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Glucoraphasatin, the primary glucosinolate in radishes, is metabolized into an isothiocyanate (raphasatin) that has biological activity but is also unstable in an aqueous environment. Despite the instability of raphasatin, dietary exposure to radishes produced significant induction of detoxification enzymes. Understanding the chemical properties of raphasatin, both in terms of biological activity and instability, could help develop processing methods to retain the most activity from radishes, glucoraphasatin, and raphasatin.

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Effects of pocket gopher (Geomys attwateri) mound-building activity on plant community composition and soil nutrient concentrations were investigated in south Texas on both burned and unburned coastal prairie sites. Pocket gophers deposited large amounts of soil which were lower in nutrient content than randomly-collected samples. Above-ground plant biomass was greater around mounds than in random samples mainly because of increased dicots around mounds on the burned area when compared with random samples on the same area. Pocket gophers may have concentrated their activities (and therefore, mounds) in areas with higher dicot biomass on the burned area since they prefer perennial dicots as food, or the presence of mounds may have ameliorated the apparent negative effect of fire on dicots.