Far-Right Framing Processes on Social Media: The Case of the Canadian and Quebec Chapters of Soldiers of Odin.

In recent years, Canada has witnessed an increase in visibility of far-right groups and activities. This phenomenon is particularly interesting as it contrasts with the broader Canadian context of acceptance of immigrants and support for multiculturalism. How do far-right groups represent themselves and their claims to the public considering the dominant discursive environment in which they operate? Moreover, are far-right groups' discourse and rhetoric marked by contextual differences? This paper analyzes the way the distinct Canadian and Quebec chapters of the vigilante group Soldiers of Odin (SOO) use their public Facebook pages, comparatively. This research demonstrates that both SOO chapters negotiate their self-representation by employing cultural elements that are salient and meaningful in their respective sociopolitical contexts and that can be exploited to infer motivations.

Ces dernières années, le Canada a connu une augmentation en visibilité des groupes d'extrême droite et de leurs activités. Ce phénomène est particulièrement intéressant, car il contraste avec le contexte général canadien d'acceptation des immigrants et du soutien au multiculturalisme. Considérant l'environnement discursif dominant dans lequel les groupes d'extrême droite opèrent, comment ceux-ci se présentent-ils ainsi que leurs revendications au public? De plus, les discours et les rhétoriques des groupes d'extrême droite sont-ils marqués par des différences contextuelles? Cet article analyse la façon dont les distincts chapitres du groupe de vigilantes les Soldats d'Odin (SO) au Canada et au Québec utilisent leur page Facebook publique, comparativement. Cette recherche démontre que les deux chapitres des SO négocient leurs représentations d'eux-mêmes en employant des éléments culturels qui sont saillants et significatifs dans leurs contextes sociopolitiques respectifs et qui peuvent être exploités à des fins de motivation.

Surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry for protein and Peptide profiling of body fluids.

Recently, Ciphergen Biosystems (Fremont, CA, USA) has developed a technique called surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization (SELDI). This technology is based on ProteinChips(R) with chemically or biochemically modified surfaces for the selective retention and enrichment of protein subsets from a complex protein mixture. The proteins or peptides of interest can then be identified by using mass spectrometry (SELDI-MS). This highly sensitive and high-throughput technique can detect minute differences in proteins and peptide profiles between biological samples. The versatility of this technology enables a wide variety of applications in basic research, clinical, proteomic, and drug discovery such as identification of novel biomarkers associated with certain diseases or treatments. Many disease biomarkers or biomarker patterns have been identified using SELDI-MS in various laboratories. In this chapter, we provide a general guide to the profiling of proteins or peptides as well as biomarker discovery using the most common body fluids such as serum/plasma, nipple aspiration fluid, and urine.

Use of a combination of approaches to identify and validate relevant tumor-associated antigens and their corresponding autoantibodies in ovarian cancer patients.

PURPOSE: Novel biomarkers are urgently needed to increase the sensitivity of CA125 for the early detection of ovarian cancer. Indeed, it has been shown that as much as 20% of early-stage patients do not express significant levels of this biomarker. Therefore, the possibility of using autoantibodies directed against tumor-associated antigens as putative cancer markers is being more examined. Indeed, many autoantibodies have recently been shown to correlate with cancer patient prognosis or to be suitable for detection of the disease. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: In this study, we have used a new approach involving the use of proteomics, immunology, and ELISA methods to identify relevant autoantibodies in the plasma of ovarian cancer patients. To do so, we developed an innovative technique called two-dimensional differential gel electrophoresis analysis of immunoprecipitated tumor antigens. RESULTS: This strategy allowed us to successfully identify novel circulating autoantibodies directed against the S100A7 protein in the plasma of ovarian cancer patients. Further real-time reverse transcription-PCR and immunohistochemical studies confirmed that the S100A7 mRNA and protein were highly expressed in ovarian tumors but absent in normal and benign tissues. Moreover, a preliminary study involving 138 patients confirmed that the plasma levels of anti-S100A7 antibodies are significantly elevated in early- and late-stage ovarian cancer patients compared with healthy controls and with patients with benign gynecologic diseases. CONCLUSIONS: This shows that our approach is a valuable tool to successfully identify autoantibodies and tumor-associated antigens in cancer patients and that future research assessing their putative clinical usefulness would be worthwhile.

Discovery and application of protein biomarkers for ovarian cancer.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review the protein biomarker research field in ovarian cancer, including the discovered new biomarkers, biomarker panels, their potential clinical applications, and suggested strategies for biomarker discovery and development. RECENT FINDINGS: Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of death from cancer among North American women. Unfortunately, there is currently no reliable circulating biomarker that can detect ovarian cancer in its early stages. The CA125 biomarker is extremely valuable for treatment response monitoring, but its sensitivity is very low for early detection. There is an urgent need to identify new circulating biomarkers/panels of biomarkers that could diagnose ovarian cancer before it becomes clinically detectable and advanced. In the past decade, efforts have accelerated to identify such novel biomarkers/panels of serum and urine biomarkers. A couple of individual biomarkers and biomarker panels have been reported with adaptable sensitivity and specificity range, which might hold great potential to be further validated and developed for diagnosis and prognosis applications and to control ovarian cancer mortality. SUMMARY: The present review summarizes the main advances in the past year, with the lists of biomarkers/panels, their potential applications, and new strategies/lessons we learned based on the most important work published during this period.

Recent technical strategies to identify diagnostic biomarkers for ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths among North American women. Regrettably, there is currently no reliable circulating biomarker that can detect ovarian cancer in its early stages. The CA125 biomarker is very useful for treatment response monitoring, but its sensitivity is very low for early detection. Thus, there is an urgent need for the identification of new circulating biomarkers/panel of biomarkers that could be used to diagnose ovarian cancer before it becomes clinically detectable and advanced. Unfortunately, the strategies used in the past years to identify such biomarkers have not led to any outstanding candidate. This review summarizes the different approaches used in the last decade and suggests which strategies should be adopted in the near future in order to lead to the successful identification of new ovarian cancer diagnostic biomarkers.

Chromosome 18 suppresses tumorigenic properties of human prostate cancer cells.

Although prostate cancer is still the most diagnosed cancer in men, most genes implicated in its progression are yet to be identified. Chromosome abnormalities have been detected in human prostate tumors, many of them associated with prostate cancer progression. Indeed, alterations (including deletions or amplifications) of more than 15 human chromosomes have been reported in prostate cancer. We hypothesized that transferring normal human chromosomes into human prostate cancer cells would interfere with their tumorigenic and/or metastatic properties. We used microcell-mediated chromosome transfer to introduce human chromosomes 10, 12, 17, and 18 into highly tumorigenic (PC-3M-Pro4) and highly metastatic (PC-3M-LN4) PC-3-derived cell lines. We tested the in vitro and in vivo properties of these hybrids. Introducing chromosome 18 into the PC-3M-LN4 prostate cancer cell line greatly reduced its tumorigenic phenotype. We observed retarded growth in soft agar, decreased invasiveness through Matrigel, and delayed tumor growth into nude mice, both subcutaneously and orthotopically. This phenotype is associated with a marker in the 18q21 region. Combined with the loss of human chromosome 18 regions often seen in patients with advanced prostate cancer, our results show that chromosome 18 encodes one or more tumor-suppressor genes whose inactivation contributes to prostate cancer progression.