Effect of Buprenorphine on Postoperative Pain Levels

Effect of Buprenorphine on Postoperative Pain Levels Katelyn Shultz Nurse Anesthesia ABSTRACT In recent years, buprenorphine has become an increasingly popular choice for managing opioid dependence; however, buprenorphine’s unique mechanism of action can make treating acute pain more complicated. In opioid-dependent patients managed with buprenorphine, would continuing buprenorphine therapy during the perioperative period affect postoperative pain levels? The research method for this study is a formal literature review. I predict that continuing buprenorphine throughout the perioperative period will improve postoperative pain levels in opioid-dependent patients maintained on buprenorphine. INTRODUCTION In recent years, buprenorphine has become an increasingly popular choice in the treatment of opioid dependence. Even though it is a partial mu agonist, buprenorphine is known to have high mu-receptor affinity. When buprenorphine is continued throughout the perioperative period, this property may reduce the effectiveness of other full mu agonist opioids. As a result, this pharmacological trait introduces an obstacle for successful treatment of acute surgical pain in the patient taking chronic buprenorphine. The clinician must choose the best option for this patient, to continue or discontinue buprenorphine therapy during the perioperative period. BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE It is imperative to establish evidence-based practice guidelines regarding the best method of acute pain management for patients taking chronic buprenorphine. As buprenorphine use increases, healthcare providers will encounter opioid-dependent patients taking chronic buprenorphine with higher frequency in the surgical setting.1 Although the positive outcomes of buprenorphine use are comprehensively researched and well documented, the evidence regarding the perioperative continuation or suspension of buprenorphine is limited and inconsistent. As a result, prescribers may avoid buprenorphine altogether, ultimately preventing more patients from receiving a potentially superior treatment. Perioperative is defined as the phase immediately prior, during, and immediately after a surgical procedure. Postoperative period is defined as the phase after a surgical procedure is performed. Buprenorphine maintenance therapy (BMT) is defined as a sustained dose of buprenorphine taken by an opioid-dependent patient for an indefinite period of time. Methadone maintenance therapy (BMT) is defined as a sustained dose of methadone taken by an opioid-dependent patient for an indefinite period of time. Full mu opioid agonists activate mu receptors until a maximum effect is reached or the receptor is fully activated. Methadone, morphine, and oxycodone are examples of full mu agonists. Partial mu opioid agonists bind to receptors and partially activate them, but not to the same degree as do full agonists. Partial mu agonists can also displace full mu agonists from receptors. Buprenorphine is a partial mu agonist. Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) is any method of allowing a person in pai n to administer their own pain relief. METHODS The research method for this study was a formal literature review. The purpose of this study was to answer the question, in opioid-dependent patients managed with buprenorphine, would continuing buprenorphine therapy during the perioperative period affect postoperative pain levels? I searched the database SuperSearch. The key terms for this search were (pain management OR treatment), buprenorphine, and (perioperative OR intraoperative OR postoperative) using the Boolean operator AND. I limited results to peer-reviewed academic journal articles published in English from 2004-2014. Initial results were refined using the inclusion criteria of patients maintained on buprenorphine therapy prior to surgery and perioperative pain management, and the exclusion criteria of animal studies and buprenorphine administration techniques: epidural, intrathecal, perineural, subcutaneous, and transdermal. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE The purpose of these studies is to examine perioperative acute pain management in opioid-tolerant patients taking BMT. The type of studies include a retrospective cohort study, literature reviews, and case reports examining a population of people taking chronic buprenorphine. Buprenorphine may be a more preferable method than methadone for chronic opioid replacement therapy. The use of buprenorphine has been associated with improvement in education, social life, and toxicological conditions when compared to methadone.1 Buprenorphine is also perceived to have less adverse effects and social stigma than methadone.2 In addition, buprenorphine’s full opioid agonist effects are lower compared to methadone, improving its safety profile.3 Buprenorphine may also induce less hyperalgesia than full agonists, although this has yet to be confirmed.2 In support of this statement, however, Koppert et al4 found that the antihyperalgesic effects of buprenorphine were stronger and of longer duration as compared with the pure mu receptor agonist studied in the same model. Though some researchers recommend a transition from buprenorphine to a full mu agonist preoperatively, an interruption in BMT is not ideal. A drug holiday or transition to other chronic opioids, such as methadone, prior to surgery may lead to simplified sedation techniques; however, it is time consuming and unnecessary, and alternatives should be considered.1 It is best that patients with opioid dependence be in some early withdrawal before initiating treatment with buprenorphine.5 As a result, when a patient transitioned to methadone prior to surgery returns to their previous dose of buprenorphine postoperatively, withdrawal may occur.1 Additionally, for patients switched from BMT to MMT preoperatively, methadone must be ceased for at least 36 hours and the patient should experience mild withdrawal symptoms before buprenorphine is restarted.6 In contrast to these recommendations, the retention of buprenorphine was found to be better in heroin addicts with less morbidity if buprenorp hine was not rapidly withdrawn, but continued for up to 350 days.5 When chronic buprenorphine doses were continued throughout perioperative period, patients were able to achieve good pain control with additional opioids and/or additional buprenorphine doses. In a small series of 5 patients, adequate pain control was achieved when other full mu agonist opioids were given as needed in addition to the patient’s usual daily dose of buprenorphine.7 In another study,8 the patient achieved adequate pain control on postoperative day 1 and 2 with a total daily buprenorphine dose of 72 mg, and was able to successfully and comfortable taper to her baseline dose of 24 mg/d by day 11. Furthermore, Jones et al9 reported the buprenorphine-managed patient scored 0 out of 10 on all 6 post morphine-PCA pain assessments, and 0 to 5 out of 10 on all post discharge pain assessments while taking buprenorphine and oxycodone/acetaminophen. Only 1 study10 reported severe postoperative pain control with the continuation of buprenorphine during the perioperative period. The study10 highlighted a case report for one patient with Type I Chiari malformation receiving buprenorphine for chronic pain who underwent two identical surgical procedures. For the first procedure, the patient’s usual dose of buprenorphine was continued throughout the perioperative period, and a full mu agonist was used for postoperative pain.10 The patient reported severe postoperative pain after this procedure.10 This information is limited, however, by self-report. No documentation was obtained from the outside hospital where the first procedure was performed.10 The author is a representative for the hospital where the second procedure was performed.10 For the second procedure, the patient’s buprenorphine was discontinued 5 days prior to surgery, and the patient was transitioned to a full opioid agonsist.10 Again, the patient’s p ostoperative pain was managed with a full opioid receptor agonist.10 Though the patient reported acceptable pain control on postoperative day 1, the patient’s pain was reported at 7 to 8/10 immediately after surgery.10 Although some researchers suggest that buprenorphine decreases full mu agonist opioid’s effectiveness, many found the addition of full mu agonists in the perioperative setting to be beneficial for buprenorphine-maintained patients. Buprenorphine’s long half-life, high opioid receptor affinity, partial agonist activity, and slow dissociation from the mu receptor may reduce analgesic effectiveness of full mu opioid agonists; however, the data does not support the commonly held belief that high dose BMT will interfere with the activity of full mu agonist opioids given for the relief of postoperative pain.6 Morphine has been shown to be an effective breakthrough medication to control postoperative pain in buprenorphine-maintained patients.11 In a retrospective cohort study, Macintyre et al6 confirmed BMT patients who were not given buprenorphine the day after surgery had significantly higher (P=.02) PCA morphine equivalent requirements in the first 24 hours after surgery co mpared with those who were given their usual dose of buprenorphine. In another uncontrolled comparison of BMT and MMT groups, researchers12 found that the first 24 hour postoperative PCA opioid