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In this paper, a straightforward and effective fusion method is designed for low brightness enhancement derivatives, which are generated through using brightness enhancement technique for a single low-brightness image. First, illumination estimation techniques and the principle of retinal imaging and cerebral cortex adjustment are combined to acquire the exposure ratio map. Then, a novel Chi-squared conversion function model and an accurate exposure ratio map are employed to obtain two derivatives with different characteristics: one is natural but not very detailed; the other is excessively bright but with prominent details. Finally, the improved weight matrix design and a novel derivatives fusion method are utilized to fuse the improved features of the derivatives. Experiments on a diverse set of images demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can not only reveal the efficiency of the brightness and detail enhancement, but also can show its superiority over several state-of-the-art processes in terms of overall visual information enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a new class of prognostic and diagnostic biomarkers for many cancers. Recent studies have shown that miRNAs are highly stable in plasma/serum. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of miR-421 in osteosarcoma. We found that the serum expression levels of miR-421 were significantly higher in osteosarcoma patients than those in healthy volunteers. Moreover, miR-421 expression was significantly higher in osteosarcoma tissues compared with that in the adjacent normal tissues. Meanwhile, the expression of miR-421 was upregulated in 90 % (36/40) osteosarcoma tissues compared to non-tumor tissues. More importantly, the expression levels of miR-421 in osteosarcoma tissues were correlated with those in patients' serum. In addition, patients with high miR-421 expression had shorter overall survival (OS) than those with low expressions. We also found that overexpression of miR-421 promoted osteosarcoma cell line MG-63 proliferation, migration, and invasion. In conclusion, miR-421 expression levels were upregulated in osteosarcoma tissue and serum and it may be a useful marker for diagnosis of osteosarcoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]