Mushrooms are known as the elixirs of life, they are packed with various bioactive compounds that make them not only tasty but also healthy. Thus, they not just fall within the category of nutritional foods, but also functional foods. When medicinal bioactive components are sought after from every other available resource, these natural reservoirs are easily accessible therapeutic sources. Of the various bioactive that mushrooms have to offer, β-glucans are the most enriching. β-glucans are available in other sources as well, but their relative abundance is higher in mushrooms. Amidst the cascade of biological benefits from β-glucans, anti-inflammatory benefits are highly promising. In this present review, the anti-inflammatory properties of mushroom β-glucans have been discussed and its specific contributions against inflammatory bowel disease have been reviewed. What is known regarding the modulus operandi of β-glucans against inflammatory bowel disease has been summarized and the gaps and lapses in the current understanding highlighted. This is the first state-of-the-art review that presents a comprehensive executive summary and discussion in this subject area.
Tobacco control policy audacity can make radical ideas seem possible, and set in motion a 'domino' effect, where precedents in one jurisdiction are followed by others. This review examines tobacco control policy audacity from seven countries to identify and compare factors that facilitated it. A targeted search strategy and purposive sampling approach was used to identify information from a range of sources and analyse key supportive factors for policy audacity. Each case was summarised, then key themes identified and compared across jurisdictions to identify similarities and differences. Included cases were Mauritius' ban on tobacco industry corporate social responsibility, Uruguay's tobacco single brand presentation regulations, New Zealand's Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan proposals and 2010 parliamentary Māori Affairs Select Committee Inquiry into the Tobacco Industry, Australia's plain packaging legislation, Balanga City's (Philippines) tobacco-free generation ordinance, Beverly Hills City Council's (USA) ordinance to ban tobacco sales and the Netherlands' policy plan to phase out online and supermarket tobacco sales. Each case was one strategy within a well-established comprehensive tobacco control and public health approach. Intersectoral and multijurisdiction collaboration, community engagement and public support, a strong theoretical evidence base and lessons learnt from previous tobacco control policies were important supportive factors, as was public support to ensure low political risk for policy makers. Tobacco control policy audacity is usually an extension of existing measures and typically appears as 'the next logical step' and therefore within the risk appetite of policy makers in settings where it occurs.
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Runs of Homozygosity (RoHs) are popular among geneticists as the footprint of demographic processes, evolutionary forces and inbreeding in shaping our genome, and are known to confer risk of Mendelian and complex diseases. Notwithstanding growing interest in their study, there is unmet need for reliable and rapid methods for genomic analyses in large data sets. AUDACITY is a tool integrating novel RoH detection algorithm and autozygosity prediction score for prioritization of mutation-surrounding regions. It processes data in VCF file format, and outperforms existing methods in identifying RoHs of any size. Simulations and analysis of real exomes/genomes show its potential to foster future RoH studies in medical and population genomics.
