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This study examined the student characteristics, affective or cognitive, which predict academic success in undergraduate and graduate business statistics courses. The issue was found to be important because most business curricula require courses in business statistics and because both undergraduate and graduate students come to business programs with limited mathematics preparation. A survey instrument was developed containing a number of different affective and cognitive variables and allowing for a simple check-off indicating the range of response for the category. The survey was distributed to a total of six undergraduate introductory statistics sections, and six introductory graduate statistics sections. The final sample contained a total of 325 completed surveys from 174 undergraduates (50 percent male, 50 percent female) and 151 graduate students (60 percent male, 40 percent female). Analysis found that the cognitive variables of grade point average, mathematics Scholastic Aptitude Test score, and high school grade point average were significant determinants of success in statistics. The affective variables of whether or not the student postponed taking statistics and the predicted grade for the course were not found to be determinants of success in statistics. However, postponement was a more important factor for graduate students than for undergraduates. Included are two tables and four references. (JB)

A study was done to explore the relationship between academic achievement and student employment for college students in the arts and sciences and for business students. The study administered a one page questionnaire to students at nine colleges and universities on Long Island, New York, eight of which were primarily commuter colleges with a large percentage of employed students. The instrument asked for grade point average, number of hours worked, year in college, major area of study, reason for working, and the approximate percentage that the student contributed towards their college tuition. The final sample consisted of 562 completed questionnaires of which 247 were submitted by business majors and 315 were submitted by Arts and Science majors. The returned surveys were analyzed using the Pearson Correlation Coefficients and Chi-square Tests of Independence. Using grade point average as the measure of academic achievement, the findings indicated that outside employment was a detriment to Arts and Sciences students but not to business students. The business student's grade point average was not affected by work, whereas the Arts and Sciences student's average was adversely affected by employment. In addition, a higher scholastic aptitude among the Arts and Sciences students did not mitigate the effect. Included are 5 tables and 26 references. (JB)

This study examined connections between the educational process and attitudes toward organizational change among business students. A total of 758 undergraduate and graduate students from both the arts and sciences and business were surveyed with a measure of attitude toward change. The study employed a three-way analysis of variance using the factors of Year (undergraduate vs. graduate), Major (Arts & Sciences vs. Business), and Work Experience (less than 4 years vs. 4 years or more) with the total score on the instrument as the dependent variable. Statistically significant but minor differences were found for all three of these factors. The study concluded that business schools may not be adequately preparing their students for the prevalence of constant change in the business world. Recommendations include (1) that courses on organizational change be adopted, (2) that aspects of organizational change be included in nearly all business courses, (3) that laboratory groups be developed that focus on change, and (4) that change management forums be created where outside speakers are invited to talk about various features of organizational change. Contains 13 references. (GLR)

A major problem faced by schools across the country is student absenteeism. Although the problem is pervasive in American schools, the attention focused on this issue has been inadequate. Poor student attendance has far reaching effects on the individual, the school, and society in general. The intent of this paper is to document the problem, summarize existing research on mediating factors, provide a summary of interventions for improving student attendance rates in schools, and to offer specific suggestions for school psychologists. In addition, specific attention is given to suggestions for future research to help expand the current understanding of the causes and remediation of poor student attendance. (Contains 2 tables.)

A review of ground based mid-infrared uniquely high spectral. resolution measurements of Venus dynamics, temperature, and chemistry will be presented. The described studies will focus on the use of CO2 absorption features and the discovery- and use of CO2 thermospheric non-thermal emission: lines as probes of Venus' atmosphere, from the cloud tops to approx.120 km in the thermosphere. The first investigations using infrared heterodyne spectroscopy with resolving power lambda/Delta(lambda) approx. 10(exp 6) to measure true emission line profiles and to determine their non-thermal nature and lasing component will be described. The use of the thermospheric non-thermal CO2 emission to directly measure sub-solar to anti-solar winds and zonal circulation near 110 km altitudes on Venus to approx.2 m/s accuracy will also be described. The measured emission lures are also used to obtain global maps of mesospheric/thermospheric kinetic and rotational temperatures as well as to obtain evidence of the natural lasing phenomena. Carbon dioxide absorption features globally probe lower altitudes in the atmosphere and can be used to determine nightside temperatures. Isotopic 13 CO2 absorption lines are used to probe deeper in the atmosphere to measure the sub-solar to anti-solar return flow at altitudes just above the cloud tops. These results provided a model for global circulation in the 65 - 120 km altitude region first proposed by Goldstein (1989, PhD.Thesis, U. Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA). Results of similar wind and temperature measurements made in recent years will be compared to earlier results to investigate changes in the circulation and temperatures since approx.1990. The high resolution infrared heterodyne technique was also used to investigate chemical processes above the cloud tops, specifically evidence and constraints on oxygen-based chemistry. Described measurements were made by infrared heterodyne spectroscopy using the Goddard Space Flight Center Infrared Heterodyne Spectrometer (IRHS) the GSFC Heterodyne Instrument for Planetary wind And Composition (HIPWAC) and the University of Cologne Tuneable Heterodyne Infrared Spectrometer (THIS).

