CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MARINE PROPELLERS HYDRODYNAMIC DESIGN

The navigation in Amazon region is very important due to the length of navigable rivers and the lack of alternative road network, as well as being a form of transportation costless for the flow of agricultural and manufacturing production. This kind of transportation present social, economic and technological importance for this region. Thus, this work objective to develop a mathematical approach for the marine propellers design, using a formulation for chord and pitch angle optimization, taken into account the equations of mass, energy and momentum balance for the theoretical calculation of thrust and torque relationships on an annular control volume, ie, the mathematical model is based in the Blade Element Momentum (BEM) theory. The proposed hydrodynamic model present low computational cost and it is easy to implement. The results are compared with classical Glauert's theory and the experimental data of the Wageningen B3-50 propeller, presenting good agreement

Assessment of the virulence of the Burkholderia mallei Strain BAC 86/19 in BALB/c Mice.

ABSTRACT - Burkholderia mallei is an aerobic, Gram-negative, non-motile bacillus. As an obligate mammalian pathogen, it primarily affects solipeds. Although rarely transmitted to humans, the disease it causes, glanders, is classified as a zoonosis. The bacterium was officially eradicated in Brazil in 1969; however, it reemerged after three decades. This study aims to assess the virulence of a specific B. mallei strain, isolated in Brazil, in BALB/c mice through intranasal infection. The strain, B. mallei BAC 86/19, was obtained from the tracheal secretion of a young mare displaying positive serology but no clinical signs of glanders. Post-mortem examinations revealed macroscopic lesions consistent with the disease, however. In mice, the LD50 was determined to be approximately 1.59 × 105 colony-forming units (CFU)/animal. Mice exposed to either 0.1 × LD50 or 1 × LD50 displayed transient weight loss, which resolved after three or five days, respectively. B. mallei persisted within the liver and lung for five days post-infection and in the spleen for seven days. These findings underscore the detectable virulence of the Brazilian B. mallei BAC 86/19 strain in mice, which are relatively resilient hosts. This research points to the importance of the continued investigation of the virulence mechanisms and potential countermeasures associated with B. mallei infections, including their Brazilian isolates