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Montana's motto, Oro y Plata, Spanish for "Gold and Silver", recognizing the significant role of mining, was first adopted in 1865, when Montana was still a territory. A state seal with a miner's pick and shovel above the motto, surrounded by the mountains and the Great Falls of the Missouri River, was adopted during the first meeting of the territorial legislature in 1864–65. The design was only slightly modified after Montana became a state and adopted it as the Great Seal of the State of Montana, enacted by the legislature in 1893. The state flower, the bitterroot, was adopted in 1895 with the support of a group called the Floral Emblem Association, which formed after Montana's Women's Christian Temperance Union adopted the bitterroot as the organization's state flower. All other symbols were adopted throughout the 20th century, save for Montana's newest symbol, the state butterfly, the mourning cloak, adopted in 2001, and the state lullaby, "Montana Lullaby", adopted in 2007.
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What does Montana's motto mean?
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{'text': '"Gold and Silver"', 'answer_start': 42}
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19,461
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56e70a356fe0821900b8ec94
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The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its charter granted in 1837 and Supplemental Charter granted in 1971.
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In what country does RIBA mainly operate?
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{'text': 'United Kingdom', 'answer_start': 104}
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12,899
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5ad2de1cd7d075001a42a57c
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The Syriac term Nasrani (Nazarene) has also been attached to the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala, India. In the Indian subcontinent, Christians call themselves Isaai (Hindi: ईसाई, Urdu: عیسائی), and are also known by this term to adherents of other religions. This is related to the name they call Jesus, 'Isa Masih, and literally means 'the followers of 'Isa'.
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Which term has been associated with Saint Jesus of Isa Masih?
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{'text': 'Nasrani', 'answer_start': 16}
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1,519
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56cf4d7eaab44d1400b88f82
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Chopin's life was covered in a BBC TV documentary Chopin – The Women Behind The Music (2010), and in a 2010 documentary realised by Angelo Bozzolini and Roberto Prosseda for Italian television.
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What are the names of the two people that created a documentary for Italian tele vision?
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{'text': 'Angelo Bozzolini and Roberto Prosseda', 'answer_start': 132}
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3,727
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56d65c671c850414009470bd
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Besides parents, Liu Shaokun (刘绍坤), a Sichuan school teacher, was detained on June 25, 2008 for "disseminating rumors and destroying social order" about the Sichuan earthquake. Liu’s family was later told that he was being investigated on suspicion of the crime of inciting subversion. Liu had travelled to the Shifang, taken photos of collapsed school buildings, and put them online. He had also expressed his anger at “the shoddy tofu-dregs buildings” (豆腐渣工程) in a media interview. He was ordered to serve one year of re-education through labor (RTL). According to the organization Human Rights in China, Liu has been released to serve his RTL sentence outside of the labor camp.
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What was his assigned punishment ?
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{'text': 'one year of re-education', 'answer_start': 508}
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45,888
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Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority, as well as map out a view of the public sphere through private and public reason. Kant's work continued to shape German thought, and indeed all of European philosophy, well into the 20th century. Mary Wollstonecraft was one of England's earliest feminist philosophers. She argued for a society based on reason, and that women, as well as men, should be treated as rational beings. She is best known for her work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1791).
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Kant's work continued to shape German thought and European philosophy well into what century?
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{'text': '20th', 'answer_start': 305}
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65,682
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5a1e03953de3f40018b2644c
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One of the most influential works during this burgeoning period was Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince, written between 1511–12 and published in 1532, after Machiavelli's death. That work, as well as The Discourses, a rigorous analysis of the classical period, did much to influence modern political thought in the West. A minority (including Jean-Jacques Rousseau) interpreted The Prince as a satire meant to be given to the Medici after their recapture of Florence and their subsequent expulsion of Machiavelli from Florence. Though the work was written for the di Medici family in order to perhaps influence them to free him from exile, Machiavelli supported the Republic of Florence rather than the oligarchy of the di Medici family. At any rate, Machiavelli presents a pragmatic and somewhat consequentialist view of politics, whereby good and evil are mere means used to bring about an end—i.e., the secure and powerful state. Thomas Hobbes, well known for his theory of the social contract, goes on to expand this view at the start of the 17th century during the English Renaissance. Although neither Machiavelli nor Hobbes believed in the divine right of kings, they both believed in the inherent selfishness of the individual. It was necessarily this belief that led them to adopt a strong central power as the only means of preventing the disintegration of the social order.
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Who is known for their theory of social contract in the 1700s?
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{'text': 'Thomas Hobbes', 'answer_start': 931}
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63,384
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5a711f1d0efcfe001a8afd5b
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generic
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Pesticides are often referred to according to the type of pest they control. Pesticides can also be considered as either biodegradable pesticides, which will be broken down by microbes and other living beings into harmless compounds, or persistent pesticides, which may take months or years before they are broken down: it was the persistence of DDT, for example, which led to its accumulation in the food chain and its killing of birds of prey at the top of the food chain. Another way to think about pesticides is to consider those that are chemical pesticides or are derived from a common source or production method.
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What is one way to classify birds?
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{'text': 'the type of pest they control', 'answer_start': 46}
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41,696
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570d2f3db3d812140066d50c
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In May 2005, GE announced the launch of a program called "Ecomagination," intended, in the words of CEO Jeff Immelt "to develop tomorrow's solutions such as solar energy, hybrid locomotives, fuel cells, lower-emission aircraft engines, lighter and stronger durable materials, efficient lighting, and water purification technology". The announcement prompted an op-ed piece in The New York Times to observe that, "while General Electric's increased emphasis on clean technology will probably result in improved products and benefit its bottom line, Mr. Immelt's credibility as a spokesman on national environmental policy is fatally flawed because of his company's intransigence in cleaning up its own toxic legacy."
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Which newspaper printed an op-ed piece that questioned Immelt's credibility as a spokesman on environmental policy?
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{'text': 'The New York Times', 'answer_start': 376}
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112,435
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57303b58947a6a140053d2e4
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generic
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After having declined in size following the subjugation of the Mediterranean, the Roman navy underwent short-term upgrading and revitalisation in the late Republic to meet several new demands. Under Caesar, an invasion fleet was assembled in the English Channel to allow the invasion of Britannia; under Pompey, a large fleet was raised in the Mediterranean Sea to clear the sea of Cilician pirates. During the civil war that followed, as many as a thousand ships were either constructed or pressed into service from Greek cities.
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What aspect of the Roman military saw a decline in size after the subjugation of the Mediterranean?
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{'text': 'Roman navy', 'answer_start': 82}
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56,259
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57266e09dd62a815002e848b
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A wrestler's championship accomplishments can be central to their career, becoming a measure of their performance ability and drawing power. In general, a wrestler with multiple title reigns or an extended title reign is indicative of a wrestler's ability to maintain audience interest and/or a wrestler's ability to perform in the ring. As such, the most accomplished or decorated wrestlers tend to be revered as legends despite the predetermined nature of title reigns. American wrestler Ric Flair has had multiple world heavyweight championship reigns spanning over three decades. Japanese wrestler Último Dragón once held and defended a record 10 titles simultaneously.
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What has Ric Flair accomplished?
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{'text': 'multiple world heavyweight championship reigns spanning over three decades', 'answer_start': 508}
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58,007
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5728253a2ca10214002d9ef7
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BYU offers programs in liberal arts, engineering, agriculture, management, physical and mathematical sciences, nursing and law. The university is broadly organized into 11 colleges or schools at its main Provo campus, with certain colleges and divisions defining their own admission standards. The university also administers two satellite campuses, one in Jerusalem and one in Salt Lake City, while its parent organization, the Church Educational System (CES), sponsors sister schools in Hawaii and Idaho. The university's primary focus is on undergraduate education, but it also has 68 master's and 25 doctoral degree programs.
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What is BYU's parent organization?
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{'text': 'the Church Educational System (CES)', 'answer_start': 425}
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42,007
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570d90eeb3d812140066da41
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generic
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The army has relied heavily on tents to provide the various facilities needed while on deployment. The most common tent uses for the military are as temporary barracks (sleeping quarters), DFAC buildings (dining facilities), forward operating bases (FOBs), after action review (AAR), tactical operations center (TOC), morale, welfare, and recreation (MWR) facilities, and security checkpoints. Furthermore, most of these tents are set up and operated through the support of Natick Soldier Systems Center.
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What is the abbreviation for a tactical operations center?
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{'text': 'TOC', 'answer_start': 312}
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99,481
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572b6affbe1ee31400cb8377
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generic
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The Government of Guam maintains the island's main health care facility, Guam Memorial Hospital, in Tamuning. U.S. board certified doctors and dentists practice in all specialties. In addition, the U.S. Naval Hospital in Agana Heights serves active-duty members and dependents of the military community. There is one subscriber-based air ambulance located on the island, CareJet, which provides emergency patient transportation across Guam and surrounding islands. A private hospital, the Guam Regional Medical City opened its doors in early 2016.
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Who runs Guam's main health care facility?
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{'text': 'The Government of Guam', 'answer_start': 0}
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114
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138443
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pubqa
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In the winter and spring of 2011 a large outbreak of cryptosporidiosis occurred in Skellefte municipality, Sweden. This study summarizes the outbreak investigation in terms of outbreak size, duration, clinical characteristics, possible source(s) and the potential for earlier detection using calls to a health advice line. Methods: The investigation included two epidemiological questionnaires and microbial analysis of samples from patients, water and other environmental sources. In addition, a retrospective study based on phone calls to a health advice line was performed by comparing patterns of phone calls between different water distribution areas. Results: Our analyses showed that approximately 18,500 individuals were affected by a waterborne outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in Skellefte in 2011. This makes it the second largest outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in Europe to date. Cryptosporidium hominis oocysts of subtype IbA10G2 were found in patient and sewage samples, but not in raw water or in drinking water, and the initial contamination source could not be determined. The outbreak went unnoticed to authorities for several months. The analysis of the calls to the health advice line provides strong indications early in the outbreak that it was linked to a particular water treatment plant. Conclusions: We conclude that an earlier detection of the outbreak by linking calls to a health advice line to water distribution areas could have limited the outbreak substantially. Keywords: Early outbreak detection, Cryptosporidiosis, Syndromic surveillance, Cryptosporidium hominis Background The protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium is a major cause of gastroenteritis in humans worldwide [1]. At least 29 valid species of Cryptosporidium have been identified [2] and the two most common species infecting humans are Crypto- sporidium parvum and Cryptosporidium hominis [3]. Cryptosporidium hominis has been the cause of several large waterborne outbreaks. The largest took place in 1993 in Milwaukee, USA, where more than 400,000 people were infected [4]. Cryptosporidiosis is mainly transmitted by the fecal-oral route, usually through oocyst-contaminated water or food, or through contact with infected humans or ani- mals. As few as 10 ingested oocysts can cause infection [5]. Asymptomatic carriage occurs [6, 7] while symptomatic in- fection is associated with diarrhoea, abdominal pain, nau- sea, vomiting and fever that usually resolve within 2 weeks. Symptoms occur a few days up to 2 weeks after ingestion of oocysts [5]. Severe life-threating diarrhoea may develop among immunocompromised patients [8]. Gastrointestinal- and joint symptoms can persist for several months after the initial infection with Cryptosporidium [9]. The public health impact of the parasite was recognised in Sweden in 2004 * Correspondence: par.bjelkmar@folkhalsomyndigheten.se 1Department of Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Health Agency of Sweden, 171 83 Solna, Sweden Full list of author information is available at the end of the article The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 DOI 10.1186/s12889-017-4233-8 when cryptosporidiosis became a notifiable disease and the parasite was also included in the World Health Organiza- tions Neglected Diseases Initiative in the same year [10]. In November and December 2010 a massive waterborne outbreak of C. hominis occurred in the city of stersund in Jmtland County, Sweden. Based on a retrospective cohort study, it was concluded that approximately 27,000 individ- uals were infected through the drinking water which made it the second biggest reported waterborne outbreak of cryptosporidiosis globally [11]. A couple of months later, in April 2011, drinking water from a municipal water treat- ment plant (WTP) in the neighboring county of Vsterbot- ten was suspected to be the source of a number of cases of cryptosporidiosis. A boil water notice (BWN) was therefore issued on 19 April and a web-based questionnaire was im- mediately created and published on the webpage of the mu- nicipality to collect epidemiological data. In order to complement the web-based questionnaire and better esti- mate the extent of the outbreak and to find its source, an additional study based on a postal questionnaire was per- formed in June 2011. The study was managed by the Vs- terbotten County Medical Office and the municipal environmental and health authorities in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Sweden (at the time named Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control). Syndromic surveillance is defined as the real-time (or near real-time) collection, analysis, interpretation and dis- semination of health-related data [12]. As part of the on- going effort of development and evaluation of a syndromic surveillance system at the Public Health Agency, a retro- spective analysis of phone calls to a national health advice line from inhabitants living in Skellefte municipality dur- ing the time period of the outbreak was performed. No contemporaneous analysis of the phone calls was per- formed at the time of the outbreak. A new approach for early detection and improved situational awareness of local waterborne outbreaks was used where call patterns from individuals living in different drinking-water distribution areas were compared. The utility of syndromic surveillance systems for detecting and tracking local gastrointestinal outbreaks (GI) has been questioned [13] but systems based on data from health advice lines have been shown to be successful in a few cases [14, 15]. Globally, there are several examples of similar syndromic surveillance systems based on health advice lines [1618]. This study describes the outbreak investigation by sum- marizing the results from web-based and postal question- naires, human and environmental sampling and the analysis of phone calls to the health advice line. It outlines the extent and duration of the outbreak, risk factors and clinical characteristics of the infected persons, and discusses the potential for detecting the outbreak earlier. Figure 1 de- picts a time line indicating for which time periods the dif- ferent data sources were used in the analyses. Methods Study setting Skellefte is situated in Vsterbotten County geographic- ally located next to Jmtland County where the stersund outbreak occurred. The distance between Skellefte and stersund is almost 500 km. Skellefte is a municipality with a population of approximately 72,000 inhabitants. Twenty-eight water treatment plants are operating within the municipality. Two of these deliver water to the city of Skellefte; Slind WTP and Abborrverket WTP, where the latter delivers water to the majority of the inhabitants. All water treatment plants in the municipality use ground- water as the water source except Abborrverket which uses surface water obtained from the river Skelleftelven. Abborrverket WTP produces approximately 18,000 m3 of treated water daily to 44,000 of the 72,000 inhabitants in the municipality (31 March 2011). The normal water in- take to Abborrverket is located far out and deep in the river but due to icing during the winter months the intake is shifted to a more shallow position closer to shore where the ice can be removed more easily. Microbiological investigation Human samples Fecal samples from patients seeking healthcare for gastro- intestinal illness were analysed with standard techniques for enteric bacterial pathogens; polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for analysis of noro- and sapoviruses and micros- copy for analysis of Entamoeba spp. and Giardia intesti- nalis. Samples were only sporadically analysed for presence of Cryptosporidium oocysts up until 19 April 2011, when the current outbreak was first suspected. An intensification of testing for Cryptosporidium followed from that time until 1 July 2011 when the outbreak was considered over. Samples tested for Cryptosporidium were analysed using standard concentration technique followed by modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining [19]. A subset of posi- tive Cryptosporidium samples (n = 26) were sent to the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control for species identification by PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the rRNA gene [20, 21]. Subtypes were characterized by sequence analysis of the 60 kDa glycoprotein (gp60) gene [22, 23]. Environmental samples At the time of the outbreak Abborrverket WTP used floc- culation and sedimentation followed by sand filtering and chlorination for water treatment. This water treatment setup could be sufficient for removal of Cryptosporidium oocysts if the processes work optimally and the concentra- tion of oocysts is relatively low, but ultraviolet (UV) treat- ment is generally preferred as a disinfectant [24]. The winter intake was used from 19 November 2010 until 19 April 2011. A total of 38 samples were collected from the Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 Page 2 of 10 drinking water system during a period of 5 months, 19 April to 15 September 2011. These samples included raw water from the river Skelleftelven, i.e. incoming water