Wood, a natural and renewable material, is extensively utilized in furniture, construction, and outdoor landscapes due to its sustainability and esthetic appeal. However, exposure to environmental elements, particularly sunlight, leads to photodegradation, affecting wood’s chemical and physical structure. This degradation results in color fading, increased surface roughness, and reduced mechanical properties, shortening the lifespan of wooden products. Artificial accelerated photodegradation tests have become a crucial method for studying wood’s aging process under controlled laboratory conditions, mimicking prolonged exposure to sunlight. This review explores the mechanisms behind wood photodegradation, focusing on the effects of UV radiation on wood’s major components—cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and extractives. Additionally, it summarizes the latest advancements in experimental design for artificial aging tests, including factors like radiation source selection, temperature, and humidity control. The paper also highlights performance characterization methods for evaluating the impact of photodegradation on wood’s physical, chemical, and mechanical properties. Understanding these processes is essential for enhancing the durability of wood products and developing effective treatments for wood preservation in outdoor environments.

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.

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.