Sugar and Alcohol Stabilization of Yeast in Sweet Wine

Secondary fermentation of sweet wine was prevented by the Delle stabilization procedure. For this procedure, advantage is taken of the inhibitory effects of high concentrations of sugar as well as of alcohol. Thus, relatively small amounts of wine spirits were added to fermenting musts to obtain stability, as compared to the conventional procedure in which larger amounts of alcohol are added and the inhibitory effect of alcohol only is considered. The Delle value is a function of the concentrations in the wine, after spirits addition, of alcohol and sugar. Delle values which gave stable wine were dependent on time of alcohol addition, on strain of wine yeast, and on composition of wine spirits. Fractional addition of spirits, concentration of SO(2), and clarity of must had little effect on the Delle value. Sensory comparison of wines especially prepared for tasting by the Delle procedure and by the conventional procedure showed the wines made by the Delle procedure to be superior in quality. Under proper storage conditions, the Delle wines were shown to be microbiologically stable and resistant to wine spoilage organisms.     

Temperature Response in Animals Infected with Bacillus anthracis

Rats, rabbits, swine, guinea pigs, and monkeys were infected with anthrax spores, and their temperature responses were recorded. These were characteristic for a species and appeared independent of resistance or susceptibility of the species toward establishment of the disease. The rabbit appeared unique in that it not only failed to demonstrate a dose-response relationship over an 8-log dose range, but acted independently producing erratic body temperatures depending on spore dose. This limits the usefulness of the rabbit in studying anthrax pathogenesis, and poses questions regarding published data with the rabbit as the test animal.     

Production of a New Polysaccharide with Cryptoccus laurentii var. flavescens

Conditions were investigated for the production of a new gum by the yeast Cryptococcus laurentii var. flavescens NRRL Y-1401 in shaken flasks and 20-liter fermentors. The most suitable medium contained 6% commercial glucose, 0.25% autolyzed brewer's yeast, and 0.001% MnSO₄ and had an initial pH of 6.5. Polysaccharide yields, as measured by the dry weight of the alcohol precipitates, were in the range of 30 to 35% based on initial glucose.     

SPORADIC ACUTE GLOMERULONEPHRITIS IN ADULTS

Nineteen adults who had acute glomerulonephritis were reviewed with respect to the clinical course and long-term follow-up. The age range was from 17 to 55 years. Only one patient died during the acute episode. In 11 cases, onset occurred between November and January and 15 of the patients had a known respiratory tract infection three to 30 days before the onset. The most important symptoms noted were weight gain, edema, dyspnea, oliguria and red or smoky urine. The most prominent physical signs were elevated blood pressure, edema, abnormalities in the chest and fever of over 100° F. Fifteen patients showed roentgen evidence of pulmonary vascular congestion, pleural effusion, cardiomegaly, pneumonia or a combination of these abnormalities. All the patients had proteinuria and red blood cells in the urine, and half of them had red blood cell casts. Azotemia, when present, subsided in 9.4 days. The average diastolic pressure was 105 mm. of mercury and the mean fall was 26 mm. in 23.5 days. At six months, nine of the 13 patients still being observed continued to show proteinuria or microscopic hematuria (seven showed both). A late follow-up of ten patients showed one to have significant hypertension and one to have early functional impairment and inconstant proteinuria. In these cases the average blood pressure was 140/91 mm. as compared with 119/74 mm. at the time of discharge.Sporadic glomerulonephritis in adults presents essentially the same pattern as it does in children. Urinary abnormalities may persist for months or even years, and neither the present series nor those reported by others clearly reveal the ultimate prognosis.     

Ion Transport in Isolated Rabbit Ileum : III. Chloride fluxes

Unidirectional Cl fluxes across in vitro segments of rabbit ileum have been determined both in the absence and in the presence of an electrochemical potential gradient. The results indicate that Cl transport in this preparation can be attributed to purely passive forces uninfluenced by solvent drag or exchange diffusion. Furthermore, on the basis of this and previous studies, it has been demonstrated that the sum of the partial ionic conductances of Na and Cl accounts for at least 90 per cent of the total tissue conductance.     

Effect of Actinomycin D on Virus-induced Ribonucleic Acid Polymerase Formation in Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus-Infected Baby Hamster Kidney Cells

Actinomycin D, at a concentration that inhibits cellular ribonucleic acid (RNA) synthesis, inhibited the production of foot-and-mouth disease virus-induced RNA polymerase in baby hamster kidney cells. Inhibition was proportional to exposure time and reached 85% when actinomycin D was added 90 min before infection. Polymerase production was inhibited to the same extent in growth and minimal media, and the kinetics of its appearance were slightly different than in untreated cells. Enzyme preparations from actinomycin-treated cells having one-third to one-tenth the activity of untreated samples gave products with RNA profiles similar to those of controls. The 37S viral peak, 20S ribonuclease-resistant peak, and 26 to 28S peaks were present in all cases. Actinomycin D did not consistently inhibit virus production in either medium. Insulin did not prevent the actinomycin induced inhibition of polymerase and virus production from occurring.