How can be strategically improved the international attractivity of the touristic sector in Colombia?

Durante el desarrollo de este trabajo de grado, se describe la posibilidad de incrementar estratégicamente el potencial de atraer visitantes extranjeros al país. Colombia es un lugar lleno de biodiversidad, cultura y belleza; pero algunas circunstancias como la guerra, la mala imagen a nivel internacional y la pobre infraestructura turística, han detenido el crecimiento de los indicadores turísticos. La implementación de diferentes estrategias distintivas para posicionar la industria turística y para lograr el mejoramiento continuo, como la definición de planes de contingencia para luchar en contra de la violencia y la inseguridad, el mejoramiento de las condiciones de infraestructura, la mejor capacitación y entrenamiento de todas las personas relacionadas con este segmento de mercado y también los esfuerzos por difundir en mayor proporción información clara y eficiente sobre Colombia; son algunos de los principales objetivos que deben ser alcanzados para incrementar el nivel de atractividad del sector para visitantes internacionales, y también, estas estrategias contribuirán al mejoramiento de los indicadores de desempeño del sector y del país en general.

Global attractivity in a recursive sequence

In this paper, we Study the invariant intervals, the globally attractivity of the two equilibrium points, and the oscillatory behavior of tile solutions of the difference equation x(n =) ax(n-1) - bx(n-2)/c + x(n-2), n = 1,2,......, where a, b. c > 0. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Pheromone-mediated mass trapping and population diversion as strategies for suppressing Carpophilus spp. (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) in Australian stone fruit orchards

1 Five experiments were conducted during 1995-99 in stone fruit orchards on the Central Coast and in inland New South Wales, Australia, on the use of synthetic aggregation pheromones and a coattractant to suppress populations of the ripening fruit pests Carpophilus spp. (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae). 2 Perimeter-based suppression traps baited with pheromone and coattractant placed at 3m intervals around small fruit blocks, caught large numbers of Carpophilus spp. Very small populations of Carpophilus spp. occurred within blocks, and fruit damage was minimal. 3 Carpophilus spp. populations in stone fruit blocks 15-370m from suppression traps were also small and non-damaging, indicating a large zone of pheromone attractivity. 4 Pheromone/coattractant-baited suppression traps appeared to divert Carpophilus spp. from nearby (130 m) ripening stone fruit. Ten metal drums containing decomposing fruit, baited with pheromone and treated with insecticide, attracted Carpophilus spp. and appeared to reduce populations and damage to ripening fruit at distances of 200-500 m. Populations and damage were significantly greater within 200m of the drums and may have been caused by ineffective poisoning or poor quality/overcrowding of fruit resources in the drums. 5 Suppression of Carpophilus spp. populations using synthetic aggregation pheromones and a coattractant appears to be a realistic management option in stone fruit orchards. Pheromone-mediated diversion of beetle populations from ripening fruit may be more practical than perimeter trapping, but more research is needed on the effective range of Carpophilus pheromones and the relative merits of trapping compared to attraction to insecticide-treated areas.

