Yonghong Liu

Older adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in long-term care face dietary self-management challenges arising from standardized routines, sensory and cognitive variability, and reliance on caregivers. This study used participatory co-design to develop and preliminarily evaluate an equity-oriented digital dietary management prototype. From June 2024 to December 2025, a four-phase study was conducted at a long-term care facility in Beijing, China. Semi-structured interviews with 20 stakeholders (12 residents, 5 family caregivers, and 3 nurses) and a one-day shadowing observation of one of these residents informed a 90 min co-creation workshop with 20 stakeholders (12 residents, 4 family caregivers, and 4 nurses) and iterative prototyping. All 12 residents in the workshop had participated in the interviews, including the resident involved in the shadowing observation. The resulting high-fidelity prototype integrated a consolidated reminder dashboard, an adaptive portion-control slider, and glucose–meal feedback visualization. Task-based usability testing with an independent sample of 12 participants (6 residents, 3 family caregivers, and 3 nurses) who had not participated in the preceding phases yielded a mean task-success rate of 94.44% (SD 0.43), a mean task-completion time of 1.9 min (SD 0.40), a mean error count of 0.33 per session (SD 0.47), a mean System Usability Scale score of 81.0 (SD 5.23), and satisfaction of 4.5/5 (SD 0.50). Qualitative feedback indicated that participants perceived the prototype as easy to navigate and potentially supportive of resident autonomy and coordinated record-keeping. These findings provide preliminary support for its usability and acceptability in the evaluated tasks. Field studies are needed to assess implementation, workflow effects, and behavioral or clinical outcomes.

Social media platforms have become central sites of identity construction, where visibility and legitimacy are shaped through algorithmic systems, aesthetic conventions, and platform economies. This paper approaches online personas through the lens of illusionary selves, understood here as online personas experienced as authentic while being shaped by sociotechnical processes, examining how they are produced through sociotechnical processes entangling design practices, generative artificial intelligence(AI), and cultural expectations. We present an AI-mediated critical design inquiry into how generative systems translate and normalize visual patterns of online self-imaging. Using a pix2pix-based model trained on 630 internet celebrity selfies, facial images are abstracted into dot-based representations and aggregated across selfie angles, foregrounding repetition and normalization. An interactive design installation links bodily orientation and numerical parameters to generative output in real time, introducing perceptual friction in self-imaging. A total of 30 participants engaged with the system in situated contexts, and their experiences were documented through observation, video recording, and a 5-point Likert questionnaire across three dimensions: perceptual friction, awareness of algorithmic mediation, and reflective responses to self-presentation. Results indicate high levels of perceptual friction (mean [M] = 4.21), strong awareness of algorithmic mediation (M = 4.29), and consistent reflective unease (M = 4.07). Through situated use, the system renders algorithmic mediation tangible and positions AI as an implicated actor in identity construction. This work contributes a conceptual framing of AI-mediated critical design, showing how generative and interactive systems operate as epistemic devices interrogating online persona construction.

Environmental noise may interfere with the reading experience by increasing cognitive load and psychophysiological arousal, yet these effects are difficult to perceive and communicate in real time. This study presents Reading Noise, an interactive installation that combines physiological sensing and sound-driven visualization to externalize perceived noise-related disturbance and psychophysiological strain during reading. In a controlled experiment, 46 participants completed reading tasks under four levels of background conversational noise (0–30, 31–60, 61–90, and >90 dB) while ambient sound level, electrodermal activity (EDA), and electrocardiogram (ECG) were recorded in real time. Following data quality screening, inferential statistical analyses were performed on the analyzable physiological subset (n = 16). Based on these data, a hybrid mapping strategy combining rule-based assignment and LMM-informed exploratory calibration was developed to map acoustic and physiological changes onto dynamic text-based visual parameters, including deformation intensity, jitter, and motion instability, for real-time feedback. Within the analyzable subset, noise level was associated with significant changes in the recorded physiological indicators (all p < 0.05): skin conductance level (SCL) and skin conductance responses per minute (SCRs/min) increased (4.69 ± 2.13 to 5.93 ± 2.19 μS; 1.49 ± 1.59 to 2.51 ± 2.13), whereas the percentage of successive RR intervals differing by more than 50 ms (pNN50) and the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) decreased (15.84 ± 16.52% to 10.57 ± 11.35%; 36.63 ± 17.62 to 29.67 ± 16.66 ms). Subjective cognitive load also increased significantly (2.06 ± 0.29 to 6.38 ± 0.31). A follow-up installation study with 24 cross-disciplinary participants, with reported group interaction observations drawn from a 12-participant subset, suggested that the installation may facilitate shared interpretation of attention-related disruption and cognitive strain, indicating the potential of physiology-informed visual translation as a boundary object approach for empathetic, sound-mediated communication.

