Inadequate riparian zone use directly decreases water quality of a low-order urban stream in southern Brazil

Considering the current importance watercourses quality conservation, it is important to establish relationships between parameters that enable evaluation of the origins of changes in water quality, allowing actions to mitigate them. However, it is important to improve the association of different variables and to take sufficient samples. This study associates usual techniques and parameters to analyse the water quality of an urban river from Paraná State, Brazil. For this, we used biological indicators (aquatic macroinvertebrates), physical-chemical (temperature, turbidity, true colour, pH, DO and BOD5,20) indicators and microbiological (faecal and total coliforms) indicators. These indicators were related to land use and occupation classes obtained from high resolution QuickBird 2 images. For this association, the surroundings (450 meters buffer) of three distinct points of the river were considered: I. Near the spring; II. In the downtown city; and III. In a residential neighbourhood. Different values of physical, chemical and microbiological variables were detected along the river, showing evident relationships between them and with the use and occupation of the urban and peri-urban space in the characterization of surface waters. The association design was able to detect the landscape effect on water quality in a coherent way and that these connections were mainly related to suppression of the riparian forest present in the surroundings, further demonstrating the importance of this vegetation for the maintenance of watercourse quality.

WeChat knowledge service system of university library based on SoLoMo: A holistic design framework

In this study, we develop a WeChat knowledge service system (WKSS) in university library based on SoLoMo. The aim is to build a comprehensive, open, mobile and smart knowledge service environment. It can realise the interaction between the three users, library and knowledge, and promote the dissemination and sharing of knowledge. By referencing the Internet frontier concept SoLoMo, this study designs a new mobile smart service system, including the system architecture design, the content design and the data association design. Then, this study develops the system, including the running environment configuration, the development of workflow, the core module and the system implementation. This system enables the provision of accurate, specific and more personalised service to each user. It also includes a portable mobile terminal to increase the accuracy of context awareness and enhance user convenience. This study makes up for the shortcomings of the library and increases the functions of personalisation, mobility and intelligence. It extends the way of mobile service in libraries and provides readers with better library mobile services, which was liked by readers.

Association between Genetic Polymorphism and Risk of von Willebrand Disease in Pakistan

von Willebrand disease (VWD) is an inherited, genetically and clinically heterogeneous hemorrhagic disorder. The most common cause of this disease is mutation in the gene that encodes protein von Willebrand factor (VWF) which is responsible for blood clotting. The current study was designed to investigate the role of genetic polymorphisms with the onset of VWD in population of Pakistan. Three exonic variants (c.3445T>C; c.4975C>T; c.7603C>T) from VWF gene were used for the genotyping purpose. The current study employed a case-control association design involving 43 VWD patients and 100 healthy controls from Pakistani population. The genetic reason of VWD was investigated using the allele specific PCR. The significant (P<0.05) allelic association was found between all three exonic variants and VWD. The CT genotype of these variants was noticed to be associated with significantly higher risk of VWD [odds ratio (95% CI): 14.7 (4.546–47.98), 26.71 (7.281–97.98), and 21.5 (5.806–80.01) for c.3445T>C, c.4975C>T, and c.7603C>T, resp.] while genotypes CC (c.4975C>T) and TT (c.3445T>C and c.7603C>T) were having protective effect against the disease. However, replicated studies are needed for elaborating the role of these SNPs.

KETERAMPILAN MENGAJAR DAN KEDISIPLINAN GURU DALAM PEMBELAJARAN KEWARGANEGARAAN SISWA SMAN 1 KADEMANGAN

This study aims to see the effect of teaching skills and teachers’ discipline to improve students’ achievement in civic education subject. This study used explanatory association design where data were analyzed using multiple liniar regression. The study was conducted at SMAN 1 Kademangan Blitar and involved 63 students as sample. The study revealed: (a) teachers’ skill to teavh Civic Education was high proficiency, (b) students’ discipline in learning Civic Education was good, (c) students performed very good attitude in certain environment that annoyed learning process they faced, (d) analysis using t-test indicated that variables of learning motivation, learning discipline and intelligence partially affected students’ achievement on Civic Education subject in the level of significance up to 99%. Simultaneously, the hypothesis testing proved that variables of teacher skills and teachers’ discipline to teach, altogether affected students’ achievement.