Cholesterol is a molecule that is found in animal cells and body fluids. Cholesterol is not found in plant sources. It is a type of lipid which is a fat or fat-like molecule. Cholesterol is a soft waxy substance. Cholesterol is a special type of lipid that is called a steroid. Steroids are lipids that have a special chemical structure. This structure is made of four rings of carbon atoms. Cholesterol is found especially in animal fats.
Cholesterol is the main steroid synthesized by animals. Other steroids include hormone steroids like cortisol, estrogen, and testosterone. These and other steroid hormones are made by changing the basic chemical structure of cholesterol. This is an example of "chemical synthesis".
Hypercholesterolemia means that cholesterol level is too high in the blood. High cholesterol levels show that heart disease may develop.
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its name comes from the Iowa River, which was named after the Ioway people, one of the Native American tribes that lived in Iowa. Iowa was a part of New France, but was sold to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Its settlers were mostly farmers: Iowa is part of the Corn Belt and is often known as the "Food Capital of the World." However, Iowa's landscape, culture, and economy are diverse, with the economy changing in the second half of the 20th Century to include many kinds of business.
Iowa has more than 3 million people . Its capital and largest city is Des Moines. Iowa became a state in December 28, 1846. It was the 29th state to join the United States.
Iowa is in the Midwestern United States. To the north of Iowa is Minnesota; to the west are Nebraska and South Dakota; to the south is Missouri; and to the east are Illinois and Wisconsin.
The eastern border of the state is marked by the Mississippi River which runs between Iowa and Illinois. The western border is marked by the Missouri and Big Sioux rivers. The northern border is a line 43 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude. The southern border follows the northern border of Missouri. Iowa and Missouri disagreed about the location of the Iowa-Missouri border. This argument was ended by the Supreme Court of the United States in the 1896 case, "State of Missouri v. State of Iowa", after a standoff called the Honey War. The border follows the Des Moines River for the far eastern part of the state and is at close to 40 degrees, 35 minutes north for the rest of the state.
Iowa has 99 counties, but 100 county seats because Lee County has two. The state capital, Des Moines, is in Polk County.
Most of Iowa is considered to be a plain.
The government of Iowa has three branches, similar to the federal government of the United States. The executive branch is headed by the governor, currently Kim Reynolds (R) since May 24, 2017. The legislative branch is the Iowa General Assembly, composed of two houses - the Iowa Senate and the Iowa House of Representatives. The judicial branch is headed by the Iowa Supreme Court under the chief justice, currently Marsha Ternus.
There are two major political parties in Iowa, the Iowa Democratic Party and the Republican Party of Iowa, as well as several unofficial third parties. No one party is in charge of the government ; the governor is a Republican and the House has a Republican majority under Kraig Paulsen, but the Senate has a Democratic majority under Mike Gronstal.
Iowa sends two senators and four representatives to Congress. The number of representatives was five, but starting with the 2012 elections is only four, because of redistricting.
Senators:
Representatives:
There are many farms in Iowa. Iowa is well known for its agriculture. Its main agricultural outputs are hogs, corn, soybeans, oats, cattle, and dairy products. Its industrial outputs include food processing and machinery. Iowa also produces more ethanol fuel than any other U.S. state.
There are diesel pumps in Iowa.
Gender identity
Much of dominant society across cultures follows the construction of the gender binary, prescribing that everyone must either be a man or a woman. However, more genders exist outside of male and female. Recent decades have brought new terminology and means of using language to make space for a range of genders. And more importantly, the rise of LGBTQ+ education and rights have brought transgender issues to the attention of the public, as well as the many genders that a person can identify as.
'Transgender' is both an identity label and an umbrella term. A person can identify as a trans woman or trans man, but there are more genders that fall underneath the transgender category. Nonbinary genders (or people who do not identify as male or female) may fall underneath transgender, depending on how the person self-identifies. 'Nonbinary' may be used as a synonym for agender, or someone doesn't identify with a gender, but also may refer to other genders. Some of those other nonbinary genders include, but aren't limited to:
In 2014, to keep up with changing views about gender identity, Facebook changed their gender options that users can pick from, to 58 different gender identities. This change was noticed and widely reported at the time.
Gender expression (also called, "gender presentation") means how a person dresses, looks, and acts, in ways that might affect how other people view their gender. Someone who wears men's clothes and acts in a masculine way has a "male gender expression." Someone who wears women's clothes and acts in a feminine way has a "female gender expression". This is different from "gender identity" because people can choose to look or behave one way even if that is not how they feel inside. Sometimes people call this "gender presentation" or just "presentation".
'Transgender' is a term that means that the gender assigned at birth (typically 'AMAB' or 'assigned male at birth' and 'AFAB' or 'assigned female at birth') does not match with the gender a person identifies as. The experiences that transgender people have are vast and may differ from one another, although there are sometimes shared experiences. For instance, a transgender person may feel gender dysphoria (but not everyone will be dysphoric). A transgender person may also feel it necessary to medically transition, or take hormones, or a combination of the two. 'Transsexual' is a term that some transgender people may use after receiving sex-reassignment surgeries and medical transition, but depending on who one is talking to, this term may be considered outdated and the person may instead opt to simply continue using the term 'transgender' as their identification.
Some people use the word 'transgender' to mean somewhat different things, as the word has expanded and changed since it was first invented in 1965.
Some factors involved in transgender identification are:
All three of these factors contribute to how a person labels their self, and make gender a confusing construct to navigate. People can have gender presentations that don't match their gender identity, or a gender identity that doesn't match the gender they were assigned at birth, etc. A person whose gender identity matches the gender they were assigned at birth is called 'cisgender'. As time has passed, the growing voice of LGBTQ+ issues and rise of educational resources on the topics of gender and sexuality has allowed for many to learn about transgender issues, and help others with their own gender navigation.
It is possible to have every different combination of sex, gender identity, and gender expression. For example:
There are many people whose gender identity differs from the one they are at birth, but the person hides it due to fear of rejection, laws that do not protect transgender people, being abandoned or cut off by family and friends, and even fear of getting assaulted.