TASK DEFINITION: Given a paragraph, generate a claim that is supported by the given paragraph. 1) The claim must contain information from within the paragraph. 2) A sentence within the paragraph can be used as a claim. 3) The claim should not have contradictions within the paragraph. 4) The claim should be at most one sentence long.
PROBLEM: Although there was no discussion of costs, the article was clear in stating that vaccines arefor the most partin an early stage of development, so this omission is understandable. We wanted to seebetter coverage of the data here. The story leads with an anecdote about a patient who kicked a pack-a-day smoking habit after treatment with a nicotinevaccine in a study. And later,the story says that smokers who received thatvaccine were "about three times as likely to be off cigarettes 44 weeks after vaccination than subjects given a placebo."The story should have providedthe absolute rates of success reported in the study, which were only 16% for the treatment group compared with 6% for the placebo group, according to theheart.org. Elsewhere,the storydescribes an experimental anticocaine vaccine that was apparently very effective in a mouse study; it could have reported onphase II human data that is available for theTA-CDanticocaine vaccine that was also mentioned in the story. These data again suggest that only a minority of patientsmay benefit from the use of anti-addictionvaccines. The story states that "clinical trials have so far revealed no significant side effects" from vaccine treatments. However, we think the story should have included an important caveat: that these are early stagetrials involving small numbers of patients thatcan't provideconclusive evidence of safety. In addition, it should be recognized that addictions arechronic conditions and these vaccine treatments are likely to be long-term as well. Therefore, longer-term adverse effects should be expected, especially for a treatment that interferes with molecules closely related to the body's natural chemical messengers. The story could have been a bit more circumspect on this point. The promise of this new vaccine technology is counterbalanced by coverage of the uncertainties. The story gives appropriate weightto thedisappointing resultsreported in a number of early clinical studies, noting: "Failures have so far outnumbered successes." The story adds thateven in one of the successful vaccine studies, the benefitswere not as robust as those seen with a smoking cessation drug that is already on the market. There also is no prospect for a vaccine to treat alcoholism, according to the story. The article should have been more direct about the limitations of mouse research, and there was not enough detailon thedata publishedin the various studies reported on (a deficiency we address under the "Benefits" criterion). However, since the story was trying to present a broad overview of happenings in the field and wasn't attempting to summarize any particular study, we'll give the benefit of the doubt here and award a satisfactory. The story didn't exaggerate the effects ofsubstanceabusedisorders or otherwise engage in disease-mongering. The sourcing of this story was good. We hear fromacademics, government researchers, and industry executives. Their voices provide balance and give texture to the coverage. It should be noted, however, that most of these experts have a vested interest in the field or the success of a particular treatment, whether because of industry ties or because they are leading experiments ona particular approach. Even the government experts might be biased by their provision of significant financial support for research in this area. It would have been nice to heara comment about the vaccines from someonewho is certifiably free of all potential conflicts. But we can't justify docking pointssince there is no voice that is overly enthusiastic about the concept. The story compares the potential of vaccines with the benefits of existing medications for addictionand notes that theavailable drugs might work better. We would liketo haveseen more ink givento the role ofbehavioralapproaches in the management of addiction, which are supported by considerable evidence. However,the story does acknowledgethatvaccines "would likely be used alongside psychological therapy."We'll call it good enough for a satisfactory. The article helpfully states that "It could be years, if ever, before any vaccines to treat addiction reach the market." The article does a good job of describing how far along the various experimental vaccines mentioned in the article are in their development. Although the story could haveprovided more background on the history ofanti-addiction vaccines (aheroin vaccine was explored in the 1970s), the treatments being explored now are different fromanything currently available. So we don't think this story overstates thenoveltyof the research. This story is not based on a news release.