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This study explored how community resilience and resistance manifest in the experiences of trans and gender diverse (TGD) people engaging in activism in a medium-sized Brazilian town. It aimed to understand how TGD activists navigate political violence and identify elements of community resilience and resistance within their activist work. We employed a qualitative participatory approach, centering the lived experiences of TGD activists. We collaborated and conducted semistructured interviews with six TGD activists. The study was theoretically informed by Liberation Psychology and the multisystemic resilience framework. Data were analyzed using a reflexive thematic analysis, enriched by an intersectional lens. The analysis generated three interrelated themes, each encompassing multiple strengths and relational resources. Pride captured expressions of identity pride, community connectedness, and aesthetic audacity. Pleasure combined accounts of gender euphoria, cultural engagement, and experiencing trans bodies as sources of political resistance. Purpose illuminated how meaning-making practices were shaped by serving future generations and awareness of intersecting oppressions. Activism is often incorporated by activists as a meaning-making framework. It can contribute to addressing psychosocial trauma by fostering the development of psychosocial strengths, such as pride, a sense of purpose, and experiences of pleasure validated within community contexts. These findings have implications for research, practice, and policymaking, underscoring the role of community engagement in well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
The global health landscape is undergoing a significant transformation as traditional frameworks of cooperation face fragmentation amid geopolitical tensions. Declining support from Western nations, exemplified by US withdrawal from the World Health Organization and cuts to programs like the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, has exposed the profound instability of an aid architecture built on colonial dependencies. The COVID-19 pandemic, marked by vaccine nationalism, was a stark litmus test of this systemic failure for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This commentary argues that the current geopolitical fragmentation, while a crisis, also presents a critical opportunity to dismantle colonial legacies and reimagine global health equity not as a donor-driven ideal, but as a practice of shared power and sovereignty. We first document the rise of alternative pathways, critically examining China's health diplomacy and India's pharmaceutical disruption, while highlighting robust, LMIC-led initiatives like the African Medicines Agency and local mRNA vaccine production in Rwanda and Thailand. In response to the fractured status quo, we then propose a new global health compact built on four interdependent pillars: (i) Epistemic Justice, valuing local knowledge systems; (ii) Structural Audacity in Financing, such as taxing multinational corporations for reparative funding; (iii) Governance for Agency, ceding decisive power to LMICs; and (iv) Open Knowledge and Innovation, by dismantling restrictive intellectual property regimes. Achieving this decolonized future requires concrete action from all stakeholders. We conclude with a blueprint urging high-income countries to cede power, LMICs to invest in local capacity, funders to provide untied financing, and researchers to practise equitable collaboration. This actionable agenda is the foundation for a truly equitable global health system capable of achieving Universal Health Coverage.
This study, using an embedded mixed-methods design, investigated how technology-assisted consciousness-raising training (CRT) optimizes prosodic processing in L2 speech. Specifically, we examined whether CRT targeting thought-group prosody enhances intelligibility, comprehensibility, fluency, and accentedness in pre-service English teachers' oral discourse. Drawing on Baddeley's (2012) working memory model, Levelt's (1999) perceptual loop theory, and Zimmerman's (2000) self-regulated learning (SRL) framework, the study explored the underlying cognitive and metacognitive mechanisms of prosodic learning. Sixty-four participants (30 experimental, 34 control) completed 11 weeks of training and pre-post tasks. The experimental group received visual feedback via Audacity, which externalized pitch contours and pause patterns after each recording, allowing learners to reflect and adjust their performance before reattempting. This visual scaffolding, while not acoustically analyzed in the study, may have alleviated working memory demands through dual coding, providing a plausible explanation for the observed gains. Pre-post evaluations based on expert rater judgments revealed significant improvements for the experimental group across all four dimensions, with the largest gains in fluency and comprehensibility. Interaction effects showed distinct performance trajectories compared to the control group, which demonstrated smaller, practice-based gains. Semi-structured interviews corroborated these findings, revealing increased confidence, reduced anxiety, and heightened metacognitive awareness. Notably, participants consistently underestimated their accentedness relative to external ratings, reflecting common SRL challenges in self-assessment. These findings suggest that technology-assisted CRT facilitates systematic adjustments in prosodic organization and may reduce-or be perceived by learners as reducing-self-monitoring burdens. Furthermore, CRT bridges top-down and bottom-up approaches by combining visual feedback (bottom-up) with goal-oriented prosodic automatization (top-down). The study demonstrates CRT's potential to enhance both linguistic performance and learner autonomy. Future research could incorporate direct acoustic measures, active placebo controls, and spontaneous speech tasks to further examine the underlying mechanisms and improve ecological validity.
