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Is water carriage associated with the water carrier’s health? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative evidence
  1. Jo-Anne Lee Geere1,
  2. Moa Cortobius2,
  3. Jonathan Harold Geere3,
  4. Charlotte Christiane Hammer1,
  5. Paul R Hunter1,4
  1. 1Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
  2. 2Stockholm International Water Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
  3. 3Physiotherapy Department, Spire Hospital, Norwich, UK
  4. 4Department of Environmental Health, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa
  1. Correspondence to Dr Paul R Hunter; paul.hunter{at}

Introduction The work of carrying water falls mainly on women and children, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and rural areas. While concerns have been raised, how water carriage is associated with health of the water carrier is not clear. The aim of this review is to summarise evidence on whether, and how, water carriage is associated with the water carrier’s health.

Methods A systematic review of literature was conducted, searching Embase; Medline; Web of Science Social Sciences Citation Index; Web of Science Arts and Humanities Citation Index; International Initiative for Impact Evaluation website; WHO Virtual Health Sciences Library and WHO African index medicus, from inception to 8 November 2017.

Results Forty-two studies were included. Their ability to demonstrate cause and effect relationships was limited by study design and fair or poor methodological quality. Overall, the studies suggest that water carriage is associated with negative aspects of the water carriers’ health. There is moderate quantitative and strong qualitative evidence that water carriage is associated with pain, fatigue, perinatal health problems and violence against vulnerable people, and inconclusive evidence of an association with stress or self-reported mental health and general health status.

Conclusion In many circumstances, water carriage is a potential barrier to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 target ‘universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all’ and SDG 3 ‘ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’. Efforts should focus on providing water on premises, and where this is not possible, providing water close to home and reducing risk of gender-based violence.

  • public health
  • maternal health
  • child health
  • other infection, disease, disorder, or injury
  • systematic review

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Key questions

What is already known?

  • Water carriage work falls mainly on women and children, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and rural areas.

  • Water is often carried in addition to other loads, and it may not be the heaviest or key porterage task leading to health issues.

What are the new findings?

  • Moderate quantitative and strong qualitative evidence indicates that water carriage is associated with pain, fatigue, perinatal health problems and violence against vulnerable people, while the evidence that water carriage is associated with stress and general health is inconclusive.

What do the new findings imply?

  • Efforts to improve access to safe drinking water should focus on achieving ‘safely managed’ water on premises.

  • Where water fetching must continue, strategies to reduce risk of harm should focus on providing water close to home and reducing risk of gender-based violence.

Historically, the focus of water and health research has been on management of water quality and risk or prevalence of infectious disease. However, health is defined more broadly as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’.1 More recently, interest in the work of carrying water from sources located away from the home, or ‘off-plot’, has been raised by WHO, Unicef2 3 and the International Labour Organisation.4 Understanding how water carriage is associated with health is relevant to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, target 1 ‘universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all’,5 and SDG 3, which aims to ensure ‘healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’.6 Adverse health impacts of water carriage are likely to have implications for SDGs 1 (end poverty in all its forms), 4 (quality education), 5 (gender equality), 8 (decent work and economic growth), 10 (reduced inequalities) and 16 (promote peaceful and inclusive societies).7 They would also make water access inequitable for those obtaining water off-plot compared with people with safe water piped into their homes, and directly create inequity in relation to SDG 3.

Previous research has demonstrated an association between distance or time to water source and health of children in the home, as indicated by diarrhoeal disease, and child anthropometrics and mortality.8–10 Stelmach and Clasen11 reviewed the association between water quantity and health. In low-income countries, incidence of trachoma and gastrointestinal-related disease improved with increased quantity of water in the home, and in high-income countries, higher levels of water consumption were associated with renal and bladder cancer, but not type II diabetes. What is absent from these studies of distance to water source and increased household water quantity, is investigation of how these factors affect the health of the person who brings water into the home. It is clear that women and children most commonly collect and carry water home for household use,3 12 13 often by carrying 20–25 L containers on their head14 or by other methods such as loading a number of containers into a wheelbarrow.15 16 While concerns have been raised, what remains unclear, is how the work of water carriage is associated with the health of the water carrier. With more attention focused on this issue in recent years, a review of the published literature to summarise what is currently known and identify gaps in the existing knowledge base is timely. Therefore, a systematic review of published literature was conducted with the aim of answering the review question: ‘Is the work of water carriage associated with the health of individuals who fetch and carry water for household use?’

A systematic review of literature was undertaken to identify research investigating the relationship between water carriage and health.

Search strategy and selection criteria

A search of electronic databases was conducted from inception to 8 November 2017 by one reviewer (JLG). Seven electronic databases were accessed: Embase; Medline; Web of Science Social Sciences Citation Index selecting public, occupational and environmental health themes; Web of Science Arts and Humanities Citation Index; grey literature databases provided by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (, the WHO Virtual Health Sciences Library ( and the WHO African index medicus. Experts in the field of water access and health were also contacted to identify relevant literature and reference lists of included papers were checked for relevant papers.

One researcher (JLG) independently exported titles and abstracts of all retrieved citations into endnote (X7) and removed duplicates. Retrieved titles and abstracts were evaluated against predefined inclusion criteria by two reviewers (JLG and PRH). Studies were included in the review if they reported quantitatively measured variables or qualitative reports related to the work of fetching water from an off-plot or out of home source and carrying it back home and included some measurement or qualitative appraisal of the health of the person who performed the water carriage work. Studies were excluded if they did not present any quantitative or qualitative analysis of the relationship between water carriage and health of people who perform water carriage work.

Inclusion criteria

  • Quantitative research reporting the relationship between variables related to the physical work of carrying filled water containers and variables related to the health of the water carrier.

  • Qualitative research where people who carry water report the effect of water carriage on their own health or the health of others who carry water.

  • Studies reported in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish or Turkish.

Exclusion criteria

  • Studies reporting health only of children aged 5 or less, because children of this age are much less likely to carry significant water for household use.

  • Studies reporting variables related to water access and water carrying, but not reporting health of the water carrier other than prevalence or indicators of infectious or vectorborne diseases.

  • Article with a topic focus on sanitation, hygiene, water source type and water source or household water contamination or treatment, without data on the work of water carriage and health of water carriers.

  • Article with information on ‘water insecurity’ and health, without any data about the association between physically carrying water containers (as an aspect of water security) and health, disaggregated from other aspects of water insecurity (such as limited water quantity or quality).

Advanced searches were conducted using key terms combined with boolean operators to maximise search sensitivity. Terms were also mapped to medical subject headings (MeSH) in Medline and Embase. Truncation terms and searches in all fields ‘.af’ were used to maximise search sensitivity in each database where possible (online supplementary appendix 1).

Supplemental material

Data analysis

Summary measures, statistics and qualitative themes reported in the studies were diverse, and findings are presented as reported in each study. Where studies separately presented analyses of multiple risk factors or independent variables, and multiple outcomes or dependent variables, only findings which reported the relationship between variables related to the work of water carriage and health outcomes of the water carrier were extracted.

No studies were excluded on the basis of methodological quality, which was appraised independently by two reviewers: JLG and CH for qualitative aspects of studies, and JLG and JHG for quantitative aspects of studies. Where differences in quality scores could not be agreed, a third reviewer (PRH) was consulted to achieve consensus. The US Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Quality Assessment tool for observational cohort and cross-sectional studies17 was used for 26 studies which reported quantitative data, and the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) tool18 was used for 21 studies which were qualitative or of mixed methods and reporting a qualitative component to the study.

Meta-analysis was planned. However, the studies included in the review were too heterogeneous to perform a meta-analysis, because of differences in the characteristics of study samples, and exposure variables or outcomes measured, therefore a narrative synthesis was completed. A wide variety of systems to grade the strength of evidence gathered in systematic reviews have been reported, however most place emphasis on a hierarchy of research design considered most robust for determining the effectiveness of a clinical intervention.19 We therefore used a system reported by Hoogendoorn et al,20 to rate the strength of evidence from observational cohort and case-referent studies, considering study quality, number and consistency of findings. We modified the approach by Hoogendoorn et al by applying it to the synthesis of cross-sectional and qualitative studies, and incorporating the NIH and CASP ratings of study quality, because we aimed to identify whether water carriage is associated with reported health problems, even if it were not possible to establish a cause and effect relationship. There was no funding source for this study.

Nineteen thousand, seven hundred and fifty-eight titles were retrieved through the electronic database searches (figure 1). Once duplicates were removed, 12 131 articles remained for further screening of abstracts and titles against the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Of these, 11 789 articles were excluded (305 remained), because the title and abstract clearly indicated that the content was irrelevant to the purpose of this review; or because health outcomes were reported only for children aged 5 years or less or for cases of infectious disease; or they reported only sanitation and hygiene practices or household water supply type without information about water source location (ie, does not indicate need for water fetching work). A further 37 papers were flagged electronically while retrieving full-text papers from the databases, identified in reference lists of retrieved papers or obtained from contacting water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) experts.

