The interaction of helminth infections with type 2 diabetes (T2D) has been a major area of research in the past few years. This paper, therefore, focuses on the systematic review of the effects of helminthic infections on metabolism and immune regulation related to T2D, with mechanisms through which both direct and indirect effects are mediated. Specifically, the possible therapeutic role of helminths in T2D management, probably mediated through the modulation of host metabolic pathways and immune responses, is of special interest. This paper discusses the current possibilities for translating helminth therapy from basic laboratory research to clinical application, as well as existing and future challenges. Although preliminary studies suggest the potential for helminth therapy for T2D patients, their safety and efficacy still need to be confirmed by larger-scale clinical studies.

Discretionary foods that are energy-dense and nutrient-poor contribute to over one third of total energy intake in Australian children and adults, and the typical portion sizes of many discretionary foods have increased significantly in the last two decades(1). The portion size norms (described as a typical perception of how much of a given food people choose to eat at a single eating occasion) are likely to have increased concurrently, with larger sizes now being considered the new normal(2). Public health interventions are urgently needed to reduce the portion size norms and consumption of discretionary foods(3), but the acceptability of such interventions remains unknown. Therefore, this qualitative study aimed to gain insights into consumers’ attitudes towards potential interventions targeted at promoting portion control of discretionary foods. Four online focus group sessions were conducted via Zoom with healthy Australian adults who regularly consume discretionary foods. A question guide was developed to gather participants’ perspectives around four potential public health interventions; reduction of the default serving sizes, increasing serving size options, changes to package sizes, and improving serving size labelling. A female facilitator moderated all focus groups, with a second moderator present to capture other relevant details. Collected data were analysed using a hybrid approach combining deductive and inductive thematic analyses. A total of 35 participants completed the study (19 females, mean age 38 ± 14 years). Participants identified the current food environment as promoting overconsumption; larger serving sizes were reported to be more ubiquitous and better value for money than smaller size options. An overall positive attitude towards the proposed interventions was noted. Out of the four proposed interventions, participants considered the most acceptable intervention to be providing a wider range of serving size options while maintaining a consistent unit price. Other acceptable interventions included reducing the default serving sizes with concurrent price reduction; education and clear guidance around portion size selection (for example, the involvement of health professionals to promote portion control, along with relevant recommendations of appropriate portion sizes from health authorities); more practical on-pack serving size suggestions; and innovative package designs that enable better portion control without contributing to food and plastic waste. In conclusion, participants identified a need for and were in support of interventions aimed at the portion control of discretionary foods. Further research should focus on examining the feasibility and effectiveness of the potential interventions to reduce the purchasing and consumption of large serving sizes. More efforts from public health authorities are required to develop practical and tailored recommendations for consumers around appropriate portion sizes for discretionary foods. Collaboration with the food industry and policy makers is also necessary for implementing public health interventions to reduce the excessive intake of discretionary foods.

I would like to start with by defining what I mean by “Greater China.” It is a term used commonly in economics and investment communities around the world. It includes mainland China (hereafter China), Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan (Singapore, given its sizable Chinese community, is often included), despite the uneasiness of some Taiwanese scholars about the concept. At a cultural level, “greater China” corresponds with the term “cultural China,” coined by Tu Wei-ming during the 1990s when he spoke about the revival of Confucianism in the postwar period, arguing that instead of an impediment, Confucian values and ideals actually paved the way for the advance of economic expansion in many East Asian countries and regions. This economic expansion continued subsequently powered by globalization. Here, I offer a brief survey of the differing interests in, and engagements with, the study of globalization and global history in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. I argue that in the face of globalization, each of these regions developed distinct strategies to perceive and interpret its multifaceted impact. Thus, though I use the term “Greater China,” I intend to emphasize the very different approaches to the regional and the global in the case of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Manned lunar landers must ensure astronaut safety while enhancing payload capacity. Due to traditional landers being weak in high-impact energy absorb and heavy payload capacity, a Starship-type manned lunar lander is proposed in this paper. Firstly, a comprehensive analysis was conducted on the traditional cantilever beam cushioning mechanism for manned lander. Subsequently, a 26-ton manned lander and its landing mechanism were designed, and a rigid-flexible coupling dynamic analysis was performed on the compression process of the primary and auxiliary legs. Secondly, the landing performance of the proposed Starship-type manned lunar lander was compared with the traditional 14-ton manned lander in multiple landing conditions. The results indicate that under normal conditions, the largest acceleration of the proposed 26-ton Starship-type manned lander decreases more than 13.1%. It enables a significant increase in payload capacity while mitigating impact loads under various landing conditions.

