The impact of surprise billing laws on hospital-based physician prices and network participation.

Prior to the No Surprises Act (NSA), numerous states passed laws protecting patients from surprise medical bills from out-of-network (OON) hospital-based physicians supporting elective treatment in in-network hospitals. Even in non-emergency situations, patients have little ability to choose physicians such as anaesthesiologists, pathologists or radiologists. Using a comprehensive, multi-payer claims database, we estimated the effect of these laws on hospital-based physician reimbursement, charges, network participation and potential surprise billing episodes.

Psychosocial and mental health status among older adults in China during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study.

Background: On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. During the virus's spread and subsequent lockdowns, older adults faced heightened risks and significant mental health challenges.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Shandong Province, China, using a custom-designed demographic questionnaire, a COVID-19-related survey, and the Symptom Checklist-90 Revised (SCL-90-R).

Pathways and enhanced evaluation system for green low-carbon development across diverse Chinese regions.

Background: Rapid economic growth in China has led to significant resource and environmental challenges, particularly in less economically developed regions. This study aims to identify effective strategies for achieving green, low-carbon development in these regions during the economic transition.

Methods: We employed the Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) method to scrutinize the impact of economic, demographic, industrial, and technological factors on low-carbon development across a selection of Chinese provinces, including Qinghai, Hunan, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hainan, and Chongqing.

What determines outward FDI in developing blocs? A new empirical comparative macroeconomic perspective of post 1990s.

This study compares the relationships between important macroeconomic variables and outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in the economies of the BRICS and N-11 countries between 1990 and 2019. The analysis employs a comprehensive econometric framework, with ordinary least squares (OLS) serving as the baseline model, followed by three-stage least squares (3SLS) to account for simultaneous relationships, and the generalized method of moments (GMM) for the robustness check to handle any endogeneity. The primary macroeconomic factors that are examined are GDP, financial development, trade openness, technological advancement, human capital, and inward foreign direct investment.

Evolutionary dynamics in spatial public goods games with environmental feedbacks.

Collective actions aimed at achieving goals such as resource sustainability and environmental protection often face conflicting interests between individuals and groups. These social dilemmas can be modeled using public goods games and collective risk dilemmas. However, in reality, multiple generations share a common pool of resources, leading to high costs for today's overexploitation that impacts future generations' welfare.

The impact of household digital transformation on household energy efficiency: Empirical evidence from Chinese households.

Carbon emissions from household consumption are an important part of global energy consumption, and household digital transformation is vital for realizing green and low-carbon development. Using data from the 2019 China Household Finance Survey, this study empirically examines the effect of household digital transformation on household energy efficiency. The results show that household digital transformation significantly improves household energy efficiency across all quantiles.

The role of interdependent self-construal in mitigating the effect of conspiratorial beliefs on vaccine acceptance.

Infectious diseases pose significant challenges to public health, leading to illness and even death. Vaccinations are vital for protecting society, yet beliefs in conspiracy theories related to infectious diseases increase vaccine hesitancy. This paper delves into vaccination decisions in the context of COVID-19, which continues to strain the health care system.

Eliciting parents' decision-making to antibiotic use for upper respiratory tract infections: A discrete choice experiment.

Background: Addressing antibiotic resistance is important for reducing parents' self-medication of antibiotics for children's upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs). However, the decision-making process for parents who irrationally use such antibiotics is still unclear. In this study, we aimed to explore the reasons why parents self-medicate antibiotics for children's URTIs based on a discrete choice experiment.

Factors of migrant children's participation in basic medical insurance in China: an empirical study based on DEMATEL-ISM method.

Background: Deepening medical insurance reform is pivotal in promoting fairness, inclusiveness, and sustainability within the system, particularly by enhancing coordination levels and strengthening the interconnection between medical insurance, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals. In China, 71.09 million migrant children, who make up 23.

Adaptive learning algorithm based price prediction model for auction lots-deep clustering based interval quoting.

This article addresses the problem of interval pricing for auction items by constructing an auction item price prediction model based on an adaptive learning algorithm. Firstly, considering the confusing class characteristics of auction item prices, a dynamic inter-class distance adaptive learning model is developed to identify confusing classes by calculating the differences in prediction values across multiple classifiers for target domain samples. The difference in the predicted values of the target domain samples on multiple classifiers is used to calculate the classification distance, distinguish the confusing classes, and make the similar samples in the target domain more clustered.

Sense of coherence in students while studying abroad.

Background: In the 1970s, medical sociologist Aaron Antonovsky developed the concept of salutogenesis, which is the study of health and development focusing on sense of coherence (SOC). Although salutogenesis has been well researched in higher education contexts, the concept has not been studied in depth in intercultural and cross-cultural settings, such as the one provided by semester at sea (SAS), which is a United States (US) study-abroad programme.

Aim: The aim was to investigate and compare levels of SOC in students in the SAS study-abroad programme.

