Automated Design of Metaheuristic Algorithms: A Survey

Metaheuristics have gained great success in academia and practice because their search logic can be applied to any problem with available solution representation, solution quality evaluation, and certain notions of locality. Manually designing metaheuristic algorithms for solving a target problem is criticized for being laborious, error-prone, and requiring intensive specialized knowledge. This gives rise to increasing interest in automated design of metaheuristic algorithms. With computing power to fully explore potential design choices, the automated design could reach and even surpass human-level design and could make high-performance algorithms accessible to a much wider range of researchers and practitioners. This paper presents a broad picture of automated design of metaheuristic algorithms, by conducting a survey on the common grounds and representative techniques in terms of design space, design strategies, performance evaluation strategies, and target problems in this field

A Semipersistent Plant Virus Differentially Manipulates Feeding Behaviors of Different Sexes and Biotypes of Its Whitefly Vector.

It is known that plant viruses can change the performance of their vectors. However, there have been no reports on whether or how a semipersistent plant virus manipulates the feeding behaviors of its whitefly vectors. Cucurbit chlorotic yellows virus (CCYV) (genus Crinivirus, family Closteroviridae) is an emergent plant virus in many Asian countries and is transmitted specifically by B and Q biotypes of tobacco whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), in a semipersistent manner. In the present study, we used electrical penetration graph (EPG) technique to investigate the effect of CCYV on the feeding behaviors of B. tabaci. The results showed that CCYV altered feeding behaviors of both biotypes and sexes of B. tabaci with different degrees. CCYV had stronger effects on feeding behaviors of Q biotype than those of B biotype, by increasing duration of phloem salivation and sap ingestion, and could differentially manipulate feeding behaviors of males and females in both biotype whiteflies, with more phloem ingestion in Q biotype males and more non-phloem probing in B biotype males than their respective females. With regard to feeding behaviors related to virus transmission, these results indicated that, when carrying CCYV, B. tabaci Q biotype plays more roles than B biotype, and males make greater contribution than females

A Rapid Method for Detection of Salmonella in Milk Based on Extraction of mRNA Using Magnetic Capture Probes and RT-qPCR

Magnetic separation is an efficient method for target enrichment and elimination of inhibitors in the molecular detection systems for foodborne pathogens. In this study, we prepared magnetic capture probes by modifying oligonucleotides complementary to target sequences on the surface of amino-modified silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles and optimized the conditions and parameters of probe synthesis and hybridization. We innovatively put the complexes of magnetic capture probes and target sequences into qPCR without any need for denaturation and purification steps. This strategy can reduce manual steps and save time. We used the magnetic capture probes to separate invA mRNA from Salmonella in artificially contaminated milk samples. The detection sensitivity was 104 CFU/ml, which could be increased to 10 CFU/ml after a 12 h enrichment step. The developed method is robust enough to detect live bacteria in a complex environmental matrix

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

2-[(1S,3S)-3-Acetyl-2,2-dimethyl­cyclo­butyl]-N-(m-tol­yl)acetamide

The title compound, C17H23NO2, contains two chiral centres and was synthesized from 2-(3-acetyl-2,2-dimethyl­cyclo­butyl)acetic acid and m-toluidine. The cyclobutane ring is not flat but flexed as though folded from the dimethyl-substituted C atom to the unsubstituted C atom, with a dihedral angle of 25.9°. The crystal structure is stabilized by N—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter­actions

SYNTHESIS OF CYCLOBUTANE ANALOGUES

2-(3-Acetyl-2,2-dimethylcyclobutyl)acetic acid (pinonic acid) was synthesized using α-pinene as raw material and potassium permanganate as oxidant. This compound reacted with substituted aniline to produce eight kinds of derivatives with cyclobutane moiety. The yields of the cyclobutane analogues ranged from 24.9 to 78.2 %. KEY WORDS: Cyclobutane analogues, Pinonic acid, Oxidation Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2009, 23(1), 135-139