Electric Vehicles Historical Sales, Minerals Demand Risks, and Supply Chain Dynamics

The growing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is transforming the automotive industry as governments, businesses, and consumers seek sustainable transportation options. This thesis examines the Electric Vehicles Historical Sales, future demand, key minerals demand risks, focusing on critical supply chain dynamics and sustainability challenges that influence EV production scalability. Specifically, the research explores demand forecasts and resource needs under policy scenarios from the International Energy Agency (IEA): the Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS), Announced Policies Scenario (APS), and Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario (NZES). Key materials analyzed include lithium, cobalt, and nickel, assessing potential bottlenecks in sourcing, refining, and logistics. Using a quantitative approach, this study employs Excel Pivot Tables and Power BI to analyze historical and projected data on EV sales, mineral demand, and material supply, providing comprehensive insights into supply chain dependencies and sustainability issues. Visualizations highlight trends in EV adoption, supply chain vulnerabilities, and environmental impacts, with a focus on the carbon footprint of battery production and recycling challenges. Findings reveal that while EV demand is expected to rise significantly, material scarcity, production delays, and infrastructure gaps pose challenges to sustainable growth. This study presents actionable recommendations for automakers, policymakers, and suppliers, encouraging collaboration to foster resilient supply chains and sustainable practices. The research contributes strategic insights to stakeholders aiming to navigate the complexities of EV market expansion and supports the broader goal of a sustainable transition to electric mobility

Employees' retention strategy on quality of work life (QWL) dimensions of private commercial banks in Bangladesh

Quality of Work Life (QWL) is a philosophy on employees' organizational life satisfaction. Retention of experienced and trained employees is a challenging task for all organizations, especially for banking organizations. This research paper aims at identifying underlying dimensions of QWL program that shape employees' retention strategy in Private Commercial Banks (PCBs) in Bangladesh. The study is mainly based on primary data obtained through a structured questionnaire on 200 employees working at PCBs. Independent and dependent variables on a five - point "Likert -Type Scale" specifies how strongly the respondents agree or disagree with statements. Several statistical tools and techniques such as descriptive analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Zero Order Karl Pearson's correlation analysis and Ordinary Least Square (OLS) multiple regression analysis have been used to determine empirical findings and draw a conclusion. The findings of the study shows the effects which can impinge on employees' retention strategy with the dimensions (maintenance and supervisory) being particularly significant. The authority of PCBs in Bangladesh should address these dimensions to retain their experienced and trained employees

Prevalence and Determinants of Loneliness among Older Adults in Bangladesh

Background: The prevalence of loneliness confirms its commonness among older adults which leads to further functional declination, of physical and mental health along with disability and the last result is to be death. Thus, this study was undertaken with a view to examining the potential risk factors for loneliness in aging population in Bangladesh which is responsible for its prevalence. Methods: Data gathered for this cross-sectional study from 517 older adults’ older adults in Meherpur district, Bangladesh. The level of loneliness was assessed using short version (6-items) of De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale and the depression was measure with the help of 15-items geriatric depression scale (GDS). Chi-square test was run to find out the possible associated factors for loneliness and multivariate multinomial logistic regression model was performed to predict the significant risk factors. Results: The overall prevalence of loneliness found 54.3% whereas 41% felt ‘sometimes’ and 13.3% had feeling of ‘always’ loneliness. In bivariate model, except place of residence, all other selected characteristics were significantly associated with increasing of loneliness. In adjusted analysis, gender, marital status, living status, hearing-visual impairment, depression, concern about falling were found as the statistically significantly risk factors for causing of different degrees of loneliness. Conclusion: Study connotes the prevalence of loneliness among aged people of Bangladesh and their associated risk factors. Results of this study would be assistive to reduce the prevalence of loneliness and helpful for geriatric policy implications

Change Impact Analysis of Code Clones

Copying a code fragment and reusing it with or without modifications is known to be a frequent activity in software development. This results in exact or closely similar copies of code fragments, known as code clones, to exist in the software systems. Developers leverage the code reuse opportunity by code cloning for increased productivity. However, different studies on code clones report important concerns regarding the impacts of clones on software maintenance. One of the key concerns is to maintain consistent evolution of the clone fragments as inconsistent changes to clones may introduce bugs. Challenges to the consistent evolution of clones involve the identification of all related clone fragments for change propagation when a cloned fragment is changed. The task of identifying the ripple effects (i.e., all the related components to change) is known as Change Impact Analysis (CIA). In this thesis, we evaluate the impacts of clones on software systems from new perspectives and then we propose an evolutionary coupling based technique for change impact analysis of clones. First, we empirically evaluate the comparative stability of cloned and non-cloned code using fine-grained syntactic change types. Second, we assess the impacts of clones from the perspective of coupling at the domain level. Third, we carry out a comprehensive analysis of the comparative stability of cloned and non-cloned code within a uniform framework. We compare stability metrics with the results from the original experimental settings with respect to the clone detection tools and the subject systems. Fourth, we investigate the relationships between stability and bug-proneness of clones to assess whether and how stability contribute to the bug-proneness of different types of clones. Next, in the fifth study, we analyzed the impacts of co-change coupling on the bug-proneness of different types of clones. After a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts of clones on software systems, we propose an evolutionary coupling based CIA approach to support the consistent evolution of clones. In the sixth study, we propose a solution to minimize the effects of atypical commits (extra large commits) on the accuracy of the detection of evolutionary coupling. We propose a clustering-based technique to split atypical commits into pseudo-commits of related entities. This considerably reduces the number of incorrect couplings introduced by the atypical commits. Finally, in the seventh study, we propose an evolutionary coupling based change impact analysis approach for clones. In addition to handling the atypical commits, we use the history of fine-grained syntactic changes extracted from the software repositories to detect typed evolutionary coupling of clones. Conventional approaches consider only the frequency of co-change of the entities to detect evolutionary coupling. We consider both change frequencies and the fine-grained change types in the detection of evolutionary coupling. Findings from our studies give important insights regarding the impacts of clones and our proposed typed evolutionary coupling based CIA approach has the potential to support the consistent evolution of clones for better clone management

