1. Shared but Threatened: The Heritage of Wild Food Plant Gathering among Different Linguistic and Religious Groups in the Ishkoman and Yasin Valleys, North Pakistan
Muhammad Abdul Aziz, Arshad Mehmood Abbasi, Zahid Ullah, Andrea Pieroni Foods. 2020 May 8;9(5):601. doi: 10.3390/foods9050601.
A wild food ethnobotanical field study was conducted in the Ishkoman and Yasin valleys, located in the Hindukush Mountain Range of Gilgit-Baltistan, northern Pakistan. These valleys are inhabited by diverse, often marginalized, linguistic and religious groups. The field survey was conducted via one hundred and eighty semistructured interviews to record data in nine villages. Forty gathered wild food botanical and mycological taxa were recorded and identified. Comparative analysis among the different linguistic and religious groups revealed that the gathered wild food plants were homogenously used. This may be attributed to the sociocultural context of the study area, where most of the population professes the Ismaili Shia Islamic faith, and to the historical stratifications of different populations along the centuries, which may have determined complex adaptation processes and exchange of possibly distinct pre-existing food customs. A few wild plants had very rarely or never been previously reported as food resources in Pakistan, including Artemisia annua, Hedysarum falconeri, Iris hookeriana, Lepidium didymium and Saussurea lappa. Additionally, the recorded local knowledge is under threat and we analyzed possible factors that have caused this change. The recorded biocultural heritage could, however, represent a crucial driver, if properly revitalized, for assuring the food security of the local communities and also for further developing ecotourism and associated sustainable gastronomic initiatives in the area.
3. Calibrating different sounds for sound therapy: A general guide
N A Amirullah, S Rahmat, A A A Dzulkarnain, N Maamor, M K A Jamaludin, M Z Che Azemin Med J Malaysia. 2022 Jan;77(1):12-19.
Introduction: Sound therapy is one of the complementary or alternative interventions for various populations. The intensity of the sounds for sound therapy needs to be properly calibrated to ensure their accuracy and effectiveness. This paper aims to provide a general guideline for calibrating sound files using free software, specifically Audacity®. Materials and methods: Six sounds (broadband noise, rain, ocean, waterfall, Quranic chapters Al-Fatihah, and Yasin recitations) were calibrated at the intensity levels of 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, and 80dBA. The sounds were delivered through a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones connected to the Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro sound card. The long-term average of the sound pressure level over the time of recording (LAseq) was recorded using the 3M SoundPro Class 1 1/3 Octave RTA sound level meter (SLM). The desired intensity levels were obtained by making adjustments to the sound files via the Audacity® software. Results: All sound files were calibrated at the targeted levels as verified by the value of LAseq. Conclusions: Calibration of audio files can be done using a free/open-source software, as all six sound files were successfully calibrated at the targeted levels of 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, and 80dBA. The calibration steps provided in this paper can be easily applied by other researchers for similar purposes, with precautions when calibrating at low levels.
