[Comparative analysis of the volume and structure of non-violent death in St. Petersburg and Novgorod region over the past 5 years]. / Sravnitel'nyi analiz ob"ema i struktury nenasil'stvennoi smerti v Sankt-Peterburge i Novgorodskoi oblasti za poslednie 5 let.

The purpose of the work is to study the dynamics of the volume and structure of forensic medical research on cases of non-violent death in the Russian Federation for the period from 2016 to 2020 using the example of two regions of the Federation that differ in socio-economic terms. The material for the study was the annual reports of the «St. Medical Examination¼ and «Novgorod Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination¼. It was established that during the study period in St. Petersburg and the Novgorod region, non-violent death was dominant in the structure of forensic medical examinations of corpses, accounting for about 80%. The leading place was occupied by diseases of the circulatory system and neoplasms, they were more common among residents of the Novgorod region. A positive fact was that since 2016, the residents of the Novgorod region, in contrast to the residents of St. Petersburg, there has been a trend towards a decrease in the number of deaths from diseases of the cardiovascular system. Mortality from oncological diseases increased from year to year in both subjects of the Federation. The most rare causes of death were infectious diseases and diseases of the nervous system. For both groups of diseases, higher mortality was also among residents of the Novgorod region. Both in St. Petersburg and in the Novgorod region there was a gradual decrease in the total number of cases of stillbirths and deaths of children under the age of 1 year. For the entire study period, this indicator, as for most diseases, was higher in the Novgorod region. In the year of the spread of a new coronavirus infection, mortality from most non-communicable diseases increased.

[Forensic characteristics of traumatic cartridges of caliber 18×45 mm and 18.5×55 mm of the OSA complex]. / Sudebno-meditsinskaya kharakteristika patronov travmaticheskogo deistviya kalibra 18×45 i 18,5×55 mm kompleksa OSA.

The purpose of the work is to show how, from the day it was created, the cartridges for barrelless firearms of limited destruction of the OSA complex changed. The main structural changes of cartridges of caliber 18x45 mm and 18.5x55 mm, affecting the nature of damage to the human body, are noted. It is shown that the general patterns of damage from modern bullets without a metal core are in many respects similar to the damage resulting from the firing of bullets of old specimens with a metal core. General recommendations are given for assessing the damage caused by pistols of the OCA complex.

[Fatal wound from a PB-2 pistol of the OSA complex with a bullet of cartridge 18x45TD]. / Smertel'noe ranenie iz pistoleta PB-2 kompleksa OSA pulei patrona 18×45TD.

Bullets without a metal core are almost the only ones currently produced for the OSA complex. In the available forensic literature there are small number of cases of the description of injuries using this cartridge. The article presents a case from practice when, in the course of forensic medical research, not only the type of cartridge used was established, but also the conclusion was drawn about the use of barrelless firearms of limited destruction, equipped with two cartridges at the same time - the PB-2 Egida pistol. This allowed police authorities to quickly identify the criminal person.

[Problematic issues of the forensic medical examination of a fatal injury induced by modern small-scale water transport]. / Problemnye voprosy sudebno-meditsinskoi ekspertizy smertel'noi travmy, prichinennoi sovremennym malomernym vodnym transportom.

Relevance of studying the conditions and mechanisms for the formation of water transport trauma is evaluated on the example of forensic medical situational examination of a young girl, who received multiple injuries with a propeller and keel of a speedboat. The victim died from drowning in water. Authors present the features of the morphology of chopped injuries on the skin and flat bones of the skull, proving the fact that they were caused by the screw of one of the three vehicles suspected of hitting victim and causing her severe traumatic brain injury during swimming time. Attention is drawn to the need for strict adherence to safety rules on water, including in places of mass rest and large crowds.

[New possibilities for determining the sex and age group of an adult on the basis of the frequency analysis of combinations of dermatoglyphic signs of fingers]. / Novye vozmozhnosti diagnostiki polovoi prinadlezhnosti i vozrastnoi gruppy vzroslogo cheloveka na osnove chastotnogo analiza sochetanii dermatoglificheskikh priznakov pal'tsev ruk.

