Abnormal gel flotation in a patient with apperant pneumonia diagnosis: a case report

Introduction:

Serum blood collection tubes with separator gel are widely used by many laboratories for chemistry analyses. We describe a case of a primary blood collection tube filled with blood sample and a floating separator gel.

Materials and methods:

The blood sample was collected from a 51 years old female in intensive care unit with the diagnosis of pneumonia into a BD Vacutainer SST tube (Becton Dickinson, NJ, USA) containing serum separator gel and conveyed to the core laboratory of Marmara University Hospital within 30 minutes from collection. Sample was immediately centrifuged at room temperature at 1500 × g for 10 minutes.

Results:

The analyses revealed a highly increased total protein concentration of 145 g/L (reference interval 64–83 g/L). The nephelometric analyses showed an elevated serum IgG concentration of 108 g/L (reference interval 6.5–16 g/L) and IgG lambda monoclonal band was determined by serum immunofixation electrophoresis.

Conclusion:

Limitation of the separator gel tubes in patients with a high plasma density and its possible effects on test results and laboratory costs should be remembered. The clinical diagnosis stated in the information system should also reveal known comorbid conditions besides the apparent admission reason. This information would avoid resampling, additional testing, and communication efforts with the clinicians.     

School Counselors’ Job Satisfaction: a Comparative Study of Preschool and Primary-School Counselors in Turkey

This mixed-methods research compared job satisfaction among counselors working in pre-schools and primary-schools. Its quantitative phase included 223 counselors, 70 of whom also participated in the qualitative phase. A demographic information form, job-satisfaction scale and a semi-structured interview protocol were used to collect data. Quantitative analysis indicated that the primary-school counselors’ job satisfaction was higher than that of the pre-school counselors. There were no statistically significant differences in satisfaction between the two groups based on gender, age, or marital status, or the interaction of any of those three demographic factors with the type of school where they worked. In the qualitative phase, approximately half of the primary-school counselors but just one-third of the pre-school counselors reported their job satisfaction as being high; and around half of the pre-school group and one-third of the primary-school group reported that school type where they worked had a negative impact on their job satisfaction.     

Gender Differences in Turkish Early Childhood Teachers’ Job Satisfaction,Job Burnout and Organizational Cynicism

This study compares the job satisfaction, job burnout and organizational cynicism of 233 early childhood teachers, 141 female and 92 male, with special attention to gender differences. Data were collected using a personal information form, Job Satisfaction Scale, Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey and Organizational Cynicism Scale, and the data were analyzed via independent-samples t-testing and one-way between-groups MANOVA. Significant differences between the male and female teachers were found across all three of the variables of interest, with the males having a higher level of organizational cynicism and lower mean job satisfaction. Also, males’ job burnout was higher than females’. However, the magnitude of these differences was medium only in the case of job satisfaction, with all other effect sizes being small.     

An investigation of mathematics anxiety among sixth through eighth grade students in Turkey

The purpose of the present study is to investigate mathematics anxiety among 220 sixth through eighth grade Turkish students in terms of mathematics achievement levels, perceived enjoyment of the mathematics teaching method, perceived enjoyment of mathematics, and perceived help with mathematics from parents. The Mathematics Anxiety Scale for Primary School Students (Bindak, 2005) was used to assess the levels of mathematics anxiety. A 3 × 2 factorial analysis of variance results showed that there was not a significant interaction effect or main effect of gender; however, there was a significant main effect of grade level. Standard multiple regression analyses show that independent variables accounted for 63% to 70% of variability in the dependent variable. The results also indicate that not only the perceived enjoyment of mathematics, but also the enjoyment of the mathematics teaching method and help with mathematics from parents had a significant effect on mathematics anxiety.     

Preschool teachers’ beliefs and practices related to child-centred education in Turkey

This study describes the beliefs, self-reported practices and actual practices related to child-centred education of five female preschool teachers in Ankara, Turkey, and assesses the consistency between the participants’ beliefs and practices. Data were collected through interviews, classroom observations and document review. The results indicated that the participant teachers’ beliefs and practices as expressed through instructional activities, relationships, behaviour management, assessment, parental involvement and self-reporting were partially parallel to the child-centred education philosophy. Also, there was only partial consistency between teachers’ beliefs about, self-reported practices of and actual practices of child-centred education.     

