Waterloo Library Journal Publishing Service (University of Waterloo, Canada)
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2023 research outputs found
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Factors that influence household decision-making on property-level flood protection investment: Insights from a stated preference study
No full textExtreme rainfall events have been increasing in their severity and frequency, posing a greater flood risk to Canadian homeowners than ever before. As a result, the expected benefits of property-level defensive actions to protect against flooding are growing, particularly in older and high-risk homes. The objective of this research was to understand the decision-making process concerning household investment in property-level flood protection (PLFP) measures, analyze whether specific PLFP devices were beneficial from a household perspective, and learn which factors were most salient to household choice. Data were collected through a survey of households in mature neighbourhoods in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The principal method used was stated preference to elicit the homeowners’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for two PLFP devices: backwater valves and sump pump systems. The design included varying monetary incentives to understand their impact on consumer choice. In addition to preferences, the survey collected information on several factors that were deemed likely to influence choice regarding investment in flood protection, including risk perceptions and prior flood experience. Results showed that the average market cost to purchase and install these devices was higher than the average WTP of households in our sample. Through econometric analysis we found that choice to purchase PLFP was influenced by monetary incentives, risk perceptions, and the belief that protective measures will work to protect a home from flooding
A Simplified Quest for Knowledge
No full textThis paper develops a transparent, simplified version of Carnehl and Schneider (2025)’s model of knowledge creation. Our tractable framework, which yields closed-form solutions for key welfare trade-offs, preserves the essential economic mechanisms while eliminating mathematical complexity. We derive four main insights. First, contrary to the original model\u27s emphasis on ``moonshots," our analysis explicitly demonstrates that expanding knowledge and then deepening it (the moonshot approach) is never socially optimal under direct welfare comparisons. The original model\u27s case for moonshots relies on second-best arguments involving research costs and dynamic externalities, not on direct welfare considerations. Second, we identify a novel misalignment between private and social incentives in multidisciplinary research contexts. Even without research costs — where the original model predicts perfect alignment — researchers bridging large knowledge gaps between disciplines choose locations that create suboptimal knowledge structures. Third, we analyse how citation-based incentive systems affect knowledge creation trajectories. We show that systems that privilege unique contributions over shared ones align private behaviour with social welfare objectives, while those that reward shared contributions lead to excessive knowledge deepening. Fourth, our analysis provides precise characterisations of optimal knowledge creation paths under various initial conditions and offers clear guidance for science policy. By clarifying when interventions can address misalignments between researchers\u27 incentives and social welfare, our simplified model offers practical insights for the design of research funding mechanisms
Households\u27 preferences to avoid disturbances in municipal drinking water supply: A nationwide contingent valuation study in Sweden
No full textContingent valuation is applied to study Swedish households’ preferences to avoid experiencing adverse consequences caused by outages and restrictions in the municipal drinking water supply. There is an international need for increased knowledge of such preferences; the frequency of drinking water supply disturbances is increasing globally due to, e.g. climate change and deteriorating water supply infrastructure, calling for preventive measures. Using a nationally representative sample, we estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for investments that would help avoid a one-time occurrence of three situations: (A) a total outage of tap water delivery; (B) tap water must be boiled to be fit for drinking; and (C) restrictions against particular uses of tap water. Three different duration times for each situation are considered. Mean WTP estimates are robust to the estimation method choice – parametric or non-parametric – but show scope insensitivity for the longest duration times of situations A and B, and all duration times of situation C. Household income has an expected positive and significant effect on the WTP for all situations, and a test of budget sequence sensitivity does not indicate overestimation of adding up WTP estimates for two or three situations. Implications for decision-makers are discussed, including efficiency and equity trade-offs, and the use of the WTP estimates in cost-benefit analyses of investments to avoid situations like those studied
Audio Recording and the Co-written Self: Reflections on an Experimental Methodology for Climate Justice
No full textWe are members of an Ottawa-based climate humanities group focused on developing new feminist methods and practices of co-writing that unsettle the liberal self in order to build a more sustainable future. In this reflection, we focus on one of these methods: audio recordings. After using a cellphone to record one of our undisciplined conversations on co-writing, care, and climate justice, we individually listened back to the conversation and reflected on both the content of our conversation and our feelings and thoughts related to the act of listening back. We ask what impact the practice of recording our conversation has on us as climate scholars and activists. How do we listen to each other in person? How does our listening change when we play back the recording, especially in regard to how we orient ourselves to others? We also suggest a capacious definition of co-writing that follows from the recording method itself: our bodies in the room together; the words, “mmms,” and “yeahs” being spoken, heard, and then heard again later and differently; and perhaps most nefariously, the cellphone and all of its material relations, tucked under a plate of cookies on the table, recording everything we say. Taken together, our new method of listening and our extended definition of cowriting seek to create a strategy for actualizing feminist climate futures today
Influence of process parameters on the density and magnetic properties of laser powder bed fusion NdFeB magnets
