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id_5200 | Shedding light on it There are three main types of light bulb for lighting a room: incandescent, fluorescent and, more recently, the light emitting diode (LED) bulb. All three bulbs have their advantages and disadvantages when it comes to purchase price, running costs and environmental impact. The traditional incandescent bulb has been in use for more than 100 years. It is made by suspending a fine coil of tungsten wire between two electrodes. When a current flows through the wire it reaches a temperature of more than 2,000C and glows white hot. The bulb is filled with argon, an inert gas, to prevent the wire from evaporating. Traditional light bulbs are not very efficient, converting less than 10% of the energy into light with the rest as heat, making them too hot to handle. Most household light bulbs are rated at 40, 60 or 100 Watts. Mass production of fluorescent lights began in the 1940s. The standard size is 1.2 m in length and 2.5 cm in diameter. The tube contains a small amount of mercury and the inside surface of the glass has a phosphor coating. There are two electrodes, one at each end of the tube, but there is no wire in between. Instead, mercury atoms absorb the electrical energy and emit ultraviolet (UV); this light is invisible until it hits the phosphor coating on the glass, which emits a visible white light. Fluorescent lights are about five times more efficient than incandescent light bulbs. A 20 Watt fluorescent tube will produce a similar amount of light to a 100 Watt bulb and runs much cooler, which helps to give it 10 times the life expectancy of a bulb. The bright light produced by standard fluorescent lights makes them an ideal choice for offices and factories, rather than homes, where the incandescent bulb has traditionally reigned supreme. However, the newer compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) look likely to make the old bulbs extinct. Global warming is the main reason. Compared with an incandescent bulb, a single energy-saving fluorescent lamp will save about one tonne of carbon-dioxide emissions over its lifetime, as well as reduce the consumers electricity costs. Not everybody likes the new CFLs, which have the following disadvantages: they are ten times the price of the traditional bulbs; flickering can occur with dimmer switches; they need to warm up to give full brightness; and they emit a bluish, less natural light that can strain the eye. Traditional bulbs are safer to dispose of because they are free from mercury, which is a neurotoxin. The mercury is safe inside a sealed CFL but it is released into the atmosphere if the bulb is broken. Mercury can accumulate in the body to attack the brain and central nervous system. The reduced carbon footprint of CFLs in comparison with traditional bulbs may have been overstated. Whilst it is true that traditional bulbs convert 90% of the electricity into heat instead of light, this heat is not wasted. The bulb helps to keep the house warm so less fuel is burnt; for example, less gas or oil. If you change all your bulbs to CFLs it could prove very expensive in the short term and save less energy than you might imagine if your home is properly insulated or you live in a cold climate. If you live in a warm climate, then changing to CFLs will reduce your carbon footprint and the cost of your electricity bills, but the savings will be less than you might expect if the daylight hours are long and the nights are short. CFLs are themselves under threat from the latest generation of light emitting diodes (LEDs). The LED has been in existence since the 1920s but they have only recently been made bright enough for room lighting. The most common applications to date have been traffic lights, solar garden lights and car brake lights; infrared LEDs are used in television remote controls. LEDs are electronic components that emit photons of light when the current is switched on. Lights for the home are made by clustering several LEDs into a single bulb. Though more expensive than CFLs, LEDs last up to six times longer and are twice as efficient, producing the same amount of light from half the electrical power (half the carbon emissions). Other advantages of LED lighting include: an instant on, meaning that there is no warm-up time; no problems with frequent on/off switching, which shortens the life of fluorescent lights; no glass to break because the LED is made from a hard transparent plastic; and they are free from toxic mercury. | Incandescent bulbs contain mercury. | contradiction |
id_5201 | Sheet glass manufacture: the float process Glass, which has been made since the time of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, is little more than a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime. When heated to about 1500 degrees Celsius (C) this becomes a molten mass that hardens when slowly cooled. The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning. This method was very effective as the glass had not touched any surfaces between being soft and becoming hard, so it stayed perfectly unblemished, with a 'fire finish'. However, the process took a long time and was labour intensive. Nevertheless, demand for flat glass was very high and glassmakers across the world were looking for a method of making it continuously. The first continuous ribbon process involved squeezing molten glass through two hot rollers, similar to an old mangle. This allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non- stop, but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked, and these would then need to be ground and polished. This part of the process rubbed away around 20 per cent of the glass, and the machines were very expensive. The float process for making flat glass was invented by Alistair Pilkington. This process allows the manufacture of clear, tinted and coated glass for buildings, and clear and tinted glass for vehicles. Pilkington had been experimenting with improving the melting process, and in 1952 he had the idea of using a bed of molten metal to form the flat glass, eliminating altogether the need for rollers within the float bath. The metal had to melt at a temperature less than the hardening point of glass (about 600C), but could not boil at a temperature below the temperature of the molten glass (about 1500C). The best metal for the job was tin. The rest of the concept relied on gravity, which guaranteed that the surface of the molten metal was perfectly flat and horizontal. Consequently, when pouring molten glass onto the molten tin, the underside of the glass would also be perfectly flat. If the glass were kept hot enough, it would flow over the molten tin until the top surface was also flat, horizontal and perfectly parallel to the bottom surface. Once the glass cooled to 604C or less it was too hard to mark and could be transported out of the cooling zone by rollers. The glass settled to a thickness of six millimetres because of surface tension interactions between the glass and the tin. By fortunate coincidence, 60 per cent of the flat glass market at that time was for six-millimetre glass. Pilkington built a pilot plant in 1953 and by 1955 he had convinced his company to build a full-scale plant. However, it took 14 months of non-stop production, costing the company 100,000 a month, before the plant produced any usable glass. Furthermore, once they succeeded in making marketable flat glass, the machine was turned off for a service to prepare it for years of continuous production. When it started up again it took another four months to get the process right again. They finally succeeded in 1959 and there are now float plants all over the world, with each able to produce around 1000 tons of glass every day, non-stop for around 15 years. Float plants today make glass of near optical quality. Several processes - melting, refining, homogenising - take place simultaneously in the 2000 tonnes of molten glass in the furnace. They occur in separate zones in a complex glass flow driven by high temperatures. It adds up to a continuous melting process, lasting as long as 50 hours, that delivers glass smoothly and continuously to the float bath, and from there to a coating zone and finally a heat treatment zone, where stresses formed during cooling are relieved. 42The principle of float glass is unchanged since the 1950s. However, the product has changed dramatically, from a single thickness of 6.8 mm to a range from sub-millimetre to 25 mm, from a ribbon frequently marred by inclusions and bubbles to almost optical perfection. To ensure the highest quality, inspection takes place at every stage. Occasionally, a bubble is not removed during refining, a sand grain refuses to melt, a tremor in the tin puts ripples into the glass ribbon. Automated on-line inspection does two things. Firstly, it reveals process faults upstream that can be corrected. Inspection technology allows more than 100 million measurements a second to be made across the ribbon, locating flaws the unaided eye would be unable to see. Secondly, it enables computers downstream to steer cutters around flaws. Float glass is sold by the square metre, and at the final stage computers translate customer requirements into patterns of cuts designed to minimise waste. | The process invented by Pilkington has now been improved. | entailment |
id_5202 | Sheet glass manufacture: the float process Glass, which has been made since the time of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, is little more than a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime. When heated to about 1500 degrees Celsius (C) this becomes a molten mass that hardens when slowly cooled. The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning. This method was very effective as the glass had not touched any surfaces between being soft and becoming hard, so it stayed perfectly unblemished, with a 'fire finish'. However, the process took a long time and was labour intensive. Nevertheless, demand for flat glass was very high and glassmakers across the world were looking for a method of making it continuously. The first continuous ribbon process involved squeezing molten glass through two hot rollers, similar to an old mangle. This allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non- stop, but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked, and these would then need to be ground and polished. This part of the process rubbed away around 20 per cent of the glass, and the machines were very expensive. The float process for making flat glass was invented by Alistair Pilkington. This process allows the manufacture of clear, tinted and coated glass for buildings, and clear and tinted glass for vehicles. Pilkington had been experimenting with improving the melting process, and in 1952 he had the idea of using a bed of molten metal to form the flat glass, eliminating altogether the need for rollers within the float bath. The metal had to melt at a temperature less than the hardening point of glass (about 600C), but could not boil at a temperature below the temperature of the molten glass (about 1500C). The best metal for the job was tin. The rest of the concept relied on gravity, which guaranteed that the surface of the molten metal was perfectly flat and horizontal. Consequently, when pouring molten glass onto the molten tin, the underside of the glass would also be perfectly flat. If the glass were kept hot enough, it would flow over the molten tin until the top surface was also flat, horizontal and perfectly parallel to the bottom surface. Once the glass cooled to 604C or less it was too hard to mark and could be transported out of the cooling zone by rollers. The glass settled to a thickness of six millimetres because of surface tension interactions between the glass and the tin. By fortunate coincidence, 60 per cent of the flat glass market at that time was for six-millimetre glass. Pilkington built a pilot plant in 1953 and by 1955 he had convinced his company to build a full-scale plant. However, it took 14 months of non-stop production, costing the company 100,000 a month, before the plant produced any usable glass. Furthermore, once they succeeded in making marketable flat glass, the machine was turned off for a service to prepare it for years of continuous production. When it started up again it took another four months to get the process right again. They finally succeeded in 1959 and there are now float plants all over the world, with each able to produce around 1000 tons of glass every day, non-stop for around 15 years. Float plants today make glass of near optical quality. Several processes - melting, refining, homogenising - take place simultaneously in the 2000 tonnes of molten glass in the furnace. They occur in separate zones in a complex glass flow driven by high temperatures. It adds up to a continuous melting process, lasting as long as 50 hours, that delivers glass smoothly and continuously to the float bath, and from there to a coating zone and finally a heat treatment zone, where stresses formed during cooling are relieved. 42The principle of float glass is unchanged since the 1950s. However, the product has changed dramatically, from a single thickness of 6.8 mm to a range from sub-millimetre to 25 mm, from a ribbon frequently marred by inclusions and bubbles to almost optical perfection. To ensure the highest quality, inspection takes place at every stage. Occasionally, a bubble is not removed during refining, a sand grain refuses to melt, a tremor in the tin puts ripples into the glass ribbon. Automated on-line inspection does two things. Firstly, it reveals process faults upstream that can be corrected. Inspection technology allows more than 100 million measurements a second to be made across the ribbon, locating flaws the unaided eye would be unable to see. Secondly, it enables computers downstream to steer cutters around flaws. Float glass is sold by the square metre, and at the final stage computers translate customer requirements into patterns of cuts designed to minimise waste. | The metal used in the float process had to have specific properties. | entailment |
id_5203 | Sheet glass manufacture: the float process Glass, which has been made since the time of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, is little more than a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime. When heated to about 1500 degrees Celsius (C) this becomes a molten mass that hardens when slowly cooled. The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning. This method was very effective as the glass had not touched any surfaces between being soft and becoming hard, so it stayed perfectly unblemished, with a 'fire finish'. However, the process took a long time and was labour intensive. Nevertheless, demand for flat glass was very high and glassmakers across the world were looking for a method of making it continuously. The first continuous ribbon process involved squeezing molten glass through two hot rollers, similar to an old mangle. This allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non- stop, but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked, and these would then need to be ground and polished. This part of the process rubbed away around 20 per cent of the glass, and the machines were very expensive. The float process for making flat glass was invented by Alistair Pilkington. This process allows the manufacture of clear, tinted and coated glass for buildings, and clear and tinted glass for vehicles. Pilkington had been experimenting with improving the melting process, and in 1952 he had the idea of using a bed of molten metal to form the flat glass, eliminating altogether the need for rollers within the float bath. The metal had to melt at a temperature less than the hardening point of glass (about 600C), but could not boil at a temperature below the temperature of the molten glass (about 1500C). The best metal for the job was tin. The rest of the concept relied on gravity, which guaranteed that the surface of the molten metal was perfectly flat and horizontal. Consequently, when pouring molten glass onto the molten tin, the underside of the glass would also be perfectly flat. If the glass were kept hot enough, it would flow over the molten tin until the top surface was also flat, horizontal and perfectly parallel to the bottom surface. Once the glass cooled to 604C or less it was too hard to mark and could be transported out of the cooling zone by rollers. The glass settled to a thickness of six millimetres because of surface tension interactions between the glass and the tin. By fortunate coincidence, 60 per cent of the flat glass market at that time was for six-millimetre glass. Pilkington built a pilot plant in 1953 and by 1955 he had convinced his company to build a full-scale plant. However, it took 14 months of non-stop production, costing the company 100,000 a month, before the plant produced any usable glass. Furthermore, once they succeeded in making marketable flat glass, the machine was turned off for a service to prepare it for years of continuous production. When it started up again it took another four months to get the process right again. They finally succeeded in 1959 and there are now float plants all over the world, with each able to produce around 1000 tons of glass every day, non-stop for around 15 years. Float plants today make glass of near optical quality. Several processes - melting, refining, homogenising - take place simultaneously in the 2000 tonnes of molten glass in the furnace. They occur in separate zones in a complex glass flow driven by high temperatures. It adds up to a continuous melting process, lasting as long as 50 hours, that delivers glass smoothly and continuously to the float bath, and from there to a coating zone and finally a heat treatment zone, where stresses formed during cooling are relieved. 42The principle of float glass is unchanged since the 1950s. However, the product has changed dramatically, from a single thickness of 6.8 mm to a range from sub-millimetre to 25 mm, from a ribbon frequently marred by inclusions and bubbles to almost optical perfection. To ensure the highest quality, inspection takes place at every stage. Occasionally, a bubble is not removed during refining, a sand grain refuses to melt, a tremor in the tin puts ripples into the glass ribbon. Automated on-line inspection does two things. Firstly, it reveals process faults upstream that can be corrected. Inspection technology allows more than 100 million measurements a second to be made across the ribbon, locating flaws the unaided eye would be unable to see. Secondly, it enables computers downstream to steer cutters around flaws. Float glass is sold by the square metre, and at the final stage computers translate customer requirements into patterns of cuts designed to minimise waste. | Pilkington invested some of his own money in his float plant. | neutral |
id_5204 | Sheet glass manufacture: the float process Glass, which has been made since the time of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, is little more than a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime. When heated to about 1500 degrees Celsius (C) this becomes a molten mass that hardens when slowly cooled. The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning. This method was very effective as the glass had not touched any surfaces between being soft and becoming hard, so it stayed perfectly unblemished, with a 'fire finish'. However, the process took a long time and was labour intensive. Nevertheless, demand for flat glass was very high and glassmakers across the world were looking for a method of making it continuously. The first continuous ribbon process involved squeezing molten glass through two hot rollers, similar to an old mangle. This allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non- stop, but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked, and these would then need to be ground and polished. This part of the process rubbed away around 20 per cent of the glass, and the machines were very expensive. The float process for making flat glass was invented by Alistair Pilkington. This process allows the manufacture of clear, tinted and coated glass for buildings, and clear and tinted glass for vehicles. Pilkington had been experimenting with improving the melting process, and in 1952 he had the idea of using a bed of molten metal to form the flat glass, eliminating altogether the need for rollers within the float bath. The metal had to melt at a temperature less than the hardening point of glass (about 600C), but could not boil at a temperature below the temperature of the molten glass (about 1500C). The best metal for the job was tin. The rest of the concept relied on gravity, which guaranteed that the surface of the molten metal was perfectly flat and horizontal. Consequently, when pouring molten glass onto the molten tin, the underside of the glass would also be perfectly flat. If the glass were kept hot enough, it would flow over the molten tin until the top surface was also flat, horizontal and perfectly parallel to the bottom surface. Once the glass cooled to 604C or less it was too hard to mark and could be transported out of the cooling zone by rollers. The glass settled to a thickness of six millimetres because of surface tension interactions between the glass and the tin. By fortunate coincidence, 60 per cent of the flat glass market at that time was for six-millimetre glass. Pilkington built a pilot plant in 1953 and by 1955 he had convinced his company to build a full-scale plant. However, it took 14 months of non-stop production, costing the company 100,000 a month, before the plant produced any usable glass. Furthermore, once they succeeded in making marketable flat glass, the machine was turned off for a service to prepare it for years of continuous production. When it started up again it took another four months to get the process right again. They finally succeeded in 1959 and there are now float plants all over the world, with each able to produce around 1000 tons of glass every day, non-stop for around 15 years. Float plants today make glass of near optical quality. Several processes - melting, refining, homogenising - take place simultaneously in the 2000 tonnes of molten glass in the furnace. They occur in separate zones in a complex glass flow driven by high temperatures. It adds up to a continuous melting process, lasting as long as 50 hours, that delivers glass smoothly and continuously to the float bath, and from there to a coating zone and finally a heat treatment zone, where stresses formed during cooling are relieved. 42The principle of float glass is unchanged since the 1950s. However, the product has changed dramatically, from a single thickness of 6.8 mm to a range from sub-millimetre to 25 mm, from a ribbon frequently marred by inclusions and bubbles to almost optical perfection. To ensure the highest quality, inspection takes place at every stage. Occasionally, a bubble is not removed during refining, a sand grain refuses to melt, a tremor in the tin puts ripples into the glass ribbon. Automated on-line inspection does two things. Firstly, it reveals process faults upstream that can be corrected. Inspection technology allows more than 100 million measurements a second to be made across the ribbon, locating flaws the unaided eye would be unable to see. Secondly, it enables computers downstream to steer cutters around flaws. Float glass is sold by the square metre, and at the final stage computers translate customer requirements into patterns of cuts designed to minimise waste. | Pilkingtons first full-scale plant was an instant commercial success. | contradiction |
id_5205 | Sheet glass manufacture: the float process Glass, which has been made since the time of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, is little more than a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime. When heated to about 1500 degrees Celsius (C) this becomes a molten mass that hardens when slowly cooled. The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning. This method was very effective as the glass had not touched any surfaces between being soft and becoming hard, so it stayed perfectly unblemished, with a 'fire finish'. However, the process took a long time and was labour intensive. Nevertheless, demand for flat glass was very high and glassmakers across the world were looking for a method of making it continuously. The first continuous ribbon process involved squeezing molten glass through two hot rollers, similar to an old mangle. This allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non- stop, but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked, and these would then need to be ground and polished. This part of the process rubbed away around 20 per cent of the glass, and the machines were very expensive. The float process for making flat glass was invented by Alistair Pilkington. This process allows the manufacture of clear, tinted and coated glass for buildings, and clear and tinted glass for vehicles. Pilkington had been experimenting with improving the melting process, and in 1952 he had the idea of using a bed of molten metal to form the flat glass, eliminating altogether the need for rollers within the float bath. The metal had to melt at a temperature less than the hardening point of glass (about 600C), but could not boil at a temperature below the temperature of the molten glass (about 1500C). The best metal for the job was tin. The rest of the concept relied on gravity, which guaranteed that the surface of the molten metal was perfectly flat and horizontal. Consequently, when pouring molten glass onto the molten tin, the underside of the glass would also be perfectly flat. If the glass were kept hot enough, it would flow over the molten tin until the top surface was also flat, horizontal and perfectly parallel to the bottom surface. Once the glass cooled to 604C or less it was too hard to mark and could be transported out of the cooling zone by rollers. The glass settled to a thickness of six millimetres because of surface tension interactions between the glass and the tin. By fortunate coincidence, 60 per cent of the flat glass market at that time was for six-millimetre glass. Pilkington built a pilot plant in 1953 and by 1955 he had convinced his company to build a full-scale plant. However, it took 14 months of non-stop production, costing the company 100,000 a month, before the plant produced any usable glass. Furthermore, once they succeeded in making marketable flat glass, the machine was turned off for a service to prepare it for years of continuous production. When it started up again it took another four months to get the process right again. They finally succeeded in 1959 and there are now float plants all over the world, with each able to produce around 1000 tons of glass every day, non-stop for around 15 years. Float plants today make glass of near optical quality. Several processes - melting, refining, homogenising - take place simultaneously in the 2000 tonnes of molten glass in the furnace. They occur in separate zones in a complex glass flow driven by high temperatures. It adds up to a continuous melting process, lasting as long as 50 hours, that delivers glass smoothly and continuously to the float bath, and from there to a coating zone and finally a heat treatment zone, where stresses formed during cooling are relieved. 42The principle of float glass is unchanged since the 1950s. However, the product has changed dramatically, from a single thickness of 6.8 mm to a range from sub-millimetre to 25 mm, from a ribbon frequently marred by inclusions and bubbles to almost optical perfection. To ensure the highest quality, inspection takes place at every stage. Occasionally, a bubble is not removed during refining, a sand grain refuses to melt, a tremor in the tin puts ripples into the glass ribbon. Automated on-line inspection does two things. Firstly, it reveals process faults upstream that can be corrected. Inspection technology allows more than 100 million measurements a second to be made across the ribbon, locating flaws the unaided eye would be unable to see. Secondly, it enables computers downstream to steer cutters around flaws. Float glass is sold by the square metre, and at the final stage computers translate customer requirements into patterns of cuts designed to minimise waste. | Computers are better than humans at detecting faults in glass. | entailment |
id_5206 | Sheet glass manufacture: the float process. Glass, which has been made since the time of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, is little more than a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime. When heated to about 1500 degrees Celsius (C) this becomes a molten mass that hardens when slowly cooled. The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning. This method was very effective as the glass had not touched any surfaces between being soft and becoming hard, so it stayed perfectly unblemished, with a 'fire finish'. However, the process took a long time and was labour intensive. Nevertheless, demand for flat glass was very high and glassmakers across the world were looking for a method of making it continuously. The first continuous ribbon process involved squeezing molten glass through two hot rollers, similar to an old mangle. This allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non-stop, but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked, and these would then need to be ground and polished. This part of the process rubbed away around 20 per cent of the glass, and the machines were very expensive. The float process for making flat glass was invented by Alistair Pilkington. This process allows the manufacture of clear, tinted and coated glass for buildings, and clear and tinted glass for vehicles. Pilkington had been experimenting with improving the melting process, and in 1952 he had the idea of using a bed of molten metal to form the flat glass, eliminating altogether the need for rollers within the float bath. The metal had to melt at a temperature less than the hardening point of glass (about 600C), but could not boil at a temperature below the temperature of the molten glass (about 1500C). The best metal for the job was tin. The rest of the concept relied on gravity, which guaranteed that the surface of the molten metal was perfectly flat and horizontal. Consequently, when pouring molten glass onto the molten tin, the underside of the glass would also be perfectly flat. If the glass were kept hot enough, it would flow over the molten tin until the top surface was also flat, horizontal and perfectly parallel to the bottom surface. Once the glass cooled to 604C or less it was too hard to mark and could be transported out of the cooling zone by rollers. The glass settled to a thickness of six millimetres because of surface tension interactions between the glass and the tin. By fortunate coincidence, 60 per cent of the flat glass market at that time was for six-millimetre glass. Pilkington built a pilot plant in 1953 and by 1955 he had convinced his company to build a full-scale plant. However, it took 14 months of non-stop production, costing the company 100,000 a month, before the plant produced any usable glass. Furthermore, once they succeeded in making marketable flat glass, the machine was turned off for a service to prepare it for years of continuous production. When it started up again it took another four months to get the process right again. They finally succeeded in 1959 and there are now float plants all over the world, with each able to produce around 1000 tons of glass every day, non-stop for around 15 years. Float plants today make glass of near optical quality. Several processes melting, refining, homogenising take place simultaneously in the 2000 tonnes of molten glass in the furnace. They occur in separate zones in a complex glass flow driven by high temperatures. It adds up to a continuous melting process, lasting as long as 50 hours, that delivers glass smoothly and continuously to the float bath, and from there to a coating zone and finally a heat treatment zone, where stresses formed during cooling are relieved. The principle of float glass is unchanged since the 1950s. However, the product has changed dramatically, from a single thickness of 6.8 mm to a range from sub-millimetre to 25 mm, from a ribbon frequently marred by inclusions and bubbles to almost optical perfection. To ensure the highest quality, inspection takes place at every stage. Occasionally, a bubble is not removed during refining, a sand grain refuses to melt, a tremor in the tin puts ripples into the glass ribbon. Automated on-line inspection does two things. Firstly, it reveals process faults upstream that can be corrected. Inspection technology allows more than 100 million measurements a second to be made across the ribbon, locating flaws the unaided eye would be unable to see. Secondly, it enables computers downstream to steer cutters around flaws. Float glass is sold by the square metre, and at the final stage computers translate customer requirements into patterns of cuts designed to minimise waste. | Pilkingtons first full-scale plant was an instant commercial success. | contradiction |
id_5207 | Sheet glass manufacture: the float process. Glass, which has been made since the time of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, is little more than a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime. When heated to about 1500 degrees Celsius (C) this becomes a molten mass that hardens when slowly cooled. The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning. This method was very effective as the glass had not touched any surfaces between being soft and becoming hard, so it stayed perfectly unblemished, with a 'fire finish'. However, the process took a long time and was labour intensive. Nevertheless, demand for flat glass was very high and glassmakers across the world were looking for a method of making it continuously. The first continuous ribbon process involved squeezing molten glass through two hot rollers, similar to an old mangle. This allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non-stop, but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked, and these would then need to be ground and polished. This part of the process rubbed away around 20 per cent of the glass, and the machines were very expensive. The float process for making flat glass was invented by Alistair Pilkington. This process allows the manufacture of clear, tinted and coated glass for buildings, and clear and tinted glass for vehicles. Pilkington had been experimenting with improving the melting process, and in 1952 he had the idea of using a bed of molten metal to form the flat glass, eliminating altogether the need for rollers within the float bath. The metal had to melt at a temperature less than the hardening point of glass (about 600C), but could not boil at a temperature below the temperature of the molten glass (about 1500C). The best metal for the job was tin. The rest of the concept relied on gravity, which guaranteed that the surface of the molten metal was perfectly flat and horizontal. Consequently, when pouring molten glass onto the molten tin, the underside of the glass would also be perfectly flat. If the glass were kept hot enough, it would flow over the molten tin until the top surface was also flat, horizontal and perfectly parallel to the bottom surface. Once the glass cooled to 604C or less it was too hard to mark and could be transported out of the cooling zone by rollers. The glass settled to a thickness of six millimetres because of surface tension interactions between the glass and the tin. By fortunate coincidence, 60 per cent of the flat glass market at that time was for six-millimetre glass. Pilkington built a pilot plant in 1953 and by 1955 he had convinced his company to build a full-scale plant. However, it took 14 months of non-stop production, costing the company 100,000 a month, before the plant produced any usable glass. Furthermore, once they succeeded in making marketable flat glass, the machine was turned off for a service to prepare it for years of continuous production. When it started up again it took another four months to get the process right again. They finally succeeded in 1959 and there are now float plants all over the world, with each able to produce around 1000 tons of glass every day, non-stop for around 15 years. Float plants today make glass of near optical quality. Several processes melting, refining, homogenising take place simultaneously in the 2000 tonnes of molten glass in the furnace. They occur in separate zones in a complex glass flow driven by high temperatures. It adds up to a continuous melting process, lasting as long as 50 hours, that delivers glass smoothly and continuously to the float bath, and from there to a coating zone and finally a heat treatment zone, where stresses formed during cooling are relieved. The principle of float glass is unchanged since the 1950s. However, the product has changed dramatically, from a single thickness of 6.8 mm to a range from sub-millimetre to 25 mm, from a ribbon frequently marred by inclusions and bubbles to almost optical perfection. To ensure the highest quality, inspection takes place at every stage. Occasionally, a bubble is not removed during refining, a sand grain refuses to melt, a tremor in the tin puts ripples into the glass ribbon. Automated on-line inspection does two things. Firstly, it reveals process faults upstream that can be corrected. Inspection technology allows more than 100 million measurements a second to be made across the ribbon, locating flaws the unaided eye would be unable to see. Secondly, it enables computers downstream to steer cutters around flaws. Float glass is sold by the square metre, and at the final stage computers translate customer requirements into patterns of cuts designed to minimise waste. | The process invented by Pilkington has now been improved. | entailment |
