What are the business and regulatory factors for a successful Philippine REIT market?

Thesis (S.M. in Real Estate Development)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, Center for Real Estate, 2008.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-80).In an attempt to determine what business and regulatory factors are required for the successful establishment of a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) structure in the Philippines, we analyzed the macro and microeconomic factors affecting the Philippines property market. The proposed law governing the REITs in the Philippines was also analyzed and compared with other REIT regulation in Asia. In the Asian REIT industry, supply and demand issues are inherently important. However, regulations, governing their activities, are also a factor in their growth and success. On the Philippine REIT supply side, the office, retail and hotel sectors offer acquisition potentials for REITs. Key demand drivers for real estate in the Philippines have been the increasing remittances from Overseas Filipino Workers, which have increased consumer spending in residential real estate and consumer goods, prompting rent growth in the retail sector. Another factor is the phenomenal growth of the Business Process Outsourcing industry which is driving both demand for office and residential supply On the REIT demand side, there is a strong incentive for real estate developers/owners/sponsors to divest their properties into REITs in order to access an alternative and cheaper source of capital caused by the increasing globalization and securitization of real estate. Opportunities to create fee-based businesses through external management contracts with REITs also exist. For potential REIT shareholders, there is clear investor demand for a tax efficient, yield driven investment vehicle such as REITS, which provide, not only higher transparency, professional management, greater liquidity and more stable return, but also diversification for their local and global portfolios.(cont.) A tax savings analysis was simulated using the current proposed REIT legislation and found that, although REITS provide significant tax benefits to residents and nonresidents, greater tax advantages are created for nonresident investors. The proposed Philippine REIT legislation is largely in line with international REIT standards. As is the case with other Asian REITs, it appears that Philippine REIT regulation shall be a case of walking-before-running. And as international REIT regulation is continuously evolving and changing, both the Philippine REIT public and private sectors should ensure that local market regulation adapts to the global markets.by Delfin C. Wenceslao.S.M.in Real Estate Developmen

Frugal Clay Press for Nicaragua: Design of a Human-Powered Clay Brick Press for Rural Application

This team was connected to a brick-making social entrepreneurship in Ciudad Darío, Nicaragua. Travel to Nicaragua in March of 2018 determined that the entrepreneurship wanted a manual brick press to increase the mechanical properties of bricks while decreasing the time needed for the bricks to dry before being baked. Fabrication of a semi-functional beta prototype was completed in May of 2018. Prototype operational tests showed that one cycle of brick compression and retrieval took roughly 3.5 minutes to produce a single double-sized brick. Water absorptivity tests determined that compressed bricks of red art clay experienced a percent absorptivity of 20.5%, with non-compressed bricks formed in Nicaragua having an absorptivity of 35.0%. Finally, the ultimate compressive strength of bricks produced using the prototype averaged to 1,640 psi, as compared to 822 psi of the Nicaraguan brick. Insufficient data was collected to confirm the safety and effectiveness of the design. Several mechanical errors in clay compression and subsystem interferences merit further redesign. Recommendations for design iterations are included for future design teams to finalize and deploy the device

Compressive mechanical cracking of pili (Canarium ovatum Engl.) nuts: Concept and mechanism design

A mechanical pili nut cracker that used gradual compression for cracking was proposed and developed. This was a deviation from the traditional practice of applying impact for cracking pili nuts. The cracking unit of the machine accomplishes gradual compression by a rotating assembly of discs and compression bars travelling along an arrangement of cam rails. The cracker’s performance was established using pili nuts at different moisture levels.  The tests followed a single-factor three-level experiment where the response variables included cracking capacity, cracking efficiency, cracking recovery, whole kernel recovery, kernel damage, kernel losses and purity of output. The machine performed satisfactorily using nuts dried for three days after depulping (moisture content wet basis = 11.6%). At this moisture level, the machine showed consistent and satisfactory performance in terms of cracking capacity (25 kernels min-1), cracking efficiency (74.0%), cracking recovery (62.6%) and whole kernel recovery (84.3%). Modifications were recommended to further reduce kernel damage (30.6%) and kernel losses (37.4%) and to improve the purity of output (46.8%). It was successfully demonstrated that gradual compression can be used for cracking pili nuts. It is recommended that the operating characteristics of the machine should be optimized to improve its performance.  Furthermore, a dedicated feeding assembly and a more suitable separation method should be explored to further enhance the performance of the cracker

