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This paper recommends new criteria for selecting seaports of embarkation during military deployments. Most importantly, this research compares the current port selection criterion, which is to select the seaport with the shortest inland transport time from the deploying installation, to the proposed port selection criteria, which are to select the seaport based on the shortest combined inland and oceanic transit time to the destination theater.

The authors construct an original integer program to select seaports that minimize the expected delivery timeline for a set of notional, but realistic, deployment requirements. The integer program is solved considering the current as well as the proposed port selection criteria. The solutions are then compared using paired-samples t-tests to assess the statistical significance of the port selection criteria.

This work suggests that the current port selection criterion results in a 10–13% slower delivery of deploying forces as compared to the proposed port selection criteria.

This work assumes deterministic inland transit times, oceanic transit times, and seaport processing rates. Operational fluctuations in transit times and processing rates are not expected to change the findings from this research.

This research provides evidence that the current port selection criterion for selecting seaports for military units deploying from the Continental United States is suboptimal. More importantly, logistics planners could use these recommended port selection criteria to reduce the expected delivery timelines during military deployments.

Several military doctrinal references suggest that planners select seaports based on habitual installation-to-port pairings, especially for early deployers. This work recommends a change to the military's current port selection process based on empirical analyses that show improvements to deployment timelines.

This paperreviews a selection of international collaborative efforts in the production of information services and attempts to characterize modes of co‐operation. It is argued that economic and political considerations, as much as improved technology of information transfer, will determine the nature of collaboration in future as they have in the past.

We learn from various sources that the Cambridge Conference arrangements are well in hand. It is many years since the Library Association gathered in body at either Oxford or Cambridge and the event should therefore be of universal interest. On one point it has a special interest, for the President will be Mr. Jast, the first municipal librarian to hold our highest office for many years past; and no one will do otherwise than rejoice at the somewhat tardy honour thus to be paid him. Cambridge itself is making first‐class history in that it is about to build a new University Library, the elevation of which—and it is a most imposing one—has been published in The Observer and probably elsewhere. Moreover, the university city with its colleges, halls, libraries and quite glamorous history from the literary point of view, offers librarians more than most people the ideal place of meeting.

A library, like any other man‐made system, exists to provide services that are believed to meet certain needs. It will be effective to the extent that user needs have been correctly gauged, and that the services provided do in fact meet them.

The recently published Inventory of abstracting and indexing services produced in the UK provides a considerable amount of both ‘hard’ and indicative data from which some general trends in the development of abstracting and indexing services can be deduced. A study of these trends was undertaken and the findings have just been published in the BLRDD report series. This paper presents, in a summary of those findings, information about the size, longevity, ownership and scope of such services.

For the 1948 Royal Society Conference, J.D. Bernal submitted a paper which proposed a provisional scheme for the central distribution of scientific papers. This provoked such a hostile and extreme reaction from both the learned society publishers and the national press that the paper was withdrawn in advance of the conference. It is extant in its Proceedings. This paper outlines the nature of the proposals, together with some contemporary reactions. Bernal‘s scheme certainly implied a revolutionary transformation of the status quo. However, his well‐known political beliefs probably played as instrumental a part in their rejection as the nature of the proposals themselves.

There is no general study of the development and current practice of picketing in Britain. As a by‐product of our association with a primarily legal examination of the situation before and after the Employment Act 1980 commissioned by the Social Science Research Council we hope to remedy this situation with a publication later this year. Meanwhile it may be of interest to make available the results of two surveys conducted with the Confederation of British Industry and the Association of Independent Businesses which throw light on the incidence of picketing in 1979.