id_5208 | Sheet glass manufacture: the float process. Glass, which has been made since the time of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, is little more than a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime. When heated to about 1500 degrees Celsius (C) this becomes a molten mass that hardens when slowly cooled. The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning. This method was very effective as the glass had not touched any surfaces between being soft and becoming hard, so it stayed perfectly unblemished, with a 'fire finish'. However, the process took a long time and was labour intensive. Nevertheless, demand for flat glass was very high and glassmakers across the world were looking for a method of making it continuously. The first continuous ribbon process involved squeezing molten glass through two hot rollers, similar to an old mangle. This allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non-stop, but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked, and these would then need to be ground and polished. This part of the process rubbed away around 20 per cent of the glass, and the machines were very expensive. The float process for making flat glass was invented by Alistair Pilkington. This process allows the manufacture of clear, tinted and coated glass for buildings, and clear and tinted glass for vehicles. Pilkington had been experimenting with improving the melting process, and in 1952 he had the idea of using a bed of molten metal to form the flat glass, eliminating altogether the need for rollers within the float bath. The metal had to melt at a temperature less than the hardening point of glass (about 600C), but could not boil at a temperature below the temperature of the molten glass (about 1500C). The best metal for the job was tin. The rest of the concept relied on gravity, which guaranteed that the surface of the molten metal was perfectly flat and horizontal. Consequently, when pouring molten glass onto the molten tin, the underside of the glass would also be perfectly flat. If the glass were kept hot enough, it would flow over the molten tin until the top surface was also flat, horizontal and perfectly parallel to the bottom surface. Once the glass cooled to 604C or less it was too hard to mark and could be transported out of the cooling zone by rollers. The glass settled to a thickness of six millimetres because of surface tension interactions between the glass and the tin. By fortunate coincidence, 60 per cent of the flat glass market at that time was for six-millimetre glass. Pilkington built a pilot plant in 1953 and by 1955 he had convinced his company to build a full-scale plant. However, it took 14 months of non-stop production, costing the company 100,000 a month, before the plant produced any usable glass. Furthermore, once they succeeded in making marketable flat glass, the machine was turned off for a service to prepare it for years of continuous production. When it started up again it took another four months to get the process right again. They finally succeeded in 1959 and there are now float plants all over the world, with each able to produce around 1000 tons of glass every day, non-stop for around 15 years. Float plants today make glass of near optical quality. Several processes melting, refining, homogenising take place simultaneously in the 2000 tonnes of molten glass in the furnace. They occur in separate zones in a complex glass flow driven by high temperatures. It adds up to a continuous melting process, lasting as long as 50 hours, that delivers glass smoothly and continuously to the float bath, and from there to a coating zone and finally a heat treatment zone, where stresses formed during cooling are relieved. The principle of float glass is unchanged since the 1950s. However, the product has changed dramatically, from a single thickness of 6.8 mm to a range from sub-millimetre to 25 mm, from a ribbon frequently marred by inclusions and bubbles to almost optical perfection. To ensure the highest quality, inspection takes place at every stage. Occasionally, a bubble is not removed during refining, a sand grain refuses to melt, a tremor in the tin puts ripples into the glass ribbon. Automated on-line inspection does two things. Firstly, it reveals process faults upstream that can be corrected. Inspection technology allows more than 100 million measurements a second to be made across the ribbon, locating flaws the unaided eye would be unable to see. Secondly, it enables computers downstream to steer cutters around flaws. Float glass is sold by the square metre, and at the final stage computers translate customer requirements into patterns of cuts designed to minimise waste. | Computers are better than humans at detecting faults in glass. | entailment |
id_5209 | Sheet glass manufacture: the float process. Glass, which has been made since the time of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, is little more than a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime. When heated to about 1500 degrees Celsius (C) this becomes a molten mass that hardens when slowly cooled. The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning. This method was very effective as the glass had not touched any surfaces between being soft and becoming hard, so it stayed perfectly unblemished, with a 'fire finish'. However, the process took a long time and was labour intensive. Nevertheless, demand for flat glass was very high and glassmakers across the world were looking for a method of making it continuously. The first continuous ribbon process involved squeezing molten glass through two hot rollers, similar to an old mangle. This allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non-stop, but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked, and these would then need to be ground and polished. This part of the process rubbed away around 20 per cent of the glass, and the machines were very expensive. The float process for making flat glass was invented by Alistair Pilkington. This process allows the manufacture of clear, tinted and coated glass for buildings, and clear and tinted glass for vehicles. Pilkington had been experimenting with improving the melting process, and in 1952 he had the idea of using a bed of molten metal to form the flat glass, eliminating altogether the need for rollers within the float bath. The metal had to melt at a temperature less than the hardening point of glass (about 600C), but could not boil at a temperature below the temperature of the molten glass (about 1500C). The best metal for the job was tin. The rest of the concept relied on gravity, which guaranteed that the surface of the molten metal was perfectly flat and horizontal. Consequently, when pouring molten glass onto the molten tin, the underside of the glass would also be perfectly flat. If the glass were kept hot enough, it would flow over the molten tin until the top surface was also flat, horizontal and perfectly parallel to the bottom surface. Once the glass cooled to 604C or less it was too hard to mark and could be transported out of the cooling zone by rollers. The glass settled to a thickness of six millimetres because of surface tension interactions between the glass and the tin. By fortunate coincidence, 60 per cent of the flat glass market at that time was for six-millimetre glass. Pilkington built a pilot plant in 1953 and by 1955 he had convinced his company to build a full-scale plant. However, it took 14 months of non-stop production, costing the company 100,000 a month, before the plant produced any usable glass. Furthermore, once they succeeded in making marketable flat glass, the machine was turned off for a service to prepare it for years of continuous production. When it started up again it took another four months to get the process right again. They finally succeeded in 1959 and there are now float plants all over the world, with each able to produce around 1000 tons of glass every day, non-stop for around 15 years. Float plants today make glass of near optical quality. Several processes melting, refining, homogenising take place simultaneously in the 2000 tonnes of molten glass in the furnace. They occur in separate zones in a complex glass flow driven by high temperatures. It adds up to a continuous melting process, lasting as long as 50 hours, that delivers glass smoothly and continuously to the float bath, and from there to a coating zone and finally a heat treatment zone, where stresses formed during cooling are relieved. The principle of float glass is unchanged since the 1950s. However, the product has changed dramatically, from a single thickness of 6.8 mm to a range from sub-millimetre to 25 mm, from a ribbon frequently marred by inclusions and bubbles to almost optical perfection. To ensure the highest quality, inspection takes place at every stage. Occasionally, a bubble is not removed during refining, a sand grain refuses to melt, a tremor in the tin puts ripples into the glass ribbon. Automated on-line inspection does two things. Firstly, it reveals process faults upstream that can be corrected. Inspection technology allows more than 100 million measurements a second to be made across the ribbon, locating flaws the unaided eye would be unable to see. Secondly, it enables computers downstream to steer cutters around flaws. Float glass is sold by the square metre, and at the final stage computers translate customer requirements into patterns of cuts designed to minimise waste. | The metal used in the float process had to have specific properties. | entailment |
id_5210 | Sheet glass manufacture: the float process. Glass, which has been made since the time of the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, is little more than a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime. When heated to about 1500 degrees Celsius (C) this becomes a molten mass that hardens when slowly cooled. The first successful method for making clear, flat glass involved spinning. This method was very effective as the glass had not touched any surfaces between being soft and becoming hard, so it stayed perfectly unblemished, with a 'fire finish'. However, the process took a long time and was labour intensive. Nevertheless, demand for flat glass was very high and glassmakers across the world were looking for a method of making it continuously. The first continuous ribbon process involved squeezing molten glass through two hot rollers, similar to an old mangle. This allowed glass of virtually any thickness to be made non-stop, but the rollers would leave both sides of the glass marked, and these would then need to be ground and polished. This part of the process rubbed away around 20 per cent of the glass, and the machines were very expensive. The float process for making flat glass was invented by Alistair Pilkington. This process allows the manufacture of clear, tinted and coated glass for buildings, and clear and tinted glass for vehicles. Pilkington had been experimenting with improving the melting process, and in 1952 he had the idea of using a bed of molten metal to form the flat glass, eliminating altogether the need for rollers within the float bath. The metal had to melt at a temperature less than the hardening point of glass (about 600C), but could not boil at a temperature below the temperature of the molten glass (about 1500C). The best metal for the job was tin. The rest of the concept relied on gravity, which guaranteed that the surface of the molten metal was perfectly flat and horizontal. Consequently, when pouring molten glass onto the molten tin, the underside of the glass would also be perfectly flat. If the glass were kept hot enough, it would flow over the molten tin until the top surface was also flat, horizontal and perfectly parallel to the bottom surface. Once the glass cooled to 604C or less it was too hard to mark and could be transported out of the cooling zone by rollers. The glass settled to a thickness of six millimetres because of surface tension interactions between the glass and the tin. By fortunate coincidence, 60 per cent of the flat glass market at that time was for six-millimetre glass. Pilkington built a pilot plant in 1953 and by 1955 he had convinced his company to build a full-scale plant. However, it took 14 months of non-stop production, costing the company 100,000 a month, before the plant produced any usable glass. Furthermore, once they succeeded in making marketable flat glass, the machine was turned off for a service to prepare it for years of continuous production. When it started up again it took another four months to get the process right again. They finally succeeded in 1959 and there are now float plants all over the world, with each able to produce around 1000 tons of glass every day, non-stop for around 15 years. Float plants today make glass of near optical quality. Several processes melting, refining, homogenising take place simultaneously in the 2000 tonnes of molten glass in the furnace. They occur in separate zones in a complex glass flow driven by high temperatures. It adds up to a continuous melting process, lasting as long as 50 hours, that delivers glass smoothly and continuously to the float bath, and from there to a coating zone and finally a heat treatment zone, where stresses formed during cooling are relieved. The principle of float glass is unchanged since the 1950s. However, the product has changed dramatically, from a single thickness of 6.8 mm to a range from sub-millimetre to 25 mm, from a ribbon frequently marred by inclusions and bubbles to almost optical perfection. To ensure the highest quality, inspection takes place at every stage. Occasionally, a bubble is not removed during refining, a sand grain refuses to melt, a tremor in the tin puts ripples into the glass ribbon. Automated on-line inspection does two things. Firstly, it reveals process faults upstream that can be corrected. Inspection technology allows more than 100 million measurements a second to be made across the ribbon, locating flaws the unaided eye would be unable to see. Secondly, it enables computers downstream to steer cutters around flaws. Float glass is sold by the square metre, and at the final stage computers translate customer requirements into patterns of cuts designed to minimise waste. | Pilkington invested some of his own money in his float plant. | neutral |
id_5211 | Short-sightedness is to a large extent inherited, its incidence varies from one family to another. The reason behind the link between the common incidence of short-sightedness and high intelligence is unclear. Previous generations thought that eyes could become strained by years spent poring over books, but a few decades ago the popular medical view was that Short-sighted people gravitated towards the library because they found it hard to excel at sports. Recently there has been partial support for a theory that high intelligence and short-sightedness may, in fact, be part of a genetic package. | The genetic link between intelligence and short-sightedness has recently been disproven. | contradiction |
id_5212 | Short-sightedness is to a large extent inherited, its incidence varies from one family to another. The reason behind the link between the common incidence of short-sightedness and high intelligence is unclear. Previous generations thought that eyes could become strained by years spent poring over books, but a few decades ago the popular medical view was that Short-sighted people gravitated towards the library because they found it hard to excel at sports. Recently there has been partial support for a theory that high intelligence and short-sightedness may, in fact, be part of a genetic package. | People from all families stand at an equal chance of being short-sighted. | contradiction |
id_5213 | Short-sightedness is to a large extent inherited, its incidence varies from one family to another. The reason behind the link between the common incidence of short-sightedness and high intelligence is unclear. Previous generations thought that eyes could become strained by years spent poring over books, but a few decades ago the popular medical view was that Short-sighted people gravitated towards the library because they found it hard to excel at sports. Recently there has been partial support for a theory that high intelligence and short-sightedness may, in fact, be part of a genetic package. | Intelligence is to a large extent inherited. | neutral |
id_5214 | Short-sightedness is to a large extent inherited, its incidence varies from one family to another. The reason behind the link between the common incidence of short-sightedness and high intelligence is unclear. Previous generations thought that eyes could become strained by years spent poring over books, but a few decades ago the popular medical view was that short-sighted people gravitated towards the library because they found it hard to excel at sports. Recently there has been partial support for a theory that high intelligence and short-sightedness may, in fact, be part of a genetic package. | The genetic link between intelligence and short-sightedness has recently been disproven. | contradiction |
id_5215 | Short-sightedness is to a large extent inherited, its incidence varies from one family to another. The reason behind the link between the common incidence of short-sightedness and high intelligence is unclear. Previous generations thought that eyes could become strained by years spent poring over books, but a few decades ago the popular medical view was that short-sighted people gravitated towards the library because they found it hard to excel at sports. Recently there has been partial support for a theory that high intelligence and short-sightedness may, in fact, be part of a genetic package. | People from all families stand at an equal chance of being short-sighted. | contradiction |
id_5216 | Short-sightedness is to a large extent inherited, its incidence varies from one family to another. The reason behind the link between the common incidence of short-sightedness and high intelligence is unclear. Previous generations thought that eyes could become strained by years spent poring over books, but a few decades ago the popular medical view was that short-sighted people gravitated towards the library because they found it hard to excel at sports. Recently there has been partial support for a theory that high intelligence and short-sightedness may, in fact, be part of a genetic package. | Intelligence is to a large extent inherited. | neutral |
id_5217 | Significant advances in float furnace design and operation, in the development of glass compositions, and in the glass forming process itself have all played a role in the optimization of glass manufacturing. For example, thermodynamic modeling assists with the enhancement of glass composition and offers control over devitrification characteristics, and studies examining burner design, to ensure flames have maximum luminosity and impinge on the glass at the correct angle, aid the minimization of fuel consumption. The exploitation of such advanced research allows glass manufacturers to reduce their expenditure on fuel, decrease their defect rates and produce glass of the highest quality, all of which are important if they are to retain their commercial standing and customer loyalty. | Glass of a higher quality is produced when the float furnace is at its maximum temperature. | neutral |
id_5218 | Significant advances in float furnace design and operation, in the development of glass compositions, and in the glass forming process itself have all played a role in the optimization of glass manufacturing. For example, thermodynamic modeling assists with the enhancement of glass composition and offers control over devitrification characteristics, and studies examining burner design, to ensure flames have maximum luminosity and impinge on the glass at the correct angle, aid the minimization of fuel consumption. The exploitation of such advanced research allows glass manufacturers to reduce their expenditure on fuel, decrease their defect rates and produce glass of the highest quality, all of which are important if they are to retain their commercial standing and customer loyalty. | The radiance of furnace flames has no direct impact on the amount of fuel used in the glass; forming process. | contradiction |
id_5219 | Significant advances in float furnace design and operation, in the development of glass compositions, and in the glass forming process itself have all played a role in the optimization of glass manufacturing. For example, thermodynamic modeling assists with the enhancement of glass composition and offers control over devitrification characteristics, and studies examining burner design, to ensure flames have maximum luminosity and impinge on the glass at the correct angle, aid the minimization of fuel consumption. The exploitation of such advanced research allows glass manufacturers to reduce their expenditure on fuel, decrease their defect rates and produce glass of the highest quality, all of which are important if they are to retain their commercial standing and customer loyalty. | Ensuring the flames come into contact with the glass at a particular point can reduce the amount of energy required in the glass manufacturing process. | entailment |
id_5220 | Significant advances in float furnace design and operation, in the development of glass compositions, and in the glass forming process itself have all played a role in the optimization of glass manufacturing. For example, thermodynamic modeling assists with the enhancement of glass composition and offers control over devitrification characteristics, and studies examining burner design, to ensure flames have maximum luminosity and impinge on the glass at the correct angle, aid the minimization of fuel consumption. The exploitation of such advanced research allows glass manufacturers to reduce their expenditure on fuel, decrease their defect rates and produce glass of the highest quality, all of which are important if they are to retain their commercial standing and customer loyalty. | The radiance of furnace flames has no direct impact on the amount of fuel used in the glass-forming process. | neutral |
id_5221 | Significant advances in float furnace design and operation, in the development of glass compositions, and in the glass forming process itself have all played a role in the optimization of glass manufacturing. For example, thermodynamic modeling assists with the enhancement of glass composition and offers control over devitrification characteristics, and studies examining burner design, to ensure flames have maximum luminosity and impinge on the glass at the correct angle, aid the minimization of fuel consumption. The exploitation of such advanced research allows glass manufacturers to reduce their expenditure on fuel, decrease their defect rates and produce glass of the highest quality, all of which are important if they are to retain their commercial standing and customer loyalty. | Glass companies should not avail themselves of the latest research in thermodynamic should they want to maintain their commercial reputation. | neutral |
id_5222 | Since the number of societies actively promoting environmental awareness has escalated in recent years, the implementation of campaigns is leading to a corresponding increase in involvement. However, survey data demonstrates that only one in twenty interested supporters bothers to get involved with the society concerned. The inertia typically reflects the belief that their contribution would be inconsequential, and, to a lesser extent, uncertainty about the appropriate channels to use. The data also suggested that interested followers are likely to discuss their views with other individuals. While this is a valuable means of promoting environmental awareness, it would be more beneficial to get involved with the societies themselves. | Nowadays, almost all interested supporters get involved in the campaigns. | neutral |
id_5223 | Since the number of societies actively promoting environmental awareness has escalated in recent years, the implementation of campaigns is leading to a corresponding increase in involvement. However, survey data demonstrates that only one in twenty interested supporters bothers to get involved with the society concerned. The inertia typically reflects the belief that their contribution would be inconsequential, and, to a lesser extent, uncertainty about the appropriate channels to use. The data also suggested that interested followers are likely to discuss their views with other individuals. While this is a valuable means of promoting environmental awareness, it would be more beneficial to get involved with the societies themselves. | Uncertainty over the appropriate channels to use is the main reason that supporters do not get involved in the campaigns. | neutral |
id_5224 | Since the number of societies actively promoting environmental awareness has escalated in recent years, the implementation of campaigns is leading to a corresponding increase in involvement. However, survey data demonstrates that only one in twenty interested supporters bothers to get involved with the society concerned. This inertia typically reflects the belief that their contribution would be inconsequential, and, to a lesser extent, uncertainty about the appropriate channels to use. The data also suggested that interested followers are likely to discuss their views with other individuals. While this is a valuable means of promoting environmental awareness, it would be more beneficial to get involved with the societies themselves. | Nowadays, almost all interested supporters get involved in the campaigns. | neutral |
id_5225 | Since the number of societies actively promoting environmental awareness has escalated in recent years, the implementation of campaigns is leading to a corresponding increase in involvement. However, survey data demonstrates that only one in twenty interested supporters bothers to get involved with the society concerned. This inertia typically reflects the belief that their contribution would be inconsequential, and, to a lesser extent, uncertainty about the appropriate channels to use. The data also suggested that interested followers are likely to discuss their views with other individuals. While this is a valuable means of promoting environmental awareness, it would be more beneficial to get involved with the societies themselves. | Uncertainty over the appropriate channels to use is the main reason that supporters do not get involved in the campaigns. | contradiction |
id_5226 | Singapore was the first Asian economy to boom and it is booming once again. In the second quarter of this year its economy was 12.5% higher than in the same period the previous year and its government is fore- casting future growth at 9% per annum. Some of this growth is due to the passing of the SARS crisis but most was down to a 50% increase in pharmaceutical exports. Most of the worlds leading firms now make products in Singapore and its government plans to generate 12 billion a year from this sector by 2010. If this happens, Singapore will avoid recession as jobs in electronics move to China and other low-cost Asian economies. | This impressive growth is due to an incredible increase in pharmaceutical exports. | contradiction |
id_5227 | Singapore was the first Asian economy to boom and it is booming once again. In the second quarter of this year its economy was 12.5% higher than in the same period the previous year and its government is fore- casting future growth at 9% per annum. Some of this growth is due to the passing of the SARS crisis but most was down to a 50% increase in pharmaceutical exports. Most of the worlds leading firms now make products in Singapore and its government plans to generate 12 billion a year from this sector by 2010. If this happens, Singapore will avoid recession as jobs in electronics move to China and other low-cost Asian economies. | Singapores first boom was founded on the export of electronics. | neutral |
id_5228 | Singapore was the first Asian economy to boom and it is booming once again. In the second quarter of this year its economy was 12.5% higher than in the same period the previous year and its government is fore- casting future growth at 9% per annum. Some of this growth is due to the passing of the SARS crisis but most was down to a 50% increase in pharmaceutical exports. Most of the worlds leading firms now make products in Singapore and its government plans to generate 12 billion a year from this sector by 2010. If this happens, Singapore will avoid recession as jobs in electronics move to China and other low-cost Asian economies. | Singapores economy has grown 12.5% in a year. | entailment |
id_5229 | Sixteen-year-old Susan Wood is a pupil at Oakfield Comprehensive School in Swinsford. With 580 pupils on the school roll, Oakfield is smaller than most other comprehensive schools. Susan is an exceptionally good artist and has won a national art competition that was sponsored by one of the leading banks. She is responsible for the artwork that appears in the school magazine, The Oakfield Voice. Susan is keen to work in marketing and is about to take her GCSE examinations. She then intends to go to Swinsford College of Further Education to take courses in Art and Business Studies. It is also known that: Susan is a member of the school choir and is taking guitar lessons. Susan lives with her mother, father and younger brother in a village on the outskirts of Swinsford. Susans father is a maintenance engineer at an electronics factory. Susan works for eight hours a week, packing and stacking shelves at a local supermarket. Swinsford is a town in the Midlands with a population of about 175,000 people. | Susan is in her last year at Oakfield School. | entailment |
id_5230 | Sixteen-year-old Susan Wood is a pupil at Oakfield Comprehensive School in Swinsford. With 580 pupils on the school roll, Oakfield is smaller than most other comprehensive schools. Susan is an exceptionally good artist and has won a national art competition that was sponsored by one of the leading banks. She is responsible for the artwork that appears in the school magazine, The Oakfield Voice. Susan is keen to work in marketing and is about to take her GCSE examinations. She then intends to go to Swinsford College of Further Education to take courses in Art and Business Studies. It is also known that: Susan is a member of the school choir and is taking guitar lessons. Susan lives with her mother, father and younger brother in a village on the outskirts of Swinsford. Susans father is a maintenance engineer at an electronics factory. Susan works for eight hours a week, packing and stacking shelves at a local supermarket. Swinsford is a town in the Midlands with a population of about 175,000 people. | Susan is learning to play the guitar. | entailment |
id_5231 | Sixteen-year-old Susan Wood is a pupil at Oakfield Comprehensive School in Swinsford. With 580 pupils on the school roll, Oakfield is smaller than most other comprehensive schools. Susan is an exceptionally good artist and has won a national art competition that was sponsored by one of the leading banks. She is responsible for the artwork that appears in the school magazine, The Oakfield Voice. Susan is keen to work in marketing and is about to take her GCSE examinations. She then intends to go to Swinsford College of Further Education to take courses in Art and Business Studies. It is also known that: Susan is a member of the school choir and is taking guitar lessons. Susan lives with her mother, father and younger brother in a village on the outskirts of Swinsford. Susans father is a maintenance engineer at an electronics factory. Susan works for eight hours a week, packing and stacking shelves at a local supermarket. Swinsford is a town in the Midlands with a population of about 175,000 people. | Oakfield is an average size school. | contradiction |
id_5232 | Sixteen-year-old Susan Wood is a pupil at Oakfield Comprehensive School in Swinsford. With 580 pupils on the school roll, Oakfield is smaller than most other comprehensive schools. Susan is an exceptionally good artist and has won a national art competition that was sponsored by one of the leading banks. She is responsible for the artwork that appears in the school magazine, The Oakfield Voice. Susan is keen to work in marketing and is about to take her GCSE examinations. She then intends to go to Swinsford College of Further Education to take courses in Art and Business Studies. It is also known that: Susan is a member of the school choir and is taking guitar lessons. Susan lives with her mother, father and younger brother in a village on the outskirts of Swinsford. Susans father is a maintenance engineer at an electronics factory. Susan works for eight hours a week, packing and stacking shelves at a local supermarket. Swinsford is a town in the Midlands with a population of about 175,000 people. | Susan walks to school. | neutral |
id_5233 | Sixteen-year-old Susan Wood is a pupil at Oakfield Comprehensive School in Swinsford. With 580 pupils on the school roll, Oakfield is smaller than most other comprehensive schools. Susan is an exceptionally good artist and has won a national art competition that was sponsored by one of the leading banks. She is responsible for the artwork that appears in the school magazine, The Oakfield Voice. Susan is keen to work in marketing and is about to take her GCSE examinations. She then intends to go to Swinsford College of Further Education to take courses in Art and Business Studies. It is also known that: Susan is a member of the school choir and is taking guitar lessons. Susan lives with her mother, father and younger brother in a village on the outskirts of Swinsford. Susans father is a maintenance engineer at an electronics factory. Susan works for eight hours a week, packing and stacking shelves at a local supermarket. Swinsford is a town in the Midlands with a population of about 175,000 people. | Oakfield is an all girls school. | neutral |
