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Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) biocomposites are usually plasticized to overcome the problem of poor ductility, which decreases the valuable tensile strength. In this study, novel nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) was extracted to enhance the acetyl tributyl citrate (ATBC) plasticized PLA biocomposites. Interestingly, NFC not only exhibited an excellent strengthening effect but also showed a further toughening effect in the biocomposites. When 4 wt% NFC was added, the tensile strength, elongation at break, and impact strength of the biocomposites with 15 wt% ATBC and 20 wt% ATBC reached 52.6 MPa, 28.4%, 34.9 J/m and 35.8 MPa, 300.1%, 40 J/m, respectively. This is at least 1.1 folds higher in strength and 2.3 folds higher in impact toughness than the biocomposites without NFC. Glass transition and melting temperature slightly increased with NFC addition. More importantly, the mechanism of the strengthening and toughening effect was definitely elucidated, and the comprehensive performance of the application was evaluated. The findings of the study provide significant guidance for PLA application, such as in food packaging, medical engineering materials, and household products.

Vegetation restoration is one of the effective measures to deal with land degradation, and shrubs, as the pioneer plants, can improve soil conditions and accelerate the recovery of desertification. In recent decades, single‐scan (SS) and multiple‐scan (MS) modes have been widely used for forest inventories by terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) but TLS‐based shrub observation, and data quality uncertainties are less studied, especially in eco‐fragile regions with high survey costs and harsh environmental conditions. In this study, two shrub sample plots with different topographic characteristics were selected as the study area in the southern Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau. We compared the basic phenotypic parameters (BPPs) under SS and MS mode, including number (N), height (H) and crown width (CW), to evaluate the potential of SS mode in extracting vegetation attributes. Through the distribution of shrub information loss rate (L) with distance and shrub height, the limitations of SS mode in obtaining data were discussed. By combining the topographic features of scanning spots, topographic relief (T) and L, we provided reasonable opinions on TLS collection mode, setting of scanning spots, and other operational aspects. The results indicated that: (1) SS mode has good applicability in shrub observation under different terrain characteristics. (2) The height distribution of the shrub is the main factor affecting the quality of data collection, and the information loss bias caused by distance should be considered only in the shrub plots with uniform height distribution. (3) T has an impact on shrub growth but has no effect on the quality of data acquisition (no significant correlation between T and L). These findings will provide technical support for TLS data collection on ecological restoration of degraded grassland dunes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the impact of the level of differentiation in a minimum of two follicles with a diameter of ≥18 mm on the outcome of controlled ovarian hyperstimulation on the day of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) administration., Methods: Single-center data from January 2018 to December 2021 was retrospectively analyzed for 1,199 patients with fresh embryo transfer for assisted reproduction. The absolute value of the standard deviation of the follicle size of at least 2 follicles ≥18 mm in diameter in both ovaries on the day of hCG was taken as the degree of differentiation of the dominant follicle after ovulation induction, based on the standard deviation response to the degree of dispersion of the data. The degree of follicular differentiation was divided into 3 groups according to the size of the value, and the general clinical conditions, laboratory indexes, and clinical outcomes of the patients in the 3 groups were compared., Results: Among the three groups, the body mass index (BMI) of the ≤1s group was lower than that of the other two groups (P< 0.05), while the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) were higher (P< 0.05), and the implantation rate and clinical pregnancy rate were significantly higher than those of the other two groups (P< 0.01). After multifactorial logistic regression to correct for confounding factors, with the ≤1s group as the reference, the implantation rate, hCG-positive rate, clinical pregnancy rate and live birth rate of embryo transfer in the ≥2S group were significantly lower (P< 0.01). The results of curve fitting analysis showed that the live birth rate decreased gradually with the increase of the absolute standard deviation (P=0.0079)., Conclusion: Differences in follicle diameters ≥18 mm on the day of hCG injection did not have an impact on embryo quality, but had an impact on pregnancy outcomes. The less the variation in follicle size, the more homogeneous the follicle development and the higher the likelihood of live births., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Xu, Chen, Tian, Chen, Zhang, Li, Wu, Zhang and Zhang.)