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Organizations in many domains generate a considerable amount of heterogeneous data every day. Such data can be processed to enhance these organizations’ decisions in real time. However, storing and processing large and varied datasets (known as big data) is challenging to do in real time. In machine learning, streaming feature selection has always been considered a superior technique for selecting the relevant subset features from highly dimensional data and thus reducing learning complexity. In the relevant literature, streaming feature selection refers to the features that arrive consecutively over time; despite a lack of exact figure on the number of features, numbers of instances are well-established. Many scholars in the field have proposed streaming-feature-selection algorithms in attempts to find the proper solution to this problem. This paper presents an exhaustive and methodological introduction of these techniques. This study provides a review of the traditional feature-selection algorithms and then scrutinizes the current algorithms that use streaming feature selection to determine their strengths and weaknesses. The survey also sheds light on the ongoing challenges in big-data research.

Complex cost structures and multiple conflicting objectives make selecting an appropriate cloud service difficult. The purpose of this study is to propose a novel group consensus decision making method for cloud services selection with knowledge deficit by trust functions.

This article proposes a knowledge deficit-based multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) method for cloud-service selection based on trust functions. Firstly, the concept of trust functions and a ranking method is developed to express the decision-making opinions. Secondly, a novel 3D normalized trust degree (NTD) is defined to measure the consensus levels. Thirdly, a knowledge deficit-based interactive consensus model is proposed for the inconsistent experts to modify their decision opinions. Finally, a real case study has been carried out to illustrate the framework and compare it with other methods.

The proposed method is practical and effective which is verified by the real case study. Knowledge deficit is an important concept in cloud service selection which is verified by the comparison of the proposed recommended mechanism based on KDD with the conventional recommended mechanism based on average value. A 3D NTD which considers three values (trust, not trust and knowledge deficit) is defined to measure the consensus levels. A knowledge deficit-based interactive consensus model is proposed to help decision-makers reach group consensus. The proposed group consensus model enables the inconsistent decision-makers to accept the revised opinions of those with less knowledge deficit, rather than accepting the recommended opinions averagely.

The proposed a knowledge deficit-based MCGDM cloud service selection method considers group consensus in cloud service selection. The concept of knowledge deficit is considered in modeling the group consensus measuring and reaching method.

The purpose of this paper is to examine teachers’ perspectives on school leaders’ selection and development strategies in order to propose/recommend strategies that are relevant to the context of the United Arab Emirates.

The study gathered data through group discussion of school teachers who attended the module “leadership for school improvement” taught by the researchers. The teachers who participated in this study include local and expat teachers who are currently working in both public and private schools in the UAE. The reports of the group discussion were used as transcripts and thematic analysis was used to analyse the results.

The results indicate that there is a strong aspiration for setting better standards for the selection of the school leaders. There is great interest in engaging experts and instrumenting accredited continued professional development training on developing school leaders. The respondents emphasised on the required qualifications, experiences and knowledge, and the need for mentorship approach.

The key limitation of the study is the smaller sample size.

The outcome of the study offers necessary insight to the decision makers on the selection and development of school leaders in the UAE.

The study insists that the social and cultural values of the UAE to be considered in the selection and development of school leaders in the UAE.

The study offers potential gap and scope for further research on school leadership in the UAE that could be further explored with many samples and cases for broader understanding.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of joint liability in improving the repayment performance of a microfinance program.

This is a systematic review of the theoretical and empirical literature.

The theoretical literature has shown, using models of peer selection, peer monitoring and peer pressure, that joint liability overcomes both the informational and enforcement failures present in credit markets for the poor. However, the empirical literature does not yield a clear answer on how much of the success of microfinance programs can be attributed to the effect of joint liability alone without considering the effect of other instruments used by microfinance programs. Further, it is seen that joint liability does not work in isolation, but its effect is dependent on social, cultural and economic environment.

An important future research agenda could be to study the roles of different overlapping mechanisms in group lending and to look at their interactions.

The concept of joint liability works well both in the rural and urban areas, but different social, cultural and economic factors should be analyzed before initiating a microfinance program. In developed regions, focus should be on strengthening peer selection and peer monitoring, as information problems are prevalent. In underdeveloped regions, the major problem is of strategic default, so the focus should be on strengthening social sanctions.

Findings can be used for optimal design of credit contracts for the poor.

The paper reviews the existing literature on – “whether and how” – joint liability lending works in inefficient credit markets and comes up with practical implications for the microfinance sector.

