RAPID: Impacts of Design and Operation Attributes of Mass-Gathering Civil Infrastructure Systems on Pathogen Transmission and Exposure

这笔快速反应研究(RAPID)赠款将支持基础研究，以揭示设计属性和操作策略将如何影响大规模聚集的民用基础设施系统内传染病病原体的传播和暴露。在2019年新型冠状病毒大流行期间，学校、机场、公共交通系统等大量聚集的民用基础设施系统可成为传染病传播的热点。在理解基础设施设计和运营对病原体的发生、分布、运输和生存能力的影响方面，仍然存在着显著的知识差距。解决这一知识差距是当务之急。该项目的成果将为管理关键的民用基础设施系统提供生物信息指导方针，以防止设施使用者暴露在病原微生物中，并减少传染病传播的风险，从而减轻医疗保健系统和公民的负担。该项目将为大流行期间、恢复期间以及以后的基础设施设计重新配置和运营实践提供亟需的见解，以防止进一步的疾病爆发，并支持健康、有弹性和智能的社区。因此，该项目将有助于促进公共健康、国家安全和经济繁荣。此外，该项目将提高公众科学素养和对传染病的认识，改进学生教育和培训，以及K-12外联和参与活动。这项研究的具体目标是将基础设施系统的相关设计属性和操作策略参数化，并随后从时空微生物组剖面评估它们对病原体传播和暴露的影响。将追求三个目标：1)识别和量化可能影响病原体动态的设计属性和操作策略；2)审计与空间和功能分布的系统组件相关的微生物，特别是病原体的类型、丰度和共生模式以及时空动态；3)表征设计和操作对基础设施系统中微生物传播和暴露路径的影响。在建筑信息建模和句法分析的基础上，将考虑系统组件的空间和功能相互依赖关系，以实现设计属性的参数化。将使用集成的数据传感和模拟技术对操作策略进行建模。将利用分子和元基因组学技术开发一种模型信息采样方法，以表征时空微生物组动力学。将使用综合来源跟踪和机器学习方法评估设计和运行对微生物传播和暴露途径的影响。在基础设施系统工程和环境微生物学的结合点上，这项融合研究将为影响大规模聚集的民用基础设施系统中病原体传播和暴露的设计属性和操作实践提供独特的见解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant will support fundamental research to reveal how the design attributes and operation strategies will influence the transmission of and exposure to infectious pathogens within mass-gathering civil infrastructure systems. During the pandemic of 2019 novel coronavirus, the mass-gathering civil infrastructure systems, such as schools, airports, and public transit systems, can become hot spots for spreading the infectious disease. There remains a striking knowledge gap in understanding the impacts of infrastructure design and operation on the occurrence, distribution, transport, and viability of pathogens. It is imperative to address this knowledge gap. Results from this project will lead to bio-informed guidelines for managing critical civil infrastructure systems to prevent exposure of facility users to pathogenic microorganisms, and reduce risks of spreading infectious diseases, and thus alleviating burdens on healthcare systems and citizens. This project will provide much needed insights for infrastructure design reconfigurations and operation practices during the pandemic, in the recovery, and beyond to prevent further disease outbreaks and support healthy, resilient, and smart communities. As a result, this project will help promote public health, national security, and economic prosperity. In addition, this project will raise public science literacy and awareness of infectious diseases, and improve student education and training, as well as K-12 outreach and engagement activities. The specific objective of this research is to parameterize relevant design attributes and operation strategies of infrastructure systems, and subsequently evaluate their impacts on pathogen transmission and exposure from spatiotemporal microbiome profiles. Three aims will be pursued: 1) identify and quantify the design attributes and operation strategies that may impact pathogen dynamics; 2) audit the types, abundance, and co-occurrence patterns, as well as spatiotemporal dynamics of microorganisms, particularly pathogens, associated with spatially and functionally distributed system components; and 3) characterize the impacts of design and operation on the transmission and exposure pathways of microorganisms in infrastructure systems. The spatial and functional interdependence of system components will be considered to parameterize design attributes based on building information modeling and syntactic analysis. The operation strategies will be modeled using integrated data sensing and simulation techniques. A model-informed sampling approach will be developed with molecular and metagenomics techniques to characterize spatiotemporal microbiome dynamics. The impacts of design and operation on microbial transmission and exposure pathways will be assessed using integrated source tracking and machine learning methods. At the nexus of infrastructure system engineering and environmental microbiology, this convergence research will provide unique insights into design attributes and operation practices impacting pathogen transmission and exposure in mass-gathering civil infrastructure systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.