Figure 1

Study selection (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses 2009).

In total, the full text of 342 articles was obtained for review against the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Of these, 300 were excluded because they did not include data on either the work of water fetching or health of water carriers or both. Articles which focused on the health impact of physical contact with water at the point of collection, for example, reporting prevalence of schistosomiasis infection and observed or reported water contact time during water fetching activities, were also excluded because such studies do not provide information on the association between health and the work of carrying water containers home. In total, 42 articles were included in the review, which reported associations with the health of water carriers and the work of water carriage.

Twenty-six studies collected quantitative data.14 21–45 The overall methodological quality of the studies, in terms of their capacity to demonstrate a cause and effect relationship between the work of water carriage and health was rated as fair (6 studies) or poor (19 studies), only one was rated as good (table 1). The key reasons for low-quality ratings were the use of cross-sectional study design, lack of evidence to support the reliability and validity of exposure or outcome measures, lack of outcome assessor blinding and failure to include confounding factors in analyses.

Table 1

Quality appraisal cohort studies (National Institutes of Health critical appraisal tool)

Twenty-one studies reported qualitative data23 26 31 32 34 35 44 46–59 (table 2). While almost all seemed to have appropriately chosen a qualitative research design to meet their aims and provided a clear statement of research findings, there was often insufficient information reported to determine whether recruitment, data collection and analysis were appropriate and sufficiently rigorous. The influence of the researcher and ethical issues were also not clearly reported in most of the studies. We rated studies as ‘good’ if six or more of the appraisal criteria scored a ‘yes’ response, fair if four or five criteria had yes responses and poor if three or fewer had yes responses. The scoring process resulted in 12 of the studies being rated as of good quality, 5 of fair quality and 4 rated as poor quality.

Table 2

Quality appraisal studies reporting qualitative data (CASP tool)

The articles reported health and social outcomes including bodily pain, energy expenditure or fatigue, stress or mental well-being, perinatal health and access to healthcare services, lack of safety or discrimination related to social vulnerability and general health status. The studies reporting social outcomes of safety and discrimination were included because of the clear and likely direct impact of the reported social factors on the water carrier’s physical or psychological health. The reported health outcomes are grouped for comparison under key themes: bodily pain, energy expenditure and fatigue, stress and mental well-being, perinatal health, social vulnerability and general health.

There is moderate evidence from quantitative data and strong evidence from qualitative data of an association between water carriage and self-reported pain or injury (tables 3 and 4). Sixteen reports of 15 studies14 26 28 29 31–33 39 43 46 47 52–54 58 59 included people within their study samples whose experience of water carriage was associated qualitatively, or through quantitative analysis, with pain, injury or risk of injury (table 5). The significantly reduced distance walked and time spent for water fetching among head-loading water carriers who reported pain, compared with those who did not report pain, was interpreted by Geere et al,14 as an indication of pain-related disability. They suggested that people who experienced pain during water fetching may reduce the length of time they are exposed to the loading force, while those without pain or with lower levels of pain may be able to collect water from greater distances. Although their study was limited by a small sample size, their findings are supported by the studies including qualitative data derived from people who collect water. They are also supported by the findings of Rauniyar et al,29 who attributed a significant 5% reduction in the ‘drudgery’ of water fetching among the lowest socioeconomic group to water supply projects, and the findings of Porter et al,60 who found high proportions of children reporting pain as a direct result of load-carrying, which particularly for girls, included water carriage by head loading. However, as highlighted by Porter et al,60 61 individuals in low-income and middle-income countries carry diverse loads, and water may not be the heaviest load carried. Because none of the studies took this into account in their analyses, the effects of manual labour in addition to water carriage may confound the apparent associations between water carriage and pain.

Table 3

Strength of evidence from quantitative data

Table 4

Strength of evidence from qualitative data

Table 5

Water carriage and pain or injury

In a recent study, Geere et al43 did not find an association between pain in the previous 7 days and history of water carriage, but did find that among people reporting pain, the area of the body in which pain was experienced was associated with a history of water carriage. Ten studies14 26 28 29 31–33 43 53 58 included some indication of the areas of the body in which water carriers experienced pain, with back and neck pain commonly reported. Geere et al43 found that participants reported multiple areas of pain, and that pain areas were correlated. Principal component analysis explained 55% of the variance in pain locations and extracted two factors correlated with patterns of pain distribution. The factor ‘axial compression’ was correlated with head, upper back, chest/rib, hands and abdomen/stomach pain. The association was proposed to indicate detrimental impacts of axial spinal loading, because participants who had previously or currently carried water had a mean increase in axial compression factor score compared with people who had never carried water, and the association was stronger among head loaders compared with those using other methods of water carriage. The factor ‘soft tissue strain’ was correlated with neck, upper limb pain, lower back and lower limb pain, and was slightly negatively associated with those having history of water carriage. While these findings may seem to contradict earlier data reporting complaints of neck and back pain during water carriage, the ‘axial compression’ pain pattern associated with water carriage was interpreted as pain referral from an underlying neck disorder.

All studies relied on self-report of pain, which is appropriate and necessary as pain is a subjective and emotional experience.62 Self-reported pain intensity scales have been shown to be valid and reliable for use in clinical trials to evaluate pain severity caused by a range of medical conditions,63–65 however, only one of the studies reported findings based on a pain intensity scale,33 and the scale was not clearly defined in the published report. No other studies qualified participants’ reports of pain in terms of its quality, severity or effect on functioning. Qualification of pain is important because it is a common phenomenon, and can range from mild intensity which does not affect functioning or quality of life to severe pain which is disabling and/or reduces quality of life. Studies should focus on whether the work of water carriage is associated with pain which is of a quality or intensity sufficient to impair functioning or reduce quality of life.66

Seven studies included qualitative reports from participants, in which they associated physical injury with water fetching,31 32 46 47 53 58 59 and four described fear of injury due to water carriage along routes or from locations frequented by dangerous animals.31 32 39 59 One study reported three cases of a child drowning at open wells or ponds,31 participants in another study reported fear or risk of being swept away or drowning during floods32 and a further study included participants who had witnessed people struck by moving vehicles while fetching water.58

There is moderate evidence of an association between fatigue or tiredness and water carriage from quantitative data (table 3) and strong evidence from qualitative data (table 4). Five of 11 studies (12 publications) reporting tiredness, fatigue or exhaustion affecting water carriers (table 6), described associations with worsened family relationships,57 poorer health status24 26 and reduced engagement with education.32 58 Two studies measured energy expenditure.25 28 As an index of total energy expenditure, Rao et al25 described drawing water as moderate physical activity, and carrying two containers on the head as heavy physical activity, while Borah et al28 categorised drawing and carrying water home as moderately to very heavy. However, the energy expenditure measurements were done on very small samples of women in India, and may not be generalisable to other populations. Together with other studies in this review, which found that rating of perceived exertion is correlated with weight of water carried and path incline,14 that energy expenditure for water carriage may be most important in food scarce regions47 and that water points which reduce water fetching increase birth rates,24 current evidence highlights that the energetic cost of water carriage has potentially detrimental effects on health and well-being, manifesting as tiredness or fatigue.

Table 6

Water carriage and energy expenditure or fatigue

We found inconclusive evidence that water carriage is associated with stress from quantitative data (table 3) and strong evidence from qualitative data (table 4). Two rigorous qualitative studies,34 57 and one fair quality36 and two poor quality27 34 cross-sectional surveys, reported water carriage to be associated with stress (table 7). In these studies, psychosocial distress was identified as an effect of water carriage by thematic analysis, and measured using three different questionnaires and by quantification of hair cortisol content as a biomarker for chronic stress. Despite the different indicators of stress, all of the studies elucidated mechanisms by which water carriage might cause stress. These included feeling unsafe during water collection,36 having insufficient time for family members to spend with each other or discuss household issues,57 the physical difficulty of water carriage with a young child,27 risk of physical assault or rape, extremes of temperature, queueing times and inability to complete household tasks triggering arguments between married couples.34 Considering issues related to social vulnerability which are discussed below, it is plausible that water carriers experience stress related to fear of conflict or abuse.48 However, one good quality cohort study failed to find any significant association with respondents’ mental well-being or life satisfaction and connection to a piped water supply, among participants with above median time spent fetching water at baseline.30 One mixed methods study failed to find an association between emotional distress and water fetching time, even though participants found water collection to be ‘bothersome’ because of having to collect water at night.44 The findings of these studies are inconsistent with the others, however, they should be considered with some caution. The outcome measurement of mental well-being in the study by Devoto et al30 was derived from a composite score and its validity and reliability for use with the study population was not reported, and while socioeconomic status was included, other potential confounding factors which might affect mental health and life satisfaction were not included in the analyses. The average one way time to the water source in the case study by Thomas and Godfrey44 was <3 min.

