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.

This textbook introduces fundamental concepts of bioinformatics and computational biology to the students and researchers in biology, medicine, veterinary science, agriculture, and bioengineering . The respective chapters provide detailed information on biological databases, sequence alignment, molecular evolution, next-generation sequencing, systems biology, and statistical computing using R. The book also presents a case-based discussion on clinical, veterinary, agricultural bioinformatics, and computational bioengineering for application-based learning in the respective fields. Further, it offers readers guidance on reconstructing and analysing biological networks and highlights computational methods used in systems medicine and genome-wide association mapping of diseases. Given its scope, this textbook offers an essential introductory book on bioinformatics and computational biology for undergraduate and graduate students in the life sciences, botany, zoology, physiology, biotechnology, bioinformatics, and genomic science as well as systems biology, bioengineering and the agricultural, and veterinary sciences.

Encyclopedia of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology: ABC of Bioinformatics, Three Volume Set combines elements of computer science, information technology, mathematics, statistics and biotechnology, providing the methodology and in silico solutions to mine biological data and processes. The book covers Theory, Topics and Applications, with a special focus on Integrative –omics and Systems Biology. The theoretical, methodological underpinnings of BCB, including phylogeny are covered, as are more current areas of focus, such as translational bioinformatics, cheminformatics, and environmental informatics. Finally, Applications provide guidance for commonly asked questions. This major reference work spans basic and cutting-edge methodologies authored by leaders in the field, providing an invaluable resource for students, scientists, professionals in research institutes, and a broad swath of researchers in biotechnology and the biomedical and pharmaceutical industries. Brings together information from computer science, information technology, mathematics, statistics and biotechnology Written and reviewed by leading experts in the field, providing a unique and authoritative resource Focuses on the main theoretical and methodological concepts before expanding on specific topics and applications Includes interactive images, multimedia tools and crosslinking to further resources and databases

A survey of current topics in computational molecular biology. Computational molecular biology, or bioinformatics, draws on the disciplines of biology, mathematics, statistics, physics, chemistry, computer science, and engineering. It provides the computational support for functional genomics, which links the behavior of cells, organisms, and populations to the information encoded in the genomes, as well as for structural genomics. At the heart of all large-scale and high-throughput biotechnologies, it has a growing impact on health and medicine. This survey of computational molecular biology covers traditional topics such as protein structure modeling and sequence alignment, and more recent ones such as expression data analysis and comparative genomics. It combines algorithmic, statistical, database, and AI-based methods for studying biological problems. The book also contains an introductory chapter, as well as one on general statistical modeling and computational techniques in molecular biology. Each chapter presents a self-contained review of a specific subject. Not for sale in China, including Hong Kong.

This proceedings presents recent practical applications of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics. It contains the proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Practical Applications of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics held at University of Salamanca, Spain, at June 3rd-5th, 2015. The International Conference on Practical Applications of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics (PACBB) is an annual international meeting dedicated to emerging and challenging applied research in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Biological and biomedical research are increasingly driven by experimental techniques that challenge our ability to analyse, process and extract meaningful knowledge from the underlying data. The impressive capabilities of next generation sequencing technologies, together with novel and ever evolving distinct types of omics data technologies, have put an increasingly complex set of challenges for the growing fields of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. The analysis of the datasets produced and their integration call for new algorithms and approaches from fields such as Databases, Statistics, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Optimization, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. Clearly, Biology is more and more a science of information requiring tools from the computational sciences.

Offering a rich diversity of models, Bayesian phylogenetics allows evolutionary biologists, systematists, ecologists, and epidemiologists to obtain answers to very detailed phylogenetic questions. Suitable for graduate-level researchers in statistics and biology, Bayesian Phylogenetics: Methods, Algorithms, and Applications presents a snapshot of current trends in Bayesian phylogenetic research. Encouraging interdisciplinary research, this book introduces state-of-the-art phylogenetics to the Bayesian statistical community and, likewise, presents state-of-the-art Bayesian statistics to the phylogenetics community. The book emphasizes model selection, reflecting recent interest in accurately estimating marginal likelihoods. It also discusses new approaches to improve mixing in Bayesian phylogenetic analyses in which the tree topology varies. In addition, the book covers divergence time estimation, biologically realistic models, and the burgeoning interface between phylogenetics and population genetics.

