Procjena aktivnosti sanacijske sječe nakon požara u mediteranskom području Turske

Various problems such as massive volume loss, erosion, degradation of water resources, and air pollution emerge after forest fire incidents. Thus, necessary forest operations should be quickly planned and implemented after forest fires so that afforestation activities can take place immediately to maintain forest vegetation in burned areas. The aim of this study was developing a Post-fire Action Planning (PFAP) model to minimize the time spent on salvage logging activities. PFAP model will assist decision makers for removing salvage timber in a timely manner after large scale forest fires, while considering economic and environmental constraints, and dealing with available employment conditions in local forest industry. The capabilities of this model were examined by standardizing the operational planning and developing a fast decision-making process. The model was implemented in Taşağıl Forest Enterprise Chiefs (FEC) of Antalya Forest Regional Directorate where the forests are sensitivity to fire at the first degree level and the second largest forest fire in the history of Turkish Forestry occurred in this area in 2008. The findings of PFAP model were compared with the data of actual salvage logging operation obtained from the FEC. The results indicated that using operational planning based PFAP model is capable of reducing total time spent on salvage logging operation by about 60%. Based on the forestry compartments of the study area, estimated durations of salvage logging operations were 15 to 75 days less than that of actual operations taken place in the field. Therefore, it is highly anticipated that using operational planning based PFAP model has great potential to provide economically and environmentally sound forest operations after forest fires.Nakon šumskih požara nastaju različiti problemi, kao što je velik gubitak drvne mase, erozije tla, degradacija pitkih izvora vode te onečišćenje zraka. Neophodno je kvalitetno i učinkovito isplanirati i implementirati potrebne šumske operacije nakon šumskog požara, kako bi se odmah moglo započeti s pošumljavanjem u svrhu održanja šumske vegetacije u izgorenim područjima. Cilj ovoga istraživanja je bio razvoj modela planiranja aktivnosti nakon požara, kako bi se smanjilo vrijeme utrošeno na aktivnosti sanitarne sječe. Model planiranja aktivnosti nakon požara pomoći će donositeljima odluka u pravovremenom uklanjanju saniranih debla nakon velikih šumskih požara, uzimajući u obzir ekonomska i ekološka ograničenja te rješavajući mogućnost zapošljavanja u lokalnoj drvnoj industriji. Mogućnosti ovoga modela provjerene su pomoću standardizacije operativnog planiranja i razvoja procesa brzog donošenja odluka. Model je implementiran u šumariji Taşağıl Regionalne uprave za šume Antalya, gdje su šume svrstane u prvi stupanj opasnosti od požara te se drugi najveći šumski požar u povijesti Turske uprave za šume dogodio upravo na ovome području 2008. godine. Rezultati ovoga modela uspoređeni su s podatcima stvarnih sanacijskih sječa dobivenih od šumarija. Rezultati su pokazali da se korištenjem operativnog planiranja temeljem modela planiranja aktivnosti nakon požara može smanjiti ukupno vrijeme utrošeno na sanacijske sječe za 60%. S obzirom na različite šumske odjeljke u istraživanome području, procijenjeno trajanje sanacijske sječe bilo je 15 do 75 dana kraće od stvarnih operacija na terenu. Prema tome, očekuje se da korištenje operativnog planiranja temeljem modela planiranja aktivnosti nakon požara ima velik potencijal u osiguravanju ekonomski i ekološki korisnih šumskih radova nakon šumskih požara

Evaluating the Effects of Improving Forest Road Standards on Economic Value of Forest Products

