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In the new report, foundation models dominate, benchmarks fall, prices skyrocket, and on the global stage, the U.S. overshadows.
This year’s AI Index — a 500-page report tracking 2023’s worldwide trends in AI — is out.
The index is an independent initiative at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), led by the AI Index Steering Committee, an interdisciplinary group of experts from across academia and industry. This year’s report covers the rise of multimodal foundation models, major cash investments into generative AI, new performance benchmarks, shifting global opinions, and new major regulations.
Don’t have an afternoon to pore through the findings? Check out the high level here.
This past year, organizations released 149 foundation models, more than double the number released in 2022. Of these newly released models, 65.7% were open-source (meaning they can be freely used and modified by anyone), compared with only 44.4% in 2022 and 33.3% in 2021.
Closed-source models still outperform their open-sourced counterparts. On 10 selected benchmarks, closed models achieved a median performance advantage of 24.2%, with differences ranging from as little as 4.0% on mathematical tasks like GSM8K to as much as 317.7% on agentic tasks like AgentBench.
Industry dominates AI, especially in building and releasing foundation models. This past year Google edged out other industry players in releasing the most models, including Gemini and RT-2. In fact, since 2019, Google has led in releasing the most foundation models, with a total of 40, followed by OpenAI with 20. Academia trails industry: This past year, UC Berkeley released three models and Stanford two.
If you needed more striking evidence that corporate AI is the only player in the room right now, this should do it. In 2023, industry accounted for 72% of all new foundation models.
One of the reasons academia and government have been edged out of the AI race: the exponential increase in cost of training these giant models. Google’s Gemini Ultra cost an estimated $191 million worth of compute to train, while OpenAI’s GPT-4 cost an estimated $78 million. In comparison, in 2017, the original Transformer model, which introduced the architecture that underpins virtually every modern LLM, cost around $900.
At least in terms of notable machine learning models, the United States vastly outpaced other countries in 2023, developing a total of 61 models in 2023. Since 2019, the U.S. has consistently led in originating the majority of notable models, followed by China and the UK.
As of 2023, AI has hit human-level performance on many significant AI benchmarks, from those testing reading comprehension to visual reasoning. Still, it falls just short on some benchmarks like competition-level math. Because AI has been blasting past so many standard benchmarks, AI scholars have had to create new and more difficult challenges. This year’s index also tracked several of these new benchmarks, including those for tasks in coding, advanced reasoning, and agentic behavior.
While AI private investment has steadily dropped since 2021, generative AI is gaining steam. In 2023, the sector attracted $25.2 billion, nearly ninefold the investment of 2022 and about 30 times the amount from 2019 (call it the ChatGPT effect). Generative AI accounted for over a quarter of all AI-related private investments in 2023.
And again, in 2023 the United States dominates in AI private investment. In 2023, the $67.2 billion invested in the U.S. was roughly 8.7 times greater than the amount invested in the next highest country, China, and 17.8 times the amount invested in the United Kingdom. That lineup looks the same when zooming out: Cumulatively since 2013, the United States leads investments at $335.2 billion, followed by China with $103.7 billion, and the United Kingdom at $22.3 billion.
More companies are implementing AI in some part of their business: In surveys, 55% of organizations said they were using AI in 2023, up from 50% in 2022 and 20% in 2017. Businesses report using AI to automate contact centers, personalize content, and acquire new customers.
Globally, most people expect AI to change their jobs, and more than a third expect AI to replace them. Younger generations — Gen Z and millennials — anticipate more substantial effects from AI compared with older generations like Gen X and baby boomers. Specifically, 66% of Gen Z compared with 46% of boomer respondents believe AI will significantly affect their current jobs. Meanwhile, individuals with higher incomes, more education, and decision-making roles foresee AI having a great impact on their employment.
When asked in a survey about whether AI products and services make you nervous, 69% of Aussies and 65% of Brits said yes. Japan is the least worried about their AI products at 23%.
More American regulatory agencies are passing regulations to protect citizens and govern the use of AI tools and data. For example, the Copyright Office and the Library of Congress passed copyright registration guidance concerning works that contained material generated by AI, while the Securities and Exchange Commission developed a cybersecurity risk management strategy, governance, and incident disclosure plan. The agencies to pass the most regulation were the Executive Office of the President and the Commerce Department.