requirements were lower for BMT and MMT groups when maintenance drugs were continued compared with BMT and MMT groups whose maintenance drugs had been ceased perioperatively. Despite the fact that one report6 showed a reduction in whole brain mu receptor availability with high doses of buprenorphine, several studies demonstrated that there is no ceiling effect for the analgesic properties of buprenorphine, only for an opioid’s euphoric effects and respiratory depression. It has been shown that buprenorphine attenuates the effects of additional opioid agonists rather than exert an absolute ceiling effect, and this minimizes euphoric properties of concurrently administered opioids and discourages the likelihood of ongoing opioid abuse.2 Macintyre et al6 also revealed that PCA opioid requirements were lower when BMT was continued after surgery, implying that buprenorphine may still have analgesic effects. Walsh et al13 documented no ceiling effect for analgesia in patients that received sublingual buprenorphine up to 32 mg. As there are no additional opioid effects with escalating doses, this property limits abuse potential and minimizes respiratory d epression with high doses.2 In a study of 20 volunteers, Dahan et al14 confirmed buprenorphine’s ceiling effect on respiratory depression, but not on its analgesic effects. As buprenorphine demonstrates a ceiling effect for respiratory depression, it is safe for outpatient use in high doses; however, when used in conjunction with sedatives, a synergistic effect in respiratory depression may occur. One case report8 verified that a high daily dose of buprenorphine (72 mg) was safely used as an outpatient dose, though no other respiratory depressants were used. Combining benzodiazepines with buprenorphine can exert a synergistic effect on the central nervous system resulting in sedation and respiratory depression.11 Deaths from buprenorphine have been reported, but it has been suggested that these deaths predominantly occurred as a result of prolonged respiratory depression when administered with sedatives, particularly benzodiazepines.2 There is no consensus on recommendations regarding acute pain management for buprenorphine-maintained patients presenting to the perioperative setting and more research is needed. Some articles2,5,11 recommend the cessation of buprenorphine preoperatively and conversion to a full opioid agonist throughout the perioperative period. Conversely, others1,2,5,8 demonstrate successful pain management in the acute pain setting with divided daily and/or additional doses of buprenorphine. The majority of researchers,2,3,5,9,11,15 however, support the continuation of usual buprenorphine maintenance therapy with the addition of full mu agonist opioid analgesics for effective perioperative pain control. There are no recommendations based on high level evidence,15 and data is sparse regarding the best method of treatment for pain in the opioid-dependent population.5 Regardless of point of view, most studies agree that additional research regarding acute pain management for patients taking chronic buprenorphine is urgently needed.5,10,11 DISCUSSION It is clear that buprenorphine is a better alternative than methadone for the treatment of opioid dependence. Associated with less respiratory depression and a lower abuse profile, buprenorphine is a safer medication than methadone and can be used without difficulty in outpatient therapy. With a long half-life and slow dissociation time, buprenorphine can also be dosed less frequently. Buprenorphine has also been known to cause less side effects than methadone. All of these features can increase adherence to opioid replacement therapy by allowing the opioid-dependent patient a less restrictive lifestyle. There is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the best method for treating acute surgical pain in patients taking chronic buprenorphine. There are multiple recommendations regarding perioperative pain management and BMT; however, most methods are developed from the results of uncontrolled studies with very small sampling sizes. Consequently, few are able to establish actual significance in their findings. Without concrete evidence, concise standard recommendations are difficult to establish. CONCLUSION Based on the literature, the continuation of BMT during the perioperative period with the addition of short acting full mu opioids and/or additional buprenorphine doses is the best approach to treating acute surgical pain. For future research, more controlled studies with larger sample sizes are needed in order to confirm the best method of acute pain management in the surgical setting for patient’s taking chronic buprenorphine. References Wasson M, Beirne O. Buprenorphine therapy: an increasing challenge in oral and maxillofacial surgery. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol. 2013;(2):142. Available from: Academic OneFile, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 3, 2014. Roberts D, Meyer-Witting M. High-dose buprenorphine: perioperative precautions and management strategies. Anaesth Intensive Care. February 2005;33(1):17-25. Available from: MEDLINE, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 10, 2014. Bryson E, Lipson S, Gevirtz C. Anesthesia for Patients on Buprenorphine. Anesthesiol Clin. January 1, 2010;28(Perioperative Pharmacotherapy):611-617. Available from: ScienceDirect, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 3, 2014. Koppert W, Ihmsen H, Korber N, et al. Different profiles of buprenorphineinduced analgesia and antihyperalgesia in a human pain model. Pain 2005;118(1–2):15–22. Cited by: Vadivelu N, Anwar M. Buprenorphine in Postoperative Pain Management. Anesthesiol Clin. January 1, 2010;28(Perioperative Pharmacotherapy):601-609. Available from: ScienceDirect, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 3, 2014. Vadivelu N, Mitra S, Kaye A, Urman R. Perioperative analgesia and challenges in the drug-addicted and drug-dependent patient. Best Pract Res Clin Anaesthesiol. March 2014;28(1):91. Available from: Supplemental Index, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 10, 2014. Macintyre P, Russell R, Usher K, Gaughwin M, Huxtable C. Pain relief and opioid requirements in the first 24 hours after surgery in patients taking buprenorphine and methadone opioid substitution therapy. Anaesth Intensive Care. March 2013;41(2):222-230. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 3, 2014. Kornfield H, Manfredi L. Effectiveness of full agonist opioids in patients stabilized on buprenorphine undergoing major surgery: a case series. Am J Ther 2010;17:523-528. Cited by: Huxtable C, Roberts L, Somogyi A, Macintyre P. Acute pain management in opioid-tolerant patients: a growing challenge. Anaesth Intensive Care. September 2011;39(5):804-823. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 3, 2014. Book S, Myrick H, Malcolm R, Strain E. Buprenorphine for postoperative pain following general surgery in a buprenorphine-maintained patient. Am J Psychiatry. June 2007;164(6)Available from: PsycINFO, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 3, 2014. Jones H, Johnson R, Milio L. Post-cesarean pain management of patients maintained on methadone or buprenorphine. Am J Addict. May 2006;15(3):258-259. Available from: MEDLINE, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 3, 2014. Chern S, Isserman R, Chen L, Ashburn M, Liu R. Perioperative Pain Management for Patients on Chronic Buprenorphine: A Case Report. J Anesth Clin Res. October 2012;3(10):1. Available from: Supplemental Index, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 3, 2014. Vadivelu N, Anwar M. Buprenorphine in Postoperative Pain Management. Anesthesiol Clin. January 1, 2010;28(Perioperative Pharmacotherapy):601-609. Available from: ScienceDirect, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 3, 2014. Russell R, Usher K, Macintyre PE. A comparison of postoperative opioid requirements and effectiveness in methadone- and buprenorphine-maintained patients. Anaesth Intensive Care. 2011;39:726-727. Cited by: Huxtable C, Roberts L, Somogyi A, Macintyre P. Acute pain management in opioid-tolerant patients: a growing challenge. Anaesth Intensive Care. September 2011;39(5):804-823. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 3, 2014. Walsh SL, Preston KL, Stitzer ML, et al. Clinical pharmacology of buprenorphine: ceiling effects at high doses. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 1994;55(5):569–80. Cited by: Vadivelu N, Anwar M. Buprenorphine in Postoperative Pain Management. Anesthesiol Clin. January 1, 2010;28(Perioperative Pharmacotherapy):601-609. Available from: ScienceDirect, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 3, 2014. Dahan A, Yassen A, Romberg R, et al. Buprenorphine induces ceiling in respiratory depression but not in analgesia. Br J Anaesth. 2006;96(5):627–32. Cited by: Vadivelu N, Anwar M. Buprenorphine in Postoperative Pain Management. Anesthesiol Clin. January 1, 2010;28(Perioperative Pharmacotherapy):601-609. Available from: ScienceDirect, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 3, 2014. Huxtable C, Roberts L, Somogyi A, Macintyre P. Acute pain management in opioid-tolerant patients: a growing challenge. Anaesth Intensive Care. September 2011;39(5):804-823. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed June 3, 2014. 1

Full Time and Part Time Contracts

