In 1945-46, representatives of the U.S. government made similar discoveries in both Germany and Japan, unearthing evidence of unethical experiments on human beings that could be viewed as war crimes. The outcomes in the two defeated nations, however, were strikingly different. In Germany, the United States, influenced by the Canadian physician John Thompson, played a key role in bringing Nazi physicians to trial and publicizing their misdeeds. In Japan, the United States played an equally key role in concealing information about the biological warfare experiments and in securing immunity from prosecution for the perpetrators. The greater force of appeals to national security and wartime exigency help to explain these different outcomes.

Proteases drive the life cycle of all proteins, ensuring the transportation and activation of newly minted, would-be proteins into their functional form while recycling spent or unneeded proteins. Far from their image as engines of protein digestion, proteases play fundamental roles in basic physiology and regulation at multiple levels of systems biology. Proteases are intimately associated with disease and modulation of proteolytic activity is the presumed target for successful therapeutics. “Proteases: Pivot Points in Functional Proteomics” examines the crucial roles of proteolysis across a wide range of physiological processes and diseases. The existing and potential impacts of proteolysis-related activity on drug and biomarker development are presented in detail. All told the decisive roles of proteases in four major categories comprising 23 separate sub-categories are addressed. Within this construct, 15 sets of subject-specific, tabulated data are presented that include identification of proteases, protease inhibitors, substrates and their actions. Said data are derived from and confirmed by over 300 references. Cross comparison of datasets indicates that proteases, their inhibitors/promoters and substrates intersect over a range of physiological processes and diseases, both chronic and pathogenic. Indeed, “Proteases: Pivot Points …” closes by dramatizing this very point through association of (pro)Thrombin and Fibrin(ogen) with: hemostasis, innate immunity, cardiovascular and metabolic disease, cancer, neurodegeneration and bacterial self-defense.

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Research on narrowing the academic achievement gap between lower-and higher-income youth tends to focus on the inputs provided by schools. Little attention, however, is paid to extracurricular activities, both structured and unstructured, even though extracurricular participation and employment can have positive impacts similar to in-school experiences. Such activities keep adolescents engaged during high-risk hours, and consistent participation is linked to improved academic achievement and prosocial behaviors. 1 Extracurricular activities are also influential in the college admissions process as well as in healthy development and academic success. 2 This brief uses data from the 2012 National Survey of Children's Health to examine involvement in activities among youth ages 12-18 across income categories and metropolitan status 3 in the hopes of informing policy aimed at attenuating inequalities in participation. While not a complete profile of youth activities (time spent on homework, care of younger siblings, or housework, for example, are not included), determining participation rates helps us understand what youth are doing in their out-ofschool hours and how these activities vary by income and metropolitan status. Access to extracurricular activities and employment is growing more unequal, 4 and as a result lower-income youth may be increasingly disadvantaged compared to middle-and upperincome children. 5 See Box 1: Definitions. Youth Participation in Structured Activity Varies by Income and Metropolitan Status Higher-income youth are more likely to participate in extracurricular activities than are lower-income youth, regardless of type of activity (Figure 1). Youth in the lower-income group most often participate in sports, while those in the higher-income group have the highest participation in clubs. The differences between rural and urban youth involvement in extracurricular activities (not shown in figure) are small yet still noteworthy-participation is approximately 4 percentage points higher among urban youth than rural youth.