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G Sponholz

Publications and source records attributed to G Sponholz.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Teaching scientific integrity and research ethics.

Cases of misconduct in scientific research have enforced a lively public and scientific discussion. The international scientific community has been engaged during the last years in the search for adequate responses to fraud and misconduct. Most of the new guidelines emphasize the responsibility of researchers and scientific institutions for preventive measures; the teaching of research ethics should be included in undergraduate and postgraduate academic education. At the Universities of Ulm and Marburg members of the 'Study group Ethics in Medicine' are developing a teaching program in Research Ethics. They now offer courses: teaching in small groups (7-15 participants) with structured case discussions. These courses are not mandatory. The first steps in the development of the teaching program for young scientists in medicine, biology, chemistry, and physics have been taken. The fields of conflicts in these different fields of science are very similar. We offered five case discussion sessions with mixed groups (postgraduate students, postdocs, head of departments) and the first results are very positive: high acceptance, high motivation, high demand for next courses.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

[Approaches to risk analysis of infant mortality in the 19th century in 2 adjacent South Germany rural communities].

High infant mortality, regional differences, and the remaining likewise differences over a long time period were already known in the last century. Multifactorial models were discussed to explain this phenomenon and great importance was given to social factors in these societies. We analysed two populations from the same region in South Germany with a high infant mortality in the 19th century. The environment (e.g. climate, rural regions) was similar, the two villages had small differences in population size. Since the end of the 16th century the two villages have belonged to different denominations, one village is catholic, the other protestant, and there are no marriages between them (until today). All data we analysed, came from parochial registers. The results show that in all decades of the last century the infant mortality was higher in the catholic population (about 450) than in the protestant population (ca. 350). We can find these differences on the microlevel, too. The comparison of families (marriages concluded 1840-1849 and 1850-1859) show the same effect. The analysis of the influences on the number of children per family and the age of the mother at birth of their children to infant mortality confirm the hypothesis that social factors, strongly influenced by the denomination, are the main factors to explain the differences.

Catholicism↗