Part 1 - About You: Fill & Download for Free

I have been obscenely fascinated by the Prader-Willi syndrome ever since I read accounts about its most prominent patient.Here is my own account.What is the Prader-Willi syndrome ?Prader-Willi syndrome is a rare genetic disorder which occurs due to a loss of function of certain genes.In newborns, symptoms include weak muscles, a poor sucking reflex and poor feeding, and in general a slow development and speech delay. Usually Prader-Willi patients are and stay (slightly) mentally retarded.After a couple of years, the most remarkable symptom is activated: the patient starts suffering from an insatiable hunger.The physical appearance of a Prader-Willi patient is also quite prominent: he or she has small hands and feet, a narrow forehead, very soft skin (which is easily bruised), has excess fat in the central portion of the body, a thin upper lip, and almond-shaped eyes.(Two Prader-Willi patients. Especially the boy on the left shows some typical facial features.)He or she also often has light skin and hair (relative to other family members), and usually lacks sexual development.But again: the literally insatiably hunger is what characterizes them most.Just like heroin addicts, Prader-Willi patients will lie and cheat, and even become highly aggressive, in order to get to food.Just like heroin addicts, they can only think about one thing.But quite differently than heroin addicts, their craving does not stop once they have eaten. The craving stays. (The suffer from a “constant craving” — K. D. Lang in mind.)However much they eat, they keep being abnormally hungry, impossible to be satisfied by any amount of food.And that is why they also sometimes eat “inedible” food such as rotten meat, frozen food or poisonous mushrooms if they get the chance.And it does not even stop there: Prader-Willi patients have been observed to eat garbage, paper, plastic, dirt, wooden objects — you virtually name it, and some of them will have eaten it.(An ogre with many heads, with an insatiable appetite — taken from “The secret book of gnomes,”[1] by Will Huygen and Rien Poortvliet.)If you want to know about one very extreme example, then I suggest you read this entry till the very end !PainBut why is it that Prader-Willi patients do not stop filling their stomach ? They should feel pain, or be nauseous at SOME point, right ?Wrong.Prader-Willi paitients have a very high tolerance for pain, and this can be (very) dangerous. A serious condition such as appendicitis usually causes severe pain in most people, but may even pass unnoticed for a child with Prader-Willi.Also, people with Prader-Willi can tolerate much larger amounts of food before their body automatically vomits it back up; therefore, they can eat objects and amounts that would make other people very ill.A Prader-Willi patient will eat him -or herself to death if no one is around to stop them. Therefore it is virtually impossible to leave such patients on their own: they need to be supervised around the clock …The lack-of-pain aspect might make one think of those people who do not feel pain at all: people who suffer from “CIP” (Congenital Insensitivity to Pain). Although one would think, at first sight, that feeling no pain be a blessing, it is in fact a curse.Typically, parents of very young children with undiagnosed CIP often first notice the remarkable clumsiness of their kids because they bump into things all the time, getting bruises and cuts on the way.But why would you avoid bumping into things, if you do not feel it ?Children with CIP sometimes bite off the tip of their tongue because they do not realize what they are chewing on. Or mutilate their fingers and toes for similar reasons.(The nemesis of Lisbeth Salander in Stieg Larsson’s first Millennium novel “Män some hatar kvinnor,”[2] is a giant who suffers from CIP.)Many patients with CIP also suffer from corneal damage and other severe eye problems, because they lack the reflex of closing an eye if something flies into it. And they also often forget to blink in general.It has been reported that in the Northern Sweden town Vittangi, about 40 people have CIP, by the way.Back to Willi-Prader now !Case study: TarrareTarrare (it is not known whether this is (part) of his real name, or just a nickname), lived approximately between 1772 and 1798 in France.Already as a child, he showed an enormous appetite, and already by his teens he could eat a quarter of a cow, weighing as much as Tarrare himself, on one single day.By this time, his parents could not take care of him anymore (as they could not provide him the food he craved for), and forced him to leave home. He then joined a roaming band of thieves and prostitutes, and later gained employment as a warm-up act to a traveling charlatan.His features are described in the following text:[3]At the age of 17, he weighed only 100 pounds (45 kg; 7 st 2 lb). He was described as having unusually soft fair hair and an abnormally wide mouth, in which his teeth were heavily stained and on which the lips were almost invisible. When he had not eaten, his skin would hang so loosely that he could wrap the fold of skin from his abdomen around his waist. When full, his abdomen would distend "like a huge balloon".