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Zhenhao Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Zhenhao Zhang.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2026

AuraDesk: Data Physicalization through Olfaction Metaphors for Representing and Mitigating Workplace Stress

Workplace stress is often addressed through visual or auditory interventions, yet these modalities can compete with attention and contribute to sensory overload. We explore olfaction as an alternative ambient medium for representing stress-related physiological signals in office settings. We present AuraDesk, an olfactory data physicalization system that translates wearable-derived physiological cues into situated scent expressions at the workstation. The system combines local physiological state inference with a constrained actuation strategy to produce temporally regulated and spatially localized scent output suitable for everyday work environments. To examine the feasibility and experiential qualities of this approach, we conducted a one-day in-situ field deployment with 25 knowledge workers at their actual workstations. Our findings show that participants often interpreted the scent output not as an explicit alert, but as a subtle atmospheric cue that supported momentary awareness, micro-break taking, and perceived environmental attunement. At the same time, participants raised important concerns regarding scent preference, habituation, and contextual appropriateness in shared offices. This work contributes (1) an olfactory interface for physiologically driven ambient feedback in the workplace, (2) a hybrid mapping approach for coupling continuous biosignal interpretation with constrained scent actuation, and (3) empirical insights into how workers perceive, negotiate, and appropriate ambient olfactory feedback in real office contexts. Rather than claiming therapeutic efficacy, we position AuraDesk as a probe into the design space of olfactory data physicalization for workplace wellbeing and attention-sensitive interaction.

cs.HC↗
arXiv2026

Living with Data: Exploring Physicalization Approaches to Sedentary Behavior Intervention for Older Adults in Everyday Life

Sedentary behavior is a critical health risk for older adults. Although digital interventions are widely available, they primarily rely on screen-based notifications that can feel clinical or cognitively demanding, and are thus often ignored over time. This paper presents a three-phase Research through Design methodology to explore data physicalization approaches that ambiently represent sedentary data patterns using decor artifacts in older adults' homes. These artifacts transformed abstract data into aesthetic, evolving forms that became part of the domestic landscape. Our research revealed how these physicalizations fostered self-reflection, family conversations, and encouraged active lifestyles. We demonstrate how qualities like aesthetic ambiguity and slow revelation can empower older adults, fostering a reflective relationship with their well-being. Ultimately, we argue that creating data physicalizations for older adults necessitates a shift from merely informing users to enabling them to live with and through their data.

cs.HC↗
arXiv2026

Fairness-Aware Fine-Tuning of Vision-Language Models for Medical Glaucoma Diagnosis

Vision-language models achieve expert-level performance on medical imaging tasks but exhibit significant diagnostic accuracy disparities across demographic groups. We introduce fairness-aware Low-Rank Adaptation for medical VLMs, combining parameter efficiency with explicit fairness optimization. Our key algorithmic contribution is a differentiable MaxAccGap loss that enables end-to-end optimization of accuracy parity across demographic groups. We propose three methods: FR-LoRA integrates MaxAccGap regularization into the training objective, GR-LoRA applies inverse frequency weighting to balance gradient contributions, and Hybrid-LoRA combines both mechanisms. Evaluated on 10,000 glaucoma fundus images, GR-LoRA reduces diagnostic accuracy disparities by 69% while maintaining 53.15% overall accuracy. Ablation studies reveal that strong regularization strength achieves optimal fairness with minimal accuracy trade-off, and race-specific optimization yields 60% disparity reduction. Our approach requires only 0.24% trainable parameters, enabling practical deployment of fair medical AI in resource-constrained healthcare settings.

cs.CV↗
arXiv2026

NEP-CG and NEP-AACG: Efficient coarse-grained and multiscale all-atom-coarse-grained neuroevolution potentials

