The Host Chapter 40: Horrified

I slowed when I heard the sound of voices. I was not close enough to the hospital for it to be Doc. Others were on their way back. I pressed myself against the rock wall and crept forward as quietly as I could. My breathing was ragged from running. I covered my mouth with my hand to stifle the sound. â€Å"†¦ why we keep doing this,† someone complained. I wasn't sure whose voice it was. Someone I didn't know well. Maybe Violetta? It held that same depressed tone that I recognized from before. It erased any notion that I'd been imagining things. â€Å"Doc didn't want to. It was Jared's idea this time.† I was sure that it was Geoffrey who spoke now, though his voice was a little changed by the subdued revulsion in it. Geoffrey had been with Trudy on the raid, of course. They did everything together. â€Å"I thought he was the biggest opponent to this business.† That was Travis, I guessed. â€Å"He's more†¦ motivated now,† Geoffrey answered. His voice was quiet, but I could tell he was angry about something. They passed just half a foot from where I cringed into the rocks. I froze, holding my breath. â€Å"I think it's sick,† Violetta muttered. â€Å"Disgusting. It's never going to work.† They walked slowly, their steps weighted with despair. No one answered her. No one spoke again in my hearing. I stayed motionless until their footsteps had faded a little, but I couldn't wait until the sound disappeared completely. Ian might be following me already. I crept forward as quickly as I could and then started jogging again when I decided it was safe. I saw the first faint hints of daylight streaming around the curving tunnel ahead, and I shifted into a quieter lope that still kept me moving swiftly. I knew that once I was around the gradual arc, I would be able to see the doorway into Doc's realm. I followed the bend, and the light grew brighter. I moved cautiously now, putting each foot down with silent care. It was very quiet. For a moment, I wondered if I was wrong and there was no one here at all. Then, as the uneven entrance came into view, throwing a block of white sunlight against the opposite wall, I could hear the sound of quiet sobbing. I tiptoed right to the edge of the gap and paused, listening. The sobbing continued. Another sound, a soft, rhythmic thudding, kept time with it. â€Å"There, there.† It was Jeb's voice, thick with some emotion. â€Å"‘S okay. ‘S okay, Doc. Don't take it so hard.† Hushed footsteps, more than one set, were moving around the room. Fabric rustling. A brushing sound. It reminded me of the sounds of cleaning. There was a smell that didn't belong here. Strange†¦ not quite metallic, but not quite anything else, either. The smell was not familiar-I was sure I had never smelled it before-and yet I had an odd feeling that it should be familiar to me. I was afraid to move around the corner. What's the worst they will do to us? Mel pointed out. Make us leave? You're right. Things had definitely changed if that was the worst I could fear from the humans now. I took a deep breath-noticing again that strange, wrong smell-and eased around the rocky edge into the hospital. No one noticed me. Doc was kneeling on the floor, his face buried in his hands, his shoulders heaving. Jeb leaned over him, patting his back. Jared and Kyle were laying a crude stretcher beside one of the cots in the middle of the room. Jared's face was hard-the mask had come back while he was away. The cots were not empty, as they usually were. Something, hidden under dark green blankets, filled the length of both of them. Long and irregular, with familiar curves and angles†¦ Doc's homemade table was arranged at the head of these cots, in the brightest spot of sunlight. The table glittered with silver-shiny scalpels and an assortment of antiquated medical tools that I couldn't put a name to. Brighter than these were other silver things. Shimmering segments of silver stretched in twisted, tortured pieces across the table†¦ tiny silver strands plucked and naked and scattered†¦ splatters of silver liquid smeared on the table, the blankets, the walls†¦ The quiet in the room was shattered by my scream. The whole room was shattered. It spun and shook to the sound, whirled around me so that I couldn't find the way out. The walls, the silver-stained walls, rose up to block my escape no matter which way I turned. Someone shouted my name, but I couldn't hear whose voice it was. The screaming was too loud. It hurt my head. The stone wall, oozing silver, slammed into me, and I fell to the floor. Heavy hands held me there. â€Å"Doc, help!† â€Å"What's wrong with her?† â€Å"Is it having a fit?† â€Å"What did she see?† â€Å"Nothing-nothing. The bodies were covered!† That was a lie! The bodies were hideously uncovered, strewn in obscene contortions across the glittering table. Mutilated, dismembered, tortured bodies, ripped into grotesque shreds†¦ I had clearly seen the vestigial feelers still attached to the truncated anterior section of a child. Just a child! A baby! A baby thrown haphazardly in maimed pieces across the table smeared with its own blood†¦ My stomach rolled like the walls were rolling, and acid clawed its way up my throat. â€Å"Wanda? Can you hear me?† â€Å"Is she conscious?† â€Å"I think she's going to throw up.† The last voice was right. Hard hands held my head while the acid in my stomach violently overflowed. â€Å"What do we do, Doc?† â€Å"Hold on to her-don't let her hurt herself.† I coughed and squirmed, trying to escape. My throat cleared. â€Å"Let me go!† I was finally able to choke out. The words were garbled. â€Å"Get away from me! Get away; you're monsters! Torturers!† I shrieked wordlessly again, twisting against the restraining arms. â€Å"Calm down, Wanda! Shh! It's okay!† That was Jared's voice. For once, it didn't matter that it was Jared. â€Å"Monster!† I screamed at him. â€Å"She's hysterical,† Doc told him. â€Å"Hold on.† A sharp, stinging blow whipped across my face. There was a gasp, far away from the immediate chaos. â€Å"What are you doing?† Ian roared. â€Å"It's having a seizure or something, Ian. Doc's trying to bring it around.† My ears were ringing, but not from the slap. It was the smell-the smell of the silver blood dripping down the walls-the smell of the blood of souls. The room writhed around me as though it were alive. The light twisted into strange patterns, curved into the shapes of monsters from my past. A Vulture unfurled its wings†¦ a claw beast swung its heavy pincers toward my face†¦ Doc smiled and reached for me with silver trickling from his fingertips†¦ The room spun once more, slowly, and then went black. Unconsciousness didn't claim me for long. It must have been only seconds later when my head cleared. I was all too lucid; I wished I could stay oblivious longer. I was moving, rocking back and forth, and it was too black to see. Mercifully, the horrible smell had faded. The musty, humid air of the caves was like perfume. The feeling of being carried, being cradled, was familiar. That first week after Kyle had injured me, I'd traveled many places in Ian's arms. â€Å"†¦ thought she'd have guessed what we were up to. Looks like I was wrong,† Jared was murmuring. â€Å"You think that's what happened?† Ian's voice cut hard in the quiet tunnel. â€Å"That she was scared because Doc was trying to take the other souls out? That she was afraid for herself?† Jared didn't answer for a minute. â€Å"You don't?† Ian made a sound in the back of his throat. â€Å"No. I don't. As disgusted as I am that you would bring back more†¦ victims for Doc, bring them back now!-as much as that turns my stomach, that's not what upset her. How can you be so blind? Can't you imagine what that must have looked like to her in there?† â€Å"I know we had the bodies covered before -â€Å" â€Å"The wrong bodies, Jared. Oh, I'm sure Wanda would be upset by a human corpse-she's so gentle; violence and death aren't a part of her normal world. But think what the things on that table must have meant to her.† It took him another moment. â€Å"Oh.† â€Å"Yes. If you or I had walked in on a human vivisection, with torn body parts, with blood splattered on everything, it wouldn't have been as bad for us as it was for her. We'd have seen it all before-even before the invasion, in horror movies, at least. I'd bet she's never been exposed to anything like that in all her lives.† I was getting sick again. His words were bringing it back. The sight. The smell. â€Å"Let me go,† I whispered. â€Å"Put me down.† â€Å"I didn't mean to wake you. I'm sorry.† The last words were fervent, apologizing for more than waking me. â€Å"Let me go.† â€Å"You're not well. I'll take you to your room.† â€Å"No. Put me down now.† â€Å"Wanda -â€Å" â€Å"Now!† I shouted. I shoved against Ian's chest, kicking my legs free at the same time. The ferocity of my struggle surprised him. He lost his hold on me, and I half fell into a crouch on the floor. I sprang up from the crouch running. â€Å"Wanda!† â€Å"Let her go.† â€Å"Don't touch me! Wanda, come back!† It sounded like they were wrestling behind me, but I didn't slow. Of course they were fighting. They were humans. Violence was pleasure to them. I didn't pause when I was back in the light. I sprinted through the big cavern without looking at any of the monsters there. I could feel their eyes on me, and I didn't care. I didn't care where I was going, either. Just somewhere I could be alone. I avoided the tunnels that had people near them, running down the first empty one I could find. It was the eastern tunnel. This was the second time I'd sprinted through this corridor today. Last time in joy, this time in horror. It was hard to remember how I'd felt this afternoon, knowing the raiders were home. Everything was dark and gruesome now, including their return. The very stones seemed evil. This way was the right choice for me, though. No one had any reason to come here, and it was empty. I ran to the farthest end of the tunnel, into the deep night of the empty game room. Could I really have played games with them such a short time ago? Believed the smiles on their faces, not seeing the beasts underneath†¦ I moved forward until I stumbled ankle deep into the oily waters of the dark spring. I backed away, my hand outstretched, searching for a wall. When I found a rough ridge of stone-sharp-edged beneath my fingers-I turned into the depression behind the protrusion and curled myself into a tight ball on the ground there. It wasn't what we thought. Doc wasn't hurting anyone on purpose; he was just trying to save – GET OUT OF MY HEAD! I shrieked. As I thrust her away from me-gagged her so that I wouldn't have to bear her justifications-I realized how weak she'd grown in all these months of friendliness. How much I'd been allowing. Encouraging. It was almost too easy to silence her. As easy as it should have been from the beginning. It was only me now. Just me, and the pain and the horror that I would never escape. I would never not have that image in my head again. I would never be free of it. It was forever a part of me. I didn't know how to mourn here. I could not mourn in human ways for these lost souls whose names I would never know. For the broken child on the table. I had never had to mourn on the Origin. I didn't know how it was done there, in the truest home of my kind. So I settled for the way of the Bats. It seemed appropriate, here where it was as black as being blind. The Bats mourned with silence-not singing for weeks on end until the pain of the nothingness left behind by the lack of music was worse than the pain of losing a soul. I'd known loss there. A friend, killed in a freak accident, a falling tree in the night, found too late to save him from the crushed body of his host. Spiraling†¦ Upward†¦ Harmony; those were the words that would have held his name in this language. Not exact, but close enough. There had been no horror in his death, only grief. An accident. The bubbling stream was too discordant to remind me of our songs. I could grieve beside its harmony-free clatter. I wrapped my arms tightly around my shoulders and mourned for the child and the other soul who had died with it. My siblings. My family. If I had found a way free of this place, if I had warned the Seekers, their remains would not be so casually mangled and mixed together in that blood-steeped room. I wanted to cry, to keen in misery. But that was the human way. So I locked my lips and hunched in the darkness, holding the pain inside. My silence, my mourning, was stolen from me. It took them a few hours. I heard them looking, heard their voices echo and warp in the long tubes of air. They were calling for me, expecting an answer. When they received no answer, they brought lights. Not the dim blue lanterns that might never have revealed my hiding place here, buried under all this blackness, but the sharp yellow lances of flashlights. They swept back and forth, pendulums of light. Even with the flashlights, they didn't find me until the third search of the room. Why couldn't they leave me alone? When the flashlight's beam finally disinterred me, there was a gasp of relief. â€Å"I found her! Tell the others to get back inside! She's in here after all!† I knew the voice, but I didn't put a name to it. Just another monster. â€Å"Wanda? Wanda? Are you all right?† I didn't raise my head or open my eyes. I was in mourning. â€Å"Where's Ian?† â€Å"Should we get Jamie, do you think?† â€Å"He shouldn't be on that leg.† Jamie. I shuddered at his name. My Jamie. He was a monster, too. He was just like the rest of them. My Jamie. It was a physical pain to think of him. â€Å"Where is she?† â€Å"Over here, Jared. She's not†¦ responding.† â€Å"We didn't touch her.† â€Å"Here, give me the light,† Jared said. â€Å"Now, the rest of you, get out of here. Emergency over. Give her some air, okay?† There was a shuffling noise that didn't travel far. â€Å"Seriously, people. You're not helping. Leave. All the way out.† The shuffling was slow at first, but then became more productive. I could hear many footsteps fading away in the room and then disappearing out of it. Jared waited until it was silent again. â€Å"Okay, Wanda, it's just you and me.† He waited for some kind of answer. â€Å"Look, I guess that must have been pretty†¦ bad. We never wanted you to see that. I'm sorry.† Sorry? Geoffrey'd said it was Jared's idea. He wanted to cut me out, slice me into little pieces, fling my blood on the wall. He'd slowly mangle a million of me if he could find a way to keep his favorite monster alive with him. Slash us all to slivers. He was quiet for a long time, still waiting for me to react. â€Å"You look like you want to be alone. That's okay. I can keep them away, if that's what you want.† I didn't move. Something touched my shoulder. I cringed away from it, into the sharp stones. â€Å"Sorry,† he muttered. I heard him stand, and the light-red behind my closed eyes-began to fade as he walked away. He met someone in the mouth of the cave. â€Å"Where is she?† â€Å"She wants to be alone. Let her be.† â€Å"Don't get in my way again, Howe.† â€Å"Do you think she wants comfort from you? From a human?† â€Å"I wasn't party to this -â€Å" Jared answered in a lower voice, but I could still hear the echoes. â€Å"Not this time. You're one of us, Ian. Her enemy. Did you hear what she said in there? She was screaming monsters. That's how she sees us now. She doesn't want your comfort.† â€Å"Give me the light.† They didn't speak again. A minute passed, and I heard one set of slow footsteps moving around the edge of the room. Eventually, the light swept across me, turning my lids red again. I huddled myself more tightly together, expecting him to touch me. There was a quiet sigh, and then the sound of him sitting on the stone, not as close beside me as I would have expected. With a click, the light disappeared. I waited in the silence for a long time for him to speak, but he was just as silent as I was. Finally, I stopped waiting and returned to my mourning. Ian did not interrupt. I sat in the blackness of the big hole in the ground and grieved for lost souls with a human at my side.

