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 morphomet...

Using engineering performance evaluations to explore design alternatives during the conceptual phase of architectural design helps to understand the relationships between form and performance; and is crucial for developing well-performing final designs. Computer aided conceptual design has the potential to aid the design team in discovering and highlighting these relationships; especially by means of procedural and parametric geometry to support the generation of geometric design, and buil...

In this book we have tried to bring together in a logical and understandable way all the basic statistical elements which affect field trials, their planning, implementation and interpretation. The book is designed to be suitable for Field Trials Specialists, Project Managers who may be interpreting results and students who may be taking their first opportunity to get involved in this type of experimentation.

Our big brains, our language ability, and our intelligence make us uniquely human.But barely 10,000 years ago (a mere blip in evolutionary time) human-like creatures called "Boskops" flourished in South Africa. They possessed extraordinary features: forebrains roughly 50% larger than ours, and estimated IQs to match--far surpassing our own. Many of these huge fossil skulls have been discovered over the last century, but most of us have never heard of this scientific marvel....

Mutualistic interactions among plants and animals have played a paramount role in shaping biodiversity. Yet the majority of studies on mutualistic interactions have involved only a few species, as opposed to broader mutual connections between communities of organisms. Mutualistic Networks is the first book to comprehensively explore this burgeoning field. Integrating different approaches, from the statistical description of network structures to the development of new analytical f...

The long-awaited revision of the industry standard on phylogeneticsSince the publication of the first edition of this landmark volume more than twenty-five years ago, phylogenetic systematics has taken its place as the dominant paradigm of systematic biology. It has profoundly influenced the way scientists study evolution, and has seen many theoretical and technical advances as the field has continued to grow. It goes almost without saying that the next twenty-five...

Model development is of vital importance for understanding and management of ecological processes. Identifying the complex relationships between ecological patterns and processes is a crucial task. Ecological modelling—both qualitatively and quantitatively—plays a vital role in analysing ecological phenomena and for ecological theory. This textbook provides a unique overview of modelling approaches. Representing the state-of-the-art in modern ecology, it shows how to construct and work wit...

Computational Intelligence: Synergies of Fuzzy Logic, Neural Networks and Evolutionary Computing presents an introduction to some of the cutting edge technological paradigms under the umbrella of computational intelligence. Computational intelligence schemes are investigated with the development of a suitable framework for fuzzy logic, neural networks and evolutionary computing, neuro-fuzzy systems, evolutionary-fuzzy systems and evolutionary neural systems. Applications to linear...

LANDSCAPE GENETICS: CONCEPTS, METHODS, APPLICATIONSLANDSCAPE GENETICS: CONCEPTS, METHODS, APPLICATIONSEdited by Niko Balkenhol, Samuel A. Cushman, Andrew T. Storfer, Lisette P. WaitsLandscape genetics is an exciting and rapidly growing field, melding methods and theory from landscape ecology and population genetics to address some of the most challenging and urgent ecological and evolutionary topics of our time. Lan...

Provides up-to-date developments in the field of remote sensing by assessing scale issues in land surface, properties, patterns, and processesScale is a fundamental and crucial issue in remote sensing studies and image analysis. GIS and remote sensing scientists use various scaling techniques depending on the types of remotely sensed images and geospatial data used. Scaling techniques affect image analysis such as object identification and change detection....

Systematics: A Course of Lectures is designed for use in an advanced undergraduate or introductory graduate level course in systematics and is meant to present core systematic concepts and literature. The book covers topics such as the history of systematic thinking and fundamental concepts in the field including species concepts, homology, and hypothesis testing. Analytical methods are covered in detail with chapters devoted to sequence alignment, optimality criteria, and methods...

Numerical and statistical methods have rapidly become part of a palaeolimnologist’s tool-kit. They are used to explore and summarise complex data, reconstruct past environmental variables from fossil assemblages, and test competing hypotheses about the causes of observed changes in lake biota through history. This book brings together a wide array of numerical and statistical techniques currently available for use in palaeolimnology and other branches of palaeoecology.Visit http://...