Applying the many‐facet Rasch model to evaluate PowerPoint presentation performance in higher education

This study investigated the usefulness of the many‐facet Rasch model (MFRM) in evaluating the quality of performance related to PowerPoint presentations in higher education. The Rasch Model utilizes item response theory stating that the probability of a correct response to a test item/task depends largely on a single parameter, the ability of the person. MFRM extends this one‐parameter model to other facets of task difficulty, for example, rater severity, rating scale format, task difficulty levels. This paper specifically investigated presentation ability in terms of items/task difficulty and rater severity/leniency. First‐year science education students prepared and used the PowerPoint presentation software program during the autumn semester of the 2005–2006 school year in the ‘Introduction to the Teaching Profession’ course. The students were divided into six sub‐groups and each sub‐group was given an instructional topic, based on the content and objectives of the course, to prepare a PowerPoint presentation. Seven judges, including the course instructor, evaluated each group’s PowerPoint presentation performance using ‘A+ PowerPoint Rubric’. The results of this study show that the MFRM technique is a powerful tool for handling polytomous data in performance and peer assessment in higher education.     

Financial aid and student persistence in online education in the United States

Distance education has historically had lower completion rates. Several models of persistence, for on-campus students, indicate that students’ financial status affects their decision to persist. This study involved providing distance education students’ financial aid in the form of institutional scholarships (N = 545) at Penn State University in the United States. The recipients were students who were not overachievers and not at-risk of failing, but somewhere in the middle. The purpose of the study was to test if receiving financial aid was related to students’ persistence. Using logistic regression and Chi-square analysis, this study found that scholarship-receiving students with higher financial need were two times more likely to persist in their studies than those with lower financial need. Results suggest that there is a positive relationship between providing even small financial aid to students with high-financial need and their persistence in their studies.     

Persistence in the Face of Ecological Challenges: A Phenomenological Study of Parents of Children With Disabilities in Turkey

International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling - In this qualitative study, we aimed to reveal the psychological experiences of parents of children with disabilities in Turkey. A focus...     

Distance Learning for GED® Students in Rural Pennsylvania

Abstract

Although many adult basic education programs offer distance learning (DL) for GED (General Educational Development) and English as a Second Language learners, this topic has received little scholarly attention. This article examines the availability, usage, and effectiveness of DL for rural GED candidates in Pennsylvania; students' demographic and educational characteristics and participation patterns; and the perceived advantages and disadvantages of DL for students and education providers. Data sources included records of 24,143 rural GED students in state-funded programs; GED test takers' demographic survey data; interviews with DL educators and students; and a survey of non-state-funded DL providers. The results show that 4% of rural GED students—primarily young, White, low-income women—participated in DL. Rural DL students were as likely to pass the GED Tests as face-to-face learners. Key advantages and disadvantages of DL for rural GED students are discussed. The study signals great potential and need for expanding DL in rural regions.     

Comparing the job satisfaction of hourly paid and salaried preschool teachers in Turkey

This two-phase mixed-methods study compares the job satisfaction of Turkish preschool teachers who are paid hourly against the satisfaction of those on regular contracts. The participants in its first, quantitative phase were 260 preschool teachers, of whom 81 also participated in the second, qualitative phase. Initial data collection from all phase-one participants was via the Job Satisfaction Scale. Then, in phase two, the members of the hourly paid group were asked three open-ended questions, and the regular-contract teachers two of the same questions, related to the advantages and disadvantages of hourly paid teaching. The results indicated a significant difference in job satisfaction levels between the two types of teachers. None of the interactive effects between preschool teachers’ working status and their gender, age, marital status, and in-service training was statistically significant. In phase two, moreover, more than half of the 41 hourly paid teachers (n?=?22) emphasised that they worked as hourly for economic reasons, while more than a third (n?=?30) of the overall phase-two sample stated that there was no advantage of working as an hourly paid teacher. Working conditions for hourly paid teachers were described as disadvantageous by almost half the members of the phase-two sample (n?=?37).