9-12|50 ↣ Jeremy Renner
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A prion, pictured above, is an infectious agent comprised only of a protein in misfolded form. It lies in stark contrast to all other known infectious agents; even the simplest bacterium or virus contains nucleic acids (either DNA, RNA, or both) but amazingly, prions seem to have neither. Instead, they propagate by transmitting a misfolded protein state - meaning that when a prion enters a healthy organism, it induces existing, properly folded proteins to convert into the disease-associated, prion form. The prion essentially acts as a template to guide the misfolding of more cellular proteins; newly formed prions can then go on to convert more other proteins, triggering a chain reaction that produces the prion form in exponentially large numbers.
Prions are responsible for the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in a variety of mammals, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as “mad cow disease”) in cattle and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. All known prion diseases affect the structure of the brain or other neural tissue, and all are currently untreatable and universally fatal.
Mapping Paid Maternity Leave
Via Think Progress:
Out of 178 nations, the U.S. is one of three that does not offer paid maternity leave benefits, let alone paid leave for fathers, which more than 50 of these nations offer. Here’s how the U.S. stacks up to 14 other countries:
In comparison, Canada and Norway offer generous benefits that can be shared between the father and mother, France offers about four months, and even Mexico and Pakistan are among the nations offer 12 weeks paid leave for mothers.
American women are offered 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which exempts companies with fewer than 50 paid employees, but in 2011, only 11 percent of private sector workers and 17 percent of public workers reported that they had access to paid maternity leave through their employer. And for first-time mothers, only about half can take paid leave when they give birth.
FJP: Puts things in perspective, don’t it?
Image: Mapping Paid Maternity Leave, via ThinkProgress.
