A Journey of Pregnancy Loss: From Positivism to Autoethnography

When a dissertation research project exploring the impact of mind - body practices on symptoms of depression and anxiety in pregnant women with a history of miscarriage failed to yield statistically significant results, I struggled with how to demonstrate that I had gleaned knowledge from this project of nearly 3 years. When a series of parallel pregnancy losses occurred in my own life, I realized that I am heavily situated within the context of my research and need to consider my data in a different sense; one that acknowledges my own self within this process while attempting to capture the lived experiences of others. The shift to autoethnography afforded me the opportunity to demonstrate that knowledge can be generated through multiple methodologies, with one approach not being privileged over another. As this dissertation moved from an empirical study to a qualitative, autoethnographic piece, I was able to identify themes surfacing from the literature, my own experiences and participation in a pregnancy loss support group. The themes discussed include: making meaning from the experience, granting personhood status and grieving and other emotional expression

Recent smell loss is the best predictor of COVID-19 among individuals with recent respiratory symptoms

In a preregistered, cross-sectional study we investigated whether olfactory loss is a reliable predictor of COVID-19 using a crowdsourced questionnaire in 23 languages to assess symptoms in individuals self-reporting recent respiratory illness. We quantified changes in chemosensory abilities during the course of the respiratory illness using 0-100 visual analog scales (VAS) for participants reporting a positive (C19+; n=4148) or negative (C19-; n=546) COVID-19 laboratory test outcome. Logistic regression models identified univariate and multivariate predictors of COVID-19 status and post-COVID-19 olfactory recovery. Both C19+ and C19- groups exhibited smell loss, but it was significantly larger in C19+ participants (mean±SD, C19+: -82.5±27.2 points; C19-: -59.8±37.7). Smell loss during illness was the best predictor of COVID-19 in both univariate and multivariate models (ROC AUC=0.72). Additional variables provide negligible model improvement. VAS ratings of smell loss were more predictive than binary chemosensory yes/no-questions or other cardinal symptoms (e.g., fever). Olfactory recovery within 40 days of respiratory symptom onset was reported for ~50% of participants and was best predicted by time since respiratory symptom onset. We find that quantified smell loss is the best predictor of COVID-19 amongst those with symptoms of respiratory illness. To aid clinicians and contact tracers in identifying individuals with a high likelihood of having COVID-19, we propose a novel 0-10 scale to screen for recent olfactory loss, the ODoR-19. We find that numeric ratings ≤2 indicate high odds of symptomatic COVID-19 (4<10). Once independently validated, this tool could be deployed when viral lab tests are impractical or unavailable

More than smell - COVID-19 is associated with severe impairment of smell, taste, and chemesthesis

Recent anecdotal and scientific reports have provided evidence of a link between COVID-19 and chemosensory impairments such as anosmia. However, these reports have downplayed or failed to distinguish potential effects on taste, ignored chemesthesis, generally lacked quantitative measurements, were mostly restricted to data from single countries. Here, we report the development, implementation and initial results of a multi-lingual, international questionnaire to assess self-reported quantity and quality of perception in three distinct chemosensory modalities (smell, taste, and chemesthesis) before and during COVID-19. In the first 11 days after questionnaire launch, 4039 participants (2913 women, 1118 men, 8 other, ages 19-79) reported a COVID-19 diagnosis either via laboratory tests or clinical assessment. Importantly, smell, taste and chemesthetic function were each significantly reduced compared to their status before the disease. Difference scores (maximum possible change+/-100) revealed a mean reduction of smell (-79.7+/- 28.7, mean+/- SD), taste (-69.0+/- 32.6), and chemesthetic (-37.3+/- 36.2) function during COVID-19. Qualitative changes in olfactory ability (parosmia and phantosmia) were relatively rare and correlated with smell loss. Importantly, perceived nasal obstruction did not account for smell loss. Furthermore, chemosensory impairments were similar between participants in the laboratory test and clinical assessment groups. These results show that COVID-19-associated chemosensory impairment is not limited to smell, but also affects taste and chemesthesis. The multimodal impact of COVID-19 and lack of perceived nasal obstruction suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection may disrupt sensory-neural mechanisms.Additional co-authors: Veronica Pereda-Loth, Shannon B Olsson, Richard C Gerkin, Paloma Rohlfs Domínguez, Javier Albayay, Michael C. Farruggia, Surabhi Bhutani, Alexander W Fjaeldstad, Ritesh Kumar, Anna Menini, Moustafa Bensafi, Mari Sandell, Iordanis Konstantinidis, Antonella Di Pizio, Federica Genovese, Lina Öztürk, Thierry Thomas-Danguin, Johannes Frasnelli, Sanne Boesveldt, Özlem Saatci, Luis R. Saraiva, Cailu Lin, Jérôme Golebiowski, Liang-Dar Hwang, Mehmet Hakan Ozdener, Maria Dolors Guàrdia, Christophe Laudamiel, Marina Ritchie, Jan Havlícek, Denis Pierron, Eugeni Roura, Marta Navarro, Alissa A. Nolden, Juyun Lim, KL Whitcroft, Lauren R. Colquitt, Camille Ferdenzi, Evelyn V. Brindha, Aytug Altundag, Alberto Macchi, Alexia Nunez-Parra, Zara M. Patel, Sébastien Fiorucci, Carl M. Philpott, Barry C. Smith, Johan N Lundström, Carla Mucignat, Jane K. Parker, Mirjam van den Brink, Michael Schmuker, Florian Ph.S Fischmeister, Thomas Heinbockel, Vonnie D.C. Shields, Farhoud Faraji, Enrique Enrique Santamaría, William E.A. Fredborg, Gabriella Morini, Jonas K. Olofsson, Maryam Jalessi, Noam Karni, Anna D'Errico, Rafieh Alizadeh, Robert Pellegrino, Pablo Meyer, Caroline Huart, Ben Chen, Graciela M. Soler, Mohammed K. Alwashahi, Olagunju Abdulrahman, Antje Welge-Lüssen, Pamela Dalton, Jessica Freiherr, Carol H. Yan, Jasper H. B. de Groot, Vera V. Voznessenskaya, Hadar Klein, Jingguo Chen, Masako Okamoto, Elizabeth A. Sell, Preet Bano Singh, Julie Walsh-Messinger, Nicholas S. Archer, Sachiko Koyama, Vincent Deary, Hüseyin Yanik, Samet Albayrak, Lenka Martinec Novákov, Ilja Croijmans, Patricia Portillo Mazal, Shima T. Moein, Eitan Margulis, Coralie Mignot, Sajidxa Mariño, Dejan Georgiev, Pavan K. Kaushik, Bettina Malnic, Hong Wang, Shima Seyed-Allaei, Nur Yoluk, Sara Razzaghi, Jeb M. Justice, Diego Restrepo, Julien W Hsieh, Danielle R. Reed, Thomas Hummel, Steven D Munger, John E Haye

