Residential environment linked to subjective well-being through life-domain satisfaction

New study explores the structural relationship between residential environments and subjective well-being

Keio University Global Research Institute

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

Residential environments may be linked to subjective well-being through satisfaction with key life domains

view more 

Credit: Dr. Shun Kawakubo from Keio University, Japan

Well-being is increasingly regarded as an important indicator of societal progress, extending beyond economic growth to capture how people experience and evaluate their lives. It is also closely connected to health, longevity, productivity, and quality of life. It has also been included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as Goal 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.” In this context, the residential environment may play a particularly important role. Housing is where people spend much of their time, rest, interact with others, and experience everyday comfort, safety, and security. However, while residential environments are often evaluated for energy efficiency, physical health, and comfort, their broader relationship with subjective well-being remains insufficiently understood.

To address this gap, Associate Professor Shun Kawakubo and Shiro Arata, a doctoral student at Keio University, explored the association between subjective well-being and the residential environments, focusing on six environmental conditions. “Although housing forms the basis of everyday life and people spend a significant portion of their daily lives in residential environments, the structural relationship between residential surroundings and subjective well-being has not been thoroughly studied. This inspired us to explore the relationship between subjective well-being and various aspects of the residential environment, and whether life-domain satisfaction mediates this relationship,” shares Dr. Kawakubo. The findings were published in the Journal of Happiness Studies on April 24, 2026.

The researchers analyzed responses from 1,001 adult residents in Japan using structural equation modeling, a statistical approach that can examine complex relationships among observed and latent variables. Participants completed an online survey assessing subjective well-being, residential environment, life-domain satisfaction, demographic factors, and personality traits. The residential environment was evaluated across six components: thermal, acoustic, lighting, hygiene, safety, and security conditions.  Life-domain satisfaction was represented by satisfaction with health, personal relationships, time spent on things one likes, the quality of the local environment, and residence.

The model showed that the residential environment was linked to subjective well-being through life-domain satisfaction. Better residential environments were linked to higher satisfaction with important life domains, which in turn was associated with greater subjective well-being. The estimated association between the residential environment and subjective well-being was comparable in magnitude to the association observed for being married and close to that associated with annual income, highlighting the potential importance of the residential environment in people's lives.

The analysis also showed that the residential environment should be understood as multidimensional rather than reduced to a single aspect. In this study, thermal, acoustic, lighting, hygiene, safety, and security conditions were examined together as components of the residential environment. The findings suggest that these everyday environmental conditions collectively characterize the residential environment, which may be associated with residents’ well-being through satisfaction with important life domains. 

Demographic factors and personality traits were also considered because subjective well-being is shaped not only by external environments, but also by individual circumstances and tendencies. Factors such as gender, age, marital status, education, working status, and income can influence how people evaluate their health, relationships, leisure, residence, and overall life satisfaction. Personality traits may also affect how residents perceive their surroundings and report well-being. By accounting for these factors, the study was able to more carefully examine the association between residential environment and subjective well-being, rather than attributing differences in well-being solely to residential conditions.

These findings may inform housing design, renovation strategies, residential environment assessment, public health, and sustainability-oriented policy discussions. Dr. Kawakubo explained, “Interventions that improve thermal comfort, reduce noise, enhance lighting quality, strengthen indoor hygiene, and increase safety and security may help support residents’ satisfaction with important life domains and contribute to more supportive living environments.”

Rather than treating the residential environment only as a matter of physical health, comfort, and energy performance, the findings suggest that housing policy and building-sector decisions should also consider subjective well-being. This is particularly relevant as modern societies place increasing emphasis on sustainability, quality of life, and social inclusion. 

Because the study used cross-sectional survey data, it cannot establish causal relationships, highlighting the need for future longitudinal research. As the study was based on data collected in Japan, further studies in other countries and regions will be needed to test whether similar patterns appear across different cultural, social, and climatic contexts.

In conclusion, the results provide an important foundation for future longitudinal studies and suggest that improving everyday residential conditions could become part of wider strategies for realizing sustainable and inclusive societies.

 

Reference
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-026-01043-1

 

About Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI), Japan
The Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI), established in November 2016, serves as a university-wide platform connecting faculties and graduate schools. It promotes interdisciplinary and international collaborative research that transcends academic and geographic boundaries, while disseminating research outcomes both domestically and globally.

In 2024, Keio University launched the Program for Forming Japan’s Peak Research Universities (J-PEAKS), funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), under the vision of becoming a “research university that forges the common sense of the future.” Through this initiative, KGRI is strengthening research infrastructure to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration, promoting the societal implementation of research, and fostering a research ecosystem that enables collaboration across the university and with leading institutions in Japan and abroad.

