This paper deals with a simulation assessment of the impact of the introduction of ETCS L2 and L3 on the capacity of railway lines. The simulation itself is carried out in the OpenTrack simulation ...software, especially in the tool headway calculator. For this research, an infrastructure model has been built, which represents a typical layout of lines and stations in the Czech Republic. By successive modifications of the model, the significance of the impact of the implementation of ATP systems on the capacity of lines can be simulated. In the paper, the influence of the implementation of different application levels of ATP systems on the capacity of railway lines is evaluated.
Ensuring the greatest possible interoperability of rail transport, especially for railways in Europe, is one of the key projects to be implemented using the European Rail Traffic Management System ...(ERTMS), including the European Train Control System (ETCS) and the Global System for Mobile Communications-Railways (GSM-R). The ERTMS system aims to replace many different rail traffic control systems with one, common and unified European solution (Commission Regulation (EU) 2016/919, 2016), (Directive (EU) 2016/797, n.d.). Its creation was dictated by the desire to standardize the traffic control systems present in the territories of various European countries, at the same time extending their functionality and eliminating the existing technical barriers. The aim of this article is to present the possibility of implementation interoperability tests - IOP tests, on Polish railways. These tests are intended to provide a faster, more accurate and less costly demonstration of compliance with the ETCS interoperability requirements compared to field tests. The work defines the concept of interoperability tests as well as the purpose of their application. The general principles and procedures for conducting interoperability tests are presented. In the further part of the work, the operation of laboratories in the European Union is analysed. The laboratories functional in Switzerland and Spain were selected for this analysis. Following, the paper presents the validity of implementing interoperability tests on the territory of the Republic of Poland. On the basis of the pan-European procedure of conducting interoperability tests and the experience of foreign independent laboratories, conditions for the implementation of tests in the Polish railways were developed, which could be used in the future to introduce IOP tests in Poland.
Over the recent years, an increase in the demand for passenger and freight rail transport services has been observed. This is mainly owingto the policy objectives related to the use eco-friendly ...means of transport and the investment causing the quality ofrail services to grow. Along with the growing demand for rail transport, a problem of railway capacity utilisation has emerged. Although the implementation of the new Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system increases the safety level, but under some scenarios, it may decrease the headways between trains. At the same time, the ATP systems enables train positioning based on odometry calculation and reporting it to the trackside system. This paper proposes a solution thatinvolves application of virtual blocksections which use the train position reporting feature of the ATP system for the determination of non-occupancy. Virtual blocks can successfully reduce headways in railway lines without increasing the number of trackside signalling devices. The capacity assessment proposed under the study was performed to calculate the average headway depending on the signalling system configuration.
Railway infrastructure operators need to push their network capacity up to their limits in high-traffic corridors. Virtual coupling is considered among the most relevant innovations to be studied ...within the European Horizon 2020 Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking as it can drastically reduce headways and thus increase the line capacity by allowing to dynamically connect two or more trains in a single convoy. This paper provides a proof of concept of Virtual coupling by introducing a specific operating mode within the European rail traffic management system/European train control system (ERTMS/ETCS) standard specification, and by defining a coupling control algorithm accounting for time-varying delays affecting the communication links. To that aim, we define one ploy to enrich the ERTMS/ETCS with Virtual coupling without changing its working principles and we borrow a numerical analysis methodology used to study platooning in the automotive field. The numerical analysis is also provided to support the proof of concept with quantitative results in a case-study simulation scenario.
This article studies the event-triggered stochastic synchronization problem for neutral-type semi-Markovian jump (SMJ) neural networks with partial mode-dependent additive time-varying delays (ATDs), ...where the SMJ parameters in two ATDs are considered to be not completely the same as the one in the connection weight matrices of the systems. Different from the weak infinitesimal operator of multi-Markov processes, a new one for the double semi-Markovian processes (SMPs) is first proposed. To reduce the conservative of the stability criteria, a generalized reciprocally convex combination inequality (RCCI) is established by the virtue of an interesting technique. Then, based on an eligible stochastic Lyapunov-Krasovski functional, three novel stability criteria for the studied systems are derived by employing the new RCCI and combining with a well-designed event-triggered control scheme. Finally, three numerical examples and one practical engineering example are presented to show the validity of our methods.
The article presents a model of connection of ETCS application and classical base layer equipment. The model distinguishes three layers: physical, logic and data, which require different modelling ...techniques and at the same time must be consistent. The model will form the basis for the digital mapping in the Digital Twin of the ETCS application. Layer division is a natural way to represent the structure of a device and its operating rules. It allows a detailed and structured representation of the interfaces of a connection and then an analysis of the connection both with respect to the layer of interest and from the point of view of the interaction between features in the different layers. The S-interface of the LEU encoder of the ETCS is described, taking into account different solutions encountered in practice. The conditions of the connection between the LEU encoder and the environment form a description of one of the two boundaries between the ETCS application, i.e. the implemented ERTMS/ETCS on a specific area of the railway network, and the environment. A general connection model and definitions of a connection and an interface are presented. As an example, the electrical connection with signals transmitted through galvanic connections has been assumed to be typical for LEU encoder and track-side signalling control circuits found in base layer equipment. The physical layer is described in terms of physical parameters and their values. The parameters are divided into electrical (current, voltage and frequency) and mechanical ones (number of leads, conductor thickness, etc.). The values of the electrical parameters are expressed in terms of a uncountable set with defined limits. The logic layer was described in a vector-matrix form. Logic signals are assigned to electrical signals with specific physical parameters. The data layer contains information about the assignment of specific telegrams to specific electrical signals.
