Developing an oral bait for badger vaccination: factors influencing bait disappearance and behavioural responses

The Eurasian badger (Meles meles) is believed to constitute an important wildlife reservoir of bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis), and is wildly implemented in transmission of the disease to cattle. Recent work has demonstrated that Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination can induce a significant protective effect in badgers, with current research focusing on the best method of vaccinating wild badgers. Oral vaccination, using baits containing the BCG vaccine, is widely accepted as the most practical and desirable method of vaccinating a large number of badgers over a wide geographical area. This study acted to investigate the factors influencing the number of baits taken by badgers, and the behviour badgers exhibit towards baits, as the success of a vaccination campaign will be greatly affected by the number of badgers consuming vaccine laden baits. Using video surveillance we identified that badgers show preference behaviour, with strong smelling bait eliciting high levels of investigations and attempts to retrieve. Additionally smell was the only bait characteristics that influenced bait uptake in populations of badger naïve to supplementary feeding. A preference for taste was not consistent, with sweet and un-sweet being taken more often depending on social and environmental conditions. Season was found to influence bait disappearance and associated behaviours, and autumn appears the most favorable season to deploy an oral bait to badgers. Bait characteristics and deployment considerations that will aid the highest uptake of bait by badgers are proposed.The Food and Environment Research Agenc

Evaluating refugia in recent human evolution in Africa

Homo sapiens have adapted to an incredible diversity of habitats around the globe. This capacity to adapt to different landscapes is clearly expressed within Africa, with Late Pleistocene Homo sapiens populations occupying savannahs, woodlands, coastlines and mountainous terrain. As the only area of the world where Homo sapiens have clearly persisted through multiple glacial-interglacial cycles, Africa is the only continent where classic refugia models can be formulated and tested to examine and describe changing patterns of past distributions and human phylogeographies. The potential role of refugia has frequently been acknowledged in the Late Pleistocene palaeoanthropological literature, yet explicit identification of potential refugia has been limited by the patchy nature of palaeoenvironmental and archaeological records, and the low temporal resolution of climate or ecological models. Here, we apply potential climatic thresholds on human habitation, rooted in ethnographic studies, in combination with high-resolution model datasets for precipitation and biome distributions to identify persistent refugia spanning the Late Pleistocene (130–10 ka). We present two alternate models suggesting that between 27% and 66% of Africa may have provided refugia to Late Pleistocene human populations, and examine variability in precipitation, biome and ecotone distributions within these refugial zones. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Tropical forests in the deep human past’

Technological and geometric morphometric analysis of ‘post-Howiesons Poort points’ from Border Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Lithic assemblages immediately following the Howiesons Poort, often loosely referred to as the ‘post-Howiesons Poort’ or MSA III, have attracted relatively little attention when compared to other well-known phases of the South African Middle Stone Age (MSA) sequence. Current evidence from sites occurring in widely-differing environments suggests that these assemblages are marked by temporal and technological variability, with few features in common other than the presence of unifacial points. Here we present a technological and geometric morphometric analysis of ‘points’ from the new excavations of Members 2 BS, 2 WA and the top of 3 BS members at Border Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, one of the key sites for studying modern human cultural evolution. Our complementary methodologies demonstrate that, at this site, hominins adopted a knapping strategy that primarily produced non-standardised unretouched points. Triangular morphologies were manufactured using a variety of reduction strategies, of which the discoidal and Levallois recurrent centripetal methods produced distinctive morphologies. We find technological and morphological variability increases throughout the post-Howiesons Poort sequence, with clear differences between and within chrono-stratigraphic groups. Finally, we assess the suitability of the ‘Sibudan’ cultural-technological typology proposed for post-Howiesons Poort assemblages at Sibhudu, another KwaZulu-Natal site, and find similarities in the morphological axes characterising the samples, despite differences in the shaping strategies adopted. Overall, our work contributes to the growing body of research that is helping to address historical research biases that have slanted our understanding of cultural evolution during the MSA of southern Africa towards the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort technocomplexes.publishedVersio

A spatiotemporally explicit paleoenvironmental framework for the Middle Stone Age of eastern Africa.