Personal Safety

STATE UNIVERSITY 2011 Bulletin for Students and Parents Personal Safety on Campus July 14, 2011 Overview State University prides itself as having one of the safest campuses in the entire northeast. Still, it cannot be stressed enough that personal safety, either on campus or off, is a shared responsibility. Students must understand that our campus security measures are only as effective as the precautions students take to ensure their own safety. In response to concerns over a 2010 incident in which a male student was accosted and robbed by a local resident, State University has prepared this bulletin as a primer on personal safety.Please talk with your student before the 2011—2012 school year begins about this increasingly important issue. If you have questions or specific concerns, please feel free to call our Campus Security Department at (555)  555. 1212. A Message from the President: —————————— Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- At State University, we consider the safety of our students and faculty of utmost importance. During the first week of classes, we will be offering daily seminars on campus safety. Students are strongly encouraged to attend one of these sessions. Personal Safety Know Your SurroundingsIf you detect suspicious activity, act immediately to remove yourself from danger. If you find yourself in a dangerous situation, follow these steps: 1. Trust your instincts and don’t take unnecessary risks. 2. Call for attention while moving to a lighted or populated area. 3. Call campus police (x1099) or 911. 4. If there is a fire alarm nearby, activate it. 5. If necessary, defend yourself with your keys or a pen. 6. Get yourself out of the situation as quickly as possible. At Home Discuss safety issues with your roommates and make sure you all have an understanding when it comes to safety.Agree to keep doors and windows locked, especially at night. Ke ep important safety numbers near your phone (see the end of this bulletin). Never open the door for strangers or let strangers into the building, even if they claim to be friends with a resident. Take the following individual precautions: * Never leave messages on your door announcing your whereabouts. * Always have your keys ready before reaching the door. * Never loan your keys to anyone. * Never prop open an entry door. * Do not write your name or address on your keys. * Report any defective locks immediately. Property SafetyPerhaps the most common yet preventable crime on college campuses is property theft. Following is a list of the most commonly stolen items: * * MP3 players * Cash * Jewelry * Bicycles * Skateboards * Laptops * Wallets/Purses * Backpacks * CDs/DVDs * Books * Cell phones * Credit cards Take the same precautions you would use to protect yourself. There is no need for flashy or expensive jewelry on campus; leave especially valuable jewelry in the safety of your h ome. Remember that you have to rely not only on yourself taking precautions, but also your roommates being responsible for your belongings, so discuss this with them.Never carry large amounts of cash and never leave your belongings unattended in the library or other common areas. Keep a list of serial numbers in case stolen property is recovered. Consider registering your bicycle with the SUCSS–sponsored retrieval program. Common Safety Tips * Always carry your cell phone. Important numbers are given at the end of this bulletin. * Carry a safety whistle, available free of charge at the Student Center. * Learn to defend yourself with unconventional weapons, such as your keys or a pen. * Avoid walking alone or in poorly lit areas at night.Use the â€Å"Buddy System. † * If you must walk at night, get a portable flashlight. * Be prepared. Know how you will respond beforehand. * Consider taking a self-defense course. * Keep your purse or handbag draped over your shoulder. * Never hitch a ride with someone you do not know. * If walking or jogging near the road, always face oncoming traffic. Important Numbers Campus PDx1099Strickland Hall, 211 City Police91134 Post Road Fire Dept555. 31237 Post Road Hospital555. 123419 Liberty Street Campus MDx1010Strickland Hall, 110

A Report On The Maybank ATM Machines Information Technology Essay

A Report On The Maybank ATM Machines Information Technology Essay Today, it is the largest financial services group in Malaysia. Its extensive products and services include commercial banking, investment banking, Islamic banking, offshore banking, leasing and hire purchase, insurance, factoring, trustee services, asset management, stock broking, nominee services, venture capital and Internet banking. (http://www.maybank2u.com.my/) Maybank currently ranks among the top five banks in ASEAN, and is a Qualifying Full Bank (QFB) in Malaysia. For the convenience of Maybank customers, all Maybank’s 374 branch offices and more than 2,800 ATM machines are strategically located in both the business districts and suburban estates.( http://www.maybank2u.com.my/) Today, Maybank proudly stands above its peers as Malaysia’s flagship financial services group in a vibrant, strong and highly competitive banking and financial services landscape. Total assets of the Group stand at RM310.7 billion.( http://www.maybank2u.com.my/) 2.0 Internal Chiefly, the environmental factors are categorized into two different groups, they are internal and external. Internal factors are taken place within the boundaries of organisation. Specifically to the case of Maybank, there are few significant internal factors that they are subject to will be examined such as products and services, vision and mission, SWOT analysis, and Leadership. 2.1 SWOT analysis Strength – well known bank 374 branch offices in Malaysia. – more than 2,800 ATM machines – Correspondent banking relationship with 700 foreign banks throughout the world. – Strong performance where it was listed second largest in Malaysia Stock Exchange and Bursa Malaysia Weaknesses -Inefficient Service and poor customer Service. – Have to pay huge amount of money to stakeholder Opportunities -experts in the industry and shares their experience with the employee – Maybank have many other investments from other companies Threat – Economic slowdown li ke right now where stalling economies are bad for the banking sector Table 1.0 SWOT analysis 2.1.1STRENGTHS It is a well known bank where it have over 374 branch office and more than 2,800 ATM machines. Correspondent banking relationship with 700 foreign banks throughout the world. It also have diversity in product where they provide opening account, giving loan, credit cards, investment & insurance, and Islamic banking.(http://www.maybank2u.com.my/) Strong performance where it was listed second largest in Malaysia Stock Exchange and Bursa Malaysia and Maybank workforce come from a multifaceted background of skills, disciplines, experience and industry knowledge to create talented teams of idea generators. 2.1.2WEAKNESSES Inefficient Service and poor customer service, for example Maybank does not have bank systems be automated with built-in security features to verify their customer’s accounts and details without having to rely on a piece of physical paper with a signature. T his would make customer harder to replace card or change account if go to different branch. This kind of service is totally unacceptable in today’s competitive world where time equals money. Have to pay huge amount of money to stake where dividend payout ratio (of 60%) to the stakeholders. They set policy to pay dividend of 60% percent of their profit as the long term policy. (http://www.maybank2u.com.my/) 2.1.3OPPORTUNITIE Growth of existing market where Maybank is experts in the industry and shares their experience with the employee so by then they can expand further in the industry.

Un Membership Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Un Membership - Research Paper Example Charter (Weiss and Daws, 126). Firstly, the state seeking UN membership must submit a formal application to the secretary general of the United Nations. Usually, the head of state of that country writes and submits the application on behalf of the state. The application submitted must contain a clearly stated declaration that the state in question is in full acceptance of the obligations spelt out in the UN Charter. The Secretary General then submits the application to the President of the Security Council, who presents it to a sitting of the Security Council for deliberation by its members. The Security Council reviews the application, and its members vote on whether to accept or reject it. The Security Council comprises 15 member states, including five states that are permanent members. These permanent members are Russia, France, China, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Recommendation for admission must receive nine affirmative votes out of the possible 15, provided that none of the permanent member st ates votes against it. The Security Council then recommends the applicant state to the UN General Assembly for membership (UN News Center, www.un.org). The General Assembly is the deliberative organ of the United Nations. It comprises all the member states of the UN and meets in regular annual sessions to deliberate on various issues. The General Assembly reviews the application and considers the human rights and political record of the applicant state to determine if it is a peace-loving state. In addition, the General Assembly considers whether the Applicant State is fully willing and able to fulfill the obligations contained in the UN Charter. Finally, the members of the General Assembly present at the session take a vote regarding the application. The applicant state acquires membership if at least two-thirds of the member states vote in the affirmative. Following voting by the General Assembly, the Secretary

Historic Preservation and the Imagined West Essay

Historic Preservation and the Imagined West - Essay Example Albuquerque today is one of the fastest growing cities in the west. It sits in the valley between two rivers and much of their history is related to â€Å"sitting between two rivers†. It is high desert and is always warm and dry. It is in New Mexico and its original inhabitants were Mexican. There still is a large population of Hispanic people in the Albuquerque area and most of the culture of the city is affected by the Hispanic culture. There is also a large pueblo Indian culture in the Albuquerque area including Southern Ute, Navajo and Apache (McCullah, 2007, pg 30). These cultures have affected the past culture of the city and continue to affect the present culture. As you enter Old Town, you will notice all of these influences immediately. Old Town in Albuquerque sits at Central and 4th Streets in the city. It took $8 million to make it old enough for a tourist historic district. It was, in fact, the area in which old Hispanic culture began. In fact, back when the city was small, it was very close to the center of town. There are iron fences and gardens just like you would imagine. You can stroll around the area in the shade of the verandas from the buildings. Shopping is readily available and you better bring your wallet because they are very expensive and exclusive in nature. This culture was created from another, older culture. The Hispanics were driven from the area when the renovations began. They were evicted from their homes. The Navajo used to sell all original jewelry off blankets on the streets and the local life was vibrant yet poor. It is a little ironic that the very culture of the people were driven away in order to represent that culture as historic. This writer believes that is what Morley was trying t o tell us in her book (Morley, 2006). Today Old Town is a beautiful place to visit and certainly there are many things to do and much to buy. It is definitely a tourist attraction. The advertisements on the internet are very

