The Effect of Emotional Labor on Work Performance through Burnout during the Covid-19 Pandemic Period: A Research on Bank Employees

Increasing competition conditions as a requirement of the digital age necessitate customer focus in every sector. Emotional labor is becoming increasingly important, especially in the service sector, where consumption takes place where it produces, in order to create a positive impression on customers and to be a good team worker. Because the emotional labor of employees can lead to positive or negative results in terms of work performance by affecting various factors such as burnout. In this context, the main purpose of the research is to determine the relationship between the emotional labor of bank employees and their burnout levels and performances. For this purpose, the survey technique, which is one of the quantitative research techniques, and the interview technique, which is one of the qualitative research techniques, were used in the research. Survey information obtained from 188 bank employees was analyzed and predicted. Since it helps to examine the subject in more detail, it was supported by the information obtained from 8 bank employees with the qualitative research technique. As a result of the quantitative analysis of the research, it was determined that emotional labor is related to job performance and burnout. Through qualitative analysis, it has been tried to determine which factors have positive and negative effects on emotional labor, burnout and employee performance.

COVID-19 in pediatric patients: Data from a training and research hospital COVID-19 in children

Aim: Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become a worldwide emergency. It is known that the course of the disease in pediatric COVID-19 is milder, with a better prognosis and lower rate of deaths. However, epidemiological and clinical data on children with COVID-19 are still scarce. The aim of this study is to describe the demographic, clinical and laboratory findings of children with COVID-19. Material and Methods: Medical records of patients aged under 18 years who had polyrnerase chain reaction (PCR) test for SARS-CoV-2 between March 15, 2020 and September 14, 2020 were examined retrospectively. Results: Of the 108 children infected with SARS-CoV-2, 52 (48.1%) were female, 56 (51.9%) were male, and the median age was 9 years (0-17 years). The most common presentation symptoms included fever (54.6%), fatigue or myalgia (32.4%). and cough (30.5%). Of all patients. 63.9% (n-53) had lymphopenia. Seventy (67.3%) cases with COVID-19 had a contact history. The median time from symptom onset to diagnosis was 1 (0-8) day. Posteroanterior chest X-ray was ordered in 80.5% (n-87) of the SARS-CoV-2 PCR positive patients, and only 5.7% (n-5) had findings in favor of infiltration. Chest computed tomography was ordered in four (3.7%) children, and one (25%) of them had findings consistent with COVID-19. Eight patients were hospitalized, one of whom was followed-up in the intensive care unit, and no patients died. Discussion: A better understanding of the clinical and laboratory characteristics of COVID-19 infection in children is very important in developing influential strategies to manage the disease.

The transformation of global value Chains in the post-Covid Era and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement

From the beginning 1980s, the ICT technology improvements and liberalization in the trade lead to an outsourcing of the production process. Countries trade value- added instead of final goods. In this setting, as the value is being created globally, this form of production and trade is usually named as global value chains. By outsourcing some parts of production, companies decrease their costs through economies of scale but make the production sensitive to the shock in one of the links. This risk is realized through the COVID- 19 pandemic. This accelerates the regionalization of the global chains. In this study, we analyze the regionalization of the global value chains concerning the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). We found that RCEP would accelerate of the regionalization the value chains in East Asia. © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Berlin 2021. All rights reserved.

Retrospective analysis of vitamin D status on inflammatory markers and course of the disease in patients with COVID-19 infection.

PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to investigate the association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D status within the last 6 months prior to COVID-19 infection and parameters of immune function and clinical outcomes. METHODS: Fifty-six patients, who were admitted to the emergency clinic and diagnosed with COVID-19 infection, were included in the study. Data on clinical characteristics, inflammatory parameters and vitamin D status were recorded for each patient. All the participants had data on 25-hydroxyvitamin D status within the last 6 months prior to COVID-19 infection. RESULTS: The patients were stratified as those with vitamin D status less than 20 ng/mL and higher than 20 ng/mL. A group with vitamin D status less than 20 ng/mL had lower lymphocyte counts and lower haemoglobin levels that was statistically significant (respectively; p = 0.021, p = 0.035). Higher C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were seen in the vitamin D-deficient group (p = 0.013). It was observed that vitamin D status of the patients who required oxygen therapy were lower than those who did not require oxygen therapy, not statistically significant (p = 0.05). Patients who did not use vitamin D supplementation within 6 months prior to COVID-19 infection had more likely to be diagnosed with pneumonia (p = 0.004). CONCLUSION: Cases with lower vitamin D status had increased inflammatory markers and worse clinical outcomes than patients with higher vitamin D status. This study suggests that vitamin D status can be used as a prognostic factor in COVID-19 patients, and vitamin D supplementation can be recommended to improve the clinical outcomes in COVID-19 infection.

The expanding role of immersive media in education

This paper seeks to understand the impact of immersive media, in particular augmented reality, within the education sector. A small experimental methodology was adopted alongside a current literature review. Three research questions were posited as follows: (1) What are the affordances of immersive media within education? (2) What are the barriers to immersive media in education? (3) How may immersive media be implemented? Affordances of immersive media include greater content customisation, increased creativity with less risk, promoting student interaction, enhanced motivation and engagement, and the chance for students to engage in extraordinary experiences. In 2020, many students around the world are staying home and studying in isolation, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this emergency context, mobile applications can offer interesting experiences that can make life and learning less difficult and more pleasant. The mobile web application Metaverse was used to exemplify in two different ways how immersive media can be appropriately used as a tool in a university level education setting. The first prototype was a short quiz on general knowledge about New Zealand, to help orient new international students. The second prototype was a quick poll to feel the pulse and understand the mood of students while at home and physically away from the campus and their lecturers. In summary, the authors present an updated review of this technology and present their own new examples of applications that serve additional purposes. © Proceedings of the 14th IADIS International Conference e-Learning 2020, EL 2020 - Part of the 14th Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems, MCCSIS 2020. All rights reserved.