Alueellinen imago ja identiteetti liikkeessä

Regions are considered to be in competition for investments, industries, inhabitants and skilled labour nationally as well as internationally. In the context of tightening competition, more and more attention has been paid to regional attractors. A positive image is an important attractor in regional competition. In Finland, many towns and regions have either implemented or are planning to implement various image-enhancing campaigns or other measures aimed at improving their image. The role of identity is very important in developing a regional image. Good regional image should be based on a strong regional identity and awareness. Related to this is the perception of one's own region as separate from others and the familiarity of the region. If a region has no place in the awareness of its residents or if the inhabitants do not identify with it, its very existence as a social construct can be questioned. This means that building the regional image, which in this context is seen as social constructivism, is extremely difficult if the degree of regional awareness and identification is low. On the other hand, regional identity is being built also by developing the regional image. In a way, regional discourses have become more marketing-oriented in that instead of trying to create a regional esprit de corps there is now more image-oriented speech aimed at striving to improve the attractivity to outsiders of the region. Even though the goal is to bring the region to the attention of non-residents, a measure of construction of regional identity for the local population is automatically effected at the same time. Regional image and identity are consequences of linguistic producing and understanding of a region. It means that both image and identity are seen as language-created social constructions. The regional image is created through various discourses, but also the construction of a regional identity as regional consciousness and identification is largely a linguistic process. Essential in this context is perceiving the region as a discursive project characterized by its representation as texts, images and symbols. The linguistic production of a region is not a neutral description of "reality", but a representation based on interpretations, experiences and different motivations. Production and perceiving vary in time, so regional image and identity are on the move. This research is driven by the ongoing change of the regional system. The municipal and service structure reform is in progress and the number of municipalities seems to be on the decrease. At the same time, European Union s regional policy and regionalism on the whole are changing the status of sub-regions. At municipal level the crucial question is how the municipal structure reform will affect regional identity. This study points out that strong sense of municipal identity is a source of opposition to changes in municipal structure, but on the other hand the deinstitutionalization of the old municipality in municipal merger does not in itself mean the weakening of municipal identity.

On the recursive sequence Xn = axn-1+bxn-2/c+dxn-1xn-2

In this Paper, we study the invariant intervals, the global attractivity of the equilibrium points, and the asymptotic behavior of the solutions of the difference equation x(n) = ax(n-1) + bx(n-2) / c + dx(n-1)x(n-2), n =1, 2, ..., where a greater than or equal to 0, b, c, d > 0. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of organic and conventional fertiliser treatments on host selection by the aphid parasitoid Diaeretiella rapae

The type and quantity of fertilizer supplied to a crop will differ between organic and conventional farming practices. Altering the type of fertilizer a plant is provided with can influence a plant’s foliar nitrogen levels, as well as the composition and concentration of defence compounds, such as glucosinolates. Many natural enemies of insect herbivores can respond to headspace volatiles emitted by the herbivores’ host plant in response to herbivory. We propose that manipulating fertilizer type may also influence the headspace volatile profiles of plants, and as a result, the tritrophic interactions that occur between plants, their insect pests and those pests’ natural enemies. Here, we investigate a tritrophic system consisting of cabbage plants, Brassica oleracea, a parasitoid, Diaeretiella rapae, and one of its hosts, the specialist cabbage aphid Brevicoryne brassicae. Brassica oleracea plants were provided with either no additional fertilization or one of three types of fertilizer: Nitram (ammonium nitrate), John Innes base or organic chicken manure. We investigated whether these changes would alter the rate of parasitism of aphids on those plants and whether any differences in parasitism could be explained by differences in attractivity of the plants to D. rapae or attack rate of aphids by D. rapae. In free-choice experiments, there were significant differences in the percentage of B. brassicae parasitized by D. rapae between B. oleracea plants grown in different fertilizer treatments. In a series of dual-choice Y-tube olfactometry experiments, D. rapae females discriminated between B. brassicae-infested and undamaged plants, but parasitoids did not discriminate between similarly infested plants grown in different fertilizer treatments. Correspondingly, in attack rate experiments, there were no differences in the rate that D. rapae attacked B. brassicae on B. oleracea plants grown in different fertilizer treatments. These findings are of direct relevance to sustainable and conventional farming practices.

