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Beta-alanine is a nonessential amino acid that is commonly used to improve exercise performance. It could influence the buffering of hydrogen ions produced during intense exercise and delay fatigue, providing a substrate for increased synthesis of intramuscular carnosine. This systematic review evaluates the effects of beta-alanine supplementation on maximal intensity exercise in trained, young, male individuals. Six databases were searched on August 10, 2023, to identify randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials investigating the effect of chronic beta-alanine supplementation in trained male individuals with an age range of 18–40 years. Studies evaluating exercise performance through maximal or supramaximal intensity efforts falling within the 0.5–10 min duration were included. A total of 18 individual studies were analyzed, employing 18 exercise test protocols and 15 outcome measures in 331 participants. A significant (p =.01) result was observed with an overall effect size of 0.39 (95% confidence interval [CI] [0.09, 0.69]), in favor of beta-alanine supplementation versus placebo. Results indicate significant effects at 4 weeks of supplementation, effect size 0.34 (95% CI [0.02, 0.67], p =.04); 4–10 min of maximal effort, effect size 0.55 (95% CI [0.07, 1.04], p =.03); and a high beta-alanine dosage of 5.6–6.4 g per day, effect size 0.35 (95% CI [0.09, 0.62], p =.009). The results provide insights into which exercise modality will benefit the most, and which dosage protocols and durations stand to provide the greatest ergogenic effects. This may be used to inform further research, and professional or recreational training design, and optimization of supplementation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined whether different parent- and teacher-related factors had an effect on at-risk children's reading development during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seventy Grade 1 English-speaking Canadian children (28 females, 42 males; M[subscript age] = 6.60, SD = 0.46) who were at-risk for reading difficulties were administered word and pseudoword reading, nonverbal IQ, and phonological awareness tasks before the school closures (February 2020; Time 1). Reading tasks were administered again when they returned to school in September 2020 (Time 2). In April-May 2020, their parents (n = 70) and teachers (n = 40) filled out a questionnaire on the home literacy environment and the frequency of teaching reading and providing reading materials, respectively. Results of multilevel regression analyses showed that children's reading enjoyment and home learning activities predicted both word and pseudoword reading at Time 2. Differentiation of instruction for struggling readers also predicted children's pseudoword reading at Time 2. These findings reinforce the important role of parents in their children's early reading development particularly when the typical agents of instruction (i.e., teachers) have less time and opportunities to interact with their students because of the pandemic.

Although Cognitive Assessment System (CAS)-2: Brief was published in 2014 and it is used in applied settings all over the world, we still do not know how well it relates to academic achievement. Thus, this study aimed to examine the relations of CAS-2: Brief with reading and mathematics performance. Two hundred and twenty-two Greek-speaking children in Grade 6 (98 boys, 124 girls, M[subscript age] = 135.85 months) were assessed on CAS-2: Brief and on measures of reading (Wordchains and CBM-Maze) and mathematics (Mathematics Achievement Test and Mathematics Reasoning Test). Results of the correlational analysis showed first that the CAS-2: Brief total score correlated moderately with both reading and mathematics tasks (rs ranged from 0.36 to 0.53). Second, results of the multilevel analyses revealed that the CAS-2: Brief total score explained 11.4% of unique variance in mathematics and 27.6% of unique variance in reading. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine if word reading and vocabulary are reciprocally related. Method: We followed a sample of 172 English-speaking Canadian children (82 girls, 90 boys; M[subscript age] = 75.87 months at the first measurement point) from the beginning of Grade 1 until the beginning of Grade 3 and assessed them three times on vocabulary and word reading. Results: Results of cross-lagged analyses revealed only unidirectional relations: word reading in Grade 1 predicted vocabulary in Grades 2 and 3. Conclusion: These findings suggest that once children reach a basic level of proficiency in word reading this allows them to be independent readers and enhance their vocabulary.

A number of studies have examined the effects of reading interventions for younger readers; however, there does not appear to be any existing syntheses examining the effect of reading interventions on students in Years 7--12. The purpose of this study was to establish whether such a synthesis is feasible by reviewing the methodological quality of randomised controlled trial studies examining the effect of reading interventions for secondary students, using the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) standards. A total of 17 studies were identified and reviewed. Overall, only two studies met all eight CEC quality indicators. All studies met the quality indicators for intervention agent, and context and settings. Findings, limitations and recommendations for future directions of study are discussed.

Purpose: We examined the role of distal (parents' education, family's income, parents' expectations, and parents' attitudes to the home teaching of literacy) and proximal (formal and informal home literacy environment, access to literacy resources, and extracurricular activities) parental factors in children's early literacy skills and whether the relations vary across affluent and disadvantaged societies in China. Method: Five hundred fifty-three third-year kindergarten Chinese children (M[subscript age] = 74.59 months) were recruited from Jining, Luqiao, and Mapo and were assessed on measures of phonological awareness, vocabulary, pinyin knowledge, and word reading. Their parents filled out a questionnaire on their education and income as well as on the frequency of engaging in different home literacy activities, their expectations and attitudes to the home teaching of literacy, and their children's extracurricular activities. Results: Results of multigroup analyses and mediation analyses revealed both direct and indirect effects of both distal and proximal parental factors on emergent literacy skills and word reading. In addition, the models were strikingly similar across the two settings. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the pathways of differential influences from parental factors to children's early literacy skills may be similar across socioeconomic contexts.