id_5234 | Sleep Apnea Sleep apnea is a common sleeping disorder. It affects a number of adults comparable to the percentage of the population that suffers from diabetes. The term apnea is of Greek origin and means without breath. Sufferers of sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly while they sleep. This can happen hundreds of times during the night, each gasp lasting from 10 to 30 seconds. In extreme cases, people stop breathing for more than a minute at a time. There are three different types of sleep apnea, with obstructive sleep apnea being the most common. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which affects 90 percent of sleep apnea sufferers, occurs because of an upper airway obstruction. A persons breathing stops when air is somehow prevented from entering the trachea. The most common sites for air to get trapped include the nasal passage, the tongue, the tonsils, and the uvula. Fatty tissue or tightened muscles at the back of a throat can also cause the obstruction. Central sleep apnea has a different root cause, though the consequences are the same. In central sleep apnea, the brain forgets to send the signal that tells the muscles that its time to breathe. The term central is used because this type of apnea is related to the central nervous system rather than the blocked airflow. The third type of sleep apnea, known as mixed apnea, is a combination of the two and is the most rare form. Fortunately, in all types of apnea, the brain eventually signals for a person to wake up so that breathing can resume. However, this continuous pattern of interrupted sleep is hard on the body and results in very little rest. Sleep apnea is associated with a number of risk factors, including being overweight, male, and over the age of forty. However, like many disorders, sleep apnea can affect children and in many cases is found to be the result of a persons genetic makeup. Despite being so widespread, this disorder often goes undiagnosed. Many people experience symptoms for their whole lives without realizing they have a serious sleep disorder. Oftentimes, it is not the person suffering from sleep apnea who notices the repetitive episodes of sleep interruption, but a partner or family member sleeping nearby. The air cessation is generally accompanied by heavy snoring, loud enough to rouse others from sleep. Those who live alone are less likely to receive early diagnosis, though other symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, irritability, and exhaustion may cause a person to seek medical advice. If left untreated, sleep apnea, which is a progressive disorder, can cause cardiovascular problems, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Sleep apnea is also blamed for many cases of impaired driving and poor job performance. In order to diagnose sleep apnea, patients are generally sent to a sleep center for a polysomnography test. This test monitors brain waves, muscle tension, breathing, eye movement, and oxygen in the blood. Audio monitoring for snoring, gasping, and episodic waking is also done during a polysomnogram. Nonintrusive solutions for treating sleep apnea involve simple lifestyle changes. In many cases, symptoms of sleep apnea can be eliminated when patients try losing weight or abstaining from alcohol. People who sleep on their backs or stomachs often find that their symptoms disappear if they try sleeping on their sides. Sleep specialists also claim that sleeping pills interfere with the natural performance of the throat and mouth muscles and suggest patients do away with all sleep medication for a trial period. When these treatments prove unsuccessful, sleep apnea sufferers can be fitted with a CPAP mask, which is worn at night over the mouth and nose, similar to an oxygen mask. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. In extreme cases, especially when facial deformities are the cause of the sleep apnea, surgery is needed to make a clear passage for the air. Many different types of surgeries are available. The most common form of surgery used to combat sleep apnea is uvulo-palato-pharyngoplasty (UPPP). This procedure involves removing the uvula and the excess tissue around it. UPPP helps about 50 percent of patients who undergo the procedure, while the other half continue to rely on the CPAP machine even after the surgery. Another type of surgery called mandibular myotomy involves removing a piece of the jaw, and adjusting the tongue. By reattaching1 the tongue to a position about ten millimeters forward, air is able to flow more freely during sleep. This delicate procedure is performed only by surgeons with expertise in facial surgery and is almost always successful in eliminating the air obstruction. The latest surgical procedures use radio frequencies to shrink the tissue around the tongue, throat, and soft palate. | Sleep apnea is more common in Greece than in other countries. | neutral |
id_5235 | Sleep Apnea Sleep apnea is a common sleeping disorder. It affects a number of adults comparable to the percentage of the population that suffers from diabetes. The term apnea is of Greek origin and means without breath. Sufferers of sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly while they sleep. This can happen hundreds of times during the night, each gasp lasting from 10 to 30 seconds. In extreme cases, people stop breathing for more than a minute at a time. There are three different types of sleep apnea, with obstructive sleep apnea being the most common. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which affects 90 percent of sleep apnea sufferers, occurs because of an upper airway obstruction. A persons breathing stops when air is somehow prevented from entering the trachea. The most common sites for air to get trapped include the nasal passage, the tongue, the tonsils, and the uvula. Fatty tissue or tightened muscles at the back of a throat can also cause the obstruction. Central sleep apnea has a different root cause, though the consequences are the same. In central sleep apnea, the brain forgets to send the signal that tells the muscles that its time to breathe. The term central is used because this type of apnea is related to the central nervous system rather than the blocked airflow. The third type of sleep apnea, known as mixed apnea, is a combination of the two and is the most rare form. Fortunately, in all types of apnea, the brain eventually signals for a person to wake up so that breathing can resume. However, this continuous pattern of interrupted sleep is hard on the body and results in very little rest. Sleep apnea is associated with a number of risk factors, including being overweight, male, and over the age of forty. However, like many disorders, sleep apnea can affect children and in many cases is found to be the result of a persons genetic makeup. Despite being so widespread, this disorder often goes undiagnosed. Many people experience symptoms for their whole lives without realizing they have a serious sleep disorder. Oftentimes, it is not the person suffering from sleep apnea who notices the repetitive episodes of sleep interruption, but a partner or family member sleeping nearby. The air cessation is generally accompanied by heavy snoring, loud enough to rouse others from sleep. Those who live alone are less likely to receive early diagnosis, though other symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, irritability, and exhaustion may cause a person to seek medical advice. If left untreated, sleep apnea, which is a progressive disorder, can cause cardiovascular problems, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Sleep apnea is also blamed for many cases of impaired driving and poor job performance. In order to diagnose sleep apnea, patients are generally sent to a sleep center for a polysomnography test. This test monitors brain waves, muscle tension, breathing, eye movement, and oxygen in the blood. Audio monitoring for snoring, gasping, and episodic waking is also done during a polysomnogram. Nonintrusive solutions for treating sleep apnea involve simple lifestyle changes. In many cases, symptoms of sleep apnea can be eliminated when patients try losing weight or abstaining from alcohol. People who sleep on their backs or stomachs often find that their symptoms disappear if they try sleeping on their sides. Sleep specialists also claim that sleeping pills interfere with the natural performance of the throat and mouth muscles and suggest patients do away with all sleep medication for a trial period. When these treatments prove unsuccessful, sleep apnea sufferers can be fitted with a CPAP mask, which is worn at night over the mouth and nose, similar to an oxygen mask. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. In extreme cases, especially when facial deformities are the cause of the sleep apnea, surgery is needed to make a clear passage for the air. Many different types of surgeries are available. The most common form of surgery used to combat sleep apnea is uvulo-palato-pharyngoplasty (UPPP). This procedure involves removing the uvula and the excess tissue around it. UPPP helps about 50 percent of patients who undergo the procedure, while the other half continue to rely on the CPAP machine even after the surgery. Another type of surgery called mandibular myotomy involves removing a piece of the jaw, and adjusting the tongue. By reattaching1 the tongue to a position about ten millimeters forward, air is able to flow more freely during sleep. This delicate procedure is performed only by surgeons with expertise in facial surgery and is almost always successful in eliminating the air obstruction. The latest surgical procedures use radio frequencies to shrink the tissue around the tongue, throat, and soft palate. | Sleep apnea only affects men over 40. | contradiction |
id_5236 | Sleep Apnea Sleep apnea is a common sleeping disorder. It affects a number of adults comparable to the percentage of the population that suffers from diabetes. The term apnea is of Greek origin and means without breath. Sufferers of sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly while they sleep. This can happen hundreds of times during the night, each gasp lasting from 10 to 30 seconds. In extreme cases, people stop breathing for more than a minute at a time. There are three different types of sleep apnea, with obstructive sleep apnea being the most common. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which affects 90 percent of sleep apnea sufferers, occurs because of an upper airway obstruction. A persons breathing stops when air is somehow prevented from entering the trachea. The most common sites for air to get trapped include the nasal passage, the tongue, the tonsils, and the uvula. Fatty tissue or tightened muscles at the back of a throat can also cause the obstruction. Central sleep apnea has a different root cause, though the consequences are the same. In central sleep apnea, the brain forgets to send the signal that tells the muscles that its time to breathe. The term central is used because this type of apnea is related to the central nervous system rather than the blocked airflow. The third type of sleep apnea, known as mixed apnea, is a combination of the two and is the most rare form. Fortunately, in all types of apnea, the brain eventually signals for a person to wake up so that breathing can resume. However, this continuous pattern of interrupted sleep is hard on the body and results in very little rest. Sleep apnea is associated with a number of risk factors, including being overweight, male, and over the age of forty. However, like many disorders, sleep apnea can affect children and in many cases is found to be the result of a persons genetic makeup. Despite being so widespread, this disorder often goes undiagnosed. Many people experience symptoms for their whole lives without realizing they have a serious sleep disorder. Oftentimes, it is not the person suffering from sleep apnea who notices the repetitive episodes of sleep interruption, but a partner or family member sleeping nearby. The air cessation is generally accompanied by heavy snoring, loud enough to rouse others from sleep. Those who live alone are less likely to receive early diagnosis, though other symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, irritability, and exhaustion may cause a person to seek medical advice. If left untreated, sleep apnea, which is a progressive disorder, can cause cardiovascular problems, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Sleep apnea is also blamed for many cases of impaired driving and poor job performance. In order to diagnose sleep apnea, patients are generally sent to a sleep center for a polysomnography test. This test monitors brain waves, muscle tension, breathing, eye movement, and oxygen in the blood. Audio monitoring for snoring, gasping, and episodic waking is also done during a polysomnogram. Nonintrusive solutions for treating sleep apnea involve simple lifestyle changes. In many cases, symptoms of sleep apnea can be eliminated when patients try losing weight or abstaining from alcohol. People who sleep on their backs or stomachs often find that their symptoms disappear if they try sleeping on their sides. Sleep specialists also claim that sleeping pills interfere with the natural performance of the throat and mouth muscles and suggest patients do away with all sleep medication for a trial period. When these treatments prove unsuccessful, sleep apnea sufferers can be fitted with a CPAP mask, which is worn at night over the mouth and nose, similar to an oxygen mask. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. In extreme cases, especially when facial deformities are the cause of the sleep apnea, surgery is needed to make a clear passage for the air. Many different types of surgeries are available. The most common form of surgery used to combat sleep apnea is uvulo-palato-pharyngoplasty (UPPP). This procedure involves removing the uvula and the excess tissue around it. UPPP helps about 50 percent of patients who undergo the procedure, while the other half continue to rely on the CPAP machine even after the surgery. Another type of surgery called mandibular myotomy involves removing a piece of the jaw, and adjusting the tongue. By reattaching1 the tongue to a position about ten millimeters forward, air is able to flow more freely during sleep. This delicate procedure is performed only by surgeons with expertise in facial surgery and is almost always successful in eliminating the air obstruction. The latest surgical procedures use radio frequencies to shrink the tissue around the tongue, throat, and soft palate. | Most people with sleep apnea have the problem diagnosed. | contradiction |
id_5237 | Sleep Apnea Sleep apnea is a common sleeping disorder. It affects a number of adults comparable to the percentage of the population that suffers from diabetes. The term apnea is of Greek origin and means without breath. Sufferers of sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly while they sleep. This can happen hundreds of times during the night, each gasp lasting from 10 to 30 seconds. In extreme cases, people stop breathing for more than a minute at a time. There are three different types of sleep apnea, with obstructive sleep apnea being the most common. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which affects 90 percent of sleep apnea sufferers, occurs because of an upper airway obstruction. A persons breathing stops when air is somehow prevented from entering the trachea. The most common sites for air to get trapped include the nasal passage, the tongue, the tonsils, and the uvula. Fatty tissue or tightened muscles at the back of a throat can also cause the obstruction. Central sleep apnea has a different root cause, though the consequences are the same. In central sleep apnea, the brain forgets to send the signal that tells the muscles that its time to breathe. The term central is used because this type of apnea is related to the central nervous system rather than the blocked airflow. The third type of sleep apnea, known as mixed apnea, is a combination of the two and is the most rare form. Fortunately, in all types of apnea, the brain eventually signals for a person to wake up so that breathing can resume. However, this continuous pattern of interrupted sleep is hard on the body and results in very little rest. Sleep apnea is associated with a number of risk factors, including being overweight, male, and over the age of forty. However, like many disorders, sleep apnea can affect children and in many cases is found to be the result of a persons genetic makeup. Despite being so widespread, this disorder often goes undiagnosed. Many people experience symptoms for their whole lives without realizing they have a serious sleep disorder. Oftentimes, it is not the person suffering from sleep apnea who notices the repetitive episodes of sleep interruption, but a partner or family member sleeping nearby. The air cessation is generally accompanied by heavy snoring, loud enough to rouse others from sleep. Those who live alone are less likely to receive early diagnosis, though other symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, irritability, and exhaustion may cause a person to seek medical advice. If left untreated, sleep apnea, which is a progressive disorder, can cause cardiovascular problems, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Sleep apnea is also blamed for many cases of impaired driving and poor job performance. In order to diagnose sleep apnea, patients are generally sent to a sleep center for a polysomnography test. This test monitors brain waves, muscle tension, breathing, eye movement, and oxygen in the blood. Audio monitoring for snoring, gasping, and episodic waking is also done during a polysomnogram. Nonintrusive solutions for treating sleep apnea involve simple lifestyle changes. In many cases, symptoms of sleep apnea can be eliminated when patients try losing weight or abstaining from alcohol. People who sleep on their backs or stomachs often find that their symptoms disappear if they try sleeping on their sides. Sleep specialists also claim that sleeping pills interfere with the natural performance of the throat and mouth muscles and suggest patients do away with all sleep medication for a trial period. When these treatments prove unsuccessful, sleep apnea sufferers can be fitted with a CPAP mask, which is worn at night over the mouth and nose, similar to an oxygen mask. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. In extreme cases, especially when facial deformities are the cause of the sleep apnea, surgery is needed to make a clear passage for the air. Many different types of surgeries are available. The most common form of surgery used to combat sleep apnea is uvulo-palato-pharyngoplasty (UPPP). This procedure involves removing the uvula and the excess tissue around it. UPPP helps about 50 percent of patients who undergo the procedure, while the other half continue to rely on the CPAP machine even after the surgery. Another type of surgery called mandibular myotomy involves removing a piece of the jaw, and adjusting the tongue. By reattaching1 the tongue to a position about ten millimeters forward, air is able to flow more freely during sleep. This delicate procedure is performed only by surgeons with expertise in facial surgery and is almost always successful in eliminating the air obstruction. The latest surgical procedures use radio frequencies to shrink the tissue around the tongue, throat, and soft palate. | Sleep apnea can cause problems at work. | entailment |
id_5238 | Sleep Apnea Sleep apnea is a common sleeping disorder. It affects a number of adults comparable to the percentage of the population that suffers from diabetes. The term apnea is of Greek origin and means without breath. Sufferers of sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly while they sleep. This can happen hundreds of times during the night, each gasp lasting from 10 to 30 seconds. In extreme cases, people stop breathing for more than a minute at a time. There are three different types of sleep apnea, with obstructive sleep apnea being the most common. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which affects 90 percent of sleep apnea sufferers, occurs because of an upper airway obstruction. A persons breathing stops when air is somehow prevented from entering the trachea. The most common sites for air to get trapped include the nasal passage, the tongue, the tonsils, and the uvula. Fatty tissue or tightened muscles at the back of a throat can also cause the obstruction. Central sleep apnea has a different root cause, though the consequences are the same. In central sleep apnea, the brain forgets to send the signal that tells the muscles that its time to breathe. The term central is used because this type of apnea is related to the central nervous system rather than the blocked airflow. The third type of sleep apnea, known as mixed apnea, is a combination of the two and is the most rare form. Fortunately, in all types of apnea, the brain eventually signals for a person to wake up so that breathing can resume. However, this continuous pattern of interrupted sleep is hard on the body and results in very little rest. Sleep apnea is associated with a number of risk factors, including being overweight, male, and over the age of forty. However, like many disorders, sleep apnea can affect children and in many cases is found to be the result of a persons genetic makeup. Despite being so widespread, this disorder often goes undiagnosed. Many people experience symptoms for their whole lives without realizing they have a serious sleep disorder. Oftentimes, it is not the person suffering from sleep apnea who notices the repetitive episodes of sleep interruption, but a partner or family member sleeping nearby. The air cessation is generally accompanied by heavy snoring, loud enough to rouse others from sleep. Those who live alone are less likely to receive early diagnosis, though other symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, irritability, and exhaustion may cause a person to seek medical advice. If left untreated, sleep apnea, which is a progressive disorder, can cause cardiovascular problems, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Sleep apnea is also blamed for many cases of impaired driving and poor job performance. In order to diagnose sleep apnea, patients are generally sent to a sleep center for a polysomnography test. This test monitors brain waves, muscle tension, breathing, eye movement, and oxygen in the blood. Audio monitoring for snoring, gasping, and episodic waking is also done during a polysomnogram. Nonintrusive solutions for treating sleep apnea involve simple lifestyle changes. In many cases, symptoms of sleep apnea can be eliminated when patients try losing weight or abstaining from alcohol. People who sleep on their backs or stomachs often find that their symptoms disappear if they try sleeping on their sides. Sleep specialists also claim that sleeping pills interfere with the natural performance of the throat and mouth muscles and suggest patients do away with all sleep medication for a trial period. When these treatments prove unsuccessful, sleep apnea sufferers can be fitted with a CPAP mask, which is worn at night over the mouth and nose, similar to an oxygen mask. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. In extreme cases, especially when facial deformities are the cause of the sleep apnea, surgery is needed to make a clear passage for the air. Many different types of surgeries are available. The most common form of surgery used to combat sleep apnea is uvulo-palato-pharyngoplasty (UPPP). This procedure involves removing the uvula and the excess tissue around it. UPPP helps about 50 percent of patients who undergo the procedure, while the other half continue to rely on the CPAP machine even after the surgery. Another type of surgery called mandibular myotomy involves removing a piece of the jaw, and adjusting the tongue. By reattaching1 the tongue to a position about ten millimeters forward, air is able to flow more freely during sleep. This delicate procedure is performed only by surgeons with expertise in facial surgery and is almost always successful in eliminating the air obstruction. The latest surgical procedures use radio frequencies to shrink the tissue around the tongue, throat, and soft palate. | Often a relative of the sleep apnea sufferer is the first to notice the problem. | entailment |
id_5239 | Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour New evidence has linked a commonly prescribed sleep medication with bizarre behaviours, including a case in which a woman painted her front door in her sleep. UK and Australian health agencies have released information about 240 cases of odd occurrences, including sleepwalking, amnesia and hallucinations among people taking the drug zolpidem. While doctors say that zolpidem can offer much-needed relief for people with sleep disorders, they caution that these newly reported cases should prompt a closer look at its possible side effects. Zolpidem, sold under the brand names Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox, is widely prescribed to treat insomnia and other disorders such as sleep apnea. Various forms of the drug, made by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, were prescribed 674,500 times in 2005 in the UK. A newly published report from Australias Federal Health Department describes 104 cases of hallucinations and 62 cases of amnesia experienced by people taking zolpidem since marketing of the drug began there in 2000. The health department report also mentioned 16 cases of strange sleep walking by people taking the medication. Midnight snack In one of these sleepwalking cases a patient woke with a paintbrush in her hand after painting the front door to her house. Another case involved a woman who gained 23 kilograms over seven months while taking zolpidem. It was only when she was discovered in front of an open refrigerator while asleep that the problem was resolved, according to the report. The UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, meanwhile, has recorded 68 cases of adverse reactions to zolpidem from 2001 to 2005. The newly reported cases in the UK and Australia add to a growing list of bizarre sleepwalking episodes linked to the drug in other countries, including reports of people sleep-driving while on the medication. In one case, a transatlantic flight had to be diverted after a passenger caused havoc after taking zolpidem. Hypnotic effects There is no biological pathway that has been proven to connect zolpidem with these behaviours. The drug is a benzodiazepine-like hypnotic that promotes deep sleep by interacting with brain receptors for a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid. While parts of the brain become less active during deep sleep, the body can still move, making sleepwalking a possibility. The product information for prescribers advises that psychiatric adverse effects, including hallucinations, sleepwalking and nightmares, are more likely in the elderly, and treatment should be stopped if they occur. Patient advocacy groups say they would like government health agencies and drug companies to take a closer look at the possible risks associated with sleep medicines. They stress that strange sleepwalking and sleep-driving behaviours can have risky consequences. When people do something in which theyre not in full control its always a danger, says Vera Sharav of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research Protection, a US network that advocates responsible and ethical medical research practices. Tried and tested The more reports that come out about the potential side effects of the drug, the more research needs to be done to understand if these are real side effects, says sleep researcher Kenneth Wright at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US. Millions of people have taken the drug without experiencing any strange side effects, points out Richard Millman at Brown Medical School, director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, US. He says that unlike older types of sleep medications, zolpidem does not carry as great a risk of addiction. And Wright notes that some of the reports of sleep-driving linked to zolpidem can be easily explained: some patients have wrongly taken the drug right before leaving work in hopes that the medicine will kick in by the time they reach home. Doctors stress that the medication should be taken just before going to bed. The US Food & Drug Administration says it is continuing to "actively investigate" and collect information about cases linking zolpidem to unusual side effects. The Ambien label currently lists strange behaviour as a special concern for people taking the drug. Its a possible rare adverse event, says Sanofi-Aventis spokesperson Melissa Feltmann, adding that the strange sleepwalking behaviours may not necessarily be caused by the drug but instead result from an underlying disorder. She says that the safety profile of zolpidem is well established. The drug received approval in the US in 1993. | The woman's obesity problem wasn't resolved until she stopped taking zolpidem. | contradiction |
id_5240 | Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour New evidence has linked a commonly prescribed sleep medication with bizarre behaviours, including a case in which a woman painted her front door in her sleep. UK and Australian health agencies have released information about 240 cases of odd occurrences, including sleepwalking, amnesia and hallucinations among people taking the drug zolpidem. While doctors say that zolpidem can offer much-needed relief for people with sleep disorders, they caution that these newly reported cases should prompt a closer look at its possible side effects. Zolpidem, sold under the brand names Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox, is widely prescribed to treat insomnia and other disorders such as sleep apnea. Various forms of the drug, made by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, were prescribed 674,500 times in 2005 in the UK. A newly published report from Australias Federal Health Department describes 104 cases of hallucinations and 62 cases of amnesia experienced by people taking zolpidem since marketing of the drug began there in 2000. The health department report also mentioned 16 cases of strange sleep walking by people taking the medication. Midnight snack In one of these sleepwalking cases a patient woke with a paintbrush in her hand after painting the front door to her house. Another case involved a woman who gained 23 kilograms over seven months while taking zolpidem. It was only when she was discovered in front of an open refrigerator while asleep that the problem was resolved, according to the report. The UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, meanwhile, has recorded 68 cases of adverse reactions to zolpidem from 2001 to 2005. The newly reported cases in the UK and Australia add to a growing list of bizarre sleepwalking episodes linked to the drug in other countries, including reports of people sleep-driving while on the medication. In one case, a transatlantic flight had to be diverted after a passenger caused havoc after taking zolpidem. Hypnotic effects There is no biological pathway that has been proven to connect zolpidem with these behaviours. The drug is a benzodiazepine-like hypnotic that promotes deep sleep by interacting with brain receptors for a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid. While parts of the brain become less active during deep sleep, the body can still move, making sleepwalking a possibility. The product information for prescribers advises that psychiatric adverse effects, including hallucinations, sleepwalking and nightmares, are more likely in the elderly, and treatment should be stopped if they occur. Patient advocacy groups say they would like government health agencies and drug companies to take a closer look at the possible risks associated with sleep medicines. They stress that strange sleepwalking and sleep-driving behaviours can have risky consequences. When people do something in which theyre not in full control its always a danger, says Vera Sharav of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research Protection, a US network that advocates responsible and ethical medical research practices. Tried and tested The more reports that come out about the potential side effects of the drug, the more research needs to be done to understand if these are real side effects, says sleep researcher Kenneth Wright at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US. Millions of people have taken the drug without experiencing any strange side effects, points out Richard Millman at Brown Medical School, director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, US. He says that unlike older types of sleep medications, zolpidem does not carry as great a risk of addiction. And Wright notes that some of the reports of sleep-driving linked to zolpidem can be easily explained: some patients have wrongly taken the drug right before leaving work in hopes that the medicine will kick in by the time they reach home. Doctors stress that the medication should be taken just before going to bed. The US Food & Drug Administration says it is continuing to "actively investigate" and collect information about cases linking zolpidem to unusual side effects. The Ambien label currently lists strange behaviour as a special concern for people taking the drug. Its a possible rare adverse event, says Sanofi-Aventis spokesperson Melissa Feltmann, adding that the strange sleepwalking behaviours may not necessarily be caused by the drug but instead result from an underlying disorder. She says that the safety profile of zolpidem is well established. The drug received approval in the US in 1993. | Zolpidem received approval in the UK in 2001. | neutral |
id_5241 | Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour New evidence has linked a commonly prescribed sleep medication with bizarre behaviours, including a case in which a woman painted her front door in her sleep. UK and Australian health agencies have released information about 240 cases of odd occurrences, including sleepwalking, amnesia and hallucinations among people taking the drug zolpidem. While doctors say that zolpidem can offer much-needed relief for people with sleep disorders, they caution that these newly reported cases should prompt a closer look at its possible side effects. Zolpidem, sold under the brand names Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox, is widely prescribed to treat insomnia and other disorders such as sleep apnea. Various forms of the drug, made by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, were prescribed 674,500 times in 2005 in the UK. A newly published report from Australias Federal Health Department describes 104 cases of hallucinations and 62 cases of amnesia experienced by people taking zolpidem since marketing of the drug began there in 2000. The health department report also mentioned 16 cases of strange sleep walking by people taking the medication. Midnight snack In one of these sleepwalking cases a patient woke with a paintbrush in her hand after painting the front door to her house. Another case involved a woman who gained 23 kilograms over seven months while taking zolpidem. It was only when she was discovered in front of an open refrigerator while asleep that the problem was resolved, according to the report. The UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, meanwhile, has recorded 68 cases of adverse reactions to zolpidem from 2001 to 2005. The newly reported cases in the UK and Australia add to a growing list of bizarre sleepwalking episodes linked to the drug in other countries, including reports of people sleep-driving while on the medication. In one case, a transatlantic flight had to be diverted after a passenger caused havoc after taking zolpidem. Hypnotic effects There is no biological pathway that has been proven to connect zolpidem with these behaviours. The drug is a benzodiazepine-like hypnotic that promotes deep sleep by interacting with brain receptors for a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid. While parts of the brain become less active during deep sleep, the body can still move, making sleepwalking a possibility. The product information for prescribers advises that psychiatric adverse effects, including hallucinations, sleepwalking and nightmares, are more likely in the elderly, and treatment should be stopped if they occur. Patient advocacy groups say they would like government health agencies and drug companies to take a closer look at the possible risks associated with sleep medicines. They stress that strange sleepwalking and sleep-driving behaviours can have risky consequences. When people do something in which theyre not in full control its always a danger, says Vera Sharav of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research Protection, a US network that advocates responsible and ethical medical research practices. Tried and tested The more reports that come out about the potential side effects of the drug, the more research needs to be done to understand if these are real side effects, says sleep researcher Kenneth Wright at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US. Millions of people have taken the drug without experiencing any strange side effects, points out Richard Millman at Brown Medical School, director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, US. He says that unlike older types of sleep medications, zolpidem does not carry as great a risk of addiction. And Wright notes that some of the reports of sleep-driving linked to zolpidem can be easily explained: some patients have wrongly taken the drug right before leaving work in hopes that the medicine will kick in by the time they reach home. Doctors stress that the medication should be taken just before going to bed. The US Food & Drug Administration says it is continuing to "actively investigate" and collect information about cases linking zolpidem to unusual side effects. The Ambien label currently lists strange behaviour as a special concern for people taking the drug. Its a possible rare adverse event, says Sanofi-Aventis spokesperson Melissa Feltmann, adding that the strange sleepwalking behaviours may not necessarily be caused by the drug but instead result from an underlying disorder. She says that the safety profile of zolpidem is well established. The drug received approval in the US in 1993. | The bizarre behaviour of a passenger after taking zolpidem resulted in the diversion of a flight bound for the other side of the Atlantic. | entailment |