Effects of organic and conventional fertilizer treatments on host selection by the aphid parasitoid Diaeretiella rapae

The type and quantity of fertilizer supplied to a crop will differ between organic and conventional farming practices. Altering the type of fertilizer a plant is provided with can influence a plant’s foliar nitrogen levels, as well as the composition and concentration of defence compounds, such as glucosinolates. Many natural enemies of insect herbivores can respond to headspace volatiles emitted by the herbivores’ host plant in response to herbivory. We propose that manipulating fertilizer type may also influence the headspace volatile profiles of plants, and as a result, the tritrophic interactions that occur between plants, their insect pests and those pests’ natural enemies. Here, we investigate a tritrophic system consisting of cabbage plants, Brassica oleracea, a parasitoid, Diaeretiella rapae, and one of its hosts, the specialist cabbage aphid Brevicoryne brassicae. Brassica oleracea plants were provided with either no additional fertilization or one of three types of fertilizer: Nitram (ammonium nitrate), John Innes base or organic chicken manure. We investigated whether these changes would alter the rate of parasitism of aphids on those plants and whether any differences in parasitism could be explained by differences in attractivity of the plants to D. rapae or attack rate of aphids by D. rapae. In free-choice experiments, there were significant differences in the percentage of B. brassicae parasitized by D. rapae between B. oleracea plants grown in different fertilizer treatments. In a series of dual-choice Y-tube olfactometry experiments, D. rapae females discriminated between B. brassicae-infested and undamaged plants, but parasitoids did not discriminate between similarly infested plants grown in different fertilizer treatments. Correspondingly, in attack rate experiments, there were no differences in the rate that D. rapae attacked B. brassicae on B. oleracea plants grown in different fertilizer treatments. These findings are of direct relevance to sustainable and conventional farming practices.

The impact of big-boxes on local retail : What happens when IKEA comes to town?

