(Press-News.org)
< Overview >
A research team from the Urban and Transportation Systems Laboratory, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology has developed an innovative evaluation framework that quantitatively evaluating the quality of life (QOL) in future smart cities by integrating physical accessibility (transportation networks) and digital accessibility (ICT networks). The study shows that while digital services such as telework, online learning, and e-commerce can improve convenience and support sustainability, essential in-person services and physical social interactions remain critical for well-being and equity. The findings were published in the international academic journal Sustainability (MDPI).
< Details >
Using a web survey of 6,210 people nationwide and a QOL assessment model, this study showed how digital and physical accessibility affects daily life activities, sustainability outcomes, and overall QOL. In addition, they have developed an integrated computational evaluation framework that integrates physical space accessibility through transportation networks and virtual space accessibility through ICT networks to evaluate individuals' QOL.
The main findings of this study are as follows:
Examined the substitutability of six daily life services, including shopping, education, employment, healthcare, entertainment, and tourism, and clarified the differences in how easily each can switch between physical and digital accessibility.
Demonstrated that enhanced digital accessibility can improve QOL by reducing travel burden, saving time, and increasing convenience, while also highlighting that face-to-face interactions and in-person services remain essential for maintaining social relationships, emotional well-being, and service quality.
Linked digital substitution dynamics to sustainability outcomes, showing how appropriate digital adoption can contribute to decarbonization (De-CO₂) by reducing transportation demand, while emphasizing that digital-first strategies must be balanced with equitable physical access to avoid excluding vulnerable communities, such as the elderly and people who are not very familiar with digital devices.
Mutahari Mustafa, a third-year doctoral student and lead author of the study, said, "Digital tools can increase efficiency and reduce environmental impact, but cities must remain human-centric. Future sustainable cities need the right combination of digital convenience and real-world community support: integration, not replacement. We believe that the QOL evaluation framework we have introduced is suitable to consider the well-being of all people, along with the key concept of the SDGs, that no one is left behind, when evaluating different urban policies." He said.
< Future Outlook >
As future research, the research team will advance this framework into a policy decision-support tool to help governments, urban planners, and decision makers simulate digital-physical service strategies, evaluate equity outcomes, and design human-centered, sustainable smart cities by introducing and utilizing an integrated accessibility index into the QOL evaluation framework.
< Publication Information >
Mutahari,M., Sugiki,N., Suzuki,D., Hayashi,Y.,&Matsuo,K.(2025 A Computational Framework for Evaluating Quality of Life in Sustainable Urban Environments: Integrating Physical and Digital Service Accessibility. Sustainability, 17(21), 9660. 9660; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17219660
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The European Society of Endocrinology (ESE) has published an open access Revised Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Chronic Hypoparathyroidism in Adults in the European Journal of Endocrinology, Volume 193, Issue 5, November 2025.
The Revised Guideline has been developed by an expert multidisciplinary panel chaired by Professor Jens Bollerslev, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway. It is intended as practical guidance for health care providers involved in the diagnosis, management and monitoring of chronic hypoparathyroidism in adults.
The Revised Guideline has been endorsed by the ...
Embargoed to: 11:30 Eastern Time (UTC-5), 13 November 2025
New research shows that it’s possible to end the practice of using people as ‘human bait’ to catch and test the blackflies that spread river blindness (onchocerciasis). The study by international non-profit Sightsavers in partnership with the Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE) and ministries of health in Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Malawi and Mozambique, will be presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) on 13 November 2025.
Every year countries across Africa collect many thousands of blackflies to monitor for the presence of river blindness, a parasitic ...
An analysis of national climate plans released today at the COP30 climate summit in Brazil warns that countries are failing to carry out core work required to reduce emissions by halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation, and are instead pushing unrealistic carbon removal schemes, such as large-scale tree planting.
The Land Gap 2025 report, led by the University of Melbourne alongside a global consortium of experts, explains why countries are relying on impractical levels of land-based efforts to achieve net-zero emissions, rather than pursuing more realistic climate solutions ...
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Fish species living in the deep sea feature a surprisingly large range of body shapes that evolved in different ways and at different rates depending on where the fishes live in the ocean, new research shows.
Overall, the analysis of nearly 3,000 species showed more diversity of body types among the pelagic fishes, those that swim in open water, than among the benthic species spending their life on the ocean floor. Pelagic fish body types span from the round anglerfish to skinny eels, while benthic fishes ...
Background and Aims
Further decompensation in cirrhosis is associated with increased mortality. However, reliable tools to predict further decompensation after transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) are currently limited. This study aimed to investigate the incidence and risk factors of further decompensation within one year post-TIPS in patients with cirrhosis and to develop a predictive model for identifying high-risk individuals.
Methods
This retrospective cohort study enrolled 152 patients with cirrhosis undergoing TIPS for variceal bleeding and/or refractory ascites (January 2018–January 2024). Patients were stratified according to one-year decompensation ...
There’s no scientific evidence that the gut microbiome causes autism, a group of scientists argue in an opinion paper publishing November 13 in the Cell Press journal Neuron. They point to the fact that conclusions from past research that supported this hypothesis—including observational studies, mouse models of autism, and human clinical trials—are undermined by flawed assumptions, small sample sizes, and inappropriate statistical methods.
“Despite ...
NEW YORK, NY (Nov. 13, 2025)--A study of a pig kidney that flourished for two months in a brain-dead recipient shows that a protocol developed by Columbia University immunologists can help prevent long-term rejection of a xenotransplant.
In the study, surgeons at New York University Langone Health transplanted a pig kidney and the same animal’s thymus gland into a 57-year-old man with glioblastoma who had been declared brain-dead at the hospital. The study ...
Researchers have uncovered and then overcome an obstacle that has led to the failure of pioneering efforts in xenotransplantation, in which an animal kidney is transplanted into a human.
More than 800,000 Americans have late-stage kidney disease yet only 3% receive a transplant each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To boost the supply of available organs, experts are exploring the use of genetically modified pig kidneys. The genetic changes are meant to keep the human ...
Platelets are small, disc-shaped cell fragments in the blood that are essential to stop bleeding and to initiate blood clotting after injury. Platelet transfusions in patients with severe trauma or medical conditions, including bone marrow disease, leukemia, or sepsis, can be lifesaving. Despite being a standard clinical practice, platelet transfusions face issues related to the availability of blood donations from which platelets are isolated, the relatively short shelf life of purified platelets, and the risk of an immune response in patients receiving platelets from unmatched donors.
A potential solution to this has been proposed ...
About The Study: The current analysis illustrates that drug promotion content is frequently posted by individual creators, lacks essential risk information, and bears the hallmarks of undisclosed marketing. These findings suggest that posts circumvented established advertising principles and potentially eroded the fair balance crucial for informed patient decision-making, consistent with prior literature on traditional direct-to-consumer advertising’s impact on prescribing.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Alex Kresovich, PhD, email kresovich-alex@norc.org.
To access the embargoed ...