Social and cultural diversity in united arab emirates Research Paper

Social and cultural diversity in united arab emirates - Research Paper Example These factors affect relations that people have and what they do in various important situations and one of the most notable influences that they have is the influence on the media. Some of the factors that affect communication in UAE include; religion, sex and dress code for different people in the environment. These factors are not a reserve for anyone but they affect all people, whether they are locals or foreigners who stay in the UAE (King, 2008). Religion is one of the factors that affect the way people of the UAE differ or identify themselves from other places of the world, who do not come from the country. For example, in Dubai, there are numerous mosques where people convene for prayers and they are uniquely identifiable from different points. This has influenced the culture of the people who stay in that place at any time of the year regardless of the different backgrounds they could have in terms of religion in that they have to respond to different calls for prayer in cer tain ways. For example, the religious culture of the people of the UAE does not allow any person to eat in public daylight in the month of Ramadhan regardless of the differences in the religious beliefs (Terterov & Shoult, 2006). On the other hand, people in the UAE have particular dress codes, which is unique in different contexts and all the people ought to conform to requirements in such contexts. For example, while people can be on swimwear while they are around the beach, in conservative areas in Dubai, they should wear modestly in conformity to the requirements of the culture. People should not wear shorts and T-shirts when they enter the mosques for any activity, although they are not restricted to wear them when they are in town (Terterov & Shoult, 2006). Differences in sexes are identifiable when it comes to the people in the UAE because they should show different behavior in their various activities in the course of life. In UAE, women should cover their heads when they go to the mosque but men can go without covering their heads and do any activities in there. The roles vary in terms sexes in UAE with men acceptably allowed to conduct services in the mosque but women should not (Terterov & Shoult, 2006). In the UAE, there factors of that serve as the identity for the people and that are important aspects of media because they have a great influence in the lives of people. This is because what the culture allows publication is what the media of communication should transmit to the people according to cultural sanctions of the UAE. The issues, which are not favorable to the dominant Muslim culture in UAE, are not likely to go on air because it has a strict disciplinary action for the people who deviate. This means that the media in UAE is under the obligation to fulfill the cultural expectations as set out in the traditions of the place in which they are working. Media in UAE has to formulate policies in their services delivery that represent the cult ure of people in the country so that they will not deviate from the right purposes (Ward, 2013). Media is influenced by differences in the people who stay in the area because they have limitations in terms of the different things that they can display in the videos or papers. In the representation of videos and other forms of information, the coverage of things that pose social conflicts is regulated majorly by the popularity of the

PhD in Human Resources Management Thesis Proposal

PhD in Human Resources Management - Thesis Proposal Example Performance management’s capability to motivate and encourage organizational employees towards not only looking to accomplish higher goals for themselves but also the organization will be recognized in this proposed study. Performance management has become a part of organizational strategic and also an integrated approach. Performance management’s capability of delivering sustained success for an organization has been recognized. It has been observed that performance management helps people working in an organization to get motivated. It also helps to increase the teamwork and togetherness in an organization. It helps to improve an individual’s contribution and efforts towards working for achieving common organizational goals (ICFAI, 2005). Performance management provides a context for measuring performance. Performance can provide a guide for an organization to judge their present working condition and the need existing in the organization for improving the performance. Performance management can also provide necessary impetus in an organization to look to organize training and developmental programs if the organizational performance is not up to the required level. Performance management can help to shape an individual’s job design according to the capabilities of an individual. Performance management also helps to shape an organization’s culture and their functionality. It also provides a framework for rewarding employees with incentives and bonuses according to their performance. Moreover, performance management works as a strategic management tool for an organization for providing very important and crucial inputs which also helps in overall organizational development. Performance management helps to align organizational and individual plans, objectives and goals (Lebas, 1995). Performance management in an organization helps to establish a culture in which employees feel motivated and

EssayOn the short story, Woman Hollering Creek, by Sandra Cisneros pp Essay

EssayOn the short story, Woman Hollering Creek, by Sandra Cisneros pp 43-56 - Essay Example Despite some act of defiance from most women, there are still a lot of cultures who practice the tradition of arranged marriage. As a trade-off, women sacrifice their personal feelings and emotions for the sake of pleasing their family and following what tradition dictates. Love is deeply compromised in an effort to bridge the gap between an aging custom and family pride and dignity. Cleà ³filas is no exception to this rule when she agreed to marry Juan Pedro, a man whom she hardly knew but nonetheless has a decent disposition. Just like most Latin, Asian, and European women, Cleà ³filas is also agog with telenovelas and soap operas as it acts as an outlet over one’s frustrations in real life. This imaginative imagery also serves as their emotional outlet and standard for the meaning of true love. Betrayal, acts of deceit, and broken heartedness are only a few of the events that are being taught in these telenovelas towards the conquest of true and eternal love. This had made Cleà ³filas believe and accept that love is not always perfect, and that to suffer for love is good; that a woman must sacrifice her freedom, endure physical abuse, and emotional battery – all in the name of love. Such connection, between true love and telenovelas, may sound absurd, but this is the reality for most women. Mexican women for one can attest to this, hence the powerful presence of soap operas that has continued to dominate television screens since time immemorial. All the pain, grief, shame, rage, and joy being portrayed in these â€Å"soaps† have made Cleà ³filas realize that â€Å"to suffer for love is good. The pain all sweet somehow. In the end†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (45). Before, she had always thought of fighting back if and when a man would strike her. But when this moment came, â€Å"he slapped her once, and then again, and again†¦but she didn’t fight back†¦as she imagined she might when she saw such things in the telenovelas† (47). The inability to

Man in the middle and secrity in multichannel Essay

Man in the middle and secrity in multichannel - Essay Example Hence, the attacker makes two systems believe that they are communicating to one another while the attacker controls and modifies the communicated messages. The attacker achieves this by splitting the original TCP connection into two new connections and acting as a proxy where it can read, insert, and modify the data in the intercepted communication. The man in the middle is unauthorized and attacks in real time. The attack can occur in two ways. It can occur where the attacker controls a router along the normal point of traffic communication between two communicating systems. It can also occur where the attacker is located on the same broadcast domain with one of the systems.  The attacker uses several tools like packet creator, Ettercap, Cain e Abel and Dsniff that are efficient in LAN networks. The tools manifest Arp spoof capabilities that that permit interceptions. The man in the middle can attack and modify a HTTP because the HTTP traffic is unencrypted and contains no authen tication. It can also attempt to intercept HTTPS traffic by using a custom certificate. The attacker uses proxy tools like Paros Prox and Proxy Fuzz to interact with HTTP protocol (OWASP, 2009, p.1). The man in the middle attack takes advantage of weak network communication protocols to convince a host to route the information through the attacker instead of through the normal router. However, the man in the middle attack is also affirmative in developing a step of a web application and in creating Web Vulnerability assessments. Because of these attacks, the computer technological sector has derived various ways to secure to the communications in the systems in Multichannel and Multi-level Authentication security protocols. To ensure data integrity and originator authenticity between devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) whose owners has no past

Outline and evaluate the learning theory of attachment Essay Example for Free

Outline and evaluate the learning theory of attachment Essay The learning theory of attachment focuses of two concepts; operant and classical conditioning. Classical conditioning as an explanation for attachment describes the baby receiving food (and unconditioned stimulus) and producing an unconditioned response (happiness) and the mother feeding the baby will be the neutral stimulus. The baby will then experience the mother giving them food (and therefore happiness) a number of times and then learn to associate the mother (now a conditioned stimulus) with the feeling of happiness (a conditioned response) and thus an attachment will form. Operant conditioning describes attachment as a reinforced response. When a baby gets food its discomfort will become happiness and the baby will associate this feeling with food and therefore food will become the primary reinforcer. The person feeding the baby will also be associated with the happiness and therefore become the secondary reinforcer and an attachment will form. (evaluate) Even though the learning theory of attachment provides an adequate explanation of attachment it is flawed. Research evidence, such as that of Harlows monkey study, opposes the idea of learning theory as an explanation of attachment. Harlows monkey study involved giving a baby monkey the choice of either food or comfort (food was portrayed by a wire monkey with a feeding bottle attached to it and comfort was portrayed by a wire monkey covered in cloth). According to the learning theory of attachment the monkey should have spent most of his time on the food monkey, however the opposite was true the monkey spent the majority of his time on the comfort monkey. This decreases the validity of the learning theory of attachment as an explanation for attachment because the findings of Harlows monkey study opposed what it suggested. However, the monkey study was conducted on monkeys and it could be argued that this is not an accurate representation of human attachment. Humans are a lot more c omplex than animals and so therefore research on animals to study behaviour cannot be applied to human behaviour. Outline and evaluate the learning theory of attachment (12 marks) A GRADE (outline)

