Life Without the Sun

Life Without the Sun According to scientist the sun is the nearest star to earth the only planet believed to be inhabited by the living creatures. This natural alignment is mysterious and it is hard to explain why the star is placed in such a position. The earth is a planet and it revolves around the sun leading to a series of seasonal changes. Science tells us that the gravity of the sun is the one responsible in holding the earth in its current position. The seasonal changes caused by the revolution of the earth have had tremendous effects in the lives of creatures living on earth as well as the physical terrain of the planet. Plants on earth which are the primary producers in the food chain rely on the light from the sun to manufacture their own food through the process of photosynthesis. In these case the light from the together with chlorophyll a pigment in green plants undergo a series of some chemical reactions that lead to manufacturing of food by the plants.(Kenneth 2006) Consumers which are made of various animals and micro organisms rely entirely on plants for food. The sense we get here shows that without plants, it is difficult for consumers to live. Since the sun is the primary source of light that is needed by plants to survive, then it is very important because plants apparently form the basis for life here on earth. Plants which make up forests will attract rainfall that will ensure that human beings survive. Water is a very important requirement to all animals and plants in this world. People need water for both domestic and industrial uses. Without water it will be impossible to cook food, wash bath and drink. Plants need water to grow well and to produce the best yields. Food crops like fruits beans potatoes and corn need water in order to grow well. Water is also needed for industrial use like generation of hydro electric power, supplying industries that engage in very important activities like manufacturing and processing of various products that we may need in our every day life situation. Water from the rain can also be harvested to be used in irrigating dry lands to produce subsistence food. Animals also need water whether domestic or wild. Pastoral communities rely on livestock as a lively hood and if these animals do not get enough water the live of the pastoral communities in danger.(Kenneth 2006) Apart from these effects on plants, the sun also has some direct benefits on animals. For instance it provides warmth, source of vitamin D, source of light, source of solar energy, act as a stellar cue to migrating birds and animals. The sun also has let to economic benefits especially in the tropics where tourist allover the world troop to these places to enjoy the warmth provided by the sun. Tourists earns foreign income to a country that will create employment opportunities to the locals of tropical countries. In conclusion, the sun is has a lot of benefits that if there was no sun then it means that life could not be there. In simple terms the sun is life.

A GROSS FORM OF DELIGHTFUL SATIRE Essays -- essays papers

A GROSS FORM OF DELIGHTFUL SATIRE "The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes." -Jonathan Swift "We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love on another." -Jonathan Swift Like all true satirists, Swift was predominantly a moralist, one who chastises the vices and follies of humankind in the name of virtue and common sense. Throughout his writing, Swift constantly raised the question of whether the achievements of civilization-its advancing technology, its institutions, its refinement of manners-cannot be seen as complex forms of barbarism. With this theme in mind, Swift wrote some of his best works: A Modest Proposal, Gulliver’s Travels, and A Tale of a Tub. Although he is mastery at prose, he is also known for his poetry. It can be said that the subjects within his writings could be taken from his religious belief in the non-perfection of man. Swift believed that human reason was necessary to divine guidance. According to Herbert Read, Swift was the first poet who dared to describe nature as it is with all its deformities, and to give exact expression to a turn of thought no matter the subject. And because his life was one long mutiny- mutiny against darkness of fate, the injustice of men, the indignity of our bodily functions-his work is one long scrutiny into dark depths. Therefore, he attacks the idealistic idea of feminine beauty by ironically drawing attention to the female body’s excretory functions. Unfortunately, Swift emphasizes women, despite his deep love and friendship for individual women, as a symbol of man’s bestiality. He victimizes women by his own secret over-idealization of her. This is seen in his poems, The Lady’s Dressing-Room, Strephon and Chloe, and A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed. Swift becomes obsessed by the morbidly physical. The gap between spirit and flesh cannot bridge, for flesh has become uncleansable to him. With Swift being seen by Robert Ellis--quoted by Herbert Read-as having neurasthenia, anything that comes regularly and in routine is liable to become intolerable, it is easier to understand some of his writings. This idea gained him much ridicule from critics because thinkers of his day stressed the essential goodness and rationality of humans. Swift, certainly, shares this i... ...od which he was writing and the subjects that were generally written about. Because his descriptions are so detailed, and the imagery is so deep, Jonathan Swift proves himself as a writer to be studied and admired. Bibliography: WORKS CITED Brown, Laura. â€Å"Reading Race and Gender: Jonathan Swift.† Critical Essays on Jonathan Swift. Ed. Frank Palmeri. New York: G.K. Hall & Co, 1993. 122. Davis, Herbert. â€Å"Swift’s View of Poetry.† Poetry Criticism. Ed. Drew Kalasky. Vol. 9. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1994. 259 Donoghue, Denis, Ed. Jonathan Swift. Australia: Penguin Books, 1971. 307. Huxley, Aldous. â€Å"Do What You Will.† London: Chatto & Windus, 1956. Johnson, Maurice. â€Å"The Sin of Wit: Jonathan Swift as a Poet.† Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. Ed. Dennis Poupard. Vol. 1. New Jersey: Gale Research Company, 1984. 502. Read, Herbert. â€Å"The Poems of Swift.† Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. Ed. Dennis Poupard. Vol. 1. New Jersey: Gale Research Company, 1984. 453. Watkins, W.B.C. â€Å"Absent Thee from Felicity.† Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. Ed. Dennis Poupard. Vol. 1. New Jersey: Gale Research Company, 1984. 461.

