The achievement flow motive as an element of the autotelic personality: predicting educational attainment in three cultures

Human behavior is directed by an implicit and an explicit motivational system. The intrinsic form of the implicit achievement motive has been demonstrated to predict the experience of flow. Thus, this achievement flow motive can be considered an integral component of the autotelic personality, posited in Flow Theory as dispositional difference in the propensity to experience flow. As implicit motivation predicts long-term behavioral trends and flow predicts quality of performance, the achievement flow motive should be predictive of a long-term goal pursuit such as educational attainment. This hypothesis is tested cross-culturally to shed some light on the universality of flow: Participants from Cameroon, Costa Rica, and Germany were asked about the level of education they attained. To assess their achievement flow motive, the Operant Motive Test was employed. After measurement equivalence was established, analyses revealed that, across all three cultures, the achievement flow motive explained variance in educational attainment independent of achievement values as measured by a scale of the Schwartz Value Survey. Consequently, as would be expected of an element of the autotelic personality, the achievement flow motive predicts long-term academic success.     

Assessment of the biocompatibility of three-dimensional-printed polymers using multispecies toxicity tests

Additive manufacturing was adopted in multiple fields of life sciences. It is also becoming a popular tool for rapid prototyping of microfluidic and biomedical devices. Limited studies have been performed to investigate the biological implications of using 3D printed polymers. Here we assessed the biocompatibility of seven commercially available polymers, using a battery of standardized bioassays for chemical risk assessment. Our data show that leachates from photopolymers substrata appear to be very toxic to vertebrates and several invertebrate indicator organisms. These results demonstrate significant consequences for the use of selected photopolymers in the fabrication of bio-devices.     

Evolving Institutional Approaches to Subsidizing End User Access to Research Databases: A Case Study

This paper reviews work of the Getty Art History Information Program (AHIP, recently renamed the Getty Information Institute) over the past decade to subsidize end user on-line access to scholarly research databases. A brief history of AHIP's work in the area is followed by a summary of a study of subsidized access to Dialog databases by Getty Center resident scholars which was reported in a series of papers by Marcia Bates, professor of Library Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. This study provided a touchstone for an assessment of the relative merits and opportunities associated with the various contractual arrangements and incentive strategies employed by AHIP with vendors such as Dialog, consortia such as the Research Libraries Group, and a CD-ROM publication program. The effectiveness of each of these methods in reaching the user is compared to print publications and the experimental offer of access to some of the AHIP databases over the World Wide Web.     

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