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In the small Andean town of Racar, Ecuador, plastics are deeply woven into land and culture. Within postqualitative framings, this dissertation puts into conversation research-creation and curriculum-making to invent pedagogical responses to plastics with children and early childhood educators at a local school named Santana. This pedagogical project interferes with prevailing Euro-western visions of the human in education that separate children in the Ecuadorian Andes from their relations with place and plastics. Together we think with material/conceptual contradictions and possibilities proposed through Andean weaving techniques as minor, but important, entry points to figuring the child within increasingly synthetic worlds in the Ecuadorian Andes. The dissertation takes shape as a collection that interlaces five key threads of inquiry: two articles, a research blog, the project’s Exhibit, and a series of websites that speak to the ongoing trajectories of the work. Woven together, these threads inhabit and further activate the ebbs and flows of the first year of an ongoing pedagogical project with Santana. Opening to the toxic/life-giving natures of plastics that figure this community, this research seeks to cultivate orientations to curriculum and pedagogy that enable children, educators and researchers to weave together a life with plastics in Racar.

BackgroundSelf‐harm amongst young people is an increasing problem, with looked‐after young people at higher risk. Despite this, little research exists on what young people who self‐harm find helpful.MethodOne hundred and twenty‐six 11–21 year olds (53 who had experience of the care system and 73 who did not) were recruited from the community and NHS. All participants had self‐harmed in the past 6 months. Participants completed an Audio Computer‐Assisted Self‐interview (ACASI) regarding their views about the support they had received, how helpful it was, and what further help they felt they needed.ResultsLooked‐after young people reported the three most helpful sources of support were Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), friends and pets and the least helpful were CAMHS, Accident and Emergency (A&E) and Social services. For non‐looked‐after young people, CAMHS, counselling and Harmless (user‐led support service for self‐harm) were most helpful and CAMHS, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and general practitioner (GP) were the least. Compared with the other group, more looked‐after young people had received help from A&E and CAMHS, whereas more non‐looked‐after young people had accessed GPs, parents, psychological therapies, self‐help books and websites. More looked‐after young people found support groups helpful, and more non‐looked‐after young people reported that distraction techniques, medication and their siblings were helpful.ConclusionYoung people who self‐harm have mixed views about CAMHS. Differences in the pattern of access and preferences for support between looked‐after and non‐looked‐after young people should be reflected in service availability and commissioning.

Additional file 1.

Background: People diagnosed with schizophrenia have a more than doubled risk of dying from cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared to the general population. Existing CVD risk calculators can be used to detect people with an elevated predicted risk of CVD to inform interventions to reduce risk. Method: We recruited thirty participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum disorders living within Greater Manchester and calculated their 10-year predicted CVD risk scores using four different models: QRISK3, Framingham, PRIMROSE BMI, and PRIMROSE lipid. Results: We found that QRISK3 identified 11 (39%) as having >10% risk of a CV event within 10 years, 4 (14%) of whom exceeded 20%. The Framingham model identified 4 (14%) as exceeding 10%, none of whom exceeded 20%. PRIMROSE risk calculators identified no participants as having >10% risk of a CV event within 10 years. Pairwise concordance correlation coefficients between types of model ranged 0.22u20130.77. Mean (u00b1 SD) age was 40 (u00b1 10) years but QRISK3's mean u201cHeart ageu201d was 58 (u00b1 14) years.Conclusions: These findings suggest risk calculators generate differing predicted CVD risk scores for patients with schizophrenia. Clinicians should take into account other patient-related factors, such as patients' preferences and underlying physical conditions when making treatment decisions.

Protein prenylation is an important post-translational modification that occurs in all eukaryotes; defects in the prenylation machinery can lead to toxicity or pathogenesis. Prenylation is the modification of a protein with a farnesyl or geranylgeranyl isoprenoid, and it facilitates protein-membrane and protein-protein interactions. Proteins of the Ras superfamily of small GTPases are almost all prenylated and of these the Rab family of proteins forms the largest group. Rab proteins are geranylgeranylated with up to two geranylgeranyl groups by the enzyme Rab geranylgeranyltransferase (RGGT). Prenylation of Rabs allows them to locate to the correct intracellular membranes and carry out their roles in vesicle trafficking. Traditional methods for probing prenylation involve the use of tritiated geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate which is hazardous, has lengthy detection times, and is insufficiently sensitive. The work described in this thesis developed systems for labelling Rabs and other geranylgeranylated proteins using a technique known as tagging-by-substrate, enabling rapid analysis of defective Rab prenylation in cells and tissues. An azide analogue of the geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate substrate of RGGT (AzGGpp) was applied for in vitro prenylation of Rabs by recombinant enzyme. Alternatively, geranylgeranylated proteins (including Rabs) were labelled with AzGG via metabolic labelling of live cells with AzGGOH. Once Rabs were tagged with an azide moiety they could be labelled via a bioorthogonal ligation reaction with a trifunctional alkyne probe. The probe contained a fluorophore for in-gel fluorescence analysis and a biotin affinity label for affinity purification of labelled proteins. The conditions for protein tagging, labelling, affinity purification and LC-MS/MS analysis were optimised significantly during this work. Affinity purified proteins were identified and in some cases quantified using LC-MS/MS techniques, with iTRAQ labelling for quantification. Rab prenylation was probed in cell culture, in cells treated with the drug Mevastatin and in tissue from mouse models with defects in the prenylation machinery.