Lethal poisoning with ethyl alcohol and its surrogates in various regions of the Russian Federation

The index of lethal poisoning with ethyl alcohol and its surrogates in Russia remains one of the highest in the world. It is explained by high alcohol consumption in Russia (about 15 liters of pure alcohol per capita annually), consumption of mainly strong beverages (about 80%), extensive sales of adulterated strong alcoholic beverages (more than 25%), virtually no preventive work in the population, and other causes. The index of lethal poisoning with alcohol and its surrogates in the country and its regions is one of the most important parameters in evaluation of the socioeconomic well-being of the population.     

Characteristics of stab wounds inflicted by knives with the gear-sharpened blade

The authors present the results of an experimental study designed to estimate the damage to biological and non-biological objects inflicted by the knife blades having the gear-type sharpening. It was shown that a knife with such sharpening leaves edges of the damage of characteristic shape and outline. The results of the study testify to the expediency of further studies on the damaging action of knives considered in the present paper.     

Anna Mikhaĭlovna Smyslova--the first Russian woman forensic medical expert

This article describes in brief the life and the work of the first Russian female forensic medical expert, Anna Mikhailovna Smyslova, based on the analysis of the materials available from the Central State Historical Archive, Sankt-Peterburg, and a number of publications in the-prerevolutionary editions.     

Study of an electrical charge self-defense device

An electric charge device for self defense was evaluated on a volunteer. The device is safe for life and health of a healthy adult human. Moral aspects of such trials on humans are discussed.     

Rapid separation and characterization of cocaine and cocaine cutting agents by differential mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry

Forensic drug laboratories are inundated with cases requiring time-consuming GC- or LC-based chromatographic separations of submitted samples. High-throughput analytical methods would be of great practical utility within forensic drug analysis. Recently developed ion-mobility-based separation methods combined with mass spectrometry can often be used without chromatography, suppress chemical interferents of similar mass, and operate in seconds. We have evaluated differential mobility spectrometry-mass spectrometry (DMS-MS) for performance on adulterated cocaine mixtures. The DMS interface is only a few centimeters in length, operates in seconds, and can be adapted to any MS system using atmospheric pressure ionization. Drug cutting agents, typical targets such as cocaine, and drug metabolites are rapidly separated by the DMS ion prefilter. Tests demonstrated characterization of complex mixtures, such as isolation of levamisole, an adulterant with alarming side effects, from a 13-component mixture. DMS-MS holds great potential for the analysis of drug samples submitted for forensic analysis.