The AI Index was first created to track AI development. The index collaborates with such organizations as LinkedIn, Quid, McKinsey, Studyportals, the Schwartz Reisman Institute, and the International Federation of Robotics to gather the most current research and feature important insights on the AI ecosystem.
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The National Academies said the condition could involve up to 200 symptoms, make it difficult for people to work and last for months or years.
By Pam Belluck
One of the nation’s premier medical advisory organizations has weighed in on long Covid with a 265-page report that recognizes the seriousness and persistence of the condition for millions of Americans.
More than four years since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, long Covid continues to damage many people’s ability to function, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, a nongovernmental institution that advises federal agencies on science and medicine.
“Long Covid can impact people across the life span, from children to older adults, as well as across sex, gender, racial, ethnic and other demographic groups,” it said, concluding that “long Covid is associated with a wide range of new or worsening health conditions and encompasses more than 200 symptoms involving nearly every organ system.”
Here are some of the National Academies’ findings, drafted by a committee of 14 doctors and researchers:
The report cited data from 2022 suggesting that nearly 18 million adults and nearly a million children in the United States have had long Covid at some point. At the time of that survey, about 8.9 million adults and 362,000 children had the condition.
Surveys showed that the prevalence of long Covid decreased in 2023 but, for unclear reasons, has risen this year. As of January, data showed nearly 7 percent of adults in the United States had long Covid.
There is still no standardized way to diagnose the condition and no definitive treatments to cure it. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach to rehabilitation, and each individual will need a program tailored to their complex needs,” the National Academies said, advising that doctors should not require patients to have a positive coronavirus test to be diagnosed with long Covid.
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1. key figures, 2. introduction .
The US solar industry installed 11.8 gigawatts-direct current (GW dc ) of capacity in the first quarter of 2024, the second-best quarter for the industry, behind the last quarter of 2023. The utility-scale segment had a remarkable quarter, putting 9.8 GW dc of projects in the ground – more than the annual total for this segment as recently as 2019.
The distributed solar segments did not perform as strongly. Residential solar shrank by 25% year-over-year as the segment continued to struggle with high interest rates and the transition to net billing in California. With 1.3 GW dc installed, it was the segment’s lowest quarter since Q1 2022. The commercial and community sectors were relatively flat year-over-year, installing 434 MW dc and 279 MW dc , respectively. The commercial sector is diversifying – newer states are growing but are offset by declines in mature markets. Community solar relies heavily on the creation of new state programs and policies to generate growth in new markets. While there’s been progress on legislation in several states, new policies have been slow to cross the finish line. Furthermore, the promise of future market growth in California withered away with the March decision by the California Public Service Commission (CPUC) to reject a proposed new program (more on this in the full report).
Overall, photovoltaic (PV) solar accounted for 75% of all new electricity-generating capacity additions in the first quarter of 2024, remaining the dominant form of new generating capacity in the US.
After achieving record growth in 2023, the solar industry is expected to install about the same amount of capacity in 2024 -just under 40 GWdc. While growth this year is expected to be flat, this still represents an annual installation volume that is double the size of just two years ago. Our expectations for 2024 reflect mixed trends across segments.
Residential solar is expected to shrink 14% year-over-year. California residential volumes will decline by about 40%, as we’ve predicted since the net billing tariff was finalized. Solar-plus-storage installations are on the rise (see the full report for more details), but this doesn’t compensate for the declines in standalone solar. Overall residential sector growth outside of California is expected to be flat. Higher interest rates are still challenging residential solar sales since they increase financing costs for homeowners.
After 23% growth in 2023, commercial solar is expected to grow by another 14% this year. This is primarily driven by growth in two states – California and Illinois. In California, projects that submitted interconnection applications under NEM 2.0 will still be coming online this year due to typical 18–36-month development timelines for these projects. And in Illinois, pipelines that have qualified under the Illinois Shines program are being built out in earnest.
Community solar is expected to grow by 4% after growing 10% last year. Some states, such as Illinois and Virginia, are seeing growth. But as noted earlier, other states have been slow to form new programs and growth is slowing in more mature markets.