Machine-learned coarse-grained (CG) models often suffer from noisy training data, limiting their accuracy and transferability. We propose a method to generate low-noise training data based on the potential of mean force by constraining CG beads during atomistic simulations and accumulating time-averaged forces. Implemented within the neuroevolution potential (NEP) framework, our approach achieves training accuracy comparable to atomistic models trained on density functional theory data. For liquid water, the NEP-CG model accurately reproduces densities from 1 bar to 1 GPa, successfully extrapolating beyond the 0.5 GPa training limit, with a virial correction essential for the correct equation of state. For an anisotropic C$_{60}$ monolayer, distinguishing crystallographically distinct bead types reduces stress errors by an order of magnitude and captures directional thermal conductivity. We further introduce a multiscale NEP-AACG model integrating all-atom (AA) and CG degrees of freedom, demonstrated for gold nanowire fracture at an experimentally relevant strain rate. Computational speeds for NEP-CG models reach hundreds to thousands of ns/day using a single consumer-grade GPU. This work provides a robust framework for constructing accurate, transferable, and efficient CG models across diverse systems.

physics.comp-ph↗
arXiv2026

UniHM: Unified Dexterous Hand Manipulation with Vision Language Model

Planning physically feasible dexterous hand manipulation is a central challenge in robotic manipulation and Embodied AI. Prior work typically relies on object-centric cues or precise hand-object interaction sequences, foregoing the rich, compositional guidance of open-vocabulary instruction. We introduce UniHM, the first framework for unified dexterous hand manipulation guided by free-form language commands. We propose a Unified Hand-Dexterous Tokenizer that maps heterogeneous dexterous-hand morphologies into a single shared codebook, improving cross-dexterous hand generalization and scalability to new morphologies. Our vision language action model is trained solely on human-object interaction data, eliminating the need for massive real-world teleoperation datasets, and demonstrates strong generalizability in producing human-like manipulation sequences from open-ended language instructions. To ensure physical realism, we introduce a physics-guided dynamic refinement module that performs segment-wise joint optimization under generative and temporal priors, yielding smooth and physically feasible manipulation sequences. Across multiple datasets and real-world evaluations, UniHM attains state-of-the-art results on both seen and unseen objects and trajectories, demonstrating strong generalization and high physical feasibility. Our project page at \href{https://unihm.github.io/}{https://unihm.github.io/}.

cs.RO↗
arXiv2026

Distance spectral radius conditions for perfect $k$-matching, generalized factor-criticality (bicriticality) and $k$-$d$-criticality of graphs

Let $G$ be a simple connected graph with vertex set $V(G)$ and edge set $E(G)$. A $k$-matching of a graph $G$ is a function $f:E(G)\rightarrow \{0,1,\ldots, k\}$ satisfying $\sum_{e \in E_G(v)} f(e) \leq k$ for every vertex $v \in V(G)$, where $E_G(v)$ is the set of edges incident with $v$ in $G$. A $k$-matching of a graph $G$ is perfect if $ \sum_{e \in E_G(v) } f(e) = k $ for any vertex $v \in V(G)$. The $k$-Berge-Tutte-formula of a graph $G$ is defined as: \[ \defk(G) = \max_{S \subseteq V(G)} \begin{cases} k \cdot i(G - S) - k|S|, & k \text{ is even;} \\[6pt] \odd(G - S) + k \cdot i(G - S) - k|S|, & k \text{ is odd.} \end{cases} \] A $k$-barrier of the graph $G$ is the subset $S \subseteq V(G)$ that reaches the maximum value in $k$-Berge-Tutte-formula. A connected graph \( G \) of odd (even) order is a {generalized factor-critical (generalized bicritical) graph about integer \( k \)-matching}, abbreviated as a \( \mathrm{GFC}_k (\mathrm{GBC}_k)\) graph, if $\emptyset$ is a unique $k$-barrier. When $k$ is odd, let \( 1 \leq d \leq k \) and \( |V(G)| \equiv d \pmod{2} \). If for any \( v \in V(G) \), there exists a \( k \)-matching \( h \) such that $\sum_{e \in E_G(v)} h(e) = k - d$ {and} $\sum_{e \in E_G(u)} h(e) = k$ for any \( u \in V(G) - \{v\} \), then \( G \) is said to be \( k \)-\( d \)-critical. In this paper, we provide sufficient conditions in terms of distance spectral radius to ensure that a graph has a perfect $k$-matching and a graph is \( k \)-\( d \)-critical, $\mathrm{GFC}_k$ or $\mathrm{GBC}_k$, respectively.

