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: At a hearing in Miami federal court, U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz said she expects more concrete action and fewer promises from Carnival. "We're not there. And we should be," Seitz said. The cruise company is about halfway through a five-year probation sentence for a 2016 criminal pollution conviction. Chairman Micky Arison, who also owns the Miami Heat, and CEO Arnold Donald both insisted the company is doing a lot, but that it takes time to implement real changes at a company with 120,000 employees, more than 100 cruise ships and nine different brands. "We strive to be perfect," Arison told the judge. "We won't ever be perfect, but we are going to work toward that." Earlier this year, Carnival admitted violating probation from the 2016 criminal case as its ships continued to cause environmental harm around the world since then. It was hit with a $20 million penalty, on top of a $40 million fine imposed in the original case. The environmental problems included allowing plastic to be discharged along with food into water; dumping "gray water" in prohibited places such as Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park; and permitting a corporate culture to persist that does not value compliance with environmental laws. Richard Udell, a Justice Department lawyer specializing in environmental enforcement, cited the recent inability of Carnival to detail what happens to the estimated 50 million plastic bottles used on its ships each year. Carnival, he said, simply told the government they don't keep track of that because they are all supposedly recycled at some of its 700 destinations. Prosecutors want to know if that is really the case, or if often the bottles simply get dumped in the ocean or in landfills by other entities where Carnival ships dock. "If we don't look, we won't know, and if we don't know, we don't care," Udell said. "We hope that we can get past this." Carnival outlined many steps it is taking to phase out use of plastics on its ships, including the bottles, and that it would look deeper into the recycling issue. And Donald, the CEO, said the company's leadership is making every effort to value environmental compliance just as much as ship safety and guest hospitality. "Compliance, environmental protection, safety _ it's the first thing," Donald said. "Without it, we don't have a business." Another status hearing is set for December. _____ Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt

SOLUTION: Judge: Carnival must fix ocean pollution issues faster.

PROBLEM: "The coronavirus is now a pandemic, so far infecting nearly 120,000 people worldwide and killing more than 4,000. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recommended that travelers avoid visiting Italy, among several other countries, unless it's absolutely necessary. Italy, meanwhile, is taking its own precautions as COVID-19 spreads widely there. A recent blog post claims those precautions include putting the entire country ""into quarantine."" ""Italian prime minister has announced that the entire country goes into quarantine, as part of emergency measures aimed at halting the spread of the coronavirus,"" the undated post says. ""The government's extraordinary measures, announced at Palazzo Chigi late on 9 March, comes amid a worsening of the coronavirus outbreak. The new stringent measures, covering the entire country, and would take effect tomorrow morning."" This post was flagged as part of Facebook's efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) But this post is essentially : On March 9, Italian Prime Minister declared all of Italy a ""red zone,"" which means people should stay home except for work and emergencies, according to NPR. The emergency quarantine measure had already been in place in northern Italy, where most of the COVID-19 cases are. Italians must now also seek permission for essential travel, according to the BBC and permission willonly be granted for people with valid work or family reasons that can't be postponed. People are forbidden from gathering in public and all sporting events are suspended. Schools and universities are closed until April 3. There are other rules that indicate the nation is allowing some movement, however restricted, including a 6 p.m. curfew on bars and restaurants, a ban on jail visits, and an embargo on unnecessary shopping. Shopping centers, except for pharmacies and food markets, must close on weekends, according to ABC News. People are being asked to stand at least a meter apart from one another in supermarket lines. But as the New York Times reports, the exact restrictions of the quarantine aren't clear to some Italians. ""We are hearing too many things and people don't really get what's going on,"" the newspaper quoted one woman as saying. She said she thought it was fine to take a walk around Milan, where she lives, but said the government's explanations ""aren't clear at all."" It's worth noting that the word ""quarantine"" also has several definitions. According to Merriam Webster, it can mean ""a state of forced isolation."" Clearly not everyone in the country is being forced into isolation. But it can also mean ""a restraint upon the activities or communication of persons or transport of goods designed to prevent the spread of disease or pests,"" a definition that fits what we are seeing in Italy. The country's lockdown also seems well within the definition of quarantine used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: ""to separate and restrict the movement of well persons who may have been exposed to a communicable disease to see if they become ill."""

SOLUTION: "Whole of Italy goes into quarantine."

PROBLEM: Made by Bayer AG and Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc, Nexavar is approved in the United States for kidney and liver cancer. Eight out of the first nine patients who took the drug saw improvements in their ability to exercise, and six out of nine had significant improvement in their right ventricular ejection fraction, which measures the heart's ability to pump blood to the lungs. Four patients had decreased pressure in their pulmonary artery, which supplies blood to the lungs. "What patients are telling us is they are able to do more in their daily lives," said Dr. Mardi Gomberg-Maitland of the University of Chicago, who presented her findings at a meeting of the American Thoracic Society in Toronto. The original research on the drug was done at the University. She said the surprising thing is that the drug worked so quickly. Patients saw benefits in only four months. The study is the first human trial to examine the sorafenib, or Nexavar, in pulmonary hypertension, a disease in which blood vessels feeding the lungs narrow, forcing the heart to work harder. Like cancer, pulmonary hypertension is a disease marked by abnormal cell growth, which narrows the arteries feeding the lungs, reducing blood flow and taxing the heart. Sorafenib appears to interfere with this process. The trial enrolled patients with stable disease who continued to take their primary medications, which included a continuous infusion of a drug called prostacyclin and Pfizer Inc's Viagra or sildenafil. Both relax blood vessels that feed the lungs. Gomberg-Maitland said this therapy typically slows progression of the disease, but does not reverse it. They added sorafenib for 16 weeks, but at a lower dose than cancer patients use. Most patients in the trial increased their exercise capacity, as measured by time on a treadmill or a six-minute walk test. They saw an average 8 percent improvement in their right ventricular ejection fraction, a measure of the heart's pumping power. Side effects included mild hair loss and skin reactions. The study was designed to last only 16 weeks, but all of the patients continue to take the drug, some now for more than a year. "What is exciting about this is all of the patients feel better and nobody wants to come off the medication," Gomberg-Maitland said in a telephone interview. The study was intended to test the safety and dosing of the drug. It was funded by The Doris Duke Foundation and the University of Chicago. The researchers now plan to study the drug in 40 to 60 patients at different research centers.

SOLUTION:
Nexavar helped in pulmonary hypertension study.