High DUI Rates in America: An Evaluation

High DUI Rates in America: An Evaluation America’s Ludicrously High DUI Rate Joshuah Rauch Careful examination of America’s DUI rate leads to pitiful statistics. The decrease over the last 30 years fails to be enough. Increased public education falls short of elaborate acquittal paths criminal defense attorneys, who specialize in intoxicated driving, are afforded by the judicial system. The embarrassing rates speak for themselves. According to the CDC, 112 million drunk driving incidents occur each year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , 2011). America’s DUI Rate is one the highest worldwide, despite increased laws and education, due to the loopholes in the court system and highly trained criminal defense attorneys. To appreciate how frequently people operate a vehicle while impaired, the legal limits for the United States need to be addressed. All States except Michigan have a Blood Alcohol Concentration Limit (BAC) of 0.08 (Progressive Insurance Company , 2004). Compared to different countries, the United States has a very high BAC. For example, Sweden, Poland, Norway, and Greece have a BAC of 0.02 while Turkey, Thailand, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Peru, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, China, Denmark, France, Finland, Austria, Australia, Argentina, Venezuela, and the Philippines have a BAC of 0.05 (Brown-Forman, 2010). Countries such as Romania, Russia, Nepal, Hungary, Armenia, Columbia, Ethiopia, Brazil, and the Czech Republic have a zero tolerance policy, thus yielding a BAC of 0 (Brown-Forman, 2010). At a BAC level of just 0.03 a person starts to experience increased talking, excitement, and reaction time; while simultaneously experiencing decreased attention, judgment, and inhibition. It is easy to see why that in the United States, pilots are prohibited from flying any aircraft if alcohol has been consumed in the last 8 hours or if the pilot’s BAC is a 0.04, half the legal limit for operating a vehicle (Federal Aviation Regulations, 2005). The catch phrase â€Å"If you drink, don’t drive† is also easily understood because the early effects on the body are apparent after a BAC of much less than the United States legal limit. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was founded on September 5, 1980 by Candy Lightner when her daughter Cari was killed by a drunk driver. According to the MADD website, its mission statement â€Å"provides grass roots leadership to create major social change in the attitude and behavior of Americans toward drunk driving† (MADD, 2014). Few would argue that MADD has been the driving force in increased legislation against drunk driving and also improved education regarding the effects of driving under the influence. Raising the minimum drinking age to 21, educating parents on the importance of keeping their children alcohol free through the Power of Parents, partnering with the national football league through game day initiatives, working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on â€Å"Driver Sober or Get Pulled Over† and providing no cost victim and survivor services are some of the successful endeavors that MADD has undertaken to combat drunk driving in America (MADD, 2014). Not that long ago, 25,000 was the average number of people killed each year, and this number is now down to about half of that with the current rate falling between 10,000 and 11,000. In 1949, when Margaret Mitchell, famous for writing Gone With The Wind, was killed by a drunk driver with an extensive drunk driving record, the prevailing attitude of the public was in favor of the driver (NPR, 2011). MADD has certainly been successful in dropping the rate of DUI deaths and aiding in shifting the public’s opinion of the victims who are injured or killed. In South Carolina, the Sober or Slammer crackdown sought to greatly decrease and hopefully eliminate vehicle related accidents and deaths cause by drunk driving. Numerous state-wide checkpoints, manned by law enforcement, with the goal of catching people driving under the influence were put into place. The cell phone initiative, *HP, was also put into place to aid law enforcement by giving fellow drivers a quick way to notify authorities of a potential drunk driver. TV ads and radio commercials, combined with billboards and portable message boards, educated the public about the campaign. With the number one cause of vehicle accidents resulting in fatalities involving drunk driving, the campaign saw success with a decrease of 100 less deaths from driving under the influence (South Carolina Department of Public Safety , 2013). While this initially may seem like an effective decrease, further investigation gives way to websites such as DUIBlock.com that list where law enforcement will b e conducting â€Å"random† checkpoints. A person can pay a yearly fee to have text alerts sent to them in real time as checkpoints are added or discovered. While the website states that there are not trying to help people who are drinking avoid the checkpoints, the ads on the page include links to DUI attorneys. It is hard to imagine why an individual would need to know where DUI checkpoints are if not driving under the influence, or at least slightly intoxicated (DUI Block, 2008-2014) Practicing as a DUI attorney is quite lucrative. A quick drive down the highway or a flip through the yellow pages leads to a vast list of available options. The average cost of a DUI attorney is 2,500 dollars for the first offense (Esurance , 2014). A look at the first number addressed, 112 million annual drunk driving incidents, demonstrates the amount of available business to DUI attorneys. A newspaper article from July of 2013 in Los Angeles, California, addresses the loopholes in the law. The importance of a DUI defense lawyer is stressed and the phrase, â€Å"A skillful Los Angeles DUI attorney will review your case and look for even the slightest misstep by the arresting officer, in an effort to successfully resolve your pending DUI case† (Marketwired, 2013). There is no doubt after reading the article that the primary purpose of the DUI attorney is to find a technicality in which to exonerate the arrested party. Considering the CDC statistic is based upon actual guilty verdicts, the real rate of drunk drivers in America is much higher than the reported yearly rate of 112 million. Not all states, however, are like California. South Dakota for example has a very strict DUI requirement. While previously boasting one of the worst DUI rates in America, the new conditions leave no room for grace. Repeat offenders are denied the right to even consume alcohol. This policy is called â€Å"South Dakota’s 24/7 Sobriety Program.† By testing individuals twice a day (by a breathalyzer), requiring ankle bracelets that detect alcohol use (to be worn at all times) twice a week urine tests and sweat patches that are worn and subsequently sent in, South Dakota has decreased its DUI rate by 33 percent. An additional bonus to the tax payers of South Dakota is these tests must be paid for by the guilty party (South Dakota DUI Program worth a look, 2013). Each breathalyzer test cost the individual one dollar, while the urine tests are five dollars; charging the guilty party a minimum of twenty-four dollars a week. The 24/7 Sobriety Program received a national CSG Inno vations Award following the incredible results (Chavers, 2008). Not all states are quick to adopt South Dakota’s strict DUI laws. Another example of a state offering an article in the newspaper detailing how to get out of a DUI is Massachusetts. According to the article entitled Survive A DUI, Massachusetts offers several ways to keep your driver’s license. A 30 day grace period, a work only license and an ignition interlock are options offenders have in order to keep driving even after a DUI. Although a letter from the guilty party’s employer is required before a restricted license is given, the typical 48 hour jail sentence is allowed to be conducted at night or on the weekend (Meurrow, 2007). It comes as no surprise that several states are not eager to change to such strict rules as South Dakota, especially when law enforcement individuals are guilty. Take for instance Alaska’s own David Carlson. Although he is an Assistant District Attorney in Fairbanks, he was arrested twice in February 2010 alone for DUI. Elsewhere in Anchorage, Alaska, Supreme Court Judge Patrick McKay, was found guilty for DUI. Since even the people who are supposed to uphold the law find a DUI is acceptable, there is no wonder why Alaska has an extensive issue with drunk driving (In Case You Havent Heard , 2010). In Iowa, another state with a rather high DUI rate, 30 percent of high school students admit to driving a vehicle while either drunk or high while 35 percent admit to riding in a vehicle with a driver known to be drunk or high (Schootman, 1993). Law enforcement and teenagers are not the only ones driving drunk. Josh Brent, a defensive lineman for the Dallas Cowboys, drove drunk and killed fellow player Jerry Brown. The suspension he faced of the first 10 games was seen as a â€Å"little severe† by many fans and even Cowboy owner Jerry Jones. Other notable football stars who have been involved in fatal drunk driving accidents are Donte Stallwoth and Leonard Little. All three of these players were back to playing football within a year. Apparently, killing another person while intoxicated is easily overlooked when the money made as a NFL star can buy a fabulous attorney who can navigate through the individual case and find a technicality to bring a dismissal of the charges (Smith, 2014). The loopholes attorneys use include a distinctive vision test. The case of Robert Perkins, who had a blood alcohol level of .17 and five prior DUI convictions when he killed Cornell Royston, is simply disgusting. Perkins’ lawyer, Jane Gorte, was able to find an optometrist to evaluate his contact lenses and contrast sensitivity. Because the doctor determined his contacts were old and therefore affected his contrast sensitivity, his charges were decreased despite the fact he killed a man while having over twice the legal limit (Moss, 1987). California DUI attorney Lawrence Taylor is interested in training fellow colleagues in the art of DUI defense. Alabama boasts an organization called the National College for DUI Defense, which specializes in training lawyers on how to effectively contest DUI evidence offered by law enforcement. Imagine a police officer, who once arrested drunk drivers, turned attorney who now spends his days representing suspects. New Hampshire lawyer Bruce Dorner is just this man. After learning the intricacies involved, he now offers training on overcoming a DUI. He even promotes a driver’s license that would allow an individuals to have driving privileges to a job. Advice such as immediately asking for a lawyer and refusing to answer questions are some of the tips given by DUI lawyers. They also advise that unless there is a penalty for refusing a field sobriety test, do not take one. Refusing a blood alcohol test is also a tip given, since the breathalyzer test is easier to dispute. Law enforcement individuals who forget to ask suspects if they have a physical problem affecting or preventing completion of a field sobriety test such as diabetes, acid reflux medicine, cancer, or even if ethanol enhanced gasoline was recently used, can rest assured a DUI lawyer will have the evidence thrown out (Tebo, 2005). Mothers Against Drunk Driving has certainly seen success in setting a national drinking age, exposing the true victims of drunk driving, and decreasing yearly fatalities of alcohol induced vehicular accidents. A few states such as South Carolina and South Dakota have implemented programs that have lowered the DUI rate, while most other states continue to have far too many DUI incidents. America features one of the highest worldwide blood alcohol concentration limits, yet continues to see exorbitant rates of drunk driving events. Considering every impaired driver is not caught, the rates are pathetically higher. As long as law-makers, sport stars, and the Average Joe continue getting away with driving intoxicated due to the flawed judicial system, money hungry lawyers will continue to profit from the travesty responsible for over 300 thousand accidents and 30 deaths each day in America. Bibliography Brown-Forman. (2010, December). Brown-Forman Our Thinking ABout Drinking. Retrieved from Our Thinking About Drinking: http://ourthinkingaboutdrinking.com/uploadedImages/Categories/Drinking_and_Driving/BLOOD-ALCOHOL-CONCENTRATION-(BAC)-LIMITS-WORLDWIDE.png Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . (2011, October 4). CDC Online Newsroom Press Release: October 4, 2011 . Retrieved from CDC Web Site : http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2011/p1004_drinking_driving.html Chavers, M. (2008). South Dakota DUI Offenders Get Sober . State News (Council of State Goverments) , pp. 51(10),27. DUI Block. (2008-2014). Find Local DUI Checkpoints . Retrieved from DUIBlock.com: http://www.duiblock.com/ Esurance . (2014). Esurance- The True Cost of a DUI. Retrieved from esurance.com: http://www.esurance.com/violations/true-cost-of-dui Federal Aviation Regulations. (2005, June 12). Alcohol and its effect on pilots . Retrieved from Flight Physical : http://flightphysical.com/pilot/alcohol.htm In Case You Havent Heard . (2010, March 22). Alcoholism Drug Abuse Weekly. MADD. (2014). Madd Mission Statement . Retrieved from MADD: http://www.madd.org/about-us/mission/ Marketwired. (2013, July 2). The Yearly July 4 DUI Rally . Meurrow, L. (2007, January/February ). Survive a DUI. Mens Health , pp. 22(1),112. Moss, D. C. (1987, May ). New DUI Defenses . ABA Journal . NPR, S. (2011, November 17). U.S. Behind The Curve In Drunk Driving. Retrieved from NPR: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/17/142462512/u-s-behind-the-curve-in-drunk-driving-author-finds Progressive Insurance Company . (2004, July). Drunk Driving, BAC, State BAC Limits, Vehicle Resources . Retrieved from Progressive Web Site : http://www.progressive.com/vehicle-resources/blood-alcohol-calculator/ Schootman, M. (1993). Safety Behavior Among Iowa Junio HIgh and High school Students. American Journal of Public Health . Smith, M. D. (2014, September 5). Jerry Jones: Josh Brent was Suspended . Retrieved from NBC Sports . South Carolina Department of Public Safety . (2013, December 13). Retrieved from Sober or Slammer: http://www.scdps.gov/oea/nr2013/121213.html South Dakota DUI Program worth a look. (2013, May 23). The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. Tebo, M. G. (2005, February). New Test for DUI Defense . ABA Journal .

Consumer Culture Essay -- Consumerism

â€Å"What is consumer culture?† In the late 19th, early 20th century a new phenomenon arose. Along with the development of industrial advances and urbanization of the emerging American culture was the growth and subsequent domination of the â€Å"consumer culture†. Consumer culture is a term that goes hand and hand with the American way of life today, but in those days it was a new and unique experience. Along with the development of the mail order catalog, advertising became a focal point of American mass media. Advertising can be traced back as early as Franklin’s â€Å"Philadelphia Gazette†. After the turn of the century hand bills were given in the streets listing goods and services that many merchants could provide, and the New York Sun boasted that, along with news, readers could view advertisements in full print. The U.S government realized the emergence of such a strong and forceful medium and that prompted them to slap the Stamp Act on any print advertisement way back in 1765. There ar e many facets of consumer culture that reach from retail and merchandise and to sports and leisure. The rise of baseball as a popular sport deemed it America’s favorite pastime (which is another example of consumer culture; giving something a label makes it more accessible to the public. Plus if its AMERICA’S favorite pastime, Americans of the day should love it, right.) As well as football being established with rules and regulations, driving the competitive nature of the game way up, and boxi...

Loneliness in of Mice and Men :: John Steinbeck

A novel which explores the the theme of loneliness is 'Of Mice and Men' by John Steinbeck. The characters George, Crooks, Candy and Curley's wife are used to show loneliness. In the novel the two main characters, George and Lennie, are starting a new job in California after being ordered out of their last job as a result of Lennie's childish behavior. They work as farm laborers and have always had a dream of they could own their own land. This dream they have is typically an aspiration that many people have but unfortunately never attain. Although, luckily enough they get offered money which by a character called Candy, and this sum of money boosts their chances of capturing their dream. However, the kindled hope they have soon evaporates, with tragic consequences. George's often dismaying desire is to accompany Lennie. Georges loneliness is very peculiar as unlike the other characters who face seclusion, George is united with a friend. However, Lennie is a phenomenally immature adult and as a result feels isolated. This affects him as he ends up either instructing or telling of Lennie when they talk which ultimately means George cannot have adult conversation, something which he deeply desires. An example of Lennie immaturity is shown when George enquires why he has a dead mouse. '' It on'y a mouse. Jus a dead mouse. George. I didn't kill it, honest. I found it dead''. The way Lennie tries to make out there is nothing wrong illustrates his lack of knowledge and insight into the world and shows how this may affect the interaction between the pair. It culminates in the assessment that although George may have a friend, he is so alien to normal individuals that in George's eyes, his human credibility is non-existent. Despite this, he has built a sound relationship with an innocent and nice person who he fears may suffer on his own. For these reasons he finds it difficult to detach himself from Lennie. Nonetheless, his decision to stay ultimately means he will be stuck with a person who he cannot have a grown-up relationship with and have the enjoyable experiences he might have if he was with a more intelligent person .Subsequently George is not able to live the way he wants to live as Lennie acts as a hindrance to his plans. George's reluctance to depart from Lennie's side generates a disservice for himself but at the same time he creates hope for Len nie who couldn't cope by his lonesome. Loneliness in of Mice and Men :: John Steinbeck A novel which explores the the theme of loneliness is 'Of Mice and Men' by John Steinbeck. The characters George, Crooks, Candy and Curley's wife are used to show loneliness. In the novel the two main characters, George and Lennie, are starting a new job in California after being ordered out of their last job as a result of Lennie's childish behavior. They work as farm laborers and have always had a dream of they could own their own land. This dream they have is typically an aspiration that many people have but unfortunately never attain. Although, luckily enough they get offered money which by a character called Candy, and this sum of money boosts their chances of capturing their dream. However, the kindled hope they have soon evaporates, with tragic consequences. George's often dismaying desire is to accompany Lennie. Georges loneliness is very peculiar as unlike the other characters who face seclusion, George is united with a friend. However, Lennie is a phenomenally immature adult and as a result feels isolated. This affects him as he ends up either instructing or telling of Lennie when they talk which ultimately means George cannot have adult conversation, something which he deeply desires. An example of Lennie immaturity is shown when George enquires why he has a dead mouse. '' It on'y a mouse. Jus a dead mouse. George. I didn't kill it, honest. I found it dead''. The way Lennie tries to make out there is nothing wrong illustrates his lack of knowledge and insight into the world and shows how this may affect the interaction between the pair. It culminates in the assessment that although George may have a friend, he is so alien to normal individuals that in George's eyes, his human credibility is non-existent. Despite this, he has built a sound relationship with an innocent and nice person who he fears may suffer on his own. For these reasons he finds it difficult to detach himself from Lennie. Nonetheless, his decision to stay ultimately means he will be stuck with a person who he cannot have a grown-up relationship with and have the enjoyable experiences he might have if he was with a more intelligent person .Subsequently George is not able to live the way he wants to live as Lennie acts as a hindrance to his plans. George's reluctance to depart from Lennie's side generates a disservice for himself but at the same time he creates hope for Len nie who couldn't cope by his lonesome.

