Thesis (M.S.) -- Mississippi State University. Department of Civil Engineering. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thermodynamic properties are essential for the design of chemical processes, and they are most useful in the form of an equation of state (EOS). The motivating force of this work is the need for accurate prediction of the phase behavior and thermophysical properties of natural gas for practical engineering applications. This thesis presents a new cubic EOS for pure argon. In this work, a theoretically based EOS represents the PVT behavior of pure fluids. The new equation has its basis in the improved Most General Cubic Equation of State theory and forecasts the behavior of pure molecules over a broad range of fluid densities at both high and low pressures in both single and multiphase regions. With the new EOS, it is possible to make accurate estimations for saturated densities and vapor pressures. The density dependence of the equation results from fitting isotherms of test substances while reproducing the critical point, and enforcing the critical point criteria. The EOS includes analytical functions to fit the calculated temperature dependence of the new EOS parameters.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-144).

Thesis (M.S. in Pub. Pol.)--School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004. Directed by Juan Rogers. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-84).

Thesis--Munich. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 330-366).

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Thermodynamic properties are essential for the design of chemical processes, and they are most useful in the form of an equation of state (EOS). The motivating force of this work is the need for accurate prediction of the phase behavior and thermophysical properties of natural gas for practical engineering applications. This thesis presents a new cubic EOS for pure argon. In this work, a theoretically based EOS represents the PVT behavior of pure fluids. The new equation has its basis in the improved Most General Cubic Equation of State theory and forecasts the behavior of pure molecules over a broad range of fluid densities at both high and low pressures in both single and multiphase regions. With the new EOS, it is possible to make accurate estimations for saturated densities and vapor pressures. The density dependence of the equation results from fitting isotherms of test substances while reproducing the critical point, and enforcing the critical point criteria. The EOS includes analytical functions to fit the calculated temperature dependence of the new EOS parameters.

The expanding Colombian education system has seen the emergence of new state managerial styles. The system was designed originally for a country with one-half of the present population, one-third of the human resources and less than one-fifth of the required financial resources. / For this reason, it was necessary to extend and diversify services to include preschool, postgraduate education, nonformal education and services. Cultural activities, recreational activities of all types, and the development of scientific and technological research have also been included. At present this process is coming to an end and there is a tendency toward decentralization at the Ministry of National Education. / The general recommendation is to define the role of the state at each administrative level. The ministry should be director, planner, coordinator and evaluator of all education. The regions should be administrators and executors in their specific level in relation to the personnel and the relocation of the personnel. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This thesis presents a history of the concept of the state as a political community. Beginning with the early-nineteenth century and using debates about state formation and state recognition as its source material, it uses the language of English-speaking policy makers and political commentators to explore understandings of statehood across different time periods. The thesis argues that the meaning and connotations of the state have changed significantly in the past two hundred years, as it has become more salient in images of world politics. In particular, the state has evolved to incorporate the idea of the 'nation,' such that when governments act they are perceived to have their populations 'in tow.' These conceptual changes are surprisingly recent, solidified particularly since the Second World War. Four broad themes structure the argument in each chapter. First, the historical 'nation' has become an increasingly dominant way of conceptualising the populations of states. Second, the state has come to be construed as the inevitable unit of world politics, corroborated by the assumption that each one arises out of a pre-existing 'nation.' Third, the state has increasingly been perceived as a unitary actor with its own consciousness, separate from 'government.' Finally, the state with its nationalist implications, has come to define the dynamics of international politics, a means of simplifying an ever more complex world. The thesis roots contemporary (English language) understandings of the state in a particular historical and political context, defined by the contestation between 'American' and 'British' worldviews, the triumph of liberal internationalism and the multiple interests at stake in the image of the state as a nation. The thesis thus exposes the intensely political nature of language and the complacency of International Relations with regard to its own use of words and conventional narratives.

This is a study of the inter-relationship between welfare ideology, welfare mix and the production of welfare. It has been hypothesized that the welfare ideology of a state is likely to affect its choice of welfare mix and the kind of social relations produced in the wider society. In this study, normative theories of the welfare state were reformulated by an analytical framework into theoretical models of the welfare state as pre-test patterns for comparison with practical policies under study. Child daycare provisions in Britain and Hong Kong were chosen as the data to test the hypothesis. A multiple-case-embedded design was used in organizing this comparative study. It was found that practising ideologies are more predictive than idealized ideologies of state social policy. It was also found that state social policy in the realm of child daycare was related to its ideology : state ideology affects the choice of a mix of welfare sectors and the form welfare is organised in the production of social relations in the two societies studied. Nevertheless, the inter-relationship between state ideology, welfare mix and welfare production is constrained by three intervening variables. They are bureau-professional autonomy, interplay between opposing ideologies and flexibility of ideology in the interpretation of state welfare because of a changing environment. When the findings were examined from another perspective, welfare sector and welfare production were seen to carry ideological meanings. This implies that a transaction of welfare goods and services is not only a transaction of material or tangible social services, but it is also an ideological transaction of different social principles which underlie the welfare sectors. This has led to the development of a theory of the ideological production of welfare as an explanation of the relationship between ideology and welfare sectors in the division of care and welfare responsibilities in a society. Based on this theory, the limitations of instrumental theories about the welfare mix were discussed. In conclusion, in the light of wider social and economic changes within capitalism, an integrative strategy concerning the welfare mix in particular and welfare in general has been proposed which duly recognizes the importance of ideology in maintaining social relations in a society as well as the social context which these social relations underlie.