Table 7

Water carriage and stress, mental well-being or life satisfaction

There is moderate quantitative evidence that perinatal health is associated with water carriage (table 3) and strong qualitative evidence (table 4). Six studies reported different aspects of perinatal health to be associated with water carriage (table 8). Two qualitative papers reported physical strain and non-specific ‘health complications’ from carrying 20 L water containers on the head during pregnancy50 52 and one reported mothers’ views that being forced to fetch water in late pregnancy led to malnourished children.55 Quantitative studies reported reduced uptake of prenatal care services,22 six times greater odds (our calculation) of giving birth in a health facility when a husband provided help with water fetching38 and almost four times greater odds of giving birth in any given month, among women with an improved water supply closer to their home compared with those without improved water supply.24 Gibson and Mace24 described the improved water access as an ‘energy saving’ intervention which reduced distance to water and women’s time spent water fetching. They concluded that the energy saved by the technology did not translate into an improved nutritional status for women, because it supported an increase in birth rates. While the study found a negative consequence of the increased birth rate to be increased childhood malnutrition, it nevertheless indicates a potentially detrimental impact of maternal health associated with water carriage; it suggests that prior to installation of taps the exertion of water carriage affected women’s health enough to reduce birth rates, as compared with birth rates post-tap installation. While Gibson and Mace did not include nutritional interventions as possible confounding factors in their multivariable analysis, and McCray’s22 outcome measure could have been affected by recall and therefore misclassification bias, the six studies provide evidence that water fetching could be significantly associated with perinatal health outcomes through behavioural and physiological mechanisms.

Table 8

Water carriage and perinatal health

There is moderate quantitative evidence and strong qualitative evidence that vulnerable people are at risk of discrimination or physical, sexual and psychological abuse while they collect water (tables 3 and 4). The studies in this review provide rich qualitative evidence in good,49 51 54 55 57 fair31 47 48 and poor quality studies32 50 58 from 31 countries, and good,30 fair31 37 or poor31 32 35 41 42 quantitative evidence from 6 countries (table 9). People may be vulnerable because of age, gender, disability, health status or ethnicity.

Table 9

Water carriage and social vulnerability

There is inconclusive evidence of a relationship between water carriage and self-rating of general health, because of inconsistent findings in the five studies (tables 3 and 4). There is an indication of a dose-response relationship between water carriage and self-rating of health in three21 23 26 of the five studies reporting general health of water carriers, with greater amounts of time spent water fetching linked with poorer health for both children and adults (table 10). These findings were inconsistent with those of Geere et al,43 who found that adults who currently or previously carried water, had a better (lower=healthier) mean general health rating score than adults who never carried water, while children who currently carried water reported better, and children who previously carried water reported worse health, compared with children who had never carried water. In qualitative data from an earlier pilot study, Geere et al46 found that some children linked water carriage to better health and stronger resilience to diseases such as ‘influenza’, others to meeting basic needs and some to experiencing unfair workloads.

Table 10

Water carriage and general health

The inconsistencies may be due to different methods used for participants to rate their general health, and differences in confounding factors incorporated into the analyses. In the three of four studies which attempted to scale or categorise health status,21 23 26 recall of occasions of illness or comparison of current to previous health status was required of respondents. This may introduce bias or error to the classification of health status, weakening internal validity of the studies and rendering the findings inaccurate.17 Self-rated health ‘today’ on a simple 5-point scale has been found to have high test-retest reliability and to be an excellent predictor of future health in some studies, however, reliability of self-rated health status has also been shown to be affected by age, income and occupation in some populations.67 Hemson’s26 findings may therefore have been influenced by recall and confounding factors, because the statistics presented are descriptive and lack analysis of the effect of variables such as age, gender and socioeconomic status. These variables were considered in the regression analyses reported by Bour,21 Foggin et al23 and Geere et al,43 with Foggin et al reporting a very strong association between increased time spent water fetching and poorer general health. However, other potential confounding factors which were not included in analyses, such as hygiene practices, access to healthcare or sanitation coverage, could have influenced the results in all studies. No studies used a longitudinal cohort design to determine a temporal relationship between water fetching and health status, and all could have been affected by confounding factors which were not included in analyses.

This is the first systematic review of the association of the work of water carriage with the health of water carriers. Forty-two studies were included in the review. Direct detrimental health impacts were mainly reported, such as increased pain, fatigue and stress. Indirect detrimental health impacts were also reported and were related to perinatal health and social vulnerability. These included serious health issues such as physical abuse and rape. The ability of the studies reporting quantitative data to demonstrate a cause and effect relationship is limited because of study design and fair or poor methodological quality. The only cohort study in the review rated as good30 was of limited value, as in the main analyses of the health effects of ‘encouragement’ and actual household connection to piped water supply, people carrying water by container were not disaggregated from those connected by hose to a public tap or neighbour, the health outcome measures reported for relevant subgroup analyses were limited and confounding factors did not include other forms of manual labour. A greater number of studies reporting qualitative data were rated as having good methodological quality, and while these provide insight into the lived experience of fetching water, they cannot provide strong evidence of a causal relationship, as the actual experience of pain or other health effects may be mediated by confounding factors and bias. Overall, the evidence in this review indicates that the work of water carriage is more often associated with harm rather than benefit to the water carriers’ health. Our findings indicate that the health outcomes associated with water carriage create barriers to achieving the targets of many of the SDGs.

Qualitative studies clearly indicate that water carriers experience pain and feel exposed to risk of injury during water carriage, which is commonly performed by carrying containers on the head. The findings are supported by Lloyd et al,68 who reported that discomfort in the neck was, in all cases, the cause of early termination of head-loading trials during a laboratory experiment. Geere et al43 proposed that the pain pattern they observed to be associated with water carriage might indicate referred pain as a consequence of tissue deformation under compressive loading, or long-term structural changes such as cervical spondylosis. Evidence of advanced cervical spondylosis has been reported among porters and people who apply loads to the head (head loading),69–71 suggesting that this common method of water carriage may be sufficient to cause structural changes in bone and the soft tissues of the spine. Such changes have been proposed in experimental studies to occur as a consequence of biomechanical stress and strain.72 Particularly in the cervical spine, spondylosis may lead to neurological impairment, such as radiculopathy or myelopathy, and related disability.73 74 However, none of the studies reporting pain or injury affecting water carriers were longitudinal cohort studies. Hence, it remains unknown whether the loading patterns typical of domestic water carriage, by head loading or other methods, are sufficient to have important long-term effects on the musculoskeletal system and to increase risk of neurological compromise. This question is particularly important for populations in sub-Saharan Africa, where other risk factors for myelopathy, including nutritional or infectious diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis or schistosomiasis, are also common75–77 and may increase susceptibility to adverse impacts of head loading. It is also important to recognise that many people will carry diverse loads in addition to water,60 and future studies should include detail of other head loading and manual labour as potential factors confounding the effects of water carriage.

No studies attempted to conduct any detailed clinical assessment of their study participants,78 or reported excluding participants with long-term health conditions which might cause pain and modify an association between symptoms and water carriage. This may be due to the practical and ethical challenges of conducting clinical assessments in areas of limited health services coverage, the likely situation in many areas where water carriage studies would typically be conducted.6 However, future studies would be strengthened by incorporating some aspects of clinical assessment to supplement self-reported health outcomes. For example, a medical history could be combined with evaluation of whether movement, compression stress or palpation of pain sensitive structures provokes symptoms comparable to those experienced during water carriage.79 This would help to identify a likely cause of symptoms and could confirm whether mechanical loading during water carriage is a plausible mechanism of pain production in study participants.

This review has found moderate quantitative and strong qualitative evidence that tiredness or fatigue is associated with water carriage. Head loading by African women has been described as an energy efficient way of carrying loads.80 81 However, one study tested the ‘free ride’ hypothesis for head loads compared with back loads, and found that it was not generalisable, with significant individual differences in energetic cost.82 In larger households, or those caring for young children, aged parents or people living with disability or long-term conditions, their need for water may be high and water carriage may become a demanding daily chore, particularly if it falls on one woman or her children. Differences in the capacity of individuals to meet their household’s need for water will influence water security and could exacerbate interhousehold and intercommunity inequalities of water access, a direct challenge to SDG 6 target 6.1 ‘universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all’.5

We found inconclusive quantitative and strong qualitative evidence that stress is associated with water carriage. Qualitative evidence highlighted that the experience of stress associated with water carriage could be due to reduced family time and poorer interpersonal relationships, conflicts which arise in the community or at home over water use and domestic tasks, the physical challenges of collecting water and lack of safety. Water fetching is also indirectly linked to stress, by increasing water insecurity, and feelings of worry or shame from inability to keep oneself or one’s children clean, or complete expected household chores such as laundry, cleaning and cooking. The one good quality cohort study in this review did not find a significant effect of connection to a piped water supply on respondents’ mental health or life satisfaction, however, their mental health index was derived from the average of three separate measures of well-being, and its reliability and validity for use in the study population is not clear. While socioeconomic confounding factors were included in the analyses, other factors which may have also affected mental health and well-being in the population studied, were not included in the analysis. Overall, our findings are similar to a review of water insecurity and psychosocial stress,83 and highlight that reducing the work of water carriage has potential to benefit women’s and children’s mental health in settings where water carriage is physically challenging, unsafe or exacerbates water insecurity. This aligns with SDG target 3.4 to ‘promote mental health and well-being’6 and further good quality cohort or intervention studies, using valid and reliable outcome measures of stress, mental health and well-being are warranted.