The Ethics of Cloning Essay -- Genetics Biology Genes Essays Papers

Imagine a world where everyone looked like you and was related to you as a sibling, cousin, or any form of relation, wouldn’t that be freaky? Although cloning is not an important issue presently, it could potentially replace sexual reproduction as our method of producing children. Cloning is a dangerous possibility because it could lead to an over-emphasis on the importance of the genotype, no guaranteed live births, and present risks to both the cloned child and surrogate mother. It also violates the biological parent-child relationship and can cause the destruction of the normal structure of a family. The cloning of the deceased is another problem with cloning because it displays the inability of the parents to accept the child’s death and does not ensure a successful procedure. Along with the risks, there are benefits to Human Reproductive Cloning. It allows couples who cannot have a baby otherwise to enjoy parenthood and have a child who is directly related to them. It also limits the risk of transmitting genetic diseases to the cloned child and the risk of genetic defects in the cloned child. Although the government has banned Human Reproductive Cloning, the issue will eventually come to the surface and force us to consider the 1st commandment of God, all men are equal in the eyes of god, but does this also include clones? That is the question that we must answer in the near future in order to resolve a controversy that has plagued us for many years. In the world today, issues such as Global Warming and the War in Iraq take the front cover on any newspaper, but in the world tomorrow, the concept of cloning will become an ever-more pressing issue. How do you define the term cloning? Well, in the words of Jac... ...e pressing issue that will question our morals, ethics, and view on human dignity. As a society, we must come to a decision regarding Human Cloning and stand by it, whether it is the right decision or not. Our actions will have a profound impact on the methods of reproduction used by future generations. Works Cited Page Cibelli, Jose, et al. Principles of Cloning. San Diego: Academic Press (AP), 2002. Brannigan, C. Michael. Ethical Issues in Human Cloning. New York: Seven Bridges Press, Chatham House Publishers, 2001. "Arguments for "Reproductive Cloning." The Presidents Council on Bioethics. Vers. 3a. 7/12/07. http://bioethicsprint.bioethics.gov/background/workpaper3a.html â€Å"Arguments against â€Å"Reproductive Cloning.† The Presidents Council on Bioethics. Vers. 3b. 7/12/07. http://www.bioethics.gov/background/workpaper3b.html

Children’s Television Essay

Over the past three months I have been studying children’s television programmes to find out about what influences they have over children’s behaviour, the types of shows that are on offer and why children opt to watch them. I picked three key questions based on what I thought would get the best reactions and results and the most frequently asked problems such as the amount of violence children see on TV. I used various different methods of searching for information which included surfing the Internet, emailing relevant people, setting up focus groups and interviewing people who have an appropriate opinion on this subject, e. g. parents. I broke my research up into three categories, primary, secondary and tertiary this allowed me to organise myself and also to get opinions as well as facts. My primary research consisted of interviewing people such as parents to find out their opinions on certain aspects of this subject. I have planned to interview a media teacher who is also a parent because she will have factual information and first hand experience. My second interviewee will be a single father of four young children, each child is in one of my aimed target groups so this will help when finding out why his children chose to watch what they do and why they enjoy it. I will also visit schools to interview children, first hand about their opinions on certain programmes and find out why they watch them. This will be very helpful when answering my second key question. To gather more information I will be conducting a set of focus groups, each will consists of five to six people who I will be directing questions at for them to discuss among themselves. I will be recording the discussion so I can referee to it later on, this will allow me to use quotes and pick out relevant information. I have produced a questionnaire that consists of 15 questions that I will be handing out to members of each of my focus groups. This is also part of my primary research and allows me to refer back and can be used as evidence when trying to make a point for one of my key questions. The only piece of primary research I have conducted thus far is to try and contact some of the industries producers and writers to find out some factual information about different shows. Whilst searching the Internet I located the BBC website, www. BBC. co. uk this was a big help as I found a link to the teletubbies website which then led me to find one of the writers email addresses. I emailed Will Brenton with an explanation of what I hoped to achieve from his knowledge and set him a few simple questions, I have yet to receive a reply but do frequently check my email. I am also hoping to get in contact with a producer or director for the BBC to find out about scheduling, I have yet to find the relevant address. My secondary research consisted mostly of searching through countless amounts of websites to try and pick out related information, I found this extremely frustrating as I had to search for hours at a time to find anything that would help me. I made a list of which websites were useful and visited them regularly for updates; www. turnoffyourtv. com, www. limittv. org and www. familyresources. com/parenting. Once I had collected enough information I began sifting through it and highlighting the most interesting parts. Whilst looking on the Internet I managed to determine what shows were on offer and which were the most popular, from this I chose three main programmes to focus on, all of which were aimed at different ages but for both sexes. Another reason why I chose them was because they had received the best ratings over any other TV show for the same age group and were also on the same channel, this made it easier to access information.

American Revolution or Evolution

Saroosh . H. Khan American Evolution or Revolution? The theme has been subject to excessive discussion over the course of more than two centuries encompassing the existence of the United States. Although it has been taught for as long in our schools and classrooms and all other educational institutions that the year 1776 Anno Domini marks the year of American Revolution, but amidst historians and intellectuals the dilemma to whether to call it a revolution or an evolution has never been out of question. Reader! Doesn’t it enthrall one that a single word could bifurcate scholars and create factions amongst the erudite. ?Por que (why? ) there must be a reason and there is! The answer is simple yet rational: Perspective. Albert Einstein, (the famous physicist) most remembered by his theory of relativity, concluded that distance and time were not absolute. History resides in the same niche. It is more than a chronological account of past events of a period or a livelihood or development of a people, an institution, or a place. But what it is not is absolute. It is always left upon interpretation, scrutiny, analysis, probing and pondering. The perception or perspective gained through such rigorous processes is also subject to the base of a historian. It is very uncommon to find historians sharing their bases of initial learning and therefore the effect of their own era, age, surroundings and upbringing must also be taken account of. A revolution, defined by Encyclopedia Britannica is: a major, sudden, and hence typically a violent alteration in government and in related associations and structures. On the other hand Oxford dictionary defines an evolution as: the gradual development of something, especially from a simple to a more complex form. Let us decide upon the usage of the word Revolution, which one can venture out to say, could be dated from the year 1775 with its ignition being the battle of Lexington and Concord and culmination being the ratification of the constitution of the States in 1782. Seemingly easy doesn’t it? It doesn’t really respond to how fundamentally did the thoughts, ideals, ideology and mindset of a 2. 5 million inhabitants change and led to he chain of events that became known as the American Revolution. What I believe is that no people in the course of history have ever rebelled against a certain state, condition or ideology without a buildup of grievances, resentment or a gradual shift of attitude towards accepting a better socio-dogma. Let’s go back to the early 17th century when immigrations began to take place into the New Wo rld. Herds of folks comprising of German, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Jewish descent and not to mention the French Huguenots, began pouring into the lands in order to escape from the fetters of the Old World. They did not have any more an appetite for its rituals, its doctrines, its curbing of civil liberties, and mostly the cost of living in it. One can even say at this particular time, that they were revolting as a denouement of the evolution of the aforementioned causes. So it would be appropriate to say that a 17th century Europe was in revolution. Let’s go further with this theory and say that the immigrants reaching the New World were revolutionaries. Almost 150 years of Pax Americana (used strictly in context with the time period and not according to current usage) so to say was enjoyed by the colonists. During this time, some changes irrevocably did take place. This is evident from the fact that the language that the majority of the immigrants originally spoke had evolved into a different dialect. So from this we can also entrust upon the belief that alongside linguistics political and socio-economic changes did also take place. A political change that actually began with the migrations was the rise of a political ideology known as Republicanism. Technically ruled by Great Britain or more accurately looked over, the colonies practiced the policy through their town halls and city councils. Very famous examples of such republican instruments were the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Massachusetts Assembly. These were regulated by either representative or direct democracy. The symbol of democracy at the time was looked upon as the House of Commons in England, however it did seem a bit more than contradicting to have the Buckingham Palace towering high in the very country. The colonists did give their allegiances to the monarch but because of the fact that it was kind of conditional. Although they did not realize it nor was it formally declared but they remained docile because they were never tampered by British legislations. They had during this time, created their own principles, created their own system of jurisprudence, law, justice, methods of trade, commerce, education, agriculture etc. When after the French and Indian war, the British began actively participating in the earlier enumerated colonial components of society; it would’ve obviously been not received glad handedly by the Colonists as it did not. Let’s now examine the economic evolution that took place to ensure America’s Independence. The 150 year old period was in terms of trade and commerce coined as a period of salutary neglect. For the colonists it brought economic prosperity and industrialization. For the British it was shooting themselves in the foot. Intentional lax in order to show the appreciation for economic freedom while regulating the policy of mercantilism. Does it make any sense? One would question Robert Walpole’s sanity between all of this; however he is not our subject of concern. What you shall so sow so shall you reap; a very old and passed around saying isn’t it? But it does make sense in the context. The British for a very long period of time followed the policy and the colonist enjoyed its benefits. Smuggling was nothing out of the blue, very common. Other European nations also benefitted from it, the Colonial agriculture products such as hay, wheat, barley, maize and cotton were valued highly in foreign markets. When the British annoyed at Colonial stubbornness to pay taxes, passed the writs of assistance; there was an outrage. There had to be one, like it did, smuggling was not put up with anymore and a flow of revenue generation created as a result of foreign trade stagnated. How were the merchants to run their businesses without the freedom of trading being allowed to them as it had always been? Hence there was an outcry by the merchants who went bankrupt as a result of such legislation. Ah! One cannot expect the theme to be talked about without the mentioning of taxes somewhere or another. The country was not at all familiar with taxes; once again it is necessary to mention that when we talk about being not being tampered for almost 150 years it is meant more than it sounds. Citizens in Britain were obliged to pay taxes, however their brethren in the New World were not. I do at times believe that absolute freedom corrupts absolutely, there should be some harnesses or bridles put on in order to let ivility root in or in this case for rule to sustain. When suddenly exposed to direct taxes such as Stamp Act and Sugar Acts why would it not cause havoc with in the colonists? It would lead to acrimony towards the crown like it did, it would lead to mass protests like it did and would lead to severing of ties like it did. In the beginning I wrote about how a historical event is su bject to independent interpretation. How historians may or may not agree on something because of the different elements molding the shape of the basis for their knowledge. I must confess that it is not arbitrary and applies to myself as it does to any other individual. I believe that evolution without revolution is lame and revolution without evolution blind, very similar to what Einstein said about religion and science. One thing is for certain though, nothing is by nature revolutionary. There has to be friction to beget fire. During the 150 year period evolutionary changes in political beliefs, social policies and economic mechanisms did take place otherwise the colonists would’ve never armed themselves to teeth and hoisted the flag of revolution.

