Integrated Rural Research Articles

Optimal Scheduling of Source–Load Synergy in Rural Integrated Energy Systems Considering Complementary Biogas–Wind–Solar Utilization

To address the issues of the low usage efficiency and illogical structure in rural regions, this study builds a rural integrated energy system (RIES) that incorporates the complementary use of biogas, wind, and light. For resolving the RIES optimum-low-carbon-economic-dispatch problem, a source–load-cooperative optimal-dispatch strategy is proposed. Firstly, a multi-energy integrated demand response (IDR) model based on time-of-use tariffs and time-varying biogas costs is established on the demand side. Secondly, power-to-gas devices are added on the supply side to optimize the system’s electricity–gas-coupling relationship and increase the wind power output space. Thirdly, an RIES-oriented carbon-trading model is constructed by considering the actual carbon emissions of gas loads and the stepped-carbon-trading mechanism. Finally, an optimal-dispatch model is built with the objective function of reducing the total energy cost, wind abandonment cost, IDR cost, and carbon emission cost, while the problem is transformed into a mixed-integer linear problem and solved using CPLEX 12.9. By setting up four scenarios for example analysis, the results show that on typical days in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, the total operating costs of the stepped-carbon-trading system (Scenario 1), taking into account the source-side power-to-gas (P2G) device and the load-side IDR, are reduced by 12.25%, 11.25%, 12.42%, and 11.56%, respectively, compared to the system without the introduction of the IDR (Scenario 3). In contrast to the system that lacks a P2G device at the source end (Scenario 2), the overall costs are decreased by 4.97%, 3.07%, 5.02%, and 5.36%, but the wind power consumption rates are increased by 11.63%, 7.93%, 11.54%, and 11.65%, respectively. Stepped emission trading (Scenario 1) reduces the total operating costs by 5.12%, 3.15%, 5.21%, and 6.84%, respectively, while reducing the biogas costs by 9.75%, 7.74%, 9.67%, and 9.57%, respectively, in comparison to traditional emission trading (Scenario 4). The example results demonstrate the economics, effectiveness, and reliability of a stepped-carbon-trading system with an integrated P2G load-side energy demand response.

Bi-level programming optimization method of rural integrated energy system based on coupling coordination degree of energy equipment

Promoting energy transformation in rural areas, building a Rural Integrated Energy System, and developing multi-energy complementary and comprehensive utilization of rural energy in accordance with local conditions are important paths to support global low-carbon transformation and rural revitalization. However, how to consider the coupling synergy of multiple devices and plan the capacity of multiple devices in rural energy systems in an economical, low-carbon, and reliable manner is an urgent issue facing the development of Rural Integrated Energy System. This paper proposes a bi-level programming optimization method of Rural Integrated Energy System based on coupling coordination degree of energy equipment. Firstly, a multi-dimensional rural user energy utilization framework is designed that comprehensively considers agriculture, animal husbandry, industry, and lifestyle. Secondly, the bi-level optimization model of the Rural Integrated Energy System based on the coupling coordination degree of energy equipment is constructed. The upper-level planning model puts forward the equipment coupling coordination degree, and determines the equipment selection scheme for different types of Rural Integrated Energy System planning. The lower-level planning model considers economy, low carbon, and reliability, and uses the improved multi-objective Harris Hawk optimization algorithm to solve the capacity of different energy equipment in the Rural Integrated Energy System. Finally, the effectiveness and scientific nature of the model and method proposed in this paper are verified by the Integrated Energy Systems of a rural area in the north of China. In addition, by comparing the equipment selection scheme with the traditional method, it can be found that the optimization scheme in this paper that considers the coupling coordination of energy equipment reduces the annualized total cost by 29.34 %, reduces the annual carbon emissions by 60.43 %, and increases the reliability by 15.85 %. The collaborative planning of energy economy, low carbon energy and reliable energy has been realized.

