Information seeking behavior is an important form of human behavior. Past literature in information science and organizational studies has employed the cost-benefit framework to analyze seekers' information-source choice decision. Conflicting findings have been discovered with regard to the importance of source quality and source accessibility in seekers' choices. With a focus on interpersonal task information seeking, this study proposes a seeker-source-information need framework to understand the source choice decision. In this framework, task importance, as an attribute of information need, is introduced to moderate seekers' cost-benefit calculation. Our empirical study finds that in the context of interpersonal task information seeking, first, the least effort principle might not be adequate in explaining personal source choices; rather, a quality-driven perspective is more adequate, and cost factors are of much less importance. Second, the seeker-source relationship is not significant to source choices. Third, the nature of information need, especially task importance, can modify seekers' source choice decisions.

Magnetic properties and magnetocaloric effect (MCE) of intermetallic RFeSi (R = Tb and Dy) compounds have been investigated systematically. The RFeSi compounds undergo a second-order magnetic transition from ferromagnetic to paramagnetic states with the variation of temperature. The Curie temperatures determined from magnetization measurements are 110 K and 70 K for TbFeSi and DyFeSi, respectively, which are quite close to the liquefaction temperatures of natural gas (111 K) and nitrogen (77 K). Both compounds exhibit nearly same large MCE around their respective ordering temperatures. For a low magnetic field change of 1 T, the maximum values of magnetic entropy change −ΔSM and adiabatic temperature change ΔTad are 5.3 J/kg K and 2.1 K for TbFeSi, 4.8 J/kg K and 1.7 K for DyFeSi, respectively. Furthermore, a composite material based on (Tb1−xDyx)FeSi compounds is designed theoretically by using a numerical method, and it exhibits a constant −ΔScom of ∼1.4 J/kg K for a field change of 1 T in the wide temperature range of 67–108 K, satisfying the requirement of Ericsson-cycle magnetic refrigeration over the liquefaction temperatures of nitrogen and natural gas.

Atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) is employed for the synthesis of layered vanadium disulfide. By tuning several critical growth parameters, we achieve VS 2 flakes with lateral dimension over 100 μm and thickness down to monolayer (∼0.59 nm) and bilayer (∼1.17 nm), which are larger and thinner than those previously reported in the literature. Furthermore, ultrathin flakes with thicknesses of several atomic layers are directly synthesized on mica and SiO 2 substrates without the use of an exfoliation method. X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy confirm the flakes' monocrystalline quality. Raman spectra are collected and are consistent with the vibrational modes for the trigonal phase of VS 2 as determined by density functional theory calculations. Through electron backscatter diffraction pole figure analysis, transmission electron microscopy, and optical microscopy, a complex epitaxial relationship with nine preferred in-plane orientations is observed in some regions of the VS 2 /mica samples. Remarkably, this is in agreement qualitatively with a superlattice area mismatch model, providing further evidence of the interfacial interactions with mica dictating the nucleation of film atoms in van der Waals heterostructures. Finally, magnetic force microscopy measurements suggest room-temperature ferromagnetism in ultrathin VS 2 flakes, in agreement with several density functional theory calculations. The discovery of an ultrathin ferromagnetic metal such as VS 2 may have an impact on emerging fields such as spintronics and quantum computing.

Thin‐film lithium niobate (TFLN) has been widely used in electro‐optic modulators, acoustic‐–optic modulators, electro‐optic frequency combs, and nonlinear wavelength converters owing to the excellent optical properties of lithium niobate. The performance of these devices is highly dependent on the fabrication quality of TFLN. Although state‐of‐the‐art TFLN microrings with an intrinsic quality factor (Q‐factor) exceeding 1 × 107 have been realized by inductively coupled plasma–reactive ion etching (ICP‐RIE) and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), ICP‐RIE has moderate throughput, moderate reproducibility, and high cost in etching TFLN, while CMP features moderate throughput and low cost in etching TFLN. Here, a wet etching method for TFLN, leading to the fabrication of a micro‐racetrack with an intrinsic Q‐factor of over 9.27 × 106 is developed. The suitability of this method to fabricate a narrow coupling gap between the bus waveguide and microring enables the coupling conditions of the microring to be customized. This method features a high throughput, a high reproducibility, and a low cost in etching TFLN, showing the potential to boost the mass production of integrated LN photonic devices with high fidelity and affordability dramatically.