Smart Mailboxes: conditions disappear

Every now and then the conditions that I've added to control what some - not all - of my Smart Mailboxes do, disappear, leaving the SMbox empty. Can't see any pattern or reason; used Time Machine to restore Mail but still same issue remains - any suggestions? Am syncing 4 Macs via MobileMe inc the mailboxes.

I read it in the discussions:
Galb
Re: Smart mailbox for Unread messages doesn't update automatically. Jul 11, 2012 12:45 PM (in response to Jeffrey Jones2)
Thanks for the note, Jeffrey and trust me when I say I'm a die-hard Apple believer.  But, at work I support Windows machines and Outlook has views to show only unread messages.  As soon as a messages is read and we move on to the next messages, the read message drops out of the list.  This is what I'm look for so that I can apply it to the few Macs I also support at work.
What Apple's Mail gives us is good, but what we were hoping was to have the smart mailbox work the same way that Outlook's feature does.  However, I still much prefer working with Mail rather than with Outlook.  So, we will adjust.  
Thanks again.

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