1.   Analysts see the decline as blip.

2.   Analysts had expected claims to decline as the Big Three and other automakers reopened factories that were closed for the first two weeks of the month.

3.   And merchants who could lose business tend to view any decline as a patriotic sacrifice made for a greater good.

4.   As years pass, the numbers decline as each generation starts its own family ritual.

5.   At the same time, the oldest boomers are seeing their living expenses decline as their children grow up and move away.

6.   Bank issues may pace the decline as investors abandon equities for higher yields on fixed-income securities.

7.   Banks and property stocks led the decline as rising corporate defaults and a deepening slump in the property market promise to throttle corporate profit growth.

8.   Benefits decline as family income rises.

9.   A large ratio of surface area to volume is thus very important in bacteria, and effectively limits their size, since the ratio declines as size increases.

10.   After all, they reasoned, most films see their returns decline as weeks go by.