The 20S catalytic core of the human 26S proteasome can be secreted from cells, and high levels of extracellular 20S proteasome have been linked to many types of cancers and autoimmune diseases. Several diagnostic approaches have been developed that detect 20S proteasome activity in plasma, but these suffer from problems with efficiency and sensitivity. In this report, we describe the optimization and synthesis of an internally quenched fluorescent substrate of the 20S proteasome, and investigate its use as a potential diagnostic test in bladder cancer. This peptide, 2‐aminobenzoic acid (ABZ)‐Val‐Val‐Ser‐Tyr‐Ala‐Met‐Gly‐Tyr(3‐NO2)‐NH2, is cleaved by the chymotrypsin 20S proteasome subunit and displays an excellent specificity constant value (9.7 × 105 m−1·s−1) and a high kcat (8 s−1). Using this peptide, we identified chymotrypsin‐like proteasome activity in the majority of urine samples obtained from patients with bladder cancer, whereas the proteasome activity in urine samples from healthy volunteers was below the detection limit (0.5 pm). These findings were confirmed by an inhibitory study and immunochemistry methods.

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In the context of transnational migration, many nonmigrant men in Guinea-Bissau and The Gambia postulate a 'transcontinental' version of polygyny, wishing to have one wife in Europe and another in Africa. Such claims are made among competing notions of love based on romantic intimacy and monogamy. This article explores the ways in which people rationalise polygyny in transnational marriage, based on the notion of hegemonic masculinity. Whereas hegemonic masculinity is an ideal asserted discursively, through persuasion, and relies on common consent, some migrant men resort to the strategy of keeping the African wife secret from the European wife-they are only able to assert a 'one-sided hegemonic masculinity' in transnational marriage. Ultimately, global economic inequalities and the demand for labour migration characteristic of contemporary neoliberal globalisation counter the trend towards romantic intimacy, necessitating transnational family forms and favouring polygyny.

This article explores changeable strategies used by men in their struggle for modernity and masculinity in contemporary Guinea-Bissau, which include wearing European clothes and showing signs of education. I employ Sherry Ortner’s concept of “serious games” to demonstrate how wearing fashionable clothes becomes a strategy in a game of status and prestige which is framed by the categories of „village people”, „town people” and emigrants, reflecting how local modern identity is shaped by the ideas of modernity and development, and by dreams of migration to Europe. The other side of the game, however, is, for men, the need to negotiate their masculinity. In the context of scarce material resources, fulfilling both of these goals poses a challenge and a contradiction for most Guinean men. As a result, symbolical meanings related to European clothes are sometimes strategically changed by men in their relations with women: through mockery, caricature and hence devaluation of the (otherwise shared) aspirations to modernity. In other cases, non-material attributes, such as signs of education, are foregrounded and employed as alternative strategies. Men manoeuvre among these various strategies in the game of modernity and masculinity, depending on the social context, their material situation and cultural capital at their disposal.