TASK DEFINITION: Given a context passage, generate a question from the passage such that its answer is shortest continous span from the passage.
PROBLEM: Mercury is released into the atmosphere when coal is burned (Figure 1.1). But breathing the mercury is not harmful. In the atmosphere, the mercury forms small droplets that are deposited in water or sediments. Do you know why you are supposed to eat large predatory fish like tuna infrequently? It is because of the bioaccu- mulation of mercury in those species. Some pollutants remain in an organism throughout its life, a phenomenon called bioaccumulation. In this process, an organism accumulates the entire amount of a toxic compound that it consumes over its lifetime. Not all substances bioaccumulate. Can you name one that does not? Aspirin does not bioaccumulate; if it did, a person would quickly accumulate a toxic amount in her body. Compounds that bioaccumulate are usually stored in the organisms fat. In the sediments, bacteria convert the droplets to the hazardous compound methyl mercury. Bacteria and plankton store all of the mercury from all of the seawater they ingest (Figure 1.2). A small fish that eats bacteria and plankton accumulates all of the mercury from all of the tiny creatures it eats over its lifetime. A big fish accumulates all of the mercury from all of the small fish it eats over its lifetime. For a tuna at the top of the food chain, thats a lot of mercury. Historic increases of mercury in the atmo- sphere: blue is volcanic eruptions; brown, purple, and pink are human-caused. The red region shows the effect of industrial- ization on atmospheric mercury. So tuna pose a health hazard to anything that eats them because their bodies are so high in mercury. This is why the government recommends limits on the amount of tuna that people eat. Limiting intake of large predatory fish is especially important for children and pregnant women. If the mercury just stayed in a persons fat, it would not be harmful, but that fat is used when a woman is pregnant or nursing a baby. A person will also get the mercury into her system when she (or he) burns the fat while losing weight. Methyl mercury poisoning can cause nervous system or brain damage, especially in infants and children. Children may experience brain damage or developmental delays. The phrase mad as a hatter was common when Lewis Carroll wrote his Alice in Wonderland stories. It was based on symptoms suffered by hatters who were exposed to mercury and experienced mercury poisoning while using the metal to make hats (Figure 1.3). Like mercury, other metals and VOCS can bioaccumulate, causing harm to animals and people high on the food chain. Mercury, a potent neurotoxin, has been flowing into the San Francisco Bay since the Gold Rush Era. It has settled in the bays mud and made its way up the food chain, endangering wildlife and making many fish unsafe to eat. Now a multi-billion-dollar plan aims to clean it up. Click image to the left or use the URL below. URL:

SOLUTION: mercury poisoning can drive a person to be as mad as a hatter, which is based off of this novel.

PROBLEM: In the mean time, Maha Nawrahta opened the southern front on 23 October 1765 in three directions. He had 20,000 to 30,000 under his command. A small army invaded by the Three Pagodas Pass towards Suphanburi. Another small army invaded down the Tenasserim coast towards Mergui and Tenasserim town. However, the main thrust of his attack was at Kanchanaburi. His 20,000-strong main southern army invaded via the Myitta Pass. Kanchanaburi fell with little resistance. The main reason for the quick fall of Kanchanaburi could be that the Burmese were more battle-hardened. But it could also be that the Siamese command miscalculated where the Burmese main attack would come from, and had not sufficiently reinforced the fort to withstand a major attack. Judging by the Siamese chronicles' reporting of the main attack route, the Siamese command appeared to have believed that the main Burmese attack would come from the Gulf of Siam coastline, instead of the most obvious and shortest route via Kanchanaburi. The Siamese sources say that Maha Nawrahta's main invasion route came from southern Tenasserim, crossing the Tenasserim range at Chumphon and Phetburi. The path is totally different from the Kanchanaburi route reported by the Burmese chronicles. Historian Kyaw Thet specifically adds that the main attack route was via the Myitta Pass.

SOLUTION: How many Maha Nawrahta opened the southern front?

PROBLEM: Epidemiology of Clostridium difficile is characterized by worldwide increase of C. difficile infections (CDI) and the emergence of new epidemic outbreak strains with the capacity for global spreading. Long-term local surveillance at the University of Saarland Medical Center between 2000 and 2013 shows that the incidence rate of laboratory-confirmed CDI was influenced by local epidemiology as well as by testing strategies. Since 2008, molecular typing of C. difficile was regularly performed for symptomatic hospitalized patients by surface-layer protein A sequence typing (slpAST), which is an established highly standardized technique for genotyping of C. difficile. The results were assigned to known ribotypes for better comparison to international data. It could be demonstrated that distribution of genotypes was different between age groups. Older patients were predominantly infected with ribotype 001 and 027, whereas ribotype 027 was not detected in the pediatric population. Molecular typing of German isolates sent to the advisory laboratory between 2011 and 2013 revealed that ribotype 027 is present with high percentages in most German regions except for the very North. In conclusion, optimized testing of all hospitalized patients with diarrhea should be generally implemented to avoid under-diagnosis of C. difficile infection. Ribotype 027 is highly prevalent in Germany, but its infections are restricted to older patients, while absent in children. Molecular typing of suspected hospital outbreaks and of patients with severe or recurrent disease may help to better understand virulence and epidemic spreading of C. difficile.

SOLUTION:
Which main ribotype of Clostridium difficile is responsible of the recent outbreak?