A finite element analysis on combined convection and conduction in a channel with a thick walled cavity

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of thick wall parameters of a cavity on combined convection in a channel. In other words, conjugate heat transfer is solved. Design/methodology/approach: Galerkin weighted residual finite element method is used to solve the governing equations of mixed convection. Findings: The streamlines, isotherms, local and average Nusselt numbers are obtained and presented for different parameters. It is found heat transfer is an increasing function of dimensionless thermal conductivity ratio. Originality/value: The literature does not have mixed convection and conjugate heat transfer problem in a channel with thick walled cavity

Comparison between Irrigation Payment Systems and Probability of Using Water Saving Technology

This study attempts to answer two questions: Why have different payment systems for high yielding variety of Boro paddy irrigation emerged in Bangladesh? Why do some farmers apply water saving technology? Thirty shallow tubewell owner farmers and 180 user farmers were selected from two areas in Bangladesh to get representative samples of this study. Descriptive statistics and coefficient of variation analysis were used to address the first question, while an econometric probit model is used to determine the factors, which influenced the adoption of water saving technology. The results show that users in the poor and high-risk area prefer crop share. The average pay for irrigation is higher in the crop share system, thus the water selling business is more profitable in crop share system. The water saving technology is used more in the cash payment system. The probit model's results show that the adoption of this technology increases with an increase in the number of users, owners' education, cash payment system, farm size and households' income, which is logical. Likewise shallow tubewell's (STW) income, area under STW, involvement of other occupation except agriculture and irrigated area of own farm exert a negative effect on use of water saving technology. There is no universally accepted optimal payment system because systems develop and change due to mainly economic circumstances, in addition to long run localized social factors which should not to be ignored. But, the crop share system is under attack due to rising output prices and the fact that it does not provide strong incentives for water saving. Keywords: Boro paddy, irrigation, crop share and cash payment systems, water saving technolog

Determinants of death among under-5 children in Bangladesh

Background It is well established that improving human health has direct obvious payoff on enhancing life expectancy along with economic growth. Under-5 child mortality deliberately used to understand a countries overall public health status. In Bangladesh, child mortality remains a significant public health problem. Therefore, the chief intention of this undertaken study was to ascertain the best possible important factors of pre-school child mortality in Bangladesh. Methods This study was based on large dataset of Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, 2014 (BDHS-2014). Based on an extensive literature review thirteen covariates were selected. Chi-square test was accomplished to find out the association with under-5 deaths. The factors which achieved statistical significance (p<0.05) were put into binary logistic model for multilevel adjustment. Results Obtained results described different geo-spatial, socioeconomic, demographic and health factors i.e. division, parents’ education, fathers’ occupation, wealth index of family, type of toilet, birth status (single or multiple birth), vitamin A and antenatal care visit during pregnancy were significantly associated with under-5 child mortality. Results of the binary logistic regression revealed that lower level of father’s education, multiple birth and not receiving vitamin A dose were found the strong predictors of influencing early childhood mortality. Conclusion A nationally representative data had been used to reflect the recent mortality pattern in this country. Different socioeconomic, health and demographic factors are associated with U5CM. This evidence based empirical study suggests that more attention needs regarding to stall all kinds of child mortality in Bangladesh

Optimization of mixed convection in a Lid-driven enclosure with a heat generating circular body.

The physical model considered here is a lid-driven enclosure with bottom heating and top cooling conditions, and a heat generating circular body is placed at the center. The vertical walls of the cavity are kept thermally insulated, and the top lid moves at a constant speed. The steady two-dimensional governing equations for the physical problem are transformed in a dimensionless form with dimensionless governing parameters that decide the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in the system. The solution of these transport equations is obtained numerically with the finite element approach using the Galerkin method of weighted residuals. The parametric study has been carried out for variation of the heat generation parameters, the Reynolds numbers, solid-fluid thermal conductivity ratios as well as the Richardson numbers. The working fluid is assigned as air with a Prandtl number of 0.71 throughout the simulation. Results are presented in the form of streamlines, isotherms, average Nusselt number, bulk temperature, and drag force for the afore mentioned parameters. The numerical results indicate the strong influence of the mentioned parameters on the flow structure and heat transfer as well as average Nusselt number, average bulk temperature, and drag force. An optimum combination of the governing parameters would result in higher heat transfer and lower drag force