id_5242 | Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour New evidence has linked a commonly prescribed sleep medication with bizarre behaviours, including a case in which a woman painted her front door in her sleep. UK and Australian health agencies have released information about 240 cases of odd occurrences, including sleepwalking, amnesia and hallucinations among people taking the drug zolpidem. While doctors say that zolpidem can offer much-needed relief for people with sleep disorders, they caution that these newly reported cases should prompt a closer look at its possible side effects. Zolpidem, sold under the brand names Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox, is widely prescribed to treat insomnia and other disorders such as sleep apnea. Various forms of the drug, made by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, were prescribed 674,500 times in 2005 in the UK. A newly published report from Australias Federal Health Department describes 104 cases of hallucinations and 62 cases of amnesia experienced by people taking zolpidem since marketing of the drug began there in 2000. The health department report also mentioned 16 cases of strange sleep walking by people taking the medication. Midnight snack In one of these sleepwalking cases a patient woke with a paintbrush in her hand after painting the front door to her house. Another case involved a woman who gained 23 kilograms over seven months while taking zolpidem. It was only when she was discovered in front of an open refrigerator while asleep that the problem was resolved, according to the report. The UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, meanwhile, has recorded 68 cases of adverse reactions to zolpidem from 2001 to 2005. The newly reported cases in the UK and Australia add to a growing list of bizarre sleepwalking episodes linked to the drug in other countries, including reports of people sleep-driving while on the medication. In one case, a transatlantic flight had to be diverted after a passenger caused havoc after taking zolpidem. Hypnotic effects There is no biological pathway that has been proven to connect zolpidem with these behaviours. The drug is a benzodiazepine-like hypnotic that promotes deep sleep by interacting with brain receptors for a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid. While parts of the brain become less active during deep sleep, the body can still move, making sleepwalking a possibility. The product information for prescribers advises that psychiatric adverse effects, including hallucinations, sleepwalking and nightmares, are more likely in the elderly, and treatment should be stopped if they occur. Patient advocacy groups say they would like government health agencies and drug companies to take a closer look at the possible risks associated with sleep medicines. They stress that strange sleepwalking and sleep-driving behaviours can have risky consequences. When people do something in which theyre not in full control its always a danger, says Vera Sharav of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research Protection, a US network that advocates responsible and ethical medical research practices. Tried and tested The more reports that come out about the potential side effects of the drug, the more research needs to be done to understand if these are real side effects, says sleep researcher Kenneth Wright at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US. Millions of people have taken the drug without experiencing any strange side effects, points out Richard Millman at Brown Medical School, director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, US. He says that unlike older types of sleep medications, zolpidem does not carry as great a risk of addiction. And Wright notes that some of the reports of sleep-driving linked to zolpidem can be easily explained: some patients have wrongly taken the drug right before leaving work in hopes that the medicine will kick in by the time they reach home. Doctors stress that the medication should be taken just before going to bed. The US Food & Drug Administration says it is continuing to "actively investigate" and collect information about cases linking zolpidem to unusual side effects. The Ambien label currently lists strange behaviour as a special concern for people taking the drug. Its a possible rare adverse event, says Sanofi-Aventis spokesperson Melissa Feltmann, adding that the strange sleepwalking behaviours may not necessarily be caused by the drug but instead result from an underlying disorder. She says that the safety profile of zolpidem is well established. The drug received approval in the US in 1993. | Zolpidem is the only sleep medication that doesnt cause addiction. | contradiction |
id_5243 | Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour New evidence has linked a commonly prescribed sleep medication with bizarre behaviours, including a case in which a woman painted her front door in her sleep. UK and Australian health agencies have released information about 240 cases of odd occurrences, including sleepwalking, amnesia and hallucinations among people taking the drug zolpidem. While doctors say that zolpidem can offer much-needed relief for people with sleep disorders, they caution that these newly reported cases should prompt a closer look at its possible side effects. Zolpidem, sold under the brand names Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox, is widely prescribed to treat insomnia and other disorders such as sleep apnea. Various forms of the drug, made by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, were prescribed 674,500 times in 2005 in the UK. A newly published report from Australias Federal Health Department describes 104 cases of hallucinations and 62 cases of amnesia experienced by people taking zolpidem since marketing of the drug began there in 2000. The health department report also mentioned 16 cases of strange sleep walking by people taking the medication. Midnight snack In one of these sleepwalking cases a patient woke with a paintbrush in her hand after painting the front door to her house. Another case involved a woman who gained 23 kilograms over seven months while taking zolpidem. It was only when she was discovered in front of an open refrigerator while asleep that the problem was resolved, according to the report. The UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, meanwhile, has recorded 68 cases of adverse reactions to zolpidem from 2001 to 2005. The newly reported cases in the UK and Australia add to a growing list of bizarre sleepwalking episodes linked to the drug in other countries, including reports of people sleep-driving while on the medication. In one case, a transatlantic flight had to be diverted after a passenger caused havoc after taking zolpidem. Hypnotic effects There is no biological pathway that has been proven to connect zolpidem with these behaviours. The drug is a benzodiazepine-like hypnotic that promotes deep sleep by interacting with brain receptors for a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid. While parts of the brain become less active during deep sleep, the body can still move, making sleepwalking a possibility. The product information for prescribers advises that psychiatric adverse effects, including hallucinations, sleepwalking and nightmares, are more likely in the elderly, and treatment should be stopped if they occur. Patient advocacy groups say they would like government health agencies and drug companies to take a closer look at the possible risks associated with sleep medicines. They stress that strange sleepwalking and sleep-driving behaviours can have risky consequences. When people do something in which theyre not in full control its always a danger, says Vera Sharav of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research Protection, a US network that advocates responsible and ethical medical research practices. Tried and tested The more reports that come out about the potential side effects of the drug, the more research needs to be done to understand if these are real side effects, says sleep researcher Kenneth Wright at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US. Millions of people have taken the drug without experiencing any strange side effects, points out Richard Millman at Brown Medical School, director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, US. He says that unlike older types of sleep medications, zolpidem does not carry as great a risk of addiction. And Wright notes that some of the reports of sleep-driving linked to zolpidem can be easily explained: some patients have wrongly taken the drug right before leaving work in hopes that the medicine will kick in by the time they reach home. Doctors stress that the medication should be taken just before going to bed. The US Food & Drug Administration says it is continuing to "actively investigate" and collect information about cases linking zolpidem to unusual side effects. The Ambien label currently lists strange behaviour as a special concern for people taking the drug. Its a possible rare adverse event, says Sanofi-Aventis spokesperson Melissa Feltmann, adding that the strange sleepwalking behaviours may not necessarily be caused by the drug but instead result from an underlying disorder. She says that the safety profile of zolpidem is well established. The drug received approval in the US in 1993. | Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox are brand names of one same drug treating insomnia. | entailment |
id_5244 | Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour New evidence has linked a commonly prescribed sleep medication with bizarre behaviours, including a case in which a woman painted her front door in her sleep. UK and Australian health agencies have released information about 240 cases of odd occurrences, including sleepwalking, amnesia and hallucinations among people taking the drug zolpidem. While doctors say that zolpidem can offer much-needed relief for people with sleep disorders, they caution that these newly reported cases should prompt a closer look at its possible side effects. Zolpidem, sold under the brand names Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox, is widely prescribed to treat insomnia and other disorders such as sleep apnea. Various forms of the drug, made by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, were prescribed 674,500 times in 2005 in the UK. A newly published report from Australias Federal Health Department describes 104 cases of hallucinations and 62 cases of amnesia experienced by people taking zolpidem since marketing of the drug began there in 2000. The health department report also mentioned 16 cases of strange sleep walking by people taking the medication. Midnight snack In one of these sleepwalking cases a patient woke with a paintbrush in her hand after painting the front door to her house. Another case involved a woman who gained 23 kilograms over seven months while taking zolpidem. It was only when she was discovered in front of an open refrigerator while asleep that the problem was resolved, according to the report. The UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, meanwhile, has recorded 68 cases of adverse reactions to zolpidem from 2001 to 2005. The newly reported cases in the UK and Australia add to a growing list of bizarre sleepwalking episodes linked to the drug in other countries, including reports of people sleep-driving while on the medication. In one case, a transatlantic flight had to be diverted after a passenger caused havoc after taking zolpidem. Hypnotic effects There is no biological pathway that has been proven to connect zolpidem with these behaviours. The drug is a benzodiazepine-like hypnotic that promotes deep sleep by interacting with brain receptors for a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid. While parts of the brain become less active during deep sleep, the body can still move, making sleepwalking a possibility. The product information for prescribers advises that psychiatric adverse effects, including hallucinations, sleepwalking and nightmares, are more likely in the elderly, and treatment should be stopped if they occur. Patient advocacy groups say they would like government health agencies and drug companies to take a closer look at the possible risks associated with sleep medicines. They stress that strange sleepwalking and sleep-driving behaviours can have risky consequences. When people do something in which theyre not in full control its always a danger, says Vera Sharav of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research Protection, a US network that advocates responsible and ethical medical research practices. Tried and tested The more reports that come out about the potential side effects of the drug, the more research needs to be done to understand if these are real side effects, says sleep researcher Kenneth Wright at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US. Millions of people have taken the drug without experiencing any strange side effects, points out Richard Millman at Brown Medical School, director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, US. He says that unlike older types of sleep medications, zolpidem does not carry as great a risk of addiction. And Wright notes that some of the reports of sleep-driving linked to zolpidem can be easily explained: some patients have wrongly taken the drug right before leaving work in hopes that the medicine will kick in by the time they reach home. Doctors stress that the medication should be taken just before going to bed. The US Food & Drug Administration says it is continuing to "actively investigate" and collect information about cases linking zolpidem to unusual side effects. The Ambien label currently lists strange behaviour as a special concern for people taking the drug. Its a possible rare adverse event, says Sanofi-Aventis spokesperson Melissa Feltmann, adding that the strange sleepwalking behaviours may not necessarily be caused by the drug but instead result from an underlying disorder. She says that the safety profile of zolpidem is well established. The drug received approval in the US in 1993. | The sleep-driving occurrence resulted from the wrong use of zolpidem by an office worker. | neutral |
id_5245 | Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour New evidence has linked a commonly prescribed sleep medication with bizarre behaviours, including a case in which a woman painted her front door in her sleep. UK and Australian health agencies have released information about 240 cases of odd occurrences, including sleepwalking, amnesia and hallucinations among people taking the drug zolpidem. While doctors say that zolpidem can offer much-needed relief for people with sleep disorders, they caution that these newly reported cases should prompt a closer look at its possible side effects. Zolpidem, sold under the brand names Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox, is widely prescribed to treat insomnia and other disorders such as sleep apnea. Various forms of the drug, made by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, were prescribed 674,500 times in 2005 in the UK. A newly published report from Australias Federal Health Department describes 104 cases of hallucinations and 62 cases of amnesia experienced by people taking zolpidem since marketing of the drug began there in 2000. The health department report also mentioned 16 cases of strangesleepwalking by people taking the medication. Midnight snack In one of these sleepwalking cases a patient woke with a paintbrush in her hand after painting the front door to her house. Another case involved a woman who gained 23 kilograms over seven months while taking zolpidem. It was only when she was discovered in front of an open refrigerator while asleep that the problem was resolved, according to the report. The UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, meanwhile, has recorded 68 cases of adverse reactions to zolpidem from 2001 to 2005. The newly reported cases in the UK and Australia add to a growing list of bizarre sleepwalking episodes linked to the drug in other countries, including reports of people sleep-driving while on the medication. In one case, a transatlantic flight had to be diverted after a passenger caused havoc after taking zolpidem. Hypnotic effects There is no biological pathway that has been proven to connect zolpidem with these behaviours. The drug is a benzodiazepine-like hypnotic that promotes deep sleep by interacting with brain receptors for a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid. While parts of the brain become less active during deep sleep, the body can still move, making sleepwalking a possibility. The product information for prescribers advises that psychiatric adverse effects, including hallucinations, sleepwalking and nightmares, are more likely in the elderly, and treatment should be stopped if they occur. Patient advocacy groups say they would like government health agencies and drug companies to take a closer look at the possible risks associated with sleep medicines. They stress that strange sleepwalking and sleep-driving behaviours can have risky consequences. When people do something in which theyre not in full control its always a danger, says Vera Sharav of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research Protection, a US network that advocates responsible and ethical medical research practices. Tried and tested The more reports that come out about the potential side effects of the drug, the more research needs to be done to understand if these are real side effects, says sleep researcher Kenneth Wright at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US. Millions of people have taken the drug without experiencing any strange side effects, points out Richard Millman at Brown Medical School, director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, US. He says that unlike older types of sleep medications, zolpidem does not carry as great a risk of addiction. And Wright notes that some of the reports of sleep-driving linked to zolpidem can be easily explained: some patients have wrongly taken the drug right before leaving work in hopes that the medicine will kick in by the time they reach home. Doctors stress that the medication should be taken just before going to bed. The US Food & Drug Administration says it is continuing to "actively investigate" and collect information about cases linking zolpidem to unusual side effects. The Ambien label currently lists strange behaviour as a special concern for people taking the drug. Its a possible rare adverse event, says Sanofi-Aventis spokesperson Melissa Feltmann, adding that the strange sleepwalking behaviours may not necessarily be caused by the drug but instead result from an underlying disorder. She says that the safety profile of zolpidem is well established. The drug received approval in the US in 1993. | The sleep-driving occurrence resulted from the wrong use of zolpidem by an office worker. | neutral |
id_5246 | Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour New evidence has linked a commonly prescribed sleep medication with bizarre behaviours, including a case in which a woman painted her front door in her sleep. UK and Australian health agencies have released information about 240 cases of odd occurrences, including sleepwalking, amnesia and hallucinations among people taking the drug zolpidem. While doctors say that zolpidem can offer much-needed relief for people with sleep disorders, they caution that these newly reported cases should prompt a closer look at its possible side effects. Zolpidem, sold under the brand names Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox, is widely prescribed to treat insomnia and other disorders such as sleep apnea. Various forms of the drug, made by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, were prescribed 674,500 times in 2005 in the UK. A newly published report from Australias Federal Health Department describes 104 cases of hallucinations and 62 cases of amnesia experienced by people taking zolpidem since marketing of the drug began there in 2000. The health department report also mentioned 16 cases of strangesleepwalking by people taking the medication. Midnight snack In one of these sleepwalking cases a patient woke with a paintbrush in her hand after painting the front door to her house. Another case involved a woman who gained 23 kilograms over seven months while taking zolpidem. It was only when she was discovered in front of an open refrigerator while asleep that the problem was resolved, according to the report. The UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, meanwhile, has recorded 68 cases of adverse reactions to zolpidem from 2001 to 2005. The newly reported cases in the UK and Australia add to a growing list of bizarre sleepwalking episodes linked to the drug in other countries, including reports of people sleep-driving while on the medication. In one case, a transatlantic flight had to be diverted after a passenger caused havoc after taking zolpidem. Hypnotic effects There is no biological pathway that has been proven to connect zolpidem with these behaviours. The drug is a benzodiazepine-like hypnotic that promotes deep sleep by interacting with brain receptors for a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid. While parts of the brain become less active during deep sleep, the body can still move, making sleepwalking a possibility. The product information for prescribers advises that psychiatric adverse effects, including hallucinations, sleepwalking and nightmares, are more likely in the elderly, and treatment should be stopped if they occur. Patient advocacy groups say they would like government health agencies and drug companies to take a closer look at the possible risks associated with sleep medicines. They stress that strange sleepwalking and sleep-driving behaviours can have risky consequences. When people do something in which theyre not in full control its always a danger, says Vera Sharav of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research Protection, a US network that advocates responsible and ethical medical research practices. Tried and tested The more reports that come out about the potential side effects of the drug, the more research needs to be done to understand if these are real side effects, says sleep researcher Kenneth Wright at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US. Millions of people have taken the drug without experiencing any strange side effects, points out Richard Millman at Brown Medical School, director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, US. He says that unlike older types of sleep medications, zolpidem does not carry as great a risk of addiction. And Wright notes that some of the reports of sleep-driving linked to zolpidem can be easily explained: some patients have wrongly taken the drug right before leaving work in hopes that the medicine will kick in by the time they reach home. Doctors stress that the medication should be taken just before going to bed. The US Food & Drug Administration says it is continuing to "actively investigate" and collect information about cases linking zolpidem to unusual side effects. The Ambien label currently lists strange behaviour as a special concern for people taking the drug. Its a possible rare adverse event, says Sanofi-Aventis spokesperson Melissa Feltmann, adding that the strange sleepwalking behaviours may not necessarily be caused by the drug but instead result from an underlying disorder. She says that the safety profile of zolpidem is well established. The drug received approval in the US in 1993. | Zolpidem received approval in the UK in 2001. | neutral |
id_5247 | Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour New evidence has linked a commonly prescribed sleep medication with bizarre behaviours, including a case in which a woman painted her front door in her sleep. UK and Australian health agencies have released information about 240 cases of odd occurrences, including sleepwalking, amnesia and hallucinations among people taking the drug zolpidem. While doctors say that zolpidem can offer much-needed relief for people with sleep disorders, they caution that these newly reported cases should prompt a closer look at its possible side effects. Zolpidem, sold under the brand names Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox, is widely prescribed to treat insomnia and other disorders such as sleep apnea. Various forms of the drug, made by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, were prescribed 674,500 times in 2005 in the UK. A newly published report from Australias Federal Health Department describes 104 cases of hallucinations and 62 cases of amnesia experienced by people taking zolpidem since marketing of the drug began there in 2000. The health department report also mentioned 16 cases of strangesleepwalking by people taking the medication. Midnight snack In one of these sleepwalking cases a patient woke with a paintbrush in her hand after painting the front door to her house. Another case involved a woman who gained 23 kilograms over seven months while taking zolpidem. It was only when she was discovered in front of an open refrigerator while asleep that the problem was resolved, according to the report. The UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, meanwhile, has recorded 68 cases of adverse reactions to zolpidem from 2001 to 2005. The newly reported cases in the UK and Australia add to a growing list of bizarre sleepwalking episodes linked to the drug in other countries, including reports of people sleep-driving while on the medication. In one case, a transatlantic flight had to be diverted after a passenger caused havoc after taking zolpidem. Hypnotic effects There is no biological pathway that has been proven to connect zolpidem with these behaviours. The drug is a benzodiazepine-like hypnotic that promotes deep sleep by interacting with brain receptors for a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid. While parts of the brain become less active during deep sleep, the body can still move, making sleepwalking a possibility. The product information for prescribers advises that psychiatric adverse effects, including hallucinations, sleepwalking and nightmares, are more likely in the elderly, and treatment should be stopped if they occur. Patient advocacy groups say they would like government health agencies and drug companies to take a closer look at the possible risks associated with sleep medicines. They stress that strange sleepwalking and sleep-driving behaviours can have risky consequences. When people do something in which theyre not in full control its always a danger, says Vera Sharav of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research Protection, a US network that advocates responsible and ethical medical research practices. Tried and tested The more reports that come out about the potential side effects of the drug, the more research needs to be done to understand if these are real side effects, says sleep researcher Kenneth Wright at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US. Millions of people have taken the drug without experiencing any strange side effects, points out Richard Millman at Brown Medical School, director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, US. He says that unlike older types of sleep medications, zolpidem does not carry as great a risk of addiction. And Wright notes that some of the reports of sleep-driving linked to zolpidem can be easily explained: some patients have wrongly taken the drug right before leaving work in hopes that the medicine will kick in by the time they reach home. Doctors stress that the medication should be taken just before going to bed. The US Food & Drug Administration says it is continuing to "actively investigate" and collect information about cases linking zolpidem to unusual side effects. The Ambien label currently lists strange behaviour as a special concern for people taking the drug. Its a possible rare adverse event, says Sanofi-Aventis spokesperson Melissa Feltmann, adding that the strange sleepwalking behaviours may not necessarily be caused by the drug but instead result from an underlying disorder. She says that the safety profile of zolpidem is well established. The drug received approval in the US in 1993. | The bizarre behaviour of a passenger after taking zolpidem resulted in the diversion of a flight bound for the other side of the Atlantic. | entailment |
id_5248 | Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour New evidence has linked a commonly prescribed sleep medication with bizarre behaviours, including a case in which a woman painted her front door in her sleep. UK and Australian health agencies have released information about 240 cases of odd occurrences, including sleepwalking, amnesia and hallucinations among people taking the drug zolpidem. While doctors say that zolpidem can offer much-needed relief for people with sleep disorders, they caution that these newly reported cases should prompt a closer look at its possible side effects. Zolpidem, sold under the brand names Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox, is widely prescribed to treat insomnia and other disorders such as sleep apnea. Various forms of the drug, made by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, were prescribed 674,500 times in 2005 in the UK. A newly published report from Australias Federal Health Department describes 104 cases of hallucinations and 62 cases of amnesia experienced by people taking zolpidem since marketing of the drug began there in 2000. The health department report also mentioned 16 cases of strangesleepwalking by people taking the medication. Midnight snack In one of these sleepwalking cases a patient woke with a paintbrush in her hand after painting the front door to her house. Another case involved a woman who gained 23 kilograms over seven months while taking zolpidem. It was only when she was discovered in front of an open refrigerator while asleep that the problem was resolved, according to the report. The UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, meanwhile, has recorded 68 cases of adverse reactions to zolpidem from 2001 to 2005. The newly reported cases in the UK and Australia add to a growing list of bizarre sleepwalking episodes linked to the drug in other countries, including reports of people sleep-driving while on the medication. In one case, a transatlantic flight had to be diverted after a passenger caused havoc after taking zolpidem. Hypnotic effects There is no biological pathway that has been proven to connect zolpidem with these behaviours. The drug is a benzodiazepine-like hypnotic that promotes deep sleep by interacting with brain receptors for a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid. While parts of the brain become less active during deep sleep, the body can still move, making sleepwalking a possibility. The product information for prescribers advises that psychiatric adverse effects, including hallucinations, sleepwalking and nightmares, are more likely in the elderly, and treatment should be stopped if they occur. Patient advocacy groups say they would like government health agencies and drug companies to take a closer look at the possible risks associated with sleep medicines. They stress that strange sleepwalking and sleep-driving behaviours can have risky consequences. When people do something in which theyre not in full control its always a danger, says Vera Sharav of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research Protection, a US network that advocates responsible and ethical medical research practices. Tried and tested The more reports that come out about the potential side effects of the drug, the more research needs to be done to understand if these are real side effects, says sleep researcher Kenneth Wright at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US. Millions of people have taken the drug without experiencing any strange side effects, points out Richard Millman at Brown Medical School, director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, US. He says that unlike older types of sleep medications, zolpidem does not carry as great a risk of addiction. And Wright notes that some of the reports of sleep-driving linked to zolpidem can be easily explained: some patients have wrongly taken the drug right before leaving work in hopes that the medicine will kick in by the time they reach home. Doctors stress that the medication should be taken just before going to bed. The US Food & Drug Administration says it is continuing to "actively investigate" and collect information about cases linking zolpidem to unusual side effects. The Ambien label currently lists strange behaviour as a special concern for people taking the drug. Its a possible rare adverse event, says Sanofi-Aventis spokesperson Melissa Feltmann, adding that the strange sleepwalking behaviours may not necessarily be caused by the drug but instead result from an underlying disorder. She says that the safety profile of zolpidem is well established. The drug received approval in the US in 1993. | The womans obesity problem wasnt resolved until she stopped taking zolpidem. | contradiction |
id_5249 | Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour New evidence has linked a commonly prescribed sleep medication with bizarre behaviours, including a case in which a woman painted her front door in her sleep. UK and Australian health agencies have released information about 240 cases of odd occurrences, including sleepwalking, amnesia and hallucinations among people taking the drug zolpidem. While doctors say that zolpidem can offer much-needed relief for people with sleep disorders, they caution that these newly reported cases should prompt a closer look at its possible side effects. Zolpidem, sold under the brand names Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox, is widely prescribed to treat insomnia and other disorders such as sleep apnea. Various forms of the drug, made by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, were prescribed 674,500 times in 2005 in the UK. A newly published report from Australias Federal Health Department describes 104 cases of hallucinations and 62 cases of amnesia experienced by people taking zolpidem since marketing of the drug began there in 2000. The health department report also mentioned 16 cases of strangesleepwalking by people taking the medication. Midnight snack In one of these sleepwalking cases a patient woke with a paintbrush in her hand after painting the front door to her house. Another case involved a woman who gained 23 kilograms over seven months while taking zolpidem. It was only when she was discovered in front of an open refrigerator while asleep that the problem was resolved, according to the report. The UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, meanwhile, has recorded 68 cases of adverse reactions to zolpidem from 2001 to 2005. The newly reported cases in the UK and Australia add to a growing list of bizarre sleepwalking episodes linked to the drug in other countries, including reports of people sleep-driving while on the medication. In one case, a transatlantic flight had to be diverted after a passenger caused havoc after taking zolpidem. Hypnotic effects There is no biological pathway that has been proven to connect zolpidem with these behaviours. The drug is a benzodiazepine-like hypnotic that promotes deep sleep by interacting with brain receptors for a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid. While parts of the brain become less active during deep sleep, the body can still move, making sleepwalking a possibility. The product information for prescribers advises that psychiatric adverse effects, including hallucinations, sleepwalking and nightmares, are more likely in the elderly, and treatment should be stopped if they occur. Patient advocacy groups say they would like government health agencies and drug companies to take a closer look at the possible risks associated with sleep medicines. They stress that strange sleepwalking and sleep-driving behaviours can have risky consequences. When people do something in which theyre not in full control its always a danger, says Vera Sharav of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research Protection, a US network that advocates responsible and ethical medical research practices. Tried and tested The more reports that come out about the potential side effects of the drug, the more research needs to be done to understand if these are real side effects, says sleep researcher Kenneth Wright at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US. Millions of people have taken the drug without experiencing any strange side effects, points out Richard Millman at Brown Medical School, director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, US. He says that unlike older types of sleep medications, zolpidem does not carry as great a risk of addiction. And Wright notes that some of the reports of sleep-driving linked to zolpidem can be easily explained: some patients have wrongly taken the drug right before leaving work in hopes that the medicine will kick in by the time they reach home. Doctors stress that the medication should be taken just before going to bed. The US Food & Drug Administration says it is continuing to "actively investigate" and collect information about cases linking zolpidem to unusual side effects. The Ambien label currently lists strange behaviour as a special concern for people taking the drug. Its a possible rare adverse event, says Sanofi-Aventis spokesperson Melissa Feltmann, adding that the strange sleepwalking behaviours may not necessarily be caused by the drug but instead result from an underlying disorder. She says that the safety profile of zolpidem is well established. The drug received approval in the US in 1993. | Zolpidem is the only sleep medication that doesnt cause addiction. | contradiction |