Enhancing Patient-Centered Care for Metabolic Screening and Engagement for Clients in a Rural Integrated Clinic

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) affects approximately 34% to 40% of adults in the United States,leading to chronic diseases and an annual healthcare cost of $2,000 per person.Local Problem: Practice gaps in metabolic screening were identified at Early Healthcare. Among patients, only 30% underwent weight and blood pressure measurements, 18% received lipid panel lab work, and 2% had waist circumference measurements.Methods: This quality improvement initiative used four 2-week Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles. The approachintegrated various frameworks, such as the Institute of Medicine’s patient-centered care domain, to enhancemetabolic screening and patient engagement with shared decision-making (SDM). Data from process and outcome measures were analyzed every 2 weeks using summary tables and run charts to determine the next test of change.Interventions: Core interventions included screening MetS risk factors and patient engagement.Results: Effective care scores increased from 55% to 98% (8-week average: 78%). MetS screening rose from 64% to 97% (8-week average: 82%). SDM increased from 57% to 100% (8-week average: 76%). Team engagement improved from 1.3 to 4.7. Patient satisfaction scores increased from 3.3 to 4.4 (8-week average: 4). MetS detection rose from 3% to 24% (8-week average: 18%).Conclusions: The project’s success underscores the value of patient-centered care interventions in improvingpatient outcomes for MetS risk and fostering a patient-centric culture within the healthcare system.

Research on Urban and Rural Integrated Development Strategies in Villages and Towns

Integrated development of urban and rural areas is an important strategic goal of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way, and also a key path to promote coordinated development between urban and rural areas and promote rural revitalization. As an important part of rural economic and social development, villages and towns play the core role of the gathering place and service center of rural industries, and also play an important role as the bridge and link in the integration of urban and rural areas, and undertake the important mission of connecting urban and rural areas. This paper aims to explore the urban and rural integration development strategies of villages and towns, from the theoretical basis, current situation analysis to challenges and response, as well as policy support, industrial development, infrastructure construction, social undertakings development and other aspects of comprehensive research, according to the challenges and difficulties of villages and towns of urban and rural integration, targeted development strategies and suggestions. It aims to support the industrial development of rural areas, improve the infrastructure construction, and enhance the level of social undertakings, so as to promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas in villages and towns, and promote the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy.

The Rural Integrated Community Clerkship: a vital stretch in the Alberta rural physician workforce pipeline.

Longitudinal integrated clerkships are thought to operate synergistically with factors such as rural background and practice intent to determine medical graduates' practice types and locations-sometimes known as the pipeline effect. We examined the influence of the rural integrated community clerkship (ICC) at the University of Alberta on students choosing family medicine and rural practice. We completed a retrospective cohort analysis of graduates from 2009-2016. The cohort was cross-referenced by background, type of clerkship, practice type and practice location. We used χ2 analyses and risk ratios to measure the relative likelihood that ICC students would settle on rural practice and/or family medicine. ICC participation had more influence than rural background on students' choice of rural and/or family practice, and both factors were synergistic. Rotation-based clerkship students were least likely to enter family medicine or rural practice. The ICC is a clerkship model that influences students to become rural and/or family physicians, regardless of their rural/urban origins. The ICC diverts rural-interested students into rural practice and protects rural-origin students from ending up in urban practice. Expanding ICC infrastructure, including sustaining the rural physician workforce, will benefit rural Alberta communities by increasing the numbers of UA graduates in rural practice.

The Impact of the Platform Economy on Urban–Rural Integration Development: Evidence from China

As a new economic system composed of data-driven, platform-supported, and network-coordinated economic activity units, the platform economy provides a new impetus for the integrated development of urban and rural areas. This paper uses China’s provincial panel data from 2011–2021 to measure the development level of the platform economy and the urban–rural integration development index using the entropy weight method and empirically tests the direct and indirect effects of the platform economy on urban–rural integration development. The research finds that (1) the platform economy has a significant role in promoting the development of urban–rural integration. After introducing a series of robustness tests such as instrumental variables estimation, the results are still significant. (2) Regional innovation capability is an important transmission mechanism for the platform economy to enable urban–rural integrated development. The platform economy can indirectly promote urban–rural integrated development by improving regional innovation capability. (3) There is a significant mesomeric effect between the traditional factors of production and the platform economy and the mesomeric effect of capital, technology, land, and labor factors increased in turn. (4) The digital twin platform is a kind of digital land generated in the platform economy and has become an important place and value source for products in the digital era.

