Guiding Principles on Implementing Workers' Right to Disconnect

The world of work is experiencing a digital revolution. The growing use of digital and technological tools over the last few decades has made it possible to work anywhere and anytime. The Covid-19 pandemic only increased the pace of this development. Whereas the digitalisation of work and the expansion of telework present potential advantages in terms of flexibility, productivity and conciliation, these trends can also result in an intensification of work, long working hours, the blurring of limits between work and rest time or increased stress arising from continuous surveillance and monitoring of performance and productivity. These factors can, in turn, negatively affect the physical and psychological health of employees. As a consequence, it seems necessary to regulate some aspects of the new digital work environment with the aim of offsetting at least some of the negative impacts deriving from the frequent use of digital work tools. It is in this context that the right to disconnect (R2D) becomes relevant. The ten fundamental principles (Guiding Principles) herein set a regulatory foundation for the R2D in Europe. These cover aspects that ought to be considered when drawing up standards, to ensure a balanced regulation of the R2D

Development and in-vitro characterization of an implantable flow sensing transducer for hydrocephalus

An implantable transducer for monitoring the flow of Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for the treatment of hydrocephalus has been developed which is based on measuring the heat dissipation of a local thermal source. The transducer uses passive telemetry at 13.56MHz for power supply and read out of the measured flow rate. The in vitro performance of the transducer has been characterized using artificial Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) with increased protein concentration and artificial CSF with 10% fresh blood. After fresh blood was added to the artificial CSF a reduction of flow rate has been observed in case that the sensitive surface of the flow sensor is close to the sedimented erythrocytes. An increase of flow rate has been observed in case that the sensitive surface is in contact with the remaining plasma/artificial CSF mix above the sediment which can be explained by an asymmetric flow profile caused by the sedimentation of erythrocythes having increased viscosity compared to artificial CSF. After removal of blood from artificial CSF, no drift could be observed in the transducer measurement which could be associated to a deposition of proteins at the sensitive surface walls of the packaged flow transducer. The flow sensor specification requirement of +−10% for a flow range between 2ml/h and 40ml/h. could be confirmed at test conditions of 37°