text:
Curriculum ScienTI
Genetics and Molecular Biology
Print version ISSN 1415-4757On-line version ISSN 1678-4685
Genet. Mol. Biol. vol.29 no.4 São Paulo 2006
http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1415-47572006000400025
Paternity testing and behavioral ecology: a case study of jaguars (Panthera onca) in Emas National Park, Central Brazil
Thannya Nascimento SoaresI; Mariana P.C. TellesI, III; Lucileide V. ResendeI; Leandro SilveiraII, III; Anah Tereza A. JácomoII, III; Ronaldo G. MoratoII, IV; José Alexandre F. Diniz-FilhoIII, V; Eduardo EizirikII, VI; Rosana P.V. BrondaniVII; Claudio BrondaniVII
ILaboratório de Genética e Melhoramento, Instituto do Trópico Subúmido, Universidade Católica de Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brazil
IIAssociação Pró-Carnívoros, Atibaia, SP, Brazil
IIIJaguar Conservation Fund, Mineiros, GO, Brazil
IVCENAP-IBAMA, Atibaia, SP, Brazil
VDepartamento de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, GO, Brazil
VILaboratory of Genomic Diversity, NCI-Frederick, NIH, Frederick MD, USA
VIILaboratório de Biotecnologia, Embrapa-CNPAF, Goiânia, GO, Brazil
Send correspondence to
We used microsatellite loci to test the paternity of two male jaguars involved in an infanticide event recorded during a long-term monitoring program of this species. Seven microsatellite primers originally developed for domestic cats and previously selected for Panthera onca were used. In order to deal with uncertainty in the mother's genotypes for some of the loci, 10000 values of W were derived by simulation procedures. The male that killed the two cubs was assigned as the true sire. Although the reasons for this behavior remain obscure, it shows, in principle, a low recognition of paternity and kinship in the species. Since the two cubs were not very young, one possibility is that the adult male did not recognize the cubs and killed them for simple territorial reasons. Thus, ecological stress in this local population becomes a very plausible explanation for this infanticide, without further sociobiological implications.
Key words: ecological stress, infanticide, Jaguar, microsatellites, paternity.
Recent developments in molecular analyses have allowed the integration of genetics and ecology to elucidate complex ecological and behavioral phenomena at the population level, in the new field now called 'molecular ecology' (Beebee and Rowe, 2004). Molecular data have been used to discern overall patterns in population structure and to estimate demographic parameters, such as dispersion rates and inbreeding levels, making also possible a detailed analysis of some behavioral issues, such as mating systems and parentage (Frankham et al., 2003).
In Emas National Park (ENP, Goiás State, Central Brazil) in November 2001 two jaguar (Panthera onca) cubs, presumably nine months old, were killed and partially eaten by a 90 kg adult male jaguar, estimated to be eight years old. The two cubs were also radio-tracked since they were three months old and were definitely brother and sister. The identity of the killer was also conclusively identified through its radio-telemetry monitoring. This large male was being radio-tracked and his home range overlapped by 85% for a long time with the home-range of the cubs' mother and showed similar movements in time and space. During several days before the infanticide, the killer tracked movements of the female and the two cubs, which had been shifting their home ranges. Because of the large overlap of home ranges in space and time, this male was presumably the sire of the two cubs. This infanticide event was monitored by two of us (LS and ATAJ), during a long-term monitoring program of Jaguars in ENP.
However, in a subsequent capture event within the female's (mother) home range area, a previously unrecorded 105 kg adult male was caught and radio-collared. According to preliminary capture-recapture data, the population of Panthera onca in ENP is estimated as comprising about 15 specimens (Silveira, 2004). Finding another male overlapping the female's home range suggests that the observed infanticide could involve more complex sociobiological issues and introduce some uncertain in the paternity of the two killed cubs.
Since another male was found in the female's home range, the basic question becomes: who was the sire of the two cubs killed by the first captured male? We used microsatellite loci to test the paternity of the two P. onca males involved in the scenario described above and in this paper we discuss our results and the alternative sociobiological and ecological questions involved in the infanticide. To our knowledge, this is the first application of molecular data to address a behavioral ecology question in jaguars.
Blood samples were obtained from the four jaguars involved in the case described above (the two cubs (C01 and C02) and the two adult males (M01, the killer and M02, the second male found in the area). No blood sample was available from the cub's mother. The blood samples were obtained using a Vacutainer® containing EDTA and Easy blood (TES) buffer (100 mM Tris, 100 mM EDTA and 2% SDS) and stored at 4 °C. DNA extraction was performed using the GFX purification kit (Amersham Pharmacia BiotechTM) specific for blood. The extracted DNA was quantified and diluted to a concentration of 3 ng/µL, to be used in the PCR reactions.
Ten microsatellite primers originally developed for domestic cats by Menotti-Raymond et al. (1999) and selected by Eizirik et al. (2001) for Panthera onca were used for the analyses: FCA005, FCA026, FCA077, FCA090, FCA096, FCA126, FCA193, FCA211, FCA220, FCA441. In this specific case, we were able to obtain good amplification products for seven of the ten primers, following the original protocol in Eizirik et al. (2001). Allelic polymorphism was detected in 4% (w/v) denaturing polyacrylamide gel and visualized by silver staining (Bassam et al., 1991).
After scoring, the genotypes of the seven loci and the parentage index W was calculated according to Weir (1996) and Evett and Weir (1998). This W index measures the inclusion probability, for each of the two males, and is given as
where pr is the a priori probability of an alleged sire being the true sire, and L is the likelihood of the paternity, i.e., the probability of the genotype of a child "O" given that he/she descends from a mother M and the tested sire, divided by the probability of "O" descending from mother M and any other sire P in the population, in such a way that
For example, the value of L for a given cub with genotype Aa for a given locus, son of a mother AA with an alleged sire with a genotype Aa is given by
where p and q are the frequencies of the alleles A and a in the population (Weir, 1996). When many loci are analyzed simultaneously, an overall L value is obtained as the product of the L value from all loci. So, if a single locus excludes the possibility of paternity, the overall likelihood goes to zero. Assuming that there is no 'a priori' reason for supporting paternity of an alleged sire, pr = 0.5, in such a way that W becomes simply
In this study, this simply theoretical reasoning becomes more complicated due to some uncertainty in several parameters. Firstly, the genotype of the mother could not be derived with certainty from the genotypes of the two cubs for four of the seven loci used (see the 'results' section). Secondly, there were no precise estimates of the allele frequencies of this local population, although overall frequencies estimated from data for 44 jaguars across the geographic range of the species are available (see Eizirik et al., 2001) and were used here as an initial approximation.
To deal with all these uncertainties, 10000 values of W were derived by simulation procedures, after randomly adding up to 20% of uniform variation around the average allele frequencies estimated using the original data of Eizirik et al. (2001) and combining all possible genotypes of the mother for each locus given the genotypes of the cubs. The probability of occurrence of each genotype was also estimated by genotypic frequencies from the data of Eizirik et al. (2001). The 10000 values of W were also estimated using only the three loci definitely known as belonging to the mother's genotype, which included only the uncertainty in the allele frequency estimates.
These procedures were performed for each cub, and the joint probability of paternity in the simulations was calculated from the product of the probabilities for each cub. Simulations were performed in software written in QBASIC and designed specifically for this study.
The seven primers with a good amplification pattern provided a system with seven loci and up to three alleles per locus to test the paternity (Figure 1). After coding the genotypes (Figure 1) it was possible to see that the M02 male was automatically excluded by three out of the seven loci (FCA077, FCA193 e FCA441), independently of the mother's genotype, since its likelihood tended to zero (except if one assumes that mutation and coding errors were frequent for all three loci simultaneously).
To establish the probability that the M01 male is the true sire it was necessary to use the mother's genotypes (Table 1), which could be determined exactly for only three loci, after combining the genotype of the two cubs which were almost certainly sister and brother according to field observations. Taking into account only the uncertainty in allele frequencies ('A) the distribution of the 10000 W values peaked at 0.9943 and ranged from 0.990 to 0.997 for each individual cub. This average probability value reduced to 0.988 and ranged from 0.982 to 0.993 when both cubs were considered simultaneously (Figure 2B). Overall, the probability was very high that the M01 male was the true sire of the two cubs.
To use the seven loci, the simulation procedures were repeated, but randomly using all possible mother's genotypes, based on their relative frequency in the population estimated using the original data of Eizirik et al. (2001). However, for the FCA096 and FCA220 loci at least one of the possible genotypes for the mother also excluded the M01 male as the true sire. So, in this case, neither of the males could have sired the cubs. However, Bayesian inference can be used to solve this apparent paradox if the frequencies of these genotypes is known and the probability of paternity given by the loci from which the mother's genotype if known without doubt.
In relation to other possible genotypes for the mother, the estimated frequency of excluding genotypes of the mother was initially established as 0.25, for the first cub, in such a way that L values would go to zero in this proportion of simulations. However, it can be assumed that this possibility could invalidate all previous results using only loci for which the genotype of the mother is known with certainty. According to Bayesian reasoning, suppose that H0 is the hypothesis that the M01 male is the true sire of the two cubs, as strongly supported by the three loci, and that H1 is the alternative hypothesis. The average estimated probability of H0 using only the three loci was 0.994 and, consequently, the probability of H1 was 0.006. Considering the four possible primer FCA096 genotypes for the mother there would be a 25% a priori chance of rejecting H0. However, a posteriori (Pp) probability of maternal genotype that exclude the sire becomes, according to Bayesian formulation (Hilborn and Mangel, 1997), Pp = (0.25 x 0.006) / [(0.25 x 0.006) + (0.75 x 0.994)] = 0.002 (0.2%). This genotype would occur in only 0.20% of the simulations so that the overall likelihood equals zero. For the second cub, this a posteriori probability, calculated using the same reasoning, was slightly larger (0.32%).