Purpose: We performed a meta-analysis to examine if children with dyslexia experience deficits in morphological awareness (MA) and if the effect sizes are influenced by different moderators (age, aspect of MA measured, type of MA task, language, modality input, semantic knowledge, and selection criteria). Method: We reviewed 40 studies published in English between January 1990 and August 2021, representing a total of 5,018 participants (age range = 5.1-13.9 years). Studies with adults or English language learners were excluded. There were 49 independent samples in the chronological-age (CA) -- dyslexia (DYS) comparison and 18 independent samples in the comparison between DYS and reading--level (RL) controls. Results: A random-effects model analysis revealed a large effect size for the CA--DYS comparison (g = 1.11) and a non-significant effect size for the RL--DYS comparison (g = -0.08). Age was the only significant moderator of the effect sizes. Conclusion: These findings suggest, first, that individuals with dyslexia experience significant difficulties in MA and second, that the effect sizes are as large as those reported for phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and orthographic knowledge. The lack of a significant RL-DYS difference indicates that MA is not a core causal feature of dyslexia.

The Triangle Model of Reading proposes that phonology, orthography, and semantics are crucial to understand word reading and reading disability (RD). Morphology has been added as a binding agent to this model. However, it is unclear how these variables relate to word reading in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or comorbid ADHD and RD (ADHD+RD). This study examined the performance of Chinese children with RD, ADHD, or ADHD+RD in phonology, orthography, semantics, and morphology, and investigated whether morphology made an additional contribution beyond the other skills in explaining word reading fluency. Participants were 151 Grade 1 to 3 Chinese students: RD (n = 31), ADHD (n = 43), ADHD+RD (n = 27), and typically developing controls (TD, n = 50). Results indicated that children with ADHD+RD (a) showed similar performance to RD and ADHD in tone awareness, orthographic legality, and homophone morpheme awareness; (b) had similar performance to RD but worse than ADHD in phonology, semantics, and morpheme production; and (c) had more severe deficits than RD and ADHD in orthographic reversal, morpheme identification, and homograph awareness. Morphology significantly predicted word reading fluency beyond the other skills, and its predictive effect was more salient for ADHD+RD, ADHD, and TD. The findings provide evidence of both shared and additive effects of RD and ADHD. Morphology may be an important diagnostic factor in identifying Chinese reading and behavioral deficit groups and a worthwhile target for intervention.

To investigate whether fluoridated apatites have a shear bond strength which more closely equates to that of natural enamel than pure hydroxyapatite, making them potentially useful as biomimetic alternatives to natural enamel for ex vivo laboratory bonding studies.

To compare the initial and fatigue shear bond strengths of a chromatic adhesive with a light-cured adhesive in an ex vivo laboratory study.

To investigate the feasibility of using artificial hydroxyapatite as a future biomimetic laboratory substitute for human enamel in orthodontic bond strength testing by comparing the shear bond strengths and nature of failure of brackets bonded to samples of hydroxyapatite and enamel.

Beyond the established difficulties of individuals with dyslexia in word recognition and spelling, it remains unclear how severe their difficulties in comprehension are. To examine this, we performed a meta-analytic review. A random-effects model analysis of data from 76 studies revealed a large deficit in reading comprehension in individuals with dyslexia compared to their chronological-age (CA) controls (g = 1.43) and a smaller one compared to their reading-level (RL) matched controls (g = 0.64). Individuals with dyslexia also differed significantly from their CA controls in listening comprehension (g = 0.43). Results further showed significant heterogeneity in the effect sizes that was partly explained by orthographic consistency (the deficits were larger in languages with low orthographic consistency) and vocabulary matching (the deficits were larger in studies in which the groups were not matched on vocabulary). These findings suggest, first, that individuals with dyslexia experience significant difficulties in both reading and listening comprehension, but the effect sizes are smaller than those reported in the literature for word reading and spelling. Second, our findings suggest that the deficits in reading comprehension are likely a combination of deficits in both decoding and oral language skills.

The goal of this study was to examine the cross-lagged relations between vocabulary and word reading in children learning two scripts at the same time (pinyin and Chinese). One hundred fifty-nine third-year kindergarten Chinese children (70 girls and 89 boys; mean age = 72.70 months) were assessed on measures of nonverbal IQ, phonological awareness, and vocabulary. In Grades 1 and 2, they were reassessed on pinyin reading, Chinese word reading, and vocabulary. Results of cross-lagged analysis indicated that vocabulary and Chinese word reading were reciprocally related. In contrast, the relation between pinyin reading and vocabulary was unidirectional (pinyin reading in Grade 1 predicted vocabulary in Grade 2). Taken together, these findings suggest that the direction of the relation between vocabulary and word reading is sensitive to the features of the script children are learning to read (thus, providing support of the script relativity hypothesis) and the time when these measures are assessed in different scripts.

We examined whether developing reading skills in the two scripts of Japanese, syllabic Hiragana and morphographic Kanji, had differential effects on underlying cognitive skills. One hundred ninety-one Japanese children (97 girls, 94 boys; M[subscript age] = 100.23 months) were assessed on rapid automatized naming (RAN), vocabulary, morphological awareness, visual-spatial skills, Hiragana reading fluency, and Kanji character recognition at the end of Grade 2 and again at the end of Grade 3. Results of cross-lagged analysis showed that Hiragana reading fluency in Grade 2 predicted RAN and visual-spatial skills in Grade 3, and Kanji character recognition in Grade 2 predicted vocabulary in Grade 3, even when the same skills in Grade 2 were controlled. Taken together, these findings suggest that the nature of the script children learn can influence how developing reading skills affect their cognitive underpinnings.