也谈浙江省自治运动———兼与冯筱才先生商榷》一文有所回应,但冯文的某些提法及文中涉及的某些史实,仍有必要加以说明。     

章学诚的史学变革思想

章学诚的史学变革思想,涉及史意、历史编纂学、历史文学三个方面。章学诚的史意不仅具有著述宗旨、别识心裁之意,还包含撰述者关于历史和史学的体会、情感和价值取向,比史义内容更加丰富。其圆而神的撰述思想既有辩证法的思想因素,又有美学的意境。在历史文学上,章氏一方面强调史文应忠实地反映历史实际,另一方面又主张语言表达的神明变化。     

THE 9 JULY 551 AD BEIRUT EARTHQUAKE,EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN REGION

Analysis of the Byzantine primary and secondary sources for identifying the historical earthquakes in Syria and Lebanon reveals that a large earthquake (M _s =7.2) occurred in July 9, 551 AD along the Lebanese littoral and was felt over a very large area in the eastern Mediterranean region. It was a shallow-focus earthquake, associated with a regional tsunami along the Lebanese coast, a local landslide near Al-Batron town, and a large fire in Beirut. It caused heavy destruction with great loss of lives to several Lebanese cities, mainly Beirut, with a maximum intensity between IX-X (EMS-92). The proposed epicentre of the event is offshore of Beirut at about 34.00°N, 35.50° E, indicating that the earthquake appears to be the result of movement along the strike-slip left-lateral Roum fault in southern Lebanon.     

A New Approach to Analyzing Historical Urban Growth of Ottoman Cities: Manisa Case Study

Abstract

The physical growth of cities is usually used to define the main direction of a city's development. This definition is key to understanding the city's current state and to plan for the future. Many urban planners agree that master plans should include historical urban growth and aim to specify the effective factors driving urban growth. However, defining urban boundaries and historical urban areas is a difficult task. The lack of satellite images, air photos, and real maps to use as base maps for historical urban studies is a problem that a researcher may face when determining patterns of urban development or conducting other analyses. In this article, the authors examine historical changes of the urban boundaries of the Ottoman city of Manisa. They analyze the physical growth of this large city by using the historical buildings (mosques, masjids, madrasas, baths, caravansary, and others) as markers.     

‘Well weather is not a girl thing is it?’ Contemporary amateur meteorology,gender relations and the shaping of domestic masculinity

Although there is a growing scholarship on the history of amateur meteorology, contemporary amateur meteorology has tended to remain a largely invisible social phenomenon. Moreover, questions of female involvement and gender relations therein have tended to be overlooked. This paper seeks to address this gap by drawing on interviews with members of one of the most important amateur meteorological networks in the UK—the Climatological Observers Link. The research identifies a predominantly male bias within amateur meteorology in the UK, offers insight into why and how this bias has emerged and explores the implications of this bias for gender politics in the home. It also considers the way in which, as a pursuit that is very much situated within the domestic sphere, amateur meteorology complicates traditional framings of the home as a female realm and contributes to a domestic masculinity.