McGill University

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.

The design school: Reconsidering the basic premises of strategic management

Abstract: Among the schools of thought on strategy formation, one in particular underlies almost all prescription in the field. Referred to as the ‘design school’, it proposes a simple model that views the process as one of design to achieve an essential fit between external threat and opportunity and internal distinctive competence. A number of premises underlie this model: that the process should be one of consciously controlled thought, specifically by the chief executive; that the model must be kept simple and informal; that the strategies produced should be unique, explicit, and simple; and that these strategies should appear fully formulated before they are implemented. This paper discusses and then critiques this model, focusing in particular on the problems of the conscious assessment of strengths and weaknesses, of the need to make strategies explicit, and of the separation between formulation and implementation. In so doing, it calls into question some of the most deep-seated beliefs in the field of strategic management, including its favorite method of pedagogy.

Developmental trajectories of brain volume abnormalities in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Abstract: ContextVarious anatomic brain abnormalities have been reported for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), with varying methods, small samples, cross-sectional designs, and without accounting for stimulant drug exposure.ObjectiveTo compare regional brain volumes at initial scan and their change over time in medicated and previously unmedicated male and female patients with ADHD and healthy controls.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsCase-control study conducted from 1991-2001 at the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md, of 152 children and adolescents with ADHD (age range, 5-18 years) and 139 age- and sex-matched controls (age range, 4.5-19 years) recruited from the local community, who contributed 544 anatomic magnetic resonance images.Main Outcome MeasuresUsing completely automated methods, initial volumes and prospective age-related changes of total cerebrum, cerebellum, gray and white matter for the 4 major lobes, and caudate nucleus of the brain were compared in patients and controls.ResultsOn initial scan, patients with ADHD had significantly smaller brain volumes in all regions, even after adjustment for significant covariates. This global difference was reflected in smaller total cerebral volumes (−3.2%, adjusted F1,280 = 8.30, P = .004) and in significantly smaller cerebellar volumes (−3.5%, adjusted F1,280 = 12.29, P = .001). Compared with controls, previously unmedicated children with ADHD demonstrated significantly smaller total cerebral volumes (overall F2,288 = 6.65; all pairwise comparisons Bonferroni corrected, −5.8%; P = .002) and cerebellar volumes (−6.2%, F2,288 = 8.97, P<.001). Unmedicated children with ADHD also exhibited strikingly smaller total white matter volumes (F2,288 = 11.65) compared with controls (−10.7%, P<.001) and with medicated children with ADHD (−8.9%, P<.001). Volumetric abnormalities persisted with age in total and regional cerebral measures (P = .002) and in the cerebellum (P = .003). Caudate nucleus volumes were initially abnormal for patients with ADHD (P = .05), but diagnostic differences disappeared as caudate volumes decreased for patients and controls during adolescence. Results were comparable for male and female patients on all measures. Frontal and temporal gray matter, caudate, and cerebellar volumes correlated significantly with parent- and clinician-rated severity measures within the ADHD sample (Pearson coefficients between −0.16 and −0.26; all P values were <.05).ConclusionsDevelopmental trajectories for all structures, except caudate, remain roughly parallel for patients and controls during childhood and adolescence, suggesting that genetic and/or early environmental influences on brain development in ADHD are fixed, nonprogressive, and unrelated to stimulant treatment.

Do 15-Month-Old Infants Understand False Beliefs?

Abstract: For more than two decades, researchers have argued that young children do not understand mental states such as beliefs. Part of the evidence for this claim comes from preschoolers' failure at verbal tasks that require the understanding that others may hold false beliefs. Here, we used a novel nonverbal task to examine 15-month-old infants' ability to predict an actor's behavior on the basis of her true or false belief about a toy's hiding place. Results were positive, supporting the view that, from a young age, children appeal to mental states--goals, perceptions, and beliefs--to explain the behavior of others.

New Global Hydrography Derived From Spaceborne Elevation Data

Abstract: To study the Earth system and to better understand the implications of global environmental change, there is a growing need for large-scale hydrographic data sets that serve as prerequisites in a variety of analyses and applications, ranging from regional watershed and freshwater conservation planning to global hydrological, climate, biogeochemical, and land surface modeling. Yet while countless hydrographic maps exist for well-known river basins and individual nations, there is a lack of seamless high-quality data on large scales such as continents or the entire globe. Data for many large international basins are patchy, and remote areas are often poorly mapped. In response to these limitations, a team of scientists has developed data and created maps of the world's rivers that provide the research community with more reliable information about where streams and watersheds occur on the Earth's surface and how water drains the landscape. The new product, known as HydroSHEDS (Hydrological Data and Maps Based on Shuttle Elevation Derivatives at Multiple Scales), provides this information at a resolution and quality unachieved by previous global data sets, such as HYDRO1k [U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 2000].

Life History, Evolution of

Abstract: The analysis of life history evolution includes any trait that impinges on the reproductive success of an organism. More specifically, life history evolution is typically concerned with the evolution of the age and size at first reproduction, reproductive effort, clutch size, and propagule size. While many analyses focus only on a single trait, it should be remembered that selection acts on fitness (as defined later) and not solely on single traits. Therefore, the appropriate framework for the analysis of life history evolution is the whole suite of traits that interact to determine the fitness of an organism. The analysis of components of fitness is appropriate in many circumstances but the limitations of such an analysis must always be remembered.