We examine the role of founders as directors by examining executive compensation, CEO retention policies, and M&A decisions in firms where founders serve as a director with a nonfounder CEO (founder-director). We find that founder-director firms offer a different mix of incentives to their CEO than other firms. Pay for performance sensitivity for non-founder CEOs in founder-director firms is al...

BACKGROUND Sexual transmission accounts for the majority of HIV-1 infections. In over 75% of cases, infection is initiated by a single variant (transmitted/founder virus). However, the determinants of virus selection during transmission are unknown. Host cell-cell interactions in the mucosa may be critical in regulating susceptibility to infection. We hypothesized in this study that specific im...

Congenital long QT syndrome (cLQTS) is a genetic disorder predisposing to ventricular arrhythmia, syncope and sudden death. Over 700 different cLQTS-causing mutations in 13 genes are known. The genetic spectrum of LQTS in 44 South African cLQTS patients (23 known to carry the South African founder mutation p.A341V in KCNQ1) was established by screening for mutations in the coding regions of KCN...

M utations in RAPSN, a gene encoding rapsyn, a molecule that clusters acetylcholine receptors at the motor endplate, cause endplate acetylcholine receptor deficiency. Müller and colleagues recently reported that N88K is a frequent mutation in RAPSN. By genotyping 17 mutant K88 chromosomes for two RAPSN polymorphisms (IVS3-11delC and 456T/C) and a microsatellite marker D11S4117 (fig 1A) in 12 pa...

M utations in RAPSN, a gene encoding rapsyn, a molecule that clusters acetylcholine receptors at the motor endplate, cause endplate acetylcholine receptor deficiency. Müller and colleagues recently reported that N88K is a frequent mutation in RAPSN. By genotyping 17 mutant K88 chromosomes for two RAPSN polymorphisms (IVS3-11delC and 456T/C) and a microsatellite marker D11S4117 (fig 1A) in 12 pa...

BACKGROUND Salivary gland cancer (SGC) accounts for 3-5% of head and neck malignancies, and register-based studies estimate the familial proportion to be 0.15%. OBJECTIVE We studied familial predisposition for SGC in the genetically distinct Finnish population. PATIENTS AND METHODS We sent a patient questionnaire to 161 Finnish SGC patients, 86 of whom responded. RESULTS A total of 76% of...