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La formación y la práctica profesional de los arquitectos deben corresponder con las necesidades y tendencias sociales, económicas y ambientales de su contexto, a partir del desarrollo sostenible como marco de referencia. Esta condición es relevante en la comunidad latinoamericana, donde la formación en arquitectura es uno de los principales factores de oportunidad para la futura transformación del ambiente construido, mediante la definición de competencias científicas, técnicas y proyectuales orientadas al diseño sostenible. Un análisis del currículo oficial de 595 programas de arquitectura en 19 países de América Latina, permitió determinar el panorama actual de integración de la sostenibilidad en la formación profesional de los arquitectos. En el proceso se clasifican las carreras de arquitectura en cuatro categorías, de acuerdo con el nivel de integración de la sostenibilidad en su currículo oficial: integración nula, integración adicional, integración teórica e integración práctica en los talleres de proyecto. Los resultados muestran que sólo el 7% de los programas de arquitectura ofrecidos actualmente en América latina, declaran en su currículo oficial de forma explícita, la formación de competencias prácticas en diseño sostenible de sus egresados, 45% de los programas se orientan a la integración por contenidos teóricos y el 48% restante no declaran integrar la sostenibilidad en la formación de sus arquitectos.

Cadaver-detection dogs are used by the police to locate missing persons, victims of homicide, and human remains following mass disasters. Training is conducted using a variety of training aids including blood which can be hours, weeks or months old and stored under variable conditions. The aim of this study was to chemically profile human blood using solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to determine how the volatile organic compound (VOC) profile changed over time and under variable storage conditions. The VOC profiles of fresh and degraded blood were analyzed as well as blood stored at room temperature, refrigerated, and frozen. Fresh and degraded blood samples produced distinctive VOC patterns with VOC profiles becoming more complex over time. Freezing the blood produced a complex VOC profile that was clearly discriminated from the VOC profile for blood stored at room temperature or in a refrigerator. This study highlights the importance of standardizing the age and storage conditions when using blood as a training aid to ensure cadaver-detection dogs are exposed to an accurate representation of the blood VOCs they may encounter at a scene.

We studied the effects of three vehicles (propylene glycol, octanol and ethyl decanoate) with differing polarity on the in vitro percutaneous absorption of three chemicals (fluazifop-butyl, dimethyl phthalate and fomesafen sodium salt) with a range of physico-chemical properties. Absorption rate measurements were made from high vehicle volume (200 microliters/cm2) and low vehicle volume (< 10 microliters/cm2) applications. For the lipophilic fluazifop-butyl absorption rate was highest from the more polar vehicle propylene glycol, but this effect was only significant under high-volume conditions. There was a variable vehicle effect on absorption of the intermediate chemical dimethyl phthalate. The largest vehicle effect was seen for the more hydrophilic fomesafen sodium salt where absorption was fastest from the least polar vehicle ethyl decanoate. These results support the hypothesis that the absorption process can in part be predicted from a knowledge of solute solubility. Vehicle effects were greater from high volume applications than from those more comparable to occupational exposure conditions.

One important factor which may influence the extent and rate of percutaneous absorption is the dosing vehicle. The purpose of the experiments described was to compare the effect of dosing vehicles of different polarities on the absorption of two herbicides across rat skin in vivo. Rats were dosed dermally with either fluazifop-butyl (logP(oct) 4.5) or fomesafen sodium salt (logP(oct) -1.2) in propylene glycol (PG), octanol (OCT), or ethyl decanoate (ED), and the amount of radioactivity excreted in urine was determined. Absorption rates were estimated from the urinary excretion data and from blood kinetic data derived from intravenously dosed rats. For fluazifop-butyl the average rate of absorption (x10(-2) micrograms/hr-1 +/- SE) was not greatly influenced by the dosing vehicle (OCT, 2.94 +/- 0.08; ED, 3.66 +/- 0.10; PG, 3.95 +/- 0.32) despite relatively large differences in solubility (PG, 38 mg/ml; OCT, and ED, > 600 mg/ml). These results were consistent with the finding that there was at most only a twofold difference in the epidermal membrane:vehicle partition coefficients (km). In contrast, the absorption rate of fomesafen from PG (1.98 +/- 0.04) was approximately half that of ED (3.98 +/- 0.06) and OCT (4.49 +/- 0.08) for the first 30 hr after application and was in keeping with solubility data (PG, 638 mg/ml; OCT, 12 mg/ml; ED, < 10 mg/ml). At later time points the absorption of fomesafen from PG increased; this is discussed in relation to the penetration-enhancing properties of PG.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)