Medical Students Circadian Sleep Rhythms and Academic Performance

Objective: to evaluate, with a preliminary study, the distribution of circadian rhythms, sleep schedule patterns and their relationship with academic performance on medical students. Methodology: in this descriptive study, a 10 item original questionnaire about sleep rhythms and academic performance was applied to medical students from different semesters. Week (class time) and weekend schedules, preferences, daytime somnolence and academic performance were asked. Three chronotypes (morningness, intermediate and eveningness) were defined among waking-sleeping preference, difficulty to sleep early, exam preparation preference hour and real sleep schedule. The sleep hour deficit per week night was also calculated. Results: Of the 318 medical students that answered the questionnaire, 62.6% corresponded to intermediate chronotypes, 8.8% to evening-type and 28.7% to morning-type. Significant difference was found among the two chronotype tails (p=0.000, Chi-square 31.13). No correlation was found between academic performance and age, sex, chronotype, week sleep deficit and sleep hours in week and weekends. A 71.1% of the students slept 6 or fewer hours during class time and 78% had a sleep deficit (more frequent in the evening chronotype). Conclusions: No relation was found between sleep chronotype and academic performance. Students tend to morningness. Few studies have been made on equatorial zones or without seasons

Rehabilitation of executive functions: Implications and strategies

Executive Functions (EF) concern a range of abilitiesincluding problem-solving, planning, initiation, selfmonitoring,conscious attention, cope with new situationsand the ability to modify plans if necessary. It’s ahigh cognitive function that is crucial for a person to getengaged and maintain daily activities whilst keeping agood quality of life. Problems in the EF were formerlyknown as Dysexecutive Syndrome (DS). There are manymodels concerning DS, although the literature on thesubject still remains unclear. Several works appoint theeffects brought by elderly life, as well as abuse of drugsand some psychopathologies. These factors are knownto increase the distress of the frontal circuits and thatcould be associated to executive deficits. The effects ofDS would compromise individuals in day-to-day routine,academic, social and labor fields. There is a growingbody of studies trying to determine the causes, implications,associations and the best way to take care of theseeffects. This work intends to review DS, focusing on themost important fields related to this area, such as psychopathologyassociations, cognitive reserve, assessmentand cognitive rehabilitation programs.

The avatars of housing in Latin American urban and regional research (1990-2012)

The review of the terms used as keywords in three journals (published in Mexico and Chile) and the Brazilian meetings of regional and urban research are used to analyze the trends in housing research. Their dynamics are interpreted in the light of the general changes identified for urban and regional  research, synthesized by other authors as the emergence of new research topics and agents of urban change (civil society, participation, environment, gender) and the process of globalization (in its facets  of productive restructuration, job flexibility, social exclusion) as a general framework of analysis. It is found that the central themes of research in housing relate primarily to government action in  housing. New concerns, such as citizen participation, the environment or gender are linked to these actions as normative elements to the evaluation of programs or policies, but not as autonomous fields of study of the housing.In addition to this central concern, a significant growth of academic  production and  ome indication of the internationalization of research are mentioned

Ojos de Sapo: revista de crónica colombiana

Revista Ojos de Sapo es un proyecto en formato digital que busca promover la lectura y escritura de crónicas en el país, a través de la publicación de las mismas, de contenido relacionado y de la convocatoria de textos inéditos de autores jóvenes.