This algorithm is used by \code{\link[=as.mo]{as.mo()}} and all the \code{\link[=mo_property]{mo_*}} functions to determine the most probable match of taxonomic records based on user input.
This algorithm was described in: Berends MS \emph{et al.} (2022). \strong{AMR: An R Package for Working with Antimicrobial Resistance Data}. \emph{Journal of Statistical Software}, 104(3), 1-31; \doi{10.18637/jss.v104.i03}.
With ambiguous user input in \code{\link[=as.mo]{as.mo()}} and all the \code{\link[=mo_property]{mo_*}} functions, the returned results are chosen based on their matching score using \code{\link[=mo_matching_score]{mo_matching_score()}}. This matching score \eqn{m}, is calculated as:
\item \ifelse{html}{\out{<i>x</i> is the user input;}}{\eqn{x} is the user input;}
\item \ifelse{html}{\out{<i>n</i> is a taxonomic name (genus, species, and subspecies);}}{\eqn{n} is a taxonomic name (genus, species, and subspecies);}
\item \ifelse{html}{\out{<i>l<sub>n</sub></i> is the length of <i>n</i>;}}{l_n is the length of \eqn{n};}
\item \ifelse{html}{\out{<i>lev</i> is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance">Levenshtein distance function</a> (counting any insertion as 1, and any deletion or substitution as 2) that is needed to change <i>x</i> into <i>n</i>;}}{lev is the Levenshtein distance function (counting any insertion as 1, and any deletion or substitution as 2) that is needed to change \eqn{x} into \eqn{n};}
\item \ifelse{html}{\out{<i>p<sub>n</sub></i> is the human pathogenic prevalence group of <i>n</i>, as described below;}}{p_n is the human pathogenic prevalence group of \eqn{n}, as described below;}
\item \ifelse{html}{\out{<i>k<sub>n</sub></i> is the taxonomic kingdom of <i>n</i>, set as Bacteria = 1, Fungi = 2, Protozoa = 3, Archaea = 4, others = 5.}}{l_n is the taxonomic kingdom of \eqn{n}, set as Bacteria = 1, Fungi = 2, Protozoa = 3, Archaea = 4, others = 5.}
The grouping into human pathogenic prevalence (\eqn{p}) is based on experience from several microbiological laboratories in the Netherlands in conjunction with international reports on pathogen prevalence:
\strong{Group 1} (most prevalent microorganisms) consists of all microorganisms where the taxonomic class is Gammaproteobacteria or where the taxonomic genus is \emph{Enterococcus}, \emph{Staphylococcus} or \emph{Streptococcus}. This group consequently contains all common Gram-negative bacteria, such as \emph{Pseudomonas} and \emph{Legionella} and all species within the order Enterobacterales.
All matches are sorted descending on their matching score and for all user input values, the top match will be returned. This will lead to the effect that e.g., \code{"E. coli"} will return the microbial ID of \emph{Escherichia coli} (\eqn{m = 0.688}, a highly prevalent microorganism found in humans) and not \emph{Entamoeba coli} (\eqn{m = 0.079}, a less prevalent microorganism in humans), although the latter would alphabetically come first.
All data sets in this \code{AMR} package (about microorganisms, antibiotics, R/SI interpretation, EUCAST rules, etc.) are publicly and freely available for download in the following formats: R, MS Excel, Apache Feather, Apache Parquet, SPSS, SAS, and Stata. We also provide tab-separated plain text files that are machine-readable and suitable for input in any software program, such as laboratory information systems. Please visit \href{https://msberends.github.io/AMR/articles/datasets.html}{our website for the download links}. The actual files are of course available on \href{https://github.com/msberends/AMR/tree/main/data-raw}{our GitHub repository}.