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The effectiveness of adapted group mindfulness-based stress management program on perceived stress and emotion regulation in midwives: a randomized clinical trial
Fatemeh Aghamohammadi1,
Omid Saed2,
Reza Ahmadi2 &
Roghieh Kharaghani ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2276-04333
Midwives' stress can have negative consequences on their emotional state, burnout, and poor quality of midwifery care. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of an adapted mindfulness-based stress management program on perceived stress and the emotional regulation of midwives.
The study was a parallel randomized clinical trial on the midwives working in general hospitals of Zanjan, Iran. In this study, 121 midwives registered to participate based on the census sampling method were screened using a cut point of ≥ 28 in the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). From the initial sample, 42 subjects had inclusion criteria assigned to two groups of control (n = 21) and intervention (n = 21) using online random allocation. The intervention group received an 8-week adapted mindfulness-based stress management program. This program emanates from the Kabat-Zinn's MBSR program, which has been adjusted according to the Iranian culture. The ANCOVA and repeated measure analysis of variance test were used to compare groups over time.
The results showed that the group intervention effectively affected perceived stress (P = 0.001) and difficulty in emotion regulation during the post-intervention period (P = 0.001). Moreover, the interventions were effective in emotion regulation (P = 0.003), but it was not effective on perceived stress (P = 0.125) at the 3-month follow-up.
This adapted mindfulness-based program successfully reduced stress and increased emotion regulation strategies in midwives; however, the long-term outcomes of this treatment program need further consideration.
Stress is a prevalent phenomenon that has become more complex with the modernization of human life [1]. Perceived stress is defined as individuals' reporting of situations as unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overwhelming [2]. The prevalence and causes of stress have been reported differently in health care workers [3,4,5]. Midwifery is a stressful profession, and environmental, background, and other factors exacerbate stress [6]. When midwives experience a traumatic event, they may experience feelings of guilt, shame, blame, isolation, helplessness, and despair, which make them a second victim [7]. A study showed that almost all midwives (97.1%) experienced traumatic birth events [8]. The prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout among midwives is high [3]. In addition, midwives reported more stress beyond the nurses' colleagues due to less support, less autonomy and less clarity in role [9]. The results of a meta-analysis showed that about 71% of midwives in Iran have occupational stress [10].
Stress impairs decision-making and increases midwifery errors, resulting in increased mortality and morbidity in pregnant women and infants [11]. Also, stress reduces the quality of patient care [10], the correct and timely decision-making [12], and the ability of employees to be skilled and committed [13]. The conditions of midwives are stressful, although, they are less taught about stress management [14]. A qualitative study of midwives and nurses has shown that most of them had to vary emotional demands and deficits that need to be trained with emotion regulation (ER) skills [15]. Therefore, midwives need effective interventions to reduce stress, and increase the abilities of coping [8, 10, 16].
ER known as an ability to manage and regulate emotions (including stress) [17]. ER strategies also divided into maladaptive (e.g., suppression, experiential avoidance and rumination) and adaptive (e.g., acceptance, problem solving and reappraisal) [18, 19]. Individuals who used maladaptive ER strategies were at greater risk for emotional disorders [20, 21]. In return, adaptive ER strategies had a strong association with well-being [22]. Individuals have a different ability to ER [23]. Nevertheless, ER skills are learnable, and evidence has shown that training ER in health care can increase their ability to cope with stressors and negative emotions [24].
Despite the urgent need of this group of health care workers for effective interventions, there is a wide gap in the interventional studies in this area [25]. The two well-known interventions from this field include cognitive-behavioral stress management [e.g. 26, 27], and mindfulness based programs [e.g. 28–30]. Cognitive-behavioral stress management program commonly focus on psychoeducation, cognitive modification, and lifestyle change [31, 32]. Evidence supports the effectiveness of this program. For example, a 10-week cognitive-behavioral stress management leads to increase in perceived stress management competency, self-efficacy, and self-esteem 1 year after the intervention [26]. In addition, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program caused stress reduction due to mindfulness, and self-compassion [33]. A meta-analysis showed MBSR interventions could moderately reduce stress, depression, anxiety, and distress [34].
Both cognitive-behavioral stress management and mindfulness-based programs are known to be effective in reducing midwives' stress. A cognitive-behavioral stress management programs effectively reduced midwives occupational stress rather than wait-lists [35]. Also, an adapted mindfulness based program leads to nurses and midwives' stress reduction and enhancing health, sense of coherence and resiliency [36]. However, our knowledge of the simultaneous use of a cognitive-behavioral program with mindfulness exercises is limited, while it seems to be able to both effectively improve emotion regulation and reduce stress. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of adapted group mindfulness based stress management program to reduce midwives' stress and improve their emotion regulation strategies.
The study was a parallel randomized clinical trial registered on the Iranian clinical trials website (IRCT20160608028352N6). The study was registered in Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (https://en.irct.ir/trial/23028). The date of first registration was 08/01/2018. The sampling of the study lasted from January to May 2018.