Merck vs Pfizer

Evaluating Merck & Co. , Inc vs. Pfizer, Inc. Amy Lan Lan Liu Connor Buestad Raghul Subramanian Natalia Cosa ACCT 831 March 16, 2011 Table of Contents: Part 1: History, Background and Core Business †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2 a. Merck & Co. , Inc. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 2 b. Pfizer, Inc. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 2 c.Core Business †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 Value Chain †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 4 Porter’s Five Forces †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 6 SWOT Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 8 Part 2: Financial Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 5 a. Profitability Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 15 b. Liquidity Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 18 c. Solvency Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 19 Part 3: Valuation Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. .. 20 a.Residual Income †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 20 b. Cost of Equity †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 21 c. Valuation †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 22 d. Sensitivity analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 23Part 4: Recommendations †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 23 Appendix: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â ‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 25 Appendix A: Profitability Analysis†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 25 Appendix B: Liquidity Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 25 Appendix C: Solvency Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 6 Appendix D: Residual Income and Cost of Equity†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 26 Appendix E: Sensitivity Analysis†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 27 References †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 28 Part 1: History, Background and Core Business a. Merck & Co. , Inc. : History and Background Information Merck is headquartered in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. According to its website, the company was originally established in 1891 as a US subsidiary of the Merck KGaA German company. Merck became an independent company in 1917.In 1963 Merck launch the first measles vaccine, and, in 1967 launched a mumps vaccine. In 2009, Merck acquired Schering-Plough and now represent the world’s third-largest pharmaceutical company by market share. Today, the company has over 94,000 employees worldwide (2012). Merck is the third largest global healthcare company in the world. The company specializes in prescription medicines, vaccines, animal health, and consumer care products, that are marketed directly and through its joint ventures. The company operates four segments namely Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, Consumer Care, and Alliance segments (merck. om, 2012). Starting 2011, in order to drive future growth, Merck started focusing on reducing costs, making strategic investments in new product launches, and improving its research and development pipeline. Merck’s sales worldwide reached $48 billion in 2011, which was a 4% increase from 2010. With two dr ugs under review with the FDA, the company has 19 other drugs in the Phase III of development. b. Pfizer Inc. : History And Background Information Found by Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart in 1849 Pfizer, Inc. is the largest pharmaceutical company in the world.Their main goal was to discover new drugs that would help improve the healthcare around the world. Both Pfizer and Erhart were born and raised in Germany before descending upon Brooklyn, New York, where Pfizer first opened its doors as a fine-chemicals business. The first product launched by Pfizer was used to intestinal worms, a disease that was prevalent in mid-19th century America (Pfizer. com, 2012). According to their website, in 1880, Pfizer shifted its focus to manufacturing citric acid which was the raw material for soft drink products such as Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, and Pepsi-Cola.In 1944, Pfizer succeeded in producing penicillin with was also called â€Å"the miracle drug. † By 1980, Pfizer was manufacturing a n anti-inflammatory drug called Feldene (piroxicam), which was the first product to generate revenue of one billion dollars from sales around the world. Today, Pfizer is known for its creation of drugs such as Lipitor used for cholesterol, Viagra used for erectile dysfunction, and Celebrex used as an anti-inflammatory (2012). The range of products sold by Pfizer has many applications in the health industry that serves in wellness prevention and treatment of a wide variety of diseases.Some of its promises drugs that are under review are potential cures for Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. c. Core Business: Merck and Pfizer share the same core business model of researching, developing, and marketing pharmaceutical products. As with any business, Merck and Pfizer are facing increasing competition and challenges, not the least of which is the expiration of patent protections on key products. There are three tools that are increasingly useful in analyzing the core business and econ omic characteristics of an industry. These include the value chain analysis, Porter’s Five Forces Model, and the SWOT analysis.The Value Chain The first tool, the value chain analysis, represents the chain of activities involved in the development, manufacturing, and distribution of products and/or services of a company. The value chain of pharmaceutical companies usually consists of research and development of drugs, drug approval by government regulators, manufacturing of drugs, creation of demand for drugs, and marketing to consumers. The analysis of each stage of the value chain can reveal the central focus and competencies of the firm, and can point to the activities that drive profit.According to Fortune 500, the leading pharmaceutical firms in 2011 were Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Abbott Laboratories (CNN. com, 2011). The two companies we discuss in this paper, Merck and Pfizer, have similar value chains. Merck and Pfizer position themselves as companies that provide innovative and effective drugs and medical solutions globally. Due to the increasing threat of patent expiration and generic drug competition, both pharmaceutical companies focus extensively on research and development and new drug approval value chain activities.Both companies devote considerable internal resources on R&D, and continue to expand through acquisitions or by entering into agreements with other companies that focus on the discovery and development of new drugs. In 2009, Pfizer acquired Wyeth for $68 billion, an acquisition that is considered the largest pharmaceutical merger in nearly a decade (Hoover's Company Records, 2012). In addition, Pfizer acquired Excaliard Pharmaceuticals in November 2011, and in September 2011 it gained 70% ownership of the outstanding shares of Icagen, Inc.Merck is also constantly seeking out collaborations, licensing, and outsourcing agreements in the area of Research and Development (Datamonitor, 2011). In November 2009, it acquir ed Schering-Plough for $41 billion (Hoover's Company Records, 2012), and in May 2011 it acquired Inspire Pharmaceuticals. Pfizer and Merck focus heavily on the new drug approval process. In 2011, Merck had 2 drugs under review by government regulators and 19 drugs in last trial phase, and it also planned to file 5 major products for approval between 2012 and 2013.Pfizer had 19 drugs submitted for FDA for approval, and 5 already approved for 2011. Both Merck and Pfizer benefit from using sophisticated and efficient manufacturing and supply chains. Both companies create, move and sell tremendous amounts of product each year and therefore must rely on a dependable manufacturing system. Their manufacturing network consists of numerous manufacturing sites and distribution networks around the world. In addition to their internal manufacturing, pharmaceutical firms work with networks of external partners to produce lines of product, packaging, and active ingredients.To create demand for th eir products, both companies market extensively in multiple media outlets and encourage consumers to ask their doctors about different drugs. Merck markets its products in over 140 countries through direct sales forces and international distributors. Its customers are drug wholesalers, retailers, government agencies, and healthcare providers (Hoover's Company Records, 2012). Pfizer sells its products through wholesale distributors like McKesson and Cardinal health and it markets its products directly to doctors, hospital, nurses, employer groups, and patients.Porter’s Five Forces The pharmaceutical industry is a highly dynamic with new technologies emerging in the market quite often. Michael Porter’s Five Forces model can be used to study and verify the factors affecting the market performance of Merck & Co and Pfizer. This model focuses on the external forces that the companies must pay attention to in order to maintain their profitability. The five forces of the phar maceutical industry are analyzed below. 1. Threat from new entrants is predicted to be low in this industry due to the following reasons.The pharmaceutical industry is a high-tech industry and involves high capital costs. Economy of scale is required to keep the costs down and the established firms (Merck & Co and Pfizer) are well known for excelling in this area. The existing drugs are safe-guarded by patents at least for a particular period of time before the generic drugs hit the market. This gives companies like Merck and Pfizer a considerable leg up on competitors. However, these patents do eventually expire, thus opening the door to more competition from generic drug makers. Product differentiation is necessary in order to attract new customers.In the field of pharmaceuticals, it is very hard to bring a differentiated product to market. New drugs undergo extensive testing by the FDA before entering the market. The drugs by the established firms get easily passed when compared to new entrants whose credibility is still uncertain. 2. Rivalry among established firms is high in the industry among players like Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co, Pfizer, Abbott Laboratories etc. The pharmaceutical industry is high revenue industry and there is a tough competition to obtain more market share. No company owns more than 6-10 % of the market share.In addition, high costs of R and marketing are incurred by all the firms involved in this competition. 3. Buyer power would be classified as low to moderate in this industry due to the following reasons. The concentration of buyers relative to overall industry size is low. The demand for chronic and lifesaving drugs is high due to the ageing baby-boom population. The buyers have little knowledge about the industry cost structure and hence the pharmaceutical companies use this advantage to price their products higher. The patents protect the drugs from lower priced competitor drugs, but many patents are expiring. . Supplier po wer is considered medium to low in the industry. The supplier switching costs incurred by pharmaceutical companies like Merck and Pfizer is low. The threat of forward integration by suppliers is low due to lack of knowledge and expertise. Differentiation of the supplier products is low because they have a wide range of applications, with the biotech firms being one of them. 5. Substitute products always present a challenge to companies operating in the pharmaceutical industry. This can be attributed to the following factors.Biotech firms like Amgen are beginning to market their own products, unlike the traditional method of selling them to pharmaceutical companies like Merck and Pfizer. This presents a new segment of competitors that can provide substitutes. Increasingly, patients can use medical alternatives such as surgery, homeopathic remedies, acupuncture and herbal medicines. The overall healthcare industry is very dynamic and always changing. New products and healing methods a re constantly being developed, some of which could serve as substitutes to existing treatments offered by Merck and Pfizer.SWOT Analysis Merck & Co. SWOT Merck is the third largest healthcare company in the world. Over the years, a large investment in R has enhanced the company’s top-line growth. However, new competitors and large cost of drug development could affect their revenue growth. | Strengths |Weaknesses | |Leading market position; third largest healthcare company in |Generic brand competition | |the world. High litigation cost | |Successful launches of new products | | |Merger with Schering-Plough strengthens their industry | | |position | | |Opportunities |Threats | |Cost savings from internal restructure |US regulatory setbacks | |Expansion in emerging markets |Healthcare reform of US | |Strong pipeline | | Strengths Leading Market Position; Third Largest Healthcare Company in the World Merck is a well-known and respected company worldwide. One of their great est strengths is their leading market position. Merck’s worldwide sale totaled $48 billion in 2011, an increase of 4% compared to 2010.The increase of revenue is mainly due to the company’s signature products such as Singulair, Januvia, Remicade, Zetia, Vytorin, Janumet, Isentress, Nasonex, Gardasil, and Temodar (Datamonitor, 2011). Successful Launches of New Products Merck has a proven success record for launching new products. Since 2006, it has successfully launched 10 new therapeutics, including Victrelis, a treatment for chronic hepatitis C (2011), Elonva, a corifollitropin alpha injection (2010), Janumet, a treatment for diabetes, Isentress, an HIV integrase inhibitor (2007), Gardasil, a drug that could prevent diseases caused by HPV, and Januvia, a cure for type 2 diabetes (2006) (Datamonitor, 2011). Merger with Schering-Plough Strengthens Their Industry Position The merger with Schering-Plough has certainly strengthened Merck’s industry position.Schering -Plough owned many popular pharmaceutical drugs such as allergy drugs Claritin and Clarinex, anti-cholesterol drug Vytorin, and a brain tumor drug Temodar. Schering Plough had 1. 