Schools are one of the critical social infrastructures in a society, the first place for social activity and the most important indoor environment for children besides the home. Poor IAQ in classrooms can increase the chance of long-term and short-term health problems for students and staffs; affects productivity of teachers; and degrade the student learning environment and comfort levels. The primary objective of this paper is to review and summarize available scientific evidence on indoor air quality of schools and related health effects in children. It was found that the indoor air pollutant levels in school buildings varied over a wide range in different parts of the world depending on site characteristics, climatic conditions, outdoor pollution levels, occupant activities, ventilation type and building practices. Among the indoor air pollutants, particulate matter concentrations were found to be very high in many schools. Outdoor pollutant sources also play a major role in affecting the IAQ of the school building. Hence, scientific knowledge on sources of indoor pollutants, quantification of emissions, temporal and spatial dispersion of pollutants, toxicological properties, chemical and morphological characteristics of the pollutants and associated health risk among children in the school buildings are essential to evaluate the adequacy and cost effectiveness of control strategies for mitigating the IAQ issues.

This paper presents seasonal variation of $PM_{10}$ over five urban sites in Sabah, Malaysia for the period of January through December 2012. The variability of $PM_{10}$ along with the diurnal and weekly cycles of CO, $NO_2$, $SO_2$, and $O_3$ at Kota Kinabalu site were also discussed to investigate the possible sources for increased $PM_{10}$ concentration at the site. This work is crucial to understand the behaviour and possible sources of $PM_{10}$ in the urban atmosphere of Sabah region. In Malaysia, many air pollution studies in the past focused in west Peninsular, but very few local studies were dedicated for Sabah region. This work aims to fill the gap by presenting the descriptive statistics on the variability of $PM_{10}$ concentration in the urban atmosphere of Sabah. To further examine its diurnal and weekly cycle pattern, its responses towards the variations of CO, $NO_2$, $SO_2$, and ozone were also investigated. The highest mean value of $PM_{10}$ for the whole study period is seen from Tawau ($35.7{\pm}17.8{\mu}g\;m^{-3}$), while the lowest is from Keningau ($31.9{\pm}18.6{\mu}g\;m^{-3}$). The concentrations of $PM_{10}$ in all cities exhibited seasonal variations with the peak values occurred during the south-west monsoons. The $PM_{10}$ data consistently exhibited strong correlations with traffic related gaseous pollutants ($NO_2$, and CO), except for $SO_2$ and $O_3$. The analysis of diurnal cycles of $PM_{10}$ levels indicated that two peaks were associated during the morning and evening rush hours. The bimodal distribution of $PM_{10}$, CO, and $NO_2$ in the front and at the back of ozone peak is a representation of urban air pollution pattern. In the weekly cycle, higher $PM_{10}$, CO, and $NO_2$ concentrations were observed during the weekday when compared to weekend. The characteristics of $NO_2$ concentration rationed to CO and $SO_2$ suggests that mobile sources is the dominant factor for the air pollution in Kota Kinabalu; particularly during weekdays.

This study measured indoor and outdoor levels of hydrocarbon volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene isomers (collectively referred to as BTEX), as well as 13 carbonyl compounds, at 20 homes in Seoul, South Korea. Along with the sampling of BTEX and carbonyls, indoor concentrations of the air pollutants nitrogen oxide (NO) and carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) were also measured at each home. These measurements were used to understand the characteristics of BTEX and carbonyls by calculating the various ratios and correlation coefficients between measured contaminant levels. We found that carbonyls were mostly originated from indoor sources, while BTEX were originated from both indoor and outdoor sources. A high correlation between indoor levels of NO and BTEX indicated that traffic emissions were also an important sources of BTEX.

