The stellar occultation technique is a powerful tool to study distant small solar system bodies. Currently, around 2 500 trans-neptunian objects (TNOs) and Centaurs are known. With the astrometry from Gaia and large surveys like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), accurate predictions of occultation events will be available to tens of thousands of TNOs and Centaurs and boost the knowledge of the outer solar system.

Meals are an important source of food intake, contributing to body weight and health status. Previous studies have examined the relationship between isolated mealtime behaviours and the metabolic syndrome (MetS). The aim of this study was to examine the influence over time of ten interrelated mealtime habits on the risk of developing the MetS and insulin resistance (IR) among Mexican adults. We conducted a prospective cohort study with a sample of 956 health workers. The Mealtime Habits Quality (MHQ) scale is based on four mealtime situations (availability of time to eat, distractions while eating, environmental and social context of eating, and familiar or cultural eating habits), which were used to assess the participants’ MHQ at the baseline (2004–2006) and follow-up (2010–2012) evaluations. The MetS was assessed using criteria from the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III) and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). IR was defined using the homoeostasis model assessment. Crude and adjusted relative risks were calculated to estimate the relationship between MHQ and the risk of developing the MetS or IR. Participants classified in the lower MHQ category had an 8·8 (95 % CI 3·1, 25) and 11·1 (95 % CI 3·4, 36·1) times greater risk of developing the MetS (using the NCEP-ATP III and IDF criteria, respectively), and an 11·2 times (95 % CI 3·9, 31·5) greater likelihood of developing IR, compared with those in the higher MHQ group. This prospective study reveals that individuals who engaged in more undesirable than recommended mealtime behaviours had a >10-fold risk of developing the MetS or IR.

The Dark Energy Survey is undertaking an observational programme imaging 1/4 of the southern hemisphere sky with unprecedented photometric accuracy. In the process of observing millions of faint stars and galaxies to constrain the parameters of the dark energy equation of state, the Dark Energy Survey will obtain pre-discovery images of the regions surrounding an estimated 100 gamma-ray bursts over 5 yr. Once gamma-ray bursts are detected by, e.g., the Swift satellite, the DES data will be extremely useful for follow-up observations by the transient astronomy community. We describe a recently-commissioned suite of software that listens continuously for automated notices of gamma-ray burst activity, collates information from archival DES data, and disseminates relevant data products back to the community in near-real-time. Of particular importance are the opportunities that non-public DES data provide for relative photometry of the optical counterparts of gamma-ray bursts, as well as for identifying key characteristics (e.g., photometric redshifts) of potential gamma-ray burst host galaxies. We provide the functional details of the DESAlert software, and its data products, and we show sample results from the application of DESAlert to numerous previously detected gamma-ray bursts, including the possible identification of several heretofore unknown gamma-ray burst hosts.

Boiling is the most common method of household water treatment in developing countries; however, it is not always effectively practised. We conducted a randomized controlled trial among 210 households to assess the effectiveness of water pasteurization and safe-storage interventions in reducing Escherichia coli contamination of household drinking water in a water-boiling population in rural Peru. Households were randomized to receive either a safe-storage container or a safe-storage container plus water pasteurization indicator or to a control group. During a 13-week follow-up period, households that received a safe-storage container and water pasteurization indicator did not have a significantly different prevalence of stored drinking-water contamination relative to the control group [prevalence ratio (PR) 1·18, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0·92–1·52]. Similarly, receipt of a safe-storage container alone had no effect on prevalence of contamination (PR 1·02, 95% CI 0·79–1·31). Although use of water pasteurization indicators and locally available storage containers did not increase the safety of household drinking water in this study, future research could illuminate factors that facilitate the effective use of these interventions to improve water quality and reduce the risk of waterborne disease in populations that boil drinking water.

In a 1-year survey at a university hospital we found that 20·6% (81/392) of patients with antibiotic associated diarrohea where positive for C. difficile. The most common PCR ribotypes were 012 (14·8%), 027 (12·3%), 046 (12·3%) and 014/020 (9·9). The incidence rate was 2·6 cases of C. difficile infection for every 1000 outpatients.