(“Gargantua and pilgrims eaten in salads,” by Gustave Doré, 1873.[4])Apparently the poor man had a foul body odor, to such a degree that “he could not be endured within the distance of twenty paces.”After he had eaten, he would become lethargic. He also had chronic diarrhoea.Aside from his eating disorder, he seemed to be a pretty normal guy, showing no apparent signs of mental illness.One can only understand Tarrare’s exceptional condition by examples. Here are some.[5]On another occasion Tarrare was presented with a live cat. He tore the cat's abdomen open with his teeth and drank its blood, and proceeded to eat the entire cat aside from its bones, before vomiting up its fur and skin. Following this, hospital staff offered Tarrare a variety of other animals including snakes, lizards and puppies, all of which were eaten; he also swallowed an entire eel without chewing, having first crushed its head with his teeth.Efforts to keep him on any kind of controlled diet failed; he would sneak out of the hospital to scavenge for organ meats outside butchers' shops and to fight stray dogs for carrion in gutters, alleys and rubbish heaps. He was also caught several times within the hospital drinking from patients undergoing bloodletting, and attempting to eat the bodies in the hospital mortuary.(The only known true drawing of Tarrare.[6])On his deathbed, Tarrare told a doctor that he had swallowed a golden fork, and that he believed it was causing his health problems, but an autopsy proved a rather different story.At the autopsy — which had to happen a. s. a. p. because the corpse rotted so quickly — his gullet was found to be abnormally wide, and when his jaws were opened, one could see down a broad canal into the stomach (!!). His body was filled with pus, liver and gallbladder were huge, and his ulcer-covered stomach filled most of his abdominal cavity.The man was a wreck beyond comprehension.According to Wikipedia, the cause of Tarrare’s behavior is not known,[7] but I guess Prader-Willi would be a safe bet.May he eat in peace.Follow the Ogre of Quora at Thomas Cayne !References: Google images and Wikipedia (and the sub-pages quoted in the text). I also consulted: The Medical Mystery Of Tarrare, A Cannibalistic French Spy and The curse of the people who never feel pain.The actress portraying Lisbeth Salander is Rooney Mara. The final painting is “Saturn devouring his son,” by Francisco Goya.Footnotes[1] The Secret Book of Gnomes - Wikipedia[2] The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Wikipedia[3] Tarrare - Wikipedia[4] Gargantua and Pantagruel - Wikipedia[5] Tarrare - Wikipedia[6] Whatever You Do, Don't Tell the French About Tarrare[7] Tarrare - Wikipedia

Your confusion makes sense considering there are three different forms of continuation applications: 1) (straight) continuation, 2) continuation-in-part (CIP), and 3) divisional. In your case, it sounds that your assignee is seeking a continuation or a continuation-in-part.A continuation application uses the same specification and drawings of its prior parent application, but adds new claims or new amendments to its prior application that changes the scope of the parent application. A continuation application marks back to the original filing date of the parent application. Also, there is no limit on the number of continuation applications as long as the parent application is still pending. Side note - the USPTO attempted to limit the number of continuations in 2007 but was unsuccessful after it received heavy opposition against the proposed rule change (so be mindful of a potential revision).A continuation-in-part application is a tool utilized by fiscally-sound inventors as it allows you to supplement your existing patent without going through the burden of filing from scratch. However, if approved, the addition(s) does not go back to the original filing date and instead retains a filing date for when the CIP application was submitted. Similar to continuation applications, the USPTO does not limit the number of CIP applications.A divisional application is filed typically after a USPTO examiner determines that a patent application contains more than one invention. The examiner will issue a “restriction requirement,” compelling the applicant to choose which invention the examiner will search and examine in the parent application. Thereafter, the applicant will submit a divisional application to specify which invention he/she intends to move forward with.Feel free to check out LawTrades, a legal marketplace for entrepreneurs like you. We connect bootleg startups and inventors with affordable, experienced attorneys at a fraction of the cost that big law firms will charge you. Message me with any additional questions you may have!

