Multiple haploids, triploids, and tetraploids found in modern-day "living fossil" Ginkgo biloba

Ginkgo biloba, the last extant representative of a lineage of Mesozoic gymnosperms, is one of the few seed plants with an exceptionally long (~300 Myr) evolutionary history free of genome-wide duplications (polyploidy). Despite this genome conservatism, we have recently found a viable spontaneous tetraploid Ginkgo sapling during routine screening of several plants, demonstrating that natural polyploidy is possible in Ginkgo. Here we provide a much wider flow cytometry survey of ploidy in some European Ginkgo collections, and own seedlings (>2200 individuals and ~200 cultivars). We found a surprisingly high level of ploidy variation in modern-day Ginkgo and documented altogether 13 haploid, 3 triploid, and 10 tetraploid Ginkgo plants or cultivars, most of them being morphologically distinct from common diploids. Haploids frequently produced polyploid (dihaploid) buds or branches. Tetraploids showed some genome size variation. The surveyed plants provide a unique resource for future Ginkgo research and breeding, and they might be used to accelerate the modern diversification of this nearly extinct plant lineage.

[Women as the target group of social policies regarding aging: equal treatment, equal opportunity, equal risk?]

Specialized gerontological discourse may promote misinterpretations of characteristic problems of old age as to their causes and effects. Existing quantitative relations tend to camouflage chances and risks; isolated analysis of old age does not make apparent the extent to which the elderly themselves share positions which ultimately lead to their relative neglect as a group in society. Equal opportunity for women seems bound to developments towards a market organization of service supply and demand for service and support, up to now widely informal or exchanged well below market value, with women as the main service providers as well as service recipients.

[Violence against the elderly in the family context--a topic in research, practice and public information]

Elder abuse within the family context is an issue that is beginning to be taken up in the Federal Republic of Germany due to the reception of English and American research literature. Since relevant research in the United States relies on information available within the established system of mandatory reporting of incidences of elder abuse, research designs are not transposable. Development of applicable research designs, however, can be based on certain findings, such as the bias to be expected by selection of specific spheres of experience, due to the choice of experts from within a limited number of relevant professions. Difficult problems have to be overcome in defining which active interventions are to be termed as abuse and which failures to intervene may be termed as neglect. In addition, great importance must be attached to procedures that confirm reported findings. A position is taken according to which ethics of research in this field do not allow for the prerogative of systematic gathering of information. Research endeavours must go hand in hand with active prevention of the risks of abuse and neglect or be of practical help in situations where negative action may take place and where help is needed, e.g. in difficult nursing situations within families. Under such pre-conditions, research designs are judged to be realistic in which professionals, in direct touch with families at risk, co-operate with research institutions in offering active support and at the same time systematically gathering relevant research data.

["Released" employees of the 6th decade--a new retirement generation. Report on central results of a meeting of experts on the topic]

More and more workers and employees leave their working places and renumerated employment for good from the age of 50 onwards - by way of acknowledged incapacity to continue work due to health reasons, unemployment, forced retirement after production plants have closed down and early retirement schemes. How retirement is experienced very much depends on the living conditions encountered and on the process of transition to retirement. Acceptancy of premature retirement is of central importance - as are the opportunities of influencing by one's own decisions the age of retirement, the predictability of this event and the chances of transition through a phase of gradual re-orientation. Differentiation between those with good and very good income levels and those with only minimal financial means is imperative. Negative outcomes of the latter situation may be a feeling of total hopelessness, frictions within the family, reduction of social contacts and of out-of-door activities--a tendency to hide away in shame. To be labelled as old in too early a phase in life is not acceptable. The social status attained tends to be unclearly defined with accompanying negative effects on the self-concept as well as on the image held by others.

[Models of gerontologic/geriatric education in West Germany and West European countries]

In the years 1978-1983, a total of 2200 students came into contact with Gerontology/Geriatrics in the course of their university education in the Federal Republic of Germany. The largest group is that of students in the field of Social Work/Pedagogy/Adult Education. The number of students of medicine who come into contact with Geriatrics/Gerontology is minimal as yet. Concepts of education have been furthest developed by the WHO. These concepts take into consideration the interdisciplinary character of the discipline and the necessity of a broad foundation of knowledge applied by the practicing geriatrician. However, only very few universities follow along these lines. As far as geriatrics is encompassed into the curricula of medicine, the teaching follows the concept of examplary learning, with due attention paid to the interdisciplinary character of the subject. Teaching primarily aims at sensitising the student. The most encompassing curricula in social gerontology are offered by the University of Nijmegen in its courses of Psychological Gerontology. In general, the subject tends to be treated at random and by no means systematically. Gerontological courses in the field of Social Work follow the concept of exemplary learning. It is in this field that the first broad post-graduate training is offered. Courses bearing the character of a studium generale are experimented with. In part, they address themselves to older students and practicing physicians as well as to other professions engaged in practical work for the elderly. The gerontologist/geriatrician with all-encompassing knowledge will not come into being. What can be aimed at is a specialist in his own field and right, equipped with qualified general knowledge in Gerontology/Geriatrics.

Gerontological research aiming at practical work and planning

This is an attempt at an overview of research findings related to practical outcomes as well as of the main problems of the elderly, of the institutions providing services, of the staff working in the field, as far as they are highlighted by research findings. It seems necessary to at least analyse in short conditions under which research takes place and influences that effect research interests and outlooks. We try to systematize by dealing with general information on the elderly and on services and institutions and by picking out some fields of problem oriented research in selected fields of interest, such as social inequality or health services including nursing care. Emerging new research interests are expounded in short.

[Social security for people in need of care -- proposals for the development and financing of aids for this group (author's transl)]

The article points out a serious deficiency in the social security system, i.e., that the old and infirm can only seldon obtain institutional care without calling on social assistance. It discusses possible solution of including the attendance allowances into the scope of social security benefits. The solutions are formulated in the amendment of the Association of German Cities and Towns (Deutscher Städtetag) to the insurance regulations of the earlier German Reich (Reichsversicherungsordnung). It is proposed that the Länder and communities as well as, to a small extent the Federal Government, assume the responsibility for investments, whereas the legal sickness insurance funds cover the costs for medical treatment and nursing and the patient pays an estimated rent value and the "hotel services".