POLICAN is a near-infrared (J, H, K) imaging polarimeter developed for the Cananea near infrared camera (CANICA) at the 2.1m telescope of the Guillermo Haro Astrophysical Observatory (OAGH) located at Cananea, Sonora, México. The camera has a 1024 x 1024 HgCdTe detector (HAWAII array) with a plate scale of 0.32 arcsec/pixel providing a field of view of 5.5 x 5.5 arcmin. POLICAN is mounted externally to CANICA for narrow-field (f/12) linear polarimetric observations. It consists of a rotating super achromatic (1-2.7μm) half waveplate and a fixed wire-grid polarizer as the analyzer. The light is modulated by setting the half waveplate at different angles (0○, 22.5○, 45○, 67.5○) and linear combinations of the Stokes parameters (I, Q and U) are obtained. Image reduction and removal of instrumental polarization consist of dark noise subtraction, polarimetric flat fielding and background sky subtraction. Polarimetric calibration is performed by observing polarization standards available in the literature. The astrometry correction is performed by matching common stars with the Two Micron All Sky Survey. POLICAN's bright and limiting magnitudes are approximately 6th and 16th magnitude, which correspond to saturation and photon noise, respectively. POLICAN currently achieves a polarimetric accuracy about 3.0% and polarization angle uncertainties within 3○. Preliminary observations of star forming regions are being carried out in order to study their magnetic field properties.

The study of the evolution of organic matter subjected to space conditions, and more specifically to Solar photons in the vacuum ultraviolet range (120–200 nm) has been undertaken in low-Earth orbit since the 1990s, and implemented on various space platforms. This paper describes a photochemistry experiment called AMINO, conducted during 22 months between 2009 and 2011 on the EXPOSE-R ESA facility, outside the International Space Station. Samples with relevance to astrobiology (connected to comets, carbonaceous meteorites and micrometeorites, the atmosphere of Titan and RNA world hypothesis) have been selected and exposed to space environment. They have been analysed after return to the Earth. This paper is not discussing the results of the experiment, but rather gives a general overview of the project, the details of the hardware used, its configuration and recent developments to enable long-duration exposure of gaseous samples in tight closed cells enabling for the first time to derive quantitative results from gaseous phase samples exposed in space.

We carried out 7 mm VLA observations at very high angular resolution that reveal substructure and evidence of planet formation in the disk of HD 169142. Our observations, along with near-infrared polarimetric imaging, show that this disk has a ring of enhanced, asymmetric emission at a radius of ~25 AU from the central star. This ring, whose inner region appears devoid of emission, is surrounded by an annular gap in surface density in the ~30-70 AU range of radii. Several mechanisms have been invoked in the literature to explain this kind of gaps and cavities. Among them, one of the most interesting is the possibility that one or more planets in formation are creating these cavities. Since our 7 mm observations show a compact source lying in the 30-70 AU gap, we speculate that this compact source could be tracing dust emission associated with a possible protoplanet. We model the broad-band spectral energy distribution of the disk and we infer its physical structure. From this modeling we infer the presence of a small (r ~ 0.7 AU) disk inside the central cavity, suggesting that the HD 169142 disk is in the pre-transitional disk phase.

We report here on the coupling of a gas reactor with a VUV beamline at the SOLEIL synchrotron radiation facility. The reactor may be irradiated window-less with gas pressure up to the atmosphere. The photochemistry is monitored by a mass spectrometer gas analyzer. This set up, termed APSIS for Atmospheric Photochemistry SImulated by Synchrotron, has been used to simulate the atmosphere of Titan and to study the formation of the photochemical smog and the formation of tholins.

Since the first description of Marteilia refringens (Paramyxea) in flat oysters Ostrea edulis in 1968 in the Aber Wrach, Brittany (France), the life-cycle of this parasite has remained unknown. However, recent studies, conducted in the ‘claire’ system, have proposed the planktonic copepod Acartia grani as a potential intermediate host for the parasite. Nevertheless, experimental transmission of the parasite through the copepod has failed. Recent studies in this field have reported the presence of the parasite in zooplankton from the bays of the Delta de l'Ebre, a more complex and natural estuarine environment than that of the claire. As a result, 2 new Marteilia host species were proposed: the copepods Oithona sp. (Cyclopoida) and an indeterminate Harpaticoida. Consequently, the objective of the present work was to study the dynamics of Marteilia in the zooplankton community from one of the bays, Alfacs Bay, as well as the dynamics of the parasite in cultivated mussels during 1 complete year. Six different zooplankton taxa appeared to be parasitized by M. refringens, including copepods (3 Calanoida, Acartia discaudata, A. clausi and A. italica; 1 Cyclopoida, Oithona sp.; and 1 Harpacticoida, Euterpina acutifrons), and larval stages of decapod crustaceans (zoea larvae of Brachyura, probably Portumnus sp.). These taxa are thus proposed as new subjects for study, since they could be intermediate hosts in the infection process of mussels by Marteilia.

About 45 000 absolute and semi-absolute observations of right ascension of the FK4 stars were obtained during 1963–1972. The observations were made with the three instruments of the Cerro Calán Observatory jointly by Chilean and Soviet astronomers. As a result, systematic δαδ cosδ errors were found to exist in the FK4 catalogue. For the reduction of star observations according to the SRS program, it is necessary to derive the system of the δα corrections for the FK4.