Website: https://www.keio.ac.jp/en/org/kgri/

 

About Associate Professor Shun Kawakubo from Keio University
Dr. Shun Kawakubo is an Associate Professor at Keio University’s Department of System Design Engineering in Japan. He received his PhD in engineering from Keio University in 2013. His research specialties are sustainability science and environmental engineering for buildings and urban spaces. His research focuses on the relationships between built environments, sustainability, health and well-being. Through collaborative approaches, his team conducts field surveys, subject experiments, and numerical simulations. By engaging in interdisciplinary co-creation research that blends insights from multiple disciplines, Dr. Kawakubo’s team tackles global challenges in order to contribute to a sustainable future.

---

Journal

Journal of Happiness Studies

DOI

10.1007/s10902-026-01043-1 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Role of the Residential Environment in Shaping Subjective Well-being

 

A common heart drug may have a secret life as a cancer fighter — and scientists now know why

The puzzle behind a heart drug's unexpected anticancer activity

Bentham Science Publishers

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

Article by Dr. Safa Daoud Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Applied Science Private University, Amman, Jordan E-mail: s_daoud@asu.edu.jo

---

The Puzzle Behind a Heart Drug's Unexpected Anticancer Activity

Dobutamine is a well-known drug given intravenously to patients in acute heart failure, where it stimulates the heart to pump more effectively. Over the past decade, however, a growing body of research has reported something surprising: the drug also suppresses the growth of cancer cells in bone tumours (osteosarcoma), stomach cancer, and multiple myeloma. No one could fully explain why. A research team led by Dr. Safa Daoud, from the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Applied Science Private University, Amman, Jordan, and co-led by Dr. Mutasem O. Taha from the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, The University of Jordan, noticed a telling pattern in the scientific literature: all the cancers where dobutamine shows activity also tend to produce unusually high levels of a protein called ROCK2 — a molecular switch that, when left unchecked, pushes tumour cells to grow, spread, and resist treatment. The team's central question was whether dobutamine's anticancer effects could be explained, at least in part, by its ability to block ROCK2 directly.
 

---

Three Lines of Evidence, One Consistent Answer

To test this idea rigorously, the researchers used three separate approaches. First, in a laboratory enzyme assay, they measured dobutamine's ability to switch off purified ROCK2 protein. The drug blocked ROCK2 activity in a clean, dose-dependent manner, with a half-inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 7.1 µM — a finding that represents the first direct proof that dobutamine can inhibit this cancer-driving enzyme. Second, the team moved to living cancer cells. They selected two cell lines chosen specifically for their contrasting ROCK2 levels: HepG2 liver cancer cells, which produce large amounts of ROCK2, and T-47D breast cancer cells, which produce relatively little. If ROCK2 were truly dobutamine's target inside the cell, the drug should hit the first line harder. That is exactly what happened: dobutamine was 3.7 times more potent against the high-ROCK2 HepG2 cells than against the low-ROCK2 T-47D cells — a statistically significant difference that tied the drug's cancer-fighting effect directly to its target. Third, using computer modelling of the ROCK2 protein structure, the team showed precisely how dobutamine fits into the enzyme's active site, forming several stabilising molecular bonds with key residues in the region where the enzyme normally uses energy to drive cancer-cell division.

---

What This Means for the Future of Cancer Drug Development

The research does more than explain a long-standing mystery. It opens a practical path forward. Dobutamine has been used clinically for over 40 years, meaning its safety profile and behaviour in the human body are well understood — a significant head start compared to a brand-new compound. The study also maps out, atom by atom, where the drug's chemical structure falls short: a somewhat flexible chain and several polar groups make binding to ROCK2 less efficient than it could be. The authors propose concrete chemical modifications — such as locking the flexible chain into a ring structure and reducing unnecessary polarity — that could produce a new generation of ROCK2-blocking cancer drugs built on the dobutamine framework. While further laboratory and animal studies are needed before any clinical application can be considered, this work establishes dobutamine as a validated starting point for developing more targeted and potent ROCK2 inhibitors for cancer treatment, and adds it to a growing list of cardiovascular drugs — alongside propranolol and carvedilol — that are finding a second life in oncology.
 

---

Read the published article here: https://bit.ly/4wpKU9R
 
The Open Medicinal Chemistry

DOI: 10.2174/0118741045455658260423122147

If you want to publish your article please visit : https://bit.ly/4de0DRi

 

---

Journal

The Open Medicinal Chemistry Journal

DOI

10.2174/0118741045455658260423122147 

Method of Research

News article

Article Title

ROCK2 Inhibition Underlying the Anticancer Effects of Dobutamine: A Novel Proposed Mechanism

 

Increasing the efficiency of buildings in Europe

CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change

Facebook

X
BlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

The building sector is responsible for about 31% of global CO₂ emissions, with 82% stemming from energy use during building operation and the remaining 18% from embodied emissions. At the European level, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive establishes ambitious targets for national building stocks. Its ultimate aim is to achieve full decarbonization by 2050, primarily by reducing energy consumption in existing buildings through renovation and by making zero-emission standards the norm for new constructions. 

