Saturday, August 25, 2007
The leading supplier of school uniforms in the United Kingdom, Lancashire-based manufacturer Trutex, has announced it is “seriously considering” including GPS tracking devices in future ranges of its uniform products after conducting an online survey of both parents and children.
“As a direct result of the survey, we are now seriously considering incorporating a [tracking] device into future ranges” said Trutex marketing director Clare Rix.
The survey questioned 809 parents and 444 children aged nine to 16. It showed that 44% of parents were worried about the safety of pre-teen children, and 59% wanted tracking devices installed in school apparel. 39% of children aged nine to 12 were prepared to wear clothing with tracking devices in them, while teenagers were notably less enthusiastic and more wary of what Trutex has admitted they see as a “big brother” concept.
However, Trutex has claimed the tracking devices would bring about worthwhile benefits, including being a valuable resource for parents who wanted to keep a close eye on where their children were at all times.
“As well as being a safety net for parents, there could be real benefits for schools who could keep a closer track on the whereabouts of their pupils, potentially reducing truancy levels” says Rix.
Each year, Trutex supplies 1 million blouses, 1.1 million shirts, 250,000 pairs of trousers, 20,000 blazers, 60,000 skirts and 110,000 pieces of knitwear to the UK.
It is not the first company to manufacture school uniforms with a central focus on child safety; last week Essex firm BladeRunner revealed it was selling stab-proof school blazers to parents concerned about violence against their children. The blazers were outfitted with Kevlar, a synthetic fibre used in body armour. It has already received orders internationally, including Australia.
If the Trutex tracking devices go ahead, it is unclear where in the uniform they will be located.

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Submitted by: Stephanie Dsouza
Holidays are a time of giving. And buying. Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas all of these can be very lucrative for business owners, providing they’re equipped to handle the influx of calls quickly and efficiently. If a call isn’t answered, the business is likely to lose a sale or even a repeat customer. That’s why it’s a practical solution to contract a business answering phone service.
Many businesses are hesitant to contract with call center customer service agencies, fearing they won’t be able to offer customers knowledgeable assistance specific to their company, but this need not be the case. In truth, a good call center customer service agency does far more than simply answer calls. They will thoroughly train their representatives to be knowledgeable regarding your company’s services and products, and can provide important company details. Even if you or your employees are unavailable, you can rest assured that your business is being taken care of in a professional manner.
Another related benefit is that by hiring a business answering phone service, business owners can then give their employees time off from work during holidays. Like anybody else, your employees what to spend Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas with their families and loved ones. Making them work during the holidays only creates disgruntled workers. Conversely, giving them holidays off fosters good will, and studies show that a content employee is a productive employee.
The issue may be that even though a business is up and running, the sheer volume of calls during holidays can cause long waits or even unanswered calls. More people are making purchases, placing orders, making reservations, and all of that can mean more money coming into your business. This is an important source of revenue, and missing out on it can have a devastating effect on a businesses bottom line. That makes it even more important to contract with a call center customer service agency that can handle the overflow and effectively deal with a customer’s orders or concerns. A professional live operator can provide a positive customer experience and rack up additional sales.
A further benefit is calls can be answered 24/7. A business that offers customer service around the clock will obviously have a benefit over businesses that do not. Think of how you feel when you are put on hold for a long period of time, or if you call and find that a business isn’t open and you’ll have to call back tomorrow during normal business hours. It’s something that customers don’t forget. Is that really the feeling you want your customers to have? Even worse, if it’s a potential customer, they might just move on the next business on their list. A business answering phone service will help make sure that the buck literally stops with you.
If you’re worried about what a call center customer service agency will cost, keep in mind that many phone services will create custom plans to fit your specific needs. Prices can be tailored to how many products you choose or even the number of calls you receive, so you pay for only the service you get. Think of it as an ala carte menu; by choosing only the items you require or feel you can afford, you can keep the cost within your budget. But most of all, never forget the many benefits both tangible (money) and intangible (customer good will) you will get in return.
About the Author: Stephanie Dsouza is a freelance writer and used the
Anser.com
website to get the information for this article. Anser is an award winning call center offering many business phone answering services for companies both large and small. For more information , visit their website at
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Thursday, March 26, 2020
In a new study released by the Florida Museum of Natural History on Monday, scientists report spiky skulls evolved at least 25 separate times in different kinds of frogs. The survey was reportedly to be published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Lead author Daniel Paluh, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Florida, said, “Superficially, frogs may look similar, but when you look at their skulls, you see drastic differences […] Some of the weirdest skulls are found in frogs that eat birds and mammals, use their heads as a shield, or in a few rare cases, are venomous. Their skulls show how strange and diverse frogs can be.”
Some scientists had previously suggested smaller frogs would tend to develop spiky skulls, but that is not what this study reports. Here, researchers evaluated CT scans on 158 different species. They found frogs that had similar ecological niches — meaning they either acquired food in the same way or defended themselves from predators in the same way — tended to develop skulls with similar grooves, spikes, or specialized jaw joints regardless of whether they were ancestrally related to each other.
According to the study, skulls with spikes, grooves or ridges — called hyperossification — often accompanied frogs eating very large prey relative to their own body size. The strong, spacious skulls would allow the frogs to have very big mouths with which to catch birds, rodents, reptiles and other frogs. Spikes sometimes coincided with venomous frogs. The researchers speculated the spikes make it dangerous for predators to hit the frog’s head, as the spikes would break venom sacs under the frog’s skin.
Other bone formations included projections resembling fangs or lower teeth that different species of frogs use for catching prey and fighting. Very few frogs have true lower teeth.
One of the study’s authors, herpetologist David Blackburn, told Discover Magazine the frequency of spiky skulls evolving in otherwise unrelated frogs suggested some deep pattern frogs fell into as circumstances arose: “Somehow, these frogs are turning on some ancient developmental machinery in their DNA.”
Since 1973, when frogs skulls were last comprehensively surveyed, scientists have documented enough new species to double the number known to humans. Also, modern techniques exploit CT scans, of which Paluh and his team made liberal use. The research was part of the oVert project, funded by the National Science Foundation, meant to comprehensively CT-scan over 20,000 vertebrate specimens from United States museums.