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The demand for healthy old-age care is growing rapidly in China. The traditional old-age care model can no longer meet elderly patients' demands for medical care and old-age care. To promote the development of medical care-integrated old-age care, a solution covering multiple aspects is necessary. In the context of the global development of healthy aging, China recently issued many policies to integrate old-age care with medical care, establishing protection for a large number of disabled elderly people. The Integrated Care of Older People (ICOPE) project is an international program developed by the World Health Organization. This paper reviews China's medical and old-age care integration model and the opportunities and challenges in implementing the ICOPE in the context of healthy aging in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Substance P (SP) is known to be involved in neuropathic pain, chronic inflammation, and tendinopathy. The present study evaluated the effects of different doses of SP on tendon-derived stem cells (TDSCs) in vitro and tendons in vivo. Methods: For the in vitro study, TDSCs cultured in growth medium with different concentrations of SP (negative control, 0.1 nM, and 1.0 nM). The effects of SP on TDSCs were examined with respect to their ability to proliferate and differentiate. For the in vivo study, we injected different doses of SP (saline control, 0.5 nmol, and 5.0 nmol) into rat patella tendons to investigate the effects of SP on tendons. Results: Low and high doses SP significantly enhanced the proliferation ability of TDSCs. Low-dose of SP induced the expression of tenocyte-related genes; however, high-dose of SP induced the expression of non-tenocyte genes, which was evident by the high expression of PPARγ and collagen type II. In the in vivo study, only high-doses of SP (5.0 nmol) induced the tendinosis-like changes in the patella tendon injection model. Low doses of SP (0.5 nmol) enhanced the tenogenesis compared with saline injection and the high-dose SP group. Conclusion: SP enhances the proliferation of TDSCs in vitro and the effects of SP on tendinopathy are dose-dependent in vivo.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although homoploid hybrid speciation in plants is probably more common than previously realized, there are few well-documented cases of homoploid hybrid origin in conifers. We examined genetic divergence between two currently widespread pines in Northeast China, Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica and Pinus densiflora, and also whether two narrowly distributed pines in the same region, Pinus funebris and Pinus takahasii, might have originated from the two widespread species by homoploid hybrid speciation. Our results, based on population genetic analysis of chloroplast (cp), mitochondrial (mt) DNA, and nuclear gene sequence variation, showed that the two widespread species were divergent for both cp- and mtDNA variation, and also for haplotype variation at two of eight nuclear gene loci surveyed. Our analysis further indicated that P. sylvestris var. mongolica and P. densiflora remained allopatric during the most severe Quaternary glacial period that occurred in Northeast China, but subsequently exhibited rapid range expansions. P. funebris and P. takahasii, were found to contain a mixture of chlorotypes and nuclear haplotypes that distinguish P. sylvestris var. mongolica and P. densiflora, in support of the hypothesis that they possibly originated via homoploid hybrid speciation following secondary contact and hybridization between P. sylvestris var. mongolica and P. densiflora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An incubation experiment was performed on Potamogeton crispus ( P. crispus) using sediment collected from Lake Tangxunhu in the center of China, in order to determine the effects of plant growth on Fe, Si, Cu, Zn, Mn, Mg, P, and Ca concentrations in the sediments and overlying waters. After 3 months of incubation, Ca, Mg, and Si concentrations in the water column were significantly lower, and P and Cu concentrations were significantly higher than in unplanted controls. The effect of P. crispus growth on sediment pore waters and water-extractable elements varied. Concentrations of Ca, Mg, Si, Fe, Cu, and Zn were significantly higher, and P was significantly lower, than in pore waters of the control. Water-extracted concentrations of Fe, Mg, and Si in the sediments were lower, and P was higher, than in the control. Presence of P. crispus generally enhanced concentration gradients of elements between pore waters and overlying waters but not for P. The growth of P. crispus was associated with an increase in water pH and formation of root plaques, resulting in complex effects on the sediment nutritional status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species of the marattialean fern trunk Psaronius Cotta is described from the Upper Permian Cathaysian flora in the Xuanwei Formation of Guizhou Province, SW China, and named P. panxianensis sp. nov. Stems possess a helically diverging sequence of leaf traces organized in a 2/7 phyllotaxy and are characterized by stages of leaf trace development that include an early ontogenetic stage with a single vascular bundle ( Stewartiopteris-type), a middle stage with two vascular bundles ( Stipitopteris-type), and a late stage with three vascular bundles. Roots diverge singly or occasionally in pairs, arising alternately from the centrifugal surface of the peripheral cauline bundles (PCB) near the tip, and form both bound and free root mantles. This species is distinguished from all previously recognized species from the Euramerican and Gondwana floras in having an anchor-shaped sclerenchymatous strand internal to the PCB and a large V-shaped strand formed by the connection of two anchor-shaped strands. Psaronius panxianensis sp. nov. is important as its leaf traces show three distinct ontogenetic development stages within the trunk, with this organization interpreted as a derived condition within psaroniaceous marattialean fern evolution. In the stem abundant air space suggests that P. panxianensis lived in waterlogged substrates with aerenchyma facilitating gaseous exchange. However, the presence of marattialean fern dominated communities in the Upper Permian of SW China suggest an overall drying trend with these plants replacing earlier lycopsid and sphenopsid dominated wetland communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]