SOLUTION: Quest for Vaccines to Treat Addiction

PROBLEM: "Ed Stafford of Leicestershire, England walks in between trees as he walks through the Amazon jungle in Brazil in this undated handout photo. Former British army captain Stafford became on Monday the first known person to walk from the origin of the Amazon river, the world's second-longest river, to its mouth, after withstanding ""50,000"" mosquito bites, scorpion attacks and skin disease in his 859 day odyssey. REUTERS/Handout Ed Stafford, a 34-year-old from Leicestershire, England, dived into the Atlantic Ocean after taking 859 days to walk the length of the world's second-longest river, starting at the peak of Mount Mismi in Peru in April 2008. "It's just phenomenal to be here at the end of the journey after 2-1/2 years slogging our way through the jungle," he told Reuters after arriving at the beach about 90 miles northeast of the Brazilian city of Belem. "It was really difficult to envisage how this was going to feel and I'm completely overwhelmed." Stafford briefly collapsed from exhaustion with only 52 miles of the 6,000-mile journey to go, passing out by the roadside after breaking out in a rash. "I feel slightly humbled that my system just decided to shut down so close to the finish," he wrote on his blog at www.walkingtheamazon.com. Stafford has aimed to use the walk to raise awareness about the threats to the Amazon rain forest and its people, using a portable satellite video to blog about his trek. He had planned to complete the walk in about a year, but the journey was prolonged by floods that forced him to walk a roundabout route that was 2,000 miles longer than the 4,000-mile (6,400-km) length of the Amazon, which is exceeded in length only by Africa's Nile river. He began the journey with fellow British adventurer Luke Collyer, but the pair had a falling out early in the trek and Stafford continued alone. He was joined in July 2008 by a Peruvian forestry worker, Gadiel Cho Sanchez Rivera, who pledged to walk with him for five days and has been with him on the walk ever since. A statement from Stafford's media team said that the Briton had been: "wrongly accused of murder on two separate occasions, been imprisoned, had concrete stuffed in his mouth by hostile tribes people, been chased by Ashaninka Indians with bows and arrows, been stung by hundreds of wasps and watched as his guide 'Cho' removed a botfly from Ed's head with superglue and a tree spine." It said he had endured "50,000" mosquito bites, lived on a diet of piranha fish, rice and beans, and dodged a variety of snakes, electric eels, scorpions, and ants, as well as contracting a skin-disfiguring disease. Famed British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes was quoted as saying in the statement that Stafford's feat was "truly extraordinary." "No one has ever done this before and the pundits considered the route impossible," he said."

SOLUTION: British man becomes first to walk Amazon length.

PROBLEM: Farmers from southern Italy presenting their wares at a London food festival this week say their hemp pasta, oil and bread won't get you high, but do provide a healthy, tasty alternative to the traditional, wheat variety. "Hemp food is truly organic," said Marzio Ilario Fiore, 30, whose farm in the Molise region produces hemp oil and flour. "Hemp requires no pesticides, no fertilizers, and only moderate amounts of water." Cannabis is most often associated with the psychoactive effects of marijuana, but some strains of the plant can also be cultivated for food. High-growing varieties called hemp, which contain negligible levels of the drug THC, have long been grown to produce food and other products. Italy lifted a ban on hemp cultivation in 1998. "My crop gets regularly checked by Italian police inspectors to ensure that THC is within the legal limit," said Fiore, one of some 200 Italian food artisans in London for the three-day Bellavita ("Beautiful Life") Expo. As well as spaghetti made from hemp flour, he provided tastings of hemp taralli - hard savory biscuits from southern Italy - and hemp oil, which has a distinctive, nutty flavor. Hemp seeds are one of the richest sources of vegetarian protein, with high concentrations of omega fatty acids, growers say. While most pasta makers have yet to venture into the hemp market, they are finding new ways to present the staple, patenting new pasta shapes and sizes. La Molisana, for example, showed off its square-shaped variety of spaghetti, the so-called 'spaghetto quadrato'. Wine makers, too, are looking for ways to differentiate their products, with one producer aging its bottles on the sea bed for up to a year before selling them, encrusted with algae. "The lack of light and constant temperature combined with the 'massage' effect of the tides produces great results," said Gianluca Grilli, co-founder of the Tenuta del Paguro which won Bellavita's best beverage business award, worth 10,000 euros. Tenuta del Paguro uses the wreck of the Paguro oil drilling platform, which sank in the Adriatic Sea in 1965, to store its wine underwater. The three reds and one white are produced in Riolo Terme, near Ravenna, in central Italy, before being sent to mature under the waves. The bottles sell in Italy for 100-150 euros ($110-160) each, Grilli said. Bellavita offered a maze of hanging salami and cheese from across Italy, including provolone from the milk of the Agerolese cow, a protected crossbreed from the south, as well as cookies flavored with lavender and rosewood extract called 'Furezze', from the Venetian dialect word 'sfureso', meaning delicacy.

SOLUTION:
High on the menu: cannabis spaghetti features at Italian foodfest.