to Abborrverket WTP, treated water at Abborrverket WTP and samples taken from the distribution net. Twelve influent and twelve effluent wastewater samples were collected at the main sewage water treatment plant (SWTP) Tuvan. Moreover, in order to investigate possible causes of contamination of Skelleftelven and to trace sources of oocysts, 9 samples were collected from the wastewater and storm water systems and from other rele- vant locations. Water samples were analysed for Cryptosporidium oo- cysts according to ISO 15553:2006 [25] with filtration of water (101000 L), immunomagnetic separation (IMS) and immunofluorescence (IFL) microscopy. The slides with concentrated and purified material were identified by fluorescent-marked oocysts specific in size, shape, internal structure and DAPI-(4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole)- stained nuclei. Wastewater samples were analyzed as water samples but without passing filters and in smaller volumes, 50100 mL for influent wastewater and 0.30.5 L for efflu- ent wastewater. Two sediment samples from the inside of the influent raw water pipe were also analysed as water sample but without filtration before IMS. DNA from one wastewater concentrate was analysed by sequence analysis of the gp60 gene as described for human samples [22, 23]. Epidemiological investigation Web-based questionnaire The same day as the BWN was issued, on 19 April 2011, a web-based questionnaire (Additional file 1) was created in order to immediately start collecting epidemiological data. The value of such a questionnaire was demonstrated in the preceding cryptosporidiosis outbreak in stersund [11] and those experiences were applied here as well. The questionnaire was made available to the public on the website of the municipality on the evening the same day, and was closed on 9 May 2011. The public was informed of the questionnaire by press releases and there were also links to it from key web pages such as the local newspaper and Vsterbotten County Council. The full data set was summarised after the outbreak was considered to be over. Visitors to the webpage who were residents of Skellefte municipality, both individuals with and without GI symp- toms, were asked to answer a set of questions regarding gastrointestinal illness in the family. A case attributed to the outbreak was defined as a person with residential ad- dress within Skellefte municipality with 3 loose stools per day for at least 1 day with onset between 1 April and 5 May 2011. Respondents with a date of symptom onset be- fore 1 April or after 5 May, persons who had travelled abroad 2 weeks prior to symptom onset, as well as individ- uals with a residential postal code outside Vsterbotten County were excluded from the analysis. Remaining re- spondents who did not fulfil the criteria of having 3 loose stools per day were considered non-cases. More detailed analyses of the data were not performed since the follow- up postal survey was conducted. Postal questionnaire A retrospective cohort study was performed in June 2011 by sending a questionnaire to a random sample of 1754 citizens in the municipality of Skellefte (Additional file 2, Additional file 3). The random sample was stratified by age (05 years, 615 years, 1665 years and 66 years or older) and gender. Questions were asked to find out about the start and magnitude of the outbreak, the source of the outbreak and risk factors for disease. The questionnaire contained questions on demographics, onset, duration and occurrence of symptoms indicating cryptosporidiosis, and water consumption as well as history of symptoms be- fore 1 January 2011. Caretakers were asked to answer for children <15 years of age. A case attributed to the out- break was defined as a person with 3 loose stools per day for at least 1 day with onset between 1 December 2010 and 31 May 2011. Statistical analysis of the postal questionnaire Each of the 1754 respondents were assigned a random number and a barcode on the questionnaire was used to identify each respondent. The postal codes were matched to the water distribution areas of the WTPs. In a stratified survey study, weights are used to calculate the number of individuals in the population represented by each individ- ual in the sample. Binary logistic regression was used to Fig. 1 Time line indicating for which time periods the different data sources were used in the analyses Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 Page 3 of 10 find associated variables for the propensity of responding to the survey. Age, gender and water supply were used to calibrate the weights for non-response to adjust for unbal- ance between the sample and the population. The association between the binary outcome of case/ non-case and the exposure variables was analysed by binary logistic regression. Included in the model as covariates and exposure variables were gender, age (05 years, 615 years, 1665 years, and 66 years or older), gastric ulcer (yes, no), irritable bowel syndrome (yes, no), Crohns disease (yes, no), celiac disease (yes, no), lactose intolerance (yes, no), immunodeficiency disease (yes, no), average tap water con- sumption (<1 glass, 1 glass, 25 glasses, >5 glasses) and household water supply (Abborrverket, not Abborrverket or not from any WTP/own well). The results from the binary logistic regression were expressed as odds ratios (OR). All I do not know an- swers for binary questions were regarded as non- informative and were set as missing values prior to the analysis. Missing values for binary variables were then given a value (yes, no) using multiple imputation chain equations [26]. The chains contained all exposure vari- ables plus the outcome non-case/case [27]. Twenty data- sets with different imputed values for missing data were created and binary logistic regression results from each dataset were weighted together into one result using Rubins formula [28]. All analyses were performed in the statistical software R (version 3.3.2) using the packages survey (version 3.31.2), MICE (version 2.25) and the gen- eralized linear model function (glm) in the base R package stats. In all analyses a p-value less than 0.05 was used as a significant result and in case of estimated confidence in- tervals a confidence level of 95% was applied. Analysis of phone calls to a health advice line Healthcare Guide 1177 is a national Swedish telephone health advice line staffed by nurses. The service provides advice and information about urgent, but non-life- threatening, health problems. The medical record cre- ated for each consultation includes a structured data field, called the contact cause, that represents the most severe symptom as assessed by the nurse [29]. There are almost 200 contact causes in the services medical deci- sion support system but only a handful are related to GI problems. For the purpose of this study daily call counts on GI symptoms were retrospectively extracted from the service for inhabitants in Skellefte municipality from 1 August 2010 to 18 April 2011. The contact causes vomiting or nausea, diarrhoea and stomach pain were used since changes in contact patterns for these symptoms previously have been shown in outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis [14]. In addition, for each call, infor- mation on the postal code of the registered residence ad- dress of the patient was extracted. Postal codes were divided into two geographical regions; belonging to the distribution area of Abborrverket WPT or not, and the number of inhabitants in the corresponding regions were calculated. To compare the call patterns of GI-related symptoms between these two regions a previ- ously published outbreak detection algorithm [14] was used but with a minor modification. No analyses were performed for the period from the BWN and onwards since, as the in- formation of an ongoing outbreak becomes public, the con- tact pattern to the health advice line changes drastically and it is challenging to adjust for this in the analyses. The daily call count, Ct , i, for one contact cause or a sin- gle group of contact causes at day t for geographical re- gion i was classified as an outbreak signal if it exceeded a threshold Tt , i: Tt;i max L; V ; V Et;i L SDt;i; L 3; 5 f g Et;i pt;i Ni; SDt;i Ni pt;i q 1pt;i; pt;i Pni j1;ji P C;j 10 Pni j1;jiNj ; t7; t8; t9; t10; t11; t12; t13; t14 f g; 2; if t7; t14 f g 1; if t8; t9; t10; t11; t12; t13 f g where L is the threshold level for a weak and strong outbreak signal respectively, V is the threshold for a positive outbreak signal, Et , i is the expected number of calls and SDt , i is the standard deviation, both based on a binomial distribution, Niis the population size of geographical region i, pt , i is the probability of a single call per inhabitant per day, and ni is the number of geographical regions in the analysis. In the current study, two geographical regions were in- cluded: Abborrverket distribution area and not Abborrverket distribution area. It is important to note that calls from inhabitants of the geographical region under investigation are not included in the calculation of its threshold since that would increase the thresh- old if an outbreak in that region has been ongoing for more than 6 days. Compared to the previously published algorithm, the time period for the calcula- tion of pt , i has been modified. Here, calls for 8 days, t-7 to t-14, were included. Since the call patterns dif- fer between different weekdays, call counts for the weekdays matching the day for which the threshold is calculated, t-7 and t-14, has a weight of 2. The Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 Page 4 of 10 motivation for this modification of the algorithm was primarily to reduce the risk of calculating pt , i based on small number of calls. Results Microbiological investigation Human samples Between 1 January and 1 July 2011, 145 laboratory con- firmed cases of domestic cryptosporidiosis were reported from Vsterbotten County. Only a handful were reported before 19 April, including one case on 15 April and two on 18 April. Genotyping identified C. hominis subtype IbA10G2 in samples from 24 confirmed cases, while no amplification product was obtained from the remaining two samples that were tested. No other gastrointestinal pathogens were found in a subset of the samples that were positive for Cryptosporidium. Environmental samples Cryptosporidium oocysts could not be detected in any of the 38 samples collected from the drinking water system. In influent and effluent wastewater samples from Tuvan SWTP oocysts were detected in 10 out of 24 samples. The concentration of oocysts in influent wastewater was highest on 22 April 2011 at 150,000 oocysts/L and de- clined to 6200 oocysts/L on 1 June 2011. From 27 June 2011 no oocysts were detected in influent wastewater. In effluent wastewater the concentration was highest on 8 June 2011 with a concentration of 12,000 oocysts/L. In subsequent samples the concentration varied between 1700 and 4200 oocysts/L and from 27 June 2011 the concentration was below the detection limit. Molecular investigation of one wastewater sample revealed C. hominis subtype IbA10G2. In the remaining 9 water and sediment samples collected at other places no oocysts were detected. Epidemiological investigation Web-based questionnaire The epidemiological curve based on the web-based questionnaire (Fig. 2) showed that the number of cases declined after a couple of days following the BWN and verified the hypothesis of an ongoing waterborne out- break. Importantly, it also indicated that the outbreak started well before 1 April. In total 12,358 individuals answered the questionnaire and 11,065 remained after exclusions. The results from the questionnaire were con- tinually monitored in order to provide information for decision making based on the extent of the outbreak, who were being affected and to follow up the effect of interventions. Moreover, it was used to inform the in- habitants about the progress of the outbreak and these reports were highly appreciated. Postal questionnaire In total, 1099 out of 1754 (63%) questionnaires were an- swered and returned for analysis. The survey showed that 26.4% of the respondents fulfilled the case defin- ition, i.e. self-reported diarrhoea (3 loose stools per day) between 1 December 2010 and 31 May 2011, which corresponds to an estimate of 18,449 cases (Table 1). The data from the survey also provided evidence that the outbreak started in January and ended by the end of May (Fig. 3). April was the peak month with 6969 cases. If the outbreak had been detected earlier and we assume that all cases from 1 February forward had remained healthy, the estimation is that the outbreak would have affected 2273 individuals, corresponding to approxi- mately 12% the current outbreak size. Only the variables age and water supply were identi- fied as risk factors for infection (Table 2). Divided into age groups, children up to 5 years were most affected, 37.2%, while the group of 66 years and above were least affected, 12.1% (Table 3). Among the different water supplies in Skellefte, water from Abborrverket WPT was the only supply that significantly correlated with an increased risk of infection (p < 0.001). Approximately 1 in 3 (32.7%) living in the distribution area of Abborrver- ket WPT had symptoms of cryptosporidiosis, compared to 16.2% of inhabitants living in other areas (Table 4). The most common symptoms, each present in more than 70% of the respondents that fulfilled the case defin- ition, were fatigue, abdominal pain, upset stomach, and watery diarrhoea (Table 5). Health advice line Starting on 30 December 2010, the retrospective analysis showed a sequence of 6 days of consecutive outbreak sig- nals regarding GI symptoms from individuals living in the distribution area of Abborrverket WTP (Fig. 4). Four of those were strong. A large number of outbreak signals for inhabitants living in the distribution area of Abborrverket WTP were evident during the following time period up until the BWN. In contrast, very few outbreak signals regarding GI symptoms were present for Abborrverket WPT distribu- tion area during the autumn and early winter of 2010. However, there was a small cluster of five outbreak signals between 20 November and 29 November 2010, but they were weak and not on consecutive days, hence the inter- pretation was that those outbreak signals were inconclu- sive. For the other geographical area in the analysis, individuals not living in the distribution area of Abborr- verket WTP, only one weak outbreak signal was present during the entire time-period under investigation - em- phasizing the abnormality of the identified outbreak signal pattern for the distribution area of Abborrverket WTP in the beginning of 2011. Similar results are obtained using Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 Page 5 of 10 the original definition of the outbreak algorithm and with other groupings of ages and contact causes related to cryptosporidiosis (results not shown). When comparing the current outbreak signals based on geographical regions corresponding to the distribution of drinking water with outbreak signals based on (adult) GI calls from the entire Skellefte municipality with respect to the other municipalities within Vsterbotten County [14], the two patterns are similar and suggest the same time for outbreak detection: beginning of January 2011. Discussion The three cases of cryptosporidiosis in the middle of April together with other indications from informal sources re- garding large numbers of sick people, and higher-than- normal contacts regarding symptoms of gastrointestinal illness reported by the nurses staffing the regional health advice line, led the authorities to suspect an outbreak. However, our epidemiological investigation shows that the outbreak had already started, unnoticed to the authorities, in the beginning of January 2011. High norovirus activity together with only a handful of domestic cases of crypto- sporidiosis reported in Vsterbotten County between January and 19 April 2011 were contributing factors to the late detection of the outbreak. New routines are now in place in Vsterbotten County where analysis of Crypto- sporidium is performed on fecal samples if there are clus- ters of cases with gastrointestinal symptoms or other indications of an outbreak. If the outbreak had been detected in the beginning of the year by systematic monitoring of the telephone calls as described in this study, it is very likely that the outbreak would have ended during January. Two facts support this conclusion. First, once the outbreak was suspected the BWN was an effective intervention that substantially lim- ited illness within a few days. A similar delay in the Fig. 2 Epidemiological curve based on observed cases in the web questionnaire Table 1 Population estimates of cases and non-cases of Cryptosporidium-infection in Skellefte between December 2010 and May 2011 Status N SE (N) 95% CI (N) N (%) Non-cases 51,618 1214 49,239 53,997 73.7 Cases 18,448 1191 16,114 20,782 26.3 N Number, SE standard error, CI confidence interval Based on postal questionnaire Fig. 3 Epidemiological curve of population estimates of number of cases from the postal questionnaire Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 Page 6 of 10 decrease of reported cases was seen in the stersund out- break [11] and it is explained by the time it takes to de- velop symptoms after ingestion of oocyst. Second, the outbreak signals from the described analyses of telephone calls would have given a strong indication during January that the outbreak was waterborne and which drinking water supply to suspect (Abborrverket WTP). We therefor argue that such an early outbreak detection followed by a timelier BWN in January 2011 would have limited the out- break substantially from approximately 18,500 cases down to 2300 cases if all who fell ill after 31 January had remained healthy. The potential of syndromic surveillance systems based on analysing telephone call patterns to Healthcare Guide 1177 for early event detection and situational awareness of local outbreaks has been shown previously [14]. In the current work the concept was taken a step further by comparing call patterns between water distribution areas that were based on groups of postal codes. The im- portance of this should not be underestimated. In the situation of an unknown waterborne outbreak, or other types of local outbreaks where the spread matches geographical areas used in the analysis, this procedure gives a more timely indication of the underlying cause and therefore substantially increases the chances of ef- fective countermeasures. Since water distribution areas are known, the approach can be used in systems for syn- dromic surveillance. There is always a tradeoff between sensitivity and spe- cificity in signal detection. In practical terms it is the in- stitution that is eligible to act on the signal that needs to find a reasonable protocol for signal evaluation and val- idation. To increase the sensitivity and hence the poten- tial of timely detection of local outbreaks, which usually are very short-lived in contrast to the outbreak under in- vestigation here, the outbreak algorithm used operates on a daily basis. This has the drawback of reduced speci- ficity, i.e. that more false positive outbreak signals are generated due to randomness, especially for geographical regions where the population size is small. Despite this, and even though the daily call counts are relatively low, the outbreak signal pattern shown in Fig. 4 is excep- tional and clearly indicates that individuals living in the distribution area of Abborrverket WTP report more GI symptoms compared to individuals living in other areas. Moreover, this outbreak signal pattern is similar if other groupings of age and contact causes related to symptoms of cryptosporidiosis are used. Although possible sources of contamination were in- vestigated and discussed no conclusive information could be found. Several samples from the drinking water system and the environment were analysed for Crypto- sporidium oocysts but none were detected - apart from the findings in wastewater samples. The most likely the- ory in our opinion is that the winter intake of water to Abborrverket WTP, which is more exposed to contamin- ation since it is located more shallowly in the river and closer to shore compared to the summer intake, was contaminated with Cryptosporidium oocysts from sew- age from one or several sources. However, data on weekly maximal turbidity and bacteriological counts (Escherichia coli, general coliform bacteria, enterococci and Clostridium perfringens) in raw water to Abborrver- ket WTP for the period October 2010 to March 2011 had been within normal levels so such a contamination, if present, was not detected in the routine testing at the WTP. The water intake was shifted to the summer position on the same day as the BWN was issued on 19 April 2011, which may explain why no Cryptosporidium oo- cysts were found in the water samples, since they were all taken after 19 April. It is worth noting that the out- break signals from the syndromic surveillance algorithm present in November 2010 coincide with the shift to the winter intake which might indicate a contamination at that point in time as well - although probably unrelated Table 2 Significant risk factors for infection based on postal questionnaire Odds ratio 95% CI P-value* Age 0-5 4.22 2.66 6.68 <0.001 6-15 2.28 1.42 3.68 0.001 16-65 3.08 1.96 4.83 <0.001 66- 1.00 Water source Not from any WTP/own well 1.00 Abborrverket WTP 2.30 1.49 3.56 <0.001 Not Abborrverket WTP 1.14 0.68 1.91 0.613 CI confidence interval, WTP water treatment plant *Fishers exact P - value Table 3 Population estimates of cases and non-cases of Cryptosporidium-infection in Skellefte between December 2010 and May 2011 divided into age groups Status Age N SE (N) 95% CI (N) N (%) Non-cases 0-5 2433 121 2195 2671 62.8 6-15 5542 208 5135 5950 75.3 16-65 30,728 1148 28,479 32,977 69.6 66- 12,914 326 12,276 13,553 87.9 Cases 0-5 1442 120 1207 1676 37.2 6-15 1819 202 1423 2215 24.7 16-65 13,402 1132 11,183 15,621 30.4 66- 1786 301 1196 2377 12.1 N number, SE standard error; CI confidence interval Based on postal questionnaire Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 Page 7 of 10 to the current outbreak. The fact that Cryptosporidium oocysts were found in wastewater is in our opinion re- lated to the fact that a substantial part of the population connected to the municipal SWTP Tuvan was infected with C. hominis IbA10G2. Thus, although the initial cause of the outbreak remains unknown, it was most certainly caused by fecal contamination of human origin since C. hominis is almost exclusively human specific. Compared to the stersund outbreak [11] only age was the common risk factor. In contrast, the current study did not find statistical significance for any of the underlying diseases nor amount of water consumed. Symptom pro- files were almost identical between the outbreaks. The same Cryptosporidium gp60 subtype was found respon- sible for both the current and the stersund outbreak. It is in our opinion likely that the outbreaks were related since this subtype seldom is found in domestic cases in Sweden, in contrast to other European countries, and the time period between the outbreaks was short. However, similarity on gp60 is not conclusive evidence [30] and the question of whether two outbreaks were related is currently investigated by whole genome sequencing. Speculatively, one or a few infected individuals from the stersund outbreak brought the parasite to Skellefte and caused a second outbreak