The possibilities of determining the sex and age group of an adult on the basis of frequency analysis of combinations of dermatoglyphic signs are presented. The study established new, highly informative dermatoglyphic markers of general physiological traits, with a multiplicity of differences from 5 to 59 (p<0.05) in alternative comparison groups formed by sex and age groups of 18 to 35 years and 36 to 77 years. It was found that the combination of acquired signs of raised skin (white lines and scars) is more informative if compared to the combination of congenital signs (types of patterns, outlines of papillary ridges). Depending on the number of fingers studied, the total occurrence of informative combinations can be 37.8 - 64.4% (one finger) to 96.9% (5 fingers of one hand). The result opens up the prospect for the application of a dermatoglyphic research method in the identification of persons from fragmented human remains and fingerprints found at the scene of an accident.

[The blunt open injury to the lower extremities resulting from the overextension of the knee joint]. / Tupaia otkrytaia travma nizhnikh konechnostei v rezul'tate izbytochnogo razgibaniia kolennykh sustavov.

This article reports a case of the blunt open injury to the lower extremities resulting from the overextension of the knee joint that, despite it severity, turned out to be a mere accompanying event of a more serious condition. This case is of great interest in the context of forensic medical expertise by virtue of the apparent discrepancy between the extent of the injury and the circumstances of the accident. Clearly, such discrepancy may influence the reliability of the expert conclusion as regards the evaluation of such injury.

[A rare case of suicide carried out by firearm]. / Redkii sluchai samoubiistva iz ognestrel'nogo oruzhiia.

This article reports the rare case of suicide carried out with the use of the firearm. Subject K. suffered three mortal wounds he inflicted to himself by shooting from the 9.0 mm 'Viking' pistol when performing training exercises at a shooting range of DOSAAF (Russian abbreviation for the Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Navy). The case is of special interest in the context of forensic medical expertise because it clearly shows the occurrence of the suicidal events in the practical work of the forensic medical experts in which the victim himself makes damages that are at first sight impossible to make of one's own free will.

[About the estimation of the possibility of carrying out of several self-inflicted fatal injuries by the victim]. / K otsenke vozmozhnosti naneseniia sebe neskol'kikh smertel'nykh povrezhdenii samim postradavshim.

Forensic medical experts are not infrequently faced in their practical work with the question of the possibility of inflicting body injuries by the victim to himself (herself). In such cases, the law-enforcement authorities are in the first place interested not in the possibility of such self-inflicted injuries but rather in the correspondence between the character of the injuries and the circumstances of the event that needs to be objectively established in the course of the forensic medical expertise. The cases of multiple severe self-inflicted injuries in which all the witnesses were one way or another involved in the accident as the participants of the fight with the victim, attract especially close attention and require careful examination. The authors present a case that evolved into a massive public outcry in which a car driver, supposedly under the influence of narcotic drugs, provoked a road traffic accident and the conflict with other road users after which he inflicted severe stab and slash wounds to himself by five knife hits to the left half of the chest.

[Forensic medical expertise in Saint-Petersburg in the period from the XVIII and the early XX centuries: the sources and organization of the forensic medical expert activity]. / Sudebno-meditsinskaia ékspertiza v Sankt-Peterburge v KhVIII - nachale KhKh veka: istoki i organizatsiia ékspertnoi raboty.

This article contains information about the organization of the forensic medical expert investigation in the city of Saint-Petersburg since the time of its foundation. The sources of origin of the first Russian service of forensic medical expertise as a component of the state-supported healthcare system, as exemplified by the Saint-Petersburg state healthcare institution 'Bureau of Forensic Medical Expertise', are described.

[About some peculiar features of gunshot wounds inflicted by shot-gun cartridges for the short-barreled weapons of the limited injurious power]. / K osobennostiam ognestrel'nykh ranenii drobovymi patronami dlia korotkostvol'nogo oruzhiia ogranichennogo porazheniia.

