This study investigates the rheological properties of shear thickening fluids (STFs) formulated by dispersing silica particles in polyethylene glycol (PEG), with the incorporation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). The influences of silica particle content, carbon nanotube (CNT) loading, and surface functionalization were systematically examined. Rotational rheometry demonstrated that CNT addition significantly reduced the critical shear rate while enhancing the maximum viscosity of the STF. Systematic analysis demonstrated that MWNT incorporation significantly reduces the critical shear rate and enhances the maximum viscosity of the STF by forming bridging networks that reinforce shear-induced hydro-clusters. Crucially, acid-functionalization was established as a viable technique to improve CNT dispersion and stability, allowing for higher loadings and stronger shear thickening responses necessary for designing lightweight, high-performance protective materials. Field emission scanning electron microscopy analysis provided microstructural evidence, confirming that the enhanced performance arises from the high-aspect-ratio CNTs forming a physical bridging network between the silica particles, which effectively stabilizes and reinforces the shear-induced hydro-clusters. These findings offer crucial design guidelines by defining the optimal concentration window and necessity of surface functionalization to maximize the high-performance potential of lightweight CNT-modified shear thickening fluids. Excessive CNT loading, however, induced agglomeration, leading to a deterioration of shear thickening.

Developing highly durable and active catalysts is essential for improving the performance and longevity of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this study, we propose a novel strategy to enhance catalyst dispersion and stability by incorporating pyrrolic nitrogen-rich carbon (pNC) quantum dots into highly crystalline carbon supports. The introduction of pNC generates strong anchoring sites for Pt nanoparticles, facilitating uniform dispersion and minimizing aggregation, which are key factors in enhancing catalytic performance and durability. The synthesized Pt/CVC150 catalyst exhibited excellent oxygen reduction reaction activity, with a half-wave potential of 0.842 V and a limiting current density of 6.3 mA cm− 2. Under accelerated stress test conditions, the catalyst retained 61.4% of its initial peak power density after prolonged cycling, indicating enhanced durability. Furthermore, single cell testing confirmed its improved electrochemical activity and stability of the Pt/CVC150 catalyst in a practical PEMFC operating environment. These findings suggest that the incorporation of heteroatom-doped carbon moieties onto carbon supports represents a promising strategy for the development of nextgeneration PEMFC catalysts with enhanced performance and longevity.

Encapsulating living cells within porous crystalline materials has emerged as a powerful strategy for improving cellular stability in chemically or physically harsh conditions. In this study, individual yeast cells were encapsulated with a zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) crystals via a biomimetic self-assembly process. Morphological analysis using electron microscopy confirmed the successful formation of a uniform and continuous protective shell around each cell. To evaluate the cytoprotective effect of the ZIF-8 coating, the encapsulated yeast cells were exposed to a range of pH conditions (pH 2~12). Fluorescence microscopy using fluorescein diacetate (FDA) staining revealed that over 50 % of the ZIF-8 encapsulated cells remained viable in alkaline environments (pH 8, 10, and 12), whereas non-encapsulated yeast cells showed 0 % viability across all tested conditions. The enhanced survival in alkaline media was attributed to the stability of the crystalline ZIF-8 shell, which remained partially intact and provided structural protection. In contrast, acidic conditions degraded the ZIF-8 shell, leading to cell membrane rupture and loss of viability. These findings demonstrate that ZIF-8 encapsulation can significantly improve the chemical resilience and survival of living yeast cells. This strategy holds great promise for applications in long-term cell preservation, transport, and pH-responsive biotechnological systems.

Since 2015, the 12 Regional Global Game Centers, expanded nationwide, aim to alleviate the concentration of the game industry in the Seoul Metropolitan Area and foster balanced regional development. As of 2025, approximately KRW 29 billion is invested annually. However, despite over a decade of policy implementation, academic research on its effectiveness remains limited. This study investigates the budget trends of Regional Global Game Centers through literature review and data analysis. It compares and analyzes the number of game development and publishing businesses, employees, and sales figures in 2014 (prior to center establishment) and 2023 (latest statistics) to explore changes in regional distribution and the effect of decentralization. The analysis reveals that over the past decade, the proportion of game development and publishing businesses in the Seoul Metropolitan Area decreased by 6.4% to 10.3% across all indicators (number of establishments, employees, and sales), confirming a partial decentralization effect. Notably, positive changes such as increased regional employment and an expanded share of sales were also observed. However, despite the overall South Korean game industry's average annual sales growth of 4.6% from 2021 to 2023, a significant problem was found: most regions excluding Seoul experienced an average annual sales decline of 2.6% to 5.6% during the same period. This suggests that despite the partial alleviation of metropolitan concentration, the policy had limitations in achieving its goals of fostering self-sustaining growth and revenue generation for the regional game industry. In conclusion, while Regional Global Game Centers contributed to quantitative decentralization, their impact on qualitative growth, especially in terms of sales increase, was insufficient.

This study explored the effectiveness and areas for improvement of regional global game centers through in-depth interviews with experts in the game industry. The expert interviews revealed a generally negative perception regarding the current effectiveness of these centers. Nevertheless, the majority of experts argued for the continued existence of regional global game centers. Perspectives were offered suggesting that the high performance attributed to the Seoul metropolitan area might be an illusion created by a few large corporations, and that the role of regional global game centers is crucial in the current market structure where indie games are gaining prominence. Furthermore, the phenomenon of Seoul-based companies relocating to regional areas could have a positive effect by allowing developers with the will and experience in game development to remain in the industry and thrive in local regions. As for improvements, increasing the expertise and fairness of evaluation committees and developing and applying innovative evaluation metrics that reflect the unique characteristics of the game industry, rather than outdated quantitative performance indicators (KPIs), were prioritized. Specifically, given that games do not generate revenue during their development period and create high value with a small number of personnel, the experts criticized uniform metric targets like sales or new hires, stating they lead to superficial game development and marginalize promising small-scale companies.

This paper examines the story generation capabilities of generative AI, which are increasingly utilized across various industries. The narrative of the classic novel Don Quixote was input into ChatGPT, a generative AI model, and reconstructed through natural language prompts that applied the MacGuffin technique to create new story structures. The AI-generated narratives, produced in the forms of synopses and scene-by-scene treatments, were compared with the original work to evaluate narrative completeness. Furthermore, the reconstructed narratives were transformed into screenplay and game event formats to assess their potential applications in various media content. The results indicate that generative AI achieved meaningful outcomes in restructuring the original story into a reversal-based narrative using the MacGuffin structure. It also demonstrated sufficient capability to adapt stories for character dialogues and scene direction. Therefore, this paper suggests that generative AI can function as a supportive tool for human writers in the idea development and pre-production stages of screenplay and digital content creation.