The impact of the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme on the“health poverty alleviation”of rural households in China

This study investigates the impact of the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme(NRCMS)on rural households to escape poverty.We employ the instrumental variable method,the IVProbit model,to analyze the national data from the rural-resident field survey by the China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)in 2016.Based on the large-scale data,we found that,first,the hospitalization of family members is the key factor in increasing the risk of the family falling into poverty.The NRCMS has significantly reduced the likely risk of falling into poverty.Second,the impact of the NRCMS on poverty alleviation varies among groups with different levels of income.There is no impact on the upper-middle and high-income groups;in contrast,the NRCMS has substantially improved the capacity of low-income rural families to prevent poverty due to illness,especially for the lower-middle-income group.Third,there exist significant regional differences in the impact of NRCMS on the health poverty alleviation of rural households in China.The NRCMS has successfully reduced the risk of rural households in the western region falling into poverty,simultaneously,no significant impact on those in the eastern and central regions.In order to diminish and eliminate poverty eventually and boost rural residents'capacity for income acquisition,we propose the following:raise the actual compensation ratio of the NRCMS,control the rising expense of NRCMS by promoting the payment method reform,construct the comprehensive healthcare system in the western region,strengthen the medical security for the poor in remote area,and enhance the living environment for rural residents.

Optimized Reimbursement Scheme of China's New Cooperative Medical System Using Monte Carlo Simulation

China＇s Rural Cooperative Medical System collapsed alongside communal farming at the end of the Maoist period in 1976, leaving most farmers vulnerable[1]. In rural areas, where 80% of people have been without health insurance of any kind, illness has emerged as a leading cause of poverty[24]. To address the poor state of health care among the rural population, in 2003 the Chinese government launched the New Rural Cooperative Medical System （NCMS）,

A Cooperative Forwarding Scheme for VANET Routing Protocols

Providing efficient packet delivery in vehicular ad hoc networks （VANETs） is particularly challenging due to the vehicle move- ment and lossy wireless channels. A data packet can be lost at a forwarding node even when a proper node is selected as the for- warding node. In this paper, we propose a loss-tolerant scheme for unicast routing protocols in VANETs. The proposed scheme employs multiple forwarding nodes to improve the packet reception ratio at the forwarding nodes. The scheme uses network coding to reduce the number of required transmissions, resulting in a significant improvement in end-to-end packet delivery ratio with low message overhead. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is evaluated by using both theoretical analysis and computer sim-

Impact of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme on Health Care Service Utilization in Rural China

Using the 2000, 2004, and 2006 CHNS longitudinal survey data and econometric methods （random-effect probit regression model and DID methods）, this study conducted an empirical analysis to estimate the impact of NCMS. The major conclusions are as follows. First, predisposing factors, enabling factors, health care need factors, and lifestyle factors affect health care utilization. Second, results using DID methods indicate that NCMS did not affect health care service utilization （outpatient and inpatient） of individuals when ill, but it might increase the possibility of getting a health examination. Third, there is no difference in health care service utilization （both outpatient and inpatient） between the NCMS enrollment group and the non-enrollment group in both working age group （15-59） and the elderly group （60 and over）. Therefore, it can be said that NCMS did not affect the health care utilization in both the group. However, NCMS positively affects disease prevention behavior （visiting the hospital to receive a health examination） in the working age group, but the effect did not appear in the elderly group.

The New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme and Its Implications on Rural Labor Migration in China：Evidence from Longitudinal Surveys

In 2003, China initiated the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme （NRCMS） in order to provide basic health care coverage for the rural population. However, the NRCMS has had a marked impact on rural-urban labor migration as its current regulations present a barrier for cross-region participation in the NRCMS, and its reimbursement system is biased when the enrollees seek medical services outside their location of hukou, a household registration system in China. This paper performs a variety of empirical tests on a panel data set from the China Health and Nutrition Survey （CHNS） to study how the NRCMS affects rural residents＇ work location choices. We observed a ＂locking effect＂ on potential rural migrant workers and a ＂pulling effect＂ on existing ones. According to the results, the NRCMS has discouraged rural residents from working outside their location of hukou, lowering the probability of relocation by 3.52 percent. Meanwhile, the NRCMS system actually encourages existing migrant workers to return home. This paper concludes that the NRCMS has to some extent restrained the free flow of the labor force and exacerbated the migrant worker shortage.

Research on the improved cooperative cellular system capacity

Recently, the multi-hop cellular networks have been widely studied in order to enhance the cell performances such as the cell capacity. While most of these works merely use the multi-hop methods instead of direct transmission without considering the co-channel inter-cell interference, signal transmission mode and the effects of the number of antennas. With the consideration of above important elements, this paper proposed an improved cellular system with multi-relay amplifies-andforward （AF） cooperative transmission scheme and the corresponding capacity expression is derived under the corresponding environment. By using the potential space diversity and selecting relays based on maximizing the capacity, the cellular system capacity can be improved effectively. The simulation results show that with the assistance of optimal selected relays, the improved cooperative cellular system capacity with multi-relay AF transmission scheme performs better than single-hop cellular system.