A Comparative Study on the Identification Methods of Urban–Rural Integration Zones from the Perspective of Symbiosis Theory and Urban Expansion Theory

Urban–rural integration zones are areas with the most prominent and complex contradictions in economic and social, humanistic and geographical, and urban–rural contexts. Properly identifying such zones is essential for promoting urban–rural integrated development and rural revitalization efforts. In this study, symbiosis theory and urban expansion theory are employed to analyze and identify the spatial characteristics of urban–rural integration zones in the main urban area of Dalian City. Two distinct methods, namely the G-statistic (G-S) method and the urban–urban–rural integration zone–rural gradient model (U-URIZ-R GM) method, are used to delimit these zones. Furthermore, the results of these methods are compared and analyzed to explore their respective practical applications. The results indicate that both methods produce satisfactory identification outcomes for delimiting urban–rural integration zones in the main urban area of Dalian. Specifically, the identified urban–rural integration zones are predominantly situated in the northwest and south regions, aligning with the coastline and major transportation routes. However, hilly terrain is a crucial factor that influences the delimitation of urban–rural integration zones, and it is worth considering whether forested areas located in the urban fringe should be included based on the development needs of different cities. Notably, within the core area of Dalian’s main city, an extensive expanse of mountainous woodland exists, leading to limitations in the applicability of certain indicators within the index system, such as surface temperature and vegetation cover, for determining urban–rural integration zones. Symbiosis and urban expansion theories play a vital role in guiding the identification of urban–rural integration zones. Although both methods can be used to demarcate these zones, the G-statistics method is probably more useful in cities with significant topographical features, while the urban–urban–rural integration zone–rural gradient model is more appropriate for cities with less impact from topography on urban expansion.

Supplemental Material for From Planning to Implementation: Developing an ACE Screening Protocol in a Rural Integrated Primary Care Clinic Serving Latino Children

Supplemental Material for From Planning to Implementation: Developing an ACE Screening Protocol in a Rural Integrated Primary Care Clinic Serving Latino Children

The Efficiency of Urban–Rural Integration in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and Its Optimization

China has entered a new stage of integrated development of urban and rural areas under the constraints of scarce land resources and the need for high-quality economic and social development. While there is concern about the state and speed of urban–rural integrated development (URID), increasing attention is being paid to efficiency improvement. This paper comprehensively measures the efficiency of URID from the input–output perspective, taking into account the impact of carbon emissions; it also studies the efficiency of URID and its developmental spatiotemporal characteristics in 73 cities within three major city clusters in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2010 to 2019, and analyzes the input–output optimization strategies for URID within each of these major urban systems. The results show that (1) the comprehensive efficiency evaluation system constructed by the study can more objectively reflect the state and trends of URID. From 2010 to 2019, the efficiency of URID in the three major city clusters in the YREB showed a downward trend; in cities with better economic development, the efficiency of URID was lower than in cities with average economic development, where carbon emission indicators showed a significant impact. (2) The spatial distribution of URID efficiency in the three major city clusters in the YREB follows an inverted “U” shape; URID efficiency in the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (MRYRUA) is higher than in the Chengyu urban agglomeration (CYUA), where it is higher than in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA). (3) The input redundancy rates are high in the indicators for culture, sports and media, energy conservation and environmental protection, urban and rural communities, and housing security expenditures. Carbon emission redundancy has a negative impact on efficiency in URID. Based on the high redundancy rates of each input–output indicator, this paper proposes methods to optimize the efficiency of URID in each of the three major city clusters and provides directional guidance for promoting the high-quality development of regional urban–rural integration.

Spatial heterogeneity of urban–rural integration and its influencing factors in Shandong province of China

Based on nighttime light data and statistical data, this study calculated the level of urban–rural integration (URI) of Shandong province, researched spatial heterogeneity of URI levels by local spatial autocorrelation analysis, Geodetector, and geographically weighted regression, and analyzed its influencing factors and spatial heterogeneity. The results concluded that: (1) The spatial pattern of urban–rural integrated level is consistent with the level of regional economic development in Shandong province. The level of URI is higher along the Qingdao–Jinan railway and along the coast, whereas the level is lower in southwest Shandong and northwest Shandong. (2) The cities of Yantai and Weifang are High–High cluster areas of urban integration, and Jining is a Low–Low cluster area. The spatial agglomeration characteristics are not significant in other cities. (3) Among the main factors affecting URI, the explanatory power of the rural population with high school or technical secondary school education or above, the area of urban construction land, and the secondary and tertiary industry GDP to the spatial pattern of URI in Shandong province are 73.58%, 62.08%, and 58.66%, respectively. As the key factors, spatial heterogeneity, such as north–south differences, southwest-to-northeast differences, and east–west differences, is evident.

