Critical Uncertainties and Gaps in the Environmental- and Social-Impact Assessment of the Proposed Interoceanic Canal through Nicaragua.

The proposed interoceanic canal will connect the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean, traversing Lake Nicaragua, the major freshwater reservoir in Central America. If completed, the canal would be the largest infrastructure-related excavation project on Earth. In November 2015, the Nicaraguan government approved an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) for the canal. A group of international experts participated in a workshop organized by the Academy of Sciences of Nicaragua to review this ESIA. The group concluded that the ESIA does not meet international standards; essential information is lacking regarding the potential impacts on the lake, freshwater and marine environments, and biodiversity. The ESIA presents an inadequate assessment of natural hazards and socioeconomic disruptions. The panel recommends that work on the canal project be suspended until an appropriate ESIA is completed. The project should be resumed only if it is demonstrated to be economically feasible, environmentally acceptable, and socially beneficial.

Scientists raise alarms about fast tracking of transoceanic canal through Nicaragua.

Seeking economic growth and job creation to tackle the nation's extreme poverty, the Nicaraguan government awarded a concession to build an interoceanic canal and associated projects to a recently formed Hong Kong based company with no track record or related expertise. This concession was awarded without a bidding process and in advance of any feasibility, socio-economic or environmental impact assessments; construction has begun without this information. The 278 km long interoceanic canal project may result in significant environmental and social impairments. Of particular concern are damage to Lake Cocibolca, a unique freshwater tropical lake and Central America's main freshwater reservoir; damage to regional biodiversity and ecosystems; and socio-economic impacts. Concerned about the possibly irreparable damage to the environment and to native communities, conservationists and the scientific community at large are urging the Nicaraguan government to devise and reveal an action plan to address and mitigate the possible negative repercussions of this interoceanic canal and associated projects. Critical research needs for preparation of a comprehensive benefit-cost analysis for this megaproject are presented.

New Genera and Species Records of Nicaraguan Eumolpinae (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Including a New Species in a New Generic Record for Central America.

In this work, we have examined a large sample of Eumolpinae leaf beetles from Nicaragua and found 18 species reported for the first time in this country, including the new species Caryonoda funebris n. sp., which also represents a new genus record for Central America, and two genera of Typophorini not reported from Nicaragua so far: Paria LeConte, 1858 and Tijucana Bechyné, 1957. Apart from the description of the new species and taxonomic commentaries on each of the new country records, we also illustrate these species along with drawings of male genitalia and spermathecae when available to assist the interpretation of our taxonomic decisions in the future. We take the opportunity in this work to formalize the combination of Chrysodina cupriceps Lefèvre, 1877 as Chrysodinopsis cupriceps (Lefèvre) n. comb.

Synopsis of the Castniidae (Lepidoptera) from Honduras and Nicaragua, Central America.

We present a catalog of nine taxa of Castniidae reported for Nicaragua and Honduras including Prometheus zagraea salvina, a first record for Nicaragua. We also include general and field observations of behavior to help explain why members of this family are poorly represented in collections.

Redescription of Armillipora Quate (Diptera: Psychodidae: Psychodinae) with a new species from Bolivia.

The former monotypic genus Armillipora Quate, known only from Costa Rica and Panama, is redescribed, including the type species A. selvica Quate, this time collected on the Caribbean side of Nicaragua, RAAN department, and illustrated based on male morphological characters. The male of a new species, A. suapiensis sp. nov., from Bolivia, La Paz department, is described here and also figured.

Microsurgical reconstruction of the jaw with fibular grafts and implants.

