We performed a single-centre, retrospective study to assess physiologic changes of infants in the cardiac ICU while being held by their parent. Continuous data streaming of vital signs were collected for infants included in the study from January 2021 to March 2022. Demographic and clinical characteristics were collected from the electronic medical record. The physiologic streaming data were analysed using mixed-effects models to account for repeated measures and quantify the effect of parental holding. Comparison analysis was also performed controlling for intubation, pre-operative versus post-operative status, and whether the holding was skin-to-skin or not. Ninety-five patients with complete physiologic data were included in the study. There were no immediate adverse events associated with holding. Heart rate decreased during the response time compared to its baseline value (p = 0.01), and this decrease was more pronounced for the non-intubated and pre-operative patients. The near-infrared spectroscopy-based venous saturation increased overall (p = 0.02) in patients while being held. We conclude that parental holding of infants in the cardiac ICU can be safely accomplished, and the haemodynamic and oximetric profile during the holding is favourable compared to the infants’ baseline prior to holding.

The mussel (Mytilus edulis) is successfully grown in aquaculture inEurope. Mussels are usually sold live and wet storage is becoming more common. In thisstudy, oxygen demand and ammonia excretion were assessed at increasing water temperaturesand different post-harvest situations. This information was used to calculate minimal flowrates per unit biomass of live mussels sufficient to keep oxygen above 5 mg L-1or 50% saturation, and avoid accumulation of ammonia in commercial wet storage. In thisstudy, rope-grown mussels were kept out of water for 8 h to simulate harvesting conditionsand then re-immersed in holding tanks at 5, 10 and 15 °C. Oxygen and ammoniaconcentrations were measured immediately after mussels were re-immersed (0 h), after 6 hand then every day for 3 days. After this period, the mussels were again kept out of waterfor 48 h to simulate long-distance transport and once again re-immersed for the sameperiod as before. In the first 6 h after re-immersion, the oxygen consumption was between7.5 and 12.2 μmol g-1 h-1 (dry flesh) and afterthis period it decreased to a standard level of around 4.0 ± 0.9 μmolg-1 h-1 and was independent of temperature. There were no majordifferences in oxygen consumption between mussels having spent 8 and 48 h out of water atany of the subsequent water temperatures used for re-immersion. In contrast, the ammoniaexcretion showed greater differences according to temperature and time out of water.Ammonia excretion was lowest at 5 °C (<0.01 μmol g-1h-1). The implications of these results for the industry and authorities arediscussed considering the water flow rate, depuration specifications and energy costs.