Geometrical impacts of platonic particles on nematic liquid crystal dynamics.

Platonic-solid-like particles in liquid crystals offer intriguing opportunities for engineering complex materials with tailored properties. Inspired by platonic solids' geometric simplicity and symmetry, these particles possess well-defined shapes such as cubes, tetrahedra, octahedra, dodecahedra, and icosahedra. When dispersed within nematic liquid-crystalline media, these particles interact with the surrounding medium in intricate ways, influencing the local orientational order of liquid crystal molecules.

Virome analyses of Amblyomma cajennense and Rhipicephalus microplus ticks collected in Colombia.

Tick-borne viruses (TBV) have gained public health relevance in recent years due to the recognition of human-associated fatal cases and the increase in tick-borne disease and transmission. However, many tick species have not been studied for their potential to transmit pathogenic viruses, especially those found in Latin America. To gain better understanding of the tick virome, we conducted targeted amplification using broadly-reactive consensus-degenerate pan-viral targeting viruses from the genera Flavivirus, Bandavirus, Uukuvirus, and Orthonairovirus genus.

Molecular surveillance detects high prevalence of the neglected parasite in the Colombian Amazon.

Mansonellosis is an undermapped insect-transmitted disease caused by filarial nematodes that are estimated to infect hundreds of millions of people globally. Despite their prevalence, there are many outstanding questions regarding the general biology and health impacts of the responsible parasites. Historical reports suggest that the Colombian Amazon is endemic for mansonellosis and may serve as an ideal location to pursue these questions in the backdrop of other endemic and emerging pathogens.

Geometrically driven aggregation of unsymmetrical dielectric particles.

Understanding electrostatic interactions among dielectric bodies in the atmosphere and aerosols is central to controlling their aggregation. Polarization effects, which are frequently ignored, are crucial to determine interactions when geometrical anisotropies are present due to surface-induced charge segregation. Here, we adopt a direct integral formulation that accounts for the problem of charged dielectric bodies immersed in a continuum media to explore particle aggregation via geometrical tuning.

Oropouche virus as an emerging cause of acute febrile illness in Colombia.

Arbovirus infections are frequent causes of acute febrile illness (AFI) in tropical countries. We conducted health facility-based AFI surveillance at four sites in Colombia (Cucuta, Cali, Villavicencio, Leticia) during 2019-2022. Demographic, clinical and risk factor data were collected from persons with AFI that consented to participate in the study ( = 2,967).