Housing & Development Board Analysis Essay

This is the highest rate of increase this year compared to the 0. 1-per cent drop in the first quarter and the 0. 4-per cent increase in the second quarter. It was also higher than the flash estimate of 0. 5 per cent released earlier this month. Meanwhile, resale prices of Housing & Development Board (HDB) flats in Singapore hit a record high. HDB’s Resale Price Index (RPI) rose from 194 in the second quarter of this year to 197. 9 in the third quarter. This represents an increase of two per cent over the previous quarter, the same as that of the flash estimate released on October 1. – Evidence for an increase demand for resale flats  But with a bumper crop of 27,000 Build-to-Order flats being rolled out this year, analysts said the resale market may be showing signs of moderating. Growth for the first three-quarters of this year is 3. 9 per cent. This is lower than the annual RPI growth of 14. 1 per cent in 2010, and 10. 7 per cent last year. Donald Han, special advisor at HSR Property Consultants, said: â€Å"Buyers who are able to wait for the product to be completed in 24 to 36 months are getting better value proposition in terms of cheaper prices, and perhaps better amenities compared to one who’s buying a resale flat. The volume of resale transactions also fell for the first time in 12 months. Resale transactions also fell by about six per cent from 7,011 cases in second quarter to 6,560 cases in the third. – Number of buyers dropped The last fall in resale transactions was in the third quarter of last year when transactions fell from 6,581 in the second quarter, to 5,903 in the third. Analysts said that this might not be because buyers are staying away, but because there is a short supply of resale flats in the market. – Reason for the decrease in the demand (Isnt this is for supply? The number of sellers in market. ) They added that this has pushed the median cash-over-valuation (COV) up by S$4,000 to S$5,000 compared to the last quarter. According to real estate firm Propnex, COVs hovered between S$25,000 and $28,000 in the first two quarters, before rising to $30,000 in Q3. This means a 20 per cent increase quarter-on-quarter. Chris Koh, director of Chris International, said: â€Å"Regardless of whether there are BTO flats, if private property prices are too high, many are unable to afford private property. So they turn to a resale market to buy a flat instead. So you still see a strong demand from those not eligible to buy brand new flats, those who can’t afford private property and have to buy a resale flat. – Reason for the increase in the demand. (Price of related good) â€Å"There’s one more group, I call them the ‘downgraders’. They have cashed out their private property, that’s why they don’t mind paying a premium for some of these resale flats. † In the rental market, subletting transactions rose by about four per cent. The number of cases increased from 6,891 in the second quarter to 7,142 cases in the third quarter. The total number of HDB flats approved for subletting also rose to 42,920 units in the third quarter, compared to 41,814 units in the second. Mr Han said: â€Å"In the last five years, prices have not gone south. In fact, prices have grown by 92 to 93 per cent since five years ago†¦ So, a lot of the able sellers are keeping it for hopefully higher capital returns for the next 12 months. (supply) If you look into a rental proposition, HDB rental flats – if you look at average four-room or five-room, you’re looking at roughly about S$2,000 to S$2,500 per month. It provides a very good fertile ground support for tenants out in the market looking for cheap accommodation. â€Å"The yield coming from HDB apartments is fairly attractive as well, compared to other classes of residential property. We’re looking at yields of 4. 5 to five per cent, compared to private properties which would be about 2. 5 to about 3. 5 per cent. â€Å" Mr Koh added: â€Å"I’m not sure if there’s a co-relation, but I won’t deny that if prices of resale flats are too high, some would not be able to afford it. So the next best option will be to rent and wait for prices to come down. â€Å"- Reason for decrease in demand when price rise. (Taste and preference? ) The HDB said it introduced a new e-service on Monday to enable the public to search for the market rentals of entire HDB flats rented out by owners. It is hoped that this will allow better transparency in the subletting market, and help potential tenants and flat owners make informed decisions.

