Railway switch and crossing (S&C) systems have a very complex structure that requires not only a large number of components (such as rails, check rails, switches, crossings, turnout bearers, slide chair, etc.) but also different types of components and technologies (mechanical devices to operate switches, electrical and/or electronic devices for control, etc.). This complexity of railway S&C systems makes them vulnerable to failures and malfunctions that can ultimately cause delays and even fatal accidents. Thus, it is crucial to develop suitable condition monitoring techniques to deal with fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) in railway S&C systems. The main contribution of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of the existing FDD techniques for railway S&C systems. The aim is to overview the state of the art in rail S&C and in doing so to provide a platform for researchers, railway operators, and experts to research, develop and adopt the best methods for their applications; thereby helping ensure the rapid evolution of monitoring and fault detection in the railway industry at a time of the increased interest in condition based maintenance and the use of high-speed trains on the rail network.

Currently, a number of positioning systems are in use to locate trains on the railway network; but these generally have limited precision. Thus, this paper focuses on testing and validating the suitability of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, for aligning vehicles to switch and crossing (S&C) positions on the railway network. This offers the possibility of accurately knowing the position of vehicles equipped with monitoring equipment, such as the network rail track recording vehicle (TRV), and aligning the data with reference to the locations of the S&C (and ideally to key elements within a particular S&C). The concept is to install two tags, one on the switch-toe sleeper and the second on the crossing-nose sleeper, with an RFID reader that will be installed underneath the vehicle. Thus, the key features of the S&C, the switch toe and crossing nose, will be considered as a definitive reference point for the inspection vehicle’s position. As a monitoring vehicle passes over a piece of S&C, the proposed positioning system will provide information about this S&C’s ID, which is stored inside the RFID tags and will indicate the S&C’s GPS coordinates. As part of the research in this paper, more than 400 tests have been performed to investigate two different RFID technologies, passive and semi-passive, tested in a variety of conditions: including different passage speeds, different distances between the RFID reader and the tags, and varied strength signal transmitted between the reader and the tags. Based on lab testing and analysis of the recorded data, it is concluded that passive RFID technology is the most suitable of the two technologies. The conclusions find that the proposed RFID-based solution can offer a more precise positioning solution to be a reference point for the train location within the network.

This paper presents work resulting from a collaboration between obstetricians and researchers. It shows the benefits from the use of an instrumented childbirth simulator for the training of obstetricians and midwives. This new tool allows to surpass the constraints linked to the traditional training in a childbirth ward. This simulator training is designed to complete the traditional training used in teaching hospitals. Such a training allows residents to acquire a beginning experience before training in a childbirth ward but it also allows instructors to improve the teaching gestures without constraints. A clinical study of the forceps blades placement gesture with several residents who trained on a childbirth simulator is made. The results clearly show the progress in the obstetric gestures of all the residents who have used the simulator