through spread of Cryptosporid- ium oocysts via sewage, into the river, finally ending up in the drinking water since the microbial barriers present in Abborrverket WPT at the time were insufficient to inacti- vate or remove the oocysts. After the outbreak was identified, the water distribution system was flushed to remove the contamination and work to improve the water treatment in Abborrverket WTP was started. Since the large outbreak in stersund only took place a few months earlier the municipality of Skellefte could utilize experience from the actions taken to stop the former outbreak. Even so, the BWN had to be kept in place for 5 months, compared to 3 months in stersund. This was partly due to the longer period of time it took to install an ultraviolet unit as an additional Table 4 Population estimates of cases and non-cases of Cryptosporidium-infection in Skellefte between December 2010 and May 2011 divided into water supply categories Status Category N SE (N) 95% CI (N) N (%) Non-cases Not Abborrverket WTP 22,649 642 21,392 23,906 83.8 Abborrverket WTP 28,696 1033 26,944 30,994 67.3 Cases Not Abborrverket WTP 4368 624 3145 5590 16.2 Abborrverket WTP 14,081 1019 12,084 16,078 32.7 N number, SE standard error, CI confidence interval Based on postal questionnaire Table 5 Clinical features of Cryptosporidium-infection cases in the municipality of Skellefte during December 2010 to May 2011 Proportion with symptom (%) 95% CI (%) Fatigue 78.5 72.4 84.7 Abdominal pain 73.3 66.8 79.8 Upset stomach 71.4 64.7 78.2 Diarrhoea Watery 70.2 63.4 77.0 Bloody 0.9 0.0 2.5 Nausea 63.5 56.1 70.9 Headache 46.9 39.3 54.5 Vomiting 35.8 28.6 43.1 Fever >38 C 36.5 28.2 42.8 Joint pain 27.4 20.4 34.4 Pain in eyes 14.6 9.1 20.1 CI confidence interval Based on postal questionnaire Fig. 4 Daily call counts from Skellefte municipality to Healthcare Guide 1177 regarding GI symptoms from 1 August 2010 until the day before the BWN on 19 April 2011. Inhabitants are divided into two groups; those living in the water distribution area of Abborrverket WPT (blue) and those who are not (red). Outbreak signals from the detection algorithm [14] are shown as blue (Abborrverket WTP) and red circles (not Abborrverket WTP) with weak (hollow circles) and strong outbreak signals (filled circles) along the lower horizontal and upper horizontal, respectively Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 Page 8 of 10 microbiological barrier in Abborrverket WTP as well as a longer and more complex water distribution network that had to be flushed. As of November 2016, the municipality of Skellefte is in the process of rebuilding their infrastruc- ture for production of drinking water. This work had started before the outbreak of cryptosporidiosis. Conclusions Our investigation concludes that approximately 18,500 people in the municipality of Skellefte were infected by Cryptosporidium during the winter and spring of 2011 making it the second largest outbreak of cryptosporidiosis described in Europe to date. Cryptosporidium hominis subtype IbA10G2 was isolated from patient samples and wastewater. The epidemiological investigation strongly indicates that this outbreak was waterborne based on the vast number of cases, as well as the fact that the BWN were an effective countermeasure, and that people living in the water distribution area of one specific WTP were more likely to become ill. This conclusion is also strongly supported by the pattern of phone calls to the national health advice line Healthcare Guide 1177. We therefore firmly believe that the outbreak was waterborne and caused by C. hominis transmitted through the public water supplied by Abborrverket WTP even though no oocysts could be found in raw water or in drinking water. Moreover, our results show that the outbreak went unnoticed to the authorities for several months and that systematic monitoring of phone calls to the health advice line, as described in this study, could have limited the out- break to approximately 2300 cases compared to the current estimate of 18,500 cases. This new approach of linking health advice line calls to water distribution areas has been implemented in a system for syndromic surveillance deployed by the Public Health Agency of Sweden in 2016. Additional files Additional file 1: Web-based questionnaire. Translated web-based questionnaire. (PDF 162 kb) Additional file 2: Postal questionnaire for adults. Translated postal questionnaire for adults. (PDF 128 kb) Additional file 3: Postal questionnaire for children. Translated postal questionnaire for children. (PDF 128 kb) Abbreviations BWN: Boil water notice; GI: Gastrointestinal; IFL: Immunofluorescence; IMS: Immunomagnetic separation; OR: Odds ratio; PCR: Polymerase chain reaction; RFLP: Fragment length polymorphism; SWTP: Sewage water treatment plan; UV: Ultraviolet; WTP: Water treatment plant Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Leah Martin at the Public Health Agency of Sweden for useful comments on the manuscript and Stefan Johansson of Skellefte municipality for the information on the drinking water infrastructure, production and testing. Funding The study was partly funded by the Swedish Agency for Contingency Planning through a research and development project named Event-based Surveillance System (ESS). The funding organisation was not involved in any part of the study. Availability of data and materials The datasets used are available from the corresponding author on request. Authors contributions PB conceived and performed the health advice line study and wrote the manuscript. AH performed water analysis and was part of the outbreak team. JB designed and made the statistical analyses of the epidemiology part of the manuscript. ML was part of the outbreak team. ML performed analysis on human samples, including typing and sub-typing and was part of the outbreak team. GA performed water analysis and was part of the outbreak team. SS was responsible for the local outbreak team and contributed to the study design and acquisition of data. JL conceived the study and performed epidemiological analysis. All authors contributed to the interpretation of data and made substantial contributions to the overall content of the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Consent for publication Not applicable. Ethics approval and consent to participate The study was approved by Stockholm ethical review board, reference number 2011/220-31/4. Written informed consent was not necessary due to outbreak investigation. However, a letter stating the art of the investigation was handed out to all participants. Here it was also stated that all personal identification issues were handled according to Swedish law. Furthermore, answers to questionnaires would be seen as written consent to participate in study. Collection of field samples The field samples were collected as part of an ongoing outbreak investigation, followed Swedish routines and legislation, and the sampling was performed in collaboration with local authorities and the drinking water producer. Requirement for permission was waived. Publishers Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
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What type of samples were examined?
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{'answer_id': 265079, 'document_id': 394251, 'question_id': 138443, 'text': 'patient and sewage samples,', 'answer_start': 953, 'answer_category': 'LONG'}
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The Triassic was generally dry, a trend that began in the late Carboniferous, and highly seasonal, especially in the interior of Pangaea. Low sea levels may have also exacerbated temperature extremes. With its high specific heat capacity, water acts as a temperature-stabilizing heat reservoir, and land areas near large bodies of water—especially the oceans—experience less variation in temperature. Because much of the land that constituted Pangaea was distant from the oceans, temperatures fluctuated greatly, and the interior of Pangaea probably included expansive areas of desert. Abundant red beds and evaporites such as halite support these conclusions, but evidence exists that the generally dry climate of the Triassic was punctuated by episodes of increased rainfall. Most important humid episodes were the Carnian Pluvial Event and one in the Rhaetian, few million years before the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event.
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What were there periods of during the Triassic?
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{'text': 'increased rainfall', 'answer_start': 758}
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After the Communist Party of China took power in 1949, the flag of China became a red flag with a large star symbolizing the Communist Party, and smaller stars symbolizing workers, peasants, the urban middle class and rural middle class. The flag of the Communist Party of China became a red banner with a hammer and sickle, similar to that on the Soviet flag. In the 1950s and 1960s, other Communist regimes such as Vietnam and Laos also adopted red flags. Some Communist countries, such as Cuba, chose to keep their old flags; and other countries used red flags which had nothing to do with Communism or socialism; the red flag of Nepal, for instance, represents the national flower.
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What happened in 1950?
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{'text': 'other Communist regimes such as Vietnam and Laos also adopted red flags', 'answer_start': 385}
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11,834
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Schwarzenegger was the first civilian to purchase a Humvee. He was so enamored by the vehicle that he lobbied the Humvee's manufacturer, AM General, to produce a street-legal, civilian version, which they did in 1992; the first two Hummers they sold were also purchased by Schwarzenegger.
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In addition to the Humvee, what other vehicle manufactured by AM General was Schwarzenegger first to own?
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{'text': 'Hummers', 'answer_start': 232}
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33,989
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5709c499ed30961900e84481
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The colloquialism "buck"(s) (much like the British word "quid"(s, pl) for the pound sterling) is often used to refer to dollars of various nations, including the U.S. dollar. This term, dating to the 18th century, may have originated with the colonial leather trade. It may also have originated from a poker term. "Greenback" is another nickname originally applied specifically to the 19th century Demand Note dollars created by Abraham Lincoln to finance the costs of the Civil War for the North. The original note was printed in black and green on the back side. It is still used to refer to the U.S. dollar (but not to the dollars of other countries). Other well-known names of the dollar as a whole in denominations include "greenmail", "green" and "dead presidents" (the last because deceased presidents are pictured on most bills).
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In which century can the term "buck" be traced back to?
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{'text': '18th', 'answer_start': 200}
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The German equivalent was used with the founding of the North German Confederation whose constitution granted legislative power over the protection of intellectual property (Schutz des geistigen Eigentums) to the confederation. When the administrative secretariats established by the Paris Convention (1883) and the Berne Convention (1886) merged in 1893, they located in Berne, and also adopted the term intellectual property in their new combined title, the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property.
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When was the Paris Convention?
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{'text': '1883', 'answer_start': 302}
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1,414
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In 1836, at a party hosted by Marie d'Agoult, Chopin met the French author George Sand (born [Amantine] Aurore [Lucile] Dupin). Short (under five feet, or 152 cm), dark, big-eyed and a cigar smoker, she initially repelled Chopin, who remarked, "What an unattractive person la Sand is. Is she really a woman?" However, by early 1837 Maria Wodzińska's mother had made it clear to Chopin in correspondence that a marriage with her daughter was unlikely to proceed. It is thought that she was influenced by his poor health and possibly also by rumours about his associations with women such as d'Agoult and Sand. Chopin finally placed the letters from Maria and her mother in a package on which he wrote, in Polish, "My tragedy". Sand, in a letter to Grzymała of June 1838, admitted strong feelings for the composer and debated whether to abandon a current affair in order to begin a relationship with Chopin; she asked Grzymała to assess Chopin's relationship with Maria Wodzińska, without realising that the affair, at least from Maria's side, was over.
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What did Chopin write on the box of letters from Maria and her mother?
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{'text': 'My tragedy', 'answer_start': 713}
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In the late 1940s, during the last days of the Dominion of Newfoundland (at the time a dominion-dependency in the Commonwealth and independent of Canada), there was mainstream support, although not majority, for Newfoundland to form an economic union with the United States, thanks to the efforts of the Economic Union Party and significant U.S. investment in Newfoundland stemming from the U.S.-British alliance in World War II. The movement ultimately failed when, in a 1948 referendum, voters narrowly chose to confederate with Canada (the Economic Union Party supported an independent "responsible government" that they would then push toward their goals).
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When were the last days of the Dominion of Newfoundland?
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{'text': 'In the late 1940s', 'answer_start': 0}
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In 1636 George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, ruler of the Brunswick-Lüneburg principality of Calenberg, moved his residence to Hanover. The Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg were elevated by the Holy Roman Emperor to the rank of Prince-Elector in 1692, and this elevation was confirmed by the Imperial Diet in 1708. Thus the principality was upgraded to the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, colloquially known as the Electorate of Hanover after Calenberg's capital (see also: House of Hanover). Its electors would later become monarchs of Great Britain (and from 1801, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland). The first of these was George I Louis, who acceded to the British throne in 1714. The last British monarch who ruled in Hanover was William IV. Semi-Salic law, which required succession by the male line if possible, forbade the accession of Queen Victoria in Hanover. As a male-line descendant of George I, Queen Victoria was herself a member of the House of Hanover. Her descendants, however, bore her husband's titular name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Three kings of Great Britain, or the United Kingdom, were concurrently also Electoral Princes of Hanover.
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Who elevated the Duke of Brunswick to the rank of Prince?
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{'text': 'the Holy Roman Emperor', 'answer_start': 184}
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Lancashire has a mostly comprehensive system with four state grammar schools. Not including sixth form colleges, there are 77 state schools (not including Burnley's new schools) and 24 independent schools. The Clitheroe area has secondary modern schools. Sixth form provision is limited at most schools in most districts, with only Fylde and Lancaster districts having mostly sixth forms at schools. The rest depend on FE colleges and sixth form colleges, where they exist. South Ribble has the largest school population and Fylde the smallest (only three schools). Burnley's schools have had a new broom and have essentially been knocked down and started again in 2006. There are many Church of England and Catholic faith schools in Lancashire.
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Who has the largest school population?
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{'text': 'South Ribble', 'answer_start': 474}
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5,546
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According to author Michael Carrithers, while there are good reasons to doubt the traditional account, "the outline of the life must be true: birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death." In writing her biography of the Buddha, Karen Armstrong noted, "It is obviously difficult, therefore, to write a biography of the Buddha that meets modern criteria, because we have very little information that can be considered historically sound... [but] we can be reasonably confident Siddhatta Gotama did indeed exist and that his disciples preserved the memory of his life and teachings as well as they could."[dubious – discuss]
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Who believes "the outline of the life must be true" in reference to Buddha?
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{'text': 'Michael Carrithers', 'answer_start': 20}
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Like other languages, Catalan has a large list of learned words from Greek and Latin. This process started very early, and one can find such examples in Ramon Llull's work. On the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Catalan had a number of Greco-Latin learned words much superior to other Romance languages, as it can be attested for example in Roís de Corella's writings.
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Whose writings are a good example of learned words in Catalan?
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{'text': 'Roís de Corella', 'answer_start': 344}
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There is also a range of independent or public schools. Many of these are for pupils between 11 and 18 years, such as King's College, Taunton and Taunton School. King's School, Bruton, was founded in 1519 and received royal foundation status around 30 years later in the reign of Edward VI. Millfield is the largest co-educational boarding school. There are also preparatory schools for younger children, such as All Hallows, and Hazlegrove Preparatory School. Chilton Cantelo School offers places both to day pupils and boarders aged 7 to 16. Other schools provide education for children from the age of 3 or 4 years through to 18, such as King Edward's School, Bath, Queen's College, Taunton and Wells Cathedral School which is one of the five established musical schools for school-age children in Britain. Some of these schools have religious affiliations, such as Monkton Combe School, Prior Park College, Sidcot School which is associated with the Religious Society of Friends, Downside School which is a Roman Catholic public school in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, situated next to the Benedictine Downside Abbey, and Kingswood School, which was founded by John Wesley in 1748 in Kingswood near Bristol, originally for the education of the sons of the itinerant ministers (clergy) of the Methodist Church.
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What is one of the Musical schools
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{'text': 'Wells Cathedral School which is one of the five established musical schools for school-age children in Britain', 'answer_start': 698}
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Like much of the southeastern United States, Raleigh has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), with four distinct seasons. Winters are short and generally cool, with a January daily average of 41.0 °F (5.0 °C). On average, there are 69 nights per year that drop to or below freezing, and only 2.7 days that fail to rise above freezing. April is the driest month, with an average of 2.91 inches (73.9 mm) of precipitation. Precipitation is well distributed around the year, with a slight maximum between July and September; on average, July is the wettest month, owing to generally frequent, sometimes heavy, showers and thunderstorms. Summers are hot and humid, with a daily average in July of 80.0 °F (26.7 °C). There are 48 days per year with highs at or above 90 °F (32 °C). Autumn is similar to spring overall but has fewer days of rainfall. Extremes in temperature have ranged from −9 °F (−23 °C) on January 21, 1985 up to 105 °F (41 °C), most recently on July 8, 2012.
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How many seasons are there in Raleigh?
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{'text': 'four', 'answer_start': 104}
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115,187
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Whitehead pointed to the limitations of language as one of the main culprits in maintaining a materialistic way of thinking, and acknowledged that it may be difficult to ever wholly move past such ideas in everyday speech. After all, each moment of each person's life can hardly be given a different proper name, and it is easy and convenient to think of people and objects as remaining fundamentally the same things, rather than constantly keeping in mind that each thing is a different thing from what it was a moment ago. Yet the limitations of everyday living and everyday speech should not prevent people from realizing that "material substances" or "essences" are a convenient generalized description of a continuum of particular, concrete processes. No one questions that a ten-year-old person is quite different by the time he or she turns thirty years old, and in many ways is not the same person at all; Whitehead points out that it is not philosophically or ontologically sound to think that a person is the same from one second to the next.
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Whitehead's main philosophy on humans changing is what?
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{'text': 'each thing is a different thing from what it was a moment ago', 'answer_start': 462}
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38,017
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5a8cacfafd22b3001a8d8d17
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The control of associated biodiversity is one of the great agricultural challenges that farmers face. On monoculture farms, the approach is generally to eradicate associated diversity using a suite of biologically destructive pesticides, mechanized tools and transgenic engineering techniques, then to rotate crops. Although some polyculture farmers use the same techniques, they also employ integrated pest management strategies as well as strategies that are more labor-intensive, but generally less dependent on capital, biotechnology and energy.
