Abstract. The results of in vitro backscattering spectral studies of 7 nevuses and 27 samples of different skin cancer are presented. The pathology type classification in the two--dimensional phase space formed by the scattering indices at the wavelengths 560 nm, 650 nm, 700 nm, and 760 nm scaled to the healthy skin scattering coefficient value is proposed. It is shown that the sensitivity and specificity of differentiation between the benign and malignant tumors exceeds 86% and 96%, respectively, and their value for selecting melanoma among other malignant tumors falls by 5--8% due to partial overlap of classes in the phase space. © 2015 Samara State Aerospace University (SSAU).

Introduction. Among patients with primary and postoperative ventral hernias, obesity of various degrees is observed in more than 50 % of patients. A severe complication of obesity is the development of panniculus – a skin-subcutaneous apron of varying severity. The hernia surgeon often performs a panniculectomy, which requires justification, taking into account both the positive and negative consequences.The objective was to improve the results of treatment of patients with hernias who are obese by developing a mathematical algorithm of indications for removing the skin-subcutaneous apron.Methods and materials. The analysis of surgical treatment of 253 obese patients with hernia aged 20 to 90 years was performed. There were 44 males (17.4 %) and 209 females (82.6 %). There are 2 groups: the first (comparison group) included 129 patients whom the hernia excision was performed without removing the skin-subcutaneous apron; the second (main group) – 124 patients who had the excision of the skin-subcutaneous apron during surgery. Indications for panniculus removal were based on the proposed mathematical algorithm, which took into account the size, clinical manifestations, associated complications, and possible consequences after surgeries while preserving it.Results. When considering the abdomen in patients with hernias and obesity from the side surface, the hanging apron in relation to the abdominal wall forms a truncated cone, or two conjugated cones that form significantly different moments of forces acting on the abdominal wall at different stages of development of the panniculus, and, therefore, can serve as the basis for the development of classification. Based on this mathematical model, the following classification of changes in the anterior abdominal wall in hernias and obesity is proposed: saggy belly; cutaneoussubcutaneous apron I, II, III degrees, which are based on calculated mathematical indicators and clinical manifestations of the disease. When treating patients with hernias and obesity during operations, the following tactical algorithms were followed: with a saggy stomach and panniculus of the 1st degree, the removal of the skin-subcutaneous apron can be refused; with the 2nd and 3rd degrees, its preservation contributes to the recurrence of the hernia due to the action of moments of forces that shift and pull the abdominal wall down.Conclusions. Clinical observations of patients with hernias and obesity have shown that the removal of the skinsubcutaneous apron did not lead to an increase in the frequency of wound and systemic complications, and therefore it should be considered a necessary stage of surgery.

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We are pleased to present the first issue of second volume of JBPE, which focuses on laser and optical technologies for study of biological tissues and biomedical applications. This Special Issue of the Journal of Biomedical Photonics & Engineering presents the selected papers of the Workshop "Biophotonics" of the XIII all-Russian Youth Samara conference-contest on optics and laser physics. The XIII Youth Samara conference-contest on optics and laser physics was held in Samara Branch of P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences at November 11-14, 2015 with support of Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 15-32-10335), Administration of Samara Region and Samara SPIE Student Chapter. The conference program included lectures of leading scientists, reports of young PhDs and competition reports of students, graduate students and young researches on topical issues of coherent and quantum optics, contemporary problems of physical optics, spectroscopy and nanophotonics. The Workshop "Biophotonics" became one of the most numerous and popular seminar at the conference and included many interesting reports on applications of laser and optical techniques in biomedicine and ecology. It was held in Samara State Aerospace University (SSAU). The young scientists of SSAU Department of Laser and Biotechnical Systems annually take the most active part in the seminar. Optical methods for diagnostic of various etiology diseases as well as the optical express-techniques of implants monitoring are in the focus of their investigations. The studies were carried out with the use of backscattering spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and optical coherent tomography. Besides students and postgraduate students of SSAU, young researches from Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Saratov, Ekaterinburg, Tomsk and Irkutsk participated in the seminar Biophotonics in 2015. Their studies covered a wide range of theoretical and applied issues from the development of theoretical models of interaction of laser radiation with tissue to express-algorithm design for monitoring bioorganic liquids or optimization of the systems intended on the solution of specific medical problems. The different processes in single cells, separate organs or tissues and the whole body as well as in model biological tissue have been studied. The results of these studies were presented in 14 oral reports and 10 poster presentation. The contest of scientific reports was held in the framework of the conference and we are pleased to announce that the report of V. Genin was recognized as the best oral report at the workshop "Biophotonics". P. Rogov and I. Novoselova took the second and the third places correspondingly. The report of N. Kozlova became the best poster report on biomedical problems. This issue of JBPE will introduce you to selected papers of the participants of the workshop "Biophotonics" of the XIII All-Russian Youth Samara conference-contest on optics and laser physics, including the papers of aforementioned participants. The paper of P. Rogov and V. ...