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In this study, psychological capital levels of teachers working in distance education in state high schools in Sahinbey district of Gaziantep province were determined. It was also determined in the dimensions of hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy, which are subdimensions of teachers' psychological capital. The survey model was used in this study, which was designed in quantitative research method. "Psychological Capital Scale" was used to determine the psychological capital levels of teachers. The population of the study consists of 2179 teachers working in state high schools in Sahinbey district in the 2020-2021 academic year. In the sample of the study, there are 163 teachers who voluntarily answered the online scale via internet. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistical methods. In the study, it was determined that the psychological capital levels of the teachers working in distance education are at good level. Also, it was determined that the sub-dimension of optimism has the lowest average and the sub-dimension of self-efficacy has the highest average. It can be stated that increasing the psychological capital levels of teachers working in distance education will positively affect the working performance of teachers. Thus, it can be said that the distance education can be more efficient both for teachers and students.

Objectives: Parabens, which are p-hydroxybenzoic acid esters, are used as preservatives in personal care products, pharmaceuticals, and food because of their antimicrobial activity. However, they are also classified as suspected endocrine disruptors and carcinogens. In the present study, we aimed to optimize an ultrasound and vortex-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) procedure for the simultaneous extraction of methyl, ethyl, isopropyl, propyl, isobutyl, and butyl parabens from personal care products and urine. Materials and Methods: The extraction solvent type, extraction solvent volume, disperser solvent volume, sodium chloride concentration, ultrasonication time, and vortex application time were evaluated to obtain optimum recoveries by ultrasound and vortex-assisted DLLME. Parabens were detected using a validated high performanc-liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with fluorescence detection. Method validation was performed by examining linearity, the limit of detection, limit of quantification, accuracy, and precision. Results: The limits of detection and quantification of the HPLC method were between 0.09-0.18 μg/mL and 0.28-0.54 μg/mL, respectively. Precision was examined as the relative standard deviation, which was 0.22-1.81% and 1.12-2.03% for intra- and interday studies. Recovery percentages were higher than 96.00%. Samples of two paraben-free personal care products and synthetic urine were spiked with the analyses at 0.02 μg/mL and were successfully analyzed using the developed procedure with recovery values higher than 82.00%. Conclusion: The proposed procedure provided quantification of selected parabens at 20 ng/mL in analyzed personal care products and urine matrices with good precision and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]