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PurposeTo cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing mobile apps (CTMAs) have been developed to trace contact among infected individuals and alert people at risk of infection. To disrupt virus transmission until the majority of the population has been vaccinated, achieving the herd immunity threshold, CTMA continuance usage is essential in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. This study seeks to examine what motivates individuals to continue using CTMAs.Design/methodology/approachFollowing the coping theory, this study proposes a research model to examine CTMA continuance usage, conceptualizing opportunity appraisals (perceived usefulness and perceived distress relief), threat appraisals (privacy concerns) and secondary appraisals (perceived response efficacy) as the predictors of individuals' CTMA continuance usage during the pandemic. In the United States, an online survey was administered to 551 respondents.FindingsThe results revealed that perceived usefulness and response efficacy motivate CTMA continuance usage, while privacy concerns do not.Originality/valueThis study enriches the understanding of CTMA continuance usage during a public health crisis, and it offers practical recommendations for authorities.

While previous research suggests that smartphone overuse relates to users’ adverse health issues such as insomnia, nomophobia, and poor eyesight, few studies have explored the mediating role of such health issues in the relationship between smartphone overuse and academic performance. Guided by the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, this study develops a model to understand the relationships among students’ smartphone overuse, health issues (i.e., insomnia, nomophobia, and poor eyesight), and academic performance. Moreover, we introduce a moderating role of health information literacy in the relationship between smartphone overuse and health issues. To validate the model, we collect representative data through a large-scale field survey at a public university in China. 6,855 valid responses are retained for data analysis using a structural equation modeling technique. The main results are: (1) health issues—insomnia, nomophobia, and poor eyesight— partially mediate the relationship between smartphone overuse and students’ academic performance; (2) health information literacy can moderate the relationship between smartphone overuse and the health issues including insomnia and poor eyesight, while the relationship between smartphone overuse and nomophobia is not affected. Finally, we draw related theoretical and practical implications. Accepted version

While there have been numerous studies of music-search behaviour, little is known about gendered aspects of how it is carried out on social question and answer sites. The article examines gender differences manifested on one such site with regard to (a) the motivations of the person posing the question, (b) intervening variables that influence music-search behaviour and (c) the formulation of the questions. Results from manual categorisation and other analysis of 17,380 music-relevant questions collected from the site show that males who asked questions did so more often, provided more answers and had more followers than female question-posters. Males tended to include music context information in questions asking for ready reference, whereas females often asked questions in a second-person pronoun aiming for promoting discussion. Such research results add to the current understanding of music-search behaviour and contribute new insights that can inform development of better music services/systems.

Based on social cognitive theory, this study proposes a research framework to investigate two different social media discontinuance behaviours: reduced usage and abandoned usage. Specifically, perceived technology overload, information overload and social overload are the environmental factors that induce negative personal states, including dissatisfaction and social media fatigue, which lead to negative behavioural changes, such as reduced usage and abandoned usage of social media. The proposed research model was tested empirically with data collected among Facebook users. The research results indicate that impacts from perceived technology overload, information overload and social overload on social network fatigue and dissatisfaction vary. Dissatisfaction exerts greater impacts on abandoned-usage behaviour than social media fatigue, but similar impacts on reduced-usage behaviour as social media fatigue. In addition, reduced-usage behaviour was found to lead to abandoned-usage behaviour. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical contributions that can be gleaned from the proposed research model. acceptedVersion

While past research suggests mHealth apps help cultivate users’ health information literacy (HIL), factors contributing to their HIL development have not been systematically studied. Applying digital wellbeing framework, an empirical investigation using a large-scale survey dataset was conducted. From regression analysis and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), two findings were yielded. First, six influential factors, including person-specific factors (i.e., gender, annual family income, Internet experience), device-specific factors (i.e., screen sizes of mobile phones), and context-specific factors (i.e., use frequency and perceived quality of mHealth apps), were identified. Second, gender, annual family income, internet experience, screen size of mobile phones, use frequency and perceived quality of mHealth apps had synergistic effects on HIL. By introducing fsQCA to library and information science community, the study not only extends literature by teasing out the combinations of different categories of factors contributing to HIL but informs health professionals and mHealth app developers. Accepted version The study is funded by The Fundamental Research Funds of Humanities and Social Science Research for the Central Universities of China (Project No. SKYC2021023) and 2021 Shuang Chuang Doctoral Program in Jiangsu Province.

