Investigation on obstacles to implement BIM- based facility management in Egypt : the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology approach 

Nour, Norhane 한양대학교 대학원 2024 국내석사

Investigation on Obstacles to Implement BIM-based Facility Management in Egypt: The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology Approach Norhane Nour Dept. of Architectural Engineering The Graduate School Hanyang University The architecture, engineering, construction, and facility management industry (AEC-FM) has historically exhibited resistance to technological integration. However, the past decade has marked a gradual digital transformation within this sector, driven by the fourth industrial revolution. Amidst these changes, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has emerged as an essential technology, offering a collaborative platform for stakeholders involved in various aspects of a facility's lifecycle. While BIM's potential is globally acknowledged, its adoption into FM practices, particularly in developing countries like Egypt, is still in its early stages. Therefore, this research aims to identify the challenges of BIM-FM integration in Egypt, examine their alignment with global literature, and propose experts' practical solutions. To comprehensively address the challenges associated with BIM adoption in the Egyptian FM sector, the challenges of adoption throughout the life-cycle were investigated through a literature review. This study then employs an approach that integrates the findings of the literature with its conceptual model based on a proposed mechanism that shows the relationship between the stakeholders of the AEC-FM and an adapted Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model. The model was specifically adapted to fit all the challenges found in the FM context. The research then conducts a questionnaire survey targeting AEC-FM professionals. The findings were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), to contribute to the empirical assessment of the proposed conceptual model. The research findings revealed that the top two constructs that affected the intention to apply BIM and, in turn, affected the actual usage were facilitating conditions and the performance construct. Further analysis revealed that the inadequate quality of the transferred information, the lack of standards and protocols, software integration difficulties, the ambiguity of the handover requirements, and interoperability challenges are the top five challenges in the Egyptian context. These findings were discussed over interviews with three facility managers, and some recommendations were suggested. This research contributes valuable insights, aiding local decision-makers, FM projects, and organizations in effectively integrating BIM within the Egyptian FM sector. 건축, 공학, 건설 및 시설 관리 산업(AEC-FM)은 기술 통합에 대한 역사적인 저항을 보여 왔다. 그러나 지난 10년 동안 제4차 산업혁명의 영향으로 이 산업은 점진적인 디지털 전 환을 경험하고 있다. 이 변화의 핵심 기술 중 하나인 건물 정보 모델링(BIM)은 시설 수명 주기에 참여하는 이해관계자들에게 협업 플랫폼을 제공하는 중요한 기술로 부상하였다. BIM의 잠재력은 전 세계적으로 인정되었지만, 특히 이집트와 같은 개발도상국에서는 FM 실무에 BIM을 통합하는 것이 초기 단계에 있는 실정이다. 따라서 본 연구는 이집트에서 BIM-FM 통합에 대한 도전을 확인하고, 이를 세계적 문헌과 조화롭게 평가하며, 전문가 의 실용적인 해결책을 제안하는 것을 목표로 한다. 이집트 FM 부문에서 BIM 도입과 관련 된 도전에 종합적으로 대응하기 위해, 본 연구는 수명주기 동안 BIM 도입에 따른 도전을 조사하기 위해 문헌 고찰을 실시하였다. 그 후, 연구는 기술 수용 및 사용의 통일 이론(UT AUT)모델과 메커니즘에 기초한 개념 모델을 기반으로 AEC-FM 이해관계자 간 관계를 보여주고 채택 의도와 관련된 이해관계자글 간의 상호작용을 나타내도록 조정되어 FM 환 경에 적합하게 조절되었다. 연구는 이후 AEC-FM 전문가들을 대상으로 설문조사를 실시 하였다. 연구 결과는 부분 최소 제곱 구조 방정식 모델링(PLS-SEM)을 포함한 고급 분석 기술을 활용하여 제안된 개념 모델의 경험적 평가에 기여했다. 결과적으로, 연구는 BIM적 용 의향에 영향을 미치는 상황을 제시하고, 조건과 성과 구성이 가장 큰 영향을 미친다는 것을 밝혀냈다. 특히 이집트에서의 표준 및 프로토콜 부재, 정보 품질 문제, 통합 어려움 및 상호 운용성 도전이 상위 네 가지 도전 요인임을 확인했다. 이 연구는 이집트의 FM 부 문에서 BIM을 효과적으로 통합하는 데 도움이 되는 소중한 통찰력을 제공한다.