Indirect methods to detect extrasolar planets have been successful in identifying a number of stars with companion planets. No direct detection of an extrasolar planet has yet been reported. Spectroscopy in the thermal infrared region provides a potentially powerful approach to detection and characterization of planets and planetary systems. We can use knowledge of our own solar system, its planets and their atmospheres to model spectral characteristics of planets around other stars. Spectra derived from modeling our own solar system seen from an extrasolar perspective can be used to constrain detection strategies, identification of planetary class (terrestrial vs. gaseous) and retrieval of chemical, thermal and dynamical information. Emission from planets in our solar system peaks in the thermal infrared region, approximately 10 - 30 microns, substantially displaced from the maximum of the much brighter solar emission in the visible near 0.5 microns. This fact provides a relatively good contrast ratio to discriminate between stellar (solar) and planetary emission and optimize the delectability of planetary spectra. Important molecular constituents in planetary atmospheres have rotational-vibrational spectra in the thermal infrared region. Spectra from these molecules have been well characterized in the laboratory and studied in the atmospheres of solar system planets from ground-based and space platforms. The best example of such measurements are the studies with Fourier transform spectrometers, the Infrared Interferometer Spectrometers (IRIS), from spacecraft: Earth observed from NIMBUS 8, Mars observed from Mariner 9, and the outer planets observed from Voyager spacecraft. An Earth-like planet is characterized by atmospheric spectra of ozone, carbon dioxide, and water. Terrestrial planets have oxidizing atmospheres which are easily distinguished from reducing atmospheres of gaseous giant planets which lack oxygen-bearing species and are characterized by spectra containing hydrocarbons such as methane and ethane. Spectroscopic information on extrasolar planets thus can permit their classification. Spectra and spectral lines contain information on the temperature structure of the atmosphere. Line and band spectra can be used to identify the molecular constituents and retrieve species abundances, thereby classifying and characterizing the planet. At high enough spectral resolution characteristic planetary atmospheric dynamics and unique phenomena such as failure of local thermodynamic equilibrium can be identified. Dynamically induced effects such as planetary rotation and orbital velocity shift and change the shape of spectral features and must be modeled in detailed spectral studies. We will use our knowledge of the compositional, thermal and dynamical characteristics of planetary atmospheres in our own solar system to model spectra observed remotely on similar planets in extrasolar planetary systems. We will use a detailed radiative transfer and beam integration program developed for the modeling and interpretation of thermal infrared spectra measured from nearby planet planets to generate models of an extra-solar "Earth" and "Jupiter". From these models we will show how key spectral features distinguish between terrestrial and gaseous planets, what information can be obtained with different spectral resolution, what spectral features can be used to search for conditions for biogenic activity, and how dynamics and distance modify the observed spectra. We also will look at unique planetary phenomena such as atmospheric lasing and discuss their utility as probes for detection and identification of planets. Results of such studies will provide information to constrain design for instrumentation needed to directly detect extrasolar planets.

