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In the past, information systems have been developed by system analysts and programmers with the involvement of end users being at a minimum. For a long time now, researchers (Lucas 1976, Alter 1996) have been stressing the importance of significant user involvement because it brings a number of beneficial results: involvement can be challenging and intrinsically satisfying; involvement usually results in more commitment to change; the user becomes more knowledgeable about change and so is better trained in the use of the system; a better solution to the problem is obtained because users know more about the present system than analysts; involvement means the user has retained much of the control over operations. The contribution that this thesis makes is the concept of self knowledge elicitation as an approach to prototyping, developing and maintaining information systems. A key feature of this concept is the high degree of user involvement in the design and development process. Self knowledge elicitation allows the user to build an information system using his/her own knowledge and expertise, and then also allows him/her to maintain and update this system. This concept initially emerged following a research project which involved the development of an Expert Advisory System for AIDS/HIV using traditional techniques of development, which were found to have a number of deficiencies including the time-factor. Both formal and informal evaluations of the self knowledge elicitation concept were carried out at 20 different sites throughout Central England, over a minimum period of nine months. The results of these trials indicated that this concept was acceptable and could be used as a practical, cost-effective way of developing and maintaining information systems - especially for the purposes of training and education. Significant technological advances in both hardware and software over recent years (advanced word processors, intemet/intranet, web browsers, e-mail, etc.), used appropriately, will increase the availability, functionality and acceptability of the self knowledge elicitation concept.

Energy storage is critical for future sustainable energy infrastructure. Among energy storage options, supercapacitors can be important due to their large capacity, fast charge/discharge rates, and stability. For example, supercapacitors combined with batteries can make electric cars more efficient and can offset the intermittency of renewable energy sources, such as photovoltaics and wind. However, state-of-the-art supercapacitors use expensive synthesized carbon nanomaterials to store electricity. Environmentally friendly, sustainable, and inexpensive bio-inspired carbon materials, such as biochar have recently been shown to have potential for supercapacitors. A critical step in using biochar is activation which creates porous microstructures with large surface area. This requires high-temperature baking for several hours in an inert atmosphere using a strong base and accounts for over 50% of the cost of carbon electrodes. The objective of this research was to use plasma treated biochar electrodes to fabricate supercapacitors. Oxygen plasma is highly reactive to glassy carbon, which exists in biochar and can form of porous structures with active surfaces. Oxygen plasma was used to activate yellow-pine biochar and resulted in a specific capacitance of 171.8 F/g versus 60.4 F/g for untreated and ~99.5 F/g for chemical activation. Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) measurements indicated that chemical activation created a larger surface area with uniform micropores (~2 nm), while oxygen plasma activation created significant mesopores (2 – 50 nm) as well as micropores and large macropores. Although chemical activation led to a larger surface area versus the plasma activation, the ions had limited accessibility to the chemically activate micropores versus the larger pores in the plasma activated biochar. This is first report of oxygen plasma activation of biochar. It can provide a low-cost, low-temperature, non-toxic, and highly efficient way to activate biochar for supercapacitors. Future research should include identifying the plasma chemical reactions and chemical composition of the resulted materials.