The cases of application of 'non-standard' ammunition constitute a serious challenge for the forensic medical expertise. Bearing in mind the importance of this issue, the authors report a case encountered in their practical work, namely a gunshot wound inflicted by the 'non-standard' shot-gun cartridges for the short-barreled weapons of the limited injurious power that required the expert evaluation. The case under consideration illustrates the peculiar features of the gunshot wound inflicted by 'non-standard' shot-gun cartridges for the short-barreled weapons of the limited injurious power. Moreover, the forensic medical expertise of this case exemplifies the effectiveness of the cooperation between various department of the Saint-Petersburg Bureau of Forensic Medical Expertise during investigation of the case being considered.

[Forensic medical expertise in Petrograd - Leningrad - Saint-Petersburg in the XX-XXI centuries: the past and the present]. / Sudebno-meditsinskaia ékspertiza v Petrograde - Leningrade - Sankt-Peterburge v KhKh-KhKhI vekakh: proshloe i nastoiashchee.

The Saint-Petersburg state healthcare institution 'Bureau of Forensic Medical Expertise' (SPb SBHCI 'Bureau of Forensic Medical Expertise') celebrated its 100th anniversary on April 9, 2018. This article provides information concerning the organization and management of the forensic medical expertise system in Petrograd, Leningrad, and Saint-Petersburg in the XX-XXI centuries. The data on the staff composition of the Bureau and character of its activities are presented together with the outline of its main directions and practical achievements.

The ω-SQUIPT as a tool to phase-engineer Josephson topological materials.

Multi-terminal superconducting Josephson junctions based on the proximity effect offer the opportunity to tailor non-trivial quantum states in nanoscale weak links. These structures can realize exotic topologies in several dimensions, for example, artificial topological superconductors that are able to support Majorana bound states, and pave the way to emerging quantum technologies and future quantum information schemes. Here we report the realization of a three-terminal Josephson interferometer based on a proximized nanosized weak link. Our tunnelling spectroscopy measurements reveal transitions between gapped (that is, insulating) and gapless (conducting) states that are controlled by the phase configuration of the three superconducting leads connected to the junction. We demonstrate the topological nature of these transitions: a gapless state necessarily occurs between two gapped states of different topological indices, in much the same way that the interface between two insulators of different topologies is necessarily conducting. The topological numbers that characterize such gapped states are given by superconducting phase windings over the two loops that form the Josephson interferometer. As these gapped states cannot be transformed to one another continuously without passing through a gapless condition, they are topologically protected. The same behaviour is found for all of the points of the weak link, confirming that this topology is a non-local property. Our observation of the gapless state is pivotal for enabling phase engineering of different and more sophisticated artificial topological materials.

[The specific age-related palmometric features of an adult subject].

In connection with the variability and as a consequence of the poor diagnostic value of the external (planimetric) parameters of the palm traces, the new system of absolute and relative dimensional attributes based on the stable palmoglyphic reference points is considered. The purpose of the present study was the search for the new biological markers of biological age. The material for the study consisted of the palm prints obtained from 180 men and 120 women of the Caucasoid stock at the age from 16 to 80 years. The use of the descriptive statistics methods yielded the basic statistical characteristics of the traits being investigated and revealed the limits of their variability in the groups of men and women belonging to the age groups from 16 to 29 and from 30 to 80 years. The method of threshold values made it possible to identify 13 attributes the excess of which allows, with the probability of no less than 0.95, to perform diagnostics of the age group of an unknown subject.

Secure polarization-independent subcarrier quantum key distribution in optical fiber channel using BB84 protocol with a strong reference.