The power of urban planning: The Effects of Geopolitics on The Palestinian Planning System

Nour I F Faris 서울시립대학교 국제도시과학대학원 2022 국내석사

Modeling and managing urban expansion is a hard task internationally under normal conditions. Indeed, the complexity of the Palestinian case is exacerbated by unprecedented geopolitical circumstances. Without a doubt, geopolitical considerations play an important role in influencing urban expansion in Ramallah governorate, as they do in all other West Bank governorates. The geopolitical components of the study include political subdivisions of territory, Israeli crossings and terminals, the Separation Wall, Israeli colonies, bypass highways, and land seizures. This study will demonstrate the impact of exceptional geopolitical conditions on Palestinian urban growth at the local level by defining the main strategy of different actors in the spatial struggle and analyzing the relationship between borders shifting, urban sprawl, city morphology, land use/cover, growth pattern, and geopolitical determinants and constraints. In addition to that, the study includes detailed and extensive literature about similar global cases such as Berlin, colonial India to formulate a clear image of the impact of geopolitics on cities' urban growth under similar geopolitical conditions. This research will mainly focus on analyzing two Palestinian communities including Ramallah metropolitan city and Fasayel village in which geopolitics has the upper hand in forming the landscape and shaping the urban growth characteristics. In addition to documenting the Palestinian planning decision and illustrating the ability of spatial planning with a clear vision to achieve a positive impact for the Palestinians in this struggle. 도시확장을 계획하고 관리하는 것은 보통 국제적으로 어려운 작업이다. 실제로 팔레스타인 사례에서의 복잡성은 전례 없는 지정학적 상황으로 인해 악화되고 있다. 확실히 지정학적 고려는 다른 모든 웨스트 뱅크 지역과 마찬가지로 라말라 지역의 도시확장에 영향을 주는 중요한 요소이다. 연구의 지정학적 구성요소에는 영토의 정치적 분할, 이스라엘 횡단지점과 터미널, 분리장벽, 이스라엘 거주지, 우회 고속도로 및 토지 압류가 포함된다. 본 연구는 공간투쟁에서 다양한 행위자의 주요전략을 정의하고 국경 이동, 도시의 무분별한 확장, 도시 형태, 토지 사용/피복도, 성장 패턴, 지정학적 결정요인 및 제약조건 간의 관계를 분석함으로써 지역 수준에서 팔레스타인 도시성장에 대한 예외적인 지정학적 조건의 영향을 입증하고자 하였다. 이외에도, 본 연구는 유사한 지정학적 조건에서 지정학이 도시성장에 미치는 영향에 대한 명확한 이미지를 구성하기 위해 식민지 인도, 베를린과 같은 유사한 사례에 대한 상세하고 광범위한 문헌을 반영하였다. 본 연구는 주로 지정학이 경관을 형성하고 도시성장 특성을 형성하는 데 우위를 가지고 있는 지역인 대도시 라말라와 파사옐 마을을 포함한 두 팔레스타인 공동체를 분석하는 데 중점을 두었다. 그 외, 팔레스타인의 계획을 문서화하고 이 투쟁에서 팔레스타인에게 긍정적인 영향을 준다는 명확한 비전을 가지고 공간계획의 능력을 설명하는 것에도 초점을 맞추었다.

(An) in vitro comparative evaluation of canal transportation and amount of removed area by one reciprocating and two rotary NiTi single file systems

