California Institute of Technology

About: California Institute of Technology is a education organization based out in Pasadena, California, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Galaxy & Population. The organization has 57649 authors who have published 146691 publications receiving 8620287 citations. The organization is also known as: Caltech & Cal Tech.

Characterization of the LIGO detectors during their sixth science run

Abstract: In 2009–2010, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) operated together with international partners Virgo and GEO600 as a network to search for gravitational waves (GWs) of astrophysical origin. The sensitivity of these detectors was limited by a combination of noise sources inherent to the instrumental design and its environment, often localized in time or frequency, that couple into the GW readout. Here we review the performance of the LIGO instruments during this epoch, the work done to characterize the detectors and their data, and the effect that transient and continuous noise artefacts have on the sensitivity of LIGO to a variety of astrophysical sources.

Changes in the Velocity Structure of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Abstract: Using satellite radar interferometry observations of Greenland, we detected widespread glacier acceleration below 66° north between 1996 and 2000, which rapidly expanded to 70° north in 2005. Accelerated ice discharge in the west and particularly in the east doubled the ice sheet mass deficit in the last decade from 90 to 220 cubic kilometers per year. As more glaciers accelerate farther north, the contribution of Greenland to sea-level rise will continue to increase.

SCF and Cullin/RING H2-Based Ubiquitin Ligases

Abstract: Protein degradation is deployed to modulate the steady-state abundance of proteins and to switch cellular regulatory circuits from one state to another by abrupt elimination of control proteins. In eukaryotes, the bulk of the protein degradation that occurs in the cytoplasm and nucleus is carried out by the 26S proteasome. In turn, most proteins are thought to be targeted to the 26S proteasome by covalent attachment of a multiubiquitin chain. Ubiquitination of proteins requires a multienzyme system. A key component of ubiquitination pathways, the ubiquitin ligase, controls both the specificity and timing of substrate ubiquitination. This review is focused on a conserved ubiquitin ligase complex known as SCF that plays a key role in marking a variety of regulatory proteins for destruction by the 26S proteasome.

Black Holes and Thermodynamics

Abstract: A black hole of given mass, angular momentum, and charge can have a large number of different unobservable internal configurations which reflect the possible different initial configurations of the matter which collapsed to produce the hole. The logarithm of this number can be regarded as the entropy of the black hole and is a measure of the amount of information about the initial state which was lost in the formation of the black hole. If one makes the hypothesis that the entropy is finite, one can deduce that the black holes must emit thermal radiation at some nonzero temperature. Conversely, the recently derived quantum-mechanical result that black holes do emit thermal radiation at temperature $\frac{\ensuremath{\kappa}\ensuremath{\hbar}}{2\ensuremath{\pi}kc}$, where $\ensuremath{\kappa}$ is the surface gravity, enables one to prove that the entropy is finite and is equal to $\frac{{c}^{3}A}{4G\ensuremath{\hbar}}$, where $A$ is the surface area of the event horizon or boundary of the black hole. Because black holes have negative specific heat, they cannot be in stable thermal equilibrium except when the additional energy available is less than 1/4 the mass of the black hole. This means that the standard statistical-mechanical canonical ensemble cannot be applied when gravitational interactions are important. Black holes behave in a completely random and time-symmetric way and are indistinguishable, for an external observer, from white holes. The irreversibility that appears in the classical limit is merely a statistical effect.

Programming biomolecular self-assembly pathways

Abstract: In nature, self-assembling and disassembling complexes of proteins and nucleic acids bound to a variety of ligands perform intricate and diverse dynamic functions. In contrast, attempts to rationally encode structure and function into synthetic amino acid and nucleic acid sequences have largely focused on engineering molecules that self-assemble into prescribed target structures, rather than on engineering transient system dynamics. To design systems that perform dynamic functions without human intervention, it is necessary to encode within the biopolymer sequences the reaction pathways by which self-assembly occurs. Nucleic acids show promise as a design medium for engineering dynamic functions, including catalytic hybridization, triggered self-assembly and molecular computation. Here, we program diverse molecular self-assembly and disassembly pathways using a 'reaction graph' abstraction to specify complementarity relationships between modular domains in a versatile DNA hairpin motif. Molecular programs are executed for a variety of dynamic functions: catalytic formation of branched junctions, autocatalytic duplex formation by a cross-catalytic circuit, nucleated dendritic growth of a binary molecular 'tree', and autonomous locomotion of a bipedal walker.