"Bound for precariousness"

Ryanair, en los últimos años, ha sido objeto de crítica por las condiciones laborales de sus tripulantes que muchos denuncian como precarias. Son numerosas las quejas de la tripulación de la aerolínea en relación a sus salarios, horarios, seguridad y en definitiva, derechos laborales. Multitud de trabajadores expresan continuamente su preocupación por la falta de derechos laborales que existen en la compañía. Los sindicatos afirman que la empresa no reconoce el derecho de sus empleados a la negociación colectiva, lo que dificulta la capacidad de los tripulantes de cabina de pasajeros (TCP) de la aerolínea para negociar unas mejores condiciones laborales y erradicar la precariedad. Algunos empleados también denuncian la falta de protección contra el despido arbitrario y las vejaciones por parte de la aerolínea. En respuesta a estas preocupaciones, los TCP de Ryanair han organizado diversas huelgas y manifestaciones por la geografía europea. Los sindicatos también han negociado con la compañía para intentar cambiar las condiciones laborales y apostar por su mejoría. Sin embargo, el sentimiento general radica en la falta de disposición por parte de Ryanair a escuchar las demandas de sus empleados y la necesidad de mayor presión de los mandos de gobierno para que se tomen medidas significativas. La precariedad laboral que sufren los tripulantes de cabina de pasajeros de Ryanair es un tema de gran peso e interés que debe abordarse en su plenitud para descubrir en qué se sustenta y por qué esto es así. Este reportaje, intenta acaparar los temas más polémicos de la compañía que hacen de su tripulación unos empleados exhaustos sin un ambiente sano de trabajo cercado por la precariedad.Ryanair, in recent years, has been criticised for the working conditions of its crew members, which many denounce as precarious. There are many complaints from the airline's crew regarding their wages, schedules, safety and, in short, labour rights. Many workers continually express their concern about the lack of labour rights in the company. Unions claim that the company does not recognise the right of its employees to collective bargaining, which hampers the ability of the airline's flight attendants to negotiate better working conditions and eradicate precariousness. Some employees also denounce the lack of protection against arbitrary dismissal and harassment by the airline. In response to these concerns, Ryanair's Flight Attendants have organised several strikes and demonstrations across Europe. Unions have also negotiated with the airline to try to change working conditions and work for their improvement. However, the general feeling is that Ryanair is unwilling to listen to the demands of its employees and that more pressure needs to be brought to bear on government officials to take meaningful action. The precariousness of work experienced by Ryanair cabin crew is an issue of great weight and interest that needs to be fully addressed to discover what underpins it and why this is so. This report attempts to capture the company's most controversial issues that make its crew exhausted employees without a healthy working environment surrounded by precariousness.Universidad de Sevilla. Grado en Periodism

Development of model based sensors for the supervision of a solar dryer

Solar dryers are increasingly used in developing countries as an alternative to drying in open air, however the inherent variability of the drying conditions during day and along year drive the need for achieving low cost sensors that would enable to characterize the drying process and to react accordingly. This paper provides three different and complementary approaches for model based sensors that make use of the psychrometric properties of the air inside the drying chamber and the temperature oscillations of the wood along day. The simplest smart sensor, Smart-1, using only two Sensirion sensors, allows to estimate the accumulated water extracted from wood along a complete drying cycle with a correlation coefficient of 0.97. Smart-2 is a model based sensor that relays on the diffusion kinetics by means of assesing temperature and relative humidity of the air inside the kiln. Smart-2 model allows to determine the diffusivity, being the average value of D for the drying cycle studied equal to 5.14 × 10−10 m2 s−1 and equal to 5.12 × 10−10 m2 s−1 for two experiments respectively. The multidistributed supervision of the dryer shows up the lack of uniformity in drying conditions supported by the wood planks located in the inner or center of the drying chamber where constant drying rate kinetics predominate. Finally, Smart-3 indicates a decreasing efficiency along the drying process from 0.9 to 0.

Prospectives of monitoring biological activity in a red-legged partridge incubator with a carbon dioxide probe

This study focuses on the relationship between CO2 production and the ultimate hatchability of the incubation. A total amount of 43316 eggs of red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) were supervised during five actual incubations: three in 2012 and two in 2013. The CO2 concentration inside the incubator was monitored over a 20-day period, showing sigmoidal growth from ambient level (428 ppm) up to 1700 ppm in the incubation with the highest hatchability. Two sigmoid growth models (logistic and Gompertz) were used to describe the CO2 production by the eggs, with the result that the logistic model was a slightly better fit (r2=0.976 compared to r2=0.9746 for Gompertz). A coefficient of determination of 0.997 between the final CO2 estimation (ppm) using the logistic model and hatchability (%) was found

Assessing the dynamic behavior of wsn motes and rfid semi-passive tags for temperature monitoring.

