Discussion: A large part of both clinical and subclinical lesions found in our daily work are benign and correspond with fibrocystic changes (FCC). This entity is complex and part exhibit traits that define characteristically in MRI and diagnose correctly, but there is another small group of changes that can take the image aspect of cancer. From a complex case, we review the main aspects of the...

Remodelling of endometrial tissues is fundamental to the cyclical changes that occur during the menstrual cycle, implantation and, in the absence of pregnancy, at menstruation. The enzyme matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) is recognized as important in these processes but its regulation is not well defined. These studies have demonstrated that MMP-9 activity is present in the endometrium and ex...

Is time-varying firm-level uncertainty a major cause or amplifier of the business cycle? This paper investigates this question in the context of a heterogeneous-firm RBC model with persistent firm-level productivity shocks and lumpy capital adjustment, where cyclical changes in uncertainty correspond naturally to cyclical changes in the cross-sectional dispersion of firm-specific Solow residual...

We develop an equilibrium business cycle model where nonconvex delivery costs lead producers of final goods to follow generalized (S,s) inventory policies with respect to intermediate goods. When calibrated to match the average inventory-to-sales ratio in postwar U.S. data, our model reproduces two-thirds of the cyclical variability of inventory investment. Moreover, inventory accumulation is s...

PURPOSE This study examines the effect of the L-type calcium channel blocker verapamil on mechanical strain-induced extracellular matrix genes in optic nerve head lamina cribrosa (LC) cells. METHODS Changes in LC cell intracellular calcium [Ca(2+)]i following hypotonic cell membrane stretch were measured with the fluorescent probe fura-2/AM. Fluorescence intensity was measured, after labellin...

Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are exposed to hormonal and mechanical stress in vivo. Hormonal factors have been shown to affect hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha). How mechanical stress affects the regulation of HIF-1alpha in VSMCs has not been reported previously, and therefore we sought to investigate the regulation of HIF-1alpha by cyclical mechanical stretch in cultured rat...