Predicting the competitive position of extended gates: the case of inland customs zones

The extended gate concept aims to reduce the pressure on international ports by postponing administrative processes from these border gates to inland terminals. At present, this approach is used mainly in the container transport industry in European and Asian ports. In this paper we study an extended gate concept, where inland customs services are made available from all entry points of a country. Our aim is to predict the portion of the current flow through border gates that is diverted to these inland customs zones. We propose a time-series gravity models to predict these changes and estimate the parameters of this model using publicly available data for different cargo groups. The focus of our application is Iran, a nation with a large and emerging economy, where goods currently enter through 26 main border gates. In addition to this flow diversion model we explain how flow matrices can be synthesized from the available transport statistics. Our calculations indicate that transportation cost, travel time and customs tariff discounts are the most important for the choice of customs zone. The attractiveness of extended gates increases as the direct cost of transportation between the border gate and destination province rises. Extended customs zones in Iran would have an average share of import flows in 2025 of around 13% and attract a volume of 8.4 million metric tons of goods

Degradation pathways in standard and inverted DBP-C 70 based organic solar cells

Achieving long-term stability in organic solar cells is a remaining bottleneck for the commercialization of this otherwise highly appealing technology. In this work, we study the performance and stability differences in standard and inverted DBP/C70 based organic solar cells. Differences in the charge-transfer state properties of inverted and standard configuration DBP/C70 solar cells are revealed by sensitive external quantum efficiency measurements, leading to differences in the open-circuit voltages of the devices. The degradation of standard and inverted solar cell configurations at ISOS aging test conditions (ISOS-D-3 and ISOS-T-3) was investigated and compared. The results indicate that the performance drop in the small molecule bilayer solar cells is less related to changes at the D-A interface, suggesting also a pronounced morphological stability, and instead, in the case of inverted cells, dominated by degradation at the electron transport layer (ETL) bathocuproine (BCP). Photoluminescence measurements, electron-only-device characteristics, and stability measurements show improved exciton blocking, electron transport properties and a higher stability for BCP/Ag ETL stacks, giving rise to inverted devices with enhanced performance and device stability

Reconsidering figures of merit for performance and stability of perovskite photovoltaics

The development of hybrid organic-inorganic halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) that combine high performance and operational stability is vital for implementing this technology. Recently, reversible improvement and degradation of PSC efficiency have been reported under illumination-darkness cycling. Quantifying the performance and stability of cells exhibiting significant diurnal performance variations is challenging. We report the outdoor stability measurements of two types of devices showing either reversible photo-degradation or reversible efficiency improvement under sunlight. Instead of the initial (or stabilized) efficiency and T as the figures of merit for the performance and stability of such devices, we propose using the value of the energy output generated during the first day of exposure and the time needed to reach its 20% drop, respectively. The latter accounts for both the long-term irreversible degradation and the reversible diurnal efficiency variation and does not depend on the type of process prevailing in a given perovskite cell

Predicting the competitive position of extended gates: The case of inland customs zones

The extended gate concept aims to reduce the pressure on international ports by postponing administrative processes from these border gates to inland terminals. At present, this approach is used mainly in the container transport industry in European and Asian ports. In this paper we study an extended gate concept, where inland customs services are made available from all entry points of a country. Our aim is to predict the portion of the current flow through border gates that is diverted to these inland customs zones. We propose a time-series gravity models to predict these changes and estimate the parameters of this model using publicly available data for different cargo groups. The focus of our application is Iran, a nation with a large and emerging economy, where goods currently enter through 26 main border gates. In addition to this flow diversion model we explain how flow matrices can be synthesized from the available transport statistics. Our calculations indicate that transportation cost, travel time and customs tariff discounts are the most important for the choice of customs zone. The attractiveness of extended gates increases as the direct cost of transportation between the border gate and destination province rises. Extended customs zones in Iran would have an average share of import flows in 2025 of around 13% and attract a volume of 8.4 million metric tons of goods. Highlights • We study the potential of extended gates to attract flows from existing border customs. • We use a time series gravity type model that can be estimated on publicly available data. • We demonstrate the model with an application to the large and emerging economy of Iran. • Our calculations indicate an expected share of inland customs zones of 13% in 2025.Transport and PlanningTransport and Logistic

Sexuality in Iran

In Iranian society, sexuality is regulated by cultural restrictions, prohibitions, taboos, and indirect regulations due to the country's traditional and highly religious culture. Socialization processes are gendered as a consequence of there being different rules of sexual behavior for men and women. Sexual activity such as masturbation, erotic behavior, and cross-gender associations such as premarital dating relationships are legally and culturally banned. Virginity plays an important role in women's lives because it is a required condition for a girl's marriage. Masturbation is the major form of sexual activity, especially among single youth as an alternative to sexual intercourse. Lack of sexual education until late teenage years has caused a general ignorance about human sexuality and has led to mystification regarding sexual activity

POLYRETINA restores light responses in vivo in blind Göttingen minipigs.

Retinal prostheses hold the potential for artificial vision in blind people affected by incurable diseases of the outer retinal layer. Available technologies provide only a small field of view: a significant limitation for totally blind people. To overcome this problem, we recently proposed a large and high-density photovoltaic epiretinal device, known as POLYRETINA. Here, we report the in vivo assessment of POLYRETINA. First, we characterise a model of chemically-induced blindness in Göttingen minipigs. Then, we develop and test a minimally invasive injection procedure to insert the large epiretinal implant into the eye. Last, we show that POLYRETINA restores light-evoked cortical responses in blind animals at safe irradiance levels. These results indicate that POLYRETINA holds the potential for artificial vision in totally blind patients affected by retinitis pigmentosa

Reconsidering figures of merit for performance and stability of perovskite photovoltaics

The development of hybrid organic-inorganic halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) that combine high performance and operational stability is vital for implementing this technology. Recently, reversible improvement and degradation of PSC efficiency have been reported under illumination-darkness cycling. Quantifying the performance and stability of cells exhibiting significant diurnal performance variations is challenging. We report the outdoor stability measurements of two types of devices showing either reversible photo-degradation or reversible efficiency improvement under sunlight. Instead of the initial (or stabilized) efficiency and T as the figures of merit for the performance and stability of such devices, we propose using the value of the energy output generated during the first day of exposure and the time needed to reach its 20% drop, respectively. The latter accounts for both the long-term irreversible degradation and the reversible diurnal efficiency variation and does not depend on the type of process prevailing in a given perovskite cell

Dynamics of Photoinduced Degradation of Perovskite Photovoltaics: From Reversible to Irreversible Processes

The operational stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) remains a limiting factor in their commercial implementation. We studied the long-term outdoor stability of ITO/SnO₂/Cs_0.05((CH₃NH₃)_0.15(CH­(NH₂)₂)_0.85)_0.95PbI_2.55Br_0.45/spiro-OMeTAD/Au cells, as well as the dynamics of their degradation, under simulated sunlight indoors and their recovery in the dark. The extent of overall degradation was found to depend on processes occurring both under illumination and in the dark, i.e., during the daytime and nighttime, with the dynamics varying with cell aging. Full recovery of efficiency in the dark was observed for cells at early degradation stages. Further cell degradation resulted in recovery times much longer than one night, appearing as irreversible degradation under real operational conditions. At later degradation stages, very different dynamics were observed: short-circuit current density and fill factor exhibited a pronounced drop upon light turn-off but strong improvement under subsequent illumination. The interplay of reversible and irreversible degradation processes with different recovery dynamics was demonstrated to result in changes in the cell’s diurnal PCE dependence during its operational lifespan under real sunlight conditions