To understand the experiences of early women urology residents at a single institution, as told in their own words. A convenience sample of women residents who trained at the Brady Urological Institute between 1980 and 2022 was chosen. During the investigated period, 15 women trained at the Brady; all 15 were invited to participate. Participants were provided written consent and assured of anonymity. In semi-structured interviews guided by a set of IRB-approved questions, participants discussed personal backgrounds, medical school experiences, and residency experiences. Participants provided advice to future women in urology. Interviews were recorded with Audacity 3.0.5 or Zoom, and audio files were transcribed using NVivo 14.23.0. A total of 10 interviews were conducted between July 2023 and February 2024. Childhood role models influenced many participants' initial interest in medicine, although most discovered urology during medical school. Participants valued the quality of training, mentorship opportunities, proximity to family, and program ethos when selecting a residency program. During residency, participants faced gender-specific challenges due to patient resistance and difficulties balancing professional and personal commitments. Despite these challenges, participants expressed optimism about the future of women in urology. This study provides insights into the professional development of women urology residents. The participants were part of an early cohort of women in urology and expressed excitement for the future of the field. While the study reflects the experiences of women at just one institution, it provides a foundation for more comprehensive research on women's experiences in urology and in medicine more broadly. Not applicable.
Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy represents a promising addition to palliative care interventions, potentially improving quality of life by addressing existential distress. Despite its safety and effectiveness, this therapy remains limited in Canada, underscoring the need for improved access to ease suffering from life-threatening illnesses. However, important questions remain regarding how to integrate psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy into existing health care frameworks, navigate regulatory challenges, and ensure equitable access for all patients. These unanswered questions highlight the complexity of expanding access and the need for thoughtful, informed approaches to its implementation. To address this, the P3A team (Psilocybin at End of Life: Audacity, Acceptability, Access) held a forum on March 22, 2024, in Quebec, Canada, to explore actionable steps for the responsible use and equitable access to psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy. A total of 57 participants with knowledge in palliative care, including professional and patient associations, patients, health care professionals, researchers, and policymakers, attended the event, which featured presentations, a panel discussion, and small-group workshops. This report provides 16 recommendations across six previously identified key topics: (1) patient eligibility and equity, (2) regulatory framework and respect for autonomy, (3) logistical and organizational aspects, (4) professional education and training, (5) public awareness and information, and (6) research. The elements and recommendations discussed in this article could offer valuable insights for expanding access to psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in other jurisdictions, particularly in global contexts where similar barriers to care exist.
To evaluate the immediate effect of the inspiratory exercise with a booster and a respiratory exerciser on the voice of women without vocal complaints. 25 women with no vocal complaints, between 18 and 34 years old, with a score of 1 on the Vocal Disorder Screening Index (ITDV) participated. Data collection was performed before and after performing the inspiratory exercise and consisted of recording the sustained vowel /a/, connected speech and maximum phonatory times (MPT) of vowels, fricative phonemes and counting numbers. In the auditory-perceptual judgment, the Vocal Deviation Scale (VSD) was used to verify the general degree of vocal deviation. Acoustic evaluation was performed using the PRAAT software and the parameters fundamental frequency (f0), jitter, shimmer, harmonium-to-noise ratio (HNR), Cepstral Peak Prominence Smoothed (CPPS), Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) and Acoustic Breathiness Index (ABI). To measure the aerodynamic measurements, the time of each emission was extracted in the Audacity program. Data were statistically analyzed using the Statistica for Windows software and normality was tested using the Shapiro-Wilk test. To compare the results, Student's and Wilcoxon's t tests were applied, adopting a significance level of 5%. There were no significant differences between the results of the JPA and the acoustic measures, in the pre and post inspiratory exercise moments. As for the aerodynamic measures, it