ThumbNet: One Thumbnail Image Contains All You Need for Recognition

Although deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have achieved great success in computer vision tasks, its real-world application is still impeded by its voracious demand of computational resources. Current works mostly seek to compress the network by reducing its parameters or parameter-incurred computation, neglecting the influence of the input image on the system complexity. Based on the fact that input images of a CNN contain substantial redundancy, in this paper, we propose a unified framework, dubbed as ThumbNet, to simultaneously accelerate and compress CNN models by enabling them to infer on one thumbnail image. We provide three effective strategies to train ThumbNet. In doing so, ThumbNet learns an inference network that performs equally well on small images as the original-input network on large images. With ThumbNet, not only do we obtain the thumbnail-input inference network that can drastically reduce computation and memory requirements, but also we obtain an image downscaler that can generate thumbnail images for generic classification tasks. Extensive experiments show the effectiveness of ThumbNet, and demonstrate that the thumbnail-input inference network learned by ThumbNet can adequately retain the accuracy of the original-input network even when the input images are downscaled 16 times

Reducing Neuroinflammation in Psychiatric Disorders: Novel Target of Phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) and Developing of the PDE4 Inhibitors

Multiple lines of evidence support the pathogenic role of neuroinflammation in psychiatric illness. Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) is a critical regulator of microglia homeostasis; as the predominant negative modulator of cyclic AMP signaling within microglia, and phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) represents a promising target for modulating immune function. The approach for pharmacological manipulation of cAMP levels using specifc PDE4 inhibitors provokes an ant-iinflammatory response. Specifcally, PDE4 inhibitors have recently emerged as a potential therapeutic strategy for neuroinflammatory, neurodegenerative, and psychiatric diseases. Mechanistically, PDE4 inhibitors produce an anti-inflammatory and neuroprotection effect by increasing the accumulation of cAMP and activating protein kinase A (PKA), the signaling pathway of which is thought to play an important role in the development of psychiatric disorders. This chapter reviews present knowledge of the relationship between neuroinflammation and classical psychiatric disorders (major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD), and schizophrenia) and demonstrates the signaling pathways that underlie the use of PDE4 inhibitors in neuroinflammation. In addition, among the four subtypes (A-D) of PDE4, it remains unclear which one exerts suppressive effects on neuroinflammation. Understanding how PDE4 and neuroinflammation interact can reveal pathogenic clues and help target new preventive and symptomatic therapies for psychiatric illness

A novel epigenetic AML1-ETO/THAP10/miR-383 mini-circuitry contributes to t(8;21) leukaemogenesis

DNA methylation patterns are frequently deregulated in t(8;21) acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), but little is known of the mechanisms by which specific gene sets become aberrantly methylated. Here, we found that the promoter DNA methylation signature of t(8;21)(+) AML blasts differs from that of t(8;21)(-) AMLs. This study demonstrated that a novel hypermethylated zinc finger-containing protein, THAP10, is a target gene and can be epigenetically suppressed by AML1-ETO at the transcriptional level in t(8;21) AML. Our findings also show that THAP10 is a bona fide target of miR-383 that can be epigenetically activated by the AML1-ETO recruiting co-activator p300. In this study, we demonstrated that epigenetic suppression of THAP10 is the mechanistic link between AML1-ETO fusion proteins and tyrosine kinase cascades. In addition, we showed that THAP10 is a nuclear protein that inhibits myeloid proliferation and promotes differentiation both in vitro and in vivo Altogether, our results revealed an unexpected and important epigenetic mini-circuit of AML1-ETO/THAP10/miR-383 in t(8;21) AML, in which epigenetic suppression of THAP10 predicts a poor clinical outcome and represents a novel therapeutic target

Evaluation of attract-and-kill strategy for management of cocoa pod borer, Conopomorpha cramerella, in Malaysia cocoa plantation

In South-East Asia, cocoa production is dramatically affected by cocoa pod borer (CPB) infestations. As an alternative tool to chemical control, the efficacy of attract-and-kill strategy (CPB sex-pheromone as attractant and Delta trap without sticky liner sprayed with cypermethrin solution as killing station) was evaluated and compared with current standard CPB management approach as control treatment during two main cocoa harvest seasons in Malaysia (with 100 mu g and 33.3 mu g CPB-pheromone loading per station, respectively). In both seasons, attract-and-kill strategy was highly effective at reducing male flight activity (p < 0.05) in attract-and-kill plots comparing with standard CPB management plots. For the percentage of CPB-infested pods, the attract-and-kill strategy (100 mu g) was as good as the conventional pesticide spray applications of cypermethrin (p = 0.083) in first season. However, it was significantly (p = 0.021) reduced in the second season with lower pheromone loading (33.3 mu g), indicating that this semiochemical based strategy is far superior to and more feasible than the currently applied conventional synthetic pesticide treatment and is therefore a good alternative in CPB integrated pest management