Source Review for the article The touch screen generation Essay - 1

Source Review for the article The touch screen generation - Essay Example Most of the parents are following the strict on screen rules. In the article â€Å"Touch Screen Generation†, â€Å"Hanna Rosin† discusses the positive as well as negative aspects of the digital media. Rosin believes that parents should restrict the children to use digital media improperly. Rosin argues that parents should make rules at home about the amount of time children spent on digital media. American Academy of Pediatrics published a report in 1999 in which the organization enlightened the good and bad aspects of the digital media on the toddlers and younger children. Social and professional organizations such as American Academy of Pediatrics should continue make suggestions about the amount of screen time children should be allowed. Social and professional organizations are helping the society in understanding the social and educational facts by compiling the facts and figures. American Academy of Pediatrics is of the professional organizations that are helping the parents to better understand the needs of the children and how to restrict the children from using digital media. Parents should keep in mind that they should properly make strict rules at home for the children about the screen time. The organization prohibited the parents to allow their children to watch televisions or other form of digital media less at than 2 years of age. However, the report published by American Academy of Pediatrics encouraged the parents to allow their children older than 2 years to watch education programs. The educational programs have positive impacts on the children (Rosin, 2013). The updated report was published in 2011 and it has lesser impact on the parents, as about 90% of the parents have allowed their children less than 2 years old to used electronic media. In 2011, the report was updated and took the previous stance of discouraging the children to use â€Å"smart phone† and new screen technologies but in this report, the organization did not

Process control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Process control - Essay Example This flow is usually expressed by plotting the valve travel on the (y-axis) against the flow percentage under constant pressure differential on the (X-axis). There are two main types of the inherent flow characteristics; these are linear and equal percentage. A control valve is said to be linear if its inherent flow characteristics can be represented on a graph by a straight line. The flow is usually directly proportional to the valve travel. It is a straight line when represented on a rectangular coordinate of flow rate F or % F or Cv or % Cv versus or against the percentage travel at the optimum condition of constant drop in valve pressure (DPv). It can be deduced that an equal increase in travel rate or opening position, m, results in an equal increase in flow F (or Cv) at constant valve pressure drop (DPv). If m represents travel and F represents the rate of flow, then, dm= k dF where K is a proportional constant. Therefore the valve gain or sensitivity is independent of flow rat e and valve opening. Shown by; Kv = Df/dm = constant The valve gain (Kv) is the slope or tangent of the rectangular coordinate or plot drawn. The slope of the graph remains constant and independent of the flow rate. A control valve is said to be equal percentage if equal increase in valve travel or opening m (or Z) produces or results in equal percentage increase in flow F. If the situation emerges at the optimum condition of constant drop in valve pressure (DPv), the valve is said to be inherently equal percentage. The valve gain is not constant in this case but increase with an increase in flow rate. Therefore, when the control valve is just beginning to open at low flow rate, the valve gain is quite low and the change in flow is quite insensitive. At high flow during the upper portion of the travel, the valve gain is high which translates to rapid flow or sensitively for the same increase in valve travel. When plotting the flow rate against valve travel or position, the slope is flat near the initial travel position, but the slope increases drastically with the flow as the valve opens on the upper section of the travel. It can be shown by a straight line plotted on a semi-logarithmic paper for log F against m. The Quick open control valve characteristic is flattened in shape as opposed to the contoured valve plug. The flow of this valve increases rapidly up to the highest flow level with the least initial opening of the valve. In the lower section of travel position, the valve gain is so high for application and utilization in modulating control. The slope is then flat where the flow rate hardly increases with valve openings. Therefore, the Quick open control valve is restricted to a service of ON and OFF and in a specified application that needs discharge of flow. Applications of Control Valves Linear plugs are mostly used on the systems where the valve pressure drop in a major section of the total system pressure drop , where the valve is the major pressu re loss mechanism. Linear control valves are used in about 10-15 % of all applications. Linear control valves are also used in gas process. In the gas process, there is a large volume, decreasing DP with an increasing load DP at maximum load. The maximum load DP is greater than 20% of minimum load DP. It is also applied in the gas compressor recycle control valve. Also, the linear valves are