Demonic Possession :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Demonic Possession Belief in the possibility of demonic possession has waned since the advent of sophisticated medical knowledge. What had previously been considered to be examples of control of an individual by a spirit or devil are now commonly accepted as numerous forms of mental illness, easily explained by nervous system activity. If all types of behavior (including emotional states and cognitive states) are produced and mediated solely by the brain, there leaves no potential for such a phenomenon as demonic possession to exist and such cases would clearly be instances of various illnesses. However, neuroscience has not yet been able to explain all of the characteristics common to purported cases of demonic possession ((1). A possessed individual is typically characterized by having strange physical ailments or disfigurements; verbal outbursts, mostly obscene or sacrilegious in nature; violent behavior and vulgar behavior; bodily spasms and contortions; ability to speak languages never before studied; self-mutilation; "superhuman" abilities such as psychic abilities, abnormal strength, or an ability to perform behaviors out of the realm of human possibility such as levitation; cessation of normal bodily functions for periods of time, including breathing and heart beat; and a pronounced revulsion to symbols, places, people, objects, and ceremonies having any religious context. Other phenomena associated with the presence of a demon include an acrid stench; marked decrease in the temperature of the room which a possessed individual occupies; writing appearing out of nowhere; sounds and voices arising from nowhere; and objects moving on their own and destruction of objects in the room, without anyone havin g laid a hand upon them ((2), (3). Despite the striking quality of this description, the expansion of the fields of medicine and psychology has led to diagnoses other than demonic possession for individuals who present circumstances similar to those mentioned above. These sorts of cases are now readily explained in terms of abnormal functioning in the brain and nervous system. There are various disorders which may mimic demonic possession; these include schizophrenia (and other periods of psychosis), dissociative identity disorder, and Tourette syndrome ((4). Schizophrenia is characterized by the presence of delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior, affective flattening or inappropriate emotional responses, avolition, and alogia. General psychotic episodes, such as might accompany mood disorders, can also closely simulate a state of demonic possession by hallucinations or delusions. The delusions can be ones of thought insertion, thought broadcasting, delusions of guilt, delusions of grandeur, such as being God (or a demon), or delusions that God (or a demon) is speaking to the person and giving commands for a special mission (5).

The Predatory Organism: Bdellovibrio

Identifying the genes and the proteins to be expressed by this organism during pore formation in the host cell will be of significance to bacteriology. The possible use of this information can be seen in the study done by Kadouri and O’toole. It was established in this report that B. bacteriovorus can be used as a control agent against certain biofilm communities. It was observed that biofilm populations of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas fluorescens were significantly reduced when exposed to B. bacteriovorus.Since biofilm formation is unnecessary and damaging in some instances, inhibition of its formation can be done through natural elimination of the biofilm organisms, and that is through the inoculation of B. bacteriovorus. Another possible application of this predatory organism is through its use as an anti-microbial therapeutic agent. It had been suggested by Hobley et al. that the introduction of this organism to a microbial-infected wound can lead to the reduction of p athogenic organisms in the site of inoculation.In this way, the use of antibiotics can be avoided and possible resistance of disease-causing organisms to the applied drug can be avoided. If the genes responsible for pore formation in the host cell will be identified, the organism can be manipulated to increase the genes’ expression. These can then be enhanced and controlled in accordance to the desired amount and time of expression. II. Aims This paper aims to propose a method on how to determine the necessary and significant enzymes involved in pore formation of the host cell by Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus H100.The specific aims are as follows: 1. Identify the genes of B. bacteriovorus H100 specifically expressed during pore formation in the host cell during the predatory life cycle phase of the organism using time course Microarray analysis. 2. Identify specific hydrolytic enzymes expressed by the identified genes of B. bacteriovorus H100 involved in pore formation on host c ell membrane. III. Background The discovery of Bdellovibrio by Stolp and Starr in 1962 opened the scientific world to the dawn of a new organism- a bacterium which preys on its own kind (12).This bacterium is a curved rod, Gram negative organism classified under the group of delta-proteobacteria. It is a motile bacterium; monotrichously flagellated; obligately aerobic; small in size (0. 3 ? m in width and 1-2 ? m in length); and is obligately predatory. Its genome consists of 3. 85 mega base pairs. Most of these genes encode for enzymes involved in hydrolysis and flagella involved in host sensing (3). The best known species of Bdellovibrio is B. bacteriovorus, observed to prey on other Gram negative organisms such as Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Sphaerotilus natans and Pseudomonas fluorescens (1).The distribution of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is observed in diverse environments; therefore, it is considered to be an ubiquitous bacterium. It was associated in dry environment such as the soil; in wet locations such as brackish water, sewage, fresh water, pooled reservoirs and sea water; and in unique microbial niches such as biofilms (3). The life cycle of this bacterium consists of two stages. The first stage is the so-called free-swimming attack phase and the second stage is known as the intraperiplasmic replication phase. Figure 2 shows a graphical representation of these two stages.The life cycle of B. bacteriovorus takes about three hours to complete. For the initiation of the attack, the monotrichous flagellum is an important facet to consider. Movement is essential in finding the suitable host in the environment. The predatory organism moves towards a region with a high prey concentration. This process is meditated by chemotaxis. It can be seen from the illustration that a critical stage in the predation of B. bacteriovorus is the ability of the organism to penetrate its host bacterium. Upon contact with another Gram negative, B.bacteriovorus then forms a pore in the cell membrane of its host. Initial entrance of B. bacteriovorus is followed by the organism’s penetration of the periplasm. Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus then occupies the periplasmic space of the host cell (3). Without this phase, the other steps in the whole life cycle of the organism cannot be ensured to occur. Figure 3 and 4 shows an electronmicrograph of B. bacteriovorus attaching to a host cell. A specific strain of the bacterium, B. bacteriovorus HD100, was studied by Rendulic, et al. This strain of Bdellovibrio was found to have an unusually large genome.Though this bacterium preys on other Gram negative organisms, its genetic make-up did not comprise of any gene from its host. Furthermore, it was elucidated that the genes present in B. bacteriovorus HD100 are made up of gene families coding for enzymes such as hydrolases and transporters, important in the penetration and killing of the host. These genes also code for enzymes needed for uptake of complex mol ecules (6). One hurdle in studying the molecular characteristics of this organism is its host dependent nature. Without a suitable host, growth cannot be ensured, thus, elucidation of its genetic make-up may be difficult to achieve.Further studies using this bacterium revealed that Bdellovibrio can generate mutant cells that do not require host cells for growth and are therefore known as host independent (HI) strains. Despite this, they were able to retain the ability to grow on prey and hence are termed as facultative predators. For gene manipulation techniques, HI strains are usually used (8). Despite the fact that the complete genome of the organism was already sequenced, the specific genes coding for the needed enzymes to form pores in the host cell were still unidentified.With this lack of information, this study is formulated and designed. IV. Research Design and Methodology Culturing of B. bacteriovorus HD100 on prey dependent and prey independent set-ups: Predatory (HD) cult ures of B. bacteriovorus HD100 will be grown on E. coli in Ca2_-HEPES buffer at 30Â °C, with shaking at 200 rpm (8). Escherichia coli ML35 and E. coli W7-M5 (10) will be used as the prey throughout the experiments. Escherichia coli ML35 will be cultured in nutrient broth (Difco Laboratories), and E. coli W7-M5, a lysine and DAP auxotroph, will be cultured in nutrient broth supplemented with 0.2 mM lysine and 0. 1 mM DAP at 37Â °C with shaking at 200 rpm. Prey-independent HI strains will be plated on rich peptone-yeast extract (PY) medium (8). Synchronous cultures: Synchronous cultures will be used for performing various experiments as described below. Briefly, fresh bdellovibrios will be added to prey cells in HM buffer (3 mM N-2-hydroxyethylpiperazine-N'-2-ethanesulfonic acid (HEPES)-1 mM CaCl. LQ. One mM of MgCl2 will be adjusted to pH 7. 6 using NaOH (10). The organisms will be grown until a final concentration of 1010 bdellovibrios per ml and 5 x 109 E.coli per ml is reached. For proper aeration, volumes will be kept to ? 20% of the flask’s volume and incubated at 30Â °C with shaking at 400 rpm. Synchronous cultures will be examined at intervals for attachment and penetration with a Nikon model L-Ke microscope (Nippon Kogaku Inc. ) equipped with phase-contrast optics and a Nikon model AF camera. Time course Microarray analysis. Time course Microarray analysis will be performed to identify the genes to be expressed during the entry phase, specifically during pore formation on the host cell membrane of B.bacterovorus H100. Microarray slides of B. bacteriovorus H100 will be ordered from Advanced Throughput, Inc Services. Total cellular RNA will be extracted from B. bacteriovorus H100 cells at entry phase using the RNeasy mid kit (Qiagen). The RNA of the organism will also be extracted during the other stages of infection. This will serve as a reference for comparison of the genes expressed and not expressed at the desired stage. Complementary DNA sy nthesis, fragmentation, labeling, hybridization, staining and washing will be performed according to the Affymetrix B.bacteriovorus H100 GeneChip array expression analysis protocol (Affymetrix). Briefly, cDNA will be synthesized from RNA using Superscript II (Invitrogen) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. RNA will be removed by alkaline treatment and subsequent neutralization. Complementary DNA will be purified with QIAquick PCR purification columns (Qiagen). Purified cDNA will be fragmented by DNase I (Amersham) at 37Â °C for 10 min followed by end labeling with biotinddUTP, using an Enzo BioArray terminal labeling kit (Affymetrix), at 37Â °C for 60 min.Hybridization will be performed in an Affymetrix GeneChip hybridization Oven 640. Washing and staining will be performed using an Affymetrix Fluidics Station 400. Arrays will be scanned with an Agilent GeneArray Scanner G2500A. GeneChip scans will be initially analyzed using the Affymetrix Microarray Suite 5. 