Between history and gossip: the state of women relative to syphilis, a traditionally male disease.

Despite the new World Health Organization data remind us how syphilis is a disease which affects both sexes equally, this pathology has always been mainly considered a male disease. While several famous men are known to be affected by syphilis, there are very few women affected by this pathology of which we have historical records. Through the lives of Mary Todd Lincoln, Catherine of Aragon, Karen Blixen and Florence Foster Jenkins, this article would like to grant dignity to all the women who contracted syphilis in the wrong historical era where, for a woman, admitting to contracting it was shameful. Through the important women who lived their lives fighting against this disease and its complications, we would like to pay tribute to all those women who still today, in an era of antibiotics and where syphilis is a treatable pathology, they cannot be cured because they are both geographically and socially disadvantaged.

A short novel about the spread of two important diseases in history: syphilis and SARS.

Throughout the centuries, the undefended nature of man has very often manifested in cases of epidemics, which have determined scenarios of suffering and death. Through "historical" observation lens, it is possible to understand the relationship between the spread of viruses, bacteria and parasites responsible for these epidemics and the displacement of ancient or contemporary travellers. We have analysed two infective diseases, syphilis and SARS, and their role in history and in medicine.

New Y-TZP powders for medical grade zirconia.

There is interest in using zirconia for biomedical applications as ball heads for total hip prostheses. Two potential types are under discussion: partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ) and tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (TZP) materials. Because of its enhanced material properties, TZP stabilized with yttria is favourable. To eliminate high amounts of natural radioactive impurities, the precursors are purified. The kind of precursor and purification method determine the powder impurity level. The disadvantage of Y-TZP is that the hydrothermal decomposition reaction method is that it depends very strongly on the grain size and the distribution of the stabilizing yttria within the zirconia grains. Thermodynamical and kinetic investigations on high purity coprecipitated and yttria-coated zirconia powders show different behaviours. Y-TZP materials based on yttria-coated zirconia powders show excellent mechanical strength of more than 1000 MPa, a Weibull modulus of up to 20 a! nd a fracture toughness of 9 MPa radical m. The material properties of Y-TZP ceramics based on coprecipitated powders and prepared under the same conditions are less attractive. It is expected that materials based on yttria-coated zirconia will show enhanced properties compared to materials derived from coprecipitated powders. Therefore Y-TZP materials derived from yttria-coated powders are very attractive as medical grade zirconia.