Reconstructive treatments for jaw defects are complex procedures that can combine multiple techniques including fibula free flap (FFF) grafting. The purpose of this retrospective study was to document and share our experience on mandibular and maxillar reconstruction with FFF followed by secondary dental rehabilitation using implant insertion.We reviewed 198 patients treated by FFF grafting for mandibular and/or maxillary defects in our department during the past 11 years (1996-2007). A selection of 30 patients (18 males and 12 females, mean age of 46 y) with adequate criteria (hygiene, motivation, and prognosis) received secondary placement of osseointegrated implants. The implant success was clinically and radiographically evaluated.A total of 105 osseointegrated implants were placed in the grafted fibulas 5 months to 3 years after the reconstruction surgery. Only 4 implants were lost because of peri-implantitis (3 patients) and fibular fracture (1 patient); this corresponds to a 96.2% implant success rate.During the mean follow-up of 76 months, patient's satisfaction and functional and aesthetic results were evaluated. Radiologic findings indicated a low crest resorption around the implants despite an unfavorable crown-to-root ratio.The main difficulties in the reconstructions were lack of FFF height, absence of a vestibular groove, limitation of mouth opening, skin paddle thickness, and the reconstruction of surrounding tissues including the lip. Our management strategy is discussed.Prosthetic choice is fundamental to achieving patient-specific solutions. The prostheses used included sealed or screwed bridge, resin-bonded bridge, tooled bar, implant-borne denture, or implant-stabilized dentures. Dental implants may be used even in situations involving an unfavorable crown-to-root ratio and implant position by using milled bar and overdenture. The FFF provides a consistent bone graft that allows a reliable and predictable restoration with dental implants, leading to a satisfactory functional and aesthetic restoration.

Two new species of Bruchomyiinae (Diptera, Psychodidae) from the Neotropical Region.

Males of two Bruchomyiinae species were collected during fieldwork in Central and South America. Boreofairchildia belti Jezek, Obona Le Pont sp. nov. and Notofairchildia motacuensis Jezek, Obona Le Pont sp. nov. are described from a rain forerst site in Nicaragua and a rocky ridge site in Bolivia, respectively. Differential diagnoses are included, and important diagnostic characters illustrated.

Temporomandibular joint arthritis: Clinical, orthodontic, orthopaedic and surgical approaches.

Rheumatic diseases (RD) of the temporomandibular joints (TMJs) are increasingly frequent affections and unfortunately often confused with "classic" manducatory dysfunctions (disk dislocation, myofascial pain syndroms). Their diagnosis is mandatory, given the major subsequent craniofacial disorders, which may occur (mandibular condylar hypoplasia, facial hyperdivergence, remodelling of the condylar unit, ankylosis), although the clinical implementation remains unspecific. The delayed diagnosis may be explained by the embryologic, anatomical and physiological characteristics of this joint. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), scans and more recently cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) allow to diagnose its early signs (alteration of the disc-ligament complex, intra-articular effusion, osteochondral lesions). The treatment of TMJ rheumatic diseases (RD) is not consensual, and often includes a non surgical phase (hygiene and dietary rules, non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAI), occlusal splints, and/or a surgical phase for the advanced stages (joint washing, orthognathic surgery, or joint surgery), and non responding patients to the medical treatment of inflammatory rheumatism. Orthodontics will be useful to correct dento-alveolar compensations, while monitoring, however, the impact on joint function.

Evaluation of bias on the assessment of diet breadth of herbivorous insects using molecular methods.

The interactions between herbivores and their host plants play a key role in ecological processes. Understanding the width and nature of these interactions is fundamental to ecology and conservation. Recent research on DNA-based inference of trophic associations suggests that the host range of phytophagous insects in the tropics may be wider than previously thought based on traditional observation. However, the reliability of molecular inference of ecological associations, still strongly dependent on PCR and thus exposed to the risk of contamination with environmental DNA, is under debate. Here, we explored alternative procedures to reduce the chance of amplification of external, nondiet DNA, including surface decontamination and analysis of mid/hind guts, comparing the results with those obtained using the standard protocol. We studied 261 specimens in eight species of Neotropical Chrysomelidae that yielded 316 psbA-trnH intergenic spacer sequences (cpDNA marker of putative diets) from unique and multiple-band PCR results. The taxonomic identity of these sequences was inferred using the automated pipeline BAGpipe, yielding results consistent with 31 plant families. Regardless of the protocol used, a wide taxonomic spectrum of food was inferred for all chrysomelid species. Canonical Correspondence Analysis using these data revealed significant differences attributed mainly to species (expectedly, since they represent different ecologies), but also to treatment (untreated vs. cleaned/gut samples) and PCR results (single vs. multiple bands). Molecular identification of diets is not straightforward and, regardless of the species' niche breadth, combining approaches that reduce external contamination and studying multiple individuals per species may help increasing confidence in results.

Patterns of animal diversity in different forms of tree cover in agricultural landscapes.

