Florida State University

About: Florida State University is a education organization based out in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 25117 authors who have published 65361 publications receiving 2527087 citations. The organization is also known as: FSU & Florida State.

Large-Scale Aspects of Deep Convective Activity over the GATE Area

Abstract: Using digital IR data obtained by SMS I satellite, the large-scale behavior of convective activity was investigated over the tropical Atlantic within the GATE area. Spectral analysis has revealed the existence of two remarkable periodicities which show good association with the large-scale atmospheric field, namely, a 4-5 day mode and a diurnal mode. The area of the enhanced convection associated with the 4-5 day mode moves westward from Africa through the tropical Atlantic. Its mean phase speed turned out to be about 7° day-1 and the mean wavelength about 30° in longitude. The vertical structure of the corresponding disturbance, was investigated by the time-composite technique applied to upper air data over the GATE A/B area. The result shows that the enhancement of convection is associated with deep upward motion throughout the troposphere and southerly (northerly) winds in the lower (upper) troposphere. It also shows that the enhancement is accompanied by moistening in the cloud layer, while d...

Energy Flow and Nutrient Cycling in Salamander Populations in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire

Abstract: Energy flow through salamander populations in the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem is about 11,000 kcal/ha yr (=46,000 kJ/ha yr). This is approx. = 0.02% of the net primary productivity, and is approx. = 20% of the energy flow through bird and mammal populations. Salamanders are efficient (60%) at converting ingested energy into new tissue and produce more new tissue annually than do bird populations. Salamanders are insignificant agents as sinks for nutrients or as agents for nutrient cycling in the ecosystem. Sodium is the possible exception, as an amount equivalent to >8% of the Na in annual litter fall passes through salamander populations; all other nutrients (Ca, Mg, K, P, N, S, and Zn) are that of most of their invertebrate prey. There is some evidence that invertebrates rich in Ca content, such as snails and mites, are necessary components of the diet of salamanders. Salamander tissue is higher in protein content than that of birds and mammals and represents a source of high-quality energy for potential predators. Salamanders have restricted home ranges and are not significant agents in the movement of nutrients into or out of the system.

Interpolating U.S. Decennial Census Tract Data from as Early as 1970 to 2010: A Longtitudinal Tract Database.

Abstract: Differences in the reporting units of data from diverse sources and changes in units over time are common obstacles to analysis of areal data. We compare common approaches to this problem in the context of changes over time in the boundaries of U.S. census tracts. In every decennial census many tracts are split, consolidated, or changed in other ways from the previous boundaries to reflect population growth or decline. We examine two interpolation methods to create a bridge between years, one that relies only on areal weighting and another that also introduces population weights. Results demonstrate that these approaches produce substantially different estimates for variables that involve population counts, but they have a high degree of convergence for variables defined as rates or averages. Finally the paper describes the Longitudinal Tract Data Base (LTDB), through which we are making available public-use tools to implement these methods to create estimates within 2010 tract boundaries for any tract-level data (from the census or other sources) that are available for prior years as early as 1970.

Planck 2015 results - VIII. High Frequency Instrument data processing: Calibration and maps

Abstract: This paper describes the processing applied to the cleaned, time-ordered information obtained from the Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) with the aim of producing photometrically calibrated maps in temperature and (for the first time) in polarization. The data from the entire 2.5-year HFI mission include almost five full-sky surveys. HFI observes the sky over a broad range of frequencies, from 100 to 857 GHz. To obtain the best accuracy on the calibration over such a large range, two different photometric calibration schemes have been used. The 545 and 857 GHz data are calibrated using models of planetary atmospheric emission. The lower frequencies (from 100 to 353 GHz) are calibrated using the time-variable cosmological microwave background dipole, which we call the orbital dipole. This source of calibration only depends on the satellite velocity with respect to the solar system. Using a CMB temperature of TCMB = 2.7255 ± 0.0006 K, it permits an independent measurement of the amplitude of the CMB solar dipole (3364.3 ± 1.5 μK), which is approximatively 1σ higher than the WMAP measurement with a direction that is consistent between the two experiments. We describe the pipeline used to produce the maps ofintensity and linear polarization from the HFI timelines, and the scheme used to set the zero level of the maps a posteriori. We also summarize the noise characteristics of the HFI maps in the 2015 Planck data release and present some null tests to assess their quality. Finally, we discuss the major systematic effects and in particular the leakage induced by flux mismatch between the detectors that leads to spurious polarization signal.

Fluorescent protein FRET pairs for ratiometric imaging of dual biosensors.

Abstract: Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) with fluorescent proteins is a powerful method for detection of protein-protein interactions, enzyme activities and small molecules in the intracellular milieu. Aided by a new violet-excitable yellow-fluorescing variant of Aequorea victoria GFP, we developed dual FRET-based caspase-3 biosensors. Owing to their distinct excitation profiles, each FRET biosensor can be ratiometrically imaged in the presence of the other.