Study on Spatial–Temporal Evolution Characteristics and Restrictive Factors of Urban–Rural Integration in Northeast China from 2000 to 2019

With the rapid development of urbanization and the widening gap between urban and rural areas, how to effectively enhance the balanced development of urban and rural areas as well as promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas have become heated topics. Based on the basic theory of urban–rural integration and spatial balance, this paper establishes a comprehensive evaluation system. Using a coupling coordination model and an obstacle degree model, this paper selects 32 indicators from aspects of economy, society and ecology to measure the development level of urban–rural integration in 34 prefecture-level cities in Northeast China from 2000 to 2019. We also analyze the spatial pattern, evolution type characteristics and obstacle factors of urban–rural relations. The results show that: (1) The growth rate of urban development in Northeast China is higher than that of rural development. Except for rural ecology, all dimensions of urban and rural areas have increased year by year, but there are large spatial differences within the region. (2) The urban–rural integration development level of Northeast China is growing constantly and the types of urban and rural coordination are all rising to a higher level. Areas with high urban–rural coordination levels are concentrated in the Harbin–Changchun urban agglomeration and the central and southern Liaoning urban agglomeration, with obvious agglomeration effects. (3) In the coordinated development of urban and rural areas, the restrictive degree of the rural social subsystem was higher than that of the urban subsystem. The restrictive factors in the coordinated development of urban and rural areas are relatively stable, and include per capita consumption expenditure, per capita public budget expenditure, books in public libraries per thousand people, etc. (4) The functions of rural social elements should be enhanced, and the social urban–rural integrated development mechanism should be established to promote the integrated development of urban and rural society.

KRIFS Quartet Model Improving Livelihoods and Fueling Tourism in Kitagwenda District,Western Uganda

Kyabwanswa Rural Integrated Farming Systems (KRIFS) is a Community Based Organization (CBO) with its Head Office in Kitagwenda Town Council. KRIFS quartet model involves emphasis of integrating four agricultural activities namely: Apiculture, agro-forestry, coffee and at least one type of livestock. The paper utilizes data obtained from January 2017 surveys, interviews, focus group discussions and observations by the authors. The authors observe that the four activities are symbiotic income generating enterprises. The quartet model has greatly contributed in reducing poverty, increasing agricultural productivity, facilitating value addition, conserving the environment, halting biodiversity loss and mitigating climate change. The model is strongly hinged on training of farmers in organized groups more especially the youth and the women.The involvement of KRIFS in integrated farming that involves introducing new innovations to improve production and productivity in agriculture through improved breeds of livestock and crops as well as environmental conservation being pivotal in its operations, has culminated to agro-tourism in the district. The authors recommend that the model be implemented in the whole of Uganda. Apiculture should be included in the priority commodity list for the parish model. Agro-tourism is yet another economi cactivity that should be exploited to reduce unemployment, conserve the environment and reduce effects of climate change.

Research on the Dilemma and Path of Rural Industry Integration and Internet Revitalization Driven by E-commerce

The emergence of Internet technology provides a new development mode for the development of rural industry. In view of the fact that the rural integrated Internet is in its infancy, and the unpredictability and uncertainty of “Internet +” innovation in the era of “digital economy”, the development of rural integrated Internet is facing many challenges, and there are development misunderstandings and dilemmas. This paper studies the dilemma and path of rural industry integration and Internet revitalization driven by e-commerce. Driven by e-commerce, this paper analyzes the current situation of the Internet revitalization of rural industry integration, summarizes the problems existing in the Internet revitalization of rural industry integration, constructs a grey correlation model to analyze the correlation degree of the influencing factors in the rural industry and Internet integration, and takes a certain rural industry as an example to prove that the model can be used to analyze the relationship between the two factors On this basis, the paper puts forward the effective strategies of rural industry integration and Internet revitalization driven by e-commerce.

Access and attitudinal barriers to engagement in integrated primary care mental health treatment for rural populations.

Compared to urban areas, rural populations are less likely to engage in mental health care. Using data from the Study to Promote Innovation in Rural Integrated Telepsychiatry, we examined the effect of rurality on engagement in mental health treatment as well as the role of potential mediators. Data were obtained from medical records and surveys. We defined rurality using the rural-urban commuting area codes. Baseline mediators included the Endorsed and Anticipated Stigma Inventory and the Assessment of Perceived Access to Care. Engagement outcomes included number of psychotherapy visits and self-reported medication use. We used path analysis to examine the relationship between rurality and engagement and the influence of mediating variables. Rural participants were less likely to initiate psychotherapy (OR = 0.49; adjusted P = .036), although rurality was not associated with number of psychotherapy sessions or medication use. Rurality was associated with a small elevation in negative beliefs about mental health, but this potential mediator was not associated with engagement. Rurality was negatively associated with lower perceived need for treatment (OR = 0.67, adjusted P = .040), which was in turn positively associated with initiating psychotherapy (OR = 1.99, adjusted P = .001). Neither rurality itself nor the potential mediators had a large effect on engagement. Federally Qualified Health Centers offering colocated and/or integrated mental health care appear to be mostly mitigating rural-urban disparities in mental health engagement. Improving rates of psychotherapy initiation for rural patients should remain a policy goal.