Participants and setting
There are two governmental hospitals with obstetrics and gynecology centres in Zanjan that both of were selected for this study and the study population included all 121 midwives working in these centres. Sampling was done by census method, and all midwives working in hospitals were screened to participate in the study. Midwives were screened for stress with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Also, all samples participated in a clinical interview conducted by a clinical psychologist to examine the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Eligibility criteria for participants included having a bachelor's degree or higher in midwifery, getting a score above 28 from PSS, having 1 year of experience in midwifery, not using cigarettes and drugs, not attending other counseling sessions in the last 2 months, lack of other stressful conditions in life such as divorce or death of a loved one, and not being pregnant. Participants who were reluctant to continue the study, or were absent for more than two sessions, or fill out the questionnaire incompletely, were excluded from the study. They were also excluded if they were diagnosed with mental disorders at any phase of the study. The study's power with 0.05 errors, in the post-test and follow-up periods, was 1.00 and 1.00 for perceived stress and 1.00 and 0.87 for emotion regulation, respectively. From 121 midwives in the initial screening, 42 midwives had a score equal to or more than the cut-off point (score ≥ 28) of PSS and also reached the criteria for entering the study. After obtaining informed consent, the participants were assigned to group intervention program (n = 21) and control (n = 21) using the randomized design method, which was conducted through an online website https://www.randomizer.org. The control group participants were waiting to receive treatment sessions until the follow-up stage of the interventions. They did not receive any intervention during this time. Two participants in the intervention group were excluded because they were absent in more than two sessions (Fig. 1).
CONSORT flow diagram of participants
In this study, two instruments were used to evaluate the outcome measures which include:
(1) The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS): the PSS is a 14-item self-report tool that has designed to evaluate perceived stresses over the past 10 weeks. The PSS has a Likert 5-point scale, which is graded from never (0) to always (4). Items 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 13 are scored in reverse order. Cronbach's alpha coefficient in the original community of the scale provider was 0.85. The cut-point higher than 28 on this scale means high perceived stress. In an Iranian study, Cronbach's alpha was 0.76 [37, 38].
(2) The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS): the DERS was designed in 2004 with 36 items to measure emotional disturbances and emotional self-regulation strategies [39]. Six subscales of this scale include non-acceptance of emotional responses, difficulty engaging in goal-directed behaviour, impulse control difficulties, lack of emotional awareness, limited access to emotion regulation strategies, and lack of emotional clarity. Higher scores on this scale indicate greater difficulty in regulating emotions. The response to this scale based on the Likert scale is from one to five. The scale has a total score for all questions and six scores related to the subscales. Cronbach's alpha of DERS in the original community of the scale provider was reported to be 0.93 and in Iran 0.90 [39, 40].
The mindfulness based stress management program that used in the present study was an adapted version of Kabat-Zinn's MBSR [41]. This protocol developed by Jalali and Aghaei 2016 to adapt with Iranian culture in titled "Mindfulness Based Cognitive-Behavioral Stress Management" [42]. This treatment program concentrates on psychoeducation, problem solving, and mindfulness exercises to address occupational stress. Preliminary evidence supports the effectiveness of this treatment program on dysfunctional attitudes and job affects in employees.
It was carried out in 8 sessions of 90 to 120 min once a week. Group discussions and exercises were organized in such a way that covered all cognitive, physiological, emotional, and behavioural factors of the work environment stress (Table 1). At the end of each session, assignments were given for the next week. The assignments addressed stress reduction due to the physiological, psychological, behavioural, and organizational consequences of midwives. Metaphors, allegories, and poetry were used to increase understanding of the content according to the adapted intervention program. Two expert in clinical psychology and midwifery counselling which well trained in mindfulness carried this group program. Supervisors guided the experts about manners of the sessions and reviewed assignments.
Table 1 The content and homework of adapted group mindfulness based stress management program
The primary outcome of the study was the perceived stress, and the secondary outcome was difficulties in emotion regulation. The outcomes were evaluated by the PSS and DERS in three phases; before the intervention, in the last session, and 3 months after the last session.
Chi-square and independent t-test were used for comparing demographic characteristics and dependent variables between the two groups. Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to verify the normal distribution of data and Levene's tests to test the equality of variances. Repeated measure ANOVA was used to evaluate the changes of dependent variables from the pre-test to post-test and follow-up phases. One-way Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare the dependent variables between the two groups adjusted for pre-test and demographic differences. The spouse's job and education were controlled as covariance or diffraction in ANCOVA due to the significant differences between the control and intervention groups (p < 0.05). The analysis was performed using SPSS-16, and a p-value less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. The analyst who performed the statistical analysis was out of the study and was blind to all stages of the research.
The study has complied with the ethical considerations related to clinical trials, and all methods were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations of the Research Ethics Committee of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences. The Research Ethics Committee of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences approved the protocol of the study with the code of ethics ZUMS.REC.1396.237. All participants were aware of the study guidelines and completed informed consent forms.
The mean (SD) of age in the intervention and control groups were 31.72 (6.84) and 32.64 (6.17) years, respectively. Also, the mean of work experience in the intervention and control groups were 6.89 (6.44) and 8.45 (6.05) years, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences between the intervention and control groups regarding the marital status, number of children, education, workplace departments, employment type, salary, homeownership, and having a vehicle. However, there were statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of spouse's job (p = 0.001) and spouse's education (p = 0.026) (Table 2). Also, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups in outcome variables in the pre-test.