The simulation procedures, considering the seven loci and uncertainty in both allele frequencies and the genotype of the mother (Figure 3), furnished a left-skewed W distribution with values for both cubs highly concentrated near one. Thus, even under all uncertainty, the median probability that the M01 male was the sire of the two cubs was higher than 99%.
The paternity test and the ecological scenario
The paternity test performed here strongly indicated that the M01 male that was being radio-tracked and had followed and killed the two sister cubs was actually their sire. We cannot be absolutely certain that the M01 male, and not a close relative, was the true sire of the two cubs. However, our field observations and overall knowledge of jaguar ecology suggest a very low jaguar population density in this region (Silveira, 2004), so there would be a very limited number of males close to this female and her cubs. Indeed, finding the M02 male in the area was the very motive that triggered the paternity investigation presented here.
If the M02 male had been assigned as the true sire of the two killed cubs, the scenario would be, in principle, a classical sociobiological event in which a new male (in this case, the M01 male) entering the area would try to kill the two cubs in order to release their mother for mating. However, at approximately 75 days of age, jaguar cubs begin taking solid meat, with suckling lasting for only about five months. Thus, it is possible that females resume cycling 2-3 weeks after lactational anestrus, as reported for the domestic cat (Oliveira, 1994). In addition, jaguars are not seasonal breeders (Morato et al., 2004) and thus quickly return to cycling after lactational anestrus. In this way, it is possible that the mother had been free to mate for at least four months before the infanticide, which could help to exclude this first scenario. More importantly, since the genetic analyses showed that the M01 male (the killer) was the true sire with a very high probability, more complex sociobiological and ecological conditions for the event must be considered.
It is important to note that telemetry data revealed that the M01 male did not simply find the cubs, kill and eat them but that it followed the mother and the cubs for a few days before the infanticide. The reasons for this behavior remain obscure but may reflect a low recognition of paternity and kinship in the species, although previous papers have proposed that shifts in the home ranges of females (and associated cubs) may be a strategy to avoid infanticide in mammalian Carnivora (see Dahle and Swenson, 2003). Since the two cubs were not very young when they were killed, this could represent a competition issue, in that the adult male did not recognize the cubs as his offspring and killed them for simple territorial reasons when under ecological stress.
Although ENP is a relatively large national park (132,000 hectares), only about 40% of this area includes very suitable jaguar habitat and therefore competition among individuals for food and mates may be higher than observed in a large, continuous and well-preserved population (Silveira, 2004). Maximum jaguar home ranges can be very large in some instances, up to 18,000 hectares (Kelt and Van Vuren, 2001; Diniz-Filho et al., 2005), so that only 2 or 3 males would be found in the area with minimum home range overlap. This is a little higher than our findings using preliminary capture-recapture data using camera traps (see Silveira et al., 2003), which suggested a total population of 10-12 jaguars (about half of these would be males) in the ENP region and surroundings (Silveira, 2004). Population density in the ENP would be thus a little higher than expected. Another factor is that the region surrounding the park is highly fragmented and occupied by large soybean plantations, which probably limit jaguar dispersion and migration. Thus, ecological stress becomes a plausible explanation for this infanticide, without further complex sociobiological implications (Sandell, 1989). It is also interesting to note that this scenario would lead to high levels of inbreeding, that still need to be investigated in this particular population. However, a first insight towards supporting relatively high levels of inbreeding in this particular population would start by noticing that one of the individuals genotyped, the excluded parent M02, is homozygous for six out of the seven loci analyzed here.
Infanticides, including those committed by females, are not rare in mammals (Hausfater and Hardy, 1984; Tuomi et al., 1997; Ebensperger, 1998; Dobson et al., 2000), with non-parental infanticide having usually been considered to be an adaptive behavioral strategy to enhance the reproductive success of the aggressor (Agrell et al., 1998). In some circumstances, infanticide can become an evolutionary stable strategy (ESS; Tuomi et al., 1997; Ebensperger, 1998). Although parental infanticide is usually expected to reduce individual fitness, it is important to consider that other complex ecological and demographic components may be associated with this behavior (Pusey and Packer, 1994; Wolff, 1997; Wolff and Peterson, 1998; Whitman et al., 2004).
Due to their carnivorous habits and because most species bear altricial young, carnivores are more likely to exhibit infanticide than any other mammalian order. However, the reasons that lead to infanticide are still fairly unclear for most species (see reviews by Hausfater and Hardy, 1984; Tuomi et al., 1997). Although infanticide has been recorded for almost all large cats from the Panthera group, distinct sociobiological interpretations are discussed for these species (see Davies and Boersma, 1984; Bailey, 1993; Smith, 1993). Besides an expected natural rate of infanticide among free-living populations, it is also expected that stressful environmental conditions may favor abnormal infanticide rates in solitary carnivores (Sandell, 1989) and infanticide is sometimes considered to be part of the mammalian population regulation process (Wolff, 1997). In the case of Emas National Park presented here, we are more prone to believe that the isolation of the local jaguar population may be leading to stress-based infanticide behavior among male jaguars that are disputing the few available females.
Methodological issues
With respect to methodological issues, the analyses performed using simulation procedures were intended to evaluate how the uncertainty in mother genotypes (for four out of the seven loci used) and allele frequencies could qualitatively affect decisions about paternity.
The uncertainty about the genotype of the mother could introduce a problem, since one of the possible genotypes, for the C01 cub, would also exclude the paternity of the M01 male. Because frequencies of all four possible genotypes are very low in the data of Eizirik et al. (2001) we assumed that the probability of this excluding genotype would be 0.25. However, under Bayesian reasoning this high probability is only the 'a priori' probability and it is also necessary to take into account previous results using the three loci for which genotype of the mother is known for sure, which means that the a posteriori probability of having these genotypes is much less than 0.01.
The other main source of error in our analyses is the lack of knowledge of allele frequencies in the studied population. We used as initial values of allele frequencies for stochastic simulations the overall data for 44 individuals distributed throughout the range of the species. It would also be possible to restrict allele frequency estimates to the 17 jaguars from the South America and southern region in relation to the Amazon River (the southern clade) described by Eizirik et al. (2001), but this would reduce the sample size a lot. Anyway, the FST values estimated for microsatellites by Eizirik et al. (2001) were always smaller than 0.085 (although a significant phylogeographic structure was detected using mtDNA sequences). Also, although the 20% error assumed for allele frequencies in the simulations was arbitrary, our results with higher error values of up to 50% (not shown) did not qualitatively change the main conclusions, with median paternity indexes always higher than 99%.
Thus, by considering these three main methodological points, there is a high probability that the M01 male was the sire of the two killed cubs, and this conclusion is not qualitatively affected by uncertainties in the data. The sociobiological and ecological conditions that triggered this infanticide remain unclear, but our analyses show that under the conditions prevalent in the Emas National Park even the probable sire of a cub can become that cubs killer, with obvious consequences for the maintenance and conservation of the jaguar populations in the area. In a more general sense, our analyses demonstrate the use of statistical approaches to assess and improve the power of molecular methods in behavioral studies in cases when uncertainties are present in the data set.
We thank K.M. Pellegrino and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments that greatly improved previous versions of the manuscript. We are also thankful to the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis - IBAMA) authorities at Emas National Park for permission to carry out this jaguar research, to the Centro Nacional de Pesquisa para a Conservação de Predadores Naturais (CENAP/IBAMA) and the Associação Pró-Carnívoros for financial support. We further thank M. Menotti-Raymond, V. David and S.J. O'Brien (LGD, NCI, USA) for access to the microsatellite primers and to CNPq for doctoral and researcher scholarships to LS, ATAJ and JAFD-F.
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Silveira, L (2004) Ecologia comparada de onça-pintada (Panthera onca) e onça-parda (Puma concolor) no cerrado do Brasil. Doctoral Thesis, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília. [ Links ]
Silveira L, Jácomo ATA and Diniz-Filho JAF (2003) Camera-trap, line transect census and track surveys: A comparative evaluation. Biol Conserv 114:351-355. [ Links ]
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Tuomi J, Agrell J and Mappes T (1997) On the evolutionary stability of female infanticide. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 40:227-233. [ Links ]
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Mariana Pires de Campos Telles
Laboratório de Genética e Melhoramento
Instituto do Trópico Subúmido
Universidade Católica de Goiás
Caixa Postal 86
Av. Universitária 1440
74605-010 Goiânia, GO, Brazil
E-mail: tellesmpc@uol.com. br
Received: May 24, 2005; Accepted: April 10, 2006.
Associate Editor: Horácio Schneider
Rua Cap. Adelmio Norberto da Silva, 736
14025-670 Ribeirão Preto SP Brazil
Tel.: (55 16) 3911-4130 / Fax.: (55 16) 3621-3552
editor@gmb.org.br