Knowledge and socio-demographic profile of Anganwadi workers in Mangalagiri rural Integrated Child Development Services project, Guntur

Background: Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) today represents one of the world’s largest programmes for early childhood development. The Anganwadi workers and Anganwadi Helpers are the grass root level functionaries responsible for delivery of services.Methods: A field based cross sectional observational study was conducted in Mangalagiri rural ICDS project to assess the knowledge levels and the socio-demographic profile of the Anganwadi workers, all the Anganwadi workers who are working in Mangalagiri rural ICDS project area have been included in the study.Results: Out of 212 AWWs, majority of AWWs were from the age group of between 30-49 years; 123 (58%) AWWs have education qualification from 6th class to 10th class standard and 135 (63.7%) workers had an experience of more than 10 years. About 142 (67%) AWWs had a good knowledge assessment score. They had best knowledge about immunization (96.7%), referral services (93.4%), growth monitoring (82.5%), health check-ups (75.1%) and nutrition and health education (70%). AWWs complained problems like infrastructure related, excessive work overload and record maintenance.Conclusions: The majority of the AWWs are in the age group of 30 to 49 years. More than half of them belong to lower middle socio-economic class. Maximum number of workers has experience of 10 years or more. All the AWWs in our study had 50% and above knowledge about Anganwadi services. Best knowledge is seen regarding immunization followed by referral services. Least knowledge is seen regarding supplementary nutrition. Major problems reported were excess work and record maintenance.

Process Evaluation of Rural Integrated Care Delivery Model (RICDM) in China: How Providers Affects the Policy Implementation

Background: Most of the integration-related policies are facing implementation problems. During 2012/07-2014/12, we implemented an trial-based intervention in Qianjing, a rural district in southwestern China, to test the effects of an innovative integrated care delivery model targeted for rural patients (RICDM ) with hypertension. Using the difference-in-differences analysis, we found that the blood pressure did decrease in treatment group compared to the control group however the health-related quality of life did not, which violated our assumptions. To explore whether the provider performance interfered with the outcomes, we did a process evaluation mainly to compare their behaviors during trial implementation. Methods: All the doctors’ behaviors were bimonthly-recorded using diaries, and their attitudes were evaluated using questionnaires adapted from D’Amour’s inter-professional collaboration model. We firstly observed the referral amounts and provider communication frequency on four inter-professional cooperation types (village to town, town to county, county to town, and town to village – the former indicated the initiated party). Then we conducted interviews with the doctors, investigating the following aspects that potentially affected the collaboration: willing to cooperate, actual motivation, mutual trust, personal relations and ability to cooperate. All variables were compared between groups before and after intervention. After then we did a regression analysis examining the relations between the cooperation level and the identities of doctors. The implementation degree was also estimated by multiplying the percentage of reach scope for each step of trial process. Results: 120 doctors were included. There were no significant differences between treatment group and control group either on the referral amounts or the communication frequency (all P >0.05). Most of the cooperation aspects showed a low- and middle-level performance (>90%). The collaboration ability in treatment group was significantly higher than control group (P 0.05). And the doctors from county hospitals showed a lower performance in each of the aspect compared to doctors from town hospitals and village clinics. Associated with the professional identity, the medical staff showed relatively low interests in collaboration compared to primary care professionals. By observing and analyzing the processes of exposure, enrollment, reach and follow-ups, we had found out the implementation degree to be only 61%. For each part, the patient were reached out by 100%, the supplier 72%, and the hospitals 85%. Lessons Learned: The RICDM improved patient health, but did not fully achieve desired effects. We inferred that one possible reason might lied in the providers’ reluctance to cooperate. By furtherly investigating into the provider behaviors and implementing process, we had proved our guess and the actual model effect might therefore be underestimated. However the study did not successfully connect the health-related outcomes with the provider behaviors through statistical analysis, so we could not reach a direct conclusion that the incomplete implementation was the exact reason for imperfect model effects. Further studies need to be proposed and also potential bias from provider side should be properly dealt with in the stage of study design.