Table 2 Demographic characteristics of the participants in the two groups
Perceived stress (Eta = 0.091, p = 0.149) and difficulty in emotion regulation scores (Eta = 0.077, p = 0.200) did not change significantly in the control group. At the same time, interventions reduced the total score of perceived stress (Eta = 0.374, p = 0.001) and perceived hopelessness (Eta = 0.264, p = 0.004) and improved perceived self-efficacy (Eta = 0.265, p = 0.004). The interventions had improved emotion regulation strategies (Eta = 0.264, p = 0.004). Midwives were more likely to accept their emotional responses after treatment (Eta = 0.210, p = 0.014), were able to perform goal-oriented behaviours in the face of a stressful situation (Eta = 0.228, p = 0.010), to access emotional strategies more easily (Eta = 0.396, p = 0.001), and to improve emotional clarity (Eta = 0.163, p = 0.041). However, interventions could not reduce impulse control (Eta = 0.069, p = 0.279) and did not increase emotional awareness (Eta = 0.031, p = 0.565) (Table 3).
Table 3 Dependent variables changes during three phases of study in the control and intervention groups
At the post-test phase, adjusted for the aforementioned variables, the interventions group reported higher scores on perceived stress and difficulties in emotion regulation than the control group (p < 0.05). At the follow-up phase, only the perceived helplessness component of PSS was significantly lower in the interventions group than the control group (p = 0.032). Moreover, the total score of emotion regulation difficulties were significantly lower in the interventions compared to the control group at the post-test (p < 0.001) and follow-up phases (p = 0.003). There were statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of all components except for lack of emotional awareness at the post-test phase and lack of emotional awareness, lack of emotional clarity, and difficulty controlling impulses at the follow-up phase (Table 4).
Table 4 Dependent variables differences between the control and intervention groups adjusted for baseline variables
In this study, the adapted group mindfulness based stress management program reduced the overall score of perceived stress and difficulty in emotion regulation. However, some of the subscales were not statistically changed at the post-test and follow-up phases.
The present intervention program was effectively reduced midwives' stress, but despite its effects on reducing midwives' perceived hopelessness, it failed to maintain their self-efficacy over a 3-month period. Present program targets stress's cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and physiological aspects through mindfulness, acceptance, self-forgiveness, compassion, being present in the moment, breathing awareness, meditation, and problem-solving strategies.
In terms of reducing perceived stress, the results of the present study are in line with other studies. For instance, stress inoculation training had been effective on midwives' occupational stress in 1-month follow-up [27]. Also, there are considerable evidences regarding efficacy of mindfulness based cognitive therapy on stress, anxiety and depression [43,44,45]. Moreover, an 8-session mindfulness treatment was effective on midwives' stress immediately after intervention and at 4 to 6-month follow-up in another study [28]. Both of the above studies showed that psychological interventions focused on stress have been able to reduce the occupational stress of midwives, and the stability of these effects remains in the follow-up periods. The results of the present study are also consistent with these studies; in this way, both in the post-test and in the follow-up, it has been able to reduce the perceived stress of midwives. However, a study in Iran showed that stress management was effective immediately after the intervention but not in 1 month later [35]. The reason for the inconsistency of our study with the last-mentioned study may be that their study was held in the form of a 2-day psycho-educational workshop, and the entire duration of the training course lasted 4 h. Our follow-up period has been 3 months, during which the treatment interventions was able to maintain the therapeutic effects on reducing perceived stress. The purpose of this study, unlike previous studies, was to focus on perceived stress rather than occupational stress because occupational and job stress is a construct that is partially influenced by workplace and interpersonal concomitances and could change indirectly through a change in the conditions. Nevertheless, perceived stress has the most to do with peoples' health and psychological state and is less affected by the environment. Changes in perceived stress can have far better effects on midwives' mental and physical health. This is the first study on midwives in a clinical trial with a control group. The long-term effects of this intervention on health care workers have been less studied. In the present study, interventions was effectively reduced perceived stress and its' subscales during the 3-month follow-up but compared to the control group, after 3 months, its' effects on perceived self-efficacy decreased but on perceived hopelessness maintained. Although the 3-month follow-up is not a long-term period, there is hope that the effect of this intervention program on perceived self-efficacy will become more apparent over time.
The present intervention program was effective on the emotion regulation of midwives immediately after the intervention and in the 3 months follow-up, but had no significant effect on dimensions of controlling impulses, emotional awareness, and clarity. The effectiveness of this intervention in regulating the emotion of midwives is in line with other studies that have been done in this field [46, 47]. FMRI-based evidence shows that 8-week MBCT intervention significantly improved executive control and emotion regulation [48]. Heredia et al. also reported that although the MBSR has led to psychological well-being and improved emotional regulation, it has not improved performance of attention [46]. Given that impulse control difficulties, lack of emotional awareness, and clarity are fundamentally related to the attention, and results may be considered inconsistent with the underlying theory. There is much confirmatory evidence regarding the role of attention in improving emotional regulation. There are various emotion control strategies, and it is still unclear that MBSR has the most impact through which one of these strategies [49]. The functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) evaluation showed that among five emotional regulation strategies: situation selection, situation modification, attention deployment, non-judgmental awareness, reappraisal, and facilitating opposed action tendencies; mostly MBSR influenced the emotional regulation by the attention deployment [50].
