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Institution

McGill University

EducationMontreal, Quebec, Canada
About: McGill University is a education organization based out in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 72688 authors who have published 162565 publications receiving 6966523 citations. The organization is also known as: Royal institution of advanced learning & University of McGill College.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
01 Dec 2010-Ecology
TL;DR: A trade-off between growth and mortality rates characterizes tree species in closed canopy forests and a growing consensus that seed mass, leaf mass per area, wood density, and maximum height are key traits among forest trees is agreed.
Abstract: A trade-off between growth and mortality rates characterizes tree species in closed canopy forests. This trade-off is maintained by inherent differences among species and spatial variation in light availability caused by canopy-opening disturbances. We evaluated conditions under which the trade-off is expressed and relationships with four key functional traits for 103 tree species from Barro Colorado Island, Panama. The trade-off is strongest for saplings for growth rates of the fastest growing individuals and mortality rates of the slowest growing individuals (r 2 ¼ 0.69), intermediate for saplings for average growth rates and overall mortality rates (r 2 ¼ 0.46), and much weaker for large trees (r 2 � 0.10). This parallels likely levels of spatial variation in light availability, which is greatest for fast- vs. slow-growing saplings and least for large trees with foliage in the forest canopy. Inherent attributes of species contributing to the trade-off include abilities to disperse, acquire resources, grow rapidly, and tolerate shade and other stresses. There is growing interest in the possibility that functional traits might provide insight into such ecological differences and a growing consensus that seed mass (SM), leaf mass per area (LMA), wood density (WD), and maximum height (Hmax) are key traits among forest trees. Seed mass, LMA, WD, and Hmax are predicted to be small for light-demanding species with rapid growth and mortality and large for shade-tolerant species with slow growth and mortality. Six of these trait-demographic rate predictions were realized for saplings; however, with the exception of WD, the relationships were weak (r 2 , 0.1 for three and r 2 , 0.2 for five of the six remaining relationships). The four traits together explained 43-44% of interspecific variation in species positions on the growth-mortality trade-off; however, WD alone accounted for .80% of the explained variation and, after WD was included, LMA and Hmax made insignificant contributions. Virtually the full range of values of SM, LMA, and Hmax occurred at all positions on the growth-mortality trade-off. Although WD provides a promising start, a successful trait- based ecology of tropical forest trees will require consideration of additional traits.

813 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Research that identifies and quantifies the causal pathways and mechanisms whereby social disadvantage leads to higher risks of IUGR and preterm birth may eventually help to reduce current disparities and improve pregnancy outcome across the entire socio-economic spectrum.
Abstract: In this paper, we review the evidence bearing on socio-economic disparities in pregnancy outcome, focusing on aetiological factors mediating the disparities in intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and preterm birth. We first summarise what is known about the attributable determinants of IUGR and preterm birth, emphasising their quantitative contributions (aetiological fractions) from a public health perspective. We then review studies relating these determinants to socio-economic status and, combined with the evidence about their aetiological fractions, reach some tentative conclusions about their roles as mediators of the socio-economic disparities. Cigarette smoking during pregnancy appears to be the most important mediating factor for IUGR, with low gestational weight gain and short stature also playing substantial roles. For preterm birth, socio-economic gradients in bacterial vaginosis and cigarette smoking appear to explain some of the socio-economic disparities; psychosocial factors may prove even more important, but their aetiological links with preterm birth require further clarification. Research that identifies and quantifies the causal pathways and mechanisms whereby social disadvantage leads to higher risks of IUGR and preterm birth may eventually help to reduce current disparities and improve pregnancy outcome across the entire socio-economic spectrum.

813 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
27 Mar 2015-Science
TL;DR: A moderate-scale sequencing study aimed at increasing the number of genes known to contribute to predisposition for ALS found several known ALS genes were found to be associated, and TBK1 (the gene encoding TANK-binding kinase 1) was identified as an ALS gene.
Abstract: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurological disease with no effective treatment. We report the results of a moderate-scale sequencing study aimed at increasing the number of genes known to contribute to predisposition for ALS. We performed whole-exome sequencing of 2869 ALS patients and 6405 controls. Several known ALS genes were found to be associated, and TBK1 (the gene encoding TANK-binding kinase 1) was identified as an ALS gene. TBK1 is known to bind to and phosphorylate a number of proteins involved in innate immunity and autophagy, including optineurin (OPTN) and p62 (SQSTM1/sequestosome), both of which have also been implicated in ALS. These observations reveal a key role of the autophagic pathway in ALS and suggest specific targets for therapeutic intervention.

813 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A scoring system is proposed for concomitantly appraising the methodological quality of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods studies for SMSRs and this scoring system may also be used to appraise the quantitative and qualitative quality of mixed methods research.

812 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Optimisation de la cinematique d'un manipulateur utilisant un mecanisme parallele spherique a trois degres de liberte.
Abstract: Optimisation de la cinematique d'un manipulateur utilisant un mecanisme parallele spherique a trois degres de liberte

812 citations


Authors

Showing all 73373 results

NameH-indexPapersCitations
Karl J. Friston2171267217169
Yi Chen2174342293080
Yoshua Bengio2021033420313
Irving L. Weissman2011141172504
Mark I. McCarthy2001028187898
Lewis C. Cantley196748169037
Martin White1962038232387
Michael Marmot1931147170338
Michael A. Strauss1851688208506
Alan C. Evans183866134642
Douglas R. Green182661145944
David A. Weitz1781038114182
David L. Kaplan1771944146082
Hyun-Chul Kim1764076183227
Feng Zhang1721278181865
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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers from the Institution in previous years
YearPapers
2023342
2022998
20219,055
20208,668
20197,828
20187,237