Monday, September 30, 2019

Life on Earth Worksheet Essay

Taxa to explore – Elephants. 1. Review terms (write definitions for these terms) Extant Species, families, or groups still in existence Extinct Species, families, or groups no longer in existence, end or died out Genotype Genetic make-up of an organism Phenotype Physical attributes of an organism, observable or measurable traits Synapomorphy Shared characteristic that are inherited from most recent common ancestor Background: There are three extant species of elephant: Elaphas maximus (Asian elephants), Loxodonta africana (African elephants), and Loxodonta cyclotis (African forest elephants). Their taxonomic hierarchy is as follows: Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Proboscidea Family: Elephantidae Genus: Elaphas Species: maximus Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Proboscidea Family: Elephantidae Genus: Loxodonta Species: africana Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Proboscidea Family: Elephantidae Genus: Loxodonta Species: cyclotis 2. Collect an image of each species. You will submit these as a part of your assignment. (see full assignment instructions) 3. Looking at these pictures, can you think of any EXTINCT animal or animals that might be a close relative of modern elephants? List it/them below. If you know the scientific name (genus and species) then you can put that. If you aren’t quite sure, just give the common name. Mammoth 4. Now think about EXTANT taxa. Identify 2 animals that you might expect to be the closest LIVING relative to the elephants. List it/them below. If you know the scientific name (genus and species) then you can put that. If you aren’t quite sure, just give the common name. Possible Relative A Possible Relative B Rock Hyrax Manatees 5. For the closest EXTANT relatives, what characteristic(s) of that animal or its habitat led you choose it as â€Å"probable closest relative†? (consider geographic location, size, anatomy, behavior etc). Be specific. Characteristics of Animal A Characteristics of Animal B -found across Africa and the Middle East -typically live in groups -has a prominent pair of long, pointed tusk-like upper incisors -In males, the testes are permanently abdominal -thick, wrinkled skin -Females have two teats, one under each flipper -teeth growing at the rear are continuously replaced throughout life Now to the science – Follow the link below to read about some of the extinct relatives of elephants http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Palaeofiles/Elephants/firstelephants.html 6. How were the phenotypes of ancient proboscideans different from those of extant elephants? The ancient proboscideans differ from those of extant elephants because they have multiple pairs of molars and premolars, they do not possess tusks, and they retain canines on the upper jaw. 7. Based on the information in the web-site, where did the early proboscideans evolve? The early proboscideans evolved from Africa. More derived proboscideans (not ancient, but not extant either) also had a very different geographic distribution than elephants today: http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Palaeofiles/Elephants/extinct_taxa.html http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Palaeofiles/Elephants/mammoths.html 8. Which localities seem most surprising and why? North and South America because these locations were once abundant with these animals, such as mastodons, while having most of the animals originate from  the other side of the world. 9. Identify 4 synapomorphies that are shared between ALL of these extinct and extant taxa. 1. Tusks 2. Incisors and molar teeth 3. Trunk 4. Four column-like legs Molecular phylogeny In extant species, relationships can also be reconstructed based on DNA Think back to your best guesses of the closest EXTANT relatives of the modern elephants. Look at the .pdf named â€Å"Afrotheria†. The phylogeny described in this paper is based on molecular data (similarities in DNA sequences) 10. Based on that phylogeny, write in the sister taxon (taxon A) to Proboscidea. Give the formal name. Taxon A or Sirenia Proboscidea 11. Write in the taxon (taxon B) that is sister to the clade composed of (Proboscidea + Taxon A). Give formal name Taxon B or Taxon A Proboscidea Hyracoidea 12. Perform an internet search for these two taxa and find out their common names. What are their common names? Describe each.  The common name for Sirenia is Sea Cow. Sea cows are fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that appear fat. They have forelimbs used for steering and a tail used for paddling. The common name for Hyracoidea are hyraxes. Hyraxes are well-furred animals with short tails and have poor internal temperature regulation. What was your thought/reaction upon discovering what these creatures are? My thought reaction was how can animals that look nothing alike be similar to an elephant if they visually look different. Believe it or not, there are morphological (phenotypic) similarities as well as dietary and behavioral similarities between all of these taxa. BEFORE molecular data was available, scientists already suspected that these groups were closely related. The DNA evidence only helped to confirm the relationships. We’ll do more on that in a moment. 13. Search the web to find at least two non-molecular synapomorphies between each of your modern taxa and the elephants: (be specific!) Animal #1 name Rock Hyraxes Rock Hyraxes are furry and have the soles of the feet with large, soft pads that are kept moist. Manatees have paddle like flippers and a snout. Animal #2 name Manatees 14. Which of the features you listed are more likely to survive in the fossil record? Explain why. Most likely to survive in the fossil record is the snout because it consists of the bones of the jaw which are very good for becoming fossils. 15. Which are less likely? Explain why. Less likely are the fur, soft pads at the feet, and the paddle-like flippers because all are more prone to decay rapidly because of being soft structures. The flippers are also more prone to not preserving quickly therefore eaten or broken down by aerobic microbes. Now for molecules: To see the actual molecular data used to create the phylogeny you saw, select the .pdf named â€Å"mammoth and sea cow†. 16. Go to page 409. Dots mean the base pair (A, C, T or G) is the same as is listed in the taxon that’s at the top (this saves ink!). Now compare the sequences for the African elephant and the Asian elephant in just the top row of page 409. How many molecular differences do you see in the sequence shown? There are 8 molecular difference in the sequence. How many molecular differences do you count between the African elephant and the hyrax? There are 11 molecular differences between the African elephant and the hyrax. 17. Based on anatomy alone (without the molecular evidence), would you have guessed that the animals in photos above represented the closest living relatives of elephants? Why or why not? Honestly, based on the anatomy alone, I would not have guessed that the animals represent close relatives of the elephants because of the physical anatomical characteristic they have. Most animals can have similar anatomy with slight differences that contribute to their survival in an environment. Initially, I thought that the animals had similar characteristics only because of natural selection and adaptation of their environment not because  of their common ancestor. This shows how molecular evidence can really help in seeing what animals belong in what lineages.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Epicureanism vs. stoicism

Epicureanism Vs. Stoicism Epicurus was a great philosopher that founded the Epicurean belief. He was born in 341 B. C. and met his demise in 270 B. C. He was an advocate for seeking out carnal desires; however, he also knew the significance of experiencing pain in life. Without suffering, people would Indefinitely take everything for granted. Epicurus had a following of people that he taught to live modestly, within their means, in communities filled with individuals that had pleasant demeanors. His philosophy presented valid options for dealing with emotional distress and the many difficulties ssociated with life.He concluded that happiness is equivalent to the â€Å"absence of pain†. The people that are without friends are not better off, according to Epicurus. Friendship is one of the many great Joys that make life worth living. He believed that happiness is a state of mind. (Bergsma) Epicureanism Is a philosophy that deals with the belief that fear is both unnecessary and irrational. Greeks were afraid of the gods and this Idea teaches that one should not live in fear. Fate is determined by the individual. If one plans out his or her life in the most virtuous way possible, they will ead fulfilling lives.Nothing should deserve cruelty. The fear of death was also a driving force behind this belief. (Strenger) Epicureanism Vs. Stoicism Epicureanism was founded in the third century B. C. in a time wherein the citizens of Greece were constantly searching for answers. This philosophy was able to provide a way that people could find happiness. It took on religious proportions. The followers of this belief lived in their own small town. This community had a school wherein the ideals of Epicureanism were taught. The founder of the school was made to lead odel life and was actually worshipped as If he was a god.Epicurus gave very detailed instructions on how to live this lifestyle in the way that he did. He warned against overindulging in luxurious things. Mat erial Items were not to have all of one's attention. He wanted people to be able to experience true happiness, which would not require fortune or the things that could come with It. (Bergsma) There are hedonistic characteristics that can be found in Epicureanism. Hedonism is defined as the pursuit of pleasure. Things, people. or experiences that can cause an Individual leasure or pain are what define morals.An individual lives his or her life based on what causes them Joy and the things that cause great displeasure. The afterlife Is not considered a factor. The dead are just that: dead. The dead cannot experience pain or pleasure. It makes it simple to believe that death should not be cause for fear. (Glannon) when the body Is sustained by simple joys and when the mind is void of fear, life becomes fulfilling. There are four primary truths found In Epicureanism: 1 . â€Å"Dont fear the gods. 2. Don't worry about death. 3. What Is good is easy to get. . What is terrible is easy to e ndure. (Bergsma) Epicurus believed that the gods did not concern themselves with the affairs of one else was going to give it to them. The gods did not listen to prayer, Epicurus argued, and it was pointless to expect things to change without any action from the particular individual. (Bergsma) Fear of death is a major cause of depression. Epicurus eliminated the need for this fear. He stated, â€Å"[Death] is relevant to neither the living nor the dead, since it does not affect the former and the latter do not exist. † (Bergsma) Epicureanism Vs. Stoicism Both Epicurus and Lucretius believed that an individual is a combination of a soul and a body.It is separate from the concept of dualism, wherein the body is viewed as being material and the soul is immaterial. In Epicureanism, both the body and the soul are believed to be substantial. Anything material can be corrupted. This argument makes both the soul and body mortal. â€Å"Death is defined as the separation and dissolut ion of soul-atoms from the body as they return to the vast reservoir of atomic material in the universe. † Epicurus argues that once the soul has exited the ody, it does not hold any power, which means that it would not be able to have feelings.Pain and pleasure are derivatives of the fusion of soul and body. Once this fusion has ceased, a person will not be able to feel anything. (Glannon) Lucretius, Epicurus' disciple, believed that the periods of time before an individual is born and after he or she dies are equivalent. In this â€Å"mirror-image† point-of-view, it is completely irrational to focus on what happens after death because you cannot feel pleasure or pain before life; likewise, after it. This argument reiterates the idea that one should not fear death. Glannon) Epicurus believed that people generally do not have their priorities in order.This is why he maintains that everyone is unhappy. Basic needs such as water, food, shelter, and protection are easily a ttainable and can provide pleasure if they are satisfied. Of course, fulfilling these needs will free everyone from pain as well. Epicurus urges everyone to remember that although things like food and water are necessary to live, it is unnecessary to purchase expensive foods (I. e. lobster or steak) or expensive bottled water (i. e. Evian or Fiji) when it is not necessary to do so. He also teaches that is unnecessary to lust for fame or riches.Wealth and excess is not significant to your happiness or health and therefore, should not be a high priority in life. If one places great emphasis on going beyond his or her means, it would create more problems and stress than it would provide pleasure. (Bergsma) Epicurus teaches that pain is only temporary. If one were to think about past pleasure and happiness, it will overcome whatever pain he or she is feeling. The mind will believe that it is not in pain any longer, which is plausible. (Bergsma) Living life without being hindered by irra tional fear is also an idea that Sigmund Freud believed in.Freud was always challenging his patients to let go of the part of their superego that is not fully developed. The ego continues to cling to its childlike state. Searching for friendship and love are important factors in facilitating growth. (Strenger) Around the same time that the Epicureanism belief was gaining popularity, high moral standards. Stoics believe that having virtue is the most significant trait to possess in order to lead a fulfilled life. One must not be controlled by their feelings and desires. Stoicism has three main characteristics: 1. Disconnecting yourself from your emotions. . Refraining from expressing your feelings. 3. Having control over your emotions. (WagstafO Logics, ethics, and metaphysics are also key principles in Stoicism. Logic deals with one's objective Judgment at a specific moment in time. Ethics deals with selfless actions. Metaphysics deals with willingly coming to terms with Epicureanis m Vs. Stoicism outside occurrences. Truth, Justice, temperance, and fortitude are the four virtues that Stoics put value in. (Robertson) Stoicism was used as a method of becoming fully immersed in life. It is considered to be extremely difficult.Apathy is not easily achieved, especially it a part of human nature to form emotional connections with other people, animals, and even inanimate objects. Stoics believe that people often mistake finding importance in things as being emotionally attached to them. One does not have to release all of their worries; however, the goal is to be able to not concern yourself with irrational troubles. Henry David Thoreau stated, â€Å"The mind can be profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things. † The brain is sacred and it is reproachable to not treat it as such.Furtak) Believers must not partake in activities that will cause them to stray from their virtuous path. Any negative influences must be carefully avoided. Purifying oneself a llows us to grow closer to God, according to Thoreau. Likewise, Stoics believe that you must relinquish power to the best parts of our souls. The pieces of the soul that are benevolent in nature should be made dominant. (Furtak) Epicureanism Vs. Stoicism Epicureanism, to me, is a completely understandable concept. It reminds me of the Chinese philosophy, The Tao. In the Tao, it speaks of disconnecting yourself from your houghts to ultimately achieve enlightenment.Likewise, Epicureanism is about getting rid of all of your irrational fears, doubts, and worries. It makes sense to me. Without worry or fear, there could be no pain. Nagging thoughts and lingering feelings could ultimately be our downfall. Isn't a depressed person Just someone that is consumed in their own thoughts? Stoicism is similar in that it wants you to separate yourself from your emotions. The idea is about being virtuous and true. I believe that it is a bit less attainable due to the fact that you cannot have emoti onal ttachment to anything or anyone.Humans are emotional by nature. I feel that it would be extremely difficult to go through life without friends or family that you can share your experiences with. Epicureanism values friendships. Citations Bergsma, Ad, Germaine Poot and Aart Liefbroer. â€Å"Happiness in the Garden of Epicurus. â€Å"Journal of Happiness Studies 9. 3 (2008): 397-423. Academic Search Journal of Speculative Philosophy 17. 2 (2003): 122-132. Academic Search Premier. Print. 20 Jan. 2012. Glannon, Walter. â€Å"Epicureanism and Death. † Monist 76. 2 (1993): 222. Academic Search Premier. Print. 18 Jan. 012. Robertson, Donald. Stoicism†A Lurking Presence. â€Å"CPJ: Counseling ; Psychotherapy Journal 16. 6 (2005): 35-40. Academic Search Premier. Print. 20 Jan. 2012. Strenger, Carlo. â€Å"Mild Epicureanism: Notes Toward the Definition of a Therapeutic Attitude. † American Journal of Psychotherapy 62. 2 (2008): 195-211. Academic Search Premier. Pri nt. 17 Jan. 2012. Wagstaff, Graham F. , and Andrea M. Rowledge. â€Å"Stoicism: Its Relation To Gender, Attitudes Toward Poverty, and Reactions to Emotive Material. † Journal of Social Psychology 135. 2 (1995): 181-184. Academic Search Premier. Print. 19 Jan. 2012.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