math.CO↗
arXiv2026

Size conditions and spectral conditions for generalized factor-critical (bicritical) graphs and $k$-$d$-critical graphs

Let $\mbox{odd}(G)$ and $i(G)$ denote the number of nontrivial odd components and the number of isolated vertices of a graph $G$, respectively. The $k$-Berge-Tutte-formula of a graph $G$ is defined as: $\mbox{def}_k(G)=\mathop{\text{max}}\limits_{S\subseteq V(G)}\{k\cdot i(G-S)-k|S|\} $ for even $k$; $\mbox{def}_k(G)=\mathop{\mbox{max}}\limits_{S\subseteq V(G)}\{\mbox{odd}(G-S)+k\cdot i(G-S)-k|S|\} $ for odd $k$. A $k$-barrier of a graph $G$ is the subset $S\subseteq V(G)$ that reaches the maximum value in the $k$-Berge-Tutte-formula of $G$. A graph $G$ of odd order (resp. even order) is generalized factor-critical (resp. generalized bicritical) if $\emptyset$ is its only $k$-barrier. Denote by $E_G(v)$ the set of all edges incident to a vertex $v$ in $G$. A $k$-matching of a graph $G$ is a function $f:E(G) \rightarrow \{0,1,...,k\}$ such that $\sum_{e\in E_G(v)} f(e)$ $\leq k$ for every vertex $v\in V(G)$. For $1\leq d\leq k$ and $d \equiv |V(G)|$(mod 2), if for any $ v \in V(G)$, there exists a $k$-matching $f$ such that $\sum_{e\in E_G(v)}f(e)=k-d$ and $\sum_{e\in E_G(u)}f(e)=k \text{ for any } u\in V(G)-\{v\}$. Then $G$ is $k$-$d$-critical. In this paper, we establish tight sufficient conditions in terms of size or spectral radius respectively for a graph $G$ to be generalized factor-critical, generalized bicritical, and $k$-$d$-critical. Furthermore, we prove the equivalence of the existence of four factors (namely, $\{K_2,\{C_t: t\geq 3\}\}$-factor, $\{K_2,\{C_{2t+1}:t\geq 1 \}\}$-factor, fractional perfect matching, perfect $k$-matching with even $k$) in a graph. Thus we also give size conditions and spectral radius conditions for a graph $G-v$ to have one of the four factors for any $v\in V(G)$.

math.CO↗
arXiv2026

Unlocking the Power of Orbital-Free Density Functional Theory to Explore the Electronic Structure Under Extreme Conditions

Recent advances in X-ray free-electron laser diagnostics have enabled direct probing of the electronic structure under extreme pressures and temperatures, such as those encountered in stellar interiors and inertial confinement fusion experiments, challenging theoretical models for interpreting experimental data. Kohn-Sham density functional theory (KSDFT) has been successfully applied to analyze experimental X-ray scattering measurements, but its high computational cost renders routine application impractical. Orbital-free DFT (OFDFT) is a substantially more efficient alternative, with computational cost scaling linearly with system size and a weak temperature dependence, yet it often lacks the accuracy required for electronic structure description. Overcoming this limitation, we present a non-empirical Kohn-Sham-assisted orbital-free density functional framework for calculations at extreme conditions, which enables efficient OFDFT simulations with KSDFT-level accuracy for electron densities, electron-ion structure factors, and equations of state across a broad range of conditions. Benchmark comparisons with quantum Monte Carlo data for dense hydrogen and validation against Rayleigh weight measurements of hot dense beryllium demonstrate the reliability of the framework and speedups of up to several hundred times compared with KSDFT. We further show that even at temperatures on the order of 100 eV, quantum non-locality remains essential for correctly describing the electronic structure of dense hydrogen.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2026