The lack of effectiveness of the intervention on variables of impulse control difficulties, lack of emotional awareness and clarity in the present study may be due to different reasons. First the impulse control ability is a skill that is in the last cycle of emotion regulation feedback, and the effectiveness of this mindfulness based program on it require its' impact on all previous cycles. Second, the emotional awareness subscale is one of the subscales that in new studies of factor analysis of DERS cannot explain the total variance load and its' items are not properly designed to measure this construct. Third, the results related to emotional clarity are unexpected that need to be further studied. Ultimately, it should be noted that this adapted program is not specific psychotherapy for emotion regulation, but this study sought to evaluate its' effectiveness on possible improvement in emotion regulation strategies. The strengths of this study are that in our knowledge this is the first clinical trial conducted on the effect of this adapted mindfulness based program on midwives. Also, it emphasizes perceived stress instead of occupational stress. For the first time, it has shown the improvement of emotion regulation strategies under the MBSR. The study results could be generalized to Iranian population of working midwives in governmental hospitals. The limitations of this study included the absence of a placebo group and long-term follow-up. In addition, the adherence to treatment program did not assessed systematically. Furthermore, due to the lack of blinding and credibility assessment all results need to be interpreted with notice.
Based on the results of this study, it seems that the adapted group mindfulness based stress management program reduces the perceived stress and improves the emotional regulation in midwives in a short period. This program seems to be effective in reducing stress and increasing individual and workplace emotion regulation strategies; therefore, this intervention can be used for both prevention and treatment in midwives. However, more studies are suggested for assessing its longer effects. Effects of present intervention program on some dimensions such as impulse control difficulties, lack of emotional awareness and clarity, which are related to the attention, require more complex and time-consuming interventions.
The datasets analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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The authors want to thank all midwives who participate in the study.
This study was funded by the Research Committee of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences with the ethics code of ZUMS.REC.1396.237.
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran
Fatemeh Aghamohammadi
Department of Clinical Psychology, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran
Omid Saed & Reza Ahmadi
Department of Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran
Roghieh Kharaghani
Omid Saed
Reza Ahmadi
FA: research design, data analysis, data collection, and article writing. OS: research design and article writing. RA: collected and analyzed the data. RK: research design, data analysis, and article writing. All authors contributed to the design of the work, data collection, data analysis, drafting manuscript, and revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Correspondence to Roghieh Kharaghani.
The Research Ethics Committee of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences approved the study (code of ethics ZUMS.REC.1396.237). All participants completed informed consent forms.
The authors consented for publication of the study.
Aghamohammadi, F., Saed, O., Ahmadi, R. et al. The effectiveness of adapted group mindfulness-based stress management program on perceived stress and emotion regulation in midwives: a randomized clinical trial. BMC Psychol 10, 123 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-022-00823-7


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NKLA Pet Adoption Center Celebrates 1,000th Adoption:
Frieda, a cropped-eared, flea-bitten Doberman of a certain age, wasn't faring well at a Los Angeles city shelter. Potential adopters couldn't get past her tough exterior to see Frieda's gentle soul.
Luckily for Frieda, Downtown Dog Rescue knew she was a diamond in the rough.
The organization pulled Frieda from the shelter and took her directly to the NKLA Pet Adoption Center in West Los Angeles.
Operated by Best Friends Animal Society as part of its NKLA (No Kill Los Angeles) initiative, the NKLA Adoption Pet Adoption Center is unique in that NKLA coalition partners such as Downtown Dog Rescue are allotted half of the center's space to showcase adoptable pets.
On May 15, five-year old Frieda found her forever family and became the 1,000th pet adopted at the NKLA Pet Adoption Center since its doors opened in August 2013.
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Richey had first seen Frieda on Petfinder.com when the dog was at the shelter. A long-time Doberman lover, Johnnie and her husband had lost their dog the year before and were looking for a potential canine companion.
"When the adoption specialist asked if I wanted to meet anyone, I raised my hand and that was it," she said.
Three days later, after discussing with her husband, Richey came back to the center and adopted Frieda.
Adoptions specialist Sean McGinnis was thrilled to see Frieda find a home. "Johnnie was head over heels about Frieda and Frieda was so excited when she was walking out of the center," McGinnis said. "She's going to be a great ambassador for her breed."
Frieda has since settled in nicely into her new home, which includes a large yard.
"Frieda just loves to lay out in the grass," Richey said. "We've had many family and friends come visit and every single person that meets Frieda falls in love."
Richey is a big fan of older pets.
"They just have so much character to them. I'm grateful to be the one to adopt Frieda," she said.
For more information on Best Friends, visit www.bestfriends.org. For more information on NKLA, visit www.nkla.org.
By mirrormmg June 21, 2014

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Q. Hello, I always wanted to come and book at this place if ever I will have a trip or vacation. May I know where the different branches are located?
A. Hi! Thank you so much for thinking about visiting the place and for sending your question. The National Hotel can be found in many areas and that is why we have a map or GPS section on our website. Just go to the location tab and see the lists of places where you can find us. If you see us in the place where you want to go to, click that location and a map will be presented to you showing you the way in how you can get to our place.
