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We propose a novel method of forecasting equity option spreads using the degree of multiple listing as a proxy for expectations of future spreads. Spreads are a transactions fee for traders. To determine the future spreads on options being considered for purchase, traders must take current market trends affecting spreads into account. One such trend is the continued decline in spreads due to the multiple listing of options. Options listed on 4–6 exchanges compete more intensely than those listed on fewer exchanges, so that they may be expected to experience greater future declines in spreads. This study identifies the listing dates and number of listed exchanges for options listed on up to six exchanges as of May 2005. Listing criteria for multiple listing are defined with short- and long-term volumes, market capitalization, net income, and total assets being significant determinants of multiple listing. Short- and long-term volumes were found to have no explanatory power for multiple listing. Ranges of listing criteria are specified so that traders may locate the options of their choice.

We propose a method for forecasting bank solvency that quantifies bank solvency as the probability that a bank will have more than 0.25 of the cash to total asset ratio. Predictor variables include the ratio of loans secured by farmland to total loans, the ratio of loans to farmers to total loans, and the ratio of commercial and industrial loans to total loans. Loans secured by farmland to total loans significantly predicted the potential for insolvency. To a secondary extent, commercial and industrial loans significantly predicted bank failure. This result was validated with predicted probabilities significantly explaining cash to total assets.

The purpose of the study was to provide empirical support for the Miller model. The paper proposes the use of the ratio of individual to institutional holdings as a proxy for heterogeneous expectations of security returns.

Both bivariate t‐tests and regression analysis were used to test whether optimistic valuations existed for stocks with high levels of institutional ownership. Data on open short positions were collected and hypothesized to decrease with the level of institutional holdings. High ratio stocks were compared to glamor stocks and low ratio stocks to value stocks.

For stocks with higher institutional ownership, optimistic valuations dominated resulting in significantly lower future security returns than for stocks with higher individual ownership thereby supporting the Miller model. The results were not sensitive to variations in size, momentum, and book‐to‐market ratios. Further support for the Miller model was provided by the finding that open short positions decreased with the level of institutional holdings. High ratio stocks resembled glamor stocks and low ratio stocks corresponded to value stocks.

This study is limited to the ultra‐short term period of one month after portfolio creation. Future research should extend it to the three‐to‐five year time horizon.

Ultra‐short term investors should hold value stocks, intermediate three‐12 month investors should hold glamor stocks, and long‐term investors should hold value stocks.

The finding of a new proxy for heterogeneous expectations. The paper also establishes a new methodology for testing the Miller model.

President, Charles S. Goldman, M.P.; Chairman, Charles Bathurst, M.P.; Vice‐Presidents: Christopher Addison, M.D., M.P., Waldorf Astor, M.P., Charles Bathurst, M.P., Hilaire Belloc, Ralph D. Blumenfeld, Lord Blyth, J.P., Colonel Charles E. Cassal, V.D., F.I.C., the Bishop of Chichester, Sir Arthur H. Church, K.C.V.O., M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S., Sir Wm. Earnshaw Cooper, C.I.E., E. Crawshay‐Williams, M.P., Sir Anderson Critchett, Bart., C.V.O., F.R.C.S.E., William Ewart, M.D., F.R.C.P., Lieut.‐Colonel Sir Joseph Fayrer, Bart., M.A., M.D., Sir Alfred D. Fripp, K.C.V.O., C.B., M.B., M.S., Sir Harold Harmsworth, Bart., Arnold F. Hills, Sir Victor Horsley, M.D., F.R.C.S., F.R.S., O. Gutekunst, Sir H. Seymour King, K.C.I.E., M.A., the Duke of Manchester, P.C., Professor Sir Wm. Osler, Bart., M.D., F.R.S., Sir Gilbert Parker, D.C.L., M.P., Sir Wm. Ramsay, K.C.B., LL.D., M.D., F.R.S., Harrington Sainsbury, M.D., F.R.C.P., W. G. Savage, M.D., B.Sc., R. H. Scanes Spicer, M.D., M.R.C.S., the Hon. Lionel Walrond, M.P., Hugh Walsham, M.D., F.R.C.P., Harvey W. Wiley, M.D., Evelyn Wrench.

Federal and state governments collaborate on state Medicaid nursing facility long-term care (SMNF-LTC) programs. These programs are increasingly expensive as the baby-boomers retire. Yet serious resident outcome problems continue in spite of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) extensive process-focused regulatory efforts. This study identifies a promising and simpler auxiliary path for improving resident outcomes.

Drawing on a longitudinal (1997–2005), 48-state data set and panel-corrected, time-series regression, we compare the effects on resident outcomes of CMS process-focused surveys and four minimally regulated program structural features on which the states vary considerably.

We find that each of these four structural features exerts a greater effect on resident outcomes than process quality.

We suggest augmenting current process-focused regulation with a less arduous approach of more extensive regulation of these program features.

To date SMNF-LTC program regulation has focused largely on member facility processes. While regulating processes is appropriate, we show that regulating program structural features directly, an arguably easier task, might well produce considerable improvement in the quality of resident outcomes.

Month after month we bring forward additional evidence of the injury resulting from the use of chemical “preservatives” in food, while the Authorities feebly hesitate to give specific legal effect to the recommendations of the Departmental Committee which made such a complete inquiry into this question. The evidence upon which those recommendations were based has been fully corroborated by a number of different observers. FERE and others have shown that, as regards boric acid and borax, even when administered in the smallest medicinal doses, there is always the risk that these drugs may aggravate, or even produce, renal diseases. These observations have been confirmed by the work of Dr. CHARLES HARRINGTON, an account of which has been recently published. Twelve cats were fed on the same food; six were treated with borax, one had no preservative, and five were given a preservative which had no apparent effect. The experiment extended over a period of 133 days, the quantity of borax given averaging about 0.5 grms, per diem. Three of the borated cats soon became ill, and one died at the end of six weeks. On the termination of the experiment the cats were all killed, and upon examination it was found that the organs of the six cats which had not taken borax were in perfectly sound and healthy condition, while the others, with one exception, were all suffering from nephritis. Of course, instances are recorded in which patients have been treated with borax and boracic acid with apparently no injurious result, but as a general rule these experiments have been of too short duration to allow of the desired information being arrived at, and the results must therefore be regarded as inconclusive and unreliable. It is perfectly evident that the kidneys may be for a short time quite capable of eliminating many objectionable substances, but the long‐continued use of such bodies, as Dr. HARRINGTON'S researches clearly indicate, sets up an inflammatory condition of the kidneys which, of course, interferes with the effective performance of their proper functions, and lays the foundations for complications of the most serious nature.

A LETTER from the President of the Library Association (Mr. Berwick Sayers) has been received which we have pleasure in giving prominently.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.