Temporal coherence of high-order harmonics

Systematic studies of the temporal coherence properties of high-order harmonic radiation are presented. These complement our previous investigations [Bellini et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 297 (1998)], where we showed the separation of the far-field pattern of high-order harmonics into two distinct spatial regions with different coherence times. Here we show how the coherence time of the inner and outer regions changes as a function of the harmonic order, the laser intensity, and the focusing conditions. Good agreement with the predictions of the semiclassical model of harmonic generation is obtained. © 1999 The American Physical Society

Influence of the medium length on high-order harmonic generation

We study high-order harmonic generation using a 110 fs Ti:sapphire laser loosely focused into a variable-length gas cell filled with neon or argon at 5 mbar pressure. The harmonic intensity is recorded as a function of the medium length, varying between 2 and 21 mm. Several cases are examined, the 17th and the 29th harmonic in argon, and the 29th and 51st harmonic in neon, at the same intensity 4 x 10(14) W cm(-2). We find that the length which maximizes the harmonic yield varies from 10 mm to more than 20 mm. We discuss the different effects affecting the photon yield of the high-order harmonics

Clasificación de manzanas utilizando visión artificial y redes neuronales artificiales

The added value in a fruit can be increased with a good postharvest handling. The classification in different parameters is one of the most important operations. In small companies it is done manually, obtaining deficiencies in the quality of the product. These problems could be solved or reduced with the implementation of intelligent algorithms that in this case include artificial vision and artificial neural networks. In this project is presented the classification of apples through an intelligent algorithm, using a convolutional neural network (CNN), which is developed using Open Source libraries (OpenCV, Tensorflow and Keras) in Python with a structure of different convolutional layers and MaxPooling, for a dataset of 2,800 images of 128x128 pixels, of which 80% were used for training and 20% for test of the network, obtaining an accuracy of 98.3% and 95.36%, respectively. After the training a classification was made with a video in real time, obtaining an accuracy of 92.25%. Likewise, the possibility of using it in the industry is explored with the classification by other visual characteristics of the fruit such as size, color, shape, etc.El valor agregado en un fruto puede incrementarse con un buen manejo postcosecha. La clasificación en diferentes parámetros es de las operaciones más importantes. En las pequeñas empresas se realiza de forma manual obteniendo deficiencias en la calidad del producto. Estos problemas se podrían resolver o disminuir con la implementación de algoritmos inteligentes que en este caso incluyen visión artificial y redes neuronales artificiales. En este proyecto se presenta la clasificación de manzanas mediante un algoritmo inteligente, usando una red neuronal convolucional (CNN), la cual se desarrolla utilizando librerías de código abierto (OpenCV, Tensorflow y Keras) en Python con una estructura de diferentes capas convolucionales y MaxPooling, para un conjunto de 2,800 imágenes de 128x128 pixeles, de las cuales el 80% se utilizaron para entrenamiento y el 20% para hacer una prueba de la red, obteniendo una precisión del 98.3% y del 95.36%, respectivamente. Después del entrenamiento, se realizó una clasificación con un video en tiempo real, obteniendo una precisión del 92.25%. Asimismo, se explora la posibilidad de la utilización en la industria con la clasificación por otras características visuales del fruto como tamaño, color, forma, etc

The role of the particle aspect ratio in the discharge of a narrow silo

The time evolution of silo discharge is investigated for different granular materials made of spherical or elongated grains in laboratory experiments and with discrete element model (DEM) calculations. For spherical grains, we confirm the widely known typical behavior with constant discharge rate (except for initial and final transients). For elongated particles with aspect ratios between 2 ⩽ L/d ⩽ 6.1, we find a peculiar flow rate increase for larger orifices before the end of the discharge process. While the flow field is practically homogeneous for spherical grains, it has strong gradients for elongated particles with a fast-flowing region in the middle of the silo surrounded by a stagnant zone. For large enough orifice sizes, the flow rate increase is connected with a suppression of the stagnant zone, resulting in an increase in both the packing fraction and flow velocity near the silo outlet within a certain parameter range