An integrated empirical and computational study to decipher help-seeking behaviors and vocal stigma.

Background: Professional voice users often experience stigma associated with voice disorders and are reluctant to seek medical help. This study deployed empirical and computational tools to (1) quantify the experience of vocal stigma and help-seeking behaviors in performers; and (2) predict their modulations with peer influences in social networks.

Methods: Experience of vocal stigma and information-motivation-behavioral (IMB) skills were prospectively profiled using online surveys from a total of 403 Canadians (200 singers and actors and 203 controls).

Negative feedback of cyclic di-GMP levels optimizes switching between sessile and motile lifestyles in .

The signaling molecule cyclic di-GMP (cdG) controls the switch between bacterial motility and biofilm production, and fluctuations in cellular levels of cdG have been implicated in pathogenesis. Intracellular concentrations of cdG are controlled by the interplay of diguanylate cyclase (DGC) enzymes, which synthesize cdG to promote biofilms, and phosphodiesterase (PDE) enzymes, which hydrolyse cdG to drive motility. To track the complete regulatory logic of how responds to changing cdG levels, we followed a timecourse of overexpression of either the diguanylate cyclase QrgB or a variant of QrgB lacking catalytic activity (QrgB*).

Tracking dynamic social impressions from multidimensional voice representation.

Recent research by Lavan et al. explores how individuals form complex impressions from voices. Using electroencephalography and behavioral measures, the study identifies distinct time courses for discerning traits, with early acoustic processing preceding higher-order perception.

Intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis selects for mutators in group B streptococci among persistently colonized patients.

Through vaginal colonization, GBS causes severe pregnancy outcomes including neonatal sepsis and meningitis. Although intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis (IAP) has reduced early-onset disease rates, persistent GBS colonization has been observed in patients following prophylaxis. To determine whether IAP selects for genomic signatures that enhance GBS survival and persistence in the vaginal tract, whole-genome sequencing was performed on 97 isolates from 58 patients before (prenatal) and after (postpartum) IAP/childbirth.