Full Time and Part Time Contracts As the employer you must give employees: a written statement of employment or a written contract the statutory lowest level of paid holiday a payslip proving all deductions, for example a National Insurance contributions (NICs) the statutory lowest length of breaks needed for rest Statutory Sick Pay maternity, paternity and also the adoption pay and leave required you have to as well: ensure employees dont work longer than the lowest allowed hours pay employees the minimum wage is crucial make sure you own employers liability insurance give a safe and secure working place register with HM Revenue and Customs to register the payroll, tax and NICs Allow if necessary flexible working wants stay away from discrimination in the workplace Ensure needed adjustments are made to your business ground if your employee is disabled Advantages of employing part-time workers Employing part-time people has a variety of business benefits, such as: It being a working way to keep costs down in aspects where you dont yet require full-time cover Making recruitment happen more by giving family-friendly working procedures to show clients and customers that you like having a diverse work environment and ethical employment procedures letting you to bring in highly skilled staff members who have good experience when you have a fixed budget expanding recruits if needed part-time work gets attention from parents with younger children and older also people, this is because they dont want to work full time but can prove a wealth of skills, experience. Making the ability of your business higher to act to change and peaks of requests for example, you can use more employees at peak times and make your operating hours longer by using part-time workers in the evening/weekends Trying to make a difference to make the workloads of other workers lower, for example when you dont have as much work for a new full-time place but are usually using overtime to meet wants this can lower your overtime costs and help stop the bad effects of stress and fatigue Disadvantages of employing part-time workers recruitment costs can be bigger if you were taking on a single full-time worker there can be additional costs going by pension provision, benefits and training Fixed-term contracts they have to last for a certain length of time they are set in advance so they can be planned they have to end when a certain task is done they have to end when a certain event takes place Fixed-term employees have to get the same treatment as full-time permanent staff. Agency staff As an employer, you can hire staff for only a temporary amount of time through agencies. So you pay the agency, this involves the employees National Insurance contributions and also Statutory Sick Pay its the agencys job and responsibility to ensure the workers get their rights within working time regulations After 12 weeks agency workers get the same terms and conditions as permanent employees, this involves pay, working time, periods of time needed for rest, night work, breaks and also annual leave when needed. You have to give the agency with information about the needed terms and conditions in your business so that they can make sure the worker gets equal treatment after 12 weeks in the same job you have to let the agency workers use any facilities that can be shared for example child care and provide them the knowledge about job vacancies from the day they start working there. Disadvantages for employer: Agencies act with the employer, not the jobseeker. It is within their likes to fill every post with a wanting applicant, if at any time of conflict to do with the employer and the prospective recruit should happen, agencies will try and side with the employer because thats who is paying their fee. Advantages for employee: Specialist Recruitment Agencies in your area of like will understand and your expertise They could give you objective feedback on your Application and how to promote yourself Freelancers, consultants and contractors If you require a freelancer, consultant or contractor it means that: they are listed as self-employed or are part of other companies they look after their own tax and National Insurance contributions most the time(NICs) they may not be allowed to the same rights as workers, for example when it comes to minimum wage although health and safety is still the employers responsibility

Brazil World Trade Essay example -- Brazil Economics Economy Essays

Brazil World Trade From the 1500’s to the 1930’s the Brazilian economy relied on the production of primary products for exports. For three centuries Brazil’s economy was heavily curbed because since Portugal discovered Brazil, they subjected it’s economy to an imperial mercantile policy or a strictly enforced colonial pact. Even though Brazil received its independence in 1822, Portugal’s phase of decisions left a lasting, powerful imprint on Brazil’s economy and society. In the late eighteenth century, when wage labor was adopted and slavery was eliminated considerable changes finally began to occur. Only starting in the 1930’s were the first steps taken to convert key structural changes by changing Brazil into a semi-industrialized, modern economy. The intensity of these transformations caused the growth rates of the economy to remain distinctively high and a diversified manufacturing base was instituted between 1950 and 1981. Substantial difficul ties such as slow growth and stagnation have plagued the economy since the early 1980’s, though it’s potential enabled itself to regain it’s large and quite diversified economy in the mid-1990s still with its share of problems. After World War II, Brazil’s inhabitants that resided in towns and cities grew from 31.3 percent to 75.5 percent. The 146.9 million inhabitants living in the cities by 1991 caused Brazil to have two of the world’s largest metropolitan centers in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Despite the reduction of the share of the primary sector in the gross national product from 28 percent in 1947 to 11 percent in 1992, the agricultural sector remains important. It’s primitive and intensive, yet also modern and dynamic parts make Brazil of the largest... ... procedures, and contingent protection policies). Many different transactions are possible if a deal in the FTAA can be achieved for both Brazil and the United States. Cutting all tariffs is could be the basis of the deal, with some balance struck between US farm trade reforms and enhanced access to Latin American procurement and service markets. Regarding procurement, FTAA negotiators must be able to agree on principles that give transparency for guidelines for open tendering and for public tenders. Also, such guidelines must be complemented by a promise to negotiate within 5 years or so a list of entities whose purchases would be covered by these new obligations. The desired outcome would be a deal on a negative list that would cover all service under FTAA restrictions excluding ones explicitly written- hopefully these exceptions would be kept to a minimum.

Death Of A Salesman 10 :: essays research papers

Death of a Salesman was a powerful play, written by Arthur Miller, which was produced in 1949. He establishes a serious tone towards his subject. Also, Miller sets an ambiguous attitude towards the audience. Miller established a very serious tone about the relationship between the father, Willy, and his son, Biff. Miller feels that a father should always be loved. However, Willy has filled his son with false values, emphasizing flashy success and personal popularity, like being star quarterback for his football team, at the cost of real effort and personal integrity, like when Biff flunked his math exam. He even taught Biff to steal, without even realizing it. “Willy:...[Biff] Go right over to where they’re building the apartment house and get some sand...Charley: Listen, if they steal any more from that building the watchman’ll put the cops on them!...Willy: You shoulda seen the lumber they brought home last week...';(50). As one can see, Willy is almost encouraging Biff to steal in order to make a new stoop. However, when Willy finds out Biff has been stealing other things, like the school’s football, he seems shocked. “Willy: What is he stealing?...Why is he stealing? What did I tell him? I never in my life told him anything but decent things.';(40). Because of the lack of morals, Willy had made it extremely difficult for Biff to love him, especially when he caught him with a women other than his mother. Nevertheless, he always loved his father, even when he totally ignored him. “Biff, crying, broken: Will you let me go, for Christ’s Sake?...Willy, astonished, elevated: Isn’t that-isn’t that remarkable? Biff-he liked me!...Happy, deeply moved: Always did, Pop';(133). When Biff was crying, it showed that he still loved his father, even though Willy is making it hard for him to live his own life. Happy’s quote shows that Biff always loved his father. As a result, Miller feels that no matter what circumstances, a son should always love his father. Miller set an ambiguous tone towards his audience. The audience must chose whether they pity or scorn Willy’s actions. For example, when Willy committed suicide, one can pity him because killing himself could have been an act of love for his family. Since he saw himself as an inadequate husband and father, Willy felt that his family would be better off without him in their lives. Also, by killing himself, his family would reap the life insurance benefits from his death for his family.