For Ride Leaders and Riders – in an effort to make the Ride Waivers more functional and user friendly for all, the Ride Waiver form that the Club requires all riders to review and sign before participating in Club lead rides has been revised and reformatted.
A recent review of forms completed in the past found information crammed into boxes that were not wide enough and text scribbled in lines that were too narrow, so we've addressed that with this new release. The new form maintains the same waiver language, however we have added "No cell phone use, No texting while riding" at the end of the waiver. Evidently this has cropped up on enough rides that some felt it was warranted. The form now has wider columns so the riders have the room needed to provide the information that is being asked of them, legibly. It is very important that you write legibly when you complete the form should that information be needed in an emergency. The signature line have been removed and replaced with a smaller column for initials, acknowledging that the rider has agreed to the conditions within the waiver.
As of January 1, 2018 (or sooner if a Ride Leader prefers) the new Ride Waiver will be used for all Club lead rides.
Should you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to me at President@whiteclaybicycleclub.org.
Ride Leaders – the new form, in both Word DOC and Adobe PDF can he found under Ride \ Ride Leader Info on the WCBC website.


Lisa Brigantino has been selected to showcase at Singer-Songwriter Cape May, an annual music conference held in Cape May, NJ during the weekend of March 29th and 30th. Lisa will be joined by special guest, Lori Brigantino. Lisa's showcase is on Saturday, March 30th at 7:45pm sharp at the Iron Pier Craft House.


This page is for discussion about the possibility of Wikimedia hosting Betawiki, currently hosted independently by Nikerabbit. Betawiki was a test wiki, but has been transformed into being the best place to make global translations to the system messages. It is an important process of keeping MediaWiki and other Wikimedia projects up to date. Nike has made a lot of changes to the MediaWiki to make translations and export of the system messages easier then anywhere else. The idea of moving Betawiki to Wikimedia was brought up on #mediawiki-i18n and Nike seemed keen on the subject and said that the main reason that it hadn't been done yet was because of lack of response from Wikimedia's side.
The aim of the interface translations wiki is to allow any user of MediaWiki to edit the interface messages of any language via the MediaWiki namespace on a central wiki. Previously this could only be done by administrators on a particular wiki or by people who understood how to edit the files in CVS.
Unlike editing messages files in a program code repository (and via code review), the wiki makes it easy to collaborate, and to discuss translations before they go live. You also get the chance to see your changes immediately on the translations wiki. It prevents the need for pages such as Requests for MessagesXX.php update (deleted).
Unlike editing the MediaWiki namespace, changes made here can be applied to any wiki rather than only the wiki on which you are an administrator. Previously, changes made on one wiki were never applied to other projects, meaning users of, for example, Wikibooks, had to separately edit the namespace and manually copy over changes that had already been made at Wikipedia.
This wiki is open to all MediaWiki users, not only Wikimedians, meaning edits can have value outside of Wikimedia projects.
The MediaWiki namespace is protected by default on all installations of MediaWiki. On the interface translations wiki, the namespace will be unprotected. This means users do not need to go through any bureaucracy before being able to contribute. Everyone will be able to edit.
The lack of protection of the namespace does have security implications since the HTML restrictions are different to the other namespaces. Some of the interface messages allow arbitrary HTML, there is a possibility that malicious users could insert scripts which could, for example, steal your cookies for this domain, crash your browser, and cause pop-up windows.
It is proposed that the wiki shall be located on a subdomain of mediawiki.org so that any cookie-stealing attacks cannot affect Wikimedia project domains such as wikipedia.org and wikimedia.org. Nevertheless, a subdomain should be used so that mediawiki.org remains available for other uses, should all security issues be resolved.
All languages will be on one wiki, with users selecting the language they want to translate in their preferences.
If the main function is to allow easy exportation, and importation, of the language environment, then : Yes, that would be my take too.
Actually, I would expect the messages of any MediaWiki to be easily-exportable, so I'd expect a function for that to be standard. But the documentation and localisation of MediaWiki are after all a part of that project, so you'd expect the normative translations to be there as well.
MediaWiki.org is for documentation, not setting files. LanguageXX.php may be included into the package, but not provided on wiki.
Translators on Betawiki tend to be lonely warriors, while even those not involved in translation will be able to see translated interface messages on incubator, and thus are more likely to get involved, even if they only comment, or make suggestions.
I'd suggest translate.mediawiki.org subdomain for betawiki to move to. I think that merging with Incubator isn't the best idea because of mixing of content and interface.
Extension Translate should be installed, enabling users having the role 'translator' to edit the MediaWiki namespace and prepare translations for MediaWiki and MediaWiki extensions, as well as other external applications.
An interface language translation and test policy needs to be set up.
A kind of separate interface language project type need to be set up, since translations, both new and ongoing ones, are not always, and not necessarily, part of a specific new wiki project.
Likewise, existing content of betawiki needs to be integrated following a systemic path, and migrated, once the way has been determined.
> Does wmf have all the extension files available for Translate?
> Setup new namespaces or use one of the existing ones?
Filtering recent changes by language?
Who handles exporting (including, validation for non-language problems not seen by scripts)?
Who supports translators with translation/Translate-extension?
This page was last edited on 25 January 2017, at 23:39.


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Do you want to write beautiful stories, expose wrongdoing and master the digital world through print media? Or perhaps instead, you see yourself delivering information through radio or television broadcasting. No matter the medium, your job is to find the truth and tell compelling stories that make a difference down the street and across the world.
As a journalism major — either broadcast or multimedia — you will be exposed to challenging courses that aim to prepare you for a career in major markets across the globe. As a senior, you will work to create daily newscasts in a state-of-the-art newsroom or will work to create content for an online and print newspaper.
Journalism courses concentrate on newsgathering. You will also be trained in online print and digital media. As with other majors in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, you will be encouraged to gain additional educational experiences through internships in media outlets. As a senior, you will be in the newsroom producing content for Carolina News and Reporter.
All journalism majors will develop the skills necessary to conduct research, gather information, write clearly and correctly, and present relevant news or persuasive information at the professional level.
The following courses fulfill some of the requirements for a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications with a major in journalism. Additional course requirements vary depending on the concentration you choose to pursue.
54,000square-foot facility opened in 2015. The new state-of-the-art building is located in the heart of campus and has nearly doubled in size over the College's previous space.


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/// The signature of the arguments at the call site.
/// Gets the signature of the arguments at the call site.
/// Performs the binding of the dynamic get index operation.
/// The target of the dynamic get index operation.
/// An array of arguments of the dynamic get index operation.
/// Performs the binding of the dynamic get index operation if the target dynamic object cannot bind.
/// The arguments of the dynamic get index operation.
/// When overridden in the derived class, performs the binding of the dynamic get index operation if the target dynamic object cannot bind.


