Previous research shows that older men tend to have lower nutritional intakes and higher risk of under-nutrition compared with younger men. The objectives of this study were to describe energy and nutrient intakes, assess nutritional risk and investigate factors associated with poor intake of energy and key nutrients in community-dwelling men aged ≥75 years participating in the Concord Health and Ageing in Men Project – a longitudinal cohort study on older men in Sydney, Australia. A total of 794 men (mean age 81·4 years) had a detailed diet history interview, which was carried out by a dietitian. Dietary adequacy was assessed by comparing median intakes with nutrient reference values (NRV): estimated average requirement, adequate intake or upper level of intake. Attainment of NRV of total energy and key nutrients in older age (protein, Fe, Zn, riboflavin, Ca and vitamin D) was incorporated into a ‘key nutrients’ variable dichotomised as ‘good’ (≥5) or ‘poor’ (≤4). Using logistic regression modelling, we examined associations between key nutrients with factors known to affect food intake. Median energy intake was 8728 kJ (P5=5762 kJ, P95=12 303 kJ), and mean BMI was 27·7 (sd 4·0) kg/m2. Men met their NRV for most nutrients. However, only 1 % of men met their NRV for vitamin D, only 19 % for Ca, only 30 % for K and only 33 % for dietary fibre. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that only country of birth was significantly associated with poor nutritional intake. Dietary intakes were adequate for most nutrients; however, only half of the participants met the NRV of ≥5 key nutrients.

Newcastle disease (ND) is one of the most important poultry diseases worldwide and can lead to annual losses of up to 80% of backyard chickens in Africa. All bird species are considered susceptible to ND virus (NDV) infection but little is known about the role that wild birds play in the epidemiology of the virus. We present a long-term monitoring of 9000 wild birds in four African countries. Overall, 3·06% of the birds were PCR-positive for NDV infection, with prevalence ranging from 0% to 10% depending on the season, the site and the species considered. Our study shows that ND is circulating continuously and homogeneously in a large range of wild bird species. Several genotypes of NDV circulate concurrently in different species and are phylogenetically closely related to strains circulating in local domestic poultry, suggesting that wild birds may play several roles in the epidemiology of different NDV strains in Africa. We recommend that any strategic plan aiming at controlling ND in Africa should take into account the potential role of the local wild bird community in the transmission of the disease.

This retrospective, descriptive case-series reviews the clinical presentations and significant laboratory findings of patients diagnosed with and treated for injectional anthrax (IA) since December 2009 at Monklands Hospital in Central Scotland and represents the largest series of IA cases to be described from a single location. Twenty-one patients who fulfilled National Anthrax Control Team standardized case definitions of confirmed, probable or possible IA are reported. All cases survived and none required limb amputation in contrast to an overall mortality of 28% being experienced for this condition in Scotland. We document the spectrum of presentations of soft tissue infection ranging from mild cases which were managed predominantly with oral antibiotics to severe cases with significant oedema, organ failure and coagulopathy. We describe the surgical management, intensive care management and antibiotic management including the first description of daptomycin being used to treat human anthrax. It is noted that some people who had injected heroin infected with Bacillus anthracis did not develop evidence of IA. Also highlighted are biochemical and haematological parameters which proved useful in identifying deteriorating patients who required greater levels of support and surgical debridement.

Radiogenic iodine is one of the more difficult fission products to capture and immobilize during the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.

However, for metallic fuels reprocessed by electrometallurgical treatment, it is believed that the majority of fission-product iodine is retained during the various processing steps. Spent fuel from the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is being treated by a combination of electrochemical and pyrometallurgical methods to deactivate the bond sodium of the fuel, recover uranium, and immobilize fission products for disposal. This paper discusses the progress of various strategies and experiments to confirm the expected retention of iodine during the electrometallurgical treatment of EBR-II spent fuel. This includes surveys of previous observations and measurements, and the direct measurement of iodine from various process samples. Current measurements are aimed at iodine determination in the bond sodium and plenum regions of the fuel, refined iodine measurements in electrorefiner salt, and the retention of iodine during waste form production.

This expedition to Iceland was concerned with ice depth soundings of the largest ice cap in Europe and involved both the development of impulse radar systems and the use of satellite survey equipment for locating experimental stations and ice depth traverses (Fig 1). Vatnajökull, which translated means ‘water-ice’, is a temperate ice sheet and measures approximately 140 km east to west and 100 km north to south, thereby occupying more space than all other glaciers in Europe combined. Ice depth studies had previously been limited to seismic experiments conducted during the French-Icelandic expedition of 1951 when some 33 individual soundings were recorded. A few gravitational studies have also been made. It was not until 1976, however, that a first glacier base profile was obtained by a joint Cambridge-Icelandic expedition using electronic equipment developed at the University of Cambridge (see Polar Record, Vol 18, No 115, p 375–77). From that expedition some understanding of the electrical properties of ice was deduced and it became possible to design equipment that, theoretically, could measure the deepest parts of the ice cap. It was agreed in Reykjavik, in July 1976, to carry out a joint expedition in 1977 using a Mark II British instrument to survey Vatnajökull, at least in part, time and weather permitting. Owing to unforseen difficulties it was only possible for Cambridge University members to carry out this work.

