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This paper summarizes a recent organizational climate survey conducted at Villanova University (Pennsylvania). The campus-wide project distributed questionnaires to all faculty and staff, both full-time and part-time (N=1800) and a 39 percent response rate was achieved. The survey measured perceptions of the following core processes and values: leadership, communication, collegial decision making, trust and respect, satisfaction, recognition, and sense of community. The origin of the survey as well as its technical development and dissemination are discussed. Several issues arising from various stakeholder perspectives are addressed including anonymity of responses, multiple survey versions versus a single version, and identification of organizational units. Special attention is paid to the use of survey results in making specific improvements and enhancing the University's operations. A case example of how survey results are being used to improve the financial affairs unit is outlined. The survey is attached. (DB)

A thick pyrolysis zone regression model was developed to describe radiation driven surface burning of translucent homogeneous explosives and propellants. Radiation from the luminous flame penetrates deep beneath the surface and starts pyrolysis to an intermediate gas phase at randomly distributed germ nuclei. Pyrolysis is completed at the surface where the remaining porous solid is exposed to the decomposition products. The resulting gases then chemically react in the flame zone above the surface and release their energy. When radiation is dominant instead of conduction, the rate of regression mostly depends on the flame temperature, not the pressure. © 2004 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]