Nationalism of the Roundhouse Kick: Traditional Japanese Martial Arts

There are many aspects of Japanese culture and society that make it one of the most well-liked countries in the world today, at least according to the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index. The technological innovations stemming from the country and the reputation of companies such as Honda, Toyota, Nintendo, and Sony make for an international focus on Japan’s industrial prowess. Added to that is the ever-rising popularity of manga and anime, and altogether, they form a strong nationalist feeling in Japan, yet entirely different from the nationalism of the wartime period. However, there is another facet of Japanese culture rooted in historical significance that evokes an alternate sense of pride within the population: martial arts. It is important not only to look at the physical aspects of these martial arts tradition, but the mental ones as well. Through the historical background of types of Japanese martial arts such as karate-do, jujutsu, aikido, and kenjutsu, the progress ion of the arts and a break from their origins, and eventually their place in Japanese sports and society today (karate, judo, kendo, and sumo), we will see how Japanese martial arts shifted back and forth between military and physical philosophy, and pacifist and Zen-like philosophy. To begin, it is generally difficult to pinpoint a consensus date for the commencement of a martial arts tradition in Japan because the learning of these arts was mostly done orally and through practice. It is by and large agreed upon that all of the Oriental martial arts have their roots in China, from the founder of Zen Buddhism, the Indian monk Bodhidarma (Daruma for the Japanese), in the 6th century. The principles of Zen Buddhism would later be reflected in most of the ph... ...sian Martial Arts 3, no. 4 (1994): 63-75. Official Website of the Olympic Movement. Athletes. http://www.olympic.org/athletes, (assessed April 3, 2012). Saotome Mitsugi. The Princples of Aikido. Boston: Shambhala, 1989. Skidmore, Max J. â€Å"Oriental Contributions to Western Popular Culture: The Martial Arts,† Journal of Popular Culture 25, no. 1 (1991): 129-148. Sumo. Japan Guide. http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2080.html, (assessed April 3, 2012). Suzuki Tatsuo, Karate-Do. New York: Perigee Books, 1984. Tan, Kevin S. Y. â€Å"Constructing a Martial Tradition: Rethinking a Popular History of Karaet-dou.† Journal of Sport and Social Issues 26, no. 2 (2004): 169-192, doi: 10.1177/0193723504264772. World Karate Federation. 20th World Karate Federation Championship Results. http://www.wkf. net/index.php? option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=58, (assessed April 3, 2012).

Bag of Bones CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The ringing of the phone or, more accurately, the way I received the ringing of the phone was as familiar as the creaks of my chair or the hum of the old IBM Selectric. It seemed to come from far away at first, then to approach like a whistling train coming down on a crossing. There was no extension in my office or Jo's; the upstairs phone, an old-fashioned rotary-dial, was on a table in the hall between them in what Jo used to call ‘no-man's-land.' The temperature out there must have been at least ninety degrees, but the air still felt cool on my skin after the office. I was so oiled with sweat that I looked like a slightly pot-bellied version of the muscle-boys I sometimes saw when I was working out. ‘Hello?' ‘Mike? Did I wake you? Were you sleeping?' It was Mattie, but a different one from last night. This one wasn't afraid or even tentative; this one sounded so happy she was almost bubbling over. It was almost certainly the Mattie who had attracted Lance Devore. ‘Not sleeping,' I said. ‘Writing a little.' ‘Get out! I thought you were retired.' ‘I thought so, too,' I said, ‘but maybe I was a little hasty. What's going on? You sound over the moon.' ‘I just got off the phone with John Storrow ‘ Really? How long had I been on the second floor, anyway? I looked at my wrist and saw nothing but a pale circle. It was half-past freckles and skin o'clock, as we used to say when we were kids; my watch was downstairs in the north bedroom, probably lying in a puddle of water from my overturned night-glass. ‘ his age, and that he can subpoena the other son!' ‘Whoa,' I said. ‘You lost me. Go back and slow down.' She did. Telling the hard news didn't take long (it rarely does): Storrow was coming up tomorrow. He would land at County Airport and stay at the Lookout Rock Hotel in Castle View. The two of them would spend most of Friday discussing the case. ‘Oh, and he found a lawyer for you,' she said. ‘To go with you to your deposition. I think he's from Lewiston.' It all sounded good, but what mattered a lot more than the bare facts was that Mattie had recovered her will to fight. Until this morning (if it was still morning; the light coming in the window above the broken air conditioner suggested that if it was, it wouldn't be much longer) I hadn't realized how gloomy the young woman in the red sundress and tidy white sneakers had been. How far down the road to believing she would lose her child. ‘This is great. I'm so glad, Mattie.' ‘And you did it. If you were here, I'd give you the biggest kiss you ever had.' ‘He told you you could win, didn't he?' ‘Yes.' ‘And you believe him.' ‘Yes!' Then her voice dropped a little. ‘He wasn't exactly thrilled when I told him I'd had you over to dinner last night, though.' ‘No,' I said. ‘I didn't think he would be.' ‘I told him we ate in the yard and he said we only had to be inside together for sixty seconds to start the gossip.' ‘I'd say he's got an insultingly low opinion of Yankee lovin,' I said, ‘but of course he's from New York.' She laughed harder than my little joke warranted, I thought. Out of semi-hysterical relief that she now had a couple of protectors? Because the whole subject of sex was a tender one for her just now? Best not to speculate. ‘He didn't paddle me too hard about it, but he made it clear that he would if we did it again. When this is over, though, I'm having you for a real meal. We'll have everything you like, just the way you like it.' Everything you like, just the way you like it. And she was, by God and Sonny Jesus, completely unaware that what she was saying might have another meaning I would have bet on it. I closed my eyes for a moment, smiling. Why not smile? Everything she was saying sounded absolutely great, especially once you cleared the confines of Michael Noonan's dirty mind. It sounded like we might have the expected fairy-tale ending, if we could keep our courage and hold our course. And if I could restrain myself from making a pass at a girl young enough to be my daughter . . . outside of my dreams, that was. If I couldn't, I probably deserved whatever I got. But Kyra wouldn't. She was the hood ornament in all this, doomed to go wherever the car took her. If I got any of the wrong ideas, I'd do well to remember that. ‘If the judge sends Devore home empty-handed, I'll take you out to Renoir Nights in Portland and buy you nine courses of French chow,' I said. ‘Storrow, too. I'll even spring for the legal beagle I'm dating on Friday. So who's better than me, huh?' ‘No one I know,' she said, sounding serious. ‘I'll pay you back for this, Mike. I'm down now, but I won't always be down. If it takes me the rest of my life, I'll pay you back.' ‘Mattie, you don't have to ‘ ‘I do,' she said with quiet vehemence. ‘I do. And I have to do something else today, too.' ‘What's that?' I loved hearing her sound the way she did this morning so happy and free, like a prisoner who has just been pardoned and let out of jail but already I was looking longingly at the door to my office. I couldn't do much more today, I'd end up baked like an apple if I tried, but I wanted another page or two, at least. Do what you want, both women had said in my dreams. Do what you want. ‘I have to buy Kyra the big teddybear they have at the Castle Rock Wal-Mart,' she said. ‘I'll tell her it's for being a good girl because I can't tell her it's for walking in the middle of the road when you were coming the other way.' ‘Just not a black one,' I said. The words were out of my mouth before I knew they were even in my head. ‘Huh?' Sounding startled and doubtful. ‘I said bring me back one,' I said, the words once again out and down the wire before I even knew they were there. ‘Maybe I will,' she said, sounding amused. Then her tone grew serious again. ‘And if I said anything last night that made you unhappy, even for a minute, I'm sorry. I never for the world ‘ ‘Don't worry,' I said. ‘I'm not unhappy. A little confused, that's all. In fact I'd pretty much forgotten about Jo's mystery date.' A lie, but in what seemed to me to be a good cause. ‘That's probably for the best. I won't keep you go on back to work. It's what you want to do, isn't it?' I was startled. ‘What makes you say that?' ‘I don't know, I just . . . ‘ She stopped. And I suddenly knew two things: What she had been about to say, and that she wouldn't say it. I dreamed about you last night. I dreamed about us together. were going to make love and one of us said ‘Do what you want.' Or maybe, I don't know, maybe we both said it. Perhaps sometimes ghosts were alive minds and desires divorced from their bodies, unlocked impulses floating unseen. Ghosts from the id, spooks from low places. ‘Mattie? Still there?' ‘Sure, you