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id_3000 | How consumers decide Understanding consumers Consumers are creatures of habit: they buy the same products time and time again, and such is their familiarity with big brands and the colours and logos that represent them, that they can register a brand they like with barely any conscious thought process. The packaging of consumer products is, therefore, a crucial vehicle for delivering the brand and the product into our shopping baskets. Having said this, understanding how consumers make decisions, and the crucial role of packaging in this process has been a neglected area of research so far. This is surprising given that organisations invest huge amounts of money in developing packaging that they believe is effective especially at the retail level. Our Centre for Decision Research at Leeds Universitys Business School, in collaboration with Faraday Packaging, is now undertaking work in this area. It has already led to some important findings that challenge the ways in which organisations think about consumer choice. The research has focused on two fundamental types of thinking. On the one hand, theres heuristic processing, which involves very shallow thought and is based on very simple rules: 1) buy what you recognize, 2) choose what you did last time, or 3) choose what a trusted source suggests. This requires comparatively little effort, and involves looking at and thinking about only a small amount of the product information and packaging. One can do this with little or no conscious thought. On the other hand, systematic processing involves much deeper levels of thought. When people choose goods in this way, they engage in quite detailed analytical thinking taking account of the product information, including its price, its perceived quality and so on. This form of thinking, which is both analytical and conscious, involves much more mental effort. The role of packaging is likely to be very different for each of these types of decision making. Under heuristic processing, for example, consumers may simply need to be able to distinguish the pack from those of competitors since they are choosing on the basis of what they usually do. Under these circumstances, the simple perceptual features of the pack may be critical so that we can quickly discriminate what we choose from the other products on offer. Under systematic processing, however, product-related information may be more important, so the pack has to provide this in an easily identifiable form. Comparing competition Consumers will want to be able to compare the product with its competitors, so that they can determine which option is better for them. A crucial role of packaging in this situation is to communicate the characteristics of the product, highlighting its advantages over possible competitors. So, when are people likely to use a particular type of thinking? First, we know that people are cognitive misers; in other words, they are economical with their thinking because it requires some effort from them. Essentially, people only engage in effort-demanding systematic processing when the situation justifies it, for example when they are not tired or distracted and when the purchase is important to them. Second, people have an upper limit to the amount of information they can absorb. If we present too much, therefore, they will become confused. This, in turn, is likely to lead them to disengage and choose something else. Third, people often lack the knowledge or experience needed, so will not be able to deal with things they do not already understand, such as the ingredients of food products, for example. And fourth, people vary in the extent to which they enjoy thinking. Our research has differentiated between people with a high need for thinking who routinely engage in analytical thinking and those low in the need for cognition, who prefer to use very simple forms of thinking. Effectiveness varies This work has an important impact on packaging in that what makes packaging effective is likely to vary according to the type of processing strategy that consumers use when choosing between products. You need to understand how consumers are selecting your products if you are to develop packaging that is relevant. Furthermore, testing the effectiveness of your packaging can be ineffective if the methods you are employing concern one form of thinking (e. g. a focus group involving analytical thinking) but your consumers are purchasing in the other mode (i. e. the heuristic, shallow form of thinking). For the packaging industry, it is important that retailers identify their key goals. Sustaining a consumers commitment to a product may involve packaging that is distinctive at the heuristic level (if the consumers can recognize the product they will buy it) but without encouraging consumers to engage in systematic processing (prompting deeper level thinking that would include making comparisons with other products). Conversely, getting consumers to change brands may involve developing packaging that includes information that does stimulate systematic processing and thus encourages consumers to challenge their usual choice of product. Our work is investigating these issues, and the implications they have for developing effective packaging. | A consumer who considers how much a product costs, is using systematic processing. | entailment |
id_3001 | How consumers decide Understanding consumers Consumers are creatures of habit: they buy the same products time and time again, and such is their familiarity with big brands and the colours and logos that represent them, that they can register a brand they like with barely any conscious thought process. The packaging of consumer products is, therefore, a crucial vehicle for delivering the brand and the product into our shopping baskets. Having said this, understanding how consumers make decisions, and the crucial role of packaging in this process has been a neglected area of research so far. This is surprising given that organisations invest huge amounts of money in developing packaging that they believe is effective especially at the retail level. Our Centre for Decision Research at Leeds Universitys Business School, in collaboration with Faraday Packaging, is now undertaking work in this area. It has already led to some important findings that challenge the ways in which organisations think about consumer choice. The research has focused on two fundamental types of thinking. On the one hand, theres heuristic processing, which involves very shallow thought and is based on very simple rules: 1) buy what you recognize, 2) choose what you did last time, or 3) choose what a trusted source suggests. This requires comparatively little effort, and involves looking at and thinking about only a small amount of the product information and packaging. One can do this with little or no conscious thought. On the other hand, systematic processing involves much deeper levels of thought. When people choose goods in this way, they engage in quite detailed analytical thinking taking account of the product information, including its price, its perceived quality and so on. This form of thinking, which is both analytical and conscious, involves much more mental effort. The role of packaging is likely to be very different for each of these types of decision making. Under heuristic processing, for example, consumers may simply need to be able to distinguish the pack from those of competitors since they are choosing on the basis of what they usually do. Under these circumstances, the simple perceptual features of the pack may be critical so that we can quickly discriminate what we choose from the other products on offer. Under systematic processing, however, product-related information may be more important, so the pack has to provide this in an easily identifiable form. Comparing competition Consumers will want to be able to compare the product with its competitors, so that they can determine which option is better for them. A crucial role of packaging in this situation is to communicate the characteristics of the product, highlighting its advantages over possible competitors. So, when are people likely to use a particular type of thinking? First, we know that people are cognitive misers; in other words, they are economical with their thinking because it requires some effort from them. Essentially, people only engage in effort-demanding systematic processing when the situation justifies it, for example when they are not tired or distracted and when the purchase is important to them. Second, people have an upper limit to the amount of information they can absorb. If we present too much, therefore, they will become confused. This, in turn, is likely to lead them to disengage and choose something else. Third, people often lack the knowledge or experience needed, so will not be able to deal with things they do not already understand, such as the ingredients of food products, for example. And fourth, people vary in the extent to which they enjoy thinking. Our research has differentiated between people with a high need for thinking who routinely engage in analytical thinking and those low in the need for cognition, who prefer to use very simple forms of thinking. Effectiveness varies This work has an important impact on packaging in that what makes packaging effective is likely to vary according to the type of processing strategy that consumers use when choosing between products. You need to understand how consumers are selecting your products if you are to develop packaging that is relevant. Furthermore, testing the effectiveness of your packaging can be ineffective if the methods you are employing concern one form of thinking (e. g. a focus group involving analytical thinking) but your consumers are purchasing in the other mode (i. e. the heuristic, shallow form of thinking). For the packaging industry, it is important that retailers identify their key goals. Sustaining a consumers commitment to a product may involve packaging that is distinctive at the heuristic level (if the consumers can recognize the product they will buy it) but without encouraging consumers to engage in systematic processing (prompting deeper level thinking that would include making comparisons with other products). Conversely, getting consumers to change brands may involve developing packaging that includes information that does stimulate systematic processing and thus encourages consumers to challenge their usual choice of product. Our work is investigating these issues, and the implications they have for developing effective packaging. | The concept of heuristic processing was thought up by Dr Maules team. | neutral |
id_3002 | How consumers decide Understanding consumers Consumers are creatures of habit: they buy the same products time and time again, and such is their familiarity with big brands and the colours and logos that represent them, that they can register a brand they like with barely any conscious thought process. The packaging of consumer products is, therefore, a crucial vehicle for delivering the brand and the product into our shopping baskets. Having said this, understanding how consumers make decisions, and the crucial role of packaging in this process has been a neglected area of research so far. This is surprising given that organisations invest huge amounts of money in developing packaging that they believe is effective especially at the retail level. Our Centre for Decision Research at Leeds Universitys Business School, in collaboration with Faraday Packaging, is now undertaking work in this area. It has already led to some important findings that challenge the ways in which organisations think about consumer choice. The research has focused on two fundamental types of thinking. On the one hand, theres heuristic processing, which involves very shallow thought and is based on very simple rules: 1) buy what you recognize, 2) choose what you did last time, or 3) choose what a trusted source suggests. This requires comparatively little effort, and involves looking at and thinking about only a small amount of the product information and packaging. One can do this with little or no conscious thought. On the other hand, systematic processing involves much deeper levels of thought. When people choose goods in this way, they engage in quite detailed analytical thinking taking account of the product information, including its price, its perceived quality and so on. This form of thinking, which is both analytical and conscious, involves much more mental effort. The role of packaging is likely to be very different for each of these types of decision making. Under heuristic processing, for example, consumers may simply need to be able to distinguish the pack from those of competitors since they are choosing on the basis of what they usually do. Under these circumstances, the simple perceptual features of the pack may be critical so that we can quickly discriminate what we choose from the other products on offer. Under systematic processing, however, product-related information may be more important, so the pack has to provide this in an easily identifiable form. Comparing competition Consumers will want to be able to compare the product with its competitors, so that they can determine which option is better for them. A crucial role of packaging in this situation is to communicate the characteristics of the product, highlighting its advantages over possible competitors. So, when are people likely to use a particular type of thinking? First, we know that people are cognitive misers; in other words, they are economical with their thinking because it requires some effort from them. Essentially, people only engage in effort-demanding systematic processing when the situation justifies it, for example when they are not tired or distracted and when the purchase is important to them. Second, people have an upper limit to the amount of information they can absorb. If we present too much, therefore, they will become confused. This, in turn, is likely to lead them to disengage and choose something else. Third, people often lack the knowledge or experience needed, so will not be able to deal with things they do not already understand, such as the ingredients of food products, for example. And fourth, people vary in the extent to which they enjoy thinking. Our research has differentiated between people with a high need for thinking who routinely engage in analytical thinking and those low in the need for cognition, who prefer to use very simple forms of thinking. Effectiveness varies This work has an important impact on packaging in that what makes packaging effective is likely to vary according to the type of processing strategy that consumers use when choosing between products. You need to understand how consumers are selecting your products if you are to develop packaging that is relevant. Furthermore, testing the effectiveness of your packaging can be ineffective if the methods you are employing concern one form of thinking (e. g. a focus group involving analytical thinking) but your consumers are purchasing in the other mode (i. e. the heuristic, shallow form of thinking). For the packaging industry, it is important that retailers identify their key goals. Sustaining a consumers commitment to a product may involve packaging that is distinctive at the heuristic level (if the consumers can recognize the product they will buy it) but without encouraging consumers to engage in systematic processing (prompting deeper level thinking that would include making comparisons with other products). Conversely, getting consumers to change brands may involve developing packaging that includes information that does stimulate systematic processing and thus encourages consumers to challenge their usual choice of product. Our work is investigating these issues, and the implications they have for developing effective packaging. | Heuristic processing requires more energy than systematic processing. | contradiction |
id_3003 | How consumers decide Understanding consumers Consumers are creatures of habit: they buy the same products time and time again, and such is their familiarity with big brands and the colours and logos that represent them, that they can register a brand they like with barely any conscious thought process. The packaging of consumer products is, therefore, a crucial vehicle for delivering the brand and the product into our shopping baskets. Having said this, understanding how consumers make decisions, and the crucial role of packaging in this process has been a neglected area of research so far. This is surprising given that organisations invest huge amounts of money in developing packaging that they believe is effective especially at the retail level. Our Centre for Decision Research at Leeds Universitys Business School, in collaboration with Faraday Packaging, is now undertaking work in this area. It has already led to some important findings that challenge the ways in which organisations think about consumer choice. The research has focused on two fundamental types of thinking. On the one hand, theres heuristic processing, which involves very shallow thought and is based on very simple rules: 1) buy what you recognize, 2) choose what you did last time, or 3) choose what a trusted source suggests. This requires comparatively little effort, and involves looking at and thinking about only a small amount of the product information and packaging. One can do this with little or no conscious thought. On the other hand, systematic processing involves much deeper levels of thought. When people choose goods in this way, they engage in quite detailed analytical thinking taking account of the product information, including its price, its perceived quality and so on. This form of thinking, which is both analytical and conscious, involves much more mental effort. The role of packaging is likely to be very different for each of these types of decision making. Under heuristic processing, for example, consumers may simply need to be able to distinguish the pack from those of competitors since they are choosing on the basis of what they usually do. Under these circumstances, the simple perceptual features of the pack may be critical so that we can quickly discriminate what we choose from the other products on offer. Under systematic processing, however, product-related information may be more important, so the pack has to provide this in an easily identifiable form. Comparing competition Consumers will want to be able to compare the product with its competitors, so that they can determine which option is better for them. A crucial role of packaging in this situation is to communicate the characteristics of the product, highlighting its advantages over possible competitors. So, when are people likely to use a particular type of thinking? First, we know that people are cognitive misers; in other words, they are economical with their thinking because it requires some effort from them. Essentially, people only engage in effort-demanding systematic processing when the situation justifies it, for example when they are not tired or distracted and when the purchase is important to them. Second, people have an upper limit to the amount of information they can absorb. If we present too much, therefore, they will become confused. This, in turn, is likely to lead them to disengage and choose something else. Third, people often lack the knowledge or experience needed, so will not be able to deal with things they do not already understand, such as the ingredients of food products, for example. And fourth, people vary in the extent to which they enjoy thinking. Our research has differentiated between people with a high need for thinking who routinely engage in analytical thinking and those low in the need for cognition, who prefer to use very simple forms of thinking. Effectiveness varies This work has an important impact on packaging in that what makes packaging effective is likely to vary according to the type of processing strategy that consumers use when choosing between products. You need to understand how consumers are selecting your products if you are to develop packaging that is relevant. Furthermore, testing the effectiveness of your packaging can be ineffective if the methods you are employing concern one form of thinking (e. g. a focus group involving analytical thinking) but your consumers are purchasing in the other mode (i. e. the heuristic, shallow form of thinking). For the packaging industry, it is important that retailers identify their key goals. Sustaining a consumers commitment to a product may involve packaging that is distinctive at the heuristic level (if the consumers can recognize the product they will buy it) but without encouraging consumers to engage in systematic processing (prompting deeper level thinking that would include making comparisons with other products). Conversely, getting consumers to change brands may involve developing packaging that includes information that does stimulate systematic processing and thus encourages consumers to challenge their usual choice of product. Our work is investigating these issues, and the implications they have for developing effective packaging. | A person who buys what another person recommends is using heuristic thinking. | entailment |
id_3004 | How consumers decide Understanding consumers Consumers are creatures of habit: they buy the same products time and time again, and such is their familiarity with big brands and the colours and logos that represent them, that they can register a brand they like with barely any conscious thought process. The packaging of consumer products is, therefore, a crucial vehicle for delivering the brand and the product into our shopping baskets. Having said this, understanding how consumers make decisions, and the crucial role of packaging in this process has been a neglected area of research so far. This is surprising given that organisations invest huge amounts of money in developing packaging that they believe is effective especially at the retail level. Our Centre for Decision Research at Leeds Universitys Business School, in collaboration with Faraday Packaging, is now undertaking work in this area. It has already led to some important findings that challenge the ways in which organisations think about consumer choice. The research has focused on two fundamental types of thinking. On the one hand, theres heuristic processing, which involves very shallow thought and is based on very simple rules: 1) buy what you recognize, 2) choose what you did last time, or 3) choose what a trusted source suggests. This requires comparatively little effort, and involves looking at and thinking about only a small amount of the product information and packaging. One can do this with little or no conscious thought. On the other hand, systematic processing involves much deeper levels of thought. When people choose goods in this way, they engage in quite detailed analytical thinking taking account of the product information, including its price, its perceived quality and so on. This form of thinking, which is both analytical and conscious, involves much more mental effort. The role of packaging is likely to be very different for each of these types of decision making. Under heuristic processing, for example, consumers may simply need to be able to distinguish the pack from those of competitors since they are choosing on the basis of what they usually do. Under these circumstances, the simple perceptual features of the pack may be critical so that we can quickly discriminate what we choose from the other products on offer. Under systematic processing, however, product-related information may be more important, so the pack has to provide this in an easily identifiable form. Comparing competition Consumers will want to be able to compare the product with its competitors, so that they can determine which option is better for them. A crucial role of packaging in this situation is to communicate the characteristics of the product, highlighting its advantages over possible competitors. So, when are people likely to use a particular type of thinking? First, we know that people are cognitive misers; in other words, they are economical with their thinking because it requires some effort from them. Essentially, people only engage in effort-demanding systematic processing when the situation justifies it, for example when they are not tired or distracted and when the purchase is important to them. Second, people have an upper limit to the amount of information they can absorb. If we present too much, therefore, they will become confused. This, in turn, is likely to lead them to disengage and choose something else. Third, people often lack the knowledge or experience needed, so will not be able to deal with things they do not already understand, such as the ingredients of food products, for example. And fourth, people vary in the extent to which they enjoy thinking. Our research has differentiated between people with a high need for thinking who routinely engage in analytical thinking and those low in the need for cognition, who prefer to use very simple forms of thinking. Effectiveness varies This work has an important impact on packaging in that what makes packaging effective is likely to vary according to the type of processing strategy that consumers use when choosing between products. You need to understand how consumers are selecting your products if you are to develop packaging that is relevant. Furthermore, testing the effectiveness of your packaging can be ineffective if the methods you are employing concern one form of thinking (e. g. a focus group involving analytical thinking) but your consumers are purchasing in the other mode (i. e. the heuristic, shallow form of thinking). For the packaging industry, it is important that retailers identify their key goals. Sustaining a consumers commitment to a product may involve packaging that is distinctive at the heuristic level (if the consumers can recognize the product they will buy it) but without encouraging consumers to engage in systematic processing (prompting deeper level thinking that would include making comparisons with other products). Conversely, getting consumers to change brands may involve developing packaging that includes information that does stimulate systematic processing and thus encourages consumers to challenge their usual choice of product. Our work is investigating these issues, and the implications they have for developing effective packaging. | For heuristic processing, packaging must be similar to other products. | contradiction |
id_3005 | How consumers decide Understanding consumers Consumers are creatures of habit: they buy the same products time and time again, and such is their familiarity with big brands and the colours and logos that represent them, that they can register a brand they like with barely any conscious thought process. The packaging of consumer products is, therefore, a crucial vehicle for delivering the brand and the product into our shopping baskets. Having said this, understanding how consumers make decisions, and the crucial role of packaging in this process has been a neglected area of research so far. This is surprising given that organisations invest huge amounts of money in developing packaging that they believe is effective especially at the retail level. Our Centre for Decision Research at Leeds Universitys Business School, in collaboration with Faraday Packaging, is now undertaking work in this area. It has already led to some important findings that challenge the ways in which organisations think about consumer choice. The research has focused on two fundamental types of thinking. On the one hand, theres heuristic processing, which involves very shallow thought and is based on very simple rules: 1) buy what you recognize, 2) choose what you did last time, or 3) choose what a trusted source suggests. This requires comparatively little effort, and involves looking at and thinking about only a small amount of the product information and packaging. One can do this with little or no conscious thought. On the other hand, systematic processing involves much deeper levels of thought. When people choose goods in this way, they engage in quite detailed analytical thinking taking account of the product information, including its price, its perceived quality and so on. This form of thinking, which is both analytical and conscious, involves much more mental effort. The role of packaging is likely to be very different for each of these types of decision making. Under heuristic processing, for example, consumers may simply need to be able to distinguish the pack from those of competitors since they are choosing on the basis of what they usually do. Under these circumstances, the simple perceptual features of the pack may be critical so that we can quickly discriminate what we choose from the other products on offer. Under systematic processing, however, product-related information may be more important, so the pack has to provide this in an easily identifiable form. Comparing competition Consumers will want to be able to compare the product with its competitors, so that they can determine which option is better for them. A crucial role of packaging in this situation is to communicate the characteristics of the product, highlighting its advantages over possible competitors. So, when are people likely to use a particular type of thinking? First, we know that people are cognitive misers; in other words, they are economical with their thinking because it requires some effort from them. Essentially, people only engage in effort-demanding systematic processing when the situation justifies it, for example when they are not tired or distracted and when the purchase is important to them. Second, people have an upper limit to the amount of information they can absorb. If we present too much, therefore, they will become confused. This, in turn, is likely to lead them to disengage and choose something else. Third, people often lack the knowledge or experience needed, so will not be able to deal with things they do not already understand, such as the ingredients of food products, for example. And fourth, people vary in the extent to which they enjoy thinking. Our research has differentiated between people with a high need for thinking who routinely engage in analytical thinking and those low in the need for cognition, who prefer to use very simple forms of thinking. Effectiveness varies This work has an important impact on packaging in that what makes packaging effective is likely to vary according to the type of processing strategy that consumers use when choosing between products. You need to understand how consumers are selecting your products if you are to develop packaging that is relevant. Furthermore, testing the effectiveness of your packaging can be ineffective if the methods you are employing concern one form of thinking (e. g. a focus group involving analytical thinking) but your consumers are purchasing in the other mode (i. e. the heuristic, shallow form of thinking). For the packaging industry, it is important that retailers identify their key goals. Sustaining a consumers commitment to a product may involve packaging that is distinctive at the heuristic level (if the consumers can recognize the product they will buy it) but without encouraging consumers to engage in systematic processing (prompting deeper level thinking that would include making comparisons with other products). Conversely, getting consumers to change brands may involve developing packaging that includes information that does stimulate systematic processing and thus encourages consumers to challenge their usual choice of product. Our work is investigating these issues, and the implications they have for developing effective packaging. | Little research has been done on the link between packaging and consumers choosing a product. | entailment |
id_3006 | How shops can exploit people's herd mentality to increase sales A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfarebut it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how swarm intelligence (that is, how ants, bees or any social animal, including humans, behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes, also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmani's supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information, and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too. Mr Usmani's swarm-moves model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the right productthat is, the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work, and testing will get under way in the spring. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could, indeed, be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category, and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm. | Items sold in some Japanese stores are simply chosen according to the sales data of other shops. | entailment |
id_3007 | How shops can exploit people's herd mentality to increase sales A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfarebut it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how swarm intelligence (that is, how ants, bees or any social animal, including humans, behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes, also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmani's supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information, and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too. Mr Usmani's swarm-moves model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the right productthat is, the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work, and testing will get under way in the spring. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could, indeed, be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category, and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm. | People follow the others to the same extent whether it is convenient or not. | contradiction |
id_3008 | How shops can exploit people's herd mentality to increase sales A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfarebut it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how swarm intelligence (that is, how ants, bees or any social animal, including humans, behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes, also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmani's supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information, and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too. Mr Usmani's swarm-moves model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the right productthat is, the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work, and testing will get under way in the spring. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could, indeed, be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category, and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm. | Songs ranked high by the number of times being downloaded are favored by customers. | entailment |
id_3009 | How shops can exploit people's herd mentality to increase sales A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfarebut it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how swarm intelligence (that is, how ants, bees or any social animal, including humans, behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes, also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmani's supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information, and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too. Mr Usmani's swarm-moves model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the right productthat is, the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work, and testing will get under way in the spring. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could, indeed, be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category, and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm. | Swarm intelligence can also be observed in everyday life. | entailment |
id_3010 | How shops can exploit people's herd mentality to increase sales A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfarebut it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how swarm intelligence (that is, how ants, bees or any social animal, including humans, behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes, also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmani's supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information, and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too. Mr Usmani's swarm-moves model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the right productthat is, the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work, and testing will get under way in the spring. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could, indeed, be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category, and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm. | Radio frequency identification technology has been installed experimentally in big supermarkets like Wal-Mart. | contradiction |
id_3011 | How shops can exploit people's herd mentality to increase sales A TRIP to the supermarket may not seem like an exercise in psychological warfarebut it is. Shopkeepers know that filling a store with the aroma of freshly baked bread makes people feel hungry and persuades them to buy more food than they had intended. Stocking the most expensive products at eye level makes them sell faster than cheaper but less visible competitors. Now researchers are investigating how swarm intelligence (that is, how ants, bees or any social animal, including humans, behave in a crowd) can be used to influence what people buy. At a recent conference on the simulation of adaptive behaviour in Rome, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, a computer scientist from the Florida Institute of Technology, described a new way to increase impulse buying using this phenomenon. Supermarkets already encourage shoppers to buy things they did not realise they wanted: for instance, by placing everyday items such as milk and eggs at the back of the store, forcing shoppers to walk past other tempting goods to reach them. Mr Usmani and Ronaldo Menezes, also of the Florida Institute of Technology, set out to enhance this tendency to buy more by playing on the herd instinct. The idea is that, if a certain product is seen to be popular, shoppers are likely to choose it too. The challenge is to keep customers informed about what others are buying. Enter smart-cart technology. In Mr Usmani's supermarket every product has a radio frequency identification tag, a sort of barcode that uses radio waves to transmit information, and every trolley has a scanner that reads this information and relays it to a central computer. As a customer walks past a shelf of goods, a screen on the shelf tells him how many people currently in the shop have chosen that particular product. If the number is high, he is more likely to select it too. Mr Usmani's swarm-moves model appeals to supermarkets because it increases sales without the need to give people discounts. And it gives shoppers the satisfaction of knowing that they bought the right productthat is, the one everyone else bought. The model has not yet been tested widely in the real world, mainly because radio frequency identification technology is new and has only been installed experimentally in some supermarkets. But Mr Usmani says that both Wal-Mart in America and Tesco in Britain are interested in his work, and testing will get under way in the spring. Another recent study on the power of social influence indicates that sales could, indeed, be boosted in this way. Matthew Salganik of Columbia University in New York and his colleagues have described creating an artificial music market in which some 14,000 people downloaded previously unknown songs. The researchers found that when people could see the songs ranked by how many times they had been downloaded, they followed the crowd. When the songs were not ordered by rank, but the number of times they had been downloaded was displayed, the effect of social influence was still there but was less pronounced. People thus follow the herd when it is easy for them to do so. In Japan a chain of convenience shops called RanKing RanQueen has been ordering its products according to sales data from department stores and research companies. The shops sell only the most popular items in each product category, and the rankings are updated weekly. Icosystem, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also aims to exploit knowledge of social networking to improve sales. And the psychology that works in physical stores is just as potent on the internet. Online retailers such as Amazon are adept at telling shoppers which products are popular with like-minded consumers. Even in the privacy of your home, you can still be part of the swarm. | People tend to download more unknown songs than songs they are familiar with. | neutral |