SDEval: Safety Dynamic Evaluation for Multimodal Large Language Models

In the rapidly evolving landscape of Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs), the safety concerns of their outputs have earned significant attention. Although numerous datasets have been proposed, they may become outdated with MLLM advancements and are susceptible to data contamination issues. To address these problems, we propose \textbf{SDEval}, the \textit{first} safety dynamic evaluation framework to controllably adjust the distribution and complexity of safety benchmarks. Specifically, SDEval mainly adopts three dynamic strategies: text, image, and text-image dynamics to generate new samples from original benchmarks. We first explore the individual effects of text and image dynamics on model safety. Then, we find that injecting text dynamics into images can further impact safety, and conversely, injecting image dynamics into text also leads to safety risks. SDEval is general enough to be applied to various existing safety and even capability benchmarks. Experiments across safety benchmarks, MLLMGuard and VLSBench, and capability benchmarks, MMBench and MMVet, show that SDEval significantly influences safety evaluation, mitigates data contamination, and exposes safety limitations of MLLMs. Code is available at https://github.com/hq-King/SDEval

cs.CV↗
arXiv2025

OpenHOI: Open-World Hand-Object Interaction Synthesis with Multimodal Large Language Model

Understanding and synthesizing realistic 3D hand-object interactions (HOI) is critical for applications ranging from immersive AR/VR to dexterous robotics. Existing methods struggle with generalization, performing well on closed-set objects and predefined tasks but failing to handle unseen objects or open-vocabulary instructions. We introduce OpenHOI, the first framework for open-world HOI synthesis, capable of generating long-horizon manipulation sequences for novel objects guided by free-form language commands. Our approach integrates a 3D Multimodal Large Language Model (MLLM) fine-tuned for joint affordance grounding and semantic task decomposition, enabling precise localization of interaction regions (e.g., handles, buttons) and breakdown of complex instructions (e.g., "Find a water bottle and take a sip") into executable sub-tasks. To synthesize physically plausible interactions, we propose an affordance-driven diffusion model paired with a training-free physics refinement stage that minimizes penetration and optimizes affordance alignment. Evaluations across diverse scenarios demonstrate OpenHOI's superiority over state-of-the-art methods in generalizing to novel object categories, multi-stage tasks, and complex language instructions. Our project page at \href{https://openhoi.github.io}

cs.CV↗
arXiv2025

Vocabuild: An Accessible Augmented Tangible Interface for Gamified Vocabulary Learning of Constructing Meaning

Vocabulary acquisition in early education often relies on rote memorization and passive screen-based tools, which can fail to engage students kinesthetically and collaboratively. This paper introduces Vocabuild, an augmented tangible interface designed to transform vocabulary learning into an active, embodied, and playful experience. The system combines physical letter blocks with a projection-augmented surface. As children physically construct words with the blocks, the system provides real-time, dynamic feedback, such as displaying corresponding images and animations, thus helping them construct semantic meaning. Deployed in a classroom context, our gamified approach fosters both individual exploration and peer collaboration. A user study conducted with elementary school children demonstrates that our tangible interface leads to higher engagement, increased collaboration, and a more positive attitude towards learning compared to traditional methods. Our contributions are twofold: (1) the design and implementation of Vocabuild, a projection-augmented tangible system that transforms vocabulary learning into an embodied and collaborative activity; and (2) empirical findings from a classroom study showing that our tangible approach significantly increases engagement, peer collaboration, and positive learning attitudes compared to traditional methods.

cs.HC↗
arXiv2025

HOID-R1: Reinforcement Learning for Open-World Human-Object Interaction Detection Reasoning with Multimodal Large Language Model

