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Background and Objective:Test anxiety is one of the state stresses that is closely related to the performance and academic achievement of millions of students in educational centers. People with high test stress, unlike those with low test stress who often pay attention to homework-related variables, pay attention to self-related variables. In other words, people with test stress are anxious during the exam. People with anxiety and high test anxiety are more alert and unhappy than those with low test anxiety and stress. When these people are in a position of evaluation, they show negative and self-centered responses that make the passage of time seem slower and causes disruption in the process of doing the task. Test stress consists of three important components: anxiety, excitement, and physical response. The negative effects of test stress on academic achievement have been confirmed in many studies. The main reason for the decline in performance is that people with test stress cannot pay attention to the tasks related to homework and irrelevant thoughts come to their minds that hinder their progress. Many factors can reduce test anxiety among Payame Noor students. One of the most important factors is the role of virtual tests. Virtual or e-learning is a new way of learning remotely, based on the Internet-intranet network. In this teaching method, the required resources are provided to the students through the Internet network, and the students can use the educational resources to learn at any time and in any place. In this way, tools such as interactive templates, simulation, online classroom, exercises, virtual tests, videos, and images and audios developed based on educational standards allow the audience to be taught. The goal of this study was to evaluate the relationship between virtual tests and stress reduction from the viewpoints of university instructors and students in Payam-e Noor University in academic year 2016-2017. Methods: This study is applied based on its goal; it is descriptive-survey based on its nature; and it is a field study based on its research method. The research population included instructors and students of Marand Payam-e Noor University (n=1896, 1740 students and 156 instructors). The sampling method is relational-stratified in both groups. The data collection instrument included two questionnaires. The first one was a standard questionnaire of virtual education and the second one is a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity of this questionnaire is approved based on experts’ opinions. In examining the reliability of this test, the level of internal consistency was estimated using Cronbach's alpha method. The Cronbach's alpha for the standard questionnaire of virtual education was 0.91 and the researcher-made questionnaire was 0.87, respectively. For analyzing the data, the graph, percentage and frequency have been used at descriptive statistics level; and the Pearson correlation test has been used for inferential statistics. Findings: The following results have been obtained: virtual tests are associated with reduced stress; conducting virtual tests is associated with reduced emotion; and conducting virtual tests is associated with reduced physical response. Conclusion: The results showed that virtual tests play a significant role in reducing anxiety, excitability and physical reactions. Therefore, to reduce stress in students and create the necessary conditions to reduce stress, it is recommended to develop the infrastructures of virtual test in universities. ===================================================================================== COPYRIGHTS ©2019 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers. =====================================================================================

[Purpose] This study investigated the effects of various relaxation methods on physical reactions. [Subjects] The subjects were 11 normal males (n=5) and females (n=6). [Methods] Breathing number (BN), heart rate (HR), diastolic and systolic blood pressure (DBP, SBP), finger-floor distance (FFD), the range of straight leg raising (SLR), and the number of correct answers in a calculation task (NCA) were measured for all subjects before and after abdominal respiration (AR), progressive muscle relaxation (PRM), listening to music (LM), and smelling a fragrance (SF). [Results] AR affected all measured parameters except for DBP. It decreased BN, HR, SBP, and increased FFD, SLR and NCA significantly. [Conclusions] This result suggests that AR is the most suitable method to use in rehabilitation because it can be used without equipment and is easily performed by subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Macgregor et al. (2009) demonstrated significant associations of ADH polymorphisms with reactions to alcohol and alcohol consumption measures in an Australian sample. The aim of the present study was to replicate these findings in a Dutch sample. Survey data on alcohol phenotypes came from 1,754 unrelated individuals registered with the Netherlands Twin Register. SNPs in the ADH gene cluster located on chromosome 4q (n = 491) were subdivided in seven gene sets: ADH5, ADH4, ADH6, ADH1A, ADH1B, ADH1C and ADH7. Within these sets associations of SNPs with alcohol consumption measures, age at onset variables, reactions to alcohol and problem drinking liability were examined. Of the original 38 SNPs studied by Macgregor et al. (2009), six SNPs were not available in our dataset, because one of them had a minor allele frequency < .01 (rs1229984) and five could not be imputed. The remaining SNP associations with alcohol phenotypes as identified by Macgregor et al. (2009) were not replicated in the Dutch sample, after correcting for multiple genotype and phenotype testing. Significant associations were found however, for reactions to alcohol with a SNP in ADH5 (rs6827292, p = .001) and a SNP just upstream of ADH5 (rs6819724, p = .0007) that is in strong LD with rs6827292. Furthermore, an association between age at onset of regular alcohol use and a SNP just upstream of ADH7 (rs2654849, p = .003) was observed. No significant associations were found for alcohol consumption and problem drinking liability. Although these findings do not replicate the earlier findings at the SNP level, the results confirm the role of the ADH gene cluster in alcohol phenotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Documenting the effects of crisis intervention work on school psychologists was the primary purpose of this study. To examine these effects a sample of 400 randomly selected school psychologists were surveyed. Half of the surveys were returned. Among respondents who had previously participated in a crisis intervention, just over 90% reported one or more of 37 specific negative reactions following crisis intervention work. Physical reactions in general and fatigue/ exhaustion in particular were the most frequently reported reactions. All respondents reported use of self-care strategies and 94% viewed these strategies as important. Implications of these findings for the practice of school psychology are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives. This study describes the implementation and evaluation of a new Body Awareness Programme (BAP) in bereavement support for adolescents. The BAP's aims were to provide information and insight into adolescents bodily reactions, to help them develop a deeper understanding of the reasons for bodily reactions and to introduce adolescents to healthy coping techniques. Background. Three main bodily reactions can follow a traumatic event such as the death of a loved one. The arousal of physical responses causes restlessness, concentration problems and disturbed sleep while 'flashbacks' of unpleasant memories contribute to increased tension. Active avoidance manifests as increased activity and avoidance of talking or thinking about unpleasant memories. These reactions may interfere with an adolescent's development and inhibit a healthy grieving process. Design. A qualitative, hermeneutic-phenomenological design. Methods. Data were collected using the BAP together with in-depth interviews with adolescents, focusing particularly on their experiences or recollections of their bodily reactions and coping. Seven adolescents participated, aged 13-18 years, who use our bereavement services. Results. The adolescents in our study internalised their struggles, and beneath their facade of coping, they reported having painful bodies that were stiff and restless. They were also anxious, experiencing painful thoughts of the deceased. The adolescents found the BAP helpful because they gained awareness of the body-behaviour-feelings connections, experiencing the techniques as helpful and possibly useful in their everyday lives. Conclusion. The results of this evaluation of the BAP are positive and suggest that this approach is both necessary and valuable in a bereavement support programme for adolescents. Relevance to clinical practice. Adolescents must recognise their own embodied reactions and understand their underlying causes before they can change their attitudes or seek appropriate help during bereavement. Health professionals should see beyond adolescents' facades and offer them support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]