Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are disproportionately affected by diet-related disease such as type 2 diabetes, the rate of which is 20 fold higher than that of non-Indigenous young Australians(1). Before colonisation, Gomeroi and other First Nations people harvested, threshed and ground native grass seeds with water into a paste before cooking(2). The introduction of white refined flour has meant that time-consuming grass seed processing has mainly ceased, and native grains are no longer eaten habitually. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of 10% incorporation of two native grain flours on postprandial blood glucose response and Glycemic Index (GI). Five male and five female subjects, with a mean age of 30 ± 0.9 and BMI of 21.6 ± 0.4 and normoglycemic, participated in GI testing of three flour + water pancake compositions matched for available carbohydrate: 100% wheat (Wheat) and 90% wheat:10% native grains (Native_a and Native_b). Effect on satiety was determined using subjective ratings of hunger/fullness over the time course of the GI testing. In comparison to the plain flour pancake, replacing 10% plain wheat flour with Native_b flour significantly reduced the GI by 28.8% from 73 ± 5 to 48 ± 5, having a profound effect on postprandial blood glucose levels in 9 of 10 subjects (p<0.05, paired t-test). The GI of 10% Native_a flour pancake was not different from 100% wheat flour pancake (75 ± 5). Satiety tended to be greater when native grains were incorporated but this study was not powered to detect effect on satiety. In conclusion, replacing only 10% of plain wheat flour with Native_b flour was sufficient to significantly reduce the blood glycemic response to the pancake. This replacement could be easily implemented for prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes. For Aboriginal people with access to grain Country, the nutritional health benefits associated with eating native grains, as well as the cultural benefits of caring for Country, will have a direct transformational impact on local communities. Our vision is to revitalise Gomeroi grains and to guide a sustainable Indigenous-led industry to heal Country and people through co-designed research.

A finite sequence of open sets L1 L2, … , Ln is called a linear chain if each Li intersects only the L's adjacent to it in the sequence. The finite sequence is a circular chain if we also insist that the first and last links intersect each other. The 1-skeleton of the covering is an arc for a linear chain and a simple closed curve for a linear chain.

A compact metric continuum X is called snake-like if for each ∈ > 0, X can be covered by a linear chain of mesh less than ∈. Likewise, X is called circle-like if for each ∈ > 0, X can be irreducibly covered with a circular chain of mesh less than ∈. This definition is more restrictive than that given in (3, p. 210) for there a pseudo-arc is not circle-like but here it is. The present usage is in keeping with definitions of Burgess.

One of the unsolved problems of plane topology is the following:

Question. What are the homogeneous bounded plane continua?

A search for the answer has been punctuated by some erroneous results. For a history of the problem see (6).

The following examples of bounded homogeneous plane continua are known : a point; a simple closed curve; a pseudo arc (2, 12); and a circle of pseudo arcs (6). Are there others?

The only one of the above examples that contains an arc is a simple closed curve. In this paper we show that there are no other such examples. We list some previous results that point in this direction. Mazurkiewicz showed (11) that the simple closed curve is the only non-degenerate homogeneous bounded plane continuum that is locally connected. Cohen showed (8) that the simple closed curve is the only homogeneous bounded plane continuum that contains a simple closed curve.

A single valued function D(x, y) is a metric for a topological space provided that for points x, y, z of the space:

1. D(x, y) ≽ 0, the equality holding if and only if x = y,

2. D(x, y) = D(y, x) (symmetry),

3. D(x, y) + D(y, z) ≽ D(x, z) (triangle inequality),

4. x belongs to the closure of the set M if and only if D(x, m) (m element of M) is not bounded from 0 (preserves limit points).