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The Brazilian Legal Amazon is an extensive territory in which different factors influence the dynamics of forest fires. Currently, the Brazilian government has two tools in the public domain and free of charge, PRODES and BDQueimadas, to monitor and make decisions to combat deforestation and forest fires. This work aimed to evaluate and correlate the forest fire alerts and deforestation in the Amazon Forest in the state of Pará. The analyses were based on carrying out a diagnosis of forest fires and deforestation; the behavior of forest fires and deforestation over the last twenty years; the statistical relationship between deforestation and forest fires and their spatialization. This work identified that Pará is the state in the Legal Amazon with the highest occurrence of forest fires and deforestation. Deforestation in the four-year period Jan/2003-Dec/2006 showed a higher rate compared to the four-year periods Jan/2011-Dec/2018. A high correlation was found between forest fire alerts and increases in deforestation. There is a spatial relationship between cities with greater increases in deforestation and high numbers of fire alerts. In relation to the occurrence of forest fires and deforestation, the south of the state was the most critical region and the north had lower rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to analyze the variables that influence freight cost in the forest supply chain and to fit nonlinear regression models to estimate the freight cost of wood transportation from the production areas to the processing units. The data used for cost analysis considered the following variables: volume of wood (m3); average fuel consumption (km/l) and average speed of the complete journey (km/h) per round trip. The results showed that there is a strong positive correlation between the variables transport distance and the freight cost of the wood, as well as between the moisture content of the wood and the freight cost of the wood. The load capacity of the vehicle combinations showed a mean negative correlation with the freight cost of the wood, and the length of the wood did not show a correlation with the cost of the transported wood. The fitted models for estimating the value of wood freight showed a high degree of adjustment of the dependent variable, indicating a good capacity for extrapolating the results from these variables. Such results emphasize the importance of optimizing transport routes, controlling wood moisture, maximizing vehicle volumetric load capacity, and using cost forecast models in order to make correct and efficient decisions in the forest supply chain context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wood harvesting operations involve mechanized and semi-mechanized machines that expose operators to occupational noise. It was verified that the emission of occupational noise levels in the harvest of mechanized and semi-mechanized wood in Brazilian forests planted with eucalyptus were in compliance with Directive 2003/10/EC. Noise data were collected using two personal-use integrative meters. The lower action level of 80 dB(A), the upper action level of 85 dB(A) and the exposure limit of 87 dB(A) were evaluated. The results showed that 16.6% of the operators were exposed to thresholds above the lower action level, but remained below the upper level of 85 dB(A), 8.3% of the operators were exposed to occupational noise levels above the upper action level, without exceeding the exposure limit of 87 dB(A) and 25% of operators were exposed to levels above the exposure limit. Therefore, the occupational noise levels achieved when harvesting mechanized and semi-mechanized wood in forests planted with eucalyptus do not comply with Directive 2003/10/EC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Workers in the wood processing industry perform activities that demand great physical and ergonomic demands, which favors the emergence of inflammatory processes and in turn the occurrence of heat regions in the body, thus making it possible to assess the inflammatory level by means of temperature gradients. This study aimed to evaluate the use of thermography as an ergonomic analysis tool to identify regions with musculoskeletal overload in workers in a wood processing industry. Methods. The study was conducted with nine workers in the central-west region of Brazil. The evaluations to obtain the thermographic images were carried out before the beginning of the workday, on Monday (day I) and on Friday (day II), in order to verify the overload regions in the accumulation of days worked. The thermal images were collected in an acclimatized room with controlled conditions where the participants remained with the upper part of their bodies bare for acclimatization, and then the lumbar and scapular regions were evaluated. The images were obtained using the FLUKE TI 400 Thermal Imager, with analysis using the SmartView software program to demarcate the body regions of interest. Results. The mean temperature values obtained on day I did not significantly differ from the mean values obtained on day II. Qualitative analysis showed thermal patterns with high temperature at the same points on both evaluated days. Although the thermographic analysis performed in this study cannot provide definitive results, they generally helped to provide evidence for a more accurate diagnosis in the evaluated workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]