We investigate surrogate-assisted strategies for derivative-free optimization using the mesh adaptive direct search (MADS) blackbox optimization algorithm. In particular, we build an ensemble of surrogate models to be used within the search step of MADS, and examine different methods for selecting the best model for a given problem at hand. To do so, we introduce an order-based error tailored t...

Tomato plants harboring the ripening-inhibitor (rin) mutation yield fruits that fail to ripen. Additionally, rin plants display enlarged sepals and loss of inflorescence determinacy. Positional cloning of the rin locus revealed two tandem MADS-box genes (LeMADS-RIN and LeMADS-MC), whose expression patterns suggested roles in fruit ripening and sepal development, respectively. The rin mutation a...

The Mesh Adaptive Direct Search algorithm (MADS) is an iterative method for constrained blackbox optimization problems. One of the optional MADS features is a versatile search step in which quadratic models are built leading to a series of quadratically constrained quadratic subproblems. This work explores different algorithms that exploit the structure of the quadratic models: the first one ap...

Over the past decade, the ABC model of flower development has been widely promulgated. However, correct flower-organ development requires not only the ABC genes but also the SEPALLATA genes. When the SEPALLATA genes are expressed together with the ABC genes, both vegetative and cauline leaves are converted to floral organs. Most of the ABC genes and all three SEPALLATA genes encode MADS transcr...

BACKGROUND The myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) gene family is broadly expressed during the development and maintenance of muscle cells. Although a great deal has been elucidated concerning MEF2 transcription factors' regulation of specific gene expression in diverse programs and adaptive responses, little is known about the origin and evolution of the four members of the MEF2 gene family in ve...

Classic MIKC-type MADS-box genes (MIKC(c)) play diverse and crucial roles in angiosperm development, the most studied and best understood of which is the specification of floral organ identities. To shed light on how the flower evolved, phylogenetic and functional analyses of genes involved in its ontogeny, such as the MIKC(c) genes, must be undertaken in as broad a selection as possible of pla...

References [1] I. Aktug and D. Gurov. State space representation for verification of open systems. [5] Mads Dam. Decidability and proof systems for language-based non-interference relations.