This Groth_2021_hygro_readme.txt file was generated on 2021-04-20 by Robert Groth GENERAL INFORMATION 1. Title of Dataset: Hygroscopic growth and size distribution data for: In situ measurements of human cough aerosol hygroscopicity 2. Author Information A. Principal Investigator Contact Information Name: Dr. Graham Johnson Institution: Queensland University of Technology Address: 2 George St, Brisbane, 4001 Email: g.johnson@qut.edu.au B. Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information Name: Robert Groth Institution: Queensland University of Technology Address: 2 George St, Brisbane, 4001 Email: rw.groth@qut.edu.au 3. Date of collection: Data were collected between 2019 and 2020 4. Geographic location of data collection: Data were collected in the ILAQH Aerosol Science Laboratory at QUT 5. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: This study was funded by the Australian Research Council discovery grant DP170102733. SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION 1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: The data are under the terms of a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. 2. Links to publications that cite or use the data: N/A 3. Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data: N/A 4. Links/relationships to ancillary data sets: N/A 5. Was data derived from another source? No 6. Recommended citation for this dataset: Groth, Robert et al. (2021), Hygroscopic growth and size distribution data for: In situ measurements of human cough aerosol hygroscopicity, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fn2z34tt8 DATA & FILE OVERVIEW 1. File List: A_HGF.mat - HGF data of participant A B_HGF.mat - HGF data of participant B C_HGF.mat - HGF data of participant C D_HGF.mat - HGF data of participant D E_HGF.mat - HGF data of participant E BBALF_HGF.mat - HGF data of the bovine bronchoalveolar lavage (B-BAL) Media_HGF.mat - HGF data of growth media A_SMPS.txt - ASD data of participant A B_SMPS.txt - ASD data of participant B C_SMPS.txt - ASD data of participant C D_SMPS.txt - ASD data of participant D E_SMPS.txt - ASD data of participant E F_SMPS.txt - ASD data of participant F G_SMPS.txt - ASD data of participant G H_SMPS.txt - ASD data of participant H I_SMPS.txt - ASD data of participant I J_SMPS.txt - ASD data of participant J 2. Relationship between files, if important: N/A 3. Additional related data collected that was not included in the current data package: N/A 4. Are there multiple versions of the dataset? No METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION 1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: MATLAB MAT-files (*.mat) are used to store the data for hygroscopic growth factor (HGF) measurements. CSV (*.txt) are used to store the data for cough aerosol size distributions (ASD). The HGF data were collected using a humidification tandem differential mobility analyser (H-TDMA), described by Johnson et al. (https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaerosci.2008.05.005). The ASD data were collected using a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) between 11.3 nm and 552.3 nm. 2. Methods for processing the data: HGF data were processed using the TDMAinv algorithm, described by Gysel et al. (https://www.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaerosci.2008.07.013). ASD data were not processed, and the data presented here (*.txt) are raw outputs from Aerosol Instrument Manager (AIM). 3. Instrument- or software-specific information needed to interpret the data: HGF data (*.mat) can be accessed using MATLAB or GNU Octave. 4. Standards and calibration information, if appropriate: SMPS measurements were verified using 100 nm polystyrene latex spheres (PSL) as a standard. 5. Environmental/experimental conditions: All aerosol particles were pre-dried (RH < 10%) before measurements, ensuring that each measurement was comparable. 6. Describe any quality-assurance procedures performed on the data: 7. People involved with sample collection, processing, analysis and/or submission: Robert Groth, Luke T. Cravigan, Sadegh Niazi, Zoran Ristovski, and Graham R. Johnson contributed to study design. Robert Groth, Luke T. Cravigan, Sadegh Niazi, and Graham R. Johnson contributed to collecting the data. Robert Groth, Luke T. Cravigan, and Graham R. Johnson contributed to data analysis and processing. Robert Groth, Luke T. Cravigan, Sadegh Niazi, Zoran Ristovski, and Graham R. Johnson drafted the manuscript. DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: HGF data Data presented in the HGF related files (*.mat) are data taken from the TDMAinv output. The data of interest are stored in a table within the MAT-file, named either: data_HR_effl, data_LR_effl, data_HR_deli, data_LR_deli depending on the dataset. Within these tables, the variables are: RHdma2Avg - average relative humidity (RH) within the second DMA (%). Also present outside of the table as 'RH_deli' and 'RH_effl'. RHdma2avgErrMin - absolute uncertainty below the average RH value. RHdma2avgErrMax - absolute uncertainty above the average RH value. Nmeas - Number count of particles. RetrGFvolAVG - average HGF of the distribution after inversion. ChiSqrNorm - Normalised chi-squared value of that measurement. MaskBadRuns - Flag for bad measurements. 1 = good measurement, 0 = bad measurement. x#_% - particle diameter (micrometre), where "_" is a decimal place. The values populating the space beneath the diameter headings are the number concentration corresponding to the diameter in the heading (see dist_LR_eff/dist_HR_effl/dist_LR_deli/dist_HR_deli). Outside of the table are the variables: bins_HR or bins_LR - particle diameter (micrometre) RH_deli - RH for hydration measurements RH_effl - RH for dehydration measurements dist_LR_effl or dist_HR_effl - distribution of the particle number concentration corresponding to the diameter bins for dehydration measurements dist_LR_deli or dist_HR_deli - distribution of the particle number concentration corresponding to the diameter bins for hydration measurements DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: ASD data Data presented in the ASD related files (*.txt) are exported from AIM software and are untreated measurements. The information of interest here are simply the diameter (D, nm) and number concentration (dWdlogD, #/cm^3).