Browsing by Author "Torun P."

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Effects of environmental factors and forest management on landscape-scale forest storm damage in Turkey
(2020-06-01) Torun P.; Altunel A.O.
Key message: Windstorms have recently caused noteworthy destruction across the Northern forests of Turkey. The intensive forest management practices applied for more than 60+ years may unknowingly have resulted in wind-sensitive forests in the region. After a storm, the forest service salvages the losses, but no further precaution is taken against future storms. To our knowledge, there has not been any research looking into the cumulative effects of environmental factors on storm damage in Turkish forests. Maxent, which is an ecological niche model, might help decision-makers in developing forest management strategies against storms given its ease of use, known successful performance, and flexible variable evaluation approach. This study revealed that management preferences were mainly responsible for forest storm damage in Kastamonu Province, Turkey. Context: Excessive wind cause serious damages to individual trees and forest stands. When unintentionally coupled with the forest management preferences, catastrophic levels of damage might be unavoidable. Aims: The main objective was to assess the environmental factors contributing to the impact of a strong windstorm that occurred between March 14 and 15, 2013 and resulted in 1.5-million m3 timber losses in the Kastamonu Regional Directorate of Forestry. Methods: Maximum entropy modeling (Maxent) and geographic information systems (GIS) were used to evaluate the factors contributing to the forest damage. Results: Stand type, diameter class, and elevation were the most important variables affecting the level of wind damage. The pure and mixed coniferous stands were the hardest hit when compared with the deciduous stands. The damage increased as the density of forest roads grew. Conclusion: It was concluded that windstorms pose serious threats to Turkish forests. Storm damage risks must therefore be integrated into forest management. In order to better understand the environmental factors contributing to the destructive effects of windstorms in forests, it would be best to focus on the telltale signs pointing the wrong-doing in forest management preferences at larger environmental scale rather than looking for reasons behind the occurrences of scattered small-scale damage.
Health services management in Turkey: Failure or success?
(2019-01-01) Bener A.; Alayoglu N.; Çatan F.; Torun P.; Yilmaz E.
Background: The unfair distribution and delivery of health-care resources have been recognized as a problem in the worldwide. In the past 18 years, Turkey has undergone rapid social, cultural, and economic changes. The lifestyle and dietary habits of its people have also been changing, and the rates of diabetes, obesity, cancer, and other chronic diseases have increased dramatically over the past two decades. The health transformation program (HTP) has improved the Turkish health-care system since 2003. The main goal of HTP was to progress government, to provide equality between citizens, to give satisfaction to users and providers, and to subsidise the health-care system in Turkey. Aim: The aim of this study is to assess health-care services and health care quality delivery in the Republic of Turkey with special emphasis on governmental hospitals, university hospitals, primary healthcare centers (PHC) and to make comparison with low-, medium-and high-income countries. Methods: This is a retrospective, descriptive study. The ministry of health Annual Reports, websites of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), The World Fact Book, organization for economic cooperation and development report, Compendium of Health Statistics, the Google engine, and PubMed were searched for information about Turkey's health-care system and its history. Papers and websites in English were evaluated. There was no restriction on types of articles and sources. Results: Turkey has made outstanding reforms in health status in the last two decades, especially after the implementation of the HTP. The doctor's perception has more influence regarding consultation length and visit than the patient's. The results of consultations in volunteer practices in Istanbul showed that the mean and SD of the consultation length for the whole sample of 360 patients was 7.95 ± 4.38, (with range = 3-25 min). Consultation time has been affected by the patients' diseases, genders that women got longer consultation time, medical practices at the urban or rural areas, and ages which older patients required longer consultation time. The current study revealed that increasing doctor's workload leads to decrease the length of consultations. Moreover, average life expectancy reached 75.3 for men and 80.7 for women in 2015. The infant mortality rate decreased to 10.7/1000 live births in 2015, down from 117.5 in 1980. The leading causes of death are diseases of the circulatory system followed by cancer. Conclusions: The Turkish health system and health-care delivery have been improved over the last decade. Still far from perfect, there is a particular planning to increase medical workforce in PHC including well-Trained staffs for a specific area. An urgent need is to acquire more accurate and reliable data from hospital and PHC centers in Turkey. Additional some attempts should be made to assess quality of healthcare in relation to services and process.
Internet Addiction, Fatigue, and Sleep Problems Among Adolescent Students: a Large-Scale Study
(2019-08-15) Bener A.; Yildirim E.; Torun P.; Çatan F.; Bolat E.; Alıç S.; Akyel S.; Griffiths M.D.
The aim of the present study was to examine the association between Internet addiction (IA), fatigue, and sleep problems among university students. A total of 3000 Turkish students aged 18 to 25 years were approached and 2350 students (78.3%) participated in this cross-sectional study from April 2017 to September 2017 in public and private universities in Istanbul. Data were collected via a structured questionnaire including socio-demographic details, lifestyle and dietary habits, Internet Addiction Test (IAT), Fatigue Scale, and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). Descriptive statistics, multivariate, and factorial analyses were performed. The overall prevalence of IA among the studied population was 17.7%. There were significant differences between gender, family income, father’s occupation, school performance, frequency and duration of watching television, physical activity, Internet use duration, and sleep duration (all p < 0.001). Significant differences were also found between participants with IA and those without IA in having headaches, blurred vision, double vision, hurting eyes, hearing problems, and eating fast food frequently (all p < 0.001). Using multivariate regression analysis, the duration of Internet use, physical and mental symptoms, headache, hurting eyes, tired eyes, hearing problems, and ESS scores were significantly associated with (and primary predictors of) IA. The present study demonstrated that IA was associated with poor dietary habits, sleep problems, and fatigue symptoms.