Why Do Makers Make? Examining Designer Motivations on Thingiverse.com

Technological advancements have made a once fictitious dream into a reality. 3D printing has become a popular manufacturing and design technique used all over the world. As this industry becomes more popular, users of these 3D printers are reaching out across the web to share designs, seek help, and build communities of users with similar interests. This study is meant to look at what motivates 3D printing users to participate in online user innovation communities such as Thingiverse.com. This study will explore motivations such as personal needs, financial gains, approval of peers, skill development, and enjoyment. Moreover, it will assess the impact of each of these motivations on the number of designs created by designers within the observation period (May 2017-May 2018) and on the market response to these designs. To study these elements, we first perused research done in previous studies on motivations in brand communities, transactional communities, and user innovation communities to create a literature review. Following the literature review, a survey was created which asked Thingiverse makers 5 sets of questions related to their specific motivations for creating and sharing designs and asked them to provide demographic data as well. The results obtained from this research indicate that the motivation to satisfy a personal need has a marginally significant, negative impact on the number of designs created by a maker while the desire to gain approval from others in the community has a significant, positive effect on market response to those designs. Additionally, it was found that a desire for financial gain has little to no effect on the number of designs created or on the market response, a result which was surprising considering that 25% of the respondents reported earning money from 3D printing. These results and their implications as well as future research directions are outlined in the concluding discussion section

Mistris Hutchinsons Double Weekly-Lecture : Puritan Assemblies and the Antinomian Controversy of 1636-38

The Antinomian Controversy of 1636-38 was a complex religious conflict concerning politics and disruption of Puritan society. It began when the Massachusetts Bay colony split into religious factions within the Church at Boston. At the height of the controversy it seemed a majority of the congregation favored a grace-only means of salvation. Most in authoritative positions believed religious works were important to the societal foundation of a holy Puritan community. With the feared breakdown of society looming over them, they would prosecute and convict Anne Hutchinson for violating the cohesion of the colony. Hutchinson was a prominent woman in the community who held weekly Bible study meetings in her home. Her opinions tended to personally insult those ministers who did not agree with her. At a deeper level, her meetings were the practical quality of an ideological conversation concerning sectionalism and individualism within the Puritan church. She was ostracized and her meetings were eventually pronounced illegal, but her ideas had only slightly deviated from the foundation her Puritan community had built. Ironically, her English Puritan background primed her for these illegal meeting practices. Though many factors contributed to this conflict—gender, theology and personal hostility being some of the most apparent—the Antinomian Controversy largely concerned an attitude of dissent, reflected in Hutchinson’s informal assemblies

Unimolecular reaction rates in solution and in the isolated molecule: Comparison of diphenyl butadiene nonradiative decay in solutions and supersonic jets

The recent study of diphenyl butadiene (DPB) in supersonic jets and in solution by Shepanski et al.(1) and by Courtney and Felming(2), respectively, provides an opportunity to compare the isomerization rates measured in the isolated molecule (jet) with those measured at very low viscosity in solution. These comparisons should shed light on the vibrational energy flows between “optical” and “reactive” modes in the isolated molecule and on the connection between activated, friction dependent, models of barrier crossing in solution,(3-5) and statistical RRK (or RRKM) theories of gas phase unimolecular reactions(6)

Chromosome Number Evolution, Phylogeography, and the Effects of Climate Change on Species Distributions in Polyploid Plant Systems

Polyploidy, a term used to describe organisms with cells having more than two paired sets of chromosomes, is a significant driver of diversification among land plants. Over a century of research has advanced our understanding of polyploidization in some taxa, but polyploid organisms remain understudied. In this dissertation, I investigate chromosome number evolution, phylogeographic structure, genetic differentiation, and the effects of climate change on ploidy level distribution using polyploid plant systems. In the first chapter, I inferred a molecular phylogeny of Allium, an economically important genus that includes cultivated crops and ornamentals, to investigate evolutionary transitions in chromosome number using likelihood-based methods. The best-fit model of chromosome evolution showed that chromosome transitions within Allium occurred through the constant gains and losses of single chromosomes as well as demi-polyploidization events, with the rate of chromosome gain events being approximately 2.5 to 4.5 times more likely to occur than demi-polyploidization and loss events, respectively. In the second chapter, I used nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequences generated from eight populations in the North American Coastal Plain (NACP) biodiversity hotspot and one nearby population in Kansas to examine genetic diversity and population structure of A. canadense var. canadense, a polyploid species that exhibits vegetative reproduction which may lead to low genetic diversity within extant populations. A total of 12 ITS ribosomal and 10 chloroplast DNA haplotypes were identified, and significant genetic subdivision among populations was detected across all populations by analysis of molecular variance. In the third chapter, I used ecological niche modeling to evaluate the differences in niche identity among diploid and polyploid plants endemic to the NACP at the generic level using current bioclimatic variables, then niche overlap and habitat suitability using future climate change scenarios were assessed. I found that congeneric ploidy level pairs differed significantly in niche identity, and niche overlap varied across genera. I also identified 11 genera that showed greater than 100% increases in habitat suitability and six genera that showed almost no remaining suitable habitat in at least one future climate scenario. Based on these results, I provide future directions for continued studies in the NACP

Size-dependent patterns of reproductive investment in the North American invasive plant species Triadica sebifera (L.) Small (Euphorbiaceae)

