International External Quality Assurance for Laboratory Identification and Typing of Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B Streptococci)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
We report the results from the first international multicenter external quality assessment (EQA) studies for molecular and serological typing of group B streptococcus (GBS) strains as part of DEVANI (Design of a Vaccine against Neonatal Infections), a pan-European program. A questionnaire-based surveillance was undertaken among eight laboratories participating in DEVANI and six laboratories not participating in DEVANI from 13 countries in order to assess their current microbiological procedures for GBS screening, diagnosis, and typing. GBS strains from three EQA distributions were characterized using molecular and serological methods based on GBS capsular polysaccharide typing. Participants were asked to test the first distribution using their current serotyping and genotyping methods. The Strep-B-Latex agglutination method was the most widely used method, with a typeability value of >90%. A multiplex PCR assay for GBS capsular gene typing was also used by 2 of 14 centers, which achieved a typeability value of 93%; this assay detected only 9 of 10 GBS capsular polysaccharide genes. From the second and third EQA studies, standardized protocols were prepared for serological and molecular typing of GBS strains based on the Strep-B-Latex agglutination method and a novel multiplex PCR assay that detected all 10 GBS capsular types (Ia to IX). These standardized protocols are being used by many European laboratories, and as the use of these methods increases, it is imperative to continuously improve and assess laboratory performance and offer training to any laboratories that have technical difficulties.
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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 | 0.081 | 0.035 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.004 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 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".