AutoOptLib: Tailoring Metaheuristic Optimizers via Automated Algorithm Design

Metaheuristics are prominent gradient-free optimizers for solving hard problems that do not meet the rigorous mathematical assumptions of analytical solvers. The canonical manual optimizer design could be laborious, untraceable and error-prone, let alone human experts are not always available. This arises increasing interest and demand in automating the optimizer design process. In response, this paper proposes AutoOptLib, the first platform for accessible automated design of metaheuristic optimizers. AutoOptLib leverages computing resources to conceive, build up, and verify the design choices of the optimizers. It requires much less labor resources and expertise than manual design, democratizing satisfactory metaheuristic optimizers to a much broader range of researchers and practitioners. Furthermore, by fully exploring the design choices with computing resources, AutoOptLib has the potential to surpass human experience, subsequently gaining enhanced performance compared with human problem-solving. To realize the automated design, AutoOptLib provides 1) a rich library of metaheuristic components for continuous, discrete, and permutation problems; 2) a flexible algorithm representation for evolving diverse algorithm structures; 3) different design objectives and techniques for different optimization scenarios; and 4) a graphic user interface for accessibility and practicability. AutoOptLib is fully written in Matlab/Octave; its source code and documentation are available at https://github.com/qz89/AutoOpt and https://AutoOpt.readthedocs.io/, respectively

Paradoxical leadership on firm performance: What role can guanxi HRD practices play?

Research shows that paradoxical leadership has a strong positive but inconsistent relationship with firm performance. Drawing on leadership contingency theory, we provide a theoretical model explaining how business unit level (BU-level) paradoxical leadership positively impacts BU-level performance mediated by BU-level corporate entrepreneurship (CE). However, we also show that this relationship can turn negative when the degree of firm-level Guanxi on human resource development (Guanxi HRD) practices is high. By relying on the responses from 276 BUs and performance archival data from the Taiwan Economic Journal database, we found that BU-level CE mediates the relationship between BU-level paradoxical leadership and BU-level performance. Firm-level Guanxi HRD practices diminish this effect and turn the positive relationship between BU-level paradoxical leadership and BU-level performance through BU-level CE negative. Our study reveals the dark side of firm-level Guanxi HRD practices and provides new theoretical and empirical insights that reconcile the relationship between paradoxical leadership and firm performance.</p

Paradoxical leadership on firm performance: What role can guanxi HRD practices play?

Research shows that paradoxical leadership has a strong positive but inconsistent relationship with firm performance. Drawing on leadership contingency theory, we provide a theoretical model explaining how business unit level (BU-level) paradoxical leadership positively impacts BU-level performance mediated by BU-level corporate entrepreneurship (CE). However, we also show that this relationship can turn negative when the degree of firm-level Guanxi on human resource development (Guanxi HRD) practices is high. By relying on the responses from 276 BUs and performance archival data from the Taiwan Economic Journal database, we found that BU-level CE mediates the relationship between BU-level paradoxical leadership and BU-level performance. Firm-level Guanxi HRD practices diminish this effect and turn the positive relationship between BU-level paradoxical leadership and BU-level performance through BU-level CE negative. Our study reveals the dark side of firm-level Guanxi HRD practices and provides new theoretical and empirical insights that reconcile the relationship between paradoxical leadership and firm performance.</p

Paradoxical leadership on firm performance: What role can guanxi HRD practices play?

Research shows that paradoxical leadership has a strong positive but inconsistent relationship with firm performance. Drawing on leadership contingency theory, we provide a theoretical model explaining how business unit level (BU-level) paradoxical leadership positively impacts BU-level performance mediated by BU-level corporate entrepreneurship (CE). However, we also show that this relationship can turn negative when the degree of firm-level Guanxi on human resource development (Guanxi HRD) practices is high. By relying on the responses from 276 BUs and performance archival data from the Taiwan Economic Journal database, we found that BU-level CE mediates the relationship between BU-level paradoxical leadership and BU-level performance. Firm-level Guanxi HRD practices diminish this effect and turn the positive relationship between BU-level paradoxical leadership and BU-level performance through BU-level CE negative. Our study reveals the dark side of firm-level Guanxi HRD practices and provides new theoretical and empirical insights that reconcile the relationship between paradoxical leadership and firm performance

The m⁷G Reader NCBP2 Promotes Pancreatic Cancer Progression by Upregulating MAPK/ERK Signaling

PDAC is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide. The difficulty of early diagnosis and lack of effective treatment are the main reasons for its poor prognosis. Therefore, it is urgent to identify novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets for PDAC patients. The m7G methylation is a common type of RNA modification that plays a pivotal role in regulating tumor development. However, the correlation between m7G regulatory genes and PDAC progression remains unclear. By integrating gene expression and related clinical information of PDAC patients from TCGA and GEO cohorts, m7G binding protein NCBP2 was found to be highly expressed in PDAC patients. More importantly, PDAC patients with high NCBP2 expression had a worse prognosis. Stable NCBP2-knockdown and overexpression PDAC cell lines were constructed to further perform in-vitro and in-vivo experiments. NCBP2-knockdown significantly inhibited PDAC cell proliferation, while overexpression of NCBP2 dramatically promoted PDAC cell growth. Mechanistically, NCBP2 enhanced the translation of c-JUN, which in turn activated MEK/ERK signaling to promote PDAC progression. In conclusion, our study reveals that m7G reader NCBP2 promotes PDAC progression by activating MEK/ERK pathway, which could serve as a novel therapeutic target for PDAC patients

Search for narrow Hγ resonances in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV

A search for heavy, narrow resonances decaying to a Higgs boson and a photon (Hγ) has been performed in proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9  fb[superscript −1] collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016. Events containing a photon and a Lorentz-boosted hadronically decaying Higgs boson reconstructed as a single, large-radius jet are considered, and the γ+jet invariant mass spectrum is analyzed for the presence of narrow resonances. To increase the sensitivity of the search, events are categorized depending on whether or not the large-radius jet can be identified as a result of the merging of two jets originating from b quarks. Results in both categories are found to agree with the predictions of the standard model. Upper limits on the production rate of Hγ resonances are set as a function of their mass in the range of 720–3250 GeV, representing the most stringent constraints to date