Knowledge of sex allocation trade-offs with tree growth in insect-pollinated woody plants is limited, particularly in invasive plants. This study examined patterns of growth and reproductive investment in a North American invasive plant species, Triadica sebifera, I hypothesized that the energy limitations of smaller trees may result in the production of more male reproductive structures that are energetically less costly. Diameter at breast height was a significant predictor of seed and catkin mass and regression can describe these relationships across sites. Seed and catkin mass were positively correlated across sites. The relationship between the seed mass:catkin mass ratio and DBH was not significant, nor was seed mass:catkin mass and total investment. Results showed a significant positive relationship between total reproductive investment and tree size across sites. Seed mass:catkin mass ratio and reproduction investment showed substantial variation among individual trees of similar size within sites

Characterizing the contribution of the LXCXE binding cleft to pRB-mediated genome stability and tumor suppression

Condensation and segregation of mitotic chromosomes are critical processes for cellular propagation and if compromised, can lead to genomic instability. Genomic instability is known to be an active contributor to tumorigenesis, rather than being a by-product of malignant progression. The retinoblastoma protein (pRB) is the prototypic tumor suppressor. Its tumor suppressive properties are linked to its ability to negatively regulate proliferation by inhibiting E2F target gene transcription. Using a gene targeted mouse model defective for interactions mediated by the pRB LXCXE binding cleft that is distinct from E2F binding (Rb1ΔL/ΔL), I have demonstrated that LXCXE-interactions are an essential part of pRB-mediated tumor suppression. When these interactions are disrupted, cells exhibit chromosome condensation and mitotic defects that are unrelated to G1 to S-phase regulation by pRB. These defects contribute to earlier tumor formation and more aggressive pathology in Trp53+/- and Trp53-/- mouse models, revealing a new mechanism of tumor suppression, facilitated by pRB, whereby genome stability is maintained by the proper condensation of mitotic chromosomes. Subsequent study of the mechanism by which pRB facilitates genome stability suggests that a pRB-E2F1-Condensin II complex localizes to pericentromeric heterochromatin. In the absence of this complex, DNA double strand breaks are observed and persist into mitosis and the ensuing G1 phase of the cell division cycle. Moreover, haploinsufficiency of Rb1 was enough to compromise loading of Condensin II at pericentromeric DNA and elicit the same defects. Significantly, RB1+/- fibroblasts from retinoblastoma patients also exhibit DNA damage and mitotic errors. And, in cancers of mesenchymal origin, RB1+/- cells exhibit as much genomic instability as RB1-/- cells. Finally, haploinsufficiency of the LXCXE binding cleft of pRB compromises pRB-mediated tumor suppression, resulting in tumors with increased chromosome gains and losses, comparable to Rb1ΔL/ΔL mutant mice. The data presented in this thesis change our understanding of the importance of genome stability as a tumor suppressive mechanism of the retinoblastoma protein and contrary to traditional thought, suggests that haploinsufficiency of RB1 functionally contributes to tumorigenesis in humans

Correlation between sleep and lifespan in drosophila melanogaster

”Sleep has previously been associated with lifespan. Monitoring sleep in any given fly over their lifetime facilitates the ability to predict the lifespan of that given fly. Using this estimate, lifespan can potentially correlate with biological age to identify when health parameters have declined. To confirm that the prediction algorithm could identify short and long-lived flies, glutathione levels in heads and bodies were compared between two groups. The results showed this to be consistent in the bodies of wild-type Canton S male flies, and showed that glutathione was decreased in the predicted biologically older flies. These data show that glutathione levels may provide a mechanism that links biological aging with lifespan. These novel methods provide a process by which lifespan can be estimated in alive flies to be used to identify factors that correlate with biological aging and test interventions that may increase lifespan”--Abstract, page iii

A Comparison of Traditional and Nontraditional Students Attending Historically Black or Predominantly White Institutions

Previous studies have demonstrated that there are benefits for some African American students in attending an Historically Black College or University (HBCU) over a Predominantly White Institution (PWI); however, studies have not considered how results might be impacted by student status, traditional vs. nontraditional, or the degree to which a student is considered to be nontraditional (minimally, moderately, or highly nontraditional). The current study addressed this gap in research by examining differences between the HBCU and PWI environments for 336 African American traditional and nontraditional students for the following variables: social support, academic self-concept, self-esteem, self-efficacy, role strain, ethnic identity, perception of faculty support, and satisfaction with college experience. The classification of student status was addressed using several pathways, including a categorical definition for nontraditional status (i.e., minimally, moderately, or highly nontraditional). The study yielded several important findings. First, the benefits reported by HBCU students compared to PWI students for self-esteem, increased faculty support, and positive academic self-concept were also found within the nontraditional population. Second, using different pathways for the classification of nontraditional students yielded significant changes in group membership and speaks to the need to further explore differences in the types of nontraditional students attending a PWI vs. an HBCU. Results between schools remained fairly consistent despite the different pathways for defining nontraditional status suggesting that differences between the HBCU and the PWI are independent of student status. However, results differed between nontraditional groups (i.e., minimally, moderately, or highly nontraditional) between schools for faculty support and self-esteem. The combination of school type and student status using a categorical approach has not been considered before and the results, although useful for better understanding the modern college population and differences between an HBCU and a PWI, are best viewed as a foundation for further research