id_3012 | How to Reduce Employee Turnover The chief executive of a large hotel became aware that his company was experiencing annual employee turnover of about 60 percent, at an annual cost estimated between $10 to $15 million. This large amount of money was calculated based on three factors: the money spent hiring and training replacements; the cost to the business in lower productivity due to employees becoming familiar with the requirements of their new job; and reduced occupancy rates, due to poor guest satisfaction levels. The Chief Executive knew that in order to save his company, he had to reduce the high turnover costs. Making up for the lost income due to turnover is not an easy task and many companies have not declared war on unwanted employee turnover because they have not taken the time to work out the costs of lost revenues and productivity. But the hotel boss decided to tackle the issue head-on by implementing a 4 point plan. The hotel first took the time to calculate their turnover costs; secondly to evaluate the main causes for the staff turnover and; thirdly to discuss some of the solutions to the problems and lastly to prioritise actions and evaluate future returns following implemented changes. Within a two-year period, the results were significant. The annual employee turnover was reduced by 78 percent and this impacted upon down time due to training and guest satisfaction. The result was a $10 million savings for the company. Because most do not know the root causes of employee turnover and costs have often not been accurately estimated, causes are usually not known. As a result, solutions are commonly not targeted at a companys individual, specific causes. The following is an examination of what the Chief Executive did to turn the hotel around. Two factors were considered in relation to the calculation of costs: those departments who had the highest rates of turnover and those whose turnover had the greatest potential effect on profit. After some investigation it was shown that some of the positions with the highest turnover rates such as cleaners and gardeners did not carry with them high associated costs. In fact, what was revealed was that only 6 percent of employees accounted for 43 percent of the turnover. Positions that involved a substantial amount of time in training were the ones that attracted the highest costing. Analysis revealed that those positions within the hotel which had the greatest impact on profit were people like the front office receptionists and those working in accounts. As unusual as it may sound, it is now a common understanding that offering employees more money is not necessarily a good solution to high employee turnover often they leave because they simply dislike the work. Therefore, it was important to tackle the analysis from the perspective of what were the chief causes for staff leaving. A holistic approach was undertaken and several key findings emerged. The hotel found that fundamentally they adopted poor recruiting and selection practices. For example, it was shown that almost 35 percent of the cleaning staff left after the first week and a further 25 during the first month. Candidates were being over-sold the job by recruiters and left soon after they encountered unrealistic job expectations. Devising solutions to these issues was the other half of the equation. As far as recruiting was concerned, they changed their approach by getting personnel from the hotel to handle it. Once this change was made, the attrition rates decreased substantially. To add to employee motivation, new staff were made aware of the mission and goals of the organisation and how they would be paid above industry standard for striving to attain to hotel values. New staff were shown where the hotel was heading and how they would have a guaranteed, stable employment situation with a major force in the hotel industry it was even suggested that after a period of employment, new staff might be given the opportunity to contribute to organisational goal setting. They had been losing many of their employees during the first month or two of employment, so they made new staff aware that bonuses would be offered to newly-hired employees at the end of their first three months which greatly assisted in goal setting. Staff luncheons and the in-house volleyball and basketball competitions remained an effective part of staff unity and development and a support program was also introduced to help all staff with any job-related issues which gave employees a heightened sense of being cared for by the establishment. Another area of change which proved successful was the introduction of the Valuable Employee Program (VEP). When a person was employed in the past they were assigned a senior member of staff who assisted them with getting used to their new job. Due to the limitations of the senior members position however, they were often not in a position to explain any details regarding future advancement. Now, when staff are employed, they are clearly told what is expected in the job and where it might lead for the right candidate. Hotel surveys revealed that over 30 percent of employees were not satisfied with the career opportunities in their current jobs so the articulation of the definite and realistic opportunity for advancement through the VEP led to a major decrease in employee attrition. Once the ship had been righted and the relative returns on human resource investments had been calculated, setting priorities became a formality. Although at first a daunting task, the enormous cost of employee turnover offered an excellent opportunity for the hotel to improve profitability. F As unusual as it may sound, it is now a common understanding that offering employees more money is not necessarily a good solution to high employee turnover often they leave because they simply dislike the work. Therefore, it was important to tackle the analysis from the perspective of what were the chief causes for staff leaving. A holistic approach was undertaken and several key findings emerged. The hotel found that fundamentally they adopted poor recruiting and selection practices. For example, it was shown that almost 35 percent of the cleaning staff left after the first week and a further 25 during the first month. Candidates were being over-sold the job by recruiters and left soon after they encountered unrealistic job expectations. | It was surprising that positions with the highest turnover were not connected to high costs. | neutral |
id_3013 | How to Reduce Employee Turnover The chief executive of a large hotel became aware that his company was experiencing annual employee turnover of about 60 percent, at an annual cost estimated between $10 to $15 million. This large amount of money was calculated based on three factors: the money spent hiring and training replacements; the cost to the business in lower productivity due to employees becoming familiar with the requirements of their new job; and reduced occupancy rates, due to poor guest satisfaction levels. The Chief Executive knew that in order to save his company, he had to reduce the high turnover costs. Making up for the lost income due to turnover is not an easy task and many companies have not declared war on unwanted employee turnover because they have not taken the time to work out the costs of lost revenues and productivity. But the hotel boss decided to tackle the issue head-on by implementing a 4 point plan. The hotel first took the time to calculate their turnover costs; secondly to evaluate the main causes for the staff turnover and; thirdly to discuss some of the solutions to the problems and lastly to prioritise actions and evaluate future returns following implemented changes. Within a two-year period, the results were significant. The annual employee turnover was reduced by 78 percent and this impacted upon down time due to training and guest satisfaction. The result was a $10 million savings for the company. Because most do not know the root causes of employee turnover and costs have often not been accurately estimated, causes are usually not known. As a result, solutions are commonly not targeted at a companys individual, specific causes. The following is an examination of what the Chief Executive did to turn the hotel around. Two factors were considered in relation to the calculation of costs: those departments who had the highest rates of turnover and those whose turnover had the greatest potential effect on profit. After some investigation it was shown that some of the positions with the highest turnover rates such as cleaners and gardeners did not carry with them high associated costs. In fact, what was revealed was that only 6 percent of employees accounted for 43 percent of the turnover. Positions that involved a substantial amount of time in training were the ones that attracted the highest costing. Analysis revealed that those positions within the hotel which had the greatest impact on profit were people like the front office receptionists and those working in accounts. As unusual as it may sound, it is now a common understanding that offering employees more money is not necessarily a good solution to high employee turnover often they leave because they simply dislike the work. Therefore, it was important to tackle the analysis from the perspective of what were the chief causes for staff leaving. A holistic approach was undertaken and several key findings emerged. The hotel found that fundamentally they adopted poor recruiting and selection practices. For example, it was shown that almost 35 percent of the cleaning staff left after the first week and a further 25 during the first month. Candidates were being over-sold the job by recruiters and left soon after they encountered unrealistic job expectations. Devising solutions to these issues was the other half of the equation. As far as recruiting was concerned, they changed their approach by getting personnel from the hotel to handle it. Once this change was made, the attrition rates decreased substantially. To add to employee motivation, new staff were made aware of the mission and goals of the organisation and how they would be paid above industry standard for striving to attain to hotel values. New staff were shown where the hotel was heading and how they would have a guaranteed, stable employment situation with a major force in the hotel industry it was even suggested that after a period of employment, new staff might be given the opportunity to contribute to organisational goal setting. They had been losing many of their employees during the first month or two of employment, so they made new staff aware that bonuses would be offered to newly-hired employees at the end of their first three months which greatly assisted in goal setting. Staff luncheons and the in-house volleyball and basketball competitions remained an effective part of staff unity and development and a support program was also introduced to help all staff with any job-related issues which gave employees a heightened sense of being cared for by the establishment. Another area of change which proved successful was the introduction of the Valuable Employee Program (VEP). When a person was employed in the past they were assigned a senior member of staff who assisted them with getting used to their new job. Due to the limitations of the senior members position however, they were often not in a position to explain any details regarding future advancement. Now, when staff are employed, they are clearly told what is expected in the job and where it might lead for the right candidate. Hotel surveys revealed that over 30 percent of employees were not satisfied with the career opportunities in their current jobs so the articulation of the definite and realistic opportunity for advancement through the VEP led to a major decrease in employee attrition. Once the ship had been righted and the relative returns on human resource investments had been calculated, setting priorities became a formality. Although at first a daunting task, the enormous cost of employee turnover offered an excellent opportunity for the hotel to improve profitability. F As unusual as it may sound, it is now a common understanding that offering employees more money is not necessarily a good solution to high employee turnover often they leave because they simply dislike the work. Therefore, it was important to tackle the analysis from the perspective of what were the chief causes for staff leaving. A holistic approach was undertaken and several key findings emerged. The hotel found that fundamentally they adopted poor recruiting and selection practices. For example, it was shown that almost 35 percent of the cleaning staff left after the first week and a further 25 during the first month. Candidates were being over-sold the job by recruiters and left soon after they encountered unrealistic job expectations. | There was a clear connection between high costs and length of training. | entailment |
id_3014 | How to Reduce Employee Turnover The chief executive of a large hotel became aware that his company was experiencing annual employee turnover of about 60 percent, at an annual cost estimated between $10 to $15 million. This large amount of money was calculated based on three factors: the money spent hiring and training replacements; the cost to the business in lower productivity due to employees becoming familiar with the requirements of their new job; and reduced occupancy rates, due to poor guest satisfaction levels. The Chief Executive knew that in order to save his company, he had to reduce the high turnover costs. Making up for the lost income due to turnover is not an easy task and many companies have not declared war on unwanted employee turnover because they have not taken the time to work out the costs of lost revenues and productivity. But the hotel boss decided to tackle the issue head-on by implementing a 4 point plan. The hotel first took the time to calculate their turnover costs; secondly to evaluate the main causes for the staff turnover and; thirdly to discuss some of the solutions to the problems and lastly to prioritise actions and evaluate future returns following implemented changes. Within a two-year period, the results were significant. The annual employee turnover was reduced by 78 percent and this impacted upon down time due to training and guest satisfaction. The result was a $10 million savings for the company. Because most do not know the root causes of employee turnover and costs have often not been accurately estimated, causes are usually not known. As a result, solutions are commonly not targeted at a companys individual, specific causes. The following is an examination of what the Chief Executive did to turn the hotel around. Two factors were considered in relation to the calculation of costs: those departments who had the highest rates of turnover and those whose turnover had the greatest potential effect on profit. After some investigation it was shown that some of the positions with the highest turnover rates such as cleaners and gardeners did not carry with them high associated costs. In fact, what was revealed was that only 6 percent of employees accounted for 43 percent of the turnover. Positions that involved a substantial amount of time in training were the ones that attracted the highest costing. Analysis revealed that those positions within the hotel which had the greatest impact on profit were people like the front office receptionists and those working in accounts. As unusual as it may sound, it is now a common understanding that offering employees more money is not necessarily a good solution to high employee turnover often they leave because they simply dislike the work. Therefore, it was important to tackle the analysis from the perspective of what were the chief causes for staff leaving. A holistic approach was undertaken and several key findings emerged. The hotel found that fundamentally they adopted poor recruiting and selection practices. For example, it was shown that almost 35 percent of the cleaning staff left after the first week and a further 25 during the first month. Candidates were being over-sold the job by recruiters and left soon after they encountered unrealistic job expectations. Devising solutions to these issues was the other half of the equation. As far as recruiting was concerned, they changed their approach by getting personnel from the hotel to handle it. Once this change was made, the attrition rates decreased substantially. To add to employee motivation, new staff were made aware of the mission and goals of the organisation and how they would be paid above industry standard for striving to attain to hotel values. New staff were shown where the hotel was heading and how they would have a guaranteed, stable employment situation with a major force in the hotel industry it was even suggested that after a period of employment, new staff might be given the opportunity to contribute to organisational goal setting. They had been losing many of their employees during the first month or two of employment, so they made new staff aware that bonuses would be offered to newly-hired employees at the end of their first three months which greatly assisted in goal setting. Staff luncheons and the in-house volleyball and basketball competitions remained an effective part of staff unity and development and a support program was also introduced to help all staff with any job-related issues which gave employees a heightened sense of being cared for by the establishment. Another area of change which proved successful was the introduction of the Valuable Employee Program (VEP). When a person was employed in the past they were assigned a senior member of staff who assisted them with getting used to their new job. Due to the limitations of the senior members position however, they were often not in a position to explain any details regarding future advancement. Now, when staff are employed, they are clearly told what is expected in the job and where it might lead for the right candidate. Hotel surveys revealed that over 30 percent of employees were not satisfied with the career opportunities in their current jobs so the articulation of the definite and realistic opportunity for advancement through the VEP led to a major decrease in employee attrition. Once the ship had been righted and the relative returns on human resource investments had been calculated, setting priorities became a formality. Although at first a daunting task, the enormous cost of employee turnover offered an excellent opportunity for the hotel to improve profitability. F As unusual as it may sound, it is now a common understanding that offering employees more money is not necessarily a good solution to high employee turnover often they leave because they simply dislike the work. Therefore, it was important to tackle the analysis from the perspective of what were the chief causes for staff leaving. A holistic approach was undertaken and several key findings emerged. The hotel found that fundamentally they adopted poor recruiting and selection practices. For example, it was shown that almost 35 percent of the cleaning staff left after the first week and a further 25 during the first month. Candidates were being over-sold the job by recruiters and left soon after they encountered unrealistic job expectations. | New employees were given an incorrect description of their job | neutral |
id_3015 | How to gat grant far tdtuMWc ttwwch In applying for a research grant, it's essential to start by identifying the appropriate granting body to contact for your proposal, as each body usually has its own particular priority areas. Once you've done this, checb you can meet both the eligibility criteria and the deadline for the submission of applications. , Vour proposal should be written out in the format stipulated by your chosen organisation. Almost all granting bodies now have electronic application forms posted on the Internet, although these can sometimes be both complex and cumbersome. A grant request is generally brohen down into the following components: Objective! Succinctly describe your research goal, and what you propose to do to achieve this. It's a good idea to propose only those objectives that you feel relatively confident of achieving within the grant period. A proposal with too many objectives to be included in a relatively short time is lihely to be considered over-ambitious, and might well be rejected, even if it involves cutting-edge science or a revolutionary new idea. Bachgrownd and rationale Introduce the problem that the research intends to address. The length of your description is dictated by the length limitations on the application form. You should cover what is already hnown about the problem in the scientific literature, and highlight the major gaps or limitations in the current knowledge base. The final paragraph should state precisely what you will have achieved if the project succeeds, and the lihely impact of a successful research project. In addition, many application forms, even for basic research grants, now have a section in which you're required to describe how the research is lihely to contribute to economic development. luperlmental detign and method! Vou must describe in detail exactly what you're going to do to achieve your stated objectives. Vou should provide sufficient details to enable the review panel to critically evaluate your project. In particular, you must show how the experimental design will answer the questions that you're setting out to address; poor experimental design is the downfall of many applications. Critical appraital and limitation ol the propped approach Describe the possible limitations of your proposed approach. For example, one of your proposed methodologies may have certain disadvantages that could impact adversely on your findings. A reviewer will certainly point this out and might find it sufficient grounds for rejecting your proposal. To meet such concerns, you should therefore state clearly that you're aware of the limitations of your approach, and if possible propose an alternative strategy if your first approach fails to deliver. Vou should also describe briefly any particular strengths of your laboratory lihely to contribute to the success of the project if it is funded. | Vou should give a full description of any laboratory facilities available to you. | contradiction |
id_3016 | How to gat grant far tdtuMWc ttwwch In applying for a research grant, it's essential to start by identifying the appropriate granting body to contact for your proposal, as each body usually has its own particular priority areas. Once you've done this, checb you can meet both the eligibility criteria and the deadline for the submission of applications. , Vour proposal should be written out in the format stipulated by your chosen organisation. Almost all granting bodies now have electronic application forms posted on the Internet, although these can sometimes be both complex and cumbersome. A grant request is generally brohen down into the following components: Objective! Succinctly describe your research goal, and what you propose to do to achieve this. It's a good idea to propose only those objectives that you feel relatively confident of achieving within the grant period. A proposal with too many objectives to be included in a relatively short time is lihely to be considered over-ambitious, and might well be rejected, even if it involves cutting-edge science or a revolutionary new idea. Bachgrownd and rationale Introduce the problem that the research intends to address. The length of your description is dictated by the length limitations on the application form. You should cover what is already hnown about the problem in the scientific literature, and highlight the major gaps or limitations in the current knowledge base. The final paragraph should state precisely what you will have achieved if the project succeeds, and the lihely impact of a successful research project. In addition, many application forms, even for basic research grants, now have a section in which you're required to describe how the research is lihely to contribute to economic development. luperlmental detign and method! Vou must describe in detail exactly what you're going to do to achieve your stated objectives. Vou should provide sufficient details to enable the review panel to critically evaluate your project. In particular, you must show how the experimental design will answer the questions that you're setting out to address; poor experimental design is the downfall of many applications. Critical appraital and limitation ol the propped approach Describe the possible limitations of your proposed approach. For example, one of your proposed methodologies may have certain disadvantages that could impact adversely on your findings. A reviewer will certainly point this out and might find it sufficient grounds for rejecting your proposal. To meet such concerns, you should therefore state clearly that you're aware of the limitations of your approach, and if possible propose an alternative strategy if your first approach fails to deliver. Vou should also describe briefly any particular strengths of your laboratory lihely to contribute to the success of the project if it is funded. | It's better to be honest if you have any doubts about aspects of your proposal. | entailment |
id_3017 | How to gat grant far tdtuMWc ttwwch In applying for a research grant, it's essential to start by identifying the appropriate granting body to contact for your proposal, as each body usually has its own particular priority areas. Once you've done this, checb you can meet both the eligibility criteria and the deadline for the submission of applications. , Vour proposal should be written out in the format stipulated by your chosen organisation. Almost all granting bodies now have electronic application forms posted on the Internet, although these can sometimes be both complex and cumbersome. A grant request is generally brohen down into the following components: Objective! Succinctly describe your research goal, and what you propose to do to achieve this. It's a good idea to propose only those objectives that you feel relatively confident of achieving within the grant period. A proposal with too many objectives to be included in a relatively short time is lihely to be considered over-ambitious, and might well be rejected, even if it involves cutting-edge science or a revolutionary new idea. Bachgrownd and rationale Introduce the problem that the research intends to address. The length of your description is dictated by the length limitations on the application form. You should cover what is already hnown about the problem in the scientific literature, and highlight the major gaps or limitations in the current knowledge base. The final paragraph should state precisely what you will have achieved if the project succeeds, and the lihely impact of a successful research project. In addition, many application forms, even for basic research grants, now have a section in which you're required to describe how the research is lihely to contribute to economic development. luperlmental detign and method! Vou must describe in detail exactly what you're going to do to achieve your stated objectives. Vou should provide sufficient details to enable the review panel to critically evaluate your project. In particular, you must show how the experimental design will answer the questions that you're setting out to address; poor experimental design is the downfall of many applications. Critical appraital and limitation ol the propped approach Describe the possible limitations of your proposed approach. For example, one of your proposed methodologies may have certain disadvantages that could impact adversely on your findings. A reviewer will certainly point this out and might find it sufficient grounds for rejecting your proposal. To meet such concerns, you should therefore state clearly that you're aware of the limitations of your approach, and if possible propose an alternative strategy if your first approach fails to deliver. Vou should also describe briefly any particular strengths of your laboratory lihely to contribute to the success of the project if it is funded. | The review panel may contact you with questions about your experimental design. | neutral |
id_3018 | How to gat grant far tdtuMWc ttwwch In applying for a research grant, it's essential to start by identifying the appropriate granting body to contact for your proposal, as each body usually has its own particular priority areas. Once you've done this, checb you can meet both the eligibility criteria and the deadline for the submission of applications. , Vour proposal should be written out in the format stipulated by your chosen organisation. Almost all granting bodies now have electronic application forms posted on the Internet, although these can sometimes be both complex and cumbersome. A grant request is generally brohen down into the following components: Objective! Succinctly describe your research goal, and what you propose to do to achieve this. It's a good idea to propose only those objectives that you feel relatively confident of achieving within the grant period. A proposal with too many objectives to be included in a relatively short time is lihely to be considered over-ambitious, and might well be rejected, even if it involves cutting-edge science or a revolutionary new idea. Bachgrownd and rationale Introduce the problem that the research intends to address. The length of your description is dictated by the length limitations on the application form. You should cover what is already hnown about the problem in the scientific literature, and highlight the major gaps or limitations in the current knowledge base. The final paragraph should state precisely what you will have achieved if the project succeeds, and the lihely impact of a successful research project. In addition, many application forms, even for basic research grants, now have a section in which you're required to describe how the research is lihely to contribute to economic development. luperlmental detign and method! Vou must describe in detail exactly what you're going to do to achieve your stated objectives. Vou should provide sufficient details to enable the review panel to critically evaluate your project. In particular, you must show how the experimental design will answer the questions that you're setting out to address; poor experimental design is the downfall of many applications. Critical appraital and limitation ol the propped approach Describe the possible limitations of your proposed approach. For example, one of your proposed methodologies may have certain disadvantages that could impact adversely on your findings. A reviewer will certainly point this out and might find it sufficient grounds for rejecting your proposal. To meet such concerns, you should therefore state clearly that you're aware of the limitations of your approach, and if possible propose an alternative strategy if your first approach fails to deliver. Vou should also describe briefly any particular strengths of your laboratory lihely to contribute to the success of the project if it is funded. | It's essential to say how your research is relevant to economic and social issues. | contradiction |
id_3019 | How to gat grant far tdtuMWc ttwwch In applying for a research grant, it's essential to start by identifying the appropriate granting body to contact for your proposal, as each body usually has its own particular priority areas. Once you've done this, checb you can meet both the eligibility criteria and the deadline for the submission of applications. , Vour proposal should be written out in the format stipulated by your chosen organisation. Almost all granting bodies now have electronic application forms posted on the Internet, although these can sometimes be both complex and cumbersome. A grant request is generally brohen down into the following components: Objective! Succinctly describe your research goal, and what you propose to do to achieve this. It's a good idea to propose only those objectives that you feel relatively confident of achieving within the grant period. A proposal with too many objectives to be included in a relatively short time is lihely to be considered over-ambitious, and might well be rejected, even if it involves cutting-edge science or a revolutionary new idea. Bachgrownd and rationale Introduce the problem that the research intends to address. The length of your description is dictated by the length limitations on the application form. You should cover what is already hnown about the problem in the scientific literature, and highlight the major gaps or limitations in the current knowledge base. The final paragraph should state precisely what you will have achieved if the project succeeds, and the lihely impact of a successful research project. In addition, many application forms, even for basic research grants, now have a section in which you're required to describe how the research is lihely to contribute to economic development. luperlmental detign and method! Vou must describe in detail exactly what you're going to do to achieve your stated objectives. Vou should provide sufficient details to enable the review panel to critically evaluate your project. In particular, you must show how the experimental design will answer the questions that you're setting out to address; poor experimental design is the downfall of many applications. Critical appraital and limitation ol the propped approach Describe the possible limitations of your proposed approach. For example, one of your proposed methodologies may have certain disadvantages that could impact adversely on your findings. A reviewer will certainly point this out and might find it sufficient grounds for rejecting your proposal. To meet such concerns, you should therefore state clearly that you're aware of the limitations of your approach, and if possible propose an alternative strategy if your first approach fails to deliver. Vou should also describe briefly any particular strengths of your laboratory lihely to contribute to the success of the project if it is funded. | Make sure you fill all available space on the application form. | neutral |
id_3020 | How to gat grant far tdtuMWc ttwwch In applying for a research grant, it's essential to start by identifying the appropriate granting body to contact for your proposal, as each body usually has its own particular priority areas. Once you've done this, checb you can meet both the eligibility criteria and the deadline for the submission of applications. , Vour proposal should be written out in the format stipulated by your chosen organisation. Almost all granting bodies now have electronic application forms posted on the Internet, although these can sometimes be both complex and cumbersome. A grant request is generally brohen down into the following components: Objective! Succinctly describe your research goal, and what you propose to do to achieve this. It's a good idea to propose only those objectives that you feel relatively confident of achieving within the grant period. A proposal with too many objectives to be included in a relatively short time is lihely to be considered over-ambitious, and might well be rejected, even if it involves cutting-edge science or a revolutionary new idea. Bachgrownd and rationale Introduce the problem that the research intends to address. The length of your description is dictated by the length limitations on the application form. You should cover what is already hnown about the problem in the scientific literature, and highlight the major gaps or limitations in the current knowledge base. The final paragraph should state precisely what you will have achieved if the project succeeds, and the lihely impact of a successful research project. In addition, many application forms, even for basic research grants, now have a section in which you're required to describe how the research is lihely to contribute to economic development. luperlmental detign and method! Vou must describe in detail exactly what you're going to do to achieve your stated objectives. Vou should provide sufficient details to enable the review panel to critically evaluate your project. In particular, you must show how the experimental design will answer the questions that you're setting out to address; poor experimental design is the downfall of many applications. Critical appraital and limitation ol the propped approach Describe the possible limitations of your proposed approach. For example, one of your proposed methodologies may have certain disadvantages that could impact adversely on your findings. A reviewer will certainly point this out and might find it sufficient grounds for rejecting your proposal. To meet such concerns, you should therefore state clearly that you're aware of the limitations of your approach, and if possible propose an alternative strategy if your first approach fails to deliver. Vou should also describe briefly any particular strengths of your laboratory lihely to contribute to the success of the project if it is funded. | Vour proposal should have a long-term aim that extends beyond the timescale of the grant. | contradiction |
id_3021 | How to gat grant far tdtuMWc ttwwch In applying for a research grant, it's essential to start by identifying the appropriate granting body to contact for your proposal, as each body usually has its own particular priority areas. Once you've done this, checb you can meet both the eligibility criteria and the deadline for the submission of applications. , Vour proposal should be written out in the format stipulated by your chosen organisation. Almost all granting bodies now have electronic application forms posted on the Internet, although these can sometimes be both complex and cumbersome. A grant request is generally brohen down into the following components: Objective! Succinctly describe your research goal, and what you propose to do to achieve this. It's a good idea to propose only those objectives that you feel relatively confident of achieving within the grant period. A proposal with too many objectives to be included in a relatively short time is lihely to be considered over-ambitious, and might well be rejected, even if it involves cutting-edge science or a revolutionary new idea. Bachgrownd and rationale Introduce the problem that the research intends to address. The length of your description is dictated by the length limitations on the application form. You should cover what is already hnown about the problem in the scientific literature, and highlight the major gaps or limitations in the current knowledge base. The final paragraph should state precisely what you will have achieved if the project succeeds, and the lihely impact of a successful research project. In addition, many application forms, even for basic research grants, now have a section in which you're required to describe how the research is lihely to contribute to economic development. luperlmental detign and method! Vou must describe in detail exactly what you're going to do to achieve your stated objectives. Vou should provide sufficient details to enable the review panel to critically evaluate your project. In particular, you must show how the experimental design will answer the questions that you're setting out to address; poor experimental design is the downfall of many applications. Critical appraital and limitation ol the propped approach Describe the possible limitations of your proposed approach. For example, one of your proposed methodologies may have certain disadvantages that could impact adversely on your findings. A reviewer will certainly point this out and might find it sufficient grounds for rejecting your proposal. To meet such concerns, you should therefore state clearly that you're aware of the limitations of your approach, and if possible propose an alternative strategy if your first approach fails to deliver. Vou should also describe briefly any particular strengths of your laboratory lihely to contribute to the success of the project if it is funded. | It's a good idea to lay out your proposal in an imaginative way. | contradiction |