The urban model inter-comparison study (UMICS) was conducted in order to improve the performance of air quality models (AQMs) for simulating fine particulate matter ($PM_{2.5}$) in the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan. UMICS consists of three phases: the first phase focusing on elemental carbon (UMICS1), the second phase focusing on sulfate, nitrate and ammonium (UMICS2), and the third phase focusing on organic aerosol (OA) (UMICS 3). In UMICS2/3, all the participating AQMs were the Community Multiscale Air Quality modeling system (CMAQ) with different configurations, and they similarly overestimated $PM_{2.5}$ nitrate concentration and underestimated $PM_{2.5}$ OA concentration. Various sensitivity analyses on CMAQ configurations, emissions and boundary concentrations, and meteorological fields were conducted in order to seek pathways for improvement of $PM_{2.5}$ simulation. The sensitivity analyses revealed that $PM_{2.5}$ nitrate concentration was highly sensitive to emissions of ammonia ($NH_3$) and dry deposition of nitric acid ($HNO_3$) and $NH_3$, and $PM_{2.5}$ OA concentration was highly sensitive to emissions of condensable organic compounds (COC). It was found that $PM_{2.5}$ simulation was substantially improved by using modified monthly profile of $NH_3$ emissions, larger dry deposition velocities of $HNO_3$ and $NH_3$, and additionally estimated COC emissions. Moreover, variability in $PM_{2.5}$ simulation was estimated from the results of all the sensitivity analyses. The variabilities on CMAQ configurations, chemical inputs (emissions and boundary concentrations), and meteorological fields were 6.1-6.5, 9.7-10.9, and 10.3-12.3%, respectively.

We measured $^1H$ and $^{13}C$ nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of Humic-like substances (HULIS) in urban atmospheric aerosols isolated by diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) and hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) resin to characterize their chemical structure. HULIS isolated by DEAE resin were characterized by relatively high contents of aromatic protons and relatively low contents of aliphatic protons in comparison with HULIS isolated by HLB resin, while the contents of protons bound to oxygenated aliphatic carbon atoms were similar. These results were consistent with the results of the $^{13}C$ NMR analysis and indicate that hydrophobic components were more selectively adsorbed onto HLB, while DEAE resins selectively retained aromatic carboxylic acids. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the chemical structural features of HULIS were significantly different between spring and summer samples and that these disparities were reflective of their different sources. The estimated concentrations of HULIS in spring were found to be regulated by vehicle emissions and pollen dispersion, while the behavior of HULIS in summer was similar to photochemical oxidant and nitrogen dioxide concentrations. The proportion of aliphatic protons for summer samples was higher than that for spring samples, while the proportion of aromatic protons for summer samples was lower than that for spring samples. These seasonal changes of the chemical structure may also involve in their functional expression in the atmosphere.

Particulate matter (PM) measurements are important in air quality, public health, epidemiological studies and decision making for short and long-term policies implementation. However, only few cities in the word have advance air quality-monitoring networks able to provide reliable information of PM leaves in the ambient air, trends and extent of the pollution. In Colombia, only major cities measure PM concentrations. Available measurements from Bogota, Medellin and Bucaramanga show that PM concentration are well above World Health Organization guidelines, but up to now levels and trends of PM in other cities and regions of the country are not well known. Satellite measurements serve as an alternative approach to study air quality in regions were surface measurements are not available. The aim of this study is to perform a spatial and temporal assessment of PM in the ambient air of Colombia. We used Aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieved by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite of NASA and surface measurements from the air quality networks of Bogota, Medellin and Bucaramanga. In a first step, we estimated the correlation between MODIS-AOD and monthly average surface measurements (2000 to 2015) from these three cities, obtaining correlation coefficient R values over 0.4 for the cities under study. After, we used AOD and $PM_{10}$ measurements to study the temporal evolution of PM in different cities and regions. Finally, we used AOD measurements to identify cities and regions with the highest AOD levels in Colombia. All the methods presented in this paper may serve as an example for other countries or regions to identify and prioritize locations that require the implementation of more accurate air quality measurements.

The concentrations and chemical compositions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including volatile fatty acids, phenols, indoles, aldehydes, and ketones, which are the main organic compounds generated by swine, were investigated in July and October 2016 and January 2017. In addition, the emission rates and annual emissions of these components from the swine shed were estimated. The concentrations of VOCs in the swine shed averaged $511.3{\mu}g\;m^{-3}$ in summer, $315.5{\mu}g\;m^{-3}$ in fall and $218.6{\mu}g\;m^{-3}$ in winter. Acetone, acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid were the predominant components of the VOCs, accounting for 80-88% of the total VOCs. The hourly variations of VOC concentrations in the swine shed in fall and winter suggest that the VOC concentrations were related to the ventilation rate of the swine shed, the activity of the swine, and the temperature in the swine shed. Accordingly, the emission rates of VOCs from the swine shed were $1-2{\times}10^3{\mu}g(h\;kg-swine)^{-1}$.