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In order to reflect the essential characteristics of interval grey number and study the ranking method of interval grey number as a whole, this paper aims to establish a ranking method of interval grey number.

First, based on the generalised greyness of interval grey number, the definitions of referenced grey number and proximity degree are given. Second, based on the greyness distance of interval grey number, the proximity degree model is constructed and its properties are analysed. Finally, some examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proximity degree model.

The results show that the index of proximity degree can better reflect the degree that the interval grey number is relatively close to the referenced grey number in different cases. The proximity degree model used to compare interval grey numbers is an extension of the model used to compare real numbers. The examples show that the proximity degree model of interval grey number proposed in this paper is feasible and effective.

The research studies show that the proximity degree model can be used for the ranking of interval grey numbers or real numbers and also for the ranking of numbers where interval grey numbers coexist with real numbers. In addition, the proximity degree model provides a theoretical basis for the establishment of grey comprehensive evaluation model.

The paper succeeds in putting forward the conceptions of referenced grey number and proximity degree based on the generalised greyness of interval grey number and constructing the proximity degree model for the ranking of interval grey number.

The purpose of this paper is to study the essential characteristics of grey relational degree of proximity, to analyse the abstract meaning of grey relational degree of similarity and fully consider the two different relational degree models.

The paper constructed the grey proximity relational degree by using the weighted mean distance. To analyse the motivation of the development of things, this paper constructed the grey similarity degree by using the concept of induced strength. Finally, the two correlation models are weighted by reliability weighting.

The research finding shows that the distance is the essence of the grey relational degree of proximity, and the induced strength is a good explanation of the similarities in the development of things.

The analyses imply that the total amount of water consumption in China has the greatest correlation with the consumption of agricultural water resources, followed by the consumption of industrial water resources, and the least correlation with the consumption of domestic water resources.

The paper succeeds in realizing the essential characteristics of grey relational degree of proximity and the abstract meaning of grey relational degree of similarity. Besides, the resolution of the correlation degree can be greatly improved by reliability weighting.

Technology-based incubators depend on high-level knowledge to constantly meet the demands of the market. Incubators offer a variety of specialized services to help startups increase the chances of crossing the valley of death. These services include infrastructure, access to a professional network of mentors and an intensive support of a consultant team to help with managerial and legal challenges. Therefore, it is critical to incubators to develop both highly skilled teams of consultants and social environment that facilitates communication. The purpose of this paper is to understand how innovation-oriented social networks created within technology-based incubators are shaped.

Data were collected in five incubators participating connected to federal universities from the state of Minas Gerais. The network attributes collected in the survey were placed in a matrix form. The mapping and measurement of the relationships between individuals were developed using the Ucinet software. Ucinet enables the analysis of attributes (attitudes, behaviors and characteristics) characterized as relational (contacts, ties and relationships). The software also includes the Netdraw network visualization tool, which enables the creation of matrices and graphical network maps. The measurements of centrality, closeness and intermediation were analyzed to assess the intra-organizational social network.

The results indicate that although the flow of communication does not follow the formal hierarchy, the interaction between team members to spontaneously exchange ideas, information and experiences is rare. The workers are so concerned about their timely tasks, that they have few opportunities to exchange information and knowledge. The coordination is carried out by university professors, who also perform other tasks (e.g. teaching, research and administration activities) besides those related to the incubators. The results also suggest that in the technology-based incubators studied, besides dealing in an innovative environment, the distribution of tasks and responsibilities are still rigid and traditional.

By analyzing the degree of the relationship between team members, the proximity and the level of intermediation of co-workers, it is possible to see how the incubators workers interact, thereby identifying the flow of information. This study offers implications for theory and practice. To the theory, this study adds to the discussion of intra-organizational social network of technology-based companies in the Brazilian context. To practitioners, this research sheds light on the importance of the social network built within the organization to promote effective communication and knowledge sharing.

Aim to the limitations of grey relational analysis of interval grey number, based on the generalized greyness of interval grey number, this paper tries to construct a grey angle cosine relational degree model from the perspective of proximity and similarity.

Firstly, the algorithms of the generalized greyness of interval grey number and interval grey number vector are given, and its properties are analyzed. Then, based on the grey relational theory, the grey angle cosine relational model is proposed based on the generalized greyness of interval grey number, and the relationship between the classical cosine similarity model and the grey angle cosine relational model is analyzed. Finally, the validity of the model in this paper is illustrated by the calculation examples and an application example of related factor analysis of maize yield.