In Italy, recent incentives for energy-efficient renovations have been criticised for being inefficient, indiscriminately distributed and lacking in forward-looking and effective planning from the perspective of public finances. 

In this context, understanding how operational energy demand will develop in the coming decades is essential, as it allows policymakers to refine current strategies and identify the most effective measures to lower the sector’s energy-related impacts.

“Our work seeks to promote a science-based approach, on a European scale, to understand not only how much, but where to expect and promote private investment and public support for a renovation wave that can lead the European building stock towards decarbonisation by 2050,” explains Cofler. “In other words, renovation needs, the required private investments, and how much public money should help pay for them, depend heavily on specific regional climates, building age, and local economies.”

The study estimates that public funding for renovations needs to rise roughly tenfold to match private spending, a major shift from current European financing. More generally, a future for the building stock characterised by low energy demand is possible, and by taking into account both private investment and public expenditure, this can be achieved by increasing the money currently spent on energy efficiency across Europe by 18%.

A changing landscape

The study shows space heating demand will fall sharply and fairly evenly across Europe, while space cooling demand will rise and vary enormously by location (concentrating in urban hotspots like the Po Valley, Île-de-France, and Madrid/Barcelona). 

It also surfaces a counterintuitive finding worth highlighting: optimally-targeted renovations can actually increase the gap between high- and low-energy-intensity areas, which complementary demand-side measures help offset.

In terms of numbers this equates to: an increase in total renovation investment needs by 18% versus historical trends (from 362 to 428 billion euros); roughly 2% annual renovation rate emerges as a cost-effective sweet spot; public support should rise by about ten times to roughly match private investment (shifting the current 20:1 private-to-public ratio toward around 1:1); the ambitious Low Energy Demand scenario delivers a 74% cut in building-sector emissions and 84% electrification by 2050, with a 31% energy-demand cut already by 2030.

“It is important to provide long-term perspectives, inter-state comparability of results within Europe, and most importantly quantify the financial needs of the energy transition,” says Cofler. “It is even more crucial to do so for the demand-side policies, like the ones on energy efficiency of buildings, which are often considered as unachievable or a nice-to-have, while they are actually complementary to the supply-side policies and equally necessary. They can be a general net benefit for society as a whole, and even more effective, if accurate estimates on costs and achievability of targets are given, and this research contributes exactly to this.”

For more information:

E. Cofler, F.P. Colelli, G. Falchetta, M. Tavoni, Modeling policies for the EU building stock decarbonization at sub-national resolution, Energy and Buildings, Volume 362, 2026, 117521,ISSN 0378-7788, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2026.11752

---

Journal

Energy and Buildings

 

Researchers to teens: get to bed – it’s good for your blood sugar

University of Copenhagen

Facebook

XLinkedIn
MessageWhatsAppEmail

“Go to bed!” — it’s a phrase most teenagers have heard countless times. For many young people, bedtime is easily pushed aside in favour of Netflix, gaming or just another scroll on their phone. Most already know that sleep is important for concentration, mood and learning. Now, there’s new evidence that it matters for metabolic health too.

A new study from the University of Copenhagen and the COPSAC research unit at Herlev and Gentofte Hospital shows that longer sleep is associated with fewer fluctuations in blood sugar – even among healthy 18-year-olds.

Large swings in blood sugar can increase inflammation and place strain on the metabolism, potentially contributing over time to conditions such as obesity and diabetes.

The link between sleep and metabolic diseases is not new. However, most previous studies have focused on middle-aged adults or individuals at increased risk of diabetes.

“For most 18-year-olds, diabetes feels like something far off in the future. We’ve known very little about what blood sugar variability means for this age group,” says senior author Professor Morten Arendt Rasmussen of the Department of Food Science at the University of Copenhagen and COPSAC.
“But here we’re seeing similar patterns even in completely healthy young adults.”

More sleep – less sugar craving

The researchers tracked 206 Danish 18-year-olds over two weeks as they went about their normal routines. Participants wore activity trackers to monitor movement and sleep, along with glucose sensors that continuously measured blood sugar levels.

The results were clear: on days following longer sleep, participants had more stable blood sugar and fewer extreme spikes.

While the researchers had expected to find this link, they were surprised to discover that the relationship also worked in the opposite direction:

“The more stable participants’ blood sugar was during the day, the longer they slept the following night,” says first author and postdoctoral researcher David Horner from COPSAC at Herlev and Gentofte Hospital and the University of Copenhagen.
“So this appears to be a two-way relationship — and that’s new.”