As tropical regions are converted to agriculture, conservation of biodiversity will depend not only on the maintenance of protected forest areas, but also on the scope for conservation within the agricultural matrix in which they are embedded. Tree cover typically retained in agricultural landscapes in the neotropics may provide resources and habitats for animals, but little is known about the extent to which it contributes to conservation of animal species. Here, we explore the animal diversity associated with different forms of tree cover for birds, bats, butterflies, and dung beetles in a pastoral landscape in Nicaragua. We measured species richness and abundance of these four animal taxa in riparian and secondary forest, forest fallows, live fences, and pastures with high and low tree cover. We recorded over 20,000 individuals of 189 species including 14 endangered bird species. Mean abundance and species richness of birds and bats, but not dung beetles or butterflies, were significantly different among forms of tree cover. Species richness of bats and birds was positively correlated with tree species richness. While the greatest numbers of bird species were associated with riparian and secondary forest, forest fallows, and pastures with >15% tree cover, the greatest numbers of bat species were found in live fences and riparian forest. Species assemblages of all animal taxa were different among tree cover types, so that maintaining a diversity of forms of tree cover led to conservation of more animal species in the landscape as a whole. Overall, the findings indicate that retaining tree cover within agricultural landscapes can help conserve animal diversity, but that conservation efforts need to target forms of tree cover that conserve the taxa that are of interest locally. Preventing the degradation of remaining forest fragments is a priority, but encouraging farmers to maintain tree cover in pastures and along boundaries may also make an important contribution to animal conservation.

Condylar resorptions and orthodontic-surgical treatment: State of the art.

Resorption of the mandibular condyle [RMC] is a disease of the temporomandibular joints, with multifactorial origins. The clinical manifestations take the form essentially of joint pain and occlusal disorders, depending on the rate at which the condyle is affected. X-ray imaging shows that the condyle is reduced in volume, flattened and displaced backwards, with loss of cortical substance in advanced forms. The aim of this article is to recall some pathophysiological features and then to review all the diagnostic and etiological factors and discuss possible modes of management.

High-throughput biodiversity analysis: Rapid assessment of species richness and ecological interactions of Chrysomelidae (Coleoptera) in the tropics.

Biodiversity assessment has been the focus of intense debate and conceptual and methodological advances in recent years. The cultural, academic and aesthetic impulses to recognise and catalogue the diversity in our surroundings, in this case of living objects, is furthermore propelled by the urgency of understanding that we may be responsible for a dramatic reduction of biodiversity, comparable in magnitude to geological mass extinctions. One of the most important advances in this attempt to characterise biodiversity has been incorporating DNA-based characters and molecular taxonomy tools to achieve faster and more efficient species delimitation and identification, even in hyperdiverse tropical biomes. In this assay we advocate for a broad understanding of Biodiversity as the inventory of species in a given environment, but also the diversity of their interactions, with both aspects being attainable using molecular markers and phylogenetic approaches. We exemplify the suitability and utility of this framework for large-scale biodiversity assessment with the results of our ongoing projects trying to characterise the communities of leaf beetles and their host plants in several tropical setups. Moreover, we propose that approaches similar to ours, establishing the inventories of two ecologically inter-related and species-rich groups of organisms, such as insect herbivores and their angiosperm host-plants, can serve as the foundational stone to anchor a comprehensive assessment of diversity, also in tropical environments, by subsequent addition of trophic levels.

New records of Anacroneuria Klapálek, 1909 (Plecoptera: Perlidae) for Central America.

The perlid genus Anacroneuria is the most widely distributed stonefly occurring in the Neotropics. Regional studies of this genus were made early in the last century, whereas local taxonomic and distributional studies have recently increased. In this study, we provide new Central American records for four species of Anacroneuria. Anacroneuria choco Stark & Bersosa 2006, A. costana (Navás 1924), A. hacha Stark 1998, and A. laru Gutiérrez-Fonseca 2015 are newly reported including new range extensions.

Automated DNA-based plant identification for large-scale biodiversity assessment.

