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The authors empirically examined social capital factors affecting patients' social support acquisition with the aim of providing guidance to patients seeking social support online.

The authors used social network analysis to extract data about social capital factors from online health communities and text mining to identify forms of informational support and emotional support grounded in online, text-based communication. Moreover, the authors employed a random coefficient model to understand the dynamic influence of social capital factors on both informational and emotional support.

The results from the empirical analyses show that structural connections have a lasting impact on the acquisition of both types of support; that is, social connections developed in the past will have an effect on the future. For relational capital, strong ties were less important; the quantity of connections mattered more than the quality when acquiring informational support. The use of health-related language increased the amount of informational support acquired. Over time, patients gained increasing social support, which primarily came from the patients' historical threads, likely via searches from peers facilitated by accumulated social capital.

The authors' research adds to the literature on social capital and social support in online health communities by exploring how the three dimensions of social capital affect social support acquisition. The authors' research also contributes to the online health care literature by examining social support from a dynamic perspective. Practically, the authors' findings provide guidance for patients on what decisions to make to acquire more social support.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new three-node triangular element in the framework of the numerical manifold method (NMM), which is designated by Trig3-MLScns.

The formulation uses the improved parametric shape functions of classical triangular elements (Trig3-0) to construct the partition of unity (PU) and the moving least square (MLS) interpolation method to construct the local approximation function.

Compared with the classical three-node element (Trig3-0), the Trig3-MLScns element has a higher order of approximations, much better accuracy and continuous nodal stress. Moreover, the linear dependence problem associated with many PU-based methods with high-order approximations is eliminated in the present element. A number of numerical examples indicate the high accuracy and robustness of the Trig3-MLScns element.

The proposed element inherits the individual merits of the NMM and the MLS.

This paper aims to explore the current stage of biodiversity preservation in higher education institutions (HEIs), using samples from German universities and investigating three different dimensions, namely, existing approaches, challenges and future developments.

Semistructured expert interviews were conducted with employees from 14 German Universities. To analyze the data, both deductive and inductive methods of content analysis were conducted to systematically code the results.

This research shows that efforts for biodiversity preservation are frequently made in the areas of student and staff initiatives, green space management, as well as in research and teaching. However, German HEIs face numerous hurdles such as interest conflict, lack of prioritization and financial restrictions, some of which are difficult to overcome. In the future, HEIs should seek a deeper integration of biodiversity into curricula to further raise biodiversity awareness.

This study provides practical implications by providing good practices, which can serve as a guide for implementing measures for biodiversity preservation. By understanding the struggles and future expectations, stakeholders and policymakers could promote targeted measures and relevant policies to advance biodiversity initiatives at and beyond universities. Moreover, the research shows the importance of involving students and staff actively in the planning and executing stage for biodiversity preservation through initiatives to achieve green campuses.

The paper presents an essential research field which is still in its earlier stage. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first study that focuses on German Universities in this context. This study adds value in providing in-depth insights into this topic to raise awareness of biodiversity preservation in both practice and research.

In recent years, hotels in China have been interested in leveraging social media platforms to facilitate interactions with and among consumers. Such brand engagement efforts on social media networks are believed to promote brands through co-creation of consumer experiences and values. This study was conducted in the context of Chinese hotels. The paper aims to identify two forms of brand engagement via social media platforms – consumer-initiated engagement and firm-initiated engagement – and to examine their effects on hotels’ display advertising effectiveness.

This study collected a comprehensive data set. First, the authors collected display advertisement data from two hotel chains in China. Second, the authors gathered the two hotels’ engagement data from Weibo. A generalized linear mixed model was used in data analysis.

The findings of the study indicate that both forms of brand engagement on social media network sites positively influence display advertising effectiveness. Moreover, for a strong brand, consumer-initiated engagement is more influential in increasing display advertising effectiveness; however, for a weak brand, firm-initiated engagement gains more clicks and conversions from advertisements.

As hotels in China continue to leverage online media platforms to reach, engage with and co-create value with potential and existing consumers, this study provides managers with insight as to how they can achieve higher advertising effectiveness by engaging with consumers on a consistent basis on social media.

This study mainly contributes to recent increasing research on engagement and value co-creation by providing a lens through which to assess the relationship between brand engagement via social media networks and online display advertising effectiveness.

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is a developing educational concept that aims to achieve economic, social and environmental sustainability through education. Cultural sustainability education aims to cultivate awareness and protection of cultural assets, promote sustainable development and foster environmental responsibility. This study establishes a cyber-physical metaverse of cultural sustainability learning to cultivate students' motivation, multicultural identity, critical thinking and sustainability thinking.

In this study, virtual reality (VR) and 3D printing technologies were utilized to create a cyber-physical metaverse learning environment. This learning environment is designed to allow elementary school children to learn about indigenous cultures and the architecture of slate houses, as well as socio-architectural issues. Learners will be able to experience first-hand the plight of the indigenous tribal areas and the exploration of related cultural knowledge.

The study collected pre- and post-test data through questionnaires, using covariates to analyze learners' perceptions of learning. The results of this study showed that cyber-physical metaverse learning environment had a significant impact on learning motivation, multicultural identity and sustainability thinking for culturally sustainable education. However, this study’s impact on critical thinking skills in students remains to be confirmed.

This is a quasi-experimental study of a single country’s elementary school children in the indigenous area, so its findings cannot be extrapolated to other areas or to learners of different ages.

