Given a complex manifold X and a smooth positive function $$\eta $$
η
thereon, we perturb the standard differential operator $$d=\partial + \bar{\partial }$$
d
=
∂
+
∂
¯
acting on differential forms to a first-order differential operator $$D_\eta $$
D
η
whose principal part is $$\eta \partial + \bar{\partial }$$
η
∂
+
∂
¯
. The role of the zero-th order part is to force the integrability property $$D_\eta ^2=0$$
D
η
2
=
0
that leads to a cohomology isomorphic to the de Rham cohomology of X, while the components of types $$(0,\,1)$$
(
0
,
1
)
and $$(1,\,0)$$
(
1
,
0
)
of $$D_\eta $$
D
η
induce cohomologies isomorphic to the Dolbeault and conjugate-Dolbeault cohomologies. We compute Bochner-Kodaira-Nakano-type formulae for the Laplacians induced by these operators and a given Hermitian metric on X. The computations throw up curvature-like operators of order one that can be made (semi-)positive under appropriate assumptions on the function $$\eta $$
η
. As applications, we obtain vanishing results for certain harmonic spaces on complete, non-compact, manifolds and for the Dolbeault cohomology of compact complex manifolds that carry certain types of functions $$\eta $$
η
. This study continues and generalises the one of the operators $$d_h=h\partial + \bar{\partial }$$
d
h
=
h
∂
+
∂
¯
that we introduced and investigated recently for a positive constant h that was then let to converge to 0 and, more generally, for constants $$h\in \mathbb {C}$$
h
∈
C
. The operators $$d_h$$
d
h
had, in turn, been adapted to complex structures from the well-known adiabatic limit construction for Riemannian foliations. Allowing now for possibly non-constant functions $$\eta $$
η
creates positivity in the curvature-like operator that stands one in good stead for various kinds of applications.