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What farms use polyculture destructive pesticides?
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{'text': 'monoculture farms', 'answer_start': 105}
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6,136
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generic
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American Idol was based on the British show Pop Idol created by Simon Fuller, which was in turn inspired by the New Zealand television singing competition Popstars. Television producer Nigel Lythgoe saw it in Australia and helped bring it over to Britain. Fuller was inspired by the idea from Popstars of employing a panel of judges to select singers in audition. He then added other elements, such as telephone voting by the viewing public (which at the time was already in use in shows such as the Eurovision Song Contest), the drama of backstories and real-life soap opera unfolding in real time. The show debuted in 2001 in Britain with Lythgoe as showrunner—the executive producer and production leader—and Simon Cowell as one of the judges, and was a big success with the viewing public.
|
Wha was the executive producer of Pop Idol in 2001?
|
{'text': 'Nigel Lythgoe', 'answer_start': 185}
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114,876
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573029e904bcaa1900d77292
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generic
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Following a peak in growth in 1979, the Liberian economy began a steady decline due to economic mismanagement following the 1980 coup. This decline was accelerated by the outbreak of civil war in 1989; GDP was reduced by an estimated 90% between 1989 and 1995, one of the fastest declines in history. Upon the end of the war in 2003, GDP growth began to accelerate, reaching 9.4% in 2007. The global financial crisis slowed GDP growth to 4.6% in 2009, though a strengthening agricultural sector led by rubber and timber exports increased growth to 5.1% in 2010 and an expected 7.3% in 2011, making the economy one of the 20 fastest growing in the world.
|
Why did the Liberian economy decline after 1980?
|
{'text': 'economic mismanagement following the 1980 coup.', 'answer_start': 87}
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52,309
| 51,967
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57266080708984140094c40d
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generic
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Many native speakers of Dutch, both in Belgium and the Netherlands, assume that Afrikaans and West Frisian are dialects of Dutch but are considered separate and distinct from Dutch: a daughter language and a sister language, respectively. Afrikaans evolved mainly from 17th century Dutch dialects, but had influences from various other languages in South Africa. However, it is still largely mutually intelligible with Dutch. (West) Frisian evolved from the same West Germanic branch as Old English and is less akin to Dutch.
|
What two-word phrase describes the relationship whereby Dutch and Afrikaans speakers can understand each other?
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{'text': 'mutually intelligible', 'answer_start': 392}
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111,867
| 111,525
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572fdefc04bcaa1900d76e16
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generic
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In 2011, a Welsh club participated in the Premier League for the first time after Swansea City gained promotion. The first Premier League match to be played outside England was Swansea City's home match at the Liberty Stadium against Wigan Athletic on 20 August 2011. In 2012–13, Swansea qualified for the Europa League by winning the League Cup. The number of Welsh clubs in the Premier League increased to two for the first time in 2013–14, as Cardiff City gained promotion, but Cardiff City was relegated after its maiden season.
|
Did Swansea qualify for the Europa Leaque in 2012-13?
|
{'text': 'In 2012–13, Swansea qualified for the Europa League', 'answer_start': 268}
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11,681
| 11,339
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56de82394396321400ee29a3
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generic
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He continued his winning streak in the 1971–74 competitions. In 1975, Schwarzenegger was once again in top form, and won the title for the sixth consecutive time, beating Franco Columbu. After the 1975 Mr. Olympia contest, Schwarzenegger announced his retirement from professional bodybuilding.
|
Who did Schwarzenegger beat to win his sixth Mr. Olympia in a row?
|
{'text': 'Franco Columbu', 'answer_start': 171}
|
31,719
| 31,377
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5ad4206d604f3c001a4006f7
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generic
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The Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land MSA's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012 was $489 billion, making it the fourth-largest of any metropolitan area in the United States and larger than Austria's, Venezuela's, or South Africa's GDP. Only 26 countries other than the United States have a gross domestic product exceeding Houston's regional gross area product (GAP). In 2010, mining (which consists almost entirely of exploration and production of oil and gas in Houston) accounted for 26.3% of Houston's GAP up sharply in response to high energy prices and a decreased worldwide surplus of oil production capacity, followed by engineering services, health services, and manufacturing.
|
What was Houston's gross domestic product in 2001?
|
{'text': '$489 billion', 'answer_start': 84}
|
46,298
| 45,956
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57111d15a58dae1900cd6c5a
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generic
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Near the end of the NES's lifespan, upon the release of the AV Famicom and the top-loading NES 2, the design of the game controllers was modified slightly. Though the original button layout was retained, the redesigned device abandoned the brick shell in favor of a dog bone shape. In addition, the AV Famicom joined its international counterpart and dropped the hardwired controllers in favor of detachable controller ports. However, the controllers included with the Famicom AV had cables which were 90 cm (3 feet) long, as opposed to the standard 180 cm(6 feet) of NES controllers.
|
Which console featured a top-loading design?
|
{'text': 'NES 2', 'answer_start': 91}
|
119,752
| 119,410
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5731185a05b4da19006bcd90
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generic
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All modern birds lie within the crown group Aves (alternately Neornithes), which has two subdivisions: the Palaeognathae, which includes the flightless ratites (such as the ostriches) and the weak-flying tinamous, and the extremely diverse Neognathae, containing all other birds. These two subdivisions are often given the rank of superorder, although Livezey and Zusi assigned them "cohort" rank. Depending on the taxonomic viewpoint, the number of known living bird species varies anywhere from 9,800 to 10,050.
|
All modern birds lie within which crown group?
|
{'text': 'Aves', 'answer_start': 44}
|
35,370
| 35,028
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570a9c454103511400d5989a
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generic
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Like other historical languages, Old English has been used by scholars and enthusiasts of later periods to create texts either imitating Anglo-Saxon literature or deliberately transferring it to a different cultural context. Examples include Alistair Campbell and J. R. R. Tolkien. A number of websites devoted to Neo-Paganism and Historical re-enactment offer reference material and forums promoting the active use of Old English. By far the most ambitious project[peacock term] is the Old English Wikipedia, but most of the Neo-Old English texts published online bear little resemblance to the historical model and are riddled with very basic grammatical mistakes.
|
Along with Tolkien, what modern scholar notably made use of Old English?
|
{'text': 'Alistair Campbell', 'answer_start': 242}
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119,785
| 119,443
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5731236de6313a140071cc6c
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generic
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The avian circulatory system is driven by a four-chambered, myogenic heart contained in a fibrous pericardial sac. This pericardial sac is filled with a serous fluid for lubrication. The heart itself is divided into a right and left half, each with an atrium and ventricle. The atrium and ventricles of each side are separated by atrioventricular valves which prevent back flow from one chamber to the next during contraction. Being myogenic, the heart's pace is maintained by pacemaker cells found in the sinoatrial node, located on the right atrium. The sinoatrial node uses calcium to cause a depolarizing signal transduction pathway from the atrium through right and left atrioventricular bundle which communicates contraction to the ventricles. The avian heart also consists of muscular arches that are made up of thick bundles of muscular layers. Much like a mammalian heart, the avian heart is composed of endocardial, myocardial and epicardial layers. The atrium walls tend to be thinner than the ventricle walls, due to the intense ventricular contraction used to pump oxygenated blood throughout the body. Avian hearts are generally larger than mammalian hearts when compared to body mass. This adaptation allows more blood to be pumped to meet the high metabolic need associated with flight.
|
The avian circulatory system is driven by what?
|
{'text': 'four-chambered, myogenic heart', 'answer_start': 44}
|
94,761
| 94,419
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5acfb85977cf76001a685a52
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generic
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The chemistry of zinc is dominated by the +2 oxidation state. When compounds in this oxidation state are formed the outer shell s electrons are lost, which yields a bare zinc ion with the electronic configuration [Ar]3d10. In aqueous solution an octahedral complex, [Zn(H
2O)6]2+ is the predominant species. The volatilization of zinc in combination with zinc chloride at temperatures above 285 °C indicates the formation of Zn
2Cl
2, a zinc compound with a +1 oxidation state. No compounds of zinc in oxidation states other than +1 or +2 are known. Calculations indicate that a zinc compound with the oxidation state of +4 is unlikely to exist.
|
What oxidation state repels zinc?
|
{'text': '+2 oxidation state', 'answer_start': 42}
|
30,575
| 30,233
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5ad2855cd7d075001a42989d
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generic
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With house music already massive on the '80s dance-scene it was only a matter of time before it would penetrate the UK pop charts.[citation needed] The record generally credited as the first house hit in the UK was Farley "Jackmaster" Funk's "Love Can't Turn Around" which reached #10 in the UK singles chart in September 1986.
|
Which song reached #6 in the UK singles chart?
|
{'text': '"Love Can\'t Turn Around"', 'answer_start': 242}
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91,489
| 91,147
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57291b5a3f37b31900478027
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generic
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Wright himself believed that values >0.25 represent very great genetic variation and that an FST of 0.15–0.25 represented great variation. However, about 5% of human variation occurs between populations within continents, therefore FST values between continental groups of humans (or races) of as low as 0.1 (or possibly lower) have been found in some studies, suggesting more moderate levels of genetic variation. Graves (1996) has countered that FST should not be used as a marker of subspecies status, as the statistic is used to measure the degree of differentiation between populations, although see also Wright (1978).
|
FST is used to measure the degree of differentiation between what?
|
{'text': 'populations', 'answer_start': 579}
|
16,635
| 16,293
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56e10514e3433e1400422ad5
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generic
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In September 2003, China intended to join the European Galileo positioning system project and was to invest €230 million (USD296 million, GBP160 million) in Galileo over the next few years. At the time, it was believed that China's "BeiDou" navigation system would then only be used by its armed forces. In October 2004, China officially joined the Galileo project by signing the Agreement on the Cooperation in the Galileo Program between the "Galileo Joint Undertaking" (GJU) and the "National Remote Sensing Centre of China" (NRSCC). Based on the Sino-European Cooperation Agreement on Galileo program, China Galileo Industries (CGI), the prime contractor of the China’s involvement in Galileo programs, was founded in December 2004. By April 2006, eleven cooperation projects within the Galileo framework had been signed between China and EU. However, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported in January 2008 that China was unsatisfied with its role in the Galileo project and was to compete with Galileo in the Asian market.
|
In 2003, what was the planned purpose of the BeiDou navigation system?
|
{'text': 'only be used by its armed forces', 'answer_start': 270}
|
105,822
| 105,480
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5a878b751d3cee001a6a1228
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generic
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In quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, the vacuum is defined as the state (that is, the solution to the equations of the theory) with the lowest possible energy (the ground state of the Hilbert space). In quantum electrodynamics this vacuum is referred to as 'QED vacuum' to distinguish it from the vacuum of quantum chromodynamics, denoted as QCD vacuum. QED vacuum is a state with no matter particles (hence the name), and also no photons. As described above, this state is impossible to achieve experimentally. (Even if every matter particle could somehow be removed from a volume, it would be impossible to eliminate all the blackbody photons.) Nonetheless, it provides a good model for realizable vacuum, and agrees with a number of experimental observations as described next.
|
What is a blackbody photon referred to in quantum mechanics?
|
{'text': "'QED vacuum'", 'answer_start': 267}
|
124,635
| 124,293
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573254560fdd8d15006c69be
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generic
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As of August 2015, Jehovah's Witnesses report an average of 8.2 million publishers—the term they use for members actively involved in preaching—in 118,016 congregations. In 2015, these reports indicated over 1.93 billion hours spent in preaching and "Bible study" activity. Since the mid-1990s, the number of peak publishers has increased from 4.5 million to 8.2 million. In the same year, they conducted "Bible studies" with over 9.7 million individuals, including those conducted by Witness parents with their children. Jehovah's Witnesses estimate their current worldwide growth rate to be 1.5% per year.
|
How many publishers did the Jehovah's Witnesses have as of August 2015?
|
{'text': '8.2 million', 'answer_start': 60}
|
103
| 103
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138421
|
pubqa
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In the winter and spring of 2011 a large outbreak of cryptosporidiosis occurred in Skellefte municipality, Sweden. This study summarizes the outbreak investigation in terms of outbreak size, duration, clinical characteristics, possible source(s) and the potential for earlier detection using calls to a health advice line. Methods: The investigation included two epidemiological questionnaires and microbial analysis of samples from patients, water and other environmental sources. In addition, a retrospective study based on phone calls to a health advice line was performed by comparing patterns of phone calls between different water distribution areas. Results: Our analyses showed that approximately 18,500 individuals were affected by a waterborne outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in Skellefte in 2011. This makes it the second largest outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in Europe to date. Cryptosporidium hominis oocysts of subtype IbA10G2 were found in patient and sewage samples, but not in raw water or in drinking water, and the initial contamination source could not be determined. The outbreak went unnoticed to authorities for several months. The analysis of the calls to the health advice line provides strong indications early in the outbreak that it was linked to a particular water treatment plant. Conclusions: We conclude that an earlier detection of the outbreak by linking calls to a health advice line to water distribution areas could have limited the outbreak substantially. Keywords: Early outbreak detection, Cryptosporidiosis, Syndromic surveillance, Cryptosporidium hominis Background The protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium is a major cause of gastroenteritis in humans worldwide [1]. At least 29 valid species of Cryptosporidium have been identified [2] and the two most common species infecting humans are Crypto- sporidium parvum and Cryptosporidium hominis [3]. Cryptosporidium hominis has been the cause of several large waterborne outbreaks. The largest took place in 1993 in Milwaukee, USA, where more than 400,000 people were infected [4]. Cryptosporidiosis is mainly transmitted by the fecal-oral route, usually through oocyst-contaminated water or food, or through contact with infected humans or ani- mals. As few as 10 ingested oocysts can cause infection [5]. Asymptomatic carriage occurs [6, 7] while symptomatic in- fection is associated with diarrhoea, abdominal pain, nau- sea, vomiting and fever that usually resolve within 2 weeks. Symptoms occur a few days up to 2 weeks after ingestion of oocysts [5]. Severe life-threating diarrhoea may develop among immunocompromised patients [8]. Gastrointestinal- and joint symptoms can persist for several months after the initial infection with Cryptosporidium [9]. The public health impact of the parasite was recognised in Sweden in 2004 * Correspondence: par.bjelkmar@folkhalsomyndigheten.se 1Department of Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Health Agency of Sweden, 171 83 Solna, Sweden Full list of author information is available at the end of the article The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 DOI 10.1186/s12889-017-4233-8 when cryptosporidiosis became a notifiable disease and the parasite was also included in the World Health Organiza- tions Neglected Diseases Initiative in the same year [10]. In November and December 2010 a massive waterborne outbreak of C. hominis occurred in the city of stersund in Jmtland County, Sweden. Based on a retrospective cohort study, it was concluded that approximately 27,000 individ- uals were infected through the drinking water which made it the second biggest reported waterborne outbreak of cryptosporidiosis globally [11]. A couple of months later, in April 2011, drinking water from a municipal water treat- ment plant (WTP) in the neighboring county of Vsterbot- ten was suspected to be the source of a number of cases of cryptosporidiosis. A boil water notice (BWN) was therefore issued on 19 April and a web-based questionnaire was im- mediately created and published on the webpage of the mu- nicipality to collect epidemiological data. In order to complement the web-based questionnaire and better esti- mate the extent of the outbreak and to find its source, an additional study based on a postal questionnaire was per- formed in June 2011. The study was managed by the Vs- terbotten County Medical Office and the municipal environmental and health authorities in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Sweden (at the time named Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control). Syndromic surveillance is defined as the real-time (or near real-time) collection, analysis, interpretation and dis- semination of health-related data [12]. As part of the on- going effort of development and evaluation of a syndromic surveillance system at the Public Health Agency, a retro- spective analysis of phone calls to a national health advice line from inhabitants living in Skellefte municipality dur- ing the time period of the outbreak was performed. No contemporaneous analysis of the phone calls was per- formed at the time of the outbreak. A new approach for early detection and improved situational awareness of local waterborne outbreaks was used where call patterns from individuals living in different drinking-water distribution areas were compared. The utility of syndromic surveillance systems for detecting and tracking local gastrointestinal outbreaks (GI) has been questioned [13] but systems based on data from health advice lines have been shown to be successful in a few cases [14, 15]. Globally, there are several examples of similar syndromic surveillance systems based on health advice lines [1618]. This study describes the outbreak investigation by sum- marizing the results from web-based and postal question- naires, human and environmental sampling and the analysis of phone calls to the health advice line. It outlines the extent and duration of the outbreak, risk factors and clinical characteristics of the infected persons, and discusses the potential for detecting the outbreak earlier. Figure 1 de- picts a time line indicating for which time periods the dif- ferent data sources were used in the analyses. Methods Study setting Skellefte is situated in Vsterbotten