bet. Do you want me to stay in touch? Or will you hear all you need from John Storrow?' ‘If you don't stay in touch, I'll be pissed at you. Royally.' She laughed. ‘I will, then. But not when you're working. Goodbye, Mike. And thanks again. So much.' I told her goodbye, then stood there for a moment looking at the old fashioned Bakelite phone handset after she had hung up. She'd call and keep me updated, but not when I was working. How would she know when that was? She just would. As I'd known last night that she was lying when she said Jo and the man with the elbow patches on the sleeves of his sportcoat had walked off toward the parking lot. Mattie had been wearing a pair of white shorts and a halter top when she called me, no dress or skirt required today because it was Wednesday and the library was closed on Wednesday. You don't know any of that. You're just making it up. But I wasn't. If I'd been making it up, I probably would have put her in something a little more suggestive a Merry Widow from Victoria's Secret, perhaps. That thought called up another. Do what you want, they had said. Both of them. Do what you want. And that was a line I knew. While on Key Largo I'd read an Atlantic Monthly essay on pornography by some feminist. I wasn't sure which one, only that it hadn't been Naomi Wolf or Camille Paglia. This woman had been of the conservative stripe, and she had used that phrase. Sally Tisdale, maybe? Or was my mind just hearing echo-distortions of Sara Tidwell? Whoever it had been, she'd claimed that ‘do what I want' was the basis of erotica which appealed to women and ‘do what you want' was the basis of pornography which appealed to men. Women imagine speaking the former line in sexual situations; men imagine having the latter line spoken to them. And, the writer went on, when real-world sex goes bad sometimes turning violent, sometimes shaming, sometimes just unsuccessful from the female partner's point of view porn is often the unindicted co-conspirator. The man is apt to round on the woman angrily and cry, ‘You wanted me to! Quit lying and admit it! You wanted me to!' The writer claimed it was what every man hoped to hear in the bedroom: Do what you want. Bite me, sodomize me, lick between my toes, drink wine out of my navel, give me a hairbrush and raise your ass for me to paddle, it doesn't matter. Do what you want. The door is closed and we are here, but really only you are here, I am just a willing extension of your fantasies and only you are here. I have no wants of my own, no needs of my own, no taboos. Do what you want to this shadow, this fantasy, this ghost. I'd thought the essayist at least fifty per cent full of shit; the assumption that a man can find real sexual pleasure only by turning a woman into a kind of jackoff accessory says more about the observer than the participants. This lady had had a lot of jargon and a fair amount of wit, but underneath she was only saying what Somerset Maugham, Jo's old favorite, had had Sadie Thompson say in ‘Rain,' a story written eighty years before: men are pigs, filthy, dirty pigs, all of them. But we are not pigs, as a rule, not beasts, or at least not unless we are pushed to the final extremity. And if we are pushed to it, the issue is rarely sex; it's usually territory. I've heard feminists argue that to men sex and territory are interchangeable, and that is very far from the truth. I padded back to the office, opened the door, and behind me the telephone rang again. And here was another familiar sensation, back for a return visit after four years: that anger at the telephone, the urge to simply rip it out of the wall and fire it across the room. Why did the whole world have to call while I was writing? Why couldn't they just . . . well. . let me do what I wanted? I gave a doubtful laugh and returned to the phone, seeing the wet handprint on it from my last call. ‘Hello?' ‘I said to stay visible while you were with her.' ‘Good morning to you, too, Lawyer Storrow.' ‘You must be in another time-zone up there, chum. I've got one-fifteen down here in New York.' ‘I had dinner with her,' I said. ‘Outside. It's true that I read the little kid a story and helped put her to bed, but ‘ ‘I imagine half the town thinks you're bopping each other's brains out by now, and the other half will think it if I have to show up for her in court.' But he didn't sound really angry; I thought he sounded as though he was having a happy-face day. ‘Can they make you tell who's paying for your services?' I asked. ‘At the custody hearing, I mean?' ‘Nope.' ‘At my deposition on Friday?' ‘Christ, no. Durgin would lose all credibility as guardian ad litem if he went in that direction. Also, they have reasons to steer clear of the sex angle. Their focus is on Mattie as neglectful and perhaps abusive. Proving that Mom isn't a nun quit working around the time Kramer vs. Kramer came out in the movie theaters. Nor is that the only problem they have with the issue.' He now sounded positively gleeful. ‘Tell me.' ‘Max Devore is eighty-five and divorced. Twice divorced, in point of fact. Before awarding custody to a single man of his age, secondary custody has to be taken into consideration. It is, in fact, the single most important issue, other than the allegations of abuse and neglect levelled at the mother.' ‘What are those allegations? Do you know?' ‘No. Mattie doesn't either, because they're fabrications. She's a sweetie, by the way ‘ ‘Yeah, she is.' ‘ and I think she's going to make a great witness. I can't wait to meet her in person. Meantime, don't sidetrack me. We're talking about secondary custody, right?' ‘Right.' ‘Devore has a daughter who has been declared mentally incompetent and lives in an institution somewhere in California Modesto, I think. Not a good bet for custody.' ‘It wouldn't seem so.' ‘The son, Roger, is . . . ‘ I heard a faint fluttering of notebook pages. ‘ . . . fifty-four. So he's not exactly a spring chicken, either. Still, there are lots of guys who become daddies at that age nowadays; it's a brave new world. But Roger is a homosexual.' I thought of Bill Dean saying, Rump-wrangler. Understand there's a lot of that going around out them in California. ‘I thought you said sex doesn't matter.' ‘Maybe I should have said hetero sex doesn't matter. In certain states California is one of them homo sex doesn't matter, either . . . or not as much. But this case isn't going to be adjudicated in California. It's going to be adjudicated in Maine, where folks are less enlightened about how well two married men married to each other, I mean can raise a little girl.' ‘Roger Devore is married?' Okay. I admit it. I now felt a certain horrified glee myself. I was ashamed of it Roger Devore was just a guy living his life, and he might not have had much or anything to do with his elderly dad's current enterprise but I felt it just the same. ‘He and a software designer named Morris Ridding tied the knot in 1996,' John said. ‘I found that on the first computer sweep. And if this does wind up in court, I intend to make as much of it as I possibly can. I don't know how much that will be at this point it's impossible to predict but if I get a chance to paint a picture of that bright-eyed, cheerful little girl growing up with two elderly gays who probably spend most of their lives in computer chat-rooms speculating about what Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock might have done after the lights were out in officers' country . . . well, if I get that chance, I'll take it.' ‘It seems a little mean,' I said. I heard myself speaking in the tone of a man who wants to be dissuaded, perhaps even laughed at, but that didn't happen. ‘Of course it's mean. It feels like swerving up onto the sidewalk to knock over a couple of innocent bystanders. Roger Devore and Morris Ridding don't deal drugs, traffic in little boys, or rob old ladies. But this is custody, and custody does an even better job than divorce of turning human beings into insects. This one isn't as bad as it could be, but it's bad enough because it's so naked. Max Devore came up there to his old hometown for one reason and one reason only: to buy a kid. That makes me mad.' I grinned, imagining a lawyer who looked like Elmer Fudd standing outside of a rabbit-hole marked DEVORE with a shotgun. ‘My message to Devore is going to be very simple: the price of the kid just went up. Probably to a figure higher than even he can afford.' ‘If it goes to court you've said that a couple of times now. Do you think there's a chance Devore might just drop it and go away?' ‘A pretty good one, yeah. I'd say an excellent one if he wasn't old and used to getting his own way. There's also the question of whether or not he's still sharp enough to know where his best interest lies. I'll try for a meeting with him and his lawyer while I'm up there, but so far I haven't managed to get past his secretary.' ‘Rogette Whitmore?' ‘No, I think she's a step further up the ladder. I haven't talked to her yet, either. But I will.' ‘Try either Richard Osgood or George Footman,' I said. ‘Either of them may be able to put you in touch with Devore or Devore's chief counsel.' ‘I'll want to talk to the Whitmore woman in any case. Men like Devore tend to grow more and more dependent on their close advisors as they grow older, and she could be a key to getting him to let this go. She could also be a headache for us. She might urge him to fight, possibly because she really thinks he can win and possibly because she wants to watch the fur fly. Also, she