Utility-scale solar growth will remain flat in 2024 and 2025. The pipeline is strong, but buildout is being suppressed by a lack of labor availability, high voltage equipment constraints, and continued trade policy uncertainty, amongst other headwinds.
Modest growth for US solar through 2029 points to broader energy transition challenges
From 2024-2029, the US solar industry will install more than 250 GW dc of capacity, roughly 40 GW dc a year. While this is certainly proof of the solar industry’s strong standing in the energy transition, it also represents a slowdown of industry growth. The growth patterns vary amongst segments, but average annual growth between now and 2029 is 3%.
Solar projects across all segments are facing challenges that go beyond technological viability, cost competitiveness, or module availability. The limiting factors for projects today span the power industry: availability of labor, interconnection delays and costly network upgrades, high soft costs and interest rates, opposition to new project development, and more. These are not exclusively solar industry challenges. They are some of the toughest challenges of the energy transition. A higher growth trajectory for the US solar industry hinges on the extent to which these challenges can be solved.
3.1. residential pv .
The residential solar market recorded its lowest quarter of installed capacity in two years
The challenges from 2023 continued to plague the residential solar industry in the first quarter of 2024. These include high interest rates, the transition to a net billing tariff in California, and increasing customer acquisition costs. This has led to a two-year low in quarterly installed capacity. In Q1 2024, the segment added 1,281 MWdc, a 25% year-over-year and 18% quarter-over-quarter decline. While a first-quarter installation slowdown is typical for residential solar, some industry players report a more pronounced slowdown than in past years as high interest rates persist. The drop in installed capacity in California contributed to the national decline this quarter, as installations from sales made under NEM 2.0 dwindled.
In the first quarter of 2024, 28 states experienced both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year declines in installed capacity due to the ripple effects of sustained high financing costs. Notably, installed residential capacity in Texas fell for the fifth consecutive quarter in Q1, as the top installers in the state experienced more than 60% reductions in installation volumes compared to Q1 2023. Many installers reported using creative ways to maintain revenue, like serving solar co-op programs or diversifying their offerings to include system servicing, storage retrofits, and roof replacements.
Low first-quarter volumes are in line with our expectations of a residential solar market contraction this year as macroeconomic headwinds continue and installations in California fall by nearly 40% compared to 2023. Some states will still grow this year, fueled by lower module prices, a rapidly growing third-party ownership segment, and significant retail rate increases. However, interest rates remain high, and it is unclear when they may begin to decline. This contributes to our expectations of a 2% contraction for all states other than California, with a 14% reduction in installations at the national level. But looking ahead, we expect recovery starting in 2025, with the residential solar market growing by 10% on average over the next five years, as retail rates trend upwards, increasing potential savings for residential customers.
Note on market segmentation: Commercial solar encompasses distributed solar projects with commercial, industrial, agricultural, school, government, or nonprofit offtakers, including remotely net-metered projects. This excludes community solar (covered in the following section).
Consistent installations in traditional commercial solar markets continue to drive national stability
Installations in the commercial solar segment were flat year-over-year in the first quarter, supported by solid installation volumes in mature markets such as California, Illinois, and New York. In California, 152 MW dc of commercial solar capacity was installed in Q1 as NEM 2.0 projects continued to come online. This contributed to our expectations for 27% annual growth for the state. As the Illinois Shines program continued to attract developers in the near term, Illinois experienced a significant 212% increase year-over-year, with 61 MW dc installed in Q1 2024. New York also had a strong quarter of installations, driven by its more efficient interconnection processes compared to other states.
Even though we expect growth this year, developers in many states continue to face frustrating challenges with interconnection timelines. Due to these interconnection issues, growing market saturation, and high development costs in established markets, developers are increasingly shifting focus to emerging commercial solar markets. In some nascent commercial solar markets (even those without formal net metering policies), developers can benefit from lower costs and ample available sites. Rising energy demand and retail rate increases are also attracting developers to these markets.