No full textThe demand for high-performance NdFeB permanent magnets is rapidly increasing due to their critical role in electric vehicles, wind turbines, robotics, and advanced electronics. Traditional manufacturing methods, such as sintering and bonding, are limited in design complexity, material efficiency, and sustainability. These methods require extensive machining, generate substantial waste, and often involve hazardous processing steps. Additionally, global supply chain concerns surrounding rare earth elements have intensified the need for more sustainable, resource-efficient, and locally adaptable manufacturing approaches. Laser Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB) presents a promising alternative to traditional methods, enabling the production of intricate geometries optimized for magnetic performance without extensive post-processing or material loss. Moreover, PBF-LB facilitates precise microstructure control to tailor magnetic properties for specific application requirements. This study examines the influence of PBF-LB process parameters on the density and magnetic properties of 3D-printed Nd₇.₅Pr₀.₇Fe₇₅.₄Co₂.₅B₈.₈Zr₂.₆Ti₂.₅ magnets. A dimensionless process mapping approach was applied to optimize energy input and minimize defect formation, enabling identification of process windows that result in high-density (95 - 99%) magnets. This work explores how key process parameters such as point distance (15 – 60 µm), layer thickness (40 and 60 µm), and laser beam diameter (70 µm, focused vs. 120 µm defocused) can be optimized. The results showed that reducing point distance to a moderate range, along with reduced layer thickness and a wider defocused beam, led to lower volumetric energy densities and improved magnetic performance. Notably, higher density alone did not always correlate with superior magnetic properties. A remanence of 0.51 T and a coercivity of 673.22 kA/m were achieved. Furthermore, the optimized parameters were successfully used to fabricate complex-shaped demonstrators, showcasing the potential of PBF-LB for producing dense, structurally sound magnetic components with intricate geometries. The results highlight PBF-LB as a competitive alternative to traditional magnet fabrication methods, offering a viable pathway for the next generation of energy-efficient and sustainable magnetic materials
Process parameter optimization and characterization of cold spray pure and blended AA6061 powder depositions
No full textCold spray is a solid-state deposition method belonging in the thermal spray group of technologies that creates coatings, mass restorations, and additively manufactured components by accelerating feedstock powders at supersonic speeds via a de Laval nozzle. Once accelerated particles collide with a substrate or existing layer build up, severe plastic deformation from impact creates mechanical and metallurgical bonding. Among the many materials compatible with cold spray, aluminum 6061 alloy is a widely used, a general-purpose metal commonly found in industries such as automotive and aerospace as a structural material. Typically, metallic powders are manufactured with gas atomization and available as pure AA6061, or as a blend with various ceramics to obtain desired deposition mechanical, material, and manufacturing requirements. Additionally, a solid-state powder manufacturing method using mechanical grinding has emerged providing cold spray users with AA6061 powders of different morphology and metallurgy more like AA6061 bulk material. This study investigates deposition properties for pure gas atomized and ground AA6061 powders, and gas atomized powders blended with Al2O3, SiO2, and ZrO2. Cold spray depositions are characterized by studying their deposition efficiency, thickness, density, and microhardness. Effects of powder size distribution, morphology, and blending are correlated with deposition characteristics. Observations made include higher deposition efficiency and thickness with blended powders, and general hardness and deposition efficiency tradeoff for gas atomized powders, and high deposition efficiency and hardness for ground powder. Response Surface Methodology is used to determine optimum temperature and pressure conditions for powders, with deposition efficiency, thickness, and microhardness explanatory variables
The Bull-Horned King
No full text“Bull horns, Great King?” Aeneas, son of Jacob, considered Antiochus’ orders in puzzlement. He had once the honour of viewing his patron’s father as he marched an endless cavalcade of beasts and men, brazen and battle-born, to victory against his former employer at Lysimachia (281 BCE). Still half a stadion away, Seleucus was plainly of Heraclean strength and stature – especially so for a man of seventy years. He was, in truth, not dissimilar to the huge trumpeting war machines which accompanied him – massive, mighty, and majestic. But Aeneas could not recall ever spying bull horns erupting from his head.
 
M. Porcius Cato to Cicero
No full textAs you once called upon me to defend you against Clodius, and later to uphold your victories to the senate, I now call upon you and our friendship in return. Here in Utica, standing before failure, I reflect not in sorrow, but in duty. Was there a path, however narrow, that might have averted catastrophe? I am writing to you now at greater length than ever before, for I wish there to be an account of the truth as I see it that is unmarred by ambition. From the beginning, I foresaw the tyrant approaching
Income redistribution, water scarcity and water rates in the 225 largest US cities
No full textAs in the electricity sector, water utilities commonly use increasing-block tariffs despite economists’ theoretical advice to set the volumetric price at the long-run marginal cost of supply. The most common justifications are to shift costs away from lower-income users (who are presumed to use less water) and to provide conservation incentives in the face of scarcity. Following a recent paper in the electricity sector, we calculate water and sewer rate redistributiveness for 225 US cities and explore whether this measure is related to local waterscarcity and income inequality. We combine data on rates, customer assistance programs, county-level Census demographics, utility characteristics, and presidential vote shares with a nation-wide dataset on water consumption. We also introduce a long-term measure ofwater scarcity (Padowski and Jawitz, 2012) to the debate on whether customers in water scarce regions really do face higher prices. As in the electricity sector, we find that water rates are more redistributive in areas with higher local income inequality, though this resultis sensitive to how we define our redistribution measure. We also find no evidence that customer assistance programs are a substitute for increasing-block tariffs. We find little evidence that rates are more redistributive in areas with higher water scarcity. We discuss whether, as in electricity, redistributive water tariffs may be ineffective at providing much assistance to lower-income customers
The Gender Health Gap in Ghana: Exploring the Role of Financial Inclusion
No full textThis paper investigates the impact of financial inclusion on health and the gender-health differences in Ghana using microdata from the sixth wave of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) and instrumental variable techniques. The findings reveal significant gender health differences, with women reporting lower health than men. Importantly, the study suggests that financial inclusion could be a powerful tool in reducing the gender-health gap, as individuals with higher financial inclusion levels report better health. Furthermore, there is no significant health difference across genders for people with a higher level of financial inclusion. These findings have novel and important policy implications, highlighting the potential of financial inclusion in addressing the gender-health gap in Ghana.