id_3022 | How to gat grant far tdtuMWc ttwwch In applying for a research grant, it's essential to start by identifying the appropriate granting body to contact for your proposal, as each body usually has its own particular priority areas. Once you've done this, checb you can meet both the eligibility criteria and the deadline for the submission of applications. , Vour proposal should be written out in the format stipulated by your chosen organisation. Almost all granting bodies now have electronic application forms posted on the Internet, although these can sometimes be both complex and cumbersome. A grant request is generally brohen down into the following components: Objective! Succinctly describe your research goal, and what you propose to do to achieve this. It's a good idea to propose only those objectives that you feel relatively confident of achieving within the grant period. A proposal with too many objectives to be included in a relatively short time is lihely to be considered over-ambitious, and might well be rejected, even if it involves cutting-edge science or a revolutionary new idea. Bachgrownd and rationale Introduce the problem that the research intends to address. The length of your description is dictated by the length limitations on the application form. You should cover what is already hnown about the problem in the scientific literature, and highlight the major gaps or limitations in the current knowledge base. The final paragraph should state precisely what you will have achieved if the project succeeds, and the lihely impact of a successful research project. In addition, many application forms, even for basic research grants, now have a section in which you're required to describe how the research is lihely to contribute to economic development. luperlmental detign and method! Vou must describe in detail exactly what you're going to do to achieve your stated objectives. Vou should provide sufficient details to enable the review panel to critically evaluate your project. In particular, you must show how the experimental design will answer the questions that you're setting out to address; poor experimental design is the downfall of many applications. Critical appraital and limitation ol the propped approach Describe the possible limitations of your proposed approach. For example, one of your proposed methodologies may have certain disadvantages that could impact adversely on your findings. A reviewer will certainly point this out and might find it sufficient grounds for rejecting your proposal. To meet such concerns, you should therefore state clearly that you're aware of the limitations of your approach, and if possible propose an alternative strategy if your first approach fails to deliver. Vou should also describe briefly any particular strengths of your laboratory lihely to contribute to the success of the project if it is funded. | Find out the date by which proposals must be sent in. | entailment |
id_3023 | How to gat grant far tdtuMWc ttwwch In applying for a research grant, it's essential to start by identifying the appropriate granting body to contact for your proposal, as each body usually has its own particular priority areas. Once you've done this, checb you can meet both the eligibility criteria and the deadline for the submission of applications. , Vour proposal should be written out in the format stipulated by your chosen organisation. Almost all granting bodies now have electronic application forms posted on the Internet, although these can sometimes be both complex and cumbersome. A grant request is generally brohen down into the following components: Objective! Succinctly describe your research goal, and what you propose to do to achieve this. It's a good idea to propose only those objectives that you feel relatively confident of achieving within the grant period. A proposal with too many objectives to be included in a relatively short time is lihely to be considered over-ambitious, and might well be rejected, even if it involves cutting-edge science or a revolutionary new idea. Bachgrownd and rationale Introduce the problem that the research intends to address. The length of your description is dictated by the length limitations on the application form. You should cover what is already hnown about the problem in the scientific literature, and highlight the major gaps or limitations in the current knowledge base. The final paragraph should state precisely what you will have achieved if the project succeeds, and the lihely impact of a successful research project. In addition, many application forms, even for basic research grants, now have a section in which you're required to describe how the research is lihely to contribute to economic development. luperlmental detign and method! Vou must describe in detail exactly what you're going to do to achieve your stated objectives. Vou should provide sufficient details to enable the review panel to critically evaluate your project. In particular, you must show how the experimental design will answer the questions that you're setting out to address; poor experimental design is the downfall of many applications. Critical appraital and limitation ol the propped approach Describe the possible limitations of your proposed approach. For example, one of your proposed methodologies may have certain disadvantages that could impact adversely on your findings. A reviewer will certainly point this out and might find it sufficient grounds for rejecting your proposal. To meet such concerns, you should therefore state clearly that you're aware of the limitations of your approach, and if possible propose an alternative strategy if your first approach fails to deliver. Vou should also describe briefly any particular strengths of your laboratory lihely to contribute to the success of the project if it is funded. | Find the granting body which is best suited to the type of research you want to do. | entailment |
id_3024 | How to gat grant far tdtuMWc ttwwch In applying for a research grant, it's essential to start by identifying the appropriate granting body to contact for your proposal, as each body usually has its own particular priority areas. Once you've done this, checb you can meet both the eligibility criteria and the deadline for the submission of applications. , Vour proposal should be written out in the format stipulated by your chosen organisation. Almost all granting bodies now have electronic application forms posted on the Internet, although these can sometimes be both complex and cumbersome. A grant request is generally brohen down into the following components: Objective! Succinctly describe your research goal, and what you propose to do to achieve this. It's a good idea to propose only those objectives that you feel relatively confident of achieving within the grant period. A proposal with too many objectives to be included in a relatively short time is lihely to be considered over-ambitious, and might well be rejected, even if it involves cutting-edge science or a revolutionary new idea. Bachgrownd and rationale Introduce the problem that the research intends to address. The length of your description is dictated by the length limitations on the application form. You should cover what is already hnown about the problem in the scientific literature, and highlight the major gaps or limitations in the current knowledge base. The final paragraph should state precisely what you will have achieved if the project succeeds, and the lihely impact of a successful research project. In addition, many application forms, even for basic research grants, now have a section in which you're required to describe how the research is lihely to contribute to economic development. luperlmental detign and method! Vou must describe in detail exactly what you're going to do to achieve your stated objectives. Vou should provide sufficient details to enable the review panel to critically evaluate your project. In particular, you must show how the experimental design will answer the questions that you're setting out to address; poor experimental design is the downfall of many applications. Critical appraital and limitation ol the propped approach Describe the possible limitations of your proposed approach. For example, one of your proposed methodologies may have certain disadvantages that could impact adversely on your findings. A reviewer will certainly point this out and might find it sufficient grounds for rejecting your proposal. To meet such concerns, you should therefore state clearly that you're aware of the limitations of your approach, and if possible propose an alternative strategy if your first approach fails to deliver. Vou should also describe briefly any particular strengths of your laboratory lihely to contribute to the success of the project if it is funded. | Vour application should refer to other work already carried out on your topic. | entailment |
id_3025 | How to handle the sun The medical world appears to be divided on the effects of the sun upon the human body. From statements like, There is no known relationship between a tan and health to perhaps sun-tanned skin absorbs the ultraviolet rays and converts them into helpful energy, there are some things which are still the topic of research. Doctors agree on one of the benefits of the sun vitamin D. It is well known that vitamin D is acquired from the direct rays of the sun an entirely separate miracle from sun tanning. The suns ultraviolet rays penetrate only a tiny amount into the human skin, but in the process they irradiate an element in the skin called ergosterol, which is the substance that stores up reserves of vitamin D received from the sun. This is both healthful and beneficial for human skin. All around the Western World, people have developed an obsession with the sun. In many western countries, a sun tan has become the trade-mark of a healthy, active, outdoor person. The basic reddish hue just beneath the surface of our skin is the outward reflection of the millions of red corpuscles flowing through tiny blood vessels. This is most noticeable in the pure skin of a baby which can change in a moment from porcelain white (with anger or a switch in temperature) to crimson. In Caucasians, this colouring is somewhat hidden by an acquired layer of sun-made pigment, which varies in tone according to the complexion and occupation of the individual. Locale plays a big part in the effectiveness of the sun tan. Mountain tops and beaches are nonpareil sun spas because they receive far purer sunlight than the rest of the land. Urban areas with their smoke and smog act as a filter removing all the healthful properties of the sun. Perhaps the seashore is best of all, with its air estimated to have at least a fifth of a percent more oxygen than inland ether free of city and inland dust, tars, pollen and allergens. The sun has long been called natures greatest health giver and healer and has played a chief role at health resorts ever since August Rollier, the Swiss father of heliotherapy, opened his first high-Alps sanatorium in 1903. Dr. W. W. Coblentz suggests that the sun cure is a major factor in the treatment of at least 23 skin diseases, ranging from acne and eczema to ulcers and wounds. Another specialist, Dr. Richard Kovacs writes, Sun treatment is often helpful to persons suffering from general debility repeated colds, respiratory diseases, influenza and the like. After a long winter, the return to the sun writes Dr. Leonard Dodds, the British sunlight scholar, is a general stimulus to the body, more potent if applied after a period when it has been lacking which gradually loses its effect if exposure is over prolonged, even when not excessive. Over many years of study dermatologists have proven that excessive exposure to sunlight over a period of years is responsible for a large proportion of skin cancer amongst the population. Those with the greatest chance of doing permanent damage to their skin are the year-round outdoor workers 90% of which occurs on the heavily exposed hands and face. The first line of defence against permanent sun damage is the skins own natural fatty matter and sweat, which combine to form an oily acid surface shield against the ultra violet rays. At the beach, the salt water washes away this natural oily coat, the hot sun overworks the sweat glands so that the excess becomes ineffective and the dry wind and hot sun combine to dehydrate the skin itself. Over the years, women have shown far greater wisdom in the care of their skin than men. Since the ladies of ancient Egypt first began to apply the fat of the so-called sacred temple cats to their faces, women have been tireless in waging this battle against damage to the skin from the sun. Both sexes now contribute annually to a multi-million dollar global sun screen business. Other parts of the human body which tend to suffer from exposure to the sun are the eyes and hair. Many years ago, optometrists undertook studies in America to examine the influence of the sun upon the eyes by studying Atlantic City lifeguards and found that even a few hours in the bright sun without sunglasses could cause a significant loss of vision a loss that might take several weeks from which to recover. So gradual was the change that the lifeguards were unaware that their sight had been affected. The solution to this problem was to introduce sunglasses as a standard part of the lifeguard uniform. These were dark enough to absorb the suns harmful UV rays and most of its infrared and ultraviolet rays. Of a lesser impact is the effect of the sun upon hair. The penalty of the suns parching is a brittle dryness. Hair care professionals recommend a nutritional cream treatment with a substance containing lanolin to bring your hair back its natural softness, these usually come in the form of leave-in conditioners, and should be applied frequently, just as you would a sunscreen for the skin. Or, easier still, wear a hat. Wearing a hat has a dual effect: it protects the hair and helps to prevent the most dangerous of outdoor afflictions: sunstroke. | Women applied fat to their skin for protection from the sun. | entailment |
id_3026 | How to handle the sun The medical world appears to be divided on the effects of the sun upon the human body. From statements like, There is no known relationship between a tan and health to perhaps sun-tanned skin absorbs the ultraviolet rays and converts them into helpful energy, there are some things which are still the topic of research. Doctors agree on one of the benefits of the sun vitamin D. It is well known that vitamin D is acquired from the direct rays of the sun an entirely separate miracle from sun tanning. The suns ultraviolet rays penetrate only a tiny amount into the human skin, but in the process they irradiate an element in the skin called ergosterol, which is the substance that stores up reserves of vitamin D received from the sun. This is both healthful and beneficial for human skin. All around the Western World, people have developed an obsession with the sun. In many western countries, a sun tan has become the trade-mark of a healthy, active, outdoor person. The basic reddish hue just beneath the surface of our skin is the outward reflection of the millions of red corpuscles flowing through tiny blood vessels. This is most noticeable in the pure skin of a baby which can change in a moment from porcelain white (with anger or a switch in temperature) to crimson. In Caucasians, this colouring is somewhat hidden by an acquired layer of sun-made pigment, which varies in tone according to the complexion and occupation of the individual. Locale plays a big part in the effectiveness of the sun tan. Mountain tops and beaches are nonpareil sun spas because they receive far purer sunlight than the rest of the land. Urban areas with their smoke and smog act as a filter removing all the healthful properties of the sun. Perhaps the seashore is best of all, with its air estimated to have at least a fifth of a percent more oxygen than inland ether free of city and inland dust, tars, pollen and allergens. The sun has long been called natures greatest health giver and healer and has played a chief role at health resorts ever since August Rollier, the Swiss father of heliotherapy, opened his first high-Alps sanatorium in 1903. Dr. W. W. Coblentz suggests that the sun cure is a major factor in the treatment of at least 23 skin diseases, ranging from acne and eczema to ulcers and wounds. Another specialist, Dr. Richard Kovacs writes, Sun treatment is often helpful to persons suffering from general debility repeated colds, respiratory diseases, influenza and the like. After a long winter, the return to the sun writes Dr. Leonard Dodds, the British sunlight scholar, is a general stimulus to the body, more potent if applied after a period when it has been lacking which gradually loses its effect if exposure is over prolonged, even when not excessive. Over many years of study dermatologists have proven that excessive exposure to sunlight over a period of years is responsible for a large proportion of skin cancer amongst the population. Those with the greatest chance of doing permanent damage to their skin are the year-round outdoor workers 90% of which occurs on the heavily exposed hands and face. The first line of defence against permanent sun damage is the skins own natural fatty matter and sweat, which combine to form an oily acid surface shield against the ultra violet rays. At the beach, the salt water washes away this natural oily coat, the hot sun overworks the sweat glands so that the excess becomes ineffective and the dry wind and hot sun combine to dehydrate the skin itself. Over the years, women have shown far greater wisdom in the care of their skin than men. Since the ladies of ancient Egypt first began to apply the fat of the so-called sacred temple cats to their faces, women have been tireless in waging this battle against damage to the skin from the sun. Both sexes now contribute annually to a multi-million dollar global sun screen business. Other parts of the human body which tend to suffer from exposure to the sun are the eyes and hair. Many years ago, optometrists undertook studies in America to examine the influence of the sun upon the eyes by studying Atlantic City lifeguards and found that even a few hours in the bright sun without sunglasses could cause a significant loss of vision a loss that might take several weeks from which to recover. So gradual was the change that the lifeguards were unaware that their sight had been affected. The solution to this problem was to introduce sunglasses as a standard part of the lifeguard uniform. These were dark enough to absorb the suns harmful UV rays and most of its infrared and ultraviolet rays. Of a lesser impact is the effect of the sun upon hair. The penalty of the suns parching is a brittle dryness. Hair care professionals recommend a nutritional cream treatment with a substance containing lanolin to bring your hair back its natural softness, these usually come in the form of leave-in conditioners, and should be applied frequently, just as you would a sunscreen for the skin. Or, easier still, wear a hat. Wearing a hat has a dual effect: it protects the hair and helps to prevent the most dangerous of outdoor afflictions: sunstroke. | Most doctors are in agreement when it comes to the health benefits of the sun. | contradiction |
id_3027 | How to handle the sun The medical world appears to be divided on the effects of the sun upon the human body. From statements like, There is no known relationship between a tan and health to perhaps sun-tanned skin absorbs the ultraviolet rays and converts them into helpful energy, there are some things which are still the topic of research. Doctors agree on one of the benefits of the sun vitamin D. It is well known that vitamin D is acquired from the direct rays of the sun an entirely separate miracle from sun tanning. The suns ultraviolet rays penetrate only a tiny amount into the human skin, but in the process they irradiate an element in the skin called ergosterol, which is the substance that stores up reserves of vitamin D received from the sun. This is both healthful and beneficial for human skin. All around the Western World, people have developed an obsession with the sun. In many western countries, a sun tan has become the trade-mark of a healthy, active, outdoor person. The basic reddish hue just beneath the surface of our skin is the outward reflection of the millions of red corpuscles flowing through tiny blood vessels. This is most noticeable in the pure skin of a baby which can change in a moment from porcelain white (with anger or a switch in temperature) to crimson. In Caucasians, this colouring is somewhat hidden by an acquired layer of sun-made pigment, which varies in tone according to the complexion and occupation of the individual. Locale plays a big part in the effectiveness of the sun tan. Mountain tops and beaches are nonpareil sun spas because they receive far purer sunlight than the rest of the land. Urban areas with their smoke and smog act as a filter removing all the healthful properties of the sun. Perhaps the seashore is best of all, with its air estimated to have at least a fifth of a percent more oxygen than inland ether free of city and inland dust, tars, pollen and allergens. The sun has long been called natures greatest health giver and healer and has played a chief role at health resorts ever since August Rollier, the Swiss father of heliotherapy, opened his first high-Alps sanatorium in 1903. Dr. W. W. Coblentz suggests that the sun cure is a major factor in the treatment of at least 23 skin diseases, ranging from acne and eczema to ulcers and wounds. Another specialist, Dr. Richard Kovacs writes, Sun treatment is often helpful to persons suffering from general debility repeated colds, respiratory diseases, influenza and the like. After a long winter, the return to the sun writes Dr. Leonard Dodds, the British sunlight scholar, is a general stimulus to the body, more potent if applied after a period when it has been lacking which gradually loses its effect if exposure is over prolonged, even when not excessive. Over many years of study dermatologists have proven that excessive exposure to sunlight over a period of years is responsible for a large proportion of skin cancer amongst the population. Those with the greatest chance of doing permanent damage to their skin are the year-round outdoor workers 90% of which occurs on the heavily exposed hands and face. The first line of defence against permanent sun damage is the skins own natural fatty matter and sweat, which combine to form an oily acid surface shield against the ultra violet rays. At the beach, the salt water washes away this natural oily coat, the hot sun overworks the sweat glands so that the excess becomes ineffective and the dry wind and hot sun combine to dehydrate the skin itself. Over the years, women have shown far greater wisdom in the care of their skin than men. Since the ladies of ancient Egypt first began to apply the fat of the so-called sacred temple cats to their faces, women have been tireless in waging this battle against damage to the skin from the sun. Both sexes now contribute annually to a multi-million dollar global sun screen business. Other parts of the human body which tend to suffer from exposure to the sun are the eyes and hair. Many years ago, optometrists undertook studies in America to examine the influence of the sun upon the eyes by studying Atlantic City lifeguards and found that even a few hours in the bright sun without sunglasses could cause a significant loss of vision a loss that might take several weeks from which to recover. So gradual was the change that the lifeguards were unaware that their sight had been affected. The solution to this problem was to introduce sunglasses as a standard part of the lifeguard uniform. These were dark enough to absorb the suns harmful UV rays and most of its infrared and ultraviolet rays. Of a lesser impact is the effect of the sun upon hair. The penalty of the suns parching is a brittle dryness. Hair care professionals recommend a nutritional cream treatment with a substance containing lanolin to bring your hair back its natural softness, these usually come in the form of leave-in conditioners, and should be applied frequently, just as you would a sunscreen for the skin. Or, easier still, wear a hat. Wearing a hat has a dual effect: it protects the hair and helps to prevent the most dangerous of outdoor afflictions: sunstroke. | Beaches are best for a sun tan because the air has far less pollution. | entailment |
id_3028 | How to handle the sun The medical world appears to be divided on the effects of the sun upon the human body. From statements like, There is no known relationship between a tan and health to perhaps sun-tanned skin absorbs the ultraviolet rays and converts them into helpful energy, there are some things which are still the topic of research. Doctors agree on one of the benefits of the sun vitamin D. It is well known that vitamin D is acquired from the direct rays of the sun an entirely separate miracle from sun tanning. The suns ultraviolet rays penetrate only a tiny amount into the human skin, but in the process they irradiate an element in the skin called ergosterol, which is the substance that stores up reserves of vitamin D received from the sun. This is both healthful and beneficial for human skin. All around the Western World, people have developed an obsession with the sun. In many western countries, a sun tan has become the trade-mark of a healthy, active, outdoor person. The basic reddish hue just beneath the surface of our skin is the outward reflection of the millions of red corpuscles flowing through tiny blood vessels. This is most noticeable in the pure skin of a baby which can change in a moment from porcelain white (with anger or a switch in temperature) to crimson. In Caucasians, this colouring is somewhat hidden by an acquired layer of sun-made pigment, which varies in tone according to the complexion and occupation of the individual. Locale plays a big part in the effectiveness of the sun tan. Mountain tops and beaches are nonpareil sun spas because they receive far purer sunlight than the rest of the land. Urban areas with their smoke and smog act as a filter removing all the healthful properties of the sun. Perhaps the seashore is best of all, with its air estimated to have at least a fifth of a percent more oxygen than inland ether free of city and inland dust, tars, pollen and allergens. The sun has long been called natures greatest health giver and healer and has played a chief role at health resorts ever since August Rollier, the Swiss father of heliotherapy, opened his first high-Alps sanatorium in 1903. Dr. W. W. Coblentz suggests that the sun cure is a major factor in the treatment of at least 23 skin diseases, ranging from acne and eczema to ulcers and wounds. Another specialist, Dr. Richard Kovacs writes, Sun treatment is often helpful to persons suffering from general debility repeated colds, respiratory diseases, influenza and the like. After a long winter, the return to the sun writes Dr. Leonard Dodds, the British sunlight scholar, is a general stimulus to the body, more potent if applied after a period when it has been lacking which gradually loses its effect if exposure is over prolonged, even when not excessive. Over many years of study dermatologists have proven that excessive exposure to sunlight over a period of years is responsible for a large proportion of skin cancer amongst the population. Those with the greatest chance of doing permanent damage to their skin are the year-round outdoor workers 90% of which occurs on the heavily exposed hands and face. The first line of defence against permanent sun damage is the skins own natural fatty matter and sweat, which combine to form an oily acid surface shield against the ultra violet rays. At the beach, the salt water washes away this natural oily coat, the hot sun overworks the sweat glands so that the excess becomes ineffective and the dry wind and hot sun combine to dehydrate the skin itself. Over the years, women have shown far greater wisdom in the care of their skin than men. Since the ladies of ancient Egypt first began to apply the fat of the so-called sacred temple cats to their faces, women have been tireless in waging this battle against damage to the skin from the sun. Both sexes now contribute annually to a multi-million dollar global sun screen business. Other parts of the human body which tend to suffer from exposure to the sun are the eyes and hair. Many years ago, optometrists undertook studies in America to examine the influence of the sun upon the eyes by studying Atlantic City lifeguards and found that even a few hours in the bright sun without sunglasses could cause a significant loss of vision a loss that might take several weeks from which to recover. So gradual was the change that the lifeguards were unaware that their sight had been affected. The solution to this problem was to introduce sunglasses as a standard part of the lifeguard uniform. These were dark enough to absorb the suns harmful UV rays and most of its infrared and ultraviolet rays. Of a lesser impact is the effect of the sun upon hair. The penalty of the suns parching is a brittle dryness. Hair care professionals recommend a nutritional cream treatment with a substance containing lanolin to bring your hair back its natural softness, these usually come in the form of leave-in conditioners, and should be applied frequently, just as you would a sunscreen for the skin. Or, easier still, wear a hat. Wearing a hat has a dual effect: it protects the hair and helps to prevent the most dangerous of outdoor afflictions: sunstroke. | The human eye cannot heal itself when it is damaged by the sun. | contradiction |
id_3029 | How to handle the sun The medical world appears to be divided on the effects of the sun upon the human body. From statements like, There is no known relationship between a tan and health to perhaps sun-tanned skin absorbs the ultraviolet rays and converts them into helpful energy, there are some things which are still the topic of research. Doctors agree on one of the benefits of the sun vitamin D. It is well known that vitamin D is acquired from the direct rays of the sun an entirely separate miracle from sun tanning. The suns ultraviolet rays penetrate only a tiny amount into the human skin, but in the process they irradiate an element in the skin called ergosterol, which is the substance that stores up reserves of vitamin D received from the sun. This is both healthful and beneficial for human skin. All around the Western World, people have developed an obsession with the sun. In many western countries, a sun tan has become the trade-mark of a healthy, active, outdoor person. The basic reddish hue just beneath the surface of our skin is the outward reflection of the millions of red corpuscles flowing through tiny blood vessels. This is most noticeable in the pure skin of a baby which can change in a moment from porcelain white (with anger or a switch in temperature) to crimson. In Caucasians, this colouring is somewhat hidden by an acquired layer of sun-made pigment, which varies in tone according to the complexion and occupation of the individual. Locale plays a big part in the effectiveness of the sun tan. Mountain tops and beaches are nonpareil sun spas because they receive far purer sunlight than the rest of the land. Urban areas with their smoke and smog act as a filter removing all the healthful properties of the sun. Perhaps the seashore is best of all, with its air estimated to have at least a fifth of a percent more oxygen than inland ether free of city and inland dust, tars, pollen and allergens. The sun has long been called natures greatest health giver and healer and has played a chief role at health resorts ever since August Rollier, the Swiss father of heliotherapy, opened his first high-Alps sanatorium in 1903. Dr. W. W. Coblentz suggests that the sun cure is a major factor in the treatment of at least 23 skin diseases, ranging from acne and eczema to ulcers and wounds. Another specialist, Dr. Richard Kovacs writes, Sun treatment is often helpful to persons suffering from general debility repeated colds, respiratory diseases, influenza and the like. After a long winter, the return to the sun writes Dr. Leonard Dodds, the British sunlight scholar, is a general stimulus to the body, more potent if applied after a period when it has been lacking which gradually loses its effect if exposure is over prolonged, even when not excessive. Over many years of study dermatologists have proven that excessive exposure to sunlight over a period of years is responsible for a large proportion of skin cancer amongst the population. Those with the greatest chance of doing permanent damage to their skin are the year-round outdoor workers 90% of which occurs on the heavily exposed hands and face. The first line of defence against permanent sun damage is the skins own natural fatty matter and sweat, which combine to form an oily acid surface shield against the ultra violet rays. At the beach, the salt water washes away this natural oily coat, the hot sun overworks the sweat glands so that the excess becomes ineffective and the dry wind and hot sun combine to dehydrate the skin itself. Over the years, women have shown far greater wisdom in the care of their skin than men. Since the ladies of ancient Egypt first began to apply the fat of the so-called sacred temple cats to their faces, women have been tireless in waging this battle against damage to the skin from the sun. Both sexes now contribute annually to a multi-million dollar global sun screen business. Other parts of the human body which tend to suffer from exposure to the sun are the eyes and hair. Many years ago, optometrists undertook studies in America to examine the influence of the sun upon the eyes by studying Atlantic City lifeguards and found that even a few hours in the bright sun without sunglasses could cause a significant loss of vision a loss that might take several weeks from which to recover. So gradual was the change that the lifeguards were unaware that their sight had been affected. The solution to this problem was to introduce sunglasses as a standard part of the lifeguard uniform. These were dark enough to absorb the suns harmful UV rays and most of its infrared and ultraviolet rays. Of a lesser impact is the effect of the sun upon hair. The penalty of the suns parching is a brittle dryness. Hair care professionals recommend a nutritional cream treatment with a substance containing lanolin to bring your hair back its natural softness, these usually come in the form of leave-in conditioners, and should be applied frequently, just as you would a sunscreen for the skin. Or, easier still, wear a hat. Wearing a hat has a dual effect: it protects the hair and helps to prevent the most dangerous of outdoor afflictions: sunstroke. | Extended exposure of the eyes to the sun can lead to blindness. | neutral |
id_3030 | Huge controversy surrounded the construction between 1994 and 2006 of what was the worlds largest hydroelectric dam, the Three Gorges Dam. Spanning Chinas 1.4-mile wide Yangtze River in the Hubei province with twenty-six state-of- the-art turbines, the dam has been heralded by the Chinese state as a symbol of Chinas modernisation and engineering prowess. It supports Chinas economic development by supplying over ten percent of its electricity. However, over 1.3 million people were deliberately displaced as part of the Gorges flooding project that created the dams 660km-long reservoir. Hundreds of archaeological sites, initially above and below ground level, were lost under the reservoirs water. Questions remain as to whether the dam as a source of renewable energy benefits the surrounding environment, or depletes it by causing, for example, landslides and the death of fish species in the Yangtze. Supporters argue that the Dams deepening of the river has made the Yangtze easier for large ships to navigate and has reduced the risk of flooding downstream. As the only other viable Chinese energy source continues to be non-renewable coal power, the hydroelectric power generated by the dam may be the lesser of two evils. | The environmental impacts of the Three Gorges Dam have been more positive than negative | neutral |
id_3031 | Huge controversy surrounded the construction between 1994 and 2006 of what was the worlds largest hydroelectric dam, the Three Gorges Dam. Spanning Chinas 1.4-mile wide Yangtze River in the Hubei province with twenty-six state-of- the-art turbines, the dam has been heralded by the Chinese state as a symbol of Chinas modernisation and engineering prowess. It supports Chinas economic development by supplying over ten percent of its electricity. However, over 1.3 million people were deliberately displaced as part of the Gorges flooding project that created the dams 660km-long reservoir. Hundreds of archaeological sites, initially above and below ground level, were lost under the reservoirs water. Questions remain as to whether the dam as a source of renewable energy benefits the surrounding environment, or depletes it by causing, for example, landslides and the death of fish species in the Yangtze. Supporters argue that the Dams deepening of the river has made the Yangtze easier for large ships to navigate and has reduced the risk of flooding downstream. As the only other viable Chinese energy source continues to be non-renewable coal power, the hydroelectric power generated by the dam may be the lesser of two evils. | The 660km length of the Three Gorges Dam spans the Yangtze River | contradiction |
id_3032 | Huge controversy surrounded the construction between 1994 and 2006 of what was the worlds largest hydroelectric dam, the Three Gorges Dam. Spanning Chinas 1.4-mile wide Yangtze River in the Hubei province with twenty-six state-of- the-art turbines, the dam has been heralded by the Chinese state as a symbol of Chinas modernisation and engineering prowess. It supports Chinas economic development by supplying over ten percent of its electricity. However, over 1.3 million people were deliberately displaced as part of the Gorges flooding project that created the dams 660km-long reservoir. Hundreds of archaeological sites, initially above and below ground level, were lost under the reservoirs water. Questions remain as to whether the dam as a source of renewable energy benefits the surrounding environment, or depletes it by causing, for example, landslides and the death of fish species in the Yangtze. Supporters argue that the Dams deepening of the river has made the Yangtze easier for large ships to navigate and has reduced the risk of flooding downstream. As the only other viable Chinese energy source continues to be non-renewable coal power, the hydroelectric power generated by the dam may be the lesser of two evils. | The Dams monetary benefits were prioritised over environmental damage. | neutral |
