The paper presents a novel control method aimed at enhancing the trajectory tracking accuracy of two-link mechanical systems, particularly nonlinear systems that incorporate uncertainties such as time-varying parameters and external disturbances. Leveraging the Udwadia–Kalaba equation, the algorithm employs the desired system trajectory as a servo constraint. First, the system’s constraints to construct its dynamic equation and apply generalized constraints from the constraint equation to an unconstrained system. Second, we design a robust approximate constraint tracking controller for manipulator control and establish its stability using Lyapunov’s law. Finally, we numerically simulate and experimentally validate the controller on a collaborative platform using model-based design methods.

Examination of plant microfossils (phytoliths and starch granules) preserved in dental calculus allows for the direct identification of some components of prehistoric diets. In this article, the authors present the results of microfossil analysis of dental calculus from wild and domestic animals at the Late Neolithic site of Kangjia in the Central Plains, an area critical in the emergence of early Chinese states. Consumption of cooked plant foods by domestic pigs and dogs, and of domestic crops by wild animals, at this site hints, the authors argue, at an interdependent relationship between animal management, agricultural production and ritual practices that contributed to the political transformations of Late Neolithic China.

This paper proposes a robust control approach to achieve high-precision trajectory tracking for permanent magnet linear motor (PMLM) system containing uncertainties by describing the dynamic model of PMLM based on the Udwadia-Kalaba equation combined with constraint-following method. First, the system of PMLM is described as a constraint-following system by adding the generalized constraint force to the unconstrained Udwadia-Kalaba equation of PMLM system. Second, the robust constraint-following controller is designed based on the proposed model after uncertainty analysis. Moreover, the proposed controller is verified to guarantee deterministic performance for uncertain systems: uniformly bounded and uniformly ultimately bounded. Third, the numerical simulation and experimental validation demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed controller. Finally, the design approach of constraint-following can be applied to other systems with uncertainties.

There is still controversy about optimal dietary iodine intake as the Universal Salt Iodization policy enforcement in China. A modified iodine balance study was thus conducted to explore the suitable iodine intake in Chinese adult males using the iodine overflow hypothesis. In this study, thirty-eight apparently healthy males (19·1 (sd 0·6) years) were recruited and provided with designed diets. After the 14-d iodine depletion, daily iodine intake gradually increased in the 30-d iodine supplementation, consisting of six stages and each of 5 d. All foods and excreta (urine, faeces) were collected to examine daily iodine intake, iodine excretion and the changes of iodine increment in relation to those values at stage 1. The dose–response associations of iodine intake increment with excretion increment were fitted by the mixed effects models, as well as with retention increment. Daily iodine intake and excretion were 16·3 and 54·3 μg/d at stage 1, and iodine intake increment increased from 11·2 μg/d at stage 2 to 118·0 μg/d at stage 6, while excretion increment elevated from 21·5 to 95·0 μg/d. A zero iodine balance was dynamically achieved as 48·0 μg/d of iodine intake. The estimated average requirement and recommended nutrient intake were severally 48·0 and 67·2 μg/d, which could be corresponded to a daily iodine intake of 0·74 and 1·04 μg/kg per d. The results of our study indicate that roughly half of current iodine intakes recommendation could be enough in Chinese adult males, which would be beneficial for the revision of dietary reference intakes.

In order to decrease the influence of system parameters and load on the dynamic performance of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) in cooperative robot joint modules, a practical model-based robust control method was proposed. It inherits the traditional proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control and robust control based on error and model-based control. We first set up the nominal controller using the dynamics model. In order to limit the influence of uncertainty on dynamic performance, a robust controller is established based on Lyapunov method. The control can be regarded as an improved PID control or a redesigned robust control. Compared with the traditional control method, it is simple to implement and has practical effects. It is proved by theoretical analysis that the controller can guarantee the uniform boundedness and uniform final boundedness of the system. In addition, the prototype of fast controller cSPACE is built on the experiment platform, which averts long-time programming and debugging. It offers immense convenience for practical operation. Finally, numerical simulation and real-time experiment results are presented. Based on cSPACE and a PMSM in the joint module of a practical cooperative robot, the availability of the control design and the achievable control performance are verified.

