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Food use frequency and food perception analyses were used to assess food use patterns of non-institutionalized, subjectively healthy seniors, aged 65 to 77 years and living alone. The majority of the sample maintained variety and nutritional balance in food selection; the women showed greater use several items, particularly fruits and vegetables. Tea, whole wheat bread, eggs, coffee, potatoes, margarine, carrots, and orange juice ranked highest in the core food list. Perceived taste and health beliefs were strong motives in food selection.

Beige mice, which are a homolog of the Chediak-Higashi syndrome, and mice treated with 89Sr to destroy the bone marrow provide animal models of defects in mononuclear phagocyte and natural killer cell functions. The innate resistance of these mice to viruses such as herpes simplex and encephalomyocarditis viruses, however, is normal. Moreover, treatment of the mice with immunomodulators such as Propionibacterium acnes (formerly designated Corynebacterium parvum) and pyran produced a significant increase in resistance to encephalomyocarditis virus. The antiviral effect of P. acnes in 89Sr-treated mice was exhibited during marked monocytopenia and without evidence for an inflammatory influx of macrophages into the peritoneal cavity. Treatment with P. acnes was also effective in increasing the resistance of beige mice to infection with Listeria monocytogenes. Thus, immunomodulators can be effective in mice that exhibit impaired macrophage and natural killer cell functions.

Minute virus of mice (MVM), a single-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid Parvovirus, was subjected to various inactivation procedures, including chemical disinfectants, heat, and ultraviolet radiation. MVM was found to be less stable than has been reported for other Parvoviruses. This virus was readily inactivated by a variety of chemical disinfectants, including alcohols, formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, and chloroform. MVM was more sensitive to ultraviolet radiation than was Kilham's rat virus. MVM was more sensitive to heating at temperatures of 35 to 100 C than has been reported for other Parvoviruses. More than 95% of MVM infectivity was inactivated by heating (45, 60, or 100 C) for 60 min, acid (pH 2.0) treatment, or ultraviolet radiation treatment, although a small percentage (less than 2%) of the virus preparation was found to be resistant to these treatments. In addition, more than 99% of the infectivity of MVM was lost after storage at 4C for 10 weeks, although the virus was stable on storage in liquid nitrogen.

In the present investigation, the effect of colchicine on La Crosse virus production and export was tested. Colchicine-treated, La Crosse virus-infected cells: (1) had decreased mean virus titers compared with those of control cells; (2) had a ratio of released to cell-associated virus of 1-1.9 whereas control cells had a ratio of 13. A colchicine-sensitive step, possibly involving microtubules, may be involved in virus production and/or release from the cell.

A 49-year-old splenectomized man had an infection from an unidentified, gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium that adhered to the majority of his peripheral-blood erythrocytes. On transmission electron microscopy, the bacterium was seen to be extra-erythrocytic and was 0.2 micrometer wide by 1.0 to 1.7 micrometer long. It possessed a thick, granular cell wall, a trilamellar membrane external to the cell wall and prominent mesosomes. Attempts to cultivate the organism in vitro or to duplicate the patient's disease in splenectomized animals were unsuccessful. The patient's response suggested that the bacterium was susceptible to cell-wall-active antibiotics and to chloramphenicol but not to tetracycline. This bacterium may be the cause of other chronic, fever-producing, multisystem diseases of unknown origin.

Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus was isolated three times from the Culex (Melanoconion) species of mosquitoes collected in south Florida in June, July, and October, 1963. Specific antibody was present in 16 of 28 Peromyscus gossypinus (cotton mice) and 3 of 16 Sigmodon hispidus (cotton rats) sampled from one of the infected sites in January 1964.