Hasil untuk "Costs"

R. Sturm

A. Micco, Natalia Pérez

Recent literature has emphasized the importance of transport costs and infrastructure in explaining trade, access to markets, and increases in per capita income. For most Latin American countries, transport costs are a greater barrier to U.S. markets than import tariffs. The authors investigate the determinants of shipping costs to the U.S. with a large database of more than 300,000 observations per year on shipments of products at the six-digit HS level from different ports around the world. In addition, the authors find that efficiency of ports is an important determinant of shipping costs. Inefficient ports also increase handling costs, which are one of the components of shipping costs. The authors try to explain variations in port efficiency and find that they are linked to excessive regulation, the prevalence of organized crime, and the general condition of the country's infrastructure. Finally, the authors present a number of success stories in Latin America to show that private involvement in port management leads to efficiency and lower costs whenever it is accompanied by labor reform, and when monopoly power is reduced through either regulation or competition.

N. Nguyen, Charles R. Goldman, C. J. Rosenquist et al.

Kent Eriksson, J. Johanson, Anders Majkgård et al.

C. Hoffman, D. Rice, H. Sung

N. Mankiw

Jonathan Lee, Janghyuk Lee, L. Feick

M. Charlson, R. E. Charlson, J. Peterson et al.

Argia M. Sbordone

Michael H. Kim, S. Johnston, B. Chu et al.

O. Faleye, Rani Hoitash, Udi Hoitash

Ximena Clark, David L. Dollar, A. Micco

G. Somero

T. Lehnert, D. Heider, H. Leicht et al.

M. Jacobides, S. G. Winter

Donal P. McCarthy, Donal P. McCarthy, P. Donald et al.

E. Cohen, J. Berry, X. Camacho et al.

Reed Walker

Jinnan Hu, Donald Freed, Hanying Feng et al.

BackgroundIntegrating short- and long-read sequencing technologies has become a promising approach for achieving accurate and comprehensive genomic analysis. Although short-read sequencing (Illumina, etc.) offers high base accuracy and cost efficiency, it struggles with structural variant (SV) detection and complex genomic regions. In contrast, long-read sequencing (PacBio HiFi) excels in resolving large SVs and repetitive sequences but is limited by throughput, higher insertion or deletion (indel) error rates, and sequencing costs. Hybrid approaches may combine these technologies and leverage their complementary strengths and different sources of error to provide higher accuracy, more comprehensive results, and higher throughput by lowering the coverage requirement for the long reads.MethodsThis study benchmarks the DNAscope Hybrid (DS-Hybrid) pipeline, a novel integrated alignment and variant calling framework that combines short- and long-read data sequenced from the same sample. The DNAscope Hybrid pipeline is a bioinformatics pipeline that runs on generic x86 CPUs. We evaluate its performance across multiple human genome reference datasets (HG002–HG004) using the draft Q100 and Genome in a Bottle v4.2.1 benchmarks. The pipeline’s ability to detect small variants [single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)/indels)], SVs, and copy-number variations (CNVs) is assessed using data from the Illumina and PacBio sequencing systems at varying read depths (5×–30×). Benchmark results are compared to those of DeepVariant.ResultsThe DNAscope Hybrid pipeline significantly improves SNP and indel calling accuracy, particularly in complex genomic regions. At lower long-read depths (e.g., 5×–10×), the hybrid approach outperforms stand-alone short- or long-read pipelines at full sequencing depths (30×–35×), reducing variant calling errors by at least 50%. Additionally, the DNAscope Hybrid outperforms leading open-source tools for SV and CNV detection and enhances variant discovery in challenging genomic regions. The pipeline also demonstrates clinical utility by identifying variants in disease-associated genes. Moreover, DNAscope Hybrid is highly efficient, achieving less than 90 min runtimes at single standard instance.ConclusionThe DNAscope Hybrid pipeline is a computationally efficient, highly accurate variant calling framework that leverages the advantages of both short- and long-read sequencing. By improving variant detection in challenging genomic regions and offering a robust solution for clinical and large-scale genomic applications, it holds significant promise for genetic disease diagnostics, population-scale studies, and personalized medicine.

Guilherme Alves de Lima Henn, Karene Ferreira Cavalcante, Marina Farrel Côrtes et al.

Introduction/Objective: Difficulty in etiologic diagnosis of infectious gastroenteritis delays appropriate treatment and impairs patient care. The lack of Brazilian studies on syndromic molecular tests limits the use of faster and more accurate diagnostics. In this context, we evaluated the potential clinical impact and cost-effectiveness of the BioFire FilmArray Gastrointestinal (FAGI) panel compared with standard diagnostic methods (control group) in gastroenteritis cases at an infectious disease’s referral hospital in a capital city in Northeast Brazil, a resource-limited region. Methods: Observational, retrospective study including 327 patients ‒ 161 in the FAGI group and 166 in the control group. Data were collected from medical records and analyzed to compare length of hospital stay, number of antimicrobials used per patient, total treatment days and treatment cost. Results: Patients in the FAGI group had a median of 5 fewer days of antimicrobial treatment (median days: 6 vs. 11, p<0.001), an 83% reduction in total antimicrobial costs (median total cost: BRL 4,697 vs. BRL 27,174, p<0.001) and a 77% increase in pathogen detection (median detections: 103 vs. 24, p<0.001) compared with the control group. No differences were observed in length of hospital stay between groups (median days: 12 vs. 13, p=0.44). Conclusion: The FAGI panel was associated with a significant reduction in the duration of antimicrobial treatment and total treatment costs, as well as increased pathogen detection rates. The results suggest that the BioFire panel can offer substantial benefits in terms of patient care and cost savings, highlighting its potential for broader implementation in clinical practice, especially in resource-limited settings, to improve outcomes in the management of infectious gastroenteritis.