The purpose of this paper is to relate individuals’ health information literacy (HIL) self-efficacy to their information technology (IT) use and health status. Using a large-scale field survey with 6,160 valid respondents from undergraduates in a Chinese university, we found that individuals’ HIL self-efficacy was significantly related to some socio-demographics and lifestyle features, IT use, and health status. Meanwhile, some socio-demographics and lifestyle features and health status help identify low HIL self-efficacy individuals, while moderate daily IT use may improve HIL self-efficacy. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as limitations and future work, are also discussed., L’objectif de cet article est de lier le sentiment d’auto-efficacité à la maîtrise de l’information en santé à l’utilisation de technologies et de l’information (TI) et à l’état de santé. En se basant sur une enquête sur le terrain auprès de 6 160 étudiants d’une université chinoise, nous avons constaté que le sentiment d’auto-efficacité à la maîtrise de l’information en santé était lié de manière significative à certaines caractéristiques sociodémographiques et relatives au mode de vie, à l’utilisation de TI et à l’état de santé. Certaines de ces caractéristiques ainsi que l’état de santé permettent d’identifier un faible sentiment d’auto-efficacité en maîtrise de l’information en santé chez certains individus, tandis qu’une utilisation quotidienne modérée des TI peut l’améliorer. Les conséquences théoriques et pratiques, de même que les limites et les travaux futurs, sont aussi abordés.

Introduction. With the increasing availability of information on the Internet, online rumours have become prevalent, and it is not uncommon for search engines to return unverified rumours about health. However, false information in such domains may lead to serious consequences if it gains users’ trust. An understanding of the characteristics of online health rumours that users’ trust is important for fighting their spread. Method. Using real-world online health rumour data from a Chinese database, the authors investigated the predictors of users’ trust in online health rumours. An experiment (n = 30) and interviews (n = 10) were conducted to examine how users evaluate particular types of health rumours. Analysis. The effects of rumours’ manner of presentation and the perceived information quality on users’ trust were tested using ANOVA (with SPSS software) for the quantitative data collected in the experiment. The qualitative component applied content analysis of the interview data to further explain the results produced by the quantitative analysis. Results. The impact of pictures (one dimension of rumour presentation) on users’ trust varies, depending on the perceived quality of the pictures displayed with the online health rumours, and informativeness (a dimension of information quality) is an influential predictor of trusting beliefs. Conclusions. The paper serves the aim of highly effective prediction of users’ trust in online health rumours, and it contributes new insights for proactively evaluating the hazard level of a particular online health-rumour item. publishedVersion

PurposeSocial media platforms are currently facing the challenge of declining user activity. Building on the push–pull–mooring (PPM) framework, the current study developed a research model to evaluate factors that affect Facebook discontinuance.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed research model assessed how push factors (e.g. Facebook fatigue and dissatisfaction), a pull factor (e.g. alternative attractiveness) and mooring factors (e.g. personal norms and habit of using Facebook) affected the discontinued usage behavior regarding Facebook. The proposed research model was validated using empirical data (n = 412) collected from Facebook users.FindingsFacebook fatigue, dissatisfaction and alternative attractiveness significantly and positively affected discontinued Facebook usage. Personal norms and habit of using Facebook had a converse influence in this regard. Dissatisfaction had a stronger positive impact than Facebook fatigue and alternative attractiveness on the discontinued usage behavior regarding Facebook. Habits of using Facebook had a greater negative effect than personal norms of using Facebook on the discontinued usage behavior regarding Facebook by users.Originality/valueThis study extends extant literature on social media discontinuance to identify the antecedents of discontinuous usage behavior in social media. This study enriches the literature on social media discontinuance by shedding light on the different degrees of effect of the push, pull and mooring factors on discontinuous social media usage behavior.

