Computational Physiology Lab

𝐇𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠

We have just published a new paper in the IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing. The paper details the results of a longitudinal naturalistic study across the state of Texas, where participants were monitored during driving and non-driving activities for days on end through their own Apple Watches and iPhones. The results suggest that there are cohorts in the population for which even trivial driving is stressful. We are referring to young, healthy, and experienced drivers under ideal weather and traffic conditions! This is a surprising result that points to hidden stressors in our daily lives. For instance, we found that due to sympathetic activation an anxious person driving at highway speeds has over 9 beats per minute higher heart rate than a non-anxious person driving at city speeds, all other things being equal. This is substantial loading! As a result, affected people feel more tired than non-affected people for equal amount of driving when measured psychometrically – an outcome that carries safety implications. As for the long-term implications of such repeat stressors, they are unknown calling for further research.

The paper can be accessed at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10169887

The paper’s open data and code are at: https://github.com/UH-CPL/NUBI-DRIVE-1

𝙁𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙋𝙤𝙡𝙮𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝘾𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙨 – 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙍𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙨
Our new article on science’s past, present, and future just appeared in the magazine [https://www.americanscientist.org/.../from-polymaths-to...]. It is an insightful look into the evolution of convergence, which is shown to be science’s underlying mechanism. You hear a lot of superficial talk about convergence nowadays. After reading this article, you will understand what convergence really is, and realize is not just a buzzword. The article represents the culmination of 10 years of , partly funded by the Science Foundation (NSF). It follows the publication of our work on the role of convergence in [ Advances, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aat4211] and [, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-021-00869-9], thus forming a unique trilogy. The article is written in an accessible style and is a must read for every , , and citizen who strives to understand the deeper forces at work behind the ecosystem. Now, more than ever before, these forces define our careers, our lives, and our civilization.

FIGURE CAPTION: Convergence had a brilliant moment with the , where biologists, computer scientists, and others worked together over 10 years to decipher the human genetic code. (Art by Akleman.)

𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐏𝐥𝐨𝐭

is a wonderful place to work, partly because is unique in its openness and creativity. In no other profession you find so much publicly available about the working men and women, their , and their output. I refer to quantitative, documented, and independently verified information about the the produced, the competitiveness of the venues these papers appeared, and the subsequent impact they had. Take any corporation, big or small and compare it against any university in this country to see the difference. To begin with, it is impossible to find directly who works in which company and in what capacity – it is all a big secret! As a result, if you are on a hunt for talent you will have to rely on bits of self-promotional information in LinkedIn accounts. Not to mention that you never know the names of the scientists and engineers who developed this wonder drug or that cool gadget. All you see are the company logos stamped on each and every product – faceless claims to fame for uniquely human achievements.

To highlight the ever-evolving productivity and creativity of academic researchers, we developed a visualization method that collects a smorgasbord of public merit data, and presents them in novel, insightful ways. The method is aptly named Scholar Plot and can be accessed at http://scholarplot.org.

Our paper on Scholar Plot appeared on January 28, 2020 in Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics: https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2019.00006. It is collaborative work with Prof. Brian Uzzi from Northwestern University, Prof. Ergun Akleman from Texas A&M, and Prof. Alexander Petersen from UCMerced.

Scholar Plot: Design and Evaluation of an Information Interface for Faculty Research Performance The ability to objectively assess academic performance is critical to rewarding academic merit, charting academic policy, and promoting science. Quintessential to performing these functions is first the ability to collect valid and current data through increasingly automated online interfaces. Moreo...

ᴅᴀᴛᴀ ʀᴇᴄᴏɴꜱᴛʀᴜᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏꜰ ᴡᴏʀᴋᴇʀꜱ’ ꜱᴛʀᴇꜱꜱ, ᴅɪꜱᴛʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ, ᴀɴᴅ ᴘʀᴏᴅᴜᴄᴛɪᴠɪᴛʏ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴋɴᴏᴡʟᴇᴅɢᴇ ᴇᴄᴏɴᴏᴍʏ

We have just published a gargantuan about the work and patterns of : https://osf.io/zd2tn/. It is meant to act as a hub for research into all matters related to creative office work.

This investigation was funded by a collaborative National Science Foundation (NSF) grant among my Computational Physiology Lab at University of Houston, Gloria Mark's lab at UC-Irvine, and Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna's lab at Texas A&M University. We monitored 63 knowledge workers while they carried out a series of typical knowledge tasks and office activities, including writing critical reports, taking breaks, and presenting their findings to management. Special emphasis was paid on exposing the effects of – a plague to modern office work. For this, about half the participants wrote reports while being regularly distracted by (continual mode), whereas the other half dealt with emails only in the context of a dedicated session (batch mode). During the study, several instruments recorded unobtrusively data with respect to participants’ physiological stress, displayed emotions, typing habits, and psychometric state. The intellectual output of participants, that is, their reports, were scored by an AI engine.

The dataset is described in our paper in the journal Scientific Data : https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-019-0249-5.

The R methods we developed to perform quality control and validate the data are accessible in GitHub:
https://github.com/UH-CPL/Office-Tasks-2019-Methods
- they set a new standard in affective computing research.

To learn about the story behind the scenes of this project, you can read Dr. Pavlidis' blog at Springer Nature:
https://researchdata.springernature.com/channels/1455-behind-the-paper/posts/56008-stress-and-productivity-patterns-of-interrupted-synergistic-and-antagonistic-office-activities

Stress and productivity patterns of interrupted, synergistic, and antagonistic office activities Data reconstruction of workers’ stress, distractions, and productivity in the knowledge economy