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Home > Posts > Asia Pacific > Ruth's Rankings 4. The Big Two: Thomson Reuters and Scopus*
Ruth's Rankings 4. The Big Two: Thomson Reuters and Scopus*
By Ruth A. Pagell1
(13 October 2014) Ruth's Rankings 3 introduced the metrics used in rankings. In this article, we look at the information companies who provide the underlying data.
As of October 2014, UlrichsWeb Global Serials Directory lists over 145,000 scholarly academic journals of which about 50,000 are not in English. Scopus estimates that there are 200,000 scientific serial publications in existence worldwide. A policy maker, funder, provost, research unit or department head trying to evaluate research output, cannot trawl through all of these publications for their analysis and rankings. While individual researchers may love Google Scholar for the number of citations it generates and while Google is trying to get into the scholarly analytics business, it lacks the authority and controls necessary for consistent meaningful counts. Therefore, the global ranking bodies turn to two major information providers for their data, Thomson-Reuters Intellectual Property & Science Division and Elsevier/Scopus.
This article describes them separately. It then compares them on the key factors that lead to differences in the rankings when using one or the other as the publication base. Both companies are part of multi-billion dollar multinational corporations with corporate histories dating back to the 19th century.
THOMSON REUTERS is an information conglomerate formed by the acquisition of British news icon Reuters by Canadian information company Thomson in 2008. We are interested in their Intellectual Property and Science business, which grew out of the original Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). The Division's core business is aggregating and analyzing scholarly publications.
Web of Science (WOS) is the source for T-R metrics. The WOS package includes different modules, covering different inclusion dates. A subscriber chooses the indexes and the number of years to purchase. WOS's analytical add-ons include Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and Essential Science Indicators (ESI). The Incites Platform incorporates JCR and ESI (Pagell (2014) "Insights into InCites" forthcoming in Nov/Dec Online Searcher). If you subscribe to WOS for your internal evaluations and benchmarking, your results may not match the data used for rankings. Data used for rankings and in the analytics modules include different subsets of the WOS records.
Table 1: Example of WOS subscription choices
In addition to the Core Collection, WOS is adding separate national scientific indexes to its platform, with different levels of integration with the Core Collection. SciELO "covers 650 open access journals from Latin America, Spain, Portugal, the Caribbean and South Africa and is free to all subscribers."
The Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD) is a separate subscription. 12-month trials as an extended preview are available to all customers outside of China. The journals covered by CSCD are a mix of paid subscription and open access. Citation counts from these two databases appear in the WOS (see Figure 1).
All WOS customers will have access to the KCI (Korea Citation Index) by the end of October 2014. This coverage is also a mix of subscription and open access journals.
According to Michael Takats, Director of Product Strategy, "the Russian Science Citation Index will be added to the platform in 2015. Pricing and distribution have not been finalized. We expect this will also be automatically added to all WOS accounts in certain regions. It also covers both types of journals–subscription and open access." (email, 9 Oct 2014).
Figure 1: Example of Integrated Citation Each WOS record includes the aggregate citation count for that article in all databases that are part of the Web of Science. It is only the count for the core collection that is included in citation analysis.
The Web of Science Citation Indexes were the only game in town for over 40 years. Elsevier's Scopus, which entered the field in 2004, is a serious commercial competitor. Elsevier is a scholarly publishing company, part of Anglo Dutch Reed Elsevier, headquartered in both the Netherlands and UK. These two major 19th century publishing companies, Reed and Elsevier, merged in 1993.
Scopus comes as an inclusive package with four subject areas: life sciences, health sciences (including 100% of Medline coverage), physical science and social sciences and humanities. Although Scopus launched in 2004, full coverage started with 1996 and Scopus continues to backfill. It includes not only scientific papers but also books and conference proceedings. It has built-in author and organization analytics and a limited module comparing up to ten journals. Figure 2 is an example of an affiliation analytic (downloaded September 2014).
Figure 2. Scopus Affiliation Analytic
JOURNAL SELECTION POLICIES
The differences in journal selection policies influence the differences in the research component of rankings.
Thomson Reuters Journal Selection Process
Thomson Reuters has an internal editorial board, comprised of subject specialists who are familiar with the existing content and policies. Basic evaluation standards include:
Timeliness – publishing according to announced schedule
International editorial conventions – including full bibliographic information
Full text English or at least bibliographic information in English. A&HCI and SSCI have exceptions to the English policy. All journals must have citations using the Roman alphabet
Editorial content – for new journals does it add to the science knowledge base
International diversity – among the journal's contributing authors, editors, and editorial advisory board members. However, a small number of regional journals are also included
Citation analysis – every citation, from every article, whether or not the cited source is in Web of Science
WOS currently has over 12,000 journals. According to Jim Testa (2012), VP Emeritus Editorial Development & Publisher Relations, in a discussion of Thomson Reuters journal selection policy, "comprehensive does not necessarily mean all-inclusive." WOS accepts about 10-12% of the approximately 2,000 journals evaluated annually.
Scopus Journal Selection Policy
Scopus uses an independent review board, the Content Selection and Advisory Board (CSAB) to recommend new journals for inclusion. The content overview website lists the chairs for the represented disciplines. Scopus' minimum criteria for consideration of new journals include:
Peer-reviewed content and a publicly available description of the peer review process
Regular publication basis and an International Standard Serial Number (ISNN) as registered with the ISSN International Centre
Content that is relevant for and readable by an international audience, meaning: have references in Roman script and have English language abstracts and titles
Publicly available publication ethics and publication malpractice stated
Table 2. Scopus Selection Criteria
Scopus Content Coverage Guide
Scopus has 21,000 active titles of which 20,000 are peer-reviewed journals, books and conference papers. It has separate selection policies for books and conference proceedings. Currently there are around 6.5 million conference papers from around 78,000 conference events included in the database. Conference selection is based on the relevancy and quality of the conference in relation to the subject field. Over 10% of the database is conference proceedings and for Computing and Information Science, over 60% of the records are proceedings.
For more detailed information consult the the Scopus Content Coverage Guide.
Scopus accepts a higher percentage of publications that are submitted for evaluation, which means that they continue to add at a faster rate than WOS.
To increase the number of Social Science / Arts & Humanities titles, it adds the WOS journal list for Social Science and Arts and European journal indexes to its own list. This means that the Scopus database, while newer than Web of Science, includes more titles per region and per subject. Table 3 compares coverage based on number of titles.
Table 3. Top 10 Countries Based on Journal Titles, Plus Top Asian countries Compiled from Scopus and Thomson Reuters journal lists searched September 2014.
JOURNAL CITATION ANALYSIS
Publications are the underlying metric for all rankings, but not all publications are created equal. Raters want "high impact journals". Journal Citation Reports (JCR) has been calculating journal impact as an add-on to WOS for over 40 years. External research organizations re-work Scopus data to create their own journal impact measurements, which are then incorporated back into Scopus.
JCR measures "journal impact" based on citations per article. The citation count is based on all items cited in JCR journals, even if they are not included in WOS. The process has been refined and the number of journals and metrics have increased, especially in the last decade. More details about JCR and its new platform will be available in the November/December Online/Searcher. Scopus citation count is based on all items cited by Scopus journals in Scopus journals. It has a built in add-on that compares up to 10 journals and metrics such as SJR (SCImago Journal Ranking by year) and SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper per year). SJR uses JCR methodology for its SJR impact score. SCImago calculates SJR. CWTS (Leiden University's Centre for Science and Technology) calculates SNIP. These two lists are available free online. We will examine these two rankings sources in depth in a 2015 column.
I tried to do a non-scientific comparison of journals in the Information Science/Library Science category for JCR and SJR. JCR has 83 titles and SJR has 205. Of these, only three were in the top ten of both lists: 12 journals categorized within Information Science/Library Science in JCR appeared in SJR's computer science category. As noted in Ruth's Rankings 3, the impact for an individual journal is dependent on the other journals in the field, the metrics and the number of years covered.
Table 4. Top 5 Library and Information Science Journals
If these titles are not part of your professional reading list, you are not alone. According to Nisonger and Davis (July 2005) in "The Perception of Library and Information Science Journals by LIS Education Deans and ARL Library Directors…" College & Research Libraries, July 2005 66:341-377, the correlation of rankings between deans and JCR are moderate to weak and between library directors and JCR weak to non-existent.
CONCLUSION: Thomson Reuters continues to focus on what they consider the top tier journals based on citation count. An analysis mentioned in the Testa paper (2012) reports that 50% of all citations generated by the 2008 JCR collection came from only 300 of the journals. In addition, these 300 top journals produced 30% of all articles published by the total collection. Testa (2010) writes about the globalization of the Web of Science. It appears that the strategy is to look for top quality by adding national scientific citations databases without incorporating those non-English journals into WOS. The records are then not included in the ranking analytics.
Scopus has more journals from all parts of the world using similar selection criteria with different metrics for "quality".
Personally, if I were evaluating scholarly output for an established Western university or policy body, I would prefer quality to quantity. If I were evaluating scholarly output for a rising Asian university or policy body, I would prefer the metrics with a greater representation of my publishers and authors.
The next article will compare two of the most popular commercial rankings, THE, Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings.
*[Thomson Reuters sold its Intellectual Property and Science division., including its bibliometric
products to Clarivate Analytics in 2016- ed.]
Pagell, R. A. 2014. Bibliometrics and University Research Rankings Demystified for Librarians. Chen, C. and Larsen, R. (eds.) Library and Information Science: Trends and Research.(Open Access ) Bibliometrics and University Research Rankings Demystified for Librarians – Springer
1Ruth A .Pagell is currently teaching in the Library and Information Science Program at the University of Hawaii. Before joining UH, she was the founding librarian of the Li Ka Shing Library at Singapore Management University. She has written and spoken extensively on various aspects of librarianship, including contributing articles to ACCESS. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3238-9674
This entry was posted in Asia Pacific, University Rankings and tagged bibliometrics, Ruth Pagell, Scopus, Thomson Reuters, university rankings on October 13, 2014 by admin.
‹ Nobel Laureates' publications opened for free access in SPIE Digital Library Thieme Chemistry website relaunched with new design and improved accessibility ›

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


BTW, if you're up here in New York and want to learn about making embedded devices that act like web servers, I'm teaching a two hour class on the subject on March 28th at NYC Resistor. After the class, I'll be putting my materials online, but I'm still working on everything right now.
You can get details on the class at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/302042417.
does it work without ethernet shield?
Does webduino works with WIZ811MJ along on the PCB without the Ethernet Shield? Or, does it work with adafruit eithernet shield? Try to save a few bucks... Thank you.
Re: does it work without ethernet shield?
You can use the ladyada shield with the Wiznet module; in that configuration, it's electrically the same as the Arduino Ethernet shield. However, using the module does increase the vertical height of the board, which means you can't stack another shield on top.
NKCElectronics has a cheaper compatible shield kit for $30 -- check out http://www.nkcelectronics.com/nkc-ethernet-shield-for-arduino-mega--duemilanove--diecimila-diy-kit.html . It's $32, but you do have to solder it up yourself.
I'm not sure how you'd interface to the WIZ811MJ without a shield of some sort. If you built your own Arduino-compatible board, you could include the Ethernet shield directly on it, and as long as it was the same signals as the official shield, it should work.


