Sequence of Plasmodium falciparum chromosomes 2, 10, 11 and 14

The mosquito-borne malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum kills an estimated 0.7-2.7 million people every year, primarily children in sub-Saharan Africa. Without effective interventions, a variety of factors-including the spread of parasites resistant to antimalarial drugs and the increasing insecticide resistance of mosquitoes-may cause the number of malaria cases to double over the next two decades. To stimulate basic research and facilitate the development of new drugs and vaccines, the genome of Plasmodium falciparum clone 3D7 has been sequenced using a chromosome-by-chromosome shotgun strategy. We report here the nucleotide sequences of chromosomes 10, 11 and 14, and a re-analysis of the chromosome 2 sequence. These chromosomes represent about 35% of the 23-megabase P. falciparum genome.     

Mutations of the BRAF gene in human cancer

Cancers arise owing to the accumulation of mutations in critical genes that alter normal programmes of cell proliferation, differentiation and death. As the first stage of a systematic genome-wide screen for these genes, we have prioritized for analysis signalling pathways in which at least one gene is mutated in human cancer. The RAS RAF MEK ERK MAP kinase pathway mediates cellular responses to growth signals. RAS is mutated to an oncogenic form in about 15% of human cancer. The three RAF genes code for cytoplasmic serine/threonine kinases that are regulated by binding RAS. Here we report BRAF somatic missense mutations in 66% of malignant melanomas and at lower frequency in a wide range of human cancers. All mutations are within the kinase domain, with a single substitution (V599E) accounting for 80%. Mutated BRAF proteins have elevated kinase activity and are transforming in NIH3T3 cells. Furthermore, RAS function is not required for the growth of cancer cell lines with the V599E mutation. As BRAF is a serine/threonine kinase that is commonly activated by somatic point mutation in human cancer, it may provide new therapeutic opportunities in malignant melanoma.     

A cat cloned by nuclear transplantation

Sheep, mice, cattle, goats and pigs have all been cloned by transfer of a donor cell nucleus into an enucleated ovum, and now we add the successful cloning of a cat (Felis domesticus) to this list. However, this cloning technology may not be readily extendable to other mammalian species if our understanding of their reproductive processes is limited or if there are species-specific obstacles.     

An eSnake model for medical image segmentation

Deformable model is a curve or a surface drivenpartial differential equations (PDE) method for imagesegmentation and pattern recognition. Two types ofdeformable models have been developed previously.One is the parametric deformable model proposed byKass et al.[1], which formulates the curve explicitlyin the parametric form. The other is the geometricdeformable model, which implicitly characterizes thecurve by a level set function developed by Osher,Sethian and implement…     

水平注水井与直井联合井网见水时间研究

为了寻求一种简单、有效的计算水平注水井与直井联合井网的见水时间的方法,将水平井简化为具有等效井筒半径的直井,考虑水平井与直井联合布井水驱油的非活塞性,运用等值渗流阻力法将渗流区划分为3个阻力区,推导出了五点法、七点法和九点法水平井与直井联合井网的油井见水时间的计算公式和修正公式。计算结果表明,井网的见水时间随水平井长度的增加而缩短;相同的井距和生产条件下,五点法井网的见水时间要长于九点法和七点法井网;随水平井与水平方向夹角的增大,五点法井网的见水时间缩短,七点法井网的见水时间先增加后缩短,九点法井网的见水时间增加;油藏和流体参数对井网见水时间影响不大。