LSEP(legal, social, ethical and professional) issues associated with Essay

LSEP(legal, social, ethical and professional) issues associated with the introduction or increased use of cloud computing services - Essay Example Systems in the company are predominantly legacy-based and operate in silos. Each of the legacy systems is responsible for various parts of the business’s operations. Some of them take care of the inventory, while others focus on shipping. Alternatively, other systems handle terminals while, others work on sales data. A lot of this data is not transformed into useful information, and most times, employees feel overwhelmed by the speed, volume and even variability of the data as it is always changing. The company feels that it currently has too many servers in each of its stores, as most of them are not run in remote server farms. Cloud computing is only used for periphery services at this fashion retailer because employees have a relatively good understanding of browser-based software, but the infrastructure required to make the transition has not been installed. Sometimes, employees will use Dropbox to manage and send files, but this is often not powered by the organisation. The company also thinks of cloud computing as a means of storing its information rather than an opportunity to expand its possibilities. Whenever there is a power blackout or some form of data disaster, the company is assured of accessing its data safely through any internet connection. This acts as a form of disaster relief for the company as it makes it immune from physical attacks on its information (Balagopalan, 2010). There are a number of reasons and limitations that have presented Magneta from fully utilising cloud computing to manage its information. First, the company is concerned about the issue of security and compliance with information security standards. The retailer has a lot of sensitive information including client credit card information or their payment history. If a cloud provider does not comply with the same standards as the retailer, then it is difficult to secure transactions. Magneta is afraid of putting all their trust in an application that they have minimal

Friday, September 27, 2019

Regional Integration for and Against Articles Research Paper

Regional Integration for and Against Articles - Research Paper Example This basically means that the member states of CAIS are subjected to zero tariffs and customs duty when selling goods and services to other member states. Improvements in cross-border regional logistics might also play an significant role. Secondly, producers and manufacturers of goods and services within a regional integration block benefit from the larger market size. A big market size, is an imperative factor that facilitates innovation. In this case, members of the Central American Integration System are able to apply innovation to reduce some of the fixed costs. Simultaneously, consumers of goods and services will also benefit from larger competition in the product market. However, these effects vitally depend not just on the establishment of a single customs area, but also doing away with barriers to market access. In this case, key progress has been achieved in this respect to the Central American Integration System where companies have equal access to public contracts in all member countries. Thirdly, exporting within the Central American Integration System serves as the first step towards the extension of exports worldwide. In this case, the block initially builds export capacity taking using the low tariff and non-tariff barriers within the region. Then, they leverage this huge capacity to achieve competitive advantage in exporting to other non-member countries. In this case, member countries accumulate their export and make a collective bargaining for the best price and terms of sake for their products. Fourthly, larger extent of regional economic integration can assist member to strengthen their political and economic institutions. As some specialist are delegated to newly founded supranational bodies, and other parameters of economic policy experience cross-country synchronisation, the opportunity arises to revise and review laws, policies and

Thursday, September 26, 2019

ENTREPRENEURIAL SURVIVAL Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

ENTREPRENEURIAL SURVIVAL - Essay Example As a result of this, the paper focuses on the types of accounts and reports small and medium-sized companies deliver to Company House; showing the deadlines, methods of filing these and the consequences for failure to do the same. There are hundreds of millions of businesses set up each year globally. Starting ones business is always a very exciting experience filled with ambitions and expectations. However, statistics show that out of every 5 businesses set up, 4 will fall in a span of three years. This therefore calls for one to pay attention to the list of options at his disposal and the legal framework involving each and every one of them. This refers to an individual who runs by his/ herself an unincorporated type of business. This is always the easiest option that does not involve much framework. This individual incurs taxes under the system of Inland’s Revenue Assessment with income tax come to after deductions of legitimate expenses incurred by the business and one’s personal allowance. The sole trader is accountable for all the company’s debts and profits. This is a cooperation of at least two individuals solely bound with the shared vision of doing business together. They operate within the boundaries of the Partnership Act of 1890. However, this type of structure does not have its own legal personality hence the partners are to answer for any debts the business incurs. The partnerships agreement covers for: Incorporating what the business per takes of blows a new breath into the whole scene as the business is now viewed as legal person different from the directors. The profits and losses incurred are only limited to the company and it too has its obligations. This therefore means that upon the exit of the management or the shareholders, the company does not cease to be. This is also known as a limited â€Å"company†. A limited company has a higher probability of incurring less tax compared to the other types of companies.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Can parents who abuse drugs and alcohol be good enough parents Essay

Can parents who abuse drugs and alcohol be good enough parents - Essay Example In 2006, a study revealed that about 5% of all adults in the UK are alcohol-dependent with one out of 24 parents drinking heavily; these figures put about one million children living with alcoholic parents (In the news, 2006). The Institute of Alcohol Studies (2009) also revealed in their latest statistics that 22.1% of children in the UK are living with alcoholic parents; and about 8% of children in the UK are living with parents who are drug abusers. Moreover, 3.6% of children live with parents who are both alcohol and drug abusers (Institute of Alcohol Studies, 2009). In other words, these children are put at risk of being exposed to neglectful and abusive parents. Alcohol abuse and substance abuse potentially affect entire families and these are also habits which, if not stopped, are often passed on from generation to generation (In the News, 2006). With the above considerations, this paper shall now answer the question: can parents who abuse drugs and alcohol be good enough pare nts? This discussion shall use relevant literature, theoretical frameworks and research findings in order to come up with a thorough and critical understanding of the subject matter. Various studies and researches shall be evaluated in relation to this subject matter, analysing them for validity and credibility. Drugs and alcohol have different effects on different people. Shaw points out succinctly that â€Å"the good and bad effects of alcohol lie in complex psychological and sociological continua...Concepts of use and abuse have therefore been open to equally wide interpretations† (Shaw, 1978, p. 41). The effects of drugs and alcohol largely depend on a person’s physiology and sociology. Indeed, the adage, â€Å"being able to handle one’s drink† is appropriate in determining the effect of alcohol on a person. Some people may be able to handle their drink well, and others, not at all. Nevertheless,

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Are you ready marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Are you ready marketing - Essay Example This action helps the firm to work to gain legitimacy despite its relative youth as compared to many of its competitors who have already made a name for themselves within the industry. The firm offers what it deems a unique approach to marketing in that demographics, psychographics, and behaviors of the target audience are formulated with ROI an ever present factor. Therefore, the overarching rubric of the reason why the analysis is being conducted is never lost in the weeds. Furthermore, each part of the marketing campaign is carefully mapped and integrated (inclusive of assigning specialists to the individual branches of the plan). This specialist approach allows for an even more complete and tailored marketing plan to be delivered to clients without the need to make broad and sweeping generalizations with respect to certain aspects of the marketing plan/mix. Capital Media Solutions is a member of the 4A’s group trade association. The firm itself specializes in offering unique and tailored marketing services for a range of offerings to include: brand awareness promotion, leads generation, revenue increase, as well as attracting new customers to a given brand. Further, the company offers tailored expertise across the gamut of media options. A further specialization offered is that the marketing mix they employ has a dedicated point of contact within the company at each and ever given phase. Thereby, the firm provides a specialist to guide their clients through individualized steps of the process without requiring a â€Å"jack of all trades† marketing specialist to provide a one size fits all approach to product marketing/development. Likewise, Capitol Media Solutions website is listed below with the URL of 4A’s Trade Union listed directly below that. Furthermore, the firm although a recent entrant into the market is currently hiring and has an in house jobs bulletin in which it advertises a host of positions to include: Media

Monday, September 23, 2019

Worlds Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Worlds Religion - Essay Example Because man is a social being, with that same goal, had manage to form religion. Man’s individuality had caused the sprout of several religions then eventually to sects and other smaller groups. Despite their differences, still there’s the basic ideology shared by the world’s religions. But what has made few of these religions stand out? Let me have a very brief insight on how each of them had managed to be so. Christianity, being the largest religion, offers salvation as its primary attraction. Having â€Å"Jesus Christ† as its primary human influence, it shows the way for man to end his mortal sufferings. With the promise of liberation form sickness, poverty, isolation and all the possible torments, it had appeal to many. They had made the â€Å"Bible† as a historically reliable source comprehensible, making its proliferation easy. It had draw allot of ordinary people, as it deals with moral intuitions in a basic view of what is good and evil. Its success is not merely on the religious level though, for it has established a realm of mutual social support for the members that joined its church.