Contact us and find out how we can help you!
This story of Gertrude helps us see that we all want to fit in and feel as though we belong.
You may even sometimes cry, "Waddle I do?!" Luckily, we do not all have to be the same to fit into a group.
Being different is okay. Like Gertrude, just be a friend and never give up.
Your kindness will soon bring you a gaggle of friends!
To order this book, contact Brenda by email and she'll be glad to ship one of them to you.
This is a wonderful collection of short poems by Barbara Scott (Benjamin).
simply looking for a way to reflect on life and "enjoy the moment."
To order this book, contact Barbara by email and she'll be glad to ship it to you.
"One White Christmas in Alabama"
To order these books, contact Barbara by email and she'll be glad to ship one or both of them to you.
that they are all special in God's eyes.
can beautifully transform your life!
"The Song of the Obed Edens"
and your child will adore.
A great book idea for teacher gifts!


Johnny Cage is the eleventh character revealed to be coming to Mortal Kombat 11.
Everyone's favorite washed-up movie star Johnny Cage is returning in NetherRealm Studios' Mortal Kombat 11. The reveal comes by way of IGN. You can check out Cage's full reveal trailer down below.
As with all of the previous character trailers for Mortal Kombat 11, we get a solid look at Cage's combos as well as his fatality. Johnny Cage has been a staple in the Mortal Kombat series since the first game launched in the early 90s. It's hard not to get excited about the character's return as he looks better than ever with the power of the game's impressive visuals.
Since the storyline was rebooted in the ninth Mortal Kombat game, Cage has played a prominent role in the overall storyline. His fighting style has been lightly changed throughout each entry but the character's personality and ridiculousness have remained intact throughout the years. This can totally be seen in his fatality where he's on the set of a movie, continuously uppercutting his opponent's head off. It's really so awesome.
IGN reported that they'll be showing off more of the character tomorrow during a livestream with NetherRealm Studios at 1 p.m. PT and 4 p.m. EST. Be sure to check it out if you're interested in playing the character. I've always personally had a ton of fun messing around with him in previous entries. Here's to hoping his classic nut punch makes a return.
So far, Mortal Kombat 11's cast has been mostly made up of returning fighters. Some of the more recent announcements include Jade, Kabal, and Kano. As of right now, we've only gotten one returning original character from Mortal Kombat X.
Mortal Kombat 11 is launching for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch on April 23.


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2023 Policy Platform: Committing to our Future
The Foundation for Tacoma Students is excited to introduce our 2023 Policy Platform, Committing to our Future. Our Platform lays out a comprehensive set of policies and investments that respond to the educational impacts of COVID-19 and invest in the future of our youth. We aim to ensure that all students across our PreK-12 and postsecondary systems are on the path to success in school, career, and life. At the same time, we keep equity at the center of our work, as the policy platform will disproportionately benefit students from lower-income or working-class families, and students of color.
Explore Policy Platform
In the near term, we will focus on learning acceleration for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years to help our students recover
academically from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will ask for investments at the State level to build a great workforce of principals and teachers. Additionally, we will ask the State to provide free access to advanced coursework to help build a PreK through 12th-grade system that provides an exceptional learning environment and gives students a jump start on their post-high-school plans. Lastly, we will advocate for students' overall health and well-being through free school breakfast and lunch.
Beyond 2023 and 2024, we want to see fundamental changes to Washington's school funding model that addresses the need for increased funding overall and the structure of how we raise and distribute funding, bringing true equity into the system. Additionally, we want to ensure that every high school graduate is on the path to a postsecondary credential or a good-earning wage job. To do so, we will ensure that students get the support they need to complete the FAFSA or WASFA and two free years of community or technical college.
Below is a timeline of how a sixth-grade student would benefit from these policies through the course of their school career:
Like everything we do at the Foundation, our policy efforts center around our 2030 community-wide goal. As we build our policy muscles, our priority remains working with and alongside the community we serve. Not only in the policy outcomes we are working toward but also in creating our policy strategies. This intentional focus on centering diverse voices and stakeholders ensures our policy ideas are equitable, inclusive, and effective.
We worked with a great group of partners, who made up the Policy Agenda Committee, to develop our Platform. The committee convened through the summer and fall of 2022 to collectively arrive at policy-level issues that address some of the most persistent challenges faced by students in our community. As a committee, we identified the following opportunities for policy change.
2023 State & Local Level Focus Areas
PRE-K THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL
Utilize federal Learning Loss Recovery funds to invest in effective interventions and strategies to accelerate learning recovery.
We will prioritize investments and policies that will make up for the lost instructional time during the pandemic.
Free breakfast and lunch for all students, regardless of household income status.
We will provide free meals to all students who are part of our PreK-12 education system.
Develop, support, and retain great school principals; and invest in high-quality teacher recruitment, preparation, and retention programs.
We will ensure that principals and teachers have a robust set of professional development, training and mentorship programs provided as part of their employment.
POSTSECONDARY PATHWAYS
Invest in expanded and equitable access to advanced coursework opportunities in high school that provide the opportunity to earn postsecondary credit.
We will provide zero-cost college credit-earning programs to all students.
2024 & Beyond State & Local Level Priorities
Revise key aspects of Washington's prototypical school funding model to fund schools equitably, based on the needs of students.
We will increase overall PreK-12 school funding levels and rewrite our funding model to bring true equity to the system based on student needs.
Adopt a universal FAFSA/WASFA completion policy with robust counseling and advising support.
We will ensure that every student gets the financial aid they are entitled.
Create an expansive College Promise Program that covers 100% of tuition for all students, plus non-tuition expenses and support services for the most disadvantaged students.
We will make Community and Technical College free for all students.
Legislative Check-in
Join our weekly check-ins during the 2023 legislative session for updates on the state legislature and advocacy opportunities. These brief meetings are open to any interested individual or organization.
Friday Forums | Resources Mentioned for Supporting Families with Disabilities
Partner Spotlight: Developing Youth Outside of School
A Strong Opening Week in Olympia


Travis Robert Renovations was recently featured on ABC 7 in New York: 'The Rachael Ray Show,' episode titled "See the Ruberto Family's Brand New Kitchen!" In this episode, Travis Barkstedt was featured as a main contributor in upgrading the Ruberto family's kitchen in a stunning transformation.
Travis Robert Renovations was a part of NYC's prestigious "Design on a Dime 2015″ Benefit, working along the top 60 designers in the world. Travis Robert Renovations was a proud donor and participant.
Travis Robert Renovations was recently featured in NBC's "George To The Rescue: Helping Families One Home At a Time."In this episode, "The Pellegrini Family Gets The Space They Need," Travis Barkstedt was featured in the TV show as a main contributor in turning this loving family's home into a more livable space.