Understanding and recognizing human-object interaction (HOI) is a pivotal application in AR/VR and robotics. Recent open-vocabulary HOI detection approaches depend exclusively on large language models for richer textual prompts, neglecting their inherent 3D spatial understanding capabilities. To address this shortcoming, we introduce HOID-R1, the first HOI detection framework that integrates chain-of-thought (CoT) guided supervised fine-tuning (SFT) with group relative policy optimization (GRPO) within a reinforcement learning (RL) paradigm. Specifically, we initially apply SFT to imbue the model with essential reasoning capabilities, forcing the model to articulate its thought process in the output. Subsequently, we integrate GRPO to leverage multi-reward signals for policy optimization, thereby enhancing alignment across diverse modalities. To mitigate hallucinations in the CoT reasoning, we introduce an "MLLM-as-a-judge" mechanism that supervises the CoT outputs, further improving generalization. Extensive experiments show that HOID-R1 achieves state-of-the-art performance on HOI detection benchmarks and outperforms existing methods in open-world generalization to novel scenarios.

cs.CV↗
arXiv2025

Robust Variable Selection for High-dimensional Regression with Missing Data and Measurement Errors

In our paper, we focus on robust variable selection for missing data and measurement error. Missing data and measurement errors can lead to confusing data distribution. We propose an exponential loss function with a tuning parameter to apply to Missing and measurement errors data. By adjusting the parameter, the loss function can be better and more robust under various data distributions. We use inverse probability weighting and additive error models to address missing data and measurement errors. Also, we find that the Atan punishment method works better. We used Monte Carlo simulations to assess the validity of robust variable selection and validated our findings with the breast cancer dataset.

stat.ME↗
arXiv2025

TherAIssist: Assisting Art Therapy Homework and Client-Practitioner Collaboration through Human-AI Interaction

Art therapy homework is essential for fostering clients' reflection on daily experiences between sessions. However, current practices present challenges: clients often lack guidance for completing tasks that combine art-making and verbal expression, while therapists find it difficult to track and tailor homework. How HCI systems might support art therapy homework remains underexplored. To address this, we present TherAIssist, comprising a client-facing application leveraging human-AI co-creative art-making and conversational agents to facilitate homework, and a therapist-facing application enabling customization of homework agents and AI-compiled homework history. A 30-day field study with 24 clients and 5 therapists showed how TherAIssist supported clients' homework and reflection in their everyday settings. Results also revealed how therapists infused their practice principles and personal touch into the agents to offer tailored homework, and how AI-compiled homework history became a meaningful resource for in-session interactions. Implications for designing human-AI systems to facilitate asynchronous client-practitioner collaboration are discussed.

cs.HC↗
arXiv2024

Anger Speaks Louder? Exploring the Effects of AI Nonverbal Emotional Cues on Human Decision Certainty in Moral Dilemmas

Exploring moral dilemmas allows individuals to navigate moral complexity, where a reversal in decision certainty, shifting toward the opposite of one's initial choice, could reflect open-mindedness and less rigidity. This study probes how nonverbal emotional cues from conversational agents could influence decision certainty in moral dilemmas. While existing research heavily focused on verbal aspects of human-agent interaction, we investigated the impact of agents expressing anger and sadness towards the moral situations through animated chat balloons. We compared these with a baseline where agents offered same responses without nonverbal cues. Results show that agents displaying anger significantly caused reversal shifts in decision certainty. The interaction between participant gender and agents' nonverbal emotional cues significantly affects participants' perception of AI's influence. These findings reveal that even subtly altering agents' nonverbal cues may impact human moral decisions, presenting both opportunities to leverage these effects for positive outcomes and ethical risks for future human-AI systems.

cs.HC↗
arXiv2024

Diffusion-based Reinforcement Learning via Q-weighted Variational Policy Optimization