4% market share in the U. S. , 17th in the top 20 pharmaceutical corporation by sales (Datamonitor, 2011). Weaknesses Generic Brand Competition Merck pharmaceutical products have traditionally accounted for most of their total sales. One weakness is the competition Merck faces with generic brands. Due to the current economy, we tend to estimate people will shift to more inexpensive and generic brand products. This can cause sizable losses for Merck’s total revenue. High Litigation CostsMerck continues to face litigation related to their Vioxx recall, a drug that is used to cure arthritis and acute pain. In 2004, Merck withdrew Vioxx off the market because it cased potential cardiac attacks among the patients who took it regularly for a period of 18 months or longer. During 2010, Merck was forced to s pend around $140 million in legal defense costs (Datamonitor, 2011). Opportunities Cost Savings from Internal Restructure Merck has emphasized the idea of decreases costs in order to drive greater efficiencies within the company. According to Datamonitor’s SWOT analysis, Merck hopes to reduce costs by $3. 5 billion annually beyond 2011 (2011). Expansion in Emerging MarketsMerck has strengthened its international market share by signing exclusive agreements with other established companies to co-promote and distribute a number of products. For example, Merck and Johnson & Johnson agreed to govern the rights to distribution of Remicade and Simponi. Remicade is a treatment for nasal allergy and Simponi is an asthma treatment for patients above the age of three. According to the agreement with Johnson & Johnson, Merck is allowed to market Simponi and Remicade in Asia, Canada, Africa, The Middle East, and Central and South America as of July 1, 2011. In addition, Merck exclusively markets these products in Turkey, Russia, and Europe.These two products brought in 70% of Merck’s revenue from 2010 (Datamonitor, 2011). Strong Pipeline Datamonitor expects that Merck’s 20 new products will add combined annual sales of more than $7 billion to its top-line by 2015 (2011). â€Å"While Merck retains its internal focus on pipeline productivity, half of its new launches were obtained in the company’s merger with Schering-Plough. Recently Merck has had considerable success with a number of new launches since moving into its core portfolio. It will look to replicate this success with the pipeline programs it has inherited from Schering-Plough as well as with those it has been developing prior to the merger. † Threats US Regulatory SetbacksUS regulatory setbacks include terminations of Merck’s treatments such as for Tredaptive for atherosclerosis, and Taranabant for obesity. The potential for further setbacks and termination can be a conc ern for Merck’s brand image during the drug development stage. There could also be threats for the clinical and regulatory failures with developing Saphiris (schizophrenia), boceprivir (hepatitis C) and TRA (Datamonitor, 2011). Healthcare Reform of US The recently enacted US Healthcare Reform could decrease Merck’s profit margins. According to Datamonitor, Merck incurred additional expenses from increases in Medicaid rebates, which increased from 15. 1% to 23. 1% for the branded prescription drugs.Being in the Medicare Part D coverage gap, Merck was required to pay a 50% discount utilization required by law in 2011. In addition, Merck expects to Also, beginning in 2011, Merck expects that it will pay an additional annual health care reform fee, which will be calculated as a percentage of the industry’s total sales of branded prescription drugs to specified government programs. The fee was $2. 5billion for 2011 (2011). Pfizer Inc. SWOT Pfizer is the world's large st research-based pharmaceutical company and still remains the strongest industry player in terms of sales and marketing capability. However, Pfizer relies on a large-scale M&A structure and lacks some key aspects of an organic sales growth model. Strengths |Weaknesses | |M&A to gain economies of scale |Difficulty in gaining market share due to already | |Strong advertising capabilities |established position in the market | |Acquisition of Wyeth in 2009 |Heavy reliance on Lipitor franchise | |Opportunities |Threats | |Acquisition of King in 2010 |Difficulties in achieving organic sales growth | |Enhancing established products in emerging markets |Development setbacks of Sutent and Chantix/Champix | |Decreasing cost structure | | Strengths M&A to Gain Economies of Scale Pfizer has used large-scale acquisitions to establish and maintain its position as the biopharmaceutical industry's leading player. Since 2000, Pfizer acquired four big pharmaceutical companies: Warner-Lambert, Pharma cia, Wyeth, and King Pharmaceuticals. Pfizer acquired Wyeth in 2009. Wyeth was known for manufacturing over-the-counter drugs such as Robitussin and Advil, around $3 billion in sales annually. The acquisition of Wyeth enhanced Pfizer’s position as the industry's largest prescription pharmaceutical manufacturer.According to an article from MarketWatch, Pfizer’s large economies of scale growth also enhanced the company's ability to implement restructuring programs designed to reduce costs and drive profitability, while maintaining a steady increase in R expenditure (2012). Strong Advertising Capabilities According to MarketWatch, Pfizer has a strong marketing and sales infrastructure that helps grow sales for new products as well as mature product that face strong competition from generic competition. According to MarketWatch, â€Å"The most visible illustration of Pfizer's sales and marketing capability is the significant revenue stream recorded by Pfizer attributable to third party products marketed under-license in selected geographic markets. In short, Pfizer remains a marketing partner of choice for many medium and smaller sized prescription pharmaceutical players† (2012). Acquisition of WyethThe acquisition of Wyeth gives Pfizer an immediate access to many well-known biologic and vaccine products such as Enbrel, an anti-inflammatory product and Prevnar, a vaccine. Pfizer’s financial statement 2011 stated the worldwide revenues from biopharmaceutical products in 2010 were $58. 5 billion. This was increase of 29% from 2009, primarily attributed to the addition of operational revenues from Wyeth products of approximately $13. 7 billion (Datamonitor, 2011). Weaknesses Difficulty in Gaining Market Share Given Pfizer’s current market share (world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical company), it will be difficult for the company to continue to grow at the historical rate of sales without further use of large-scale M&A .According to MarketWatch, â€Å"Pfizer's 15 established blockbuster products in 2010, only a few products, including the neuropathic pain therapy Lyrica (pregabalin), are forecast to deliver a positive sales growth contribution through to 2015 (2012). All other products, including Lipitor, will deliver net negative sales growth, primarily due to generic exposure. † Heavy reliance on Lipitor franchise According to the analysis of MarketWatch, â€Å"Pfizer's blockbuster portfolio is dominated by the Lipitor franchise, which generated global sales of $10. 7 billion in 2010 (2012). However, Lipitor revenue growth slowed substantially since mid-2006 due to the ‘indirect generic impact' of therapeutic substitution via loss of patent exclusivity for Merck & Co. ‘s rival statin Zocor.With the Lipitor patent expiration set to occur in mid-2011, exposure of this one product to generic competition will have a significant impact on the overall performance of the company. â €  Opportunities Acquisition of King in 2010 Pfizer acquired King Pharmaceuticals on Oct 12, 2010, the world's 39th largest pharmaceutical company that focuses on pain management. Its product includes Altace for heart attack prevention, and Sonata, a sleeping aid. According to MarketWatch, â€Å"the acquisition of King represents the latest stage in a diversification strategy implemented by Pfizer over the past two years, as it seeks to prepare for the loss of patent exclusivity on its best-selling prescription pharmaceutical product Lipitor (atorvastatin) in late 2011.King is a leading developer of analgesics and its integration will broaden Pfizer's pain offering to include opioid drugs with anti-abuse technologies (2012). Datamonitor currently forecasts that King's total revenues will increase at a CAGR of 11. 3% during 2010-15, from $1. 2 billion to $2 billion† (2011). Enhancing Established Products in Emerging Markets Pfizer established two independent business units, one focused on established products and the other focused in emerging markets. The goal is to bridge emerging markets with established products. Pfizer, like Merck, plans to expand to the emerging markets by collaborating with local players to source branded generic products. Decreasing Cost StructurePfizer’s aim to grow profit will be depending on its continued use of a decreasing cost structure. According to MarketWatch, Pfizer forecasted the acquisition of Wyeth will save $3 billion by the end of 2012 (2012). Pfizer’s reason for the large-scale M&A is to cut cost substantially (by not having to invest in R&D and the development of new drugs) to drive increased profitability (by leveraging what other companies have developed). Threats Difficulties in achieving organic sales growth Pfizer success relies heavily on large-scale M&A and lacks organic sales growth. Datamonitor believes that further large-scale M&A activity will be undertaken by Pfizer because of growing competition of generics (2011).Pfizer's own R operations will find it difficult to keep up with the historical M for its organic growth. Development setbacks of Sutent and Chantix/Champix Sutent, a treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma, experienced development setbacks. Sutent’s revenue growth depends partially on approval in additional tumor types; the termination of clinical trials in both colon cancer and breast cancer indicates that the product's performance in the marketplace could suffer. In addition, Pfizer also experienced setbacks in Chantix/Champix, smoking cessation therapy. Revenue declined mainly due to the updated labeling to warn of neuropsychiatric symptoms.As DataMonitor pointed out, â€Å"further failures in clinical trials of Sutent and other products could significantly affect Pfizer's sales growth† (2011). Part 2: Financial Analysis a. Profitability Analysis (Appendix A) Using return on assets (ROA), return on common equity (ROCE), and earning s per share (EPS), one can properly illustrate the profitability of Merck and Pfizer. Merck’s ROA decreased significantly from 2009 to 2010, dropping from 16. 8% to 1. 29%. This decrease was attributed to a decline in net income and profit margin. After their acquisition of Schering-Plough, Merck was left with higher costs, such as an 88% increase in R expense and a 55% increase in Marketing and Administrative Expenses. Total costs increased by 265%, while sales increased by only 67%.Net income also decreased in 2010 due to an increase in Other Expenses attributable to the Schering-Plough merger, an exchange loss of $200 million due to two Venezuelan currency valuations, and a $950 million charge for the Vioxx Liability Reserve. The disaggregated ROA showed a decrease in profit margin as well, from 48. 9% in 2009 to 3. 06% in 2010. A year after the merger, Merck’s ROA bounced back to 6. 7%, which is closer to the industry average of 11% (CNN. com, 2011) by decreasing s ome expenses (R, Materials & Production) and an increase of $2 million in sales. Pfizer’s ROA shows a similar decreasing trend for 2010. Its ROA decreased from 9. 03% in 2009 to 4. % in 2010 due to deductions related to asset impairment charges that were $1. 3 billion higher in 2010 than in 2011, due to the Wyeth acquisition in 2009 and litigation related to their subsidiary Quigley Company, Inc. The ROA has increased in 2011 to 5. 83% because the costs and expenses decreased by $3 million. The disaggregated ROA shows both the decrease of asset turnover and profit margin from 2009 to 2010, and the increase in both for 2011, showing that the operation profitability is getting stronger. However, we believe that both firms’ profit margins are healthy when compared to the industry average of 16. 7% (yahoofinance. com, 2012)After comparing the Asset Turnover, Profit Margin, and ROA for both companies, we can conclude that both are starting to improve in regards to profitabi lity, after their acquisitions in 2009. However, Merck seemed to be using its assets more efficiently to generate sales than Pfizer in 2011. Merck also had a higher ROA. However, both companies are below the industry average ROA of 11% and below the ROAs of competitors (Johnson & Johnson ROA is 8. 5% and Abbott is 7. 8%) (CNN. com). Return on common equity helps to explain how well a company uses its investment dollars to generate profits. ROCE can be very important to shareholders as it informs common stock investors how effectively their capital is being reinvested.Merck’s ROCE decreased significantly in 2010 due to the acquisition of Schering-Plough, which led to a decrease in Net Income due to the cost of acquisition (increase in R, and increase in marketing, administration, materials and production expenses), and an increase in Shareholders’ Equity. Pfizer’s ROCE declined marginally in 2010 as well, due to the acquisition of Wyeth. However, both companies w ere back to normal operations in 2011 and had similar ROCEs, around 11%, which is considered the average percent for publicly traded companies in the US. This means that both companies have healthy ROCEs and are generating healthy returns to shareholders.The desegregated return on common shareholders’ equity reveals a decrease in the financial leverage of Pfizer from 2. 29 in 2010 to 2. 25 in 2011. Merck’s financial leverage is constant, 1. 92 in 2010 and 1. 93 in 2011. We conclude that both companies are not heavily leveraged by short and long term debt, which shows that they are less risky financially. The disaggregated ROCE also reveals low asset turnover ratios for both companies and this is not uncommon for companies with high profit margins in the pharmaceutical industry. Finally, Earnings per Share is also used to assess a company’s profitability. EPS allow us to compare the companies’ power to make a profit. This means that Merck’s Price Ea rnings Ratio performs better than that of Pfizer’s.Whereas Pfizer’s EPS has been constant for the last three years (around 1), Merck experienced a significant decrease in 2010 to 0. 