Socioeconomic Differences in Vaccination Coverage After a Mandatory Vaccination Law, 1855-1900.

Importance: Mandatory vaccination is a major tool to combat increasing vaccine hesitancy. In principle, a vaccination law, ie, a mandatory vaccination law without exemptions, applies equally to everyone, but its effects across different socioeconomic groups (SEGs) remain unknown.

Objective: To examine the association of a vaccination law with vaccination coverage in different SEGs during 1855 to 1900.

Close and more distant relatives are associated with child mortality risk in historical Finland.

Humans are characterised as cooperative breeders, as not only the parents but also other members of the social group take part in raising offspring. The individuals who invest most in childrearing are usually the more closely related individuals. However, most studies have concentrated on close kin and the effects of more distant kin remain unknown.

Testosterone variation in a semi-captive population of Asian elephants in Myanmar.

Hormones are known to be involved in life-history trade-offs as systemic signals that establish functional links among traits and regulate key behavioural and physiological transitions between states in organisms. Although major functions of many steroid hormones such as testosterone are conserved among vertebrates, circulating concentrations vary widely both within and across species, and the degree to which observed hormone concentrations mediate life-history responses to environmental variation is less understood. In this study, we investigated how faecal testosterone metabolite (FTM) concentrations varied with extrinsic and intrinsic factors.

No evidence of early life resource pulse effects on age-specific variation in survival, reproduction and body mass of female Siberian flying squirrels.

Understanding the diversity and causes of senescence patterns in the wild remains a challenging task, in particular among fast-living species for which senescence patterns have been poorly studied. Early life environmental conditions can shape senescence by influencing trade-offs between early and late life performance (disposable soma theory) or individual fitness through lifelong positive effects (silver spoon effects). Using a 23-year-long monitoring dataset of two populations of Siberian flying squirrels (Pteromys volans L.

Milk metabolite composition of a semi-captive population of Asian elephants.

Lack of maternal milk commonly leads to Asian elephant calves' death in captivity. Currently, available supplements seem inefficient. Hence, we aimed at characterizing the composition of Asian elephant milk to provide information on calves' nutritional needs.