Childhood metatarsal shaft fractures: treatment outcomes and relative indications for surgical intervention.

Purpose: Although the epidemiology of childhood metatarsal fractures is known, the appropriate treatment has not been elucidated. This study was undertaken to ascertain the outcomes of both non-operative and surgical treatment of these common childhood injuries and to discern any indications for treatment.

Methods: A retrospective review was performed of all children identified from 2006 to 2007 with a metatarsal fracture by the ICD-9 code, 825.

Probing the adhesive footprints of Mytilus californianus byssus.

California mussels Mytilus californianus owe their tenacity to a holdfast known as the byssus, a fibrous extracellular structure that ends distally in flattened adhesive plaques. The "footprints" of freshly secreted plaques deposited onto glass coverslips were shown by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry to consist chiefly of proteins ranging in mass from 5200 to 6700 Da. These proteins, variants of a family known as mcfp3 (M.