Could it be possible to genetically modify a human to give it Thanos-like resistance to physical attacks?So, you want to make yourself a Thanos, eh?Okay, but we will need supplies.A fully-staffed, ultramodern genetics facility in international waters, so we can dispense with any annoying regulationsMultiple sperm samples from Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson - stay with me; this is no junior high science fair project; sacrifices will be necessaryMultiple eggs from Lisa LeslieA suitable surrogate motherAll right, here goes.If you want to build a godlike mutant, you need to start with the right raw materials.Enter: DaddyHafþór Júlíus Björnsson[1] is an Icelandic professional strongman, actor, and former professional basketball player; you may know him as Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane from the HBO series Game of Thrones. He is the current World's Strongest Man and is the first person to have won the Arnold Strongman Classic, Europe's Strongest Man, and World's Strongest Man in the same calendar year. He has also won Europe's Strongest Man five times.He stands 6’ 9” and weighs over 400 lbs.===Next up – Mommy.Lisa Leslie[2] is a former American professional basketball player who played in the WNBA. She was a three-time MVP, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, and an eight-time WNBA All-Star. She has two championship rings and was the first player to dunk in a WNBA game.She stands 6’ 5” and weighs close to 200 pounds.Even if we stopped now, something tells me we would have an impressive specimen, but you asked for Thanos, so we need to press on, my comic book loving friend.Now, I happen to know Hafþór and Lisa are married – and not to each other. So, we will need to fertilize Lisa eggs with Hafþór’s sperm and implant the embryo into our surrogate mother. But, before we do so, I propose we take our little proto-Thanos over to the lab for upgrades.You may recall a while back when Chinese scientist, He Jiankui used the CRISPR gene-editing tool to alter the DNA of twin girls, so they were born resistant to HIV. We will be using the same technique to alter the genome of our Thanos Jr. embryo, but we will be making different adjustments. In other words, we’ll be identifying handy mutations and slipping them into TJ’s DNA before we implant him in the womb.Regulators and scientists from around the world condemned He Jiankui’s actions, calling his experiment unethical and unscientific (oh, ye of little vision) – hence, the need for our Thano-Genesis black site in international waters.Let the games begin!First hack: Bones - Despite being the hardest substance in the human body, bone is not invulnerable, unless you find yourself with an extremely rare mutation of the LRP5 gene. As luck would have it, a family in Connecticut carries a genetic mutation causing crazy-high bone density. They are easy to spot, as they have a deep and wide jaw. Remind you of anybody?Their bones are so strong none of them have ever broken one – none – car crashes, falls, whatever; they walk away. Focused on the spine, skull, and pelvis, this increased strength gives them the strongest known skeletons on Earth, and their genetic mutation maps to a single chromosomal segment in LRP5, making it an excellent target for CRISPR gene editing. Voila!So, we have unbreakable bones; how about we pack on a little extra muscle?Second hack: Muscles - Super strength is the quintessential super power, and Thanos looks jacked. Even with steroids, the average person cannot put up Thanos-level gains, but about 20 years ago, a decidedly above-average baby was born in Berlin. And, he gave us a conceivable way forward.At birth, the boy was extraordinarily muscular, with protruding muscles in his thighs and upper arms. Before he was 5-years-old, he could hold seven-pound weights with his arms extended. Try doing this yourself for a while to understand how amazing this kid was. He had muscles twice the size of other kids his age and half their body fat.DNA testing showed why: The boy had a genetic mutation which boosted muscle growth. The boy’s mutant DNA segment blocked production of a protein called myostatin which normally limits muscle growth. He was the first verified case, but others followed. Remember this kid?Liam Hoekstra[3] was able to do pull-ups, inverted sit-ups, Olympic-style iron crosses and more just months after birth. People like Hoekstra and the German super-baby have a genetic mutation in the gene MSTN. MSTN's job is to produce myostatin, which tells the body to stop creating new muscle when the time is right. Those who have the mutation typically have at least double the muscle of the average human and half the fat. That should do nicely.OK – unbreakable bones; super-jacked musculature; what is next?Third hack: Pain - Imagine being able to put your hand on a burning stove, cut yourself with a knife, or even break a bone without feeling any pain whatsoever. Fewer than 100 people have a rare genetic mutation that makes them able to do so, a condition called congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP).CIP stems from a mutation in the gene SCN11A. This mutation decreases the amount of sodium in the body's cells, which is key to alerting your brain to pain, as nerve cells use sodium to decide when to send a pain signal. With the mutant gene lowering sodium levels, nerve