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Background: Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the most widely used treatment option for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Elevated serum YKL-40 level has been shown to predict poor prognosis in HCC patients undergoing resection. This study was designed to validate the prognostic significance of serum YKL-40 in patients with HCC undergoing TACE treatment. Methods: Serum YKL-40 level was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Overall survival (OS) was evaluated with the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by the log-rank test. Multivariate study with Cox proportional hazard model was used to evaluate independent prognostic variables of OS. Results: The median pretreatment serum YKL-40 in HCC patients with was significantly higher than that in healthy controls (P<0.001). The YKL-40 could predict survival precisely either in a dichotomized or continuous fashion (P<0.001 and P = 0.001, respectively). Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that serum YKL-40 was an independent prognostic factor for OS in HCC patients (P = 0.001). In further stratified analyses, YKL-40 could discriminate the outcomes of patients with low and high alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level (P = 0.006 and 0.016, respectively). Furthermore, the combination of serum YKL-40 and AFP had more capacity to predict patients' outcomes. Conclusions: Serum YKL-40 was demonstrated to be an independent prognostic biomarker in HCC patients treated with TACE. Our results need confirmation in an independent study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the framework of a multi-phase transport model, initial fluctuations in the transverse parton density lead to all orders of harmonic flows. Hadron-triggered azimuthal correlations include all contributions from harmonic flows, hot spots, and jet-medium excitations, which are isolated by using different initial conditions. We found that different physical components dominate different pseudorapidity ranges of dihadron correlations. Because γ-triggered azimuthal correlations can only be caused by jet-medium interactions, a comparative study of hadron- and γ-triggered azimuthal correlations can reveal more dynamics about jet-medium interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to search for the origin of double-peak structure in di-hadron azimuthal correlation at RHIC, a γ-jet with known production point and momentum is triggered in a multi-phase transport model. Partonic medium presents different shapes of responses to different geometry configurations of triggered γ-jet. The key of the double-peak structure is found to be a strong shadowing effect of dense core, which is related to transverse expansion and radial flow of partonic matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hanbury-Brown Twiss (HBT) radii of Au+Au collisions at RHIC energy are investigated by a hydrodynamical expanding source with both shear (η) and bulk viscosities (ζ). With different height of the ratio of ζ to entropy density s, the ratio Rout/Rside of HBT radii can not describe the experimental data. But with large enough peak of ζ/s, the instability suggests that the source may clusterize which gives a hint to resolve the HBT puzzle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an analysis of the steroids and other constituents from the Armillaria lueo-virens mushroom in China. It states that Armillaria-virens is a traditional medicinal plant used to treat dizziness, headache and infantile convulsion. Among the compounds identified in the analysis include nicotinic acid, linoleic acid ethyl ester and linoleic acid. It also offers information regarding the extraction and isolation of these compounds from the dried and fruiting bodies of the plant.