Mobile computers are now increasingly applied to facilitate face‐to‐face collaborative learning. However, the factors affecting face‐to‐face peer interactions are complex as they involve rich communication media. In particular, non‐verbal interactions are necessary to convey critical communication messages in face‐to‐face communication. Through gathering discourse and non‐verbal interaction records, this study explores the peer interactions supported by two collaborative applications: one with mobile computers and the other with shared‐display groupware (SDG). The results show that the students tended to interact with each other according to a distributed and an unsocial interaction pattern when using the application with mobile computers. In contrast, the students who learned with the SDG demonstrated a shared interaction pattern, whereby they often jointly focused on and referred to the shared work. The analysis of the students' work further found that a higher level of discussion was generally associated with the shared interaction pattern. The results seem to support SDG as being useful in augmenting face‐to‐face peer interaction supported by mobile computers. The implications derived from the findings also support the argument that non‐verbal interaction records are useful for quantitatively and qualitatively analysing face‐to‐face peer interactions.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by the deposition of β-amyloid peptide (Aβ). There are currently no drugs that can successfully treat this disease. This study first explored the anti-inflammatory activity of seven components isolated from Antrodia cinnamonmea in BV2 cells and selected EK100 and antrodin C for in vivo research. APPswe/PS1dE9 mice were treated with EK100 and antrodin C for one month to evaluate the effect of these reagents on AD-like pathology by nesting behavior, immunohistochemistry, and immunoblotting. Ergosterol and ibuprofen were used as control. EK100 and antrodin C improved the nesting behavior of mice, reduced the number and burden of amyloid plaques, reduced the activation of glial cells, and promoted the perivascular deposition of Aβ in the brain of mice. EK100 and antrodin C are significantly different in activating astrocytes, regulating microglia morphology, and promoting plaque-associated microglia to express oxidative enzymes. In contrast, the effects of ibuprofen and ergosterol are relatively small. In addition, EK100 significantly improved hippocampal neurogenesis in APPswe/PS1dE9 mice. Our data indicate that EK100 and antrodin C reduce the pathology of AD by reducing amyloid deposits and promoting nesting behavior in APPswe/PS1dE9 mice through microglia and perivascular clearance, indicating that EK100 and antrodin C have the potential to be used in AD treatment.
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