Buddhist culture in Liaoning has a long and rich history. The continuous spread of Buddhism has promoted the development of Buddhist architecture, leaving us a rich architectural art heritage. Furthermore, it has also profoundly influenced China’s architectural characteristics, social culture, and economic development. This paper takes Buddhist temples and pagodas in Liaoning as the research objects and uses methods such as the geographic concentration index, nearest neighbor index, kernel density estimation, and standard deviation ellipse to analyze their spatio-temporal distribution characteristics and influencing factors across different periods. 1. Temporal distribution. During the Liao Dynasty (907–1125 AD) and the Qing Dynasty (1636–1912 AD), the construction of Buddhist temples and pagodas was the highest, with a linear increase in the Qing Dynasty. 2. The overall spatial distribution of Buddhist temples and pagodas in Liaoning is uneven, showing an agglomeration distribution state. The distribution status of different periods was different, and the Ming (1368–1644 AD) and Qing dynasties (1636–1912 AD) showed obvious aggregation distribution. The overall state is “more in the west and less in the east” and “more in the north and less in the south”. 3. In different periods, the spatial distribution direction of Buddhist temples and pagodas in Liaoning was relatively obvious and was southwest–northeast, and the center of gravity gradually shifted to the northwest. 4. The kernel density of different periods presents the density distribution and area of each period. The overall distribution is dense to scattered and then to highly dense. 5. The spatio-temporal distribution characteristics of Buddhist temples and pagodas in Liaoning are mainly composed of deep-seated political factors, rapid economic development and stable social environment, diverse culture, natural geography, cultural relics protection, and the artistic value of Buddhist architecture in the Liaoning region.

Taking Dalian, a typical square city in China, as an example based on data from remote sensing images, questionnaires, spatial statistics, social economy, etc., 48 squares in the main districts were constructed from the perspective of human settlements in order to build five systems: nature, humanity, society, residence and support. The aim was to explore the spatio-temporal differentiation characteristics and their driving mechanism. The results show the following: (1) The index system was constructed based on the human settlements perspective, and PCA was used to comprehensively evaluate it. Four principal component factors were extracted, and their cumulative contribution rate is 78.701%. On this basis, city squares were divided into four types: comprehensive square, recreational square, commercial service square and traffic square. (2) Using Mapinfo to visualize the square space, and taking the People’s Square as the center, the squares from the Tsarist Russia and Japanese colonial rule time periods were mainly distributed within 5 km, mostly in the direction of NE-SEE. During the construction of New China, city squares were distributed in all directions of the city, mainly between NE-SE and NNW-SSW. (3) ArcGIS was used to create an analysis chart of square service scope. Compared with 1999, it was more concentrated in central cities in 2016, and the service scope was relatively small. However, a square with high popularity has a wider influence. (4) The formation and evolution of the spatial pattern of city squares are affected by many factors, such as nature, economy, society, politics, ecological environment and technology. In the planning and development of city squares, Dalian should pay full attention to human settlements perpectives and add luster to the development of livable cities.

The composition of human settlements is important to resolving urban issues, such as land shortage, and to rationally distributing human settlements and social resources. Based on the demand hierarchy theory, this paper comprehensively used the methods of location entropy, information entropy, and geographic detector to analyze the characteristics and driving mechanism of the specialization, composition, and compatibility of human settlements at all levels. (1) The composite characteristics of human settlements were influential; that is, clear concentration differences were found among various types of human settlements, with the specialization of primary human settlements having the highest concentration. The specialization of human settlements was characterized as center–periphery; that is, the centrality of basic and high-level human settlements was obvious and the discreteness of primary human settlements was obvious. (2) The spatial differences in the north–central–south compositions of human settlements were also influential. These spatial differences showed that the composite characteristics of the basic high-level and intermediate high-level human settlements were similar, and the composite features were weakly affected by the scale of the elements. (3) Furthermore, single human settlements were dominant, and the multi-level human settlements that were compatible with the comprehensive composite form were the primary form of expression. The interactions between the primary and other human settlements were relatively high. Finally, (4) the high-level human settlement elements and regional economic vitality were the dominant factors of the composite characteristic heterogeneity of human settlements. Residential self and social attributes have an impact on the diversity of their needs, and they interact with human settlements through human settlement elements. The results of the study are of great significance to the rational allocation of human settlements and the promotion of the composition of human settlements.

Whether a well-organized scene facilitates visual search may depend on when in the search process the benefit is expressed. We tested this possibility in a virtual-office task in which 48 adults searched for targets varying in salience. Salience was manipulated between participants, whereas layout (grid, clustered, or random) and clutter (low, medium, or high) varied within participants. Mouse responses and eye position (120 Hz) were collected across 1296 target-present trials. Accuracy was broadly comparable across conditions, but reaction time (RT), time to first fixation (TTFF), fixation duration in the Target AOI, and fixation duration in the Clutter AOI each showed a three-way interaction. The transition data were particularly informative under high clutter. For grid layouts, clutter-to-target transitions occurred on 47.3% of transitions, clutter-to-clutter self-transitions on 20.5%, and the target was first reached after 0.89 intervening transitions on average. The respective values for random layouts were 11.2%, 64.2%, and 6.39. Thus, the benefit of the grid was not consistently present at initial target capture. It became most evident in the way gaze was redirected among regions as the search unfolded. Spatial regularity therefore seems to limit later search costs by making attentional reallocation and gaze-path correction more efficient.

Public-space entrances are often assessed through ratings, although correspondence between favorable appraisal and entry choice remains unclear. We examined this relationship in an immersive virtual-reality experiment involving 72 adults and 24 scenes (1728 trials). A within-participant design varied entrance type, transition depth, pausing support, and natural-surveillance legibility. Participants made controller-based entry choices during each scene and rated safety, legibility, control, and retreatability afterward; gaze and electrodermal activity were recorded concurrently. The primary mismatch index compared standardized appraisal with entry rate, while latency was analyzed separately. Medium pausing support with high surveillance legibility (MH) combined favorable safety and legibility ratings with the lowest reported entry rate (9.95%) and longest mean latency (4.39 s). MH had the largest mismatch under eight of ten appraisal-weight specifications. High pausing support with high legibility combined favorable appraisal and frequent entry. These findings support evaluating entrances through both subjective experience and behavioral uptake, and assessing readable interior information alongside opportunities to pause and orient. Causal mechanisms and transfer to physical entrances require further verification.

This paper takes 1929 inscription sites in Henan Province as the study object and uses methods such as kernel density and nearest neighbor index to analyze their spatiotemporal distribution patterns and influencing factors. It also studies those patterns of various levels of inscription cultural relics’ protection units and content. All of these will help our understanding of the development process and characteristics of Central Plains art and provide reference for the protection and development of inscriptions in Henan in the future. The study indicates the following: (1) The spatial distribution of inscription sites is relatively uneven and the clustering is obvious, being mainly concentrated in the northern and northwestern regions of Henan, showing the characteristics of “one belt and four clusters” as a whole. The density is high in the north and low in the south, gradually decreasing from north to south. (2) In terms of time, the number of these inscription sites shows a fluctuating trend of first a slight increase and then a decrease with a significant increase and then a decrease. The center of the sites migrates from southwest to northeast over time. (3) These inscriptions can be divided into five primary themes and further subdivided into 16 secondary themes in terms of content. The main type is chronicle. (4) Inscriptions in Henan are mainly influenced by five major factors: topography, climate, economy and transportation, politics and society, culture and religion.