Advances in Self-Organizing Maps


Book Description

Self-organizing maps (SOMs) were developed by Teuvo Kohonen in the early eighties. Since then more than 10,000 works have been based on SOMs. SOMs are unsupervised neural networks useful for clustering and visualization purposes. Many SOM applications have been developed in engineering and science, and other fields. This book contains refereed papers presented at the 9th Workshop on Self-Organizing Maps (WSOM 2012) held at the Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile, on December 12-14, 2012. The workshop brought together researchers and practitioners in the field of self-organizing systems. Among the book chapters there are excellent examples of the use of SOMs in agriculture, computer science, data visualization, health systems, economics, engineering, social sciences, text and image analysis, and time series analysis. Other chapters present the latest theoretical work on SOMs as well as Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) methods.




Comparative Veterinary Anatomy


Book Description

Comparative Veterinary Anatomy: A Clinical Approach describes the comprehensive, clinical application of anatomy for veterinarians, veterinary students, allied health professionals and undergraduate students majoring in biology and zoology. The book covers the applied anatomy of dogs, cats, horses, cows and other farm animals, with a short section on avian/exotics, with a focus on specific clinical anatomical topics. The work improves the understanding of basic veterinary anatomy by making it relevant in the context of common clinical problems. This book will serve as a single-source reference on the application of important anatomical structures in a clinical setting. Students, practitioners and specialists will find this information easy-to-use and well-illustrated, thus presenting an accurate representation of essential anatomical structures that relates to real-life clinical situations in veterinary medicine. - Presents multiple species, garnering a broad audience of interest for veterinarians, specialists, professional students, and undergraduate students majoring in the biological sciences - Contains detailed layered color figures at the beginning of each different species section in addition to numerous figures throughout - Focuses on clinically oriented anatomy - Correlates gross anatomy, radiology, ultrasound, CT, MRI and nuclear medicine in clinical case presentations




The Dialectical Biologist


Book Description

Scientists act within a social context and from a philosophical perspective that is inherently political. Whether they realize it or not, scientists always choose sides. The Dialectical Biologist explores this political nature of scientific inquiry, advancing its argument within the framework of Marxist dialectic. These essays stress the concepts of continual change and codetermination between organism and environment, part and whole, structure and process, science and politics. Throughout, this book questions our accepted definitions and biases, showing the self-reflective nature of scientific activity within society.




The Anoles of Honduras


Book Description

The lizard genus Anolis contains more species than any other genus of reptile, bird, or mammal. Caribbean members of this group have been intensively studied, but knowledge of Central and South American anoles has lagged behind. James R. McCranie and Gunther Köhler begin to fill this gap with a detailed account of the anoles of Honduras.




Animal Evolution


Book Description

Using modern phylogenetic reasoning based on an extensive review of morphology, including ultrastructure, and embryology, each phylum is analysed to ascertain its monophyly and hence its ancestral characters.




Collected Papers


Book Description




Using the Biological Literature


Book Description

The biological sciences cover a broad array of literature types, from younger fields like molecular biology with its reliance on recent journal articles, genomic databases, and protocol manuals to classic fields such as taxonomy with its scattered literature found in monographs and journals from the past three centuries. Using the Biological Literature: A Practical Guide, Fourth Edition is an annotated guide to selected resources in the biological sciences, presenting a wide-ranging list of important sources. This completely revised edition contains numerous new resources and descriptions of all entries including textbooks. The guide emphasizes current materials in the English language and includes retrospective references for historical perspective and to provide access to the taxonomic literature. It covers both print and electronic resources including monographs, journals, databases, indexes and abstracting tools, websites, and associations—providing users with listings of authoritative informational resources of both classical and recently published works. With chapters devoted to each of the main fields in the basic biological sciences, this book offers a guide to the best and most up-to-date resources in biology. It is appropriate for anyone interested in searching the biological literature, from undergraduate students to faculty, researchers, and librarians. The guide includes a supplementary website dedicated to keeping URLs of electronic and web-based resources up to date, a popular feature continued from the third edition.




The Triple Helix


Book Description

One of our most brilliant evolutionary biologists, Richard Lewontin here provides a concise, accessible account of what his work has taught him about biology and about its relevance to human affairs. In the process, he exposes some of the common and troubling misconceptions that misdirect and stall our understanding of biology and evolution.