Forest roads are the key infrastructures that provide access to forest areas for sustainable management, protection, and utilization of forest resources. In order to benefit from the important functions of forest roads, they should be built in with adequate technical road standards. The road network with low technical standards require more frequent major repairs to ensure continues access to forest resources. In addition, only small trucks with low load capacity can move on the low standard roads. Furthermore, the low road standards limit the truck speed that increases vehicle travel time. These negative effects increase the transportation costs which are an important part of the timber production costs in Turkey. Thus, improving the road standards and developing forest transportation planning should be evaluated together in the most appropriate way. Large logging trucks with high load capacity are generally preferred for efficient transportation of wood-based forest products. In Turkey, large logging trucks, however, cannot operate on the most of the forest roads because insufficient technical road standards (road width, curve radius, surface materials, road structures) limit the maneuverability of large logging trucks. In this study, the objective is to determine the effects of improving forest road standards on total net profit of forest products by using the NETWORK 2000 program, a heuristic approach for solving forest transportation problems. Three Forest Enterprise Chiefs (FECs) located in Mustafakemalpaşa Forest Enterprise Directorate (FED) in Bursa Forest Regional Directorate were selected as the study area. The digital data layers for forest road network was generated by using ArcGIS 10.4 software. In the solution process, firstly, the optimum routes that minimize the transportation cost and maximize the total net profit of forest products on existing forest road networks were investigated for a truck type (15 ton) currently used in the region. In the second case, forest transportation was planned for the high load capacity truck (29 ton) moving on the forest roads with improved standards. In the first case, the transportation costs and annual major repair costs were considered in the calculation of the net profit of forest products, while one time cost of road improvement activities (i.e. road improvement construction, road structure installation, road surface construction) and annual maintenance costs were considered along with transportation costs in the second case. In both cases, the costs of other forest operations (i.e. felling, logging, etc.) were not considered since it was assumed that they do not vary with the forest transportation alternatives. As a result of the transportation plan developed for high load capacity truck, the annual transportation cost decreased by 46.85% comparing to the local logging trucks with low load capacity. Using improved road standards, the total road costs computed for the time period of 30 years (i.e. the average expected life cycle of forest roads) were reduced by 4.64%. The total net profit of forest products transported by using a high load capacity truck was 473 340 Euro more than that of using low load capacity truck on the existing forest road network. Thus, improving road standards might result in some additional costs in the road construction stage, but total net profit of forest products increase since transportation costs along with maintenance and repair costs considerably decrease in the long term

The impact of hybrid capture-based comprehensive genomic profiling on treatment strategies in patients with solid tumors

Objective: The development of bioinformatics and comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) has provided insights into the ap-plicability and functionality of the genomic alterations (GA). In this study, we evaluated the impact of CGP on the treatment plan and outcomes in a significant number of patients. Material and Methods: We carried out a retrospective case-control study on 164 adult patients with advanced solid tumors from 15 oncology centers in Türkiye. Results: In all cases, CGP was performed within 23.8 [standard deviation (SD)±32.1] months of initial diagnosis. Non-small cell lung carcinoma, breast cancer, unknown primary carcinoma, colorectal carcinoma, and sarcoma were among the most common tumor types, accounting for 61.5% of all cases. CGP was performed immediately after the diagnosis of advanced cancer in 13 patients (7.9%). In 158 patients (96.4%), at least one GA was found as per the CGP report. Also, in the reports, the average tumor mutational burden (TMB) and GAs were 7.3 (SD±8.7) mut/Mb and 3.5 (SD±2.0), respectively. According to CGP reports, 58 patients had 79 evidence-based drug suggestions for their particular tumor type, whereas 97 patients had 153 evidence-based drug suggestions for another tumor type. After the primary oncologist interpreted the CGP reports, significant changes were made to the treatment of 35 (21.3%) patients. Conclusion: We strongly believe that in the future, high-TMB or other tumor-agnostic biomarkers will become much more afford-able, and CGP will serve as one of the major decision-making tools for the treatment of patients along with pathological, radiological or lab-oratory tests

Investigation of Feller-Buncher Performance Using Weibull Distribution

With the advancement of technology in forestry, the utilization of advanced machines in forest operations has been increasing in the last decades. Due to their high operating costs, it is crucial to select the right machinery, which is mostly done by using productivity analysis. In this study, a productivity estimation model was developed in order to determine the timber volume cut per unit time for a feller-buncher. The Weibull distribution method was used to develop the productivity model. In the study, the model of the theoretical (estimated) volume distributions obtained with the Weibull probability density function was generated. It was found that the c value was 1.96 and the b value was 0.58 (i.e., b is the scale parameter, and c is the shape parameter). The model indicated that the frequency of the volume data had moved away from 0 as the shape parameter of the Weibull distribution increased. Thus, it was revealed that the shape parameter gives preliminary information about the distribution of the volume frequency. The consistency of the measured timber volume with the estimated timber volume strongly indicated that this approach can be effectively used by decision makers as a key tool to predict the productivity of a feller-buncher used in harvesting operations

ASSESSMENT OF TIMBER HARVESTING MECHANIZATION LEVEL IN TURKEY

Abstract: This study is investigating differences of timber transportation methods and harvestin