Mouse model of Schistosomiasis: infection with Schistosoma mansoni in CD-1 mice

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease that affects almost 240 million worldwide. CD1 mice were infected with cercariae of S. mansoni, after which infection developed for 8 weeks. Tissues were processed to immuno-histological techniques. It was performed H&E staining for overall analyses, Sirius Red for fibrosis and immunohistochemistry for inflammation biomarkers. The most infected organ was the liver, fibrosis decreased with egg development and Galectin-3 (Gal3) and Interleukin 6 (IL-6) were expressed inside granulomasThis work was also supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (REF UID/BIM/04293/2013) and by the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000012 and by a scholarship to Carla Luís with the reference SAICT2016/FEDER/BIO4DIA/BTI under the supervision of Dr. Rúben Fernandes.N/

Numerical solution of open string field theory in Schnabl gauge

Using traditional Virasoro $L_0$ level-truncation computations, we evaluate the open bosonic string field theory action up to level $(10,30)$. Extremizing this level-truncated potential, we construct a numerical solution for tachyon condensation in Schnabl gauge. We find that the energy associated to the numerical solution overshoots the expected value $-1$ at level $L=6$. Extrapolating the level-truncation data for $L\leq 10$ to estimate the vacuum energies for $L > 10$, we predict that the energy reaches a minimum value at $L \sim 12$, and then turns back to approach $-1$ asymptotically as $L \rightarrow \infty$. Furthermore, we analyze the tachyon vacuum expectation value (vev), for which by extrapolating its corresponding level-truncation data, we predict that the tachyon vev reaches a minimum value at $L \sim 26$, and then turns back to approach the expected analytical result as $L \rightarrow \infty$.Comment: 37 pages, 9 figures, some typos correcte