Motivated by recent developments of quasi-stationary Monte Carlo methods, we investigate the stability of quasi-stationary distributions of killed Markov processes under perturbations of the generator. We first consider a general bounded self-adjoint perturbation operator, and then study a particular unbounded perturbation corresponding to truncation of the killing rate. In both scenarios, we quantify the difference between eigenfunctions of the smallest eigenvalue of the perturbed and unperturbed generators in a Hilbert space norm. As a consequence, $\mathcal{L}^1$-norm estimates of the difference of the resulting quasi-stationary distributions in terms of the perturbation are provided.

There has been substantial interest in developing Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms based on piecewise deterministic Markov processes. However, existing algorithms can only be used if the target distribution of interest is differentiable everywhere. The key to adapting these algorithms so that they can sample from densities with discontinuities is to define appropriate dynamics for the process when it hits a discontinuity. We present a simple condition for the transition of the process at a discontinuity which can be used to extend any existing sampler for smooth densities, and give specific choices for this transition which work with popular algorithms such as the bouncy particle sampler, the coordinate sampler, and the zigzag process. Our theoretical results extend and make rigorous arguments that have been presented previously, for instance constructing samplers for continuous densities restricted to a bounded domain, and we present a version of the zigzag process that can work in such a scenario. Our novel approach to deriving the invariant distribution of a piecewise deterministic Markov process with boundaries may be of independent interest.

Autonomous fabric manipulation is a challenging task due to complex dynamics and potential self-occlusion during fabric handling. An intuitive method of fabric-folding manipulation first involves obtaining a smooth and unfolded fabric configuration before the folding process begins. However, the combination of quasi-static actions like pick & place and dynamic action like fling proves inadequate in effectively unfolding long-sleeved T-shirts with sleeves mostly tucked inside the garment. To address this limitation, this paper introduces an enhanced quasi-static action called pick & drag, specifically designed to handle this type of fabric configuration. Additionally, an efficient dual-arm manipulation system is designed in this paper, which combines quasi-static (including pick & place and pick & drag) and dynamic fling actions to flexibly manipulate fabrics into unfolded and smooth configurations. Subsequently, once it is confirmed that the fabric is sufficiently unfolded and all fabric keypoints are detected, the keypoint-based heuristic folding algorithm is employed for the fabric-folding process. To address the scarcity of publicly available keypoint detection datasets for real fabric, we gathered images of various fabric configurations and types in real scenes to create a comprehensive keypoint dataset for fabric folding. This dataset aims to enhance the success rate of keypoint detection. Moreover, we evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed system in real-world settings, where it consistently and reliably unfolds and folds various types of fabrics, including challenging situations such as long-sleeved T-shirts with most parts of sleeves tucked inside the garment. Specifically, our method achieves a coverage rate of 0.822 and a success rate of 0.88 for long-sleeved T-shirts folding. Supplemental materials and dataset are available on our project webpage at https://sites.google.com/view/fabricfolding.