Massad, Nour Graduate School, Yonsei University 2021 국내석사

이번 연구의 목적은 세 가지 서로 다른 니켈 타이타늄 (Ni-Ti) 단일 파일 시스템을 사용하여 인공 근관 블록에서 근관 변위량 및 제거된 면적을 평가하는 것이었다. 90 개의 J 형태의 근관치료 실습 블록 (0.02 경사도, 16mm 길이)을 무작위로 3 개 그룹 (n = 30)으로 나눈 뒤, 각 그룹에 WaveOne Gold (Dentsply Sirona, Ballaigues, Switzerland), Trunatomy (Dentsply Sirona) 및 M3-L Platinum (United Dental Changzhou, Shanghai, China) 단일 나이타이 파일 시스템을 배정하였다. 이후, 각 그룹 내에 파일 크기 (small, primary, medium)에 따른 3 개의 하위 그룹에 각 10개의 블록을 배정하였다. 카메라가 내장된 광학 현미경을 사용하여 근관 성형 전 (염료 포함) 및 근관 성형 후 사진을 촬영한 뒤 Adobe Photoshop CC (Adobe Systems Inc, San Jose, CA, USA)를 이용하여 사진을 중첩하였다. 근관 내측, 외측에서 제거된 레진의 양과 근관 변위량은 근첨에서 1, 3, 5, 7mm 떨어진 위치에서 측정하였고 ImageJ 프로그램을 사용하여 분석하였다. 측정된 데이터는 일원배치 분산분석 및 터키 검증을 통하여 통계적으로 분석하였다. M3-L Platinum은 근관 변위량이 가장 많았고, Trunatomy는 가장 적었으며 일부 지점에서 통계적으로 유의미한 차이를 보였다. TRN, WOG, M3-L 순으로 제거된 면적의 양이 증가하였다. Medium 크기의 파일을 제외하고 WOG와 M3-L 간에 모든 군에서 유의한 차이를 보였다 (p <0.05). 결론적으로, 이번 연구에 사용된 세 가지 서로 다른 파일 시스템 모두에서 근관 변위량은 일반적으로 최소로 측정되었고, 근관 성형 능력은 만족스러웠다. 이번 연구를 통한 파일의 임상적 사용에 대한 제안은 다음과 같다. 좁은 근관에서 최소 침습적 근관 치료가 필요한 경우 Trunatomy 파일의 사용이 권장되고, 만곡이 심한 근관에서 사용하는 경우 주의를 기울여야 한다. WaveOne Gold 파일은 만곡이 있는 근관에서 안전하게 사용할 수 있으며, M3-L 파일은 비교적 만곡이 심하지 않은 근관에서 사용하는 것이 더 적합하다. Introduction: This study was aimed to evaluate root canal transportation and amount of removed area in artificial resin blocks with three different nickel titanium (NiTi) single-file systems. Material & Methods: Ninety J -shaped Endo-Training Blocks (0.02 taper, 16mm Length) were randomly divided into 3 groups (n=30) with each group having 3 sub-groups consisting of 10 samples for each file size (small, primary, medium) of the WaveOne Gold (Dentsply Sirona, Ballaigues, Switzerland), Trunatomy (Dentsply Sirona) and M3-L Platinum (United Dental Changzhou, Shanghai, China) NiTi single file systems. A preoperative (with dye) and postoperative images were taken of the samples using stereo microscope with build in camera, and the images were then layered using Adobe Photoshop CC (64 bit) (Adobe Systems Inc, San Jose, CA, USA), the amount of resin removed from both the inner and the outer sides of the canal and the amount of canal transportation was measured at the distance of 1, 3, 5 and 7 mm from the apex, as well as the amount of the canal in pre- and post-operative images using ImageJ program. One-way ANOVA and Tukey post hoc test were used to statistically analyze the data. Results: M3-L Platinum had the highest amount of canal transportation while Trunatomy had the lowest amount with statistically significant result at some but not all the levels, the amount of area of removed resin listed from smallest to largest came as follows (Trunatomy, WOG, M3-L), the result were significantly different. (p < 0.05) in all the groups except in medium file size between WOG, M3-L. Conclusions: Despite the differences between the systems, canal transportation was in general minimal, and so the shaping ability of these systems is proven to be satisfactory, some suggestions for the clinical use of these files are as follows; the use of Trunatomy files is recommended when minimally invasive endodontics is needed in narrow canals and if used with severely curved canals care must be taken. WaveOne Gold files can be used safely in curved canals while M3-L files are better suited to be used with less curved ones.

(A) simplified method for seismic life-cycle cost estimation of structures with application on sensitivity analysis