Final Version Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Final Version - Essay Example Moreover, according to the song, they only spent one night together. Despite this short romance, he loves her so much that his love for her deepens with each mile she travels further away from him. However, I find this unrealistic to say the least. Nonetheless, for most young people, this can be a perfect way to find love. Sometimes people want to feel and live these emotions, so they do not really care whether these emotions result in pain or not. During the teenage to young adult period, love is mostly bitter because it is impossible to think logically at all. On the other hand, you are not able to think reasonably when you love. But when love is mutual, it gives someone the powerful motivation to create, explore, and develop. It truly gives you wings. Still, you never get to know how much you really love, how strong your feelings are, or how beautiful the real love can be until you lose it or at least are on the edge of losing it. Unfortunately, in our lives this is the way it works for most people; until we lose something, we rarely appreciate what we have. This is the natural sequence of things; we learn, we reevaluate, we change, and we grow. Without making mistakes and learning from them, we would not be able to be who we are now. One phrase of the song makes me feel really sorry for the man. He thinks that she went to another city just to escape from him. If this is the way things are, then even that one proposed meeting will probably mean very little to her. If she does not care for him, and does not regard him as a potential boyfriend, then his love is doomed to be unshared and he will remain unhappy. I think that the first values that are found through the whole song is the importance to live each minute to the fullest, take every good chance that comes your way, and don’t lose opportunities because they come around very rarely. The man was unsure and felt scared to

Ethical Issues in Business IP Week 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethical Issues in Business IP Week 5 - Essay Example Another vital aspect of ethics in business is ensuring safety in the workplace. Based on the fact that employees are major resources in any company, employers should take initiatives to safeguard them from high temperatures, poor ventilation, fire and poor lighting. In this way, illnesses that may increase the rate of absenteeism will be significantly reduced. Introduction As businesses engage each other in a stiff competition, some employers have taken initiatives to enhance the payments of their employees and senior managers as a way of retaining them and improving their productivity. However, some managers have little or no concern of the welfare of their employees thus rising the question of how much are investors willing to emulate ethics in the work places. One of the major ethical concerns is the amount of compensation and benefits provided to their employees and their immediate family members. In the same way, safety in the work places is a key issue that employers should not overlook. In this regard, I have chosen the topic of ethics in compensation of the employees and safety in the work places as a way of ensuring that employees are fairly treated in the work places. Similarly, my target audience is the employers and the investors who are focused at increasing their profits at the expense of their employees. ... Wages and benefits To ensure that employees remain loyal towards their companies, employers have major role to play of ensuring that salaries and benefits paid to their workers are sustainable and motivating. One of major issue that creates poor relationship between the employees and the employers is the high compensation paid to the executives while other employees are not taken into consideration. Majority of employers have various options about the amount of compensation and wages that is paid to their employees. For example, some companies believe that the mandated minimum salaries by the federal government are sufficient to maintain their employees (Robbins & Judge, 2007). In the same way, some employers believe they are at liberty to pay anything to the workers and as such employees should take any job regardless of the wages they receive. Investors should ensure ethics are upheld in their companies by providing flexible benefits. Some of the major benefits that a firm should g ive their employees include health insurance, paid vacations, training, paid sick leaves as well as retirement benefits among others. Additionally, employers should ensure flexible working hours to ensure that their employees address private matters that may affects the concentration of the workers thus reducing their productivity (Resnik, 2009). To develop professional abilities of their employees and make them focused on achieving their goals as well as those of the entire company, managers should apply advancement programs. Such programs should be undertaken during annual leaves or in the evenings after work. To ensure adequate compensation and flexible

