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First-year osteopathic students may have comparable amounts of research experience as allopathic medical students. Although these findings are limited to 2 campuses of 1 osteopathic medical school, they suggest that first-year osteopathic medical students are highly motivated to participate in research while in medical school.

It was theorized that brain-injured children who have poor handwriting are in fact trying too hard to write and using too much energy in the process. An audio-taped relaxation program was devised and presented to 32 boys who were in special classes for minimally brain-injured children. An equal number of randomly selected age mates were chosen as controls. Relaxation training was administered to the experimental group three days a week for four weeks. Results indicated that: (I) the program was effective in enhancing the quality of handwriting; (2) there was transfer effect to nonexpert mental situations; (3) the changes were stable over time; and (4) there was very high interjudge reliability of handwriting quality.During the past 15 years that we have clinically observed, evaluated, and taught children with learning disabilities, it has become evident that a large percentage of these children manifest significant writing problems. The neuromuscular efficiency in the fluid, dexterous movement of writing appears to be significantly involved. Such children squeeze the pencil, press on the paper, purse their lips, and otherwise use an inordinate amount of energy and great concentration. The entire body often becomes tense or rigid and progress is slow and laborious. It simply does not, or should not, take that much energy to write. The result, too often, is a paper which is messy and only marginally legible, if at all. As many special educators know, these children cannot finish their written assignments in the time required, and often progress or grades in other subjects suffer. Sometimes it is recommended that such children be allowed to take examinations or complete daily assignments orally because of the handicap in writing. But frequently, for a number of reasons, this is not allowed. Some psychologists and educators (Barsch 1967, DiMeo 1967, Frostig 1964, Kephart 1960 have developed programs designed to enhance eye-hand coordination. We have viewed the problem from a slightly different vantage point; rather than looking directly at motor coordination, we have chosen to focus upon the expedient or efficient use of energy while writing. With this in mind, we have developed a program of relaxation training. This is a report of a study to determine the efficacy of the program. METHODThirty-two boys placed in special education classes for the minimally brain-injured (MBI) were selected from four classes in an elementary school in Houston. Each child met the Texas

This report presents two related investigations of the effects of biofeedback relaxation training upon academic attainment of learning disabled boys. The first study was conducted in a university clinical center where LD experimental boys showed significant improvement over controls on measures of reading, spelling, verbal IQ, eye-hand coordination, auditory memory, and handwriting legibility. Behavioral self-control and self-concept also improved significantly. The second study tested the applicability of the same biofeedback relaxation procedures in the public schools by teachers of LD boys. The experimental boys improved significantly over the controls on measures of reading, spelling, eye-hand coordination and handwriting. Precautions and need for further research are discussed.T he difficulty that many children have in maintaining a focus of attention on the classroom material being taught is a major impediment to learning and retaining that information. Previous studies (Carter & Russell, 1978) have strongly suggested that learning is most effective when the children are physically relaxed and mentally attentive. For many children attending school daily and performing poorly results in increasing autonomic activity as a part of the ''fight or flight^ stress response. Sheer (1977) has shown that learning disabled children show much more autonomic liability and inability to focus attention than do normal controls. If the threat or stress persists then a chronically high and fluctuating internal activity level will be maintained. The investigators feel that attending school daily and consistently poor performance is a source of considerable stress.Although the possibility of teaching direct control over this autonomic "fight or flight" response is relatively new, biofeedback training has been developed as a means of teaching individual control over these physiological responses. Exploratory work, using small numbers of children, suggests that children can also learn such a control procedure.

A diverse early Osagean (Upper Tournaisian) brachiopod fauna from a carbonate buildup in the St. Joe Formation near Kenwood, Mayes County, northeastern Oklahoma, is described. This is the earliest Lower Carboniferous, and perhaps only, Tournaisian biohermal brachiopod fauna described in North America, although potentially earlier unknown faunas could occur in mid-Kinderhookian bioherms of southwestern Missouri. It consists of 40 species in 34 genera and is characterized by unusually robust specimens of several species. New species are Geniculifera siphuncula, Pustula kenwoodensis, Pustula oklahomae, Schizophoria mayesensis, Rhynchopora kollari, Cranaena salinensis, and Dielasma oklahomensis.