[Numerical help to bacterial identification: definition of a first kind error risk].
The numerical method commonly used as an help to the bacterian identification appears quite efficient in its first role, i.e. to propose the name of the plausible bacteria, but it fails to define a confidence level to be assiociated to the final decision. To correct this, this paper propose to calculate the response probability distribution for each possible bacteria. The calculation uses the so-called "Monte-Carlo" method and has to be performed once for all on a given set of biochemical tests. For each calculated ditribution, it is easy to find a first kind error risk, or alpha-error risk. The proposed theoretical approach moreover avoid the comparison of "identification scores", which is always questionable so far the various bacteria present very different sensitivities to the biochemical tests.
Van Oystaeyen
B
B
Haute école Charleroi-Europe, site de l'ISC-Fleurus, Fleurus, Belgique. bruno.vano@skynet.be
D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D011336:Probability; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design