The results show that the grey angle cosine relational degree model has strict theoretical basis, convenient calculation and is easy to program, which can not only fully utilize the information of interval grey numbers but also overcome the shortcomings of greyness relational degree model. The grey angle cosine relational degree is an extended form of cosine similarity degree of real numbers. The calculation examples and the related factor analysis of maize yield show that the model proposed in this paper is feasible and valid.

The research results not only further enrich the grey system theory and method but also provide a basis for the grey relational analysis of the sequences in which the interval grey numbers coexist with the real numbers.

The paper succeeds in realizing the algorithms of the generalized greyness of interval grey number and interval grey number vector, and the grey angle cosine relational degree, which provide a new method for grey relational analysis.

A successful process of design concept evaluation has positive influence on subsequent processes. This study aims to consider the evaluation information at multiple stages and the interaction among evaluators and improve the credibility of evaluation results.

This paper proposes a multi-stage approach for design concept evaluation based on complex network and bounded confidence. First, a network is constructed according to the evaluation data. Depending on the consensus degree of evaluation opinions, the number of evaluation rounds is determined. Then, bounded confidence rules are applied for the modification of preference information. Last, a planning function is constructed to calculate the weight of each stage and aggregate information at multiple evaluation stages.

The results indicate that the opinions of the evaluators tend to be consistent after multiple stages of interactive adjustment, and the ordering of design concept alternatives tends to be stable with the progress of the evaluation.

Updating preferences according to the bounded confidence rules, only the opinions within the trust threshold are considered. The attribute information of the node itself is inadequately considered.

This method addresses the need for considering the evaluation information at each stage and minimizes the impact of disagreements within the evaluation group on the evaluation results.

Industrial tourists can contribute to the local sites income. Apart from large and well-known industrial units, small industrial units can also introduce their products to the market by organizing tourism tours. This study aims to analyze an industrial tourism business network established in Isfahan, a large, industrial and historic city in central of Iran, as a case study.

Participants were managers and experts of organizations operated in the Industrial Tourism Network in Isfahan city. A sample of 30 participates was selected through purposive and snowball sampling approaches. Data was analyzed by qualitative content analysis and social network analysis using UCINET software.

Twenty-eight organizations participated in the Industrial Tourism Business Network of Isfahan. Macro indices of the network revealed that: density is relatively low; most of the relationships among network member organizations are reciprocal; transitivity is relatively weak indicating low network stability against environmental player; clustering is low, indicating a relatively low tendency of members to form different clusters. Micro indices indicated that in-degree and out-degree centralizations are low; overall centralization is poor. In addition, six actors were in the center and 22 actors were in the peripheral. Finally, the number of interactions of central organizations was triple than the peripheral organizations.

Limitations of this study include: The data obtained in this study only reflected the relationships among the actors studied during a specific period of time; this paper only focused on actors engaged in an industrial tourism network. Therefore, the sample might involve some bias. The results of the study contribute to our understanding of the role of networking in tourism destinations, particularly industrial sites.

According to the results, the authors may be able to advise firms operating in the tourism industry, particularly actors operate in industrial tourism, regarding how to increase their collaboration with both internal and external environment to achieve better performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that has addressed an industrial tourism business network.

In order to make grey relational analysis applicable to the interval grey number, this paper discusses the model of grey relational degree of the interval grey number and uses it to analyze the related factors of China's technological innovation ability.

First, this paper gives the definitions of the lower bound domain, the value domain, the upper bound domain of interval grey number and the generalized measure and the generalized greyness of interval grey number. Then, based on the grey relational theory, this paper proposes the model of greyness relational degree of the interval grey number and analyzes its relationship with the classical grey relational degree. Finally, the model of greyness relational degree is applied to analyze the related factors of China's technological innovation ability.

The results show that the model of greyness relational degree has strict theoretical basis, convenient calculation and easy programming and can be applied to the grey number sequence, real number sequence and grey number and real number coexisting sequence. The relational order of the four related factors of China's technological innovation ability is research and development (R&D) expenditure, R&D personnel, university student number and public library number, and it is in line with the reality.

The results show that the sequence values of greyness relational degree have large discreteness, and it is feasible and effective to analyze the related factors of China's technological innovation ability.

