TASK DEFINITION: Generate an explanation for the given claim using the provided supporting material from the paragraph. Please consider the following points while generating an output. 1) The claim will always have supporting proof in the paragraph, and the paragraph will have a clear point of view supporting the claim. 2) There can be instances where direct correlation to the claim is not available. Make use of the sentences in the paragraph to provide a corresponding output supporting the claim. 3) The explanation should be at least one and at most twelve sentences long.
PROBLEM: Paragraph: Plastic mulch, basically thin sheeting placed over individual crops, is used throughout China’s arid and dusty north to improve growing conditions and boost yields by retaining moisture for crops and suppressing weeds. The country deploys about 200,000 square km (77,220 square miles) of plastic mulch, an area the size of Belarus. A notice published by several ministries on Wednesday said China would work to improve the recovery rate of plastic mulch to 80% next year and ensure there is “zero growth” in the amount of plastic mulch used. It will aim to bring recovery rates to 100% and start reducing total land coverage by 2025. The notice said China would also work to improve its monitoring capability and include mulch pollution in the performance indicators of local government officials. Manufacturers will also be put under pressure to improve product standards. China uses about 2 million to 3 million tonnes of plastic mulch every year, but waste treatment capacity amounts to just 180,000 tonnes, Yan Changrong, a researcher with the China Rural Science Institute, said at a recent forum. While the use of plastic film can boost yields significantly in the short term, unrecovered remnants eventually degrade the soil and can also contaminate crops, with Chinese exports of spinach and ginger found to contain traces of plastic, said Xu Jingeng, a parliamentary delegate for Shandong province, in a proposal submitted to the National People’s Congress in March. Handling large volumes of plastic waste has become one of China’s pressing challenges. The country’s recycling capacity stands at around 23 million to 25 million tonnes, only half of total annual plastic waste produced, according to data from the Beijing Chemistry University. The city of Shanghai is gradually restricting the use of single-use plastics in catering, and the island province of Hainan has already vowed to completely eliminate single-use plastic by 2025. [nL4N23Y1YE][nL3N20G7K1] Claim: China vows to raise recycling rates of rural plastic mulch.

SOLUTION: China vowed to improve the recycling rates of plastic mulch used in farming, the government said on Wednesday, amid mounting concerns about soil contamination as unrecovered bits of the thin film get left behind, leaving traces in crops.

PROBLEM: Paragraph: The 33-year-old could not find help for her toothache even after she fled Islamic State rule and took refuge in northwest Syria. But a dentist in a mobile clinic has now arrived at the Rayyan camp where she lives with her husband and four children in a tent among the trees. “We kept getting uprooted, so we were cut off from doctors,” said Abdelaziz, whose family was smuggled out of Raqqa city some three years ago. They wound up in Syria’s northwest corner, the country’s last major rebel stronghold. The camps are overflowing, the doctors are too few, and many hospitals have collapsed under government bombing. In the camps along the Turkish border, often the only healthcare for people like Abdelaziz comes from mobile doctors and makeshift clinics in tents. “Many just take pills and stay silent about the pain,” said Bassel Maarawi, 57, the dentist who goes around seven camps in the border strip held by Turkey-backed rebels. The dental mobile clinic stays at each camp a few months at a time, treating dozens of patients every day who can not go into town to see a doctor. It belongs to the Independent Doctors Association, a Turkey-based Syrian group also running a free camp facility including a clinic for women, children, and internal medicine as well as a pharmacy. Maarawi himself was uprooted in late 2016 from his city of Aleppo, where the army crushed rebels with Russia and Iran’s help after a bitter siege. The children he treats now, living in the dirt and drinking filthy water, often suffer from malnutrition. “Many people were displaced recently which really affected them mentally, you can see it when they come in,” he said. A new wave of fighting has sparked yet another exodus, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing an army offensive in northwest Syria since April. At a camp for some 14,000 people in the border village of Shamarin, Ammar al-Omar runs a physiotherapy clinic inside a large tent. The staff - a medical professional and three volunteers he trained - made most of the equipment themselves and get by on just a few donations. They treat everything from back pain to battle wounds for patients including rebel fighters and paralyzed children. “There are many injuries because of the fierce bombing,” Omar said. “The patients can’t afford food let alone transportation.”   Um Mhamad, 29, has carried her son from another camp nearby and walked to the tent clinic for more than two years. An injury at birth had crippled the six-year-old boy, whose family was shuttled out of Aleppo in 2016. “He used to not move at all,” she said. “Today, he can crawl and turn on both sides and stand up.” Claim: In border camps, Syrians rely on doctors in trucks and tents.

SOLUTION: The Syrian war has inflicted all kinds of hardships on Najwa Abdelaziz but she still manages to make light of one of them. “The uprising ruined my teeth,” she jokes while getting dental care for the first time in years in the back of a truck.