was possible to observe a significant increase in the value of the TMF /s/ (p=0.008). There was no change in vocal quality after the inspiratory exercise with stimulator and respiratory exerciser, but an increase in the MPT of the phoneme /s/ was observed after the exercise. Avaliar o efeito imediato do exercício inspiratório com incentivador e exercitador respiratório na voz de mulheres sem queixas vocais. Participaram 25 mulheres sem queixas vocais, entre 18 e 34 anos, com pontuação 1 no Índice de Triagem para Distúrbio Vocal (ITDV). A coleta de dados foi realizada nos momentos antes e após realização de exercício inspiratório e consistiu na gravação de vogal sustentada /a/, fala encadeada e tempos máximos fonatórios (TMF) de vogais, fonemas fricativos e contagem de números. No julgamento perceptivo-auditivo foi utilizada a Escala de Desvio Vocal (EDV) para verificar o grau geral do desvio vocal. Avaliação acústica foi feita no software PRAAT e foram extraídos os parâmetros frequência fundamental (f0), jitter, shimmer, proporção harmônico -ruído (HNR), Cepstral Peak Prominence Smoothed (CPPS), Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) e Acoustic Breathiness Index (ABI). Para mensuração das medidas aerodinâmicas, o tempo de emissão foi extraído no programa Audacity. Para comparar os resultados utilizou-se o teste paramétrico t de Student para amostras dependentes na análise das variáveis com distribuição normal e o teste de Wilcoxon para variáveis com distribuição não normal. Não houve diferenças entre os resultados do JPA e das medidas acústicas, nos momentos pré e pós exercício inspiratório. Quanto às medidas aerodinâmicas foi possível observar aumento significativo no valor do TMF /s/ (p=0,008). Não houve modificação na qualidade vocal após o exercício inspiratório com incentivador e exercitador respiratório, porém foi observado aumento do TMF do fonema /s/ após a realização do exercício. Avaliar o efeito imediato do exercício inspiratório com incentivador e exercitador respiratório na voz de mulheres sem queixas vocais. Participaram 25 mulheres sem queixas vocais, entre 18 e 34 anos, com pontuação 1 no Índice de Triagem para Distúrbio Vocal (ITDV). A coleta de dados foi realizada nos momentos antes e após realização de exercício inspiratório e consistiu na gravação de vogal sustentada /a/, fala encadeada e tempos máximos fonatórios (TMF) de vogais, fonemas fricativos e contagem de números. No julgamento perceptivo-auditivo foi utilizada a Escala de Desvio Vocal (EDV) para verificar o grau geral do desvio vocal. Avaliação acústica foi feita no software PRAAT e foram extraídos os parâmetros frequência fundamental (f0), jitter, shimmer, proporção harmônico -ruído (HNR), Cepstral Peak Prominence Smoothed (CPPS), Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) e Acoustic Breathiness Index (ABI). Para mensuração das medidas aerodinâmicas, o tempo de emissão foi extraído no programa Audacity. Para comparar os resultados utilizou-se o teste paramétrico t de Student para amostras dependentes na análise das variáveis com distribuição normal e o teste de Wilcoxon para variáveis com distribuição não normal. Não houve diferenças entre os resultados do JPA e das medidas acústicas, nos momentos pré e pós exercício inspiratório. Quanto às medidas aerodinâmicas foi possível observar aumento significativo no valor do TMF /s/ (p=0,008). Não houve modificação na qualidade vocal após o exercício inspiratório com incentivador e exercitador respiratório, porém foi observado aumento do TMF do fonema /s/ após a realização do exercício.
Bimaxillary orthognathic double chin surgery is performed for therapeutic purposes in patients with occlusion disorders due to dentofacial deformity. We aimed to show the effect of this procedure on sound acoustics. The study was planned as retrospective and cross-sectional. Information about patients who applied to our center due to developmental malocclusion between 2018 and 2020 was examined. A total of 26 patients, 13 males and 13 females, who underwent orthognathic double jaw surgery after orthodontic treatment, were included in the study. Vowel (/a/,/e/,/i/,/ı/,/o/,/ö/,/u/,/ü/) recordings of the patients were analyzed before the surgery and at the 6th month after the surgery. Sound recordings were taken with the Audacity program (Open Source Software). The recordings were analyzed with the Praat acoustic analysis program. Before and after surgery for each letter; Fundamental frequency, Shimmer, Jitter and Harmony Noise Ratios were examined. Measurements taken before and after surgery were compared. A decrease in fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer and harmony noise values was detected. This can be interpreted as an increase in sound quality. A statistically significant change was detected in at least two parameters for each letter. Orthognathic double chin surgery performed due to dentofacial deformity provides an increase in the pronunciation of vowels and voice quality. To increase the reliability of the result, acoustic analysis was performed with multiple parameters.