Now available in an affordable softcover edition, this classic in Springer's acclaimed Virtual Laboratory series is the first comprehensive account of the computer simulation of plant development. 150 illustrations, one third of them in colour, vividly demonstrate the spectacular results of the algorithms used to model plant shapes and developmental processes. The latest in computer-generated images allow us to look at plants growing, self-replicating, responding to external factors and even mutating, without becoming entangled in the underlying mathematical formulae involved. The authors place particular emphasis on Lindenmayer systems - a notion conceived by one of the authors, Aristid Lindenmayer, and internationally recognised for its exceptional elegance in modelling biological phenomena. Nonetheless, the two authors take great care to present a survey of alternative methods for plant modelling.

The success of individualized medicine, advanced crops, and new and sustainable energy sources requires thoroughly annotated genomic information and the integration of this information into a coherent model. A thorough overview of this field, Genome Annotation explores automated genome analysis and annotation from its origins to the challenges of next-generation sequencing data analysis. The book initially takes you through the last 16 years since the sequencing of the first complete microbial genome. It explains how current analysis strategies were developed, including sequencing strategies, statistical models, and early annotation systems. The authors then present visualization techniques for displaying integrated results as well as state-of-the-art annotation tools, including MAGPIE, Ensembl, Bluejay, and Galaxy. They also discuss the pipelines for the analysis and annotation of complex, next-generation DNA sequencing data. Each chapter includes references and pointers to relevant tools. As very few existing genome annotation pipelines are capable of dealing with the staggering amount of DNA sequence information, new strategies must be developed to accommodate the needs of today’s genome researchers. Covering this topic in detail, Genome Annotation provides you with the foundation and tools to tackle this challenging and evolving area. Suitable for both students new to the field and professionals who deal with genomic information in their work, the book offers two genome annotation systems on an accompanying CD-ROM.

Peterson's Graduate Programs in the Biophysics; Botany & Plant Biology; and Cell, Molecular, & Structural Biology contains a wealth of information on universities that offer graduate/professional degrees in these cutting-edge fields. Profiled institutions include those in the United States, Canada, and abroad that are accredited by U.S. accrediting agencies. Up-to-date data, collected through Peterson's Annual Survey of Graduate and Professional Institutions, provides valuable information on degree offerings, professional accreditation, jointly offered degrees, part-time and evening/weekend programs, postbaccalaureate distance degrees, faculty, students, degree requirements, entrance requirements, expenses, financial support, faculty research, and unit head and application contact information. Readers will find helpful links to in-depth descriptions that offer additional detailed information about a specific program or department, faculty members and their research, and much more. In addition, there are valuable articles on financial assistance, the graduate admissions process, advice for international and minority students, and facts about accreditation, with a current list of accrediting agencies.

Bioinformatics is growing by leaps and bounds; theories/algorithms/statistical techniques are constantly evolving. Nevertheless, a core body of algorithmic ideas have emerged and researchers are beginning to adopt a "problem solving" approach to bioinformatics, wherein they use solutions to well-abstracted problems as building blocks to solve larger scope problems. Problem Solving Handbook for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics is an edited volume contributed by world renowned leaders in this field. This comprehensive handbook with problem solving emphasis, covers all relevant areas of computational biology and bioinformatics. Web resources and related themes are highlighted at every opportunity in this central easy-to-read reference. Designed for advanced-level students, researchers and professors in computer science and bioengineering as a reference or secondary text, this handbook is also suitable for professionals working in this industry.