Perspectives of Behavioral Health Clinicians in a Rural Integrated Primary Care/Mental Health Program

This study compares the perspectives of rural and urban mental health clinicians working in various Washington State Community Health Centers that have implemented an integrated primary care/mental health program. We conducted a Web-based survey of mental health clinicians (n = 71) who work in an integrated primary care/mental health program ("the program") in 1 of 150 safety net primary care clinics in Washington State. Most participating clinics are Federally Qualified Health Centers or Rural Health Clinics. Pooled survey results from clinicians working in rural settings were compared to those working in urban settings. Semistructured interviews were conducted with a subset (n = 32) of survey respondents. Comments made during these interviews were analyzed for themes. In the survey phase, both rural and urban clinicians generally agreed that the program benefitted their patients. Rural respondents were particularly appreciative of the flexibility that the program offered when planning care. Not surprisingly, social service limitations (such as housing or transportation services) were more often mentioned as program limitations. Rural clinicians were more likely to note a lack of awareness of program resources among other medical providers on the team. Clinicians working in rural primary care clinics value the availability and flexibility of an integrated primary care/mental health program as an option for providing mental health care for their patients. Clinicians working in rural settings could benefit from additional training and program implementation support to best meet the needs of their patients.

Lessons Learned from Refugee Return Settlement Policies: A Case Study on Burundi's Rural Integrated Villages

Many former refugees in Africa that return to their country of origin face challenges of (re-)gaining access to land and other assets that are a necessity for building sustainable livelihoods. A policy approach that has often been adopted to solve landlessness for returnees is the concept of villagisation. This article provides an in-depth analysis of Burundi’s Rural Integrated Villages project, which has recently been implemented as an emergency approach to accommodate landless 1972 caseload refugees and other vulnerable populations. By comparing the Rural Integrated Villages project to other villagisation policies in Africa, and the Imidugudu policy that was implemented in Rwanda in the 1990s in particular, this article demonstrates that to date no villagisation policy has been successful in providing long-term, sustainable solutions for landless returnee populations. A successful implementation model for return villages is lacking and long-term evaluations on return villages are scarce, which hampers institutional learning. The article concludes by exploring alternatives to villagisation for returnees and presenting lessons learned for future cases of refugee return.

Comparing the Performance in Family Medicine Residencies of Graduates From Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships and Rotation-Based Clerkships

In 2008, the University of Calgary implemented a longitudinal integrated clerkship (LIC) called the Rural Integrated Community Clerkship (RICC), which places students in a rural community for 32 weeks. Research indicates that LIC students perform academically as well as or better than students completing rotation-based clerkships (RBCs). However, little is known about how LIC graduates perform in residency. This study compared residency program director ratings of RICC and RBC graduates. The performance of RICC and RBC graduates (2009-2011) was assessed using a rating form mailed to family medicine residency program directors at the end of graduates' first postgraduate year. Because of sample size and confounding effects of discipline, only the performance of graduates training in family medicine was examined. Data were analyzed using factor analysis, ANOVA, and chi-square. Three hundred sixteen of 399 (80.8%) rating forms were returned. The instrument contained two factors (clinical acumen and human sensitivity) of acceptable reliability (≥ 0.90) plus an overall rating of performance. Of 124 (31.7%) students who matched to family medicine, 101 (81.5%) rating forms (RICC = 22/25; RBC = 79/99) were returned. Program directors rated the performance of RICC graduates to be at least equivalent to their RBC peers on both dimensions. On overall performance, 16/22 (72.7%) RICC graduates and 43/79 (54.4%) RBC graduates were rated as "stronger" or "much stronger" than most residents in the program, P = .30. The performance of RICC graduates was at least equivalent to the performance of their RBC peers.

Evaluation of the Urbanization Quality and Analysis of Improving Countermeasures of the Shi Yang River Basin

This paper constructed the urbanization quality assessment system about the quality of urbanization from four aspects on the basis of summarizing the domestic and foreign, the economy, the people's livelihood, urban and rural integration and sustainable development, and evaluated the urbanization quality of six districts (counties) of Shi Yang River Basin in 2001—2010 using the entropy value method. Evaluation results showed that, the urbanization quality of Shi Yang River Basin was rising and the space distribution differences are significant. Economic competition degree, people happiness degree, urban and rural integrated degree and sustainable development degree together decided the urbanization quality of the Shi Yang River Basin. But the contribution function varied and there was not the corresponding relation with each other. It should improve the urbanization quality and promote the healthy and rapid urbanization pushing in the construction of urbanization of the s Shi Yang River Basin from the characteristic industrial development, the livelihood of the people project construction, the coordination of urban and rural development and urban ecological environment construction.