1 s oftware, from which PivotData tables will be exported. Raw data from the PivotData Tables will be analyzed in GeneSpring software version 6 (Silicon Genetics), using the parameters suggested by Silicon Genetics for analysis of Affymetrix Microarrays. Real-time PCR:Real-time PCR using the Applied Biosystems 7500 Real-time PCR system will be performed to confirm microarray results. RNA will be extracted from B. bacteriovorus H100 at initial phases of predatory life cycle up to entry phase as described above. RNA will be reverse transcribed into cDNA and simultaneously labelled using the iScript One-step RT-PCR kit with SYBR Green (Biorad). RT-PCR reactions will also be performed to amplify cDNA of housekeeping genes (identified from micro array studies) for normalization of fluorescence values. Identifying the specific hydrolytic enzymes of B.bacteriovorus which are involved in pore formation on host cell membrane. Many experiments showed that B. bacteriovorus H100 releases hydrolytic enzymes during predatory life cycle. According to Thomashow and Ritterberg, glycanases and lipopolysaccharideases are required for pore formation in the prey’s peptidoglycan and LPS layers respectively. The glycanase and/or peptidase could be responsible for weakening the peptidoglycan layer of the prey and thereby responsible for permitting conversion of the substrate cell to a spherical shape (10).Tudor et al. proposed another model for penetration. According to them peptidase is responsible for pore formation but not glycanase (11). Specific enzymes involved in pore formation are not known. The genes identified from the time course micro array technique will be mutated as described previously using suicide vector pSSK10. Resulting mutants will be complemented by using vector pMMB206 (8). Mutants will be analysed for the specific enzymes (using 2D-gel electrophoresis) and their actions on host cell i.e, as a glycanase, LPSase or peptidase will be observed by radio labellin g experiments (10). Wild-type B. bacteriovorus H100 and complemented strains will be used as controls. Radio labeling experiments: Escherichia. coli W7-M5, auxotroph for lysine and DAP and cannot metabolize glucosamine, will be radiolabelled as described previously (9,10). Peptide portion of E. coli W7-M5 peptidoglycan will be labelled with [3H] DAP and the lipopolysaccharides and glycan portions of the peptidoglycan will be labeled with [3H]glucosamine.Various mutants and wild-type strains will be tested for predation using this radiolabelled strain. Solubilisation of glucosamine and DAP from labelled prey peptidoglycan will be measured as described previously (11). Briefly, samples taken at intervals will be precipitated with an equal volume of cold 10% trichloroacetic acid for 30 min followed by centrifugation. Resulting supernatants will be assayed for soluble radioactivity in a scintillation counter (Rackbeta II). Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis: The hydrolytic enzymes rele ased by B.bacteriovorus H100 during its predatory life cycle will be analyzed by performing two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Sample preparation for 2D-gel electrophoresis: Escherichia coli ML35 cells will be challenged with B. bacteriovorus H100 wild-type as well as the mutant strain. Culture fluid will be drawn from synchronous cultures during attachment and entry phases of B. bacteriovorus H100. Culture fluid will be centrifuged to discard any cell debris. Proteins in the supernatant will be precipitated using cold acetone. The precipitated proteins will be separated by centrifugation.The precipitated pellet will be air dried and will be dissolved in rehydration solution (8M urea, 2% CHAPS {3-[3-cholamidopropyl)-dimethylammonio]-1-propanesulfonate}, 18 mM DTT, 0. 5% IPG buffer pH range 4-7; Amersham Biosciences), plus a trace of bromophenol blue. Sample protein concentrations will be determined using the BCA protein assay (Pierce). Resulting protein pellet will be subjected to 2D-gel electrophoresis. 2D-gel electrophoresis: Two-dimensional (2-D) gel electrophoresis will be performed according to the method of O’Farrell.Proteins present in the pellet will be resolved on two-dimensional gels using the products and protocols of Amersham Pharmacia Biotech. In the first-dimension, proteins will be resolved by isoelectric focusing on a precast Immobiline DryStrip with a linear pH gradient. This will be followed by electrophoresis using sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel on 12. 5% acrylamide gel. For analytical 2-D gel electrophoresis, 100 ? g of sample protein will be applied to the gels and the proteins will be stained with Pharmacia Biotech silver stain kit.For preparative two-dimensional protein gel electrophoresis, 500 ? g of the sample protein will be loaded on the gels and proteins will be visualized using Coomassie blue R-350 (Phast Gel BlueR; Amersham Pharmacia Biotech). Spot analysis will be carried out using PDQuest Image Analysis softw are (BioRad). Spots absent from the mutant sample gel will be manually excised from the wild-type B. bacteriovorus H100 sample gel for identification. Mass spectrometry and protein identification: Excised protein spots of interest will be destained, reduced, carboxymethylated, and digested with trypsin in situ.This will be done overnight with a temperature of 37Â °C as described (8). Gel digests will be centrifuged, and an aliquot of the supernatant will be taken for analysis using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Lists of peptide masses will be generated and searched against the NCBInr database using the Mascot protein identification system (Matrix Science; http://www. matrixscience. com). Sequences of proteins identified by Mascot will be analyzed for a predicted signal sequence using SignalP 3. 0 (http://www. cbs. dtu.dk/services/SignalP/). V. Conclusion The identification of genes responsible for the expression of hydr olytic enzymes of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is of significant importance. Since the organism preys on other bacteria, its special attributes must be thoroughly studied and appreciated for possible useful applications. As mentioned earlier, this predatory organism can be used as a control agent against biofilm, as well as pathogenic organisms. Through the use of natural agents to control destructive and disease-causing bacteria, the use of chemicals and antibiotics can be lessened or avoided.Since the rapid evolution of organisms towards resistance and tolerance to anti-microbial substances is becoming more widespread, an alternative approach to these problems can be useful in the world of bacteriology. Thus, the identification of these genes and hydrolytic enzymes is of utmost importance. The elucidation of this information can be used as a primary defence against harmful microbes if this knowledge will be taken advantage. A more effective predatory role can be performed by Bdellov ibrio bacteriovorus if the genes and the hydrolytic enzymes of the organism will be expressed efficiently and constitutively.

