Interactions between planets and evolved stars

Searching for planetary companions to evolved stars (e.g., white dwarfs (WD) and Cataclysmic Variables (CV)) can provide insight into the interaction between planets and evolved stars as well as on the ultimate fate of planets. We have monitored decades of CVs and their progenitors including some detached WD binaries since 2006 to search for planets orbiting these systems. In the present paper, we will show some observational results of circumbinary planets in orbits around CVs and their progenitors. Some of our findings include planets with the shortest distance to the central evolved binaries and a few multiple planetary systems orbiting binary stars. Finally, by comparing the observational properties of planetary companions to single WDs and WD binaries, the interaction between planets and evolved stars and the ultimate fate of planets are discussed.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y GeofísicasInstituto de Astrofísica de La Plat

Functional Analysis of the Kinome of the Wheat Scab Fungus Fusarium graminearum

As in other eukaryotes, protein kinases play major regulatory roles in filamentous fungi. Although the genomes of many plant pathogenic fungi have been sequenced, systematic characterization of their kinomes has not been reported. The wheat scab fungus Fusarium graminearum has 116 protein kinases (PK) genes. Although twenty of them appeared to be essential, we generated deletion mutants for the other 96 PK genes, including 12 orthologs of essential genes in yeast. All of the PK mutants were assayed for changes in 17 phenotypes, including growth, conidiation, pathogenesis, stress responses, and sexual reproduction. Overall, deletion of 64 PK genes resulted in at least one of the phenotypes examined, including three mutants blocked in conidiation and five mutants with increased tolerance to hyperosmotic stress. In total, 42 PK mutants were significantly reduced in virulence or non-pathogenic, including mutants deleted of key components of the cAMP signaling and three MAPK pathways. A number of these PK genes, including Fg03146 and Fg04770 that are unique to filamentous fungi, are dispensable for hyphal growth and likely encode novel fungal virulence factors. Ascospores play a critical role in the initiation of wheat scab. Twenty-six PK mutants were blocked in perithecia formation or aborted in ascosporogenesis. Additional 19 mutants were defective in ascospore release or morphology. Interestingly, F. graminearum contains two aurora kinase genes with distinct functions, which has not been reported in fungi. In addition, we used the interlog approach to predict the PK-PK and PK-protein interaction networks of F. graminearum. Several predicted interactions were verified with yeast two-hybrid or co-immunoprecipitation assays. To our knowledge, this is the first functional characterization of the kinome in plant pathogenic fungi. Protein kinase genes important for various aspects of growth, developmental, and infection processes in F. graminearum were identified in this study

Optimal pricing strategy for residential electricity usage in smart grid

Abstract Electricity Retailers offer various utility plans in the hope that the increased competition would result in lower prices, improved service, and innovative product offerings. In this paper, we present the retail electric provider’s (REP) optimal pricing strategy for residential customers in smart grid, in which the REP offers multiple utility plans for customers with different needs, which includes a flat-rate plan, a multi-stage plan, and a lump-sum fee plan. The residential customers select the utility plan that maximize their own payoffs by considering their own demands and the pricing strategies of the three plans. In the other way around, the REP optimizes its profit by carefully designing its pricing strategy based on residential customers’ decisions. To obtain insights of such a highly coupled system, we consider a system with one REP and a group of customers in need of electricity. We propose a three-stage Stackelberg game model, in which the REP acts as the leader who decides the specific plans to offer at Stage I, then announces the price for each plan in stage II, and finally the customers act as followers that select plans in stage III. We derive the market equilibrium by analyzing customers’ decisions among the plans under different pricing schemes. Then, we provide the RP’s optimal pricing strategies to maximize its profit. In the end, we give the optimal decisions for REP on the specific plan(s) to offer while considering each customer’s evaluation and demand. Both the analytical and simulation results show that the lump-sum fee plan can maximize RP’s profit in most cases

La cuestión nacional desde la ecología política: Algunos elementos de análisis

Searching for planetary companions to evolved stars (e.g., white dwarfs (WD) and Cataclysmic Variables (CV)) can provide insight into the interaction between planets and evolved stars as well as on the ultimate fate of planets. We have monitored decades of CVs and their progenitors including some detached WD binaries since 2006 to search for planets orbiting these systems. In the present paper, we will show some observational results of circumbinary planets in orbits around CVs and their progenitors. Some of our findings include planets with the shortest distance to the central evolved binaries and a few multiple planetary systems orbiting binary stars. Finally, by comparing the observational properties of planetary companions to single WDs and WD binaries, the interaction between planets and evolved stars and the ultimate fate of planets are discussed.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y GeofísicasInstituto de Astrofísica de La Plat