id_3033 | Huge controversy surrounded the construction between 1994 and 2006 of what was the worlds largest hydroelectric dam, the Three Gorges Dam. Spanning Chinas 1.4-mile wide Yangtze River in the Hubei province with twenty-six state-of- the-art turbines, the dam has been heralded by the Chinese state as a symbol of Chinas modernisation and engineering prowess. It supports Chinas economic development by supplying over ten percent of its electricity. However, over 1.3 million people were deliberately displaced as part of the Gorges flooding project that created the dams 660km-long reservoir. Hundreds of archaeological sites, initially above and below ground level, were lost under the reservoirs water. Questions remain as to whether the dam as a source of renewable energy benefits the surrounding environment, or depletes it by causing, for example, landslides and the death of fish species in the Yangtze. Supporters argue that the Dams deepening of the river has made the Yangtze easier for large ships to navigate and has reduced the risk of flooding downstream. As the only other viable Chinese energy source continues to be non-renewable coal power, the hydroelectric power generated by the dam may be the lesser of two evils. | The Three Gorges Dam is Chinas largest and most controversial dam | neutral |
id_3034 | Huge controversy surrounded the construction between 1994 and 2006 of what was the worlds largest hydroelectric dam, the Three Gorges Dam. Spanning Chinas 1.4-mile wide Yangtze River in the Hubei province with twenty-six state-of- the-art turbines, the dam has been heralded by the Chinese state as a symbol of Chinas modernisation and engineering prowess. It supports Chinas economic development by supplying over ten percent of its electricity. However, over 1.3 million people were deliberately displaced as part of the Gorges flooding project that created the dams 660km-long reservoir. Hundreds of archaeological sites, initially above and below ground level, were lost under the reservoirs water. Questions remain as to whether the dam as a source of renewable energy benefits the surrounding environment, or depletes it by causing, for example, landslides and the death of fish species in the Yangtze. Supporters argue that the Dams deepening of the river has made the Yangtze easier for large ships to navigate and has reduced the risk of flooding downstream. As the only other viable Chinese energy source continues to be non-renewable coal power, the hydroelectric power generated by the dam may be the lesser of two evils. | The passage suggests that energy supplies are critical to economic development. | contradiction |
id_3035 | Human Empowerment Centre Memorandum The centre appeals to all concerned as under: Although the World Health Days are now celebrated all over the world regularly, thats not enough. The governments, the NGOs, the educational institutions and the media the world over, should take specific steps to awake, the people in the matter of health. People should be advised to take a balanced diet. The wealthy should be told about the harmful effects of over-eating and a rich diet. The poor should be told how they can keep healthy even by taking certain kinds of food which are not so expensive but contain lots of vitamins and minerals such as carrots, amla, skimmed milk, guava, leafy vegetables, etc. The importance of the use of iodised salt should be brought home to all. People should also be told about the benefits of drinking a lot of water daily. People should be advised to take regular exercise. They should be told about the ill-effects of drinking, smoking, drug-taking, consumption of fast foods, soft drinks, excessive fat and sugar. Special arrangements for milk, fruit and other nutritious food items for poor children and expectant mothers should be made. Pollution should be brought to the lowest level by taking all necessary steps. Drug-peddlers and adulterators should be given exemplary punishments. The use of toxic chemicals should be banned or regulated. Also arrangements for peoples participation in tension-releasing programmes such as yoga, meditation, etc. on a large-scale should be made. | Even today, Bhimli is a large flourishing town. | contradiction |
id_3036 | Human Empowerment Centre Memorandum The centre appeals to all concerned as under: Although the World Health Days are now celebrated all over the world regularly, thats not enough. The governments, the NGOs, the educational institutions and the media the world over, should take specific steps to awake, the people in the matter of health. People should be advised to take a balanced diet. The wealthy should be told about the harmful effects of over-eating and a rich diet. The poor should be told how they can keep healthy even by taking certain kinds of food which are not so expensive but contain lots of vitamins and minerals such as carrots, amla, skimmed milk, guava, leafy vegetables, etc. The importance of the use of iodised salt should be brought home to all. People should also be told about the benefits of drinking a lot of water daily. People should be advised to take regular exercise. They should be told about the ill-effects of drinking, smoking, drug-taking, consumption of fast foods, soft drinks, excessive fat and sugar. Special arrangements for milk, fruit and other nutritious food items for poor children and expectant mothers should be made. Pollution should be brought to the lowest level by taking all necessary steps. Drug-peddlers and adulterators should be given exemplary punishments. The use of toxic chemicals should be banned or regulated. Also arrangements for peoples participation in tension-releasing programmes such as yoga, meditation, etc. on a large-scale should be made. | Besides iron ore, copper mines were also discovered near Bhimli. | neutral |
id_3037 | Human Empowerment Centre Memorandum The centre appeals to all concerned as under: Although the World Health Days are now celebrated all over the world regularly, thats not enough. The governments, the NGOs, the educational institutions and the media the world over, should take specific steps to awake, the people in the matter of health. People should be advised to take a balanced diet. The wealthy should be told about the harmful effects of over-eating and a rich diet. The poor should be told how they can keep healthy even by taking certain kinds of food which are not so expensive but contain lots of vitamins and minerals such as carrots, amla, skimmed milk, guava, leafy vegetables, etc. The importance of the use of iodised salt should be brought home to all. People should also be told about the benefits of drinking a lot of water daily. People should be advised to take regular exercise. They should be told about the ill-effects of drinking, smoking, drug-taking, consumption of fast foods, soft drinks, excessive fat and sugar. Special arrangements for milk, fruit and other nutritious food items for poor children and expectant mothers should be made. Pollution should be brought to the lowest level by taking all necessary steps. Drug-peddlers and adulterators should be given exemplary punishments. The use of toxic chemicals should be banned or regulated. Also arrangements for peoples participation in tension-releasing programmes such as yoga, meditation, etc. on a large-scale should be made. | Cornelius Houtman was a Dutch navigator | entailment |
id_3038 | Human Empowerment Centre Memorandum The centre appeals to all concerned as under: Although the World Health Days are now celebrated all over the world regularly, thats not enough. The governments, the NGOs, the educational institutions and the media the world over, should take specific steps to awake, the people in the matter of health. People should be advised to take a balanced diet. The wealthy should be told about the harmful effects of over-eating and a rich diet. The poor should be told how they can keep healthy even by taking certain kinds of food which are not so expensive but contain lots of vitamins and minerals such as carrots, amla, skimmed milk, guava, leafy vegetables, etc. The importance of the use of iodised salt should be brought home to all. People should also be told about the benefits of drinking a lot of water daily. People should be advised to take regular exercise. They should be told about the ill-effects of drinking, smoking, drug-taking, consumption of fast foods, soft drinks, excessive fat and sugar. Special arrangements for milk, fruit and other nutritious food items for poor children and expectant mothers should be made. Pollution should be brought to the lowest level by taking all necessary steps. Drug-peddlers and adulterators should be given exemplary punishments. The use of toxic chemicals should be banned or regulated. Also arrangements for peoples participation in tension-releasing programmes such as yoga, meditation, etc. on a large-scale should be made. | Vasco da Gama landed at Pondecherry in India. | contradiction |
id_3039 | Human Empowerment Centre Memorandum The centre appeals to all concerned as under: Although the World Health Days are now celebrated all over the world regularly, thats not enough. The governments, the NGOs, the educational institutions and the media the world over, should take specific steps to awake, the people in the matter of health. People should be advised to take a balanced diet. The wealthy should be told about the harmful effects of over-eating and a rich diet. The poor should be told how they can keep healthy even by taking certain kinds of food which are not so expensive but contain lots of vitamins and minerals such as carrots, amla, skimmed milk, guava, leafy vegetables, etc. The importance of the use of iodised salt should be brought home to all. People should also be told about the benefits of drinking a lot of water daily. People should be advised to take regular exercise. They should be told about the ill-effects of drinking, smoking, drug-taking, consumption of fast foods, soft drinks, excessive fat and sugar. Special arrangements for milk, fruit and other nutritious food items for poor children and expectant mothers should be made. Pollution should be brought to the lowest level by taking all necessary steps. Drug-peddlers and adulterators should be given exemplary punishments. The use of toxic chemicals should be banned or regulated. Also arrangements for peoples participation in tension-releasing programmes such as yoga, meditation, etc. on a large-scale should be made. | Bhimli is a short for Bheemunipatman | entailment |
id_3040 | Human Empowerment Centre Memorandum The centre appeals to all concerned as under: Although the World Health Days are now celebrated all over the world regularly, thats not enough. The governments, the NGOs, the educational institutions and the media the world over, should take specific steps to awake, the people in the matter of health. People should be advised to take a balanced diet. The wealthy should be told about the harmful effects of over-eating and a rich diet. The poor should be told how they can keep healthy even by taking certain kinds of food which are not so expensive but contain lots of vitamins and minerals such as carrots, amla, skimmed milk, guava, leafy vegetables, etc. The importance of the use of iodised salt should be brought home to all. People should also be told about the benefits of drinking a lot of water daily. People should be advised to take regular exercise. They should be told about the ill-effects of drinking, smoking, drug-taking, consumption of fast foods, soft drinks, excessive fat and sugar. Special arrangements for milk, fruit and other nutritious food items for poor children and expectant mothers should be made. Pollution should be brought to the lowest level by taking all necessary steps. Drug-peddlers and adulterators should be given exemplary punishments. The use of toxic chemicals should be banned or regulated. Also arrangements for peoples participation in tension-releasing programmes such as yoga, meditation, etc. on a large-scale should be made. | Bhimli is at a distance of 25 Km from Vizag. | entailment |
id_3041 | Human activity is leading to the rapid draining of about one-third of the planets largest underground water reserves and it is unclear how much fluid remains in them. | Lack of policymakers in the country | contradiction |
id_3042 | Human activity is leading to the rapid draining of about one-third of the planets largest underground water reserves and it is unclear how much fluid remains in them. | Excessive a forestation and inappropriate use of natural resources | contradiction |
id_3043 | Human activity is leading to the rapid draining of about one-third of the planets largest underground water reserves and it is unclear how much fluid remains in them. | Decline of population all around the world | contradiction |
id_3044 | Human activity is leading to the rapid draining of about one-third of the planets largest underground water reserves and it is unclear how much fluid remains in them. | Unauthorised digging by private builders | entailment |
id_3045 | Human mortality, whilst consisting of unpredictable individual events, has a statistical regularity when averaged across a large group. This makes possible a whole host of products, of which the annuity is one. The price of an annuity paying a fixed regular income for life is based upon the statistical life expectancy of the purchaser at the time the annuity is to begin. The company selling the annuity will benefit from all those customers that die earlier than predicted, while customers are attracted by the prospect of guaranteed income for as long as they live. Annuities have the disadvantage that the capital invested is unrecoverable (i. e. upon the death of annuitant nothing is left for the heirs), but that fact also enables annuities to guarantee higher payments than could be obtained if the same sum of money were invested at interest. | The heirs of a person who buy an annuity tend to be against the purchase. | neutral |
id_3046 | Human mortality, whilst consisting of unpredictable individual events, has a statistical regularity when averaged across a large group. This makes possible a whole host of products, of which the annuity is one. The price of an annuity paying a fixed regular income for life is based upon the statistical life expectancy of the purchaser at the time the annuity is to begin. The company selling the annuity will benefit from all those customers that die earlier than predicted, while customers are attracted by the prospect of guaranteed income for as long as they live. Annuities have the disadvantage that the capital invested is unrecoverable (i. e. upon the death of annuitant nothing is left for the heirs), but that fact also enables annuities to guarantee higher payments than could be obtained if the same sum of money were invested at interest. | Essentially, the purchaser of an annuity is gambling that they will live long enough to receive a good return on their investment. | entailment |
id_3047 | Human mortality, whilst consisting of unpredictable individual events, has a statistical regularity when averaged across a large group. This makes possible a whole host of products, of which the annuity is one. The price of an annuity paying a fixed regular income for life is based upon the statistical life expectancy of the purchaser at the time the annuity is to begin. The company selling the annuity will benefit from all those customers that die earlier than predicted, while customers are attracted by the prospect of guaranteed income for as long as they live. Annuities have the disadvantage that the capital invested is unrecoverable (i. e. upon the death of annuitant nothing is left for the heirs), but that fact also enables annuities to guarantee higher payments than could be obtained if the same sum of money were invested at interest. | Annuity returns are generally similar to returns from investing the money in an interest bearing accounts. | neutral |
id_3048 | Human mortality, whilst consisting of unpredictable individual events, has a statistical regularity when averaged across a large group. This makes possible a whole host of products, of which the annuity is one. The price of an annuity paying a fixed regular income for life is based upon the statistical life expectancy of the purchaser at the time the annuity is to begin. The company selling the annuity will benefit from all those customers that die earlier than predicted, while customers are attracted by the prospect of guaranteed income for as long as they live. Annuities have the disadvantage that the capital invested is unrecoverable (i. e. upon the death of annuitant nothing is left for the heirs), but that fact also enables annuities to guarantee higher payments than could be obtained if the same sum of money were invested at interest. | Annuity returns are generally similar to returns from investing the money in an interest bearing accounts. | contradiction |
id_3049 | Humans have hunted whales for thousands of years, but in the 18th and 19th centuries whaling became an important industry, due to high demand for whale oil. Even after industrialisation, whaling carried on at unsustainable levels and by the mid-twentieth century whale populations had severely declined. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) was established in 1946 to ensure the conservation of whales and to oversee the development of the whaling industry. In 1986, the IWC imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling to prevent the extinction of endangered whale species. As a result of the ban, whale stocks have recovered and thus some countries advocate the lifting of restrictions. Using loopholes in the moratorium, Japan, Norway and Iceland currently engage in commercial whaling and vigorously defend the practice as part of their cultural heritage. Anti-whaling activists, however, oppose whaling on ethical grounds. They argue that whales remain vulnerable, and that whales intelligence gives them intrinsic value. So intense is the whaling debate that the IWC, which requires a 75% vote to overturn the ban, has reached a stalemate. Even within nations backing a return to commercial whaling the issue is divisive. Not only has demand for whale meat declined, whale-watching has become a popular tourist activity, and an end to restrictions could threaten this profitable industry. | Industrialisation led to reduced demand for whale oil in the twentieth century. | neutral |
id_3050 | Humans have hunted whales for thousands of years, but in the 18th and 19th centuries whaling became an important industry, due to high demand for whale oil. Even after industrialisation, whaling carried on at unsustainable levels and by the mid-twentieth century whale populations had severely declined. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) was established in 1946 to ensure the conservation of whales and to oversee the development of the whaling industry. In 1986, the IWC imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling to prevent the extinction of endangered whale species. As a result of the ban, whale stocks have recovered and thus some countries advocate the lifting of restrictions. Using loopholes in the moratorium, Japan, Norway and Iceland currently engage in commercial whaling and vigorously defend the practice as part of their cultural heritage. Anti-whaling activists, however, oppose whaling on ethical grounds. They argue that whales remain vulnerable, and that whales intelligence gives them intrinsic value. So intense is the whaling debate that the IWC, which requires a 75% vote to overturn the ban, has reached a stalemate. Even within nations backing a return to commercial whaling the issue is divisive. Not only has demand for whale meat declined, whale-watching has become a popular tourist activity, and an end to restrictions could threaten this profitable industry. | The whaling ban has resulted in the recovery of all whaling populations. | neutral |
id_3051 | Humans have hunted whales for thousands of years, but in the 18th and 19th centuries whaling became an important industry, due to high demand for whale oil. Even after industrialisation, whaling carried on at unsustainable levels and by the mid-twentieth century whale populations had severely declined. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) was established in 1946 to ensure the conservation of whales and to oversee the development of the whaling industry. In 1986, the IWC imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling to prevent the extinction of endangered whale species. As a result of the ban, whale stocks have recovered and thus some countries advocate the lifting of restrictions. Using loopholes in the moratorium, Japan, Norway and Iceland currently engage in commercial whaling and vigorously defend the practice as part of their cultural heritage. Anti-whaling activists, however, oppose whaling on ethical grounds. They argue that whales remain vulnerable, and that whales intelligence gives them intrinsic value. So intense is the whaling debate that the IWC, which requires a 75% vote to overturn the ban, has reached a stalemate. Even within nations backing a return to commercial whaling the issue is divisive. Not only has demand for whale meat declined, whale-watching has become a popular tourist activity, and an end to restrictions could threaten this profitable industry. | It is arguable that whales are more valuable alive than dead, even in nations where whale meat is eaten. | neutral |
id_3052 | Humans have hunted whales for thousands of years, but in the 18th and 19th centuries whaling became an important industry, due to high demand for whale oil. Even after industrialisation, whaling carried on at unsustainable levels and by the mid-twentieth century whale populations had severely declined. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) was established in 1946 to ensure the conservation of whales and to oversee the development of the whaling industry. In 1986, the IWC imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling to prevent the extinction of endangered whale species. As a result of the ban, whale stocks have recovered and thus some countries advocate the lifting of restrictions. Using loopholes in the moratorium, Japan, Norway and Iceland currently engage in commercial whaling and vigorously defend the practice as part of their cultural heritage. Anti-whaling activists, however, oppose whaling on ethical grounds. They argue that whales remain vulnerable, and that whales intelligence gives them intrinsic value. So intense is the whaling debate that the IWC, which requires a 75% vote to overturn the ban, has reached a stalemate. Even within nations backing a return to commercial whaling the issue is divisive. Not only has demand for whale meat declined, whale-watching has become a popular tourist activity, and an end to restrictions could threaten this profitable industry. | The International Whaling Commission is a regulatory organisation covering both commercial and environmental interests. | entailment |
id_3053 | Humans have hunted whales for thousands of years, but in the 18th and 19th centuries whaling became an important industry, due to high demand for whale oil. Even after industrialisation, whaling carried on at unsustainable levels and by the mid-twentieth century whale populations had severely declined. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) was established in 1946 to ensure the conservation of whales and to oversee the development of the whaling industry. In 1986, the IWC imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling to prevent the extinction of endangered whale species. As a result of the ban, whale stocks have recovered and thus some countries advocate the lifting of restrictions. Using loopholes in the moratorium, Japan, Norway and Iceland currently engage in commercial whaling and vigorously defend the practice as part of their cultural heritage. Anti-whaling activists, however, oppose whaling on ethical grounds. They argue that whales remain vulnerable, and that whales intelligence gives them intrinsic value. So intense is the whaling debate that the IWC, which requires a 75% vote to overturn the ban, has reached a stalemate. Even within nations backing a return to commercial whaling the issue is divisive. Not only has demand for whale meat declined, whale-watching has become a popular tourist activity, and an end to restrictions could threaten this profitable industry. | Japan, Norway and Iceland are the only nations in favour of repealing the 1986 whaling moratorium. | neutral |
id_3054 | Hunting Perfume in Madagascar! A. Ever since the unguentari plied their trade in ancient Rome, perfumers have to keep abreast of changing fashions. These days they haveseveral thousand ingredients to choose from when creating new scents, but there is always demand for new combinations. The bigger the "palette 7 of smells, the better the perfumer's chance of creating something fresh and appealing. Even with everyday products such as shampoo and soap, kitchen cleaners and washing powders, consumers are becoming increasingly fussy. And many of today's fragrances have to survive tougher treatment than ever before, resisting the destructive power of bleach or a high temperature wash cycle. Chemists can create new smells from synthetic molecules, and a growing number of the odours on the perfumer's palette are artificial. But nature has been in the business far longer. B. The island of Madagascar is an evolutionary hot spot; 85% of its plants are unique, making it an ideal source for novel fragrances. Last October, Quest International, a company that develops fragrances for everything from the most delicate perfumes to cleaning products, sent an expedition to Madagascar in pursuit of some of nature's most novel fragrances. With some simple technology, borrowed from the pollution monitoring industry, and a fair amount of ingenuity, the perfume hunters bagged 20 promising new aromas in the Madagascan rainforest. Each day the team set out from their "hotel"a wooden hut lit by kerosene lamps, and trailed up and down paths and animal tracks, exploring the thick vegetation up to 10 meters on either side of the trail. Some smells came from obvious places, often big showy flowers within easy reach-Others were harder to pin down. "Often it was the very small flowers that were much more interesting, says Clery. After the luxuriance of the rainforest, the little-known island of Nosy Hara was a stark, dry place geologically and biologically very different from the mainland, "Apart from two beaches, the rest of the Island Is impenetrable, except by hacking through the bush, says Clery. One of the biggest prizes here was a sweet- smelling sap weeping from the gnarled branches of some ancient shrubby trees in the parched Interior. So far no one has been able to identify the plant. C. With most flowers or fruits, the hunters used a technique originally designed to trap and identify air pollutants. The technique itself is relatively simple. A glass bell jar or flask I S fitted over the flower. The fragrance molecules are trapped in this headspace and can be extracted bypumping the air out over a series of filters which absorb different types of volatile molecules. Back home in the laboratory, the molecules are flushed out of the filters and injected into a gas chromatograph for analysis. If it Is Impossible to attach the headspace gear, hunters fix an absorbent probe close to the source of the smell. The probe looks something like a hypodermic syringe, except that the 'needle' is made of silicone rubber which soaks up molecules from the air. After a few hours, the hunters retract the rubber needle and seal the tube, keeping the odour molecules inside until they can. be injected into the gas chromatograph in the laboratory. D. Some of the most promising fragrances were those given, off by resins that oozed from the bark of trees. Resins are the source of many traditional perfumes, including frankincense and myrrh. The most exciting resin came from a Calophyllum tree, which produces a strongly scented medicinal oil. The sap of this Calophyllum smelt rich and aromatic, a little like church incense. But It also smelt of something the fragrance industry has learnt to live without castoreum a substance extracted from the musk glands of beavers and once a key ingredient in many perfumes. The company does not use animal products any longer, but A was wonderful to find a tree with an animal smell. E. The group also set out from the island to capture the smell of coral reefs. Odors that conjure up sun kissed seas are highly sought after by the perfume industry. "From the ocean, the only thing we have is seaweed, and that has a dark and heavy aroma. We hope to find something unique among the corals, " says Dir. The challenge for the hunters was to extract a smell from water rather than air. This was an opportunity to try Clery's new "aquaspace" apparatus a set of filters that work underwater. On Nosy Hara, jars were fixed over knobs of coral about 2 meters down and water pumped out over the absorbent filters. So what does coral smell like? "It's a bit like lobster and crab, " says Clery. The team's task now is to recreate the best of then captured smells. First they must identify the molecules that make up each fragrance. Some ingredients may be quite common chemicals. But some may be completely novel, or they may be too complex or expensive to make in the lab. The challenge then is to conjure up the fragrances with more readily available materials. "We can avoid the need to import plants from the rainforest by creating the smell with a different set of chemicals from those in the original material, " says Clery. "If we get it right, you can sniff the sample and it will transport you straight back to the moment you smelt it in the rainforest. " | Madagascar is chosen to be a place for hunting plants which are rare in other parts of the world. | entailment |
id_3055 | Hunting Perfume in Madagascar! A. Ever since the unguentari plied their trade in ancient Rome, perfumers have to keep abreast of changing fashions. These days they haveseveral thousand ingredients to choose from when creating new scents, but there is always demand for new combinations. The bigger the "palette 7 of smells, the better the perfumer's chance of creating something fresh and appealing. Even with everyday products such as shampoo and soap, kitchen cleaners and washing powders, consumers are becoming increasingly fussy. And many of today's fragrances have to survive tougher treatment than ever before, resisting the destructive power of bleach or a high temperature wash cycle. Chemists can create new smells from synthetic molecules, and a growing number of the odours on the perfumer's palette are artificial. But nature has been in the business far longer. B. The island of Madagascar is an evolutionary hot spot; 85% of its plants are unique, making it an ideal source for novel fragrances. Last October, Quest International, a company that develops fragrances for everything from the most delicate perfumes to cleaning products, sent an expedition to Madagascar in pursuit of some of nature's most novel fragrances. With some simple technology, borrowed from the pollution monitoring industry, and a fair amount of ingenuity, the perfume hunters bagged 20 promising new aromas in the Madagascan rainforest. Each day the team set out from their "hotel"a wooden hut lit by kerosene lamps, and trailed up and down paths and animal tracks, exploring the thick vegetation up to 10 meters on either side of the trail. Some smells came from obvious places, often big showy flowers within easy reach-Others were harder to pin down. "Often it was the very small flowers that were much more interesting, says Clery. After the luxuriance of the rainforest, the little-known island of Nosy Hara was a stark, dry place geologically and biologically very different from the mainland, "Apart from two beaches, the rest of the Island Is impenetrable, except by hacking through the bush, says Clery. One of the biggest prizes here was a sweet- smelling sap weeping from the gnarled branches of some ancient shrubby trees in the parched Interior. So far no one has been able to identify the plant. C. With most flowers or fruits, the hunters used a technique originally designed to trap and identify air pollutants. The technique itself is relatively simple. A glass bell jar or flask I S fitted over the flower. The fragrance molecules are trapped in this headspace and can be extracted bypumping the air out over a series of filters which absorb different types of volatile molecules. Back home in the laboratory, the molecules are flushed out of the filters and injected into a gas chromatograph for analysis. If it Is Impossible to attach the headspace gear, hunters fix an absorbent probe close to the source of the smell. The probe looks something like a hypodermic syringe, except that the 'needle' is made of silicone rubber which soaks up molecules from the air. After a few hours, the hunters retract the rubber needle and seal the tube, keeping the odour molecules inside until they can. be injected into the gas chromatograph in the laboratory. D. Some of the most promising fragrances were those given, off by resins that oozed from the bark of trees. Resins are the source of many traditional perfumes, including frankincense and myrrh. The most exciting resin came from a Calophyllum tree, which produces a strongly scented medicinal oil. The sap of this Calophyllum smelt rich and aromatic, a little like church incense. But It also smelt of something the fragrance industry has learnt to live without castoreum a substance extracted from the musk glands of beavers and once a key ingredient in many perfumes. The company does not use animal products any longer, but A was wonderful to find a tree with an animal smell. E. The group also set out from the island to capture the smell of coral reefs. Odors that conjure up sun kissed seas are highly sought after by the perfume industry. "From the ocean, the only thing we have is seaweed, and that has a dark and heavy aroma. We hope to find something unique among the corals, " says Dir. The challenge for the hunters was to extract a smell from water rather than air. This was an opportunity to try Clery's new "aquaspace" apparatus a set of filters that work underwater. On Nosy Hara, jars were fixed over knobs of coral about 2 meters down and water pumped out over the absorbent filters. So what does coral smell like? "It's a bit like lobster and crab, " says Clery. The team's task now is to recreate the best of then captured smells. First they must identify the molecules that make up each fragrance. Some ingredients may be quite common chemicals. But some may be completely novel, or they may be too complex or expensive to make in the lab. The challenge then is to conjure up the fragrances with more readily available materials. "We can avoid the need to import plants from the rainforest by creating the smell with a different set of chemicals from those in the original material, " says Clery. "If we get it right, you can sniff the sample and it will transport you straight back to the moment you smelt it in the rainforest. " | The technique the hunters used to trap fragrance molecules is totally out of their ; ingenuity. | contradiction |
id_3056 | Hunting Perfume in Madagascar! A. Ever since the unguentari plied their trade in ancient Rome, perfumers have to keep abreast of changing fashions. These days they haveseveral thousand ingredients to choose from when creating new scents, but there is always demand for new combinations. The bigger the "palette 7 of smells, the better the perfumer's chance of creating something fresh and appealing. Even with everyday products such as shampoo and soap, kitchen cleaners and washing powders, consumers are becoming increasingly fussy. And many of today's fragrances have to survive tougher treatment than ever before, resisting the destructive power of bleach or a high temperature wash cycle. Chemists can create new smells from synthetic molecules, and a growing number of the odours on the perfumer's palette are artificial. But nature has been in the business far longer. B. The island of Madagascar is an evolutionary hot spot; 85% of its plants are unique, making it an ideal source for novel fragrances. Last October, Quest International, a company that develops fragrances for everything from the most delicate perfumes to cleaning products, sent an expedition to Madagascar in pursuit of some of nature's most novel fragrances. With some simple technology, borrowed from the pollution monitoring industry, and a fair amount of ingenuity, the perfume hunters bagged 20 promising new aromas in the Madagascan rainforest. Each day the team set out from their "hotel"a wooden hut lit by kerosene lamps, and trailed up and down paths and animal tracks, exploring the thick vegetation up to 10 meters on either side of the trail. Some smells came from obvious places, often big showy flowers within easy reach-Others were harder to pin down. "Often it was the very small flowers that were much more interesting, says Clery. After the luxuriance of the rainforest, the little-known island of Nosy Hara was a stark, dry place geologically and biologically very different from the mainland, "Apart from two beaches, the rest of the Island Is impenetrable, except by hacking through the bush, says Clery. One of the biggest prizes here was a sweet- smelling sap weeping from the gnarled branches of some ancient shrubby trees in the parched Interior. So far no one has been able to identify the plant. C. With most flowers or fruits, the hunters used a technique originally designed to trap and identify air pollutants. The technique itself is relatively simple. A glass bell jar or flask I S fitted over the flower. The fragrance molecules are trapped in this headspace and can be extracted bypumping the air out over a series of filters which absorb different types of volatile molecules. Back home in the laboratory, the molecules are flushed out of the filters and injected into a gas chromatograph for analysis. If it Is Impossible to attach the headspace gear, hunters fix an absorbent probe close to the source of the smell. The probe looks something like a hypodermic syringe, except that the 'needle' is made of silicone rubber which soaks up molecules from the air. After a few hours, the hunters retract the rubber needle and seal the tube, keeping the odour molecules inside until they can. be injected into the gas chromatograph in the laboratory. D. Some of the most promising fragrances were those given, off by resins that oozed from the bark of trees. Resins are the source of many traditional perfumes, including frankincense and myrrh. The most exciting resin came from a Calophyllum tree, which produces a strongly scented medicinal oil. The sap of this Calophyllum smelt rich and aromatic, a little like church incense. But It also smelt of something the fragrance industry has learnt to live without castoreum a substance extracted from the musk glands of beavers and once a key ingredient in many perfumes. The company does not use animal products any longer, but A was wonderful to find a tree with an animal smell. E. The group also set out from the island to capture the smell of coral reefs. Odors that conjure up sun kissed seas are highly sought after by the perfume industry. "From the ocean, the only thing we have is seaweed, and that has a dark and heavy aroma. We hope to find something unique among the corals, " says Dir. The challenge for the hunters was to extract a smell from water rather than air. This was an opportunity to try Clery's new "aquaspace" apparatus a set of filters that work underwater. On Nosy Hara, jars were fixed over knobs of coral about 2 meters down and water pumped out over the absorbent filters. So what does coral smell like? "It's a bit like lobster and crab, " says Clery. The team's task now is to recreate the best of then captured smells. First they must identify the molecules that make up each fragrance. Some ingredients may be quite common chemicals. But some may be completely novel, or they may be too complex or expensive to make in the lab. The challenge then is to conjure up the fragrances with more readily available materials. "We can avoid the need to import plants from the rainforest by creating the smell with a different set of chemicals from those in the original material, " says Clery. "If we get it right, you can sniff the sample and it will transport you straight back to the moment you smelt it in the rainforest. " | Capturing the smell is one of the most important things for creating new aromas. | neutral |