Q. Hi! I want to ask if it is possible to do bookings and reservations online?
A. Hello, thank you for your question. Yes, the National Hotel is open for reservations and bookings online. However, if you don't show up on our hotel lobby and front desk before the time given for check-in, the hotel will cancel your bookings to give way to others who are on the waitlist.
Q. Can I cancel my reservation?
A. Hi! Thank you so much for sending your message to us. Yes, you can cancel your bookings and reservations with us.
Q. Do you have a room with three separate beds?
A. Hi, thank you for sending us your question. Yes, the National Hotel has rooms available with three beds. If you want to check what they look like, you can go to the room tab on our website and see the different kinds of rooms that we offer along with their prices.
Q. Is it true that you have parks for pets?
A. Hello, thank you for messaging us. Yes, it is true that we are a pet-friendly hotel that offers a park for pets as well. If you have a pet and you want a place to stay in where you can bring your them, then National Hotel is perfect for you.


We've got that Friday feeling!
The stars of hit TV show Ru Pauls's Drag Race return to Dublin this evening.
Superstar Queens Sharon Needles and Alaska Thunderf**ck take to the Hangar stage tonight.
Youtube sensations Cimorelli are playing Abbey Street venue, the Academy tonight at 8pm.
Swedish rock-band Blues Pills are hitting up the Voodoo Lounge this evening.
This is your very last week to check out The Nightmare Realm at the RDS.
Spooky special effects, interactive sets and terrifying creatures will push the boundaries of your sanity. Are you brave enough?
Get the details here .
The Pavillion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire will be showing this special screening of Shakespeare's Richard II recorded live at The Globe Theatre, London.


All Seats occupied? Rent a trailer for the luggage.
Especially when buses are filled to the last seat, there is no or less room for luggage. In these cases—and depending on the bus—we recommend hiring the appropriate trailer. Let us advise you!
Leight trailers till totalweight of 750kg don't need any registration in the driver licence. Over this total weight of 750kg you need the cat. E in your driver licence.


The second novel by J. Stewart Willis was published in February 2018 with the title, DEADLY HIGHWAY. DEADLY HIGHWAY describes the work of the staff at a tech company in Northern Virginia as they prepare a proposal for a government contract to design the replacement for the Interstate Highway System. The work is under high pressure in that winning the contract will ensure the success of the company and its senior staff for years to come. The novel describes the…..
J. Stewart Willis Second Book, Deadly Highway, will be published early in 2018. It is a modern-day thriller featuring competitive people at a major tech company who ae working on a proposal for a massive new government contract. It has lots of government and business machinations as well as dramatic scenes including adultery, blackmail, drugs and death.
Gestation Seven, One Was Black and One Was White will be on display by Combined Book Exhibit at the 2018 Public Library Association Conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, March 21-23, The New York Rights Fair, May 2018, and the American Library Association Conference in New Orleans, June 21-26, 2018.
Welcome. My name is J. Stewart Willis, author of Gestation Seven: One Was Black and One Was White and Deadly Highway: Super Highway Beta 1.0. I'm so happy to have you as a visitor to my blog about my new books. These projects are very special to me, and I hope to share some of that excitement with you here. I'll be using this blog to interact with you about my books, expanding on some of the topics in it…..


@barrymon Also for my #mtsu Evolution in America course, on Jy 21!
Also for my #mtsu Evolution in America course, on Jy 21!
This entry was posted on June 13, 2018 at 11:11 am and is filed under digital marketing, PPC, SEO.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.


And for the inside I just stamped the trees in Mossy Meadow, but stamped off first. I didn't add a sentiment yet since I'm not sure who will get this.
Now it's your turn. Create your take on today's sample and share it with us over at the Facebook Group. Don't worry if you're not a member yet, just ask to join. We'd love to have you come over and play along with us! Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you have a great Tuesday!


Well, it's that time of year around here…for some reason the nasty bronchitis/cold/ick goes around in early spring down here, and I swear half the people I know are struggling through it right now. Being sick is, generally speaking, a rather unpleasant sort of thing, and I try to avoid it as much as possible. I've warded off this spring's epidemic with my favorite tea. Anything that can keep me writing and fighting is good in my book! And this tea has the benefit of being insanely delicious.
So. Here you are…Lemon Ginger Tea. Are you ready for this? It's really, really complicated.
Got that? Now here are the uber-difficult instructions. Squeeze the lemon into the hot water. Grate in about a teaspoon of fresh ginger, or toss in a few shakes of powdered ginger, or add a chunk or two of crystallized ginger (or heck, add crystallized ginger AND fresh ginger!). Add honey to taste. I like about 2 teaspoons. Stir. Enjoy.
That's all there is to it! It's incredibly powerful as an immune booster, because lemons have much more Vitamin C than oranges (and orange juice in cartons loses its Vitamin C due to denaturing in about a day after opening), and ginger is a huge help for respiratory and circulatory health. And of course honey is just a super food all on its own.
Now grab that cup of tea and go cozy up with a good book to write or read!


In the center - a portrait of the General from cavalry Platov M.I. against the background of the Bendery fortress and the cavalryman, above - the inscription «ПЛАТОВ М.И. 1753-1818 г.г.» (PLATOV M.I. 1753-1818), below - an image of a laurel branch.