County geographic- ally located next to Jmtland County where the stersund outbreak occurred. The distance between Skellefte and stersund is almost 500 km. Skellefte is a municipality with a population of approximately 72,000 inhabitants. Twenty-eight water treatment plants are operating within the municipality. Two of these deliver water to the city of Skellefte; Slind WTP and Abborrverket WTP, where the latter delivers water to the majority of the inhabitants. All water treatment plants in the municipality use ground- water as the water source except Abborrverket which uses surface water obtained from the river Skelleftelven. Abborrverket WTP produces approximately 18,000 m3 of treated water daily to 44,000 of the 72,000 inhabitants in the municipality (31 March 2011). The normal water in- take to Abborrverket is located far out and deep in the river but due to icing during the winter months the intake is shifted to a more shallow position closer to shore where the ice can be removed more easily. Microbiological investigation Human samples Fecal samples from patients seeking healthcare for gastro- intestinal illness were analysed with standard techniques for enteric bacterial pathogens; polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for analysis of noro- and sapoviruses and micros- copy for analysis of Entamoeba spp. and Giardia intesti- nalis. Samples were only sporadically analysed for presence of Cryptosporidium oocysts up until 19 April 2011, when the current outbreak was first suspected. An intensification of testing for Cryptosporidium followed from that time until 1 July 2011 when the outbreak was considered over. Samples tested for Cryptosporidium were analysed using standard concentration technique followed by modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining [19]. A subset of posi- tive Cryptosporidium samples (n = 26) were sent to the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control for species identification by PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the rRNA gene [20, 21]. Subtypes were characterized by sequence analysis of the 60 kDa glycoprotein (gp60) gene [22, 23]. Environmental samples At the time of the outbreak Abborrverket WTP used floc- culation and sedimentation followed by sand filtering and chlorination for water treatment. This water treatment setup could be sufficient for removal of Cryptosporidium oocysts if the processes work optimally and the concentra- tion of oocysts is relatively low, but ultraviolet (UV) treat- ment is generally preferred as a disinfectant [24]. The winter intake was used from 19 November 2010 until 19 April 2011. A total of 38 samples were collected from the Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 Page 2 of 10 drinking water system during a period of 5 months, 19 April to 15 September 2011. These samples included raw water from the river Skelleftelven, i.e. incoming water to Abborrverket WTP, treated water at Abborrverket WTP and samples taken from the distribution net. Twelve influent and twelve effluent wastewater samples were collected at the main sewage water treatment plant (SWTP) Tuvan. Moreover, in order to investigate possible causes of contamination of Skelleftelven and to trace sources of oocysts, 9 samples were collected from the wastewater and storm water systems and from other rele- vant locations. Water samples were analysed for Cryptosporidium oo- cysts according to ISO 15553:2006 [25] with filtration of water (101000 L), immunomagnetic separation (IMS) and immunofluorescence (IFL) microscopy. The slides with concentrated and purified material were identified by fluorescent-marked oocysts specific in size, shape, internal structure and DAPI-(4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole)- stained nuclei. Wastewater samples were analyzed as water samples but without passing filters and in smaller volumes, 50100 mL for influent wastewater and 0.30.5 L for efflu- ent wastewater. Two sediment samples from the inside of the influent raw water pipe were also analysed as water sample but without filtration before IMS. DNA from one wastewater concentrate was analysed by sequence analysis of the gp60 gene as described for human samples [22, 23]. Epidemiological investigation Web-based questionnaire The same day as the BWN was issued, on 19 April 2011, a web-based questionnaire (Additional file 1) was created in order to immediately start collecting epidemiological data. The value of such a questionnaire was demonstrated in the preceding cryptosporidiosis outbreak in stersund [11] and those experiences were applied here as well. The questionnaire was made available to the public on the website of the municipality on the evening the same day, and was closed on 9 May 2011. The public was informed of the questionnaire by press releases and there were also links to it from key web pages such as the local newspaper and Vsterbotten County Council. The full data set was summarised after the outbreak was considered to be over. Visitors to the webpage who were residents of Skellefte municipality, both individuals with and without GI symp- toms, were asked to answer a set of questions regarding gastrointestinal illness in the family. A case attributed to the outbreak was defined as a person with residential ad- dress within Skellefte municipality with 3 loose stools per day for at least 1 day with onset between 1 April and 5 May 2011. Respondents with a date of symptom onset be- fore 1 April or after 5 May, persons who had travelled abroad 2 weeks prior to symptom onset, as well as individ- uals with a residential postal code outside Vsterbotten County were excluded from the analysis. Remaining re- spondents who did not fulfil the criteria of having 3 loose stools per day were considered non-cases. More detailed analyses of the data were not performed since the follow- up postal survey was conducted. Postal questionnaire A retrospective cohort study was performed in June 2011 by sending a questionnaire to a random sample of 1754 citizens in the municipality of Skellefte (Additional file 2, Additional file 3). The random sample was stratified by age (05 years, 615 years, 1665 years and 66 years or older) and gender. Questions were asked to find out about the start and magnitude of the outbreak, the source of the outbreak and risk factors for disease. The questionnaire contained questions on demographics, onset, duration and occurrence of symptoms indicating cryptosporidiosis, and water consumption as well as history of symptoms be- fore 1 January 2011. Caretakers were asked to answer for children <15 years of age. A case attributed to the out- break was defined as a person with 3 loose stools per day for at least 1 day with onset between 1 December 2010 and 31 May 2011. Statistical analysis of the postal questionnaire Each of the 1754 respondents were assigned a random number and a barcode on the questionnaire was used to identify each respondent. The postal codes were matched to the water distribution areas of the WTPs. In a stratified survey study, weights are used to calculate the number of individuals in the population represented by each individ- ual in the sample. Binary logistic regression was used to Fig. 1 Time line indicating for which time periods the different data sources were used in the analyses Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 Page 3 of 10 find associated variables for the propensity of responding to the survey. Age, gender and water supply were used to calibrate the weights for non-response to adjust for unbal- ance between the sample and the population. The association between the binary outcome of case/ non-case and the exposure variables was analysed by binary logistic regression. Included in the model as covariates and exposure variables were gender, age (05 years, 615 years, 1665 years, and 66 years or older), gastric ulcer (yes, no), irritable bowel syndrome (yes, no), Crohns disease (yes, no), celiac disease (yes, no), lactose intolerance (yes, no), immunodeficiency disease (yes, no), average tap water con- sumption (<1 glass, 1 glass, 25 glasses, >5 glasses) and household water supply (Abborrverket, not Abborrverket or not from any WTP/own well). The results from the binary logistic regression were expressed as odds ratios (OR). All I do not know an- swers for binary questions were regarded as non- informative and were set as missing values prior to the analysis. Missing values for binary variables were then given a value (yes, no) using multiple imputation chain equations [26]. The chains contained all exposure vari- ables plus the outcome non-case/case [27]. Twenty data- sets with different imputed values for missing data were created and binary logistic regression results from each dataset were weighted together into one result using Rubins formula [28]. All analyses were performed in the statistical software R (version 3.3.2) using the packages survey (version 3.31.2), MICE (version 2.25) and the gen- eralized linear model function (glm) in the base R package stats. In all analyses a p-value less than 0.05 was used as a significant result and in case of estimated confidence in- tervals a confidence level of 95% was applied. Analysis of phone calls to a health advice line Healthcare Guide 1177 is a national Swedish telephone health advice line staffed by nurses. The service provides advice and information about urgent, but non-life- threatening, health problems. The medical record cre- ated for each consultation includes a structured data field, called the contact cause, that represents the most severe symptom as assessed by the nurse [29]. There are almost 200 contact causes in the services medical deci- sion support system but only a handful are related to GI problems. For the purpose of this study daily call counts on GI symptoms were retrospectively extracted from the service for inhabitants in Skellefte municipality from 1 August 2010 to 18 April 2011. The contact causes vomiting or nausea, diarrhoea and stomach pain were used since changes in contact patterns for these symptoms previously have been shown in outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis [14]. In addition, for each call, infor- mation on the postal code of the registered residence ad- dress of the patient was extracted. Postal codes were divided into two geographical regions; belonging to the distribution area of Abborrverket WPT or not, and the number of inhabitants in the corresponding regions were calculated. To compare the call patterns of GI-related symptoms between these two regions a previ- ously published outbreak detection algorithm [14] was used but with a minor modification. No analyses were performed for the period from the BWN and onwards since, as the in- formation of an ongoing outbreak becomes public, the con- tact pattern to the health advice line changes drastically and it is challenging to adjust for this in the analyses. The daily call count, Ct , i, for one contact cause or a sin- gle group of contact causes at day t for geographical re- gion i was classified as an outbreak signal if it exceeded a threshold Tt , i: Tt;i max L; V ; V Et;i L SDt;i; L 3; 5 f g Et;i pt;i Ni; SDt;i Ni pt;i q 1pt;i; pt;i Pni j1;ji P C;j 10 Pni j1;jiNj ; t7; t8; t9; t10; t11; t12; t13; t14 f g; 2; if t7; t14 f g 1; if t8; t9; t10; t11; t12; t13 f g where L is the threshold level for a weak and strong outbreak signal respectively, V is the threshold for a positive outbreak signal, Et , i is the expected number of calls and SDt , i is the standard deviation, both based on a binomial distribution, Niis the population size of geographical region i, pt , i is the probability of a single call per inhabitant per day, and ni is the number of geographical regions in the analysis. In the current study, two geographical regions were in- cluded: Abborrverket distribution area and not Abborrverket distribution area. It is important to note that calls from inhabitants of the geographical region under investigation are not included in the calculation of its threshold since that would increase the thresh- old if an outbreak in that region has been ongoing for more than 6 days. Compared to the previously published algorithm, the time period for the calcula- tion of pt , i has been modified. Here, calls for 8 days, t-7 to t-14, were included. Since the call patterns dif- fer between different weekdays, call counts for the weekdays matching the day for which the threshold is calculated, t-7 and t-14, has a weight of 2. The Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 Page 4 of 10 motivation for this modification of the algorithm was primarily to reduce the risk of calculating pt , i based on small number of calls. Results Microbiological investigation Human samples Between 1 January and 1 July 2011, 145 laboratory con- firmed cases of domestic cryptosporidiosis were reported from Vsterbotten County. Only a handful were reported before 19 April, including one case on 15 April and two on 18 April. Genotyping identified C. hominis subtype IbA10G2 in samples from 24 confirmed cases, while no amplification product was obtained from the remaining two samples that were tested. No other gastrointestinal pathogens were found in a subset of the samples that were positive for Cryptosporidium. Environmental samples Cryptosporidium oocysts could not be detected in any of the 38 samples collected from the drinking water system. In influent and effluent wastewater samples from Tuvan SWTP oocysts were detected in 10 out of 24 samples. The concentration of oocysts in influent wastewater was highest on 22 April 2011 at 150,000 oocysts/L and de- clined to 6200 oocysts/L on 1 June 2011. From 27 June 2011 no oocysts were detected in influent wastewater. In effluent wastewater the concentration was highest on 8 June 2011 with a concentration of 12,000 oocysts/L. In subsequent samples the concentration varied between 1700 and 4200 oocysts/L and from 27 June 2011 the concentration was below the detection limit. Molecular investigation of one wastewater sample revealed C. hominis subtype IbA10G2. In the remaining 9 water and sediment samples collected at other places no oocysts were detected. Epidemiological investigation Web-based questionnaire The epidemiological curve based on the web-based questionnaire (Fig. 2) showed that the number of cases declined after a couple of days following the BWN and verified the hypothesis of an ongoing waterborne out- break. Importantly, it also indicated that the outbreak started well before 1 April. In total 12,358 individuals answered the questionnaire and 11,065 remained after exclusions. The results from the questionnaire were con- tinually monitored in order to provide information for decision making based on the extent of the outbreak, who were being affected and to follow up the effect of interventions. Moreover, it was used to inform the in- habitants about the progress of the outbreak and these reports were highly appreciated. Postal questionnaire In total, 1099 out of 1754 (63%) questionnaires were an- swered and returned for analysis. The survey showed that 26.4% of the respondents fulfilled the case defin- ition, i.e. self-reported diarrhoea (3 loose stools per day) between 1 December 2010 and 31 May 2011, which corresponds to an estimate of 18,449 cases (Table 1). The data from the survey also provided evidence that the outbreak started in January and ended by the end of May (Fig. 3). April was the peak month with 6969 cases. If the outbreak had been detected earlier and we assume that all cases from 1 February forward had remained healthy, the estimation is that the outbreak would have affected 2273 individuals, corresponding to approxi- mately 12% the current outbreak size. Only the variables age and water supply were identi- fied as risk factors for infection (Table 2). Divided into age groups, children up to 5 years were most affected, 37.2%, while the group of 66 years and above were least affected, 12.1% (Table 3). Among the different water supplies in Skellefte, water from Abborrverket WPT was the only supply that significantly correlated with an increased risk of infection (p < 0.001). Approximately 1 in 3 (32.7%) living in the distribution area of Abborrver- ket WPT had symptoms of cryptosporidiosis, compared to 16.2% of inhabitants living in other areas (Table 4). The most common symptoms, each present in more than 70% of the respondents that fulfilled the case defin- ition, were fatigue, abdominal pain, upset stomach, and watery diarrhoea (Table 5). Health advice line Starting on 30 December 2010, the retrospective analysis showed a sequence of 6 days of consecutive outbreak sig- nals regarding GI symptoms from individuals living in the distribution area of Abborrverket WTP (Fig. 4). Four of those were strong. A large number of outbreak signals for inhabitants living in the distribution area of Abborrverket WTP were evident during the following time period up until the BWN. In contrast, very few outbreak signals regarding GI symptoms were present for Abborrverket WPT distribu- tion area during the autumn and early winter of 2010. However, there was a small cluster of five outbreak signals between 20 November and 29 November 2010, but they were weak and not on consecutive days, hence the inter- pretation was that those outbreak signals were inconclu- sive. For the other geographical area in the analysis, individuals not living in the distribution area of Abborr- verket WTP, only one weak outbreak signal was present during the entire time-period under investigation - em- phasizing the abnormality of the identified outbreak signal pattern for the distribution area of Abborrverket WTP in the beginning of 2011. Similar results are obtained using Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 Page 5 of 10 the original definition of the outbreak algorithm and with other groupings of ages and contact causes related to cryptosporidiosis (results not shown). When comparing the current outbreak signals based on geographical regions corresponding to the distribution of drinking water with outbreak signals based on (adult) GI calls from the entire Skellefte municipality with respect to the other municipalities within Vsterbotten County [14], the two patterns are similar and suggest the same time for outbreak detection: beginning of January 2011. Discussion The three cases of cryptosporidiosis in the middle of April together with other indications from informal sources re- garding large numbers of sick people, and higher-than- normal contacts regarding symptoms of gastrointestinal illness reported by the nurses staffing the regional health advice line, led the authorities to suspect an outbreak. However, our epidemiological investigation shows that the outbreak had already started, unnoticed to the authorities, in the beginning of January 2011. High norovirus activity together with only a handful of domestic cases of crypto- sporidiosis reported in Vsterbotten County between January and 19 April 2011 were contributing factors to the late detection of the outbreak. New routines are now in place in Vsterbotten County where analysis of Crypto- sporidium is performed on fecal samples if there are clus- ters of cases with gastrointestinal symptoms or other indications of an outbreak. If the outbreak had been detected in the beginning of the year by systematic monitoring of the telephone calls as described in this study, it is very likely that the outbreak would have ended during January. Two facts support this conclusion. First, once the outbreak was suspected the BWN was an effective intervention that substantially lim- ited illness within a few days. A similar delay in the Fig. 2 Epidemiological curve based on observed cases in the web questionnaire Table 1 Population estimates of cases and non-cases of Cryptosporidium-infection in Skellefte between December 2010 and May 2011 Status N SE (N) 95% CI (N) N (%) Non-cases 51,618 1214 49,239 53,997 73.7 Cases 18,448 1191 16,114 20,782 26.3 N Number, SE standard error, CI confidence interval Based on postal questionnaire Fig. 3 Epidemiological curve of population estimates of number of cases from the postal questionnaire Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 Page 6 of 10 decrease of reported cases was seen in the stersund out- break [11] and it is explained by the time it takes to de- velop symptoms after ingestion of oocyst. Second, the outbreak signals from the described analyses of telephone calls would have given a strong indication during January that the outbreak was waterborne and which drinking water supply to suspect (Abborrverket WTP). We therefor argue that such an early outbreak detection followed by a timelier BWN in January 2011 would have limited the out- break substantially from approximately 18,500 cases down to 2300 cases if all who fell ill after 31 January had remained healthy. The potential of syndromic surveillance systems based on analysing telephone call patterns to Healthcare Guide 1177 for early event detection and situational awareness of local outbreaks has been shown previously [14]. In the current work the concept was taken a step further by comparing call patterns between water distribution areas that were based on groups of postal codes. The im- portance of this should not be underestimated. In the situation of an unknown waterborne outbreak, or other types of local outbreaks where the spread matches geographical areas used in the analysis, this procedure gives a more timely indication of the underlying cause and therefore substantially increases the chances of ef- fective countermeasures. Since water distribution areas are known, the approach can be used in systems for syn- dromic surveillance. There is always a tradeoff between sensitivity and spe- cificity in signal detection. In practical terms it is the in- stitution that is eligible to act on the signal that needs to find a reasonable protocol for signal evaluation and val- idation. To increase the sensitivity and hence the poten- tial of timely detection of local outbreaks, which usually are very short-lived in contrast to the outbreak under in- vestigation here, the outbreak algorithm used operates on a daily basis. This has the drawback of reduced speci- ficity, i.e. that more false positive outbreak signals are generated due to randomness, especially for geographical regions where the population size is small. Despite this, and even though the daily call counts are relatively low, the outbreak signal pattern shown in Fig. 4 is excep- tional and clearly indicates that individuals living in the distribution area of Abborrverket WTP report more GI symptoms compared to individuals living in other areas. Moreover, this outbreak signal pattern is similar if other groupings of age