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Medical Translation Essay Example for Free

Medical Translation Essay Introduction The medical terms to be translated are selected from three articles. Two articles deal with the posttraumatic stress disorder, a kind of mental disease and the other article is about the immune response in transplantation. Medical terms differ from that in daily use, and the same word can have different meanings within various contexts. In addition, many medical terms have roots and affixes which are mostly borrowed from Greek and Latin language, and as a result an analysis of the roots, prefixes and suffixes is necessary in order to translate the terms acutely and succinctly. Some terms can be transliterated into Chinese language while some need to be paraphrased into Chinese according to the context. The translation of medical terms should not only be accurate, but should also be concise, easy to understand and avoid being ambiguous. Article One: Blockade of Lymphocyte Chemotaxis in Visceral Graft-versus-Host Disease 1. Graft-versus-host Disease: Graft means any transplanted or implanted organ or tissue in English, in Chinese language, graft can be translated as â€Å" †. The term â€Å"versus† in English means the situation in which two sides are against each other. In Chinese language, the term refers to â€Å" †, but the term â€Å" † is usually used in military area and it is not concise for the translation of â€Å"versus† in medical field. Comparatively, the term â€Å"? † in Chinese is more suitable for the translation of â€Å"versus† as it is concise and it can reflect the condition in which one part is resistant toward another. â€Å"Host† means the body which accepts the transplantation. In Chinese, the character â€Å" † means the body on which another animal or plant lives (cf. Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary:854). In medical field, â€Å"† can be referred to the body to which the organ or tissue is attached. Therefore, the disease Graft-versus-host can be translated as â€Å" †, a disease in which the transplanted organ is antagonistic towards the body which accepts the implantation and it can lead to the destruction of the host body. 2. Antigen-presenting cells: The prefix â€Å"anti† means being against and antagonistic. The suffix â€Å"–gen† refers to â€Å"that which generate†. Therefore, the term â€Å"antigen† can be literally translated as â€Å" †, a kind of substance that can generate immune response. â€Å"Presenting† refers to â€Å"clinging to a cell surface for detection of other molecules†. In biological process, the antigen-presenting cell can process the antigen cells by taking and presenting them to the lymphocyte cells. In Chinese language, the term â€Å" † refers to recognizing and detecting specific substance and the term â€Å" † means â€Å"taking† and â€Å"bringing†. Consequently, the term â€Å"antigen-presenting cell† can be translated into â€Å" † in Chinese language. 3. Lymphocyte recruitment: Lymphocyte is a kind of leukocyte cell and it is a product of lymphoid tissue, participating in immune activities. In Chinese language, the term â€Å"lymphocyte† is transliterated as â€Å" †, which refers to pertaining to the lymphocyte. The term â€Å"recruitment† refers to the gradual increase and in Chinese language, â€Å" † means a growth and proliferation in number. Therefore, the term can be translated as â€Å" †. 4. Secondary Graft Losses: â€Å"Secondary† generally refers to the second rank in dictionary, but in the context, the term means being derived from what is original and primary. The term â€Å"secondary† should be translated as â€Å" † which means pertaining to progressive. The terms â€Å"losses† means dysfunction and destruction of the transplanted graft and in the context, and it can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese. Consequently, the term â€Å"secondary graft losses† translated into Chinese is â€Å" †. 5. Myeloproliferative Disorder: The root â€Å"myelo† refers to bone marrow and the term â€Å"proliferative† means rapid growth and increase. The term means an abnormal increase of marrow. Thus â€Å"myelo† can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language. The term â€Å"proliferative† can be translated as â€Å" † which means abnormal increase and production. â€Å"Disorder† can be translated as â€Å"? † which means abnormal condition of body. Therefore, the term â€Å"myeloproliferative disorder† can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language. 6. Antichemotactic effect: The prefix â€Å"anti† means â€Å"against† and it can be translated as â€Å"? † in Chinese language. The term â€Å"chemotacxis† refers to the orientation of a microorganism in response to chemical stimulus and it can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language which means the orientation of an object moving toward or away from something. â€Å"Effect† means result of something and it can be interpreted as â€Å"† in Chinese. Thus the term can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language. Article Two: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Diagnosis, History and Longitudinal Course 7. Shattered Cognitive Assumptions: The word â€Å"shattered† means fatigue, â€Å"cognitive† refers to mental process including thinking and learning and the word â€Å"assumptions† means subjective supposition. The term here refers to the disease with which the patient subjectively cannot stop thinking and assuming something terrible is going to happen without real proof and actually everything is imaginary. â€Å"Shattered† here can be translated as â€Å"†, and â€Å"cognitive† can be interpreted as â€Å" † and â€Å"assumptions† can be translated as â€Å" † in which the character â€Å"? † means â€Å"subjective and imaginary† and â€Å"? † refers to thinking. The character â€Å"? † means â€Å"disease†. Therefore, the term can be concisely interpreted as â€Å" †. 8. Fear Conditioning: The word â€Å"fear† means the feeling that someone thinks he or she is in danger. The word â€Å"conditioning† refers to a situation in which a stimulus originally unable of evoking a response becomes able to cause the response to occur by linking it with another stimulus that does so. The term â€Å"fear conditioning† here in the context means in a particular neutral condition, the patient who suffers posttraumatic stress disorder feels worried and frightened by consistently linking the neutral condition to the unpleasant experience that causes the patient to feel feared. â€Å"Fear† here can be translated as â€Å" †, which means feeling in danger and â€Å"conditioning† can be interpreted as â€Å" † which refers to under a particular situation. Therefore, the term â€Å"fear conditioning† can be translated as â€Å" †. 9. Diffuse Anxiety: â€Å"Diffuse† means not specific or limited and in the context, â€Å"diffuse anxiety refers to a kind of mental disease with which the patient experiences uncontrollable worries and fear without definite reasons. It is a kind of anxiety that has no specific content or focus. â€Å"Diffuse† here can be translated as â€Å" † which means pervasive and not confined and â€Å"anxiety† can be interpreted as â€Å" † which refers to fear and worries. As a result, the term â€Å"diffuse anxiety† can be translated as â€Å" †. 10. â€Å"Shell Shock† The word â€Å"shock† refers to an emergency in which the tissues and organs of a body experience a lack of blood flow and oxygen, and it can lead to severe damage to the body. In the context, â€Å"shell shock† is a mental disease, and it often occurs in soldier who has been hurt by the explosion of cannonballs. Patients with the â€Å"shell shock† generally have symptoms like tremor, headache, difficulty in concentration. â€Å"Shock† can be transliterated as â€Å" † and â€Å"shell† can be literally translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language. The translation of â€Å"shell shock† should be â€Å" †. But the translation â€Å"† cannot reflect the nature of the disorder. As a result, the term â€Å" † which means the neurasthenia should be added to the translation. Therefore, the term â€Å"shell shock† should be translated as â€Å" †. 11. â€Å"Operational Fatigue†: The term â€Å"operational† is pertaining to military and â€Å"Fatigue† literally refers to weariness. In the context, â€Å"fatigue† means mental tiredness and â€Å"operational fatigue† is a mental disorder with symptoms like irritability and tremor. The disorder mainly occurs in soldiers who are influenced by the cruelty of war both mentally and psychologically. â€Å"Fatigue† can be translated as â€Å" † which means unbearable mental and psychological stress caused by war. Thus, the term â€Å"operational fatigue† can be translated as â€Å" †. 12. â€Å"Startle Reaction† The word â€Å"startle† means to frighten or alarm suddenly and the word â€Å"reaction† refers to the response to a stimulus. In the context, the term â€Å"startle reaction† is a symptom of posttraumatic patients who behave and response vigilantly to neutral stimulus. The term can be translated as â€Å" †. 13. â€Å"Sympathetic overreactivity†: The word sympathetic means showing sympathy and understanding. The term in the context means the symptom of patient who over concerns and understands other people’s feelings. â€Å"Sympathetic† can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language. â€Å"Overreactivity† refers to abnormal reaction and it can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language. The term, then can be concisely translated as â€Å" †. 14. â€Å"Traumatic Neurosis†: â€Å"Traumatic† refers to serious injury to the human body. The term â€Å"traumatic neurosis† in the context means the shadow exerted by traumatic injury to the human body both in psychology and mentality. The term â€Å"traumatic† can be translated as â€Å"† which means relating to physical injury and â€Å"neurosis† can be interpreted as â€Å" † which means the psychological dysfunction and mental fatigue. The term can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language. 15. â€Å"Psychological Numbing† The term in the context refers to the aloof attitude of the patient towards the people and events around him or her. People with psychological numbing are frigid and show little concern or care about the outside world. The term is related to the patient’s psychological and emotional attitudes towards the society and â€Å"psychological† can be translated as â€Å" †. The word â€Å"numbing† can be interpreted as â€Å" † in Chinese language which means apathetic and callous. Therefore, the term can be translated as â€Å" †. 16. â€Å"Delayed Referral†: â€Å"Delayed† means something happened latter than expected. â€Å"Referral† refers to the transference of a patient from one clinician to another. In the context, delayed means the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder which may occur latter than expected after the traumatic event. â€Å"Delayed† here can be translated as â€Å" † which means postponement and â€Å"referral† can be interpreted as â€Å" †. Therefore, â€Å"Delayed Referral† can then translated as â€Å"†. Article Three: Neuroimaging and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder 17. â€Å"Extinction Recall†: The word â€Å"extinction† means something that is extinguished and disappeared and â€Å"recall† refers to recollection. In the context, the term means the symptom of intrusive recollection of the terrible scenes experienced by the patients who suffer posttraumatic stress disorder. They develop hallucination in brain and experience the scene as if it were happening again. Therefore, the term can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language in which the word â€Å" † means again and again, and â€Å" † refers to experiencing and suffering. 18. â€Å"White Noise†: The word â€Å"white† means albus literally, but in the context, the word has another connation. Actually the word â€Å"white† in the article means the noise that can cover the disturbing sound and it is beneficial to human body. Thus the term in the article can be translated as â€Å" †. The term â€Å" † means not being disturbing and â€Å" † refers to noise. 19. â€Å"Flashback Intensity† â€Å"Flashback† means a vivid and sudden and recurrent memory of a past experience. In the context of the article, the term refers to a recurring and lively image of traumatic experience happened in the past. The intrusive memory is so lively that the patient who suffers posttraumatic stress disorder often recognizes the memory as something that is occurring in the real time. Therefore, the term â€Å"flashback intensity† can be translated as â€Å" †. The character â€Å" † means memory, the term â€Å" † refers to flashback and â€Å" † means intensity. 20. â€Å"Concomitant Dissociative Responses: â€Å"Concomitant† means existing at the same time and it can be translated as â€Å" †. The word â€Å"dissociative† refers to separate and it can be interpreted as â€Å" †. The word â€Å"response† means reaction and it can be concisely translated as â€Å" †. In the context, the term means reactions that coexist with posttraumatic stress disorder. As a result, the term can be translated as â€Å" †. Conclusion The medical terms are different from the terms used in daily life and it is characterized by its academic accuracy and conciseness. The translation of the medical terms should not only be a linguistic conversion between two languages, but also be a product in a specific context. English, as an international language, absorbed a large number of Greek and Latin roots and affixes. A good understanding of the roots and affixes is crucial in translating medical terms. By analyzing the literal meaning and the context, the terms can be translated by adopting the strategy of transliteration and paraphrasing. Bibliography Baidu Encyclopeida. http://www. baidu. com/ Collin Cobuild Learner’s Dictionary Concise Edition. 2001. HarperCollins Publishers. Homepage of The Free Dictionary by Farlex. http://www. thefreedictionary. com/ Hudong Encyclopedia. http://xinjiancitiao. hudong. com/ Haici Dictionary. http://dict. cn/ Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary [1988] 2004. Oxford University Press; The Commercial Press. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Main_Page.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Gainesboro Machine Tools Corporation Essay Example for Free

