Yushu Chen

1. Artificial intelligence (AI), embedded sensing, and Internet of Things technologies are extending domestic products beyond passive physical functions toward context-aware services. Smart furnitu...

Contact-surface construction affects pressure distribution, physiological response, and perceived comfort in body-contact furniture. This study compared five contact interfaces for classroom nap chairs: rigid polypropylene (PP), a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)-surfaced PP laminate, woven mesh, closed-cell ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) foam, and flexible polyurethane (PU) foam. Twenty-six participants, including 13 females and 13 males, were tested in a 95° study posture and a 135° nap posture at the head–neck, waist–back, and hip–thigh regions. Four participant-level pressure indicators were direction-corrected and combined using an equal-weight geometric mean. The pressure index was integrated with electrodermal activity (EDA) at the participant level and subsequently combined across postures with weak subjective calibration. Under the 95° posture, EVA foam ranked highest at the hip–thigh region, while PU foam ranked highest at the waist–back and head–neck regions. Under the 135° posture, woven mesh ranked highest at the hip–thigh and head–neck regions, while PU foam remained highest at the waist–back region. Final integrated suitability differed significantly among materials in all three body regions (Friedman χ² (4) = 90.246–96.769, all p < 0.001). M4 had the highest mean in the head–neck region (0.648), but did not differ significantly from M5 (0.634; Holm-adjusted p = 0.075). M5 had the highest mean in the waist–back region (0.821), and M3 in the hip–thigh region (0.679); both were significantly higher than the corresponding second-ranked interfaces (Holm-adjusted p < 0.001). Exploratory stiffness models indicated peak locations near 130 kPa for the head–neck region and 140 kPa for the hip–thigh region, whereas the waist–back response was highest at the lower measured boundary of 70 kPa. These findings support region-specific interface design rather than a uniform contact surface for the entire chair.

Optimizing the furniture layout of middle school laboratories is crucial for improving the emergency safety, operational efficiency, and resilience of teaching buildings. This study used AnyLogic software to model and simulate pedestrian evacuation behavior in a typical middle school laboratory layout. In a standardized laboratory (90.75 m²), we constructed a behavior-oriented multi-agent evacuation model. The model incorporated key student parameters, including shoulder width (312–416 mm), walking speed (1.5–2.5 m/s), and reaction time (10–15 s). To ensure comparability between different layouts, the number of evacuees was fixed at 48. Evacuation performance was evaluated based on total evacuation time, spatial density, and detour distance. The results showed that the hybrid layout achieved the shortest evacuation time (28.0 s), which was 10.3% shorter than the island layout (31.2 s) and 34.7% shorter than the parallel layout (42.9 s). The hybrid layout also had a shorter average detour distance (9.78 m) and the lowest path variability (coefficient of variation CV = 0.33), indicating a more balanced evacuation load and a smaller bottleneck effect. Overall, these findings provide evidence-based recommendations for improving laboratory safety, space utilization, and behavioral adaptability, and provide a quantitative reference for updating educational building codes, school laboratory construction standards, and guidelines for laboratory furniture and safety facility configuration.

Wardrobe fronts form a major visual element in bedroom interiors, yet material selection for their colors and textures often relies on intuition rather than evidence. This study develops a data-driven framework that links gaze behavior and affective responses to occupants’ preferences for wardrobe front materials. Forty adults evaluated color and texture swatches and rendered bedroom scenes while eye-tracking data capturing attraction, retention, and exploration were collected. Pairwise choices were modeled using a Bradley–Terry approach, and visual-attention features were integrated with emotion ratings to construct an interpretable attention index for predicting preferences. Results show that neutral light colors and structured wood-like textures consistently rank highest, with scene context reducing preference differences but not altering the order. Shorter time to first fixation and longer fixation duration were the strongest predictors of desirability, demonstrating the combined influence of rapid visual capture and sustained attention. Within the tested stimulus set and viewing conditions, the proposed pipeline yields consistent preference rankings and an interpretable attention-based score that supports evidence-informed shortlisting of wardrobe-front materials. The reported relationships between gaze, affect, and choice are associative and are intended to guide design decisions within the scope of the present experimental settings.

This study examines the pigment-dependent photoaging behavior of laboratory-prepared mock-up Chinese lacquer coatings colored with cinnabar, orpiment, and lapis lazuli under high-pressure mercury-lamp irradiation. Colorimetric results showed rapid changes within the first three days, with maximum ΔE values of 14.05 (red), 16.74 (yellow), and 17.97 (blue) after 30 days. Cinnabar-based films exhibited the highest color stability, whereas orpiment and lapis-lazuli coatings underwent pronounced hue shifts and chroma increases. Gloss loss and surface roughness evolution displayed a strong negative correlation: orpiment coatings experienced the most severe degradation, with gloss decreasing by over 60% and surface roughness increasing by approximately 70%, while cinnabar coatings showed the least decline (≈55% gloss loss; ≈27% roughness increase). SEM analysis further revealed extensive cracking and particle fragmentation in orpiment films, moderate surface disruption in lapis-lazuli films, and minimal microstructural damage in cinnabar films. Non-invasive reflection-mode FTIR spectroscopy confirmed these trends, showing minimal chemical change in cinnabar coatings but significant carbonyl growth, C–O–C band broadening, and aliphatic chain cleavage in orpiment and lapis-lazuli coatings. These results highlight the critical role of pigment chemistry in modulating UV-induced degradation pathways. Integrating optical, morphological, and chemical evidence, this study establishes a clear pigment-dependent degradation mechanism and provides valuable guidance for evaluating the long-term stability of lacquered cultural heritage and optimizing modern lacquer formulations.

