12 Projects

This was my second project for DSC209R. It involved creating an Earnest and Deceptive visualization. I chose to use traffic stop data for the city of San Diego.

This was my first project for DSC 209R, which involved designing a single static visualization to effectively communicate an idea about climate data in major US Cities.

Research Questions: a) Can we identify features that are correlated with game outcome (win/loss) at the player or team level? b) Can we use an ML Regression model to predict goals scored in a season based on goals scored by players in their previous 2 seasons? and c) Can we use an ML Classification model to predict wins and losses?

Optimal sleep health is essential for high-level performance, particularly in demanding fields like the military, public service, and healthcare, where sleep deficiencies can significantly impact performance. Advances in sleep monitoring technologies and strategies to mitigate poor sleep health offer promising avenues for research within these populations. This review highlights the connection between sleep health and performance, along with recent developments in behavioral and technological approaches to enhance sleep health.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects over 10% of individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The O2VERLAP study compared the effectiveness of proactive care (PC) versus reactive care (RC) groups in improving CPAP adherence. Participants ages 40 and older with diagnoses of both COPD and OSA were recruited online and randomly assigned to either the PC or RC group, with outcomes assessed at various time points. Although baseline CPAP adherence differed significantly between groups, there were no significant differences in adherence or other secondary outcomes over time, indicating that both care approaches were similarly effective.

The O2VERLAP study aimed to compare the effectiveness of proactive versus reactive care in improving CPAP adherence among patients with sleep apnea and COPD. Results showed no significant differences in adherence or patient-reported outcomes, likely due to high baseline adherence and potential selection bias from electronic recruitment methods.

The SleepHealth Mobile App Study explored the use of smartphones for biomedical research. The aim of the study was to understand the relationship between sleep and daytime function. This innovative approach allowed us to gather large-scale, real-world data through electronic surveys and activities, as well as contextual and environmental data from device sensors and connected wearables. The study also assessed the feasibility of a fully remote method of obtaining sleep data, evaluated data validity, and examined user retention and data-sharing preferences. Ultimately, data from 7,250 U.S. participants who consented to share their data broadly was published online to benefit the field of sleep research.

This study examined how familiar stimuli (like common words) interfere with processing incompatible sensory information and the mechanisms that mitigate this interference. It contrasted early selection (which filters out distractors) with late selection (which analyzes all inputs, but resolves conflicts later). Using a variant of the Stroop task with flickering targets and distractors at different frequencies, we measured early sensory processing using steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEPs) and assessed frontal executive processes via changes in frontal theta oscillations as measured with electroencephalography (EEG). The findings revealed that SSVEPs were unaffected by conflicting sensory input. Frontal theta activity increased with higher conflict, suggesting that frontal executive processes are more involved in managing cognitive interference from automated processing of familiar visual stimuli.

The study examined the Achievement Studies platform's effectiveness in expediting participant recruitment and enhancing engagement in web-based research on sleep and daytime function. Over five days, 1,156 participants enrolled, with an initial rate of 6.6 participants per minute in the first hour. Most completed baseline questionnaires and shared data from wearable devices. The findings indicated that the platform facilitated rapid recruitment and high engagement, though it required participants to have internet access and wearable devices, which may limit the sample's representativeness of the general population.

This study investigated the impact of increasing the number of choices on decision-making speed, separating its effects from task difficulty and divided attention. The findings revealed that while dividing attention reduced sensory and decision-related neural responses, having more choices did not affect early sensory processing and instead increased decision thresholds, leading to slower decision-making.

This study examined the relationship between adherence to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy and sustained attention in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The results indicated that greater CPAP adherence was associated with significant improvements in vigilance, as measured by the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT), highlighting the importance of consistent CPAP use for enhancing attention and cognitive function in OSA patients.

This study investigated how spatial attention affects perceptual sensitivity by examining the relationship between attentional focus, neural activity, and behavioral performance using psychophysics, event-related potentials (ERPs), and mathematical modeling. The findings indicate that spatial attention enhances perceptual sensitivity primarily through a multiplicative increase in the amplitude of early sensory ERP components, particularly the P1, rather than through noise modulation or alterations in decision-making processes.