Case Analysis of Lenovo M&A IBM PC department Essay

Lenovo Group Limited is a Chinese transnational computer hardware and electronics company. Its operational headquarters are located in Morrisville, North Carolina, United States and its registered office is in Hong Kong. It produces personal computers, tablet computers, mobile phones, workstations, servers, electronic storage devices, IT management software and smart televisions. Lenovo has operations in more than 60 countries and sells its products in around 160 countries. Lenovo was founded in Beijing in 1984 and incorporated in Hong Kong in 1988 under its previous name, Legend. Lenovo is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is selected as a  constituent stock of the Hang Seng China-Affiliated Corporations Index. In the 1980s, when market reforms were in progress, the Chinese government hired Liu Chuanzhi to distribute imported computers. In 1984, Liu founded Lenovo with a group of ten engineers and 200,000 yuan in Beijing. Their first significant effort to import televisions was failed. The group could rebuild itself within a year by carrying out quality checks on computers for new buyers. Shortly afterward, Lenovo started developing a circuit board that would allow IBM-compatible personal computers to process Chinese characters. This product was Lenovo’s first major success. Lenovo started to manufacture and launch computers tagging its own brand name in 1990. In 1996, Lenovo’s market share went up to the first place in China, and it launched its first PC. Since then, it developed rapidly and in 2000 it became a constituent of the Hang Seng China-Affiliated Corporations Index. However, Lenovo’s diversification strategy and the competition with the computer manufacturers around the world made Lenovo to loss position. In 2003, the three business lines which include mobile phone, IT and the internet unit lost over hundred million Hong Kong dollar. Even in the line of the PC, the most profitable unit of Lenovo, it should compete with the DELL and HP. The fact that the global market made DELL stronger encouraged Lenovo to focus on its comparative advantages of operational area, the PC and go back to the internationalization strategies. After nine years, Lenovo became the world’s largest PC vendor in 2012 marketing the ThinkPad line of notebook computers and the ThinkCentre line of desktops. Lenovo could success because of its long-term concentration on emerging markets and successful overseas M&As suffering from a low profit margin in the PC business and intense competitions from tablet PCs and smart phones, the company is initiating to diversify its businesses. The most famous M&A case is the merger and acquisition of IBM’s PC unit. In fact, in early 2000, IBM had already represented its willingness to sell their PC unit to Lenovo. Why would IBM sell its renowned PC unit? According to the financial report submitted by the IBM in the year 2004, the PC division lost 397million dollar in 2001, 171 million in 2002, 258 million in 2003, and 139 million in the first half of the 2004. For the successive years, IBM was in a lost position. The active pricing strategies of companies such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP) had a serious impact on the sales of the IBM PC which  means, for IBM, the PC unit is â€Å"tasteless†. Therefore, IBM was to leave unprofitable PC market, and put in more effort in the profitable high-end servers, software and IT services business. However, the acquisition price then is up to 4 billion in US dollar, Lenovo was unable to afford that much. Moreover, Lenovo played a dominant role in the market of mainland China then, so it didn’t accept this proposal. In May 2002, IBM’s CEO Sam Palmisano visited Lenovo to revisit the issues of the two sides. Lenovo had then enthusiasm about the implementation of diversification strategy, but also aware of the importance of the internationalization. Hence, it was possible for later further negotiations. From the end of 2003 to December 8, 2004, this merger continued for an entire year. December 8, 2004, Lenovo publicly announced that the acquisition of IBM’s global PC business is complete. Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s personal computer division accelerated entry to foreign markets while improving both its branding and technology. Lenovo paid $1.25 billion for IBM’s computer business, including $650 million in cash, 600 million shares and an additional $500 million of IBM’s debt. This acquisition made Lenovo the third largest computer manufacturer in the world by volume then. After the acquisition completed, Lenovo wanted to take over IBM’s notebook and desktop businesses and other related businesses including its customers, distribution and marketing channels worldwide. With regard to the purchase of IBM’s personal computer division Liu Chuanzhi said, â€Å"We benefited in three ways from the IBM acquisition. We got the ThinkPad brand, IBM’s more advanced PC manufacturing technology and the company’s international resources, such as its global sales channels and operation teams. These three elements have shored up our sales revenue in the past several years.† Besides, Lenovo obtained the 5-year-right to use the brand name of IBM. Acquisition agreement also point that the executive candidate: Stephen Ward (the senior manager of IBM) became the CEO and board directors of Lenovo group. Whereas after the M&A, Lenovo faced various serious problems such as culture differences and the integration of human resources, high salary costs, supply chain issues and the financial distress. However, Lenovo eventually solved the problems and dramatically survived. 1. To solve the problem of the large gap of the salaries between the employees of the Lenovo and the employees of the IBM PC Unit, Lenovo decided not to change the salary of the employees of IBM within 3 years and agreed to transform their stock options into the stock options of Lenovo. And for the three years of time, Lenovo will adjust and establish a unified and equitable salary system. 