Social Movements and International Relations: A Relational Framework

Social movements are increasingly recognized as significant features of contemporary world politics, yet to date their treatment in international relations theory has tended to obfuscate the considerable diversity of these social formations, and the variegated interactions they may establish with state actors and different structures of world order. Highlighting the difficulties conventional liberal and critical approaches have in transcending conceptions of movements as moral entities, the article draws from two under-exploited literatures in the study of social movements in international relations, the English School and Social Systems Theory, to specify a wider range of analytical interactions between different categories of social movements and of world political structures. Moreover, by casting social movement phenomena as communications, the article opens international relations to consideration of the increasingly diverse trajectories and second-order effects produced by social movements as they interact with states, intergovernmental institutions, and transnational actors

A journey of pregnancy loss: From positivism to autoethnography

The experience of anxiety and depression can have detrimental effects on the body, especially that of a developing fetus. Depression and anxiety have been linked to the experience of greater pregnancy symptoms, miscarriage, poorer birth outcomes and difficult deliveries. Despite their detrimental effects, depression and anxiety may be common during the prenatal period. A history of miscarriage may heighten normally occurring symptoms, adding a layer of difficulty to an already stressful time period. Mind-body practices have been linked to a number of health benefits, including attenuation of psychiatric symptoms and improved pregnancy outcomes. While many of these practices have received increasing attention in popular literature, lacking are studies utilizing large, randomized clinical trials empirically validating the efficacy of these interventions. The purpose of the original study was to examine whether miscarriage status and the engagement in mind-body practices were associated with lower levels of depression and anxiety in pregnant women. Forty-three (N=43) pregnant women in the second and third trimesters were recruited and questioned about their pregnancy, their engagement in mind-body practices (past and present) and were asked to complete the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). It was anticipated that women with a miscarriage history would report higher levels of anxiety and depression and that women engaging in mind-body practice, past or present, would report lower levels of depression and anxiety. When statistical analyses failed to yield significant results, this author chose to explore the process of generating new knowledge through autoethnography. This dissertation moved from an empirical study to a qualitative, autoethnographic exploration of pregnancy loss in which the themes of meaning making, personhood and the expression of feelings were explored through the literature, the author's personal experience and through participation in an online pregnancy loss support group

Corrigendum to: More than smell. COVID-19 is associated with severe impairment of smell, taste, and chemesthesis

International audienc

Corrigendum to::More Than Smell-COVID-19 Is Associated with Severe Impairment of Smell, Taste, and Chemesthesis (Chemical Senses (2020) DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjaa041)

This is a correction notice for article bjaa041 (DOI: https:// doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjaa041), published 20 June 2020. An incorrect version of the caption to Figure 5 was mistakenly included in the published paper. An updated version is given below. Neither the data nor the paper's conclusions were affected by this correction. The authors sincerely apologize for the error. (A) Correlations between the 3 principal components with respect to changes in 3 chemosensory modalities (i.e., taste, smell, and chemesthesis). Shades of gray indicate positive correlation, whereas shades of red indicate negative correlations. White denotes no correlation. (B) Clusters of participants identified by k-means clustering. The scatterplot shows each participant's loading on dimension 1 (degree of smell and taste loss, PC1 on x-Axis) and dimension 2 (degree of chemesthesis loss, PC2 on y-Axis). Based on the centroid of each cluster, participants in cluster 1 (blue, N = 1767; top left) are generally characterized by significant smell, taste and chemesthesis loss. Participants in cluster 2 (orange, N = 1724; bottom center) are generally characterized by ratings that reflect smell/taste loss with preserved chemesthesis. Loadings for participants in cluster 3 (green, N = 548; right side) are generally characterized by reduced smell and taste loss, and preserved chemesthesis