The commercial solar outlook remains mostly unchanged since last quarter. As an influx of California NEM 2.0 projects come online through the end of this year, we expect 14% year-over-year growth. However, national installations will decline in 2025 due to an expected drop in California installations as the NEM 2.0 pipeline gets built out and mature markets become more saturated. Prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements will also contribute to a decline in 2025. Since new projects larger than 1 MW ac must meet these requirements to qualify for the full tax credits, developers likely began construction on a significant portion of their active pipeline before requirements took effect in January 2023. Much of this pipeline will have been built by 2025, resulting in slightly reduced volumes from 2025 through 2027. In the longer term, the national commercial solar market will grow by 15% annually in both 2028 and 2029. Increased development activity in newer commercial solar markets, particularly in the Midwest and Southeast, will heavily contribute to this growth. ITC adder qualification and rising electricity prices will also drive national long-term growth, averaging 8% over the next five years.
Note on market segmentation: Community solar projects are part of formal programs where multiple residential and non-residential customers can subscribe to the power produced by a local solar project and receive credits on their utility bills.
The proposed decision on California community solar suppresses long-term national market growth
Community solar installations remained relatively flat year-over-year in Q1 2024, resulting in 279 MWdc of new capacity. Installed capacity in New York grew 17% year-over-year in Q1 2024, making up 46% of national installed capacity. Additionally, while first-quarter growth in Illinois, Colorado, and Virginia supported national installations, other state markets are off to a slow start. Overall, we expect the national market to grow 4% in 2024, exceeding 1.3 GWdc of annual capacity. Mature state markets will drive most of this year’s capacity, but we also anticipate momentum will build in newer markets such as Delaware and Virginia.
We’ve made significant downward adjustments to our five-year forecast due to the recent policy updates in California. In March 2024, the CPUC issued a proposed decision on A.B. 2316, siding with utility arguments and against the widely backed Net Value Billing Tariff (NVBT) proposal. As a result, our five-year outlook for California decreased from more than 1.5 GWdc to just over 200 MWdc, an 87% decline. The massive market potential of the NVBT program proposal was anticipated to bolster long-term national market growth. However, the CPUC voted to confirm a slightly modified proposed decision on May 30th, resulting in a 14% reduction in our 2024-2028 outlook compared to last quarter.
Overall, we expect the national community solar market to grow at an average rate of 5% annually through 2026 and then contract by 11% on average through 2029. Importantly, our five-year outlook includes only state markets with programs currently in place and does not include states with proposed program legislation. Additionally, we continue to monitor the impact of Solar for All funding, awards for which were announced in April. Several state agencies in both existing and potential state markets proposed using funds for community solar and bill savings for community solar subscribers, potentially supporting new development and long-term growth.
Utility-scale segment achieved a record first quarter, with 9.8 GWdc installed
The utility-scale sector achieved its strongest first quarter on record, with 9.8 GWdc of capacity installed in Q1 2024, growing 135% year-over-year. Additionally, newly contracted projects in Q1 2024 reached 4.4 GWdc, with corporate and utility procurement as the main drivers for newly contracted capacity. Although procurement activity has continued, installations have outpaced its growth, reducing the contracted pipeline by 5 percent, to 96 GWdc.
The substantial increase in first quarter installations was driven by a backlog of projects that were slated to come online in 2023 but did not materialize until Q1 2024. Additionally, President Biden’s two-year tariff waiver on imported Southeast Asian crystalline silicon modules ends in June 2024. The temporary waiver has contributed to increased imports and higher module inventory levels. However, modules imported under the waiver that are subject to the circumvention tariffs must be “utilized” within 180 days of the expiration of the waiver (by December 3, 2024). This has driven increased installation activity at the start of the year.
Wood Mackenzie forecasts that 184 GWdc of new utility-scale solar will come online between 2024-2029, reflecting a 1% increase compared to our previous forecast. The 3.1 GWdc increase is mainly driven by high installation volumes in Q1 2024. Utility procurements, corporate clean energy goals, and state-mandated targets continue driving strong demand in the utility-scale sector, maintaining an average annual buildout of 30 GWdc. Despite strong installation growth compared to Q1 2023, the availability of labor and high-voltage equipment will continue to limit buildout through 2025. Continued issues with permitting and interconnection will also restrict utility-scale installations, maintaining the relatively flat buildout throughout the rest of the forecast period.
Note: In November 2023, Wood Mackenzie published a refreshed customer acquisition cost analysis (US distributed solar customer acquisition cost outlook 2023). Therefore, there are changes to the modeled residential customer acquisition costs and overall national average turnkey pricing in this report compared to past quarters.
