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Learners in connectivist learning are diverse. It’s necessary to make a clear understanding of learners’ participation types and characteristics for optimizing the learning support service and lear...

Objective To investigate the expression of Linc00342 in peripheral blood lymphocytes in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and healthy people and to identify Linc00342 as a biomarker of chronic kidney disease. Methods Peripheral blood samples were collected from 30 patients with chronic kidney disease and 10 healthy volunteers at the First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College, China. According to CKD classification, the patients were divided into three CKD groups (the CKD1/2 group, CKD3/4 group and CKD5 group) and a healthy volunteer group (the H group). The relative expression of Linc00342 in lymphocytes was detected by RT-PCR, while the IL-6 and IL-10 levels in the serum were detected by ELISA. In addition, the general data of the patients and healthy volunteers were recorded. Finally, SPSS software was used for statistical analysis. Results The expression level of Linc00342 in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of the four groups increased significantly as the CKD grade increased, and there were statistically significant differences (p < 0.01). There was a positive linear correlation between the expression of Linc00342 in peripheral blood lymphocytes and the eGFR (p < 0.05), which was expressed by the linear model equation: Y = 2.532 + 0.012X. Among the inflammatory factors for the early diagnosis of CKD, the area under the ROC curve for the expression of Linc00342 in peripheral blood lymphocyte was 0.953, the standard error was 0.034 and the 95% confidence interval was 0.000-1.000. Conclusion The expression level of Linc00342 in peripheral blood lymphocytes can reflect the severity of CKD, and Linc00342 is possibly used as a molecular marker of CKD.

With the rapid development of high voltage direct current transmission, the possibility of health effects associated with static electric field (SEF) has caused wide public concern. To examine the effects of long-lasting, full-body exposure to SEF on cognition, Institute of Cancer Research mice were exposed to SEF for 35 d. The intensities of SEF in experimental group I (EG-I), experimental group II (EG-II) and control group (CG) were 2.30∼15.40 kV/m, 9.20∼21.85 kV/m and 0 kV/m, respectively. The performance in learning and memory of mice were tested by Morris water maze (MWM) on days 2∼6, 16∼20 and 30∼34 during the exposure period. The concentrations of hippocampal amino acid neurotransmitters were evaluated on days 7, 21 and 35. Results showed that the latency in the MWM test had no significant difference among the EG-I, EG-II and CG (P > 0.05) during the exposure period. The percentage of time spent in the target quadrant was significantly decreased in the EG-II on day 34 during the exposure period (P < 0.05), whereas the percentage of time spent in the opposite quadrant increased markedly (P < 0.01). The glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid concentrations showed no significant differences among the EG-I, EG-II and CG (P > 0.05) during the exposure period. These results indicated that long-lasting, full-body exposure to SEF with certain intensity would not cause significant influence on learning ability, but it might associate with memory impairment of receptors. Meanwhile, this effect of memory impairment was dose-dependent and not causally linked to the glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid levels in the hippocampus.