id_5250 | Sleep medication linked to bizarre behaviour New evidence has linked a commonly prescribed sleep medication with bizarre behaviours, including a case in which a woman painted her front door in her sleep. UK and Australian health agencies have released information about 240 cases of odd occurrences, including sleepwalking, amnesia and hallucinations among people taking the drug zolpidem. While doctors say that zolpidem can offer much-needed relief for people with sleep disorders, they caution that these newly reported cases should prompt a closer look at its possible side effects. Zolpidem, sold under the brand names Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox, is widely prescribed to treat insomnia and other disorders such as sleep apnea. Various forms of the drug, made by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, were prescribed 674,500 times in 2005 in the UK. A newly published report from Australias Federal Health Department describes 104 cases of hallucinations and 62 cases of amnesia experienced by people taking zolpidem since marketing of the drug began there in 2000. The health department report also mentioned 16 cases of strangesleepwalking by people taking the medication. Midnight snack In one of these sleepwalking cases a patient woke with a paintbrush in her hand after painting the front door to her house. Another case involved a woman who gained 23 kilograms over seven months while taking zolpidem. It was only when she was discovered in front of an open refrigerator while asleep that the problem was resolved, according to the report. The UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, meanwhile, has recorded 68 cases of adverse reactions to zolpidem from 2001 to 2005. The newly reported cases in the UK and Australia add to a growing list of bizarre sleepwalking episodes linked to the drug in other countries, including reports of people sleep-driving while on the medication. In one case, a transatlantic flight had to be diverted after a passenger caused havoc after taking zolpidem. Hypnotic effects There is no biological pathway that has been proven to connect zolpidem with these behaviours. The drug is a benzodiazepine-like hypnotic that promotes deep sleep by interacting with brain receptors for a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid. While parts of the brain become less active during deep sleep, the body can still move, making sleepwalking a possibility. The product information for prescribers advises that psychiatric adverse effects, including hallucinations, sleepwalking and nightmares, are more likely in the elderly, and treatment should be stopped if they occur. Patient advocacy groups say they would like government health agencies and drug companies to take a closer look at the possible risks associated with sleep medicines. They stress that strange sleepwalking and sleep-driving behaviours can have risky consequences. When people do something in which theyre not in full control its always a danger, says Vera Sharav of the New York-based Alliance for Human Research Protection, a US network that advocates responsible and ethical medical research practices. Tried and tested The more reports that come out about the potential side effects of the drug, the more research needs to be done to understand if these are real side effects, says sleep researcher Kenneth Wright at the University of Colorado in Boulder, US. Millions of people have taken the drug without experiencing any strange side effects, points out Richard Millman at Brown Medical School, director of the Sleep Disorders Center of Lifespan Hospitals in Providence, Rhode Island, US. He says that unlike older types of sleep medications, zolpidem does not carry as great a risk of addiction. And Wright notes that some of the reports of sleep-driving linked to zolpidem can be easily explained: some patients have wrongly taken the drug right before leaving work in hopes that the medicine will kick in by the time they reach home. Doctors stress that the medication should be taken just before going to bed. The US Food & Drug Administration says it is continuing to "actively investigate" and collect information about cases linking zolpidem to unusual side effects. The Ambien label currently lists strange behaviour as a special concern for people taking the drug. Its a possible rare adverse event, says Sanofi-Aventis spokesperson Melissa Feltmann, adding that the strange sleepwalking behaviours may not necessarily be caused by the drug but instead result from an underlying disorder. She says that the safety profile of zolpidem is well established. The drug received approval in the US in 1993. | Ambien, Stilnoct and Stilnox are brand names of one same drug treating insomnia. | entailment |
id_5251 | Sleepy Students Perform Worse Staying up an hour or two past bedtime makes it far harder for kids to learn, say scientists who deprived youngsters of sleep and tested whether their teachers could tell the difference. They could. If parents want their children to thrive academically, Getting them to sleep on time is as important as getting them to school on time, said psychologist Gahan Fallone, who conducted the research at Brown Medical School. The study, unveiled Thursday at an American Medical Association (AMA) science writers meeting, was conducted on healthy children who had no evidence of sleep- or learning-related disorders. Difficulty paying attention was among the problems the sleepy youngsters faced raising the question of whether sleep deprivation could prove even worse for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Fallone now is studying that question, and suspects that sleep problems could hit children with ADHD as a double whammy. Sleep experts have long warned that Americans of all ages do not get enough shuteye. Sleep is important for health, bringing a range of benefits that, as Shakespeare put it, knits up the ravelled sleave of care. Not getting enough is linked to a host of problems, from car crashes as drivers doze off to crippled memory and inhibited creativity. Exactly how much sleep correlates with school performance is hard to prove. So, Brown researchers set out to test whether teachers could detect problems with attention and learning when children stayed up late even if the teachers had no idea how much sleep their students actually got. They recruited seventy-four 6- to 12-year-olds from Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts for the three-week study. For one week, the youngsters went to bed and woke up at their usual times. They already were fairly good sleepers, getting nine to 9.5 hours of sleep a night. Another week, they were assigned to spend no fewer than ten hours in bed a night. The other week, they were kept up later than usual: First -and second-graders were in bed no more than eight hours and the older children no more than 6.5 hours. In addition to parents reports, the youngsters wore motiondetecting wrist monitors to ensure compliance. Teachers were not told how much the children slept or which week they stayed up late, but rated the students on a variety of performance measures each week. The teachers reported significantly more academic problems during the week of sleep deprivation, the study, which will be published in the journal Sleep in December, concluded. Students who got eight hours of sleep or less a night were more forgetful, had the most trouble learning new lessons, and had the most problems paying attention, reported Fallone, now at the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology. Sleep has long been a concern of educators. Potter-Burns Elementary School sends notes to parents reminding them to make sure students get enough sleep prior to the schools yearly achievement testing. Another school considers it important enough to include in the schools monthly newsletters. Definitely, there is an impact on students performance if they come to school tired. However, the findings may change physician practice, said Dr. Regina Benjamin, a family physician in Bayou La Batre, who reviewed the data at the Thursdays AMA meeting. I dont ask about sleep when evaluating academically struggling students, she noted. Im going to start. So how much sleep do kids need? Recommended amounts range from about ten to eleven hours a night for young elementary students to 8.5 hours for teens. Fallone insists that his own second-grader get ten hours a night, even when it meant dropping soccer season that practice did not start until 7:30 too late for her to fit in dinner and time to wind down before she needed to be snoozing. Its tough, he acknowledged, but parents must believe in the importance of sleep. | The results of the study were first distributed to principals of American schools, | contradiction |
id_5252 | Sleepy Students Perform Worse Staying up an hour or two past bedtime makes it far harder for kids to learn, say scientists who deprived youngsters of sleep and tested whether their teachers could tell the difference. They could. If parents want their children to thrive academically, Getting them to sleep on time is as important as getting them to school on time, said psychologist Gahan Fallone, who conducted the research at Brown Medical School. The study, unveiled Thursday at an American Medical Association (AMA) science writers meeting, was conducted on healthy children who had no evidence of sleep- or learning-related disorders. Difficulty paying attention was among the problems the sleepy youngsters faced raising the question of whether sleep deprivation could prove even worse for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Fallone now is studying that question, and suspects that sleep problems could hit children with ADHD as a double whammy. Sleep experts have long warned that Americans of all ages do not get enough shuteye. Sleep is important for health, bringing a range of benefits that, as Shakespeare put it, knits up the ravelled sleave of care. Not getting enough is linked to a host of problems, from car crashes as drivers doze off to crippled memory and inhibited creativity. Exactly how much sleep correlates with school performance is hard to prove. So, Brown researchers set out to test whether teachers could detect problems with attention and learning when children stayed up late even if the teachers had no idea how much sleep their students actually got. They recruited seventy-four 6- to 12-year-olds from Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts for the three-week study. For one week, the youngsters went to bed and woke up at their usual times. They already were fairly good sleepers, getting nine to 9.5 hours of sleep a night. Another week, they were assigned to spend no fewer than ten hours in bed a night. The other week, they were kept up later than usual: First -and second-graders were in bed no more than eight hours and the older children no more than 6.5 hours. In addition to parents reports, the youngsters wore motiondetecting wrist monitors to ensure compliance. Teachers were not told how much the children slept or which week they stayed up late, but rated the students on a variety of performance measures each week. The teachers reported significantly more academic problems during the week of sleep deprivation, the study, which will be published in the journal Sleep in December, concluded. Students who got eight hours of sleep or less a night were more forgetful, had the most trouble learning new lessons, and had the most problems paying attention, reported Fallone, now at the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology. Sleep has long been a concern of educators. Potter-Burns Elementary School sends notes to parents reminding them to make sure students get enough sleep prior to the schools yearly achievement testing. Another school considers it important enough to include in the schools monthly newsletters. Definitely, there is an impact on students performance if they come to school tired. However, the findings may change physician practice, said Dr. Regina Benjamin, a family physician in Bayou La Batre, who reviewed the data at the Thursdays AMA meeting. I dont ask about sleep when evaluating academically struggling students, she noted. Im going to start. So how much sleep do kids need? Recommended amounts range from about ten to eleven hours a night for young elementary students to 8.5 hours for teens. Fallone insists that his own second-grader get ten hours a night, even when it meant dropping soccer season that practice did not start until 7:30 too late for her to fit in dinner and time to wind down before she needed to be snoozing. Its tough, he acknowledged, but parents must believe in the importance of sleep. | Some of the children in the study had previously shown signs of sleeping problems. | contradiction |
id_5253 | Sleepy Students Perform Worse Staying up an hour or two past bedtime makes it far harder for kids to learn, say scientists who deprived youngsters of sleep and tested whether their teachers could tell the difference. They could. If parents want their children to thrive academically, Getting them to sleep on time is as important as getting them to school on time, said psychologist Gahan Fallone, who conducted the research at Brown Medical School. The study, unveiled Thursday at an American Medical Association (AMA) science writers meeting, was conducted on healthy children who had no evidence of sleep- or learning-related disorders. Difficulty paying attention was among the problems the sleepy youngsters faced raising the question of whether sleep deprivation could prove even worse for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Fallone now is studying that question, and suspects that sleep problems could hit children with ADHD as a double whammy. Sleep experts have long warned that Americans of all ages do not get enough shuteye. Sleep is important for health, bringing a range of benefits that, as Shakespeare put it, knits up the ravelled sleave of care. Not getting enough is linked to a host of problems, from car crashes as drivers doze off to crippled memory and inhibited creativity. Exactly how much sleep correlates with school performance is hard to prove. So, Brown researchers set out to test whether teachers could detect problems with attention and learning when children stayed up late even if the teachers had no idea how much sleep their students actually got. They recruited seventy-four 6- to 12-year-olds from Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts for the three-week study. For one week, the youngsters went to bed and woke up at their usual times. They already were fairly good sleepers, getting nine to 9.5 hours of sleep a night. Another week, they were assigned to spend no fewer than ten hours in bed a night. The other week, they were kept up later than usual: First -and second-graders were in bed no more than eight hours and the older children no more than 6.5 hours. In addition to parents reports, the youngsters wore motiondetecting wrist monitors to ensure compliance. Teachers were not told how much the children slept or which week they stayed up late, but rated the students on a variety of performance measures each week. The teachers reported significantly more academic problems during the week of sleep deprivation, the study, which will be published in the journal Sleep in December, concluded. Students who got eight hours of sleep or less a night were more forgetful, had the most trouble learning new lessons, and had the most problems paying attention, reported Fallone, now at the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology. Sleep has long been a concern of educators. Potter-Burns Elementary School sends notes to parents reminding them to make sure students get enough sleep prior to the schools yearly achievement testing. Another school considers it important enough to include in the schools monthly newsletters. Definitely, there is an impact on students performance if they come to school tired. However, the findings may change physician practice, said Dr. Regina Benjamin, a family physician in Bayou La Batre, who reviewed the data at the Thursdays AMA meeting. I dont ask about sleep when evaluating academically struggling students, she noted. Im going to start. So how much sleep do kids need? Recommended amounts range from about ten to eleven hours a night for young elementary students to 8.5 hours for teens. Fallone insists that his own second-grader get ten hours a night, even when it meant dropping soccer season that practice did not start until 7:30 too late for her to fit in dinner and time to wind down before she needed to be snoozing. Its tough, he acknowledged, but parents must believe in the importance of sleep. | The study could influence how doctors deal with childrens health problems. | entailment |
id_5254 | Sleepy Students Perform Worse Staying up an hour or two past bedtime makes it far harder for kids to learn, say scientists who deprived youngsters of sleep and tested whether their teachers could tell the difference. They could. If parents want their children to thrive academically, Getting them to sleep on time is as important as getting them to school on time, said psychologist Gahan Fallone, who conducted the research at Brown Medical School. The study, unveiled Thursday at an American Medical Association (AMA) science writers meeting, was conducted on healthy children who had no evidence of sleep- or learning-related disorders. Difficulty paying attention was among the problems the sleepy youngsters faced raising the question of whether sleep deprivation could prove even worse for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Fallone now is studying that question, and suspects that sleep problems could hit children with ADHD as a double whammy. Sleep experts have long warned that Americans of all ages do not get enough shuteye. Sleep is important for health, bringing a range of benefits that, as Shakespeare put it, knits up the ravelled sleave of care. Not getting enough is linked to a host of problems, from car crashes as drivers doze off to crippled memory and inhibited creativity. Exactly how much sleep correlates with school performance is hard to prove. So, Brown researchers set out to test whether teachers could detect problems with attention and learning when children stayed up late even if the teachers had no idea how much sleep their students actually got. They recruited seventy-four 6- to 12-year-olds from Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts for the three-week study. For one week, the youngsters went to bed and woke up at their usual times. They already were fairly good sleepers, getting nine to 9.5 hours of sleep a night. Another week, they were assigned to spend no fewer than ten hours in bed a night. The other week, they were kept up later than usual: First -and second-graders were in bed no more than eight hours and the older children no more than 6.5 hours. In addition to parents reports, the youngsters wore motiondetecting wrist monitors to ensure compliance. Teachers were not told how much the children slept or which week they stayed up late, but rated the students on a variety of performance measures each week. The teachers reported significantly more academic problems during the week of sleep deprivation, the study, which will be published in the journal Sleep in December, concluded. Students who got eight hours of sleep or less a night were more forgetful, had the most trouble learning new lessons, and had the most problems paying attention, reported Fallone, now at the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology. Sleep has long been a concern of educators. Potter-Burns Elementary School sends notes to parents reminding them to make sure students get enough sleep prior to the schools yearly achievement testing. Another school considers it important enough to include in the schools monthly newsletters. Definitely, there is an impact on students performance if they come to school tired. However, the findings may change physician practice, said Dr. Regina Benjamin, a family physician in Bayou La Batre, who reviewed the data at the Thursdays AMA meeting. I dont ask about sleep when evaluating academically struggling students, she noted. Im going to start. So how much sleep do kids need? Recommended amounts range from about ten to eleven hours a night for young elementary students to 8.5 hours for teens. Fallone insists that his own second-grader get ten hours a night, even when it meant dropping soccer season that practice did not start until 7:30 too late for her to fit in dinner and time to wind down before she needed to be snoozing. Its tough, he acknowledged, but parents must believe in the importance of sleep. | Fallone does not let his daughter play soccer. | neutral |
id_5255 | Sleepy Students Perform Worse Staying up an hour or two past bedtime makes it far harder for kids to learn, say scientists who deprived youngsters of sleep and tested whether their teachers could tell the difference. They could. If parents want their children to thrive academically, Getting them to sleep on time is as important as getting them to school on time, said psychologist Gahan Fallone, who conducted the research at Brown Medical School. The study, unveiled Thursday at an American Medical Association (AMA) science writers meeting, was conducted on healthy children who had no evidence of sleep- or learning-related disorders. Difficulty paying attention was among the problems the sleepy youngsters faced raising the question of whether sleep deprivation could prove even worse for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Fallone now is studying that question, and suspects that sleep problems could hit children with ADHD as a double whammy. Sleep experts have long warned that Americans of all ages do not get enough shuteye. Sleep is important for health, bringing a range of benefits that, as Shakespeare put it, knits up the ravelled sleave of care. Not getting enough is linked to a host of problems, from car crashes as drivers doze off to crippled memory and inhibited creativity. Exactly how much sleep correlates with school performance is hard to prove. So, Brown researchers set out to test whether teachers could detect problems with attention and learning when children stayed up late even if the teachers had no idea how much sleep their students actually got. They recruited seventy-four 6- to 12-year-olds from Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts for the three-week study. For one week, the youngsters went to bed and woke up at their usual times. They already were fairly good sleepers, getting nine to 9.5 hours of sleep a night. Another week, they were assigned to spend no fewer than ten hours in bed a night. The other week, they were kept up later than usual: First -and second-graders were in bed no more than eight hours and the older children no more than 6.5 hours. In addition to parents reports, the youngsters wore motiondetecting wrist monitors to ensure compliance. Teachers were not told how much the children slept or which week they stayed up late, but rated the students on a variety of performance measures each week. The teachers reported significantly more academic problems during the week of sleep deprivation, the study, which will be published in the journal Sleep in December, concluded. Students who got eight hours of sleep or less a night were more forgetful, had the most trouble learning new lessons, and had the most problems paying attention, reported Fallone, now at the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology. Sleep has long been a concern of educators. Potter-Burns Elementary School sends notes to parents reminding them to make sure students get enough sleep prior to the schools yearly achievement testing. Another school considers it important enough to include in the schools monthly newsletters. Definitely, there is an impact on students performance if they come to school tired. However, the findings may change physician practice, said Dr. Regina Benjamin, a family physician in Bayou La Batre, who reviewed the data at the Thursdays AMA meeting. I dont ask about sleep when evaluating academically struggling students, she noted. Im going to start. So how much sleep do kids need? Recommended amounts range from about ten to eleven hours a night for young elementary students to 8.5 hours for teens. Fallone insists that his own second-grader get ten hours a night, even when it meant dropping soccer season that practice did not start until 7:30 too late for her to fit in dinner and time to wind down before she needed to be snoozing. Its tough, he acknowledged, but parents must believe in the importance of sleep. | Staying up later is acceptable if the child is doing homework. | neutral |
id_5256 | Snake Oil A Back in the days of Americas Wild West, when cowboys roamed the range and people were getting themselves caught up in gunfights, a new phrase snake oil entered the language. It was a dismissive term for the patent medicines, often useless, sold by travelling traders who always claimed miraculous cures for everything from baldness to snakebite. Selling snake oil was almost as risky a business as cattle stealing; you might be run out of town if your particular medicine, as you realised it would, failed to live up to its claims. Consequently, the smarter snake oil sellers left town before their customers had much chance to evaluate the cure* they had just bought. B The remarkable thing about many of the medicines dismissed then as snake oil is not so much that they failed to live up to the outrageous claims made for them those that werent harmless coloured water could be positively dangerous. Whats remarkable is that so many of the claims made for some of these remedies, or at least their ingredients, most of them plant based, have since been found to have at least some basis in fact. One, Echinacea, eventually turned out to be far more potent than even its original promoter claimed. Echinacea first appeared in Meyers Blood Purifier, promoted as a cure-all by a Dr H. C. F. Meyer a lay doctor with no medical qualifications. Meyers Blood Purifier claimed not only to cure snakebite, but also to eliminate a host of other ailments. C Native to North America, the roots of Echinacea, or purple coneflower, had been used by the Plains Indians for all kinds of ailments long before Meyer came along. They applied poultices of it to wounds and stings, used it for teeth and gum disease and made a tea from it to treat everything from colds and measles to arthritis. They even used it for snakebite. D Settlers quickly picked up on the plants usefulness but until Meyer sent samples of his blood purifier* to John Lloyd, a pharmacist, it remained a folk remedy. Initially dismissing Meyers claims as nonsense, Lloyd was eventually converted after a colleague, John King, tested the herb and successfully used it to treat bee stings and nasal congestion. In fact, he went much further in his claims than Meyer ever did and by the 1890s a bottle of tincture of Echinacea could be found in almost every American home, incidentally making a fortune for Lloyds company. Lloyd Brothers Pharmacy. E As modern antibiotics became available, the use of Echinacea products declined and from the 1940s to the 1970s it was pretty much forgotten in the USA. It was a different story in Europe, where both French and German herbalists and homeopaths continued to make extensive use of it. It had been introduced there by Gerhard Madaus, who travelled from Germany to America in 1937, returning with seed to establish commercial plots of Echinacea. His firm conducted extensive research on echinacin, a concentrate they made from the juice of flowering tops of the plants he had brought back. It was put into ointments, liquids for internal and external use, and into products for injections. F There is no evidence that Echinacea is effective against snakebite, but Dr Meyer- who genuinely believed in Echinacea would probably be quite amused if he could come back and see the uses to which modern science has put . his herb. He might not be surprised that science has confirmed Echinaceas role as a treatment for wounds, or that it has been found to be helpful in relieving arthritis, both claims Meyer made for the herb. He might though be surprised to learn how Echinacea is proving to be an effective weapon against all sorts of disease, particularly infections. German researchers had used it successfully to treat a range of infections and found it to be effective against bacteria and protozoa. There are many other intriguing medical possibilities for extracts from the herb, but its apparent ability to help with our more common ailments has seen thousands of people become enthusiastic converts. Dozens of packaged products containing extracts of Echinacea can now be found amongst the many herbal remedies and supplements on the shelves of health stores and pharmacies. Many of those might be the modem equivalents of snake oil but Echinacea at least does seem to have some practical value. G Echinacea is a dry prairie plant, drought-resistant and pretty tolerant of most soils, although it does best in good soil with plenty of sun. Plants are usually grown from seed but they are sometimes available from nurseries. Echinacea is a distinctive perennial with erect, hairy, spotted stems up to a metre tall. Flower heads look like daisies, with purple rayed florets and a dark brown central cone. The leaves are hairy; the lower leaves are oval to lance-shaped and coarsely and irregularly toothed. H There are nine species of Echinacea in all but only three are generally grown for medicinal use. All have similar medicinal properties. Most European studies have used liquid concentrates extracted from the tops of plants, whereas extraction in the USA has usually been from the roots. Today most manufacturers blend both, sometimes adding flowers and seeds to improve the quality. For the home grower, the roots of all species seem equally effective. Dig them up in autumn after the tops have died back after the first frost. Wash and dry them carefully and store them in glass containers. You can harvest the tops throughout the summer and even eat small amounts of leaf straight from the plant. Even if you dont make your fortune from this herb, there are few sights more attractive than a field of purple coneflowers in all their glory. And with a few Echinacea plants nearby, youll never go short of a cure. | More than one part of the Echinacea plant has a medicinal use. | entailment |
id_5257 | Snake Oil A Back in the days of Americas Wild West, when cowboys roamed the range and people were getting themselves caught up in gunfights, a new phrase snake oil entered the language. It was a dismissive term for the patent medicines, often useless, sold by travelling traders who always claimed miraculous cures for everything from baldness to snakebite. Selling snake oil was almost as risky a business as cattle stealing; you might be run out of town if your particular medicine, as you realised it would, failed to live up to its claims. Consequently, the smarter snake oil sellers left town before their customers had much chance to evaluate the cure* they had just bought. B The remarkable thing about many of the medicines dismissed then as snake oil is not so much that they failed to live up to the outrageous claims made for them those that werent harmless coloured water could be positively dangerous. Whats remarkable is that so many of the claims made for some of these remedies, or at least their ingredients, most of them plant based, have since been found to have at least some basis in fact. One, Echinacea, eventually turned out to be far more potent than even its original promoter claimed. Echinacea first appeared in Meyers Blood Purifier, promoted as a cure-all by a Dr H. C. F. Meyer a lay doctor with no medical qualifications. Meyers Blood Purifier claimed not only to cure snakebite, but also to eliminate a host of other ailments. C Native to North America, the roots of Echinacea, or purple coneflower, had been used by the Plains Indians for all kinds of ailments long before Meyer came along. They applied poultices of it to wounds and stings, used it for teeth and gum disease and made a tea from it to treat everything from colds and measles to arthritis. They even used it for snakebite. D Settlers quickly picked up on the plants usefulness but until Meyer sent samples of his blood purifier* to John Lloyd, a pharmacist, it remained a folk remedy. Initially dismissing Meyers claims as nonsense, Lloyd was eventually converted after a colleague, John King, tested the herb and successfully used it to treat bee stings and nasal congestion. In fact, he went much further in his claims than Meyer ever did and by the 1890s a bottle of tincture of Echinacea could be found in almost every American home, incidentally making a fortune for Lloyds company. Lloyd Brothers Pharmacy. E As modern antibiotics became available, the use of Echinacea products declined and from the 1940s to the 1970s it was pretty much forgotten in the USA. It was a different story in Europe, where both French and German herbalists and homeopaths continued to make extensive use of it. It had been introduced there by Gerhard Madaus, who travelled from Germany to America in 1937, returning with seed to establish commercial plots of Echinacea. His firm conducted extensive research on echinacin, a concentrate they made from the juice of flowering tops of the plants he had brought back. It was put into ointments, liquids for internal and external use, and into products for injections. F There is no evidence that Echinacea is effective against snakebite, but Dr Meyer- who genuinely believed in Echinacea would probably be quite amused if he could come back and see the uses to which modern science has put . his herb. He might not be surprised that science has confirmed Echinaceas role as a treatment for wounds, or that it has been found to be helpful in relieving arthritis, both claims Meyer made for the herb. He might though be surprised to learn how Echinacea is proving to be an effective weapon against all sorts of disease, particularly infections. German researchers had used it successfully to treat a range of infections and found it to be effective against bacteria and protozoa. There are many other intriguing medical possibilities for extracts from the herb, but its apparent ability to help with our more common ailments has seen thousands of people become enthusiastic converts. Dozens of packaged products containing extracts of Echinacea can now be found amongst the many herbal remedies and supplements on the shelves of health stores and pharmacies. Many of those might be the modem equivalents of snake oil but Echinacea at least does seem to have some practical value. G Echinacea is a dry prairie plant, drought-resistant and pretty tolerant of most soils, although it does best in good soil with plenty of sun. Plants are usually grown from seed but they are sometimes available from nurseries. Echinacea is a distinctive perennial with erect, hairy, spotted stems up to a metre tall. Flower heads look like daisies, with purple rayed florets and a dark brown central cone. The leaves are hairy; the lower leaves are oval to lance-shaped and coarsely and irregularly toothed. H There are nine species of Echinacea in all but only three are generally grown for medicinal use. All have similar medicinal properties. Most European studies have used liquid concentrates extracted from the tops of plants, whereas extraction in the USA has usually been from the roots. Today most manufacturers blend both, sometimes adding flowers and seeds to improve the quality. For the home grower, the roots of all species seem equally effective. Dig them up in autumn after the tops have died back after the first frost. Wash and dry them carefully and store them in glass containers. You can harvest the tops throughout the summer and even eat small amounts of leaf straight from the plant. Even if you dont make your fortune from this herb, there are few sights more attractive than a field of purple coneflowers in all their glory. And with a few Echinacea plants nearby, youll never go short of a cure. | The highest quality Echinacea is grown in America. | neutral |