and contact causes related to symptoms of cryptosporidiosis are used. Although possible sources of contamination were in- vestigated and discussed no conclusive information could be found. Several samples from the drinking water system and the environment were analysed for Crypto- sporidium oocysts but none were detected - apart from the findings in wastewater samples. The most likely the- ory in our opinion is that the winter intake of water to Abborrverket WTP, which is more exposed to contamin- ation since it is located more shallowly in the river and closer to shore compared to the summer intake, was contaminated with Cryptosporidium oocysts from sew- age from one or several sources. However, data on weekly maximal turbidity and bacteriological counts (Escherichia coli, general coliform bacteria, enterococci and Clostridium perfringens) in raw water to Abborrver- ket WTP for the period October 2010 to March 2011 had been within normal levels so such a contamination, if present, was not detected in the routine testing at the WTP. The water intake was shifted to the summer position on the same day as the BWN was issued on 19 April 2011, which may explain why no Cryptosporidium oo- cysts were found in the water samples, since they were all taken after 19 April. It is worth noting that the out- break signals from the syndromic surveillance algorithm present in November 2010 coincide with the shift to the winter intake which might indicate a contamination at that point in time as well - although probably unrelated Table 2 Significant risk factors for infection based on postal questionnaire Odds ratio 95% CI P-value* Age 0-5 4.22 2.66 6.68 <0.001 6-15 2.28 1.42 3.68 0.001 16-65 3.08 1.96 4.83 <0.001 66- 1.00 Water source Not from any WTP/own well 1.00 Abborrverket WTP 2.30 1.49 3.56 <0.001 Not Abborrverket WTP 1.14 0.68 1.91 0.613 CI confidence interval, WTP water treatment plant *Fishers exact P - value Table 3 Population estimates of cases and non-cases of Cryptosporidium-infection in Skellefte between December 2010 and May 2011 divided into age groups Status Age N SE (N) 95% CI (N) N (%) Non-cases 0-5 2433 121 2195 2671 62.8 6-15 5542 208 5135 5950 75.3 16-65 30,728 1148 28,479 32,977 69.6 66- 12,914 326 12,276 13,553 87.9 Cases 0-5 1442 120 1207 1676 37.2 6-15 1819 202 1423 2215 24.7 16-65 13,402 1132 11,183 15,621 30.4 66- 1786 301 1196 2377 12.1 N number, SE standard error; CI confidence interval Based on postal questionnaire Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 Page 7 of 10 to the current outbreak. The fact that Cryptosporidium oocysts were found in wastewater is in our opinion re- lated to the fact that a substantial part of the population connected to the municipal SWTP Tuvan was infected with C. hominis IbA10G2. Thus, although the initial cause of the outbreak remains unknown, it was most certainly caused by fecal contamination of human origin since C. hominis is almost exclusively human specific. Compared to the stersund outbreak [11] only age was the common risk factor. In contrast, the current study did not find statistical significance for any of the underlying diseases nor amount of water consumed. Symptom pro- files were almost identical between the outbreaks. The same Cryptosporidium gp60 subtype was found respon- sible for both the current and the stersund outbreak. It is in our opinion likely that the outbreaks were related since this subtype seldom is found in domestic cases in Sweden, in contrast to other European countries, and the time period between the outbreaks was short. However, similarity on gp60 is not conclusive evidence [30] and the question of whether two outbreaks were related is currently investigated by whole genome sequencing. Speculatively, one or a few infected individuals from the stersund outbreak brought the parasite to Skellefte and caused a second outbreak through spread of Cryptosporid- ium oocysts via sewage, into the river, finally ending up in the drinking water since the microbial barriers present in Abborrverket WPT at the time were insufficient to inacti- vate or remove the oocysts. After the outbreak was identified, the water distribution system was flushed to remove the contamination and work to improve the water treatment in Abborrverket WTP was started. Since the large outbreak in stersund only took place a few months earlier the municipality of Skellefte could utilize experience from the actions taken to stop the former outbreak. Even so, the BWN had to be kept in place for 5 months, compared to 3 months in stersund. This was partly due to the longer period of time it took to install an ultraviolet unit as an additional Table 4 Population estimates of cases and non-cases of Cryptosporidium-infection in Skellefte between December 2010 and May 2011 divided into water supply categories Status Category N SE (N) 95% CI (N) N (%) Non-cases Not Abborrverket WTP 22,649 642 21,392 23,906 83.8 Abborrverket WTP 28,696 1033 26,944 30,994 67.3 Cases Not Abborrverket WTP 4368 624 3145 5590 16.2 Abborrverket WTP 14,081 1019 12,084 16,078 32.7 N number, SE standard error, CI confidence interval Based on postal questionnaire Table 5 Clinical features of Cryptosporidium-infection cases in the municipality of Skellefte during December 2010 to May 2011 Proportion with symptom (%) 95% CI (%) Fatigue 78.5 72.4 84.7 Abdominal pain 73.3 66.8 79.8 Upset stomach 71.4 64.7 78.2 Diarrhoea Watery 70.2 63.4 77.0 Bloody 0.9 0.0 2.5 Nausea 63.5 56.1 70.9 Headache 46.9 39.3 54.5 Vomiting 35.8 28.6 43.1 Fever >38 C 36.5 28.2 42.8 Joint pain 27.4 20.4 34.4 Pain in eyes 14.6 9.1 20.1 CI confidence interval Based on postal questionnaire Fig. 4 Daily call counts from Skellefte municipality to Healthcare Guide 1177 regarding GI symptoms from 1 August 2010 until the day before the BWN on 19 April 2011. Inhabitants are divided into two groups; those living in the water distribution area of Abborrverket WPT (blue) and those who are not (red). Outbreak signals from the detection algorithm [14] are shown as blue (Abborrverket WTP) and red circles (not Abborrverket WTP) with weak (hollow circles) and strong outbreak signals (filled circles) along the lower horizontal and upper horizontal, respectively Bjelkmar et al. BMC Public Health (2017) 17:328 Page 8 of 10 microbiological barrier in Abborrverket WTP as well as a longer and more complex water distribution network that had to be flushed. As of November 2016, the municipality of Skellefte is in the process of rebuilding their infrastruc- ture for production of drinking water. This work had started before the outbreak of cryptosporidiosis. Conclusions Our investigation concludes that approximately 18,500 people in the municipality of Skellefte were infected by Cryptosporidium during the winter and spring of 2011 making it the second largest outbreak of cryptosporidiosis described in Europe to date. Cryptosporidium hominis subtype IbA10G2 was isolated from patient samples and wastewater. The epidemiological investigation strongly indicates that this outbreak was waterborne based on the vast number of cases, as well as the fact that the BWN were an effective countermeasure, and that people living in the water distribution area of one specific WTP were more likely to become ill. This conclusion is also strongly supported by the pattern of phone calls to the national health advice line Healthcare Guide 1177. We therefore firmly believe that the outbreak was waterborne and caused by C. hominis transmitted through the public water supplied by Abborrverket WTP even though no oocysts could be found in raw water or in drinking water. Moreover, our results show that the outbreak went unnoticed to the authorities for several months and that systematic monitoring of phone calls to the health advice line, as described in this study, could have limited the out- break to approximately 2300 cases compared to the current estimate of 18,500 cases. This new approach of linking health advice line calls to water distribution areas has been implemented in a system for syndromic surveillance deployed by the Public Health Agency of Sweden in 2016. Additional files Additional file 1: Web-based questionnaire. Translated web-based questionnaire. (PDF 162 kb) Additional file 2: Postal questionnaire for adults. Translated postal questionnaire for adults. (PDF 128 kb) Additional file 3: Postal questionnaire for children. Translated postal questionnaire for children. (PDF 128 kb) Abbreviations BWN: Boil water notice; GI: Gastrointestinal; IFL: Immunofluorescence; IMS: Immunomagnetic separation; OR: Odds ratio; PCR: Polymerase chain reaction; RFLP: Fragment length polymorphism; SWTP: Sewage water treatment plan; UV: Ultraviolet; WTP: Water treatment plant Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Leah Martin at the Public Health Agency of Sweden for useful comments on the manuscript and Stefan Johansson of Skellefte municipality for the information on the drinking water infrastructure, production and testing. Funding The study was partly funded by the Swedish Agency for Contingency Planning through a research and development project named Event-based Surveillance System (ESS). The funding organisation was not involved in any part of the study. Availability of data and materials The datasets used are available from the corresponding author on request. Authors contributions PB conceived and performed the health advice line study and wrote the manuscript. AH performed water analysis and was part of the outbreak team. JB designed and made the statistical analyses of the epidemiology part of the manuscript. ML was part of the outbreak team. ML performed analysis on human samples, including typing and sub-typing and was part of the outbreak team. GA performed water analysis and was part of the outbreak team. SS was responsible for the local outbreak team and contributed to the study design and acquisition of data. JL conceived the study and performed epidemiological analysis. All authors contributed to the interpretation of data and made substantial contributions to the overall content of the manuscript, and approved the final manuscript. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Consent for publication Not applicable. Ethics approval and consent to participate The study was approved by Stockholm ethical review board, reference number 2011/220-31/4. Written informed consent was not necessary due to outbreak investigation. However, a letter stating the art of the investigation was handed out to all participants. Here it was also stated that all personal identification issues were handled according to Swedish law. Furthermore, answers to questionnaires would be seen as written consent to participate in study. Collection of field samples The field samples were collected as part of an ongoing outbreak investigation, followed Swedish routines and legislation, and the sampling was performed in collaboration with local authorities and the drinking water producer. Requirement for permission was waived. Publishers Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
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How many people were ill?
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{'answer_id': 265067, 'document_id': 394251, 'question_id': 138421, 'text': '18,500 individuals', 'answer_start': 705, 'answer_category': 'SHORT'}
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68,032
| 67,690
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5726cfd8f1498d1400e8ebf9
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generic
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Until the military coup of 22 March 2012 and a second military coup in December 2012, Mali was a constitutional democracy governed by the Constitution of 12 January 1992, which was amended in 1999. The constitution provides for a separation of powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. The system of government can be described as "semi-presidential". Executive power is vested in a president, who is elected to a five-year term by universal suffrage and is limited to two terms.
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How many total terms can a president be elected for?
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{'text': 'two terms', 'answer_start': 505}
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25,731
| 25,389
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56f957d89e9bad19000a0855
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generic
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W 122nd Street runs six blocks (3,280 feet (1,000 m)) west from the intersection of Mount Morris Park West at Marcus Garvey Memorial Park and terminates at the intersection of Morningside Avenue at Morningside Park. This segment runs in the Mount Morris Historical District and crosses portions of Lenox Avenue (Sixth Avenue), Seventh Avenue, Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue), and Manhattan Avenue.
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How many blocks west from the intersection of Mount Morris Park does W 122nd Street run?
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{'text': 'six', 'answer_start': 20}
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104,593
| 104,251
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573021c8a23a5019007fce03
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generic
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Charles Town was a hub of the deerskin trade, the basis of its early economy. Trade alliances with the Cherokee and Creek nations insured a steady supply of deer hides. Between 1699 and 1715, colonists exported an average of 54,000 deer skins annually to Europe through Charles Town. Between 1739 and 1761, the height of the deerskin trade era, an estimated 500,000 to 1,250,000 deer were slaughtered. During the same period, Charles Town records show an export of 5,239,350 pounds of deer skins. Deer skins were used in the production of men's fashionable and practical buckskin pantaloons, gloves, and book bindings.
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Records indicate how many pounds of deer skins were exported from Charles Town during the height of its deerskin trade?
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{'text': '5,239,350', 'answer_start': 465}
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34,535
| 34,193
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570a0d404103511400d59532
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generic
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Various industrial businesses are located in Hannover. The Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Transporter (VWN) factory at Hannover-Stöcken is the biggest employer in the region and operates a huge plant at the northern edge of town adjoining the Mittellandkanal and Motorway A2. Jointly with a factory of German tire and automobile parts manufacturer Continental AG, they have a coal-burning power plant. Continental AG, founded in Hanover in 1871, is one of the city's major companies, as is Sennheiser. Since 2008 a take-over is in progress: the Schaeffler Group from Herzogenaurach (Bavaria) holds the majority of the stock but were required due to the financial crisis to deposit the options as securities at banks. TUI AG has its HQ in Hanover. Hanover is home to many insurance companies, many of which operate only in Germany. One major global reinsurance company is Hannover Re, whose headquarters are east of the city centre.
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What does VWN stand for?
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{'text': 'Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Transporter', 'answer_start': 59}
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95,270
| 94,928
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5a2c6ac4bfd06b001a5aeb6e
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generic
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Comparative and historical linguistics offers some clues for memorising the accent position: If one compares many standard Serbo-Croatian words to e.g. cognate Russian words, the accent in the Serbo-Croatian word will be one syllable before the one in the Russian word, with the rising tone. Historically, the rising tone appeared when the place of the accent shifted to the preceding syllable (the so-called "Neoshtokavian retraction"), but the quality of this new accent was different – its melody still "gravitated" towards the original syllable. Most Shtokavian dialects (Neoshtokavian) dialects underwent this shift, but Chakavian, Kajkavian and the Old Shtokavian dialects did not.
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When did the quality of the accent appear historically?
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{'text': 'when the place of the accent shifted to the preceding syllable', 'answer_start': 331}
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5,219
| 4,877
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56cf71dc4df3c31400b0d7ad
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generic
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Sessions for West's sixth solo effort begin to take shape in early 2013 in his own personal loft's living room at a Paris hotel. Determined to "undermine the commercial", he once again brought together close collaborators and attempted to incorporate Chicago drill, dancehall, acid house, and industrial music. Primarily inspired by architecture, West's perfectionist tendencies led him to contact producer Rick Rubin fifteen days shy of its due date to strip down the record's sound in favor of a more minimalist approach. Initial promotion of his sixth album included worldwide video projections of the album's music and live television performances. Yeezus, West's sixth album, was released June 18, 2013 to rave reviews from critics. It became the rapper's sixth consecutive number one debut, but also marked his lowest solo opening week sales. Def Jam issued "Black Skinhead" to radio in July 2013 as the album's lead single. On September 6, 2013, Kanye West announced he would be headlining his first solo tour in five years, to support Yeezus, with fellow American rapper Kendrick Lamar accompanying him along the way.
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Who did Kanye tour alongside of in order to promote the efforts of Yeezus?
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{'text': 'Kendrick Lamar', 'answer_start': 1079}
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96,152
| 95,810
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5acd1a0207355d001abf34f4
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generic
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Another energy-related concept is called the Lagrangian, after Joseph-Louis Lagrange. This formalism is as fundamental as the Hamiltonian, and both can be used to derive the equations of motion or be derived from them. It was invented in the context of classical mechanics, but is generally useful in modern physics. The Lagrangian is defined as the kinetic energy minus the potential energy. Usually, the Lagrange formalism is mathematically more convenient than the Hamiltonian for non-conservative systems (such as systems with friction).
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What is defined as the potential energy minus the kinetic energy?
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{'text': 'Lagrangian', 'answer_start': 321}
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23,344
| 23,002
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56f8e38b9e9bad19000a069b
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generic
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There are two main termini for bus services. As the biggest operator, First uses stops around Pound Tree Road. This leaves the other terminal of West Quay available for other operators. Uni-link passes West Quay in both directions, and Wilts & Dorset drop passengers off and pick them up there, terminating at a series of bus stands along the road. Certain Bluestar services also do this, while others stop at Bargate and some loop round West Quay, stopping at Hanover Buildings. There was a tram system from 1879 to 1949.
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When did the tram system stop operating in Southampton?
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{'text': '1949', 'answer_start': 517}
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9,206
| 8,864
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56dde72f66d3e219004dadbd
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generic
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In theory, the stadtholders were freely appointed by and subordinate to the states of each province. However, in practice the princes of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau, beginning with William the Silent, were always chosen as stadtholders of most of the provinces. Zeeland and usually Utrecht had the same stadtholder as Holland.
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Who appointed the stadtholders?
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{'text': 'the states of each province', 'answer_start': 72}
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365
| 23
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56d43da72ccc5a1400d830be
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generic
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Following the disbandment of Destiny's Child in June 2005, she released her second solo album, B'Day (2006), which contained hits "Déjà Vu", "Irreplaceable", and "Beautiful Liar". Beyoncé also ventured into acting, with a Golden Globe-nominated performance in Dreamgirls (2006), and starring roles in The Pink Panther (2006) and Obsessed (2009). Her marriage to rapper Jay Z and portrayal of Etta James in Cadillac Records (2008) influenced her third album, I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), which saw the birth of her alter-ego Sasha Fierce and earned a record-setting six Grammy Awards in 2010, including Song of the Year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". Beyoncé took a hiatus from music in 2010 and took over management of her career; her fourth album 4 (2011) was subsequently mellower in tone, exploring 1970s funk, 1980s pop, and 1990s soul. Her critically acclaimed fifth studio album, Beyoncé (2013), was distinguished from previous releases by its experimental production and exploration of darker themes.
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What was the name of Beyoncé's second solo album?