Prosody is a key area of linguistics that explores tonal and rhythmic variations in speech. In tonal languages such as Yemba, prosody plays a crucial role in distinguishing between words with different meanings or different grammatical forms. However, despite the large number of native speakers of this language in Cameroon, there are few resources for the speech recognition and synthesis. In this article, we present YembaTones, a syllabic and tonal annotated dataset, created from a dictionary we designed of 344 Yemba/French words coming from the most common phrases of the language, grouped according to their spellings that only differ by the tone. The dataset was originally designed for training and evaluating tone detection models for tonal and low resource languages. The recordings of the pronunciation of these words were made with 11 native speakers of Yemba, mainly specialists in linguistics with a good command of the sounds of the language. The recordings were made with a dictaphone in different places such as the homes of the speakers, the campuses and their workplaces. Then they have been cleaned and segmented into individual audio files corresponding to the pronunciations of isolated words, using the software Audacity. After cleaning and segmentation, we selected 3420 good quality audio files for annotation. Annotations were made at the syllabic and tonal level using Praat software. YembaTones is a valuable resource not only for the training and evaluation of automatic tone detection models but also for automatic speech recognition, speech synthesis of tonal and poorly endowed languages, as well as for the study of prosody and Yemba phonetics, research in speech acoustics and phonetic linguistics.
As the number of coronavirus diseases-2019 (COVID-19) cases have decreased and measures have started to be implemented at an individual level rather than in the form of social restrictions, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) still maintains its importance and has already taken its place in the spectrum of agents investigated in multiplex molecular test panels for respiratory tract infections in routine diagnostic use. In this study, we aimed to present mutation analysis and clade distribution of whole genome sequences from randomly selected samples that tested positive with SARS-CoV-2 specific real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) test at different periods of the pandemic in our laboratory with a commercial easy-to-use kit designed for next-generation sequencing systems. A total of 84 nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swab samples of COVID-19 suspected patients which were sent for routine diagnosis to the medical microbiology laboratory and detected as SARSCoV-2 RNA positive with rRT-PCR were randomly selected from different periods for sequence analysis. Library preparation for sequencing was performed with the commerical EasySeq SARS-CoV-2 RC PCR kit (Nimagen, the Netherlands). The data generated from the Illumina MiSeq system (Illumina Inc, San Diego, CA, USA) were analysed using CLC Genomics Workbench (CLC, Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). Nextstrain clades detected in order of frequency were 21J (Delta) (25%, n= 21), 21L (Omicron) (23.8%, n= 20), 20B (19%, n= 16), 20A (15.5%, n= 13), 21K (Omicron) (11.9%, n= 10), 19A (3.6%, n= 3), and 22B (Omicron) (1.2%, n= 1). Excluding one patient sample which was identified as 22B (Omicron), a total of 2829 common distinct mutations (2076 missense, 551 synonymous, 192 deletions and 10 insertions) were detected. 100 mutations were observed in the non-coding 5' untranslated region (UTR). The majority of the mutations were located in the Spike gene region (1120 mutations), followed by the ORF1a (624 mutations), nucleocapside (315 mutations) and ORF1b (263 mutations) gene regions. Sampling times of the patients were March 2020 (n= 1), April 2020 (n= 11), May 2020 (n= 1), June 2020 (n= 2), July 2020 (n= 3), August 2020 (n= 1), September 2020 (n= 5), November 2020 (n= 2), December 2020 (n= 6), December 2021 (n= 19), January 2022 (n= 11), March 2022 (n= 16), April 2022 (n= 3), and June 2022 (n= 3). As a result, in this study, SARS-CoV-2 variants and mutations in the Mediterranean Region of Türkiye, Antalya province were analyzed in detail. To the best of our knowledge, no SARS-CoV-2 genome analysis study from the pandemic period has been reported in our province. When the sequences from our study were uploaded to the GISAID Instant Audacity system and the related genomes obtained from different countries in the EpiCoV database metadata were examined, the top two countries in terms of similarity and which could be associated with the main entry route of the virus into Türkiye were Germany and the United Kingdom. In today's world, where it is discussed what can be done to be prepared for possible new pandemics based on the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of being proactive in molecular surveillance studies is indisputable. Developing countries should be supported and encouraged to research new variants and share data in addition to known variants in pandemic control. At this point, we believe that past pandemic data reported from different geographical regions will also be valuable in terms of predicting the circulation network and taking precautions in a possible new pandemic.
