[Actualization of assessment of morphologic features of incisions and chop wounds of 'barrier' tissues of the head]. / Aktualizatsiia otsenki morfologicheskikh osobennostei rezanykh i rublenykh povrezhdenii 'bar'ernykh' tkanei golovy.

Aim of this study is to determine the influence of the basic conditions of the traumatic interaction of cutting and chopping objects with 'barrier' tissues of the scalp on the formation of morphological signs of damage. It was suggested to perform the comparative analysis of the morphological signs of incised and chopped scalp tissue wounds obtained by changing one given parameter in experimental damage modeling. The influence of the basic conditions of the traumatic interaction of cutting and chopping objects with the 'barrier' tissues of the scalp on the formation of morphological signs of the resulting damage was determined. The effectiveness of the proposed comparative analysis of morphological signs of incised and chopped lesions was confirmed.

[Mechanical injury: definition of concepts]. / Opredelenie poniatii v mekhanicheskoi travme.

The work was devoted to the definition of a mechanical injury in the forensic medical literature. The study of the forensic medical terminology is important because of the absence of a uniform understanding of such terms as 'injury', 'wound', 'wound canal', and 'wounding' by different authors. Different approaches of authors towards the definition of terms and concepts cause confusion in the scientific knowledge, thus breaking its orderliness and continuity. The authors of the present article invite specialists to discuss some definitions referring to a mechanical injury.

[The efficient method for the forensic medical investigation of the thoracic wound channels for the reconstruction of the victim's body position at the moment of injury]. / Éffektivnaia metodika sudebno-meditsinskogo issledovaniia ranevykh kanalov grudi dlia rekonstruktsii polozheniia tela poterpevshego na moment prichineniia raneniia.

The objective of the present study was the development of the expert action algorithm for the purpose of forensic medical expertise of a corpse with punctured, stab and slash, and gunshot wounds with the purpose of reconstruction of the victim's body position at the moment of injury. The following methods were proposed based on the results of the study: the method for the access to the internal organs of the corpse allowing to preserve the configuration of the thoracic wound channels during the full-scale autopsy for its subsequent evaluation and the method for the reconstruction of the initial shape of the wound channels in the body and the extremities and thereby to facilitate the forensic medical expertise examination of the corpse. In addition, the real-world examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach to the planning, organization, and performance of the expert actions for the purpose of the reconstruction of the victim's body position at the moment of injury.

[The problems of professional competence in the complementary professional forensic medical expertise programs of advanced training and professional requalification]. / Professional'nye kompetentsii v dopolnitel'nykh professional'nykh programmakh po spetsial'nosti «Sudebno-meditsinskaia ékspertiza¼ (povyshenie kvalifikatsii i professional'naia perepodgotovka).

This article reports the results of the analysis of the new tendencies and normatives of the working legislation in the field of additional professional education in the speciality of «forensic medical expertise¼ and the application of the competency-based approach to the training of specialists in the framework of professional requalification and advanced training programs. Special attention is given to the problems of organization of the educational process and the elaboration of additional training programs based on the competency approach to the training of specialists at the Department of Forensic Medicine and Law with the professor V.N. Kryukov Course of Advanced Professional Training and Professional Requalification of Specialists at the state budgetary educational Institution of higher professional education «Altai State Medical University¼, Russian Ministry of Health. The study revealed the problems pertaining to the development of professional competencies in the framework of educational programs for the professional requalification and advanced training in the speciality «forensic medical expertise¼. The authors propose the legally substantiated approaches to the solution of these problems.

[Specific features of the injuries to the head inflicted by hits with long objects with the impact surface of various shape]. / Osobennosti povrezhdenii golovy pri udarakh udlinennymi predmetami s udarnoi poverkhnost'yu razlichnoi formy.

The article was designed to characterize the specific features of the injuries to the head inflicted under experimental conditions by hits with long objects with the impact surfaces of various shape. The data obtained can be used to improve the conduction of forensic medical expertises for the identification purposes. A combined approach for the layer-by-layer description of head injuries is proposed to be used for the identification of morphological features of interest.

[The possibilities for expert examination during of situational forensic medical expertises including the trasological investigation of the blood stains].

The objective of the present study was to demonstrate the possibilities of trasological investigations of the blood stains for the purpose of situational forensic medical expertises. The potential of such investigations is exemplified by the case of the head wound inflicted by the shot from the Osa civil self-defense handgun. The possibilities of comprehensive assessment of the injuries to the human body, analysis of blood stains on the clothes and the surrounding objects at the place of the accident for the detailed reconstruction of the event are illustrated.

[The modern view on inside vehicle trauma].

Forensic medical diagnostics of the injuries to the driver and passengers remains a challenging problem for forensic medical experts investigating traffic accidents. Specifically, the investigators encounter difficulties in the conduction of comprehensive medico-autotechnical studies. The objective of the present work was to propose the algorithm of actions for elucidating not only qualitative but also quantitative characteristics allowing to determine the position of both the driver and the front-seat passenger of the vehicle. This algorithm significantly improves the quality of expert judgment making it more objective and reliable.

[Forensic medical expertise of the injurious exposure].

The objective of the present study was to develop the standardized approach to the evaluation of the character of injurious exposure with a view to objective interpretation of the conditions of injury formation and the properties of the traumatic agent. The main attention was given to such parameters of the injurious exposure as loading conditions (mass, speed, direction) and the surface properties of the traumatic agent (area, shape, hardness). It is expected that the use of the proposed system for the evaluation of the injurious exposure in the practical work of forensic medical experts will enhance the reliability of their conclusions and help to avoid mistakes.

[On the formation of open skull fractures inflicted by cutting objects].