Gainesboro Machine Tools Corporation Essay Kendle International Inc. We looked at the competitive landscape and, based on what was happening, knew we were either going to sell Kendle, grow or disappear. It was May 1997, and Candace Kendle, the chairman and chief executive officer of Kendle International Inc. (Kendle), and her husband Christopher C. Bergen, the president and chief operating officer, were reviewing the strategic options for their Cincinnati, Ohio based company. Kendle, a business they had founded over 15 years previously, conducted clinical trials for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to test the safety and efficacy of their new drugs. The company had grown successfully to $13 million of sales and had attracted significant business from major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Kendle was competing, however, with several larger contract research organizations (CRO), many of which had an international presence that allowed them to do clinical studies outside the United States and gave them an advantage when competing for major projects. To compete more effectively, Candace and Chris had embarked on a plan to grow through acquisition, particularly internationally, and to finance this growth through a public offering of equity. Toward this end, by the spring of 1997 Kendle had lined up two potential European acquisitions—U-Gene, a CRO in the Netherlands with 1996 sales of $12.5 million, and gmi, a Germanbased CRO with $7 million in sales. To finance these acquisitions, Kendle had worked out possible debt financing with Nationsbank and was working with two investment banks on an Initial Public Offering (IPO) that would repay the bank debt if successful and provide the equity base for future acquisitions. It was now time to decide whether to go ahead with the full program of two acquisitions, a large debt financing and an equity issue. Kendle History Candace and Chris met in 1979 while working at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Candace had received her doctorate in pharmacy from the University of Cincinnati, then taught in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Her scientific specialty was virology. At the Children’s Hospital, Candace was serving as the director of pharmacy, working as an investigator on a study of an antiviral drug for the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome. Chris, a Wharton MBA, was a senior administrator at the hospital. Research Associate Indra A. Reinbergs prepared this case under the supervision of Professors Dwight B. Crane and Paul W. Marshall as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright  © 2000 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. 1 Looking for something new, Candace and Chris began to discuss the idea of going into business together. One day in early 1981 Candace received an unexpected visit from a new physician, replacing the usual medical monitor for her project with Burroughs Wellcome. This physician was a pioneer in the  contract clinical research business. As he described how his business worked, Candace became more and more intrigued. When he left that day, she immediately called Chris and said, â€Å"I’ve got a business idea!† The concept was to set up a small research consulting firm that would take on outsourced research and development (RD) work on a contract basis from large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Based on the positive response she received from potential clients, Candace left her job at the hospital in June 1981 and Chris left his job in December 1981. Kendle International Inc. was incorporated in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1981, with Candace taking 55% of the shares, and Chris 45%. Candace had strong ties to the Cincinnati area. Her grandfather, a coal miner, had moved there from Appalachia, and the clan had grown to about 140 members, including Candace’s two sons from a previous marriage. By January 1982, Candace and Chris were working from Candace’s parents’ home. Kendle started as a small company with a few contracts, and business grew slowly through referrals from professional colleagues. Kendle suffered the usual bumps of a start-up business, particularly in the late 1980s when it suffered a loss for two years and ran up $1 million in bank debt on a $250,000 line of credit. Afraid that its bank would call the loan, the company went through a bankruptcy scare. Fortunately, Kendle succeeded in attracting business from a new client, the pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle Co. (Searle). By the early 1990s, the company was turned around and it generated annual sales of about $2.5 million. Candace and Chris were married in 1991. The Pharmaceutical Lifecycle The clinical research process was influenced by government regulations that required drugs to pass through a series of steps before they could be marketed for public use. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulated pharmaceuticals. To receive FDA approval, a drug had to meet safety and efficacy standards for a specific indication (medical diagnosis). A drug for hypertension, for example, would have to lower blood pressure by a certain statistically significant amount without  producing unacceptable side effects. The entire FDA approval process could take from 8 to 15 years and involve several thousand patients.1 After a pharmaceutical company discovered a new drug and completed pre-clinical testing on animals in the laboratory, an Investigational New Drug application was filed with the FDA. The drug then passed through three phases of clinical testing on humans. Before beginning each subsequent phase, the drug company had to submit additional regulatory information to the FDA. Phase I Phase I studies were primarily concerned with assessing the drugs safety. This initial phase of testing in humans was done in a small number of healthy volunteers (20 to 100), such as students, who were usually paid for participation. Phase II Once Phase I testing had proven the drug’s safety, Phase II tested its efficacy in a small number of patients (100 to 300) with the medical diagnosis. It was specifically designed to determine the likely effective dose in patients. Phase III In a Phase III study, the drug was tested on a larger patient population (1,000 to 3,000) at multiple clinical sites. The purpose was to provide a more thorough understanding of the drugs effectiveness, benefits, and the range of possible adverse reactions. Most Phase II and Phase III studies were blinded studies in which some patients received the experimental drug, while control groups received a placebo or an already approved drug. Once a Phase III study was successfully completed, a pharmaceutical company requested FDA approval for marketing the drug by filing a New Drug Application, which averaged about 100,000 pages. †¢ 200-033 Phase IV Post-marketing testing (of at least 300 patients per trial) was sometimes conducted for high-risk drugs to catch serious side effects (liver toxicity) and monitor them for long-term effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. The pharmaceutical companies traditionally designed and conducted their own clinical trials. They selected the research sites and recruited investigators to conduct the trials of the new drug. Investigators were often medical school professors at teaching hospitals, but they could also be professional investigators who conducted clinical trials at dedicated centers or occasionally regular physicians who ran trials, particularly Phase IV trials, out of their private practices. These investigators then recruited patients, sometimes with the help of the pharmaceutical company, to participate in the study. After patients were recruited, there was a considerable amount of data collection by the investigators, monitoring of the process and data retrieval by the pharmaceutical company, and analysis of the data to determine whether the statistical criteria for safety and efficacy were met. Finally, there was the complicated process of compiling the data and preparing the long report for the FDA. The Contract Research Business In the 1970s, large pharmaceutical concerns in the United States began to look for ways to outsource their clinical testing work as their RD budgets grew. At the beginning, contract research was a small cottage industry and the work was awarded on a piecemeal basis. As Chris recalled, â€Å"For years, there had been companies conducting animal testing and Phase I, but there was no one managing the entire research and development process. The acronym ‘CRO’ (contract research organization) did not exist, pharmaceutical companies gave out only small contracts, and did not have much confidence in for-profit research managers.† The growth of the CRO industry was stimulated by pricing pressures on drug companies that led them to try to transfer the fixed costs of clinical research into a variable cost through outsourcing. As Chris described, The general problem that drug companies face is balancing a variable workload with a fixed workforce. The problem is that you don’t know when the guy in the white lab coat will come running down the hall, beaker in hand, shouting, ‘Eureka, I’ve got it, it’s going to cure disease X’. When he does that, you know your workload is going to spike. Your workload is impacted by the rate of discovery, the number of projects killed in vitro and, subsequent to that, how many studies get cancelled due to safety or efficacy problems in human testing. Pure CROs like Kendle derived their income solely from the outsourced portion of the RD budget of pharmaceutical clients. In theory, any part of the clinical testing process could be outsourced. While most pre-clinical discovery was conducted in-house by drug companies, the trend in the 1990s was for CROs to receive contracts to manage the entire clinical research piece, especially 3 Phases II and III. The whole process was an incredible race against time, as every day for which FDA approval was delayed could cost the pharmaceutical client over $1 million in lost revenues. Pharmaceutical contracts ranged in duration from a few months to several years. For multi-year contracts involving clinical trials, a portion of the contract fee was paid at the time the trial was initiated, with the balance of the contract fee payable in installments over the trial duration, as performance-based milestones (investigator recruitment, patient enrollment, delivery of databases) were completed. Contracts were bid by CROs on a fixed-price basis, and the research was a labor-intensive business. The contract bids depended on careful estimation of the hourly labor rates and the number of hours each activity would take. The estimation process involved statistical algorithms, which took into account the length of the study, frequency and length of site visits, the number of sites involved, the number of patients involved, and the number of pages per report form. A premium would be added for more complicated therapeutic testing. As the chief financial officer Tim Mooney described the business, The way that Kendle makes money is like any professional service firm—We focus on maximizing labor utilization, especially at the operational level. We assume a 65% to 70% utilization rate, so profit margins are higher if we have a higher utilization rate of personnel. We have the same assumed profit margin on all levels of people, but we can charge higher rates for contracts where we have specific therapeutic expertise that is in demand. Margins can also be higher on some large projects when we can share overhead costs across more sites. The business of contract research entailed several types of business risk. With contracts running at an average of $1 million for companies of Kendle’s size, client dependence was a major risk. Project cancellation by the client and â€Å"change orders† to reduce project costs were also increasingly frequent in the CRO industry, as healthcare cost pressures intensified. On the other hand, product liability for medical risks was borne by the pharmaceutical company. Competition in the 1990s By the mid-1990s, contract research had evolved into a full-service industry, recognized by both the pharmaceutical/biotech industries and the financial community. In 1995, worldwide spending on RD by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies was estimated at $35 billion, with $22 billion spent on the type of drug development work that CROs could do. Of the $22 billion, only $4.6 billion was outsourced to CROs in 1995. While RD spending by pharmaceutical companies was growing at 10% a year, CROs were growing at twice that rate.2 Specialized CROs could manage increasingly complex drug trials—in the previous decade, the number of procedures per trial and average number of patients per trial had doubled—far more efficiently than their pharmaceutical clients.3 Kendle participated in this growth in clinical research. Its net revenues grew 425% from $2.5 million in 1992 to $13 million in 1996. From a loss of $495,000 in 1992, its net income rose to $1.1 million by 1996. By 1996, Kendle had conducted clinical trials for 12 of the world’s 20 largest pharmaceutical companies. Kendle’s three largest clients were G.D. Searle, Procter Gamble, and Amgen, which generated 48%, 19%, and 13% of Kendles 1996 revenues, respectively. (See Exhibits 1 and 2 for Kendle’s income statements and balance sheets.) 2 J.C. Bradford Co., analyst report, January 15, 1998, pp. 5-6. 3 The Economist, â€Å"Survey of the Pharmaceutical Industry,† February 21, 1998, p. 4.200-033 The contract research industry was very fragmented, with hundreds of CROs worldwide. In the 1990s, in response to the increased outsourcing of pharmaceutical RD, and a demand for global trials, consolidation among the CROs began. A few key players emerged and went public, creating a new industry for Wall Street to watch. Many CRO start-ups were founded by former drug company executives who decided to form their own operations. After a period of internal growth, some of the start-ups began growing through a financial â€Å"roll-up† strategy. An industry publication listed 18 top players in North America, with total contract research revenues of $1.7 billion. The top five public companies, ranked by 1996 revenues, were Quintiles Transnational Corp. ($537.6 million), Covance Inc. ($494.8 million), Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc ($152.3 million), ClinTrials Research Inc. ($93.5 million), and Parexel International Corp. ($88 million).4 (See Exhibit 3 for recent sales and pr ofit data on CROs.) With its talent pool of scientists at the Research Triangle and U.S. headquarters of the pharmaceutical giants Glaxo and Burroughs Wellcome (later merged as Glaxo Wellcome), the state of North Carolina quickly became the center of the burgeoning CRO industry. Two of the â€Å"big five† companies, Quintiles and Pharmaceutical Product Development, were started there by academic colleagues of Candace’s. Quintiles Transnational was considered to be the †gold standard of the industry.