Cycle frames being powder coated in a Drury Powder M73 booth at W. R. Pashley Ltd, Strat‐ford‐on‐Avon. The managing director, Mr Pashley, says that powder coating gives them a superior looking finish with one coating than was previously obtained with two coats of paint. It is therefore quicker and more economical in terms of labour, particularly since an unskilled worker can do the coating.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of financial integration occurring in East Asia. Increasing economic integration in East Asia over the last two decades has been evidenced by consistent growth in intra‐regional trade and investment. Greater economic integration in the region, accompanied by financial deregulation and liberalization, has contributed to greater financial integration. This study confirms increasing degree of financial market integration in East Asia by comparing movements of monthly money market rates before and after the Asian financial crisis. Convergence of interest rates across the countries in East Asia is examined by analyzing deviations, correlation coefficients and multivariate co‐integration tests of interest rates.

Telephone triage or hear and treat (H&T) describes the process of UK ambulance services nurses and paramedics undertaking enhanced telephone assessments of patients to determine the most appropriate response, which can sometimes result in no ambulance being sent. Given, however, that 999 is not considered an advice service, it may be reasonable to assert that the expectation of those calling 999 is always an immediate ambulance response. This may not always be realised and may affect patient experience. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the following: to what extent are the views of UK ambulance telephone triage service users being gathered? In answering this research question, this review also aims to explore the findings to determine service users’ expectations of ambulance telephone triage and the possibility that these expectations are influenced by the UK media. The findings of which could be used to inform the need and nature of future research.

Phase one consisted of a computerised literature search of online databases CINAHL, Pubmed, Science Direct, Cochrane library, Web of Science and UK government-funded databases. Phase two consisted of searches of all UK ambulance services websites and the submission of freedom of information requests. Phase three consisted of a computerised literature search of the ProQuest international news-stream database.

A total of 78 results were identified and after further screening 34 results were excluded, leaving 44 for final review. The extent to which users experience of ambulance service telephone triage are being gathered is low; and often limited to one off pieces of non-peer reviewed work. Patients felt overall that they were treated with respect, dignity and care. However, being listened to, reducing anxiety and a need for prompt assurances remain important to those whose overriding expectation is that an ambulance should attend every time a 999 call is made. There appears to be a balanced media portrayal of H&T with the UK media. However, unrealistic public expectations represent a significant barrier to providing sustainable care that users consider to be of high quality.

Some user experiences may have been gathered in more broad research exercises which explored various aspects of 999 ambulance service experience. This was not included if it could not be clearly differentiated as being related to H&T and thus may have resulted in data being omitted. It was not possible to systematically search social media platforms (such as facebook or twitter) for any media results related to this search strategy; only traditional print and online media platforms. This also may have resulted in data being omitted. The inclusion of non-peer reviewed research results and grey literature represents a possible limitation to the conclusions drawn within this review. The concept of Insider Research Bias cannot be ignored within this review. The author himself practices in telephone triage within a UK ambulance service; however, this insider bias is mitigated by the clearly articulated systematic methodology and use of the Critical Appraisal Skills framework. In a similar vein, reviews of this nature are also often conducted as part of a team, to reduce bias, increase objectivity and ensure the validity of findings. This review was a sole effort, and while this is not uncommon, there were no cross checks by peers of the search terms, strategy, paper selection, exclusion criteria or data extraction. This lack of peer critique is considered a possible limitation in mitigating selection and reviewer bias.

The results of this review would suggest a need to increase the amount of research and patient feedback gathered from those being assessed and managed by ambulance service telephone triage within the UK. Ambulance services could hold regular monthly small-scale qualitative interviews with patients and families to ascertain their views, perceptions and anxieties which can then provide an up-to-date understanding of user expectations and the health educational needs of local communities. Patient feedback received directly to ambulance services or via the Patient Advice and Liaison Service could be retrospectively analysed by researchers to determine key themes of positive practice or negative patient experience. Such feedback can be tracked through time and be used as a pre and post community intervention measure, to determine any changes. Moving forward, nationally standardised research frameworks should be adopted to provide more easily collated local and national data, which can monitor improvement strategies and provide a comparison between services to aid the sharing of best practice principles.

There is no other piece of work published which has reviewed the data in this area of clinical practice within the UK.