Sponsored by National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), Catholic Schools Week (CSW) is an annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States. Schools typically observe the week with Masses and other activities for students, families, parishioners and community members. Through these events, schools focus on the value Catholic education provides to young people and its contributions to Church, local communities and the nation.
You can see videos and photos of this week's activities as they happen on: YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
If you share photos of our school's activity on social media publicly, please be sure to tag @olphindio on Facebook and Instagram and use hashtags #CSW19 and #CatholicEducation.


But my health is my priority! With Vintense, there are no limit. I can enjoy myself as I please and with no fear.
Living a balanced life with more time for your friends and leisure activities, less stress, making yourself useful, and stimulating social contacts are all important aspects of maintaining your health.
However, while the time and the opportunities to consume alcohol increase with age, excess must be avoided. Combining alcohol with certain medicines should also be avoided.
Vintense gives you all the benefits of wine without alcohol or any adverse impact on your health! You can enjoy moments of pleasure, good meals with your family and free time among friends without moderation.


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SCOOP Ratings Definition
IPO Buzz
IPO Index
IPO Pipeline
SCOOP Ratings
IPOs Recently Filed
IPO's by Managers
Secondary Offerings
2021 Pricings
Last 100 IPOs
QUIET PERIOD/LOCK-UP PERIOD
Quiet Period Expiration
Lock-Up Period Expiration
The IPO Buzz: IPO Heat and Light
by admin. Posted on April 7, 2013
Rally Software Development (RALY – proposed) is a Boulder, Colorado-based provider of cloud-based solutions for managing agile software development. Underwriters plan to price about 5.8 million shares at $11 to $13 each on Thursday evening. The IPO is expected to start trading on Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. All the shares are being offered by the company. Rally Software was formed in 2006. It has about 360 employees.
Last Trade: Marin Software (MRIN) is a San Francisco-based provider of a cloud-based digital advertising management platform that lets advertisers and agencies improve financial performance. On Jan. 30, underwriters priced 7.5 million shares at $14 each, up from 7 million shares at $11 to $13 each. The IPO opened on Jan. 31 at $19. It closed on Friday, April 5 at $15.12 – UP 8 percent from its IPO price.
Taylor Morrison Home (TMHC – proposed) is a Scottsdale, Arizona-based builder of single-family detached and attached homes. It also is a land developer. Taylor Morrison believes it will be the sixth-largest homebuilder in the United States. Underwriters plan to price about 23.8 million Class A common shares at $20 to $22 each on Tuesday evening. The IPO is expected to start trading on Wednesday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. All the shares are being offered by the company. Taylor Morrison, formed in 1936, has about 1,041 employees.
Last Trade: TRI Pointe Homes (TPH) is an Irvine, California-based builder of single-family homes in planned communities in major metropolitan areas located throughout Southern and Northern California. On Jan. 30, underwriters priced 13.7 million shares at $17 each, up from 11.7 million shares at $14 to $16 each. The IPO opened on Jan. 31 at $19.56. It closed on Friday, April 5, at $19.39 – UP 14.1 percent from its initial offering price.
Money Follows the Sun
EVERTEC (EVTC – proposed) is a San Juan, Puerto Rico–based full-service transaction-processing company doing business in Latin America and the Caribbean. Underwriters plan to price about 21.1 million shares at $18 to $20 each on Thursday evening. The IPO is expected to trade on Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. The company plans to offer 6.6 million shares and selling shareholders plan to sell 14.5 million shares. EVERTEC was formed in 1988. It has about 1,660 employees.
Last Trade: XOOM (XOOM) is a San Francisco-based online consumer-to-consumer international money-transfer provider. On Feb. 14, which was Valentine's Day, underwriters priced 6.3 million shares at $16 each, up from 5.8 million shares at $13 to $15 each. The IPO opened on Feb. 15 at $25.49. It closed on Friday, April 5, at $20.82 – UP 30.1 percent from its initial offering price.
Drugs and Oil
This brings us to the rest of this week's IPO calendar.
Overall, there are six IPOs expecting to raise about $1.3 billion. Two of the remaining three deals are biopharmaceutical companies: Chimerix (CMRX – proposed) and Omthera Pharmaceuticals (OMTH – proposed).
The third company – an oil shipper – could be interesting. Here's the lowdown.
KNOT Offshore Partners LP (KNOP – proposed) is a United Kingdom-based limited partnership formed to own, operate and acquire oil shuttle tankers under long-term charters. Underwriters plan to price 7.45 million Common Units at $19 to $21 each on Tuesday evening. The IPO is expected to start trading on Wednesday morning on the New York Stock Exchange.
From its prospectus: "We intend to make minimum quarterly distributions of $0.375 per common unit ($1.50 per unit on an annualized basis)."
That amounts to a yield of 7.5 percent, based upon the mid-point of its proposed price range.
This brings us to the following week, which will begin on Monday, April 15th, when most Americans with taxable income will have a date with the IRS. The calendar for the week of April 15th already has four IPOs expecting to raise about $1.2 billion.
The current IPO traffic – 10 deals expecting to raise $2.4 billion over this week and next – is not too shabby, considering that this time last week, the calendar was "clean and green."