Rapid degradation of tropical forests urges to improve our efficiency in large-scale biodiversity assessment. DNA barcoding can assist greatly in this task, but commonly used phenetic approaches for DNA-based identifications rely on the existence of comprehensive reference databases, which are infeasible for hyperdiverse tropical ecosystems. Alternatively, phylogenetic methods are more robust to sparse taxon sampling but time-consuming, while multiple alignment of species-diagnostic, typically length-variable, markers can be problematic across divergent taxa. We advocate the combination of phylogenetic and phenetic methods for taxonomic assignment of DNA-barcode sequences against incomplete reference databases such as GenBank, and we developed a pipeline to implement this approach on large-scale plant diversity projects. The pipeline workflow includes several steps: database construction and curation, query sequence clustering, sequence retrieval, distance calculation, multiple alignment and phylogenetic inference. We describe the strategies used to establish these steps and the optimization of parameters to fit the selected psbA-trnH marker. We tested the pipeline using infertile plant samples and herbivore diet sequences from the highly threatened Nicaraguan seasonally dry forest and exploiting a valuable purpose-built resource: a partial local reference database of plant psbA-trnH. The selected methodology proved efficient and reliable for high-throughput taxonomic assignment, and our results corroborate the advantage of applying 'strict' tree-based criteria to avoid false positives. The pipeline tools are distributed as the scripts suite 'BAGpipe' (pipeline for Biodiversity Assessment using GenBank data), which can be readily adjusted to the purposes of other projects and applied to sequence-based identification for any marker or taxon.

The ants of North and Central America: the genus Mycocepurus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

We provide a review of the North American ants (north of Colombia) of the ant genus Mycocepurus, including keys to the workers and females, illustrations and distribution maps. The distribution of M. tardus is extended to Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The female of M. curvispinosus is described.

Thirteen cases of jaw osteonecrosis in patients on bisphosphonate therapy.

INTRODUCTION: We report on our experience with 13 cases of jaw osteonecrosis in patients treated with amino-bisphosphonates. METHOD: Data were collected by a regional observatory for jaw osteonecrosis in northern France via letters sent to all physicians likely to manage patients with this condition. All study patients were evaluated at a multidisciplinary jaw osteonecrosis clinic between June and December 2005. RESULTS: We identified 13 cases, in 12 women and 1 man, with a mean age of 62.6 years. Intravenous amino-bisphosphonate therapy was given for metastatic bone disease from breast cancer in 7 patients and multiple myeloma in 5 patients; the remaining patient was on oral alendronate for osteoporosis. Mean treatment duration was 24 months. A history of dental extraction was found in 11 (84.6%) patients. The mandible was involved in all 13 patients and the maxillary in 3 (23%) patients. Amino-bisphosphonate therapy was discontinued in all 13 patients. We suggest a classification scheme for the clinical and computed-tomography patterns seen in our patients. CONCLUSION: Jaw osteonecrosis is a severe complication of amino-bisphosphonate therapy. In addition to the application of published guidelines, we propose discontinuing bisphosphonate therapy whenever possible. We are evaluating our classification scheme to identify early diagnostic criteria and/or clinical and computed-tomography outcome criteria that would improve the management of patients with jaw osteonecrosis.

[Osteonecrosis of the jaw and bisphophonates in oncology]. / Ostéonécrose des maxillaires et bisphosphonates en cancérologie.

Bisphosphonates are potent osteoclastic inhibitors that are indicated in the prevention of bone complications. They could also be of interest in the prevention of bone metastases. Several recent international publications have highlighted the onset of osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) in patients treated with bisphosphonates. These osteonecroses manifest in the form of bone exposure, recent tooth mobility, swelling and inflammation and, occasionally, localised pain but they can remain asymptomatic for weeks or even months. The prevalence of these osteonecroses in cancer patients treated with bisphosphonates could range from 1 to 10%. In most cases (60 to 80%), ONJ develops after alveolo-dental surgery (e.g. tooth extraction). Length of exposure to bisphosphonate probably increases the risk. Our recommendations regarding the diagnosis, classification, prevention and treatment of cases of ONJ observed during bisphosphonate administration are based on published studies and our experience. It is obvious that the use of bisphosphonates is undoubtedly beneficial in the treatment of bone complications but the incidence of ONJ during long-term treatments and at high doses warrants preventive measures. These measures are straightforward : bucco-dental repair prior to treatment, good hygiene and regular monitoring during treatment. Current, non-invasive procedures are still permitted. In other cases, the suspension of treatment is indicated until healing is complete. The increase in the incidence of ONJs, serious adverse events, raises the issue regarding duration and administration of bisphosphonate treatment in the management of bone metastases. Studies are currently underway in an attempt to answer this issue.