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{'text': "B'Day", 'answer_start': 95}
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120,482
| 120,140
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5731a5ede17f3d14004222a6
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generic
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Native Americans in the United States make up 0.97% to 2% of the population. In the 2010 census, 2.9 million people self-identified as Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native alone, and 5.2 million people identified as U.S. Native Americans, either alone or in combination with one or more ethnicity or other races. 1.8 million are recognized as enrolled tribal members.[citation needed] Tribes have established their own criteria for membership, which are often based on blood quantum, lineal descent, or residency. A minority of US Native Americans live in land units called Indian reservations. Some California and Southwestern tribes, such as the Kumeyaay, Cocopa, Pascua Yaqui and Apache span both sides of the US–Mexican border. Haudenosaunee people have the legal right to freely cross the US–Canadian border. Athabascan, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Iñupiat, Blackfeet, Nakota, Cree, Anishinaabe, Huron, Lenape, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, and Haudenosaunee, among others live in both Canada and the US.
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How many people identified as Native American in the 2010 census?
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{'text': '5.2 million', 'answer_start': 198}
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93,373
| 93,031
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5a5164d2ce860b001aa3fd85
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generic
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In his investiture address, given on 28 October 1969 in Bonn, Chancellor Willy Brandt proposed that the government would consider Article 29 of the Basic Law as a binding order. An expert commission was established, named after its chairman, the former Secretary of State Professor Werner Ernst. After two years of work, the experts delivered their report in 1973. It provided an alternative proposal for both northern Germany and central and southwestern Germany. In the north, either a single new state consisting of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen and Lower Saxony should be created (solution A) or two new states, one in the northeast consisting of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and the northern part of Lower Saxony (from Cuxhaven to Lüchow-Dannenberg) and one in the northwest consisting of Bremen and the rest of Lower Saxony (solution B). In the Center and South West either Rhineland-Palatinate (with the exception of the Germersheim district but including the Rhine-Neckar region) should be merged with Hesse and the Saarland (solution C), the district of Germersheim would then become part of Baden-Württemberg.
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What area was suggested should be separated from Hesse?
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{'text': 'Rhineland-Palatinate', 'answer_start': 885}
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57,466
| 57,124
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57264984f1498d1400e8db26
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generic
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The migration-period peoples who later coalesced into a "German" ethnicity were the Germanic tribes of the Saxons, Franci, Thuringii, Alamanni and Bavarii. These five tribes, sometimes with inclusion of the Frisians, are considered as the major groups to take part in the formation of the Germans. The varieties of the German language are still divided up into these groups. Linguists distinguish low Saxon, Franconian, Bavarian, Thuringian and Alemannic varieties in modern German. By the 9th century, the large tribes which lived on the territory of modern Germany had been united under the rule of the Frankish king Charlemagne, known in German as Karl der Große. Much of what is now Eastern Germany became Slavonic-speaking (Sorbs and Veleti), after these areas were vacated by Germanic tribes (Vandals, Lombards, Burgundians and Suebi amongst others) which had migrated into the former areas of the Roman Empire.
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What king united the tribes in the 9th century?
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{'text': 'Charlemagne', 'answer_start': 619}
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6,871
| 6,529
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56db670ce7c41114004b50a4
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generic
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On February 14, 2009, The Walt Disney Company debuted "The American Idol Experience" at its Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. In this live production, co-produced by 19 Entertainment, park guests chose from a list of songs and auditioned privately for Disney cast members. Those selected then performed on a stage in a 1000-seat theater replicating the Idol set. Three judges, whose mannerisms and style mimicked those of the real Idol judges, critiqued the performances. Audience members then voted for their favorite performer. There were several preliminary-round shows during the day that culminated in a "finals" show in the evening where one of the winners of the previous rounds that day was selected as the overall winner. The winner of the finals show received a "Dream Ticket" that granted them front-of-the-line privileges at any future American Idol audition. The attraction closed on August 30, 2014.
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What did the winner win?
|
{'text': 'Dream Ticket', 'answer_start': 821}
|
8,869
| 8,527
|
56ddb46c9a695914005b958f
|
generic
|
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web and other information on the Internet created by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit organization, based in San Francisco, California, United States. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet. The service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a "three dimensional index."
|
Which company made the Wayback Machine?
|
{'text': 'Internet Archive', 'answer_start': 116}
|
123,888
| 123,546
|
57320ad7e99e3014001e6468
|
generic
|
When the Majority Leader's party loses control of the House, and if the Speaker and Majority Leader both remain in the leadership hierarchy, convention suggests that they would become the Minority Leader and Minority Whip, respectively. As the minority party has one less leadership position after losing the speaker's chair, there may be a contest for the remaining leadership positions. Nancy Pelosi is the most recent example of an outgoing Speaker seeking the Minority Leader post to retain the House party leadership, as the Democrats lost control of the House in the 2010 elections. Outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi ran successfully for Minority Leader in the 112th Congress.
|
Does the minority or majority party have more leadership positions in House?
|
{'text': 'minority party has one less leadership position', 'answer_start': 244}
|
95,141
| 94,799
|
5729922a1d0469140077954d
|
generic
|
In the early 20th century, the writings of Albert Richardson were responsible for a re-awakening of interest in pure neoclassical design. Vincent Harris (compare Harris's colonnaded and domed interior of Manchester Central Reference Library to the colonnaded and domed interior by John Carr and R R Duke), Bradshaw Gass & Hope and Percy Thomas were among those who designed public buildings in the neoclassical style in the interwar period. In the British Raj in India, Sir Edwin Lutyens' monumental city planning for New Delhi marked the sunset of neoclassicism. In Scotland and the north of England, where the Gothic Revival was less strong, architects continued to develop the neoclassical style of William Henry Playfair. The works of Cuthbert Brodrick and Alexander Thomson show that by the end of the 19th century the results could be powerful and eccentric.
|
Sir Edwin Lutyens' city planning in what city marked a shift in design?
|
{'text': 'New Delhi', 'answer_start': 518}
|
100,964
| 100,622
|
5a271419c93d92001a4003c6
|
generic
|
Weeks after ending the Sex Pistols, Lydon formed the experimental group Public Image Ltd and declared the project to be "anti music of any kind". Public Image and other acts such as the Pop Group and the Slits had begun experimenting with dance music, dub production techniques and the avant-garde, while punk-indebted Manchester acts such as Joy Division, The Fall and A Certain Ratio developed unique styles which drew on a similarly disparate range of influences across music and modernist literature. Bands such as Scritti Politti, Gang of Four and This Heat incorporated Leftist political philosophy and their own art school studies in their work.
|
What end of the political spectrum was Joy division's political philosophy one?
|
{'text': 'Leftist', 'answer_start': 576}
|
36,172
| 35,830
|
5a2f5361a83784001a7d270f
|
generic
|
The dominant land plant species of the time were gymnosperms, which are vascular, cone-bearing, non-flowering plants such as conifers that produce seeds without a coating. This is opposed to the earth's current flora, in which the dominant land plants in terms of number of species are angiosperms. One particular plant genus, Ginkgo, is thought to have evolved at this time and is represented today by a single species, Ginkgo biloba. As well, the extant genus Sequoia is believed to have evolved in the Mesozoic.
|
What plant species died out in the Mesozoic?
|
{'text': 'gymnosperms', 'answer_start': 49}
|
34,167
| 33,825
|
5709d1556d058f1900182bcc
|
generic
|
In December 2005, Imperial announced a science park programme at the Wye campus, with extensive housing; however, this was abandoned in September 2006 following complaints that the proposal infringed on Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and that the true scale of the scheme, which could have raised £110m for the College, was known to Kent and Ashford Councils and their consultants but concealed from the public. One commentator observed that Imperial's scheme reflected "the state of democracy in Kent, the transformation of a renowned scientific college into a grasping, highly aggressive, neo-corporate institution, and the defence of the status of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – throughout England, not just Wye – against rampant greed backed by the connivance of two important local authorities. Wye College campus was finally closed in September 2009.
|
When did Imperial announce their science park program at the Wye Campus?
|
{'text': 'December 2005', 'answer_start': 3}
|
38,115
| 37,773
|
570bd0da6b8089140040fa61
|
generic
|
The code itself was patterned so that most control codes were together, and all graphic codes were together, for ease of identification. The first two columns (32 positions) were reserved for control characters.:220, 236 § 8,9) The "space" character had to come before graphics to make sorting easier, so it became position 20hex;:237 § 10 for the same reason, many special signs commonly used as separators were placed before digits. The committee decided it was important to support uppercase 64-character alphabets, and chose to pattern ASCII so it could be reduced easily to a usable 64-character set of graphic codes,:228, 237 § 14 as was done in the DEC SIXBIT code. Lowercase letters were therefore not interleaved with uppercase. To keep options available for lowercase letters and other graphics, the special and numeric codes were arranged before the letters, and the letter A was placed in position 41hex to match the draft of the corresponding British standard.:238 § 18 The digits 0–9 were arranged so they correspond to values in binary prefixed with 011, making conversion with binary-coded decimal straightforward.
|
How many positions are in the first two columns?
|
{'text': '32 positions', 'answer_start': 160}
|
115,419
| 115,077
|
573392424776f41900660d86
|
generic
|
In physics, Whitehead's thought has had some influence. He articulated a view that might perhaps be regarded as dual to Einstein's general relativity, see Whitehead's theory of gravitation. It has been severely criticized. Yutaka Tanaka, who suggests that the gravitational constant disagrees with experimental findings, proposes that Einstein's work does not actually refute Whitehead's formulation. Whitehead's view has now been rendered obsolete, with the discovery of gravitational waves. They are phenonena observed locally that largely violate the kind of local flatness of space that Whitehead assumes. Consequently, Whitehead's cosmology must be regarded as a local approximation, and his assumption of a uniform spatio-temporal geometry, Minkowskian in particular, as an often-locally-adequate approximation. An exact replacement of Whitehead's cosmology would need to admit a Riemannian geometry. Also, although Whitehead himself gave only secondary consideration to quantum theory, his metaphysics of processes has proved attractive to some physicists in that field. Henry Stapp and David Bohm are among those whose work has been influenced by Whitehead.
|
How must Whiteheads cosmology now be considered?
|
{'text': "Whitehead's cosmology must be regarded as a local approximation", 'answer_start': 624}
|
26,438
| 26,096
|
56f989239b226e1400dd1539
|
generic
|
There are over three thousand islands along the rugged coastline of Zhejiang. The largest, Zhoushan Island, is Mainland China's third largest island, after Hainan and Chongming. There are also many bays, of which Hangzhou Bay is the largest. Zhejiang has a humid subtropical climate with four distinct seasons. Spring starts in March and is rainy with changeable weather. Summer, from June to September is long, hot, rainy, and humid. Fall is generally dry, warm and sunny. Winters are short but cold except in the far south. Average annual temperature is around 15 to 19 °C (59 to 66 °F), average January temperature is around 2 to 8 °C (36 to 46 °F) and average July temperature is around 27 to 30 °C (81 to 86 °F). Annual precipitation is about 1,000 to 1,900 mm (39 to 75 in). There is plenty of rainfall in early summer, and by late summer Zhejiang is directly threatened by typhoons forming in the Pacific.
|
How many distinct seasons does Zhejiang have?
|
{'text': 'four', 'answer_start': 289}
|
86,946
| 86,604
|
5a81e49731013a001a334f8d
|
generic
|
Finite symmetry groups such as the Mathieu groups are used in coding theory, which is in turn applied in error correction of transmitted data, and in CD players. Another application is differential Galois theory, which characterizes functions having antiderivatives of a prescribed form, giving group-theoretic criteria for when solutions of certain differential equations are well-behaved.u[›] Geometric properties that remain stable under group actions are investigated in (geometric) invariant theory.
|
Geometric Invariant theory studies what kind of equations?
|
{'text': 'differential', 'answer_start': 350}
|
82,044
| 81,702
|
5727c05f3acd2414000deb86
|
generic
|
In 1607, English Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke said in the Case of Prohibitions (according to his own report) "that the law was the golden met-wand and measure to try the causes of the subjects; and which protected His Majesty in safety and peace: with which the King was greatly offended, and said, that then he should be under the law, which was treason to affirm, as he said; to which I said, that Bracton saith, quod Rex non debed esse sub homine, sed sub Deo et lege (That the King ought not to be under any man but under God and the law.)."
|
How did the king feel about what was said in the Case of Prohibitions?
|
{'text': 'greatly offended', 'answer_start': 272}
|
97,444
| 97,102
|
572a75aa27b69114009ef5da
|
generic
|
In The Use of Knowledge in Society (1945), Hayek argued that the price mechanism serves to share and synchronise local and personal knowledge, allowing society's members to achieve diverse, complicated ends through a principle of spontaneous self-organization. He contrasted the use of the price mechanism with central planning, arguing that the former allows for more rapid adaptation to changes in particular circumstances of time and place. Thus, he set the stage for Oliver Williamson's later contrast between markets and hierarchies as alternative co-ordination mechanisms for economic transactions. He used the term catallaxy to describe a "self-organizing system of voluntary co-operation". Hayek's research into this argument was specifically cited by the Nobel Committee in its press release awarding Hayek the Nobel prize.
|
The arguments presented in The Use of Knowledge in Society created an starting point for who?
|
{'text': 'Oliver Williamson', 'answer_start': 471}
|
33,011
| 32,669
|
5a557b55134fea001a0e1ae7
|
generic
|
This has led to new terms such as cyberwarfare and cyberterrorism. More and more critical infrastructure is being controlled via computer programs that, while increasing efficiency, exposes new vulnerabilities. The test will be to see if governments and corporations that control critical systems such as energy, communications and other information will be able to prevent attacks before they occur. As Jay Cross, the chief scientist of the Internet Time Group, remarked, "Connectedness begets vulnerability."
|
What is cyberterrorism?
|
{'text': 'attacks', 'answer_start': 374}
|
44,644
| 44,302
|
57102712b654c5140001f875
|
generic
|
The Queen surpassed her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, to become the longest-lived British monarch in December 2007, and the longest-reigning British monarch on 9 September 2015. She was celebrated in Canada as the "longest-reigning sovereign in Canada's modern era". (King Louis XIV of France reigned over part of Canada for longer.) She is the longest-reigning queen regnant in history, the world's oldest reigning monarch and second-longest-serving current head of state after King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand.
|
Who did Elizabeth surpass in longest lived British monarch?
|
{'text': 'Queen Victoria', 'answer_start': 49}
|
4,274
| 3,932
|
56cffb63234ae51400d9c1e9
|
generic
|
More than 200 newspapers and 350 consumer magazines have an office in the city, and the publishing industry employs about 25,000 people. Two of the three national daily newspapers in the United States are New York papers: The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, which has won the most Pulitzer Prizes for journalism. Major tabloid newspapers in the city include: The New York Daily News, which was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson and The New York Post, founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton. The city also has a comprehensive ethnic press, with 270 newspapers and magazines published in more than 40 languages. El Diario La Prensa is New York's largest Spanish-language daily and the oldest in the nation. The New York Amsterdam News, published in Harlem, is a prominent African American newspaper. The Village Voice is the largest alternative newspaper.
|
When was the New York Daily News founded?
|
{'text': '1919', 'answer_start': 417}
|
31,988
| 31,646
|
57096cd6ed30961900e840e8
|
generic
|
Chromobacterium violaceum and Pseudomonas fluorescens can both mobilize solid copper, as a cyanide compound. The ericoid mycorrhizal fungi associated with Calluna, Erica and Vaccinium can grow in copper metalliferous soils. The ectomycorrhizal fungus Suillus luteus protects young pine trees from copper toxicity. A sample of the fungus Aspergillus niger was found growing from gold mining solution; and was found to contain cyano metal complexes; such as gold, silver, copper iron and zinc. The fungus also plays a role in the solubilization of heavy metal sulfides.
|
Name a compond that can mobilize sold copper?
|
{'text': 'Chromobacterium violaceum', 'answer_start': 0}
|
44,097
| 43,755
|
570f38055ab6b81900390ea1
|
generic
|
The simplest known circadian clock is that of the prokaryotic cyanobacteria. Recent research has demonstrated that the circadian clock of Synechococcus elongatus can be reconstituted in vitro with just the three proteins (KaiA, KaiB, KaiC) of their central oscillator. This clock has been shown to sustain a 22-hour rhythm over several days upon the addition of ATP. Previous explanations of the prokaryotic circadian timekeeper were dependent upon a DNA transcription/translation feedback mechanism.[citation needed]
|
What has the simplest known circadian clock?
|
{'text': 'prokaryotic cyanobacteria', 'answer_start': 50}
|
124,867
| 124,525
|
5732488d0fdd8d15006c68ec
|
generic
|
Eisenhower returned to the U.S. in December 1939 and was assigned as a battalion commander and regimental executive officer of the 15th Infantry at Fort Lewis, Washington. In March 1941 he was promoted to colonel and assigned as chief of staff of the newly activated IX Corps under Major General Kenyon Joyce. In June 1941, he was appointed Chief of Staff to General Walter Krueger, Commander of the 3rd Army, at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. After successfully participating in the Louisiana Maneuvers, he was promoted to brigadier general on October 3, 1941. Although his administrative abilities had been noticed, on the eve of the U.S. entry into World War II he had never held an active command above a battalion and was far from being considered by many as a potential commander of major operations.
|
At what military installation was the 15th Infantry based?
|
{'text': 'Fort Lewis', 'answer_start': 148}
|
28,414
| 28,072
|
56fc3a7400a8df190040380a
|
generic
|
Natural phonology is a theory based on the publications of its proponent David Stampe in 1969 and (more explicitly) in 1979. In this view, phonology is based on a set of universal phonological processes that interact with one another; which ones are active and which are suppressed is language-specific. Rather than acting on segments, phonological processes act on distinctive features within prosodic groups. Prosodic groups can be as small as a part of a syllable or as large as an entire utterance. Phonological processes are unordered with respect to each other and apply simultaneously (though the output of one process may be the input to another). The second most prominent natural phonologist is Patricia Donegan (Stampe's wife); there are many natural phonologists in Europe, and a few in the U.S., such as Geoffrey Nathan. The principles of natural phonology were extended to morphology by Wolfgang U. Dressler, who founded natural morphology.