† Quintiles was founded in 1982 by Dennis Gillings, a British biostatistician who had worked at Hoechst and was a professor at the University of North Carolina, where Candace completed her postdoctoral work. After raising $39 million in a 1994 IPO, Quintiles went on an acquisition spree, adding other professional service businesses. For example, the firm provided sales and marketing services to support the launch of new drug products. By the end of 1996, Quintiles was the worldâ€⠄¢s largest CRO, with 7,000 employees in 56 offices in 20 countries. A typical clinical study managed by Quintiles was conducted at 160 sites in 12 countries, involving 10,000 patients. Quintiles was more diversified than many of its CRO competitors, with about 65% of revenues derived from the  core CRO business and 35% from other services.5 Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) was founded in 1989 by Fred Eshelman, a colleague of Candace’s from the postdoctoral program in pharmacy. Like the founder of Quintiles, Eshelman had worked in drug research for several pharmaceutical firms, including Glaxo and Beecham. PPD’s revenues jumped 500% between 1990 and 1994, based on such work as multi-year contracts for AIDS research for the National Institutes of Health. PPD conducted a successful IPO in March 1996, with its stock jumping from $18 per share to $25.50 per share on the first day of trading. PPD bought a U.K. Phase I facility in November 1995, and in September 19 96 merged with another leading CRO. Their combined net revenues exceeded $200 million. Kendle at the Crossroads To Candace and Chris, it was clear that certain competitive capabilities were necessary for companies of Kendle’s size to compete successfully with the major CROs: therapeutic expertise (in specific medical areas) broad range of services (pharmaceutical companies wanted to work with fewer CROs, with each offering a wide range of services across multiple phases of the RD process); integrated clinical data management (the ability to efficiently collect, edit and analyze data from thousands of patients with various clinical conditions from many geographically dispersed sites); 4 â€Å"Annual Report: Leading CROs,† RD Directions, September 1997, pp. 28+. 5 William Blair Co. LLC analyst report, Quintiles Transnational Corp., June 20, 1997, p. 3. international, multi-jurisdictional presence (to speed up drug approval, tests were being launched in several countries at once); With the exception of international presence, Candace and Chris felt comfortable with their ability to meet these criteria. Kendle’s staff had scientific expertise in multiple therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular, central nervous system, gastrointestinal, immunology, oncology, respiratory, skeletal disease and inflammation. The company also had broad capabilities, including management of studies in Phases II through Phase IV. It did not consider the absence of Phase I capabilities to be an issue, since this activity was quite separate. (See Exhibit 4 for a comparison of CRO geographical locations.) To build an integrated clinical data management capability, Chris had directed the development of TrialWare ®, a proprietary software system that allowed global data collection and processing and the integration of clinical data with clients’ in-house data management systems. TrialWare ® consisted of several modules including a database management system that greatly reduced study start-up costs and time by standardizing database design and utilizing scanned image technology to facilitate the design of data entry screens, the point-and-click application of edits from a pre-programmed library, and workflow management (parallel processing). Other modules included a system that coded medical history, medication and adverse event data and a touch-tone telephone system that was used for patient  randomization, just-in-time drug supply and collection of real-time enrollment data. Against the backdrop of a changing industry, Candace and Chris felt the need to develop additional business skills and focus Kendle’s strategy. To clarify their management roles, Candace and Chris switched their existing responsibilities. Chris pointed out, â€Å"Candace became CEO as we realized that her focus was long-range and I took over as Chief Operating Officer to focus on the short-range. In addition, the marketing strength of our competitors was propelling them further and further ahead of Kendle. Candace brought her science background and entrepreneurial skills, while I brought my management. The problem was that we were relatively weak in sales and marketing.† To broaden their skills, Candace went off in 1991 to the Owner/President Management Program (OPM), an executive education program run by Harvard Business School for three weeks a year over three years. Chris followed her to OPM in 1994. After completing the OPM program, Candace assessed the situation, We have to be big enough relative to our competitors to take on large, international projects. When Searle was looking for CROs for international work, all we could do was possibly subcontract it out to small shops. In contrast, Quintiles had six overseas offices of its own. Furthermore, when Searle calls and says, ‘I just got off the phone, Quintiles will cut their price by a million dollars,’ if you’re too small, you’re not going to be able to respond to that. Candace and Chris realized that Kendle could not grow fast enough internally to keep up with its peers and did not have the cash for acquisitions. They entertained the thought of selling Kendle, and were approached several times about a sale. But by nature, they were a competitive, athletic couple. Chris got up to play squash every morning at 7 AM, and Candace was an avid rower, recently winning a gold medal in a Cincinnati regatta. Perhaps not surprisingly, Candace and Chris decided to grow the firm and take it public rather than sell. As Candace described their motivation, â€Å"We were not driven to be a public company as such, but primarily to be bigger, and for this, we  needed public financing to succeed in the new competitive landscape. The whole target was not to let the big guys get too far out ahead of us.† Preparations for Growth By 1994, Kendle had grown to $4.4 million in revenues. Candace, the driving force throughout the IPO process, sought advice from an old college friend, a well-known Cincinnati businessman. He advised her, â€Å"before you go public, practice being a public company.† Candace therefore formulated a plan for Kendle to go public in 1999. Kendle began hiring key managers to build up functional units. Between 1994 and February 1997, new directors of clinical data management, information technology, biostatistics, finance, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory affairs, and human resources were hired. As Chris described, â€Å"the plan was to put this infrastructure in place to look and act like a public company— communications, IT, finance. The idea was hire at the top and they’ll fill in their organization.† Many of these new managers had previously worked together at other companies. To prepare for Wall Street scrutiny, Kendle began issuing internal quarterly fi nancial statements and sharing them with employees in an open-book management style. Candace and Chris tried to make the growing number of employees feel like â€Å"part of the family† in other ways, too. The Kendle â€Å"photo gallery† displayed professional portraits of employees with their favorite hobbies. In 1995 Chris led the development of a corporate mission statement and a document on strategic plans that was shared with all employees. Kendle was organized in a matrix fashion (see Exhibit 5 for organizational chart). Each department was treated as a strategic business unit (SBU) with a director who established standards and carried profit responsibility. At the same time, each research contract was managed by a project manager who assembled a team from across the various SBUs. Clinical trials involved five functional SBUs at Kendle: 1. Regulatory Affairs recruited investigators, helped them with FDA registration forms, and obtained approval from ethics boards. Regulatory Affairs maintained a database of 5,000 investigators. 2. Clinical Monitoring sent clinical research associates (CRA) out to the testing sites (every 4 to 6 weeks) to enforce Good Clinical Practice regulations. The CRAs were typically young, single health care professionals who spent a significant amount of their time on the road. The CRA would collect data from investigators, resolve queries generated by Clinical Data Management, and promote patient enrollment. 3. Clinical Data Management produced a â€Å"locked† database that could be submitted to the FDA. Data from case report forms were input into a computer system and â€Å"cleaned† through a manual review of the forms and an automated check of the databases. The challenge was to lock a database quickly while maintaining data quality. 4. Biostatistics would â€Å"unblind† the locked database and analyze it to determine if the data confirmed that the test results met the criteria for safety and efficacy. Biostatistics also defined the scope of new studies. 5. Medical Writing generated â€Å"the truckload of paper submitted to the FDA† for a New Drug Application, including a statistical analysis, a clinical assessment, preclinical and clinical data, a description of the manufacturing process, and the supporting patient documentation. 1996: The Celebrexâ„ ¢ Study, Filing Preparations, and European acquisitions 1996 was a busy year for Candace, Chris, and Kendle’s new management team. They simultaneously began conducting a major drug study, working with underwriters on IPO preparations, and looking for overseas acquisition targets. In 1996 Kendle managed 62 clinical studies at 4,100 sites involving approximately 20,000 patients. Celebrexâ„ ¢ Study In January 1996, Kendle began working on a major drug called Celebrexâ„ ¢ (celecoxib). Its client Searle was engaged in a neck-and-neck race with Merck, the largest U.S. drug company, to be the first to market a COX-2 inhibitor. A COX-2 inhibitor was a new type of anti-inflammatory drug that promised low incidence of bleeding ulcers in long-term, high-dosage users such as arthritis patients. The Searle-Merck race was closely followed in the business press. Searle awarded the international portion of the Celebrexâ„ ¢ contract to another CRO, since Kendle only had facilities for testing in the United States. However, Kendle did win the contract to conduct all the U.S. Phase II and III trials. The Celebrexâ„ ¢ contract was a â€Å"huge feather in our cap,† recalled the chief financial officer. â€Å"In order to beat Merck, we worked very hard and kept compressing the timelines.† To head the Celebrexâ„ ¢ project, Kendle hired Bill Sietsema, PhD, as assistant director of clinical research. A therapeutic expert in skeletal diseases and inflammation, Sietsema had worked at Proctor Gamble for 12 years. While Sietsema served as overall program director, Chris acted as the operational project manager, meeting with his Searle counterpart in Chicago on a monthly basis. In early 1997, Kendle also set up a new regional office in Chicago, close to Searle headquarters. For Kendle, the Celebrexâ„ ¢ project was a chance to â€Å"show what we could do and to develop a reputation as a leader in the field of skeletal disease and inflammation.† Kendle actively helped investigators recruit arthritis patients, running television advertisements, directing interested volunteers to a call center. Three hundred  investigators enrolled over 10,000 patients, producing over one million pages of case report forms. Most importantly, through close integration of information systems with Searle, Kendle was able to beat an industry standard. Instead of taking the typical six months to one year, the time span between the last patient in Phase II and the first in Phase III, which began in June 1996, was only 22 days. Preparation for SEC Filing By the time the Celebrexâ„ ¢ program rolled around, Candace and Chris felt that they might have to go public earlier than intended because of the competitive landscape. The new chief financial officer, Tim Mooney, took a leading role in the preparations. Prior to joining Kendle in May 1996, Mooney had worked as CFO at The Future Now, Inc., a computer reseller and Hook-SupeRx, a retail drugstore chain. At Kendle, Mooney replaced the controller with an audit manager from Coopers Lybrand to beef up his staff. Mooney also led the building of many of the other financially related departments at Kendle. To act as the lead underwriters on the IPO, in August 1996 Mooney chose two regional investment banks, Chicago-based William Blair Company, L.L.C., which had handled the 1995 IPO of Kendle’s competitor Parexel, and Wessels, Arnold Henderson from Minneapolis. William Blair began putting Kendle through the paces of preparing to file a preliminary prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The process of going public generally took from 60 to 180 days. One of the key steps in the process was the conversion of Kendle from a subchapter corporation to a C corporation at the time of the IPO. (Subchapter S corporations were entities with 35 or fewer shareholders that were treated like partnerships for tax purposes. Corporate income tax was passed through tax-free to the owners who then paid personal income taxes due.) U-Gene In October 1996 Mooney hired Tony Forcellini, a former colleague, as director of mergers and acquisitions (MA). Tony had worked at Arthur Andersen in the tax department, and then as a treasurer at Hook-SupeRx with Mooney. The search for European acquisition targets was mainly conducted by Candace and Tony Forcellini, with back-up support by Tim Mooney and Chris. All the while, Chris and Bill Sietsema were working away on the Celebrexâ„ ¢ program. Forcellini’s first decision was easy—whether to pursue an offering memorandum that landed on his desk shortly after he arrived. The company for sale was U-Gene Research B.V. (U-Gene), a CRO based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. U-Gene was represented by Technomark Consulting Services Ltd. (Technomark), a London-based consulting firm uniquely specializing in the healthcare industry. Technomark had an extensive database on European CROs and was primarily in the business of matching its pharmaceutical company clients’ trial s with appropriate European CROs, but it also had a small investment banking division. U-Gene, a full-service CRO, was an attractive target for Kendle. The venture capitalist owners were actively looking for buyers. With a 38-bed Phase I facility in Utrecht and regional offices in the United Kingdom and Italy, U-Gene could increase both Kendle’s service offering and geographic presence. Since its founding in 1986, U-Gene had served more than 100 clients, including 19 of the worlds largest pharmaceutical companies. In 1996, U-Gene participated in 115 studies at approximately 500 sites involving approximately 4,700 patients and recorded net revenues of $12.5 million, a 37% increase over the prior year, and operating profit of $1.3 million, a 47% increase over the prior year. Because of its U.K. and Italian offices, U-Gene viewed itself as on the way to becoming a pan-European CRO.  (See Exhibit 6 for U-Gene financial statements.) With momentum building, in November 1996, Forcellini seized upon U-Gene as Kendle’s possible entry into Europe and submitted a bid, offering cash and private stock. Unfortunately, Kendle lost out on this bid to a competitor, Collaborative Clinical Research, Inc, as U-Gene’s owners either wanted a full cash deal or stock from a public company. Collaborative was a competitor slightly larger than Kendle ($25.7 million in revenues) that had gone public in June 1996 and had established a software partnership with IBM. Although it had access to investigators outside the United States, Collaborative also viewed U-Gene as the establishment of a European presence. On February 12, 1997 Collaborative announced that it had signed a letter of intent to acquire U-Gene in exchange for 1.75 million newly issued shares. While this put Kendle out of the picture, the prospects of a deal were not completely killed. On the same day, February 12, 1997, Collaborative also announced that its first-quarter 1997 earnings would be significantly below expectations. On the next day, on analyst speculation that a major client contract had been lost, their stock fell by 27.3%, closing at $9.00.6 This put Collaborative’s UGene deal in jeopardy. Underwriter Concerns About two weeks after Collaborative’s announcement, on February 25, 1997, another CRO, ClinTrials, also suffered a drop in stock price. ClinTrials’ stock lost more than half its market value,  dropping 59%, to $9.50 per share. The fall began when an analyst from Wessels Arnold downgraded the ClinTrials stock to â€Å"hold† from â€Å"buy,† citing a number of key management departures, and continued after ClinTrials announced that its first-quarter earnings would be half its year-earlier profit. The reason for the unexpected earnings decline was the cancellation of five projects totaling $37 million, with the possibility of even lower earnings due to an unresolved project dispute with a client.7 ClinTrials’ negative performance began to affect other CRO stocks, including that of Quintiles.8 With client concentration an issue in ClinTrials’ stock performance, William Blair developed doubts about the timing of Kendle’s IPO. Although Kendle was close to filing its preliminary prospectus, on the day after ClinTrial’s stock dropped, William Blair analysts had a meeting with Kendle’s management and told them that they had decided to withdraw as lead underwriters in the IPO. Candace was resolved to keep going. She said, â€Å"There’s no way out of the concentration issue. We can’t buy our way out of it, because we can’t do MA deals until we have a public currency, and every day Searle is bringing us more work, we won’t tell them no.† She then asked Mooney to find new investment bankers, and he thought, â€Å"what am I going to do now?† Hoping for a lead, Mooney called up a former security analyst from Wessels Arnold who had gone to work at Lehman Bros. Although Kendle was smaller than Lehman’s usual clients, Lehman agreed to underwrite Kendle’s IPO, with the reassurance that â€Å"we think we can sell through the client concentration issue.† After an agreement with New York-based Lehman was reached, Mooney searched for a regional firm because, as he decided, â€Å"I didn’t want two New York-size egos. J.C. Bradford, based in Nashville, Tennessee, had a good reputation in the industry, and struck us as a nice regional bank. They were more retail-oriented than institutional-oriented, so they wouldn’t directly be competing with Lehman in types of clientele.† Bradford had managed the IPO of the first large CRO to go public (ClinTrials, in 1993) and Lehman had led the IPO of PPD in January 1996. Gmi and U-Gene revisited At the same time, Forcellini was moving ahead on the acquisition search. In January 1997 he tasked Technomark with using its CRO database to generate a list of possible European acquisition targets that met the following criteria: â€Å"ideally a CRO with United Kingdom headquarters; $5 million to $7 million in revenues; no Searle business; certain types of therapeutic expertise; strong in phases II through IV; and certain country locations.† The initial list had 50 European CROs, which Kendle narrowed down to 14 prospects. Technomark then contacted these 14 prospects to sound out their willingness to sell, bringing the number down to five candidates: three CROs in Germany, two in the United Kingdom, and one in the Netherlands (not U-Gene). To assess the prospects, Kendle used information from Technomark on comparable MA deals. Candace and Tony Forcellini then traveled around Europe for a week visiting the five companies. They decided to further pursue two companies: a small, 15-person monitoring organization in the United Kingdom and one in Germany. The U.K. prospect was quickly discarded because of an aggressive asking price and accounting problems. Kendle then moved on to the German target, a company named gmi. Its full name was GMI Gesellschaft fur Angewandte Mathematik und Informatik mbH. Founded in 1983, gmi provided a full range of Phase II to IV services. gmi had conducted trials in Austria, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and France, among other countries, and had experience in health economic studies and 7 â€Å"ClinTrials Predicts Sharply Lower Profit: Shares Plunge 59%†, The Wall Street Journal, February 26, 1997, p. B3. 8 David Ranii, â€Å"Investors avoiding Quintiles,† The News Observer, Raleigh, NC, February 27, 1997, p. C8. professional training programs. In 1996, gmi participated in 119 studies at multiple sites and recorded net revenues of $7 million, a 32% increase over the prior year, and operating profit of $1.4 million, a 16% increase over the prior year. At March 31, 1997, gmis backlog was approximately $9.6 million. gmi considered itself to be especially good at Phase III trials. (See Exhibit 7 for gmi financial statements.) While Candace and Forcellini were narrowing down European targets, Mooney was hunting for cash. In February 1997 Kendle met at a special lunch with its existing bankers, Star Bank (later renamed Firstar), in Cincinnati. Mooney recalled the conversation vividly: â€Å"After Candace and Chris described their plans, Star Bank’s CEO made a proposal, ‘If you keep Kendle a private company and avoid the hassles of being public, we’ll lend you the money you need for acquisitions.’† With the financing in hand, Candace and Forcellini visited gmi in Munich. While gmi’s owners were willing to talk, they did not have much interest in selling. As Mooney described it, â€Å"gmi was a classic case of having grown to a certain size, had a comfortable level of income, but weren’t interested in putting in the professional systems to grow beyond that level.† After several conversations in March, it was not clear that Kendle and gmi’s owners w ould be able to reach a mutually agreeable price. At this point in early April 1997, the possibility of U-Gene as an acquisition candidate heated up. After the U-Gene deal with Collaborative Research began to collapse, Kendle had initiated a carefully structured inquiry about U-Gene’s interest in renewed discussions. This inquiry led to further discussions and a request in April for Kendle to meet in Frankfurt to try to reach an agreement. With the gmi deal in doubt, Kendle agreed to try to reach closure with U-Gene. After some discussion, both sides agreed on a price of 30 million Dutch guilders, or about US$15.6 million, $14 million of which would be paid in cash, and the remaining $1.6 million would be in the form of a promissory note payable to the selling shareholders.  U-Gene wanted to complete the transaction within the next several weeks, so it would have to be financed at least initially by borrowings. Even if Kendle went ahead with an IPO, the equity financing would not be completed until the end of the summer. Discussions with gmi continued through this period since Kendle was confident about its ability to obtain financing from Star Bank. Ultimately, Kendle’s team was able to agree upon a price with gmi. The owners were willing to accept a price of 19.5 million Deutsche marks, or about US$12.3 million, with at least $9.5 million in cash. They would accept shares for the remaining $2.8 million, if Kendle successfully completed an IPO. The owners were willing to hold off the deal until the IPO issue was resolved. Closing the Deals and IPO Decision To complete both the U-Gene and gmi deals, Kendle would need to borrow about $25 million to $28 million, so financing became critical. Mooney went back to Star Bank to take the bankers up on their promise. He described their reaction: â€Å"Star Bank said they couldn’t lend $28 million to a company that only has $1 million in equity. Nobody did that. They might be willing to finance one acquisition, with the help of other banks, but there was no way that they would provide $28 million.† Mooney was quite angry, but had no choice but to look for other sources of financing. He first tried to get bridge financing from Lehman and Bradford, but they refused, saying that they had â€Å"gotten killed on such deals in the 1980s.† There was also a possibility of financing from First Chicago Bank, but this did not materialize. Finally, in late April 1997, Mooney contacted NationsBank, N.A., which was headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina and provided banking services to the CRO industry. Nationsbank expressed interest, but only in a large deal. Even $28 million was a small amount to Nationsbank. In 11  a few short weeks, Nationsbank ended up structuring a $30 million credit for Kendle, consisting of a $20 million, three-year revolving credit line and $10 million in five-year, subordinated notes. The interest rate on the credit line was tied to a money market base rate plus 0.50% (currently totaling 6.2%), and the subordinated debt carried a 12% rate. †So NationsBank stepped up in a pretty big way. They could have ended up with Kendle as a private company, with $30 million in debt.† Because of the risk, Nationsbank would also take warrants giving the bank the right to purchase 4% of Kendle’s equity, or up to 10% if the IPO was delayed and Kendle had to borrow the full amount to do both acquisitions. Lehman Brothers was confident about an IPO. The underwriters felt Kendle could raise $39 million to $40 million at a price between $12 and $14 per share, and that Candace and Chris could sell some of their shares as well. Premier Research Worldwide Ltd., a CRO with $15.2 million in 1996 revenues, had raised $46.75 million from its recent IPO in February 1997. Kendle felt they had a much better track record than Premier. Kendle now faced some difficult decisions. It could do the full program, including both acquisitions, taking the $30 million Nationsbank deal, and planning for an IPO in late summer. The successful acquisitions of gmi and U-Gene would establish Kendle as the sixth largest CRO in Europe, based on total revenues, and one of only four large CROs able to offer clients the full range of Phase I through Phase IV clinical trials in Europe. The pricing on the two acquisitions of 8 to 10 times EBITDA seemed in line with recent CRO deals (see Exhibit 8). And, once the IPO was completed, Kendle would have both a cash cushion and stock as a currency to help finance future growth and acquisitions. Assuming an IPO of 3 million new shares at a price of $13.00, Kendle would have a cash position of about $14 million and no debt in the capital structure. (See Exhibits 9 and 10 for pro forma  income statements and balance sheets showing the impact of the acquisitions and the IPO.) A related issue was how many of their shares Candace and Chris should sell if an IPO were done. Their current thinking was to sell 600,000 shares. Thus, a total of 3.6 million shares would be for sale at the time of the IPO, including a primary offering of 3 million shares and a secondary offering of 600,000 shares. This sale would reduce holdings controlled by Candace and Chris from 3.65 million shares (83.1% of the shares currently outstanding) to 3.05 million shares (43.4% of the new total outstanding). Doing the full IPO and acquisition program, however, was unprecedented among Kendle’s peers. â€Å"Nobody does this combination all at once—an IPO, senior- and sub-debt financing, and MA deals,† as Mooney described the situation. Furthermore, the stock prices of public CROs had been falling since last February (see Exhibits 11 and 12 for stock market valuation and price information). If Kendle bought into the full program and the market crashed or the IPO was unsuccessful, the company would have almost $30 million of debt on its books with a very modest equity base. Perhaps it would be better to do just the U-Gene acquisition and use Star Bank to finance it. After completing this acquisition, it could then pursue the IPO. This approach was safer, but of course Kendle might miss the IPO window and miss the opportunity to acquire the second company. Indeed, instead of discouraging Kendle from doing an IPO, the fall in CRO stock prices might be taken as a signal tha t Kendle should forge ahead before the window closed completely.