PROBLEM: Paragraph: The cost of these hormone injections isn’t mentioned, and there’s no assessment of how the cost might compare with other forms of birth control. It should be noted that people interested in using this injection for birth control would also need to factor in clinic visit costs and potential treatment of side effects. The news release states that hormone shots were effective at reducing sperm count to less than 1 million/mil within 24 weeks in 274 participants and was effective in nearly 96 percent of continuing users, with four pregnancies occurring among the men’s partners during the efficacy phase of the study. It also stated that more than 75 percent of participants reporting being willing to use this method of contraception at the conclusion of the trial. That’s the plus side. One omission from the release was the absence of a control group. Without a control group it’s not possible to accurately calculate the effectiveness. The study reported four pregnancies among the men taking the injection. How many pregnancies would be expected for a similar group not getting the shots? The news release doesn’t say. The news release discusses adverse effects. It says researchers stopped enrolling new participants in 2011 due to the rate of reported side events, particularly depression and other mood disorders. It also mentions that men reported having injection site pain, muscle pain, increased libido and acne, and that 20 men dropped out due to adverse effects. It also says serious adverse events that were assessed as probably or possibly related to the study included one case of depression, one intentional overdose of acetaminophen, and a man who experienced an abnormally fast and irregular heartbeat after he stopped receiving the injections. Further, it quotes a researcher saying that “the combination of hormones needs to be studied more to consider a good balance between efficacy and safety.” Despite the attention to side effects there were a few gaps. The release didn’t quantify the number of men who developed depression. It noted there was one suicide among the study group, but stated it was determined not related to the hormones. How was it determined that the injection did not contribute to the suicide when the hormone shots did contribute to mood disorders? The release doesn’t say. The news release also doesn’t adequately explain the need to cancel the study due to harms. When compared to the side effects of other hormonal contraceptives used by women it appears to be safer. The news release describes study methods in detail. However, it could have pointed out then lack of a control group and the limitations of hormone injections. For example, this study included only men who reported being in monogamous relationships for at least a year. Presumably, these men were open to the idea of taking hormone injections while other men in the general population might not be. Injections require advance planning and access to medical resources, unlike other reversible methods of condom use and withdrawal. In this study, couples were required to use another form of birth control for as long as 26 weeks while the hormone injections took effect. The news release also does not mention that it took eight of the men more than a year to recover their sperm counts, which could be a drawback for some couples. The news release does not appear to be disease-mongering. It states that better birth control options are needed for men, citing data from the Guttmacher Institute that 40 percent of pregnancies worldwide in 2012 were unintended. Of course, expanding contraceptive use would not eliminate all unintended pregnancies. The news release states that the research was co-sponsored and funded by UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Program of Research, Development, and Research Training in Human Reproduction in Geneva, Switzerland, and CONRAD, using funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development. It also states that the hormones were provided by drugmaker Schering, which has since merged with Bayer. The news release mentions other available birth control methods for men including condoms, vasectomies and withdrawal. However, it should have given readers an idea of how the efficacy rate of injectable hormones compares with other available methods of birth control. According to the study, the efficacy of male injectible hormones is high when compared with other reversible methods available for men, and is comparable with the efficacy of female oral contraceptives. Also, the news release did not mention other approaches to male birth control under study, which include hormone-containing gels applied to the skin and the synthetic hormones that could be formulated into a pill as well as non-hormonal mechanisms to prevent sperm development, according to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The study does not give the impression that injectable hormones for men are readily available. In fact, it quotes a researcher stating that “more research is needed to advance this concept to the point that it can be made widely available to men as a method of contraception.”  However, it could have mentioned that in addition to safety issues, there are other barriers to making male injections widely available. For example, a drug company would have to be willing to make it and sell it at an affordable price. The news release does not overstate the novelty of this research, quoting a researcher who says the findings “confirmed the efficacy of this contraceptive method previously seen in small studies.” The news release does not engage in sensational language. Claim: Male birth control shots prevent pregnancy

SOLUTION:
This news release describes an efficacy and safety study of an injectable hormonal contraceptive for men that involved 320 men in seven countries. The news release quantified benefits and described adverse effects in some detail while emphasizing the need for more research. However, it did not discuss an important study limitation — the absence of controls — or costs. A comparison with the efficacy and safety of other forms of birth control would have made the release much stronger. The development of new forms of birth control including male hormonal contraceptives has been stalled for years, partly due to lack of interest on the part of drug companies. That’s despite the fact that many men have indicated a willingness to use hormonal contraceptives, while some women are reluctant to use available birth control methods due to their own experiences with side effects. Better male birth control options could erode cultural and economic barriers to contraception and reduce unintended pregnancies, fostering better economic and health conditions worldwide. This study, funded by the United Nations and other governmental and foundation sources, is the first large multi-center study to test a combination of testosterone and progestogen in men. According to the researchers, it establishes a much-needed reference point for future trials of male contraception. We would have liked to see some discussion of the economic, cultural and logistical barriers that could impede the introduction of a new form of birth control in the release.