Although there is a large body of literature exploring the topic of knowledge management, most of the focus is on its application to industry. Seldom has a research priority been placed on the use of knowledge management in a university setting. This research investigated the impact of applying a knowledge management system -- Knowledge Net -- to the students in a course about designing learning activities with interactive multimedia at the University of Waterloo. A design experiment method was employed. Eight students were engaged in the study. The purpose of the design experiment was to investigate the students' response towards Knowledge Net, their ability to absorb and apply the knowledge gained from Knowledge Net, and the incentives that encouraged them to share and retrieve knowledge from the system. The findings will be helpful for the people who want to practice knowledge management in a university setting. The study results revealed that initially students had a positive attitude towards the potential value of the information in Knowledge Net. However, at the end of their design experiment, they reported a low expectation that students could learn from and apply the information in Knowledge Net. The reasons varied. It may be that they failed to truly understand the knowledge or to trust the source of information. Many students habitually prefer face-to-face contact with their counterparts to computers. As a result, the study suggested a few ways to improve the absorption of knowledge and to enhance the behavior of knowledge sharing. These new directions include: arranging personal meetings between the providers and recipients of knowledge, playing videos of other students sharing knowledge on Knowledge Net, increasing the level of encouragement and guidance from the instructor on use of the system, and applying situated learning and case studies. In addition, grading students on their use of Knowledge Net may be a useful incentive to help students make more effective use of Knowledge Net.

Although there is a large body of literature exploring the topic of knowledge management, most of the focus is on its application to industry. Seldom has a research priority been placed on the use of knowledge management in a university setting. This research investigated the impact of applying a knowledge management system -- Knowledge Net -- to the students in a course about designing learning activities with interactive multimedia at the University of Waterloo. A design experiment method was employed. Eight students were engaged in the study. The purpose of the design experiment was to investigate the students' response towards Knowledge Net, their ability to absorb and apply the knowledge gained from Knowledge Net, and the incentives that encouraged them to share and retrieve knowledge from the system. The findings will be helpful for the people who want to practice knowledge management in a university setting. The study results revealed that initially students had a positive attitude towards the potential value of the information in Knowledge Net. However, at the end of their design experiment, they reported a low expectation that students could learn from and apply the information in Knowledge Net. The reasons varied. It may be that they failed to truly understand the knowledge or to trust the source of information. Many students habitually prefer face-to-face contact with their counterparts to computers. As a result, the study suggested a few ways to improve the absorption of knowledge and to enhance the behavior of knowledge sharing. These new directions include: arranging personal meetings between the providers and recipients of knowledge, playing videos of other students sharing knowledge on Knowledge Net, increasing the level of encouragement and guidance from the instructor on use of the system, and applying situated learning and case studies. In addition, grading students on their use of Knowledge Net may be a useful incentive to help students make more effective use of Knowledge Net.

In order to obtain a better understanding of hydrate plug formation mechanism in natural gas pipelines, formation and growth of hydrate layer within a rectangular channel formed by brass bottom and top surfaces and an insulated inner and an outer surface of transparent polycarbonate tube was studied experimentally. A gas mixture of 90 % methane balanced with propane was supplied at specified flow rates while the humidity and temperature of the supply gas was controlled at desired values using bubble type saturators and heat exchangers placed in series. Hydrate formation occurred along the top and bottom brass surfaces maintained at temperatures below equilibrium hydrate formation temperature, while the transparent tube served as window for visual observation. A series of carefully controlled laboratory experiments were performed to reveal the shape of porous hydrate layer under different combinations of under-cooling and moisture concentrations. The observed transient characteristics of hydrate layer profiles will provide important data that can be used for validation of numerical models to predict hydrate plugging of natural gas pipelines.

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This thesis investigates how a tax and warning label on less healthy snack food products may affect consumer behaviour when the imposition of the tax is a source of consumer information. A survey that included choice experiments was implemented in supermarkets. Participants were asked to choose between high fat snacks, some displaying a stigmatizing warning label, and healthier snacks. Multinomial logit and latent class models exploring choice were estimated and a predictive hypothetical market was set up. Results show that the warning label had a negative price premium of about $4. The effect of price, though small, becomes even smaller as BMI increases. A fat tax for health is not recommended because it might not hit the target population, people were not very price sensitive, and it would likely be regressive. To encourage health, it appears to be more effective to display a warning label than to apply a tax. / Agricultural and Resource Economics