Highlights • Users with a high level of eHealth literacy are more likely to share positive health articles when they have extreme confirmation bias. • Users with a high level of eHealth literacy are more likely to share negative health articles when they have moderate confirmation bias or no confirmation bias. • Users with a low level of eHealth literacy are more likely to share health articles regardless of positive or negative content valence when they have moderate positive confirmation bias., Nowadays, it is a common practice for healthcare professionals to spread medical knowledge by posting health articles on social media. However, promoting users’ intention to share such articles is challenging because the extent of sharing intention varies in their eHealth literacy (high or low) and the content valence of the article that they are exposed to (positive or negative). This study investigates boundary conditions under which eHealth literacy and content valence help to increase users’ intention to share by introducing a moderating role of confirmation bias—a tendency to prefer information that conforms to their initial beliefs. A 2 (eHealth literacy: high vs. low) × 2 (content valence: positive vs. negative) between-subjects experiment was conducted in a sample of 80 participants. Levels of confirmation bias ranging from extreme negative bias to extreme positive bias among the participants were assessed during the experiment. Results suggested that: (1) users with a high level of eHealth literacy were more likely to share positive health articles when they had extreme confirmation bias; (2) users with a high level of eHealth literacy were more likely to share negative health articles when they had moderate confirmation bias or no confirmation bias; (3) users with a low level of eHealth literacy were more likely to share health articles regardless of positive or negative content valence when they had moderate positive confirmation bias. This study sheds new light on the role of confirmation bias in users’ health information sharing. Also, it offers implications for health information providers who want to increase the visibility of their online health articles: they need to consider readers’ eHealth literacy and confirmation bias when deciding the content valence of the articles.

While users’ discontinuance of use has posed a challenge for social media in recent years, there is a paucity of knowledge on the relationships between different dimensions of overload and how overload adversely affects users’ social media discontinuance behaviors. To address this knowledge gap, this study employed the stressor–strain–outcome (SSO) framework to explain social media discontinuance behaviors from an overload perspective. It also conceptualized social media overload as a multidimensional construct consisting of system feature overload, information overload, and social overload. The proposed research model was empirically validated via 412 valid questionnaire responses collected from Facebook users. Our results indicated that the three types of overload are interconnected through system feature overload. System feature overload, information overload, and social overload engender user exhaustion, which in turn leads to users’ discontinued usage of social media. This study extends current technostress research by demonstrating the value of the SSO perspective in explaining users’ social media discontinuance. acceptedVersion

Spinel LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 is considered as one of the most promising cathode materials due to high working voltage and high energy density. However, the fast capacity degradation, mainly induced by the instability of electrode/electrolyte interface and bulk structure, heavily prevents its commercial application. To alleviate above two issues, LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 material was first coated with Al(OH)3 via double hydrolysis reactions between NaAlO2 and AlCl3·6H2O, where the corrosion of LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 material is avoided by controlling the feeding sequence, and the uniform coating of Al(OH)3 on particle surface is achieved by controlling the feeding rate. The Al(OH)3-coated LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 material was post-annealed at different temperatures, and the effects of different post-annealing temperatures on the structure, morphology and electrochemical performance of LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 material were systematically investigated. It is found that the LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 material after post-annealing treatment at 600 ​°C exhibits the optimal rate and cycling performances, which can be mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of Al2O3 surface coating and doping. The uniform and thin Al2O3 coating layer can avoid the direct contact of electrode with electrolyte, capture corrosive HF and increase oxygen vacancy on particle surface, while Al3+ doping can eliminate LixNi1-xO impurity phase, reduce Mn3+ content, strengthen the spinel structure and make Li+ ions diffusion easier, thus leading to the simultaneous improvement of interfacial and structural stability of LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 material.

