Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

Experimental Data

As urban populations continue to grow, so does the need to address local issues including food security and accessibility. Green walls, particularly those used in Vertical Farming (VF), have potential for abundance in urban environments and may also provide secondary benefits relating to equity and community engagement. Coupled with advancements in 3D printing technology and the advent of bio-composite filaments, this study aims to utilize 3D printing to establish a baseline for cultivating food crops in bio-composite substrate. Test panels were fabricated using three different filament types: 100% pure PLA (polylactic acid), PLA with 11% wood powder, and PLA with 30% wood powder. Our findings show that there is a statistically significant difference in plant growth between filament types, suggesting that the higher the percentage of organic material present within composite filament, the higher the chance for wicking and moisture retention to occur, thereby increasing plant production and viability.

These data are from three experiments used in the manuscript titled "Eastern redcedar roots create legacy effects that suppresses growth of prairie species"

Height and biomass research data for the article "Plant-soil feedback from eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) inhibits the growth of grasses in encroaching range," by L. Bennion & D. Ward.

Two datasets containing point-pattern samples from sites in Oklahoma, Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.

The title of this research project is: "Differentiated plant-defense strategies: herbivore community dynamics affect plant-herbivore interactions" and it ran from May 2017 until October 2020.

There were 6 deer exclosures set up at Liberty Park in the Summit County Metroparks. There were 4 swamp white oaks (Quercus bicolor) planted inside each exclosure and 4 planted outside each exclosure. Insecticide was applied to half of the exclosures to establish 4 different herbivore feeding communities: 1) No herbivores, 2) deer only, 3) insect only, and 4) deer and insect herbivores. From each tree, we measured phytochemical changes in trees above and below the browseline over the four years. Measurements were taken in May and September each year. Additionally, we analyzed insect-feeding guilds and recorded the dominant feeding guild in each tree.

One dataset has the insect feeding guild diversity and the other contains the phytochemical changes from the plants.

Associated data set from research project.

The relationship between stress and behavior can help us to understand how physiological adaptations shape primate societies. Most studies have focused on glucocorticoids (GC) as stress biomarkers, but other extrinsic and intrinsic factors can influence GC levels and confound the results. To overcome this issue, including analyses of dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEAS), a GC antagonist, can be useful in evaluating overall adrenal function in response to biological, social, and environmental factors. Our goal was to evaluate the effect of reproductive state, social behavior, ambient temperature, and season (mating and non-mating) on DHEAS levels and the ratio between GC metabolites and DHEAS (GCM:DHEAS) in 11 free-ranging, female, Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) (7 pregnant/lactating, 4 nonpregnant/nonlactating) from Jigokudani Monkey Park (Japan). We validated and measured fecal DHEAS levels in 354 samples by enzyme immunoassay and calculated GCM:DHEAS by using previously reported data for GC metabolites. We tested the effects of reproductive state, dominance rank, social behavior, season, and ambient temperature on adrenal steroids using Generalized Linear Mixed-Effect Models. We found that pregnant and lactating females had higher DHEAS levels than nonpregnant/nonlactating females and that DHEAS levels were higher during the mating season. Temperature was positively correlated with GCM:DHEAS. Dominant females had higher DHEAS levels and lower GCM:DHEAS than subordinate females. We suggest that the high DHEAS to GC ratio in high-ranking females explains why they have better body condition than low-ranking females despite high GCM levels. This study confirms that including DHEAS provides valuable information for evaluating the stress response in primates.

 Experimental data from "Finding the Equilibrium of Organic Electrochemical Transistors"

This data set includes measures related to human, family, and financial capital used to compare self-employed immigrant women to their US-born women and immigrant male counterparts in the US. The data is a subset extracted from the IPUMS 2019 data.

Aim: We studied β diversity of grasses in a subtropical grassland over 60 years in South Africa. We examined the effects of burning and mowing on 132 large plots. We sought to determine the effects of burning and mowing, and mowing frequency, on the replacement of species and the species richness.

Location: Ukulinga, research farm of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
(29º 24’ E, 30º 24’ S).

Time period: 1950-2010.

Methods: Plots were burned annually, biennially, triennially, and a control (unburned). Plots were mowed in spring, in late summer, spring plus late summer, and a control (unmowed). We calculated β diversity, with a focus on replacement and richness differences. We also used distance-based redundancy analyses to examine the relative effects of replacement and richness differences on mowing and burning. We used beta regressions to test for the effect of soil depth and its interactions with mowing and burning.

Results: There was no significant change in grass beta diversity until 1995. Thereafter, there were changes in β diversity that demonstrated the primary effects of summer mowing frequency. There was no significant effect of richness differences, but a strong effect of replacement post-1995. There was a significant interaction between mowing frequency and soil depth in one of the analyses.

Main conclusions: Changes in grassland composition took a long time to manifest themselves and were unapparent prior to 1988. However, there was a change in sampling strategy prior to 1988, from point hits to nearest plants, that may also have influenced the rates of changes in replacement and richness differences. Using β-diversity indices, we found that mowing was more important than burning, that burning frequency was unimportant, and there was a significant interaction effect between mowing and soil depth in one of the analyses.