A notorious advantage of wireless transmission is a significant reduction and simplification in wiring and harness. There are a lot of applications of wireless systems, but in many occasions sensor nodes require a specific housing to protect the electronics from hush environmental conditions. Nowadays the information is scarce and nonspecific on the dynamic behaviour of WSN and RFID. Therefore the purpose of this study is to evaluate the dynamic behaviour of the sensors. A series of trials were designed and performed covering temperature steps between cold room (5 °C), room temperature (23 °C) and heated environment (35 °C). As sensor nodes: three Crossbow motes, a surface mounted Nlaza module (with sensor Sensirion located on the motherboard), an aerial mounted Nlaza where the Sensirion sensor stayed at the end of a cable), and four tags RFID Turbo Tag (T700 model with and without housing), and 702-B (with and without housing). To assess the dynamic behaviour a first order response approach is used and fitted with dedicated optimization tools programmed in Matlab that allow extracting the time response (?) and corresponding determination coefficient (r2) with regard to experimental data. The shorter response time (20.9 s) is found for the uncoated T 700 tag which encapsulated version provides a significantly higher response (107.2 s). The highest ? corresponds to the Crossbow modules (144.4 s), followed by the surface mounted Nlaza module (288.1 s), while the module with aerial mounted sensor gives a response certainly close above to the T700 without coating (42.8 s). As a conclusion, the dynamic response of temperature sensors within wireless and RFID nodes is dramatically influenced by the way they are housed (to protect them from the environment) as well as by the heat released by the node electronics itself; its characterization is basic to allow monitoring of high rate temperature changes and to certify the cold chain. Besides the time to rise and to recover is significantly different being mostly higher for the latter than for the former

Smart Sensing Applications in the Agriculture and Food Industry

This chapter is structured in three main sections: an introduction to the smart concept and smart quality control, a review of the state of the art in integrated sensors, embedded systems, and the third one which is dedicated to a review of three case studies. The case studies refer to three results lines that are under taken by the LPF-TAGRALIA in the field of smart sensing. It provides examples of how to develop smart capabilities within standard low cost sensors. A variety of smart capabilities have been selected such as dynamic analysis of physical magnitudes, transmission diagnosis and such reliability and a full range of examples of analytical models of wood drying that can be incorporated to sensor chips to enhance sensor performs and to enable the term smart sensor. Each of the three sections of the chapter is independent and so the reader can decide where to start from according to their particular expertise. For unfamiliar readers with smart technologies, all of them might be of interest, while for experienced readers in the subject the case studies directly are probably the most relevant issue

Plataforma de control de bajo coste para incubadoras de perdices basada en sensores ambientales y de gases.

Las incubadoras de huevos requieren un buen control de la temperatura (37.5-37.8 ºC) y de la humedad relativa (45-60%) durante todo el proceso de incubación. Aunque la concentración de dióxido de carbono es determinante para establecer una buena tasa de ventilación, así como para determinar el estado de proceso de desarrollo de los embriones (De Smit et al., 2006; Han et al., 2011), las incubadoras industriales normalmente no incorporan sensor de CO2. En trabajos previos de los autores se realizó la modelización del gradiente de temperatura y humedad relativa en el interior de una incubadora semi-industrial usando una red tridimensional de sensores, observándose que las variaciones espaciales eran despreciables; haciendo posible usar un único sensor en un punto de control. En dichos ensayos previos se emplearon módulos comerciales de adquisición de datos y de control, cuyo principal inconveniente es el coste considerando el perfil del usuario final: empresario cinegético a tiempo parcial en esta actividad. En la actualidad existen diversas plataformas de hardware y software libre con un bajo coste que se pueden emplear para controlar y monitorizar procesos a través de sus entradas y salidas digitales y analógicas. Una de estas plataformas es Arduino, creada en 2005 como una herramienta para estudiantes. En este trabajo se presenta el diseño y validación de un sistema de control de una incubadora industrial de perdices, empleando un sensor de temperatura y humedad relativa y un sensor de CO2 basado en la tecnología de infrarrojo no dispersivo (NDIR),conectados a una placa ArduinoTM MEGA. La producción de CO2 se ha empleado para modelizar el desarrollo embrionario de los huevos, y estimar el punto final de la incubación. Se dispone de datos relativos a la tasa de nacimientos, en todos los casos cercana al 70%; muy elevado considerando que se desconoce la tasa inicial de huevos fecundados