The moderate quantitative and strong qualitative evidence that water carriage can affect perinatal health and reduce uptake of health services is particularly relevant to SDG 3 targets 1 and 2, to reduce maternal and new born deaths, and 7, ensure access to reproductive healthcare services. Fetching water also sets the scene in which health risks due to social vulnerability are realised. Vulnerable people include women, children, displaced people, people with disability and people living with HIV AIDS. It is likely that cases of abuse are under-reported, due to shame and fear of further discrimination or reprisals against the victim or their family, and ineffective or inappropriate policing and support services.48 Older adults are also vulnerable, as they may not be capable of collecting enough water from off-plot sources because of age-related health problems, and may lack support from younger family members for fetching water.84 85 Future studies should investigate how to reduce social vulnerability and ensure safe access to safe water, and are needed to strengthen the existing evidence base and identify ways to meet the ‘universal’ aspect of SDG 6, target 6.1.

Study findings differ on the association between general health and water carriage. Apart from differences in study design, the perceived and reported general health impact of water carriage may also be mediated by whether the work is perceived as ‘normal’, whether it allows basic needs to be met and by how well the workload matches the water carrier’s physical capacity for work and the comparative workload of other people.46 In the study which reported a rating of health ‘today’,43 the association of better health with current or past water carriage might indicate a selection process, whereby healthier people are allocated the task of fetching water. It may also indicate a beneficial health effect of regular physical activity undertaken since adolescence.86 Overall, the findings on general health from studies in this review are inconsistent and therefore provide inconclusive evidence. However, in light of this review’s findings in relation to other domains of health, further research with longitudinal cohort studies is warranted.

Our review has used a sensitive search strategy to identify published reports in academic and grey literature. While one good quality cohort study evaluating the impact of connection to piped water supply was found, its findings were of limited value for the review. A limitation of our review is that we did not contact study authors for additional information or data. All other studies were either qualitative or used cross-sectional surveys, and we therefore cannot make causal inferences. However, the qualitative studies included in this review provide insight into people’s experiences of water fetching and the mechanisms by which it might affect their health, and together with the substantial number of cross-sectional studies reporting that water carriage is negatively associated with health outcomes, indicate that further good quality research is warranted.

The design of future studies should ideally evaluate the temporal relationship between water carriage (exposure) and health (outcome) to evaluate cause and effect, or use randomisation and control groups or villages to reduce risk of confounding and bias. They should also include multivariable analyses of important potential confounding factors, such as socioeconomic level, health status and comorbidities, manual labour and carriage of loads other than water.87 Studies should incorporate standardised, valid and reliable methods of exposure and outcome measurement, including measured time spent carrying water, weight of water carried, frequency of water carriage, years of exposure and methods of water carriage. Health outcome measures should be piloted for reliability and validity of use in the study populations, and include severity, duration, location and functional impact of pain, as well as indicators of fatigue, stress, mental health and general health, social vulnerability and perinatal healthcare access. Clinical assessment by trained health workers could supplement self-reported outcome measures to support better evaluation of the health status of study participants against selection criteria, at baseline assessment and follow-up. While the challenges of limiting the effects of confounding and bias in WASH research are well recognised,88 a stronger body of evidence derived from good quality studies with comparable health outcome measures will allow future reviews to better evaluate risk of bias, more precisely estimate measures of treatment or intervention effect and conduct sensitivity analyses to reduce risk of overall bias.

Through its association with pain, fatigue, stress and reduced access to perinatal healthcare services, the existing evidence suggests that water carriage is a potentially important barrier to achievement of many health targets set for SDG 3. Because in most households of low-income and middle-income countries, it is women and girls who fetch water for household use, it will also compromise SDGs related to gender equality, quality education for all and reducing inequalities. Because water is essential for life, but fetching it is often not safe, water carriage is also a barrier to ensuring safe and inclusive societies, and decent work for all, a further challenge to reducing poverty in all its forms. However, it is important to recognise that water may be carried in addition to other loads, and it may not be the heaviest or key porterage task leading to health issues. Combined, all of these factors reduce the likelihood of achieving SDG 6 target 1 by 2030: ‘universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all’.

Hazel Marsh provided translation of articles published in Spanish, Paul Hunter of articles published in French, Moa Cortobius of articles published in Swedish, Eneida Moshi of articles in Portugese and Umut Yukaruc of articles in Turkish. Jack Morris assisted with data extraction during scoping searches conducted in preparation for this review.

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  • Handling editor Seye Abimbola

  • Contributors J-ALG conceived of the review, completed the electronic data base searches, selected papers to include in the review against selection criteria, extracted data, appraised articles reporting qualitative and quantitative data, wrote the first draft of the paper, reviewed subsequent drafts and reviewed and approved the final draft; MC conceived of the review, contacted experts in the field of water and health, provided translation of Swedish papers, reviewed drafts and reviewed and approved the final draft of the paper; JHG appraised articles reporting quantitative data, reviewed drafts and reviewed and approved the final draft of the paper; CCH appraised articles reporting qualitative data, reviewed drafts and reviewed and approved the final draft of the paper; PRH selected papers to include in the review against selection criteria, provided translation of French papers, appraised articles requiring consensus on quality rating, reviewed drafts and reviewed and approved the final draft of the paper.

  • Funding This review was supported, but not funded, by the International Labour Organisation. The work was also supported, and preliminary data extraction during scoping searches funded in part by Stockholm International Water Institute.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent Not required.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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What To StudyEngineering & TechnologyHow to Succeed in a Highly Technical Degree

How to Succeed in a Highly Technical Degree

Content Team
Get essential news and information about international higher education from the i-STUDENTglobal content team.

Any kind of study puts demands on your time and attention. But highly technical studies can be particularly difficult. Learning complex principles and techniques takes a great deal of concentration and can be discouraging if the answers don’t come fast enough. Here are some tips on how to succeed in a highly technical degree.

Time and motivation

There’s always a part of your mind that seems restless and prone to distractions and excuses, such as an urge to play video games or suddenly feeling tired.

It’s important to train and motivate yourself. Set a time and place for studying, and stick to it. Remind yourself why you chose your field. For example, an impressive 70 per cent of those in nursing management find personal satisfaction in their careers. Eventually, your mind and body will adjust.

Connect with resources

This can be more difficult with online schooling, but you can connect with other students or mentors through your school’s website, social media, forums, or trade associations. When you need inspiration, advice, or assistance with a tough problem, reach out and ask for help.

Often a simple Google search can lead you to tutorials or explanations that are easier to understand.

Take useful notes

Since people think faster than they speak, you’ll often get bored with spoken lessons, while long blocks of text tire the eyes and dull the mind. During your lessons, fight this by taking constant notes.

Try putting every session in your own words, and consider note-taking a very valuable skill to be continually improved. Effective, concise notes make studying faster and easier.

Practice tests

Try to make time to do all the practice problems, quizzes, or tests that come along. You can find others online, or even make yourself flash cards. Keep track of your progress and note the areas where your knowledge is weak and needs improvement.

Constant testing and pursuing higher scores can be a fun, interactive form of study that helps you retain facts.

Taking on difficult studies like an online master’s in electrical engineering is likely to lead to lessons that you struggle with. The important thing is to persevere until the problem is solved. The same issues are likely to come up in your career.

Develop problem-solving aids like logic flow diagrams, mapping data points, or composing tables to relate information. If you can learn or develop a methodology of your own, it will help you to handle the next issue.

Unless you were born a genius with perfect memory, there will be times you struggle with technical studies. Accept that this is normal and view it as a challenge, not a failure.

Special thanks to Dixie Somers for providing us with this article. Dixie is a freelance writer and blogger for business, home, and family niches. Dixie lives in Phoenix, Arizona, and is the proud mother of three beautiful girls and wife to a wonderful husband.

Enjoyed this article? Check out our other Engineering and Technology study guides.


What is a owner builder

An Owner Builder is a person who takes on the responsibility of managing and co-ordinating including the risks and liabilities on an entire domestic building project in exactly the same way a licensed builder would.

Did I also mention  they benefit from the savings, quality control and maintain the final say in the project within the building industry guidelines.


Today in the news, Australian journalist and television personality, Tracey Spicer, wrote a letter to her deceased mother.

Starting with “I’m so sorry I didn’t kill you”, she tells the story of her mother’s terminal cancer, their decision as a family to “put her down” once she lost control of her faculties, and Tracey’s failed attempt to smother her mother when the pain was at its worst.

It hovered there for what seemed like an eternity.

