Achieving gender balance on British boards with the soft-law approach: directors’ perspective

A soft-law approach is followed in the UK for improving gender diversity on boards. This paper explores the causes and solutions of gender homogeneity on British boards by interviewing thirty-three board members of FTSE 350 companies. Results suggest that British boards are homogeneous due to discrimination against women, a lack of confidence among women and a lack of objectivity in nomination processes. While current soft-law approach is the best-suited strategy due to established institutional processes, there is an increasing demand for more intrusive statutory action if the current approach fails to achieve gender parity, soon enough. The paper contributes to Institutional theory, public policy and corporate praxis

Improving corporate governance with functional diversity on FTSE 350 boards: directors' perspective

Purpose: Boards presently are considered the most critical component in improving corporate governance (CG). Board diversity is increasingly being recommended as a tool for enhancing firm performance. Academic research and regulatory action regarding board diversity are focused mainly on the gender and ethnic composition of boards. However, the perspective of board members on board diversity and its impact is mostly missing. Moreover, while Strategic Leadership perspective suggests that a broader set of upper echelon’s characteristics may shape their actions, empirical evidence investigating the impact of less-explored attributes of diversity is almost non-existent. While the research on the input–output relationship between board diversity and firm performance remains equivocal, an intervening relationship between board diversity and board effectiveness needs to be understood. This article addresses these limitations and explores the subject from board members’ perspectives. Design: The article presents the findings of qualitative, exploratory research conducted by interviewing 42 board members of FTSE 350 companies. The data is analysed thematically. Findings: The findings of the research suggest that board members of FTSE 350 companies consider the diversity of functional experience to be a critical requirement for boards’ role-effectiveness. Functionally diverse boards manage external dependencies more effectively and challenge assumptions of the executive more efficiently, thus improving CG. The findings significantly contribute to the literature on board diversity, as well as to Strategic Leadership theory and other applicable theories. The research is conducted with a relatively small but elite and difficult to approach set of 42 board members of FTSE 350 companies. Practical implications: The article makes a unique and significant contribution to praxis by presenting the perspective of practitioners of CG – board members. The findings may encourage board nomination committees to seek board diversity beyond the gender and ethnic characteristics of directors. The findings may also be relevant for policy formulation, as they indicate that functionally diverse boards have improved effectiveness in a range of board roles. Originality/value: The article makes an original and unique contribution to Strategic Leadership theory by strengthening the argument of the theory. The article goes beyond the widely researched attributes of gender and ethnicity on boards and explores the impact of a less well researched characteristic of directors – their functional experience. Moreover, the article opens the ‘black box’ of CG – boards – and presents the perspectives of board members. The findings indicate that board members in FTSE 350 boards define board diversity more broadly as compared to how academics and regulatory agencies often do. The article presents a clear business case for board diversity, subject to the term’s broader definition

A rare case of myiasis in a woman with genital prolapse

Myiasis is an infestation by dipterous larva that thrives on host’s living or necrotic tissue and cause massive tissue infection. We present a case of myiasis in a 65-year-old multiparous lady with procidentia. Her examination revealed a big excavatory ulcer on dependent part and cervix indwelled with maggots. About 40 to 50 such maggots were subsequently manually removed with a forceps. After conservative management, definitive surgical treatment for prolapsed uterus was done after healing of the ulcer, within three months. It is a very rare case as only a few reports have been previously published in literature

Female board Directors’ resilience against gender discrimination

Despite regulatory efforts to promote gender diversity on boards, women are still severely underrepresented in board leadership in the UK, beyond FTSE 100 companies. Evidence suggests that women, when poorly represented inthe workplace, are more likely to suffer discrimination. In this study we report the first‐hand experiences of gender discrimination suffered by female directors and present the process of how they build resilience through developing coping strategies. Such resilience‐building processes seem to vary with the length of board experience of female directors. At the outset of their board journey, they adopt avoidant coping strategies of denial and disengagement. However, with experience in boards, they gain the confidence to pursue the active coping strategy of seeking and extending support. This qualitative study is based on 42 elite interviews of board Directors and is guided by the resilience theory, in the context of top FTSE boards. The article also discusses the contribution of the study to theory, praxis and policy

Primary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the lung in an adolescent girl with unusual presentation

Primary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (LELC) of lung is a rare tumour of lung mostly reported from south-east Asia. It occurs in middle aged persons of either sex and presents with the complaint of cough and haemoptysis.  We report a case of primary LELC of lung in a young girl with unusual presentation

Ferric perchlorate adsorbed on silica gel: An efficient reagent for cleavage of carbon-nitrogen double bond

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Retrotransposon-Induced Heterochromatin Spreading in the Mouse Revealed by Insertional Polymorphisms

The “arms race” relationship between transposable elements (TEs) and their host has promoted a series of epigenetic silencing mechanisms directed against TEs. Retrotransposons, a class of TEs, are often located in repressed regions and are thought to induce heterochromatin formation and spreading. However, direct evidence for TE–induced local heterochromatin in mammals is surprisingly scarce. To examine this phenomenon, we chose two mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell lines that possess insertionally polymorphic retrotransposons (IAP, ETn/MusD, and LINE elements) at specific loci in one cell line but not the other. Employing ChIP-seq data for these cell lines, we show that IAP elements robustly induce H3K9me3 and H4K20me3 marks in flanking genomic DNA. In contrast, such heterochromatin is not induced by LINE copies and only by a minority of polymorphic ETn/MusD copies. DNA methylation is independent of the presence of IAP copies, since it is present in flanking regions of both full and empty sites. Finally, such spreading into genes appears to be rare, since the transcriptional start sites of very few genes are less than one Kb from an IAP. However, the B3galtl gene is subject to transcriptional silencing via IAP-induced heterochromatin. Hence, although rare, IAP-induced local heterochromatin spreading into nearby genes may influence expression and, in turn, host fitness