Argumentative Synthesis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Argumentative Synthesis - Essay Example This is because, the unemployment of women does not only affect the individual women who are unemployed, but the future generations, since women bear the big burden in the upbringing of children and when they cannot be able to bring them up well due to poverty and other social constraints, there is no doubt that such children will turn out to be a disaster for the society in the future. Nevertheless, the unemployment for women has continued to be a major impediment to the advancement of equality in the society. The income inequality between the rich and the poor continues to increase, despite the measures that have been put in place to address poverty and unemployment in the society (Krugman, n.p.). Despite the seemingly advancement in narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor in the 1920s in America, the situation has now changed, and the gap between the rich and the poor is now wider than ever. However, at the center of the social inequality, is the concept of women unemploym ent, which leaves women to take care of domestic chores, a scenario faced by a high population of women, summarized well by Diaz in the statement â€Å"She didn’t have a regular job outside of caring for us five kids† (Diaz, n.p.). In this respect, it is conclusive to argue that women unemployment is in the core of social inequality in the society. Gender discrimination is a social evil that has seen all manner of legislations, campaigns and advocacy targeting to empower women so they can be in the same position as men, when it comes to issues of accessing education, employment, political positions and any other social roles that were traditionally the preserve of men. However, all these attempts have not made the situation any better, since even though women can now access education and employment like men do; there is one major issue that acts as an impediment to the total liberation of women; family responsibilities (Woolf, n.p). Additionally, even

Research paper analyzing the writiing style of Stephen King Essay

Research paper analyzing the writiing style of Stephen King - Essay Example On the one hand, critics question King’s writing style as â€Å"The Comic Strip Effect† and â€Å"The Disgusting Colloquialism† (Hoppenstand and Browne 2). On the other hand, King is also praised for his â€Å"dazzling† storytelling skills (Hoppenstand and Browne 2). Since 1987, most of his novels were chief selections of the Book-of-the-Month Club, which in 1989 made the Stephen King Library, and is dedicated to keeping King’s novels â€Å"in print in hardcover† and some were even produced as films, such as The Shining (Badley et al. 1). This paper analyzes King’s writing style. King’s writing style is described as seeking to terrorize, horrify, and lead his readers to gross-some reactions, which magnifies his use of ethos and pathos, while having logos residing â€Å"between the lines.† Stephen King is the King of macabre; he spins stories from â€Å"American nightmares† (Hoppenstand and Browne 2). As the king in this genre, he has ethos or authority in the ghastly dimension of human experiences: â€Å"His work has changed the horror genre and blurred the lines between horror and literary fiction† (Dyson and Bloom 5). His ethos conceals the logos of his stories. He writes about stories of real human conditions that not all horror stories touch upon. King’s thoughts go beyond the archetypal. His â€Å"pop† awareness and his campy humor entice the collective unconscious (Badley et al. 4). In Danse Macabre, King stresses the â€Å"cross-pollination of fiction and film,† and he categorizes his subject into four â€Å"monster archetypes†: the ghost, the â€Å"thing† (or human-made monster), the vampire, and the werewolf (Badley et al. 4). He uses references from classic horror films of the 1930’s and the 1950’s pulp and film industries (Badley et al. 4). He combines the gothic novel, classical fables, Brothers Grimm folktales, and the oral tradition (Hohne 95). During this time, the characters doubt the myths but need them in their lives; horror is particularly comforting and â€Å"cathartic† and the narrator marries the roles of physician and priest into the witch doctor as â€Å"sin eater,† who takes over the culpability and fear of the culture (Badley et al. 4). As a result, Stephen re-creates old monsters by adding a new sense of mystique. In The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (1976), psychologist Bruno Bettelheim stresses that the enchantment and horrors of fairy tales present existential problems in forms children can understand. King’s paranormal horrors have comparable cathartic and informative roles for adults; â€Å"they externalize the traumas of life, especially those of adolescence† (Badley et al. 4). Danse Macabre represents the externalization of these traumas, as a way of coping and survival. People have to analyze and read between-the-lines, nevertheless, to understand the themes of survival and adaptation in some of King’s novels. King writes to terrorize readers. King’s critics say that his success relies on the â€Å"sensational appeal of his genre,† which King eagerly confesses, because he writes to â€Å"scare people† (Badley et al. 4). His fiction is explicit, maudlin, and at times, known for conventional plots (Badley et al. 4). In Carrie, he writes about the opposite of Cinderella. It is the macabre version of dreams that can hardly come true for a society that denigrates women like Carrie. Furthermore, King’s humor is frequently unsophisticated and â€Å"