HICLAS: An Effective Tool for Interoperability Among Taxonomic Database Systems

HICLAS是一种生物分类数据管理系统，用于存储和检索物种间关系和其他分类水平的分类数据。分类为记录和跟踪生命之树的信息提供了依据；随着地球上物种身份的新信息变得可用，它们被修改、调整、改进和替换。数据库的原型WWW界面和主页可在：http:/aims.cps.msu.edu/hiclas获得。该项目的重点是在HICLAS系统和其他现有的分类数据库之间开发一个软件接口。将建立一套交互式数据库接口工具，用于数据传输、搜索和显示。为了建立各种分类数据库系统之间的互操作性，目前可用的数据库分为两类。第一类数据库管理具有分类层次结构的命名数据和相关的分类数据，包括分类历史。第二类数据库管理树形图，特别是系统发育树，以及相关的特征-分类群数据集，用于分支和表型分析。将应用广义的树比较方法和用户查询系统，将分类树与从不同现有系统收集的树状图进行比较，例如加州大学伯克利分校的SMASCH （http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/smasch)and哈佛大学的TreeBASE (http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/treebase)）。

HICLAS is biological classification data management system designed to store and retrieve taxonomic data about the relationships between species and other taxonomic levels. Classifications provide the bases for recording and tracking information of the tree of life; they are modified, tuned, improved and replaced as new information about the identity of species on the planet becomes available. A prototype WWW interface and home page for the database is available at: http:/aims.cps.msu.edu/hiclas. The focus of this project is to develop a software interface between the HICLAS system and other existing taxonomic databases. A set of interactive database interface tools will be built for data transfer, search and display. In order to establish interoperablity among various taxonomic database systems the databases that are currently available are classified into two categories. The first category of databases manages nomenclatural data with taxonomic hierarchy and associated taxon data including taxonomic history. The second category of databases manages dendrograms, especially phylogenetic trees, and related character-taxon data sets for cladistic and phenetic analyses. A generalized tree-comparison method and a user query system will be applied to compare classification trees with dendrograms gathered from different existing systems such as UC Berkeley's SMASCH (http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/smasch)and Harvard University's TreeBASE (http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/treebase).