Competency‐based IT personnel selection using a hybrid SWARA and ARAS‐G methodology

In the knowledge economy, human capital is a key factor in any organization to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Thus, selection of competent personnel is the most important function of human resource managers. However, because of a wide range of criteria and organizational factors that affect the process, personnel selection is often regarded as a complex problem that can be answered through multicriteria decision‐making (MCDM) procedures. Despite the great importance of determining a comprehensive set of criteria, it has not gained enough attention in the literature. This study presents a competency framework with five criteria for choosing the best information technology (IT) expert from five alternatives. The stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) and grey additive ratio assessment (ARAS‐G) methods are also used to derive the criteria weights and provide the final alternative, respectively. The results reveal that subject competency is the major criteria in IT personnel selection.     

Influence of ionic liquid composition on the stability of polyvinyl chloride‐based ionic liquid inclusion membranes in aqueous solution

Membrane technology has gained significant importance with the incorporation of ionic liquids into their structure. This work shows the influence of ionic liquid composition on the stability of PVC‐based polymer ionic liquid inclusion membranes (PILIMs) in aqueous solution. Among the ILs investigated, those membranes which contain between 20 and 30%_w/w of the least soluble, [OMIM⁺][PF₆^?] and [OMIM⁺][Ntf₂^?], exhibit losses of IL lower than 10%. For both ILs, the amount immobilized was maximum for the membranes with 30%_w/w of IL (0.0838 and 0.0832 g, respectively). On the contrary, the ionic liquid loss increases as its solubility in water increase, reaching 99.52% when PILIMs are prepared with 70%_w/w of [OMIM⁺][BF₄^?]. The results demonstrate that the stability of PILIMs depends on the solubility of the IL in the surrounding phase and the specific interaction between the IL and the polymeric support for PVC‐to‐IL ratios higher than 30%_w/w. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 770–780, 2017     

Design,Construction, and Installation of Movable Electrode Biasing System on Tokamak

The first results of the movable electrode biasing experiments performed on the IR-T1 tokamak are presented. For this purpose, a movable electrode biasing system was designed, constructed, and installed on the IR-T1 tokamak, and then the positive voltage applied to an electrode inserted inside the tokamak limiter and the plasma current, poloidal and radial components of the magnetic fields, loop voltage, and diamagnetic flux in the absence and presence of the biased electrode were measured. Results compared and discussed.     

TF Ripple Effects on Plasma Energy Confinement Time in IR-T1 Tokamak

In this paper we present analysis of the effects of Toroidal Field ripple (TF ripple) on the plasma energy confinement time in IR-T1 Tokamak. For this purpose, a diamagnetic loop with its compensation coil were designed and installed on outer surface of the IR-T1 tokamak. Amplitude of the TF ripple is obtained 0.01, and also the effects of TF ripple on the plasma energy confinement time discussed. In presence of the TF ripple and in low field side of the IR-T1 tokamak chamber (θ = 0), the local value of energy confinement time increased, whereas in the high field side (θ = 180), the energy confinement time decreased.     

Biasing Effect on Modifying of the Tokamak Plasma Horizontal Displacement

In this contribution we presented the first biasing experiments performed on the IR-T1 tokamak. For this purpose, a movable biasing system was designed, constructed, and installed, and then the positive voltage applied to an electrode inserted inside the tokamak limiter and the plasma current and also the plasma horizontal displacement in the absence and presence of the biased electrode based on the multipole moments and magnetic probes techniques were measured. Measurements result has shown a modification of plasma confinement by decreasing the plasma displacement.     

Synthesis and characterization of new proton conducting hybrid membranes for PEM fuel cells based on poly(vinyl alcohol) and nanoporous silica containing phenyl sulfonic acid

Organic-inorganic hybrid proton exchange membranes were prepared from poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and various amounts of nanoporous silica containing phenyl sulfonic acid groups. These hybrid membranes were prepared via co-condensation of functionalized nanoporous SBA-15 (SBA-ph-SO₃H) as hydrophilic inorganic modifier, glutaraldehyde (GLA) as cross-linking agent in a PVA matrix. These membranes were characterized for their morphology, thermal stability, electrochemical and physicochemical properties using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and water uptake studies. The SBA-ph-SO₃H/PVA composite membranes have a higher water retention and thermal stability than that of Nafion 117, perhaps because of responsibility of both acidic groups and nanoporous structure of silica additive. This work demonstrates the promising potential of new composite membranes for the development of high-performance and high-stability PEM fuel cells with improved proton conductivity.     

Effects of Hot Limiter Biasing on Tokamak Runaway Discharges

In this research hot limiter biasing effects on the Runaway discharges were investigated. First wall of the tokamak reactors can affects serious damage due to the high energy runaway electrons during a major disruption and therefore its life time can be reduced. Therefore, it is important to find methods to decrease runaway electron generation and their energy. Tokamak limiter biasing is one of the methods for controlling the radial electric field and can induce a transition to an improved confinement state. In this article generation of runaway electrons and the energy they can obtain will be investigated theoretically. Moreover, in order to apply radial biasing an emissive limiter biasing is utilized. The biased limiter can apply +380 V in the status of cold and hot to the plasma and result in the increase of negative bias current in hot status. In fact, in this experiment we try to decrease the generation of runaway electrons and their energy by using emissive limiter biasing inserted on the IR-T1 tokamak. The mean energy of these electrons was obtained by spectroscopy of hard X-ray. Also, the plasma current center shift was measured from the vertical field coil characteristics in presence of limiter biasing. The calculation is made focusing on the vertical field coil current and voltage changes due to a horizontal displacement of plasma column.     

Candidates for Laser Fusion Energy with Minimized Radioactivity

The new candidates for laser fusion energy with minimized radioactivity were presented. The possibility of side-on laser ignition of H–¹¹B with negligible radioactivity encouraged to study the fusion of solid state H–⁷Li fuel which again turns out to be only about ten times more difficult than the side-on ignition of solid deuterium–tritium using petawatt-picosecond laser pulses at anomalous interaction conditions if very high contrast ratio. Updated cross sections of the nuclear reaction are included. In other words, the specific approach discussed here involves inducing a fusion burn wave without radioactivity by laser-driven impact of a relatively large block of plasma on the outside of a solid density H–¹¹B and H–⁷Li targets.