The financial crisis has "hugely increased the importance of these W.T.O.
That has made competition among applicants stiffer and increased the importance of high test scores.
In Mosley's view, the breakdown of national certainty and the rise of national defensiveness have increased the importance of self-examination — in short, increased the importance of the man in the basement.
Microsoft has also dramatically increased the importance of building its ability to offer its own search services.
Changing both the message and the messenger have increased the importance of organizations like SADD, Students Against Destructive Decisions (formerly known as Students Against Drunk Driving).
Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a Westchester County Democrat, said that Mr. Pataki had only increased the importance of the figure by creeping so close, but not passing it.
The shortened period before initial public offerings, in turn, has increased the importance of hiring experienced managers, said start-up executives and human-resource consultants.
The information technology revolution seems to have increased the importance of and returns to clustering in high-skill sectors.
Growing doubts over the credibility and durability of nuclear deterrence also increased the importance of improving conventional forces.
By zeroing in on actual accounting issues, prosecutors in the Enron trial may have made their job more difficult, lawyers say, but they have increased the importance of their case.
Radio came very close; it conveyed an impression of "personality," and increased the importance of the listener's emotional responses, but only one sense was stimulated, and the most important factor in interpersonal contact -- visual recognition -- was still missing.
