Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of semantic congruence and incongruence on sign identification by using event-related potentials (ERPs). Background Sign systems have crucial roles in public spaces and traffic facilities. Poorly designed signs can easily confuse pedestrians and drivers and reduce the efficiency of public activities and urban administration. Method Thirty-one participants completed a sign identification experiment independently in a laboratory setting. Experimental materials were selected from GB/T 10001, a Chinese national recommendation standard that is officially named Public Information Graphical Symbols for Use on Signs. All ERP data were processed using MATLAB 13b, and behavioral data were analyzed using Stata 14. Results N170, P200, N300, and N400 components were induced during semantic processing. Statistical analysis revealed that semantic congruence has a main effect on N300 in the frontal region and has a main effect on N400 at FZ in the frontal region, CPZ in the parietal-central region, and PZ in the parietal region. Amplitudes of N300 induced by picture–word matching were considerably different between the two experimental conditions at electrodes FZ and FCZ. Amplitudes of N400 were significantly larger in the incongruent condition than in the congruent condition. Conclusion The study demonstrated that N300 and N400 are promising indicators for measuring semantic congruence in future sign design. Application Our findings provide ERP indicators for measuring the semantic congruence of sign design, which can be easily applied to improve the efficiency of sign design and sign comprehension.

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Local governments are responsible for the management of social medical insurance for urban and rural residents in China. Under the background of fiscal decentralization between the central government and local governments, the strengthening of supervision on medical insurance funds by local governments leads to a reduction in the expenditure of the medical insurance fund, which contributes to its sustainability. By employing the provincial level panel data during 2004–2014, we used a fixed effect model and a spatial autoregression model to investigate whether fiscal decentralization has had a negative influence on the expenditure of China’s new rural cooperative medical system (NCMS) fund. We found that fiscal decentralization has had a significant influence over its per capita expenditure. Our results also indicate that higher fiscal decentralization leads to higher financial aid in the NCMS provided by local governments. Additionally, the expenditure of the NCMS and the local financial aid are influenced by nearby governments. Our results suggest that appropriate fiscal decentralization, which helps to maintain the sustainability of social medical insurance funds, should be encouraged.

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