The development of urban agglomerations driven by the mining industry inevitably impacts regional habitat quality. Understanding how habitat quality evolves over time and space, as well as identifying the key driving factors in mining urban agglomerations, is essential for developing sustainable policies and maintaining ecological security. This study evaluates the spatiotemporal changes in habitat quality from 1990 to 2020 via the InVEST model, forecasts habitat quality in 2040 under various development scenarios via the PLUS model, and investigates the factors contributing to these changes. The results revealed that from 1990 to 2020, areas of forestland, cultivated land, and grassland initially increased before declining, whereas areas of construction land and water bodies continuously expanded, with construction land primarily replacing cultivated land and forestland. The average habitat quality ranged from 0.72 to 0.82 during this period, showing an overall increase followed by a decline, with lower habitat quality found in the central areas and higher quality in the surrounding regions. Additionally, habitat quality exhibited significant spatial autocorrelation, with a slow expansion of low-habitat-quality clusters. Under all three development scenarios for 2040, the region is expected to remain dominated by cultivated land and forest, but with a notable expansion of built-up areas compared with that in 2020. Habitat quality is predicted to decrease by 2040, with an increase in worst-grade areas. On the basis of random forest and geodetector analyses, the main drivers of habitat quality are elevation, slope, and population density, with the most significant interactions occurring between population density and elevation, followed by interactions between nighttime light intensity and elevation and between population density and slope. These results suggest that habitat quality in the region is influenced primarily by the interplay of topography, human development, and economic activities. This study provides valuable insights for the construction of an ecological security framework for mining urban agglomerations.

Smart beds have become increasingly accepted, and are concurrently reshaping their lifestyles. Addressing the limited ability of smart beds to cater to health requirements, this study investigated smart bed comfort across diverse typical conditions. Objective body pressure distribution and participant-reported perceived comfort were recorded during typical smart bed usage. Statistical analysis was utilized to investigate overall and local comfort variations across different conditions and the correlation between perceived comfort and body pressure distribution. Statistical analysis highlighted the importance of equalizing forces and minimizing peak pressures. Alongside mean pressure, peak pressure—particularly in the buttock, thigh, and shank areas—played a pivotal role in comfort evaluation. Optimal bed board partitioning and interlinked mechanisms between adjacent boards enhance body curve fit and overall comfort. Balancing body forces and preventing feelings of weightlessness significantly improve user comfort and health. This analysis has been used to develop a comfort prediction model for smart bed design.

Rural tourism has become a crucial engine of economic growth in traditional villages, with numerous regions completing planning and development stages. However, along with the growth of tourism, challenges such as cultural conflicts, resource competition, and conflicting interests have emerged, threatening the long-term sustainability of tourism in these villages. Based on the unique characteristics of traditional villages, this study proposes a stakeholder-centered system design approach to address and improve these issues. This approach focuses on governing existing traditional village systems by constructing a stakeholder interest map through an analysis of the behavioral traits and interest demands of key stakeholders and identifying the main factors that hinder the flow of benefits. Furthermore, a large-scale symbiotic model is developed to explore the optimal path for the rebalancing of interests within traditional village systems. In terms of practical research, the study takes Gangtou Village in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China, as a case study. Through interviews, expert consultations, and tracking experiments, the research comprehensively analyzes the interests and flows of stakeholders within the system. A symbiotic interest model is collaboratively established, and based on this model, a redesigned planning scheme for Gangtou Village is proposed. In the design validation phase, expert ratings and the Wilcoxon non-parametric test were employed to compare the sustainability of the new and old plans. The results indicate that the new plan outperforms the old one, thereby validating the feasibility of the proposed holistic system design approach.

Sleep quality is an important issue of public concern. This study, combined with sensor application, aims to explore the determinants of perceived comfort when using smart bedding to provide empirical evidence for improving sleep quality. This study was conducted in a standard sleep laboratory in Quanzhou, China, from March to April of 2023. Perceived comfort was evaluated using the Subjective Lying Comfort Evaluation on a seven-point rating scale, and body pressure distribution was measured using a pressure sensor. Correlation analysis was employed to analyze the relationship between perceived comfort and body pressure, and multiple linear regression was used to identify the factors of perceived comfort. The results showed that body pressure was partially correlated with perceived comfort, and sleep posture significantly influenced perceived comfort. In addition, height, weight, and body mass index are common factors that influence comfort. The findings highlight the importance of optimizing the angular range of boards based on their comfort performance to adjust sleeping posture and equalize pressure distribution. Future research should consider aspects related to the special needs of different populations (such as height and weight), as well as whether users are elderly and whether they have particular diseases. The design optimization of the bed board division and mattress softness, based on traditional smart bedding, can improve comfort and its effectiveness in reducing health risks and enhancing health status.