36 for diluted. The notes of their financial statements list the following reasons for the decrease: R impairment charges, restructuring and merger with Wyeth (had to recognize a full year of amortization of intangible assets and inventory set-up), legal reserve deductions related to Vioxx, and the US healthcare legislation reform. Non GAAP results were evaluated as well, and we believe these results give a better understanding of the performance of the company as they exclude the non-recurring costs mentioned above. b.Liquidity Analysis (Appendix B) The following section analyzes the short term liquidity risk of Merck and Pfizer. The Current Ratios for both companies are healthy, above 1, which means that they both have substantial cash and near-cash assets available on their Balance Sheet to repay their obligations within the next year. The Quick Ratios for both companies is also healthy, above 0. 5, which means that both companies have liquid assets on hand to repay their short term obligations. The Operating Cash Flow ratio is similar for both companies, above 0. 4, which means that both companies generate enough cash flow from operations after funding working capital needs.According to the notes of the financial statement, Pfizer’s lower rate in 2010 was attributed to certain tax payments made in connection with the increased tax costs associated with the Wyeth acquisition and therefore, the decrease in net cash flow from operations. From analyzing the Revenue to Cash and Days Revenue Held in Cash ratios, it is noticeable that Pfizer has less cash on hand. Pfizer has less cash because they are more focused on M. Pfizer spent 3. 3. billion on acquisitions in 2011, while Merck spent just 3. 7 million. Merck has a healthy ratio for accounts receivable turnove r. Merck’s accounts payable turnover is almost double that of Pfizer.These findings show that Merck is paying their supplier twice as fast as Pfizer. Pfizer’s lower ratio might be due to the fact that its creditors allow more time to pay off its debt. The Accounts Receivable and Inventory Turnover ratios are also pretty high and pretty similar for both companies. This means that both firms are selling inventory and turning accounts receivable into cash relatively quickly. However, it looks like Merck is collecting money from customers faster and turns inventory over quicker than Pfizer. Overall, we believe that both firms have healthy short term liquidity. c. Solvency Analysis (Appendix C) The following section analyzes the long term solvency risk of Merck and Pfizer.The Liabilities to Asset Ratio reveals that both Merck and Pfizer finance their companies with approximately 50% debt and 50% equity. However, Merck’s ratio is a little lower, with around 45% debt a nd 55% equity financing. As can be noticed in the table, the Liabilities to Shareholders’ Equity, Long Term Debt to Long Term Capital, and Long Term Debt to Shareholders’ Equity ratios are healthy, which means that both companies will have no problems meeting long term obligations and are not heavily financed by debt. The Interest Coverage ratios for 2011 reveal that both companies are able pay interest on outstanding debt and can carry additional debt as well.Therefore, their credit risk is considered low. The Operating Cash Flow to Total Liabilities ratios are around 20% or higher, which means that both firms generate enough cash flow from operations to service debt. Both firms experienced a lower ratio in 2010 due to increased tax costs for the acquisition of Wyeth for Pfizer and due to increased costs associated with the Schering Plough merger and the Vioxx impairment charges for Merck. The liquidity and solvency analysis revel that both firms are not experiencing any financial distress. However, we consider Merck less risky that Pfizer because Merck relies less on debt and more on equity financing. Part 3: Valuation AnalysisAs outlined above, profitability, liquidity, and solvency all go a long way in providing analysts with viable information used to measure the performance of a firm. In addition to these measures, residual income, cost of equity, and valuation can also be used when analyzing companies such as Merck and Pfizer. a. Residual Income (Appendix D) We started our valuation analysis by calculating the residual income for both Merck and Pfizer. In order to achieve this, we used the companies’ 10K reports from 2009-2011 to project the forecast for 2012-2016, a five-year time frame. The method we used for this forecast was the same method used to project the residual income. Pfizer’s residual income for 2012 was $82,621million while Merck’s was $54,517million.Please note that all numbers in our calculations are i n millions. Our valuation was based on the assumption that both companies will grow by an average rate in the following years. We took into consideration three factors: the current growth rate, past growth rate and macroeconomic factors. Both Merck and Pfizer are in the maturity phase of their growth cycles and show steady growth figures. Residual income growth for Merck was negative for 2010, however we believe this was due to Merck’s merger with Schering-Plough Corporation. In 2007 and 2008, Merck showed a positive double-digit growth. In 2011, residual income growth was virtually flat, at 0. %, however we believe this is also due to the Plough acquisition. For Pfizer, residual income growth figures for the previous three years averaged approximately 3%. Based on these values for residual income, we choose to be conservative and assume a 1% long-run growth rate for residual income for years 2012 to 2016 for both Merck and Pfizer. We chose this modest growth number because b oth companies are still adjusting to recent large-scale M activity. On a macroeconomic level, both Merck and Pfizer’s growth may be stunted by an overall down economy, the health care policy restructuring in the United States and the expiration of long-standing patents. b. Cost of Equity (Appendix D)After determining the 5 year forecast for each company, we next calculated the cost of equity. The capital asset pricing model was used to calculate the cost of equity. We used the yield on a ten-year Treasury Bill as the risk free rate which was 1. 98% (US Department of Treasury, 2012). The betas we used to calculate these numbers were retrieved from a financial website index (yahoofinance. com, 2012). The beta for Pfizer was 0. 71 and for Merck it was 0. 8342. The return on market was set at 14. 50% for both companies (NYSE, 2012). Using the Camp Model, the cost of equity for Pfizer was determined to be 10. 869%, while for Merck it was 12. 424%. Therefore, stockholders of Merck require a larger return than stockholders of Pfizer.Given that Pfizer is the number one pharmaceutical company in the world, it is implied that investors require more return from Merck than from Pfizer. c. Valuation (Appendix D) Using the growth rate of 1%, we forecasted 2012’s residual income by multiplying the growth rate by 2011 residual income. We performed the same calculation for the next five years until 2016, and then discounted it to get the present value. From 2016 on, we assumed a perpetuity growth rate, which means we assumed this company would grow forever. Therefore, we needed to calculate the current value for the company as if it were to grow at a rate of 1%, forever. We first calculated next year’s residual income by multiplying 2016’s residual income by 1%, then dividing by 2.The reason we divided by 2 was to account for the fact that the firm might not grow at a rate of 1% forever. In fact, in some cases, there might be negative growth, as Mer ck experienced from 2009 to 2010. Therefore, to be conservative, we divided the residual income in half, and then we discounted the value by the discount factor to get the present value. After we calculated the present values, we added all the values together and divided by the current number of shares outstanding to obtain the value per share. For Pfizer, the value per share was $79. 39 and for Merck $114. 93. The value we calculated is three times the amount of what the stock is currently trading at.We believe this number is high, but not unreasonable. Around the year 2000, Pfizer was trading near $50 and Merck was trading near $100. We think the current low share value is due to the overall weak economy and we believe that the share price will grow in the future. Please note that all the values of the calculations are in millions except for value per share and current share value. d. Sensitivity Analysis (Appendix E) We performed a sensitivity analysis based on changing horizon g rowth factors and discount rates (cost of equity) to show the value per share. This gives investors the value per share for a different discount rate or growth factor. Part 4. RecommendationsAfter a thorough analysis of both Merck and Pfizer based on profitability, liquidity, and solvency evaluations, we found that both companies are preforming well financially. We found that both companies use assets and investments effectively to generate profit and their profitability growth seems to be steady. The analysis of short term and long term liquidity of both firms shows no risk in their ability to generate cash to meet working capital needs, and satisfy short term and long term debt. From the valuation analysis, we can predict that the future share values of both Pfizer and Merck seem to grow at a steady rate, assuming that both companies grow at a rate of 1% each year.From an investor’s point of view, we consider that the earning per share, the price/earnings ratio, and the lev erage are important factors to consider before making an investment. |Company |EPS |Price/Earnings Ratio |Leverage | |Pfizer |2. 14 |10. 47 |2. 25 | |Merck |3. 25 |11. 95 |1. 93 | After analyzing both companies, on the basis on earning per share, the price/earnings ratio, and the leverage, we have the following recommendations for potential investors. Comparing these values for both companies (table above), we found that Merck outperforms Pfizer marginally.We believe that investment in both companies is safe, however, investment in Merck will bring a higher earnings return than a similar investment in Pfizer in the future. In addition, the financial leverage shows that the financial risk investment in Merck is lower than Pfizer’s, which makes it an even better choice for investment. However, the investor should keep in mind that the pharmaceutical industry involves high risk due expiring patents and threats from generic drugs and their profitability can be highly impacted by these events. According to a recent article on Dailyfinance. com, we found that the patents for major drugs like Pfizer’s Lipitor and Protonix, and Merck’s Singulair, which make up a large portion of the companies’ revenues, are about to expire(2011).These patent expirations cause uncertainty in the future growth of the companies and might have a substantial impact on their stock prices. Appendix A |ROA |Pfizer |Merck & Co | | |2009 |2010 |2011 |2009 |2010 |2011 | |Asset Turnover |0. 46 |0. 32 |0. 35 |0. 34 |0. 42 |0. 45 | |Profit margin |19. 50% |14. 60% |16. 50% |48. 90% |3. 06% |14. 70% | |ROA |9. 03% |4. 80% |5. 38% |16. 80% |1. 29% |6. 70% | ROCE |Pfizer |Merck & Co | | |2009 |2010 |2011 |2009 |2010 |2011 | | |10. 28% |9. 21% |11. 53% |33. 47% |1. 73% |11. 74% | |EPS |Pfizer |Merck & Co | | |2009 |2010 |2011 |2009 |2010 |2011 | |GAAP |$1. 24 |$1. 09 |$1. 10 |$5. 65 |$0. 36 |$2. 01 | |Non GAAP | | | |3. 77 |3. 42 |3. 25 | Appendix B Pfizer | |Merck | | |20 11 |2010 | |2011 |2010 | |Current Ratio |2. 0566461 |2. 1306398 | |2. 0425362 |1. 8581932 | |Quick Ratio |1. 438099 |1. 4454533 | |1. 4301631 |1. 2496004 | |Opr. CF to Current Liab. |0. 7210802 |0. 399986 | |0. 7622653 |0. 6918995 | |Revenue to Cash |19. 051992 |38. 649568 | |3. 5508832 |4. 2189908 | |Days Revenues Held in Cash |19. 158102 |9. 438314 | |102. 79133 |86. 51358 | |Accounts Payable Turnover |1. 67 |2. 11 | |3. 77 |3. 89 | |Days Accounts Payable |218 |173 | |97 |94 | |Outstanding | | | | | | |Accounts Receivable Turnover|5 |4. 79 | |6. 16 |6. 59 | |Days Receivable Outstanding |73 |76 | |59 |55 | |Inventory Turnover |1. 88 |1. 53 | |2. 78 |2. 4 | |Days Inventory Held |194 |238 | |131 |138 | Appendix C | Pfizer | |Merck | | |2011 |2010 | |2011 |2010 | |Liabilities to Asset Ratio |0. 560 |0. 540 | |0. 458 |0. 463 | |Liabilities to Shareholders'|0. 583 |0. 555 | |0. 300 |0. 290 | |Equity Ratio | | | | | | |Long Term Debt to Long-Term |0. 297 |0. 303 | |0. 220 |0. 220 | |Capi tal Ratios | | | | | | |Long Term Debt to |0. 422 |0. 435 | |0. 284 |0. 84 | |Shareholders' Equity Ratio | | | | | | |Interest Coverage Ratio |8. 600 |6. 180 | |10. 900 |3. 480 | |Operating Cash Flow to Total|0. 190 |0. 099 | |0. 300 |0. 120 | |Liabilities Ratio | | | | | | Appendix D | | |10 year |Merck's Beta|Merck's Rm | | | | | |Treasury Bill | | | | | | | |1. 98% |0. 8342 |14. 50% | | | | |CAPM |12. 2% | | | | | |Merck |2012 |2011 |2010 | | | | |Beginning SE |54,517 |54,376 |59,058 | | | | |Comprehensive Loss |3,132 |3,216 |2,767 | | | | |Income Available to Com. |57,649 |57,592 |61,825 | | | | |Shareholders | | | | | | | |Required Income |-222 |-222 |-221 | | | | |Residual Income |57,427 |57,370 |61,604 | | | | |Changed in Residual Income | |0. 10% |-6. 7% | | | | | | | | | | | | | |2012 |2013 |2014 |2015 |2016 |CV | |Projected Residual Income |57,427 |58,001 |58,581 |59,167 |59,759 |30,178 | |Discount Factor |1. 12424 |1. 2639156 |1. 420944 |1. 5974826 |1. 795954 |0. 2051731 | |Present Value |51,081 |45,890 |41,227 |37,038 |33,274 |147,086 | | | | | | | | | |Total Value |355,596 | | | | | | |# of Share Outstanding 3,094 | | | | | | |Value per Share |114. 93 | | | | | | |Current Share Value (5/4/12) |38. 84 | | | | | | | | |10 year Treasury|Pfizer's |Pfizer's Rm | | | | | |Bill |Beta | | | | | | |1. 98% |0. 71 |14. 50% | | | | |CAPM: |10. 7% | | | | | |Pfizer |2012 |2011 |2010 | | | | |Beginning SE |$82,621 |$87,813 |90,014 | | | | |Comprehensive Loss |-4,129 |-3,440 |552 | | | | |Preferred Dividends |45 |52 |62 | | | | |Income Available to Com. |$86,705 |$91,201 |89,400 | | | | |Shareholders | | | | | | | |Required Income |3,142 |4,520 |4,510 | | | | |Residual Income |$89,847 |$86,681 |84,890 | | | | |Changed in Residual Income | |3. 65% |2. 1% | | | | | | | | | | | | | |2012 |2013 |2014 |2015 | |CV | | | | | | |2016 | | |Projected Residual Income |89,847 |90,745 |91,653 |92,569 |93,495 |47,215 | |Discount Factor |1. 10869 |1. 22919352 |1. 3627 |1. 5109 |1. 6751 |0. 1653 | |Present Value |81,039 |73,825 |67,254 |61,267 |55,813