Mohamed Nour El-Din Abdalla Sungkyunkwan University 2014 국내박사

After large economic losses followed Northridge earthquake, the need for simple and realistic quantitative seismic risk-analysis tool becomes obvious. The present study contributes to satisfy this need by developing a simple methodology for seismic life-cycle cost (LCC) estimation. This methodology accounts for accuracy of LCC modeling as well as simplicity of application. Accuracy is achieved through incorporating the effect of aleatory and epistemic uncertainty in the LCC estimation framework. Simplicity is achieved, firstly, by considering equivalent single-degree-of-freedom (ESDOF) system instead of the full multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) structure. Further simplification is achieved by reducing the computational cost significantly through eliminating the full construction of fragility curves and incremental dynamic analysis curves. Instead of the latter curves, an approximate fragility curve (AFC) and localized incremental dynamic analysis (LIDA) curve are used. Moreover, a probabilistic simple closed-form solution for loss estimation is used. This solution considers the randomness and the uncertainty in seismic demand and structural capacity. A steel jacket offshore platform is used as a case study. The soil-pile-structure interaction (SPSI) is considered in developing the numerical model of the offshore platform with actual soil-in-situ characteristics. In order to investigate the importance of the seismic design method on LCC estimation, different design philosophies are used for the seismic design of the offshore platform, such as force-based and performance-based designs. In order to examine the effect of high ductile structure system on LCC, numerical models are developed using buckling-restrained braces (BRB) system and compared with the conventional bracing in the as-built platform structure. As an application on the proposed LCC methodology, a comparative assessment study based on deterministic sensitivity analysis is conducted to investigate the relative importance of different uncertain variables on the LCC estimation. This sensitivity analysis is conducted using different methods such as tornado diagram analysis (TDA), first-order second-moment (FOSM) and Latin hypercube sampling (LHS). The considered uncertain parameters are categorized with regard to different sources such as, structural capacity, seismic hazard, soil-pile-structure interaction, loss estimation, and LCC formulation. This study introduced a new relative stiffness index, which relates the stiffness of the sub-structure and super-structure. Based on this index, the results have shown the significant effect of SPSI on the seismic performance and consequently on the seismic LCC estimation of the platform models. However, it is found that for system designed with large ductility, i.e. large response modification factor, R, simplified SPSI modeling can be used to reduce the computational cost especially for the preliminary design stage. In order to have an insight into the expected LCC estimation through structural seismic behavior, a seismic performance evaluation is conducted on the platform models. From the seismic LCC standpoint, using systems designed with large R factor, such as BRB models, provide more economical alternative, even though the initial cost is higher, compared to models designed with small R factor, such as conventional bracing. The displacement-based design (DBD) method shows that increasing the structure elements cross sections, to fulfill the required drift limit, may increase the initial cost of the structure; however, it decreases the total LCC when compared to the performance plastic-design method. On the other hand, the force-based design shows higher LCC estimations compared to the performance-based design. The sensitivity analysis results show that loss estimation and seismic hazard uncertain variables have a more dominant influence on the LCC variability compared to the other variables. The LCC is found to be particularly sensitive to the drift-intensity regression coefficient “b” and seismic hazard slope “k”. Among the structural uncertain parameters, the variability in plastic hinge strength and modal damping ratio have the most significant impact on the LCC. Soil-pile friction variable proves to be the most important uncertain variables among the soil-pile modeling parameters. The initial cost has the most influential effect among the different cost items of LCC estimation. The variability in parameters such as yield strength, Young’s modulus, pile driving factors, maintenance cost,…etc, turned out to have insignificant impact on the LCC variation.

Developing and Implementing Surveillance System for Farm-related Injuries Involving Livestock Manure Storage, Handling, and Transport Equipment and Facilities with Analysis and Implications

Nour, Mahmoud M Purdue University ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 2020 해외박사(DDOD)

