A graph-theoretic approach to a partial order of knots and links

We say that a link L1 is an s-major of a link L2 if any diagram of L1 can be transformed into a diagram of L2 by changing some crossings and smoothing some crossings. This relation is a partial ordering on the set of all prime alternating links. We determine this partial order for all prime alternating knots and links with the crossing number less than or equal to six. The proofs are given by graph-theoretic methods.