The clinical role of glutamine supplementation in patients with multiple trauma: a narrative review

Glutamine is considered an essential amino acid during stress and critical illness. Parenteral glutamine supplementation in critically ill patients has been shown to improve survival rate and minimise infectious complications, costs and hospital length-of-stay. However, glutamine supplementation in patients receiving enteral nutrition and the best method of administration are still controversial. The purpose of this article is to provide a narrative review of the current evidence and trials of enteral and parenteral glutamine supplementation in multiple trauma patients. A search in PubMed and EMBASE was conducted and relevant papers that investigated the effect of enteral or parenteral glutamine supplementation in patients with multiple trauma were reviewed. Although recent nutritional guidelines recommend that glutamine supplementation should be considered in these patients, further well-designed trials are required to provide a confirmed conclusion. Due to the inconclusive results of enteral glutamine supplementation trials in patients receiving enteral nutrition, future trials should focus on intravenous glutamine supplementation in patients requiring enteral nutrition and on major clinical outcome measures (e.g. mortality rate, infectious complications)

Brown in Black and White—Then and Now

The U.S. Supreme Court\u27s decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case was used as a point of reference to elaborate on the often divergent realities in education and sport for Black and White Americans. The impetus to integrate sport and the movement to integrate educational institutions in America were two separate yet often paralleled phenomena. It is typically argued that efforts to integrate educational institutions were about ensuring equitable access and opportunity. Less so, due to moral principles, integration in sports was more about winning and generating revenue. Still today, race-related divergences are reflected in education and sport. The intent of this article is to reflect on America\u27s education and sport histories (then) and highlight some present-day realities (now) as associated with the social construct of race, particularly for Black male students and athletes. © 2008 Sage Publications

Individual and contextual influences on the affective commitment of retail salespeople

Salesperson characteristics as well as managerial approaches have been found to play an important role in the development of positive attitudes by salespersons towards an organisation. This study integrates these two research areas to investigate the personal and contextual antecedents of affective organisational commitment of retail salespeople. Fit theory and the literature on person-situation interaction provide the theoretical basis for explaining how salesperson selling skills, job liking and empowerment individually and jointly influence affective commitment. A multilevel modelling approach is used to analyse data from 105 sales managers and 419 salespeople. Findings reveal that salespersons&rsquo; affective commitment is influenced by their selling skills, degree of job liking, tenure and empowerment. The results also indicate that the impact of selling skills on affective commitment is higher when empowerment is high. Based on the study&rsquo;s findings, implications for managing salespeople as well as limitations and suggestions for future research are offered.</p