Diffusion models have garnered widespread attention in Reinforcement Learning (RL) for their powerful expressiveness and multimodality. It has been verified that utilizing diffusion policies can significantly improve the performance of RL algorithms in continuous control tasks by overcoming the limitations of unimodal policies, such as Gaussian policies, and providing the agent with enhanced exploration capabilities. However, existing works mainly focus on the application of diffusion policies in offline RL, while their incorporation into online RL is less investigated. The training objective of the diffusion model, known as the variational lower bound, cannot be optimized directly in online RL due to the unavailability of 'good' actions. This leads to difficulties in conducting diffusion policy improvement. To overcome this, we propose a novel model-free diffusion-based online RL algorithm, Q-weighted Variational Policy Optimization (QVPO). Specifically, we introduce the Q-weighted variational loss, which can be proved to be a tight lower bound of the policy objective in online RL under certain conditions. To fulfill these conditions, the Q-weight transformation functions are introduced for general scenarios. Additionally, to further enhance the exploration capability of the diffusion policy, we design a special entropy regularization term. We also develop an efficient behavior policy to enhance sample efficiency by reducing the variance of the diffusion policy during online interactions. Consequently, the QVPO algorithm leverages the exploration capabilities and multimodality of diffusion policies, preventing the RL agent from converging to a sub-optimal policy. To verify the effectiveness of QVPO, we conduct comprehensive experiments on MuJoCo benchmarks. The final results demonstrate that QVPO achieves state-of-the-art performance on both cumulative reward and sample efficiency.

cs.LG↗
arXiv2024

Faster Post-Quantum TLS 1.3 Based on ML-KEM: Implementation and Assessment

TLS is extensively utilized for secure data transmission over networks. However, with the advent of quantum computers, the security of TLS based on traditional public-key cryptography is under threat. To counter quantum threats, it is imperative to integrate post-quantum algorithms into TLS. Most PQ-TLS research focuses on integration and evaluation, but few studies address the improvement of PQ-TLS performance by optimizing PQC implementation. For the TLS protocol, handshake performance is crucial, and for post-quantum TLS (PQ-TLS) the performance of post-quantum key encapsulation mechanisms (KEMs) directly impacts handshake performance. In this work, we explore the impact of post-quantum KEMs on PQ-TLS performance. We explore how to improve ML-KEM performance using the latest Intel's Advanced Vector Extensions instruction set AVX-512. We detail a spectrum of techniques devised to parallelize polynomial multiplication, modular reduction, and other computationally intensive modules within ML-KEM. Our optimized ML-KEM implementation achieves up to 1.64x speedup compared to the latest AVX2 implementation. Furthermore, we introduce a novel batch key generation method for ML-KEM that can seamlessly integrate into the TLS protocols. The batch method accelerates the key generation procedure by 3.5x to 4.9x. We integrate the optimized AVX-512 implementation of ML-KEM into TLS 1.3, and assess handshake performance under both PQ-only and hybrid modes. The assessment demonstrates that our faster ML-KEM implementation results in a higher number of TLS 1.3 handshakes per second under both modes. Additionally, we revisit two IND-1-CCA KEM constructions discussed in Eurocrypt22 and Asiacrypt23. Besides, we implement them based on ML-KEM and integrate the one of better performance into TLS 1.3 with benchmarks.

cs.CR↗
arXiv2023

Hypergraph Convolutional Networks for Fine-grained ICU Patient Similarity Analysis and Risk Prediction

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is one of the most important parts of a hospital, which admits critically ill patients and provides continuous monitoring and treatment. Various patient outcome prediction methods have been attempted to assist healthcare professionals in clinical decision-making. Existing methods focus on measuring the similarity between patients using deep neural networks to capture the hidden feature structures. However, the higher-order relationships are ignored, such as patient characteristics (e.g., diagnosis codes) and their causal effects on downstream clinical predictions. In this paper, we propose a novel Hypergraph Convolutional Network that allows the representation of non-pairwise relationships among diagnosis codes in a hypergraph to capture the hidden feature structures so that fine-grained patient similarity can be calculated for personalized mortality risk prediction. Evaluation using a publicly available eICU Collaborative Research Database indicates that our method achieves superior performance over the state-of-the-art models on mortality risk prediction. Moreover, the results of several case studies demonstrated the effectiveness and robustness of the model decisions.

cs.LG↗