Disclosure: Neither the author nor anyone else on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned, nor do we trade or invest in IPOs. The author and IPOScoop.com staff do not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.
This entry was posted in The IPO Buzz. Bookmark the permalink.
The IPO Buzz: Check Out the IPO Report Card
The IPO Buzz: A Blockbuster IPO Week
Disclaimer: A SCOOP Rating (Wall Street Consensus of Opening-day Premiums), is a general consensus taken, at press time, from Wall Street and investment professionals concerning how well an IPO might perform when it starts trading. The SCOOP Rating does not reflect the opinions of anyone associated with IPOScoop.com. The SCOOP ratings should not be taken as investment advice. The rating merely reflects the opinion of the professionals at the time of publication and is subject to last-minute changes due to market conditions, changes in a specific offering and other factors, such as changes in the proposed offering terms and the shifting of investor interest in the IPO. The information offered is taken from sources we believe to be reliable, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy.
Disclosure: Nobody on the IPOScoop.com staff has a position in any stocks mentioned above, nor do they trade or invest in IPOs. The IPOScoop.com staff does not issue advice, recommendations or opinions.
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Book Blitz ~ The Black Lilith Series Box Set by Hazel Jacobs
The Black Lilith Series Box Set
Hazel Jacobs
Contemporary Romance | Erotica
Jesh Nima Designs
Four novels containing epic love, secrets, friendships & sinfully sexy rock stars.
Amazon US | UK | AU | CA
This is such a true Rocker series you do not want to miss out on. ~ Amazon Reviewer
The only ending more perfect than this for the Black Lilith series would be to not end it at all! ~ Amazon Reviewer
Once I started reading there was no stopping. ~ Amazon Reviewer
Sigh, I love this series. Black Lilith forever! ~ Amazon Reviewer
Black Lilith
Book One
When Mikayla Strong graduated college, she expected to hit the ground running. Instead, she's stuck getting coffee and spellchecking contracts for BassNote Productions. She won't give up her dream of working in events management, but no matter how many hours she spends scrolling through job ads during her lunch breaks there just don't seem to be any jobs anymore.
A chance meeting with the drummer of Black Lilith, a hot new band getting ready for its first international tour, sends Mikayla careening out of her comfort zone and into a world of sex, drugs, and rock n roll. She goes from overqualified barista to overqualified PA overnight, and even though the band's lead singer, Logan Todd, pushes all of her buttons, Mikayla thinks she might just be able to make this new job work for her.
But Black Lilith isn't as tightknit as they seem in interviews. As Mikayla gets to know the four band members better, a web of lies and heartbreak begins to show itself. Between fans with knives, fights in hotel corridors, and the band's very strict 'no dating PAs' rule, Mikayla's growing attraction to Logan Todd may be the least of her problems. At this rate, she'll be lucky if she makes it to the end of the tour...
Book Two
Sersha Walsh is a gifted lyricist. She learned her craft on her mam's knee back in Galway, Ireland. After years as a successful freelancer she's ready to take on her first big client—Black Lilith—the rock band making waves around the world. But the band's bass player and current lyricist, Tommy, is less than thrilled to hear that the production company has hired Sersha. He's moody and distant, but there's a haunted look in his eyes that has Sersha dithering between wanting to kill him or kiss him.
Living out of a suitcase in the heart of Manhattan may sound romantic, but it's the sort of thing that can drain a girl, even one as bubbly as Sersha. Thankfully, Black Lilith's manager, Mikayla, seems determined to make Sersha feel at home. All the while, Sersha and Tommy grow closer, weaving poetry into music and sharing flirtatious looks over his battered notebook.
Just when things seem to be looking up, a ghost from Tommy's past surfaces, threatening to tear down the careful equilibrium that Black Lilith has built. Sersha will need to decide who to believe and who to trust when the time comes.
Make Me
Book Three
Harper Styles can't believe she's really doing this. It's one thing to take a job as an escort to pay her way through college. It's another thing to fly to Iowa and pretend to be some stranger's girlfriend so that he can get through a wedding without his family climbing all over him. She's outside of the airport when she meets possibly the most beautiful man she's ever seen.
Later, in the first class lounge, she realises that this man is her client: Slate, world-famous drummer for Black Lilith. Slate needs a girlfriend to deflect his parents' attention from his womanising, rockstar lifestyle. Unable to convince his best friends to lend him their girlfriends, he's resorted to hiring an escort to pretend to be his lover and smooth the rough relationship he has with his family. She asks him for his real name, but he gives her a coy smile that makes her weak at the knees.
He also makes it absolutely clear that he will not sleep with a woman he's paying – as long as she is technically his employee, he will not take advantage. But the chemistry between them is immediate. Harper can be anything a man needs, but she's starting to realise that what Slate really needs is a woman to break through his walls.
Sinful Rhythms
Book Four
Tessa Hunt is a former English major and current barista who's stuck working at Starbucks. She's got a huge family she loves, a pile of books in her 'to be read' pile, and a best friend she's never met. D came into her life accidentally via an X-rated picture sent to the wrong number one late night five months ago, and the pair of them have been trading texts and secrets ever since.