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USA Today Sports Images
On this date: Tony Meola kept a clean sheet, then lost an 11-kick shootout
March 22, 20201:02PM EDT
Ian Nicholas QuillenContributor
Follow@ IaqDiesel
If you're one of the MLS fans who remembers Dave Salzwedel, it might be because of the heroics the former San Jose Clash goalkeeper pulled off 23 years ago on this day.
On March 22, 1997, Salzwedel kept a clean sheet against Tony Meola's New York MetroStars over 90 minutes, then scored the decisive goal in the 11th round (!!!) of the old-fashioned MLS shootout to give the Clash a 1-0 victory as both teams opened their second MLS seasons at Spartan Stadium. He even saved a penalty in the non-penalty tiebreak. (Check out the video below to see how that's possible.)
Getting the better of one of the all-time United States goalkeeping great would be one of the high points of Salzwedel's MLS career. He won only six more games for the Clash in 1997, and although he was picked up by the New England Revolution in the 1998 Supplemental Draft, he would be released without making an appearance.
Meola, who also scored a goal during the shootout, was just two years into an 11-year MLS career.
Other notable players on the pitch that day? Current Portland Timbers manager Giovanni Savarese and a 22-year-old Eddie Lewis, who was just beginning his ascent to a successful career that eventually led to Europe and the US national team. Not to mention legendary Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira.
Clash 1, MetroStars 0 (SO)
1997 MLS Regular Season Week 1
Attendance: 23,501 (Spartan Stadium)
SJ: Dave Salzwedel -- Troy Dayak, John Doyle, Oscar Draguicevich -- Ramiro Corrales, Dominic Kinnear, Eddie Lewis (60' Shawn Medved), Curt Onalfo (60' Ben Iroha) -- Jeff Baicher, Lawrence Lozzano, Christopher Sullivan
Head Coach: Laurie Calloway
NY: Tony Meola -- Cristian da Silva, Rhett Harty, Andrew Lewis, Kerry Zavagnin -- Braeden Cloutier, Roberto Donadoni, Carlos Parra -- Miles Joseph (71' Rob Johnson), Giovanni Savarese, A.J. Wood (46' Antony De Avila)
Head Coach: Carlos Alberto Parreira
Media Resources: About MLS
NYCFC's Didychrislito tops RBNY's Adamou for eMLS League Series 1 title!
RBNY, NYCFC dominate in eMLS League Series One quarterfinals
2021 eMLS League Series One Bracket
Luis Robles on his decision to retire, David Beckham and more!
Doyle: Top of the shopping list for each East team


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Travis Kelce enters the NFL record books … with a touchdown pass completion
Do you plan to travel this Thanksgiving? More Americans to hit the road and air this year
by: Ryan Newton
Mobile users click here for poll
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – More than 53 million Americans are expected to travel this Thanksgiving, bringing fall travel back to pre-pandemic levels.
During the height of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, most Americans opted for smaller holiday gatherings, so it's no surprise that Americans are eager to get together and spend time with family and friends.
According to AAA, 48.3 million travelers are expected to reach their destination via automobile and 4.2 million by airplane.
Meanwhile, the number of airline passengers traveling for Thanksgiving this year is expected to rebound to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, but the Transportation Security Administration says it is ready to handle the surge.
Administrator David Pekoske said Wednesday he expects agency staffing to be sufficient for what's traditionally TSA's busiest travel period.
Man falls from SUV paying toll on Kansas Turnpike, runs over both legs
In 2019, a record 26 million passengers and crew passed through U.S. airport screening in the 11-day period around Thanksgiving. But that plummeted in 2020 as the pandemic kept people at home.
"This holiday season is expected to be a very busy one. There is a lot of pent-up demand. Families were not able to connect last year are reconnecting this year," said Valerie Wise, air service and marketing manager, Wichita Airport Authority. "The TSA is estimating 20 million passengers flying for the holiday season."
Allegiant started flying non-stop service to Orlando. On Friday, Allegiant will begin flying to Tampa/ St. Pete.
Wichita airport officials expect 2,900 people to fly out of Wichita the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday after.
"This is getting close to the number we saw over Thanksgiving in 2019 where we had close to 3,000 passengers," said Wise.
Wise said the busiest times for travel out of Wichita will be between 3:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. with nine flights s and between 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. with 11 flights.
For more on flying out of Wichita, click here. For more travels tips click here.
If you are traveling by road in Kansas, you can track road conditions and routes on KanDrive by clicking here.


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Il distretto di Lakhdaria è un distretto della provincia di Bouira, in Algeria, con capoluogo Lakhdaria.