might marry him.' ‘Marry him?' ‘Why not? He could have her sign a pre-nup I could no more' introduce that in court than his lawyers could go fishing for who hired Mattie's lawyer and it would strengthen his chances.' ‘John, I've seen the woman. She's got to be seventy herself.' ‘But she's a potential female player in a custody case involving a little girl, and she's a layer between old man Devore and the married gay couple. We just need to keep it in mind.' ‘Okay.' I looked at the office door again, but not so longingly. There comes a point when you're done for the day whether you want to be or not, and I thought I had reached that point. Perhaps in the evening . . . ‘The lawyer I got for you is named Romeo Bissonette.' He paused. ‘Can that be a real name?' ‘Is he from Lewiston?' ‘Yes, how did you know?' ‘Because in Maine, especially around Lewiston, that can be a real name. Am I supposed to go see him?' I didn't want to go see him. It was fifty miles to Lewiston over two-lane roads which would now be crawling with campers and Winnebagos. What I wanted was to go swimming and then take a long nap. A long dreamless nap. ‘You don't need to. Call him and talk to him a little. He's only a safety net, really he'll object if the questioning leaves the incident on the morning of July Fourth. About that incident you tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Got it?' ‘Yes.' ‘Talk to him before, then meet him on Friday at . . . wait . . . it's right here . . . ‘ The notebook pages fluttered again. ‘Meet him at the Route 120 Diner at nine-fifteen. Coffee. Talk a little, get to know each other, maybe flip for the check. I'll be with Mattie, getting as much as I can. We may want to hire a private dick.' ‘I love it when you talk dirty.' ‘Uh-huh. I'm going to see that bills go to your guy Goldacre. He'll send them to your agent, and your agent can ‘ ‘No,' I said. ‘Instruct Goldacre to send them directly here. Harold's a Jewish mother. How much is this going to cost me?' ‘Seventy-five thousand dollars, minimum,' he said with no hesitation at all. With no apology in his voice, either. ‘Don't tell Mattie.' ‘All right. Are you having any fun yet, Mike?' ‘You know, I sort of am,' I said thoughtfully. ‘For seventy-five grand, you should.' We said our goodbyes and John hung up. As I put my own phone back into its cradle, it occurred to me that I had lived more in the last five days than I had in the last four years. This time the phone didn't ring and I made it all the way back into the office, but I knew I was definitely done for the day. I sat down at the IBM, hit the RETURN key a couple of times, and was beginning to write myself a next-note at the bottom of the page I'd been working on when the phone interrupted me. What a sour little doodad the telephone is, and what little good news we get from it! Today had been an exception, though, and I thought I could sign off with a grin. I was working, after all working. Part of me still marvelled that I was sitting here at all, breathing easily, my heart beating steadily in my chest, and not even a glimmer of an anxiety attack on my personal event horizon. I wrote: [NEXT: Drake to Raiford. Stops on the way at vegetable stand to talk to the guy who runs it, old source, needs a good & colorful name. Straw hat. Disneyworld tee-shirt. They talk about Shackleford.] I turned the roller until the IBM spat this page out, stuck it on top of the manuscript, and jotted a final note to myself: ‘Call Ted Rosencrief about Raiford.' Rosencrief was a retired Navy man who lived in Derry. I had employed him as a research assistant on several books, using him on one project to find out how paper was made, what the migratory habits of certain common birds were for another, a little bit about the architecture of pyramid burial rooms for a third. And it's always ‘a little bit' I want, never ‘the whole damn thing.' As a writer, my motto has always been don't confuse me with the facts. The Arthur Hailey type of fiction is beyond me I can't read it, let alone write it. I want to know just enough so I can lie colorfully. Rosie knew that, and we had always worked well together. This time I needed to know a little bit about Florida's Raiford Prison, and what the deathhouse down there is really like. I also needed a little bit on the psychology of serial killers. I thought Rosie would probably be glad to hear from me . . . almost as glad as I was to finally have something to call him about. I picked up the eight double-spaced pages I had written and fanned through them, still amazed at their existence. Had an old IBM typewriter and a Courier type-ball been the secret all along? That was certainly how it seemed. What had come out was also amazing. I'd had ideas during my four-year sabbatical; there had been no writer's block in that regard. One had been really great, the sort of thing which certainly would have become a novel if I'd still been able to write novels. Half a dozen to a dozen were of the sort I'd classify ‘pretty good,' meaning they'd do in a pinch . . . or if they happened to unexpectedly grow tall and mysterious overnight, like Jack's beanstalk. Sometimes they do. Most were glimmers, little ‘what-ifs' that came and went like shooting stars while I was driving or walking or just lying in bed at night and waiting to go to sleep. The Red-Shirt Man was a what-if. One day I saw a man in a bright red shirt washing the show windows of the JC Penney store in Derry this was not long before Penney's moved out to the mall. A young man and woman walked under his ladder . . . very bad luck, according to the old superstition. These two didn't know where they were walking, though they were holding hands, drinking deeply of each other's eyes, as completely in love as any two twenty-year-olds in the history of the world. The man was tall, and as I watched, the top of his head came within an ace of clipping the window-washer's feet. If that had happened, the whole works might have gone over. The entire incident was history in five seconds. Writing The Red-Shirt Man took five months. Except in truth, the entire book was done in a what-if second. I imagined a collision instead of a near-miss. Everything else followed from there. The writing was just secretarial. The idea I was currently working on wasn't one of Mike's Really Great Ideas (Jo's voice carefully made the capitals), but it wasn't a what-if, either. Nor was it much like my old gothic suspense yarns; V. C. Andrews with a prick was nowhere in sight this time. But it felt solid, like the real thing, and this morning it had come out as naturally as a breath. Andy Drake was a private investigator in Key Largo. He was forty years old, divorced, the father of a three-year-old girl. At the open he was in the Key West home of a woman named Regina Whiting. Mrs. Whiting also had a little girl, hers five years old. Mrs. Whiting was married to an extremely rich developer who did not know what Andy Drake knew: that until 1992, Regina Taylor Whiting had been Tiffany Taylor, a high-priced Miami call-girl. That much I had written before the phone started ringing. Here is what I knew beyond that point, the secretarial work I'd do over the next several weeks, assuming that my marvellously recovered ability to work held up: One day when Karen Whiting was three, the phone had rung while she and her mother were sitting in the patio hot tub. Regina thought of asking the yard-guy to answer it, then decided to get it herself-their regular man was out with the flu, and she didn't feel comfortable about asking a stranger for a favor. Cautioning her daughter to sit still, Regina hopped out to answer the phone. When Karen put up a hand to keep from being splashed as her mother left the tub, she dropped the doll she had been bathing. When she bent to pick it up, her hair became caught in one of the hot tub's powerful intakes. (It was reading of a fatal accident like this that had originally kicked the story off in my mind two or three years before.) The yard-man, some no-name in a khaki shirt sent over by a day-labor outfit, saw what was happening. He raced across the lawn, dove headfirst into the tub, and yanked the child from the bottom, leaving hair and a good chunk of scalp clogging the jet when he did. He'd give her artificial respiration until she began to breathe again. (This would be a wonderful, suspenseful scene, and I couldn't wait to write it.) He would refuse all of the hysterical, relieved mother's offers of recompense, although he'd finally give her an address so that her husband could talk to him. Only both the address and his name, John Sanborn, would turn out to be a fake. Two years later the ex-hooker with the respectable second life sees the man who saved her child on the front page of the Miami paper. His name is given as John Shackleford and he has been arrested for the rape-murder of a nine-year-old girl. And, the article goes on, he is suspected in over forty other murders, many of the victims children. ‘Have you caught Baseball Cap?' one of the reporters would yell at the press conference. ‘Is John Shackleford Baseball Cap?' ‘Well,' I said, going downstairs, ‘they sure think he is.' I could hear too many boats out on the lake this afternoon to make nude bathing an option. I pulled on my suit, slung a towel over my shoulders, and started down the path the one which had been lined with glowing paper lanterns in my dream to wash off the sweat of my nightmares and my unexpected morning's labors. There are twenty-three railroad-tie steps