Stopper vs. Singular Controller Games With Degenerate Diffusions.

We study zero-sum stochastic games between a singular controller and a stopper when the (state-dependent) diffusion matrix of the underlying controlled diffusion process is degenerate. In particular, we show the existence of a value for the game and determine an optimal strategy for the stopper. The degeneracy of the dynamics prevents the use of analytical methods based on solution in Sobolev spaces of suitable variational problems.

Exploring the Experiences and Perspectives of new Graduate Nurses on the Push-Pull Factors of Nursing Workforce Crisis Post COVID-19.

Background: The aim of this study is to explore the practice experiences of new graduate nurses (NGNs) in publicly funded acute healthcare settings in the Greater Toronto Area, their perspectives on the determinants of their desire to stay or leave the nursing profession, and to identify action-oriented strategies to promote retention of NGNs.

Design: Qualitative, descriptive.

Methods: Fifteen NGNs participated in focus group sessions, where a semi-structured interview guide was created to generate discussion on NGNs' lived and professional experiences.

Feed Efficiency and Surplus Feed Intake among Norwegian Red Dairy Cows.

Feed in livestock production is a major cost driver and closely linked to GHG emissions from the sector. Hence, there is a lot of interest to improve feed efficiency of livestock and promote economic and environmental sustainability of livestock production. Residual feed intake (RFI) is one common indicator of feed efficiency of dairy cows.

Digital transformation and green total factor productivity of heavy pollution enterprises: Impact, mechanism and spillover effect.

Digital transformation offers considerable potential promoting corporate economic benefits as well as green performance. However, the effect and underlying mechanisms of digital transformation on green development levels of heavy pollution enterprises have yet to be fully clarified. We investigated the relationship between digital transformation and green total factor productivity using data from Chinese listed heavy pollution enterprises between 2011 and 2021.

A demonstration of superior judgement? Exploring league of legends players' performance in risky and ambiguous decision-making tasks.

In three studies, we investigated how League of Legends (LOL) game experience and game skill relate to players' performance in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), and Probability Discounting Task (PDT). Additionally, the present study examined the relationship between players' in-game risk preferences and their performance in three types of decision-making tasks. To achieve this, we utilized a self-developed League of Legends Risk Propensity Scale (LRPS) to characterize LOL players' in-game risk preferences.

The green gift: Environmental credit rating policy and loan contract terms.

We explore the effect of China's unique environmental credit rating pilot policy on loan contract terms between firms and banks. First, we find that the environmental credit rating policy increases the amount of bank loans received by firms and lowers their borrowing costs. These results remain robust across a range of sensitivity tests.

Towards a Multi-Stakeholder process for developing responsible AI governance in consumer health.

Introduction: AI is big and moving fast into healthcare, creating opportunities and risks. However, current approaches to governance focus on high-level principles rather than tailored recommendations for specific domains like consumer health. This gap risks unintended consequences from generic guidelines misapplied across contexts and from providing answers before agreeing on the questions.

Effects of competition and ownership on the simultaneous relationship between bank risk and capital: Evidence from an emerging economy of Bangladesh.

This study aims to investigate the simultaneous relationship between bank risk and capital, specifically examining how competition and ownership jointly influence this relationship. We employed the two-step system generalized method of moments to address concerns regarding endogeneity and unobserved heteroscedasticity. Based on data from 44 commercial banks in Bangladesh from 2010 to 2021, our findings reveal several key insights: (I) There is a significant non-linear bidirectional relationship between bank risk and capital: capital exhibits a U-shaped effect on risk, while risk has a non-linear negative impact on capital; (II) in highly contested markets, banks hold higher levels of capital, and heightened competition reduces the risk appetite of commercial banks; while less competition has the opposite effect; (III) private and Islamic commercial banks are more risk-averse than state-owned and conventional ones, and (IV) Private and Islamic banks with strong capital positions in a competitive market can better manage risks than state-owned and conventional banks.

Impact of Learning Adjustment Dimensions on Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese Nursing Freshmen: The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital.

Purpose: To examine the influence of learning adjustment dimensions (motivation, attitude, ability, teaching pattern, and environment) on depressive symptoms in Chinese nursing freshmen, and the mediating role of psychological capital.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 471 nursing freshmen at a university in May 2024. The anonymous self-reported questionnaire included the Patient Health Questionnaire, the Learning Adjustment Questionnaire, and the Psychological Capital Questionnaire.

The role of financial inclusion and technological innovation in stimulating environmental sustainability in the European countries: A new perspective based on load capacity factor.

Given the alarming level of climate change, policymakers across the globe are seeking strategies to mitigate environmental pollution to achieve sustainable development. In this context, renewable energy and technological advancements have emerged as an effective way to lower pollution and attain sustainable development. This study evaluates the effect of financial inclusion, technological innovation, and renewable energy on the load capacity factor (LCF) in European countries from 2004 to 2018.