To mitigate climate change and realize the transition towards a cleaner consumption pattern, the development of EVs needs to be ensured as it is one of the major solutions to the fossil fuel-related problems human beings face today. Lithium, as a critical material to EV cells, is seen as a strategic resource in many countries. Given the fact that the global lithium distribution is quite uneven, securing lithium supply for the development of EVs is essential for the world to phase out fossil fuels consumption in the transport sector. The supply risks of lithium can be observed in many aspects, ranging from lithium production to geopolitics. In this paper, the author combines qualitative and quantitative analysis in order to overarchingly reflect the global supply disruptions of lithium. In the qualitative section, the concept of systems theory is applied, supported by the connection circle, the stock-flow model, and the panarchy model; in the quantitative section, the author uses the combination of Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) and Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) to measure the extent of supply disruptions in a certain year. The quantitative section serves as a good supplement to the qualitative analysis. The qualitative results indicate that lithium mining and processing plays the key role in the whole lithium supply chain. It can be affected by the factors in the larger global context such as global political environment and the demand for lithium, as well as the social, ecological and technical components in the smaller scale that provides a physical environment for lithium production. The quantitative results show that the global supply disruptions of lithium are significant in 2019, mainly due to the high level of supply concentration. The author suggests that the governments of major lithium producer countries might organize panel discussions regularly to ensure the stable and non-centric supply of lithium to the global market. The rich production countries may also offer technical support to the less developed lithium holders to help the latter overcome the difficulties brought by the increasing cost of mining.

AIMS: This study investigated the perception of generic and disease-specific Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) for adults living with hearing impairment (HI) in Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ). This study aimed to answer three questions: (1) What is the perception of HRQoL amongst adults with hearing impairment in NZ? (2) How do these perceptions compare to adults with HI living in other countries for which we have data? (3) What are the demographic and audiometric variables related to device ownership? METHOD: HRQoL, demographic, and audiometric information was collected from 126 adults in NZ. The following demographic information was collected: age, relationship length, hours worked per week, income, ancestry, sex, level of education, city size, and sexual orientation. The following audiologic information was also collected: ownership of hearing aids (HA), ownership of hearing assistance technology (HAT), better-ear pure-tone average (BEPTA), worse-ear pure-tone average (WEPTA), and signal-to-noise ratio loss (SNR loss). HRQoL information was collected using the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36; Ware & Sherbourne, 1992), and the Hearing Handicap Inventory (HHI) for both elderly (HHIE) and adults (HHIA; Ventry & Weinstein, 1982; Newman, Weinstein, Jacobson, & Hug, 1991). Variables discriminating HA and HAT owners from non-owners were also analysed. RESULTS: The relationship between demographic variables and HRQoL scores revealed that only age and income were significant. Audiometric variables had significant relationships with disease-specific HRQoL scores, as well as HA and HAT ownership. Finally, disease-specific HRQoL scores and all audiometric variables differentiated HA owners from non- owners, but demographic variables did not. Generic HRQoL scores and all audiometric variables differentiated HAT owners from non-owners. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the negative impacts of HI on HRQoL as reported overseas are also present in NZ, and that not only do audiometric variables including SNR loss are related to HRQoL, but HRQoL is a significant predictor for HA and HAT ownership. Further QoL research is warranted amongst the HI population in NZ to identify and understand any causal relationships present amongst these variables. Furthermore, HRQoL instruments and a test of speech understanding in noise have been shown to provide additional meaningful information, and therefore clinicians might consider including them during consultation.