BlackVIP: Black-Box Visual Prompting for Robust Transfer Learning

With the surge of large-scale pre-trained models (PTMs), fine-tuning these models to numerous downstream tasks becomes a crucial problem. Consequently, parameter efficient transfer learning (PETL) of large models has grasped huge attention. While recent PETL methods showcase impressive performance, they rely on optimistic assumptions: 1) the entire parameter set of a PTM is available, and 2) a sufficiently large memory capacity for the fine-tuning is equipped. However, in most real-world applications, PTMs are served as a black-box API or proprietary software without explicit parameter accessibility. Besides, it is hard to meet a large memory requirement for modern PTMs. In this work, we propose black-box visual prompting (BlackVIP), which efficiently adapts the PTMs without knowledge about model architectures and parameters. BlackVIP has two components; 1) Coordinator and 2) simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation with gradient correction (SPSA-GC). The Coordinator designs input-dependent image-shaped visual prompts, which improves few-shot adaptation and robustness on distribution/location shift. SPSA-GC efficiently estimates the gradient of a target model to update Coordinator. Extensive experiments on 16 datasets demonstrate that BlackVIP enables robust adaptation to diverse domains without accessing PTMs' parameters, with minimal memory requirements. Code: \url{https://github.com/changdaeoh/BlackVIP}Comment: Accepted to CVPR 202

MiR-9 Controls Chemotactic Activity of Cord Blood CD34⁺ Cells by Repressing CXCR4 Expression

Improved approaches for promoting umbilical cord blood (CB) hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) homing are clinically important to enhance engraftment of CB-HSCs. Clinical transplantation of CB-HSCs is used to treat a wide range of disorders. However, an improved understanding of HSC chemotaxis is needed for facilitation of the engraftment process. We found that ectopic overexpression of miR-9 and antisense-miR-9 respectively down- and up-regulated C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) expression in CB-CD34＋ cells as well as in 293T and TF-1 cell lines. Since CXCR4 is a specific receptor for the stromal cell derived factor-1 (SDF-1) chemotactic factor, we investigated whether sense miR-9 and antisense miR-9 influenced CXCR4-mediated chemotactic mobility of primary CB CD34＋ cells and TF-1 cells. Ectopic overexpression of sense miR-9 and antisense miR-9 respectively down- and up-regulated SDF-1-mediated chemotactic cell mobility. To our knowledge, this study is the first to report that miR-9 may play a role in regulating CXCR4 expression and SDF-1-mediated chemotactic activity of CB CD34＋ cells

Persistent impacts of smoking on resting-state EEG in male chronic smokers and past-smokers with 20 years of abstinence

This work was supported in part by UNIST internal funding (1.210046.01) and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2018R1D1A1B07043582 to Chung). K.B. was partly supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2021R1F1A1063968), Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (Grant No. 2020-0-01450, Artificial Intelligence Convergence Research Center [Pusan National University]), and Ministry of Education of South Korea (the BK21 Four program, Korean Southeast Center for the 4th Industrial Revolution Leader Education)

Comparison of antibacterial activity and phenolic constituents of bark, lignum, leaves and fruit of Rhus verniciflua.

Rhus verniciflua is commonly known as a lacquer tree in Korea. The bark of R. verniciflua has been used as an immunostimulator in traditional medicine, but also causes allergic dermatitis due to urushiol derivatives. For the development of active natural resources with less toxicity, the antibacterial activity of various parts of R. verniciflua such as bark, lignum, leaves and fruit, together with chemical composition, were investigated. Among the various parts of R. verniciflua, lignum showed the most potent antibacterial activity against fish pathogenic bacteria such as Edwardsiella tarda, Vibrio anguillarum and Streptococcus iniae. Measurement of total phenolic content and flavonoid content clearly showed a high content of phenolic and flavonoids in lignum among the various parts of R. verniciflua. Further analysis showed a close correlation between antibacterial activity and phenolic content. In addition, methyl gallate and fustin, the major constituents of bark and lignum, showed antibacterial activity, which suggested phenolic constituents as active constituents. The content of urushiols, however, was highest in bark, but there was a trace amount in lignum. LC-MS-MS and PCA analysis showed good discrimination with the difference of phenolic composition in various parts of R. verniciflua. Taken together, phenolic compounds are responsible for the antibacterial activity of R. verniciflua. The lignum of R. verniciflua contains high content of phenolic compounds with less urushiols, which suggests efficient antibacterial activity with less toxicity. Therefore, the lignum of R. verniciflua is suggested as a good source for antibacterial material to use against fish bacterial diseases

The Transcription Factor Ets1 Suppresses T Follicular Helper Type 2 Cell Differentiation to Halt the Onset of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in ETS1 are associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Ets1?/? mice develop SLE-like symptoms, suggesting that dysregulation of this transcription factor is important to the onset or progression of SLE. We used conditional deletion approaches to examine the impact of Ets1 expression in different immune cell types. Ets1 deletion on CD4+ T cells, but not B cells or dendritic cells, resulted in the SLE autoimmunity, and this was associated with the spontaneous expansion of T follicular helper type 2 (Tfh2) cells. Ets1?/? Tfh2 cells exhibited increased expression of GATA-3 and interleukin-4 (IL-4), which induced IgE isotype switching in B cells. Neutralization of IL-4 reduced Tfh2 cell frequencies and ameliorated disease parameters. Mechanistically, Ets1 suppressed signature Tfh and Th2 cell genes, including Cxcr5, Bcl6, and Il4ra, thus curbing the terminal Tfh2 cell differentiation process. Tfh2 cell frequencies in SLE patients correlated with disease parameters, providing evidence for the relevance of these findings to human disease. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in ETS1 are associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Kim et al. show that Ets1 deletion in T cells, but not B cells or DCs, result in SLE-like humoral autoimmunity, which was due to the expansion of GATA-3+Bcl6+ Tfh2 cells and could be alleviated by neutralizing IL-4. Tfh2 frequencies in SLE patients correlate with disease parameters, suggesting therapeutic relevance for IL-4 blockade. ? 2018 Elsevier In

Antibacterial activity of major constituents of bark, lignum and leaves of <i>R</i>. <i>verniciflua</i> against <i>E</i>. <i>tarda</i>, <i>V</i>. <i>anguillarum</i> and <i>S</i>. <i>iniae</i>.

<p>Antibacterial activity of major constituents of bark, lignum and leaves of <i>R</i>. <i>verniciflua</i> against <i>E</i>. <i>tarda</i>, <i>V</i>. <i>anguillarum</i> and <i>S</i>. <i>iniae</i>.</p

Ratio of flavonoid, non-flavonoid and non-flavonoid/flavonoid of extracts of bark, lignum, leaves and fruit of <i>R</i>. <i>verniciflua</i>.

<p>Ratio of flavonoid, non-flavonoid and non-flavonoid/flavonoid of extracts of bark, lignum, leaves and fruit of <i>R</i>. <i>verniciflua</i>.</p

Correlation between antibacterial activity and phenolic contents of <i>R</i>. <i>verniciflua</i>.

<p>Correlation between antibacterial activity and phenolic contents of <i>R</i>. <i>verniciflua</i>.</p

HPLC chromatogram of bark, lignum, leaves and fruit of <i>R</i>. <i>verniciflua</i>.

<p>(A) Mass chromatogram (negative mode), (B) UV chromatogram (254 nm).</p