National policies suggest that service users and carers should be involved in health care planning and delivery. Initiatives to involve service users and carers within the education of mental health professionals have been reported. However, there has been no initiative to involve such individuals in the selection of clinical psychologists. This study examines the experiences of service users, carers and members of the Doctorate of Clinical Psychology programme in the implementation of a new interview task for the selection of trainee clinical psychologists at the University of Surrey. This new initiative involves service users, carers and staff members working collaboratively to assess candidates in a discussion based task. The study employed two focus groups, one pre‐selection and one post‐selection, and used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to evaluate participants' expectations and experiences of the task. The findings suggest that there was genuine collaboration between service users, carers and programme team members that was deeply engrained in the programme ethos and was a step forward in normalising and empowering service users and their carers. Interviewers felt that this task helped select a different calibre of applicants who had an awareness of the perspective of service users and carers and were able to communicate effectively. Interviewers viewed applicants who were able to disclose and take ownership of their views favourably. The introduction of a successful new interview task at Surrey has set a marker for future collaboration with service users and carers in selection, which will have implications for other doctorate programmes in clinical psychology and the broader health care training community.

Investigates whether the performance and attitudes of students could be improved by giving them some control over the group selection process. Groups were formed either by randomly combining paired friends or by randomly assigning all students. Students completed a group exercise and a group case. The dependent variables were the project grades and student satisfaction. Student satisfaction was measured using a questionnaire. The results show that attitudes of students were more positive when they were allowed to choose a single friend in the group. The project grades were significantly higher when students were paired, and this result was true regardless of their grade point averages. The interaction between group selection and grade point average is explained, and the paper concludes that the best group selection is to pair friends and then combine them to form groups with high ability rather than randomly assigning students to groups.

I approach this work in the knowledge that the recruitment and selection of staff is one of the most neglected areas of library management. I have been unable to trace any monograph devoted to the subject published during the past 10 years and few general books on library management spare more than a cursory glance in its direction.

Most works on human resource (HR) practices assume that companies use them in the same way for the entire workforce. The objective of this work is to check whether the application of HR practices varies within organizations. To be specific, HR practices can vary depending on the importance that companies attach to the job.

Based on the concepts of strategic value and uniqueness, four hypotheses are developed and tested by means of a survey of a sample of 735 companies.

The results of our work confirm that the internal variations in HR practices consist of the use of a more or less sophisticated approach, or more or less close to high commitment practices perspective.

This study does not include external variables with potential influence, such as trade union power and labor regulations, which may affect determined HR practices.

These results may be useful in developing a realistic design of the function of HR in companies.

The variations that we have encountered, rather than being different configurations of practices, seem a question of positioning in a dimension in which high commitment practices and control practices are complete opposites. Results show that HR practices are not the same for all workers. There are differences, which questions the HRM proposals that do not consider possible variations in the practices within companies.

The building maintenance management becomes more complicated nowadays, with several sourcing strategies springing up for building maintenance work provisions. Various studies demonstrate that the selection factors and performance measurements are both essential aspects in determining and evaluating the sourcing strategy for building maintenance management. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between the selection factors and performance measurements of sourcing strategy.

The paper targeted to evaluate and analyse the perceptions of the building maintenance practitioners regarding the degree of importance of selection factors and performance measurements. Through quantitative approach, the paper adopted stratified random sampling to distribute the questionnaires to the building maintenance practitioners operating in both private and government high-rise office buildings in Kuala Lumpur.

The findings highlighted the quality factors as the most important selection group factors; meantime, the ability to fulfil client’s need and requirement as well as the ability to deliver the service with reasonable reliability and predictability are identically important performance measurements. There is a significant relationship between the selection factors and performance measurement of sourcing strategy.

This paper provides an impetus research which uncovered the sourcing practices in the industry and guided the sourcing process in determining the appropriate sourcing strategy.

Though affective commitment has been thought to be critical in team selection, it is yet to be integrated into current models on team selection primarily due to lack of understanding of its contribution to teamwork effectiveness and performance. This study tests the contribution of complementary person team-fit (CF), supplementary person team-fit (SF) and affective commitment (AC) to teamwork effectiveness in construction project teams. By this examination, a theoretical case is made for the inclusion of affective commitment in team selection and deployment in construction project delivery.

By using a deductive questionnaire survey on project team participants and experienced human resource managers in recruitment and team selection in project organizations, structural equation model (SEM) was used to test the contribution of CF, SF and AC parameters to teamwork effectiveness from a total of 105 responses gathered from project team participants in project delivery.

The SEM revealed that, CF, SF and AC together account for about 81% predictive effect to teamwork effectiveness which is higher than joint effect of CF and SF in existing models in team selection and deployment. By this, it can be affirmed that, in considering CF, SF and AC in an integrated manner in team selection and deployment, higher team effectiveness can be achieved that can stimulate high performing teams and effectiveness in project delivery.

The findings give theoretical assertiveness to extending consideration of competence and values in team selection to embrace affections and commitment to engender effectiveness in teamwork, cohesion, collaboration and performance. This present novel attempts to include affective commitment in teamwork toward higher team effectiveness.