Improved Bi-Directional Three-Phase Single-Relay Selection Technique for Cooperative Wireless Communications

Single-relay selection techniques based on themax-min criterion can achieve the highest bit error rate(BER)performance with full diversity gain as compared to the state-of-the-art single-relay selection techniques.Therefore,in this work,we propose a modified max-min criterion by considering the differences among the close value channels of all relays while selecting the best relay node.The proposed criterion not only enjoys full diversity gain but also offers a significant improvement in the achievable coding gain as compared to the conventional one.Basically,in this article,an improved bi-directional three-phase single-relay selection technique using the decodeand-forward protocol for wireless cooperative communication networks that enhances the overall network performance in terms of BER is proposed and its performance is proved analytically and through Monte-Carlo simulations.More specifically,the proposed criterion is first used to select the best relaynode.After that the selected relay-node forwards the information symbols of the communicating terminals after performing a digital network coding to minimize power consumptions.In our simulations,we show that our proposed technique outperforms the best-known single relay selection techniques.Furthermore,we prove that the BER results obtained from our conducted simulations perfectly match those obtained from the theoretical analysis.

Effects of New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme on Medical Service Utilization and Medical Expense Control of Inpatients： A 3-year Empirical Study of Hainan Province in China

Background： The New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme （NCMS） has been further adjusted and optimized to reduce the financial burden of rural residents and to achieve universal coverage for them. In this study, we aimed to explore the impact of NCMS on medical service utilization and medical expense of inpatients in recent years. Methods： The research data of Hainan Province were extracted from the Chinese NCMS platform from 2012 to 2014. Detailed information included total expenditure, average inpatients costs, average out-of-pocket payments, actual reimbursement rate, and average annual growth rate of the above indicators. Descriptive analysis was used to gauge the effects of NCMS. Results： In the utilization of medical services, NCMS inpatients in tertiary hospital decreased from 25.49% in 2012 to 20.39% in 2014, inpatients in county hospitals increased from 39.49% to 55.92%, simultaneously. The total expenditure in county hospitals rose steadily from 28.46% to 46.66%, meanwhile, the total expenditure in tertiary hospitals fell from 60.44% to 44.51%.The average out-of-pocket costs of rural inpatients remained stable over the years. Furthermore, the compensation fund ofNCMS inpatients grew significantly. The actual inpatient reimbursement rate at township health centers increased from 76.93% to 84.04%. Meanwhile, the rate at county hospitals and tertiary hospitals increased slightly from 59.37% and 46.10% to 61.25% and 47.71%, respectively. Conclusions： With the improvement of the reimbursement ability, especially after the new health care reform in 2009, the NCMS have been playing a prominent role in alleviating the economic burden of farmers＇ medical treatment. Meanwhile, more patients go to primary hospitals than tertiary hospitals, and the capability of primary hospitals has been greatly improved.

The impact of increased reimbursement rates under the new cooperative medical scheme on the financial burden of tuberculosis patients

Background:Tuberculosis(TB)is still a major public health problem in China.To scale up TB control,an innovative programme entitled the'China-Gates Foundation Collaboration on TB Control in China was initiated in 2009.During the second phase of the project,a policy of increased reimbursement rates under the New Cooperative Medical Scheme(NCMS)was implemented.In this paper,we aim to explore how this reform affects the financial burden on TB patients through comparison with baseline data.Methods:In two cross-sectional surveys,quantitative data were collected before(January 2010 to December 2012)and after(April 2014 to June 2015)the intervention in the existing NCMS routine data system.Information on all 313 TB inpatients,among which 117 inpatients in the project was collected.Qualitative data collection included 11 focus group discussions.Three main indicators,non-reimbursable expenses rate(NER),effective reimbursement rate(ERR),and out-of-pocket payment(OOP)as a percentage of per capita household income,were used to measure the impact of intervention by comprising post-intervention data with baseline data.The quantitative data were analysed by descriptive analysis and non-parametric tests(Mann-Whitney U test)using SPSS 22.0,and qualitative data were subjected to thematic framework analysis using NvivolO.Results:The nominal reimbursement rates for inpatient care were no less than 80%for services within the package.Total inpatient expenses greatly increased,with an average growth rate of 11.3%.For all TB inpatients,the ERR for inpatient care increased from 52 to 66%.Compared with inpatients outside the project,for inpatients covered by the new policy,the ERR was higher(78%),and OOP showed a sharper decline.In addition,their financial burden decreased significantly.Conclusions:Although the nominal reimbursement rates for inpatient care of TB patients greatly increased under the new reimbursement policy,inpatient OOP expenditure was still a major financial problem for patients.Limited diagnosis and treatment options in county general hospitals and inadequate implementation of the new policy resulted in higher inpatient expenditures and limited reimbursement.Comprehensive control models are needed to effeaively decrease the financial burden on all TB patients.

