Although some organizations encourage employees to generate radical ideas by implementing stretch goals, the relationship between stretch goals and radical creativity is complicated. Unfortunately, existing research has not adequately addressed this issue. Therefore, we integrate signaling theory with creativity-related research and propose that the interaction between stretch goals and cognitive flexibility predicts employees' willingness to take risks, thereby influencing their engagement in radical creative activities and ultimately affecting their radical creativity. To test our hypotheses, we conduct two empirical studies. The results suggest that, for employees with high cognitive flexibility, stretch goals increase their willingness to assume risks, thus leading to improved engagement in radical creative activities and enhancing their radical creativity. Conversely, for employees with low cognitive flexibility, stretch goals decrease their willingness to take risks, which hampers their engagement in radical creative activities and their radical creativity. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of this study are also discussed.

The temporal variation in the taxonomic distinctness of biofilm-associated diatom microflora within the colonization process was studied in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea, northern China from May to June 2014. Samples were collected at depths of 1 and 3 m, using glass slides as an artificial substratum. The colonization dynamics of diatom microflora showed similar species composition at both depths. In the young communities (1–7 days), the taxonomic patterns showed high variability compared with those in the mature ones (10 days and more). However, taxonomic distinctness indices at the two depths differed during early stages (e.g. 1–3 days). The taxonomic diversity (Δ) represented a high variability (coefficients of variation >10%) over all colonization periods, whereas the taxonomic distinctness (Δ*), average taxonomic distinctness (Δ+) and variation in taxonomic distinctness (Λ+) showed high stability (coefficients of variation <10%) after 7 days. Based on these findings, we suggest that the exposure time of more than 7 days may be sufficient to identify the taxonomic distinctness of biofilm-associated diatom microflora for both community research and monitoring programmes in marine ecosystems.

Biofilm-dwelling ciliates are a primary component of a biofilm, and play an important role in the functioning of microbial food webs by mediating carbon and energy flux into benthos from plankton. The carbon flux of biofilm-dwelling ciliates was studied at different trophic-functional levels within the colonization process in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea, northern China from May to June 2015. Samples were collected, using a glass slide method, at the time intervals of 1, 3, 7, 10, 14, 21 and 28 days from depths of 1 and 3 m. The carbon biomass of both total ciliates and all trophic-functional groups increased following the logistic growth curve model. During the whole colonization period, the bacterivores and non-selectives were generally the primary contributor to the carbon flux in young samples (<14 days), while the algivores and raptors predominated mature samples (14–28 days) at both depths. In terms of mature samples, however, the non-selectives and algivores were the primary contributors at a depth of 1 m, while the raptors accounted for primary contributions to the carbon flux at a depth of 3 m. Although the times to 50% maximum carbon biomasses were generally ranged 24 days at both depths, the maximum carbon biomasses were significantly higher at depth of 3 m than at 1 m. These results may provide useful information for ecological research on carbon flux from plankton to benthos in marine ecosystems.

Diatoms are a primary producer and play an important role in the functioning of microbial food webs. Temporal variations in community patterns of planktonic diatom assemblages were studied during a 1-year cycle (June 2007–May 2008) in Jiaozhou Bay, northern China. Samples were collected biweekly at a depth of 1 m from five sampling stations. A total of 75 diatom species representing 40 genera, 28 family, 19 orders and three classes were recorded. Of these species, 11 distributed in all four seasons, while 27, 35, 56 and 28 forms occurred only in spring, summer, autumn and winter season, respectively. The species number and total abundance peaked in autumn, with minimum values in May. All three species biodiversity measures (Shannon diversity, Pielou's evenness and Marglef's richness) peaked in spring and autumn. There was a significant difference in diatom community patterns among seasons, except the pair of spring and winter. The environmental variables, especially temperature and the nutrients, could significantly drive the seasonal variation in diatom community patterns. Of 11 dominant species, four (Paralia sulcata, Skeletonema costatum, Guinardia delicatula and Nitzschia lorenziana) were significantly related with temperature, pH and/or nutrients. These findings suggest that the seasonal shift in community pattern of planktonic diatoms was driven by both temperature and nutrients in this eutrophic basin ecosystem.

Temporal variations in the taxonomic relatedness of periphytic ciliate microfauna during colonization periods were studied in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea, northern China, from May to June 2010. Samples were collected at two depths of 1 and 3 m, using glass slides as artificial substrates. The colonization dynamics of ciliate microfauna on the slides revealed similar patterns in species composition at both depths. In the immature communities (1–7 days), the taxonomic patterns showed high variability compared to those in the mature ones (10 days and more). However, taxonomic relatedness parameters at the two depths differed during early stages of colonization (e.g. 1–3 days). Taxonomic diversity (Δ) was subject to high variability (coefficients of variation >10%) in both immature and mature communities, whereas taxonomic distinctness (Δ*), average taxonomic distinctness (Δ+) and variation in taxonomic distinctness (Λ+) showed high stability (coefficients of variation <10%) during the colonization times of 3–21 days. These findings suggest that 3–21-day exposure times are sufficient to detect the taxonomic distinctness of periphytic ciliate microfauna at water depths of 1–3 m for the purposes of ecological research and monitoring of marine ecosystems.

The accumulation of seed mass in soybean is affected by both genotype and environment. The aim of the present study was to measure additive, epistatic and quantitative trait locus (QTL)×environment (QE) interaction effects of QTLs on the development of 100-seed weight in a population of 143 F5 derived recombinant inbred lines (RILs) developed from the cross between the soybean cultivars ‘Charleston’ and ‘Dong Nong 594’. Broad-sense heritability of 100-seed weight from 30 days (30D) to 80D stages was 0·58, 0·52, 0·62, 0·60, 0·66 and 0·57, respectively. A total of 17 QTLs with conditional additive (a) effect and/or conditional additive×environment interaction (ae) effect at specific stages were identified in ten linkage groups by conditional mapping. Of them, only 4 QTLs had significant a effect or ae effect at different stages of seed development. Among QTLs with significant a effect, five acted positively and six acted negatively on seed development. A total of 35 epistatic pairwise QTLs of 100-seed weight were identified by conditional mapping at different developmental stages. Five pairs of QTL showed the additive×additive epistatic (aa) effect and 16 QTLs showed the aa×environment interaction (aae) effect at the different developmental stages. QTLs with aa effect as well with their environmental interaction effect appeared to vary at different developmental stages. Overall, the results indicated that 100-seed weight in soybean is under developmental, genetic and environmental control.