Design of a solar incubator. Part 1: Monitoring temperature and enthalpy gradients under commercial production

The real increase in energy prices and the intention of reducing pollutant emissions in developed countries makes interesting to use solar energy in all the processes where its application is possible. As it is demonstrated in countries sited at latitudes with optimal conditions of solar radiation and temperature, it is possible to use solar energy as heat source for small-scale hatchery [1,2], but beyond, making a design for proper installation; it is possible to use solar energy as main or support energy source in medium and large size incubators . Monitoring of a normal actual process using temperature and relative humidity sensors is necessary to know the actual operating conditions that the solar heating system must be designed and sized for. Moreover, the identification and analysis of temperature and enthalpy gradients inside the incubator is of major importance

Empagliflozin reduces vascular damage and cognitive impairment in a mixed murine model of Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes

Background Both Alzheimer's disease (AD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) share common pathological features including inflammation, insulin signaling alterations, or vascular damage. AD has no successful treatment, and the close relationship between both diseases supports the study of antidiabetic drugs to limit or slow down brain pathology in AD. Empagliflozin (EMP) is a sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor, the newest class of antidiabetic agents. EMP controls hyperglycemia and reduces cardiovascular comorbidities and deaths associated to T2D. Therefore, we have analyzed the role of EMP at the central level in a complex mouse model of AD-T2D. Methods We have treated AD-T2D mice (APP/PS1xdb/db mice) with EMP 10 mg/kg for 22 weeks. Glucose, insulin, and body weight were monthly assessed. We analyzed learning and memory in the Morris water maze and the new object discrimination test. Postmortem brain assessment was conducted to measure brain atrophy, senile plaques, and amyloid-beta levels. Tau phosphorylation, hemorrhage burden, and microglia were also measured in the brain after EMP treatment. Results EMP treatment helped to maintain insulin levels in diabetic mice. At the central level, EMP limited cortical thinning and reduced neuronal loss in treated mice. Hemorrhage and microglia burdens were also reduced in EMP-treated mice. Senile plaque burden was lower, and these effects were accompanied by an amelioration of cognitive deficits in APP/PS1xdb/db mice. Conclusions Altogether, our data support a feasible role for EMP to reduce brain complications associated to AD and T2D, including classical pathological features and vascular disease, and supporting further assessment of EMP at the central level

Development of smart sensors for the supervision of a solar dryer: agro-products dehydration application

Solar dryers are increasingly used in developing countries as an alternative to drying in open air, however the inherent variability of the drying conditions during day and along year drive the need for achieving low cost sensors that would enable to characterize the drying process and to react accordingly. This paper provides an approach for smart sensors that make use of the psychrometric properties of the air inside the drying chamber along day. The proposed model shows a high agreement with bibliographic dat

Registro y análisis del historial térmico durante el almacenamiento y el transporte refrigerado de productos mínimamente procesados

En este estudio se presenta el análisis de las temperaturas registradas durante el almacenamiento y el transporte refrigerado de un pequeño lote de hortalizas de hoja mínimamente procesadas, monitorizadas mediante tarjetas Turbotag® y sensores inalámbricos Nlaza ubicados en el interior de las bolsas y en diferentes lugares de las cajas de cartón que contienen esas bolsas. El objetivo de este trabajo es generar protocolos de distribución y configuración de sensores y de procesado y análisis de los datos para el seguimiento y control continuo de la temperatura durante el transporte de productos refrigerados; se centra en el potencial de la utilización de la sensórica inalámbrica, evaluando la capacidad de los sensores en la obtención de datos y su comunicación, evaluando la cantidad de paquetes perdidos Abstract This study presents an analysis of the temperatures during storage and refrigerated transport of a small batch of minimally processed leafy vegetables, monitored by TurboTag® cards and wireless sensors Nlaza located inside the bags and in different places cardboard boxes containing the bags. The aim of this paper is to generate distribution protocols and configuration of sensors and processing and analysis of data for continuous monitoring and control of temperature during transport of refrigerated products. It focuses on the potential use of wireless sensor evaluating the ability of the sensor data acquisition and communication, evaluating the packet los