A quantum key distribution system based on the subcarrier wave modulation method has been demonstrated which employs the BB84 protocol with a strong reference to generate secure bits at a rate of 16.5 kbit/s with an error of 0.5% over an optical channel of 10 dB loss, and 18 bits/s with an error of 0.75% over 25 dB of channel loss. To the best of our knowledge, these results represent the highest channel loss reported for secure quantum key distribution using the subcarrier wave approach. A passive unidirectional scheme has been used to compensate for the polarization dependence of the phase modulators in the receiver module, which resulted in a high visibility of 98.8%. The system is thus fully insensitive to polarization fluctuations and robust to environmental changes, making the approach promising for use in optical telecommunication networks. Further improvements in secure key rate and transmission distance can be achieved by implementing the decoy states protocol or by optimizing the mean photon number used in line with experimental parameters.

[The peculiarities of deposition of foreign particles in the skin region experimentally damaged by the electrical saw cutting element].

The objective of the present study was to detect the deposition of foreign particles and other introduced objects in the human skin region damaged by the electrical saw cutting elements and to use the data thus obtained for the estimation of the speed and the type of the instrument, the main characteristics of the cutter covering and/or composition of its surface. The experiments included the sawing of the skin fragments using the small steel saws differing in the type of the surface cover, such as the uncoated (steel), stained, nickel- or chromium-plated, blue-finished saws with the movement speed of the cutting element 500, 1000, 2500, 2,000, and 3,000 revolutions per minute. The study provided information about the peculiarities of deposition of foreign particles and other introduced objects in the damaged regions of the human skin that allow not only to establish the fact of using the electrical saw with a high-speed back-and-forth movements of the cutting element but also the type of the instrument and the main characteristics of its cover and/or the composition of its surface.

"Smile" gap in the density of states of a cavity between superconductors.

The density of Andreev levels in a normal metal (N) in contact with two superconductors (S) is known to exhibit an induced minigap related to the inverse dwell time. We predict a small secondary gap just below the superconducting gap edge-a feature that has been overlooked so far in numerous microscopic studies of the density of states in S-N-S structures. In a generic structure with N being a chaotic cavity, the secondary gap is the widest at zero phase bias. It closes at some finite phase bias, forming the shape of a "smile". Asymmetric couplings give even richer gap structures near the phase difference π. All the features found should be amendable to experimental detection in high-resolution low-temperature tunneling spectroscopy.

Quantum synchronization of conjugated variables in a superconducting device leads to the fundamental resistance quantization.

We propose a way to achieve quantum synchronization of two canonically conjugated variables. For this, we employ a superconducting device where the synchronization of Josephson and Bloch oscillations results in the quantization of transresistance similar to that in the (fractional) quantum Hall effect. An LC oscillator is a key component to achieve an exponentially small rate of synchronization errors.

Polarons in suspended carbon nanotubes.

We prove theoretically the possibility of electric-field controlled polaron formation involving flexural (bending) modes in suspended carbon nanotubes. Upon increasing the field, the ground state of the system with a single extra electron undergoes a first-order phase transition between an extended state and a localized polaron state. For a common experimental setup, the threshold electric field is only of the order of approximately equal 5×10(-2) V/µm.

Model of a proposed superconducting phase slip oscillator: a method for obtaining few-photon nonlinearities.

We theoretically investigate a driven oscillator with the superconducting inductance subject to quantum phase slips (QPS). We find uncommon nonlinearities in the proposed device: they oscillate as a function of the number of photons N with a local period of the order of √N. We prove that such nonlinearities result in multiple metastable states encompassing few photons and study oscillatory dependence of various responses of the oscillator. Such nonlinearities enable new possibilities for quantum manipulation of photon states and very sensitive measurements to confirm the coherence of phase slips.

Multiple nuclear polarization States in a double quantum dot.

We observe multiple stable states of nuclear polarization and nuclear self-tuning over a large range of fields in a double quantum dot under conditions of electron spin resonance. The observations can be understood within an elaborated theoretical rate equation model for the polarization in each of the dots, in the limit of strong driving. This model also captures unusual features of the data, such as fast switching and a "wrong" sign of polarization. The results reported enable applications of this polarization effect, including accurate manipulation and control of nuclear fields.