Non-diabetic individuals who are non-secretors of blood group antigens are prone to superficial infections by Candida albicans. In this study, 216 patients with diabetes mellitus who were denture wearers were examined for the presence or absence of denture stomatitis. There was an overall trend for non-secretors to be prone to denture stomatitis compared with secretors. Stepwise linear discriminant analysis was used to dissect the contribution of secretor status and other variables to the development of the disease. Secretor status was found to be a contributory factor among patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes but not among those with insulin-dependent diabetes. The possible reasons for this are discussed.

The effects of including monensin in the diet on the dynamics of protozoa in the rumen of sheep were investigated using injections of protozoa labelled with 14C-choline.

The half time of rumen fluid was higher in sheep receiving monensin but neither the pool size nor the composition of protozoa species (mainly smaller entodiniomorph ciliates) was significantly affected.

More protozoa passed out of the rumen as liquid outflow rate increased and there was a tendency for the apparent production rate of protozoa to be higher with the resulting increase in washout of protozoa.

The gut is an obvious target for the development of functional foods, acting as it does as the interface between diet and the metabolic events which sustain life. The key processes in digestive physiology which can be regulated by modifying diet are satiety, the rate and extent of macronutrient breakdown and absorption from the small bowel, sterol metabolism, the colonic microflora, fermentation, mucosal function and bowel habit, and the gut immune system. The intestinal microflora is the main focus of many current functional foods. Probiotics are foods which contain live bacteria which are beneficial to health whilst prebiotics, such as certain non-digestible oligosaccharides which selectively stimulate the growth of bifidobacteria in the colon, are already on the market. Their claimed benefits are to alleviate lactose maldigestion, increase resistance to invasion by pathogenic species of bacteria in the gut, stimulate the immune system and possibly protect against cancer. There are very few reports of well-designed human intervention studies with prebiotics as yet. Certain probiotic species have been shown to shorten the duration of rotavirus diarrhoea in children but much more work is needed on the mechanism of immunomodulation and of competitive exclusion and microflora modification. The develop-ment of functional foods for the gut is in its infancy and will be successful only if more fundamental research is done on digestive physiology, the gut microflora, immune system and mucosal function.

1. The suggestion that there is a sustained enhancement in metabolic rate after exercise was investigated during the course of a study in which six normal-weight volunteers (three men, three women) took part in a 9-week training programme. Baseline values were assessed in a 3-5 week control period of minimal activity before training. At the end of the study the subjects were capable of running for I h/d, 5 d/week.

2. Throughout the entire study the subjects were maintained on a constant diet. Measurement of energy expenditure by the doubly-labelled water (2H218O) method showed that the subjects had an energy imbalance of +3% in the control and -20% at the end of the training period. The subjects were in positive (1·1 (se 0·2) g) nitrogen balance in the second week of the control, and in negative (-0·6 (se 0·3) g) N balance in the last week of the exercise period.

3. Over the course of the study maximum oxygen consumption (Vo2max) and high-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol levels increased by 30%. Heart rate at rest and when performing a standard step test fell significantly.

4. Body composition was assessed weekly by 40K counting and skinfold thickness measurements, in addition to 2H2 dilution at the beginning and end of the study. Fat-free mass was apparently gained in the early phases of the study, but there was lack of agreement between the different methods of assessing body composition. Changes in body-weight were not significant.

5. Basal metabolic rate (BMR), overnight metabolic rate (OMR) and sleeping metabolic rate (SMR) were measured on three occasions: in the control period, and the beginning and end of the training periods. Average BMR in the control period was 5·91 (se 0·39) MJ/24 h and was not changed with activity. There were no changes in OMR (5·71 (se 0·27) MJ/24 h in the control) nor in SMR (5·18 (se 027) MJ/24 h in the control), nor in BMR, OMR or SMR when expressed per kg body-weight, or per kg fat-free mass.

6. These results do not support the suggestion that there is a sustained increase in BMR following exercise that can usefully assist in weight-loss programmes.

The wild oat (Avena fatua L.) is considered to have spread originally from Asia; it is widely distributed throughout Europe and its advent in North America is attributed to introduction by immigrants from there (8, 13). The species presents a very serious weed problem in the prairie regions of Canada and northwestern United States (18). In Britain it has become prevalent in some regions as a result of intensive cropping to cereals (17). Up to 70 bushels of wild oat seeds per acre have been estimated to occur in the soil in badly infested fields in western Canada (12). This seed cannot all be stimulated to germinate by cultural practices and may remain viable in the soil for at least 3 years (4). The wild oat problem would be solved if the seed in the soil could be destroyed. There are two ways to achieve this: firstly, by stimulating the dormant seed to germinate so that the plants can be killed by cultivation or, secondly, by killing the dormant seed through the addition of toxic materials. Up to the present, attempts to do either of these have been unsuccessful; thus, investigations to determine the factors involved in dormancy are of primary importance.