Ocean energy and the law of the sea: The need for a protocol
Although fossil fuels are the overwhelming source of energy for the world, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future, demographic, environmental, political, and economic factors indicat...
OTEC: electricity from the ocean
OTEC is an attractive candidate as a contributor to U.S. energy self-sufficiency. It is a renewable source of base-load electricity, though limited in its geographical availability to the Gulf Coast and to island territories (Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Pacific dependencies). The grazing concept for producing energy intensive products has a much wider area of siting--there are some 20 million square miles of suitable tropical waters near the equator. Furthermore, for tropical third-world countries, OTEC offers a valuable resource, if capital funding can be made available by the more developed countries. OTEC is environmentally benign and does not consume fossil fuels which are needed for other purposes (such as petrochemicals). No technological problems have been uncovered which will kill the OTEC concept; the engineering challenges appear to be those of scale rather than of technological difficulty. The materials are available; the construction methods are known. A leading design for an OTEC plant is a vertical, semi-submerged spar-shaped structure--comparable in size to off-shore oil plants. Its configuration makes it insensitive to wind and wave turbulence. Held in place by a single mooring line and weight anchor in tropical oceans, its electrical power would be taken to shore by cable. Two crews ofmore » about 30 persons each would be required to operate an OTEC plant. Power from the first commercial OTEC plant is expected by 1986.« less
Morphological characterization of Eustrongylides sp. larvae (Nematoda, Dioctophymatoidea) parasite of Rhinella marina (Amphibia: Bufonidae) from Eastern Amazonia.
Absctract Eustrongylides spp. nematodes have birds as final hosts and uses other vertebrates as intermediate/paratenic host (fish, amphibians and reptiles) and have zoonotic potential. In amphibians, the larvae may be located in the subcutaneous tissues, liver and mesentery, between the muscle fibres, especially in the lower limbs. Rhinella marina, which is widely observed in Brazil, has exhibited complex diversity in its helminth fauna, reflecting the unique habitat of the Amazon biome. For the first time, this study describes the morphological aspects of third-stage larvae of Eustrongylides sp. in Rhinella marina from Santa Cruz do Ararí, Marajó Archipelago, Eastern Amazonia, using light and scanning electron microscopy.