Due to the environmental problems derived from the use of common surfactants as modifiers for clay mineral adsorbents to mitigate mycotoxin contamination of animal feeds, finding non-toxic modifiers to prepare safe and efficient adsorbents is necessary. The objective of the present study was, therefore, to modify acidified palygorskite with polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB) to obtain antibacterial polyhexamethylene biguanide/palygorskite (PHMB/Plg) composites for the removal of zearalenone, a common mycotoxin. The PHMB/Plg composites were characterized and analyzed by X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and isothermal nitrogen adsorption analysis. The adsorption properties of the composites with respect to zearalenone and their antibacterial activity with respect to Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were studied. The results indicated that the hydrophobicity of palygorskite was enhanced after modification with PHMB, which could effectively improve the adsorption property of palygorskite toward the nonpolar zearalenone molecules. The adsorption capacity of PHMB/Plg increased with increasing amounts of polyhexamethylene biguanide and increasing pH. The adsorption data were described well by pseudo-second order kinetics and by the Langmuir adsorption model. The maximum adsorption capacity was 2777 μg/g. When the amount of PHMB added increased to 15 wt.%, the composites obtained exhibited good antibacterial performance, and the minimum inhibitory concentrations for Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were both at 2.5 mg/mL.

Brick-red deposits with palygorskite (Pal) as the main ingredient are widely distributed in nature, but these have not been deployed at a large scale in industry because of their inherent deep colors. In the present study, the brick-red Pal deposit was treated hydrothermally in various reaction media including water, a urea solution, and a thiourea solution. The effects of these processes on the structure, physicochemical features, and color of Pal were studied intensively to understand the structure and composition of the brick-red Pal deposit and to lay a theoretical foundation for the extension of its industrial application. The changes in structural features after hydrothermal treatment were studied by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance, and Mössbauer spectroscopy techniques. The results indicated that the color of brick-red Pal did not change after hydrothermal treatment in water or in a urea solution, and the color changed to gray-white after treatment in the thiourea solution. The rod-like crystal morphology of Pal was retained throughout the experiments and no significant change in the main associated minerals, including feldspar, muscovite, and quartz, was observed after hydrothermal treatment. The dissolution of associated hematite (α-Fe2O3 and the reduction of Fe(III) species are the main reason for the change of Pal from brick-red to gray-white.

The poor environmental stability of natural anthocyanin hinders its usefulness in various functional applications. The objectives of the present study were to enhance the environmental stability of anthocyanin extracted from Lycium ruthenicum by mixing it with montmorillonite to form an organic/inorganic hybrid pigment, and then to synthesize allochroic biodegradable composite films by incorporating the hybrid pigment into sodium alginate and test them for potential applications in food testing and packaging. The results of X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and use of the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method and zeta potential demonstrated that anthocyanin was both adsorbed on the surface and intercalated into the interlayer of montmorillonite via host–guest interaction, and the hybrid pigments obtained allowed good, reversible, acid/base behavior after exposure to HCl and NH3 atmospheres. The composite films containing hybrid pigments had good mechanical properties due to the uniform dispersion of the pigments in a sodium alginate substrate and the formation of hydrogen bonds between them. Interestingly, the composite films also exhibited reversible acidichromism. The as-prepared hybrid pigments in composite films could, therefore, serve simultaneously as a reinforced material and as a smart coloring agent for a polymer substrate.

This article focuses on the luggage trolley transportation problem, an essential part of robotic autonomous luggage trolley collection. To efficiently address the nonholonomic constraints derived from the formation of two collaborative robots and a queue of luggage trolleys, we propose a comprehensive framework consisting of a global planning method and a real-time divide-and-conquer control strategy. The popular Hybrid A* algorithm generates a feasible path as the global planner. A model predictive controller is designed to track this path stably and in real time. To maintain the formation so that the whole queue of robots and luggage trolleys does not split, a safety filter that consists of a discrete-time control Lyapunov function and a decentralized control barrier function is implemented in the transportation process. Finally, we conduct real-world experiments to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method on three representative paths, and the results show that our approach can achieve robust performance. The demonstration video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPiT8BfLIpU.