cells never have enough to send those signals, making the body completely immune to pain.So, where are we? Our Thanos Jr. is now a giant unbreakable strongman who feels no pain. Not a bad start, but we need more.Fourth hack: Speed - All of us have a gene called ACTN3[4], but variants of the gene lead to different abilities. Fast-twitch muscle fibers contract rapidly giving bursts of force (e.g., for sprinting). Researchers think alpha-actinin, a protein in skeletal muscle cells, helps make or stabilize these fast twitching fibers.Regular (non-Thanos-type) people have a variant of ACTN3, leaving them precious little working alpha-actinin. But, top sprinters, weight lifters, and other power athletes have another variant, so they can make the proteins necessary for superhuman bursts of speed and power. Please and thank you.Super-speed: CHECK!Ok. We have size, strength, speed, and immunity to pain. Sounds superhero-like to me. But, wait, I hear you saying.The mighty Thor (witty heart-throb to millions) is one of Thanos’ opponents, and Thor is rather a fan of weaponized lightning. No human could withstand such a high-voltage onslaught.Fear not, my canon-quoting comrade. I come prepared.How about for the fifth hack, we throw in a little: Shock-Proof Skin? Yeah, I said shock-proof.Slavisa “The Battery Man” Pajkic[5] has a genetic mutation which means he has no sweat or salivary glands, and since these glands are absent, his body can resist electricity. Pajkic has been known to withstand voltages as high as 20,000 volts.For perspective, most people would be severely injured and burned by 50 volts. A quick calculation suggests, on the resistance to electricity front, our little Thanos Jr. has the power of 400 regular men – not too shabby.Sorry Thor fans – the light show is over.I imagine about now, Marvel fans and contrarians in the Quora Universe are concocting all sorts of alternative strategies to defeat Thanos Jr. He is too strong, too big, too fast, and too tough to beat. What to do, what to do.How about a stealth attack? Maybe, just hang around acting casual, and wait for him to get thirsty. Then dump a bunch of arsenic into his goblet when he looks the other way.Well, my old lacy friends, I admire your heart, but His Bigness saw you coming.BONUS hack: Resistance to Poisoning - An entire community of people in a small town in Argentina have inherited a genetic mutation making them resistant to arsenic poisoning. They all have the gene AS3MT[6], which helps them flush out toxins much faster than the average person. The village of 6,000 people can survive after consuming more than 80 times the amount of arsenic needed to kill an average person.But you need not look only to Argentine villagers for such anomalies. Researchers analyzing Ozzy Osbourne’s genetic code have discovered a staggering number of mutant genes (wait, there’s more)… having to do with the way the body breaks down alcohol and various other chemicals.For instance, a mutation of the ADH4 gene gives him increased proteins to remove alcohol and other toxins from the body, which helps explain Osbourne’s continued existence despite the swimming pools of alcohol, cocaine, morphine, sleeping pills, cough syrup, LSD, and Rohypnol he has guzzled over the years. So, at the risk of slurring Thanos Jr.’s speech a little, we should pop those mutations in as well.Finally, for BONUS hack #2, a special treat.I thought, if we went to all the trouble of building an off-shore lab, figuring out how to ask Hafþór for a sperm sample without ending up… well, who knows whatthen we might as well go the extra mile and make our creation look the part too.Avenger fans will no doubt have noticed Thanos has an interesting complexion – like he might be cold all the time. You know what I mean.What, nobody wants to say it?Fine… the guy is purple. And, if we want to go all the way, we need to make Thanos Jr. purple too.What?! Surely, no gene hack exists for that, you say.I would not bring you this far just to let you down.BONUS hack #2 – Trademark Thanos Skin.It turns out, the Fugates – a family who lived by themselves in the Kentucky hills for over 100 years all had such skin, resulting from a rare genetic blood disorder (methemoglobinemia), which produces abnormally high methemoglobin — a form of hemoglobin.Hemoglobin is the molecule in red blood cells which distributes oxygen to the body. In methemoglobinemia, the hemoglobin cannot release enough oxygen, so people with the disorder have chocolate-colored blood and purple skin.Regular people have less than one percent methemoglobin in their blood. At levels between 10 and 20 percent, however, Thanos Jr. will develop purple skin without any other symptoms.There you have it: a seven-foot-tall, 400+ pound, beast – impervious to pain, poison, and lightning, too fast to catch, and too purple to ignore.Happy birthday, little fella.EDIT: Wow! My first 3K Upvoted Answer. Thanks Quora! I hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it.Footnotes[1] Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson - Wikipedia[2] Lisa Leslie - Wikipedia[3] Liam Hoekstra - Super Strength - Superhuman (kid) 31 - Real life Superhumans[4] The evolution of ACTN3: The discovery of the sprint gene[5] Slavisa Pajkic - Electric Man ( aka The Battery Man ) - Superhuman 46 - Real life Superhumans[6] AS3MT arsenite methyltransferase [Homo sapiens (human)]