id_5258 | Snake Oil A Back in the days of Americas Wild West, when cowboys roamed the range and people were getting themselves caught up in gunfights, a new phrase snake oil entered the language. It was a dismissive term for the patent medicines, often useless, sold by travelling traders who always claimed miraculous cures for everything from baldness to snakebite. Selling snake oil was almost as risky a business as cattle stealing; you might be run out of town if your particular medicine, as you realised it would, failed to live up to its claims. Consequently, the smarter snake oil sellers left town before their customers had much chance to evaluate the cure* they had just bought. B The remarkable thing about many of the medicines dismissed then as snake oil is not so much that they failed to live up to the outrageous claims made for them those that werent harmless coloured water could be positively dangerous. Whats remarkable is that so many of the claims made for some of these remedies, or at least their ingredients, most of them plant based, have since been found to have at least some basis in fact. One, Echinacea, eventually turned out to be far more potent than even its original promoter claimed. Echinacea first appeared in Meyers Blood Purifier, promoted as a cure-all by a Dr H. C. F. Meyer a lay doctor with no medical qualifications. Meyers Blood Purifier claimed not only to cure snakebite, but also to eliminate a host of other ailments. C Native to North America, the roots of Echinacea, or purple coneflower, had been used by the Plains Indians for all kinds of ailments long before Meyer came along. They applied poultices of it to wounds and stings, used it for teeth and gum disease and made a tea from it to treat everything from colds and measles to arthritis. They even used it for snakebite. D Settlers quickly picked up on the plants usefulness but until Meyer sent samples of his blood purifier* to John Lloyd, a pharmacist, it remained a folk remedy. Initially dismissing Meyers claims as nonsense, Lloyd was eventually converted after a colleague, John King, tested the herb and successfully used it to treat bee stings and nasal congestion. In fact, he went much further in his claims than Meyer ever did and by the 1890s a bottle of tincture of Echinacea could be found in almost every American home, incidentally making a fortune for Lloyds company. Lloyd Brothers Pharmacy. E As modern antibiotics became available, the use of Echinacea products declined and from the 1940s to the 1970s it was pretty much forgotten in the USA. It was a different story in Europe, where both French and German herbalists and homeopaths continued to make extensive use of it. It had been introduced there by Gerhard Madaus, who travelled from Germany to America in 1937, returning with seed to establish commercial plots of Echinacea. His firm conducted extensive research on echinacin, a concentrate they made from the juice of flowering tops of the plants he had brought back. It was put into ointments, liquids for internal and external use, and into products for injections. F There is no evidence that Echinacea is effective against snakebite, but Dr Meyer- who genuinely believed in Echinacea would probably be quite amused if he could come back and see the uses to which modern science has put . his herb. He might not be surprised that science has confirmed Echinaceas role as a treatment for wounds, or that it has been found to be helpful in relieving arthritis, both claims Meyer made for the herb. He might though be surprised to learn how Echinacea is proving to be an effective weapon against all sorts of disease, particularly infections. German researchers had used it successfully to treat a range of infections and found it to be effective against bacteria and protozoa. There are many other intriguing medical possibilities for extracts from the herb, but its apparent ability to help with our more common ailments has seen thousands of people become enthusiastic converts. Dozens of packaged products containing extracts of Echinacea can now be found amongst the many herbal remedies and supplements on the shelves of health stores and pharmacies. Many of those might be the modem equivalents of snake oil but Echinacea at least does seem to have some practical value. G Echinacea is a dry prairie plant, drought-resistant and pretty tolerant of most soils, although it does best in good soil with plenty of sun. Plants are usually grown from seed but they are sometimes available from nurseries. Echinacea is a distinctive perennial with erect, hairy, spotted stems up to a metre tall. Flower heads look like daisies, with purple rayed florets and a dark brown central cone. The leaves are hairy; the lower leaves are oval to lance-shaped and coarsely and irregularly toothed. H There are nine species of Echinacea in all but only three are generally grown for medicinal use. All have similar medicinal properties. Most European studies have used liquid concentrates extracted from the tops of plants, whereas extraction in the USA has usually been from the roots. Today most manufacturers blend both, sometimes adding flowers and seeds to improve the quality. For the home grower, the roots of all species seem equally effective. Dig them up in autumn after the tops have died back after the first frost. Wash and dry them carefully and store them in glass containers. You can harvest the tops throughout the summer and even eat small amounts of leaf straight from the plant. Even if you dont make your fortune from this herb, there are few sights more attractive than a field of purple coneflowers in all their glory. And with a few Echinacea plants nearby, youll never go short of a cure. | Echinacea has been proven to kill microbes. | entailment |
id_5259 | Snake Oil A Back in the days of Americas Wild West, when cowboys roamed the range and people were getting themselves caught up in gunfights, a new phrase snake oil entered the language. It was a dismissive term for the patent medicines, often useless, sold by travelling traders who always claimed miraculous cures for everything from baldness to snakebite. Selling snake oil was almost as risky a business as cattle stealing; you might be run out of town if your particular medicine, as you realised it would, failed to live up to its claims. Consequently, the smarter snake oil sellers left town before their customers had much chance to evaluate the cure* they had just bought. B The remarkable thing about many of the medicines dismissed then as snake oil is not so much that they failed to live up to the outrageous claims made for them those that werent harmless coloured water could be positively dangerous. Whats remarkable is that so many of the claims made for some of these remedies, or at least their ingredients, most of them plant based, have since been found to have at least some basis in fact. One, Echinacea, eventually turned out to be far more potent than even its original promoter claimed. Echinacea first appeared in Meyers Blood Purifier, promoted as a cure-all by a Dr H. C. F. Meyer a lay doctor with no medical qualifications. Meyers Blood Purifier claimed not only to cure snakebite, but also to eliminate a host of other ailments. C Native to North America, the roots of Echinacea, or purple coneflower, had been used by the Plains Indians for all kinds of ailments long before Meyer came along. They applied poultices of it to wounds and stings, used it for teeth and gum disease and made a tea from it to treat everything from colds and measles to arthritis. They even used it for snakebite. D Settlers quickly picked up on the plants usefulness but until Meyer sent samples of his blood purifier* to John Lloyd, a pharmacist, it remained a folk remedy. Initially dismissing Meyers claims as nonsense, Lloyd was eventually converted after a colleague, John King, tested the herb and successfully used it to treat bee stings and nasal congestion. In fact, he went much further in his claims than Meyer ever did and by the 1890s a bottle of tincture of Echinacea could be found in almost every American home, incidentally making a fortune for Lloyds company. Lloyd Brothers Pharmacy. E As modern antibiotics became available, the use of Echinacea products declined and from the 1940s to the 1970s it was pretty much forgotten in the USA. It was a different story in Europe, where both French and German herbalists and homeopaths continued to make extensive use of it. It had been introduced there by Gerhard Madaus, who travelled from Germany to America in 1937, returning with seed to establish commercial plots of Echinacea. His firm conducted extensive research on echinacin, a concentrate they made from the juice of flowering tops of the plants he had brought back. It was put into ointments, liquids for internal and external use, and into products for injections. F There is no evidence that Echinacea is effective against snakebite, but Dr Meyer- who genuinely believed in Echinacea would probably be quite amused if he could come back and see the uses to which modern science has put . his herb. He might not be surprised that science has confirmed Echinaceas role as a treatment for wounds, or that it has been found to be helpful in relieving arthritis, both claims Meyer made for the herb. He might though be surprised to learn how Echinacea is proving to be an effective weapon against all sorts of disease, particularly infections. German researchers had used it successfully to treat a range of infections and found it to be effective against bacteria and protozoa. There are many other intriguing medical possibilities for extracts from the herb, but its apparent ability to help with our more common ailments has seen thousands of people become enthusiastic converts. Dozens of packaged products containing extracts of Echinacea can now be found amongst the many herbal remedies and supplements on the shelves of health stores and pharmacies. Many of those might be the modem equivalents of snake oil but Echinacea at least does seem to have some practical value. G Echinacea is a dry prairie plant, drought-resistant and pretty tolerant of most soils, although it does best in good soil with plenty of sun. Plants are usually grown from seed but they are sometimes available from nurseries. Echinacea is a distinctive perennial with erect, hairy, spotted stems up to a metre tall. Flower heads look like daisies, with purple rayed florets and a dark brown central cone. The leaves are hairy; the lower leaves are oval to lance-shaped and coarsely and irregularly toothed. H There are nine species of Echinacea in all but only three are generally grown for medicinal use. All have similar medicinal properties. Most European studies have used liquid concentrates extracted from the tops of plants, whereas extraction in the USA has usually been from the roots. Today most manufacturers blend both, sometimes adding flowers and seeds to improve the quality. For the home grower, the roots of all species seem equally effective. Dig them up in autumn after the tops have died back after the first frost. Wash and dry them carefully and store them in glass containers. You can harvest the tops throughout the summer and even eat small amounts of leaf straight from the plant. Even if you dont make your fortune from this herb, there are few sights more attractive than a field of purple coneflowers in all their glory. And with a few Echinacea plants nearby, youll never go short of a cure. | All snake oils contained Echinacea. | contradiction |
id_5260 | Snake Oil A Back in the days of Americas Wild West, when cowboys roamed the range and people were getting themselves caught up in gunfights, a new phrase snake oil entered the language. It was a dismissive term for the patent medicines, often useless, sold by travelling traders who always claimed miraculous cures for everything from baldness to snakebite. Selling snake oil was almost as risky a business as cattle stealing; you might be run out of town if your particular medicine, as you realised it would, failed to live up to its claims. Consequently, the smarter snake oil sellers left town before their customers had much chance to evaluate the cure* they had just bought. B The remarkable thing about many of the medicines dismissed then as snake oil is not so much that they failed to live up to the outrageous claims made for them those that werent harmless coloured water could be positively dangerous. Whats remarkable is that so many of the claims made for some of these remedies, or at least their ingredients, most of them plant based, have since been found to have at least some basis in fact. One, Echinacea, eventually turned out to be far more potent than even its original promoter claimed. Echinacea first appeared in Meyers Blood Purifier, promoted as a cure-all by a Dr H. C. F. Meyer a lay doctor with no medical qualifications. Meyers Blood Purifier claimed not only to cure snakebite, but also to eliminate a host of other ailments. C Native to North America, the roots of Echinacea, or purple coneflower, had been used by the Plains Indians for all kinds of ailments long before Meyer came along. They applied poultices of it to wounds and stings, used it for teeth and gum disease and made a tea from it to treat everything from colds and measles to arthritis. They even used it for snakebite. D Settlers quickly picked up on the plants usefulness but until Meyer sent samples of his blood purifier* to John Lloyd, a pharmacist, it remained a folk remedy. Initially dismissing Meyers claims as nonsense, Lloyd was eventually converted after a colleague, John King, tested the herb and successfully used it to treat bee stings and nasal congestion. In fact, he went much further in his claims than Meyer ever did and by the 1890s a bottle of tincture of Echinacea could be found in almost every American home, incidentally making a fortune for Lloyds company. Lloyd Brothers Pharmacy. E As modern antibiotics became available, the use of Echinacea products declined and from the 1940s to the 1970s it was pretty much forgotten in the USA. It was a different story in Europe, where both French and German herbalists and homeopaths continued to make extensive use of it. It had been introduced there by Gerhard Madaus, who travelled from Germany to America in 1937, returning with seed to establish commercial plots of Echinacea. His firm conducted extensive research on echinacin, a concentrate they made from the juice of flowering tops of the plants he had brought back. It was put into ointments, liquids for internal and external use, and into products for injections. F There is no evidence that Echinacea is effective against snakebite, but Dr Meyer- who genuinely believed in Echinacea would probably be quite amused if he could come back and see the uses to which modern science has put . his herb. He might not be surprised that science has confirmed Echinaceas role as a treatment for wounds, or that it has been found to be helpful in relieving arthritis, both claims Meyer made for the herb. He might though be surprised to learn how Echinacea is proving to be an effective weapon against all sorts of disease, particularly infections. German researchers had used it successfully to treat a range of infections and found it to be effective against bacteria and protozoa. There are many other intriguing medical possibilities for extracts from the herb, but its apparent ability to help with our more common ailments has seen thousands of people become enthusiastic converts. Dozens of packaged products containing extracts of Echinacea can now be found amongst the many herbal remedies and supplements on the shelves of health stores and pharmacies. Many of those might be the modem equivalents of snake oil but Echinacea at least does seem to have some practical value. G Echinacea is a dry prairie plant, drought-resistant and pretty tolerant of most soils, although it does best in good soil with plenty of sun. Plants are usually grown from seed but they are sometimes available from nurseries. Echinacea is a distinctive perennial with erect, hairy, spotted stems up to a metre tall. Flower heads look like daisies, with purple rayed florets and a dark brown central cone. The leaves are hairy; the lower leaves are oval to lance-shaped and coarsely and irregularly toothed. H There are nine species of Echinacea in all but only three are generally grown for medicinal use. All have similar medicinal properties. Most European studies have used liquid concentrates extracted from the tops of plants, whereas extraction in the USA has usually been from the roots. Today most manufacturers blend both, sometimes adding flowers and seeds to improve the quality. For the home grower, the roots of all species seem equally effective. Dig them up in autumn after the tops have died back after the first frost. Wash and dry them carefully and store them in glass containers. You can harvest the tops throughout the summer and even eat small amounts of leaf straight from the plant. Even if you dont make your fortune from this herb, there are few sights more attractive than a field of purple coneflowers in all their glory. And with a few Echinacea plants nearby, youll never go short of a cure. | Some snake oils were mostly water. | entailment |
id_5261 | Snake Oil A Back in the days of Americas Wild West, when cowboys roamed the range and people were getting themselves caught up in gunfights, a new phrase snake oil entered the language. It was a dismissive term for the patent medicines, often useless, sold by travelling traders who always claimed miraculous cures for everything from baldness to snakebite. Selling snake oil was almost as risky a business as cattle stealing; you might be run out of town if your particular medicine, as you realised it would, failed to live up to its claims. Consequently, the smarter snake oil sellers left town before their customers had much chance to evaluate the cure* they had just bought. B The remarkable thing about many of the medicines dismissed then as snake oil is not so much that they failed to live up to the outrageous claims made for them those that werent harmless coloured water could be positively dangerous. Whats remarkable is that so many of the claims made for some of these remedies, or at least their ingredients, most of them plant based, have since been found to have at least some basis in fact. One, Echinacea, eventually turned out to be far more potent than even its original promoter claimed. Echinacea first appeared in Meyers Blood Purifier, promoted as a cure-all by a Dr H. C. F. Meyer a lay doctor with no medical qualifications. Meyers Blood Purifier claimed not only to cure snakebite, but also to eliminate a host of other ailments. C Native to North America, the roots of Echinacea, or purple coneflower, had been used by the Plains Indians for all kinds of ailments long before Meyer came along. They applied poultices of it to wounds and stings, used it for teeth and gum disease and made a tea from it to treat everything from colds and measles to arthritis. They even used it for snakebite. D Settlers quickly picked up on the plants usefulness but until Meyer sent samples of his blood purifier* to John Lloyd, a pharmacist, it remained a folk remedy. Initially dismissing Meyers claims as nonsense, Lloyd was eventually converted after a colleague, John King, tested the herb and successfully used it to treat bee stings and nasal congestion. In fact, he went much further in his claims than Meyer ever did and by the 1890s a bottle of tincture of Echinacea could be found in almost every American home, incidentally making a fortune for Lloyds company. Lloyd Brothers Pharmacy. E As modern antibiotics became available, the use of Echinacea products declined and from the 1940s to the 1970s it was pretty much forgotten in the USA. It was a different story in Europe, where both French and German herbalists and homeopaths continued to make extensive use of it. It had been introduced there by Gerhard Madaus, who travelled from Germany to America in 1937, returning with seed to establish commercial plots of Echinacea. His firm conducted extensive research on echinacin, a concentrate they made from the juice of flowering tops of the plants he had brought back. It was put into ointments, liquids for internal and external use, and into products for injections. F There is no evidence that Echinacea is effective against snakebite, but Dr Meyer- who genuinely believed in Echinacea would probably be quite amused if he could come back and see the uses to which modern science has put . his herb. He might not be surprised that science has confirmed Echinaceas role as a treatment for wounds, or that it has been found to be helpful in relieving arthritis, both claims Meyer made for the herb. He might though be surprised to learn how Echinacea is proving to be an effective weapon against all sorts of disease, particularly infections. German researchers had used it successfully to treat a range of infections and found it to be effective against bacteria and protozoa. There are many other intriguing medical possibilities for extracts from the herb, but its apparent ability to help with our more common ailments has seen thousands of people become enthusiastic converts. Dozens of packaged products containing extracts of Echinacea can now be found amongst the many herbal remedies and supplements on the shelves of health stores and pharmacies. Many of those might be the modem equivalents of snake oil but Echinacea at least does seem to have some practical value. G Echinacea is a dry prairie plant, drought-resistant and pretty tolerant of most soils, although it does best in good soil with plenty of sun. Plants are usually grown from seed but they are sometimes available from nurseries. Echinacea is a distinctive perennial with erect, hairy, spotted stems up to a metre tall. Flower heads look like daisies, with purple rayed florets and a dark brown central cone. The leaves are hairy; the lower leaves are oval to lance-shaped and coarsely and irregularly toothed. H There are nine species of Echinacea in all but only three are generally grown for medicinal use. All have similar medicinal properties. Most European studies have used liquid concentrates extracted from the tops of plants, whereas extraction in the USA has usually been from the roots. Today most manufacturers blend both, sometimes adding flowers and seeds to improve the quality. For the home grower, the roots of all species seem equally effective. Dig them up in autumn after the tops have died back after the first frost. Wash and dry them carefully and store them in glass containers. You can harvest the tops throughout the summer and even eat small amounts of leaf straight from the plant. Even if you dont make your fortune from this herb, there are few sights more attractive than a field of purple coneflowers in all their glory. And with a few Echinacea plants nearby, youll never go short of a cure. | Most people in the Wild West mistrusted snake oil. | neutral |
id_5262 | Snake Oil A Back in the days of Americas Wild West, when cowboys roamed the range and people were getting themselves caught up in gunfights, a new phrase snake oil entered the language. It was a dismissive term for the patent medicines, often useless, sold by travelling traders who always claimed miraculous cures for everything from baldness to snakebite. Selling snake oil was almost as risky a business as cattle stealing; you might be run out of town if your particular medicine, as you realised it would, failed to live up to its claims. Consequently, the smarter snake oil sellers left town before their customers had much chance to evaluate the cure* they had just bought. B The remarkable thing about many of the medicines dismissed then as snake oil is not so much that they failed to live up to the outrageous claims made for them those that werent harmless coloured water could be positively dangerous. Whats remarkable is that so many of the claims made for some of these remedies, or at least their ingredients, most of them plant based, have since been found to have at least some basis in fact. One, Echinacea, eventually turned out to be far more potent than even its original promoter claimed. Echinacea first appeared in Meyers Blood Purifier, promoted as a cure-all by a Dr H. C. F. Meyer a lay doctor with no medical qualifications. Meyers Blood Purifier claimed not only to cure snakebite, but also to eliminate a host of other ailments. C Native to North America, the roots of Echinacea, or purple coneflower, had been used by the Plains Indians for all kinds of ailments long before Meyer came along. They applied poultices of it to wounds and stings, used it for teeth and gum disease and made a tea from it to treat everything from colds and measles to arthritis. They even used it for snakebite. D Settlers quickly picked up on the plants usefulness but until Meyer sent samples of his blood purifier* to John Lloyd, a pharmacist, it remained a folk remedy. Initially dismissing Meyers claims as nonsense, Lloyd was eventually converted after a colleague, John King, tested the herb and successfully used it to treat bee stings and nasal congestion. In fact, he went much further in his claims than Meyer ever did and by the 1890s a bottle of tincture of Echinacea could be found in almost every American home, incidentally making a fortune for Lloyds company. Lloyd Brothers Pharmacy. E As modern antibiotics became available, the use of Echinacea products declined and from the 1940s to the 1970s it was pretty much forgotten in the USA. It was a different story in Europe, where both French and German herbalists and homeopaths continued to make extensive use of it. It had been introduced there by Gerhard Madaus, who travelled from Germany to America in 1937, returning with seed to establish commercial plots of Echinacea. His firm conducted extensive research on echinacin, a concentrate they made from the juice of flowering tops of the plants he had brought back. It was put into ointments, liquids for internal and external use, and into products for injections. F There is no evidence that Echinacea is effective against snakebite, but Dr Meyer- who genuinely believed in Echinacea would probably be quite amused if he could come back and see the uses to which modern science has put . his herb. He might not be surprised that science has confirmed Echinaceas role as a treatment for wounds, or that it has been found to be helpful in relieving arthritis, both claims Meyer made for the herb. He might though be surprised to learn how Echinacea is proving to be an effective weapon against all sorts of disease, particularly infections. German researchers had used it successfully to treat a range of infections and found it to be effective against bacteria and protozoa. There are many other intriguing medical possibilities for extracts from the herb, but its apparent ability to help with our more common ailments has seen thousands of people become enthusiastic converts. Dozens of packaged products containing extracts of Echinacea can now be found amongst the many herbal remedies and supplements on the shelves of health stores and pharmacies. Many of those might be the modem equivalents of snake oil but Echinacea at least does seem to have some practical value. G Echinacea is a dry prairie plant, drought-resistant and pretty tolerant of most soils, although it does best in good soil with plenty of sun. Plants are usually grown from seed but they are sometimes available from nurseries. Echinacea is a distinctive perennial with erect, hairy, spotted stems up to a metre tall. Flower heads look like daisies, with purple rayed florets and a dark brown central cone. The leaves are hairy; the lower leaves are oval to lance-shaped and coarsely and irregularly toothed. H There are nine species of Echinacea in all but only three are generally grown for medicinal use. All have similar medicinal properties. Most European studies have used liquid concentrates extracted from the tops of plants, whereas extraction in the USA has usually been from the roots. Today most manufacturers blend both, sometimes adding flowers and seeds to improve the quality. For the home grower, the roots of all species seem equally effective. Dig them up in autumn after the tops have died back after the first frost. Wash and dry them carefully and store them in glass containers. You can harvest the tops throughout the summer and even eat small amounts of leaf straight from the plant. Even if you dont make your fortune from this herb, there are few sights more attractive than a field of purple coneflowers in all their glory. And with a few Echinacea plants nearby, youll never go short of a cure. | Snake oil sellers believed their product was effective. | contradiction |
id_5263 | So many people ask why children aren't taught grammar and punctuation at school. Many of our teachers today have been produced by the same education system that they now teach in, so the simple answer is that they cant teach grammar and punctuation because they have never learnt it themselves. There have in recent years been meaningful improvements in the level of functional literacy among school leavers, but at the other end of the spectrum universities are complaining about the poor writing skills of undergraduates. These complaints are not raised because of a failure by students to correctly use the subjective clause or to err by leaving participles dangling, but far more fundamental failures in, for example, the use of apostrophes and capitalization. Most commentators describe errors of grammar and punctuation as irritating. To become irritated one must first recognize the error, and the majority of people, including many teachers, do not have a sufficient grasp of the rules to realize that a mistake has been made. | The author would agree that bad grammar might be an irritant for a small number of purists but otherwise it does not matter. | neutral |
id_5264 | So many people ask why children aren't taught grammar and punctuation at school. Many of our teachers today have been produced by the same education system that they now teach in, so the simple answer is that they cant teach grammar and punctuation because they have never learnt it themselves. There have in recent years been meaningful improvements in the level of functional literacy among school leavers, but at the other end of the spectrum universities are complaining about the poor writing skills of undergraduates. These complaints are not raised because of a failure by students to correctly use the subjective clause or to err by leaving participles dangling, but far more fundamental failures in, for example, the use of apostrophes and capitalization. Most commentators describe errors of grammar and punctuation as irritating. To become irritated one must first recognize the error, and the majority of people, including many teachers, do not have a sufficient grasp of the rules to realize that a mistake has been made. | You can infer from the passage that you can only break a rule of grammar if you know the rule in the first place. | contradiction |
id_5265 | So many people ask why children aren't taught grammar and punctuation at school. Many of our teachers today have been produced by the same education system that they now teach in, so the simple answer is that they cant teach grammar and punctuation because they have never learnt it themselves. There have in recent years been meaningful improvements in the level of functional literacy among school leavers, but at the other end of the spectrum universities are complaining about the poor writing skills of undergraduates. These complaints are not raised because of a failure by students to correctly use the subjective clause or to err by leaving participles dangling, but far more fundamental failures in, for example, the use of apostrophes and capitalization. Most commentators describe errors of grammar and punctuation as irritating. To become irritated one must first recognize the error, and the majority of people, including many teachers, do not have a sufficient grasp of the rules to realize that a mistake has been made. | Most people don't object to bad grammar and punctuation. | entailment |
id_5266 | So much of the literature of the western world, including a large part of its greatest literature, was either written for actual speaking or in a mode of speech, that we are likely to deform it if we apply our comparatively recent norm of writing for silent reading. It is only that so much of this work is drama or oratory (the latter including the modern forms of sermons, lectures and addresses which as late as the nineteenth century play a most important part). It is also that through classical and mediaeval times, and in many cases beyond these, most reading was either aloud or silently articulated as if speaking: a habit we now recognize mainly in the slow. Most classical histories were indeed quite close to oratory and public speech, rather than silent reading of an artifact, was the central condition of linguistic composition. | Classical histories were passed on orally and never written down. | contradiction |
id_5267 | So much of the literature of the western world, including a large part of its greatest literature, was either written for actual speaking or in a mode of speech, that we are likely to deform it if we apply our comparatively recent norm of writing for silent reading. It is only that so much of this work is drama or oratory (the latter including the modern forms of sermons, lectures and addresses which as late as the nineteenth century play a most important part). It is also that through classical and mediaeval times, and in many cases beyond these, most reading was either aloud or silently articulated as if speaking: a habit we now recognize mainly in the slow. Most classical histories were indeed quite close to oratory and public speech, rather than silent reading of an artifact, was the central condition of linguistic composition. | In ancient times, literature was intended to be read aloud. | neutral |
id_5268 | So much of the literature of the western world, including a large part of its greatest literature, was either written for actual speaking or in a mode of speech, that we are likely to deform it if we apply our comparatively recent norm of writing for silent reading. It is only that so much of this work is drama or oratory (the latter including the modern forms of sermons, lectures and addresses which as late as the nineteenth century play a most important part). It is also that through classical and mediaeval times, and in many cases beyond these, most reading was either aloud or silently articulated as if speaking: a habit we now recognize mainly in the slow. Most classical histories were indeed quite close to oratory and public speech, rather than silent reading of an artifact, was the central condition of linguistic composition. | Until the nineteenth century, most people could only read with difficulty. | neutral |
id_5269 | So much of the literature of the western world, including a large part of its greatest literature, was either written for actual speaking or in a mode of speech, that we are likely to deform it if we apply our comparatively recent norm of writing for silent reading. It is only that so much of this work is drama or oratory (the latter including the modern forms of sermons, lectures and addresses which as late as the nineteenth century play a most important part). It is also that through classical and mediaeval times, and in many cases beyond these, most reading was either aloud or silently articulated as if speaking: a habit we now recognize mainly in the slow. Most classical histories were indeed quite close to oratory and public speech, rather than silent reading of an artifact, was the central condition of linguistic composition. | Only people with literacy problems now read aloud. | contradiction |
id_5270 | So what is it that decides if a language is to endure or to be threatened with extinction? The number of languages spoken in the world is expected to continue to decrease dramatically but what decides the winners and the losers? Surprisingly some commentators argue that along with languages spoken by very small communities the really big languages like English also face extinction. The case against the small linguistic community is obvious; if there is no one left to speak a language then that language dies. The case against a dominant, apparently all-conquering, language like English is less apparent and is therefore so much more interesting. As more and more of the world speaks English it is inevitable, the argument runs, that it will break up first into dialects and then distinct languages linked only by their common linguistic heritage. This is a controversial point because it goes against the view that dialects need isolation before they can form (without isolation, speech is standardized by the dominant language promulgated through international science, engineering, medicine and business and worldwide printed and digital media and this squeezes out dialects). | The passage is ambivalent in respect to whether or not English will become extinct. | entailment |
id_5271 | So what is it that decides if a language is to endure or to be threatened with extinction? The number of languages spoken in the world is expected to continue to decrease dramatically but what decides the winners and the losers? Surprisingly some commentators argue that along with languages spoken by very small communities the really big languages like English also face extinction. The case against the small linguistic community is obvious; if there is no one left to speak a language then that language dies. The case against a dominant, apparently all-conquering, language like English is less apparent and is therefore so much more interesting. As more and more of the world speaks English it is inevitable, the argument runs, that it will break up first into dialects and then distinct languages linked only by their common linguistic heritage. This is a controversial point because it goes against the view that dialects need isolation before they can form (without isolation, speech is standardized by the dominant language promulgated through international science, engineering, medicine and business and worldwide printed and digital media and this squeezes out dialects). | The case made for the extinction of English derives from its worldwide dominance. | entailment |