Widely distributed Mid-Neoproterozoic mafic rocks of the Qilian – Qaidam – East Kunlun region record the tectonic evolution of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. This study presents whole-rock geochemistry, zircon U–Pb geochronology and Hf isotopes for the Xialanuoer gabbros of the central South Qilian Belt (SQB). Zircon laser ablation – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) U–Pb dating indicates that the gabbros were emplaced at ca. 738 Ma, indicating they are contemporaneous with mafic magmatism elsewhere in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. The gabbros have low SiO2, Cr and Ni contents and Mg# values, are relatively enriched in light rare-earth elements (LREEs) and depleted in high-field-strength elements (HFSEs; e.g. Nb and Ta), have no positive Zr or Hf anomalies and have relatively high Nb/Ta but low Nb/La ratios. These data indicate that the Xialanuoer gabbros formed from calc-alkaline basaltic magmas that were originally generated by the partial melting of an enriched mantle of type-I (EMI-type) enriched region of the lithospheric mantle, underwent little to no crustal contamination prior to their emplacement, and have within-plate basalt geochemical affinities. Combining these data with the presence of widespread contemporaneous continental rift-related magmatism and sedimentation in the North Qilian, Central Qilian, South Qilian, Quanji, North Qaidam and East Kunlun regions suggests that the northeastern Tibetan Plateau underwent Mid-Neoproterozoic continental rifting, which also affected other Rodinian blocks (e.g. Tarim, South China, Australia, North America and Southern Africa).

Increasing women’s knowledge about maternal health is an important step towards empowering them and making them aware of their rights and health status, allowing them to seek appropriate health care. In Yemen, the ongoing conflict has hampered the delivery of health information to women in public health facilities. This study examined rural women’s knowledge of, and attitude towards, maternal and child health in Yemen and identified the factors associated with good maternal health knowledge. The study was conducted between August and November 2018. A sample of 400 women aged 15–49 years who had delivered in the 6 months prior to the survey were systematically selected from selected public health facilities in Abyan and Lahj. Women were interviewed using a structured questionnaire to gather data on their demographic and economic characteristics, obstetric history and responses to health knowledge and attitude questions. Women’s knowledge level was assessed as poor or good using the mean score as a cut-off. Chi-squared test and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to identify statistically significant factors associated with good maternal health knowledge. The percentage of women who had good knowledge was 44.8% (95% CI: 39.8–49.8). Women’s attitude towards maternal health was negative in the areas of early ANC attendance, managing dietary regime and weight during pregnancy, facility delivery, PNC visits, cord care and mother and child health management. Women with primary education, whose husbands had received no formal education, who had their first ANC visit from the second trimester of pregnancy and who had fewer than four ANC visits were more likely to have poor health knowledge. Conversely, those with higher household income and only one child were more likely to have good maternal health knowledge. Overall, women’s knowledge on maternal and child health care in rural areas of Yemen was low. Strategies are needed to increase rural women’s knowledge on maternal and child health in this conflict-affected setting.

A compact four-element ultra-wideband (UWB) multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) antenna with dual polarization and dual-notched capabilities was developed and fabricated. The MIMO antenna is composed of four orthogonally placed half-cutting UWB antenna elements. This orthogonal placement improves the isolation. Furthermore, an L-shaped slot and a continuous bending slot are etched to realize the band-rejection function in the WiMAX and WLAN bands. The result shows that the antenna achieved operating bands of 2.9–16.5 GHz (140.2%, S11 < −10 dB), fully covering the UWB (3.1–10.6 GHz). The port isolation is greater than 23 dB in the frequency band of interest, excluding two rejected bands. Moreover, the MIMO antenna has excellent diversity performance, such as a low envelope correlation coefficient (<0.004), high diversity gain (approximately 10 dB), and good omnidirectional radiation characteristics.

It was reported that about 10% of people suffer from painful knee arthritis, and a quarter of them were severely disabled. The core activities of daily living were severely limited by knee osteoarthritis (KOA). In order to reduce knee pain and prolong the life of the knee joint, there has been an increasing demand on the development of exoskeletons, for prevention and treatment. The course of KOA was closely related to the biomechanics of knee joint, and the pathogenesis was summarized based on the biomechanics of knee joint. For the prevention and clinical treatment, exoskeletons are classified into three categories: prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation after the operation. Furthermore, the design concepts, actuators, sensors, control strategies, and evaluation criteria were presented. Finally, the shortcomings and limitations were summarized. It is useful for researchers to develop suitable exoskeletons in the future.

