Turning aggression into an object of intervention: Tinkering in a crime control pilot study

Real-world experiments that test new technologies can affect policy and practice by introducing new objects of intervention through tinkering; the ad hoc work of realigning relations in the face of frictions, surprises, and disturbances that occur when introducing a technology. In a pilot study on aggression detection, tinkering moved aggression in and out of the human body. In the end, the pilot defined aggression as a set of acoustic-physical variables representing the aroused human body, alongside other signals of aggression. How aggression as an object intervention was shaped by tinkering is relevant because it involved inclusions and exclusions by the authorities who identified aggression, the methods they applied, and mandate for intervention. A focus on relations that are tinkered within a real-world experiment permits critical engagement with this format. Although the real-world experimental format is credited with producing knowledge about a technology's ‘actual’ performance, actors and events at the pilot study location were made only selectively relevant. Analyses of real-world experiments should therefore explain how experiments selectively make the world relevant, giving only particular objects of intervention a truth status

Paleolatitude of the Hawaiian Hot Spot Since 48 Ma: Evidence for a Mid‐Cenozoic True Polar Stillstand Followed by Late Cenozoic True Polar Wander Coincident With Northern Hemisphere Glaciation

Paleospin axis locations since 48 Ma inferred from the distribution of equatorial sediment accumulation rates on the Pacific plate, together with paleomagnetic poles from magnetic anomaly skewness, indicate that the Hawaiian hot spot was nearly fixed in latitude from 48 to 12 Ma, but ≈3° north of its current latitude. From 48 to 12 Ma in the Pacific hot spot reference frame, which we take to be equivalent to the global hot spot reference frame, the spin axis was located near 87°N, 164°E, recording a stillstand in true polar wander. Global hot spots shifted coherently relative to the spin axis since ≈12 Ma, consistent with an episode of true polar wander, which may continue today. The motion of the spin axis away from the Hawaiian hot spot and toward Greenland since ≈12 Ma coincided with, and may have contributed to, the onset of northern hemisphere glaciation

Contrasting responses to selection in class I and class II alpha major histocompatibility-linked markers in salmon

Comparison of levels and patterns of genetic variation in natural populations either across loci or against neutral expectation can yield insight into locus-specific differences in the strength and direction of evolutionary forces. We used both approaches to test the hypotheses on patterns of selection on major histocompatibility (MH)-linked markers. We performed temporal analyses of class I and class IIα MH-linked markers and eight microsatellite loci in two Atlantic salmon populations in Ireland on two temporal scales: over six decades and 9 years in the rivers Burrishoole and Delphi, respectively. We also compared contemporary Burrishoole and Delphi samples with nearby populations for the same loci. On comparing patterns of temporal and spatial differentiation among classes of loci, the class IIα MH-linked marker was consistently identified as an outlier compared with patterns at the other microsatellite loci or neutral expectation. We found higher levels of temporal and spatial heterogeneity in heterozygosity (but not in allelic richness) for the class IIα MH-linked marker compared with microsatellites. Tests on both within- and among-population differentiation are consistent with directional selection acting on the class IIα-linked marker in both temporal and spatial comparisons, but only in temporal comparisons for the class I-linked marker. Our results indicate a complex pattern of selection on MH-linked markers in natural populations of Atlantic salmon. These findings highlight the importance of considering selection on MH-linked markers when using these markers for management and conservation purposes