Using CBR as Design Methodology for Developing Adaptable Decision Support Systems - Efficient Decision Support Systems: Practice and Challenges from Current to Future - page 133

together in a common framework. Figure 6 shows a screenshot of the geneCBR system
working in exp ert mode (specially intended for biomedical researches). The code of the project
is freely available under the GPL license and can be obtained at http://www.genecbr.org/.
Fig. 6. Screenshot of the geneCBR system working in expert mode
3.3 Oceanographic forecasting
The oceans of the world form a highly dynamic system for which it is difficult to create
mathematical models (Tomczak & Fodfrey, 1994). Red tides are the name for the
discolourations caused by dense concentrations of microscopic sea plants, known as
phytoplankton. The discolouration varies with the species of phytoplankton, its pigments,
size and concentration, the time of day, the angle of the sun and other factors. Red tides
usually occur along the North West coast of the Iberian Peninsula in late summer and
autumn. The prevailing southerly winds cause cold, nutrient-rich water to rise up from the
deeper regions of the ocean to the surface, a process known as upwelling. Swept along with
this upwelled water are dinoflagellate cysts, the resting stages of the organism, which lie
dormant in the sediments on the sea floor. The high nutrient concentrations in the upwelled
water, together with ideal conditions of temperature, salinity and light, trigger the
germination of the cysts, so that the dinoflagellates begin to grow and divide. The rapid
increase in dinoflagellate numbers, sometimes to millions of cells per liter of water, is
described as a bloom of phytoplankton (concentration levels above the 100,000 cells/liter).