Description: This paper discusses Mechanical and Energy Engineering curriculum. Abstract: The continuing expansion of the new College of Engineering at the University of North Texas (UNT) has created an opportunity to establish a new Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering and an excellent occasion for the establishment of innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to engineering education. The explicit addition of Energy to the Mechanical Engineering curriculum is a new model of engineering education that parallels the innovations of our current Learning to Learn (L2L) project oriented concept course with the addition of innovative approaches for mechanical engineering and emphasis on energy engineering education. The new Mechanical and Energy Engineering (MEE) baccalaureate-level program will provide the intellectual foundation for successful career preparation and lifelong learning for the students. This innovative curriculum has been designed with a system-level approach to ME-based design., on the fundamentals of undergraduate level energy engineering within the mechanical engineering discipline, and will provide experiential-oriented approaches for the better understanding of classical mechanical engineering principles. It will also provide a new interdisciplinary ME curriculum approach to the most important energy technology areas. We are going to present the curriculum and discuss components of the program from freshman to to senior ...

Description: Thesis written by a student in the UNT Honors College discussing Eliyahu Goldratt's "Theory of Constraints," summarizes the book "The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement," and examines a company applying this theory.

Description: This article discusses accurate enthalpies of formation of alkali and alkaline earth metal oxides and hydroxides. Abstract: Computing the enthalpies of formation for alkali metal and alkaline earth metal oxides (MₓO) and hydroxides [M(OH)n] using the Gaussian-n (Gn) and Weismann-n (Wn) ab initio model chemistries is difficult due to an improper treatment of core-valence electron correlation effects. Using a new model chemistry called the correlation consistent Composite Approach (ccCA), enthalpies of formation were determined for eight different alkali/alkaline earth metal oxides and hydroxides. Unlike the Gn and Wn model chemistries, which must be modified to properly account for core-valence electron correlation, the standard implementations of the ccCA provide acceptable results, and all enthalpies of formation obtained with the ccCA are within the accepted range of recommended values.

Description: This paper discusses research on acetylcholine-containing neuroepithelial cells in fish gills. Abstract: The neurochemical link between O2 chemoreceptors and afferent nerves that carry information about O2 levels to cardio-ventilatory centers in the brain has yet to be determined. This study examines the roles of two candidate neurotransmitters thought to be involved in O2 chemoreception, using channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus. Fish gills are the evolutionary progenitors of arterial arches (aortic and carotid) of mammals where O2 chemoreceptors are located. Neuroepithelial cells (NECs) containing serotonin (5-HT) and acetylcholine (Ach) were confirmed in the first gill arch using immunohistochemistry and laser confocal microscopy. 5-HT-containing NECs were aggregated around the efferent branchial artery, near tips of filaments and lamellae, ACh-containing NECs at the distal tips of filaments. Preliminary co-localization experiments indicate separate 5-HT and Ach-containing cells. This is the first demonstration of ACh-containing NECs and results of this study support pharmacological studies suggesting that ACh is the primary neurochemical involved in O2 chemoreception in vertebrates.

Description: Thesis written by a student in the UNT Honors College discussing the use of actigraphy on college students to measure the number of awakenings, wake after sleep onset, total sleep time, and sleep efficiency.