To address the global challenge of plastic waste, 175 UN Member States are negotiating a legally binding instrument, the Plastic Treaty, aimed at ending plastic pollution. This ambitious framework, targeting both terrestrial and marine sources, is being developed through Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meetings scheduled to conclude by 2025. Amidst uncertainties and power dynamics influencing state positions, this research identifies 10 critical, yet unresolved, points within the treaty negotiations (i.e., the scope of the treaty, equity and differentiation, involvement of non-state actors, integration with existing agreements, standards and specifications, trade implications, monitoring and reporting, responsibility and historical contributions, binding vs. non-binding commitments, and financing and technology transfer). The findings suggest potential compromises in the treaty’s environmental provisions, influenced by domestic interests and international power disparities. As negotiations progress, the imperative for cooperation and decisive action against plastic pollution becomes increasingly pressing, challenging member states to prioritize global environmental integrity over national interests.

Plastics are an emerging class of environmental contaminants whose impacts are not yet fully understood. Trace elements, another class of environmental contaminant and commonly associated with plastics, have been widely researched and are known to be toxic to organisms. However, the combined impacts of these two contaminants on the environment remain unclear. Here, we reviewed the current knowledge of the types and concentrations of trace elements associated with plastics, the role of plastics in creating new exposure routes, the processes involved in the release of trace elements from plastics, and the transport of plastics through environmental compartments. Trace elements inherent in plastics, due to addition during manufacture for formation or functional properties, are typically present at higher concentrations than those that are acquired from the environment, and consequently are likely to have greater impacts. Trace elements are continuously released into environmental matrices from plastics but may be released at higher concentrations when exposed to rapid changes in environmental conditions (pH, ionic strength, redox potential, salinity, UV levels). Plastics potentially provide additional exposure routes for organisms to trace elements. For example, exposure to trace elements may occur when organisms ingest plastics, use them for shelter and nest building or as a surface to attach onto. Further research to improve our understanding of this complex contaminant should focus on environmentally relevant studies on trace element release and their effects.

The negotiations for a new treaty to govern the ‘full lifecycle’ of plastics face a major challenge: designing a strong treaty, quickly, that is acceptable to most of the international community of states. Although diplomats play a critical role in accomplishing this task, scholars and researchers represent a critical network of support, especially on the topic of treaty design. This article outlines a research agenda focused on the new treaty as part of a larger ‘regime complex,’ where the interfaces between the new treaty and existing agreements will strongly shape its efficacy, efficiency, and acceptance by states. It also begins to pursue this research agenda, by investigating the relationship between the ocean governance regime, especially the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the emerging plastics treaty. The article illustrates that the ocean governance regime offers important normative foundations, institutional models, lessons about treaty language, and possibilities for institutional linkage that can inform the design of the plastics treaty. It concludes by identifying several other avenues of useful research on the nascent plastics regime complex.

Plastic entering the archaeological and geological record may be the defining signature of the Anthropocene. Amidst the growing awareness of the role of plastic in marine pollution, this study demonstrates its terrestrial ubiquity. The excavation of two experimentally reconstructed roundhouses built on their original sites at Castell Henllys Iron Age fort, Wales, reveals evidence of 30 years of heritage interpretation and visitor activity. The nature and extent of the cultural material recovered accurately reflects known activities at this heritage site, but also reveals an unexpected amount of plastic debris in archaeological contexts, indicating how, even in well-managed contexts, plastic is entering terrestrial deposits.

Modern society without plastics is difficult to imagine. Yet the global plastic system is linked to a multitude of problems of a scope that is hard to grasp and address. In short, we are facing a plastic crisis. This article explores the role of art in stimulating critical reflection about plastics and analyses how it contributes to making the plastic crisis increasingly visible. Plastic-related artworks mostly focus on ocean pollution and do not pay due attention to other aspects of the plastic crisis. At the same time, they creatively communicate clear and emotionally charged messages. Art has the potential to play an important role in coming to grips with the plastic crisis if it succeeds in adopting a broader understanding of the problem.

This paper illustrates the different possibilities given by additive manufacturing technologies for the creation of passive microwave hardware. The paper more specifically highlights a prototyping scheme where the 3D-printed plastic parts can be used as initial proofs of concept before considering more advanced 3D-printed parts (metal parts, for instance). First, a characterization campaign has been made on common plastics used by a 3D printer using the fused deposition modeling and material jetting (Polyjet©) technologies. The impact of the manufacturing strategy (high-speed or high-accuracy) on the part roughness, as well as on the dielectric material permittivity and loss tangent, has been specifically studied at 10 and 16 GHz. Based on a specifically optimized and deeply explained characterization method, the conductivity of a coating based on silver paint has also been characterized on such plastic parts at 10 and 40 GHz. These plastic materials and coating have been used for the creation of quasi-elliptic and tuning-free bandpass filters centered at 6 and 12 GHz and compared with a similar filter made of stainless steel by selective laser melting. Finally, a compact rectangular TE10 to circular TE01 mode converter also undergoes one prototyping step out of plastic before moving to an advanced part made out of stainless steel. This mode converter, which is made in a single part, is designed to operate from 28 to 36 GHz as a tuning-free final demonstrator.