Background. Pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) on the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) has been applied to alleviate neuropathic pain effectively, yet the mechanisms underlying pain reduction owing to this treatment are not clarified completely. The activated microglia, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK) in the spinal cord were demonstrated to be involved in developing neuropathic pain. Also, it has been just known that PRF on DRG inhibits the microglial activation in nerve injury rats. Here, we aim to investigate whether PRF treatment could regulate the levels of BDNF, PI3K, and p-ERK in the spinal cord of rats with spared nerve injury (SNI) via suppressing the spinal microglia activation to ease neuropathic pain. Methods. The rats with SNI were intrathecally treated with minocycline (specific microglia inhibitor) or same volume of dimethyl sulfoxide once daily, beginning from 1 h before nerve transection to 7 days. PRF was applied adjacent to the L4-L5 DRG of rats with SNI at 45 V for 6 min on the seventh postoperative day, whereas the free-PRF rats were treated without PRF. The withdrawal thresholds were studied, and the spinal levels of ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1 (Iba1), BDNF, PI3K, and p-ERK were calculated by western blot analysis, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and immunofluorescence. Results. The paw withdrawal mechanical threshold and paw withdrawal thermal latency decreased in the ipsilateral hind paws after SNI, and the spinal levels of Iba1, BDNF, PI3K, and p-ERK increased on day 21 after SNI compared with baseline (P<0.01). An intrathecal injection of minocycline led to the reversal of SNI-induced allodynia and increase in levels of Iba1, BDNF, PI3K, and p-ERK. Withdrawal thresholds recovered partially after a single PRF treatment for 14 days, and SNI-induced microglia hyperactivity, BDNF upregulation, and PI3K and ERK phosphorylation in the spinal cord reduced on D14 due to the PRF procedure. Conclusion. Microglial BDNF, PI3K, and p-ERK in the spinal cord are suppressed by the therapy of PRF on DRG to ease SNI-induced neuropathic pain in rats.

In consideration of higher bonding strength with oxygen and no Jahn-Teller effect, Cr3+ ions were substituted for equal amount of Ni2+ and Mn4+ ions to obtain series of LiNi0.5-x/2CrxMn1.5-x/2O4 (x = 0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2) materials, which were prepared via a combined coprecipitation-hydrothermal method followed by a two-step calcination process. The effects of different Cr3+ doping contents on the structure, morphology and electrochemical performance were systematically investigated. The results show that Cr3+ doping increases Ni/Mn disordering while reduces Mn3+ content, which can balance rate capability and cycling stability. What’s more, Cr3+ doping reduces the primary particle size and secondary agglomeration degree. More significantly, the morphology evolution of primary particles with Cr3+ doping content is very impressive. At x ≤ 0.05, the {110} and {311} planes with higher surface energies appear in turn, while at x = 0.1 and 0.2, {311} surface disappears, {100} and {110} surfaces decrease and {111} surface increases gradually. Electrochemical results show that LiNi0·475Cr0·05Mn1·475O4 material exhibits the optimal rate and cycling performances, which can be attributed to the elimination of LixNi1-xO impurity, higher Ni/Mn disordering, lower Mn3+ content, appropriate particle size with more uniform distribution, higher structural stability resulting from the introduction of Cr–O bond and no Jahn-Teller effect of Cr3+ ions, as well as lower proportion of {111} surface and higher proportion of {100}, {110} and {311} surfaces.

Online information interaction on academic social networking sites (ASNSs) has been increasingly popular in recent years. It is unclear whether these sites have satisfied scholars' needs for interaction. This study investigates what scholars ask about, what features the questions and answers convey, and what socio-emotional reactions during the interaction on ResearchGate Q&A. Bales' Interaction Process Analysis (IPA) was adopted to analyze 371 questions and 7530 answers on Library and Information Science from ResearchGate Q&A. Implications of results are discussed and suggestions for future study are made.