Health Industries in the Twentieth Century. Introduction

This article is the introduction to the special issue' Health Industries in the Twentieth Century'. It offers a broad literature review of scholarly works about the history of health and medicine, and stresses the opportunities for business historians to tackle the field of healthcare

Disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex infection presenting as osteomyelitis in a normal host

Disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infection presenting as a painful I-tie femur lesion with associated fever, night sweats and weight loss occurred in a 45-y-old woman with apparent normal immune function. Surgical drainage and 24 months of medical therapy resulted in a cure

Therapy induces widespread reorganization of motor cortex after complete spinal transection that supports motor recovery

Reorganization of the somatosensory system and its relationship to functional recovery after spinal cord injury (SCI) has been well studied. However, little is known about the impact of SCI on organization of the motor system. Recent studies suggest that step-training paradigms in combination with spinal stimulation, either electrically or through pharmacology, are more effective than step training alone at inducing recovery and that reorganization of descending corticospinal circuits is necessary. However, simpler, passive exercise combined with pharmacotherapy has also shown functional improvement after SCI and reorganization of, at least, the sensory cortex. In this study we assessed the effect of passive exercise and serotonergic (5-HT) pharmacological therapies on behavioral recovery and organization of the motor cortex. We compared the effects of passive hindlimb bike exercise to bike exercise combined with daily injections of 5-HT agonists in a rat model of complete mid-thoracic transection. 5-HT pharmacotherapy combined with bike exercise allowed the animals to achieve unassisted weight support in the open field. This combination of therapies also produced extensive expansion of the axial trunk motor cortex into the deafferented hindlimb motor cortex and, surprisingly, reorganization within the caudal and even the rostral forelimb motor cortex areas. The extent of the axial trunk expansion was correlated to improvement in behavioral recovery of hindlimbs during open field locomotion, including weight support. From a translational perspective, these data suggest a rationale for developing and optimizing cost-effective, non-invasive, pharmacological and passive exercise regimes to promote plasticity that supports restoration of movement after spinal cord injury. •Spinal cord injury induces cortical reorganization•We tested the effects of 5-HT therapy and passive bike exercise on reorganization of the motor cortex•Results show expansion of the axial trunk motor cortex into the deafferented hindlimb motor cortex•Reorganization was correlated to behavioral outcom

Anomalous Thermal Expansion in Substituted Nd₂Fe₁₇₋ₓSiₓ and Nd₂Fe₁₇₋ₓAlₓ Compounds

The temperature dependencies of the lattice parameters were measured from room temperature to 400 °C for powders of the substituted compounds Nd2Fe17-xAlx and ND2Fe17-xSix = 0,1,2,3, using high-temperature x-ray diffraction. All compounds crystallize in the rhombohedral Th2Zn17-type structure (space group R3-m). Invar-type anomalies are found in the temperature dependence of a and c below the Curie temperatures, Tc, but featuring different substitution effects of Fe by Al and Si atoms, respectively. The Nd2Fe17-xAlx and ND2Fe17-xSix compounds retain easy-plane anisotropies upon substitution up to x = 3. Therefore, the observed spontaneous volume magnetostrictions are due mainly to the isotropic exchange contribution of the iron sublattice. According to the localized model of exchange interactions in R-Fe compounds, the different substitution effects can be ascribed to the different preferential occupation tendencies of Al and Si atoms on the sites of the Th2Zn17-type structure

Invar Properties of the Interstitial Carbides of Nd₂Fe₁₇

High-temperature x-ray diffraction experiments from 50 °C to 400 °C have been carried out to measure the thermal variations of the lattice parameters of Nd2Fe17Cx (x = 0.5, 1.0), which has the rhombohedral structure of the Th2Zn17 type, space group R3-m. the interstitial carbides Nd2Fe17Cx, together with their parent Nd2Fe17, exhibit Invar-like thermal expansion anomalies below their Curie temperatures, Tc. Although the introduction of carbon into Nd2Fe17 leads to lattice expansion and enhancement of Tc, the observed positive spontaneous magnetostriction of the carbides is comparable with that of Nd2Fe17. It is proposed that such a spontaneous magnetostriction can be ascribed to the occurrence of some short Fe-Fe distances and the strong distance dependence of the positive and negative interactions