A population of Rangia cuneata (G.B. Sowerby I, 1831), an estuarine bivalve, has been recorded in the harbour of Antwerp, Belgium. This species is new to the European brackish water fauna. After initially finding only a few small individuals in August 2005, R. cuneata was encountered frequently in the pipes of the cooling water system of an industrial plant from February 2006 onwards. Before this present record, R. cuneata was only known from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast of North America.

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Following a caudal block with ropivacaine 2 mg x kg(-1) plasma concentrations of unbound ropivacaine were well below threshold levels for toxicity in adults. Apparent volume of distribution is unchanged, apparent unbound clearance increases and the terminal half-life decreases with age in 0-12-month-old neonates and infants. The postoperative pain management provided adequate analgesia and was well tolerated.

Bacterial colonization is regarded as a causative factor for septic complications of caudal catheters in children. To determine whether tunneling caudal catheters reduces the bacterial colonization rate effectively, we evaluated 506 children being treated with tunneled or untunneled caudal or untunneled lumbar epidural catheters. Four-hundred-nine children completed the study. After aseptic removal, the catheters were cultured and sent for microbiological assessment. We found a bacterial colonization rate of 29% in untunneled caudal catheters, 11% in tunneled caudal catheters, and 9% in untunneled lumbar catheters. No severe infectious complications were reported. There was no correlation between catheter retention time and bacterial colonization except for the first 24 h, during which no bacterial colonization was detected. The overall colonization rate remained constant at approximately 13%. We found a positive correlation between bacterial colonization and redness at the catheter entry site. We conclude that tunneled caudal epidural catheters can be used in children for postoperative analgesia without an increased risk of epidural infection.

Background: Taxonomic uncertainties in the morphological species identification and taxonomic revisions in individual groups are known for all echinoderm classes. These uncertainties in morphological species identification and discrimination have spawned the application of molecular genetic identification techniques. However, as the fundamental step to allow and ensure future molecular species identification, valid and comprehensive reference library entries comprising morphological and molecular species information together with various metadata are essentially needed. In our study we compare morphological and molecular genetic species identification techniques for representatives of North Sea echinoderm classes, i.e. the Asteroidea, Ophiuroidea, Echinoidea and Holothuroidea.Methods: Individuals were sampled during different surveys in different regions of the North Sea, identified to species level based on morphological diagnostic features, and were genetically analysed using a fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI). Results and Discussion:The morphological determination revealed 32 species including one taxon determined only to genus level. In contrast to this, the COI analysis supported 34 monophyletic clades with pronounced differences between the intra-and the inter-specific genetic variability (a barcoding gap of 4.93 %) with highest intra-specific variabilities found in the ophiuroid species Amphiura filiformis, A. chiajei and Ophiura sarsii. In 94 % of the investigated species, morphological identification and COI sequence clusters were congruent whereas for two asteroid species we found an underestimated diversity. For Astropecten irregularis, one of the most common starfish species of the North Sea, we found two distinct and possibly depth-related clades, probably sibling species, differing by 11.1-11.9 % sequence divergences (p-distances). For two starfish individuals, morphologically identified as Henricia sanguinolenta, the COI analysis revealed two monophyletic clades, of which one was classified as H. cf. oculata by comparison to published sequences. Conclusions:This newly established sequence reference library for the North Sea Echinodermata allows and ensures future molecular species identification for various life-cycle stages including juveniles and meroplanktonic larvae and provides sequences for phylogeographic studies and the detection of sibling as well as cryptic species.