CDI-Type II: Computational Methods to Enable an Invertebrate Paleontology Knowledgebase

《关于无脊椎动物古生物学的论述》由一个国际古生物学会联盟于1948年创立，被认为是关于无脊椎动物化石数据的最权威汇编。它具有近乎圣经的意义，在每一个好的图书馆里都能找到。这篇论文在许多领域都有应用，例如了解进化、研究气候变化和发现化石燃料。为了最大限度地从这一里程碑式的努力中获得可能的好处，古生物界有一个强烈的愿望，就是以电子形式向当前和未来的科学家和非专业人员提供这个庞大的古生物数据存储库。拟议研究的目的是通过为科学家提供一个利用从《论文集》中提取的丰富信息的通用框架，促进无脊椎动物古生物学的知识发现活动。第一个任务是将论文集的数据转化为可用的知识。第二个任务是开发用于分析、建模和可视化古生物数据的计算工具，以促进知识发现。我们建议开发的知识库将在古生物数据管理中发挥核心作用。它将有助于古生物学家进一步探索未开发的地区，并提出和回答在当前范例下无法解决的研究问题。此外，它将提供一种范式转变，从以书籍为基础的知识体系--被视为主流研究的支持性证据，提供关于其中嵌入的模式和关系的很少知识--向计算分析和建模与知识相结合的统一框架转变，以衍生古生物学研究的新纪元。因此，知识库可能会在科学发现方面打开变革性的机会，帮助理解自然的复杂性。此外，我们将创建的网站将使任何人都可以在万维网上探索化石世界，并与堪萨斯大学自然历史博物馆及其面向K-12学生和普通公众的外联计划相链接。

The Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, founded in 1948 by an international consortium of paleontological societies, is considered to be the most authoritative compilation of data on invertebrate fossils. It holds an almost biblical significance and is to be found in every good library. The Treatise has found applications in many areas, such as understanding evolution, studying climate change, and finding fossil fuels. In order to maximize the possible benefit from this landmark effort, there is a strong desire in the paleontological community to make this vast repository of paleontological data available in electronic form for current and future scientists and laypeople. The object of the proposed research is to facilitate knowledge discovery activities in invertebrate paleontology by providing scientists with a general framework that takes advantage of the rich information extracted from the Treatise. The first mission is to turn the Treatise data into available knowledge. The second mission is to develop computational tools for analyzing, modeling, and visualizing paleontological data in order to facilitate knowledge discovery. The knowledgebase we propose to develop will play a central role in paleontological data management. It will facilitate paleontologists to further explore unexploited areas and to raise and answer research questions that are unsolvable under the current paradigm. Furthermore, it will provide a paradigm shift from the book-based knowledge system, which is perceived as supporting evidence of mainstream research and provides little knowledge regarding the patterns and relationships that are embedded within them, to a unified framework in which computational analysis and modeling are integrated with knowledge to derive a new era of paleontological research. Consequently, the knowledgebase will likely open transformational opportunities in scientific discovery to help understand the complexity of nature. Additionally, the website we will create will enable anyone to explore the world of fossils on the world-wide web, and to link with the University of Kansas Natural History Museum and their outreach programs for K-12 students and the general public.