Mediated Habits: Images, Networked Affect and Social Change

While many people remain hopeful that particular images of injustice will have the power to catalyse progressive transformation, there is also widespread belief in the inevitability of ‘compassion fatigue’. Bringing philosophers of habit into conversation with contemporary scholars of affect, visual culture and digital media, this article argues for a more nuanced understanding of the links between images and change – one in which political feeling and political action are complexly intertwined and repeated sensation does not necessarily lead to disaffection. When affect acts as a ‘binding technique’ compelling us to inhabit our sensorial responses to images, I suggest, we may become better attuned to everyday patterns of seeing, feeling, thinking and interacting – and hence to the possibility of change at the level of habit. This article thus contends that thinking affect and habit together as imbricated may enable us to better understand the dynamics of both individual and socio-political change today

Biomarkers in asthma and allergic rhinitis

International audienceA biological marker (biomarker) is a physical sign or laboratory measurement that can serve as an indicator of biological or pathophysiological processes or as a response to a therapeutic intervention. An applicable biomarker possesses the characteristics of clinical relevance (sensitivity and specificity for the disease) and is responsive to treatment effects, in combination with simplicity, reliability and repeatability of the sampling technique. Presently, there are several biomarkers for asthma and allergic rhinitis that can be obtained by non-invasive or semi-invasive airway sampling methods meeting at least some of these criteria

9-Valent human papillomavirus vaccine: a review of the clinical development program

Introduction: The 9-valent human papillomavirus (9vHPV) vaccine covers the same HPV types (6/11/16/18) as the quadrivalent HPV (qHPV) vaccine and 5 additional cancer-causing types (31/33/45/52/58). Epidemiological studies indicate that the 9vHPV vaccine could prevent approximately 90% of cervical cancers, 70–85% of high-grade cervical dysplasia (precancers), 85–95% of HPV-related vulvar, vaginal, and anal cancers, and 90% of genital warts. Areas covered: Study design features and key findings from the 9vHPV vaccine clinical development program are reviewed. In particular, 9vHPV vaccine efficacy was established in a Phase III study in young women age 16–26 years. Efficacy results in young women were extrapolated to pre- and young adolescent girls and boys and young men by immunological bridging (i.e., demonstration of non-inferior immunogenicity in these groups versus young women). Expert commentary: The development of the 9vHPV vaccine is the outcome of 20 years of continuous clinical research. Broad vaccination programs could help substantially decrease the incidence of HPV-related disease