The development of large discount retailers, or big-boxes as they are sometimes referred to, are often subject to heated debate and their entry on a market is greeted with either great enthusiasm or dread. For instance, the world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart (Forbes 2014) has a number of anti- and pro-groups dedicated to its being and the event of a Wal-Mart entry tends to be met with protests and campaigns (Decamme 2013) but also welcomed by, for instance, consumers (Davis & DeBonis 2013). Also in Sweden, the entry of a big box is a hot topic and before IKEA’s opening i Borlänge 2013, the first in Sweden in more than five years, great expectations were mixed with worry (Västerbottens-Kuriren 2011).The presence of large scale discount retailers is not, however, a novel phenomenon but a part of a long-term change in retailing that has taken place globally over the past couple of decades (Taylor & Smalling, 2005). As noted by Dawson (2006), the trend in Europe has over the past few decades gone towards an increasing concentration of large firms along with a decrease of smaller firms.This trend is also detectable in the Swedish retail industry. Over the past decade, the retailing industry in Sweden has increased by around 190 Billion SEK, and its share of GDP has risen from 2,7% to 2,9%, while the number of employees have increased from 200 000 to 250 000 (HUI 2013). This growth, however, has not been distributed evenly but rather it has been oriented mainly towards out-of-town retail clusters. Parallel to this development, the number of large retailers has risen at the expense of market shares of smaller independent firms (Rämme et al 2010). Thereby, the presence of large scale retailers is simply part of a changing retail landscape.The effects of this development, where large scale retailing agents relocate shopping to out-of-town shopping areas, have been heavily debated. On the one hand, the big-boxes are accused of displacing independent small retail businesses in the city-centers and the residential areas, resulting in, to some extent, reduced employment opportunities and less availability for the consumers - especially the elderly (Ljungberg et al 2006). In addition, as access to shopping now tends to require some sort of a motorized vehicle, environmental aspects to the discussion have emerged. Ultimately these types of concerns have resulted in calls for regulations against this development (Olsson 2010). On the other hand, the proponents of the new shopping landscape argue that this evolution implies productivity gains, the benefits of lower prices and an increased variety of products (Maican & Orth 2012). Moreover it is argued that it leads to, for instance, better services (such as longer opening hours) and a creative destruction transformation pressure on retailers, which brings about a renewal of city-centerIIretail and services, increasing their attractivity (Bergström 2010). The belief in benefits of a big box entry can be exemplified by the attractivity of IKEA, and the fact that municipalities are prepared to commit to expenses amounting up to hundreds of millions in order to attract the entry of this big-box. Borlänge municipality, for instance, agreed to expenses of about 350 million SEK in order to secure the entry of IKEA, which opened in 2013 (Blomgren 2009).Against this backdrop, the overall effects of large discount retailers become important: Are the economic benefits enough to warrant subsidies or are there, on the contrary, some very compelling grounds for regulations against these types of establishments? In other words; how is overall retail in a region where a store like IKEA enters affected? And how are local retail firms affected?In order to answer these questions, the purpose of this thesis is to study how entry of a big-box retailer affects the entry region. The object of this study is IKEA - one of the world’s largest retailers, with 345 stores, active in over 40 countries and with profits of about 3.3 billion (IKEA 2013; IKEA 2014). By studying the effects of IKEA-entry, both on an aggregated level and on firm level, this thesis intends to find indications of how large discount retail establishments in general can be expected to affect the economic development both in a region overall, but also on the local firm level, something which is of interest to both policymakers as well as the retailing industry in general.The first paper examines the effects of IKEA on retail revenues and employment in the municipalities that IKEA chose to enter between 2000 and 2011; Gothenburg, Haparanda, Kalmar and Karlstad. By means of a matching method we first identify non-entry municipalities that have a similar probability of IKEA entry as the true entry municipalities. Then, using these non-entry municipalities as a control group, the causal effects of IKEA entry can be estimated using a treatment-control approach. We also extend the analysis to examine the spatial impact of IKEA by estimating the effects on retail in neighboring municipalities. It is found that a new IKEA store increases revenues in durable goods trade with 20% in the entry municipality and the number of employees with 17%. Only small, and in most cases statistically insignificant, negative effects were found in neighboring municipalities.It appears that there is a positive net effect on durables retail sales and employment in the entry municipality. However, the analysis is based on data on an aggregated municipality level and thereby it remains unclear if and how the effects vary within the entry municipalities. In addition, the data used in the first study includes the sales and employment of IKEA itself, which could account for the majority of the increases in employment and retail. Thereby the potential spillover effects on incumbent retailers in the entry municipalities cannot be discerned in the first study.IIITo examine effects of IKEA entry on incumbent retail firms, the second paper in this thesis analyses how IKEA entry affects the revenues and employment of local retail firms in three municipalities; Haparanda, Kalmar and Karlstad, which experienced entry by IKEA between 2000 and 2010. In this second study, we exclude Gothenburg due to the fact that big-box entry appears to have weaker effects in metropolitan areas (as indicated by Artz & Stone 2006). By excluding Gothenburg we aim to reduce the geographical heterogeneity in our study. We obtain control municipalities that are as similar as possible to the three entry municipalities using the same method as in the previous study, but including a slightly different set of variables in the selection equation. Using similar retail firms in the control municipalities as our comparison group, we estimate the impact of IKEA entry on revenues and employment for retail firms located at varying distances from the IKEA entry site.The results generated in this study imply that entry by IKEA increases revenues in incumbent retail firms by, on average, 11% in the entry municipalities. In addition, we do not find any significant impact on retail revenues in the city centers of the entry municipalities. However, we do find that retail firms within 1 km of the IKEA experience increases in revenues of about 26%, which indicates large spillover effects in the area nearby the entry site. As expected, this impact decreases as we expand the buffer zone: firms located between 0-2 km experiences a 14% increase and firms in 2-5 km experiences an increase of 10%. We do not find any significant impacts on retail employment.

