Many animals use public information (PI) gathered from conspecifics to assess the quality of potential foraging locations. To date, research on this phenomenon has focused almost exclusively on social foragers that live in groups and monitor nearby individuals. PI is potentially available to solitary foragers as well, in the form of cues (such as chemical cues) that persist in the environment a...

Cross-laminated timber is increasingly being used in the construction of high-rise buildings due to its simple manufacturing system. In term of fire resistance, cross-laminated timber panels are promoted as having excellent fire resistance, comparable to that of non-combustible materials and to heavy timber construction, due to the ability of thick wood assemblies to char slowly at a predictabl...

In forest management planning, deterministic timber prices are typically assumed. However, real-life timber prices vary in the course of time, and also price peaks, i.e. exceptionally high timber prices, might occur. If land-owners can utilise the price variation by selling timber with the high prices, they are able to increase their net revenues correspondingly. In this study, an approach is p...

Buildings constructed from engineered timber are becoming more prevalent globally as building designers, owners and architects realize the sustainability opportunities with timber construction and the overall aesthetic of a completed timber building. As timber buildings are planned to be taller than many model codes permit, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Fire Protection Foundat...

/ Spatially explicit models that combine remote sensing with geographic information systems (GIS) offer great promise to land managers because they consider the arrangement of landscape elements in time and space. Their visual and geographic nature facilitate the comparison of alternative landscape designs. Among various activities associated with forest management, none cause greater concern t...

Current research at the laboratory for timber construction IBOIS at EPFL focuses on shell structures. Two main families are investigated: shells made of linear elements, as timber rib shells, and shells made of surface elements, typically folded plate structures. With regard to timber rib shells, bent linear timber elements are used to create the shape of a shell. With folded plate structures, ...

Russian forest resources are important for global carbon cycling. In contrast to traditional analyses that focus on the harvest and direct use of Russian timber resources (a.k.a. production-based accounting), this study investigates how the consumption of nations drives Russian timber harvest (a.k.a. consumption-based accounting or the Russian timber footprint). China is the biggest direct impo...

The aim of this study was to show the possibility of the classification of structural timber (European spruce) into strength class C35 according to EN 338 by using combined visual and machine strength grading techniques. Three different visual machine strength grading combinations are devised for allocating sawn timber into strength class C35. They are composed on the one hand of the visual gra...

This paper presents a short-term analysis of recent timber trends in China, focusing on timber markets and trade, and on forest-related policies. Firstly, trends in China’s timber supply and demand are described highlighting the sharp increase in log imports, especially from Russia. Secondly, the key policy trends that have a#ected China’s domestic timber market, including trade policy, forest ...

Dynamic game theory is applied to analyze the timber market in northern Iran as a duopsony. The Nash equilibrium and the dynamic properties of the system based on marginal adjustments are determined. When timber is sold, the different mills use mixed strategies to give sealed bids. It is found that the decision probability combination of the different mills follow a special form of attractor an...