between Sara and the lake. I had gone down only four or five before the enormity of what had just happened hit me. My mouth began to tremble. The colors of the trees and the sky mixed together as my eyes teared up. A sound began to come out of me a kind of muffled groaning. The strength ran out of my legs and I sat down hard on a railroad tie. For a moment I thought it was over, mostly just a false alarm, and then I began to cry. I stuffed one end of the towel in my mouth during the worst of it, afraid that if the boaters on the lake heard the sounds coming out of me, they'd think someone up here was being murdered. I cried in grief for the empty years I had spent without Jo, without friends, and without my work. I cried in gratitude because those work-less years seemed to be over. It was too early to tell for sure one swallow doesn't make a summer and eight pages of hard copy don't make a career resuscitation but I thought it really might be so. And I cried out of fear, as well, as we do when some awful experience is finally over or when some terrible accident has been narrowly averted. I cried because I suddenly realized that I had been walking a white line ever since Jo died, walking straight down the middle of the road. By some miracle, I had been carried out of harm's way. I had no idea who had done the carrying, but that was all right it was a question that could wait for another day. I cried it all out of me. Then I went on down to the lake and waded in. The cool water felt more than good on my overheated body; it felt like a resurrection.

Cyclermate

CYCLERMATE REPORT I. Introduction of Cyclermate Lewis Llewellyn and Dai Armstrong were the first two men who made a plan of opening their own company after being redundant as the consequence of the closure of their town’s steel works in South Wales. Both of them belonged to the local cycle touring club and since then, they had become close friends.With the idea of making a traditional upright cycle in sharp of the 1940’s and 1950’s, Cyclermate Ltd has been established and quickly gained success and attracted a number of attentions of customers owing to its high quality hand – made products and word – of – mouth reputation. Over the next 15 years, the company had still expanded and continued to be successful when persuading many small cycle shops in Wales and England to display or at least to keep a stock of brochures of its products.Everything seems to work quite smoothly until 2010, when Cyclermate has faced a lot of issues in terms of finan ce, human resource and operation. To be specific, the demand among buyers in this field continues to fall even price of each Cyclermate’s product has been reduced; the quality of its products are no longer as good as it was in the past which illustrated by the increase of complaints from customers about its quality and fault and the bank manager has expressed concern about the overdraft which will cost Cyclermate a big trouble if it does not solve these problems immediately.These are just some of the obstacles which the company has faced so in this essay, I will analyze more clearly about its difficulty and recommend some positive solutions for Cyclermate which it can follows to handle these issues. II. Cyclermate analysis 1. SWOT analysis First of all, in order to have a wide vision about this company, I have used SWOT as a tool to identify and analyze the situation of Cyclermate at the moment. As regards internal factors, one of the strength of this company which makes it d ifferent compared to the other companies is unique products.As far as I am concerned, with the development of technology, many cycle shops nowadays use a modern production chain to dispose and assemble materials. Nonetheless, the cost for this activity is quite high and most of the products will be the same. When it comes to Cyclermate, almost processes have been settled by hand; thus, staffs can easily add their creation into products and attract customers by the wide range of style of its bicycle.Furthermore, by using traditional method, Cyclermate have brought some new things to the market making buyers feel more interesting, especially when products have been sold in the market are quite common and familiar. When it comes to the weaknesses, as almost Cyclermate’s products have been made by hand so mistakes and faults are inevitable. That is to say, besides the price paying for materials, it also has to spend some more for fixing service.Moreover, with the lack of employee s and capital, Cyclermate has struggled in operating the company and consequently, it normally has to face the insufficient production selling in the market. As regards external factors, a huge opportunity for Cyclermate at the very first is that it produces an unfamiliar product so Cyclermate can avoid big competitors and has a chance to dominate the market. Besides, according to Mr. Llewellyn, there is still strong growths to come in the cycle market as more and more people abandon their cars; hence, this is a good chance for this company to reach to its customers.One of the most striking features which should be considered here is the economic crisis occurring in 2008 resulted in the threat of total collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments, and downturns in stock markets around the world. In many areas, the housing market also suffered, resulting in evictions, foreclosures and prolonged unemployment. The crisis played a significant ro le in the failure of key businesses, declines in consumer wealth estimated in trillions of US dollars, and a downturn in economic activity.As the consequence, people will have to think about a solution to save money and one possible way at this time is reduce the usage of petrol; in another word, reduce using gas transportation and change to physical vehicle such as bicycle. So if Cyclermate can attracts customers and creates a habit of using bicycle among them, it definitely will success in the future. The only threat of Cyclermate which I want to mention here is the appearance of some competitors in this major for example Halfords which gained success at the moment even there are many cycle shops are closing – outpriced.At the very first, Cyclermate was one of the first company entering this field so it did not have to pay much attention about how to deal with the others competitors. Nevertheless, when the time passed by, many companies have noticed about this potential mar ket so it is time for Cyclermate to try their best to gain trust of customers if they do not want to lose the market to their rivals. 2. Current issues of Cyclermate a. Finance problem After having an overlook about the situation of Cyclermate, the next part of my essay will come closer to all the issues which Cyclermate has met.Firstly, this company has to deal with a huge trouble which comes from finance. As I mentioned before, Cyclermate had to reduce the cost of its product to maintain sales, costs are rising and the overdraft is increase year by year which push the company on the edge of bankruptcy. Besides, according to Ms. Barry the budget for the coming year will further decline and possible trading losses as the consequence of a decline in sales. Moreover, based on the profit statement for the last five years, it is clearly that the finance issue of this company is in danger.To illustrated, the profit retained of the company had decreased significantly compared to the last 4 year (from ? 42734 in 9/30/2009 to ? 12724 in 9/30/2010) and it did not even pay the dividends for shareholder and the cash on hand of Cyclermate in 30/9/2010 was just ? 657; put it in another words, the liquidity of this company was too low and if there was something happen for example the banks did not believe Cyclermate anymore and they wanted their money back, it could not have enough cash to pay for its creditors and had to mortgage its non-current assets; hence, this company will not have enough machine or capital to run its business.In order to help the company overcome this problem, there are some solutions which I am considered will be possible. First, according to the financial statement, even the direct sales units sold was lower than shop sales price, the profit which Cyclermate received from direct sale was much more higher. To be specific, in 9/30/2006, even there were just 743 units sold by direct sales, compared to 1010 units by shop sales, the revenue from the for mer was much more higher ( 743Ãâ€"650 – 1010Ãâ€"390 = â‚ ¬89050).That is to say, by reducing the products sold in shop, Cyclermate can saves and gains more money. Furthermore, in order to maintain the connection which suppliers after reducing the quantity, Cyclermate can negotiate with these suppliers and offer some extra interest rate or commission so that its supplier will still remain display and sell the product of this company. Another solution is that Dai Armstrong should allow Lewis Llewellyn to retire. The reason is that Lewis Llewellyn himself does not willing to work anymore and he usually find his work increasingly tiring and stressful.Besides, although he is one of the first 2 men who established Cyclermate as well as the shareholder of the company, he himself thinks that this company should close down or should be sold for the others UK firms. If employees in Cyclermate know what he is thinking, will they want to work for its workplace anymore; and even they still work for this company, no one can guarantee that they will put 100% of their mind on working. So let Lewis