Individual Merit (individual + merit)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Enantiomeric antidepressant drugs should be considered on individual merit

HUMAN PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY: CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL, Issue S2 2001
Pierre Baumann
Abstract Many antidepressants have been introduced as racemic drugs, the enantiomers of which may differ in some of their pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties. This review argues that each enantiomer of a chiral antidepressant should be evaluated according to its individual characteristics rather than by extrapolation from the racemate, or by assumptions based on the stereoselective characteristics of other enantiomeric drugs. For example, in some cases the enantiomers' pharmacodynamic and therapeutic properties can be complementary, which suggests that the racemate should be used clinically. In other cases where enantiomers show qualitatively similar but quantitatively different properties to the racemate, using a single enantiomer might be more appropriate. In yet further cases, a distomer may induce the metabolism of the eutomer, enantiomers may be metabolised by different enzymes, there may be a different profile of drug,drug interactions, and therapeutic drug monitoring may be simpler. Therefore, this review exemplifies the principle that each enantiomer of a chiral antidepressant should be evaluated according to its individual pharmacological, pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetic characteristics. These factors are discussed in relation to five chiral antidepressants: trimipramine, mianserin, mirtazapine, fluoxetine and citalopram. It is hoped that an appreciation of the stereoselective differences between enantiomers will facilitate improvements in the benefit:risk ratio of drugs used in the management of depression. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Undermining or reframing collective bargaining?

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 4 2008
Variable pay in two sectors compared
Although it is widely presumed that variable payments systems (VPS) such as individual merit and profit-related pay are corrosive of collective bargaining, the actual relationship between the two remains little explored. Drawing on company case studies from retail banking and machinery and equipment, this article finds that collective bargaining can variously be reconfigured , as over individual merit pay in the banks; extended to cover local bonus arrangements, evident in instances in both sectors; or lose its purchase on a significant proportion of earnings , as with management-determined profit-related bonus in both sectors. In terms of the implications for collective bargaining, much therefore depends on the type of VPS. [source]


An Empirical Inquiry into the Relation of Corrective Justice to Distributive Justice

JOURNAL OF EMPIRICAL LEGAL STUDIES, Issue 3 2006
Gregory Mitchell
We report the results of three experiments examining the long-standing debate within tort theory over whether corrective justice is independent of, or parasitic on, distributive justice. Using a "hypothetical societies" paradigm that serves as an impartial reasoning device and permits experimental manipulation of societal conditions, we first tested support for corrective justice in a society where individual merit played no role in determining economic standing. Participants expressed strong support for a norm of corrective justice in response to intentional and unintentional torts in both just and unjust societies. The second experiment tested support for corrective justice in a society where race, rather than individual merit, determined economic standing. The distributive justice manipulation exerted greater effect here, particularly on liberal participants, but support for corrective justice remained strong among nonliberal participants, even against a background of racially unjust distributive conditions. The third experiment partially replicated the first experiment and found that the availability of government-funded insurance had little effect on demands for corrective justice. Overall, the results suggest that while extreme distributive injustice can moderate support for corrective justice, the norm of corrective justice often dominates judgments about compensatory duties associated with tortious harms. [source]


Cytoreductive therapy in 108 adults with systemic mastocytosis: Outcome analysis and response prediction during treatment with interferon-alpha, hydroxyurea, imatinib mesylate or 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine,

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HEMATOLOGY, Issue 12 2009
Ken H. Lim
Cytoreductive therapy in systemic mastocytosis (SM) includes several drugs whose individual merit has not been well characterized. We retrospectively studied 108 Mayo Clinic patients who met the 2008 WHO diagnostic criteria for SM and received at least one cytoreductive drug. The numbers of patients who were evaluable for response to treatment with interferon-alpha with or without prednisone (IFN-,), hydroxyurea (HU), imatinib mesylate (IM) or 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine (2-CdA) were 40, 26, 22, and 22, respectively. The corresponding overall (major) response rates, according to recently published consensus criteria, were 53% (18%), 19% (0%), 18% (9%), and 55% (37%). The respective overall response rates in indolent SM, aggressive SM and SM associated with another clonal hematological nonmast cell lineage disease (SM-AHNMD) were 60%, 60%, 45% for IFN-,, 0, 0, 21% for HU, 14%, 50%, 9% for IM and 56%, 50%, 55% for 2-CdA. The absence of mast cell mediator release symptoms in IFN-,-treated patients and presence of circulating immature myeloid cells in 2-CdA-treated patients predicted inferior response. TET2 mutational status did not influence treatment response. Although the major response rates with these four cytoreductive agents were still suboptimal and HU was mainly used in patients with SM-AHNMD, the current study favors 2-CdA or IFN-, as first-line current therapy in SM and identifies patients who are likely to respond to such therapy. Am. J. Hematol., 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]