Voice is a one of media for human communication and interaction. Emotions conveyed through voice, such as laughter or tears, can communicate messages more quickly than spoken or written language. In sentiment analysis, the emotional component is crucial for reflecting human perceptions and opinions. This paper introduces IndoWaveSentiment, a dataset of emotional voice recordings categorized into five classes: neutral, happy, surprised, disgusted, and disappointed. The data collection took place in a recording studio with ten actors, evenly split between men and women. Each actor repeated the same sentence in Bahasa Indonesia three times for each emotion class, and the recordings were saved in .wav format. The annotation process was manually conducted using Audacity and validated through a questionnaire-based sampling technique that supports audio data. This dataset is valuable for researchers in Signal Processing and Artificial Intelligence, aiding the development of classification models within Machine Learning.
A case study was used to determine which acoustic parameters would be sensitive to a SOVT-based vocal warm-up over the duration of a standard voice treatment. The longitudinal research design consisted of repeated voice measures during 7 weeks from a single subject, a 48-year-old male occupational voice user with a history of voice disorders. A steady phonation and running speech tasks were performed before and after an intensive 1-minute water-resistance voice exercise (WRT). Acoustic assessment of the pre-and postrecordings from each session was obtained with freely accessible software (e.g., Audacity, PRAAT) and acoustic measures (e.g., fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, alpha ratio, NHR, HNR, L1L0, Cepstral Peak Prominence smoothed). After WRT, the analysis indicated that jitter, shimmer, and NHR had a small but statistically significant decrease, while alpha ratio, CPPS, and HNR had a statistically significant increase. For the days where there were six repetitions, there was a larger effect in the later repetitions in the day for some metrics (i.e., alpha ratio, shimmer, NHR, CPPS), while others had the biggest effect in the first two repetitions in a day (i.e., jitter, HNR). A short vocal water-resistance voice task had a positive effect on the short-term acoustic voice metrics after each repetition of the exercise, independent of the number of repetitions throughout the day. When five repetitions of this exercise routine occurred, there was a more substantial influence on the proportion of acoustic voice changes.
Room reverberation can affect oral/aural communication and is especially critical in computer analysis of voice. High levels of reverberation can distort voice recordings, impacting the accuracy of quantifying voice production quality and vocal health evaluations. This study quantifies the impact of additive simulated reverberation on otherwise clean voice recordings as reflected in voice metrics commonly used for voice quality evaluation. From a larger database of voice recordings collected in a low-noise, low-reverberation environment, voice samples of a sustained [a:] vowel produced at two different speaker intents (comfortable and clear) by five healthy voice college-age female native English speakers were used. Using the reverb effect in Audacity, eight reverberation situations indicating a range of reverberation times (T20 between 0.004 and 1.82 s) were simulated and convolved with the original recordings. All voice samples, both original and reverberation-affected, were analyzed using freely available PRAAT software (version 6.0.13) to calculate five common voice parameters: jitter, shimmer, harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR), alpha ratio, and smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPs). Statistical analyses assessed the sensitivity and variations in voice metrics to a range of simulated room reverberation conditions. Results showed that jitter, HNR, and alpha ratio were stable at simulated reverberation times below T20 of 1 s, with HNR and jitter more stable in the clear vocal style. Shimmer was highly sensitive even at T20 of 0.53 s, which would reflect a common room, while CPPs remained stable across all simulated reverberation conditions. Understanding the sensitivity and stability of these voice metrics to a range of room acoustics effects allows for targeted use of certain metrics even in less controlled environments, enabling selective application of stable measures like CPPs and cautious interpretation of shimmer, ensuring more reliable and accurate voice assessments.