id_5272 | So what is it that decides if a language is to endure or to be threatened with extinction? The number of languages spoken in the world is expected to continue to decrease dramatically but what decides the winners and the losers? Surprisingly some commentators argue that along with languages spoken by very small communities the really big languages like English also face extinction. The case against the small linguistic community is obvious; if there is no one left to speak a language then that language dies. The case against a dominant, apparently all-conquering, language like English is less apparent and is therefore so much more interesting. As more and more of the world speaks English it is inevitable, the argument runs, that it will break up first into dialects and then distinct languages linked only by their common linguistic heritage. This is a controversial point because it goes against the view that dialects need isolation before they can form (without isolation, speech is standardized by the dominant language promulgated through international science, engineering, medicine and business and worldwide printed and digital media and this squeezes out dialects). | The passage does not answer the question asking what decides if a language is to endure or become extinct. | contradiction |
id_5273 | Social Body Offer accessible and diverse leisure opportunities to enhance the well-being of individuals and strengthen a sense of community in a safe and welcoming environment. Objectives To assist, develop and to foster community spirit throughout the community To promote the educational, social, cultural and athletic endeavours of the community To assist any organization, group, company or individual whose sole aim is to promote the educational, social, cultural or athletic well-being of the people of the community To receive donations, or do such things as may be necessary to raise funds to carry out the objectives To carry on the operations of the Association principally in the Marpole Oakridge community Board of Directors The Community Association Board meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm. All members are welcome. If you are interested in joining the Board or a Committee contact the Community Recreation Coordinator at 604-257-8177. Duties of the Board To Jointly operate the Community Centre with the Park Board To identify needs of the community and act in the best interest of the community in fulfilling these needs To exercise the care, diligence and skill of a reasonably prudent person in exercising his/her powers and performing his/her function as a Director To elect from among its' members each year the officers of the Society To attend meeting of the Board and meeting of such committees to which he/she may be appointed To discharge accepted responsibilities in accordance with the direction of the Board To work with the professional staff in determining the needs of the community, and support the staff in the undertakings of the Community Centre To accept from the membership at large complaints and suggestions and requests for programs; to study such complaints and suggestions and to pass them on to the professional staff To act as liaison between Park Board and the community at large in relationship to park development and delivery of recreational services To liaison and cooperate with the other community agencies for betterment of the community Meetings The Community Association Board meetings at 990 West 59th Avenue. All members of the community are welcome to attend. | a further objective is to get money for the group | entailment |
id_5274 | Social Body Offer accessible and diverse leisure opportunities to enhance the well-being of individuals and strengthen a sense of community in a safe and welcoming environment. Objectives To assist, develop and to foster community spirit throughout the community To promote the educational, social, cultural and athletic endeavours of the community To assist any organization, group, company or individual whose sole aim is to promote the educational, social, cultural or athletic well-being of the people of the community To receive donations, or do such things as may be necessary to raise funds to carry out the objectives To carry on the operations of the Association principally in the Marpole Oakridge community Board of Directors The Community Association Board meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm. All members are welcome. If you are interested in joining the Board or a Committee contact the Community Recreation Coordinator at 604-257-8177. Duties of the Board To Jointly operate the Community Centre with the Park Board To identify needs of the community and act in the best interest of the community in fulfilling these needs To exercise the care, diligence and skill of a reasonably prudent person in exercising his/her powers and performing his/her function as a Director To elect from among its' members each year the officers of the Society To attend meeting of the Board and meeting of such committees to which he/she may be appointed To discharge accepted responsibilities in accordance with the direction of the Board To work with the professional staff in determining the needs of the community, and support the staff in the undertakings of the Community Centre To accept from the membership at large complaints and suggestions and requests for programs; to study such complaints and suggestions and to pass them on to the professional staff To act as liaison between Park Board and the community at large in relationship to park development and delivery of recreational services To liaison and cooperate with the other community agencies for betterment of the community Meetings The Community Association Board meetings at 990 West 59th Avenue. All members of the community are welcome to attend. | one of the groups objectives is to support sport in the community | entailment |
id_5275 | Social Body Offer accessible and diverse leisure opportunities to enhance the well-being of individuals and strengthen a sense of community in a safe and welcoming environment. Objectives To assist, develop and to foster community spirit throughout the community To promote the educational, social, cultural and athletic endeavours of the community To assist any organization, group, company or individual whose sole aim is to promote the educational, social, cultural or athletic well-being of the people of the community To receive donations, or do such things as may be necessary to raise funds to carry out the objectives To carry on the operations of the Association principally in the Marpole Oakridge community Board of Directors The Community Association Board meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm. All members are welcome. If you are interested in joining the Board or a Committee contact the Community Recreation Coordinator at 604-257-8177. Duties of the Board To Jointly operate the Community Centre with the Park Board To identify needs of the community and act in the best interest of the community in fulfilling these needs To exercise the care, diligence and skill of a reasonably prudent person in exercising his/her powers and performing his/her function as a Director To elect from among its' members each year the officers of the Society To attend meeting of the Board and meeting of such committees to which he/she may be appointed To discharge accepted responsibilities in accordance with the direction of the Board To work with the professional staff in determining the needs of the community, and support the staff in the undertakings of the Community Centre To accept from the membership at large complaints and suggestions and requests for programs; to study such complaints and suggestions and to pass them on to the professional staff To act as liaison between Park Board and the community at large in relationship to park development and delivery of recreational services To liaison and cooperate with the other community agencies for betterment of the community Meetings The Community Association Board meetings at 990 West 59th Avenue. All members of the community are welcome to attend. | the group meets on every other Tuesday | contradiction |
id_5276 | Social Body Offer accessible and diverse leisure opportunities to enhance the well-being of individuals and strengthen a sense of community in a safe and welcoming environment. Objectives To assist, develop and to foster community spirit throughout the community To promote the educational, social, cultural and athletic endeavours of the community To assist any organization, group, company or individual whose sole aim is to promote the educational, social, cultural or athletic well-being of the people of the community To receive donations, or do such things as may be necessary to raise funds to carry out the objectives To carry on the operations of the Association principally in the Marpole Oakridge community Board of Directors The Community Association Board meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm. All members are welcome. If you are interested in joining the Board or a Committee contact the Community Recreation Coordinator at 604-257-8177. Duties of the Board To Jointly operate the Community Centre with the Park Board To identify needs of the community and act in the best interest of the community in fulfilling these needs To exercise the care, diligence and skill of a reasonably prudent person in exercising his/her powers and performing his/her function as a Director To elect from among its' members each year the officers of the Society To attend meeting of the Board and meeting of such committees to which he/she may be appointed To discharge accepted responsibilities in accordance with the direction of the Board To work with the professional staff in determining the needs of the community, and support the staff in the undertakings of the Community Centre To accept from the membership at large complaints and suggestions and requests for programs; to study such complaints and suggestions and to pass them on to the professional staff To act as liaison between Park Board and the community at large in relationship to park development and delivery of recreational services To liaison and cooperate with the other community agencies for betterment of the community Meetings The Community Association Board meetings at 990 West 59th Avenue. All members of the community are welcome to attend. | directors are expected to work in careful manner | entailment |
id_5277 | Social housing Over the past 20 years in Britain, the proportion of social homes in the total stock has fallen from 31% to 21% and their number has declined from 6.8m to 5.3m. Blameor creditMargaret Thatcher for this. Her government forced local authorities to sell homes cheaply to existing tenants and stopped them building new ones. New social homes were to be financed centrally and run by local housing associations. It now looks like the long squeeze is over. Next week, the government is expected to announce a near-doubling of the Housing Corporation's 1.2 billion annual budget and plans to extend eligibility for social housing. An extra 1 billion would build around 20,000 new homes each year at current rates. This could be stretched further by reducing the amount of subsidy per house. The government is hoping that this move will help solve its housing difficulties. Thanks to by more than 50,000 a year according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a social research charity. The result: surging housing costs which have priced modest earners out of the market, particularly in London and the south-east of England. Chief among The government will try to fulfil its ambitions in part through a phenomenon known as planning gain. Councils are grabbing an increasing share of rising land prices by bumping up the amount of social housing developers must build as part of a new scheme and hand over to the local housing association. Even before the government's fresh money arrives, some local authorities in southern England are relying on planning gain to help meet demanding targets. In plush regency Cheltenham, the council wants 30% of new housing to be social; the figure is 40% in comfortable Poole in Dorset, while the Greater London Authority is targeting 50% in the capital over the next twenty years. making it indistinguishable from neighbouring private housing. Social housing developments are even winning awards in competition with private sector developmentsthe Peabody Trust's Bedzed development in Surrey won the Evening Standard Lifestyle Home of the Year awardthough it is worth remembering that some of the most notorious 1960s and 1970s council housing estates also won design awards. Housing associations are generally better at getting repairs done than are councils. They have also been more effective in tackling problems like drugs and prostitution through innovations such as estate offices and on-site caretakers. Above all, planners have learned not to think too big. No one will ever build a big single tenure estate again, says Richard McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Peabody Trust. happens to the teacher who lives in social housing in one borough, and is offered a job in a borough that cannot offer her new cheap housing? What happens to a nurse in cheap housing who wants to move into a new profession? A government so keen on enterprise and initiative should not be recreating a system that makes it difficult for people to change their lives. If public-sector workers cannot afford to live in the south-east of England, then the government should be changing pay scales that currently discriminate in favour of public sector workers in cheap bits of the country and against those in expensive bits, rather than reintroducing something that once looked like a boon to the poor and turned out to be a shackle. | During the Thatcher years, there was a block on building social homes. | contradiction |
id_5278 | Social housing Over the past 20 years in Britain, the proportion of social homes in the total stock has fallen from 31% to 21% and their number has declined from 6.8m to 5.3m. Blameor creditMargaret Thatcher for this. Her government forced local authorities to sell homes cheaply to existing tenants and stopped them building new ones. New social homes were to be financed centrally and run by local housing associations. It now looks like the long squeeze is over. Next week, the government is expected to announce a near-doubling of the Housing Corporation's 1.2 billion annual budget and plans to extend eligibility for social housing. An extra 1 billion would build around 20,000 new homes each year at current rates. This could be stretched further by reducing the amount of subsidy per house. The government is hoping that this move will help solve its housing difficulties. Thanks to by more than 50,000 a year according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a social research charity. The result: surging housing costs which have priced modest earners out of the market, particularly in London and the south-east of England. Chief among The government will try to fulfil its ambitions in part through a phenomenon known as planning gain. Councils are grabbing an increasing share of rising land prices by bumping up the amount of social housing developers must build as part of a new scheme and hand over to the local housing association. Even before the government's fresh money arrives, some local authorities in southern England are relying on planning gain to help meet demanding targets. In plush regency Cheltenham, the council wants 30% of new housing to be social; the figure is 40% in comfortable Poole in Dorset, while the Greater London Authority is targeting 50% in the capital over the next twenty years. making it indistinguishable from neighbouring private housing. Social housing developments are even winning awards in competition with private sector developmentsthe Peabody Trust's Bedzed development in Surrey won the Evening Standard Lifestyle Home of the Year awardthough it is worth remembering that some of the most notorious 1960s and 1970s council housing estates also won design awards. Housing associations are generally better at getting repairs done than are councils. They have also been more effective in tackling problems like drugs and prostitution through innovations such as estate offices and on-site caretakers. Above all, planners have learned not to think too big. No one will ever build a big single tenure estate again, says Richard McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Peabody Trust. happens to the teacher who lives in social housing in one borough, and is offered a job in a borough that cannot offer her new cheap housing? What happens to a nurse in cheap housing who wants to move into a new profession? A government so keen on enterprise and initiative should not be recreating a system that makes it difficult for people to change their lives. If public-sector workers cannot afford to live in the south-east of England, then the government should be changing pay scales that currently discriminate in favour of public sector workers in cheap bits of the country and against those in expensive bits, rather than reintroducing something that once looked like a boon to the poor and turned out to be a shackle. | The housing problem in London is worse than in the rest of south-east England. | neutral |
id_5279 | Social housing Over the past 20 years in Britain, the proportion of social homes in the total stock has fallen from 31% to 21% and their number has declined from 6.8m to 5.3m. Blameor creditMargaret Thatcher for this. Her government forced local authorities to sell homes cheaply to existing tenants and stopped them building new ones. New social homes were to be financed centrally and run by local housing associations. It now looks like the long squeeze is over. Next week, the government is expected to announce a near-doubling of the Housing Corporation's 1.2 billion annual budget and plans to extend eligibility for social housing. An extra 1 billion would build around 20,000 new homes each year at current rates. This could be stretched further by reducing the amount of subsidy per house. The government is hoping that this move will help solve its housing difficulties. Thanks to by more than 50,000 a year according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a social research charity. The result: surging housing costs which have priced modest earners out of the market, particularly in London and the south-east of England. Chief among The government will try to fulfil its ambitions in part through a phenomenon known as planning gain. Councils are grabbing an increasing share of rising land prices by bumping up the amount of social housing developers must build as part of a new scheme and hand over to the local housing association. Even before the government's fresh money arrives, some local authorities in southern England are relying on planning gain to help meet demanding targets. In plush regency Cheltenham, the council wants 30% of new housing to be social; the figure is 40% in comfortable Poole in Dorset, while the Greater London Authority is targeting 50% in the capital over the next twenty years. making it indistinguishable from neighbouring private housing. Social housing developments are even winning awards in competition with private sector developmentsthe Peabody Trust's Bedzed development in Surrey won the Evening Standard Lifestyle Home of the Year awardthough it is worth remembering that some of the most notorious 1960s and 1970s council housing estates also won design awards. Housing associations are generally better at getting repairs done than are councils. They have also been more effective in tackling problems like drugs and prostitution through innovations such as estate offices and on-site caretakers. Above all, planners have learned not to think too big. No one will ever build a big single tenure estate again, says Richard McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Peabody Trust. happens to the teacher who lives in social housing in one borough, and is offered a job in a borough that cannot offer her new cheap housing? What happens to a nurse in cheap housing who wants to move into a new profession? A government so keen on enterprise and initiative should not be recreating a system that makes it difficult for people to change their lives. If public-sector workers cannot afford to live in the south-east of England, then the government should be changing pay scales that currently discriminate in favour of public sector workers in cheap bits of the country and against those in expensive bits, rather than reintroducing something that once looked like a boon to the poor and turned out to be a shackle. | Local authorities are starting to depend on the planning gain scheme. | entailment |
id_5280 | Social housing Over the past 20 years in Britain, the proportion of social homes in the total stock has fallen from 31% to 21% and their number has declined from 6.8m to 5.3m. Blameor creditMargaret Thatcher for this. Her government forced local authorities to sell homes cheaply to existing tenants and stopped them building new ones. New social homes were to be financed centrally and run by local housing associations. It now looks like the long squeeze is over. Next week, the government is expected to announce a near-doubling of the Housing Corporation's 1.2 billion annual budget and plans to extend eligibility for social housing. An extra 1 billion would build around 20,000 new homes each year at current rates. This could be stretched further by reducing the amount of subsidy per house. The government is hoping that this move will help solve its housing difficulties. Thanks to by more than 50,000 a year according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a social research charity. The result: surging housing costs which have priced modest earners out of the market, particularly in London and the south-east of England. Chief among The government will try to fulfil its ambitions in part through a phenomenon known as planning gain. Councils are grabbing an increasing share of rising land prices by bumping up the amount of social housing developers must build as part of a new scheme and hand over to the local housing association. Even before the government's fresh money arrives, some local authorities in southern England are relying on planning gain to help meet demanding targets. In plush regency Cheltenham, the council wants 30% of new housing to be social; the figure is 40% in comfortable Poole in Dorset, while the Greater London Authority is targeting 50% in the capital over the next twenty years. making it indistinguishable from neighbouring private housing. Social housing developments are even winning awards in competition with private sector developmentsthe Peabody Trust's Bedzed development in Surrey won the Evening Standard Lifestyle Home of the Year awardthough it is worth remembering that some of the most notorious 1960s and 1970s council housing estates also won design awards. Housing associations are generally better at getting repairs done than are councils. They have also been more effective in tackling problems like drugs and prostitution through innovations such as estate offices and on-site caretakers. Above all, planners have learned not to think too big. No one will ever build a big single tenure estate again, says Richard McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Peabody Trust. happens to the teacher who lives in social housing in one borough, and is offered a job in a borough that cannot offer her new cheap housing? What happens to a nurse in cheap housing who wants to move into a new profession? A government so keen on enterprise and initiative should not be recreating a system that makes it difficult for people to change their lives. If public-sector workers cannot afford to live in the south-east of England, then the government should be changing pay scales that currently discriminate in favour of public sector workers in cheap bits of the country and against those in expensive bits, rather than reintroducing something that once looked like a boon to the poor and turned out to be a shackle. | One way to make social housing more successful is to make it similar to private housing. | entailment |
id_5281 | Social housing Over the past 20 years in Britain, the proportion of social homes in the total stock has fallen from 31% to 21% and their number has declined from 6.8m to 5.3m. Blameor creditMargaret Thatcher for this. Her government forced local authorities to sell homes cheaply to existing tenants and stopped them building new ones. New social homes were to be financed centrally and run by local housing associations. It now looks like the long squeeze is over. Next week, the government is expected to announce a near-doubling of the Housing Corporation's 1.2 billion annual budget and plans to extend eligibility for social housing. An extra 1 billion would build around 20,000 new homes each year at current rates. This could be stretched further by reducing the amount of subsidy per house. The government is hoping that this move will help solve its housing difficulties. Thanks to by more than 50,000 a year according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a social research charity. The result: surging housing costs which have priced modest earners out of the market, particularly in London and the south-east of England. Chief among The government will try to fulfil its ambitions in part through a phenomenon known as planning gain. Councils are grabbing an increasing share of rising land prices by bumping up the amount of social housing developers must build as part of a new scheme and hand over to the local housing association. Even before the government's fresh money arrives, some local authorities in southern England are relying on planning gain to help meet demanding targets. In plush regency Cheltenham, the council wants 30% of new housing to be social; the figure is 40% in comfortable Poole in Dorset, while the Greater London Authority is targeting 50% in the capital over the next twenty years. making it indistinguishable from neighbouring private housing. Social housing developments are even winning awards in competition with private sector developmentsthe Peabody Trust's Bedzed development in Surrey won the Evening Standard Lifestyle Home of the Year awardthough it is worth remembering that some of the most notorious 1960s and 1970s council housing estates also won design awards. Housing associations are generally better at getting repairs done than are councils. They have also been more effective in tackling problems like drugs and prostitution through innovations such as estate offices and on-site caretakers. Above all, planners have learned not to think too big. No one will ever build a big single tenure estate again, says Richard McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Peabody Trust. happens to the teacher who lives in social housing in one borough, and is offered a job in a borough that cannot offer her new cheap housing? What happens to a nurse in cheap housing who wants to move into a new profession? A government so keen on enterprise and initiative should not be recreating a system that makes it difficult for people to change their lives. If public-sector workers cannot afford to live in the south-east of England, then the government should be changing pay scales that currently discriminate in favour of public sector workers in cheap bits of the country and against those in expensive bits, rather than reintroducing something that once looked like a boon to the poor and turned out to be a shackle. | Local councils are unable to deal with crimes committed on social housing land. | neutral |
id_5282 | Social housing Over the past 20 years in Britain, the proportion of social homes in the total stock has fallen from 31% to 21% and their number has declined from 6.8m to 5.3m. Blameor creditMargaret Thatcher for this. Her government forced local authorities to sell homes cheaply to existing tenants and stopped them building new ones. New social homes were to be financed centrally and run by local housing associations. It now looks like the long squeeze is over. Next week, the government is expected to announce a near-doubling of the Housing Corporation's 1.2 billion annual budget and plans to extend eligibility for social housing. An extra 1 billion would build around 20,000 new homes each year at current rates. This could be stretched further by reducing the amount of subsidy per house. The government is hoping that this move will help solve its housing difficulties. Thanks to by more than 50,000 a year according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a social research charity. The result: surging housing costs which have priced modest earners out of the market, particularly in London and the south-east of England. Chief among The government will try to fulfil its ambitions in part through a phenomenon known as planning gain. Councils are grabbing an increasing share of rising land prices by bumping up the amount of social housing developers must build as part of a new scheme and hand over to the local housing association. Even before the government's fresh money arrives, some local authorities in southern England are relying on planning gain to help meet demanding targets. In plush regency Cheltenham, the council wants 30% of new housing to be social; the figure is 40% in comfortable Poole in Dorset, while the Greater London Authority is targeting 50% in the capital over the next twenty years. making it indistinguishable from neighbouring private housing. Social housing developments are even winning awards in competition with private sector developmentsthe Peabody Trust's Bedzed development in Surrey won the Evening Standard Lifestyle Home of the Year awardthough it is worth remembering that some of the most notorious 1960s and 1970s council housing estates also won design awards. Housing associations are generally better at getting repairs done than are councils. They have also been more effective in tackling problems like drugs and prostitution through innovations such as estate offices and on-site caretakers. Above all, planners have learned not to think too big. No one will ever build a big single tenure estate again, says Richard McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Peabody Trust. happens to the teacher who lives in social housing in one borough, and is offered a job in a borough that cannot offer her new cheap housing? What happens to a nurse in cheap housing who wants to move into a new profession? A government so keen on enterprise and initiative should not be recreating a system that makes it difficult for people to change their lives. If public-sector workers cannot afford to live in the south-east of England, then the government should be changing pay scales that currently discriminate in favour of public sector workers in cheap bits of the country and against those in expensive bits, rather than reintroducing something that once looked like a boon to the poor and turned out to be a shackle. | It would not be helpful to modify pubic workers salary depending on where they lived. | contradiction |
id_5283 | Socialism is an economic system promoting social ownership of the means of production, along with cooperative management of the economy. Socialist theorists differ on the meaning of social ownership, with varying opinions on markets, central planning and total nationalisation. Socialist economies are designed to satisfy human needs, rather than generate profit, as seen in a capitalist economy. | Socialism is against the private ownership of property. | neutral |
id_5284 | Socialism is an economic system promoting social ownership of the means of production, along with cooperative management of the economy. Socialist theorists differ on the meaning of social ownership, with varying opinions on markets, central planning and total nationalisation. Socialist economies are designed to satisfy human needs, rather than generate profit, as seen in a capitalist economy. | Socialism may advocate a state run economy. | entailment |
id_5285 | Socialism is an economic system promoting social ownership of the means of production, along with cooperative management of the economy. Socialist theorists differ on the meaning of social ownership, with varying opinions on markets, central planning and total nationalisation. Socialist economies are designed to satisfy human needs, rather than generate profit, as seen in a capitalist economy. | Capitalist economies do not satisfy human needs. | neutral |
id_5286 | Sodium chloride, or salt, is essential for human life. Typically derived from the evaporation of sea water or the mining of rock salt deposits, salt has been used by humans for thousands of years as a food seasoning and preservative. The mineral sodium is an electrolyte - an electrically-charged ion - that enables cells to carry electrical impulses to other cells, for example muscle contractions. Electrolytes also regulate the body's fluid levels. A diet deficient in salt can cause muscle cramps, neurological problems and even death. Conversely, a diet high in salt leads to an increased risk of conditions such as hypertension, heart disease and stroke. In spite of high-profile campaigns to raise awareness, salt consumption has increased by 50% in the past four decades, with the average adult ingesting more than double the amount of salt their body requires. Much of this increase can be attributed to the advent of frozen and processed foods in the mid-twentieth century. In the United States it is estimated that excessive salt consumption claims 150,000 lives and results in $24 billion of health care costs annually. For individuals wishing to reduce their sodium intake, the answer is not simply rejecting the salt shaker; 75% of the average person's salt consumption comes from food, such as bread, cereals, and cheese. | The human body needs salt to maintain constant levels of body fluids. | neutral |
id_5287 | Sodium chloride, or salt, is essential for human life. Typically derived from the evaporation of sea water or the mining of rock salt deposits, salt has been used by humans for thousands of years as a food seasoning and preservative. The mineral sodium is an electrolyte - an electrically-charged ion - that enables cells to carry electrical impulses to other cells, for example muscle contractions. Electrolytes also regulate the body's fluid levels. A diet deficient in salt can cause muscle cramps, neurological problems and even death. Conversely, a diet high in salt leads to an increased risk of conditions such as hypertension, heart disease and stroke. In spite of high-profile campaigns to raise awareness, salt consumption has increased by 50% in the past four decades, with the average adult ingesting more than double the amount of salt their body requires. Much of this increase can be attributed to the advent of frozen and processed foods in the mid-twentieth century. In the United States it is estimated that excessive salt consumption claims 150,000 lives and results in $24 billion of health care costs annually. For individuals wishing to reduce their sodium intake, the answer is not simply rejecting the salt shaker; 75% of the average person's salt consumption comes from food, such as bread, cereals, and cheese. | Frozen and processed foods contain no more salt than contained in a typical diet. | contradiction |
id_5288 | Sodium chloride, or salt, is essential for human life. Typically derived from the evaporation of sea water or the mining of rock salt deposits, salt has been used by humans for thousands of years as a food seasoning and preservative. The mineral sodium is an electrolyte - an electrically-charged ion - that enables cells to carry electrical impulses to other cells, for example muscle contractions. Electrolytes also regulate the body's fluid levels. A diet deficient in salt can cause muscle cramps, neurological problems and even death. Conversely, a diet high in salt leads to an increased risk of conditions such as hypertension, heart disease and stroke. In spite of high-profile campaigns to raise awareness, salt consumption has increased by 50% in the past four decades, with the average adult ingesting more than double the amount of salt their body requires. Much of this increase can be attributed to the advent of frozen and processed foods in the mid-twentieth century. In the United States it is estimated that excessive salt consumption claims 150,000 lives and results in $24 billion of health care costs annually. For individuals wishing to reduce their sodium intake, the answer is not simply rejecting the salt shaker; 75% of the average person's salt consumption comes from food, such as bread, cereals, and cheese. | Most adults consume 50% more salt than their body requires. | neutral |