Friday, September 20, 2019

The History of Electromagnetic Suspension System

The History of Electromagnetic Suspension System As the knees are the important part of the human body because of which he can walk, run, sit and jump properly, the suspension system is a knee of a vehicle, with which the vehicle can give us a comfortable ride. The automobile frame and body are mounted on the front and rear axle not directly but through some form of springs and shock absorbers. This is done to damp to road shocks transmitted to the frame by the wheels as they roll over the road. All these parts which perform this function are together called as a suspension system. Thus the suspension system includes springs, shock absorber and there mountings. The suspension system of a motor vehicle divided into the rear end suspension front end suspension. 1.1 Need of suspension system: To avoid the road shocks which are pass on to the vehicle frame. To preserve the steadiness of a car in pitching or rolling, when in motion. To safeguard the occupant from road shocks. To provide good road holding while driving, cornering and braking. To maintain proper steering geometry. 1.2 Types of suspension systems: The following are the suspension systems which rare used in the modern vehicles, Dry friction or Leaf spring Coil spring Air bag Rubber spring Electromagnetic suspension system 1.3 History of suspension system: Rolls Royce (1913) illustrates that how the different situations was in the early years where rear dampers stopped to use. Dry snubbers were used in between 1910-1925. However, the period 1925-1980 was very extensive by simple hydraulics, primarily simply constant force blow off, then proportional characteristics, then adjustable, leading to mature product. In the period of 1980 to 1985, there was an enthusiasm about the possibilities for the different types of active suspension, and they had the ability to get rid of the ordinary dampers. Then after some period in 1985, the fast auto-adjusting dampers, turn out to be more and more obvious, because they found a good deal profit of active suspension much more cheaply, and from that period the damper unexpectedly became an interesting, developing component again (Dixon John, 2010). In 1966 for high-speed transportation Danby and Powell introduced an EDS system using super conducting magnets with a null flux suspension. After some period some more designs proposed using continues sheet guide ways. Then some from U.S., Japan, Germany, UK and Canada have developed further innovations (such as ladder type guide way for increased lift efficiency), but there are still a number of technical problems that needed resolution. (T. Thompson, Richard D. Thornton and Anthony Kondoleon, 2010) 1.4 Current Details Of Electromagnetic Suspension (Maglev): There are three primary types of Maglev technologies: superconducting magnets ( electrodynamic suspension) feedback controlled electromagnets ( electromagnetic suspension) A new but very cheaper permanent magnet system Inductrack. The several approaches and designs have been produced by Japan and Germany. These two countries are very active in maglev research. The design used for trains in which the train levitate by the repulsive force of the same poles of the magnets. A linear motor is used to propel the train or on the locomotive or both. In this system massive electrical induction coils produce the magnetic field and the need of this magnetic field which is placed along the track is to propel the train, leading some to speculate that the cost of constructing such tracks would be enormous. ( Heller Arnie 2010). Earnshaws theorem states that a collection of point charges cannot be maintained in a stable stationary equilibrium configuration solely by the electrostatic interaction of the charges. As Earnshaws theorem says Magnetic bearings are unstable; the conventional maglev systems stabilized with the help of the electromagnets which have electronic stabilization. In actual to levitate the train that is to keep the train up in the air with the help of an magnetic field it needs very strong magnetic field which only can generate by a large electromagnet but large electromagnet is also a big issue for the design, so instead of using the large magnets, superconductor for an capable electromagnet. Inductrack is a cheap in cost compare to other systems. The system relies on the current induced in the passive electromagnetic array generated by permanent magnets, so that it provides the better load carrying capacity related to the speed. In the model, the permanent magnets are placed on both sides of the model; the function of these magnets is to provide horizontal lift and vertical stability. There is collection of wire loops in the track which is also called as array. There is no power supply in magnets and the model, apart from the speed of the model. The basic concept behind this system is to store the power by developing the inductrack as a motor and flywheel bearing. With only slight design changes, the bearings were unrolled into a linear track. William Post is the father of such a great innovation like inductrack. He had done this experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. (Heller Arnie 2010). Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Principle of Suspension System: The suspension system of an automobile has input force and output as shown in above fig. Fig: 2.1 (Dr. Erping Zhou, 2010) where, M1 is the body mass of the vehicle M2 is the mass of the suspension system K1 is the spring constant for suspension system K is the constant for the tyre (spring). C is the damper constant Y is the input force form the road to the suspension system. Y1 is the input force from suspension system to the body of vehicle. X is the output displacement. So the mathematical diagram of the vehicle is given as: M2 K1(Y1- X)+ C. d(Y1- X)/ dt K2(Y-Y1) Therefore now we can have, K1(Y1- X)+ C. d(Y1- X)/ dt = M1 d2x/dt2(1) And K1(Y1- X)+ C. d(Y1- X)/ dt K2(Y-Y1) = M2 d2Y1/dt2(2) By lapalce theorem, consider d/ dt = S K1(Y1- X)+ C. S(Y1- X) = M1 S2X..(3) K1(Y1- X)+ C. S(Y1- X) K2(Y-Y1) = M2 S2Y1(4) So by solving equation (3) we get the input, K1Y1 K1X + CSY1 CSX = M1S2X X/Y1 = K1 + CS/ (M1S2 + CS + K1) Y1 (INPUT) = X (M1S2 + CS + K1) / K1 + CS (Dr. Erping Zhou, 2010) 2.2 Basic Concept: Take a cylindrical hollow shock absorber frame placing two magnets inside it. In this cylinder the arrangement of the magnets is in such a way, place one magnet at the top of the cylinder with any polarity let us consider south polarity on down side. Then place another magnet at the bottom of the cylinder having south polarity upside so that they can be parallel each other. Then due to the same polarity of both the magnets the repulsive force generates which gives the movement to the shaft to avoid any unwanted shocks and the fixed hydraulic damper absorbs the vibrations and instability. 2.3 Theory of Vibration: Any motion that repeats itself after an interval of time is called vibration or oscillation. The best examples for vibration are pendulum and a plucked string. The theory of vibration explains the study of oscillatory motions. Free vibration without damping To begin with the study of the mass-spring-damper, lets consider the damping is insignificant and the mass is free from any type of force that is called free vibration. Where, k is the constant of stiffness x is the length of stretched spring m is the mass of body So the force is given by, Fs = kx By Newtons second law of motion the generated force is proportional to the acceleration of the mass E F = ma = m.d2x / dt2 Then the sum of the forces on the mass is equals to zero: ma + kx = 0 If the system starts to vibrate by stretching the spring by the distance of A, we get the following equation. x(t) = A cos(2à Ã¢â€š ¬ fnt) The above explanation state that the system oscillates with the simple harmonic motion with an amplitude A , frequency fn. The number fn is called as the undamped frequency which is defined as: fn = To simplify the equation the angular frequency à Ã¢â‚¬ ° (à Ã¢â‚¬ ° = 2à Ã¢â€š ¬f) which has a unit radians per second. If the mass is heavy and inflexibility of the system is known, then the frequency concludes when the force is applied to the system, it will vibrate. When the system once disturbed it vibrates because it has one or more frequencies. The above formula shows the complexity in the real complex designs. (Tustin Wayne 2010) The causes of vibration in the system (conservation of energy) Conservation of energy explains the vibrational motion. In the above example the value of the spring is x and therefore it has stored some potential energy (kx2). Once the spring became free it tries to gain its original shape which has minimum potential energy and in the process accelerates the mass. As the spring reached at its original state that is in unstreched position all the potential energy then converted in to the kinetic energy (mv2). The system then starts to deaccelerate because of the compression of the spring and in this process it transfers kinetic energy into original potential energy. Thus oscillation of the spring transfers the kinetic energy into potential energy. In the above given simple system the mass remains oscillate at the same magnitude, but this doesnt happened in the real system because of the damper which disperse the energy and therefore the system finally bringing it to rest. (Tustin Wayne 2010) Free vibration with damping Now in this system a viscous damper is added to the system which generates an opposive force against the motion of the body which is relative to the velocity of the mass. Where c is the proportionality constant and has units of Force over velocity (N s/m). x m k c Fig: 2.3 (Tustin Wayne 2010) Fd = cv = -c. dx/dt By summing the forces on the mass we get the following ordinary differential equation: ma + cv + kx = 0 The result of the above equation relies on the amount of damping. For the small damping effect the system vibrates but after some time it slows down and finally stops vibrating. This case is called underdamping this case is of most interest in vibration analysis. If the damping effect increases until the last point of the oscillation of the system, the system then goes in to the critical damping. Cc = 2 Is the final critical damping point calue for the mass spring damper model. A damping ration is used to differentiate the amount of damping in a system. The differentiation of the damping is defined as to get a critical point the actual damping divided by the amount of damping. The damping ratio (ÃŽÂ ¶) given as: ÃŽÂ ¶ = c / The values of damping factors for airplane fuselage, engine crankshaft are less than 0.05 and for an automotive suspensions the range of 0.2-0.3. The key for the underdamped system for the mass spring damper model is : x(t) = Xe-ÃŽÂ ¶Ãƒ Ã¢â‚¬ °t cos ( à Ã¢â‚¬ ° = 2à Ã¢â€š ¬f The value of X, the initial magnitude, and à Ã¢â‚¬  , the phase shift, are determined by the amount the spring is stretched. (Tustin Wayne 2010) Analyzation of Damped and undamped natural frequencies The exponential term and the cosine function are the two main points which are noted from the solution. The meaning of exponential term is how quickly the system damps down. The damping effect is low when the damping ration is more. The cosine function explains the oscillations in the system, but the frequency of the oscillations is different from the undamped case. For this case the frequency is called damped natural frequency, fd, and there is a relation between the damped frequency and undamped frequency as follows: Fd = fn Generally, the undamped natural frequency is more than the damped natural frequency, but in realistic the difference between the damped and undamped frequencies is irrelevant because of the damping ratio which is moderately small. Therefore at the starting phase of natural frequency the damped and undamped description are frequently dropped.for example- when the damping ratio is 0.1, the damped natural frequency is only 1% less than the undamped. The two damping ratios 0.1 and 0.3 for the design of side shows how they affect the system and also they show how the system takes time to be stable. Also they show, most frequently what happened practically, is to calculate the free vibrations by doing some experiments after an impact on the system and then the system oscillates so by measuring the rate of oscillations conclude the natural frequency of the system as well as the ratio of damping with the help of rate of decay. Natural frequency and the damping ratio are the important factors in free vibrations but to understand and differentiate the behaviour of the system in different vibrations generated by force is also important. (Tustin Wayne 2010) 2.4 Principle of EMSS: The basic principle is to build up a contact less spring; the electromagnetic actuators can absorb the instability. The basics in electromagnetic suspension are the opposite polarity of the magnets facing each other absorbs all the bumps. The major difficulty is making the magnets physically powerful when running off a cars electrical system. 2.5 Halbach Arrays: Halbach cylinders are well-suited to magnetic levitation of gyroscope, motor and generator spindles. In these cylinders only permanent magnets and unpowered conductors are used to provide levitation. Rotational motion provides the energy of suspension entirely, efficiency is good, and there is no need of extremely low temperature suspension magnets or electronics. But there is a limit for the linear speed at the bearing race which must be above a meter per second to levitate. The inductrack maglev train system uses this principle as well, which avoids the problems inherent in actively supported systems. Halbach Cylinder: K = 1 K = 2 K = 3 K = 4A magnetized cylinder which is made up of a ferromagnetic material producing a magnetic field restricted completely inside the cylinder and doesnt produce any fields outside is called Halbach Cylinder. The Halbach Cylinders can also generate the magnetic field completely outside of the cylinder and then again it doesnt produce any fields inside the cylinder. Some magnetization distributions are shown below: Fig: 2.4 magnetization distributions( K. Halbach, J.C. Mallinson, Raich, H., Blà ¼mler 2010) The direction of magnetization within the ferromagnetic material is given by M = Mr { sin (kà Ã¢â‚¬ ¢)à °Ã‚ Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬   cos (kà Ã¢â‚¬ ¢) à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢} Where, Mr is the magnetic remanance (T/m). +k is an internal magnetic field and -k is an external magnetic field. Preferably, the structures of these types of cylinders would be formed by an unlimited length cylinder of magnetic material which has the direction of magnetization constantly changing. These types of ideal designed cylinder produce the magnetic flux which is perfectly uniform and entirely confined to the bore of the cylinder. But in real case the infinite length of the cylinders cannot be used and in practice the limited length of the cylinders creates end effects which show the non-uniformities in the field within the bore. The complexity of developed a cylinder with a constantly changing magnetization also frequently directs to the design being broken into sections. ( K. Halbach, J.C. Mallinson, Raich, H., Blà ¼mler 2010) 2.6 Magnetic Material: Magnets have the basic property of attraction towards, or repulsion by other materials. A material with high permeability attracted strongly towards a magnet. There are two main examples of materials with very high permeability those are Iron and steel which powerfully attracted to magnets. Liquefied O2 is in fact slightly repelled by magnetic fields because it has very low permeability. People, gases and the vacuum of outer space has quantifiable permeability. The SI unit of magnetic field strength is the tesla, SI unit of total magnetic flux is the Weber. 