Nickel ore sand and its concentrate are the main sources of raw nickel materials in various countries. Due to its uneven distribution throughout the world, the international trade of nickel ore sand is also unstable. Looking for potential links in the changing international nickel ore trade can help governments find potential partners, make strategic preparations in advance, and quickly find new partners when original trade relationships break down. In this paper, we build an international nickel ore trade network using a link prediction method to find potential trade relations between countries. The results show that China and Italy, China and Denmark, China and Indonesia, and China and India are most likely to establish trade relations within five years. Finally, according to the research results, suggestions regarding the international nickel ore trade are proposed.
In recent years, with the rapid development of the lithium-ion battery industry, the massive upstream consumption of mineral raw materials has led to great crises and challenges in balancing global supply and demand. A diversity of trading partners can effectively alleviate the pressure of supply and demand for raw materials; so, it is particularly important for trading countries to find suitable trading partners. This study takes nine important minerals contained in the main element raw materials of lithium-ion batteries as the research object, and the international trade data range from 2011 to 2020. The study combines complex networks and motifs and links prediction methods to predict the potential international trade relations of the nine minerals based on the actual network topology. We summarize three trade link rules as follows. (1) The predicted links have a timeliness requirement, and they generally turn into actual trade links within 3 years. (2) When looking for trading partners, trading countries tend to establish long-term and stable trade relations. (3) The existing trade relations will promote the establishment of predicted trade relations. In addition, we find that successfully predicted links will promote the formation of important motifs in the network. This study can provide a theoretical basis for trading countries to find suitable trading partners and can strengthen the safety of trading countries in the trade of the main element minerals for lithium-ion batteries.
Pedestrians’ unsafe behavior is one of the most critical factors causing traffic incidents in China. The primary objective of this study is to explore the cause of pedestrians’ unsafe behavior and provide possible solutions. We interviewed pedestrians and experts to investigate pedestrians’ unsafe behaviors. Results from interviews indicated that pedestrians were likely to exhibit unsafe behavior at intersections owing to use of smartphones, reluctance to obey the rules, and unawareness of risk. According to the experts, attracting the attention of pedestrians and guiding them to exhibit safe behaviors can improve their safety. Based on these results, we designed “LookMe,” which is a multimedia information system placed at the intersections, to guide pedestrians across the road and improve their experience of waiting in traffic. The results of user tests indicated that pedestrians had relatively high acceptance of LookMe. Moreover, participants wanted to see diverse multimedia information on the screen of LookMe such as news, videos, maps, and traffic information. Findings from this study can be useful in understanding why Chinese pedestrians exhibit unsafe behaviors and proposing effective solutions to enhance their safety.
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