2. To solve the difficulty of the integration of the brand, Lenovo required at least a five-year-time to launch an independent and prestigious brand. With the agreement between Lenovo and IBM, Lenovo can use the brand name of IBM for five years. After that, Lenovo can only use â€Å"ThinkPad† and â€Å"ThinkCentre†. 3. To solve the supply chain issues, by the end of the year 2005, Lenovo had invited William J. Amalio to charge the position, the CEO of the Lenovo Group, replacing the former CEO, Stephen N. Ward. Amalio made a great effort to optimize and improve the international supply chain system of Lenovo during his tenure. Lenovo started the â€Å"Reconstruction project of the supply chain worldwide† through developing the infrastructure of not only the IT but only the efficiency of the supply chains. 4. The financial distress was a huge obstacle for the progress of Lenovo which carries seriously negative effects. When the acquisition is complete, the net profit of Lenovo decreased significantly from 1092 million Hong Kong dollar in 2005 to 216.528 million Hong Kong dollar in 2006. And the EPS(Earnings per share) of Lenovo also dropped from 14.97 HK cents to 1.95 HK cents. The loss of revenue was due to the loss of the market share of the IBM PC unit. After every possible works, in 2007, Lenovo has basically completed the pre-integration of the PC unit. And the financial indicators seemed all getting better. The profit of Lenovo increased to 1256.88 million Hong Kong dollars, and its EPS increase to 14.35 in 2007. However, Lenovo should endeavor to get a stable condition before they had. In 2008, Lenovo showed the worst financial reports since its acquisition of the IBM PC unit. The profit was only 23.3 million dollar which is 78% of decrease compared with the profit last year. At Feb, 5, 2009, Lenovo announced a loss of 97 million dollar. And at the same time, Lenovo found that it had lost the dominant market share in mainland China. After bearing a really tough time of its own, Lenovo made a right decision during this period of time. Liu’s comeback must be the most correct one. Liu adjusted the company’s business strategies to maintain a desirable share of domestic sales and continue to expand global overseas markets. Lenovo Group  immediately reduced its losses in 2010 and finally, achieved profitability and got a profit of 1,009 million Hong Kong dollar in fiscal year of 2010. Lenovo eventually got survived. 1. The critical successful factors that are the focus of the successful M&A activities 1.1 Synergistic Effect The key of the successful M&A case is whether the merging companies and the merged companies can complement other group’s advantages and make one plus one bigger than two or not. The merging of Lenovo and IBM’s personal-computer department has great synergistic effect in many aspects. It made the remarkable positive value in the synergy of businesses, the synergy of distribution channels, the synergy of the brand and management and the synergy of cost savings. 1.2 Integrated the human resources and resolved the labor cost problem successfully At the first time, there was tremendous difference between Lenovo’s and IBM’s human resources strategies. The major problem was the large salaries gap between Lenovo and IBM, the salaries of previous IBM’s employees made great cost expenses. In order to retain the previous IBM’s employees and reduce the discontent of Lenovo’s employees, Lenovo gave itself three years of transitional period and formed a unified and equitable paying system within three years. 1.3 Resolved the difficulty of blending two brands Many companies try to increase their sales amounts and seek growth of revenue by developing new products. And the co-branding strategy is one of the effective methods to provide a way to produce new and profitable products. Lenovo planned to utilize the well-known brand name of IBM in order to access to the international market hence increase the revenue. However, merging two brands caused brand meaning to transfer in unexpected ways that were never intended. Through signing an agreement to obtain the right which is allow Lenovo to use the trademark of IBM for five years, Lenovo could use the buffering time to make the global computer users worldwide to recognize its half-new name. In 2011, Lenovo took over the Acer and became the world third largest PC supplier globally. We can see that Lenovo has gradually built its reputation in the international market around the world so far. 1.4 Well-designed corporate management plan After the acquisition, Lenovo experienced a tough time in transition, with serious financial hardship as well as plummeting the price of stock. In order to resolve these problems, Chuanzhi Liu designed an accurate scheme with two steps forward to make Lenovo achieve success in the acquisition. Owing the accurate action, Lenovo could eventually break the stalemate and achieve brilliant success in profit again in 2010 as it shows below. 2009 2010 EPSï ¼Ë†HK centsï ¼â€° -19.97 10.37 Net incomeï ¼Ë†million HKDï ¼â€° -1765.83 1009.07 ROAï ¼Ë†%ï ¼â€° -3.42 1.44 ROEï ¼Ë†%ï ¼â€° -17.27 8.06 The profit index of Lenovo in 2009, 2010 2. The summary of lessons learned which made the factors successful 2.1 Synergistic Effect There are several synergistic effects in the case of Lenovo M&A IBM PC department. Complementing IBM’s and Lenovo’s advantages, Lenovo are able to increase its market share and the revenue, reduce the cost and finally manage the firm to be effective in full operation. Firstly, one of key driving forces for the successful M&A was that IBM has already penetrated the global large enterprises’ market whereas Lenovo have relatively the small enterprises’ market in terms of scope of their activities and the consumers’ market. However, after the merge with IBM PC department, Lenovo  expands its business share thus increases the bottom line. Secondly, it was the synergy of distribution channel. Lenovo has an internationalization strategy that â€Å"Attracting-In† and â€Å"Walking-Out† while IBM which is a globally mature large entity has tones of successful distribution channels all over the map and the corresponding sales teams and managing groups. By merging IBM’s PC department, Lenovo is able to combine the domestic and international distribution channels and it gains the international market at a