Resistência de cultivares de batata-doce a Euscepes postfasciatus Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Foram estudadas 40 cultivares de batata-doce Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lamarck, objetivando avaliar a resistência ao ataque da broca Euscepes postfasciatus Fairmaire. Numa primeira fase da pesquisa foi medida a atratividade, a não-preferência para alimentação e oviposição em ramas e raízes. Dos resultados foram escolhidas oito cultivares resistentes e duas suscetíveis. Numa segunda fase utilizaram-se raízes das cultivares escolhidas para estudar a resistência a E. postfasciatus. Ramas e raízes foram oferecidas a adultos da broca em arenas com livre chance de escolha, com seis repetições. As avaliações foram feitas aos 5, 10, 30, 60 min., 3h e 24h após a liberação. O melhor tamanho de rama, entre os testados, a ser utilizado foi o de 35 cm. Os adultos da broca ao serem liberados nas arenas, dirigiram-se rapidamente para o material e atacaram as mais atrativas, prioritariamente nos ramos mais grossos ou na inserção das folhas. As cultivares com ramas menos atrativas foram: Rocha da Paz, Mineira, Lagartixa e Bom Nome, sendo que os tubérculos das cultivares Lagartixa e Bom Nome também foram menos danificados e juntamente com Caboatã, não preferidas para oviposição. As raízes e ramas das cultivares Granfina e UFRPE foram as mais atrativas e as mais danificadas portanto devem ser evitadas, enquanto que as cultivares Lagartixa e Bom Nome devem ser recomendadas pelo seu melhore desempenho.

Atratividade e preferência alimentar de adultos de Epicauta atomaria (Germ., 1821) (Col.: Meloidae) em maracujazeiros (Passiflora spp.), sob condições de laboratório

A atratividade e a preferência alimentar de adultos de Epicauta atomaria (Germ., 1821) por folhas de espécies de maracujazeiro Passiflora spp. foram avaliadas sob condições de laboratório. em testes de atratividade realizados em placas de Petri e olfatômetro, os discos foliares e extratos foliares de P. setacea e P. edulis f. flavicarpa foram os mais preferidos por adultos de E. atomaria, enquanto P. giberti, P. nitida e P. alata foram os menos preferidas nos dois tipos de recipientes. Nos testes de consumo com e sem chance de escolha utilizando discos foliares, P. setacea foi a mais consumida, confirmando sua suscetibilidade; P. giberti e P. nitida foram pouco consumidas, apresentando não-preferência para alimentação como mecanismo de resistência; P. edulis f. flavicarpa e P. alata também revelaram não-preferência para alimentação, porém em níveis mais baixos.

Atração e desenvolvimento de Leptoglossus gonagra (Fabr.) (Hemiptera: Coreidae) em cultivares de abóbora e moranga

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Implicações do odor na percepção e escolha de parceiro

Why are we attracted to some people but not to other ones? How is this attraction established? Which signs are characteristic of a good partner? These and many other questions concerning how mate attraction and mate selection work out among humans have been intriguing behavioral scientists. It is well-known that beauty indicates something about a potential mate s health. The odor may indicate a similar assessment, if we can assess how pheromones are integrated into human sexual behavior. However, what is the relation between age preference and body scent evaluation? In order to investigate this question, this study´s objective was identifying evidences which show that olfactory cues might reveal the potential mate s age and that it coincides with the ideal mate s profile. To produce the stimuli, men and women had to wear cotton t-shirts for three nights in order to have their body odor impregnated. After that, opposite-sex individuals evaluated the intensity and attractivity of these odor impregnated tshirts according to two Likert scales (4 points scale for intensity; 7 points scale for attractivity). We found differences between men and women on body scent perception, that indicates a better scent discrimination for women when it concerns the perception of potential mate s age. Another finding was the negative correlation between intensity and attractiveness perception for both sexes. We also verified that mate selection strategies are plural, more than one tactic simultaneously fitting in the same strategy, but all of them are related to differential investment of each sex on their own reproductive success

Characterization of antibiosis and antixenosis to the whitefly silverleaf Bemisia tabaci B biotype (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) in several squash varieties

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Avaliação de resistência de cultivares de soja a anticarsia gemmatalis Hübner (Lepidoptera: noctuidae)

Pós-graduação em Agronomia - FEIS