Data on average iodine requirements for the Chinese population are limited following implementation of long-term universal salt iodisation. We explored the minimum iodine requirements of young adults in China using a balance experiment and the ‘iodine overflow’ hypothesis proposed by our team. Sixty healthy young adults were enrolled to consume a sequential experimental diet containing low, medium and high levels of iodine (about 20, 40 and 60 μg/d, respectively). Each dose was consumed for 4 d, and daily iodine intake, excretion and retention were assessed. All participants were in negative iodine balance throughout the study. Iodine intake, excretion and retention differed among the three iodine levels (P < 0·01 for all groups). The zero-iodine balance derived from a random effect model indicated a mean iodine intake of 102 μg/d, but poor correlation coefficients between observed and predicted iodine excretion (r 0·538 for μg/d data) and retention (r 0·304 for μg/d data). As iodine intake increased from medium to high, all of the increased iodine was excreted (‘overflow’) through urine and faeces by males, and 89·5 % was excreted by females. Although the high iodine level (63·4 μg/d) might be adequate in males, the corresponding level of 61·6 μg/d in females did not meet optimal requirements. Our findings indicate that a daily iodine intake of approximately half the current recommended nutrient intake (120 μg/d) may satisfy the minimum iodine requirements of young male adults in China, while a similar level is insufficient for females based on the ‘iodine overflow’ hypothesis.

Let φ : ℝn × [0, ∞) → [0, ∞) satisfy that φ(x, · ), for any given x ∈ ℝn, is an Orlicz function and φ( · , t) is a Muckenhoupt A∞ weight uniformly in t ∈ (0, ∞). The (weak) Musielak–Orlicz Hardy space Hφ(ℝn) (WHφ(ℝn)) generalizes both the weighted (weak) Hardy space and the (weak) Orlicz Hardy space and hence has wide generality. In this paper, two boundedness criteria for both linear operators and positive sublinear operators from Hφ(ℝn) to Hφ(ℝn) or from Hφ(ℝn) to WHφ(ℝn) are obtained. As applications, we establish the boundedness of Bochner–Riesz means from Hφ(ℝn) to Hφ(ℝn), or from Hφ(ℝn) to WHφ(ℝn) in the critical case. These results are new even when φ(x, t): = Φ(t) for all (x, t) ∈ ℝn × [0, ∞), where Φ is an Orlicz function.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological disorder, which could be caused by traumatic events. The prevalence of PTSD among survivors after a typhoon or hurricane varied widely. Therefore, this study aimed to determine a combined prevalence of PTSD among survivors after a typhoon or hurricane. A systematic search of literature was performed in the 3 English databases: PubMed (National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD), ISI Web of Science (Thomson Reuters, New York, NY), and Embase (Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands). Also, a similar search was performed in the 2 Chinese databases such as Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure and WanFang. Loney et al.’s criteria were used to evaluate the quality of the selected articles for this study. The combined prevalence of PTSD among the study population was estimated using the Freeman–Tukey double arcsine transformation method. Subgroup analyses and a meta-regression analysis were carried out to explore the origin of heterogeneity. Thirty-nine eligible articles were included in this study. They comprised 43 123 typhoon and hurricane survivors of which 9373 were diagnosed with PTSD. The combined prevalence of PTSD among this population was 17.81%. Subgroup analyses revealed that the combined prevalence of PTSD related to typhoon and hurricane Categories 5, 4, and 2 showing a corresponding decreasing tendency. About 18% of people who experienced a severe typhoon or hurricane develop PTSD with the prevalence decreasing with reduced severity of the typhoon or hurricane.

In this work, the nitrogen-doped carbon materials (NCM) and nitrogen/sulfur codoped carbon materials (NSCM) were prepared using conventional benzoxazine (BOZ) and sulfur-containing benzoxazine as precursor and SBA-15 as template. The morphology, structure, and electrochemical performance of carbon materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, the X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption–desorption, cyclic voltammetry, and galvanostatic charge–discharge. The results show that the as-prepared carbon materials have ordered mesoporous structure, large specific surface area, and excellent electrochemical properties. The NSCM treated at 800 °C exhibit an extremely high specific capacitance of 550 F/g at the current density of 0.5 A/g in 0.5 mol H2SO4 electrolyte, which shows great improvement compared with NCM. The nitrogen/sulfur codoping is suggested to be a very effective method to improve the performance of carbon materials, and the NSCM should be a promising candidate as electrode materials for supercapacitors.