Agriculture is a major industry in the U.S. with higher rates of mortality and morbidity due to occupational injuries when compared to other industries (BLS, 2016). Manure storage, handling, and transport facilities and equipment possess life threatening hazards on many livestock operations. These hazards include: 1) toxic manure gases generated within enclosed structures which can be fatal to both human and livestock due to direct exposure; 2) below and above ground liquid manure storage structures that have the potential risk for drowning and falling; 3) mechanical hazards associated with manure handling machinery, including entanglement and equipment failure, and 4) exposure to infectious agents found in livestock waste. Since the 1970's over 2400 involving agricultural confined space incidents including nearly 460 incidents involving manure storage, handling and transport have been documented as part of ongoing surveillance by Purdue University's Agricultural Safety and Health Program. There have been several efforts that have examined this data; however, few have attempted to monitor or summarize over time injuries and fatalities associated with livestock manure storage, handling, or transport equipment and facilities. In addition, no published work was identified that attempted to design or implement an agricultural-based surveillance method or consistent data classification/coding system that could be used to analyze cases involving manure-related injuries and fatalities. This research was designed to contribute to a better understanding of the problem of manure-related hazards, through development of a uniform coding system to classify these incidents, ongoing surveillance of individual cases of related injuries or fatalities, estimation of the frequency and severity of these incidents, identifying geographic distribution and primary farm type, victim characteristics, and causative factors including those related to both respiratory and machinery hazards associated with manure storage, handling or transport. Findings include, under reporting of incidents preventing a comprehensive understanding of the problem, 75% of documented cases were male with an average age of 35, approximately 20% of all documented incidents involved children and youth age 21 and younger. Findings from the analysis of cases documented to date and future cases will be used to develop more effective, evidence- based injury prevention and mitigation strategies and to develop a representative baseline for future assessment of these efforts. Outcomes from this research included: 1) consistent strategy to document, code, and summarize manure-related incidents; 2) means of classification of key causative contributing factors; 3) identification of new or emerging trends; 4) analysis of the existing data set; and 5) recommendations for addressing key contributing factors through: identifying desired core competencies that should be addressed in future educational activities; new or modified engineering standards and potential regulatory concepts, and enforcement of current OSHA workplace safety and health regulations.

The Development and Application of Dichotic Digit Tests in Standard Arabic Language