Voci correlate

 Algeria
 Provincia di Bouira
 Distretti dell'Algeria o dāʾïra

Distretti della provincia di Bouira

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Land of the Free? A Review of the Death Penalty in the United States
In the wake of Georgia's execution of Troy Davis, America has turned its focus once again to the debate surrounding the inclusion of the death penalty in our criminal justice system. Therefore, we thought this would be an appropriate time to take a detailed look at the death penalty. Of the 50 states in our country, 34 of them allow the death penalty while 16 of them (plus D.C.) have abolished it. Since 1976, the United States has executed 1,269 convicts who were on death row. Of those 1,269 executions, 1,042 (82%) of them were administered in the South and 475 of them (37%) were administered by the State of Texas alone. Although Blacks only make up 12% of the United States population, they made up 35% of all of the nation's executions since 1976 and they make up 42% of all inmates currently awaiting execution on death row today. Of the 25 states with the highest murder rates in the country, 20 of them allow the death penalty; of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in the country (1. Louisiana, 2. Maryland, 3. Missouri, 4. Mississippi, 5. New Mexico, 6. Arizona, 7. South Carolina, 8. Nevada, 9. Georgia, 10. Alabama) all but New Mexico use the death penalty. At the other end of the spectrum, out of the 25 states with the lowest murder rates in the country, only 14 use the death penalty. Last but not least, 130 people have been released from death row since 1973 where evidence was later found after their trials which proved their innocence. Similarly, since the introduction of DNA evidence testing in 1989 there have been 273 people released from prison for crimes that they did not commit. Of those 273 people, 166 (61%) were Black. It is notable to observe that of those 273 people, 17 were on death row awaiting the death penalty. Now that we've provided you with the facts, the members of The Urban Politico will weigh in with our thoughts after the jump.
Shady_Grady:
I am not bothered by the death penalty in the abstract. A life for a life is a pretty simple thing to understand.
Of course you can put someone into prison for the rest of their life. But that lifer may still enjoy a hot shower, food, reading a good book, playing a chess game or any number of other things that his victim won't get. That doesn't seem right.
But when you get down to specifics it's a bit more problematic. Most murderers don't get the death penalty-even in states that have the death penalty. It's up to the prosecutor and how s/he feels about death penalty cases and the gruesomeness of the crime or innocence of the victim. The victim is equally dead no matter if it was a run of the mill driveby or some extended sadistic torture murder during a home invasion.
Some say that's too much power to give to a prosecutor. Not much liking prosecutors anyway I can sympathize with that point of view but they are a necessary evil.
There are some human beings who commit acts that simply mark them off as beyond hope in my view. When this is the case, get rid of them-and not 25 years after the fact either.
But I think the death penalty ought to be reserved for those cases where either the act is beyond belief -killing a child or where there is no doubt about who did it and the trial is just a formality -ie. Colin Ferguson, Nidal Hassan, etc. When there is doubt, or even the possibility of doubt, use life imprisonment. That is what should have occurred with Troy Davis-in whose case there were huge levels of doubt. The Davis case once again shows how important proper legal protection is to have at the outset and how much $$$ plays a part. If you're wealthy you can hire the best lawyers, the best investigators, the best jury consultants. You can hire people plugged into the local judiciary/political system that can help influence your case in and out of the courtroom. Davis didn't have any of that. And he was a black man accused of killing a white police officer.
The Storyteller:
The death penalty. I've never really thought much about it until this case. I knew it existed. I knew it existed for a reason. But beyond that I remained mostly non-plussed.
The death penalty is useful for cases like the Petit murders in Connecticut, serial killers such as BTK or the DC Sniper, domestic terrorists like Timothy McVeigh, and blood thirsty white supremacists such as Lawrence Brewer who was also executed last night. In those cases where guilt is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt with multiple sources of hard forensic evidence or better yet surveillance tape the death penalty is fine. We all are going to die and some people deserve to die sooner. This hardline stance when there isn't a shadow of a doubt doesn't bother me at all.
What does bother me are cases like Troy Davis or even Casey Anthony had she been convicted. There are too many other plausible scenarios, too many unknowns that make my hardline stance moot null and void. But then that could be in any case especially those 20 or 30 years old where forensic technology wasn't the best and DNA testing was a new phenomenon not a required prosecutorial tool.
At my very first station in Amarillo, Texas there were two high profile cases. In one of them the suspect, Levi King pleaded guilty to first degree murder charge. His trial quickly turned into whether or not he should get the death penalty or life in prison. He ended up getting life in prison. The other case was that of Hank Skinner accused of killing his girlfriend and her children. He was on death row awaiting to be executed. We did a jailhouse interview the night before his execution when his appeal went through. The Supreme Court ruled that DNA evidence, Skinner says will exonerate him, should be tested.
In this case the system worked and the death penalty was avoided to further test evidence that will either prove Skinner guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt or innocent. Troy Davis did not receive the same opportunity and for that reason and that reason only I could support making the death penalty unconstitutional under the the eighth amendment barring against cruel and unusual punishment.
It is cruel and unusual to kill any person if you don't know they are 100 percent guilty.
With a system that works more on emotion and persuasion than intellect and factual evidence, more often than not we will see more people falling through the cracks into the cesspool of the prison system than we see justice actually being served.
Grand Central:
The Death Penalty has weighed on my mind heavily over the last week. I can recall a discussion in my high school government class regarding the death penalty where a close friend of mine raised his hand and said "yes I support it, eye for an eye, kill them all, plus it saves us money." I remember being blown away by his statement and thinking "but what if the person is innocent?" As our discussion furthered, I formulated my opinion around the death penalty and decided it should only be used in cases where the evidence is rock solid and the crime is heinous. I carried this view until last year.
As a member of the Social Justice Committee of my church, I participate in several activities throughout the year to strengthen the parish's ties to community issues. The social issue of focus for 2010-2011 was capital punishment in the United States. Each year, we are introduced to our issue through a fact finding process. An organization connects with us and they literally dump knowledge on us regarding the issue. The knowledge dump on Capital Punishment was pretty unforgettable.
The United States ranks in the top 5 of nations who carry out executions. We share the likes with North Korea, China, Iran and Yemen. The top 5 states in the US for executions since 1976 are Texas (475), Virginia (109), Oklahoma (96), Florida (69), Missouri (68). I don't want the United States sitting in any categories with the likes of China, Iran, North Korea or Yemen and I don't want to see a single state more than triple another state for executing citizens. The State of Texas exercises no discretion and has executed prisoners who suffer from an Intellectual Disability. Upon entering office in 2001, Texas Governor Rick Perry vetoed a bill banning the executions of Intellectually Disabled prisoners. Perry has now executed more prisoners than any other US Governor. There is also a myth about costs that must debunked. Many people think that it cost less to execute a prisoner than to hand them a life sentence without the option for parole. This is false. It actually costs for than double. So saving money can no longer be an excuse to kill prisoners.
In the case of Troy Davis, many innocent prisoners have come before him and unfortunately more innocents will come after him and will continue to be executed. This is an absolute travesty. I cannot support the death penalty for any reason. I've never been subjected to the loss of a family member or anyone close to me to heinous crimes, so I can't judge my feelings or thoughts about the death penalty if ever put into that situation. For now though, I am against the death penalty for any reason.
The Janitor:
I never really had an opinion about the death penalty one way or the other until I got to law school. Once there, it didn't take very long for me to soon discover that the death penalty is far from the noble institution of justice that our country has made it out to be. A few weeks into my first year Criminal Law class, I came across a case that forever changed my view of the death penalty: McClesky v. Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987).
Very briefly, McClesky v. Kemp was a landmark Supreme Court case where the defendant, a Black man accused of murdering a White police officer in Georgia, argued that the death penalty is unconstitutional because it is applied unequally between Blacks and Whites in this country. The crazy part is - he was right! As proof of this claim, he introduced to the Court the infamous "Baldus Study" conducted by Professor David Baldus of the University of Iowa School of Law. Controlling for over 230 non-racial variables, the study provided conclusive evidence that:
In cases where a White defendant was accused of killing a White victim, 8% received the death penalty
In cases where a Black defendant was accused of killing a Black victim, 1% received the death penalty
In cases where a White defendant was accused of killing a Black victim, 3% received the death penalty
In cases where a Black defendant was accused of killing a White victim, 22% received the death penalty
This means that even in cases where the defendant and victim are of the same race, a higher premium is placed on the life of a White victim than it is for a Black victim. Even more disturbing, the report concluded that, regardless of the race of the accused, a person who kills a White victim is 4.3 times more likely to receive the death penalty than a person who kills a Black victim.
And what's even more jacked up than the findings of the study is that even after hearing this evidence, the Supreme Court basically just shrugged its shoulders and said "yeah we see the racism here but it's not our problem. Case Denied." Warren McCleskey was executed by the State of Georgia 4 years later. Justice Lewis Powell wrote the majority opinion in McClesky v. Kemp. The decision must have haunted him because years later, after he had retired, when asked was there any case he wished he could go back in time and change he said "Yes, McClesky v. Kemp."
Which brings me to my first beef with the death penalty: all sales are FINAL! There are no take-backs, no do-overs, no re-do's. Once you kill a person, that's it! 130 people have been released from death row for crimes that they didn't commit but they were only released AFTER evidence was miraculously found later which proved "beyond a reasonable doubt" that they didn't do it. My question is, what if that evidence had never magically appeared?
Another beef I have about the death penalty is that the criminal appeals process is too damn hard. I had the fortunate/unfortunate opportunity to witness this first hand when I worked pro bono on a death penalty appeal for a Black man convicted of murdering a White store clerk near Birmingham, Alabama. During an appeal, many people think that you get to retry the entire case over again. This is not the case. On appeal, the only thing that the appellate or supreme court is looking at is whether the correct legal procedure was followed during your trial. Your actual innocence is irrelevant, which has to be one of the biggest ironies about our criminal justice system. And as if the appellate process wasn't hard enough already, Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) which, long story short, makes it EXTREMELY difficult to appeal your state conviction to a federal court.
To bring it back full circle to McClesky v. Kemp, my final beef with the death penalty in this country is that it is clearly not being administered equally among racial groups. If you want to be a bigot on your own time, then so be it. More power to you. But don't be a bigot when somebody's life is on the line! I know its unrealistic to ask people to get rid of their racial biases. However, since those biases are clearly having an unfair impact on who gets put to death in this country, the death penalty needs to be removed from the criminal justice system's toolbox. As the late Justice Blackmun once said: "the death penalty must be imposed fairly, and with reasonable consistency, or not at all." Callins v. Collins, 510 U.S. 1141 (1994) (J. Blackmun dissenting).
Posted by The Janitor at 3:29 AM
Labels: Criminal Justice System, Death Penalty, race, The Janitor
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Once Upon a Time Reviews, TV Reviews
Once Upon a Time Season 7 Review
Posted by Mark Goodwin on September 6, 2020
Season 7 Review
Starring Lana Parrilla, Colin O'Donoghue, Andrew J. West, Dania Ramirez, Gabrielle Anwar, Alison Fernandez, Mekia Cox, and Robert Carlyle
For many fans, Once Upon a Time ended with its sixth season. Perhaps it would have been better if it had. After all, the sixth season was the natural ending point for several reasons. Firstly, the book ended. The Final Battle was complete, and everybody could move on to what came next. There was no natural need for a next chapter, after all. The themes within those six seasons had been wrapped up into a neat bow. Emma as the Saviour had come on a brilliant journey from jaded orphan to a human being much more capable of being open and part of a family, while Evil Queen Regina had successfully completed a redemption journey.
In freeing itself of its past, Once had a brilliant opportunity to completely reinvent itself. Unfortunately, in trying to appease audiences, it appears that they just rehashed the basic premise of the first season and did a very poor imitation. Yet again, there was a curse. Except, this time, instead of the sleepy, charming New England town of Storybrooke, we were presented with the gritty, inner city up-and-coming area of Hyperion Heights. The novelty of that new location ran out fairly swiftly.
