Between July 2024 and July 2025, we collected spleen samples from 119 wild rodents captured across various zoogeographical regions of Gwangju City, Republic of Korea, to screen for major zoonotic pathogens, including Anaplasma, Babesia, Bartonella, Borrelia, Coxiella, Ehrlichia, and Rickettsia species. Of these, 13 samples (10.92%) tested positive for Bartonella spp. The positive samples were cultured on blood agar, resulting in eight bacterial isolates. Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis confirmed all Bartonella-positive samples as B. grahamii. Antibiotic susceptibility testing revealed that all B. grahamii isolates exhibited multidrug resistance (MDR) to ciprofloxacin, nalidixic acid, cefoxitin, streptomycin, and tetracycline, and showed intermediate resistance to ampicillin. In contrast, the isolates were susceptible to ceftazidime, cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, imipenem, gentamicin, amikacin, azithromycin, chloramphenicol, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. These findings provide essential baseline data on the presence and resistance patterns of B. grahamii in wild rodent populations inhabiting peri-urban environments. The detection of MDR Bartonella strains underscores a potential public health concern, particularly regarding zoonotic spillover via ectoparasites such as ticks. Sustained molecular surveillance and antimicrobial resistance monitoring are warranted to mitigate future zoonotic threats.

TiO2/CNT/GO heterostructure nanocomposite was synthesized by solvothermal method for the removal or degradation of methylene blue (MB). The physical and chemical characteristics were assessed by various characterization techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirmed the external and internal morphology of the heterostructure materials with irregular shapes. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that the internal structure was preserved after incorporating CNTs and GO into TiO2, and the average particle size distribution was determined using an SEM histogram with an average particle size of 85.5 nm. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was performed to evaluate the elemental mapping of heterojunction confirm the presence of C, O, and Ti. X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed a crystalline nature and the size of as synthesized material was calculated as 17.08 nm. UV–vis spectroscopy (UV–vis) was conducted to observe the optical behavior and light scattering phenomena of heterostructure materials. Various factors, such as different doses of heterostructure (0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 g), dye concentration (10, 20, and 30 ppm), irradiation time (0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 min), were carried out at 25 °C. The TiO2/ CNT/GO heterostructure induced 91% methylene blue (MB) degradation in 120 min with superior cycling stability after regeneration for four cycles. The optimal reaction conditions were adopted to obtain the highest degradation rate using 0.2 g of the heterostructure, 30 ppm MB concentration, 120 min of light irradiation, and 25 °C reaction temperature. The TiO2/ CNT/GO photocatalyst exhibited enhanced kinetic performance, catalytic stability, structural reliability, and reactivity for 91% degradation efficiency of MB.

Background: Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a progressive lung disease marked by excessive fibrosis and declining respiratory function. While pharmacological treatments help manage symptoms, they offer limited reversal of fibrosis and often have side effects. As a result, interest in rehabilitation approaches such as breathing exercises combined with self-myofascial release (SMR) has increased. These techniques may enhance trunk stability and thoracic flexibility, contributing to improved respiratory function. Objectives: This study investigated the effects of thoracic expansion exercises using SMR techniques on pulmonary function and chest mobility in a patient with PF, and assessed their clinical applicability. Design: Single-subject A-B-A′ design. Methods: A 60s male with idiopathic PF underwent 20 days of intervention. Standard rehabilitation was applied during baseline (A) and follow-up (A′) phases. During the intervention (B), SMR-based breathing exercises were added. Outcomes included Functional Reach Test (FRT), chest expansion, and pulmonary function tests (FVC, FEV₁, PEF, FEV₁/FVC). Data were analyzed using the 2SD band method. Results: FRT improved from 23.4 cm (A) to 31.3 cm (B) and 34.2 cm (A′). Chest expansion increased from 1.7 cm to 2.8 cm, and FVC rose from 1.70 L to 2.08 L before dropping to 0.94 L. FEV₁/FVC improved from 80.8% to 86.7% during intervention but decreased at follow-up. Conclusion: SMR-based thoracic expansion exercises may enhance trunk stability, thoracic mobility, and certain pulmonary function indicators in PF patients. These findings suggest potential clinical benefits, warranting further studies to confirm long-term effectiveness.

As social media becomes increasingly integrated into daily life, it has reshaped how people communicate and consume advertising. Instagram, a visually-oriented platform, uses advanced targeting and shopping features to deliver personalized advertising, particularly in the fashion retail sector. Grounded in the cognitive-affective-behavioral model and human information processing theory, this study investigates how Instagram’s personalized fashion advertising influences consumer perception and behavior, focusing on recommendation system quality (accuracy, novelty, diversity) and content quality (vividness, diagnosticity). A survey of 403 Korean adults aged 20–69 was conducted to assess causal relationships among these variables. The findings reveal that accuracy and diversity in recommendation systems, along with diagnosticity of content quality, positively influence user satisfaction, which, in turn, influences their click-through and purchase intentions. However, novelty and vividness exhibited no significant effects. Academically, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying personalized advertising on visuallyoriented platforms like Instagram. Practically, it underscores the importance of creating high-quality, personalized content that aligns with user preferences and provides clear product information. Brands can enhance user engagement by designing visually appealing advertisements and optimizing linked web pages to foster emotional bonds with consumers. These strategies can cultivate long-term customer relationships and enhance brand loyalty while maximizing advertising effectiveness on Instagram.

Global strategists emphasize leveraging capabilities developed in domestic markets when expanding into international markets, a strategy reflected in the entry of Korean startups into the Chinese market. Value appropriation refers to a company's ability to claim its share of the value created in a target market, with value appropriation factors being critical elements required for this process. Despite these strategies, many foreign companies fail to achieve expected performance in China, often attributed to their inability to secure the necessary value appropriation factors. Researchers posit that business guanxi can play a pivotal role in facilitating the acquisition of these factors in the Chinese market. This study examines the relationship between the network capabilities of global startups and value appropriation factors during the overseas expansion stage. It also explores the moderating effect of business guanxi through empirical research. The data was collected via surveys from Korean global startups targeting business operations in China. The results indicate that sub-components of network capability, specifically networking capability and international market resource securing capability, are significantly associated with the acquisition of value appropriation factors. Furthermore, business guanxi was found to positively moderate the relationship between networking capability and securing value appropriation factors. These findings suggest that Korean global startups should prioritize developing strong network capabilities and fostering business guanxi to enhance their ability to secure value appropriation factors during the overseas expansion stage. Chinese companies do not have deep trust in Korean startups. Therefore, startups should build a business guanxi based on emotional trust from the beginning of early entry. This effort will extend beyond the trust of startup products and services to corporate trust.

This paper addresses a scheduling problem aimed at minimizing makespan in a permutation flow shop with two machines and an inspection process that must be conducted at least once every certain number of outcomes from the first machine. A mathematical programming approach and a genetic algorithm, incorporating Johnson's rule and a specific mutation process, were developed to solve this problem. Johnson's rule was used to generate an initial population, while the mutation process ensured compliance with the inspection constraints. The results showed that within a computation time limit of 300 seconds, the mathematical programming approach often failed to provide optimal or feasible solutions, especially for larger job sets. For instance, when the process times of both machines were similar and the inspection time was longer, the mathematical programming approach failed to solve all 10 experiments with just 15 jobs and only had a 50% success rate for 100 jobs. In contrast, the proposed genetic algorithm solved all instances and delivered equal or superior results compared to the mathematical programming approach.