Urban Planning System in Contemporary Spain

This work analyses the main Spanish legislative and urban planning instruments, highlighting some of the most important structural problems of the current Spanish urban realities. The survey on legislation runs from the first Land Use Act of 1956 to the decentralization of the administration and the culmination of the transfer processes to the respective Spanish regions. Later, we study the complete well-structured hierarchy of urban planning instruments in use at present. Finally, we analyse how these and other factors have an influence on the capacity to control housing prices and on a lack of sustainability characterized by the excessive urbanizing use of the land.     

Innovation,R&D and Technology Transfer: Policies towards a Regional Innovation System. The Case of Lombardy

The evolution of Lombardy's economic structure and international position led the regional government to build up a network of public and private stakeholders in the effort of promoting the creation of new knowledge and supporting innovation at local level. In this article a technology picture of the region and the main policy actions undertaken in recent years in Lombardy to promote a nest of linkages within actors, moving along the approach of regional innovation systems are presented.     

Evidence of Stress Fracture in a Homo antecessor Metatarsal from Gran Dolina Site (Atapuerca,Spain)

We present the palaeopathological analysis of a right fourth metatarsal (ATD6‐124) recovered from the Atapuerca–Gran Dolina site (Spain). This fossil, ca. 1 Ma, belongs to Homo antecessor, the earliest known European hominin species. The metatarsal exhibits a proliferative lesion on its medial periosteal surface. Periosteal reaction can be the bone response to a wide number of injurious processes. We describe a lesion on the basis of macroscopic and microscopic analyses, including microtomography and scanning electron microscopy. Externally, the osteoblastic lesion presents a highly porotic and disorganised morphology. Internally, we observe a series of micro‐fractures on the compact bone that do not affect the medullary canal. We provide a differential diagnosis and suggest that the ATD6‐124 lesion could correspond to a pedal stress fracture, also known as fatigue or march fracture. Stress fractures have been related to a load increase and muscular fatigue. This type of fracture has been widely reported in the foot of soldiers and athletes, which are usually engaged in strenuous, excessive or prolonged locomotive activities. Despite its high frequency in these groups, stress fractures have not been reported as such in fossil collections, with the exception of a metatarsal belonging to the Sima de los Huesos site (Atapuerca). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lorenz Heister and the challenge of trepanation: a neurosurgical case study from the 18th century

In the 18th century, medical practice was essentially based on communication. Cranial trepanation, however, was usually performed on an unconscious person. Here the dialogue ceased. It was the only operation which had to be attempted without the positive consent of the patient. Thus trepanation challenged the surgeon's skill not only with its intricate surgical practice, but also with its unusual social setting. The present paper illustrates possible ways out of the "trap of trepanation" by interweaving two points of view. On the one hand, a general account is given on the basis of surgical publications written by Lorenz Heister and his contemporaries. On the other, the unpublished sources of the Heister correspondence serve to reconstruct the case of Heinrich Wilhelm Bachmann, a German merchant who fell victim to a traffic accident and underwent trepanation in 1753. The case study shows how the physician in charge counterbalanced the patient's inability to communicate by strengthening the remaining network of professionals, and ultimately confirming his decisions by use of the post-mortem.     

EMERGENCE OF LEAPFROGGING FROM RESIDENTIAL CHOICE WITH ENDOGENOUS GREEN SPACE: ANALYTICAL RESULTS

Leapfrog development is a typical form of sprawl. This paper aims at analyzing the existence, size, and persistence of leapfrogging in a dynamic urban economic model with endogenous green amenities. We analyze whether incoming households choose to settle at the fringe of the city or to jump further away depending on their preferences and the structure of the city. We first provide an analytical treatment of the conditions and characteristics under which a first leapfrog occurs and show how the optimal choice is affected by the size of the city, income, commuting costs, as well as the size of the area where green amenities are considered. We then study how further leapfrogging and multiple urban rings may appear and be maintained in the long‐run equilibrium, and how infill processes take place through time.