Background
Effective cancer treatment relies on precision diagnostics. In cytology, an accurate diagnosis facilitates the determination of proper therapeutics for patients with cancer. Previously, ...the authors developed a multiplexed immunofluorescent panel to detect epithelial malignancies from pleural effusion specimens. Their assay reliably distinguished effusion tumor cells (ETCs) from nonmalignant cells; however, it lacked the capacity to reveal specific cancer origin information. Furthermore, DNA profiling of ETCs revealed some, but not all, cancer‐driver mutations.
Methods
The authors developed a new multiplex immunofluorescent panel that detected both malignancy and pulmonary origin by incorporating the thyroid transcription factor‐1 (TTF‐1) biomarker. Evaluation for TTF‐1–positive ETCs (T‐ETCs) was performed on 12 patient samples. T‐ETCs and parallel ETCs from selected patients were collected and subjected to DNA profiling to identify pathogenic mutations. All samples were obtained with Institutional Review Board approval.
Results
Malignancy was detected in all samples. T‐ETCs were identified in 9 of 10 patients who had clinically reported TTF‐1 positivity (90% sensitivity and 100% specificity). Furthermore, DNA profiling of as few as five T‐ETCs identified pathogenic mutations with equal or greater sensitivity compared with profiling of ETCs, both of which showed high concordance with clinical findings.
Conclusions
The findings suggest that the immunofluorescent and molecular characterization of tumor cells from pleural effusion specimens can provide reliable diagnostic information, even with very few cells. The integration of site‐specific biomarkers like TTF‐1 into ETC analysis may facilitate better refined diagnosis and improve patient care.
The lung adenocarcinoma‐specific biomarker TTF‐1 was incorporated into an epithelial malignancy detection panel to determine the cancer origin of effusion tumor cells identified from pleural effusion specimens. Molecular profiling of five TTF‐1–positive effusion tumor cells revealed pathogenic mutations with great sensitivity compared with clinical testing.
This paper evaluates the capacity effect of ERTMS/ETCS Hybrid Level 3 (HL3, also known as Hybrid Train Detection, HTD) on a conceptual level by looking at a scenario with two trains and on a network ...level. Key performance indicators help evaluate the results of implementing HL3: headway for the conceptual model and capacity utilization and punctuality for the network level. The study uses the simulation tool RailSys for both levels. A case study on the interaction between two trains examines how various lengths of virtual blocks affect the performance indicator headway. The network scale simulations use a real-world infrastructure and a complete timetable. Two cases examine how the performance indicators capacity utilization and punctuality are affected by the share of Level 2 and Level 3 trains in a HL3 system. Results from the conceptual two-train interaction show that HL3 slightly improves the headway, but it is similar for varying virtual block lengths. The results from the network model indicate the share of Level 2 and Level 3 trains has minimal effect on punctuality and capacity utilization. However, we identified some factors influencing the HL3 capacity evaluation, like stations and switches on the line, that affect the potential capacity gains.
Smart sensors have become pervasive in railway transportation applications, particularly in Europe where digital technologies are increasingly being applied to the railway signalling field. In the ...future, safety-critical track-side train detection equipment, such as track circuits and axle counters, will be eliminated in favor of an accurate position estimate supplied by the train. However, the best approach to calculate an accurate position estimate remains an open research question, especially due to the high availability and reliability required. This paper describes two static experiments performed with a GNSS module, which demonstrate that the real-world accuracy achievable with GNSS and Real Time Kinematic (RTK) alone is not sufficient for safety-critical applications, meaning further complementary sensors are required. Furthermore, a custom sensor node containing a GNSS module with RTK and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) has been used to acquire several data sets from an operating passenger train during dynamic tests on a railway line between Formigine and Modena, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. These labeled GNSS and IMU data have been made freely available to the scientific community. The positioning accuracy of the GNSS and RTK measurements is evaluated, providing an in-depth study of the localization error and satellite coverage on the entire route. We demonstrate, with experimental evaluation, that centimeter accuracy (1.9 ± 0.8 cm) is achievable under favorable static conditions, while accuracy can deteriorate to 8m with RTK in urban scenarios with many reflections and poor sky view, worse than with GNSS alone. Under controlled conditions we show that shielding the GNSS receiver without RTK with a grounded metal plate causes a reduction in accuracy from 0.80 ± 0.04m to 3.70 ± 0.55m in the least and most shielded case respectively. Our dynamic tests on a train show that although at least meter-level accuracy (1.08 ± 1.30 m) is achievable with GNSS and RTK alone under dynamic conditions, a sensor fusion approach is necessary to accurately localize trains when GNSS conditions are poor or GNSS is unavailable.
PDF
