When DNA can't help: The osteobiographical profile and stable isotope analysis as auxiliary tools for refining genealogical relationships,on the example of the Swéerts-Sporck family

Research into the family of the Counts Swéerts-Sporck raised doubts regarding their biographical data, particularly concerning a child who died in 1817, later identified as Philipp Swéerts-Sporck, and his siblings Joseph and Barbara. These were alleged to include a pair of dizygotic twins, but DNA could not be used to clarify their relationships. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes were therefore measured in their first permanent molars, whereas Philipp's biological age was estimated based on his skeleton. Philipp died at an older age than the written sources claim; an isotopic similarity was found between Joseph and Barbara, but Philipp differed.     

Ecological equilibrium and territorial planning: The Italian case

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate briefly (a) the scientific premises of territorial planning, which are also the foundations of an ecological equilibrium between human activities and the territory or natural environment; (b) the lines of direction of an urban policy inspired by the above‐mentioned foundations of ecological equilibrium; and then subsequently (c) the guidelines for the application of the principles of ecological‐territorial equilibrium in Italy; with the subsequent configuration of (d) an urban eco‐systems network for Italy (as designed by the ten‐year plan for the environment, elaborated last year by the Italian government).     

Stalin’s humanitarian government: class,child homelessness and state security in a historical perspective (1930s–40s)

Informed by Didier Fassin’s concept of humanitarian government, this article reveals a distinct pattern of secret care provisions imposed under Stalin by the secret police and its successor agencies (NKVD, MVD) first to the peasant children displaced by class war and the famine of 1932–33, and then to the children made homeless by the Great Terror and the 1940s’ national deportations. The article also identifies the under-researched reception centres as crucial sites for both administering emergency assistance and establishing the social classification necessary to apply these discriminatory measures. Affected by the decreasing faith in their possible socialist rehabilitation and lack of any official display of compassion, these children’s lives appeared even less worthy of saving in the course of major emergencies. These findings challenge the official Soviet view of the existence of a universal childhood worth protecting, which guided the first socialist country’s intervention to save other children nationally and internationally.     

Public policies and cluster life cycles: insights from the Basque Country experience

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to the study of the role of public policies in the origins and evolution of clusters. Building on the existing literature, we set up a taxonomy of nine public policies that may have an impact on the emergence and evolution of clusters. Based on in-depth case studies of six clusters of the Basque Country, particularly representative of the industrial history of the region, we analyse the relevance of the different types of policies both in the emergence and evolution of clusters over time. In agreement with cluster literature, the paper concludes that public policies seem to have played only an indirect role across clusters and over their life cycles. Moreover, it points to the necessity of taking history and context into account, as most of the important policy measures highlighted by cluster literature today do not fit well with the previous policy and economic context. Finally, it also concludes that for cluster policies to be effective, the stages of the life cycle should be taken into consideration.     

Chemical tracers of Lusitanian amphorae kilns from the Tagus estuary (Portugal)

In this paper, the characterization of Roman amphorae from the Porto dos Cacos (PC) and Quinta do Rouxinol (QR) workshops, in the Tagus estuary, dating to a period between the 1st and 5th century AD was carried out on the basis of instrumental neutron activation analysis data on 260 amphorae fragments, together with mineralogical compositional studies obtained by X-ray diffraction.