relatively cheaper cost. At the third place, the synergy of the brand and management. After merging, Lenovo processes IBM’s THINK series brand and their patents, two R&D centers and retention of the previous IBM’s top executive board. Lenovo maintains the competitive advantages of IBM’s PS department, the leading R&D as well as the product innovation capability. At the forth place, the synergy of cost saving. Lenovo did not have competitive advantages regarding of invention cycle and the integration of the whole industry chain. After merging, Lenovo cut IBM’s money-consuming outsourcing businesses, and then optimize its supply chain. As a result, save a great deal of cost. 2.2 Integrated the human resources and resolved the labor cost problem successfully At first, there was an immense difference in their strategies between two companies. Lenovo paid attention solely in the internal training among skilled and outstanding people while IBM’s training mechanism was far improved. Lenovo hires employees according to the degree of agreeing its corporate culture whereas IBM focuses on morality. The most practical issue seemed to be the cost of labour. The total amount wages of IBM’s employees was much greater than Lenovo’s. IBM’s employees enjoyed wages about seven times more than Lenovo’s among the same level positions. Lenovo determined to stick to the wage level of the previous IBM’s executives within three years and also their IBM’s stock options exchange to Lenovo’s in the same amount. In three years, they gradually prepared to form an integrated payroll system. In which case, Lenovo retained the IBM previous technicians and the top executive group which are definitely crucial assets for Lenovo. 2.3 Resolved the difficulty of blending two brands IBM’s brand value is fairly influential and stable, maintaining its name value at top three for 6 years (2001 to 2006) whilst Lenovo did not gain much global reputation before the merging. In order to keep the competitiveness of IBM’s global PC business and settle the problems of blending two brands in a steady state, Lenovo and IBM got in terms that Lenovo would be able to use the trademark of IBM in five years, after five years, Lenovo can only us ThinkPad and ThinkCentre. Hence, the co-branding strategy for Lenovo to merge with IBM’s PC department was quite fruitful which did not hurt IBM’s reputation and during the buffer time, Lenovo are able to increase its popularity worldwide with the brand of IBM, after five years, Lenovo earned its own reputation. 2.4 Well-designed corporate management plan Lenovo has made a pivotal management plan after M&A strived to unravel the financial difficulties. STEP ONE: In order to stabilize overseas customers after the acquisition as well as to learn know-how from advanced International management team, Lenovo selected two foreign managers as CEO in roll, Stephen Ward(the senior manager of IBM) and Amelio (the ex-vice CEO of DELL). During this term, the primary task for the Chinese senior managers is to learn in despite of unpleasant situation. Stephen Ward stabilized the original employees of IBM and customers, which plays a central role in reducing the flow of employees and customers. Amelio constantly induced the efficiency management of DELL to Lenovo, cut uncalled for staff member, and streamlined the whole management structure. During that period, Lenovo accomplished a high level of profit of more than 40 million dollars. Moreover, Chinese managers had acquired a bulk of experience in multicultural corporation management and stored a pool of the capable employees for future development. STEP TWO: Restructured foreign CEOs that are near-sighted and lack in courage to enlarge business and reemployed the reliable and outgoing Chinese senior management crew after 4 years. This step established the desire of original employees of Lenovo and released the inner power of Lenovo storing for 4 years. 3. What should the company do next to improve its post-M&A initiatives Lenovo cannot survive after the M&A if it cannot provide valuable product, so it  should focus on further research and development. Lenovo should adhere to its innovative corporate culture. Lenovo Group has established a R&D team which has three core research locations—China, The US and Japan. And the team is closely connected with the business department. Within Lenovo group, they called this enormous system, â€Å"Global innovation triangle†. After the acquisition, Lenovo was faced with new challenge, that is, the culture conflict; the difference between the two countries may force the former employees of IBM to leave Lenovo. So that Lenovo should respect the autonomy of overseas R&D centers. Powers are returning to the engineers, and even the appearance of the new headquarters of Lenovo in the Raleigh, US, is designed by the senior director David and his American team, and it impossible under IBM’s rule. And this is a very good beginning. Even though Lenovo has a global marketing channel after the acquisition of IBM PC unit, it needs a more proactive marketing team. The sales team of IBM just issued orders for Lenovo but never take active steps to find new customers. The acquisition of IBM PC leads to a loss of the customers such as the US government, so that the marketing team of Lenovo should improve its skills to find new customers. Lenovo should deepen its internationalization achievements. Since Lenovo’s success is attributed to its long-term target on emerging markets and successful overseas M&A, it should run a good business of the corporations it merged. Lenovo should shape itself for the global market. Positioning is always the critical issue that the Chinese companies ignore, and it is the reason why Chinese company can hardly last longer than other in western countries. After the positioning, Lenovo should rationalize their pricing strategy. The value of the product is an important factor to concern; Lenovo can no longer make low-price strategy to survive in the global market. Lenovo should rather concern about the demand of their target customers, and make valuable and long-lasting product for them. Since China is concerning about the industrial upgrading, Lenovo should grasp this opportunity, and