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1. Indoor surface chemistry variability: microspectroscopic analysis of deposited particles in dwellings across the United States

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D4EM00816B  

   Fankhauser, Alison M; Butman, Jana L; Cooke, Madeline E; Fyodorova, Yekaterina; Liu, Yangdongling; O'Brien, Rachel E; McNeill, V Faye; Geiger, Franz M; Grassian, Vicki H; Ault, Andrew P (June 2025, Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts)

   The indoor surfaces of dwellings across the United States range exhibit a wide range of chemical compositions and physical properties, which impacts semi-volatile partitioning, heterogeneous chemistry and the overall properties of indoor air. 

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2. In situ analysis of the bulk and surface chemical compositions of organic aerosol particles

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s42004-022-00674-8  

   Qian, Yuqin; Brown, Jesse B.; Huang-Fu, Zhi-Chao; Zhang, Tong; Wang, Hui; Wang, ShanYi; Dadap, Jerry I.; Rao, Yi (December 2022, Communications Chemistry)

   Abstract Understanding the chemical and physical properties of particles is an important scientific, engineering, and medical issue that is crucial to air quality, human health, and environmental chemistry. Of special interest are aerosol particles floating in the air for both indoor virus transmission and outdoor atmospheric chemistry. The growth of bio- and organic-aerosol particles in the air is intimately correlated with chemical structures and their reactions in the gas phase at aerosol particle surfaces and in-particle phases. However, direct measurements of chemical structures at aerosol particle surfaces in the air are lacking. Here we demonstrate in situ surface-specific vibrational sum frequency scattering (VSFS) to directly identify chemical structures of molecules at aerosol particle surfaces. Furthermore, our setup allows us to simultaneously probe hyper-Raman scattering (HRS) spectra in the particle phase. We examined polarized VSFS spectra of propionic acid at aerosol particle surfaces and in particle bulk. More importantly, the surface adsorption free energy of propionic acid onto aerosol particles was found to be less negative than that at the air/water interface. These results challenge the long-standing hypothesis that molecular behaviors at the air/water interface are the same as those at aerosol particle surfaces. Our approach opens a new avenue in revealing surface compositions and chemical aging in the formation of secondary organic aerosols in the atmosphere as well as chemical analysis of indoor and outdoor viral aerosol particles. 

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3. Evaluating the Impact of Limited Physical Space on the Navigation Performance of Two Locomotion Methods in Immersive Virtual Environments

   https://doi.org/10.1109/VR51125.2022.00104  

   Paris, Richard A.; Buck, Lauren E.; McNamara, Timothy P.; Bodenheimer, Bobby (March 2022, 2022 IEEE Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR))

   Consumer level virtual experiences almost always occur when physical space is limited, either by the constraints of an indoor space or of a tracked area. This observation coupled with the need for movement through large virtual spaces has resulted in a proliferation of research into locomotion interfaces that decouples movement through the virtual environment from movement in the real world. While many locomotion interfaces support movement of some kind in the real world, some do not. This paper examines the effect of the amount of physical space used in the real world on one popular locomotion interface, resetting, when compared to a locomotion interface that requires minimal physical space, walking in place. The metric used to compare the two locomotion interfaces was navigation performance, specifically, the acquisition of survey knowledge. We find that, while there are trade-offs between the two methods, walking in place is preferable in small spaces. 

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4. Catalyst: The roles of chemistry in clean water for all

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2023.04.002  

   Jun, Young-Shin (June 2023, Chem)

   Understanding nanoscale interfacial reactions unlocks the chemistry controls that are critical for clean water generation. This Catalyst discusses three important roles of chemistry in clean water: Understanding and controlling evolving interfaces induced by nucleation, deciphering and utilizing hidden interfaces in nanoconfined spaces, and harnessing interfaces with functionalized surfaces. Chemically guided developments of new materials and technologies for purifying clean water can bring all water resources back to one H2O, which supports life for all people. 

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5. Effects of Interfaces on Human-Robot Trust: Specifying and Visualizing Physical Zones

   https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA46639.2022.9811538  

   Hudspeth, Marisa; Balali, Sogol; Grimm, Cindy; Sowell, Ross T. (May 2022, International Conference on Robotics and Automation)

   In this paper we investigate the influence interfaces and feedback have on human-robot trust levels when operating in a shared physical space. The task we use is specifying a “no-go” region for a robot in an indoor environment. We evaluate three styles of interface (physical, AR, and map-based) and four feedback mechanisms (no feedback, robot drives around the space, an AR “fence”, and the region marked on the map). Our evaluation looks at both usability and trust. Specifically, if the participant trusts that the robot “knows” where the no-go region is and their confidence in the robot's ability to avoid that region. We use both self-reported and indirect measures of trust and usability. Our key findings are: 1) interfaces and feedback do influence levels of trust; 2) the participants largely preferred a mixed interface-feedback pair, where the modality for the interface differed from the feedback. 

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