But in the end, I couldn’t do it.

I was weak. A coward. Not my mother’s daughter.

I collapsed on the floor, sobbing.

You must have known: you died hours later.

Finally, you were in peace.

Mum, I hope you forgive me.

Under this article are some 200 comments, mostly commenting on Spicer’s courage and how the readers were being brought to tears by such a beautiful story.  Suffice it to say, if I’d cried they would have been very different tears.

What a painful story to read! It’s such a personal retelling for Spicer, and laying judgement is not my purpose at all. But while this family thought they were upholding their mother’s dignity by wanting to take her life earlier than was natural, I strongly believe that the opposite is more dignified.

No one wants to see their loved ones suffer, but at the same time who wants to be responsible for their loved one’s death? The real issue here is the level of palliative care, which in this age (and country) should be at an extremely high level, meaning no reason for voluntary death.

However, my aim here is not to argue against euthanasia. The main point that I should make is this: while Spicer’s logic is far from perfect, she has an emotional argument that is extremely powerful. What we need are more writers who’ve experienced the dignified, involuntary death of a suffering person, writing their stories with just as much feeling. Otherwise it’s no wonder that a majority believe that such a death impossible.


Easter Daffodils - photo by Meredith Eastwood

If the Easter Bunny Could Talk

A Fanciful Description of Bunny Folklore

In the Voice of the Hare

Dear Readers,

I have the real story to tell about the history of the Easter Bunny.  But first let me get one thing straight.  I’m no ordinary rabbit, and certainly not a “bunny.”  I’m a hare, descendent of the rabbit god named Hare who served as spirit guide to the goddess Eostre.   According to Hare mythology Eostre created that first rabbit from an egg-laying bird.  Then, the Earth Mother made Hare a royal animal because he was wise in the affairs of environmental renewal. Over the years the Hare became an emblem representing love, fertility, resurrection, and rebirth. Today our race is named after our god and we, the REAL Easter Bunnies, are hares.  For years, members of my race created their burrows near the lapwing birds that nest on the ground in the early spring.  The hares often sat on or near the nests of the birds, giving rise to the rumor that hares had laid eggs.  Humans became confused.  So we’ve earned the reputation of being “Mad March Hares.”

We hares worship the moon, and our favorite celebration is Easter.  Hare mystics know this ancient celebration is really about resurrection and rebirth, the germination of new life. So it’s not about jelly beans, chocolate bunnies and Peeps cradled in baskets of plastic green grass given to human children. However, perhaps the “Easter Bunny” is a bit like the Santa Claus who brings treats and gifts to obedient children. In fact during the 1700’s my German ancestor, the Easter Hare, judged whether children were good or bad during the season of Eastertide before carrying colored eggs and toys in a basket to their homes.

Much of the hare story about the connection of Hares to the season of spring has its origin in Celtic mythology. It is a story that was absorbed into other cultures, religious traditions and rituals commonly celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere and associated with the Christian holiday honoring the resurrection of Christ.

In ancient times, everyone thought Eostre was the dawn goddess.  As the story goes according to Hares, each morning when the dawn goddess came to visit the god of darkness she radiated a golden glow so bright, the dark god grew weaker each passing day, retreating further from her growing power.   Humans were so grateful for her strength and energy they created celebrations in her name.  The origin of both words Easter and east come from a Sanskrit word also meaning dawn. Her increasing light and warmth made rebirth possible, hence the “dawn” of a new life cycle. If humans were smart enough they could easily understand the symbolic nature of the legends surrounding my race.  In addition to bringing colored eggs to humans as representations of new life, members of my race are prolific, universally accepted as fertility experts.   In fact, in ancient Egypt the Hieroglyphic symbol for the word “existence” was a pictograph of one of my ancestors.

The Hare - photo by Meredith EastwoodMy ancestral hares are depicted in art and story throughout history in a number of cultures.  Asian symbols of the hare representing peace and tranquility can be found in ancient metal works and on coins. The Buddhists recognized our symbolism in a tale about a selfless hare where instead of imagining a man in the moon, they saw a “Hare in the Moon.” A number of sacred sites including medieval churches portray a circular motif of three hares as part of architectural ornaments.  This design is thought to have symbolic associations with fertility and the lunar cycle or presumed to be a symbol of the Trinity. Even famous artist, Albrecht Durer, created a painting entitled, “Young Hare” in 1502.  For generations humans believed my relatives carried the souls of the dead, and for centuries around the time of the Spring Equinox hares have been commissioned to deliver eggs full of life to awaiting Mother Earth.  These are just a few facts that explain how important we are to the cycle of life throughout the history of humanity. There have been entire books written about the symbolic associations to the Hare. In fact, humans continue to be fascinated by our race. In June 2014, the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Science hosted an international conference entitled, “The Philosophy of the Hare: Unexpected Perspectives in the Research in the Humanities.”

In the modern world we hares continue to serve the world as joyful creatures of goodwill.  We supply human children with baskets of enough processed sugar to last their lifetimes.  Finally, we are a lucky race.  And as our souls pass into the next generations of hares, we leave behind a legacy of protection, our rabbit’s feet.

As you move through this time of creative renewal, do as the hares do.  Cast off icy thoughts, frosty behaviors and heavy relationships.  Feed yourself fresh carrots.  The eggs of a new beginning have hibernated long enough.  While the forces of light and dark hang in the balance during the Vernal Equinox, prepare to leap into life and joyfully face the dawn of the rising sun. Your eggs of rebirth are ready to hatch.

Return to the Meredith’s Mindful Moments archive page.


Signal Up For Coinbase

Music,Music Industry,Music Instruction,Photography,Animation,Performing ArtsAs we speak, there are distinct variations between traditional nation music and trendy country music. Description: Adobe Character Animator is a desktop software software product that combines live motion-seize with a multi-track recording system to control layered 2D puppets drawn in Photoshop or Illustrator. Shots typically incorporate natural landscapes or scenes as the principle focus, typically captured at sunrise, in the early morning, or below the darkness of night when not many individuals are lively.

Timbre , sometimes called “color” or “tone colour” is the quality or sound of a voice or instrument. Or, return to the introduction to start out Photography Basics from the start. Quite a lot of photographers have told me that they need they printed their photographs extra typically. Two-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins is finest identified for his efficient and simple camera work on films reminiscent of Skyfall,â€ Blade Runner 2049â€ and 1917,â€ on which he collaborated with administrators akin to Sam Mendes and Denis Villeneuve.

The animated movies will be from three minutes up to 60 minutes long. Many artists argued that photography was the mechanical replica of a picture. 7 Within the digital and on-line music market of the 2000s, the distributor turns into non-obligatory. Thought-about by some to be a part of professional photojournalism, documentary photography captures pictures of actual life, often in the context of historic occasions, in addition to the on a regular basis.

A base picture have to be captured, then the layer photograph(s), after which the 2 photographs must be edited and merged into one. Thereâ€s plenty of tech articles on the earth, but this addresses the guts and soul if photography. Within the digital era, music platforms aren’t necessarily all about the pure consumption of audio. Technology has had an affect on music since prehistoric occasions, when cave individuals used easy tools to bore holes into bone flutes 41,000 years in the past.

It applies simply as well to publish-processing work – much more, maybe, given the extraordinary variety of put up-processing tutorials out there to check out wildly several types of photography. Also called ocean photography, seascape photography is a subcategory of landscape photography that focuses on capturing seas and oceans. Not simply to inform the story actually and with empathy, but additionally to make sure the proper people hear it. When you photograph anyone who’s in pain or discomfort, they belief you to verify the photographs will act as their advocate.


November 29, 2020
Huge Success of Countrywide Protests

CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued  the following statement on November 26

THE Polit Bureau congratulates the working class, peasantry and agriculture workers all over the country for observing very successfully protests against the anti-national, anti-people policies of the central government, particularly large scale privatisation and loot of national assets, abrogating labour laws and new agri laws.

The call of the central trade unions was for a nationwide general strike today. The kisan and agricultural workers organisations will continue with their protests tomorrow as well, in accordance with
their call.

These successful protests are taking place despite severe repression, intimidation and largescale arrests across the country particularly in BJP ruled states. All the entry points on the highways connecting Delhi were heavily barricaded to prevent kisan and agricultural workers from reaching Delhi for their protest before parliament. Wherever they were stopped with tear gassing or heavy water cannons in this cold wave conditions, the highways have been blockaded by the protesters.

The general strike called by the trade unions have received immense response all across the country. The strike in public sector undertakings was more effective this time than earlier. All major
ports, PSUs like HAL, BHEL, BEML, BEL, steel plants in Vizag, Salem and Bokaro, coal and iron mines, electricity sector, public transport works, road transport including truck operators; construction workers, headload workers, beedi workers and scheme workers like anganwadi, Asha, mid-day meal workers struck work along with medical and sales representatives, sections of IT employees and central and state government employees all across the country.