actively develop new smart phones, tablet PCs, smart TVs to promote the association to achieve the leap from PC to PC +. Conclusion In conclusion, the traditional era of homogeneous workforce has begun to  change. With the quickly changing social structure and emergence of new technology, a heterogeneous workforce is currently essential to market’s needs. In the past few years, China has emerged as the most potential market with a huge population, rapidly growing domestic demand and low cost of production. Many multinational companies have been trying to get a footing in China in order to obtain their competitive advantages. Consequently, that has posed serious challenges to the Chinese local producers in competing with these large giants. In order to survive and boost businesses growth, many business need to expand its market beyond the home base. There are many entry modes that may help firms business move into the international market. After the M&A has taken place, organization needs to pay extra attention on the strategy it chose to adopt to integrate the culture of the two companies to keep the smoothness of the organisation operation and performance. From the case study of Lenovo and IBM, a number of important conclusions can be drawn. For a Chinese company like Lenovo, the main motives for its embarking on M&A with IBM PC-D were its need for international branding to gain access to international customers as well as its need to be equipped with technology. As mentioned previously, Chinese products have always been marketed at the lower end of the product line with low costs and poor quality. Acquiring a well-known international brand is considered to be the fastest route to changing these intolerable perceptions of the consumers towards Chinese products and booting up its product image. Under this special circumstance, the need for branding is deemed the most important for a Chinese company to expand into international market. The case of Lenovo’s adopting a separate management mode to manage IBM PC department team was different from those described in the literature. The acquiring company is the very one that encourages the acquired team to preserve and maintain its own management system and procedure. Among the reasons behind this move, the most curial factor affecting this decision is fixed length of time agreed by IBM to allow Lenovo to use the brand ThinkPad. With this fixed term of a five-year period posted to Lenovo has to make best effort to build up its own brand â€Å"Lenovo† within this period. Therefore, it is sensible for Lenovo to encourage IBM PC department to maintain its own system and focus on digging the target in time. The use of culture integration committee in the case study of Lenovo has been very useful and helpful for members to  understand and become more aware of the differences it may occur among them. The committee has set up several activities such as culture discovery newsletter and discussion forums to encourage communication between two teams. These arrangements have been well received by the employees with active participation and enthusiasm. Therefore, it is believed that this strategy may well be recommended for organisations to encourage communication between employees.

Napoleon Bonaparte: Good Or Bad Essay

Napoleon Bonaparte was not a good leader and although he did help France he was too bloodthirsty and arrogant to be considered a good ruler. He did gain much land and wealth for France however; there was too much bloodshed involved. He said that he did not care how much blood was spilled as long as he got his way and won he was fine with death. This shows that he has no concern for the people of France and would throw away their lives so that he could come out victorious. One cannot be considered a great leader unless he is a leader of the people and although the country may be wealthy that doesn’t necessarily mean that the French people are happy. In addition Napoleon was also very arrogant, a trait that eventually led to his downfall. His invasion of Russia was a mixture of his arrogance and greed that eventually lead to the death of almost all of his troops and his downfall. That downfall caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men in the army and also burned Russia to the ground and brought France plummeting downward. Altogether although Napoleon gave France wealth he would not be considered a great due to the amount of bloodshed under his reign.

Freakonomics Crime and Abortion Essay

Mohammed 2 egalized abortion would have been 50% more likely than average to live in poverty. † This statistic that researchers discovered reinforced the belief that if a woman did not want to have a child because of personal reasons or because she was not ready and if there was an abortion ban, the child would most likely grow up in a poor household and have a higher risk of engaging in criminal activity once they reached adulthood. It is reasoned that because abortion was legalized twenty years before, an entire generation of children with a higher risk of becoming criminals were not born and that’s why the crime rate dropped. The fallacy that is apparent when attempting to explain a crime drop with an abortion increase is that the two are simply correlated and not necessarily causal. The authors refute that claim by providing evidence that there is a link between abortion and crime. â€Å"Sure enough, the states with the highest abortion rates in the 1970s experienced the greatest crime drops in the 1990s, while states with lower abortion rates experienced smaller crime drops† (4). The evidence regarding state data is pretty compelling especially when put in the framework of post-Roe v. Wade and the generational gap that follows the Supreme Court decision. Although there seems to be a link between abortion and the crime rate, it all comes down to how a person’s own beliefs will influence them to interpret the data. Conclusions can be drawn to support different viewpoints and once the moral implications of abortion are taken into consideration, then it no longer becomes a logical argument. Works Cited Levitt, Steven D. Stephen J. Dubner. Freakonomics. New York, Harper Collins, 2005.