Manpower Planning in the United Kingdom: An Historical Review

The Manpower Planning Study Group of the Operational Research Society was formed on 16th November 1967. This paper traces the growth of manpower planning in the United Kingdom from its origins in the Second World War to the present day. It identifies a series of stages, starting with the beginnings and growing awareness of the 1950s and early 1960s, which led on to an explosive growth between 1965 and 1970, and the lengthy period of consolidation thereafter. It places on record the interest and contributions of many individuals and organizations who laid the foundations of manpower planning in this country, and review trends in methodology and the growing role of computers. The paper concludes with some notes on possible future developments.     

Surface species in the direct amination of methanol over Brønsted acidic mordenite catalysts

Quantitative in situ infrared spectroscopy in combination with kinetic analysis is utilized to derive mechanistic aspects for the reaction of methanol with ammonia on Brønsted acidic mordenite. Under non-reactive conditions, a coadsorption complex between methanol and ammonia is found, in which only ammonia is in direct interaction with the Brønsted acid sites of the zeolite. This complex is proposed to be the precursor for the formation of protonated methylamines in the zeolite pores which are formed in sequential order up to tetramethylammonium ions. These methylamines are unable to desorb under reaction conditions in the absence of ammonia. They leave the surface either by ammonia adsorption assisted desorption or by scavenging of methyl groups from protonated methylamines by ammonia. Both steps are concluded to be potentially rate determining.     

Resonance hyper-Raman excitation profiles of a donor-acceptor substituted distyrylbenzene: one-photon and two-photon states

Resonance Raman and resonance hyper-Raman spectra of the "push-pull" conjugated molecule 1-(4'-dihexylaminostyryl)-4-(4"-nitrostyryl)benzene in acetone have been measured at excitation wavelengths from 485 to 356 nm (two-photon wavelengths for the nonlinear spectra), resonant with the first two bands in the linear absorption spectrum. The theory of resonance hyper-Raman scattering intensities is developed and simplified using assumptions appropriate for intramolecular charge-transfer transitions of large molecules in solution. The absorption spectrum and the Raman, hyper-Rayleigh, and hyper-Raman excitation profiles, all in absolute intensity units, are quantitatively simulated to probe the structures and the one- and two-photon transition strengths of the two lowest-energy allowed electronic transitions. All four spectroscopic observables are reasonably well reproduced with a single set of excited-state parameters. The two lowest-energy, one-photon allowed electronic transitions have fairly comparable one-photon and two-photon transition strengths, but the higher-energy transition is largely localized on the nitrophenyl group while the lower-energy transition is more delocalized.     

Preparation of 5-substituted- and 3,5-disubstituted-s-triazolo[4,3-a]pyridines

Cyclization of N-acyl-N′-(6-chloropyrid-2-yl)hydrazines ( 2a-2e ) with phosphorus oxychloride has produced several 5-chloro-s-triazolo[4,3-a]pyridines ( 3a-3e ). Nucleophilic displacement of the chlorosubstituent of 5-chloro-s-triazolo[4,3-a]pyridine ( 3a ) availed the 5-ethoxy ( 4a ) and 5-thioethoxy ( 4b ) derivatives and di(s-triazolo[4,3-a]pyrid-5-yl)sulfide ( 8 ) while reaction of 5-ethylsulfonyl-s-triazolo[4,3-a]pyridine ( 4d ) with potassium hydroxide yielded the 5-hydroxy/5-one system ( 4c or 6 ). Further reaction of 3a with bromine to give 3-bromo-5-chloro-s-triazolo-[4,3-a]pyridine ( 3g ) has provided the corresponding 3-cyano- and 3-carboxamido-5-chloro-s-triazolo[4,3-a]pyridine derivatives ( 3h and 3i ). Treatment of 6-chloro-2-hydrazinopyridine ( 1 ) with cyanogen bromide has provided 3-amino-5-chloro-s-triazolo[4,3-a]pyridine ( 3f ) which, with bromoacetaldehyde dimethyl acetal, transformed into 7-chloroimidazo[1,2-b]-s-triazolo[4,3-a]-pyridine ( 7 ). Finally, attempts at cyclizing N-oxalyl-N′-(6-chloropyrid-2-yl)hydrazine derivatives ( 2g-2i ) with intentions of preparing various 3-acyl-5-chloro-s-triazolo[4,3-a]pyridines for entry into other 3,5-disubstituted systems were unsuccessful.     

A Stability Analysis of Convolution Quadraturea for Abel-Volterra Integral Equations

We investigate the stability properties of numerical methodsfor weakly singular Volterra integral equations of the secondkind. Our theory extends the stability theory of linear multistepmethods for ordinary differential equations. We introduce theconcepts of A-stability, A()-stability etc. for Abel-Volterraequations. The stability region is characterized in terms ofthe weights of the method. It is shown that the order of anA-stable convolution quadrature cannot exceed 2. Further westudy the stability properties of implicit Adam methods, withparticular emphasis on the question of A()-stability.     

Observation of the Debye-Waller factor in a colloidal single crystal

Bragg diffraction spot intensities of a colloidal single crystal were found to exhibit a DebyeWaller factor-like decay. The Lindemann parameter and the mean-square displacement after infinite times of the colloidal particles could be obtained.