When D invites her to finally meet at a rock concert, in person, because he has a job opportunity for her, she discovers that her hilarious dorky best friend D is the world-famous Dash Todd, from Black Lilith. The job he's lined up for her is shadowing Black Lilith for their Sinful Rhythms tour and writing an article about them for Rolling Stone! That's the sort of thing that launches careers.
But when Tessa tries to coax Dash into a more serious relationship, she realizes that things aren't as easy as she thought they would be. Dash makes her weak in knees, but he goes cold the moment she tries to get serious. After so many years of effortless sex with groupies, she can hardly blame him for wanting to avoid commitment.
When another man vies for Tessa's attention, she needs to decide whether to pursue a relationship with someone who is actually interested or to wait for her rockstar best friend.
Hazel Jacobs is a passionate fan of romance novels and a crazy fan of rock and roll. Never trained as a writer, she began creative writing as a hobby. That quickly evolved into a mission to pen a novel that brings a new generation of readers into the wild realm of loud music and total passion.
Facebook | Amazon | Instagram | Twitter | Goodreads
Email: authorhazeljacobs@yahoo.com
The Wit & Wonder Agency
Labels: All or Nothing, Black Lilith, Book Blitz, Contemporary Romance, Erotic Romance, Hazel Jacobs, Make Me, Rock Romance, Series Blitz, Sinful Rhythms, The Black Lilith Series


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Most gold deposits were produced by earthquakes
Filed to:Geology
A new study by Australian geologists has shown that over 80% the world's commercial gold deposits were generated in a flash process, the result of depressurizing earthquakes that rapidly converted mineral-rich fluids into precious veins of gold.
The process is called flash vaporization. Deep below the Earth's crust, at depths ranging from three to 18 miles (5-30 km), fluid-filled fault cavities are subject to extreme temperatures and pressure. These fluids are rich in dissolved substances like gold and silicate minerals. But for those deposits located near fault lines, an earthquake can create a dramatic drop in pressure which forces the fluid to expand to as much as 130,000 times its former size — and in the blink of an eye.
The researchers, a team consisting of Dion Weatherley and Richard Henley, found that this depressurization process causes trapped fluids to expand to a very low-density vapor. This 'flash' effect results in the rapid deposition of silica, along with gold-enriched quartz veins.
From New Scientist:
The fluid cannot get from the surrounding rock into the hole fast enough to fill the void, Henley says, so pressure drops from 3000 times atmospheric pressure to pressures almost the same as those at Earth's surface in an instant. The nearby fluid flash-vaporises as a result – and any minerals it contains are deposited as it does.
Later, incoming fluid dissolves some of the minerals, but the less-soluble ones, including gold, accumulate as more episodes of quake-driven flash deposition occur.
"Large quantities of gold may be deposited in only a few hundred thousand years," says Weatherley – a brief interval by geological standards. "Each event drops a little more gold," adds Henley. "You can see it microscopically, tiny layer after tiny layer. It just builds up."
They calculate that large earthquakes can deposit as much as 0.1 milligrams of gold along each square meter of a fault zone's surface in a fraction of a second. Eventually, over the course of many thousands of years, these deposits begin to accumulate. The researchers estimate, for example, that active faults can produce a 100-metric-ton deposit of gold in less than 100,000 years.
Read the entire study at Nature Geoscience. More at Nature News and New Scientist.
Image: Shutterstock/farbled.


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Galton and the History of Counting, shared by Bill Rafter
Very interesting article on Galton:
One, two, many: The prehistory of counting
The Victorian idea that "primitive" tribes can't count has cast a long shadow over efforts to understand the origins of mathematics
LOOKING back, Francis Galton would call it "our most difficult day". It was 4 March 1851, and the young English explorer was beginning to appreciate the obstacles confronting his attempts to map out the Lake Ngami region of south-western Africa. Struggling to navigate a narrow ridge of jagged rock, his wagon had "crashed and thundered and thumped" while his oxen "charged like wild buffaloes".
To make matters worse, Galton had little faith in his local guides from the Damara tribe, who appeared to lack even an understanding of basic arithmetic - a situation Galton found "very annoying". He recounts that having established an exchange rate of one sheep for two sticks of tobacco, he handed four sticks to a local herdsman in the expectation of purchasing two sheep. Having put two sticks in front of the first sheep, the man seemed surprised that two sticks remained to pay for the second. "His mind got hazy and confused," Galton reported, and the transaction had to be abandoned and the sheep purchased separately.
As further evidence of the apparent ignorance of the Damara, Galton wrote that they "use no numeral greater than three" and that they managed to keep track of their oxen only by recognising their faces, rather than by counting them. At a most inopportune time for his expedition, Galton seemed to have stumbled into a world without numbers.
To a modern reader, these tales in Galton's 1853 Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa seem little more than pithy anecdotes that reflect his prejudices as a gentleman of the growing Victorian empire. (His preoccupation with the supposed inferiority of other peoples persisted in his later work in eugenics.) Within 10 years, however, those same reports of primitive innumeracy were being used by the finest scientific minds of Victorian Britain to glimpse the savage condition of prehistoric humans.
Victor Niederhoffer writes:
This seems wrong to criticize Galton. What am I missing?
Steve Stigler writes:
The author is a 1st year PhD student at Princeton who isn't even working on Galton, and writes carelessly without knowledge. See his bio. He looks bright but has a lot to learn.