Kerala witnessed a virtual bandh like situation with an estimated 1.6 crore workers and peasantry participating in the protests. Despite physical attacks on striking workers by the ruling TMC goons in West Bengal, the strike was a big success, total in the jute mills, private bus transport, steel factories and 80 per cent in cement, banking and insurance sectors, apart from government employees. In Tripura, despite the ruling BJP government’s attacks and its directions to keep all establishments open and functioning and resisting attacks by BJP’s anti-social elements, the protest turned into a virtual bandh.

Likewise, in BJP ruled states of Assam, Karnataka, Bihar and elsewhere the protests were a big success.

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the repression unleashed by the central and state governments controlled by the BJP.

The central government and PM Modi must now reconsider, in the face of such widespread anger and protest by India’s working people, annadatas, agricultural workers and workers in the unorganised sector, its anti-national and anti-working people policies that are ruining the livelihoods of crores of our people and imposing greater misery in the country.

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly demands that the central and BJP state governments surrounding Delhi stop this repression and permit our kisan and agricultural labourers to exercise their
constitutional guarantees for peaceful protests against the retrograde agri laws tomorrow i.e., November 27.


Python | Counting and displaying vowels in a string

Counters | Python Methods and Functions | String Variables

 In a simple way Input: Geeks for Geeks Output: 5 ['e',' e', 'o',' e', 'e'] This is in a different way Input: Geeks for Geeks Output: {'u': 0,' o': 1, 'e': 4,' a': 0, 'i': 0}

Vowel Counting: String Path

In this method, we will store all vowels in a string and then select each character from the requested string and check if it is in the vowel string or not. The vowel string consists of all vowels in both cases, as we are not ignoring those cases here. If a vowel is encountered, the counter is incremented and stored in the list and finally printed.

# Python code for counting and displaying the number of vowels
# Just using for and comparing it with
# the string that connects all vowels

def Check_Vow (string, vowels):

final = [each for each in string if each in vowels]

print ( len (final))

print (final)

Driver code

string = "Geeks for Geeks"

vowels = "AeEeIiOoUu"

Check_Vow (string, vowels);

Vowel counting: dictionary path

This is also performs the same task, but in a different way. In this method, we build a vocabulary with vowels and increment them when vowels are detected. In this method, we use the case fold method to ignore the cases, after which we build a vowel dictionary with the key as the vowel. This is the best and most efficient way to check and find the number of each vowel in a line.

# Read vowels differently
# Using the dictionary

def Check_Vow (string, vowels):

# casefold was used to ignore cases

string = string.casefold ()

# Forms a dictionary with a key as a vowel

# and value as 0

  count = {}. fromkeys (vowels, 0 )

# To count vowels

for character in string:

if character in count:

count [character] + = 1

return co unt

Driver code

vowels = 'aeiou'

string = "Geeks for Geeks"

print (Check_Vow (string, vowels))


Snacks With Mack: Tanta

MacKenzie Guynn Tanta, a hidden gem located on West Grand Avenue, has been one of my favorite restaurants for years. Its menu is full of shareable dishes all influenced by a fusion of Peruvian and Japanese flavors. It may seem like an odd combination and a scary thought for picky eaters, but I truly don’t think you could go wrong when eating at Tanta. The restaurant itself is decorated with a Peruvian-inspired mural and is exposed to the kitchen along its back wall. It is “hip,” and the odds you will eat at a booth are very high, although it can also get a little noisy at times. Once seated, a waiter will bring some crispy plantain chips with a delicious, Sriracha mayo-esque, sauce. They may also offer an overview of the menu, which will definitely include how the top half consists of smaller plates, meant for appetizers, while the bottom half has the entrées. They will also likely explain how they fuse Japanese cuisine into a Peruvian menu with the cebiches, sashimi, and nikkei dishes. When it comes down to ordering food, I recommend sharing a bunch of different dishes. All of the empanadas are delicious, and the anticuchos are one of my staples for appetizers. My favorite dish, however, is the chaufa aeropuerto, fried rice that comes with a wide variety of vegetables, pork, and shrimp. The waiter will bring it to the table with a steaming fried egg on top and mix it up to perfection. Other options for the main course are the lomo saltado, the verdura nikei, and several fish dishes. All this is to say, Tanta is perfect for the restaurant-goer who feels like branching out and trying something a little edgier. ]]>


17 Tactics for Reading People’s Body Language

body language

What you say communicates only about half of what people hear.

According to UCLA professor Albert Mehrabian, 55% of the message you convey comes from your body language.

That’s why studying body language has such a long history.

None other than Charles Darwin wrote the first academic investigation into body language, his “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals,” published back in 1872.

Over the past century science has made lots of advances into understanding the many social meanings of body language. Here are 17 of the most useful findings, pulled from Psychology Today, research journals, and a few awesome books.

1. The shoulder shrug is a universal signal of not knowing what’s going on.

According to Barbara Pease and Allan Pease, authors of “The Definitive Book of Body Language,” everybody does the shoulder shrug.

The shrug is a “good example of a universal gesture that is used to show that a person doesn’t know or doesn’t understand what you are saying,” they write.

“It’s a multiple gesture that has three main parts,” they continue. “Exposed palms to show nothing is being concealed in the hands, hunched shoulders to protect the throat from attack, and raised brow, which is a universal, submissive greeting.”

2. Open palms are an ancient display of honesty.

Ever notice how when someone swears to tell the truth in a court of law, they put one hand on a religious text and raise their other hand into the air, palm facing whoever they’re speaking to?

That’s because, the Peases write in “The Definitive Book of Body Language,” an open palm has been associated with “truth, honesty, allegiance, and submission” throughout Western history.

“Just as a dog will expose its throat to show submission or surrender to the victor,” they write, “humans use their palms to show that they are unarmed and therefore not a threat.”

3. A pointed finger with a closed hand is an attempt at displaying dominance.

If someone is closing their palm and pointing with their index finger, then they’re trying to display dominance, though it doesn’t always work out.

“The Palm-Closed-Finger-Pointed is a fist where the pointed finger is used like a symbolic club with which the speaker figuratively beats his listeners into submission,” the Peases write. “Subconsciously, it evokes negative feelings in others because it precedes a right overarm blow, a primal move most primates use in a physical attack.”

4. Look for a lack of crinkles around the eyes to detect a fake smile.

Making a genuine smile — also known as a Duchenne smile — is nearly impossible to do on command. It’s why family photos tend to look so awkward.

The smile, it turns out, is all about the crow’s-feet around your eyes. When you’re smiling joyfully, they crinkle. When you’re faking it, they don’t.

If someone’s trying to look happy but really isn’t, you won’t see the wrinkles.

5. Raised eyebrows are often a sign of discomfort.

In the same way that real smiles shape the wrinkles around your eyes, University of Massachusetts professor Susan Krauss Whitbourne says worry, surprise, or fear can cause people to raise their eyebrows in discomfort.

So if someone compliments your new hairstyle or outfit with their eyebrows raised, it may not be sincere.

6. If their voice goes up or down, they’re likely interested.

Whether you know it or not, your vocal range shows your interest.

“Once a conversation begins, besotted women slip into sing-songy voices,” Psychology Today reports, “while men drop theirs an octave.”

7. If they mirror your body language, the conversation is probably going well.

When two people are getting along, their postures and movements mirror each other’s. When your best friend crosses her legs, you will, too. If you’re on a date that’s going well, you’ll both be making the same goofy hand gestures.

This is because we mirror each other when we’re feeling a connection, says positive psychologist Barbara Fredrickson.

8. Eye contact shows interest — both positive and negative.

When you look at someone in the eyes, it sets an arousal state in the body.

“How that arousal is interpreted, however, depends on the parties involved and the circumstances,” writes Claremont McKenna College organizational psychologist Ronald E. Riggio. “Being stared at by a stranger who appears large or ominous can be seen as a threat and elicit a fear response … However, the gaze of a potential sexual partner causes arousal that can be interpreted positively — as a sexual invitation.”

9. But if they look into your eyes for too long, they might be lying.

In an attempt to avoid looking shifty-eyed, some liars will purposefully hold their gaze a touch too long, so that it’s slightly uncomfortable.

They may also stand very still and not blink.

10. An expansive pose signals power and a sense of achievement.

How people hold themselves is a big clue as to how they’re feeling. Harvard professor Amy Cuddy finds that expansive poses increase testosterone and confidence. If they’re leaning back and relaxed, they feel powerful and in control. Similarly, research shows that even people born

On the other hand, a low-power pose — seen when someone closes up and wraps their arms around themselves — increases cortisol, a stress hormone.

11. Crossed legs are usually a sign of resistance and low receptivity, and are a bad sign in a negotiation.

Out of 2,000 negotiations videotaped by Gerard I. Nierenberg and Henry H. Calero, the authors of “How to Read a Person Like a Book,” there wasn’t a single settlement when one of the negotiators had their legs crossed.

Psychologically, crossed legs signal that a person is mentally, emotionally, and physically closed off — which may mean they’re less likely to budge in a negotiation.