The objective of the present work was to study the properties of thrusting weapons, the conditions of their action, and the influence on the formation of cranial vault fractures. The lacerated wounds were simulated using an ordinary axe, native skull and isolated cranial vaults, specially designed multilayer polymeric models of bone and other tissues. This approach made it possible to obtain the objective characteristics of a thrusting blow as a medium-speed thrust (7- 20 m/s) with the impact mass commensurate with or exceeding the weight of the affected object. In indispensable condition for such thrust consists of the counteraction of the forces on a hard substrate. The traumatic agent must have the partially limited and maximally convex contact 1 surface (blade) harder than that of the affected object. Moreover, the character of a lacerated fracture strongly depends on the strin-stress properties of the skull.

[On the possibility to reconstruct the initial position of the body of a victim from the configuration of wound canals in the scapular region].

The objective of the present study was to estimate the influence of the position of an upper extremity on the formation of wound canals resulting from the injury to the scapular region and the chest. The secondary objective was to substantiate the possibility of the detection of the position of the upper extremity at the time of wound infliction. A few series of experiments were carried out with the differently positioned upper extremities. They allowed to determine: 1) the degree of tissue displacement in the scapular and thoracic regions, 2) disjunctive (discontinuous) dislocation of the wound canal, and 3) the possibility to detect the relative position of the upper extremity at the time of wound infliction in the scapular region.

[The hardness of the traumatic object and the extent of injury (as exemplified by head injuries)].

The objective of the present work was to study the influence of the surface hardness of a traumatic agent on the extent and character of the injury to the soft and bone tissues of the cranial vault associated with various forms of injurious exposure. The authors evaluated forensic medical significance of the hardness as one of the most important properties of the major injurious agents involved in the formation of skull fractures and soft tissue ruptures under effect of an impact action or compression. The objects differing in the hardness of the contact element (striking pin) were studied in comparison with the hardness of the bone tissue. The extent and morphological features of the injuries to the bones and soft tissues in different parts of the skull were compared with reference to deformation and strength characteristics developing in response to a blow and compression.

[The prospects for the study of the wound canals in the chest].

The objective of the present study was to develop the method for the determination of the position of the upper extremities at the moment of formation of the punctured-incised wounds in the chest canals taking into consideration peculiarities of their structure. A few series of experiments carried out for this purpose involving different positions of the upper extremities made it possible to evaluate the degree of displacement of the tissues in different chest regions and characterize disjunctive (disruptive) dislocation of the wound canals. The reconstruction of rectilinearity of the chest channel made it possible to demonstrate the possibility of establishing the initial position of the upper extremity at the moment of infliction of injury. The validity of the results of the study is illustrated by the example of practical forensic medical expertise.

[Peculiarities of injuries to the extremities of the driver and the front-seat passenger in a head-on collision between cars].

The study included two stages. At the first one, it was experimentally established which segments of the upper and lower extremities of the driver and the front-seat passenger experience maximum traumatic stress at the moment offrontal collision between cars. At the second stage, results of forensic medical examination of the bodies of drivers and front-seat passengers who had died in motor-vehicle accidents were used to elucidate certain morphological features of the injured extremities and to clarify their possible mechanism.

[Peculiarities of destruction in the facial area of the skull]. / Zakonomernosti razrusheniia litsevogo otdela cherepa.

Injuries observed in the facial skull area (FSA) in trauma made by hard blunt objects are registered within the forensic medical examinations of cadavers by far more rare than they are actually encountered in life. At the same time, a statement made to the effect that it was FSA that was affected in injuries of the cerebral skull area (CSA) is of an important forensic medical value. According to our research, the "strength beams" present in FSA and CSA are ovals and semi-ovals positioned above one another in 3 layers (top, medium and low ones). The anterior sections of all layers of FSA "strength beams" and of adjoining CSA regions, i.e. the squama of frontal bone (low one third of it) as well as anterior and middle cranial fossas, are a single deformative strength system. Specific features of each impact-zone region affect greatly a character of injuries in FSA at traumas in the medium facial third. Bones in the anterior and middle cranial fossas are damaged, apart from cranial injuries, in certain variations of impacts to FSA.

[Forensic medical assessment of the skull bone fractures owing to blow impacts depending on anatomical characteristics and a nature of a trauma-causing objects]. / Sudebno-meditsinskaia otsenka perelomov kostei svoda cherepa pri udarnykh vozdeistviiakh v zavisimosti ot ikh anatomicheskikh osobennostei i kharaktera travmiruiushchego predmeta.

Fractures in bones of the skull base (BSB) are preconditioned by the contact zone of interaction between the two below surfaces, i.e. the trace-forming one (object) and the trace-receiving one (bone). On the basis of their independent research, the authors suggest a set of criteria for the expert evaluation of fractures in BSB for the purpose of specifying the properties of the trauma-causing object, which is made with due regard for the anatomic specific features of the trauma zone.

[Destruction of the skull during compression]. / Razrushenie cherepa pri ego sdavlivanii.

The article contains the results of an experimental modeling of the destruction of the head of a bio-mannequin by compressing it between two blunt objects with the hard, flat and broad surfaces and by using a mechanical press (with slow motion) and freely falling object (with fast motion). The obtained results were compared with two opposite-direction blows by a similar object. The author studied the main regularities of fractures of the skull of the main shapes, i.e. ellipsoid or ovoid as well as spheroid and rhomboid shapes, at different directions of its compression (sagittal, lateral, diagonal, vertical or moving). A comparison of local, constructional and local-and-constructional zones of the inflicted fractures made it possible to establish the succession in the formation of the destruction of the skull at the static and dynamic compression types.