Abstract Turkish Pharmaceutical Track & Trace System (ITS) is implemented as a system in which drug movements are tracked in order to ensure drug safety. The system is integrated among drug stores, pharmacies and reimbursement institutions. As the pharmacies are the primary users, their evaluations regarding the system are considered important. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the pharmacies’- a shareholder of ITS in Turkey- satisfaction level for ITS and problems and suggestions encountered in the system. The most expressed contribution of ITS to the pharmacists’ work was the ease of medicine tracking and control with 27.1%. The average satisfaction level of pharmacists about ITS was found to be 2.9±1.2. In the research, the most expressed of the regarding the areas of ITS that need to be developed is ‘work without interruption’ with 37.1%. ITS application has provided advantages for pharmacies in many aspects that facilitate operations. However, continuous development of technology, increasing information resources and diversity, changing expectations, and utilization levels of the users require the constant improvement of the performance of the system.

SUMMARY: This study introduces the artificial neural networks (ANN) function to model relationship between diameter at breast height (dbh) and stump diameter and investigates the potential of ANN model to obtain the prediction of dbh. In total, 583 diameters at breast height-stump diameter pairs were measured in 61 plots sampled from Crimean pine [Pinus nigra subsp. pallasiana] stands in ÇAKÜ Research Forest, Çankırı, Turkey. The network models, including the activation functions of function between input layer and hidden layer and pure-lin function between hidden layer and output layer (A6 alternative) with 12 # neurons, were found to the better predictive with lower error values including SSE (2585.3869), AIC (821.5731), BIC (825.7817), RMSE (2.2831), MSE (5.2125) and higher fitting value, such as R2 adj (0.9372), than those of other prediction methods. The best predictive ANN model resulted in the reductions of SSE, AIC, BIC, RMSE and MSE by 9.8486 %, 5.9018 %, 5.8735 %, 5.0519 % and 9.8486 %, and R2 adj in the increase of 0.7377 % as compared to those by the regression model. This present study has underlined the capability of the ANN model for predicting the relationship between dbh and stump diameter. This novel artificial intelligence technique provides a modeling alternative for forest managers to predict dbh required information for the management of forests.

RESUMEN: Este estudio presenta la función de redes neuronales artificiales (ANN) para modelar la relación entre el diámetro a la altura del pecho (dap) y el diámetro del tocón e investigar el potencial del modelo ANN para obtener la predicción de dap. Se midieron 583 diámetros totales en pares de altura del pecho-diámetro de tocón en 61 parcelas muestreadas de pino de Crimea [Pinus nigra subsp. pallasiana] del bosque experimental de ÇAKÜ, Çankırı, Turquía. Se encontró que el modelo de red que incluye las funciones de activación de la función entre la capa de entrada y la capa oculta y la función de -lin entre la capa oculta y la capa de salida (alternativa A6) con 12 neuronas # fue mejor predictivo, con valores de error más bajos, incluyendo SSE (2585.3869), AIC (821.5731), BIC (825.7817), RMSE (2.2831), MSE (5.2125) y valores de ajuste más altos, como R2 adj (0.9372), que los de otros métodos de predicción. El mejor modelo predictivo de ANN resultó en la reducción de SSE, AIC, BIC, RMSE y MSE en 9.8486 %, 5.9018 %, 5.8735 %, 5.0519 % y 9.8486 %, y R2 adj con aumento de 0.7377 %, en comparación con los modelo de regresión. Este estudio subraya la capacidad del modelo ANN para predecir la relación entre dap y el diámetro del tocón. Esta novedosa técnica de inteligencia artificial proporciona una alternativa de modelado para que los administradores forestales predigan la información requerida sobre dap para el manejo de los bosques.