Eastern Africa has played a prominent role in debates about human evolution and dispersal due to the presence of rich archaeological, palaeoanthropological and palaeoenvironmental records. However, substantial disconnects occur between the spatial and temporal resolutions of these data that complicate their integration. Here, we apply high-resolution climatic simulations of two key parameters, mean annual temperature and precipitation, and a biome model, to produce a highly refined characterisation of the environments inhabited during the eastern African Middle Stone Age. Occupations are typically found in sub-humid climates and landscapes dominated by or including tropical xerophytic shrubland. Marked expansions from these core landscapes include movement into hotter, low-altitude landscapes in Marine Isotope Stage 5 and cooler, high-altitude landscapes in Marine Isotope Stage 3, with the recurrent inhabitation of ecotones between open and forested habitats. Through our use of high-resolution climate models, we demonstrate a significant independent relationship between past precipitation and patterns of Middle Stone Age stone tool production modes overlooked by previous studies. Engagement with these models not only enables spatiotemporally explicit examination of climatic variability across Middle Stone Age occupations in eastern Africa but enables clearer characterisation of the habitats early human populations were adapted to, and how they changed through time

A spatiotemporally explicit paleoenvironmental framework for the Middle Stone Age of eastern Africa.

Eastern Africa has played a prominent role in debates about human evolution and dispersal due to the presence of rich archaeological, palaeoanthropological and palaeoenvironmental records. However, substantial disconnects occur between the spatial and temporal resolutions of these data that complicate their integration. Here, we apply high-resolution climatic simulations of two key parameters, mean annual temperature and precipitation, and a biome model, to produce a highly refined characterisation of the environments inhabited during the eastern African Middle Stone Age. Occupations are typically found in sub-humid climates and landscapes dominated by or including tropical xerophytic shrubland. Marked expansions from these core landscapes include movement into hotter, low-altitude landscapes in Marine Isotope Stage 5 and cooler, high-altitude landscapes in Marine Isotope Stage 3, with the recurrent inhabitation of ecotones between open and forested habitats. Through our use of high-resolution climate models, we demonstrate a significant independent relationship between past precipitation and patterns of Middle Stone Age stone tool production modes overlooked by previous studies. Engagement with these models not only enables spatiotemporally explicit examination of climatic variability across Middle Stone Age occupations in eastern Africa but enables clearer characterisation of the habitats early human populations were adapted to, and how they changed through time

Consequences of False-Positive Screening Mammograms

False-positive mammograms, a common occurrence in breast cancer screening programs, represent a potential screening harm that is currently being evaluated by the United States Preventive Services Task Force

Progressive exercise compared with best practice advice, with or without corticosteroid injection, for the treatment of patients with rotator cuff disorders (GRASP): a multicentre, pragmatic, 2 × 2 factorial, randomised controlled trial

Background Corticosteroid injections and physiotherapy exercise programmes are commonly used to treat rotator cuff disorders but the treatments' effectiveness is uncertain. We aimed to compare the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a progressive exercise programme with a single session of best practice physiotherapy advice, with or without corticosteroid injection, in adults with a rotator cuff disorder. Methods In this pragmatic, multicentre, superiority, randomised controlled trial (2 × 2 factorial), we recruited patients from 20 UK National Health Service trusts. We included patients aged 18 years or older with a rotator cuff disorder (new episode within the past 6 months). Patients were excluded if they had a history of significant shoulder trauma (eg, dislocation, fracture, or full-thickness tear requiring surgery), neurological disease affecting the shoulder, other shoulder conditions (eg, inflammatory arthritis, frozen shoulder, or glenohumeral joint instability), received corticosteroid injection or physiotherapy for shoulder pain in the past 6 months, or were being considered for surgery. Patients were randomly assigned (centralised computer-generated system, 1:1:1:1) to progressive exercise (≤6 sessions), best practice advice (one session), corticosteroid injection then progressive exercise, or corticosteroid injection then best practice advice. The primary outcome was the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI) score over 12 months, analysed on an intention-to-treat basis (statistical significance set at 1%). The trial was registered with the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Register, ISRCTN16539266, and EuDRACT, 2016-002991-28. Findings Between March 10, 2017, and May 2, 2019, we screened 2287 patients. 708 patients were randomly assigned to progressive exercise (n=174), best practice advice (n=174), corticosteroid injection then progressive exercise (n=182), or corticosteroid injection then best practice advice (n=178). Over 12 months, SPADI data were available for 166 (95%) patients in the progressive exercise group, 164 (94%) in the best practice advice group, 177 (97%) in the corticosteroid injection then progressive exercise group, and 175 (98%) in the corticosteroid injection then best practice advice group. We found no evidence of a difference in SPADI score between progressive exercise and best practice advice when analysed over 12 months (adjusted mean difference −0·66 [99% CI −4·52 to 3·20]). We also found no evidence of a difference between corticosteroid injection compared with no injection when analysed over 12 months (−1·11 [–4·47 to 2·26]). No serious adverse events were reported. Interpretation Progressive exercise was not superior to a best practice advice session with a physiotherapist in improving shoulder pain and function. Subacromial corticosteroid injection provided no long-term benefit in patients with rotator cuff disorders