Trust is the new black

Trust is at the heart of ongoing relationships amongst people, but also with brands and companies. It has become a hot topic (Connelly, 2017, Huffington, 2015), particularly given the increasing media coverage of breakdowns in customer trust in well-known companies such as VW, Tesco, BP and Google. But away from these headlines is a stronger, more underlying trend. A move from transactions to longer term customer relationships. The risk of undermining that relationship through not being transparent, not being fair, not having reliable products and services is exacerbated as our world becomes increasingly technology focused. Relationships with suppliers we don’t know are built through trusted on-line third parties. Information about products and services we are unfamiliar with is increasingly sought from others, on-line, and subsequent feedback on customer experiences shared quickly and widely. Where companies are not transparent, the exponential growth in speed and breadth of news spreading makes them vulnerable. It is impossible to hide. However, to assess our own approach to corporate and brand trust, it helps to go back to the key academic theories to discover the concepts that underpin our understanding of trust, the factors that build trust and the outputs that emerge. In addition, we need to understand our performance on trust in the light of data from an industry and global context but also to support the business case for ensuring it remains a business priority. Examining a few of the high-profile failures in trust also helps us identify the range of areas where trust can be undermined. They provide pieces of a jigsaw that, when seen together, help us understand a broader picture of trust to inform our approach with our businesses and our customers now and in the future

Circular 45

This circular provides guidance on fertilizing native hay meadows of bluejoint reedgrass (Calamagrostis canadensis) on the lower Kenai Peninsula. It is based on a num ber o f experim ental trials conducted by the authors on Kachemak silt loam soil at various sites near Homer

Quarry fines minimisation : can we really have 10mm aggregate with no fines?

In 2005, 216 million tonnes of saleable aggregate was produced in the UK; a corresponding 55 million tonnes of quarry fines and 24 million tonnes of quarry waste were also produced. The need to minimise fines production is driven by the Aggregates Levy (which has priced quarry fines out of the market in favour of recycled aggregate) and the Landfill Tax (which has made it expensive to dispose of fines). Attempts to reduce fines production often start with a process optimisation audit; the case study presented illustrates how fines production can be reduced, in this instance by up to 30%. Application of good practice in the crushing plant also helps to reduce fines production, including: reducing the crushing ratio to 6:1 or lower; maintaining uniform feed distribution; choke feeding (for compression crushers); reducing the speed of impact crushers; and reducing the degree of recirculation by increased screening efficiency. Future developments are likely to be driven by the need to respond to climate change. New crusher designs will be more automated, offer improved energy efficiency, have a greater production capacity and improved reliability

An Off-lattice Model for Br Electrodeposition on Au(100): from DFT to Experiment

Since Br adsorption on Au(100) displays an incommensurate ordered phase, a lattice-gas treatment of the adlayer configurations is not reliable. We therefore use density functional theory slab calculations to determine the parameters necessary for the construction of an off-lattice model. We compute and analyze the total energy and electron density as the lateral Br position and coverage are varied. This allows the calculation of the corrugation potential, the short-range lateral interactions, the dipole moment (long-range interactions), and the residence charge. From these parameters, we construct an off-lattice model with no freely adjustable parameters. The simulation results compare remarkably well with experimental results.Comment: 42 pages, 15 embedded figures, submitted to Surface Scienc

Mutual Funds of Irwin Consulting Planning in Singapore and Tokyo, Japan

Mutual funds are common investments because they provide a cost-effective and effective means to vary your investments (or possess an assortment of securities -- stocks, bonds, etc.) without having to make a huge starting investment

'I know how I feel': listening to young people with life-limiting conditions who have learning and communication impairments

UK government policy advocates involving children in decisions about their lives. However, disabled children are often marginalized and not consulted, especially those with learning and communication impairments. Drawing on an ongoing English Government funded longitudinal study exploring different groups of service users' choices, this article demonstrates the important contribution that qualitative research methods, especially non-traditional methods, can procure when working with young people who are non-verbal or have limited speech. Working with young people with life-limiting conditions raises some specific challenges for researchers. Here, adapting project wide materials and research methods in order to gain some thematic continuity across different service user groups. Some of these considerations and challenges will be discussed, especially the development of non-verbal forms of communication (talking matsTM). Practical experiences, both positive and negative will be examined. The article concludes by considering some wider implications of using symbols based methods for future research and how these methods can be used across disciplines and by practitioners in their everyday work

Natural Resources Outreach Coalition: Coordination and Program Delivery

The Natural Resources Outreach Coalition (NROC) is a multi-organizational initiative providing technical and educational assistance to communities in New Hampshire’s coastal watersheds dealing with the effects of growth. The NROC program offered to communities includes an initial educational public presentation, Dealing with Growth, followed by a series of follow-up meetings to help the community develop an action-oriented work plan, and provide the technical and educational assistance needed to help the community meet its goals

Quantitative Analysis by the Point-Centered Quarter Method

This document is an introduction to the use of the point-centered quarter method. It briefly outlines its history, its methodology, and some of the practical issues (and modifications) that inevitably arise with its use in the field. Additionally this paper shows how data collected using point-centered quarter method sampling may be used to determine importance values of different species of trees and describes and derives several methods of estimating plant density and corresponding confidence intervals. New to this revision is an appendix of R functions to carry out these calculations.Comment: 56 pages, 12 figures, 16 tables. Corrected typos. Expanded Appendix B on Angle-Order Methods. Added Appendix D containing R functions to carry out all calculations. Added references. Original version: 34 pages, 6 figures, 16 table