id_3057 | Hunting Perfume in Madagascar! A. Ever since the unguentari plied their trade in ancient Rome, perfumers have to keep abreast of changing fashions. These days they haveseveral thousand ingredients to choose from when creating new scents, but there is always demand for new combinations. The bigger the "palette 7 of smells, the better the perfumer's chance of creating something fresh and appealing. Even with everyday products such as shampoo and soap, kitchen cleaners and washing powders, consumers are becoming increasingly fussy. And many of today's fragrances have to survive tougher treatment than ever before, resisting the destructive power of bleach or a high temperature wash cycle. Chemists can create new smells from synthetic molecules, and a growing number of the odours on the perfumer's palette are artificial. But nature has been in the business far longer. B. The island of Madagascar is an evolutionary hot spot; 85% of its plants are unique, making it an ideal source for novel fragrances. Last October, Quest International, a company that develops fragrances for everything from the most delicate perfumes to cleaning products, sent an expedition to Madagascar in pursuit of some of nature's most novel fragrances. With some simple technology, borrowed from the pollution monitoring industry, and a fair amount of ingenuity, the perfume hunters bagged 20 promising new aromas in the Madagascan rainforest. Each day the team set out from their "hotel"a wooden hut lit by kerosene lamps, and trailed up and down paths and animal tracks, exploring the thick vegetation up to 10 meters on either side of the trail. Some smells came from obvious places, often big showy flowers within easy reach-Others were harder to pin down. "Often it was the very small flowers that were much more interesting, says Clery. After the luxuriance of the rainforest, the little-known island of Nosy Hara was a stark, dry place geologically and biologically very different from the mainland, "Apart from two beaches, the rest of the Island Is impenetrable, except by hacking through the bush, says Clery. One of the biggest prizes here was a sweet- smelling sap weeping from the gnarled branches of some ancient shrubby trees in the parched Interior. So far no one has been able to identify the plant. C. With most flowers or fruits, the hunters used a technique originally designed to trap and identify air pollutants. The technique itself is relatively simple. A glass bell jar or flask I S fitted over the flower. The fragrance molecules are trapped in this headspace and can be extracted bypumping the air out over a series of filters which absorb different types of volatile molecules. Back home in the laboratory, the molecules are flushed out of the filters and injected into a gas chromatograph for analysis. If it Is Impossible to attach the headspace gear, hunters fix an absorbent probe close to the source of the smell. The probe looks something like a hypodermic syringe, except that the 'needle' is made of silicone rubber which soaks up molecules from the air. After a few hours, the hunters retract the rubber needle and seal the tube, keeping the odour molecules inside until they can. be injected into the gas chromatograph in the laboratory. D. Some of the most promising fragrances were those given, off by resins that oozed from the bark of trees. Resins are the source of many traditional perfumes, including frankincense and myrrh. The most exciting resin came from a Calophyllum tree, which produces a strongly scented medicinal oil. The sap of this Calophyllum smelt rich and aromatic, a little like church incense. But It also smelt of something the fragrance industry has learnt to live without castoreum a substance extracted from the musk glands of beavers and once a key ingredient in many perfumes. The company does not use animal products any longer, but A was wonderful to find a tree with an animal smell. E. The group also set out from the island to capture the smell of coral reefs. Odors that conjure up sun kissed seas are highly sought after by the perfume industry. "From the ocean, the only thing we have is seaweed, and that has a dark and heavy aroma. We hope to find something unique among the corals, " says Dir. The challenge for the hunters was to extract a smell from water rather than air. This was an opportunity to try Clery's new "aquaspace" apparatus a set of filters that work underwater. On Nosy Hara, jars were fixed over knobs of coral about 2 meters down and water pumped out over the absorbent filters. So what does coral smell like? "It's a bit like lobster and crab, " says Clery. The team's task now is to recreate the best of then captured smells. First they must identify the molecules that make up each fragrance. Some ingredients may be quite common chemicals. But some may be completely novel, or they may be too complex or expensive to make in the lab. The challenge then is to conjure up the fragrances with more readily available materials. "We can avoid the need to import plants from the rainforest by creating the smell with a different set of chemicals from those in the original material, " says Clery. "If we get it right, you can sniff the sample and it will transport you straight back to the moment you smelt it in the rainforest. " | Manufacturers can choose to use synthetic odours for the perfume nowadays. | entailment |
id_3058 | Hunting Perfume in Madagascar! A. Ever since the unguentari plied their trade in ancient Rome, perfumers have to keep abreast of changing fashions. These days they haveseveral thousand ingredients to choose from when creating new scents, but there is always demand for new combinations. The bigger the "palette 7 of smells, the better the perfumer's chance of creating something fresh and appealing. Even with everyday products such as shampoo and soap, kitchen cleaners and washing powders, consumers are becoming increasingly fussy. And many of today's fragrances have to survive tougher treatment than ever before, resisting the destructive power of bleach or a high temperature wash cycle. Chemists can create new smells from synthetic molecules, and a growing number of the odours on the perfumer's palette are artificial. But nature has been in the business far longer. B. The island of Madagascar is an evolutionary hot spot; 85% of its plants are unique, making it an ideal source for novel fragrances. Last October, Quest International, a company that develops fragrances for everything from the most delicate perfumes to cleaning products, sent an expedition to Madagascar in pursuit of some of nature's most novel fragrances. With some simple technology, borrowed from the pollution monitoring industry, and a fair amount of ingenuity, the perfume hunters bagged 20 promising new aromas in the Madagascan rainforest. Each day the team set out from their "hotel"a wooden hut lit by kerosene lamps, and trailed up and down paths and animal tracks, exploring the thick vegetation up to 10 meters on either side of the trail. Some smells came from obvious places, often big showy flowers within easy reach-Others were harder to pin down. "Often it was the very small flowers that were much more interesting, says Clery. After the luxuriance of the rainforest, the little-known island of Nosy Hara was a stark, dry place geologically and biologically very different from the mainland, "Apart from two beaches, the rest of the Island Is impenetrable, except by hacking through the bush, says Clery. One of the biggest prizes here was a sweet- smelling sap weeping from the gnarled branches of some ancient shrubby trees in the parched Interior. So far no one has been able to identify the plant. C. With most flowers or fruits, the hunters used a technique originally designed to trap and identify air pollutants. The technique itself is relatively simple. A glass bell jar or flask I S fitted over the flower. The fragrance molecules are trapped in this headspace and can be extracted bypumping the air out over a series of filters which absorb different types of volatile molecules. Back home in the laboratory, the molecules are flushed out of the filters and injected into a gas chromatograph for analysis. If it Is Impossible to attach the headspace gear, hunters fix an absorbent probe close to the source of the smell. The probe looks something like a hypodermic syringe, except that the 'needle' is made of silicone rubber which soaks up molecules from the air. After a few hours, the hunters retract the rubber needle and seal the tube, keeping the odour molecules inside until they can. be injected into the gas chromatograph in the laboratory. D. Some of the most promising fragrances were those given, off by resins that oozed from the bark of trees. Resins are the source of many traditional perfumes, including frankincense and myrrh. The most exciting resin came from a Calophyllum tree, which produces a strongly scented medicinal oil. The sap of this Calophyllum smelt rich and aromatic, a little like church incense. But It also smelt of something the fragrance industry has learnt to live without castoreum a substance extracted from the musk glands of beavers and once a key ingredient in many perfumes. The company does not use animal products any longer, but A was wonderful to find a tree with an animal smell. E. The group also set out from the island to capture the smell of coral reefs. Odors that conjure up sun kissed seas are highly sought after by the perfume industry. "From the ocean, the only thing we have is seaweed, and that has a dark and heavy aroma. We hope to find something unique among the corals, " says Dir. The challenge for the hunters was to extract a smell from water rather than air. This was an opportunity to try Clery's new "aquaspace" apparatus a set of filters that work underwater. On Nosy Hara, jars were fixed over knobs of coral about 2 meters down and water pumped out over the absorbent filters. So what does coral smell like? "It's a bit like lobster and crab, " says Clery. The team's task now is to recreate the best of then captured smells. First they must identify the molecules that make up each fragrance. Some ingredients may be quite common chemicals. But some may be completely novel, or they may be too complex or expensive to make in the lab. The challenge then is to conjure up the fragrances with more readily available materials. "We can avoid the need to import plants from the rainforest by creating the smell with a different set of chemicals from those in the original material, " says Clery. "If we get it right, you can sniff the sample and it will transport you straight back to the moment you smelt it in the rainforest. " | Most customers prefer the perfume made of substance extracted from the musk I glands of animals. | neutral |
id_3059 | Hybrid cars use half as much fuel as their petrol-only equivalents; a petrol engine is used to drive the wheels and to charge a large battery that powers an electric motor and in turn also drives the wheels. Hybrids cost around $3,500 more than an equivalent petrol car. This high price makes the economics questionable for owners who average 12,000 miles a year as it would mean a 12-year payback; nevertheless, hybrid sales are strong in the United States. In Europe, hybrid car sales have increased much more slowly. This is due in part to fuel taxes being much higher. The other factor is that European drivers have the option of buying diesel-engine-powered cars, which are almost as fuel efficient as hybrid cars. This possibility is denied to Americans because strict limits on particle emissions mean that diesel engines are effectively banned. | If the price of fuel at the filling stations were to fall, any economic case for hybrids would improve. | contradiction |
id_3060 | Hybrid cars use half as much fuel as their petrol-only equivalents; a petrol engine is used to drive the wheels and to charge a large battery that powers an electric motor and in turn also drives the wheels. Hybrids cost around $3,500 more than an equivalent petrol car. This high price makes the economics questionable for owners who average 12,000 miles a year as it would mean a 12-year payback; nevertheless, hybrid sales are strong in the United States. In Europe, hybrid car sales have increased much more slowly. This is due in part to fuel taxes being much higher. The other factor is that European drivers have the option of buying diesel-engine-powered cars, which are almost as fuel efficient as hybrid cars. This possibility is denied to Americans because strict limits on particle emissions mean that diesel engines are effectively banned. | An economic case for buying a hybrid car might be made in the United States but not in Europe. | entailment |
id_3061 | Hybrid cars use half as much fuel as their petrol-only equivalents; a petrol engine is used to drive the wheels and to charge a large battery that powers an electric motor and in turn also drives the wheels. Hybrids cost around $3,500 more than an equivalent petrol car. This high price makes the economics questionable for owners who average 12,000 miles a year as it would mean a 12-year payback; nevertheless, hybrid sales are strong in the United States. In Europe, hybrid car sales have increased much more slowly. This is due in part to fuel taxes being much higher. The other factor is that European drivers have the option of buying diesel-engine-powered cars, which are almost as fuel efficient as hybrid cars. This possibility is denied to Americans because strict limits on particle emissions mean that diesel engines are effectively banned. | The diesel engine is as environmentally advantageous as the hybrid. | contradiction |
id_3062 | Hydroelectric Power Hydroelectric power is Americas leading renewable energy resource. Of all the renewable power sources, its the most reliable, efficient, and economical. Water is needed to run a hydroelectric generating unit. Its held in a reservoir or lake behind a dam, and the force of the water being released from the reservoir through the dam spins the blades of a turbine. The turbine is connected to the generator that produces electricity. After passing through the turbine, the water re-enters the river on the downstream side of the dam. Hydroelectric plants convert the kinetic energy within falling water into electricity. The energy in moving water is produced in the sun, and consequently is continually being renewed. The energy in sunlight evaporates water from the seas and deposits it on land as rain. Land elevation differences result in rainfall runoff, and permit some of the original solar energy to be harnessed as hydroelectric power. Hydroelectric power is at present the earths chief renewable electricity source, generating 6% of global energy and about 15% of worldwide electricity. Hydroelectric power in Canada is plentiful and provides 60% of their electrical requirements. Usually regarded as an inexpensive and clean source of electricity, most big hydroelectric projects being planned today are facing a great deal of hostility from environmental groups and local people. The earliest recorded use of water power was a clock, constructed around 250 BC. Since then, people have used falling water to supply power for grain and saw mills, as well as a host of other uses. The earliest use of flowing water to generate electricity was a waterwheel on the Fox River in Wisconsin in 1882. The first hydroelectric power plants were much more dependable and efficient than the plants of the day that were fired by fossil fuels. This led to a rise in number of small to medium sized hydroelectric generating plants located wherever there was an adequate supply of falling water and a need for electricity. As demand for electricity soared in the middle years of the 20th century, and the effectiveness of coal and oil power plants improved, small hydro plants became less popular. The majority of new hydroelectric developments were focused on giant megaprojects. Hydroelectric plants harness energy by passing flowing water through a turbine. The water turbine rotation is delivered to a generator, which generates electricity. The quantity of electricity that can be produced at a hydroelectric plant relies upon two variables. These variables are (1) the vertical distance that the water falls, called the head, and (2) the flow rate, calculated as volume over time. The amount of electricity that is produced is thus proportional to the head product and the flow rate. So, hydroelectric power stations can normally be separated into two kinds. The most widespread are high head plants and usually employ a dam to stock up water at an increased height. They also store water at times of rain and discharge it during dry times. This results in reliable and consistent electricity generation, capable of meeting demand since flow can be rapidly altered. At times of excess electrical system capacity, usually available at night, these plants can also pump water from one reservoir to another at a greater height. When there is peak electrical demand, the higher reservoir releases water through the turbines to the lower reservoir. Low head hydroelectric plants usually exploit heads of just a few meters or less. These types of power station use a weir or low dam to channel water, or no dam at all and merely use the river flow. Unfortunately their electricity production capacity fluctuates with seasonal water flow in a river. Until only recently people believed almost universally that hydroelectric power was an environmentally safe and clean means of generating electricity. Hydroelectric stations do not release any of the usual atmospheric pollutants emitted by power plants fuelled by fossil fuels so they do not add to global warming or acid rain. Nevertheless, recent studies of the larger reservoirs formed behind dams have implied that decomposing, flooded vegetation could give off greenhouse gases equal to those from other electricity sources. The clearest result of hydroelectric dams is the flooding of huge areas of land. The reservoirs built can be exceptionally big and they have often flooded the lands of indigenous peoples and destroyed their way of life. Numerous rare ecosystems are also endangered by hydroelectric power plant development. Damming rivers may also change the quantity and quality of water in the rivers below the dams, as well as stopping fish migrating upstream to spawn. In addition, silt, usually taken downstream to the lower parts of a river, is caught by a dam and so the river downstream loses the silt that should fertilize the rivers flood plains during high water periods. Theoretical global hydroelectric power is approximately four times larger than the amount that has been taken advantage of today. Most of the residual hydro potential left in the world can be found in African and Asian developing countries. Exploiting this resource would involve an investment of billions of dollars, since hydroelectric plants normally have very high building costs. Low head hydro capacity facilities on small scales will probably increase in the future as low head turbine research, and the standardization of turbine production, reduce the costs of low head hydro-electric power production. New systems of control and improvements in turbines could lead in the future to more electricity created from present facilities. In addition, in the 1950s and 60s when oil and coal prices were very low, lots of smaller hydroelectric plants were closed down. Future increases in the prices of fuel could lead to these places being renovated. | People have been drowned by the flooding of their traditional territory when reservoirs are created. | neutral |
id_3063 | Hydroelectric Power Hydroelectric power is Americas leading renewable energy resource. Of all the renewable power sources, its the most reliable, efficient, and economical. Water is needed to run a hydroelectric generating unit. Its held in a reservoir or lake behind a dam, and the force of the water being released from the reservoir through the dam spins the blades of a turbine. The turbine is connected to the generator that produces electricity. After passing through the turbine, the water re-enters the river on the downstream side of the dam. Hydroelectric plants convert the kinetic energy within falling water into electricity. The energy in moving water is produced in the sun, and consequently is continually being renewed. The energy in sunlight evaporates water from the seas and deposits it on land as rain. Land elevation differences result in rainfall runoff, and permit some of the original solar energy to be harnessed as hydroelectric power. Hydroelectric power is at present the earths chief renewable electricity source, generating 6% of global energy and about 15% of worldwide electricity. Hydroelectric power in Canada is plentiful and provides 60% of their electrical requirements. Usually regarded as an inexpensive and clean source of electricity, most big hydroelectric projects being planned today are facing a great deal of hostility from environmental groups and local people. The earliest recorded use of water power was a clock, constructed around 250 BC. Since then, people have used falling water to supply power for grain and saw mills, as well as a host of other uses. The earliest use of flowing water to generate electricity was a waterwheel on the Fox River in Wisconsin in 1882. The first hydroelectric power plants were much more dependable and efficient than the plants of the day that were fired by fossil fuels. This led to a rise in number of small to medium sized hydroelectric generating plants located wherever there was an adequate supply of falling water and a need for electricity. As demand for electricity soared in the middle years of the 20th century, and the effectiveness of coal and oil power plants improved, small hydro plants became less popular. The majority of new hydroelectric developments were focused on giant megaprojects. Hydroelectric plants harness energy by passing flowing water through a turbine. The water turbine rotation is delivered to a generator, which generates electricity. The quantity of electricity that can be produced at a hydroelectric plant relies upon two variables. These variables are (1) the vertical distance that the water falls, called the head, and (2) the flow rate, calculated as volume over time. The amount of electricity that is produced is thus proportional to the head product and the flow rate. So, hydroelectric power stations can normally be separated into two kinds. The most widespread are high head plants and usually employ a dam to stock up water at an increased height. They also store water at times of rain and discharge it during dry times. This results in reliable and consistent electricity generation, capable of meeting demand since flow can be rapidly altered. At times of excess electrical system capacity, usually available at night, these plants can also pump water from one reservoir to another at a greater height. When there is peak electrical demand, the higher reservoir releases water through the turbines to the lower reservoir. Low head hydroelectric plants usually exploit heads of just a few meters or less. These types of power station use a weir or low dam to channel water, or no dam at all and merely use the river flow. Unfortunately their electricity production capacity fluctuates with seasonal water flow in a river. Until only recently people believed almost universally that hydroelectric power was an environmentally safe and clean means of generating electricity. Hydroelectric stations do not release any of the usual atmospheric pollutants emitted by power plants fuelled by fossil fuels so they do not add to global warming or acid rain. Nevertheless, recent studies of the larger reservoirs formed behind dams have implied that decomposing, flooded vegetation could give off greenhouse gases equal to those from other electricity sources. The clearest result of hydroelectric dams is the flooding of huge areas of land. The reservoirs built can be exceptionally big and they have often flooded the lands of indigenous peoples and destroyed their way of life. Numerous rare ecosystems are also endangered by hydroelectric power plant development. Damming rivers may also change the quantity and quality of water in the rivers below the dams, as well as stopping fish migrating upstream to spawn. In addition, silt, usually taken downstream to the lower parts of a river, is caught by a dam and so the river downstream loses the silt that should fertilize the rivers flood plains during high water periods. Theoretical global hydroelectric power is approximately four times larger than the amount that has been taken advantage of today. Most of the residual hydro potential left in the world can be found in African and Asian developing countries. Exploiting this resource would involve an investment of billions of dollars, since hydroelectric plants normally have very high building costs. Low head hydro capacity facilities on small scales will probably increase in the future as low head turbine research, and the standardization of turbine production, reduce the costs of low head hydro-electric power production. New systems of control and improvements in turbines could lead in the future to more electricity created from present facilities. In addition, in the 1950s and 60s when oil and coal prices were very low, lots of smaller hydroelectric plants were closed down. Future increases in the prices of fuel could lead to these places being renovated. | Nowadays, agriculture below hydroelectric dams is not affected by the change in water flow. | contradiction |
id_3064 | Hydroelectric Power Hydroelectric power is Americas leading renewable energy resource. Of all the renewable power sources, its the most reliable, efficient, and economical. Water is needed to run a hydroelectric generating unit. Its held in a reservoir or lake behind a dam, and the force of the water being released from the reservoir through the dam spins the blades of a turbine. The turbine is connected to the generator that produces electricity. After passing through the turbine, the water re-enters the river on the downstream side of the dam. Hydroelectric plants convert the kinetic energy within falling water into electricity. The energy in moving water is produced in the sun, and consequently is continually being renewed. The energy in sunlight evaporates water from the seas and deposits it on land as rain. Land elevation differences result in rainfall runoff, and permit some of the original solar energy to be harnessed as hydroelectric power. Hydroelectric power is at present the earths chief renewable electricity source, generating 6% of global energy and about 15% of worldwide electricity. Hydroelectric power in Canada is plentiful and provides 60% of their electrical requirements. Usually regarded as an inexpensive and clean source of electricity, most big hydroelectric projects being planned today are facing a great deal of hostility from environmental groups and local people. The earliest recorded use of water power was a clock, constructed around 250 BC. Since then, people have used falling water to supply power for grain and saw mills, as well as a host of other uses. The earliest use of flowing water to generate electricity was a waterwheel on the Fox River in Wisconsin in 1882. The first hydroelectric power plants were much more dependable and efficient than the plants of the day that were fired by fossil fuels. This led to a rise in number of small to medium sized hydroelectric generating plants located wherever there was an adequate supply of falling water and a need for electricity. As demand for electricity soared in the middle years of the 20th century, and the effectiveness of coal and oil power plants improved, small hydro plants became less popular. The majority of new hydroelectric developments were focused on giant megaprojects. Hydroelectric plants harness energy by passing flowing water through a turbine. The water turbine rotation is delivered to a generator, which generates electricity. The quantity of electricity that can be produced at a hydroelectric plant relies upon two variables. These variables are (1) the vertical distance that the water falls, called the head, and (2) the flow rate, calculated as volume over time. The amount of electricity that is produced is thus proportional to the head product and the flow rate. So, hydroelectric power stations can normally be separated into two kinds. The most widespread are high head plants and usually employ a dam to stock up water at an increased height. They also store water at times of rain and discharge it during dry times. This results in reliable and consistent electricity generation, capable of meeting demand since flow can be rapidly altered. At times of excess electrical system capacity, usually available at night, these plants can also pump water from one reservoir to another at a greater height. When there is peak electrical demand, the higher reservoir releases water through the turbines to the lower reservoir. Low head hydroelectric plants usually exploit heads of just a few meters or less. These types of power station use a weir or low dam to channel water, or no dam at all and merely use the river flow. Unfortunately their electricity production capacity fluctuates with seasonal water flow in a river. Until only recently people believed almost universally that hydroelectric power was an environmentally safe and clean means of generating electricity. Hydroelectric stations do not release any of the usual atmospheric pollutants emitted by power plants fuelled by fossil fuels so they do not add to global warming or acid rain. Nevertheless, recent studies of the larger reservoirs formed behind dams have implied that decomposing, flooded vegetation could give off greenhouse gases equal to those from other electricity sources. The clearest result of hydroelectric dams is the flooding of huge areas of land. The reservoirs built can be exceptionally big and they have often flooded the lands of indigenous peoples and destroyed their way of life. Numerous rare ecosystems are also endangered by hydroelectric power plant development. Damming rivers may also change the quantity and quality of water in the rivers below the dams, as well as stopping fish migrating upstream to spawn. In addition, silt, usually taken downstream to the lower parts of a river, is caught by a dam and so the river downstream loses the silt that should fertilize the rivers flood plains during high water periods. Theoretical global hydroelectric power is approximately four times larger than the amount that has been taken advantage of today. Most of the residual hydro potential left in the world can be found in African and Asian developing countries. Exploiting this resource would involve an investment of billions of dollars, since hydroelectric plants normally have very high building costs. Low head hydro capacity facilities on small scales will probably increase in the future as low head turbine research, and the standardization of turbine production, reduce the costs of low head hydro-electric power production. New systems of control and improvements in turbines could lead in the future to more electricity created from present facilities. In addition, in the 1950s and 60s when oil and coal prices were very low, lots of smaller hydroelectric plants were closed down. Future increases in the prices of fuel could lead to these places being renovated. | The first hydroelectric power stations were more effective than those using competing energy sources. | entailment |
id_3065 | Hydroelectric Power Hydroelectric power is Americas leading renewable energy resource. Of all the renewable power sources, its the most reliable, efficient, and economical. Water is needed to run a hydroelectric generating unit. Its held in a reservoir or lake behind a dam, and the force of the water being released from the reservoir through the dam spins the blades of a turbine. The turbine is connected to the generator that produces electricity. After passing through the turbine, the water re-enters the river on the downstream side of the dam. Hydroelectric plants convert the kinetic energy within falling water into electricity. The energy in moving water is produced in the sun, and consequently is continually being renewed. The energy in sunlight evaporates water from the seas and deposits it on land as rain. Land elevation differences result in rainfall runoff, and permit some of the original solar energy to be harnessed as hydroelectric power. Hydroelectric power is at present the earths chief renewable electricity source, generating 6% of global energy and about 15% of worldwide electricity. Hydroelectric power in Canada is plentiful and provides 60% of their electrical requirements. Usually regarded as an inexpensive and clean source of electricity, most big hydroelectric projects being planned today are facing a great deal of hostility from environmental groups and local people. The earliest recorded use of water power was a clock, constructed around 250 BC. Since then, people have used falling water to supply power for grain and saw mills, as well as a host of other uses. The earliest use of flowing water to generate electricity was a waterwheel on the Fox River in Wisconsin in 1882. The first hydroelectric power plants were much more dependable and efficient than the plants of the day that were fired by fossil fuels. This led to a rise in number of small to medium sized hydroelectric generating plants located wherever there was an adequate supply of falling water and a need for electricity. As demand for electricity soared in the middle years of the 20th century, and the effectiveness of coal and oil power plants improved, small hydro plants became less popular. The majority of new hydroelectric developments were focused on giant megaprojects. Hydroelectric plants harness energy by passing flowing water through a turbine. The water turbine rotation is delivered to a generator, which generates electricity. The quantity of electricity that can be produced at a hydroelectric plant relies upon two variables. These variables are (1) the vertical distance that the water falls, called the head, and (2) the flow rate, calculated as volume over time. The amount of electricity that is produced is thus proportional to the head product and the flow rate. So, hydroelectric power stations can normally be separated into two kinds. The most widespread are high head plants and usually employ a dam to stock up water at an increased height. They also store water at times of rain and discharge it during dry times. This results in reliable and consistent electricity generation, capable of meeting demand since flow can be rapidly altered. At times of excess electrical system capacity, usually available at night, these plants can also pump water from one reservoir to another at a greater height. When there is peak electrical demand, the higher reservoir releases water through the turbines to the lower reservoir. Low head hydroelectric plants usually exploit heads of just a few meters or less. These types of power station use a weir or low dam to channel water, or no dam at all and merely use the river flow. Unfortunately their electricity production capacity fluctuates with seasonal water flow in a river. Until only recently people believed almost universally that hydroelectric power was an environmentally safe and clean means of generating electricity. Hydroelectric stations do not release any of the usual atmospheric pollutants emitted by power plants fuelled by fossil fuels so they do not add to global warming or acid rain. Nevertheless, recent studies of the larger reservoirs formed behind dams have implied that decomposing, flooded vegetation could give off greenhouse gases equal to those from other electricity sources. The clearest result of hydroelectric dams is the flooding of huge areas of land. The reservoirs built can be exceptionally big and they have often flooded the lands of indigenous peoples and destroyed their way of life. Numerous rare ecosystems are also endangered by hydroelectric power plant development. Damming rivers may also change the quantity and quality of water in the rivers below the dams, as well as stopping fish migrating upstream to spawn. In addition, silt, usually taken downstream to the lower parts of a river, is caught by a dam and so the river downstream loses the silt that should fertilize the rivers flood plains during high water periods. Theoretical global hydroelectric power is approximately four times larger than the amount that has been taken advantage of today. Most of the residual hydro potential left in the world can be found in African and Asian developing countries. Exploiting this resource would involve an investment of billions of dollars, since hydroelectric plants normally have very high building costs. Low head hydro capacity facilities on small scales will probably increase in the future as low head turbine research, and the standardization of turbine production, reduce the costs of low head hydro-electric power production. New systems of control and improvements in turbines could lead in the future to more electricity created from present facilities. In addition, in the 1950s and 60s when oil and coal prices were very low, lots of smaller hydroelectric plants were closed down. Future increases in the prices of fuel could lead to these places being renovated. | An early use of hydroelectric power was in the timber industry. | entailment |
