The Correlation of Hospital Operational Efficiency and Average Length of Stay in China: A Study Based on Provincial Level Data

Objective: To measure the hospital operation efficiency, study the correlation between average length of stay and hospital operation efficiency, analyze the importance of shortening average length of stay to the improvement of the hospital operation efficiency and put forward relevant policy suggestion. Methods: Based on China provincial panel data from 2003 to 2012, the hospital operation efficiencies are calculated using Super Efficiency Data Envelopment Analysis model, and the correlation between average length of stay and hospital operation efficiency is tested using Spearman rank correlation coefficient test. Results: From 2003 to 2012, the average of national hospital operation efficiency was increasing slowly and the hospital operations were inefficient in most of the areas. The national hospital operation efficiency is negatively correlated to the average length of stay. Conclusion: Measures should be taken to set average length of stay in a scientific and reasonable way, improve social and economic benefits based on the improvement of efficiency.

Best Bounds on Measures of Risk and Probability of Ruin for Alpha Unimodal Random Variables When There Is Limited Moment Information

This paper presents explicit formulae giving tight upper and lower bounds on the expectations of alpha-unimodal random variables having a known range and given set of moments. Such bounds can be useful in ordering of random variables in terms of risk and in PERT analysis where there is only incomplete stochastic information concerning the variables under investigation. Explicit closed form solutions are also given involving alpha-unimodal random variables having a known mean for two particularly important measures of risk—the squared distance or variance, and the absolute deviation. In addition, optimal tight bounds are given for the probability of ruin in the collective risk model when the severity distribution has an alpha-unimodal distribution with known moments.

China's Belt and Road Initiative: Incorporating public health measures toward global economic growth and shared prosperity

The unprecedented globalization of trade,travel,climate change,protectionism,and geopolitical populism,as well as pandemic health threats are no longer issues for a single nation.In the field of public health,China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) offers immense opportunities for partnership and collective actions involving multiple countries to combat globalization-linked infectious and/or chronic diseases,emerging pandemics,and outbreaks of potential threats to both laboratory information management systems and health information management.The national and global health challenges have increasingly proved that economic prosperity cannot be achieved when huge knowledge and capacity gaps exist in health systems.There is thus a need for public health initiatives aimed at strengthening the health systems beyond sovereign borders to influence global geo-economics.We highlight situational insights that offer approaches and strategies for increasing public health investment and capacity development in the countries along the Belt and Road,enhancing public and global health cooperation alongside participation in disease control and elimination,promoting public health governance and data sharing for pandemic threats,and building shared values and benefits in public health through Sino-African cooperation and the BRI.Our approach also examines the values of the China's BRI in relation to public health,projections and initiatives for increasing new investment and development capacity in public health systems,and enhanced public and global health cooperation and participation toward the BRI's framework and scope.

一个关于识别视觉错觉的研究

本研究是对正在进行着的关于观察视觉错觉的路径扫描研究的先导性工作。我们测量了一系列Hering错觉模式的程度大小：一组平行直线置于辐射状背景下后会显得有所弯曲。如图4所示，我们采用了曲率匹配的作业方式，观察者们被要求从曲线中选择他们认为曲率上最相似于量观察的视觉错觉的曲线。总共有五位观察者参加了这些实验，每位观察者重复四次上述的匹配作业，每个错觉模式需要被重复观察匹配四次。实验结果表明，在我们的实验中，对每一位观察者而言，Hering错觉的程度大小是稳定的，从而产生错觉的曲率因此可以被确定。在下一步研究中，我们将试图确定Hering错觉曲线和真实曲线的路径扫描，并且进一步研究视觉错觉的识别过程。