A Beamforming Technique Using Rotman Lens Antenna for Wireless Relay Networks

Rotman lens,which is a radio frequency beam-former that consists of multiple input and multiple output beam ports,can be used in industrial,scientific,and medical applications as a beam steering device.The input ports collect the signals to be propagated through the lens cavity toward the output ports before being transmitted by the antenna arrays to the destination in order to enhance the error performance by optimizing the overall signal to noise ratio(SNR).In this article,a low-cost Rotman lens antenna is designed and deployed to enhance the overall performance of the conventional cooperative communication systems without needing any additional power,extra time or frequency slots.In the suggested system,the smart Rotman lens antennas generate a beam steering in the direction of the destination to maximize the received SNR at the destination by applying the proposed optimal beamforming technique.The suggested optimal beamforming technique enjoys high diversity,as well as,low encoding and decoding complexity.Furthermore,we proved the advantages of our suggested strategy through both theoretical results and simulations using Monte Carlo runs.The Monte Carlo simulations show that the suggested strategy enjoys better error performance compared to the current state-of-the-art distributed multiantenna strategies.In addition,the bit error rate(BER)curves drawn from the analytical results are closely matching to those drawn from our conducted Monte Carlo simulations.

Log Likelihood Ratio-Based Relaying for Distributed Turbo Codes

A distributed turbo codes（ DTC） scheme with log likelihood ratio（ LLR）-based threshold at the relay for a two-hop relay networks is proposed. Different from traditional DTC schemes,the retransmission scheme at the relay,where imperfect decoding occurs,is considered in the proposed scheme. By employing a LLR-based threshold at the relay in the proposed scheme,the reliability of decoder-LLRs can be measured. As a result,only reliable symbols will be forwarded to the destination and a maximum ratio combiner（ MRC） is used to combine signals received from both the source and the relay. In order to obtain the optimal threshold at the relay,an equivalent model of decoderLLRs is investigated,so as to derive the expression of the bit error probability（ BEP） of the proposed scheme under binary phase shift keying（ BPSK） modulation. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can effectively mitigate error propagation at the relay and also outperforms other existing methods.

CIECIA:A new climate change integrated assessment model and its assessments of global carbon abatement schemes

From the perspective of global economic general equilibrium, this study developed a new climate change IAM named CIECIA. The economic core of this IAM is a multi-country-sector general equilibrium model. The endogenous technology progress mode is introduced into CIECIA. Based on this model, three assessment principles of the global cooperating abatement scheme are proposed, including effectiveness, feasibility, and fairness. This study simulated and analyzed six types of primary global cooperating abatement schemes. The simulated results indicate that all of the selected schemes can satisfy the climate mitigation targets by 2100. Thus, they are all effective schemes. However, the schemes have quite different feasibilities and fairness. The Stern Scheme benefits the developed countries, but is unfair to the developing countries. The Nordhaus Scheme promotes the developments of the developing countries. However, it leads to negative impacts on the interests of the developed countries. The principle of convergence on accumulated carbon emissions per capita and the principle of convergence on carbon emissions per capita benefit the economic developments of the middle and low developing countries most. However, these two types of schemes cause tremendous losses to the main economic entities in the world including China. The Pareto Improvement Scheme, which was developed from the Global Economic Growth Scheme, balances the fairness and feasibility in the carbon abatement process and realizes the Pareto improvement of accumulated utilities in all the participating countries. Thus, the Pareto Improvement Scheme is the most reasonable global cooperating carbon abatement scheme.

A stability locomotion-control strategy for quadruped robots with center-of-mass dynamic planning

Locomotion stability is essential for controlling quadruped robots and adapting them to unstructured terrain.We propose a control strategy with center-of-mass(CoM)dynamic planning for the stable locomotion of these robots.The motion trajectories of the swing legs are synchronized with the CoM of the robot.To implement the synchronous control scheme,we adjusted the swing legs to form a support triangle.The strategy is applicable to both static walk gait and dynamic trot gait.In the motion control processes of the robot legs,the distribution of the ground reaction forces is optimized to minimize joint torque and locomotion energy consumption.We also used an improved joint-torque controller with varied controller coefficients in the stance and swing phases.The simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the robot can complete omnidirectional locomotion in both walk and trot gaits.At a given locomotion speed,the stability margins for the robot during walking and trotting were 27.25%and 37.25%higher,respectively,than in the scheme without CoM planning.The control strategy with energy consumption optimization(ECO)reduced the energy consumption of the robot in walk and trot gaits by 11.25%and 13.83%,respectively,from those of the control scheme without ECO.