A Cat Bond Premium Puzzle?

Catastrophe Bonds whose payoffs are tied to the occurrence of natural disasters offer insurers the ability to hedge event risk through the capital markets that could otherwise leave them insolvent if concentrated solely on their own balance sheets. At the same time, they offer investors a unique opportunity to enhance their portfolios with an asset that provides an attractive return that is uncorrelated with typical financial securities Despite its attractiveness, spreads in this market remain considerably higher than the spreads for comparable speculative grade debt. This paper uses results from behavior economics to suggest why cat bonds have not been more attractive to the investment community at current prices. In particular, the authors suggest that "ambiguity aversion", "loss aversion", and "uncertainty avoidance" may account for the reluctance of investment managers to invest in these products. In addition, since Catastrophe Bonds are a new type of investment, investors must invest time and money up front in order to educate themselves about the legal and technical complexities of the Cat Bond market before that investor can make a "to-buy or not-to-buy" decision. Such a transaction cost may reduce the attractiveness of the new bonds to the point where the investor would prefer to stay out of the market. The bulk of the paper consists of quantitative assessments of each of these hypotheses, along with a demonstration that Cat Bonds are indeed much more attractive than high yield bonds in terms of their Sharpe ratios (the ratio of the "excess return" over the risk free rate to the standard deviation of returns on the bonds). This is accomplished by simulating potential losses for hypothetical Cat Bonds under a wide variety of hurricane scenarios for the Miami/Dade county are. These findings lead the authors to suggest that issuers of Cat Bonds could themselves take steps to lower the cost of placing risk in this manner. Specifically, issuers might standardize a simple structure of terms to decrease the investor's cost of education. In addition issuers could better quantify and reduce pricing uncertainty. These steps will should increase demand for these instruments and produce a concomitant reduction in price.

Entrepreneurial ventures launched by graduating MIT students : insights on founding teams, business models, execution challenges and impact

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis examines entrepreneurial ventures launched by graduating MIT students with the goal of understanding entrepreneurship activities of students while in full-time graduate degree programs and drawing insights on founding teams, business models, execution challenges and impact. These insights are key around the world as universities decide their approach to entrepreneurship education, and also relevant to academics, prospective founders, and early stage investors. I developed qualitative and quantitative insights on survival rates of founders from MIT Sloan MBA Class of 2010 graduates based on their demographics, experiences, businesses, resources and challenges. Students with prior experience in entrepreneurship or at a small company, who choose to intern at a small company, or who build diverse teams, are correlated with higher survival rates. Further, I present a methodology for a longitudinal study on studying venture creation by graduating students considering entrepreneurship. In conclusion, I provide early recommendations. Universities could facilitate early crosscampus collaboration, provide tactical support, and adapt their strategy for encouraging entrepreneurship by industry. Academics can leverage data in this thesis to both provide examples of founders among recent alumni, and offer advice on team building. Prospective student entrepreneurs could consider data in this thesis while identifying co-founders, develop early relationships across campus, and start early on ventures.by Nitin Bantwal Rao.M.B.A

Subclinical hypothyroidism and conception in a woman with primary infertility

Hypothyroidism is the most common endocrinological problem affecting women who present with ovulatory dysfunction resulting in infertility.It’s milder form, subclinical hypothyroidism (SH) characterized by mildly elevated thyroid stimulating hormone levels and normal free thyroxine levels, may also contribute to disturbed reproductive function. We report a case highlighting the beneficial effects of levothyroxine replacement therapy in women with subclinical hypothyroidsm presenting with infertility

Cardiovascular risk factors and determinants of clinical outcomes in type 2 diabetic patients at a tertiary-care centre

Background: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is growing rapidly worldwide. The global burden of T2DM in 2013 was 382 million and projected to 592 million by 2035, accounting for 7.8% of the adult population. The objective of this study was to record treatments, risk factor control, determinants of glycaemic control and cardiovascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes (T2DM).Methods: We included adult T2DM patients and followed up for 6 months. Patients were categorised into good (HbA1c 8.5%). We used multiple logistic regression to identify determinants of glycaemic control and outcomes.Results: We recruited 785 patients with a mean age of 55.43 (±11.1) years, and 43.8% were women. At baseline, patients with poor control (45%) were younger and from lower socioeconomic strata (73.5%). At 6 months, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) targets of HbA1c was met only in 27.52%, systolic blood pressure (SBP) in 81.47% and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in 48.86% patients. Patients with sedentary or low physical activity (Odds ratio 11.51, 95% confidence interval 3.48, 37.98; p<0.001) and with diabetes for a longer duration (OR 1.14 [1.07-1.22], p<0.001) were more likely to be in poor glucose control. Patients having sedentary or low physical activity (OR 6.66 [1.730-25.63] p = 0.006) and higher LDL cholesterol (OR 1.04 [1.01-1.07], p = 0.008) were more likely to get microvascular complications.Conclusions: Management of modifiable risk factors and early control of hyperglycaemia should be given more importance

Intractable hypoglycemia in pregnancy

Insulinomas are rare tumours developed from pancreatic beta cells; 27 cases of insulinoma associated with pregnancy have been reported till date, mostly diagnosed before the 16th week. Triad of insulinoma; hypoglycemic symptoms, plasma glucose < 3.0 mmol/L, symptomatic relief with glucose administration. 28-year-old primi presented to us at 29 weeks with high BP and neuroglycopenic symptoms. Repeated episodes of loss of consciousness with hypoglycemia since 14 weeks. On evaluation diagnosed to have insulinoma and managed conservatively with dietary modifications, and medical treatment. She failed to respond and pregnancy was terminated due to high BP, hypoglycemia and Doppler changes. Delivered a stillborn girl at 31 weeks. Underwent laparotomy post-delivery for enucleation of the lesion. Quick normalization of sugar levels and overall recovery remarkable. Patient is on regular follow up. Insulinoma is a rare cause of severe repeated episodes of hypoglycemia early in pregnancy

Optimization of multifacility production scheduling

LD2668 .T4 1967 B219Master of Scienc

Rapid coordinate system creation and mapping using Crickets

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2004.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-56).In this thesis, I describe a system that lays the foundation for context-aware applications. This system allows a user to set up a reference coordinate system in a room, using three Cricket listeners attached to a wooden frame. The system then assigns coordinates to Cricket beacons, which are placed on the ceiling. Finally, by using the frame in conjunction with a laser range finder, the user can generate a map of the room in the reference coordinate system, complete with features including doors, walls, and windows. This thesis also describes necessary changes we implemented that made the Cricket positioning system much more accurate.by Roshan Bantwal Baliga.M.Eng

High-Speed Reconstruction of Low-Dose CT Using Iterative Techniques for Image-Guided Interventions

Minimally invasive image-guided interventions(IGIs) lead to improved treatment outcomes while significantly reducing patient trauma. Because of features such as fast scanning, high resolution, three-dimensional view and ease of operation, Computed-Tomography(CT) is increasingly the choice for IGIs. The risk of radiation exposure, however, limits its current and future use. We perform ultra low-dose scanning to overcome this limitation. To address the image quality problem at low doses, we reconstruct images using the iterative Paraboloidal Surrogate(PS) algorithm. Using actual scanner data, we demonstrate improvement in the quality of reconstructed images using the iterative algorithm at low doses as compared to the standard Filtered Back Projection(FBP) technique. We also accelerate the PS algorithm on a cluster of 32 processors and a GPU. We demonstrate approximately 20 times speedup for the cluster and two orders of improvement in speed for the GPU, while maintaining comparable image quality to the traditional uni-processor implementation