Millimeter-wave observations of CO lines have provided a detailed picture of Venus' mesosphere dynamics in 1991 from simultaneous measurements of absolute wind velocities in two layers and of temperature and CO horizontal and vertical profiles at 75-115 km. Venus' circulation at 90-110 km was characterized in 1991 by the superposition of a zonal retrograde flow and a subsolar-to-antisolar flow of approximately equal velocities, increasing from about 40 +/- 15 m/sec at 95 km to 90 +/- 15 m/sec at 105 km altitude. The magnitude of the increase of the SS-AS flow is consistent with Venus thermosphere general circulation models (VTGCM). At 105 km, the data further indicate a cos(latitude) dependence of the zonal flow and marginally suggest the presence of a poleward meridional component of 35 +/- 30 m/sec. No obvious day-to-day variations of the circulation are evident in the data at the 20 m/sec level. Thermal profiles in the low-latitude region appear to be consistent with the Pioneer Venus nightside profile, except above 110 km, where they are somewhat colder. High-latitude warming is still found, but mid-latitudes appear to be colder than the equator. The atmosphere appears to be in cyclostrophic balance up to about 105 km. The horizontal distribution of CO on Venus' nightside is essentially uniform, both in latitude and in local time. This behavior agrees with VTGCM simulations in which the zonal flow velocity is prescribed to match the observations. Comparison with previous wind measurements indicates that the zonal flow experiences dramatic long-term variations. This variability, along with short-term fluctuations of the mesospheric zonal flow (evidenced by the variability in the O2 nightglow emissions), apparently controls the CO and O2 nightglow distributions. Gravity wave activity is a plausible mechanism that can drive these variations.

NASA's IR Telescope Facility and the McMath Solar Telescope have yielded absolute wind velocities in the Venus thermosphere for December 1985 to March 1987 with sufficient spatial resolution for circulation model discrimination. A qualitative analysis of beam-integrated winds indicates subsolar-to-antisolar circulation in the lower thermosphere; horizontal wind velocity was derived from a two-parameter model wind field of subsolar-antisolar and zonal components. A unique model fit common to all observing periods possessed 120 m/sec subsolar-antisolar and 25 m/sec zonal retrograde components, consistent with the Bougher et al. (1986, 1988) hydrodynamical models for 110 km.

The presence of CO in the upper atmosphere of Venus is a consequence of the photochemistry of CO2, the dominant atmospheric constituent. In December 1989 the J = 1-2 transition of CO was observed at 230 GHz. In addition to the broad absorption line first reported by Kakar et al. (1976), a narrow absorption feature at the center of the line due to upper mesospheric CO, where the temperature profile starts to exhibit diurnal variation with altitude. The narrow feature is approximately 600 kHz wide and is predominantly Doppler-broadened. The Doppler core provides a new means of measuring wind velocities at these altitudes in the atmosphere of Venus. Detection of small Doppler shifts in the line core can in principle be used to measure winds with an accuracy of 10 m/s. Results are presently limited by the 17 kHz uncertainty in the measured rest frequency, corresponding to a systematic error in wind velocity up to 22 m/s, and the absence of laboratory measurements of the pressure shift in CO by CO2.

The first absolute wind velocities above the Venusian cloud-tops were obtained using NASA/Goddard infrared heterodyne spectrometers at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) and the McMath Solar Telescope. Beam-integrated Doppler displacements in the non-thermal emission core of (12)C(16)O2 10.33 micron R(8) sampled the line of sight projection of the lower thermospheric wind field (100 to 120 km). A field-usable Lamb-dip laser stabilization system, developed for spectrometer absolute frequency calibration to less than + or - 0.1 MHz, allowed S/N-limited line of sight velocity resolution at the 1 m/s level. The spectrometer's diffraction-limited beam (1.7 arc-second HPBW at McMath, 0.9 arc-second HPBW at IRTF), and 1 to 2 arc-second seeing, provided the spatial resolution necessary for circulation model discrimination. Qualitative analysis of beam-integrated winds provided definitive evidence of a dominant subsolar-antisolar circulation in the lower thermosphere. Beam-integrated winds were modelled with a 100x100 grid over the beam, incorporating beam spatial rolloff and across-the-beam gradients in non-thermal emission intensity, line of sight projection geometry, and horizontal wind velocity. Horizontal wind velocity was derived from a 2-parameter model wind field comprised of subsolar-antisolar and zonal components. Best-fit models indicated a dominant subsolar-antisolar flow with 120 m/s cross-terminator winds and a retrograde zonal component with a 25 m/s equatorial velocity. A review of all dynamical indicators above the cloud-tops allowed development of an integrated and self-consistent picture of circulation in the 70 to 200 km range.