Wood Mackenzie employs a bottom-up modeling methodology to capture, track and report national average PV system pricing by segment for systems installed each quarter. The methodology is based on the tracked wholesale pricing of major solar components and data collected from industry interviews. Wood Mackenzie’s Supply Chain data and models are leveraged to enhance and bolster our pricing outlooks. Wood Mackenzie assumes all product is procured and delivered in the same year as the installation except modules for the utility segment, which are procured one year prior to commercial operation.
The decline in demand for residential solar contributed to a module supply/demand imbalance, resulting in lower module prices and declining system costs for the residential and commercial segments in Q1 2024. Costs decreased annually by 4% for residential and 12% for commercial PV systems, as module prices fell by an average of 45% over the year. The average system cost for the utility-scale segment rose by 5% for fixed-tilt systems and 4% for single-axis tracking systems in Q1 2024 compared to Q1 2023. One of the main drivers of these increases is higher transformer costs, which surged by 25% year-over-year due to transformer supply shortages. Rising labor and engineering costs also contributed to the rise in utility-scale costs, as they increased by 23% and 22%, respectively, since Q1 2023.
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Heroin is an illegal, highly addictive drug processed from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seed pod of certain varieties of poppy plants. It is typically sold as a white or brownish powder that is "cut" with sugars, starch, powdered milk, or quinine. Pure heroin is a white powder with a bitter taste that predominantly originates in South America and, to a lesser extent, from Southeast Asia, and dominates U.S. markets east of the Mississippi River. 3 Highly pure heroin can be snorted or smoked and may be more appealing to new users because it eliminates the stigma associated with injection drug use. "Black tar" heroin is sticky like roofing tar or hard like coal and is predominantly produced in Mexico and sold in U.S. areas west of the Mississippi River. 3 The dark color associated with black tar heroin results from crude processing methods that leave behind impurities. Impure heroin is usually dissolved, diluted, and injected into veins, muscles, or under the skin.
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Published on September 24, 2022 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on March 27, 2023.
The introduction to a research paper is where you set up your topic and approach for the reader. It has several key goals:
The introduction looks slightly different depending on whether your paper presents the results of original empirical research or constructs an argument by engaging with a variety of sources.
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Step 1: introduce your topic, step 2: describe the background, step 3: establish your research problem, step 4: specify your objective(s), step 5: map out your paper, research paper introduction examples, frequently asked questions about the research paper introduction.
The first job of the introduction is to tell the reader what your topic is and why it’s interesting or important. This is generally accomplished with a strong opening hook.
The hook is a striking opening sentence that clearly conveys the relevance of your topic. Think of an interesting fact or statistic, a strong statement, a question, or a brief anecdote that will get the reader wondering about your topic.
For example, the following could be an effective hook for an argumentative paper about the environmental impact of cattle farming:
A more empirical paper investigating the relationship of Instagram use with body image issues in adolescent girls might use the following hook:
Don’t feel that your hook necessarily has to be deeply impressive or creative. Clarity and relevance are still more important than catchiness. The key thing is to guide the reader into your topic and situate your ideas.
Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:
See an example
This part of the introduction differs depending on what approach your paper is taking.
In a more argumentative paper, you’ll explore some general background here. In a more empirical paper, this is the place to review previous research and establish how yours fits in.
After you’ve caught your reader’s attention, specify a bit more, providing context and narrowing down your topic.
Provide only the most relevant background information. The introduction isn’t the place to get too in-depth; if more background is essential to your paper, it can appear in the body .
For a paper describing original research, you’ll instead provide an overview of the most relevant research that has already been conducted. This is a sort of miniature literature review —a sketch of the current state of research into your topic, boiled down to a few sentences.
This should be informed by genuine engagement with the literature. Your search can be less extensive than in a full literature review, but a clear sense of the relevant research is crucial to inform your own work.
Begin by establishing the kinds of research that have been done, and end with limitations or gaps in the research that you intend to respond to.
The next step is to clarify how your own research fits in and what problem it addresses.
In an argumentative research paper, you can simply state the problem you intend to discuss, and what is original or important about your argument.