Nour Mutaz Mahdi Alsabbagh 한림대학교 대학원 2019 국내석사

배경: 이분숫자청취검사(Dichotic digit tests, DDT)는 양측 귀에 서로 다른 숫자가 동시에 제시될 때 통합하거나 분리하는 능력으로 중추청각신경계의 반구 비대칭성 및 반구간의 기능적 결함을 평가하기 위해 임상적으로 널리 사용되고 있는 검사이다. 본 연구는 표준 아랍어로 DDT를 개발하고 임상적 적용을 위해 주의집중 방식과 자극 복잡성에 따른 수행력을 살펴보는 것을 목적으로 하였다. 방법: 본 연구에서는 두 가지 실험을 수행하였다. 실험 I은 검사 문항과 음원 개발을 위해 아랍어를 모국어로 사용하는 여성 화자가 발음한 표준 아랍어 1-10까지의 숫자를 녹음하였으며, 숫자 중 4음절로 구성된 숫자 8을 제외하고2 -3음절수의 동일 숫자 쌍(digit pair)으로 구성된 1 digit pair 조건 36 개 문항과 2 digit pair 조건 20 개 문항에 대한 오류패턴 분석을 실시하였다. 각 조건별 10명씩 총 20명을 대상으로 자유회상(free recall) 방식으로 살펴보았으며, 80% 이하의 오류패턴을 보이는 문항을 제외하고 최종 2, 3 digit pair 검사 문항을 개발하였다. 실험 II는 실험 I에서 개발된 2 digit pair와 3 digit pair 검사를 5가지 주의집중 방식 조건 즉, 제시 순서와 상관없이 양측 귀 제시 정보 모두 말하기(Free recall), 우측 귀 정보 먼저 말하기(Directed Right Ear, Directed RE), 좌측 귀 정보 먼저 말하기 (Directed Left Ear, Directed LE), 우측 귀 정보만 말하기(Forced Right Ear, Forced RE) 및 좌측 귀 정보만 말하기(Forced Left Ear, Forced LE)에서 실시하므로 주의집중 방식과 자극의 복잡성에 따른 아랍 표준어 DDT 수행력을 살펴보았다. 아랍 6개국 출신 20대 성인 총 20명을 대상으로 먼저 2 digit pair 검사를 주의집중 방식 조건에서 무작위 순서로 제시하여 진행하였으며, 동일한 방식으로 3 digit pair 검사를 진행하였다. 결과: 1 digit pair 조건 36 개 문항과 2 digit pair 조건 20 개 문항에 대한 오류패턴을 분석한 결과, 1 digit pair 조건에서 80% 이하의 오류를 보이는 쌍은 없었으나 2 digit pair 조건에서 7과 9 pair에 대한 오류가 70%를 차지하였다그러므로 이 pair를 제거하고 최종 표준 아랍어 2 digit과 3 digit 검사 문항을 각각 20개문항으로 구성하였다. 2 digit검사에서 주의집중 방식 간 차이를 보이지 않았으며, Directed 우측 귀가 좌측 귀 수행력보다 유의하게 높은 점수를 보였다. 3 digit 검사에서는 Forced 조건을 제외하고 모든 조건에서 우측 귀가 좌측 귀보다 유의미하게 높은 수행력을 나타내었다. 각 주의집중 방식조건에서 2 digit과 3 digit 검사를 비교한 결과 Forced조건을 제외한 모든 주의집중 방식조건에서 2 digit 검사가 3 digit 검사보다 유의미하게 높은 점수를 보였다. 우측 귀 우세(Right Ear Advantage, REA)는 2 digit과 3 digit 검사 모두Directed RE 조건에서 가장 높았으며, digit 수의 증가에 따라 Directed LE 조건을 제외하고 REA가 유의미하게 증가하는 것으로 나타났다. 결론: 표준 아랍어 DDT검사는 다른 언어를 사용하는 DDT 검사와 유사하게 자극의 복잡성과 주의집중 방식에 영향을 받는 것으로 나타났다. Forced 조건을 제외하고 3 digit 수행력이 저조함으로 2 digit 검사가 임상적으로 더 유용함을 보였다. 2 digit 검사에서는 Free recall조건이나 Directed 조건에서, 3 digit 검사는 Forced 조건에서는 임상적 유용성이 있을 것으로 여겨지며, 향후 더 많은 표집수를 바탕으로 국가별, 연령별 규준화 및 표준화 연구가 실시될 필요가 있을 것이다. Background: Dichotic digit tests (DDT) have extensively used as part of the central auditory processing disorders (CAPD) to evaluate the integrity of the central auditory nervous system and to assess the hemispheric asymmetry. This study aimed to develop the DDT in standard Arabic language and to examine the effects of attention modes and stimulus complexity on the DDT performance. Methods: Two experiments were carried out in this study; Experiment I was performed to develop the standard Arabic DDTs. In this Experiment, 36 items for the one-pair digits and 20 items for two-pair digits were created using all digits from 1 to 10 (excluding digit 8). Those items were analyzed to check for error patterns, and the final two- and three-digit DDT materials were created after excluding the items that showed an error pattern of less than 80%. Twenty subjects participated in Experiment I, in which they were tested using the free recall condition. Experiment II was conducted to apply the two- and three-pair DTTs on 20 adult participants in 5 attention conditions: Free Recall, Directed Right Ear (RE), Directed Left Ear (LE), Forced RE, and Forced LE. The attention conditions were presented randomly, and the effects of attention conditions and digit complexity on the DDT performed were examined. Results: In Experiment I, there was no error pattern seen in the one-pair digits, but for the two-pair digits, the pair 9 and 7 showed an error pattern of less than 70%. As a result, the pair 7 and 9 were removed and the final two- and three-pair DDT materials were created with each of the tests having 20 items. In Experiment II, there was no significant difference between ears in all attention conditions in the two-pair DDTs, except for the Directed RE, in which the RE was significantly higher than the LE. For the three-pair DDT, the RE showed significantly higher results than the LE in all attention conditions, expect in the Forced condition. When the performance was compared between two- and three-pair DDTs, the two-pair DDTs showed significantly higher performance than the three-pair DDTs, except in the Forced attention condition. The Right Ear Advantage (REA) was the highest in the Directed RE for both two- and three-pair DDTs, and the REA was becoming significantly larger with increasing the complexity of digits in all attention conditions, except for the Directed LE. Conclusions: This study showed that the Arabic DDT performance was highly influenced by both the attention conditions and the complexity of digits, which was similar to other languages. Since the performance of the three-pair DDTs is not high (except in the Forced attention condition), the two-pair DDTs are more useful for clinical use; The three-pair DDTs can be used clinically in the Forced attention condition. Furthermore, it is necessary to standardize and establish normative data for the standard Arabic DDT for each Arabian country and for different age ranges.