Mulching the soil with polyethylene sheets before sowing during the hot season, increased the soil temperatures, which resulted in the control of soil-borne pathogens and weeds. This method was tested in a field heavily infested with Egyptian broomrape (Orobanche aegyptiaca L.). Soil was irrigated and mulched for 36 days during August–September 1977, prior to sowing carrot (Daucus carota L. ‘Nantes Tip Top’) seeds. Mulching increased soil temperatures by 8 to 12 C, up to 56 C in the top 5 cm. In the non-mulched plots the carrot plants became stunted due to heavy parasitization with broomrape and they were completely destroyed by the end of the season. In contrast, broomrape and other weeds were controlled in the mulched plots and the carrot plants grew normally. This effect was less pronounced in the border rows of the mulched plots. Mulching also greatly reduced the infestation of other weeds. Egyptian broomrape was also controlled in two other field experiments with carrots and eggplants (Solanum melongena L. ‘Black oval’). As compared with fumigation, this new method of control is economical, simple, nonhazardous, and does not employ toxic materials.

We calculated mass attenuation coefficients, effective atomic numbers and Kerma relative to air for human organ and tissue substitutes (i.e.wax, plastic and polymer materials). The effective atomic numbers of the tissue substitutes were calculated by the direct method, interpolation method, Auto-Zeff software and single value XMuDat program and then compared. The calculated effective atomic numbers were also compared with available experimental data and a good agreement was observed. A large difference in effective atomic numbers calculated by the direct and interpolation methods was observed in photoelectric and pair-production regions. The direct method was found to be appropriate for effective atomic number computation in low-(>10 keV) and medium-(0.1 ≤ E ≤ 10 MeV) photon energy regions. Kerma relative to air of the selected tissue substitutes was found to be dependent upon the atomic number and element compositions, which show a sharp peak due to K-edge absorption.

This article reviews the literature regarding the impact of cosmetic surgery on health-related quality of life (QOL). Studies were identified through PubMed/Medline and PsycINFO searches from January 1960 to December 2011. Twenty-eight studies were included in this review, according to specific selection criteria.

The procedures and tools employed in cosmetic surgery research studies were remarkably diverse, thus yielding difficulties with data analysis. However, data indicate that individuals undergoing cosmetic surgery began with lower values on aspects of QOL than control subjects, and experienced significant QOL improvement post-procedurally, an effect that appeared to plateau with time.

Despite the complexity of measuring QOL in cosmetic surgery patients, most studies showed an improvement in QOL after cosmetic surgery procedures. However, this finding was clouded by measurement precision as well as heterogeneity of procedures and study populations. Future research needs to focus on refining measurement techniques, including developing cosmetic surgery–specific QOL measures.

Stomach contents were analysed from 23 cetaceans, including individuals of 12 species from the families Delphinidae, Physeteridae, Kogiidae and Ziphiidae, stranded between 1996 and 2006 in the Canary Islands. Cephalopod mandibles (beaks) were found in 21 stomachs and fish remains (otoliths and jaw bones) appeared in 4 stomachs. Two stomachs contained only eye lenses. Cephalopods eaten by dolphins were mainly from the families Ommastrephidae, Sepiidae and Enoploteuthidae, whereas whales had mainly taken specimens of the oceanic squid families Histiotheutidae and Cranchiidae. Fish remains included a pelagic species (i.e. garfish, Belone belone) in dolphin stomachs and bathypelagic (i.e. black scabbard fish, Aphanopus carbo, lantern fish, Lampadena luminosa) and demersal species (Lophius sp.) in a pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps) stomach. Most of the prey species identified are not of commercial interest but one of the sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) contained a fishing hook among the stomach contents. Five (22%) of the cetaceans examined had also plastic debris in their stomachs, with big plastic items being taken by deep diving teuthophagous whales.

The displacement of a plastic fluid by an elastic disc approaching a plane rigid surface oriented perpendicular to the disc axis is computed with a numerical scheme accounting for the coupled deformation of the disc and flow of plastic. The axial force to push the disc is in agreement with lubrication theory approximation. The existence of un-yielded fluid situated at the corners of the fluid region on the centre-line have been predicted, similar to the case observed for rigid disc squeeze flow.

There have been increasing pressures by governments and NGOs to restrict international trade in secondary material waste in the conviction that imports of these goods are in reality a disguise for waste dumping by the exporting country. Moreover, cheap imports of secondary material waste tend to crowd out the local recovery system leading to a domestic waste disposal problem. Alternatively, proponents of trade argue that a ban on secondary material waste leads to an inefficient use of resources resulting inevitably in higher economic and environmental costs, both in developed and developing countries. In this paper we set out to investigate if free trade in secondary material waste can support economic development and simultaneously reduce environmental degradation in a developing country and the conditions necessary for the trade to be permitted. In this study we focus on the trade in waste plastics in China. A life cycle model is formulated within an optimization framework and solved by non-linear programming methods. Preliminary results suggest that trade in waste plastics is both economically and environmentally advantageous but under a number of stringent conditions.

Canalplasty is the surgical procedure whereby the external auditory meatus is widened. The indications include exostoses, stenosing external otitis and widening for surgical access. One hundred consecutive ears operated on by one surgeon are reported. The surgical technique is described in detail, paying particular attention to bone removal from the anterior canal wall. In this paper the majority of cases were occasioned by soft tissue rather than bony stenosis. The re-stenosis rate was four per cent and in each case this was associated with the use of a middle temporal artery flap. Partial, transient, delayed facial palsy occurred in two per cent, probably relating to thermal injury transmitted from the burr. A full, spontaneous recovery of facial function occurred in each case. This is a safe and effective technique for canal widening.