In an empirical research paper, try to lead into the problem on the basis of your discussion of the literature. Think in terms of these questions:
You can make the connection between your problem and the existing research using phrases like the following.
Although has been studied in detail, insufficient attention has been paid to . | You will address a previously overlooked aspect of your topic. |
The implications of study deserve to be explored further. | You will build on something suggested by a previous study, exploring it in greater depth. |
It is generally assumed that . However, this paper suggests that … | You will depart from the consensus on your topic, establishing a new position. |
Now you’ll get into the specifics of what you intend to find out or express in your research paper.
The way you frame your research objectives varies. An argumentative paper presents a thesis statement, while an empirical paper generally poses a research question (sometimes with a hypothesis as to the answer).
The thesis statement expresses the position that the rest of the paper will present evidence and arguments for. It can be presented in one or two sentences, and should state your position clearly and directly, without providing specific arguments for it at this point.
The research question is the question you want to answer in an empirical research paper.
Present your research question clearly and directly, with a minimum of discussion at this point. The rest of the paper will be taken up with discussing and investigating this question; here you just need to express it.
A research question can be framed either directly or indirectly.
If your research involved testing hypotheses , these should be stated along with your research question. They are usually presented in the past tense, since the hypothesis will already have been tested by the time you are writing up your paper.
For example, the following hypothesis might respond to the research question above:
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The final part of the introduction is often dedicated to a brief overview of the rest of the paper.
In a paper structured using the standard scientific “introduction, methods, results, discussion” format, this isn’t always necessary. But if your paper is structured in a less predictable way, it’s important to describe the shape of it for the reader.
If included, the overview should be concise, direct, and written in the present tense.
Full examples of research paper introductions are shown in the tabs below: one for an argumentative paper, the other for an empirical paper.
Are cows responsible for climate change? A recent study (RIVM, 2019) shows that cattle farmers account for two thirds of agricultural nitrogen emissions in the Netherlands. These emissions result from nitrogen in manure, which can degrade into ammonia and enter the atmosphere. The study’s calculations show that agriculture is the main source of nitrogen pollution, accounting for 46% of the country’s total emissions. By comparison, road traffic and households are responsible for 6.1% each, the industrial sector for 1%. While efforts are being made to mitigate these emissions, policymakers are reluctant to reckon with the scale of the problem. The approach presented here is a radical one, but commensurate with the issue. This paper argues that the Dutch government must stimulate and subsidize livestock farmers, especially cattle farmers, to transition to sustainable vegetable farming. It first establishes the inadequacy of current mitigation measures, then discusses the various advantages of the results proposed, and finally addresses potential objections to the plan on economic grounds.
The rise of social media has been accompanied by a sharp increase in the prevalence of body image issues among women and girls. This correlation has received significant academic attention: Various empirical studies have been conducted into Facebook usage among adolescent girls (Tiggermann & Slater, 2013; Meier & Gray, 2014). These studies have consistently found that the visual and interactive aspects of the platform have the greatest influence on body image issues. Despite this, highly visual social media (HVSM) such as Instagram have yet to be robustly researched. This paper sets out to address this research gap. We investigated the effects of daily Instagram use on the prevalence of body image issues among adolescent girls. It was hypothesized that daily Instagram use would be associated with an increase in body image concerns and a decrease in self-esteem ratings.
The introduction of a research paper includes several key elements:
and your problem statement
Don’t feel that you have to write the introduction first. The introduction is often one of the last parts of the research paper you’ll write, along with the conclusion.
This is because it can be easier to introduce your paper once you’ve already written the body ; you may not have the clearest idea of your arguments until you’ve written them, and things can change during the writing process .
The way you present your research problem in your introduction varies depending on the nature of your research paper . A research paper that presents a sustained argument will usually encapsulate this argument in a thesis statement .
A research paper designed to present the results of empirical research tends to present a research question that it seeks to answer. It may also include a hypothesis —a prediction that will be confirmed or disproved by your research.
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.
Caulfield, J. (2023, March 27). Writing a Research Paper Introduction | Step-by-Step Guide. Scribbr. Retrieved June 10, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/research-paper/research-paper-introduction/
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Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand voters’ political values related to cultural issues in the context of the 2024 election. For this analysis, we surveyed 8,709 adults, including 7,166 registered voters, from April 8 to 14, 2024. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .
Here are the questions used for the report and its methodology .
The 2024 presidential campaign is taking place amid intense debates over such topics as immigration, growing racial and ethnic diversity in the United States, the changing American family, crime and reproductive issues.
These topics sometimes are grouped together as “culture war” or “woke” issues.
On most – but not all – of these topics, voters who support President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have starkly different opinions. Yet in many cases, Biden and Trump supporters are themselves sharply divided.
Across more than 30 measures, some of the widest differences are on issues that have divided Americans for decades: the role of guns in society, as well as race and the legacy of slavery.
Yet, Biden and Trump supporters also have very different opinions across many other topics likely to be focal points in the campaign: gender identity and sexual orientation, crime and policing, reproductive issues, the influence of religion on society and the changes that have transformed life in the U.S. in recent decades.
A new survey by Pew Research Center of 8,709 adults – including 7,166 registered voters – conducted April 8-14, 2024, examines the political values of the Biden and Trump coalitions that underlie policy attitudes in many of these areas.
Jump to read about Biden and Trump supporters’ views on: Race and racial diversity | Immigration and language | American history | Gender and family | Gender identity and sexual orientation | Religion | Crime and policing | Guns
Among the major findings:
Enduring divisions on race and the legacy of slavery. Just 27% of registered voters who support Trump say the legacy of slavery affects the position of Black people in America today a great deal or fair amount; 73% say it has little or no impact.
Opinions among Biden supporters are nearly the opposite: 79% say slavery’s legacy still affects the position of Black people, while 20% say it has not too much or no effect.
Wide gaps on gender identity and same-sex marriage. While Americans have complex opinions on gender identity and transgender rights , a growing share of voters (65%) say that whether a person is a man or woman is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth. About a third (34%) say someone can be a man or woman, even if that differs from their sex at birth.
Most Trump voters now favor a “national effort to deport” all those in the U.S. illegally. Opposition to allowing undocumented immigrants to stay in the country legally if they meet certain requirements has risen in recent years, driven largely by Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters.
Divided views of the criminal justice system. A majority of voters (61%) say the criminal justice system is generally “not tough enough on criminals.” Just 13% say the system is too tough, while 25% say it treats criminals about right.
The changing American family. The structure of American family is very different than it was 40 or 50 years ago . Biden and Trump supporters view these changes very differently:
Divisions on abortion, more agreement on availability of contraceptives. Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a right to abortion, support for legal abortion has ticked up in both parties.
By contrast, voters – including large majorities of both candidates’ supporters – overwhelmingly say the wide availability of birth control pills, condoms and other forms of contraception is good for society.
Broad support among voters for discussing America’s historical successes – and its flaws. The survey finds that while Biden and Trump supporters have profoundly different attitudes on many cultural issues, they mostly support the discussion of America’s historical successes, as well as its flaws.
Voters are very positive about more open discussions of mental health. More than eight-in-ten voters (87%) say that more people openly discussing mental health and well-being is good for society. This includes large majorities of both Biden (94% good thing) and Trump supporters (79%).
Related: Who do Americans feel comfortable talking to about their mental health?
There is broad skepticism about the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) in daily life. More than half of voters (55%) say this is bad for society, while 21% see this as a good thing (24% say it is neither good nor bad). There are only modest differences in these views between Trump supporters (59% say this is bad for society) and Biden supporters (51%).
Related: Growing public concern about the role of artificial intelligence in everyday life
To some extent, voters’ political values are reflected in whether or not they’re comfortable with fairly common experiences.
A large share of voters (80%), including sizable majorities of Biden and Trump supporters, say they are comfortable with someone they don’t know saying they will keep them in their prayers.
Most women in opposite-sex marriages continue to take their husbands’ last names when they marry. Still, three-quarters of voters say they are comfortable with women not taking their husbands names.
Trump supporters are less comfortable than Biden supporters with women not taking their husbands’ last names. And among men who support the former president, 44% are uncomfortable with this practice, compared with 29% of women who support Trump.
There is a wider gap between Biden and Trump voters in comfort with people speaking a language other than English in public places in their communities. More than eight-in-ten Biden supporters (83%) are comfortable hearing languages other than English, compared with a narrow majority of Trump supporters (54%).
