<p>Turnip (Brassica rapa L.) is widely consumed as a vegetable and traditional Chinese medicine with high dietary fiber content. Soluble dietary fiber (SDF) and insoluble dietary fiber (IDF) were obtained from white turnips, and the IDF was modified with alkaline hydrogen peroxide to obtain modified IDF (MIDF) and modified SDF (MSDF). The compositional, structural, and functional properties of the four samples were investigated. After modification, the modified dietary fibers (MDFs) showed smaller particle sizes and lower contents of pectin and polyphenol than those of unmodified dietary fibers (DFs) The results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed that compared to the DFs, the MDFs were smaller and had more exposed hydroxyl groups. Analysis of the microrheological behaviors showed that the MDFs had higher viscosity than that of the DFs, with a looser structure for the MSDF and a stable structure for the MIDF. Therefore, due to structural changes, the physical and functional properties of the MDFs were improved compared to those of the unmodified DFs. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the particle size was positively correlated with the pectin content. The water holding capacity (WHC), oil adsorption capacity (OAC) and water swelling capacity (WSC) showed positive correlations with each other. This work indicated that white turnip could be a potential new source of DFs, which presented desirable functional properties after modification.Few studies have investigated the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the Asian chronic kidney disease (CKD) population. This study assessed the incidence of CVD, death, and a composite outcome of CVD and death in a prospective Korean predialysis CKD cohort. From a total of 2179 patients, incidence rates were analyzed, and competing risk analyses were conducted according to CKD stage. Additionally, incidence was compared to the general population. During a median 4.1 years of follow-up, the incidence of CVD, all-cause death, and the composite outcome was 17.2, 9.6, and 24.5 per 1000 person-years, respectively. These values were higher in diabetic vs. non-diabetic subjects (P  less then  0.001). For all outcomes, incidence rates increased with increasing CKD stage (CVD, P = 0.001; death, P  less then  0.001; and composite, P  less then  0.001). Additionally, CKD stage G4 [hazard ratio (HR) 2.8, P = 0.008] and G5 (HR 5.0, P  less then  0.001) were significant risk factors for the composite outcome compared to stage G1 after adjustment. Compared to the general population, the total cohort population (stages G1-G5) showed significantly higher risk of CVD (HR 2.4, P  less then  0.001) and the composite outcome (HR 1.7, P  less then  0.001). The results clearly demonstrate that CKD is a risk factor for CVD in an Asian population.Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe eating disorder and often associated with altered humoral immune responses. However, distinct B cell maturation stages in peripheral blood in adolescents with AN have not been characterized. Treatment effects and the relationship between clinical and B cell parameters are also not fully understood. Here we investigated the phenotype of circulating B cell subsets and the relationship with body composition in adolescents with AN before (T0, n = 24) and after 6 weeks (T1, n = 20) of treatment. Using multi-parameter flow cytometry, we found increased percentages of antigen-experienced B cells and plasmablasts in patients with AN compared to healthy controls (n = 20). In contrast, percentages of CD1d+CD5+ B cells and transitional B cells with immunoregulatory roles were reduced at T0 and T1. These B cell frequencies correlated positively with fat mass, fat mass index (FMI), free fat mass index, and body mass index standard deviation score. In addition, scavenger-like receptor CD5 expression levels were downregulated on transitional B cells and correlated with fat mass and FMI in AN.  <a href="https://www.selleckchem.com/products/MLN8237.html">read more</a> Our findings that regulatory B cell subgroups were reduced in AN and their strong relationship with body composition parameters point toward an impact of immunoregulatory B cells in the pathogenesis of AN.Salt stress is one of the key factors that limits the cultivation of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch. (G. uralensis) in the northern part of China. In this study, three salt treatments (including 21, 42 and 63 ds/m NaCl/kg dry soil) and four Si (silicon) concentrations (including 0, 1.4, 2.8 and 4.2 ds/m SiO2/kg K2SiO3 in dry soil) were tested using G. uralensis as the plant material in a pot experiment with three replications. The results showed that the application of various concentrations of Si increased sucrose synthetase (SS), sucrose phosphate synthetase (SPS) and glutamine synthetase (GS), as well as nitrate reductase (NR) activities, and promoted carbon and nitrogen metabolism. Si application also increased the root dry weight of G. uralensis. Multilevel comparative analysis showed that the application of 2.8 ds/m SiO2 was the optimum rate for improved growth and yield of G. uralensis under different salt levels. This study provides important information that can form the basis for the cultivation of high-yielding and high-quality G. uralensis in saline soils.Shoaling decisions in the wild are determined by a combination of innate preferences of the individual along with the interplay of multiple ecological factors. In their natural habitat as well as in the laboratory, zebrafish is a shoaling fish. Here, we investigate the role of group size and associated vegetation in shaping shoaling preferences of wild male zebrafish. We studied the association preference of males to groups of female shoals in a multi-choice test design. We found that males made greater proportion of visits to an 8-female group compared to 2 and 4-female groups. However, males spent similar proportions of time across the three female-containing groups. When artificial vegetation was incorporated along with female number as an additional factor, we found that males prefer high and moderately vegetated patches compared to low or no-vegetation groups, irrespective of the number of females in these patches. Based on experiments using a novel multi-choice design, our results show that preference for group size can change due to interaction of two separate factors.</p>