|
Who was the founder of natural morphology?
|
{'text': 'Wolfgang U. Dressler', 'answer_start': 901}
|
120,781
| 120,439
|
5731434205b4da19006bcf88
|
generic
|
Red is associated with dominance in a number of animal species. For example, in mandrills, red coloration of the face is greatest in alpha males, increasingly less prominent in lower ranking subordinates, and directly correlated with levels of testosterone. Red can also affect the perception of dominance by others, leading to significant differences in mortality, reproductive success and parental investment between individuals displaying red and those not. In humans, wearing red has been linked with increased performance in competitions, including professional sport and multiplayer video games. Controlled tests have demonstrated that wearing red does not increase performance or levels of testosterone during exercise, so the effect is likely to be produced by perceived rather than actual performance. Judges of tae kwon do have been shown to favor competitors wearing red protective gear over blue, and, when asked, a significant majority of people say that red abstract shapes are more "dominant", "aggressive", and "likely to win a physical competition" than blue shapes. In contrast to its positive effect in physical competition and dominance behavior, exposure to red decreases performance in cognitive tasks and elicits aversion in psychological tests where subjects are placed in an "achievement" context (e.g. taking an IQ test).
|
The amount of red in mandrill males is directly related to levels of what?
|
{'text': 'testosterone', 'answer_start': 244}
|
83,540
| 83,198
|
5727d11d3acd2414000ded1d
|
generic
|
Because of Oklahoma's position between zones of differing prevailing temperature and winds, weather patterns within the state can vary widely over relatively short distances and can change drastically in a short time. As an example, on November 11, 1911, the temperature at Oklahoma City reached 83 °F (28 °C) in the afternoon (the record high for that date), then an Arctic cold front of unprecedented intensity slammed across the state, causing the temperature to crash 66 degrees, down to 17 °F (−8 °C) at midnight (the record low for that date); thus, both the record high and record low for November 11 were set on the same date. This type of phenomenon is also responsible for many of the tornadoes in the area, such as the 1912 Oklahoma tornado outbreak, when a warm front traveled along a stalled cold front, resulting in an average of about one tornado per hour over the course of a day.
|
How long did the 1912 tornado outbreak last?
|
{'text': 'a day', 'answer_start': 890}
|
84,440
| 84,098
|
572829183acd2414000df5e5
|
generic
|
In early 1962 Nasser again attempted to wrest control of the military command from Amer. Amer responded by directly confronting Nasser for the first time and secretly rallying his loyalist officers. Nasser ultimately backed down, wary of a possible violent confrontation between the military and his civilian government. According to Boghdadi, the stress caused by the UAR's collapse and Amer's increasing autonomy forced Nasser, who already had diabetes, to practically live on painkillers from then on.
|
From what chronic illness was Nasser suffering?
|
{'text': 'diabetes', 'answer_start': 446}
|
123,509
| 123,167
|
5731e50f0fdd8d15006c661c
|
generic
|
In 2014, the airport received 15 new boarding bridges, totalling 28 in all. This was the main requirement made by the federal government, which transferred the operation of the terminal to the Inframerica Group after an auction. The group invested R$750 million in the project. In the same year, the number of parking spaces doubled, reaching three thousand. The airport's entrance have a new rooftop cover and a new access road. Furthermore, a VIP room was created on Terminal 1's third floor. The investments resulted an increase the capacity of Brasília's airport from approximately 15 million passengers per year to 21 million by 2014. Brasília has direct flights to all states of Brazil and direct international flights to Atlanta, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Miami, Panama City, and Paris.
|
Besides boarding bridges, what also doubled in 2014 at Brasilia's airport?
|
{'text': 'the number of parking spaces', 'answer_start': 296}
|
30,939
| 30,597
|
570715649e06ca38007e93cb
|
generic
|
Hidalgo is hailed as the Father of the Nation even though it was Agustin de Iturbide and not Hidalgo who achieved Mexican Independence in 1821. Shortly after gaining independence, the day to celebrate it varied between September 16, the day of Hidalgo's Grito, and September 27, the day Iturbide rode into Mexico City to end the war. Later, political movements would favor the more liberal Hidalgo over the conservative Iturbide, so that eventually September 16, 1810 became the officially recognized day of Mexican independence. The reason for this is that Hidalgo is considered to be "precursor and creator of the rest of the heroes of the (Mexican War of) Independence." Hidalgo has become an icon for Mexicans who resist tyranny in the country. Diego Rivera painted Hidalgo's image in half a dozen murals. José Clemente Orozco depicted him with a flaming torch of liberty and considered the painting among his best work. David Alfaro Siqueiros was commissioned by San Nicolas University in Morelia to paint a mural for a celebration commemorating the 200th anniversary of Hidalgo's birth. The town of his parish was renamed Dolores Hidalgo in his honor and the state of Hidalgo was created in 1869. Every year on the night of 15–16 September, the president of Mexico re-enacts the Grito from the balcony of the National Palace. This scene is repeated by the heads of cities and towns all over Mexico. The remains of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla lie in the column of the Angel of Independence in Mexico City. Next to it is a lamp lit to represent the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for Mexican Independence.
|
Who was hailed as the Father of the Nation?
|
{'text': 'Hidalgo', 'answer_start': 0}
|
34,086
| 33,744
|
5a8cc9a1fd22b3001a8d8e73
|
generic
|
Today, USD notes are made from cotton fiber paper, unlike most common paper, which is made of wood fiber. U.S. coins are produced by the United States Mint. U.S. dollar banknotes are printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and, since 1914, have been issued by the Federal Reserve. The "large-sized notes" issued before 1928 measured 7.42 inches (188 mm) by 3.125 inches (79.4 mm); small-sized notes, introduced that year, measure 6.14 inches (156 mm) by 2.61 inches (66 mm) by 0.0043 inches (0.11 mm). When the current, smaller sized U.S. currency was introduced it was referred to as Philippine-sized currency because the Philippines had previously adopted the same size for its legal currency.
|
How long do the current reserves measure?
|
{'text': '6.14 inches', 'answer_start': 438}
|
72,416
| 72,074
|
5726fc9f5951b619008f841a
|
generic
|
Tidewater glaciers are glaciers that terminate in the sea, including most glaciers flowing from Greenland, Antarctica, Baffin and Ellesmere Islands in Canada, Southeast Alaska, and the Northern and Southern Patagonian Ice Fields. As the ice reaches the sea, pieces break off, or calve, forming icebergs. Most tidewater glaciers calve above sea level, which often results in a tremendous impact as the iceberg strikes the water. Tidewater glaciers undergo centuries-long cycles of advance and retreat that are much less affected by the climate change than those of other glaciers.
|
Most glaciers from Greenland, Antarctica, and Southeast Alaska are of which type?
|
{'text': 'Tidewater glaciers', 'answer_start': 0}
|
85,797
| 85,455
|
572828782ca10214002d9f78
|
generic
|
Von Neumann was the first to establish a rigorous mathematical framework for quantum mechanics, known as the Dirac–von Neumann axioms, with his 1932 work Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. After having completed the axiomatization of set theory, he began to confront the axiomatization of quantum mechanics. He realized, in 1926, that a state of a quantum system could be represented by a point in a (complex) Hilbert space that, in general, could be infinite-dimensional even for a single particle. In this formalism of quantum mechanics, observable quantities such as position or momentum are represented as linear operators acting on the Hilbert space associated with the quantum system.
|
Who established the framework for quantum mechanics?
|
{'text': 'Von Neumann', 'answer_start': 0}
|
56,841
| 56,499
|
5726a2b75951b619008f7875
|
generic
|
Street parking in urban neighborhoods is mostly controlled by the franeleros a.k.a. "viene vienes" (lit. "come on, come on"), who ask drivers for a fee to park, in theory to guard the car, but with the implicit threat that the franelero will damage the car if the fee is not paid. Double parking is common (with franeleros moving the cars as required), impeding on the available lanes for traffic to pass. In order to mitigate that and other problems and to raise revenue, 721 parking meters (as of October 2013), have been installed in the west-central neighborhoods Lomas de Chapultepec, Condesa, Roma, Polanco and Anzures, in operation from 8 AM to 8 PM on weekdays and charging a rate of 2 pesos per 15 minutes, with offenders' cars booted, costing about 500 pesos to remove. 30 percent of the monthly 16 million-peso (as of October 2013) income from the parking-meter system (named "ecoParq") is earmarked for neighborhood improvements. The granting of the license for all zones exclusively to a new company without experience in operating parking meters, Operadora de Estacionamientos Bicentenario, has generated controversy.
|
What is the name of the parking meter system in Mexico City?
|
{'text': 'ecoParq', 'answer_start': 888}
|
56,520
| 56,178
|
5a67c170f038b7001ab0c450
|
generic
|
Digital cameras have far surpassed film in terms of sensitivity to light, with ISO equivalent speeds of up to 409,600, a number that is unfathomable in the realm of conventional film photography. Faster processors, as well as advances in software noise reduction techniques allow this type of processing to be executed the moment the photo is captured, allowing photographers to store images that have a higher level of refinement and would have been prohibitively time consuming to process with earlier generations of digital camera hardware.
|
What, besides a faster processor, prevents processing from happening when a photo is taken?
|
{'text': 'advances in software noise reduction techniques', 'answer_start': 226}
|
124,377
| 124,035
|
57323d61e17f3d1400422770
|
generic
|
From 1879, Watch Tower supporters gathered as autonomous congregations to study the Bible topically. Thirty congregations were founded, and during 1879 and 1880, Russell visited each to provide the format he recommended for conducting meetings. As congregations continued to form during Russell's ministry, they each remained self-administrative, functioning under the congregationalist style of church governance. In 1881, Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society was presided over by William Henry Conley, and in 1884, Charles Taze Russell incorporated the society as a non-profit business to distribute tracts and Bibles. By about 1900, Russell had organized thousands of part- and full-time colporteurs, and was appointing foreign missionaries and establishing branch offices. By the 1910s, Russell's organization maintained nearly a hundred "pilgrims," or traveling preachers. Russell engaged in significant global publishing efforts during his ministry, and by 1912, he was the most distributed Christian author in the United States.
|
What did the congregations which continued to form during Russell's ministry remain?
|
{'text': 'self-administrative', 'answer_start': 326}
|
70,598
| 70,256
|
5ad423a1604f3c001a40084e
|
generic
|
Bermudians served in the British armed forces during both World War I and World War II. After the latter, Major-General Glyn Charles Anglim Gilbert, Bermuda's highest-ranking soldier, was instrumental in developing the Bermuda Regiment. A number of other Bermudians and their descendants had preceded him into senior ranks, including Bahamian-born Admiral Lord Gambier, and Bermudian-born Royal Marines Brigadier Harvey. When promoted to Brigadier at age 39, following his wounding at the Anzio landings, Harvey became the youngest-ever Royal Marine Brigadier. The Cenotaph in front of the Cabinet Building (in Hamilton) was erected in tribute to Bermuda's Great War dead (the tribute was later extended to Bermuda's Second World War dead) and is the site of the annual Remembrance Day commemoration.
|
Who became the youngest-ever Marine Royal Brigadier?
|
{'text': 'Harvey', 'answer_start': 505}
|
71,491
| 71,149
|
5726dffd708984140094d45f
|
generic
|
Edward Hallett Carr, a frequent defender of Soviet policy, stated: "In return for 'non-intervention' Stalin secured a breathing space of immunity from German attack."[page needed] According to Carr, the "bastion" created by means of the Pact, "was and could only be, a line of defense against potential German attack."[page needed] According to Carr, an important advantage was that "if Soviet Russia had eventually to fight Hitler, the Western Powers would already be involved."[page needed] However, during the last decades, this view has been disputed. Historian Werner Maser stated that "the claim that the Soviet Union was at the time threatened by Hitler, as Stalin supposed ... is a legend, to whose creators Stalin himself belonged. In Maser's view, "neither Germany nor Japan were in a situation [of] invading the USSR even with the least perspective [sic] of success," and this could not have been unknown to Stalin. Carr further stated that, for a long time, the primary motive of Stalin's sudden change of course was assumed to be the fear of German aggressive intentions.
|
The pact according to Edward Carr’s view was to provide what between Germany and the Soviet Union?
|
{'text': 'a line of defense against', 'answer_start': 267}
|
111,864
| 111,522
|
5ad0d418645df0001a2d05d7
|
generic
|
The Premier League has the highest revenue of any football league in the world, with total club revenues of €2.48 billion in 2009–10. In 2013–14, due to improved television revenues and cost controls, the Premier League had net profits in excess of £78 million, exceeding all other football leagues. In 2010 the Premier League was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category for its outstanding contribution to international trade and the value it brings to English football and the United Kingdom's broadcasting industry.
|
Which Award is presented for outstanding contribution to national trade?
|
{'text': "Queen's Award for Enterprise", 'answer_start': 343}
|
1,196
| 854
|
56d1d4d3e7d4791d00902276
|
generic
|
In October 1810, six months after Fryderyk's birth, the family moved to Warsaw, where his father acquired a post teaching French at the Warsaw Lyceum, then housed in the Saxon Palace. Fryderyk lived with his family in the Palace grounds. The father played the flute and violin; the mother played the piano and gave lessons to boys in the boarding house that the Chopins kept. Chopin was of slight build, and even in early childhood was prone to illnesses.
|
What language did Chopin's father teach?
|
{'text': 'French', 'answer_start': 122}
|
59,836
| 59,494
|
57265a725951b619008f7064
|
generic
|
The Thuringian Realm existed until 531 and later, the Landgraviate of Thuringia was the largest state in the region, persisting between 1131 and 1247. Afterwards there was no state named Thuringia, nevertheless the term commonly described the region between the Harz mountains in the north, the Weiße Elster river in the east, the Franconian Forest in the south and the Werra river in the west. After the Treaty of Leipzig, Thuringia had its own dynasty again, the Ernestine Wettins. Their various lands formed the Free State of Thuringia, founded in 1920, together with some other small principalities. The Prussian territories around Erfurt, Mühlhausen and Nordhausen joined Thuringia in 1945.
|
Which dynasty formed after the Treaty of Leipzig?
|
{'text': 'the Ernestine Wettins', 'answer_start': 461}
|
69,209
| 68,867
|
5a45a2c619a820001a1edacc
|
generic
|
Public and private sector employment has, for the most part, been able to offer more for their employees than most nonprofit agencies throughout history. Either in the form of higher wages, more comprehensive benefit packages, or less tedious work, the public and private sector has enjoyed an advantage in attracting employees over NPOs. Traditionally, the NPO has attracted mission-driven individuals who want to assist their chosen cause. Compounding the issue is that some NPOs do not operate in a manner similar to most businesses, or only seasonally. This leads many young and driven employees to forego NPOs in favor of more stable employment. Today however, Nonprofit organizations are adopting methods used by their competitors and finding new means to retain their employees and attract the best of the newly minted workforce.
|
What kind of employee does the private sector attract?
|
{'text': 'mission-driven individuals who want to assist their chosen cause', 'answer_start': 376}
|
126,895
| 126,553
|
5732a13acc179a14009daba4
|
generic
|
Colquhoun's utilitarian approach to the problem – using a cost-benefit argument to obtain support from businesses standing to benefit – allowed him to achieve what Henry and John Fielding failed for their Bow Street detectives. Unlike the stipendiary system at Bow Street, the river police were full-time, salaried officers prohibited from taking private fees. His other contribution was the concept of preventive policing; his police were to act as a highly visible deterrent to crime by their permanent presence on the Thames. Colquhoun's innovations were a critical development leading up to Robert Peel's "new" police three decades later.
|
Who started the Bow Street detectives?
|
{'text': 'Henry and John Fielding', 'answer_start': 164}
|
96,182
| 95,840
|
5729f3c6af94a219006aa6e7
|
generic
|
Sunlight is also captured by plants as chemical potential energy in photosynthesis, when carbon dioxide and water (two low-energy compounds) are converted into the high-energy compounds carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins. Plants also release oxygen during photosynthesis, which is utilized by living organisms as an electron acceptor, to release the energy of carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins. Release of the energy stored during photosynthesis as heat or light may be triggered suddenly by a spark, in a forest fire, or it may be made available more slowly for animal or human metabolism, when these molecules are ingested, and catabolism is triggered by enzyme action.
|
What is also captured by plants as chemical potential energy in photosynthesis?
|
{'text': 'Sunlight', 'answer_start': 0}
|
117,919
| 117,577
|
5731106ee6313a140071cbda
|
generic
|
A traditional sport played in Tuvalu is kilikiti, which is similar to cricket. A popular sport specific to Tuvalu is Ano, which is played with two round balls of 12 cm (5 in) diameter. Ano is a localised version of volleyball, in which the two hard balls made from pandanus leaves are volleyed at great speed with the team members trying to stop the Ano hitting the ground. Traditional sports in the late 19th century were foot racing, lance throwing, quarterstaff fencing and wrestling, although the Christian missionaries disapproved of these activities.
|
What is the Tuvalu version of volley ball?
|
{'text': 'Ano', 'answer_start': 185}
|
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