The study also found that more sleep was linked to slightly higher blood sugar levels during the morning and early part of the day — the opposite of what researchers had anticipated.

“However, that may actually be beneficial. Slightly higher blood sugar early in the day may help curb sugar cravings and thereby contribute to more stable blood sugar overall,” says Morten Arendt Rasmussen.

One possible explanation lies in how the body prepares to wake up. The researchers observed that blood sugar levels typically rose in the hours before waking — with a steeper increase after longer sleep.

“This may reflect the body getting ready for the day,” says Horner.
“For example, the natural morning rise in the stress hormone cortisol can affect blood sugar around waking. Our findings suggest that the transition from sleep to wakefulness may be an important window for metabolism.”

Sleep: Netflix’s biggest competitor

The researchers emphasise that the study cannot determine the exact mechanisms behind the links between sleep and blood sugar. Behaviour may also play a part — including what and when young people eat, and how active they are.

Even so, the overall message is clear, says Rasmussen:

“We already know that sleep is important for mental wellbeing. Our study adds to our understanding of why sleep is also crucial for physical health – and that this applies even early in adulthood. It also highlights that many of the health problems we tend to see later in life may actually be established much earlier than we previously thought.”

In the long term, findings like these could help shape strategies to prevent obesity, type 2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases.

“If future studies confirm our findings, sleep could become an even more important factor in preventing disease and promoting health among young people. And taking action doesn’t require a new diet or an expensive gym membership – it really just comes down to going to bed,” says Morten Arendt Rasmussen.

Rasmussen adds with a smile:

“When Netflix’s CEO says that sleep is their biggest competitor, I’d very much like to be Netflix’s biggest competitor.”

 

 

---

 

THE STUDY AT A GLANCE

• 206 Danish 18-year-olds took part in the study.
• Sleep was measured using wrist-worn activity trackers.
• Blood sugar was monitored continuously using glucose sensors.
• Researchers analysed a total of 2,245 days of overlapping measurements.
• The study is published in the journal Sleep.
• In addition to COPSAC and the University of Copenhagen, researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine (USA), Queen’s University (Canada), Harvard Medical School (USA), Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, and Herlev and Gentofte Hospital contributed to the study.
• The study was supported by, among others, the European Research Council (ERC), the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and the University of Copenhagen’s talent programme BRIDGE – Translational Excellence Programme, of which David Horner is a fellow.

---

Journal

SLEEP

Article Title

Night-to-Night Sleep Duration and Wake-Anchored Glycaemia: Associations with Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Free-Living Adolescents

 

A novel efficient model for testing diagnosability of discrete event systems under sensor attacks

Higher Education Press

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

image

view more 

Credit: HIGHER EDUCATION PRESS

The cyber-attack diagnosability (CA-diagnosability) of discrete event systems (DESs) assess the ability to diagnose issues when an attacker interferes with sensor-to-diagnostic communication. In real life, for example, in network systems, a network node (router or user) may be attacked or unable to correctly and promptly transmit messages due to other reasons; in power systems, a current or voltage detector may naturally age or be affected by external factors, thus failing to accurately obtain the current and voltage values of the power system; in automotive systems, damage to a component may cause the sensor readings to differ from the original values, and so on. We cannot guarantee that all components in a system will always function properly and remain free from external attacks. CA-diagnosability refers to the system's ability to determine the occurrence of fault events when sensor readings are modified. This is key to ensuring the normal operation of the system.
In order to efficiently determine the CA - diagnosability of DESs, a research team led by Dantong Ouyang published their new research on 15 June 2026 in Frontiers of Computer Science co-published by Higher Education Press and Springer Nature.
The team proposed a novel cyclic model (CM), which increases the efficiency of checking the system's CA-diagnosability without constructing the diagnoser.
They first initiate an innovative algorithm, the detection of cycles (DC), to get cyclic information for constructing the CM. Subsequently, they expand upon the concept of critical observations to diagnosability checking and propose the getting critical observations (GCO) algorithm. Finally, in the proposal of the CM-based CA-diagnos-ability checking (CMDIC) algorithm, they delineate the sufficient and necessary conditions for CA-dia-gnosability within the CM framework and offer an analysis of its

algorithmic complexity. They demonstrates findings with an example of faults in a power system's protection relay and circuit breaker. Experimental results on different benchmarks demonstrate that our approach significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in multi-fault systems, with an average improvement of over 95%. In the best-case scenarios, the improvement can reach up to two orders of magnitude. Tables 1-3 respectively present the experimental results of checking CA-diagnosability under three types of static attacks.

---

Journal

Frontiers of Computer Science

DOI

10.1007/s11704-025-41289-1 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

A novel efficient model for testing diagnosability of discrete event systems under sensor attacks