The new characters simply didn't gel with the audience in the same way that Snow and Charming were introduced in the first season. Throughout that first season, there was a very clear idea of the direction of the show. Regina was the one responsible for the curse, Snow and Charming were cursed to be apart and Emma was going to save everybody and free them. With season 7, however, curses have become old hat. It wasn't enough to just have a curse, but instead an ongoing plot point was who was responsible for the curse and what their motivations were. It became more a game about plot twists than it was about the emotions of our characters.
Neither the flashbacks, nor the current day action, gave us much insight into what made these new characters tick, and those with the most potential were criminally underused. While the more villainous characters like Victoria and Ivy were filled with nuance and depth, they were often shifted to the background, while characters like Jacinda took centre stage but rarely demonstrated any sort of emotion.
Throughout the season we are expected to root for and champion the love story between Henry and Jacinda, but the flashbacks make no effort to sell that connection and invest within that relationship. Without that basic level of work, the sense of tension and impetus completely fades away. In contrast to Snow and Charming, who we were introduced to as True Love, we never really see what Henry and Jacinda are like in a relationship. There's also the disadvantage that we already know Henry, so we need to see even more of Jacinda to be entirely convinced that she is the right woman for Henry. The show does a very good job of telling us how important it is that they two belong together, without actually showing us.
Without having an outside presence within Hyperion Heights, there is also less energy in combatting it. Emma was a third person witness to the happenings in Storybrooke, but there is nobody in Hyperion Heights separate from it, who is responsible for saving them. In making it unclear who is responsible for the curse, and who is destined to break it, it doesn't make the show more interesting, it just makes it messy. The show has forgotten why curses were such a big deal in the first place. It's because they were meant to cause misery in those that they affected, and separate them from those they loved. Since we never really had a sense of the strength of the connections shared by those in Hyperion Heights, this element is hugely lost, and we don't see terribly much struggle from our characters, apart from Jacinda briefly being poor, and some feeble attempts at drama in her and Henry's relationship.
There were poor substitutes for the dynamic of the first season. They almost tried to conflate too many characters into one space. Henry was simultaneously fulfilling the part of Snow and Charming's love story, in the fact that we were meant to root for him to get with Jacinda, as well as performing part of Emma's function in the story as the jaded interloper who gradually begins to open themselves up to love. What worked about Emma's story in the first season, though, is that it wasn't based around romance. It was based upon her overcoming her upbringing as an abandoned orphan and becoming a mother to Henry. Henry and Lucy's dynamic doesn't work the same way because he doesn't know that she is his daughter. It's also unclear what we're meant to be rooting for him to do: to open up and become more hopeful and get over his past, or just to fall in love already. It's tricky to do both at the same time.
What's more, Jacinda is also written to have elements of Emma thrown in too, and also shows a great dismay at the world. Two very grumpy people aren't exactly a match made in heaven, nor a pairing that the audience want to see much of. What's more, while Jacinda's angst seems contextually driven within the world she is surrounded by, and is very much in keeping with her fairytale persona of Cinderella, all of Henry's emotional problems are created by the curse. His backstory of having a wife and child who died simply isn't true. It's not like Emma's damage, which is based within fact and is something that leaves scars, it's something that will magically disappear once his cursed memories are erased and, as such, it's difficult for the audience to root for that character development.
The lack of clarity within the storytelling, and what the direction of the season is, is a massive failing of this season. I feel like part of it is reluctance on the part of the writers to properly commit to any particular idea, but the lack of a palpable protagonist makes this curse feel like trudging into a boggy unknown. After a few episodes, enough characters have their memories back such that the main action follows what they're doing and the actions of all of those still under the curse ultimately feel entirely inconsequential. When you have an episode about trying to save Henry from dying when the curse is broken, and at the same time a subplot about him and Jacinda throwing coins into a cup it doesn't really have the same impact.
Considering the wealth of opportunities available to them to create the new world of Once Upon a Time, the decisions made actually served to make the entire series more complicated instead of making it more accessible to new viewers. In making the wish realm from Season 6 an actual reality, it meant that suddenly there were two copies of some of our characters. In reality it was a feeble explanation as to why Colin O'Donoghue was in the cast, but his role within the show could easily have been filled with a new character that may have been better fleshed out instead of essentially the same character we had seen many times.
Additionally, the decision to recycle characters that had already been used in the Enchanted Forest, such as a new version of Cinderella and that family, as well as Alice, was confusing and overly complicated. Also, perhaps unnecessary, considering the wealth of fairytales that are out there to be explored still. The flashbacks also lacked any form of palpable tension, so there was less of a sense of what evil our characters faced in the regular world, which, again, was largely because the creators either were making it up as they were going, or were trying to pique interest by holding their cards close to their chest.
The largest shame is the massive amount of potential that there could have been in this series. Following Henry on his journey after the events of the first six seasons could have been a brilliant opportunity to see him develop and grow, explore his inferiority complex at being part of the most iconic fairytale story ever yet not feeling like a hero, and finally achieve a victory – or, even better, suffer a devastating blow that might actually contextualise and explain his current-day malaise. Instead, there's just a continual confusion over whose story it is to the extent that by the end of the season it's tried to be Henry's, but also Rumple's, and also Regina's.
Part of me wishes that the show had been more bold and started entirely anew, with just the character of Henry, and perhaps Regina at a push (and only if it was feasible within the plot). It was almost as if having Colin O'Donoghue, Robert Carlyle and Lana Parrilla in the cast made the writers feel like they didn't have to try as hard with the story and that the audience would just tune in regardless. Ultimately, it limited the storytelling. A season that was based upon it being Henry's story ultimately floundered. While Regina's ending in the finale makes her presence worthwhile, neither Rumple nor Wish Realm Hook were necessary to the story being told in this season, especially since Rumple's redemption is hardly earned at all when compared to his character in Season 6.
Even going with the Hyperion Heights premise, there were massive fumbles. The season premiere is brilliantly strong and sets up the show with massive amounts of intrigue. By continually flopping around as to which character is the villain, over complicating the back stories and waking up a new character each week, Season 7 became tied down by all of its plot and left no room for much emotion to build either between the characters or with the audience. Ultimately, they just reverted to the old Once Upon a Time without investing much new energy into what this season, or onwards, could be. Which is likely why it was cancelled.
Ultimately, the show became to rely upon sensationalist plot beats to be as controversial as possible to persuade viewers to tune in the next week, instead of actually delivering upon decent characterisation, which is the bedrock of successful TV. By the end of the season, I actually feel like I have less of a sense of many of these characters than I did in the season premiere. It was so focussed upon being different than it was before, it was more about how "Oh this is slightly different to Season 1 because…" and including new elements like a massive focus on a serial killer loose in Hyperion Heights while Hook and Rumple investigate it as police officers. There was such a focus on making it different, they forgot to make it good. Or, even worse, they didn't think it mattered if it was good or not.
A huge pratfall that they fell into was a revolving door of villains. Early plot twists (which were quite surprising) meant that our villain shifted originally from Victoria, to Ivy, and then to Gothel, who was barely developed. Facilier was also around, did very little, and died. The ultimate villain who our heroes had to face was a wish realm version of Rumple which, even as I type it, makes me roll my eyes so hard I think I've actually caused a sprain. Without a good villain, there was no one to root against, and made the season lag in the middle and, when Gothel's plan actually took effect, it was full of major plot holes that spoiled the enjoyment of the episode.
Let's graduate to the small positive elements of this season. As supposedly the anchor of this season, Henry plays a massive role in moving the story forwards. With this meant a cast change, to replace Jared Gilmore with the surprisingly dashing Andrew J. West, who played the part with buckets of charisma. In particular, he had fantastic chemistry with Lana Parrilla and Jennifer Morrison, forging believable relationships with both, which helped to make his performance as Henry consistent with what we knew from the first six seasons.
Lana Parrilla continues to deliver as Regina and is a highlight, but, unfortunately, is given far too little to do this season and her happy ending, while a major moment, feels quite disconnected from her character work in Season 6 as she barely underwent any development this season. A saving grace was the reintroduction of Rebecca Mader as Zelena, which truly did enhance the latter part of the season.
Rumple was given a brilliant storyline throughout Season 7, as he sought to separate himself from the dagger so that he could die and be reunited with Belle. Unfortunately, apart from his focal episodes, he wasn't given terribly much of substance to do, meaning that his ultimate sacrifice didn't pack too much of a punch. The way that he adapted and changed in the name of Belle's legacy was massively touching, but season 7 majorly glossed over some of the more unsavoury aspects of his story to rush through to his redemption. Bearing in mind his season 6 journey and treatment of Belle, it seems a little unjustified.
There were definitely some standouts in the new cast. Victoria and Ivy had a delightfully complex relationship that elicited some of the more emotional moments of the season, mainly due to the incredible performance of Adelaide Kane. Unfortunately, Ivy flounders after Victoria's death, and the show never really properly digs into the ramifications of that decision. In fact, without Victoria or Ivy in charge, the season flounders in general, and it would have been much better suited should they both have remained in the show. What's more, Ivy had a palpable and deliciously entertaining chemistry with Henry, which would have been an intriguing and subversive new storyline to explore, if the creatives had been willing to think outside of the box and adapt from their roadmap of the season.
Alice/Tilly was a brilliant new addition to the cast. Rose Reynolds' bombastic energy lit up the screen every time she appeared, and she was instantly likeable. The relationship she shares with Zelena's grown up daughter Robin was a particularly well developed element of the season, and it stands up against many of the True Loves we have seen on the show. The fairytale elements and the symmetry between their bond both in the Enchanted Forest and Hyperion Heights helped the audience root for the pair to be together in a way that Henry and Jacinda just didn't have.
Mekia Cox, promoted from recurring to regular cast after the first few episodes, also has some nice moments as Tiana and Sabine, demonstrating a headstrong view, keen eye for justice and was certainly no stranger to hard work. Unfortunately, her role in the Enchanted Forest was never fully expanded upon and she never amounted to much more than being Jacinda's best friend in Hyperion Heights, often disappearing for weeks at a time, in the way that Belle and Ruby used to.
Ultimately, Season 7 is an unfortunate smudge upon the brilliant legacy of Once Upon a Time. The entire season meanders and is muddled and confused. The mythology that it adds to the show makes it a pale imitation of what came before and it fundamentally forgets about making the characters believable and likeable. The finale completely falls down in terms of logic and just doesn't have the sense of high stakes that it should do. At the heart of it, it feels like there was never truly an effort or commitment to making this new series work, which is a tremendous waste of such colossal talent, and potential.
You can watch Once Upon a Time Seasons 1 – 7 on Netflix. It is also available on home media and other digital platforms for purchase or rent.
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The Social Sculpture Research Unit (SSRU) within the School of Arts at Oxford Brookes University is pleased to offer a three-year full-time PhD studentship commencing in April 2016. The successful applicant will receive an annual bursary of £7,000 for three years (with no inflation increase), and the fees will be paid by the University. The candidate will need to demonstrate that in addition to the studentship other funding is available for them to successfully complete the programme in full-time study.
AREA OF RESEARCH: Contemporary Social Sculpture: capacity building for holistic, ecological citizenship and its contribution to cultures of change.
Informal inquiries to pwhitty@brookes.ac.uk or ssacks@brookes.ac.uk are welcome.
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