12. A ‘cluster’ of gestures shows a real feeling of connection.

Attraction isn’t communicated through one signal but a sequence.

Neuropsychologist Marsha Lucas has a good one to watch for: “After making eye contact, she looks down a bit, gathers or otherwise preens her hair, and then looks up at you while her chin is tipped.”

13. If they’re laughing with you, they’re probably into you.

If someone is receptive to your humor, they’re likely interested in you.

Evolutionary psychologists say that humor plays a pivotal role in human development. It serves as a way of signaling a desire for a relationship, be it platonic or romantic.

14. A clenched jaw, tightened neck, or furrowed brow shows stress.

All these are “limbic responses” associated with the limbic system in the brain.

“Emotion, spotting and reacting to threats, as well as assuring our survival, are all heavy responsibilities of the limbic system,” says former FBI counterintelligence agent Joe Navarro. “The bus leaves without us, and we are clenching our jaws, rubbing our necks. We are asked to work another weekend, and the orbits of our eyes narrow as our chin lowers.”

Humans have been displaying discomfort this way for millions of years, Navarro says.

15. Expansive, authoritative postures show leadership.

Whether they’re innate or learned, there are a number of signals and behaviors people use when they feel that they’re a leader, or at least are trying to convince you that they are.

They include holding an erect posture, walking purposefully, steepling and palm-down hand gestures, and generally open and expansive body postures.

16. A shaking leg signals a shaky inner state.

“Your legs are the largest area of your body,” University of Massachusetts professor Susan Whitbourne says, “so when they move, it’s pretty hard for others not to notice.”

A shaky leg signals anxiety, irritation, or both, she says.

17. Crossed arms can signal defensiveness, depending on the context.

It’s easy to seize on body-language cues, but it’s important to be aware of the context. While crossed arms typically indicate that someone is closed off, people are also more likely to cross their arms when it’s cold and when their chair doesn’t have an armrest.

Be aware of the environment before making a decision or changing strategy based on these types of behaviors.

Drake Baer reports on strategy, leadership, and organizational psychology at Business Insider. He is the co-author of


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Writing Tips for Students Dissertations What is the main role of research in education Mcq?

What is the main role of research in education Mcq?

What is the main role of research in education Mcq?

4) What is the main role of research in education? To upsurge one’s social status. To increase one’s job prospects. To augment one’s personal growth.

What are the goals of research?

Many researchers agree that the goals of scientific research are: description, prediction, and explanation/understanding. Some individuals add control and application to the list of goals. For now, I am going to focus on discussing description, prediction and explanation/understanding.

Why is research important in special education?

Special education teachers who understand research methodology and supported practices can not only innovate in the classroom but also help other teachers understand and incorporate new and effective teaching strategies, helping all students achieve their highest potential.

Why do students need to research?

Research allows you to pursue your interests, to learn something new, to hone your problem-solving skills and to challenge yourself in new ways. Why should you consider getting involved in research and creative scholarship: Gain hands-on experience completing a research or creative project.

What are the types of research in education?

General Types of Educational Research

  • Associational — correlational, causal-comparative.

What are the 3 goals of research?

The three main goals of research are establishing facts, analyzing information, and reaching new conclusions.

What are the benefits of research in education?

Research can: help you find solutions to particular problems arising in your classroom or school. underpin professional learning of knowledge, skills and understanding. connect you with sources of information and networks of professional support.

What is the role of research in educational psychology?

The role of research in educational psychology is to carefully examine certain questions about factors that may contribute to learning. For example, a research study may examine what type of teaching method works best, and what decision a teacher may make about a problem or issue, to be most successful.

What is Action Research examples?

For example: Individual action research involves working independently on a project, such as an elementary school teacher conducting her own, in-class research project with her students. School-wide action research generally focuses on issues present throughout an entire school or across the district.

What are the benefits of research?

Benefits of Engaging in Research

  • Fostering critical thinking and analytical skills through hands-on learning.
  • Defining academic, career and personal interests.
  • Expanding knowledge and understanding of a chosen field outside of the classroom.
  • Developing one-on-one connections with distinguished faculty in their field.

What is the main purpose of research?

What is the importance of research in our daily life?

What is research and its importance?

What are the 10 benefits of research?

Top 10 Benefits of Market Research

  • Market research guides your communication.
  • Helps you to identify opportunities in the marketplace.
  • Minimise risks.
  • You can measure your reputation.
  • Uncover and identify potential problems.
  • Plan ahead.
  • Identify and establish trends.
  • Establish your market positioning.

What is research in your own words essay?

Research is defined as “the process of finding solutions to problem after thorough study and analysis of the situational factor” (Sekaran, p3, 2003). Managers use research for daily operational problem as well as bigger problems that can require hired research consultants.

What is the importance of research in our life essay?

Research helps you to find out more about the topic you are writing for. You will know the history, background and almost everything about the topic that you must know. No matter you need to add that information or not but eventually this information will reflect in your essay.


Archive for the 'Loanable Funds Market' Category

Nov 06 2012

A closer look at the crowding-out effect

  • If the private supply of loanable funds is extraordinarily high.

14 responses so far

May 08 2012

Loanable Funds vs. Money Market: what’s the difference?

Update: Once again I have updated this post with a few minor changes. Notably, I have added to graphs illustrating a separate shift in supply and demand for loanable funds. Based on discussions with readers via email, it appears that my previous graph illustrating in one diagram the shifts of both supply and demand was confusing and could be considered double counting the effect of an increase in deficit spending. Thanks again to Professor Chuck Orvis for his valuable input.

*Click on a graph to see the full-sized version

Two markets for money, right? Yes… so do they show the same thing? NO! You must know the distinction between these two markets. First let’s talk about the MoneyMoney Market Market diagram.

This market refers to the Money Supply (M1 and M2). The Money Supply curve is vertical because it is determined by the Fed’s (or central bank’s) particular monetary policy. On the X axis is the Quantity of money supplied and demanded, and on the Y axis is the nominal interest rate. A tight monetary policy (selling of bonds by the Fed) will shift Money Supply in, raising the federal funds rate, and subsequently the interest rates commercial banks charge their best customers (prime interest rate). On the other hand, an easy money policy (buying of bonds by the Fed) shifts Sm out, lowering the Federal Funds rate and thus the prime interest rate.

You should also know why a tight money policy is considered contractionary and why an easy money policy is considered expansionary monetary policy. Higher nominal interest rates resulting from tight money policy will discourage investment and consumption, contracting aggregate demand. On the other hand, an easy money policy will encourage more investment and consumption as nominal rates fall, expanding aggregate demand.

First watch this video lesson, which defines and introduces the money market diagram (skip ahead to 0:43 to hear the definition and explanation of the money market):

Government deficit spending and the money market: Does an increase in government spending without a corresponding increase in taxes affect the money market? You may be inclined to say yes, since the Treasury must issue new bonds to finance deficit spending. After all, when the Fed sells bonds, money is taken out of circulation and held by the Fed, thus it’s no longer part of the money supply.

When the Treasury issues and sells new bonds, however, the money the public uses to buy the bonds is put back into circulation as the government spending is increased. Therefore, any leftward shift of the money supply curve caused by the buying of bonds by the public is offset by the injection of cash in the economy initiated the government’s fiscal stimulus package takes effect (be it a tax rebate or an increase in spending). Therefore, money supply should remain stable when the government deficit spends.

However, since the money demand curve depends on the level of transactions going on in a nation’s economy in a particular period of time, an increase in government spending on infrastructure, defense, corporate subsidies, tax rebates or other fiscal policy initiatives will increase the demand for money, shifting the Dm curve rightward and driving up interest rates. The higher interest rates resulting from the greater demand for money reduces the quantity of private investment; in this way the crowding-out effect can be illustrated in the money market.

Now to the loanable funds market. Loanable funds represents the money in commercial banks and lending institutions that is available to lend out to firms and households to finance expenditures (investment or consumption). The Y-axis represents the real interest rate; the loanable funds market therefore recognizes the relationships between real returns on savings and real price of borrowing with the public’s willingness to save and borrow.

Watch this video for a clear explanation of the loanable funds market and how it can be used to illustrate the crowding-out effect (skip ahead to 3:18 for a definition and explanation of the loanable funds market):

Since an increase in the real interest rate makes households and firms want to place more money in the bank (and more money in the bank means more money to loan out), there is a direct relationship between real interest rate and Supply of Loanable Funds. On the other hand, since at lower real interest rates households and firms will be less inclined to save and more inclined to borrow and spend, the Demand for loanable funds reflects an inverse relationship. At higher interest rates, households prefer to delay their spending and put their money in savings, since the opportunity cost of spending now rises with the real interest rate.

Government deficit spending and the loanable funds market: We learned above that only the Fed can shift the money supply curve, but what factors can affect the Supply and Demand curves for loanable funds? Here’s a few key points to know about the loanable funds market.