1 Weber = 1 tesla following through 1 square meter, and is a very large amount of magnetic flux. Neodymium magnet: A neodymium magnet or NIB magnet which is also called as a rare earth magnet which is a good strength of attraction and repulsion, made of a combination of neodymium, iron and boron -Nd2Fe14B. Neodymium magnet on a bracket from a hard drive (PengCheng magnets Ltd., 2010) NIB magnets are comparatively very strong to their mass, they are mechanically brittle and the most powerful results to lose their magnetism at temperatures above 176 degrees fahrenheit or 80 degrees Celsius. In some cases they there strength is slightly more than samarium-cobalt like high-temperature grades will operate at up to 200 and even 230  °C. The neodymium magnet industry is constantly working to push the maximum energy product (strength) closer to the theoretical maximum of 64MGOe. A neodymium magnet has a capability to lift 1300 times more than its own mass. The small magnet have some remarkable properties it exhibits magnetic braking when moved near a non-magnetic metal due to induced eddy currents. (http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Neodymium-magnet, 2010) 2.7 Summery: The system mainly based on the repulsion of the two similar polarities of the two different magnets. The two damped and undamped systems gives the different vibration frequencies. The analyzation shows a major difference between damped and undamped system. The Halbach array stabilize the repulsive effect is to use field that move in space rather than just time. This effect can demonstrate with a rotating conductive disc and a permanent magnet, which will repel each other. A neodymium magnet or NIB is a powerfull magnet made up of a combination of neodymium, iron and boron- Nd2Fe14B is used in EMSS. Chapter 3 MAGLEV DESIGN 3.1 Electromagnetic Suspension System: (Concept) The design of the electromagnetic suspension system can be done with two types: 1) By using a Hydraulic Damper or 2) By using Linear Motor as a Damper. The concept is to design the magnetic suspension system on the front shock absorber of the motor bike to have a better performance with ease of handling and comfort ride. There are two cylinders installed on two separate arms of the front shock absorbing rods. The cylinder contains the pair of the cylindrical magnets having same pole facing each other to create the required repulsive force to have required levitation effect. The two cylindrical magnets having S (South Pole) on the outer surface concentric with the inner circle having N (North Pole) as shown in following figure:- 1) Working for the Hydraulic Damper: The two magnets are in a cylinder on a shaft, as seen in above figure comprise our required magnet for a motor bike front suspension system. In the fig. it shows the magnets are placed such as they are facing each other but with the same polarity, hence they repel each other according to the properties of magnets generate an air gap between them. The repulsive force restores displacement towards each other, and displacement away is restored by gravity. A hydraulic damper is fixed on the top of the cylinder and connected with the upper magnet with a shaft. The set of shocks used with magnets inside them that are used as the fork setup. In this cylinder the arrangement of the magnets is in such a way, place one magnet at the top of the cylinder with any polarity let us consider south polarity on down side. Then place another magnet at the bottom of the cylinder having south polarity upside so that they can be parallel each other. Then due to the same polarity of both the magnets the r epulsive force generates which gives the movement to the shaft to avoid any unwanted shocks and the fixed hydraulic damper absorbs the vibrations and instability. The shaft controlled the radial instability, the repelling force and the gravity force. The spring has a property to contract and extend but it cannot be stable, so the shaft is use to stabilize the spring. If the magnets are placed in two orthogonal axes, they repel each other but not in any one direction, so they are also instable. A thrust bearing can use to avoid the instability in which the magnets can be placed, and even if the instability take place the movable magnet will not fly has the advantage in that if instability does occur, the unstable magnet will not fly unpredictably away from the fixed magnet. The vibrations and the instability will be absorbed by the hydraulic damper. It is stated for completeness that the magnet has two poles North South. They will be attract each other if they are facing each other with different polarity, but they will repel each other if they are facing each other with same polarity.That these forces occur is very well known, but the mechanisms that create these forces are beyond the scope of this document. There are several materials of which permanent magnets may be made. 2) Working of Linear Motor as a Damper: A linear electromagnetic motor works in the straight line instead of work in rotary motion. The movement effect of this motor is very quick. L.E.M. can be used at each wheel in a vehicle which has a conventional shock and spring setup. The L.E.M. can extend as it faces any distraction like pothole and retract as it faces any bump just in milliseconds which is much greater speed than a hydraulic damper. These type of quicker retract and extract movement provides the steering stability by controlling the wheels with respect to the body of the vehicle. The L.E.M. made up of magnets and coils of wires. When current is passed through the coils, the motor retracts and extends so fastly, control unwanted movements. The speed is the major key benefit of the electromagnet. (Bose Elecromagnetic Suspension System, 2010) Fig: 3.2 (Bose Elecromagnetic Suspension System, 2010) The L.E.M. is designed in such a way so that it can give the quick respond to absorb the effects of bumps and pothols and also provides a relaxed ride. Moreover, the motor is designed such as it can supply the maximum power in a small package, which allows it to supply sufficient force to avoid the car from rolling and pitching during bad driving. At the time of acceleration, braking and cornering the L.E.M. neutralize the body motion of a car, which gives the driver a kind of driving idea and passengers comfort ride. For the smooth ride purpose, the wheel dampers are place in each wheel hub to smooth out small road imperfectionst. To generate more power an amplifier is provided which supplies the a great power to the L.E.M.s. The amplifier is a regenerative design that uses the compression force to send power back through the amplifier. (Bose Elecromagnetic Suspension System, 2010) 3.2 Goals of the magnetic design The design of the magnetic spring has the following requirements: 1. Freedom instability by one degree: In freedom instability by on degree generally the stability performance which is forecast by the non linear study is according to the formly build up linearized study. The study of freedom instability by on degree shows the relation between magnitude and velocity. As the velocity increases the magnitude increases which is increased by the stable limit cycle amplitude of vibration. Actuators are essential for stability control of every unbalanced axis. Hence the amount of unstable degrees of freedom needs to reduce. In addition to it for well organized passive vertical load bearing the direction of the unstable direction must be horizontal. 2. Ability to support large loads: Permanent magnets must be maintained on the entire weight of table plus equipment. This weight which is hold up by the electromagnets utilizes considerable amount of power which is unwanted for cost and heat reasons. 3. Effective electromagnet actuator placing: The forces which are applied asymmetrically by the actuators who apply a moment on the levitating table which would be unwanted. For rejecting vertical disturbances the electromagnet actuators must be used for the stabilizing of unstable axis. (S. J. Price and N. R. Valerio) Chapter 4 TECHNOLOGY There are three primary types of MAGLEV Technologies: One that relies on feedback controlled electromagnets (Electromagnetic Suspension or EMS). Ex.: Transrapid The another one relies on the superconducting magnets (Electrodynamic Suspension or EDS) Ex.: JR-Maglev And the last one and newer , potentially more economical system that uses premagnets i.e. Inductrack 4.1 Inductrack: A newer, perhaps less expensive system is called Inductrack. The technique used in inductrack has a load carrying capacity which is related to the speed of the vehicle, because the permanent magnets induce current in the passive electromagnetic array In the model, the permanent magnets are placed on both sides of the model; the function of these magnets is to provide horizontal lift and vertical stability. There is collection of wire loops in the track which is also called as array. There is no power supply in magnets and the model, apart from the speed of the model. The basic concept behind this system is to store the power by developing the inductrack as a motor and flywheel bearing. With only slight design changes, the bearings were unrolled into a linear track. William Post is the father of such a great innovation like inductrack. He had done this experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Inductrack uses Halbach arrays for stabilization. Halbach arrays are the system in which there are some arrangements of permanent magnets which stabilize moving loops of wires without electronic stabilization. Halbach arrays were initially developed for beam guidance of particle accelerators. They also have a magnetic field on the track side only, thus reducing any potential effects on the passengers. 4.2 Lift and Propulsion: In the whole world Japan and Germany are the most active in Maglev research; they have produced several difference approaches and designs. The technique used such as the train can be levitated by the repulsive of like poles or the attractive force of opposite poles of magnets. A linear motor propelled the train which is on the track or on the train, or both. In order togenerate the magnetic field which is necessary to propel the train there are massive electrical induction coils are placed along the track.(C.A. Guderjahn S.L. Wipf,2010) 4.3 Stability: Earnshaws theorem states that a collection of point charges cannot be maintained in a stable stationary equilibrium configuration solely by the electrostatic interaction of the charges. In the system the static magnetic bearing which uses only electromagnets and premagnets are unstable because of Earnshaws theorem; but the diamagnetic and superconducting magnets can support a Maglev steadily. Some conventional Maglev systems the electromagnets having electronic stability are used for stabilization. This works by constantly measuring the bearing distance and adjusting the electromagnets accordingly. 4.4 Magnet Weight The weight of large electromagnet is a major design issue. A very strong magnetic field is required to levitate the massive train, so conventional Maglev research is using superconductor research for an efficient electromagnet. Chapter 5 ANALYSIS 5.1 Dynamics of the magnetic suspension system: The basic principle of a simple electromagnetic suspension system is shown in Fig.1. the current I which is passes through the electromagnet generates the magnetic force Fm which acts opposite to the gravity and cause a steel ball to levitated position. The force relies on the current I, electromagnet properties and the air gap between the steel ball and the electromagnet.The motion of the steel ball in the magnetic field is expressed as G Fm = m d2X / dt2..(1) Where, m = the mass of the suspended steel ball, G = mg, the gravity force, X = the air gap between the steel ball and the electromagnet. The magnetic force Fm is a nonlinear function of the current I and the air gap X. The linearization of the static characteristic near the set point (F0 , X0 ,I0) is given as F = F0 + [I0 (X X0) + ]X0 (I I0).(2) The voltage equation of the electromagnetic coil is expressed as U = RI + L dI / dt.(3) Where, U = the voltage, R = the coil resistance, and L = the inductance. Inductance L=f (X, t) is a function of the air gap, the coil, the core, and the steel ball. The magnetic force which is generated by the electromagnet maintained the steady state air gap between the ball and the electromagnet is manipulated to balance the gravitational force of the ball. The small differences from the operating point are normalized over operating spaces (G, D, Imax , Umax) and they are defined as follows: f = , x= , i = , u = (4) Where, f i= the normalized resultant force, x = the normalized air gap, i = the ormalized current, and u = the normalized voltage. X^ , I^ , and U^ = the steady-state values. Substituting Eq. 4 into Eqs. 1, 2, and 3 the dynamics of the system can be presented as follows: f = -m d2x / dt2 = -m d2x / dt2 = d2x / dt2..(5) f = ]I0 x + ]X0 i , (6) u = i + (7) Let the set gains and time constants be Ke = ]X0 , Km = ]I0 , Te = , Tm = .(8) Therefore Eqs. 5, 6, and 7 can be rewritten as f = T2m d2x / dt2 ..(9) f = Kmx + Kei (10) u = i + Te .. (11) (M. Golob Boris Tovornik, 2010) The block diagram of the linearized model of the electromagnetic suspension system is shown in Fig. 5.2. The linear system described in the block diagram in Fig. 5.2 is unstable and controllable. As per the theory of vibration, there are two types of analysis, 1) The analysis of the Instability and the Vibration without damper and 2) The analysis of the Instability and Vibration with damper. These analyses were made in the electronic lab with help of the METLAB Software. For these two setups the two types of simulations were made in METLAB Software. The data used for the analysis is as follows: Table 3:Nominal System Parameters: Mass of the steel ball (m) 0.147 kg Maximum air gap (D) 0.025 m Number of coils (n) 1200 Coil re