id_3066 | Hydroelectric Power Hydroelectric power is Americas leading renewable energy resource. Of all the renewable power sources, its the most reliable, efficient, and economical. Water is needed to run a hydroelectric generating unit. Its held in a reservoir or lake behind a dam, and the force of the water being released from the reservoir through the dam spins the blades of a turbine. The turbine is connected to the generator that produces electricity. After passing through the turbine, the water re-enters the river on the downstream side of the dam. Hydroelectric plants convert the kinetic energy within falling water into electricity. The energy in moving water is produced in the sun, and consequently is continually being renewed. The energy in sunlight evaporates water from the seas and deposits it on land as rain. Land elevation differences result in rainfall runoff, and permit some of the original solar energy to be harnessed as hydroelectric power. Hydroelectric power is at present the earths chief renewable electricity source, generating 6% of global energy and about 15% of worldwide electricity. Hydroelectric power in Canada is plentiful and provides 60% of their electrical requirements. Usually regarded as an inexpensive and clean source of electricity, most big hydroelectric projects being planned today are facing a great deal of hostility from environmental groups and local people. The earliest recorded use of water power was a clock, constructed around 250 BC. Since then, people have used falling water to supply power for grain and saw mills, as well as a host of other uses. The earliest use of flowing water to generate electricity was a waterwheel on the Fox River in Wisconsin in 1882. The first hydroelectric power plants were much more dependable and efficient than the plants of the day that were fired by fossil fuels. This led to a rise in number of small to medium sized hydroelectric generating plants located wherever there was an adequate supply of falling water and a need for electricity. As demand for electricity soared in the middle years of the 20th century, and the effectiveness of coal and oil power plants improved, small hydro plants became less popular. The majority of new hydroelectric developments were focused on giant megaprojects. Hydroelectric plants harness energy by passing flowing water through a turbine. The water turbine rotation is delivered to a generator, which generates electricity. The quantity of electricity that can be produced at a hydroelectric plant relies upon two variables. These variables are (1) the vertical distance that the water falls, called the head, and (2) the flow rate, calculated as volume over time. The amount of electricity that is produced is thus proportional to the head product and the flow rate. So, hydroelectric power stations can normally be separated into two kinds. The most widespread are high head plants and usually employ a dam to stock up water at an increased height. They also store water at times of rain and discharge it during dry times. This results in reliable and consistent electricity generation, capable of meeting demand since flow can be rapidly altered. At times of excess electrical system capacity, usually available at night, these plants can also pump water from one reservoir to another at a greater height. When there is peak electrical demand, the higher reservoir releases water through the turbines to the lower reservoir. Low head hydroelectric plants usually exploit heads of just a few meters or less. These types of power station use a weir or low dam to channel water, or no dam at all and merely use the river flow. Unfortunately their electricity production capacity fluctuates with seasonal water flow in a river. Until only recently people believed almost universally that hydroelectric power was an environmentally safe and clean means of generating electricity. Hydroelectric stations do not release any of the usual atmospheric pollutants emitted by power plants fuelled by fossil fuels so they do not add to global warming or acid rain. Nevertheless, recent studies of the larger reservoirs formed behind dams have implied that decomposing, flooded vegetation could give off greenhouse gases equal to those from other electricity sources. The clearest result of hydroelectric dams is the flooding of huge areas of land. The reservoirs built can be exceptionally big and they have often flooded the lands of indigenous peoples and destroyed their way of life. Numerous rare ecosystems are also endangered by hydroelectric power plant development. Damming rivers may also change the quantity and quality of water in the rivers below the dams, as well as stopping fish migrating upstream to spawn. In addition, silt, usually taken downstream to the lower parts of a river, is caught by a dam and so the river downstream loses the silt that should fertilize the rivers flood plains during high water periods. Theoretical global hydroelectric power is approximately four times larger than the amount that has been taken advantage of today. Most of the residual hydro potential left in the world can be found in African and Asian developing countries. Exploiting this resource would involve an investment of billions of dollars, since hydroelectric plants normally have very high building costs. Low head hydro capacity facilities on small scales will probably increase in the future as low head turbine research, and the standardization of turbine production, reduce the costs of low head hydro-electric power production. New systems of control and improvements in turbines could lead in the future to more electricity created from present facilities. In addition, in the 1950s and 60s when oil and coal prices were very low, lots of smaller hydroelectric plants were closed down. Future increases in the prices of fuel could lead to these places being renovated. | Canada uses the most hydroelectric power in the world today. | neutral |
id_3067 | Hydrogen-fuelled cars are not reliant upon petrol or diesel, which potentially makes them safer. Hydrogen fuel can be produced from renewable sources, such as wind or solar power, and does not have the ordinary cars dependency on burning fossil fuels. Since cars account for roughly a third of greenhouse gas emissions, these futuristic vehicles could form part of an effective strategy to combat global warming. This is an idealistic scenario and there are many barriers to be overcome first. The existing designs for hydrogen fuelled cars are extremely expensive. The National Research Association also estimates that 8 billion would be needed to set-up the refuelling stations required by hydrogen-fuelled cars. For a mass market product to be developed there needs to be increased cooperation between governments and industry to allow the infrastructure to lead the manufacture. In fact, hybrid and hybrid-electric car designs may prove to be a more worthwhile long-term investment for governments. Compared to ordinary cars, hybrids emit reduced levels of carbon dioxide, whereas hydrogen-fuelled cars emit only water and so are 100% clean. | The passage questions the viability of hydrogen-fuelled cars as a solution to global warming. | entailment |
id_3068 | Hydrogen-fuelled cars are not reliant upon petrol or diesel, which potentially makes them safer. Hydrogen fuel can be produced from renewable sources, such as wind or solar power, and does not have the ordinary cars dependency on burning fossil fuels. Since cars account for roughly a third of greenhouse gas emissions, these futuristic vehicles could form part of an effective strategy to combat global warming. This is an idealistic scenario and there are many barriers to be overcome first. The existing designs for hydrogen fuelled cars are extremely expensive. The National Research Association also estimates that 8 billion would be needed to set-up the refuelling stations required by hydrogen-fuelled cars. For a mass market product to be developed there needs to be increased cooperation between governments and industry to allow the infrastructure to lead the manufacture. In fact, hybrid and hybrid-electric car designs may prove to be a more worthwhile long-term investment for governments. Compared to ordinary cars, hybrids emit reduced levels of carbon dioxide, whereas hydrogen-fuelled cars emit only water and so are 100% clean. | Hybrids are the cleanest form of transport. | contradiction |
id_3069 | Hydrogen-fuelled cars are not reliant upon petrol or diesel, which potentially makes them safer. Hydrogen fuel can be produced from renewable sources, such as wind or solar power, and does not have the ordinary cars dependency on burning fossil fuels. Since cars account for roughly a third of greenhouse gas emissions, these futuristic vehicles could form part of an effective strategy to combat global warming. This is an idealistic scenario and there are many barriers to be overcome first. The existing designs for hydrogen fuelled cars are extremely expensive. The National Research Association also estimates that 8 billion would be needed to set-up the refuelling stations required by hydrogen-fuelled cars. For a mass market product to be developed there needs to be increased cooperation between governments and industry to allow the infrastructure to lead the manufacture. In fact, hybrid and hybrid-electric car designs may prove to be a more worthwhile long-term investment for governments. Compared to ordinary cars, hybrids emit reduced levels of carbon dioxide, whereas hydrogen-fuelled cars emit only water and so are 100% clean. | Widespread use of hydrogen-fuelled cars would incur High infrastructure costs. | entailment |
id_3070 | Hydrogen-fuelled cars are not reliant upon petrol or diesel, which potentially makes them safer. Hydrogen fuel can be produced from renewable sources, such as wind or solar power, and does not have the ordinary cars dependency on burning fossil fuels. Since cars account for roughly a third of greenhouse gas emissions, these futuristic vehicles could form part of an effective strategy to combat global warming. This is an idealistic scenario and there are many barriers to be overcome first. The existing designs for hydrogen fuelled cars are extremely expensive. The National Research Association also estimates that 8 billion would be needed to set-up the refuelling stations required by hydrogen-fuelled cars. For a mass market product to be developed there needs to be increased cooperation between governments and industry to allow the infrastructure to lead the manufacture. In fact, hybrid and hybrid-electric car designs may prove to be a more worthwhile long-term investment for governments. Compared to ordinary cars, hybrids emit reduced levels of carbon dioxide, whereas hydrogen-fuelled cars emit only water and so are 100% clean. | Hydrogen is universally available and is not a greenhouse gas. | neutral |
id_3071 | Hydrogen-fuelled cars are not reliant upon petrol or diesel, which potentially makes them safer. Hydrogen fuel can be produced from renewable sources, such as wind or solar power, and does not have the ordinary cars dependency on burning fossil fuels. Since cars account for roughly a third of greenhouse gas emissions, these futuristic vehicles could form part of an effective strategy to combat global warming. This is an idealistic scenario and there are many barriers to be overcome first. The existing designs for hydrogen fuelled cars are extremely expensive. The National Research Association also estimates that 8 billion would be needed to set-up the refuelling stations required by hydrogen-fuelled cars. For a mass market product to be developed there needs to be increased cooperation between governments and industry to allow the infrastructure to lead the manufacture. In fact, hybrid and hybrid-electric car designs may prove to be a more worthwhile long-term investment for governments. Compared to ordinary cars, hybrids emit reduced levels of carbon dioxide, whereas hydrogen-fuelled cars emit only water and so are 100% clean. | The first hydrogen-fuelled car was too expensive for consumers | neutral |
id_3072 | Hypnotism is it real or just a circus trick? Hypnosis has been shown through a number of rigorously controlled studies to reduce pain, control blood pressure, and even make warts go away. But because very few studies have attempted to define the actual processes involved, most scientists are sceptical of its power and uses. That scepticism has driven David Spiegel, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, USA, and other researchers to take a hard look at what happens in the brain during hypnosis. Among researchers there are two schools of thought. One claims that hypnosis fundamentally alters subjects state of mind: they enter a trance, which produces changes in brain activity. The other believes that hypnosis is simply a matter of suggestibility and relaxation. Spiegel belongs to the first school and over the years has had a debate with two scientists on the other side, Irving Kirsch, a University of Connecticut psychologist, and Stephen Kosslyn, a Harvard professor. Kirsch often uses hypnosis in his practice and doesnt deny that it can be effective. With hypnosis you do put people in altered states, he says. But you dont need a trance to do it. To illustrate the point, Kirsch demonstrates how a subject holding a small object on a chain can make it swing in any direction by mere suggestion, the chain responding to minute movements in the tiny muscles of the fingers. You dont have to enter a trance for your subconscious and your body to act upon a suggestion, Kirsch says. The reaction is the result of your focusing on moving the chain in a particular direction. Spiegel disagrees. One of his best known studies found that when subjects were hypnotised and given suggestions their brain wave patterns changed, indicating that they had entered a trance. In one of his studies, people under hypnosis were told their forearms were numb, then given light electrical shocks to the wrists. They didnt flinch or respond in any way, and their brain waves resembled those of people who experienced a much weaker shock. To Kirsch this still wasnt enough to prove the power of trance, but Stephen Kosslyn was willing to be convinced. Many external factors could have been responsible for the shift in the subjects state of mind, but Kosslyn wondered, Is there really something going on in the brain? To find out, Spiegel and Kosslyn decided to collaborate on a study focusing on a part of the brain that is well understood: the circuit which has been found to process the perception of colour. Spiegel and Kosslyn wanted to see if subjects could set off the circuit by visualising colour while under hypnosis. They selected eight people for the experiment conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital. The subjects were put in a scanner and shown a slide with coloured rectangles while their brain activity was mapped. Then they were shown a black and white slide and told to imagine its having colour. Both tasks were then repeated under hypnosis. The results were striking. When the subjects truly saw the coloured rectangles, the circuit lit up on both sides of the brain; when they only had to imagine the colour, the circuit lit up only in the right hemisphere. Under hypnosis, however, both sides of the brain became active, just as in regular sight; imagination seemed to take on the quality of a hallucination. After the experiment, Kosslyn was forced to admit, Im absolutely convinced now that hypnosis can boost what mental imagery does. But Kirsch remained sceptical, saying, The experiments demonstrate that people are experiencing the effects of hypnotic suggestion but dont prove that they are entering a trance. He also argued that subjects were told to see the card in colour when they were hypnotised but only to imagine it in colour when they werent. Being told to pretend youre having an experience is different from the suggestion to have the experience. Spiegel, however, is a clinician first and a scientist second. He believes the most important thing is that doctors recognise the power of hypnosis and start to use it. Working with Elvira Lang, a radiologist at a Harvard Medical Centre, he is testing the use of hypnosis in the operating room just as he and Kosslyn did in the scanner. Spiegel and Lang took 241 patients scheduled for surgery and divided them into three groups. One group received standard care, another standard care with a sympathetic care provider and the third received standard care, a sympathetic care provider and hypnosis. Every 15 minutes the patients were asked to rate their pain and anxiety levels. They were also hooked up to painkilling medication which they could administer to themselves. On average, Spiegel and Lang found the hypnotised subjects used less medication, experienced less pain and felt far less anxiety than the other two groups. Original results published in The Lancet have been further supported by ongoing studies conducted by Lang. Spiegels investigations into the nature of hypnosis and its effects on the brain continue. However, if hypnosis is ever to work its way into mainstream medicine and everyday use, physicians will need to know there is solid science behind what sounds like mysticism. Only then will their reluctance to using such things as mind over matter be overcome. I agree that the medical use of hypnotism should be based on data rather than belief, says Spiegel, but in the end it doesnt really matter why it works, as long as it helps our patients. | Patients in the third group in Spiegel and Langs experiment were easily hypnotised. | neutral |
id_3073 | Hypnotism is it real or just a circus trick? Hypnosis has been shown through a number of rigorously controlled studies to reduce pain, control blood pressure, and even make warts go away. But because very few studies have attempted to define the actual processes involved, most scientists are sceptical of its power and uses. That scepticism has driven David Spiegel, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, USA, and other researchers to take a hard look at what happens in the brain during hypnosis. Among researchers there are two schools of thought. One claims that hypnosis fundamentally alters subjects state of mind: they enter a trance, which produces changes in brain activity. The other believes that hypnosis is simply a matter of suggestibility and relaxation. Spiegel belongs to the first school and over the years has had a debate with two scientists on the other side, Irving Kirsch, a University of Connecticut psychologist, and Stephen Kosslyn, a Harvard professor. Kirsch often uses hypnosis in his practice and doesnt deny that it can be effective. With hypnosis you do put people in altered states, he says. But you dont need a trance to do it. To illustrate the point, Kirsch demonstrates how a subject holding a small object on a chain can make it swing in any direction by mere suggestion, the chain responding to minute movements in the tiny muscles of the fingers. You dont have to enter a trance for your subconscious and your body to act upon a suggestion, Kirsch says. The reaction is the result of your focusing on moving the chain in a particular direction. Spiegel disagrees. One of his best known studies found that when subjects were hypnotised and given suggestions their brain wave patterns changed, indicating that they had entered a trance. In one of his studies, people under hypnosis were told their forearms were numb, then given light electrical shocks to the wrists. They didnt flinch or respond in any way, and their brain waves resembled those of people who experienced a much weaker shock. To Kirsch this still wasnt enough to prove the power of trance, but Stephen Kosslyn was willing to be convinced. Many external factors could have been responsible for the shift in the subjects state of mind, but Kosslyn wondered, Is there really something going on in the brain? To find out, Spiegel and Kosslyn decided to collaborate on a study focusing on a part of the brain that is well understood: the circuit which has been found to process the perception of colour. Spiegel and Kosslyn wanted to see if subjects could set off the circuit by visualising colour while under hypnosis. They selected eight people for the experiment conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital. The subjects were put in a scanner and shown a slide with coloured rectangles while their brain activity was mapped. Then they were shown a black and white slide and told to imagine its having colour. Both tasks were then repeated under hypnosis. The results were striking. When the subjects truly saw the coloured rectangles, the circuit lit up on both sides of the brain; when they only had to imagine the colour, the circuit lit up only in the right hemisphere. Under hypnosis, however, both sides of the brain became active, just as in regular sight; imagination seemed to take on the quality of a hallucination. After the experiment, Kosslyn was forced to admit, Im absolutely convinced now that hypnosis can boost what mental imagery does. But Kirsch remained sceptical, saying, The experiments demonstrate that people are experiencing the effects of hypnotic suggestion but dont prove that they are entering a trance. He also argued that subjects were told to see the card in colour when they were hypnotised but only to imagine it in colour when they werent. Being told to pretend youre having an experience is different from the suggestion to have the experience. Spiegel, however, is a clinician first and a scientist second. He believes the most important thing is that doctors recognise the power of hypnosis and start to use it. Working with Elvira Lang, a radiologist at a Harvard Medical Centre, he is testing the use of hypnosis in the operating room just as he and Kosslyn did in the scanner. Spiegel and Lang took 241 patients scheduled for surgery and divided them into three groups. One group received standard care, another standard care with a sympathetic care provider and the third received standard care, a sympathetic care provider and hypnosis. Every 15 minutes the patients were asked to rate their pain and anxiety levels. They were also hooked up to painkilling medication which they could administer to themselves. On average, Spiegel and Lang found the hypnotised subjects used less medication, experienced less pain and felt far less anxiety than the other two groups. Original results published in The Lancet have been further supported by ongoing studies conducted by Lang. Spiegels investigations into the nature of hypnosis and its effects on the brain continue. However, if hypnosis is ever to work its way into mainstream medicine and everyday use, physicians will need to know there is solid science behind what sounds like mysticism. Only then will their reluctance to using such things as mind over matter be overcome. I agree that the medical use of hypnotism should be based on data rather than belief, says Spiegel, but in the end it doesnt really matter why it works, as long as it helps our patients. | Spiegel is more interested in scientific research than medical practice. | contradiction |
id_3074 | Hypnotism is it real or just a circus trick? Hypnosis has been shown through a number of rigorously controlled studies to reduce pain, control blood pressure, and even make warts go away. But because very few studies have attempted to define the actual processes involved, most scientists are sceptical of its power and uses. That scepticism has driven David Spiegel, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, USA, and other researchers to take a hard look at what happens in the brain during hypnosis. Among researchers there are two schools of thought. One claims that hypnosis fundamentally alters subjects state of mind: they enter a trance, which produces changes in brain activity. The other believes that hypnosis is simply a matter of suggestibility and relaxation. Spiegel belongs to the first school and over the years has had a debate with two scientists on the other side, Irving Kirsch, a University of Connecticut psychologist, and Stephen Kosslyn, a Harvard professor. Kirsch often uses hypnosis in his practice and doesnt deny that it can be effective. With hypnosis you do put people in altered states, he says. But you dont need a trance to do it. To illustrate the point, Kirsch demonstrates how a subject holding a small object on a chain can make it swing in any direction by mere suggestion, the chain responding to minute movements in the tiny muscles of the fingers. You dont have to enter a trance for your subconscious and your body to act upon a suggestion, Kirsch says. The reaction is the result of your focusing on moving the chain in a particular direction. Spiegel disagrees. One of his best known studies found that when subjects were hypnotised and given suggestions their brain wave patterns changed, indicating that they had entered a trance. In one of his studies, people under hypnosis were told their forearms were numb, then given light electrical shocks to the wrists. They didnt flinch or respond in any way, and their brain waves resembled those of people who experienced a much weaker shock. To Kirsch this still wasnt enough to prove the power of trance, but Stephen Kosslyn was willing to be convinced. Many external factors could have been responsible for the shift in the subjects state of mind, but Kosslyn wondered, Is there really something going on in the brain? To find out, Spiegel and Kosslyn decided to collaborate on a study focusing on a part of the brain that is well understood: the circuit which has been found to process the perception of colour. Spiegel and Kosslyn wanted to see if subjects could set off the circuit by visualising colour while under hypnosis. They selected eight people for the experiment conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital. The subjects were put in a scanner and shown a slide with coloured rectangles while their brain activity was mapped. Then they were shown a black and white slide and told to imagine its having colour. Both tasks were then repeated under hypnosis. The results were striking. When the subjects truly saw the coloured rectangles, the circuit lit up on both sides of the brain; when they only had to imagine the colour, the circuit lit up only in the right hemisphere. Under hypnosis, however, both sides of the brain became active, just as in regular sight; imagination seemed to take on the quality of a hallucination. After the experiment, Kosslyn was forced to admit, Im absolutely convinced now that hypnosis can boost what mental imagery does. But Kirsch remained sceptical, saying, The experiments demonstrate that people are experiencing the effects of hypnotic suggestion but dont prove that they are entering a trance. He also argued that subjects were told to see the card in colour when they were hypnotised but only to imagine it in colour when they werent. Being told to pretend youre having an experience is different from the suggestion to have the experience. Spiegel, however, is a clinician first and a scientist second. He believes the most important thing is that doctors recognise the power of hypnosis and start to use it. Working with Elvira Lang, a radiologist at a Harvard Medical Centre, he is testing the use of hypnosis in the operating room just as he and Kosslyn did in the scanner. Spiegel and Lang took 241 patients scheduled for surgery and divided them into three groups. One group received standard care, another standard care with a sympathetic care provider and the third received standard care, a sympathetic care provider and hypnosis. Every 15 minutes the patients were asked to rate their pain and anxiety levels. They were also hooked up to painkilling medication which they could administer to themselves. On average, Spiegel and Lang found the hypnotised subjects used less medication, experienced less pain and felt far less anxiety than the other two groups. Original results published in The Lancet have been further supported by ongoing studies conducted by Lang. Spiegels investigations into the nature of hypnosis and its effects on the brain continue. However, if hypnosis is ever to work its way into mainstream medicine and everyday use, physicians will need to know there is solid science behind what sounds like mysticism. Only then will their reluctance to using such things as mind over matter be overcome. I agree that the medical use of hypnotism should be based on data rather than belief, says Spiegel, but in the end it doesnt really matter why it works, as long as it helps our patients. | Spiegel feels that doctors should use hypnotism only when it is fully understood. | contradiction |
id_3075 | Hypnotism is it real or just a circus trick? Hypnosis has been shown through a number of rigorously controlled studies to reduce pain, control blood pressure, and even make warts go away. But because very few studies have attempted to define the actual processes involved, most scientists are sceptical of its power and uses. That scepticism has driven David Spiegel, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, USA, and other researchers to take a hard look at what happens in the brain during hypnosis. Among researchers there are two schools of thought. One claims that hypnosis fundamentally alters subjects state of mind: they enter a trance, which produces changes in brain activity. The other believes that hypnosis is simply a matter of suggestibility and relaxation. Spiegel belongs to the first school and over the years has had a debate with two scientists on the other side, Irving Kirsch, a University of Connecticut psychologist, and Stephen Kosslyn, a Harvard professor. Kirsch often uses hypnosis in his practice and doesnt deny that it can be effective. With hypnosis you do put people in altered states, he says. But you dont need a trance to do it. To illustrate the point, Kirsch demonstrates how a subject holding a small object on a chain can make it swing in any direction by mere suggestion, the chain responding to minute movements in the tiny muscles of the fingers. You dont have to enter a trance for your subconscious and your body to act upon a suggestion, Kirsch says. The reaction is the result of your focusing on moving the chain in a particular direction. Spiegel disagrees. One of his best known studies found that when subjects were hypnotised and given suggestions their brain wave patterns changed, indicating that they had entered a trance. In one of his studies, people under hypnosis were told their forearms were numb, then given light electrical shocks to the wrists. They didnt flinch or respond in any way, and their brain waves resembled those of people who experienced a much weaker shock. To Kirsch this still wasnt enough to prove the power of trance, but Stephen Kosslyn was willing to be convinced. Many external factors could have been responsible for the shift in the subjects state of mind, but Kosslyn wondered, Is there really something going on in the brain? To find out, Spiegel and Kosslyn decided to collaborate on a study focusing on a part of the brain that is well understood: the circuit which has been found to process the perception of colour. Spiegel and Kosslyn wanted to see if subjects could set off the circuit by visualising colour while under hypnosis. They selected eight people for the experiment conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital. The subjects were put in a scanner and shown a slide with coloured rectangles while their brain activity was mapped. Then they were shown a black and white slide and told to imagine its having colour. Both tasks were then repeated under hypnosis. The results were striking. When the subjects truly saw the coloured rectangles, the circuit lit up on both sides of the brain; when they only had to imagine the colour, the circuit lit up only in the right hemisphere. Under hypnosis, however, both sides of the brain became active, just as in regular sight; imagination seemed to take on the quality of a hallucination. After the experiment, Kosslyn was forced to admit, Im absolutely convinced now that hypnosis can boost what mental imagery does. But Kirsch remained sceptical, saying, The experiments demonstrate that people are experiencing the effects of hypnotic suggestion but dont prove that they are entering a trance. He also argued that subjects were told to see the card in colour when they were hypnotised but only to imagine it in colour when they werent. Being told to pretend youre having an experience is different from the suggestion to have the experience. Spiegel, however, is a clinician first and a scientist second. He believes the most important thing is that doctors recognise the power of hypnosis and start to use it. Working with Elvira Lang, a radiologist at a Harvard Medical Centre, he is testing the use of hypnosis in the operating room just as he and Kosslyn did in the scanner. Spiegel and Lang took 241 patients scheduled for surgery and divided them into three groups. One group received standard care, another standard care with a sympathetic care provider and the third received standard care, a sympathetic care provider and hypnosis. Every 15 minutes the patients were asked to rate their pain and anxiety levels. They were also hooked up to painkilling medication which they could administer to themselves. On average, Spiegel and Lang found the hypnotised subjects used less medication, experienced less pain and felt far less anxiety than the other two groups. Original results published in The Lancet have been further supported by ongoing studies conducted by Lang. Spiegels investigations into the nature of hypnosis and its effects on the brain continue. However, if hypnosis is ever to work its way into mainstream medicine and everyday use, physicians will need to know there is solid science behind what sounds like mysticism. Only then will their reluctance to using such things as mind over matter be overcome. I agree that the medical use of hypnotism should be based on data rather than belief, says Spiegel, but in the end it doesnt really matter why it works, as long as it helps our patients. | In Spiegel and Langs experiment, a smaller amount of painkiller was needed by the hypnotised patients than by the other two groups. | entailment |
id_3076 | I have not received telephone bills for nine months inspite of several complaints -- - -A telephone customers letter to the editor of a daily | Every customer has a right to get bills regularly from the telephone company. | entailment |
id_3077 | I have not received telephone bills for nine months inspite of several complaints -- - -A telephone customers letter to the editor of a daily | The customers complaints point to defect in the services which is expected to be corrected. | entailment |
id_3078 | INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS INSTITUTE BUDDY PEER SUPPORT SCHEME Think back to your first days and weeks in a new country. Were there times when you had questions that you wished you could ask a friend, or when you wanted to have a chat about how you were feeling? To help new students, the International Business Institute (IBI) plans to set up a Buddy Peer Support Scheme. The scheme will help new students meet current students at IBI who can provide them with some friendly company during their first months in Newcastle and help them with any small problems that they may have. Often, buddies may not be able to solve the problem, but they may know who can help. Whats in it for you? We believe that being a buddy will be rewarding in several ways. As a volunteer, it will be personally satisfying to know that you are able to help new students. However, it will also help you to make contacts that may be valuable in your future academic and professional lives. If you are an overseas student, it will give you another opportunity to practise speaking English. Lastly and most importantly, we hope that it will be enjoyable for you to be a buddy! Responsibilities of buddies 1. Telephone and arrange to make contact with the new student. 2. Meet the student and show him/her around the campus and the local area. Meet for coffee, perhaps. Answer questions about living in Newcastle and administration procedures at IBI. (We will give you a checklist of things to mention when we send you the new students name and telephone number). 3. Arrange to meet the new student one morning or afternoon one weekend early in the semester, and take the student to places that you enjoy in Newcastle. 4. Be prepared to take telephone calls from the new student to answer further questions that he/she may have from time to time. Meet to explain information in person, if required. 5. You will be matched to an individual new student. However, if you have friends who are also buddies, you might prefer to form a support group together. This would mean that you meet the new students as a group rather than one-on-one. 6. Being a buddy is voluntary. There is no requirement to provide assistance beyond the help outlined above. However, we hope that the buddy and new students will enjoy each others company and continue to meet. Please note that if you agree to become a peer support buddy, you will be expected to fulfil your role conscientiously and cheerfully. It will be important to be considerate and reliable so that our student can feel confident of your support. 7. When you agree to act as a buddy for a particular term, your commitment covers that term only. For example, if you act as a buddy for Term 2, and would prefer to be free in the following term, there is no obligation to continue as a buddy in Term 3. Of course, we hope that you will want to assist every term. | The buddys obligations finish at the end of each term. | entailment |
id_3079 | INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS INSTITUTE BUDDY PEER SUPPORT SCHEME Think back to your first days and weeks in a new country. Were there times when you had questions that you wished you could ask a friend, or when you wanted to have a chat about how you were feeling? To help new students, the International Business Institute (IBI) plans to set up a Buddy Peer Support Scheme. The scheme will help new students meet current students at IBI who can provide them with some friendly company during their first months in Newcastle and help them with any small problems that they may have. Often, buddies may not be able to solve the problem, but they may know who can help. Whats in it for you? We believe that being a buddy will be rewarding in several ways. As a volunteer, it will be personally satisfying to know that you are able to help new students. However, it will also help you to make contacts that may be valuable in your future academic and professional lives. If you are an overseas student, it will give you another opportunity to practise speaking English. Lastly and most importantly, we hope that it will be enjoyable for you to be a buddy! Responsibilities of buddies 1. Telephone and arrange to make contact with the new student. 2. Meet the student and show him/her around the campus and the local area. Meet for coffee, perhaps. Answer questions about living in Newcastle and administration procedures at IBI. (We will give you a checklist of things to mention when we send you the new students name and telephone number). 3. Arrange to meet the new student one morning or afternoon one weekend early in the semester, and take the student to places that you enjoy in Newcastle. 4. Be prepared to take telephone calls from the new student to answer further questions that he/she may have from time to time. Meet to explain information in person, if required. 5. You will be matched to an individual new student. However, if you have friends who are also buddies, you might prefer to form a support group together. This would mean that you meet the new students as a group rather than one-on-one. 6. Being a buddy is voluntary. There is no requirement to provide assistance beyond the help outlined above. However, we hope that the buddy and new students will enjoy each others company and continue to meet. Please note that if you agree to become a peer support buddy, you will be expected to fulfil your role conscientiously and cheerfully. It will be important to be considerate and reliable so that our student can feel confident of your support. 7. When you agree to act as a buddy for a particular term, your commitment covers that term only. For example, if you act as a buddy for Term 2, and would prefer to be free in the following term, there is no obligation to continue as a buddy in Term 3. Of course, we hope that you will want to assist every term. | Buddies are required to attend two meetings per term. | neutral |