  • When the government deficit spends (G>tax revenue), it must borrow from the public by issuing bonds.
  • The Treasury issues new bonds, which shifts the supply of bonds out, lowering their prices and raising the interest rates on bonds.
  • In response to higher interest rates on bonds, investors will transfer their money out of banks and other lending institutions and into the bond market. Banks will also lend out fewer of their excess reserves, and put some of those reserves into the bond market as well, where it is secure and now earns relatively higher interest.
  • As households, firms and banks buy the newly issued Treasury securities (which represents the public’s lending to the government), the supply of private funds available for lending to households and firms shifts in. With fewer funds for private lending banks must raise their interest rates, leading to a movement along the demand curve for loanable funds.
  • This causes crowding out of private investment.

Another, simpler way to understand the effect of government deficit spending on real interest rates is to look at it from the demand side.

  • Deficit spending by the government requires the government to borrow from the public, increasing the demand for loanable funds. In essence, the government becomes a borrower in the country’s financial sector, demanding new funds for investment, driving up real interest rates.
  • Increased demand from the government pushes interest rates up, causing banks to supply a greater quanity of funds for lending. The private, however, now has fewer funds available to borrow as the government soaks up some of the funds that previously would have gone to private borrowers.
  • This leads to the crowding out of private investment, in which private borrowers face higher real interest rates due to increased deficit spending by the government.

What could shift the supply of loanable funds to the right? Easy, anything that increases savings by households and firms, known as the determinants of consumption and saving. These include increases in wealth, expectations of future income and price levels, and lower taxes. If savings increases, supply of loanable funds shifts outward, increasing the reserves in banks, lowering real interest rates, encouraging firms to undertake new investments. This is why many economists say that “savings is investment”. What they mean is increased increased savings leads to an increase in the supply of loanable funds, which leads to lower interest rates and increased investment.

On the other hand, an increase in demand for investment funds by firms will shift demand for loanable funds out, driving up real interest rates. The determinants of investment include business taxes, technological change, expectations of future business opportunities, and so on (follow link to our wiki page on Investment).

It is important to be able to distinguish between the money market and the market for loanable funds, as both the AP and IB syllabi xpect students to understand and explain the difference between these concepts.

283 responses so far

Sep 13 2011

Sample IB Economics Internal Assessment Commentary – Understanding the ECB’s bond-purchasing program

Once again, my IB Economics students are working on yet another Internal Assessment Commentary, this time on syllabus section 3, Macroeconomics. Since they found my sample Microeconomics commentary so helpful, I thought I’d punch out a quick sample of a macro commentary for them and for anyone else who is working on their IB Economcis Internal Assessment.

The commentary below (not including the selection from the article) is 749 words in length. This does NOT include words in the graphs, so let’s not have that debate in the comment section. The new IB economics internal assessment model (first examinations 2013) will not count words on graphs, so this sample commentary is perfectly suited for the new assessment model. If you’re a 2012 student, you would be wise to count words in graphs as part of your word count.

If you like what you see, or have any quesitons, please leave your comments below the post.

Article highlights:

An Impeccable Disaster –

Paul Krugman clearly explains the problems faced by two or Europe’s largest economies today:

The European Central Bank (ECB) is engaging in a new form of monetary policy in which it buys government bonds directly from the Spanish and Italian governments. Essentially, the goal is to bring down the interest rates on Italian and Spanish government bonds, which should reassure private investors that Italy and Spain will be able to pay them back and thus reduce the upward pressure on interest rates in the Eurozone, a situation which threatens to reverse the already sluggish recovery from the recessions of 2008 and 2009.

Monetary policy refers to a central bank’s manipulation of the money supply and interest rates, aimed at either increasing interest rates (contractionary monetary policy) or reducing interest rates (expansionary monetary policy). The ECB is currently buying government bonds from European governments, effectively increasing the supply of money in Europe with the hope that more government and private sector spending will move the Eurozone economy closer to its full employment level of output, at which workers, land and capital resources are fully employed towards the production of goods and services.

If successful, the ECB’s “quantitative easing”, as the new type of monetary policy is known, should bring down interest rates on government bonds and thereby reallocate loanable funds towards Italy and Spain’s public and private sectors.  The increase in supply of loanable funds should bring down the private interest rates available to borrows (businesses and households), making private investment more attractive.

The ECB’s bond purchases make it cheaper for Italy and Spain to borrow, lowering the interest rates on their bonds, restoring confidence among international investors, who may be more willing to save their money in Italy in Spain. The inflow of loanable funds into these economies (seen as an increase in the supply of loanable funds from S1 to S2) should bring down private borrowing costs (the real interest rate), encouraging more firms to invest in capital and more households to finance the consumption of durable goods, increasing aggregate demand and moving the Eurozone economy back towards its full employment level of output, from AD1 to AD2 in the graph on the right.

In certain circumstances, monetary easing like this could be inflationary, but in reality inflation is unlikely to occur given the large output gap in Europe at present (represented above as the distance between Y1 and the dotted line, signifying the full employment level of output). Any increase in aggregate demand will lead to economic growth (an increase in output), but little or no inflation due to the excess capacity of unemployed labor, land and capital resources in the European economy today.

With private sector borrowing costs increasing due to growing uncertainty over their deficits and debts, the Italian and Spanish governments will find expansionary fiscal policies (tax cuts and increased government expenditures) are unrealistic options for achieving the goal of full employment. The ECB, however, as Krugman argues, should continue to play an increasing role in the expansion of credit to cash strapped European governments, with the aim of keeping interest rates low to prevent the crowding-out of private spending that often occurs in the face of large budget deficits. Inflation, always a concern for central bankers, should be a low priority in Europe’s current recessionary environment. Only when consumer and investor confidence is restored, a condition that requires low borrowing costs, will private sector spending resume and the Euro economies can begin creating jobs and increasing their output again.

In the short-term, Italy and Spain should take advantage of the ECB’s bond-buying initiative, and make meaningful, productivity-enhancing investments in infrastructure, education and job training. If their economies are to grow in the future, Eurozone countries must become more competitive with the rapidly expanding economies of Asia, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere in the developing world.

In the medium-term, the Eurozone countries must demonstrate a commitment to fiscal restraint and more balanced budgets. Eliminating loopholes that allow businesses and wealthy individuals to avoid paying taxes, for example, is of utmost importance. Also, increasing the retirement age, downsizing some of the more generous social welfare programs and increasing marginal tax rates on the highest income earners would all send the message to investors that these countries are commited to fiscal discipline. Then, in time, their dependence on ECB lending will decline and private lenders will once again be willing to buy Eurozone government bonds at lower interest rates, allowing for continued growth in the private sector.

32 responses so far

Jun 10 2009

Fareed Zakaria asks Ferguson:

Ferguson’s reply:

Discussion Questions:

100 responses so far

May 14 2009

A must read for AP Macro teachers: Paul Krugman explains why deficit spending during a recession does NOT cause crowding-out

Liquidity preference, loanable funds, and Niall Ferguson (wonkish) – Paul Krugman Blog –

Below is the loanable funds market at its current equilibrium, according to Krugman (I is investment demand for funds, S is the supply of loanable funds):

In Krugman’s words:

In effect, we have an incipient excess supply of savings even at a zero interest rate. And that’s our problem.

So what does government borrowing do? It gives some of those excess savings a place to go — and in the process expands overall demand, and hence GDP. It does NOT crowd out private spending, at least not until the excess supply of savings has been sopped up, which is the same thing as saying not until the economy has escaped from the liquidity trap.

In AP Macroeconomics, we teach that deficit-financed government expenditure decreases the supply of loanable funds as savers take their money out of commercial banks and invest in the bond market due to the attractive interest rates on government debt. Less funds available for the private sector drives up interest rates and crowds out private investment.

If the economy is producing close to the full-employment level and interest rates are positive, the decrease in supply of loanable funds can indeed drive up equilibrium interest rates and lead to the “crowding-out” of private investment. Krugman points out in this article that when the economy is at the “zero-bound” (i.e. when nominal interest rates are as low as they can go) and the quantity supplied of savings is still greater than the quantity demanded for investment, the government can effectively borrow from the public, decreasing the supply and correcting the surplus of savings without driving up interest rates in the private market. Put another way, the equilibrium interest rate is below zero, but the “zero-bound” acts as a price floor in the loanable funds market, resulting in a surplus of savings.

Government borrowing crowding out private investment is not something we can worry about during a recession, when low confidence and expectations have driven the supply of savings up and the demand for investment down. Public spending will divert funds from the private sector to the public sector, that’s true. But in today’s case, savings are sitting idle in the private sector, so government borrowing is putting those fund to use when the private sector has failed to do so.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Why does the supply of loanable funds (S in the graph above) slope upwards? Why does the demand for loanable funds (I in the graph) slope downwards?
  2. Deficit financed government spending decreases the supply of loanable funds. Why?
  3. Crowding-out is not the only possible down-side of deficit spending by the government. What are some other long-term effects of governments running budget deficits year after year?

26 responses so far

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