Accelerated painless labor

A system of management of labor, called accelerated painless labor, is described and a report made of the results of its application to 54,863 cases delivered at the Alexandra Maternity Hospital in Athens. The method is based on the use of pethidine (Demerol) in repeated small doses and the frequent resort to oxytocin. Statistics are offered to support the contention that the method shortens labor considerably, reduces the need for operative procedures, and has no ill effects on maternal or perinatal mortality or morbidity. © 1967

Estimating the probability of default for shipping high yield bond issues

This paper uses a binary logit model to predict the probability of default for high yield bonds issued by shipping companies. Our results suggest that two liquidity ratios, the gearing ratio, the amount raised over total assets ratio, and an industry specific variable are the best estimates for predicting default at the time of issuance. In-and-out-of-sample tests further indicate the predictive ability and robustness of our model. The results are of interest to institutional and individual investors as they can identify which factors to look at when making investment decisions, and which issues have a high likelihood to default; shipowners can also benefit by identifying the factors they need to focus on, in order to offer an issue that does not have a high probability of default.High yield bonds Probability of default Logit model Shipping