id_3080 | INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS INSTITUTE BUDDY PEER SUPPORT SCHEME Think back to your first days and weeks in a new country. Were there times when you had questions that you wished you could ask a friend, or when you wanted to have a chat about how you were feeling? To help new students, the International Business Institute (IBI) plans to set up a Buddy Peer Support Scheme. The scheme will help new students meet current students at IBI who can provide them with some friendly company during their first months in Newcastle and help them with any small problems that they may have. Often, buddies may not be able to solve the problem, but they may know who can help. Whats in it for you? We believe that being a buddy will be rewarding in several ways. As a volunteer, it will be personally satisfying to know that you are able to help new students. However, it will also help you to make contacts that may be valuable in your future academic and professional lives. If you are an overseas student, it will give you another opportunity to practise speaking English. Lastly and most importantly, we hope that it will be enjoyable for you to be a buddy! Responsibilities of buddies 1. Telephone and arrange to make contact with the new student. 2. Meet the student and show him/her around the campus and the local area. Meet for coffee, perhaps. Answer questions about living in Newcastle and administration procedures at IBI. (We will give you a checklist of things to mention when we send you the new students name and telephone number). 3. Arrange to meet the new student one morning or afternoon one weekend early in the semester, and take the student to places that you enjoy in Newcastle. 4. Be prepared to take telephone calls from the new student to answer further questions that he/she may have from time to time. Meet to explain information in person, if required. 5. You will be matched to an individual new student. However, if you have friends who are also buddies, you might prefer to form a support group together. This would mean that you meet the new students as a group rather than one-on-one. 6. Being a buddy is voluntary. There is no requirement to provide assistance beyond the help outlined above. However, we hope that the buddy and new students will enjoy each others company and continue to meet. Please note that if you agree to become a peer support buddy, you will be expected to fulfil your role conscientiously and cheerfully. It will be important to be considerate and reliable so that our student can feel confident of your support. 7. When you agree to act as a buddy for a particular term, your commitment covers that term only. For example, if you act as a buddy for Term 2, and would prefer to be free in the following term, there is no obligation to continue as a buddy in Term 3. Of course, we hope that you will want to assist every term. | Buddies participate on a voluntary basis. | entailment |
id_3081 | INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS INSTITUTE BUDDY PEER SUPPORT SCHEME Think back to your first days and weeks in a new country. Were there times when you had questions that you wished you could ask a friend, or when you wanted to have a chat about how you were feeling? To help new students, the International Business Institute (IBI) plans to set up a Buddy Peer Support Scheme. The scheme will help new students meet current students at IBI who can provide them with some friendly company during their first months in Newcastle and help them with any small problems that they may have. Often, buddies may not be able to solve the problem, but they may know who can help. Whats in it for you? We believe that being a buddy will be rewarding in several ways. As a volunteer, it will be personally satisfying to know that you are able to help new students. However, it will also help you to make contacts that may be valuable in your future academic and professional lives. If you are an overseas student, it will give you another opportunity to practise speaking English. Lastly and most importantly, we hope that it will be enjoyable for you to be a buddy! Responsibilities of buddies 1. Telephone and arrange to make contact with the new student. 2. Meet the student and show him/her around the campus and the local area. Meet for coffee, perhaps. Answer questions about living in Newcastle and administration procedures at IBI. (We will give you a checklist of things to mention when we send you the new students name and telephone number). 3. Arrange to meet the new student one morning or afternoon one weekend early in the semester, and take the student to places that you enjoy in Newcastle. 4. Be prepared to take telephone calls from the new student to answer further questions that he/she may have from time to time. Meet to explain information in person, if required. 5. You will be matched to an individual new student. However, if you have friends who are also buddies, you might prefer to form a support group together. This would mean that you meet the new students as a group rather than one-on-one. 6. Being a buddy is voluntary. There is no requirement to provide assistance beyond the help outlined above. However, we hope that the buddy and new students will enjoy each others company and continue to meet. Please note that if you agree to become a peer support buddy, you will be expected to fulfil your role conscientiously and cheerfully. It will be important to be considerate and reliable so that our student can feel confident of your support. 7. When you agree to act as a buddy for a particular term, your commitment covers that term only. For example, if you act as a buddy for Term 2, and would prefer to be free in the following term, there is no obligation to continue as a buddy in Term 3. Of course, we hope that you will want to assist every term. | Buddies need to work one-on-one with the student in their care. | contradiction |
id_3082 | INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS INSTITUTE BUDDY PEER SUPPORT SCHEME Think back to your first days and weeks in a new country. Were there times when you had questions that you wished you could ask a friend, or when you wanted to have a chat about how you were feeling? To help new students, the International Business Institute (IBI) plans to set up a Buddy Peer Support Scheme. The scheme will help new students meet current students at IBI who can provide them with some friendly company during their first months in Newcastle and help them with any small problems that they may have. Often, buddies may not be able to solve the problem, but they may know who can help. Whats in it for you? We believe that being a buddy will be rewarding in several ways. As a volunteer, it will be personally satisfying to know that you are able to help new students. However, it will also help you to make contacts that may be valuable in your future academic and professional lives. If you are an overseas student, it will give you another opportunity to practise speaking English. Lastly and most importantly, we hope that it will be enjoyable for you to be a buddy! Responsibilities of buddies 1. Telephone and arrange to make contact with the new student. 2. Meet the student and show him/her around the campus and the local area. Meet for coffee, perhaps. Answer questions about living in Newcastle and administration procedures at IBI. (We will give you a checklist of things to mention when we send you the new students name and telephone number). 3. Arrange to meet the new student one morning or afternoon one weekend early in the semester, and take the student to places that you enjoy in Newcastle. 4. Be prepared to take telephone calls from the new student to answer further questions that he/she may have from time to time. Meet to explain information in person, if required. 5. You will be matched to an individual new student. However, if you have friends who are also buddies, you might prefer to form a support group together. This would mean that you meet the new students as a group rather than one-on-one. 6. Being a buddy is voluntary. There is no requirement to provide assistance beyond the help outlined above. However, we hope that the buddy and new students will enjoy each others company and continue to meet. Please note that if you agree to become a peer support buddy, you will be expected to fulfil your role conscientiously and cheerfully. It will be important to be considerate and reliable so that our student can feel confident of your support. 7. When you agree to act as a buddy for a particular term, your commitment covers that term only. For example, if you act as a buddy for Term 2, and would prefer to be free in the following term, there is no obligation to continue as a buddy in Term 3. Of course, we hope that you will want to assist every term. | The buddy is responsible for making the first move to meet the new student. | entailment |
id_3083 | INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS INSTITUTE BUDDY PEER SUPPORT SCHEME Think back to your first days and weeks in a new country. Were there times when you had questions that you wished you could ask a friend, or when you wanted to have a chat about how you were feeling? To help new students, the International Business Institute (IBI) plans to set up a Buddy Peer Support Scheme. The scheme will help new students meet current students at IBI who can provide them with some friendly company during their first months in Newcastle and help them with any small problems that they may have. Often, buddies may not be able to solve the problem, but they may know who can help. Whats in it for you? We believe that being a buddy will be rewarding in several ways. As a volunteer, it will be personally satisfying to know that you are able to help new students. However, it will also help you to make contacts that may be valuable in your future academic and professional lives. If you are an overseas student, it will give you another opportunity to practise speaking English. Lastly and most importantly, we hope that it will be enjoyable for you to be a buddy! Responsibilities of buddies 1. Telephone and arrange to make contact with the new student. 2. Meet the student and show him/her around the campus and the local area. Meet for coffee, perhaps. Answer questions about living in Newcastle and administration procedures at IBI. (We will give you a checklist of things to mention when we send you the new students name and telephone number). 3. Arrange to meet the new student one morning or afternoon one weekend early in the semester, and take the student to places that you enjoy in Newcastle. 4. Be prepared to take telephone calls from the new student to answer further questions that he/she may have from time to time. Meet to explain information in person, if required. 5. You will be matched to an individual new student. However, if you have friends who are also buddies, you might prefer to form a support group together. This would mean that you meet the new students as a group rather than one-on-one. 6. Being a buddy is voluntary. There is no requirement to provide assistance beyond the help outlined above. However, we hope that the buddy and new students will enjoy each others company and continue to meet. Please note that if you agree to become a peer support buddy, you will be expected to fulfil your role conscientiously and cheerfully. It will be important to be considerate and reliable so that our student can feel confident of your support. 7. When you agree to act as a buddy for a particular term, your commitment covers that term only. For example, if you act as a buddy for Term 2, and would prefer to be free in the following term, there is no obligation to continue as a buddy in Term 3. Of course, we hope that you will want to assist every term. | The principal reward for the buddy is making new friends. | contradiction |
id_3084 | INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS INSTITUTE BUDDY PEER SUPPORT SCHEME Think back to your first days and weeks in a new country. Were there times when you had questions that you wished you could ask a friend, or when you wanted to have a chat about how you were feeling? To help new students, the International Business Institute (IBI) plans to set up a Buddy Peer Support Scheme. The scheme will help new students meet current students at IBI who can provide them with some friendly company during their first months in Newcastle and help them with any small problems that they may have. Often, buddies may not be able to solve the problem, but they may know who can help. Whats in it for you? We believe that being a buddy will be rewarding in several ways. As a volunteer, it will be personally satisfying to know that you are able to help new students. However, it will also help you to make contacts that may be valuable in your future academic and professional lives. If you are an overseas student, it will give you another opportunity to practise speaking English. Lastly and most importantly, we hope that it will be enjoyable for you to be a buddy! Responsibilities of buddies 1. Telephone and arrange to make contact with the new student. 2. Meet the student and show him/her around the campus and the local area. Meet for coffee, perhaps. Answer questions about living in Newcastle and administration procedures at IBI. (We will give you a checklist of things to mention when we send you the new students name and telephone number). 3. Arrange to meet the new student one morning or afternoon one weekend early in the semester, and take the student to places that you enjoy in Newcastle. 4. Be prepared to take telephone calls from the new student to answer further questions that he/she may have from time to time. Meet to explain information in person, if required. 5. You will be matched to an individual new student. However, if you have friends who are also buddies, you might prefer to form a support group together. This would mean that you meet the new students as a group rather than one-on-one. 6. Being a buddy is voluntary. There is no requirement to provide assistance beyond the help outlined above. However, we hope that the buddy and new students will enjoy each others company and continue to meet. Please note that if you agree to become a peer support buddy, you will be expected to fulfil your role conscientiously and cheerfully. It will be important to be considerate and reliable so that our student can feel confident of your support. 7. When you agree to act as a buddy for a particular term, your commitment covers that term only. For example, if you act as a buddy for Term 2, and would prefer to be free in the following term, there is no obligation to continue as a buddy in Term 3. Of course, we hope that you will want to assist every term. | The main aim of the Buddy Peer Support Scheme is to help new students during exam periods. | contradiction |
id_3085 | INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS INSTITUTE BUDDY PEER SUPPORT SCHEME Think back to your first days and weeks in a new country. Were there times when you had questions that you wished you could ask a friend, or when you wanted to have a chat about how you were feeling? To help new students, the International Business Institute (IBI) plans to set up a Buddy Peer Support Scheme. The scheme will help new students meet current students at IBI who can provide them with some friendly company during their first months in Newcastle and help them with any small problems that they may have. Often, buddies may not be able to solve the problem, but they may know who can help. Whats in it for you? We believe that being a buddy will be rewarding in several ways. As a volunteer, it will be personally satisfying to know that you are able to help new students. However, it will also help you to make contacts that may be valuable in your future academic and professional lives. If you are an overseas student, it will give you another opportunity to practise speaking English. Lastly and most importantly, we hope that it will be enjoyable for you to be a buddy! Responsibilities of buddies 1. Telephone and arrange to make contact with the new student. 2. Meet the student and show him/her around the campus and the local area. Meet for coffee, perhaps. Answer questions about living in Newcastle and administration procedures at IBI. (We will give you a checklist of things to mention when we send you the new students name and telephone number). 3. Arrange to meet the new student one morning or afternoon one weekend early in the semester, and take the student to places that you enjoy in Newcastle. 4. Be prepared to take telephone calls from the new student to answer further questions that he/she may have from time to time. Meet to explain information in person, if required. 5. You will be matched to an individual new student. However, if you have friends who are also buddies, you might prefer to form a support group together. This would mean that you meet the new students as a group rather than one-on-one. 6. Being a buddy is voluntary. There is no requirement to provide assistance beyond the help outlined above. However, we hope that the buddy and new students will enjoy each others company and continue to meet. Please note that if you agree to become a peer support buddy, you will be expected to fulfil your role conscientiously and cheerfully. It will be important to be considerate and reliable so that our student can feel confident of your support. 7. When you agree to act as a buddy for a particular term, your commitment covers that term only. For example, if you act as a buddy for Term 2, and would prefer to be free in the following term, there is no obligation to continue as a buddy in Term 3. Of course, we hope that you will want to assist every term. | Students will be put in touch with others from their own language group. | neutral |
id_3086 | IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence. The question of whether we are alone in the Universe has haunted humanity for centuries, but we may now stand poised on the brink of the answer to that question, as we search for radio signals from other intelligent civilisations. This search, often known by the acronym SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence), is a difficult one. Although groups around the world have been searching intermittently for three decades, it is only now that we have reached the level of technology where we can make a determined attempt to search all nearby stars for any sign of life. The primary reason for the search is basic curiosity hethe same curiosity about the natural world that drives all pure science. We want to know whether we are alone in the Universe. We want to know whether life evolves naturally if given the right conditions, or whether there is something very special about the Earth to have fostered the variety of life forms that, we see around us on the planet. The simple detection of a radio signal will be sufficient to answer this most basic of all questions. In this sense, SETI is another cog in the machinery of pure science which is continually pushing out the horizon of our knowledge. However, there are other reasons for being interested in whether life exists elsewhere. For example, we have had civilisation on Earth for perhaps only a few thousand years, and the threats of nuclear war and pollution over the last few decades have told us that our survival may be tenuous. Will we last another two thousand years or will we wipe ourselves out? Since the lifetime of a planet like ours is several billion years, we can expect that, if other civilisations do survive in our galaxy, their ages will range from zero to several billion years. Thus any other civilisation that we hear from is likely to be far older, on average, than ourselves. The mere existence of such a civilisation will tell us that long-term survival is possible, and gives us some cause for optimism. It is even possible that the older civilisation may pass on the benefits of their experience in dealing with threats to survival such as nuclear war and global pollution, and other threats that we havent yet discovered. In discussing whether we are alone, most SETI scientists adopt two ground rules. First, UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) are generally ignored since most scientists dont consider the evidence for them to be strong enough to bear serious consideration (although it is also important to keep an open mind in case any really convincing evidence emerges in the future). Second, we make a very conservative assumption that we are looking for a life form that is pretty well like us, since if it differs radically from us we may well not recognise it as a life form, quite apart from whether we are able to communicate with it. In other words, the life form we are looking for may well have two green heads and seven fingers, but it will nevertheless resemble us in that it should communicate with its fellows, be interested in the Universe, live on a planet orbiting a star like our Sun, and perhaps most restrictively, have a chemistry, like us, based on carbon and water. Even when we make these assumptions, our understanding of other life forms is still severely limited. We do not even know, for example, how many stars have planets, and we certainly do not know how likely it is that life will arise naturally, given the right conditions. However, when we look at the 100 billion stars in our galaxy (the Milky Way), and 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe, it seems inconceivable that at least one of these planets does not have a life form on it; in fact, the best educated guess we can make, using the little that we do know about the conditions for carbon-based life, leads us to estimate that perhaps one in 100,000 stars might have a life-bearing planet orbiting it. That means that our nearest neighbours are perhaps 100 light years away, which is almost next door in astronomical terms. An alien civilistation could choose many different ways of sending information across the galaxy, but many of these either require too much energy, or else are severely attenuated while traversing the vast distances across the galaxy. It turns out that, for a given amount of transmitted power, radio waves in the frequency range 1000 to 3000 MHz travel the greatest distance, and so all searches to date have concentrated on looking for radio waves in this frequency range. So far there have been a number of searches by various groups around the world, including Australian searches using the radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales. Until now there have not been any detections from the few hundred stars which have been searched. The scale of the searches has been increased dramatically since 1992, when the US Congress voted NASA $10 million per year for ten years to conduct, a thorough search for extra-terrestrial life. Much of the money in this project is being spent on developing the special hardware needed to search many frequencies at once. The project has two parts. One part is a targeted search using the worlds largest radio telescopes, the American-operated telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and the French telescope in Nancy in France. This part of the project is searching the nearest 1000 likely stars with high sensitivity for signals in the frequency rang 1000 to 3000 MHz. The other part of the project is an undirected search which is monitoring all of space with a lower sensitivity, using the smaller antennas of NASAs Deep Space Network. There is considerable debate over how we should react if we detect a signal from an alien civilisation. Everybody agrees that we should not reply immediately. Quite apart from the impracticality of sending a reply over such large distances at short notice, it raises a host of ethical questions that would have to be addressed by the global community before any reply could be sent. Would the human race face the culture shock if faced with a superior and much older civilisation? Luckily, there is no urgency about this. The stars being searched are hundreds of light years away, so it takes hundreds of years for their signal to reach us, and a further few hundred years for our reply to reach them. Its not important, then, if theres a delay of a few years, or decades, while the human race debates the question of whether to reply, and perhaps carefully drafts a reply. | Alien civilisations may be able to help the human race to overcome serious problems. | entailment |
id_3087 | IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence. The question of whether we are alone in the Universe has haunted humanity for centuries, but we may now stand poised on the brink of the answer to that question, as we search for radio signals from other intelligent civilisations. This search, often known by the acronym SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence), is a difficult one. Although groups around the world have been searching intermittently for three decades, it is only now that we have reached the level of technology where we can make a determined attempt to search all nearby stars for any sign of life. The primary reason for the search is basic curiosity hethe same curiosity about the natural world that drives all pure science. We want to know whether we are alone in the Universe. We want to know whether life evolves naturally if given the right conditions, or whether there is something very special about the Earth to have fostered the variety of life forms that, we see around us on the planet. The simple detection of a radio signal will be sufficient to answer this most basic of all questions. In this sense, SETI is another cog in the machinery of pure science which is continually pushing out the horizon of our knowledge. However, there are other reasons for being interested in whether life exists elsewhere. For example, we have had civilisation on Earth for perhaps only a few thousand years, and the threats of nuclear war and pollution over the last few decades have told us that our survival may be tenuous. Will we last another two thousand years or will we wipe ourselves out? Since the lifetime of a planet like ours is several billion years, we can expect that, if other civilisations do survive in our galaxy, their ages will range from zero to several billion years. Thus any other civilisation that we hear from is likely to be far older, on average, than ourselves. The mere existence of such a civilisation will tell us that long-term survival is possible, and gives us some cause for optimism. It is even possible that the older civilisation may pass on the benefits of their experience in dealing with threats to survival such as nuclear war and global pollution, and other threats that we havent yet discovered. In discussing whether we are alone, most SETI scientists adopt two ground rules. First, UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) are generally ignored since most scientists dont consider the evidence for them to be strong enough to bear serious consideration (although it is also important to keep an open mind in case any really convincing evidence emerges in the future). Second, we make a very conservative assumption that we are looking for a life form that is pretty well like us, since if it differs radically from us we may well not recognise it as a life form, quite apart from whether we are able to communicate with it. In other words, the life form we are looking for may well have two green heads and seven fingers, but it will nevertheless resemble us in that it should communicate with its fellows, be interested in the Universe, live on a planet orbiting a star like our Sun, and perhaps most restrictively, have a chemistry, like us, based on carbon and water. Even when we make these assumptions, our understanding of other life forms is still severely limited. We do not even know, for example, how many stars have planets, and we certainly do not know how likely it is that life will arise naturally, given the right conditions. However, when we look at the 100 billion stars in our galaxy (the Milky Way), and 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe, it seems inconceivable that at least one of these planets does not have a life form on it; in fact, the best educated guess we can make, using the little that we do know about the conditions for carbon-based life, leads us to estimate that perhaps one in 100,000 stars might have a life-bearing planet orbiting it. That means that our nearest neighbours are perhaps 100 light years away, which is almost next door in astronomical terms. An alien civilistation could choose many different ways of sending information across the galaxy, but many of these either require too much energy, or else are severely attenuated while traversing the vast distances across the galaxy. It turns out that, for a given amount of transmitted power, radio waves in the frequency range 1000 to 3000 MHz travel the greatest distance, and so all searches to date have concentrated on looking for radio waves in this frequency range. So far there have been a number of searches by various groups around the world, including Australian searches using the radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales. Until now there have not been any detections from the few hundred stars which have been searched. The scale of the searches has been increased dramatically since 1992, when the US Congress voted NASA $10 million per year for ten years to conduct, a thorough search for extra-terrestrial life. Much of the money in this project is being spent on developing the special hardware needed to search many frequencies at once. The project has two parts. One part is a targeted search using the worlds largest radio telescopes, the American-operated telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and the French telescope in Nancy in France. This part of the project is searching the nearest 1000 likely stars with high sensitivity for signals in the frequency rang 1000 to 3000 MHz. The other part of the project is an undirected search which is monitoring all of space with a lower sensitivity, using the smaller antennas of NASAs Deep Space Network. There is considerable debate over how we should react if we detect a signal from an alien civilisation. Everybody agrees that we should not reply immediately. Quite apart from the impracticality of sending a reply over such large distances at short notice, it raises a host of ethical questions that would have to be addressed by the global community before any reply could be sent. Would the human race face the culture shock if faced with a superior and much older civilisation? Luckily, there is no urgency about this. The stars being searched are hundreds of light years away, so it takes hundreds of years for their signal to reach us, and a further few hundred years for our reply to reach them. Its not important, then, if theres a delay of a few years, or decades, while the human race debates the question of whether to reply, and perhaps carefully drafts a reply. | SETI scientists are trying to find a life form that resembles humans in many ways. | entailment |
id_3088 | IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence. The question of whether we are alone in the Universe has haunted humanity for centuries, but we may now stand poised on the brink of the answer to that question, as we search for radio signals from other intelligent civilisations. This search, often known by the acronym SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence), is a difficult one. Although groups around the world have been searching intermittently for three decades, it is only now that we have reached the level of technology where we can make a determined attempt to search all nearby stars for any sign of life. The primary reason for the search is basic curiosity hethe same curiosity about the natural world that drives all pure science. We want to know whether we are alone in the Universe. We want to know whether life evolves naturally if given the right conditions, or whether there is something very special about the Earth to have fostered the variety of life forms that, we see around us on the planet. The simple detection of a radio signal will be sufficient to answer this most basic of all questions. In this sense, SETI is another cog in the machinery of pure science which is continually pushing out the horizon of our knowledge. However, there are other reasons for being interested in whether life exists elsewhere. For example, we have had civilisation on Earth for perhaps only a few thousand years, and the threats of nuclear war and pollution over the last few decades have told us that our survival may be tenuous. Will we last another two thousand years or will we wipe ourselves out? Since the lifetime of a planet like ours is several billion years, we can expect that, if other civilisations do survive in our galaxy, their ages will range from zero to several billion years. Thus any other civilisation that we hear from is likely to be far older, on average, than ourselves. The mere existence of such a civilisation will tell us that long-term survival is possible, and gives us some cause for optimism. It is even possible that the older civilisation may pass on the benefits of their experience in dealing with threats to survival such as nuclear war and global pollution, and other threats that we havent yet discovered. In discussing whether we are alone, most SETI scientists adopt two ground rules. First, UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) are generally ignored since most scientists dont consider the evidence for them to be strong enough to bear serious consideration (although it is also important to keep an open mind in case any really convincing evidence emerges in the future). Second, we make a very conservative assumption that we are looking for a life form that is pretty well like us, since if it differs radically from us we may well not recognise it as a life form, quite apart from whether we are able to communicate with it. In other words, the life form we are looking for may well have two green heads and seven fingers, but it will nevertheless resemble us in that it should communicate with its fellows, be interested in the Universe, live on a planet orbiting a star like our Sun, and perhaps most restrictively, have a chemistry, like us, based on carbon and water. Even when we make these assumptions, our understanding of other life forms is still severely limited. We do not even know, for example, how many stars have planets, and we certainly do not know how likely it is that life will arise naturally, given the right conditions. However, when we look at the 100 billion stars in our galaxy (the Milky Way), and 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe, it seems inconceivable that at least one of these planets does not have a life form on it; in fact, the best educated guess we can make, using the little that we do know about the conditions for carbon-based life, leads us to estimate that perhaps one in 100,000 stars might have a life-bearing planet orbiting it. That means that our nearest neighbours are perhaps 100 light years away, which is almost next door in astronomical terms. An alien civilistation could choose many different ways of sending information across the galaxy, but many of these either require too much energy, or else are severely attenuated while traversing the vast distances across the galaxy. It turns out that, for a given amount of transmitted power, radio waves in the frequency range 1000 to 3000 MHz travel the greatest distance, and so all searches to date have concentrated on looking for radio waves in this frequency range. So far there have been a number of searches by various groups around the world, including Australian searches using the radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales. Until now there have not been any detections from the few hundred stars which have been searched. The scale of the searches has been increased dramatically since 1992, when the US Congress voted NASA $10 million per year for ten years to conduct, a thorough search for extra-terrestrial life. Much of the money in this project is being spent on developing the special hardware needed to search many frequencies at once. The project has two parts. One part is a targeted search using the worlds largest radio telescopes, the American-operated telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and the French telescope in Nancy in France. This part of the project is searching the nearest 1000 likely stars with high sensitivity for signals in the frequency rang 1000 to 3000 MHz. The other part of the project is an undirected search which is monitoring all of space with a lower sensitivity, using the smaller antennas of NASAs Deep Space Network. There is considerable debate over how we should react if we detect a signal from an alien civilisation. Everybody agrees that we should not reply immediately. Quite apart from the impracticality of sending a reply over such large distances at short notice, it raises a host of ethical questions that would have to be addressed by the global community before any reply could be sent. Would the human race face the culture shock if faced with a superior and much older civilisation? Luckily, there is no urgency about this. The stars being searched are hundreds of light years away, so it takes hundreds of years for their signal to reach us, and a further few hundred years for our reply to reach them. Its not important, then, if theres a delay of a few years, or decades, while the human race debates the question of whether to reply, and perhaps carefully drafts a reply. | The Americans and Australians have co-operated on joint research projects. | neutral |
