Evaluating the efficacy of commercially available aflatoxin binders for decreasing the effects of aflatoxicosis on Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei

Feeding aflatoxin-contaminated diets to shrimp juveniles reduces feed intake and growth rate, suppresses the immune system, causes hepatic lesions, and, in some cases, decreases survival rates. There is scarce information on the effectiveness of commercially available aflatoxin binders to reduce aflatoxicosis in shrimp. Goals. We investigated the effect of corn that was naturally contaminated with aflatoxins on the growth performance and nitrogen retention efficiency of white shrimp juveniles L. vannamei and the potential of three commercially available anti-aflatoxin additives. Methods. 20 tanks (60L) were stocked with 10 shrimp weighing 210±4mg. Tanks were divided into five treatments with four replicates each. Shrimp were fed twice daily with either the contaminated diet (75 ?g kg1 total aflatoxins), the contaminated diet supplemented with 2 g kg-1 Aflabalan®, 2 g kg-1 Mycosorb®, and 2.5 g kg-1 Mycoflix plus®, or the uncontaminated diet to the control group for 42 days. Results. In terms of the diet containing aflatoxin without binding agents, the consumption, growth rate, and nitrogen-retention efficiency were significantly lower than the control treatment. The experimental diets did not affect the feed conversion ratio or survival rates in any treatment. The inclusion of any of the aflatoxin binders evaluated in the present study did not produce growth rates comparable to those of shrimp fed the uncontaminated diet. Conclusions. Aflatoxins decreased growth performance in a population of white shrimp juveniles L. vannamei. Although all the aflatoxin binders evaluated in this study caused an improvement, they were not effective in reversing all the negative effects caused by feeding aflatoxin-contaminated diets to white shrimp juveniles L. vannamei

Music reduces pain and increases resting state fMRI BOLD signal amplitude in the left angular gyrus in fibromyalgia patients

Music reduces pain in fibromyalgia (FM), a chronic pain disease, but the functional neural correlates of music-induced analgesia (MIA) are still largely unknown. We recruited FM patients (n = 22) who listened to their preferred relaxing music and an auditory control (pink noise) for 5 min without external noise from fMRI image acquisition. Resting state fMRI was then acquired before and after the music and control conditions. A significant increase in the amplitude of low frequency fluctuations of the BOLD signal was evident in the left angular gyrus (lAnG) after listening to music, which in turn, correlated to the analgesia reports. The post-hoc seed-based functional connectivity analysis of the lAnG showed found higher connectivity after listening to music with right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rdIPFC), the left caudate (ICau), and decreased connectivity with right anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), right supplementary motor area (rSMA), precuneus and right precentral gyrus (rPreG). Pain intensity (PI) analgesia was correlated (r = 0.61) to the connectivity of the lAnG with the rPreG. Our results show that MIA in FM is related to top-down regulation of the pain modulatory network by the default mode network (DMN).Peer reviewe

Return Migration to Mexico: Does Health Matter?

We use data from three rounds of the Mexican Family Life Survey to examine whether migrants in the United States returning to Mexico in the period 2005–2012 have worse health than those remaining in the United States. Despite extensive interest by demographers in health-related selection, this has been a neglected area of study in the literature on U.S.-Mexico migration, and the few results to date have been contradictory and inconclusive. Using five self-reported health variables collected while migrants resided in the United States and subsequent migration history, we find direct evidence of higher probabilities of return migration for Mexican migrants in poor health as well as lower probabilities of return for migrants with improving health. These findings are robust to the inclusion of potential confounders reflecting the migrants’ demographic characteristics, economic situation, family ties, and origin and destination characteristics. We anticipate that in the coming decade, health may become an even more salient issue in migrants’ decisions about returning to Mexico, given the recent expansion in access to health insurance in Mexico