A global study to identify a potential basis for policy options when integrating animal welfare into the UN Sustainable Development Goals

A previously developed methodology to rate the strength of the impact of improving animal welfare on achieving each of the 17 SDGs and the impact of achieving each SDG on animal welfare was used at the third Animal Welfare Global Forum of the World Organisation for Animal Health. Data from 95 participants from key stakeholder categories and organisations involved in animal welfare were analysed. The resulting ‘map’ of the relative strengths of these associations confirmed the expected co-benefits of improving animal welfare and achieving the SDGs. Differences at regional level and according to the economic classification of the country were also identified. This paper focuses on using this ‘map’ as a potential guide for how organisations interested in improving animal welfare could identify potential new allies for strategic partnerships to facilitate the implementation of different policy options. For example, a strategy can be to collaborate with those organisations where the impact is of similar mutual benefit, e.g. between improving animal welfare and achieving SDG 3 (Good health and well-being). Organisations in these two areas are already aligning themselves in the ‘One Health’ movement. Another strategy can be to align with organisations for whom achievement of their goal has the greatest impact on animal welfare, even if the impact is not mutual e.g. by collaborating with organisations working to achieve SDG 16 (Peace justice and strong institutions) and SDG 4 (Quality education). Achieving these goals was considered to have a large impact on improving animal welfare, equivalent to that of achieving SDG 3. In summary, this study can help organisations working in the area of animal welfare identify previously untapped areas of potential support, so tailoring their efforts efficiently, while at the same time themselves supporting movement towards the Agenda 2030. Simply put, the co-benefits make collaboration worthwhile, potentially opening up opportunities that would be unavailable when organisations are working independently towards their own respective goals

Mesoamerican urbanism revisited: Environmental change, adaptation, resilience, persistence, and collapse

Urban adaptation to climate change is a global challenge requiring a broad response that can be informed by how urban societies in the past responded to environmental shocks. Yet, interdisciplinary efforts to leverage insights from the urban past have been stymied by disciplinary silos and entrenched misconceptions regarding the nature and diversity of premodern human settlements and institutions, especially in the case of prehispanic Mesoamerica. Long recognized as a distinct cultural region, prehispanic Mesoamerica was the setting for one of the world’s original urbanization episodes despite the impediments to communication and resource extraction due to the lack of beasts of burden and wheeled transport, and the limited and relatively late use of metal implements. Our knowledge of prehispanic urbanism in Mesoamerica has been significantly enhanced over the past two decades due to significant advances in excavating, analyzing, and contextualizing archaeological materials. We now understand that Mesoamerican urbanism was as much a story about resilience and adaptation to environmental change as it was about collapse. Here we call for a dialogue among Mesoamerican urban archaeologists, sustainability scientists, and researchers interested in urban adaptation to climate change through a synthetic perspective on the organizational diversity of urbanism. Such a dialogue, seeking insights into what facilitates and hinders urban adaptation to environmental change, can be animated by shifting the long-held emphasis on failure and collapse to a more empirically grounded account of resilience and the factors that fostered adaptation and sustainability

Intra-site Digital Documentation of the Ancient Maya city of Palenque, Mexico

Since archaeological and historical sites occur in relatively restricted areas, they are non-renewable resources, and like natural resources, are sensitive to human and natural intervention and should be cared for, curated, and preserved for local, national, and international communities. Unfortunately, over the last two decades, climate change, growing political instability, and looting have led to the deterioration of numerous Mesoamerican archaeological sites. In this scenario, digital documentation and remote sensing technologies become invaluable resources to record, monitor, and preserve the diverse Maya cultural heritage of the Southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Current efforts in digitizing and mapping archaeological sites in Mesoamerica mostly use an inter-site approach that leverages airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). Nonetheless, the high cost of commercial LiDAR and its current limits in capturing excavated vertical structures urged us to explore alternative approaches to digital documentation able to inform site monitoring and physical conservation and to develop multimodal 3-D survey workflows that can be adopted throughout Mesoamerica. This paper thus presents the preliminary results of our intra-site digital documentation work at the World Heritage site of Palenque, Mexico. It also discusses the potential of integrating intra-site and inter-site digital documentation technologies, such as Unmanned Aerial Systems, image-based modeling, terrestrial laser scanning, and drone-based airborne LiDAR with ground truthing and physical conservation interventions to foster built heritage interpretation, conservation, and preservation in Mexico and in other countries with a high concentration of heritage sites but limited research funding

Clinical and epidemiological features of myasthenia gravis in Chilean population

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd Objective: To provide an estimated prevalence and describe the clinical features of myasthenia gravis (MG) in Chile. Method: We carried out (i) a prevalence study of MG using the capture-recapture method and the hospital register of pyridostigmine prescription in South-East Santiago (ii) a nationwide survey of MG patients. Results: Prevalence in adults in South-East Santiago was estimated to be 8.36/100 000 inhabitants (CI: 95%, 7.98-8.80). From the nationwide survey, 405 questionnaires were analysed, there was a female/male ratio of 2.2:1. The mean age of onset of symptoms was 38.7 years (range 1-89). The onset was ocular in 46.4%, oculobulbar in 11.6%, bulbar in 8.9%, limbs in 11.6% and generalized in 21.4%. Of the 13.3% of patients who had had a diagnosis of thymoma, only four of these patients were >60 years old at onset. Thymomas were commoner in patients living in mining counties. Patients ≥60 years old at onset o

MANEJO LAPAROSCOPICO CONSERVADOR DE EMBARAZO CORNUAL

Se presenta el abordaje laparoscópico conservador de un embarazo Cornual izquierdo, diagnosticado en forma precoz por ecotomografía transvaginal, en que se realiza una Cuernostomía, extracción del saco más embrión, raspado del cuerno y sutura con puntos laparoscópicos con nudos endoscópicos, se discute su cuadro clínico, complicaciones y tratamientoWe report a case where cornual pregnancy was succesfully diagnosed by ultrasound and treated by laparoscopy. The clinical course, complications and treatment is discusse