Evaluative Skill in the Creative Process: A Cross-cultural Study.

Evaluative skill is the ability to accurately judge ideas on creativity (or originality), which is a critical component of creativity. Various aspects of creativity have been examined cross-culturally, but little research has focused on evaluative skill. The first goal of this study was to examine the measurement invariance of evaluative skill assessments, which were based on two types of divergent thinking tests (Line Meanings and Uses), between American (n = 341) and Chinese (n = 345) college students. Multi-group confirmatory factor analyses supported a two-factor model based on two types of evaluation tasks, and this model satisfied configural and weak invariance. However, partial strong invariance was satisfied only for the Uses evaluation task. Based on this evidence, our second goal was to explore the differences in evaluative skill between these two groups. Via latent mean comparisons, we found that American participants had better performance on evaluative skill based on the Uses evaluation task than their Chinese counterparts. Taken together, this study is one of the first to examine the cross-cultural differences in evaluative skill between American and Chinese adults. This study offered preliminary results showing some invariance in evaluative skill assessments across cultures and indicating cross-cultural differences in this ability.

Herbicidal and Antifungal Xanthone Derivatives from the Alga-Derived Fungus Aspergillus versicolor D5.

Fungi have been proved as promising and prolific sources of functional secondary metabolites with potent agricultural applications. In this study, 14 xanthone derivatives (1-14), including six new ones, versicones I-N (1-4, 7, 11), and a biogenetically related derivative (15), were isolated from the alga-derived fungus Aspergillus versicolor D5. Their structures were elucidated by comprehensive spectroscopic methods. Versicone L (4) exhibited a broad antifungal spectrum and prominent inhibitory effects on Botrytis cinerea at a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 152 µM, 7-fold stronger than that of the positive control, carbendazim (MIC = 1.05 × 103 µM). Dihydrosterigmatocystin (13) showed strong antifungal activity toward B. cinerea at MIC = 38.3 µM, almost 30-fold stronger than that of carbendazim. Meanwhile, 13 exhibited potent herbicidal activity toward Amaranthus retroflexus L. with an MIC of 24.5 µM, approximately 4-fold stronger than that of the positive control, glyphosate (MIC = 94.7 µM). Additionally, 13 also displayed remarkable activity against other weeds belonging to Amaranth sp. Analysis of the structure-herbicidal activity relationship indicated that the bifuranic ring played an important role in xanthone phytotoxicity and the presence of a double bond in the furan ring could decrease phytotoxicity. This study indicated that xanthones can be served as promising candidates for lead compounds of agrochemicals.