id_3089 | IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence. The question of whether we are alone in the Universe has haunted humanity for centuries, but we may now stand poised on the brink of the answer to that question, as we search for radio signals from other intelligent civilisations. This search, often known by the acronym SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence), is a difficult one. Although groups around the world have been searching intermittently for three decades, it is only now that we have reached the level of technology where we can make a determined attempt to search all nearby stars for any sign of life. The primary reason for the search is basic curiosity hethe same curiosity about the natural world that drives all pure science. We want to know whether we are alone in the Universe. We want to know whether life evolves naturally if given the right conditions, or whether there is something very special about the Earth to have fostered the variety of life forms that, we see around us on the planet. The simple detection of a radio signal will be sufficient to answer this most basic of all questions. In this sense, SETI is another cog in the machinery of pure science which is continually pushing out the horizon of our knowledge. However, there are other reasons for being interested in whether life exists elsewhere. For example, we have had civilisation on Earth for perhaps only a few thousand years, and the threats of nuclear war and pollution over the last few decades have told us that our survival may be tenuous. Will we last another two thousand years or will we wipe ourselves out? Since the lifetime of a planet like ours is several billion years, we can expect that, if other civilisations do survive in our galaxy, their ages will range from zero to several billion years. Thus any other civilisation that we hear from is likely to be far older, on average, than ourselves. The mere existence of such a civilisation will tell us that long-term survival is possible, and gives us some cause for optimism. It is even possible that the older civilisation may pass on the benefits of their experience in dealing with threats to survival such as nuclear war and global pollution, and other threats that we havent yet discovered. In discussing whether we are alone, most SETI scientists adopt two ground rules. First, UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) are generally ignored since most scientists dont consider the evidence for them to be strong enough to bear serious consideration (although it is also important to keep an open mind in case any really convincing evidence emerges in the future). Second, we make a very conservative assumption that we are looking for a life form that is pretty well like us, since if it differs radically from us we may well not recognise it as a life form, quite apart from whether we are able to communicate with it. In other words, the life form we are looking for may well have two green heads and seven fingers, but it will nevertheless resemble us in that it should communicate with its fellows, be interested in the Universe, live on a planet orbiting a star like our Sun, and perhaps most restrictively, have a chemistry, like us, based on carbon and water. Even when we make these assumptions, our understanding of other life forms is still severely limited. We do not even know, for example, how many stars have planets, and we certainly do not know how likely it is that life will arise naturally, given the right conditions. However, when we look at the 100 billion stars in our galaxy (the Milky Way), and 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe, it seems inconceivable that at least one of these planets does not have a life form on it; in fact, the best educated guess we can make, using the little that we do know about the conditions for carbon-based life, leads us to estimate that perhaps one in 100,000 stars might have a life-bearing planet orbiting it. That means that our nearest neighbours are perhaps 100 light years away, which is almost next door in astronomical terms. An alien civilistation could choose many different ways of sending information across the galaxy, but many of these either require too much energy, or else are severely attenuated while traversing the vast distances across the galaxy. It turns out that, for a given amount of transmitted power, radio waves in the frequency range 1000 to 3000 MHz travel the greatest distance, and so all searches to date have concentrated on looking for radio waves in this frequency range. So far there have been a number of searches by various groups around the world, including Australian searches using the radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales. Until now there have not been any detections from the few hundred stars which have been searched. The scale of the searches has been increased dramatically since 1992, when the US Congress voted NASA $10 million per year for ten years to conduct, a thorough search for extra-terrestrial life. Much of the money in this project is being spent on developing the special hardware needed to search many frequencies at once. The project has two parts. One part is a targeted search using the worlds largest radio telescopes, the American-operated telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and the French telescope in Nancy in France. This part of the project is searching the nearest 1000 likely stars with high sensitivity for signals in the frequency rang 1000 to 3000 MHz. The other part of the project is an undirected search which is monitoring all of space with a lower sensitivity, using the smaller antennas of NASAs Deep Space Network. There is considerable debate over how we should react if we detect a signal from an alien civilisation. Everybody agrees that we should not reply immediately. Quite apart from the impracticality of sending a reply over such large distances at short notice, it raises a host of ethical questions that would have to be addressed by the global community before any reply could be sent. Would the human race face the culture shock if faced with a superior and much older civilisation? Luckily, there is no urgency about this. The stars being searched are hundreds of light years away, so it takes hundreds of years for their signal to reach us, and a further few hundred years for our reply to reach them. Its not important, then, if theres a delay of a few years, or decades, while the human race debates the question of whether to reply, and perhaps carefully drafts a reply. | If a signal from outer space is received, it will be important to respond promptly. | contradiction |
id_3090 | IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence. The question of whether we are alone in the Universe has haunted humanity for centuries, but we may now stand poised on the brink of the answer to that question, as we search for radio signals from other intelligent civilisations. This search, often known by the acronym SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence), is a difficult one. Although groups around the world have been searching intermittently for three decades, it is only now that we have reached the level of technology where we can make a determined attempt to search all nearby stars for any sign of life. The primary reason for the search is basic curiosity hethe same curiosity about the natural world that drives all pure science. We want to know whether we are alone in the Universe. We want to know whether life evolves naturally if given the right conditions, or whether there is something very special about the Earth to have fostered the variety of life forms that, we see around us on the planet. The simple detection of a radio signal will be sufficient to answer this most basic of all questions. In this sense, SETI is another cog in the machinery of pure science which is continually pushing out the horizon of our knowledge. However, there are other reasons for being interested in whether life exists elsewhere. For example, we have had civilisation on Earth for perhaps only a few thousand years, and the threats of nuclear war and pollution over the last few decades have told us that our survival may be tenuous. Will we last another two thousand years or will we wipe ourselves out? Since the lifetime of a planet like ours is several billion years, we can expect that, if other civilisations do survive in our galaxy, their ages will range from zero to several billion years. Thus any other civilisation that we hear from is likely to be far older, on average, than ourselves. The mere existence of such a civilisation will tell us that long-term survival is possible, and gives us some cause for optimism. It is even possible that the older civilisation may pass on the benefits of their experience in dealing with threats to survival such as nuclear war and global pollution, and other threats that we havent yet discovered. In discussing whether we are alone, most SETI scientists adopt two ground rules. First, UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) are generally ignored since most scientists dont consider the evidence for them to be strong enough to bear serious consideration (although it is also important to keep an open mind in case any really convincing evidence emerges in the future). Second, we make a very conservative assumption that we are looking for a life form that is pretty well like us, since if it differs radically from us we may well not recognise it as a life form, quite apart from whether we are able to communicate with it. In other words, the life form we are looking for may well have two green heads and seven fingers, but it will nevertheless resemble us in that it should communicate with its fellows, be interested in the Universe, live on a planet orbiting a star like our Sun, and perhaps most restrictively, have a chemistry, like us, based on carbon and water. Even when we make these assumptions, our understanding of other life forms is still severely limited. We do not even know, for example, how many stars have planets, and we certainly do not know how likely it is that life will arise naturally, given the right conditions. However, when we look at the 100 billion stars in our galaxy (the Milky Way), and 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe, it seems inconceivable that at least one of these planets does not have a life form on it; in fact, the best educated guess we can make, using the little that we do know about the conditions for carbon-based life, leads us to estimate that perhaps one in 100,000 stars might have a life-bearing planet orbiting it. That means that our nearest neighbours are perhaps 100 light years away, which is almost next door in astronomical terms. An alien civilistation could choose many different ways of sending information across the galaxy, but many of these either require too much energy, or else are severely attenuated while traversing the vast distances across the galaxy. It turns out that, for a given amount of transmitted power, radio waves in the frequency range 1000 to 3000 MHz travel the greatest distance, and so all searches to date have concentrated on looking for radio waves in this frequency range. So far there have been a number of searches by various groups around the world, including Australian searches using the radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales. Until now there have not been any detections from the few hundred stars which have been searched. The scale of the searches has been increased dramatically since 1992, when the US Congress voted NASA $10 million per year for ten years to conduct, a thorough search for extra-terrestrial life. Much of the money in this project is being spent on developing the special hardware needed to search many frequencies at once. The project has two parts. One part is a targeted search using the worlds largest radio telescopes, the American-operated telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and the French telescope in Nancy in France. This part of the project is searching the nearest 1000 likely stars with high sensitivity for signals in the frequency rang 1000 to 3000 MHz. The other part of the project is an undirected search which is monitoring all of space with a lower sensitivity, using the smaller antennas of NASAs Deep Space Network. There is considerable debate over how we should react if we detect a signal from an alien civilisation. Everybody agrees that we should not reply immediately. Quite apart from the impracticality of sending a reply over such large distances at short notice, it raises a host of ethical questions that would have to be addressed by the global community before any reply could be sent. Would the human race face the culture shock if faced with a superior and much older civilisation? Luckily, there is no urgency about this. The stars being searched are hundreds of light years away, so it takes hundreds of years for their signal to reach us, and a further few hundred years for our reply to reach them. Its not important, then, if theres a delay of a few years, or decades, while the human race debates the question of whether to reply, and perhaps carefully drafts a reply. | The NASA project attracted criticism from some members of Congress. | neutral |
id_3091 | IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence. The question of whether we are alone in the Universe has haunted humanity for centuries, but we may now stand poised on the brink of the answer to that question, as we search for radio signals from other intelligent civilisations. This search, often known by the acronym SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence), is a difficult one. Although groups around the world have been searching intermittently for three decades, it is only now that we have reached the level of technology where we can make a determined attempt to search all nearby stars for any sign of life. The primary reason for the search is basic curiosity hethe same curiosity about the natural world that drives all pure science. We want to know whether we are alone in the Universe. We want to know whether life evolves naturally if given the right conditions, or whether there is something very special about the Earth to have fostered the variety of life forms that, we see around us on the planet. The simple detection of a radio signal will be sufficient to answer this most basic of all questions. In this sense, SETI is another cog in the machinery of pure science which is continually pushing out the horizon of our knowledge. However, there are other reasons for being interested in whether life exists elsewhere. For example, we have had civilisation on Earth for perhaps only a few thousand years, and the threats of nuclear war and pollution over the last few decades have told us that our survival may be tenuous. Will we last another two thousand years or will we wipe ourselves out? Since the lifetime of a planet like ours is several billion years, we can expect that, if other civilisations do survive in our galaxy, their ages will range from zero to several billion years. Thus any other civilisation that we hear from is likely to be far older, on average, than ourselves. The mere existence of such a civilisation will tell us that long-term survival is possible, and gives us some cause for optimism. It is even possible that the older civilisation may pass on the benefits of their experience in dealing with threats to survival such as nuclear war and global pollution, and other threats that we havent yet discovered. In discussing whether we are alone, most SETI scientists adopt two ground rules. First, UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) are generally ignored since most scientists dont consider the evidence for them to be strong enough to bear serious consideration (although it is also important to keep an open mind in case any really convincing evidence emerges in the future). Second, we make a very conservative assumption that we are looking for a life form that is pretty well like us, since if it differs radically from us we may well not recognise it as a life form, quite apart from whether we are able to communicate with it. In other words, the life form we are looking for may well have two green heads and seven fingers, but it will nevertheless resemble us in that it should communicate with its fellows, be interested in the Universe, live on a planet orbiting a star like our Sun, and perhaps most restrictively, have a chemistry, like us, based on carbon and water. Even when we make these assumptions, our understanding of other life forms is still severely limited. We do not even know, for example, how many stars have planets, and we certainly do not know how likely it is that life will arise naturally, given the right conditions. However, when we look at the 100 billion stars in our galaxy (the Milky Way), and 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe, it seems inconceivable that at least one of these planets does not have a life form on it; in fact, the best educated guess we can make, using the little that we do know about the conditions for carbon-based life, leads us to estimate that perhaps one in 100,000 stars might have a life-bearing planet orbiting it. That means that our nearest neighbours are perhaps 100 light years away, which is almost next door in astronomical terms. An alien civilistation could choose many different ways of sending information across the galaxy, but many of these either require too much energy, or else are severely attenuated while traversing the vast distances across the galaxy. It turns out that, for a given amount of transmitted power, radio waves in the frequency range 1000 to 3000 MHz travel the greatest distance, and so all searches to date have concentrated on looking for radio waves in this frequency range. So far there have been a number of searches by various groups around the world, including Australian searches using the radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales. Until now there have not been any detections from the few hundred stars which have been searched. The scale of the searches has been increased dramatically since 1992, when the US Congress voted NASA $10 million per year for ten years to conduct, a thorough search for extra-terrestrial life. Much of the money in this project is being spent on developing the special hardware needed to search many frequencies at once. The project has two parts. One part is a targeted search using the worlds largest radio telescopes, the American-operated telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and the French telescope in Nancy in France. This part of the project is searching the nearest 1000 likely stars with high sensitivity for signals in the frequency rang 1000 to 3000 MHz. The other part of the project is an undirected search which is monitoring all of space with a lower sensitivity, using the smaller antennas of NASAs Deep Space Network. There is considerable debate over how we should react if we detect a signal from an alien civilisation. Everybody agrees that we should not reply immediately. Quite apart from the impracticality of sending a reply over such large distances at short notice, it raises a host of ethical questions that would have to be addressed by the global community before any reply could be sent. Would the human race face the culture shock if faced with a superior and much older civilisation? Luckily, there is no urgency about this. The stars being searched are hundreds of light years away, so it takes hundreds of years for their signal to reach us, and a further few hundred years for our reply to reach them. Its not important, then, if theres a delay of a few years, or decades, while the human race debates the question of whether to reply, and perhaps carefully drafts a reply. | So far SETI scientists have picked up radio signals from several stars. | contradiction |
id_3092 | IT has been used commercially for over 50 years, yet no standard terminology or system for measuring the value of IT expenditure exists. This lack of methodology can be explained by ITs intangible nature and a prevailing belief that IT is a necessary, and uncontrollable, expense. Ultimately, any metric for assessing IT investment must determime whether it has increased income or decreased expenditure. It is far too simplistic to merely consider personnel cost savings resultant from IT mvestment. Similarly, to crudely define IT expenditure as only hardware, software and infrastructure would also be wrong the time of managers and professionals must also be factored mn. One of the main mpediments to developing a process for analysing the cost/benefit of IT projects is a lack of ownership by senior management. | One way of measuring an IT development success ts whether it increases ncome for the busmess. | entailment |
id_3093 | IT has been used commercially for over 50 years, yet no standard terminology or system for measuring the value of IT expenditure exists. This lack of methodology can be explained by ITs intangible nature and a prevailing belief that IT is a necessary, and uncontrollable, expense. Ultimately, any metric for assessing IT investment must determime whether it has increased income or decreased expenditure. It is far too simplistic to merely consider personnel cost savings resultant from IT mvestment. Similarly, to crudely define IT expenditure as only hardware, software and infrastructure would also be wrong the time of managers and professionals must also be factored mn. One of the main mpediments to developing a process for analysing the cost/benefit of IT projects is a lack of ownership by senior management. | An obstacle to measuring IT investment ts a lack of management responsibility for such projects. | entailment |
id_3094 | IT has been used commercially for over 50 years, yet no standard terminology or system for measuring the value of IT expenditure exists. This lack of methodology can be explained by ITs intangible nature and a prevailing belief that IT is a necessary, and uncontrollable, expense. Ultimately, any metric for assessing IT investment must determime whether it has increased income or decreased expenditure. It is far too simplistic to merely consider personnel cost savings resultant from IT mvestment. Similarly, to crudely define IT expenditure as only hardware, software and infrastructure would also be wrong the time of managers and professionals must also be factored mn. One of the main mpediments to developing a process for analysing the cost/benefit of IT projects is a lack of ownership by senior management. | The passage outlines the predommant system for assessing the return on IT investment. | contradiction |
id_3095 | IT has been used commercially for over 50 years, yet no standard terminology or system for measuring the value of IT expenditure exists. This lack of methodology can be explained by ITs intangible nature and a prevailing belief that IT is a necessary, and uncontrollable, expense. Ultimately, any metric for assessing IT investment must determime whether it has increased income or decreased expenditure. It is far too simplistic to merely consider personnel cost savings resultant from IT mvestment. Similarly, to crudely define IT expenditure as only hardware, software and infrastructure would also be wrong the time of managers and professionals must also be factored mn. One of the main mpediments to developing a process for analysing the cost/benefit of IT projects is a lack of ownership by senior management. | The cost of IT professionals sometimes exceeds any personnel costs savings resulting from an IT project. | neutral |
id_3096 | IT has been used commercially for over 50 years, yet no standard terminology or system for measuring the value of IT expenditure exists. This lack of methodology can be explained by ITs intangible nature and a prevailing belief that IT is a necessary, and uncontrollable, expense. Ultimately, any metric for assessing IT investment must determime whether it has increased income or decreased expenditure. It is far too simplistic to merely consider personnel cost savings resultant from IT mvestment. Similarly, to crudely define IT expenditure as only hardware, software and infrastructure would also be wrong the time of managers and professionals must also be factored mn. One of the main mpediments to developing a process for analysing the cost/benefit of IT projects is a lack of ownership by senior management. | The passage asserts that IT costs are intrinsically difficult to regulate. | entailment |
id_3097 | ITS ECO-LOGICAL If there were awards for tourism phrases that have been hijacked, diluted and misused then ecotourism would earn top prize. The term first surfaced in the early 1980s reflecting a surge in environmental awareness and a realisation by tour operators that many travellers wanted to believe their presence abroad would not have a negative impact. It rapidly became the hottest marketing tag a holiday could carry. These days the ecotourism label is used to cover anything from a two-week tour living with remote Indonesian tribes, to a one-hour motorboat trip through an Australian gorge. In fact, any tour that involves cultural interaction, natural beauty spots, wildlife or a dash of soft adventure is likely to be included in the overflowing ecotourism folder. There is no doubt the original motives behind the movement were honourable attempts to provide a way for those who cared to make informed choices, but the lack of regulations and a standard industry definition left many travellers lost in an ecotourism jungle. It is easier to understand why the ecotourism market has become so overcrowded when we look at its wider role in the world economy. According to World Tourism Organisation figures, ecotourism is worth US$20 billion a year and makes up one-fifth of all international tourism. Add to this an annual growth rate of around five per cent and the pressure for many operators, both in developed and developing countries, to jump on the accelerating bandwagon is compelling. Without any widely recognised accreditation system, the consumer has been left to investigate the credentials of an operator themselves. This is a time-consuming process and many travellers usually take an operators claims at face value, only adding to the proliferation of fake ecotours. However, there are several simple questions that will provide qualifying evidence of a companys commitment to minimise its impact on the environment and maximise the benefits to the tourism areas local community. For example, does the company use recycled or sustainable, locally harvested materials to build its tourist properties? Do they pay fair wages to all employees? Do they offer training to employees? It is common for city entrepreneurs to own tour companies in country areas, which can mean the money you pay ends up in the city rather than in the community being visited. By taking a little extra time to investigate the ecotourism options, it is not only possible to guide your custom to worthy operators but you will often find that the experience they offer is far more rewarding. The ecotourism business is still very much in need of a shake-up and a standardised approach. There are a few organisations that have sprung up in the last ten years or so that endeavour to educate travellers and operators about the benefits of responsible ecotourism. Founded in 1990, the Ecotourism Society (TES) is a non-profit organisation of travel industry, conservation and ecological professionals, which aims to make ecotourism a genuine tool for conservation and sustainable development. Helping to create inherent economic value in wilderness environments and threatened cultures has undoubtedly been one of the ecotourism movements most notable achievements. TES organises an annual initiative to further aid development of the ecotourism industry. This year it is launching Your Travel Choice Makes a Difference, an educational campaign aimed at helping consumers understand the potential positive and negative impacts of their travel decisions. TES also offers guidance on the choice of ecotour and has established a register of approved ecotourism operators around the world. A leading ecotourism operator in the United Kingdom is Tribes, which won the 1999 Tourism Concern and Independent Travellers World Award for Most Responsible Tour Operator. Amanda Marks, owner and director of Tribes, believes that the ecotourism industry still has some way to go to get its house in order. Until now, no ecotourism accreditation scheme has really worked, principally because there has been no systematic way of checking that accredited companies actually comply with the code of practice. Amanda believes that the most promising system is the recently re-launched Green Globe 21 scheme. The Green Globe 21 award is based on the sustainable development standards contained in Agenda 21 from the 1992 Earth Summit and was originally coordinated by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The scheme is now an independent concern, though the WTTC still supports it. Until recently, tour companies became affiliates and could use the Green Globe logo merely on payment of an annual fee, hardly a suitable qualifying standard. However, in November 1999 Green Globe 21 introduced an annual, independent check on operators wishing to use the logo. Miriam Cain, from the Green Globe 21 marketing development, explains that current and new affiliates will now have one year to ensure that their operations comply with Agenda 21 standards. If they fail the first inspection, they can only reapply once. The inspection process is not a cheap option, especially for large companies, but the benefits of having Green Globe status and the potential operational cost savings that complying with the standards can bring should be significant. We have joint ventures with organisations around the world, including Australia and the Caribbean, that will allow us to effectively check all affiliate operators, says Miriam. The scheme also allows destination communities to become Green Globe 21 approved. For a relatively new industry it is not surprising that ecotourism has undergone teething pains. However, there are signs that things are changing for the better. With a committed and unified approach by the travel industry, local communities, travellers and environmental experts could make ecotourism a tag to be proud of and trusted. | Tourists have learnt to make investigations about tour operators before using them. | contradiction |
id_3098 | ITS ECO-LOGICAL If there were awards for tourism phrases that have been hijacked, diluted and misused then ecotourism would earn top prize. The term first surfaced in the early 1980s reflecting a surge in environmental awareness and a realisation by tour operators that many travellers wanted to believe their presence abroad would not have a negative impact. It rapidly became the hottest marketing tag a holiday could carry. These days the ecotourism label is used to cover anything from a two-week tour living with remote Indonesian tribes, to a one-hour motorboat trip through an Australian gorge. In fact, any tour that involves cultural interaction, natural beauty spots, wildlife or a dash of soft adventure is likely to be included in the overflowing ecotourism folder. There is no doubt the original motives behind the movement were honourable attempts to provide a way for those who cared to make informed choices, but the lack of regulations and a standard industry definition left many travellers lost in an ecotourism jungle. It is easier to understand why the ecotourism market has become so overcrowded when we look at its wider role in the world economy. According to World Tourism Organisation figures, ecotourism is worth US$20 billion a year and makes up one-fifth of all international tourism. Add to this an annual growth rate of around five per cent and the pressure for many operators, both in developed and developing countries, to jump on the accelerating bandwagon is compelling. Without any widely recognised accreditation system, the consumer has been left to investigate the credentials of an operator themselves. This is a time-consuming process and many travellers usually take an operators claims at face value, only adding to the proliferation of fake ecotours. However, there are several simple questions that will provide qualifying evidence of a companys commitment to minimise its impact on the environment and maximise the benefits to the tourism areas local community. For example, does the company use recycled or sustainable, locally harvested materials to build its tourist properties? Do they pay fair wages to all employees? Do they offer training to employees? It is common for city entrepreneurs to own tour companies in country areas, which can mean the money you pay ends up in the city rather than in the community being visited. By taking a little extra time to investigate the ecotourism options, it is not only possible to guide your custom to worthy operators but you will often find that the experience they offer is far more rewarding. The ecotourism business is still very much in need of a shake-up and a standardised approach. There are a few organisations that have sprung up in the last ten years or so that endeavour to educate travellers and operators about the benefits of responsible ecotourism. Founded in 1990, the Ecotourism Society (TES) is a non-profit organisation of travel industry, conservation and ecological professionals, which aims to make ecotourism a genuine tool for conservation and sustainable development. Helping to create inherent economic value in wilderness environments and threatened cultures has undoubtedly been one of the ecotourism movements most notable achievements. TES organises an annual initiative to further aid development of the ecotourism industry. This year it is launching Your Travel Choice Makes a Difference, an educational campaign aimed at helping consumers understand the potential positive and negative impacts of their travel decisions. TES also offers guidance on the choice of ecotour and has established a register of approved ecotourism operators around the world. A leading ecotourism operator in the United Kingdom is Tribes, which won the 1999 Tourism Concern and Independent Travellers World Award for Most Responsible Tour Operator. Amanda Marks, owner and director of Tribes, believes that the ecotourism industry still has some way to go to get its house in order. Until now, no ecotourism accreditation scheme has really worked, principally because there has been no systematic way of checking that accredited companies actually comply with the code of practice. Amanda believes that the most promising system is the recently re-launched Green Globe 21 scheme. The Green Globe 21 award is based on the sustainable development standards contained in Agenda 21 from the 1992 Earth Summit and was originally coordinated by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The scheme is now an independent concern, though the WTTC still supports it. Until recently, tour companies became affiliates and could use the Green Globe logo merely on payment of an annual fee, hardly a suitable qualifying standard. However, in November 1999 Green Globe 21 introduced an annual, independent check on operators wishing to use the logo. Miriam Cain, from the Green Globe 21 marketing development, explains that current and new affiliates will now have one year to ensure that their operations comply with Agenda 21 standards. If they fail the first inspection, they can only reapply once. The inspection process is not a cheap option, especially for large companies, but the benefits of having Green Globe status and the potential operational cost savings that complying with the standards can bring should be significant. We have joint ventures with organisations around the world, including Australia and the Caribbean, that will allow us to effectively check all affiliate operators, says Miriam. The scheme also allows destination communities to become Green Globe 21 approved. For a relatively new industry it is not surprising that ecotourism has undergone teething pains. However, there are signs that things are changing for the better. With a committed and unified approach by the travel industry, local communities, travellers and environmental experts could make ecotourism a tag to be proud of and trusted. | The intentions of those who coined the term ecotourism were sincere. | entailment |
id_3099 | ITS ECO-LOGICAL If there were awards for tourism phrases that have been hijacked, diluted and misused then ecotourism would earn top prize. The term first surfaced in the early 1980s reflecting a surge in environmental awareness and a realisation by tour operators that many travellers wanted to believe their presence abroad would not have a negative impact. It rapidly became the hottest marketing tag a holiday could carry. These days the ecotourism label is used to cover anything from a two-week tour living with remote Indonesian tribes, to a one-hour motorboat trip through an Australian gorge. In fact, any tour that involves cultural interaction, natural beauty spots, wildlife or a dash of soft adventure is likely to be included in the overflowing ecotourism folder. There is no doubt the original motives behind the movement were honourable attempts to provide a way for those who cared to make informed choices, but the lack of regulations and a standard industry definition left many travellers lost in an ecotourism jungle. It is easier to understand why the ecotourism market has become so overcrowded when we look at its wider role in the world economy. According to World Tourism Organisation figures, ecotourism is worth US$20 billion a year and makes up one-fifth of all international tourism. Add to this an annual growth rate of around five per cent and the pressure for many operators, both in developed and developing countries, to jump on the accelerating bandwagon is compelling. Without any widely recognised accreditation system, the consumer has been left to investigate the credentials of an operator themselves. This is a time-consuming process and many travellers usually take an operators claims at face value, only adding to the proliferation of fake ecotours. However, there are several simple questions that will provide qualifying evidence of a companys commitment to minimise its impact on the environment and maximise the benefits to the tourism areas local community. For example, does the company use recycled or sustainable, locally harvested materials to build its tourist properties? Do they pay fair wages to all employees? Do they offer training to employees? It is common for city entrepreneurs to own tour companies in country areas, which can mean the money you pay ends up in the city rather than in the community being visited. By taking a little extra time to investigate the ecotourism options, it is not only possible to guide your custom to worthy operators but you will often find that the experience they offer is far more rewarding. The ecotourism business is still very much in need of a shake-up and a standardised approach. There are a few organisations that have sprung up in the last ten years or so that endeavour to educate travellers and operators about the benefits of responsible ecotourism. Founded in 1990, the Ecotourism Society (TES) is a non-profit organisation of travel industry, conservation and ecological professionals, which aims to make ecotourism a genuine tool for conservation and sustainable development. Helping to create inherent economic value in wilderness environments and threatened cultures has undoubtedly been one of the ecotourism movements most notable achievements. TES organises an annual initiative to further aid development of the ecotourism industry. This year it is launching Your Travel Choice Makes a Difference, an educational campaign aimed at helping consumers understand the potential positive and negative impacts of their travel decisions. TES also offers guidance on the choice of ecotour and has established a register of approved ecotourism operators around the world. A leading ecotourism operator in the United Kingdom is Tribes, which won the 1999 Tourism Concern and Independent Travellers World Award for Most Responsible Tour Operator. Amanda Marks, owner and director of Tribes, believes that the ecotourism industry still has some way to go to get its house in order. Until now, no ecotourism accreditation scheme has really worked, principally because there has been no systematic way of checking that accredited companies actually comply with the code of practice. Amanda believes that the most promising system is the recently re-launched Green Globe 21 scheme. The Green Globe 21 award is based on the sustainable development standards contained in Agenda 21 from the 1992 Earth Summit and was originally coordinated by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The scheme is now an independent concern, though the WTTC still supports it. Until recently, tour companies became affiliates and could use the Green Globe logo merely on payment of an annual fee, hardly a suitable qualifying standard. However, in November 1999 Green Globe 21 introduced an annual, independent check on operators wishing to use the logo. Miriam Cain, from the Green Globe 21 marketing development, explains that current and new affiliates will now have one year to ensure that their operations comply with Agenda 21 standards. If they fail the first inspection, they can only reapply once. The inspection process is not a cheap option, especially for large companies, but the benefits of having Green Globe status and the potential operational cost savings that complying with the standards can bring should be significant. We have joint ventures with organisations around the world, including Australia and the Caribbean, that will allow us to effectively check all affiliate operators, says Miriam. The scheme also allows destination communities to become Green Globe 21 approved. For a relatively new industry it is not surprising that ecotourism has undergone teething pains. However, there are signs that things are changing for the better. With a committed and unified approach by the travel industry, local communities, travellers and environmental experts could make ecotourism a tag to be proud of and trusted. | Tourists have had bad experiences on ecotour holidays. | neutral |
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