Automated Taxon Identification in Systematics


Book Description

The automated identification of biological objects or groups has been a dream among taxonomists and systematists for centuries. However, progress in designing and implementing practical systems for fully automated taxon identification has been frustratingly slow. Regardless, the dream has never died. Recent developments in computer architectures an







Computational Botany


Book Description

This book discusses innovative methods for mining information from images of plants, especially leaves, and highlights the diagnostic features that can be implemented in fully automatic systems for identifying plant species. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, it explores the problem of plant species identification, covering both the concepts of taxonomy and morphology. It then provides an overview of morphometrics, including the historical background and the main steps in the morphometric analysis of leaves together with a number of applications. The core of the book focuses on novel diagnostic methods for plant species identification developed from a computer scientist’s perspective. It then concludes with a chapter on the characterization of botanists' visions, which highlights important cognitive aspects that can be implemented in a computer system to more accurately replicate the human expert’s fixation process. The book not only represents an authoritative guide to advanced computational tools for plant identification, but provides experts in botany, computer science and pattern recognition with new ideas and challenges. As such it is expected to foster both closer collaborations and further technological developments in the emerging field of automatic plant identification.










Handbook for the Identification of Leafhoppers and Planthoppers of Rice


Book Description

Rice is the most important cereal grown in tropical countries and sapsucking leafhoppers and planthoppers (Homoptera: Auchenorryncha) reduce yields either by direct feeding or by transmitting virus and virus-like pathogens. Effective rice pest management requires the accurate identification of any pest species and this handbook provides keys to identify over 70 leafhopper and planthopper species recorded in the major rice growing regions. All the major pest species are included, as well as others that are frequently found but not yet considered important. A comprehensive account of all these species with descriptions, diagnoses, distributions and notes on biology is given, as well a key to nymphal stages of common Asian species and details of the separation of different instars. An introduction to the morphology and taxonomic grouping of the Auchenorryncha and four pages of colour plates are also included, and the volume is completed by a comprehensive and wide-ranging bibliography.




The New Taxonomy


Book Description

Finalist for 2009 The Council on Botanical & Horticultural Libraries Literature Award!A Fresh Look at Taxonomy The most fundamental of all biological sciences, taxonomy underpins any long term strategies for reconstructing the great tree of life or salvaging as much biodiversity as possible. Yet we are still unable to say with any certainty how




Deterministic Learning Theory for Identification, Recognition, and Control


Book Description

Deterministic Learning Theory for Identification, Recognition, and Control presents a unified conceptual framework for knowledge acquisition, representation, and knowledge utilization in uncertain dynamic environments. It provides systematic design approaches for identification, recognition, and control of linear uncertain systems. Unlike many books currently available that focus on statistical principles, this book stresses learning through closed-loop neural control, effective representation and recognition of temporal patterns in a deterministic way. A Deterministic View of Learning in Dynamic Environments The authors begin with an introduction to the concepts of deterministic learning theory, followed by a discussion of the persistent excitation property of RBF networks. They describe the elements of deterministic learning, and address dynamical pattern recognition and pattern-based control processes. The results are applicable to areas such as detection and isolation of oscillation faults, ECG/EEG pattern recognition, robot learning and control, and security analysis and control of power systems. A New Model of Information Processing This book elucidates a learning theory which is developed using concepts and tools from the discipline of systems and control. Fundamental knowledge about system dynamics is obtained from dynamical processes, and is then utilized to achieve rapid recognition of dynamical patterns and pattern-based closed-loop control via the so-called internal and dynamical matching of system dynamics. This actually represents a new model of information processing, i.e. a model of dynamical parallel distributed processing (DPDP).




Automatic Diatom Identification


Book Description

This is the first book to deal with automatic diatom identification. It provides the necessary background information concerning diatom research, useful for both diatomists and non-diatomists. It deals with the development of electronic databases, image preprocessing, automatic contour extraction, the application of existing contour and ornamentation features and the development of new ones, as well as the application of different classifiers (neural networks, decision trees, etc.). These are tested using two image sets: (i) a very difficult set of Sellaphora pupula with 6 demes and 120 images; (ii) a mixed genera set with 37 taxa and approximately 800 images. The results are excellent, and recognition rates well above 90% have been achieved on both sets. The results are compared with identification rates obtained by human experts. One chapter of the book deals with automatic image capture, i.e. microscope slide scanning at different resolutions using a motorized microscope stage, autofocusing, multifocus fusion, and particle screening to select only diatoms and to reject debris. This book is the final scientific report of the European ADIAC project (Automatic Diatom Identification and Classification), and it lists the web-sites with the created public databases and an identification demo.




The Other 99%


Book Description