The paper succeeds in realizing both the model of greyness relational degree of interval grey number with unvalued information distribution and the order of related factors of China's technological innovation ability.

Travel interests of tourists during pandemics and outbreaks are reduced due to the prevalence of fear. It induces lifestyle changes, which may hinder efforts to recover the tourism value chain during post-COVID-19 lockdowns. Subscribing to domestic travel and domestic tourism is deemed to mitigate fear and gradually reopen the tourism industry. Although a crucial initiative, evaluating the perceived degree of exposure of tourists to COVID-19 in tourist sites operating under domestic tourism has not been fully explored in the emerging literature, which forms the main departure of this work.

The problem domain is addressed by adopting multiple criteria sorting method – the VIKORSORT. To demonstrate such application, with 221 survey participants, 35 tourist sites in a province in the central Philippines struggling to revive the tourism industry are evaluated under six attributes that characterize tourists' exposure to COVID-19. To assess its efficacy, the performance of the VIKORSORT is compared to other distance-based multiple criteria sorting methods (i.e. TOPSIS-Sort and CODAS-SORT).

Results show that proximity and volume of tourist arrivals are considered on top of the priority list of attributes. The use of VIKORSORT yields the assignment of 27 sites to the “moderate exposure” class, and eight under the “high exposure” class, with no tourist site assigned to the “low exposure” class. Sorting the tourist sites reveals some observations that tourists prefer sites (1) with open spaces, (2) with activities having limited group dynamics, (3) that are nature-based, and (4) with tourist arrivals that are not relatively high, with enough land area to practice social distancing. In addition, the assignments of the VIKORSORT with TOPSIS-Sort and CODAS-SORT are consistent at least 90% of the time, demonstrating its efficacy in addressing multiple criteria sorting problems.

This work provides an integrative approach in evaluating tourist sites in view of tourism recovery during pandemics. The findings offer crucial insights for the primary stakeholders (i.e. government, tourist operators, and tourists) in planning, resource allocation decisions, and policy formulation. Policy insights are offered, as well as avenues for future works.

The rise in malaria deaths discloses a decline of global malaria eradication that shows that control measures and fund distribution have missed its right of way. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to study and evaluate the impact and control of malaria on the independent states of the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) region over the time period of 2010–2017 using Deng’s Grey incidence analysis, absolute degree GIA and second synthetic degree GIA model.

The purposive data sampling is a secondary data from World Developmental Indicators indicating the incidence of new malaria cases (per 1,000 population at risk) for 45 independent states in SSA. GIA models were applied on array sequences into a single relational grade for ranking to be obtained and analyzed to evaluate trend over a predicted period.

Grey relational analysis classifies West Africa as the highly infectious region of malaria incidence having Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Benin, Liberia and Gambia suffering severely. Also, results indicate Southern Africa to be the least of all affected in the African belt that includes Eswatini, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique. But, predictions revealed that the infection rate is expected to fall in West Africa, whereas the least vulnerable countries will experience a rise in malaria incidence through to the next ten years. Therefore, this study draws the attention of all stakeholders and interest groups to adopt effective policies to fight malaria.

The study is a pioneer to unravel the most vulnerable countries in the SSA region as far as the incidence of new malaria cases is a concern through the use of second synthetic GIA model. The outcome of the study is substantial to direct research funds to control and eliminate malaria.

House fire risk would be minimised if fire safety principles were incorporated at the design stage. This issue is rarely addressed in the literature. The purpose of this study is to propose a multi-criteria decision-making framework to evaluate fire risk of detached house designs in the United Arab Emirates and countries of similar cultural background.

The framework was developed based on function areas where (detached) house fires start, expert opinion and recommendations derived from the published literature on residential fire safety. This framework was applied to a sample of ten public detached house designs to check the applicability of the framework and to determine how safe these designs are from a fire safety perspective.

The proposed framework is proven to be an effective preliminary fire risk evaluation tool of detached house designs, and more research is needed in this area.

The proposed framework is an encouraging first step in incorporating fire risk minimisation at the design stage of detached houses based on determining the preferred location of function areas but requires further development and validation, especially in other design settings.

The proposed framework is an initial endeavour in helping designers of detached houses to minimise fire risk and its potential effects on residents.

This research proposes a way to minimise fire risk at the design stage of detached houses.