Motivation to Read: A Survey of Elementary, Middle, and High School Students

Almutawa, Nour Abdulaziz ProQuest Dissertations & Theses University of Flor 2019 해외박사(DDOD)

Single-Molecule Sequencing to Uncover High-Resolution Epigenome Patterns

Abdulhay, Nour ProQuest Dissertations & Theses University of Cali 2022 해외박사(DDOD)

Nearly all essential nuclear processes act on DNA packaged into series of nucleosomes termed chromatin fibers. However, our understanding of how these processes (e.g. DNA replication, RNA transcription, chromatin extrusion, nucleosome remodeling) actually occur on such fibers remains unresolved. Our current understanding of the beads-on-a-string arrangement of nucleosomes has been built largely on high-resolution sequence-agnostic imaging methods and sequence-resolved bulk biochemical techniques. To bridge the divide between these approaches, we present the single-molecule adenine methylated oligonucleosome sequencing assay (SAMOSA). SAMOSA is a high-throughput single-molecule sequencing method that combines adenine methyltransferase footprinting and single-molecule real-time DNA sequencing to natively and nondestructively measure nucleosome positions on individual chromatin fibers. SAMOSA data allows unbiased classification of single-molecular ’states’ of nucleosome occupancy on individual chromatin fibers. We leverage this to estimate nucleosome regularity and spacing on single chromatin fibers genome-wide, at predicted transcription factor binding motifs, and across human epigenomic domains. Our analyses suggest that chromatin is comprised of both regular and irregular single- molecular oligonucleosome patterns that differ subtly in their relative abundance across epigenomic domains. This irregularity is particularly striking in constitutive heterochromatin, which has typically been viewed as a conformationally static entity. Our proof-of-concept study provides a powerful new methodology for studying nucleosome organization at a previously intractable resolution and offers up new avenues for modeling and visualizing higher order chromatin structure.ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers are one of the major regulators of patterns within the epigenome. As a follow-up from our proof-of-concept study, we developed SAMOSA-ChAAT, a massively multiplex single-molecule footprinting platform to map the primary structure of individual, precisely-reconstituted chromatin templates subjected to virtually any chromatin-associated reaction. As proof-of-concept, we apply SAMOSA-ChAAT to study ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling by the essential imitation switch (ISWI) ATPase SNF2h, whose mechanism-of-action remains contentious. Using our approach, we discover that SNF2h operates as a density-dependent, length-sensing nucleosome sliding enzyme, whose ability to decrease or increase DNA accessibility depends on single-fiber nucleosome density. We validate our in vitro findings with single-fiber accessibility measurements in vivo, finding that the regulatory ‘mode’ of SNF2h-containing complexes (i.e. ‘opening’ vs. ‘closing’ chromatin) is dictated by the underlying nucleosome-density of individual chromatin fibers: at canonically-defined heterochromatin, SNF2h generates evenly-spaced nucleosome arrays of multiple nucleosome repeat lengths; at SNF2h-dependent accessible sites, the enzyme slides nucleosomes to increase accessibility of motifs for the essential transcription factor CTCF. Our approach and data demonstrate, for the first time, how chromatin remodelers can effectively sense nucleosome density to induce diametrically-opposed regulatory effects within the nucleus. More generally, our novel approach promises molecularly-precise views of any of the essential processes shaping nuclear physiology.

Advancing the Cyberinfrastructure for Smart Water Metering and Water Demand Modeling

Attallah, Nour A ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Utah State Univers 2022 해외박사(DDOD)

With rapid growth of urban populations and limited water resources, achieving an appropriate balance between water supply capacity and residential water demand poses a significant challenge to water supplying agencies. With the recent emergence of smart metering technology, where water use can be monitored and recorded at high resolution (e.g., observations of water use every 5 seconds), most existing research has been aimed at providing water managers with detailed information about the water use behavior of their consumers and the performance of water using fixtures. However, replacing existing meters with smart meters is expensive, and effectively using data produced by smart meters can be a roadblock for water utilities that lack sophisticated information technology expertise. The research in this dissertation presents low cost, open source cyberinfrastructure aimed at addressing these challenges. Components developed include an open source algorithm for identifying and classifying water end use events from smart meter data, a low cost datalogging and computational device that enables existing water meters to collect high resolution data and compute end use information, and a detailed water demand model that uses end use event information to simulate residential water use at a municipality level. Using this cyberinfrastructure, we conducted a case study application in the cities of Logan and Providence, Utah. We tested the applicability of the disaggregation algorithm in quantifying water end uses for different meter sizes and types. We tested the datalogging computational device at a residential household and demonstrated collection, disaggregation, and transfer of high resolution flow data and classified events into a secure server. Finally, we demonstrated a water demand model that simulates the detailed water end uses of Logan’s residents using a combination of a set of representative water end use events and monthly billing data. Using the data we collected and the outputs from the model, we demonstrated opportunities for conserving water through improving the efficiency of water using fixtures and promoting behavior changes.