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Simulation is a well-known technique for using computers to imitate or simulate the operations of various kinds of real-world facilities or processes. The facility or process of interest is usually called a system, and to study it scientifically, we often have to make a set of assumptions about how it works. These assumptions, which usually take the form of mathematical or logical relationships, constitute a model that is used to gain some understanding of how the corresponding system behaves, and the quality of these understandings essentially depends on the credibility of given assumptions or models, known as VV&A (verification, validation and accreditation). The main purpose of this paper is to present an in-depth theoretical review and analysis for the application of VV&A in large-scale simulations.

After summarizing the VV&A of related research studies, the standards, frameworks, techniques, methods and tools have been discussed according to the characteristics of large-scale simulations (such as crowd network simulations).

The contributions of this paper will be useful for both academics and practitioners for formulating VV&A in large-scale simulations (such as crowd network simulations).

This paper will help researchers to provide support of a recommendation for formulating VV&A in large-scale simulations (such as crowd network simulations).

This research establishes an evaluation index system and calculation method for the China's maritime power construction index (CMPCI). It has conducted practical tests on the progress of China's maritime power construction since the 12th–13th Five-Year Plans. This paper conducts a phased study on the construction of China's maritime power based on the CMPCI evaluation results; it expands the relevant achievements in the research field of quantitative research in China's maritime power construction. The verification results are consistent with the actual situation.

Fully reflect the guiding role of national marine policies in the new development stage, guide the transformation of China's marine management model. The CMPCI is a quantitative evaluation of the overall development level of China's maritime power construction over a certain period of time. The CMPCI in this article aims to comprehensively reflect the changes in the construction of China's maritime power, strives to cover various fields it encompasses. This study focuses on objective statistical data analysis, supplemented by multisource data, to objectively and fairly measure the level of CMPCI.

It fully reflects the highlights of marine science and technology, social democracy and strategic emerging industries. This research dynamically quantifies the trajectory of China's maritime power construction, synthetic reflecting the country's macroeconomic policy guiding function. Guiding the transformation of the marine resources utilization, marine economy development, marine scientific research and marine rights and interests maintenance and effectively serving the decision-making needs of the government.

Logistical facility location decisions can make a crucial difference in the success or failure of a company. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have recently become a very popular decision support system to help deal with facility location problems. However, until recently, GIS methodologies have not been fully embraced as a way to deal with new facility location problems in business logistics. This research makes a framework for categorizing empirical facility location problems based on the intensity of the involvement of GIS methodologies in decision making. This framework was built by analyzing facility location models and GIS methodologies. The research results revealed the depth of the embracement of GIS methodologies in logistics for determining new facility location decisions. In the new facility location decisions, spatial data inputs are almost always coupled with the visualization of the problems and solutions. However, the usage of GIS capability solely (i.e. suitability analysis) for problem solving has not been embraced at the same level. In most cases, the suitability analysis is used together with special optimization models for choosing among the multiple alternatives.

This paper aims to retrospectively quantify the contribution of renewable energy consumption (REC) to mitigate the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions for the belt and road initiative (BRI) region. The reason is that, so far, still few scientists have deeply analyzed this underlying impact, especially from the income levels’ perspective.

The study divides the BRI region into four groups by the income levels (high, HI; upper middle, UM; lower middle, LM; lower, LO) during 1992–2014 and uses the logarithmic mean Divisia index.

The results show the REC of the BRI has an overall decreasing trend but the driving contribution to the CO₂ growth except that the HI group’s REC has an obviously mitigating contribution of −2.09%. The number indicates that it is necessary and urgent to exploit and use renewable energy, especially in mid- and low-income countries due to the large potential of carbon mitigation. Besides, during 2010–2014, the energy intensity effects of different groups were negative except for the low income group (positive, 5.47 million tonnes), which showed that some poor countries recently reduced CO₂ emissions only by extensively using renewable energy but not enhancing the corresponding efficiency. Conversely, in other rich countries, people paid more attention to improve the energy-use efficiency to lower energy intensity.

This study creatively analyzes this underlying impact of the REC to mitigate the CO₂ emissions from the income levels’ perspective and proposes some reasonable countermeasures of reducing CO₂ for the BRI region.

Building on the three-factor theory, this study aims to unravel how the role of hotel attributes such as basic, excitement and performance factors could differ in accordance with different hotel star ratings and distinct customer segments.

This study explores the asymmetric effects of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction by extracting 412,784 consumer-generated reviews from TripAdvisor across different cities in China.

By taking into account the origins of customers and hotel star ratings, the study uncovers that guests’ expectations of hotel performance differ with respect to their origins (domestic and international guests) and the star ratings of the hotels being reviewed, thereby moderating the asymmetric impact of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction.

The study compares and contrasts the determinants of customer satisfaction for domestic and international guests in the context of Chinese hotels. Care should still be exercised when generalizing the insights gleaned from this study to other contexts.

The findings from this study translate into actionable guidelines for hotel operators to make informed decisions regarding service improvement.

The study extends previous work by offering a deeper understanding of the asymmetric impact of hotel attributes on customer satisfaction. Specifically, this study provides a deep understanding of the different hotel attributes such as basic, performance and excitement factors in explaining customer satisfaction among different hotel customer segments. Findings from this study can not only inform hotel operators on the significance of various hotel attributes in determining customer satisfaction but also guide the formulation of business strategies to retain customers by inducing delight and not frustration.