Dynamic hierarchical algorithm for accelerated microfossil identification
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Marine microfossils provide a useful record of the Earth's resources and prehistory via biostratigraphy. To study Hydrocarbon reservoirs and prehistoric climate, geoscientists visually identify the species of microfossils found in core samples. Because microfossil identification is labour intensive, automation has been investigated since the 1980s. With the initial rule-based systems, users still had to examine each specimen under a microscope. While artificial neural network systems showed more promise for reducing expert labour, they also did not displace manual identification for a variety of reasons, which we aim to overcome. In our human-based computation approach, the most difficult step, namely taxon identification is outsourced via a frontend website to human volunteers. A backend algorithm, called dynamic hierarchical identification, uses unsupervised, supervised, and dynamic learning to accelerate microfossil identification. Unsupervised learning clusters specimens so that volunteers need not identify every specimen during supervised learning. Dynamic learning means interim computation outputs prioritize subsequent human inputs. Using a dataset of microfossils identified by an expert, we evaluated correct and incorrect genus and species rates versus simulated time, where each specimen identification defines a moment. The proposed algorithm accelerated microfossil identification effectively, especially compared to benchmark results obtained using a k-nearest neighbour method.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".