And, reflecting the wide divide between the two sides in opinions on transgender issues, just 20% of Trump supporters say they are comfortable with someone using “they/them” instead of “he” or “she” to describe themselves. More than three times as many Biden supporters (66%) – including 79% of Biden supporters under age 50 – say they are comfortable with the use of these gender-neutral pronouns.
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ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .
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No industry matters more to taiwan than chipmaking.
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T hey are the chips that power everything from mobile phones to electric cars—and they make up 15% of Taiwan’s GDP . Taiwan produces over 60% of the world’s semiconductors and over 90% of the most advanced ones. Most are manufactured by a single company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation ( TSMC ). Until now, the most advanced have been made only in Taiwan.
The semiconductor industry is called Taiwan’s “silicon shield”, giving the world a big reason to defend the island. Yet chips are the industry most affected by the split between America and China. Parts of the shield are now moving abroad. In December TSMC held a ceremony to mark the start of a chip plant (or “fab”) in Arizona. Joe Biden was there, as were Tim Cook from Apple and TSMC ’s founder, Morris Chang. Mr Chang said TSMC would triple its investment in Arizona to $40bn, open a second fab in 2026 and make three-nanometre chips, now the most advanced, in America. Mr Biden declared that “American manufacturing is back, folks.” Mr Chang more morosely called globalisation and free trade “almost dead”.
The chip industry was built on globalisation, with every part of the supply chain supporting it. TSMC ’s fabs, based on efficiency and high-skilled, long-hour labour, could make chips faster and more accurately than any rival. Experts agree that replicating this supply chain elsewhere would be inefficient. Mr Chang told reporters in November that the cost of making chips in America would be 55% higher. He reportedly told Nancy Pelosi that American efforts to bring the business home were “doomed to fail”. Yet the shift to local supply chains is happening, boosted by covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. Governments want critical tech made in safer places, closer to home. And America and China are competing to control the most sophisticated chips that may prove crucial to the next generation of advanced weapons.
Taiwan is pulled between the two. China has poured $50bn into chipmaking, hoping to meet 70% of domestic demand for chips by 2025. It has also poached Taiwan’s chip engineers, executives and trade secrets. That brain drain has alarmed Taiwan’s government, which has raided Chinese chipmakers and passed new laws against economic espionage. America is also trying to stop China getting advanced chips. It passed the CHIPS and Science Act in August 2022, offering $39bn in subsidies and a 25% tax credit to promote manufacturing at home, as well as $13bn of investment in chip research. In October 2022 it banned the export of advanced chips and chipmaking gear to China.
America’s success in bringing TSMC to Arizona sparked alarm in Taiwan. The KMT accused the government of “gifting” TSMC to America. “ TSMC will surely become USMC in the future,” said Tseng Ming-chung, a KMT legislator. Officials say such fears are overblown. TSMC aims to produce 600,000 wafers a year at its American fabs. But its manufacturing capacity is more than 13m wafers a year. It is also building a new fab in Japan and considering one in Europe. “It’s not that Taiwan’s cake is being cut in half. The cake is getting bigger, and we’re giving some of the extra slices to America and Japan,” says Emile Chang from the economic ministry.
The minister of economic affairs, Wang Mei-hua, says TSMC ’s new fabs do not mean a loss of Taiwan’s advantage. The most advanced nodes will still be made in Taiwan, and research will stay. In January Taiwan passed its own chips act, offering tax subsidies worth 25% of research costs. Foreign chipmakers are investing in Taiwan. ASML , a Dutch company that makes advanced lithography machines for cutting-edge chips, is opening its sixth factory in Taipei in 2023. Micron and Applied Materials, two American semiconductor firms, are expanding in Taiwan.
None of this changes the fact that “friend-shoring” semiconductor making will involve inefficiencies. But this is the reality of a world reshaping itself around geopolitical risk. ■
Photos: I-Hwa ChenG
This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline “Chips with everything”
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Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand voters' political values related to cultural issues in the context of the 2024 election. For this analysis, we surveyed 8,709 adults, including 7,166 registered voters, from April 8 to 14, 2024. Everyone who took part in this survey is a ...
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