Background. Speech changes occur in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and cause communication difficulties, leading to social isolation. Lee Silverman voice treatment (LSVT) is a speech therapy approach designed to improve patients’ language and voice capabilities. Objective. The effectiveness of the LSVT was compared with that of other speech interventions or no treatment to evaluate PD patients with dysarthria. Design. Systematic review with meta-analysis of randomized trials. Data Sources: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, CNKI, and SinoMed library were searched from inception to December 2021 related to PD and LSVT. Method. Abstracts were screened and reviewed against the eligibility criteria (intervention group participants were PD assessed based on LSVT (LSVT Loud) and randomized control). Result. Ten randomized controlled trials were identified on speech symptoms in patients with PD. Compared with the respiratory therapy (RET) exercise, or no training group, a significant improvement was detected in the sound press level (SPL) after immediate treatment during the reading of vowel and rainbow passages and an increase in semitone standard deviation (STSD). Furthermore, the LSVT training significantly increased the participants’ scores on unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale (UPDRS-III) and speech intelligibility. Conclusion. This meta-analysis demonstrated the efficacy of LSVT in increasing vocal loudness and functional communication among individuals with PD. However, most studies included participants with mild-moderate PD. Thus, additional randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with large sample sizes are needed to validate the efficacy of LSVT in patients with different progressions of PD, including severe PD.

Isodon rubescens (Hemsley) H. Hara is the source of Donglingcao under the monograph Rabdosiae Rubescentis Herba in Chinese Pharmacopoeia. In the local marketplace, this medicine can be accidentally contaminated, deliberately substituted, or mixed with other related species. The contaminants of herbal products are a threat to consumer safety. Due to the scarcity of genetic information on Isodon plants, more molecular markers are needed to avoid misidentification. In the present study, the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of seven species of Isodon was sequenced, de novo assembled and characterized. The cp genomes of these species universally exhibited a conserved quadripartite structure, i.e., two inverted repeats (IRs) containing most of the ribosomal RNA genes and two unique regions (large single copy and small single copy). Moreover, the genome structure, codon usage, and repeat sequences were highly conserved and showed similarities among the seven species. Five highly variable regions (trnS-GCU-trnT-CGU, atpH-atpI, trnE-UUC-trnT-GGU, ndhC-trnM-CAU, and rps15-ycf1) might be potential molecular markers for identifying I. rubescens and its contaminants. These findings provide valuable information for further species identification, evolution, and phylogenetic research of Isodon.

Persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.) is an economically important tree with a long history of cultivation in China. So far, a total of approximately 1000 varieties have been found in China. To systematically evaluate the diversity of persimmon fruit quality, 22 quality measures of appearance, intrinsic, and sensory quality were evaluated using 61 typical persimmon fruit. According to the findings, the coefficient of variation (CV) of 15 appearance and intrinsic quality index values ranged from 13.81% (fruit shape index) to 165.80% (firmness), and the CV values of 7 intrinsic quality attributes were all higher than 50%, with the CV of total polyphenols and ironic soluble pectin contents (ISP) being as high as 159.82% and 143.80%, respectively. These findings showed that several persimmon germplasm resources had a highly diverse range of fruit quality, wide variation, and distribution. Insoluble tannin and soluble sugar were shown to have a substantial positive correlation with the sensory flavor indexes (p < 0.05), indicating their significance in influencing the flavor quality of persimmon fruit. Cluster analysis was performed utilizing 15 indexes of appearance, intrinsic quality, and 7 indexes of sensory quality. The samples were divided into two groups: group I consisted of 52 pollination−constant and astringent (PCA) and 1 pollination−-variant astringent (PVA) persimmon resources, and group II consisted of 6 pollination−constant non−astringent (PCNA) and 2 pollination−variant non−astringent (PVNA) persimmon resources. The results were consistent with the classification based on the mode of astringency loss, indicating that there was a significant difference in the quality of astringent and non−astringent persimmon fruit. This study provides theoretical references for the development and application of persimmon germplasm resources.