Visual attention plays a critical role in users’ cognitive evaluation of safety and functionality in interior furniture, particularly for children’s beds, which are inherently safety-sensitive products. This study adopts an integrated approach combining eye-tracking experiments and questionnaire surveys to examine users’ visual cognition and preference patterns toward children’s solid wood beds under controlled viewing conditions, focusing on material attributes, bed typologies, and key structural components. The results indicate that natural solid wood materials with clear textures and warm tones attract higher visual attention, while storage-integrated bed designs significantly enhance exploratory gaze behavior. At the component level, safety-related elements such as guardrails and headboards consistently receive the earliest visual attention, highlighting their cognitive priority in safety assessment and spatial perception. Overall, the findings support a dual-path visual cognition mechanism in which bottom-up visual salience interacts with top-down concerns related to safety and usability. This study provides evidence-based insights for material selection and structural emphasis in children’s furniture design within interior environments. The applicability of the conclusions is primarily limited to adult observers under controlled visual conditions.

Chinese lacquer, a natural polymer with exceptional durability and cultural significance, has been widely used since the Warring States period. This review examines recent advances in lacquer identification techniques and their role in cultural heritage conservation. Drawing on five representative case studies—the B54 Japanese armor, Ba lacquerware from Lijiaba, a Qing Dynasty folding fan, Ryukyu lacquerware, and late Joseon objects—we show how integrated analytical approaches combining microscopy, spectroscopy, chromatography, and biochemical methods provide critical insights into composition, degradation, and conservation strategies. Key findings highlight (1) the effectiveness of multi-technique analysis in characterizing complex lacquer–metal interfaces and layered structures; (2) the recognition of regional and chronological variations in lacquer formulations, highlighting the need for standardized authentication protocols and shared databases; and (3) the promise of non-destructive technologies to reduce sampling and improve aging simulations. By critically synthesizing these case studies, the review highlights both methodological successes and persistent challenges, such as ethical constraints of sampling and limited understanding of long-term degradation. Ultimately, lacquer is positioned at the intersection of material science and cultural preservation, offering a transferable framework for global heritage protection. Future directions include hyperspectral imaging, bioinspired consolidants, and computational modeling to advance non-invasive diagnostics and sustainable conservation.

As ergonomic and user-centered kitchen design gains importance, integrating built-in appliances such as refrigerators has become common in modern households. However, spatial misalignment and circulation conflicts often disrupt kitchen routines. This study introduces the BEHAVIOR model (Behavioral Embeddedness Evaluation for Appliance-Versatile Integrated Operation Routing), a multidimensional framework for evaluating the movement path adaptability of embedded refrigerators in integrated kitchen–dining environments. The model identifies eight behavioral dimensions: Body Clearance, Embedded Compatibility, Handling Logic, Accessibility, Visual Feedback, Interaction Conflict, Operating Time, and Routing Simplicity, from a user–space–product coordination perspective. Expert-based AHP weighting and user entropy methods were combined to construct adaptability scores across five kitchen layouts (L-shaped, U-shaped, single-line, G-shaped, and island). The findings indicate that Routing Simplicity and Accessibility are the core determinants of layout adaptability, while Operating Time and Body Space show layout-dependent variations. Interaction Conflict and Embedded Compatibility are significantly influenced by spatial compactness. This research identifies key behavioral bottlenecks in kitchen workflows and presents a scalable model for appliance–space compatibility analysis, contributing to behavioral product evaluation and highlighting the role of user dynamics in design decisions.

Animal-derived adhesives have historically played a critical role in East Asian polychrome artworks, yet their influence on coating properties remains insufficiently understood. In this study, three traditional animal glues—bone glue, hide glue, and fish glue—were systematically compared as binding media for cinnabar (red), orpiment (yellow), and lazurite (blue) coatings on pinewood substrates. FTIR spectra of all glues exhibited characteristic collagen-related absorption bands, with bone glue showing a stronger hydroxyl peak at 3280 cm⁻¹. Viscosity analysis revealed bone glue as the most stable, reaching 120 ± 6 mPa·s at 20% concentration, compared with lower values for fish glue and hide glue. Colorimetric analysis indicated that cinnabar coatings were primarily affected by glue concentration, while orpiment coatings showed significant glue-type effects on chroma, with hide glue producing the highest saturation. Lazurite coatings displayed the strongest adhesive-related differences: hide glue enhanced saturation, whereas fish glue increased lightness. Gloss remained consistently low (<3 Gloss Units (GUs)), in line with the matte appearance of historical coatings, although bone glue produced smoother cinnabar surfaces (Ra = 1.72 µm, GU = 3.09). Two-way ANOVA confirmed that both the glue type and concentration significantly influenced chroma, gloss, and roughness. These findings demonstrate that although all animal glues share a collagenous origin, their distinct physicochemical properties shape the optical and microstructural qualities of polychrome coatings, offering a scientific basis for adhesive selection in cultural heritage conservation.