Credit Insurance as an Aid to the Export Trade of the United States

82 pagesIt is the purpose of this thesis to discuss the service offered American exporters by credit insurance companies in the United States, and to analyze this service in the light of the statements made by its advocates that it is an important aid to the exporter in the granting and extension of credit. The first part of this thesis deals with export trade methods and an analysis of the credit risk involved. The second part deals with the history and development of credit insurance in the United States and an analysis of the service offered by credit insurance companies. The third part deals with an evaluation of this service

1988 Convocation

Opening Selections: First Class Brass, George Frederich Handel Processional: Jean Joseph Mouret Welcome: Dr. Leon Lederman, Director, Fermi Laboratory, Vice President Board of Trustees; Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall, Director; David Kung, Student Council President Introductions: Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall, Director Musical Selection: Franz Von Suppe Keynote Speaker: Dr. Donald Frye, Former Chief Executive Bell & Howell Co., Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Northwestern University Recessional: George Frederich Hande

Effect of Flushing and Gonadotropin on Ovulation Rate of Yearling Ewes on Range

Improvement of the reproduction rate of range ewes is of the utmost importance to the range sheep producer. Good grazing management and proper supplementation have been shown to be important. Flushing range ewes has given conflicting results. Gonadotrophic hormones have been used to increase ovulation rates but have been less successful with yearlings than with older ewes

From breathless to failure:symptom onset and diagnostic meaning in patients with heart failure - a qualitative study

Objectives: To explore 2 key points in the heart failure diagnostic pathway-symptom onset and diagnostic meaning-from the patient perspective. Design: Qualitative interview study. Setting: Participants were recruited from a secondary care clinic in central England following referral from primary care. Participants: Over age 55 years with a recent (<1 year) diagnosis of heart failure confirmed by a cardiologist following initial presentation to primary care. Methods: Semistructured interviews were carried out with 16 participants (11 men and 5 women, median age 78.5 years) in their own homes. Data were audiorecorded and transcribed. Participants were asked to describe their diagnostic journey from when they first noticed something wrong up to and including the point of diagnosis. Data were analysed using the framework method. Results: Participants initially normalised symptoms and only sought medical help when daily activities were affected. Failure to realise that anything was wrong led to a delay in help-seeking. Participants' understanding of the term 'heart failure' was variable and 1 participant did not know he had the condition. The term itself caused great anxiety initially but participants learnt to cope with and accept their diagnosis over time. Conclusions: Greater public awareness of symptoms and adequate explanation of 'heart failure' as a diagnostic label, or reconsideration of its use, are potential areas of service improvement

Next-gen sequencing of multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumanii at Nashville General Hospital at Meharry

Background Acinetobacter baumannii is a nonfermentative Gram-negative bacillus, which easily acquires antibiotic resistance determinants and causes life-threatening nosocomial infections [1]. Multi-drug resistant (MDR) strains are common therefore, empirical treatment choices are limited. More knowledge is needed regarding genetic diversity patterns and resistance phenotypes in a given clinical setting. Our goal is to identify the resistance genotypes of A. baumanii at Nashville General Hospital and correlate them with MDR phenotypes [1]

H0LiCOW III. Quantifying the effect of mass along the line of sight to the gravitational lens HE 0435-1223 through weighted galaxy counts

Based on spectroscopy and multiband wide-field observations of the gravitationally lensed quasar HE 0435-1223, we determine the probability distribution function of the external convergence $\kappa_\mathrm{ext}$ for this system. We measure the under/overdensity of the line of sight towards the lens system and compare it to the average line of sight throughout the universe, determined by using the CFHTLenS as a control field. Aiming to constrain $\kappa_\mathrm{ext}$ as tightly as possible, we determine under/overdensities using various combinations of relevant informative weighing schemes for the galaxy counts, such as projected distance to the lens, redshift, and stellar mass. We then convert the measured under/overdensities into a $\kappa_\mathrm{ext}$ distribution, using ray-tracing through the Millennium Simulation. We explore several limiting magnitudes and apertures, and account for systematic and statistical uncertainties relevant to the quality of the observational data, which we further test through simulations. Our most robust estimate of $\kappa_\mathrm{ext}$ has a median value $\kappa^\mathrm{med}_\mathrm{ext} = 0.004$ and a standard deviation of $\sigma_\kappa = 0.025$. The measured $\sigma_\kappa$ corresponds to $2.5\%$ uncertainty on the time delay distance, and hence the Hubble constant $H_0$ inference from this system. The median $\kappa^\mathrm{med}_\mathrm{ext}$ value is robust to $\sim0.005$ (i.e. $\sim0.5\%$ on $H_0$) regardless of the adopted aperture radius, limiting magnitude and weighting scheme, as long as the latter incorporates galaxy number counts, the projected distance to the main lens, and a prior on the external shear obtained from mass modeling. The availability of a well-constrained $\kappa_\mathrm{ext}$ makes \hequad\ a valuable system for measuring cosmological parameters using strong gravitational lens time delays.Comment: 24 pages, 17 figures, 6 tables. Submitted to MNRA

2006 Convocation

Prelude Music: Chris Trigg, 2005 IMSA Graduate Pledge of Allegiance: John Li, Student Council President Welcome: John Li, Student Council President; Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall, President; Dr. Eric McLaren, Principal; Dr. Leon Lederman, IMSA Resident Scholar, 1998 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics Musical Selection: Chris Trigg, 2005 IMSA Graduate Keynote Speaker: First Lieutenant Kenyatta H. Ruffin United States Air Force, 1999 IMSA Graduat

Reliability assessment of null allele detection: inconsistencies between and within different methods

Microsatellite loci are widely used in population genetic studies, but the presence of null alleles may lead to biased results. Here we assessed five methods that indirectly detect null alleles, and found large inconsistencies among them. Our analysis was based on 20 microsatellite loci genotyped in a natural population of Microtus oeconomus sampled during 8 years, together with 1200 simulated populations without null alleles, but experiencing bottlenecks of varying duration and intensity, and 120 simulated populations with known null alleles. In the natural population, 29% of positive results were consistent between the methods in pairwise comparisons, and in the simulated dataset this proportion was 14%. The positive results were also inconsistent between different years in the natural population. In the null-allele-free simulated dataset, the number of false positives increased with increased bottleneck intensity and duration. We also found a low concordance in null allele detection between the original simulated populations and their 20% random subsets. In the populations simulated to include null alleles, between 22% and 42% of true null alleles remained undetected, which highlighted that detection errors are not restricted to false positives. None of the evaluated methods clearly outperformed the others when both false positive and false negative rates were considered. Accepting only the positive results consistent between at least two methods should considerably reduce the false positive rate, but this approach may increase the false negative rate. Our study demonstrates the need for novel null allele detection methods that could be reliably applied to natural population