This study introduces a framework for incorporating both virtual and real cultures to promote sustainable learning. The cyber-physical metaverse learning is used to supplement teaching activities to enhance learners' motivation in learning multicultural knowledge. Students were able to recognize and protect cultural assets, as well as emphasize the importance of sustainable development.

Information technology is widely applied for completing group tasks and enhancing learning in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. Group members not only complete tasks but also learn ideas from other members of the group. These ideas can be better than what individual could come up with. As these ideas are referred as an upward comparison in the perspective of social comparison theory. However, there are limited studies that provide evidence in investigating how social comparison orientation (SCO) perceived by individual learner impacts on learning and group performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study experimentally tackles this problem at both individual and group level. An experimental study was applied in this study. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical linear modeling approaches are used to validate the data.

Results of 168 subjects reveal that SCO does have associations with group performance and learning performance respectively. Discussions and implications for literature and practice are given at the end of the paper.

This study confirms that the social genesis occurs more effectively through social interactions in CSCL. It also extends our understandings about the impacts of SCO. Results reveal that the higher level of SCO adopted by group members, the higher level of social interactions at group level can be triggered. As a result, the group performance can be enhanced. On one hand, these findings bridge the research gap in terms of investigating the notion of SCT on CSCL. On the other hand, it provides a possible solution in alleviating the problem of social loafing as commonly observed in CSCL. Therefore, these findings fulfilled the two research objectives.

Student approaches to studying were explored in business courses with samples in China, Kuwait and the USA. Information on approaches to studying is critical as delivery and content of educational practices are increasingly adapted to different world regions.

The Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory (RASI) was administered to address the extent to which students focused studying on deep learning of concepts, surface learning/memorization of material or strategic maximization of grades.

Results suggested (1) acceptable reliability for the RASI scales, (2) higher mean scores on deep, surface and strategic approaches for the Kuwait versus the China or USA samples, and (3) an interaction effect between country sample and strategic studying on the dependent variable of reported grade point average.

The research focuses on student initiative in the educational process. Also, comparative evidence from the Middle Eastern context is provided. This area has received relatively little attention in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to tackle the problem of technology addiction by investigating the differences between the antecedences of addictive (problematic technology usage) and high-engagement behavior (non-problematic technology usage). The case of social networking site usage (SNS, e.g. Facebook, Instagram or Twitter) is taken as the case out of the reason of prevalent user population.

It is revealed that people tend to use SNS not only for building a relationship, but also for communicating. In other words, there are inner needs of adopting the SNS technology. However, no clear definitions can be followed for determining the problematic SNS usage, addictive behavior and the high-engagement behavior. Therefore, this study adopts the notion of uses and gratification theory (U&G theory) for investigating the SNS usage behavior. Also, the social anxiety is also first introduced to integrate into the research for an empirical study.

Results reveal that gratification sought and relationship maintenance are associated with the addictive behavior, whereas the relationship maintenance is significantly related to high-engagement behavior.

First, the selected data represents a sample of SNW users in the Asian Pacific region and mainly from the group of young college users. Therefore, caution must be taken when generalizing the findings to other SNW users or groups. Second, the time aspect related to social media dependence may need to be considered in future studies. Third, the authors found marginal support for the influence of intentions of high engagement¸ and future studies may consider applying other theories that could better explain these types of behavior.

The results of this study provide strong evidence that inner anxiety perceived by users should not be neglected while tackling the problematic internet use due to SNW addiction because it can strengthen the force for depending on SNW for seeking social support. Apart from the value of perceived enjoyment as asserted in previous studies, this study opens up a new opportunity to tackle SNW dependence.

The key implication of this research is that the impact of the mental health of users on SNW problematic should not be overlooked . The higher the level of anxiety perceived, the more likely is the SNW dependence. Therefore, the online behavior depending on psychological health should be addressed because it may be a critical point for assisting users to adopt SNW wisely.

This study confirms that social anxiety people experience in real (offline) life has impacts on online behavior of SNS usage (online). It suggests that the difference between users as the perceived level of social anxiety can trigger different levels of SNS usage. Second, U&G theory is proven valid in understanding SNS addiction. Third, relationship maintenance through the use of SNS reveals its dissimilar effects on SNS addiction and high engagement.

The aims of this paper are to investigate the influence of direct current (DC) electric field on separation and orientation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in spray-coated layers and apply this method to the fabrication of elastic and transparent electrodes. The orientation of CNTs in the form of paths in the direction of electrical conduction should increase the electrode conductivity without decreasing its optical transmission.

Materials are deposited using vacuum-free, ultra-fine nozzle spray coating technique, easily applicable for large-scale production. After the deposition of carbon nanomaterials, nanoparticles are oriented in the electric field and initially cured with infrared halogen lamp to evaporate solvents and preserve orientation of the nanoparticles in the deposited layer. Afterwards, layers are cured in a chamber dryer to obtain desired properties. Nanoparticles orientation and carbon nanomaterials separation via DC electric field are analysed, and the optical and electrical properties of prepared electrodes are measured.

Experiments described in this paper showed that DC electric field can be applied provide separation and orientation of CNTs and combined with spray coating technique, can be used as additional tool for tuning the conductivity of flexible and transparent electrodes by decreasing the sheet resistance about five times.

The results showed that spray coating combined with electric field orientation is a promising solution of obtaining elastic and transparent electrodes with oriented carbon particles. According to the authors’ knowledge, none of the experiments was directed to obtain DC electric field-oriented transparent layers produced with the use of spray coating technique.