id_5289 | Sodium chloride, or salt, is essential for human life. Typically derived from the evaporation of sea water or the mining of rock salt deposits, salt has been used by humans for thousands of years as a food seasoning and preservative. The mineral sodium is an electrolyte - an electrically-charged ion - that enables cells to carry electrical impulses to other cells, for example muscle contractions. Electrolytes also regulate the body's fluid levels. A diet deficient in salt can cause muscle cramps, neurological problems and even death. Conversely, a diet high in salt leads to an increased risk of conditions such as hypertension, heart disease and stroke. In spite of high-profile campaigns to raise awareness, salt consumption has increased by 50% in the past four decades, with the average adult ingesting more than double the amount of salt their body requires. Much of this increase can be attributed to the advent of frozen and processed foods in the mid-twentieth century. In the United States it is estimated that excessive salt consumption claims 150,000 lives and results in $24 billion of health care costs annually. For individuals wishing to reduce their sodium intake, the answer is not simply rejecting the salt shaker; 75% of the average person's salt consumption comes from food, such as bread, cereals, and cheese. | Humans primarily use salt for food flavouring and preservation. | neutral |
id_5290 | Sodium chloride, or salt, is essential for human life. Typically derived from the evaporation of sea water or the mining of rock salt deposits, salt has been used by humans for thousands of years as a food seasoning and preservative. The mineral sodium is an electrolyte - an electrically-charged ion - that enables cells to carry electrical impulses to other cells, for example muscle contractions. Electrolytes also regulate the body's fluid levels. A diet deficient in salt can cause muscle cramps, neurological problems and even death. Conversely, a diet high in salt leads to an increased risk of conditions such as hypertension, heart disease and stroke. In spite of high-profile campaigns to raise awareness, salt consumption has increased by 50% in the past four decades, with the average adult ingesting more than double the amount of salt their body requires. Much of this increase can be attributed to the advent of frozen and processed foods in the mid-twentieth century. In the United States it is estimated that excessive salt consumption claims 150,000 lives and results in $24 billion of health care costs annually. For individuals wishing to reduce their sodium intake, the answer is not simply rejecting the salt shaker; 75% of the average person's salt consumption comes from food, such as bread, cereals, and cheese. | Over three quarters of the average person's salt consumption comes from frozen foods. | contradiction |
id_5291 | Solicitors, doctors and priests have all traditionally kept in strict confidence information they hold about or are told by their clients. A doctor will not disclose a patients illness to anyone but the patient or next of kin. Priests have sought to keep secret the content of what they learn in the confessional and solicitors have guarded carefully the confidentiality of the client lawyer relationship. However, under certain circumstances all these professions make exceptions and will break confidences. A doctor must by law report injuries they believe are the result of gunshots and conditions that represent serious threats to public health. Priests have provided information to the police in relation to child abuse cases and murder. Solicitors are required to report only suspicions they have of money laundering. Journalists also adopt a code of confidentiality to protect their sources. They have a reputation for being a profession far less likely to break their code even when ordered by the courts. In a number of high-profile cases journalists have chosen to go to jail for contempt of court rather than reveal the source of a story. Verbal Reasoning | Solicitors are obliged to report a client to the authorities if they suspect them of tax evasion. | contradiction |
id_5292 | Solicitors, doctors and priests have all traditionally kept in strict confidence information they hold about or are told by their clients. A doctor will not disclose a patients illness to anyone but the patient or next of kin. Priests have sought to keep secret the content of what they learn in the confessional and solicitors have guarded carefully the confidentiality of the client lawyer relationship. However, under certain circumstances all these professions make exceptions and will break confidences. A doctor must by law report injuries they believe are the result of gunshots and conditions that represent serious threats to public health. Priests have provided information to the police in relation to child abuse cases and murder. Solicitors are required to report only suspicions they have of money laundering. Journalists also adopt a code of confidentiality to protect their sources. They have a reputation for being a profession far less likely to break their code even when ordered by the courts. In a number of high-profile cases journalists have chosen to go to jail for contempt of court rather than reveal the source of a story. Verbal Reasoning | The passage mentions priests, doctors and solicitors as professions with a confidentiality ethic. | entailment |
id_5293 | Some Facts and Theories about Flu The flu, more properly known as influenza, takes its name from the fact that it is so easily transmitted from person to person (influenza is the Italian word for influence). Usually, contamination occurs through direct contact with secretions from an infected person. Its spread is also possible from contaminated airborne particles, such as those that occur when someone coughs or sneezes. However, it should be made clear that the risk is not great from simply being in the same room as an infected person, since the flu virus, unlike other respiratory viruses, does not dissolve in the air. Within 4-6 hours of someone catching the flu, the virus multiplies in infected cells and the cells burst, spreading the virus to other cells nearby. The spread continues for up to 72 hours, the exact length of time depending on the bodys immune system response and the strength of the particular strain of flu. The range of human responses to the flu virus has been of interest to scientists for many years. This is because the effect can vary from no infection to a rapid and deadly spread of the virus to many people. One area of study that has received particular attention is the immune system response of the individual. Where a persons immune system is healthy, the virus is attacked as it enters the body, usually in the respiratory tract. This lessens the severity of the illness. In contrast, people with compromised immune systems (typical in the young, where it is not fully developed, or in the old and the sick, where it is not working efficiently), often suffer the worst effects. One of the bodys responses to flu is the creation of antibodies which recognise and destroy that particular strain of flu virus. What fascinates most researchers in the field is that the human body seems capable of storing these antibodies over a whole lifetime in case of future attack from the same or similar strains of flu. It was while researching these antibodies that scientists turned their attention back to what was possibly the worst ever flu pandemic in the world. The actual number of deaths is disputed, but the outbreak in 1918 killed between 20 and 50 million people. It is also estimated that one fifth of the population of the world may have been infected. Through tests done on some of the survivors of the 1918 outbreak, it was discovered that, 90 years later, they still possessed the antibodies to that strain of flu, and some of them were actually still producing the antibodies. Work is now focused on why these people survived in the first place, with one theory being that they had actually been exposed to an earlier, similar strain, therefore developing immunity to the 1918 strain. It is hoped that, in the near future, we might be able to isolate the antibodies and use them to vaccinate people against further outbreaks. Yet vaccination against the flu is an imprecise measure. At best, the vaccine protects us from the variations of flu that doctors expect that year. If their predictions are wrong in any particular year, being vaccinated will not prevent us from becoming infected. This is further complicated by the fact that there are two main types of flu, known as influenza A and influenza B. Influenza B causes less concern as its effects are usually less serious. Influenza A, however, has the power to change its genetic make-up. Although these genetic changes are rare, they create entirely new strains of flu against which we have no protection. It has been suggested that this is what had happened immediately prior to the 1918 outbreak, with research indicating that a genetic shift had taken place in China. In 2005, another genetic shift in an influenza A virus was recorded, giving rise to the H5N1 strain, otherwise known as avian flu, or bird flu. Typical of such new strains, we have no way of fighting it and many people who are infected with it die. Perhaps more worrying is that it is a strain only previously found in birds but which changed its genetic make-up in a way that allowed it to be transmitted to humans. Most of the fear surrounding this virus is that it will change again, developing the ability to pass from human to human. If that change does happen, scientists and doctors can reasonably expect a death rate comparable to that which occurred in 1918 and, given that we can now travel more quickly and more easily between countries, infecting many more people than was previously possible, it could be several times worse. | The effect of a flu infection can depend on how strong the strain is. | entailment |
id_5294 | Some Facts and Theories about Flu The flu, more properly known as influenza, takes its name from the fact that it is so easily transmitted from person to person (influenza is the Italian word for influence). Usually, contamination occurs through direct contact with secretions from an infected person. Its spread is also possible from contaminated airborne particles, such as those that occur when someone coughs or sneezes. However, it should be made clear that the risk is not great from simply being in the same room as an infected person, since the flu virus, unlike other respiratory viruses, does not dissolve in the air. Within 4-6 hours of someone catching the flu, the virus multiplies in infected cells and the cells burst, spreading the virus to other cells nearby. The spread continues for up to 72 hours, the exact length of time depending on the bodys immune system response and the strength of the particular strain of flu. The range of human responses to the flu virus has been of interest to scientists for many years. This is because the effect can vary from no infection to a rapid and deadly spread of the virus to many people. One area of study that has received particular attention is the immune system response of the individual. Where a persons immune system is healthy, the virus is attacked as it enters the body, usually in the respiratory tract. This lessens the severity of the illness. In contrast, people with compromised immune systems (typical in the young, where it is not fully developed, or in the old and the sick, where it is not working efficiently), often suffer the worst effects. One of the bodys responses to flu is the creation of antibodies which recognise and destroy that particular strain of flu virus. What fascinates most researchers in the field is that the human body seems capable of storing these antibodies over a whole lifetime in case of future attack from the same or similar strains of flu. It was while researching these antibodies that scientists turned their attention back to what was possibly the worst ever flu pandemic in the world. The actual number of deaths is disputed, but the outbreak in 1918 killed between 20 and 50 million people. It is also estimated that one fifth of the population of the world may have been infected. Through tests done on some of the survivors of the 1918 outbreak, it was discovered that, 90 years later, they still possessed the antibodies to that strain of flu, and some of them were actually still producing the antibodies. Work is now focused on why these people survived in the first place, with one theory being that they had actually been exposed to an earlier, similar strain, therefore developing immunity to the 1918 strain. It is hoped that, in the near future, we might be able to isolate the antibodies and use them to vaccinate people against further outbreaks. Yet vaccination against the flu is an imprecise measure. At best, the vaccine protects us from the variations of flu that doctors expect that year. If their predictions are wrong in any particular year, being vaccinated will not prevent us from becoming infected. This is further complicated by the fact that there are two main types of flu, known as influenza A and influenza B. Influenza B causes less concern as its effects are usually less serious. Influenza A, however, has the power to change its genetic make-up. Although these genetic changes are rare, they create entirely new strains of flu against which we have no protection. It has been suggested that this is what had happened immediately prior to the 1918 outbreak, with research indicating that a genetic shift had taken place in China. In 2005, another genetic shift in an influenza A virus was recorded, giving rise to the H5N1 strain, otherwise known as avian flu, or bird flu. Typical of such new strains, we have no way of fighting it and many people who are infected with it die. Perhaps more worrying is that it is a strain only previously found in birds but which changed its genetic make-up in a way that allowed it to be transmitted to humans. Most of the fear surrounding this virus is that it will change again, developing the ability to pass from human to human. If that change does happen, scientists and doctors can reasonably expect a death rate comparable to that which occurred in 1918 and, given that we can now travel more quickly and more easily between countries, infecting many more people than was previously possible, it could be several times worse. | Vaccination is largely ineffective against flu. | contradiction |
id_5295 | Some Facts and Theories about Flu The flu, more properly known as influenza, takes its name from the fact that it is so easily transmitted from person to person (influenza is the Italian word for influence). Usually, contamination occurs through direct contact with secretions from an infected person. Its spread is also possible from contaminated airborne particles, such as those that occur when someone coughs or sneezes. However, it should be made clear that the risk is not great from simply being in the same room as an infected person, since the flu virus, unlike other respiratory viruses, does not dissolve in the air. Within 4-6 hours of someone catching the flu, the virus multiplies in infected cells and the cells burst, spreading the virus to other cells nearby. The spread continues for up to 72 hours, the exact length of time depending on the bodys immune system response and the strength of the particular strain of flu. The range of human responses to the flu virus has been of interest to scientists for many years. This is because the effect can vary from no infection to a rapid and deadly spread of the virus to many people. One area of study that has received particular attention is the immune system response of the individual. Where a persons immune system is healthy, the virus is attacked as it enters the body, usually in the respiratory tract. This lessens the severity of the illness. In contrast, people with compromised immune systems (typical in the young, where it is not fully developed, or in the old and the sick, where it is not working efficiently), often suffer the worst effects. One of the bodys responses to flu is the creation of antibodies which recognise and destroy that particular strain of flu virus. What fascinates most researchers in the field is that the human body seems capable of storing these antibodies over a whole lifetime in case of future attack from the same or similar strains of flu. It was while researching these antibodies that scientists turned their attention back to what was possibly the worst ever flu pandemic in the world. The actual number of deaths is disputed, but the outbreak in 1918 killed between 20 and 50 million people. It is also estimated that one fifth of the population of the world may have been infected. Through tests done on some of the survivors of the 1918 outbreak, it was discovered that, 90 years later, they still possessed the antibodies to that strain of flu, and some of them were actually still producing the antibodies. Work is now focused on why these people survived in the first place, with one theory being that they had actually been exposed to an earlier, similar strain, therefore developing immunity to the 1918 strain. It is hoped that, in the near future, we might be able to isolate the antibodies and use them to vaccinate people against further outbreaks. Yet vaccination against the flu is an imprecise measure. At best, the vaccine protects us from the variations of flu that doctors expect that year. If their predictions are wrong in any particular year, being vaccinated will not prevent us from becoming infected. This is further complicated by the fact that there are two main types of flu, known as influenza A and influenza B. Influenza B causes less concern as its effects are usually less serious. Influenza A, however, has the power to change its genetic make-up. Although these genetic changes are rare, they create entirely new strains of flu against which we have no protection. It has been suggested that this is what had happened immediately prior to the 1918 outbreak, with research indicating that a genetic shift had taken place in China. In 2005, another genetic shift in an influenza A virus was recorded, giving rise to the H5N1 strain, otherwise known as avian flu, or bird flu. Typical of such new strains, we have no way of fighting it and many people who are infected with it die. Perhaps more worrying is that it is a strain only previously found in birds but which changed its genetic make-up in a way that allowed it to be transmitted to humans. Most of the fear surrounding this virus is that it will change again, developing the ability to pass from human to human. If that change does happen, scientists and doctors can reasonably expect a death rate comparable to that which occurred in 1918 and, given that we can now travel more quickly and more easily between countries, infecting many more people than was previously possible, it could be several times worse. | Although antibodies last a lifetime, scientists have found they get weaker with age. | neutral |
id_5296 | Some Facts and Theories about Flu The flu, more properly known as influenza, takes its name from the fact that it is so easily transmitted from person to person (influenza is the Italian word for influence). Usually, contamination occurs through direct contact with secretions from an infected person. Its spread is also possible from contaminated airborne particles, such as those that occur when someone coughs or sneezes. However, it should be made clear that the risk is not great from simply being in the same room as an infected person, since the flu virus, unlike other respiratory viruses, does not dissolve in the air. Within 4-6 hours of someone catching the flu, the virus multiplies in infected cells and the cells burst, spreading the virus to other cells nearby. The spread continues for up to 72 hours, the exact length of time depending on the bodys immune system response and the strength of the particular strain of flu. The range of human responses to the flu virus has been of interest to scientists for many years. This is because the effect can vary from no infection to a rapid and deadly spread of the virus to many people. One area of study that has received particular attention is the immune system response of the individual. Where a persons immune system is healthy, the virus is attacked as it enters the body, usually in the respiratory tract. This lessens the severity of the illness. In contrast, people with compromised immune systems (typical in the young, where it is not fully developed, or in the old and the sick, where it is not working efficiently), often suffer the worst effects. One of the bodys responses to flu is the creation of antibodies which recognise and destroy that particular strain of flu virus. What fascinates most researchers in the field is that the human body seems capable of storing these antibodies over a whole lifetime in case of future attack from the same or similar strains of flu. It was while researching these antibodies that scientists turned their attention back to what was possibly the worst ever flu pandemic in the world. The actual number of deaths is disputed, but the outbreak in 1918 killed between 20 and 50 million people. It is also estimated that one fifth of the population of the world may have been infected. Through tests done on some of the survivors of the 1918 outbreak, it was discovered that, 90 years later, they still possessed the antibodies to that strain of flu, and some of them were actually still producing the antibodies. Work is now focused on why these people survived in the first place, with one theory being that they had actually been exposed to an earlier, similar strain, therefore developing immunity to the 1918 strain. It is hoped that, in the near future, we might be able to isolate the antibodies and use them to vaccinate people against further outbreaks. Yet vaccination against the flu is an imprecise measure. At best, the vaccine protects us from the variations of flu that doctors expect that year. If their predictions are wrong in any particular year, being vaccinated will not prevent us from becoming infected. This is further complicated by the fact that there are two main types of flu, known as influenza A and influenza B. Influenza B causes less concern as its effects are usually less serious. Influenza A, however, has the power to change its genetic make-up. Although these genetic changes are rare, they create entirely new strains of flu against which we have no protection. It has been suggested that this is what had happened immediately prior to the 1918 outbreak, with research indicating that a genetic shift had taken place in China. In 2005, another genetic shift in an influenza A virus was recorded, giving rise to the H5N1 strain, otherwise known as avian flu, or bird flu. Typical of such new strains, we have no way of fighting it and many people who are infected with it die. Perhaps more worrying is that it is a strain only previously found in birds but which changed its genetic make-up in a way that allowed it to be transmitted to humans. Most of the fear surrounding this virus is that it will change again, developing the ability to pass from human to human. If that change does happen, scientists and doctors can reasonably expect a death rate comparable to that which occurred in 1918 and, given that we can now travel more quickly and more easily between countries, infecting many more people than was previously possible, it could be several times worse. | Those who are more likely to suffer badly with the flu include very young or very old people | entailment |
id_5297 | Some Facts and Theories about Flu The flu, more properly known as influenza, takes its name from the fact that it is so easily transmitted from person to person (influenza is the Italian word for influence). Usually, contamination occurs through direct contact with secretions from an infected person. Its spread is also possible from contaminated airborne particles, such as those that occur when someone coughs or sneezes. However, it should be made clear that the risk is not great from simply being in the same room as an infected person, since the flu virus, unlike other respiratory viruses, does not dissolve in the air. Within 4-6 hours of someone catching the flu, the virus multiplies in infected cells and the cells burst, spreading the virus to other cells nearby. The spread continues for up to 72 hours, the exact length of time depending on the bodys immune system response and the strength of the particular strain of flu. The range of human responses to the flu virus has been of interest to scientists for many years. This is because the effect can vary from no infection to a rapid and deadly spread of the virus to many people. One area of study that has received particular attention is the immune system response of the individual. Where a persons immune system is healthy, the virus is attacked as it enters the body, usually in the respiratory tract. This lessens the severity of the illness. In contrast, people with compromised immune systems (typical in the young, where it is not fully developed, or in the old and the sick, where it is not working efficiently), often suffer the worst effects. One of the bodys responses to flu is the creation of antibodies which recognise and destroy that particular strain of flu virus. What fascinates most researchers in the field is that the human body seems capable of storing these antibodies over a whole lifetime in case of future attack from the same or similar strains of flu. It was while researching these antibodies that scientists turned their attention back to what was possibly the worst ever flu pandemic in the world. The actual number of deaths is disputed, but the outbreak in 1918 killed between 20 and 50 million people. It is also estimated that one fifth of the population of the world may have been infected. Through tests done on some of the survivors of the 1918 outbreak, it was discovered that, 90 years later, they still possessed the antibodies to that strain of flu, and some of them were actually still producing the antibodies. Work is now focused on why these people survived in the first place, with one theory being that they had actually been exposed to an earlier, similar strain, therefore developing immunity to the 1918 strain. It is hoped that, in the near future, we might be able to isolate the antibodies and use them to vaccinate people against further outbreaks. Yet vaccination against the flu is an imprecise measure. At best, the vaccine protects us from the variations of flu that doctors expect that year. If their predictions are wrong in any particular year, being vaccinated will not prevent us from becoming infected. This is further complicated by the fact that there are two main types of flu, known as influenza A and influenza B. Influenza B causes less concern as its effects are usually less serious. Influenza A, however, has the power to change its genetic make-up. Although these genetic changes are rare, they create entirely new strains of flu against which we have no protection. It has been suggested that this is what had happened immediately prior to the 1918 outbreak, with research indicating that a genetic shift had taken place in China. In 2005, another genetic shift in an influenza A virus was recorded, giving rise to the H5N1 strain, otherwise known as avian flu, or bird flu. Typical of such new strains, we have no way of fighting it and many people who are infected with it die. Perhaps more worrying is that it is a strain only previously found in birds but which changed its genetic make-up in a way that allowed it to be transmitted to humans. Most of the fear surrounding this virus is that it will change again, developing the ability to pass from human to human. If that change does happen, scientists and doctors can reasonably expect a death rate comparable to that which occurred in 1918 and, given that we can now travel more quickly and more easily between countries, infecting many more people than was previously possible, it could be several times worse. | You become aware of the symptoms of flu within 4-6 hours of infection. | neutral |
id_5298 | Some Facts and Theories about Flu The flu, more properly known as influenza, takes its name from the fact that it is so easily transmitted from person to person (influenza is the Italian word for influence). Usually, contamination occurs through direct contact with secretions from an infected person. Its spread is also possible from contaminated airborne particles, such as those that occur when someone coughs or sneezes. However, it should be made clear that the risk is not great from simply being in the same room as an infected person, since the flu virus, unlike other respiratory viruses, does not dissolve in the air. Within 4-6 hours of someone catching the flu, the virus multiplies in infected cells and the cells burst, spreading the virus to other cells nearby. The spread continues for up to 72 hours, the exact length of time depending on the bodys immune system response and the strength of the particular strain of flu. The range of human responses to the flu virus has been of interest to scientists for many years. This is because the effect can vary from no infection to a rapid and deadly spread of the virus to many people. One area of study that has received particular attention is the immune system response of the individual. Where a persons immune system is healthy, the virus is attacked as it enters the body, usually in the respiratory tract. This lessens the severity of the illness. In contrast, people with compromised immune systems (typical in the young, where it is not fully developed, or in the old and the sick, where it is not working efficiently), often suffer the worst effects. One of the bodys responses to flu is the creation of antibodies which recognise and destroy that particular strain of flu virus. What fascinates most researchers in the field is that the human body seems capable of storing these antibodies over a whole lifetime in case of future attack from the same or similar strains of flu. It was while researching these antibodies that scientists turned their attention back to what was possibly the worst ever flu pandemic in the world. The actual number of deaths is disputed, but the outbreak in 1918 killed between 20 and 50 million people. It is also estimated that one fifth of the population of the world may have been infected. Through tests done on some of the survivors of the 1918 outbreak, it was discovered that, 90 years later, they still possessed the antibodies to that strain of flu, and some of them were actually still producing the antibodies. Work is now focused on why these people survived in the first place, with one theory being that they had actually been exposed to an earlier, similar strain, therefore developing immunity to the 1918 strain. It is hoped that, in the near future, we might be able to isolate the antibodies and use them to vaccinate people against further outbreaks. Yet vaccination against the flu is an imprecise measure. At best, the vaccine protects us from the variations of flu that doctors expect that year. If their predictions are wrong in any particular year, being vaccinated will not prevent us from becoming infected. This is further complicated by the fact that there are two main types of flu, known as influenza A and influenza B. Influenza B causes less concern as its effects are usually less serious. Influenza A, however, has the power to change its genetic make-up. Although these genetic changes are rare, they create entirely new strains of flu against which we have no protection. It has been suggested that this is what had happened immediately prior to the 1918 outbreak, with research indicating that a genetic shift had taken place in China. In 2005, another genetic shift in an influenza A virus was recorded, giving rise to the H5N1 strain, otherwise known as avian flu, or bird flu. Typical of such new strains, we have no way of fighting it and many people who are infected with it die. Perhaps more worrying is that it is a strain only previously found in birds but which changed its genetic make-up in a way that allowed it to be transmitted to humans. Most of the fear surrounding this virus is that it will change again, developing the ability to pass from human to human. If that change does happen, scientists and doctors can reasonably expect a death rate comparable to that which occurred in 1918 and, given that we can now travel more quickly and more easily between countries, infecting many more people than was previously possible, it could be several times worse. | The only way to catch flu is if someone coughs or sneezes near you. | contradiction |
id_5299 | Some Facts and Theories about Flu The flu, more properly known as influenza, takes its name from the fact that it is so easily transmitted from person to person (influenza is the Italian word for influence). Usually, contamination occurs through direct contact with secretions from an infected person. Its spread is also possible from contaminated airborne particles, such as those that occur when someone coughs or sneezes. However, it should be made clear that the risk is not great from simply being in the same room as an infected person, since the flu virus, unlike other respiratory viruses, does not dissolve in the air. Within 4-6 hours of someone catching the flu, the virus multiplies in infected cells and the cells burst, spreading the virus to other cells nearby. The spread continues for up to 72 hours, the exact length of time depending on the bodys immune system response and the strength of the particular strain of flu. The range of human responses to the flu virus has been of interest to scientists for many years. This is because the effect can vary from no infection to a rapid and deadly spread of the virus to many people. One area of study that has received particular attention is the immune system response of the individual. Where a persons immune system is healthy, the virus is attacked as it enters the body, usually in the respiratory tract. This lessens the severity of the illness. In contrast, people with compromised immune systems (typical in the young, where it is not fully developed, or in the old and the sick, where it is not working efficiently), often suffer the worst effects. One of the bodys responses to flu is the creation of antibodies which recognise and destroy that particular strain of flu virus. What fascinates most researchers in the field is that the human body seems capable of storing these antibodies over a whole lifetime in case of future attack from the same or similar strains of flu. It was while researching these antibodies that scientists turned their attention back to what was possibly the worst ever flu pandemic in the world. The actual number of deaths is disputed, but the outbreak in 1918 killed between 20 and 50 million people. It is also estimated that one fifth of the population of the world may have been infected. Through tests done on some of the survivors of the 1918 outbreak, it was discovered that, 90 years later, they still possessed the antibodies to that strain of flu, and some of them were actually still producing the antibodies. Work is now focused on why these people survived in the first place, with one theory being that they had actually been exposed to an earlier, similar strain, therefore developing immunity to the 1918 strain. It is hoped that, in the near future, we might be able to isolate the antibodies and use them to vaccinate people against further outbreaks. Yet vaccination against the flu is an imprecise measure. At best, the vaccine protects us from the variations of flu that doctors expect that year. If their predictions are wrong in any particular year, being vaccinated will not prevent us from becoming infected. This is further complicated by the fact that there are two main types of flu, known as influenza A and influenza B. Influenza B causes less concern as its effects are usually less serious. Influenza A, however, has the power to change its genetic make-up. Although these genetic changes are rare, they create entirely new strains of flu against which we have no protection. It has been suggested that this is what had happened immediately prior to the 1918 outbreak, with research indicating that a genetic shift had taken place in China. In 2005, another genetic shift in an influenza A virus was recorded, giving rise to the H5N1 strain, otherwise known as avian flu, or bird flu. Typical of such new strains, we have no way of fighting it and many people who are infected with it die. Perhaps more worrying is that it is a strain only previously found in birds but which changed its genetic make-up in a way that allowed it to be transmitted to humans. Most of the fear surrounding this virus is that it will change again, developing the ability to pass from human to human. If that change does happen, scientists and doctors can reasonably expect a death rate comparable to that which occurred in 1918 and, given that we can now travel more quickly and more easily between countries, infecting many more people than was previously possible, it could be several times worse. | Another change in the genetic make-up of the H5N1 strain could kill more people than the 1918 epidemic. | entailment |
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