Llewellyn go seem to be the right choice at this time.However, Dai Armstrong must negotiate with Lewis about his share in the company because if he wants his money back; I believe that the capital of Cyclermate will not meet the standard to run its business. In my opinion, the negotiation will success as these two men has a strong relationship and has worked with each other for such a long time so if everything is ok, Cyclermate will save a lot of money for the next coming year. b. Human resources problem There are a number of problems with the human resource of Cyclermate. First of all, it does not have enough staffs to run the business smoothly after expanding.For instance, Dai Armstrong is the chairman of the company and normally, he must takes in charge of operating and controlling the activity of Cyclermate and distributes a particular job for his employees. Nonethe less, owing to the insufficient workforce, Dai himself still makes all the frames, using the original jigs constructed in his garage all those years ago and the inevitable thing is that he is finding it hard to keep up this level of production, both because of the physical demands of the task, and because of his other duties as factory manager and business director; as regards package, it is usually taken by anyone who has spare time.That is to say, it cannot guarantee the productivity of the firm, especially in rush time, when the staffs cannot even meet the quantity requirement of their main duty so how can they handle another. Moreover, at the moment, the company does not have as much skillful staffs as possible in order to maintain the productivity of Cyclermate and Gwyneth Morgan is one of typically example. She usually deals with internal and external enquiries, ata entry, and other routine tasks which is classify as paper work; however the main responsibility of her job is pu rchasing and help company avoiding disruption from stockouts; hence, the work cannot meet the efficiency as expected or Ffred Gregory who is 18 years old and quite new to the process, often has to work overtime to ensure that orders are met on time so that training him has further slowed production recently. Of course, Cyclermate still has some professional employees like Idris Pugh who was recruited from a local cycle repair shop.He is a perfectionist in terms of wheel manufacture and never cause for any complaints but sometimes, the work were late for appointment owing to his old-age and bad healthy. As far as solutions are concerned, I have found out some possible ones which Cyclermate can applies. At the very first, it should re-train the staffs in the company in order to meet the requirement of their field. This train can be hold by the boss himself or skillful employees of Cyclermate so that they can not only save a bundle of money for the company but also have more time to ch at and understand each other, especially newcomers.Moreover, after enrolling in this course, employees should be guaranteed to understand their job clearly and easily to combat with the task given. Another thing which can be done is recruit some new employees for Cyclermate. This is kind of positive way at this time as a new and professional staffs can help the company find out a new and creative way to complete the task and maintain the requirement quantity and quality of the company. However, I do not highly recommend this solution as the finance issue of the company is in danger and it is hard for Cyclermate to hire some new employees at this time. c. Operation problemThe very last problem of Cyclermate which I want to mention here is Operation ones. First of all, the leader of the company does not have a clear distribution for each staff which leads to the unstable in their job and costs a low productivity for such a long time. To be illustrated, Dai Armstrong has to take charge of many different responsibilities included the chairman of Cyclermate, the worker who makes all the frames of products and even a packaged man. With a bunch of workloads which have been handled like that, how can this man has time to think about a new strategy, a new plan to improve the current situation of the company?And the others workers, with a number of things have been done in a short time, how can they guarantee that no mistake will be made, not mention about some majors are not their professional field. Besides, as far as I concerned, before establishing Cyclermate, Lewis was just on his way up from apprentice to be chief mill engineer while Dai had progressed from â€Å"office boy† to a senior marketing post. That is to say, with this current position, how can they have enough management skills to lead the other in the company?Last but not least, the problem even come from the top manager of the company which is Lewis and Dai who share management of the business, though by nature of their differing roles, Lewis tends to focus more on production issues and Dai on external relations. Like people have said â€Å" 1 dat khong the co 2 vua†, with a different role like that, they cannot guide their employees to a single task which is break the basic rules of a corporation; consequently, Cyclermate’s staffs do not know what to concentrate on and lack of clear vision about the goal of what they have to do.When it comes to the solution, I believe that there are some ways which can help Cyclermate improve the current situation of this company. Firstly, Dai Armstrong has to set down a clear distribution for each position in the company. He has to reduce the multi – responsibility among his workers so that they can focus 100% on their current job and maintain the productivity of each process.Secondly, as I mentioned above, If Cyclermate accepts the retirement of Lewis Llewellyn, it can concentrates deeply on a single task at the mom ent for example maintain the productivity or improve the quality of its products, etc which is clear so that employees will know what they have to do to meet the goal of the company. Lastly, in order to save money, save materials and still supply enough products to meet the need of customers, Cyclermate itself should considers to apply JIT method on produce the products.This method was described by Henry Ford in his book as a production model in which items are created to meet demand, not created in surplus or in advance of need. I absolutely think that this solution will fit the Cyclermate’s situation well, especially when it has a huge issue with finance; Thus, by calculating an exact figure of materials has been and should be used, this company can avoid the waste associated with overproduction, waiting and excess inventory. In order to support for this method, I highly recommend the company to use Kanban cards to make JIT become more efficiency. As far as I oncerned, this Kanban card is like a label which contained a number of information about products such as name, number of units and a variety of other news that clearly conveys what must be done. By applying this card in manufacturing, especially in the situation of Cyclermate when the work of each staffs does not fix, it will help employees to control and identify which should be done next by analyze the color of Kanban cards for instance the white or green Kanban cards mean that a product do not have to manufacture yet, the yellow ones mean that employees should start producing a goods immediately, etc.III. Recommendation After analyzing the case study about Cyclermate, I want to note down briefly about some potential routes which this company can follow to reach to the market. First of all, as far as I am concerned, Cyclermate has a good supplied channel who ready to advertise and sell the product of the company and Word of Mouth method seems to bring a positive chance for it to attract custom ers.That is to say, developing this supplied channel can help Cyclermate increase its image on the eyes of customers and there are many others retailers which have not been asked about selling Cyclermate’s products so this a one of a best way for this company to expand its business. Another striking feature here is that it can focus on direct sale to sell its product to buyers. This method can help the company reduce the price paid for middleman and furthermore, Cyclermate can take this chance as an opportunity to interact with customers in order to understand and identify what they really want and need.Lastly, with the significant develop of technology, marketing is now become more and more important within any corporation around the world to approach and attract buyers. However, this way seems to be forgotten by Cyclermate indicated in the meeting’s report that the marketing activity of this company in recent year is quite rare. As the consequence, Cyclermate can spe nd some of the money saved from firing Lewis Llewellyn and profit retained to improve this activity to rise up its status and advertise a great hand-made bicycle to customers. IV. ConclusionCyclermate Ltd, in my opinion, is a brave company as it does not follow the trend of current market but identifying and having its own idea to manufacture a unique product, even in a harsh time like this. However, it has met a number of issues when trying to operate its business which I have mentioned above. In the future, there will be a lot of difficulties which this company has to handle. Having said that, with all the ideas and solutions which I have noted down in my essay, I strongly believe that it is possible for Cyclermate to recover and strengthen as it did in the past.