HICLAS: An Effective Tool for Interoperability Among Taxonomic Database Systems

HICLAS是生物分类数据管理系统，旨在存储和检索有关物种与其他分类级别之间关系的分类数据。分类为记录和跟踪生命之树的信息提供了基础；随着有关地球上物种身份的新信息的出现，分类被修改、调整、改进和取代。数据库的WWW原型界面和主页可在http：/aims.cps.msu.edu/hiclas上查阅。该项目的重点是开发HICLAS系统与其他现有分类数据库之间的软件接口。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。为了建立不同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的命名数据和包括分类历史的相关分类数据。第二类数据库管理树状图，特别是系统发育树，以及用于分支和表型分析的相关特征分类数据集。将应用通用的树比较方法和用户查询系统来将分类树与从诸如加州大学伯克利分校的SMASCH(http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/smasch)and哈佛大学的树基(http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/treebase).))等不同现有系统收集的树状图进行比较

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).