Comparison and visualisation of taxonomic hierarchies

Grant, Eilidh J (2004) Comparison and visualisation of taxonomic hierarchies. MSc(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

There is no one single agreed taxonomy of species. This causes problems when searching across databases as searching under taxa with the same name may not have the same meaning if different taxonomies have been used in the databases. There is therefore a need to be able to find out whether taxa in different taxonomies share the same meaning or classify some species differently. This project presents software for addressing the problem of meaningfully comparing taxonomies. A novel algorithm for merging two hierarchical classifications and finding the differences between them is described. We have successfully developed a tool incorporating the comparison algorithm and a visualisation of the results. This has been tested and evaluated to show that it does provide the user with a better understanding of the differences between taxonomies, and should therefore be useful as a component in future tools for data interpretation.

• Item Type: Thesis (MSc(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Additional Information: Adviser: Ela Hunt
• Keywords: Bioinformatics, Systematic biology
• Date of Award: 2004
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2004-74058
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 23 Sep 2019 15:33
• Last Modified: 23 Sep 2019 15:33
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/74058