A Region-Shrinking-Based Acceleration for Classification-Based Derivative-Free Optimization

Derivative-free optimization algorithms play an important role in scientific and engineering design optimization problems, especially when derivative information is not accessible. In this paper, we study the framework of classification-based derivative-free optimization algorithms. By introducing a concept called hypothesis-target shattering rate, we revisit the computational complexity upper bound of this type of algorithms. Inspired by the revisited upper bound, we propose an algorithm named "RACE-CARS", which adds a random region-shrinking step compared with "SRACOS" (Hu et al., 2017).. We further establish a theorem showing the acceleration of region-shrinking. Experiments on the synthetic functions as well as black-box tuning for language-model-as-a-service demonstrate empirically the efficiency of "RACE-CARS". An ablation experiment on the introduced hyperparameters is also conducted, revealing the mechanism of "RACE-CARS" and putting forward an empirical hyperparameter-tuning guidance

Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in tumor microenvironment

The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays crucial roles in the formation of the body plan and also in the tumor invasion process. In addition, EMT also causes disruption of cell-cell adherence, loss of apico-basal polarity, matrix remodeling, increased motility and invasiveness in promoting tumor metastasis. The tumor microenvironment plays an important role in facilitating cancer metastasis and may induce the occurrence of EMT in tumor cells. A large number of inflammatory cells infiltrating the tumor site, as well as hypoxia existing in a large area of tumor, in addition many stem cells present in tumor microenvironment, such as cancer stem cells (CSCs), mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), all of these may be the inducers of EMT in tumor cells. The signaling pathways involved in EMT are various, including TGF-β, NF-κB, Wnt, Notch, and others. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge about the role of the tumor microenvironment in EMT and the related signaling pathways as well as the interaction between them