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1.During the last 50 years -and during almost the whole century -planning activities have shown two relevant and seemingly contradictory characters: a continuous and growing process of diversification and specialization, 1 and a slow and uncertain development of the formalized technical knowledge. The diversification process developed both through the spreading of planning activities to new intervention sectors and the incorporating of sectors in which other experts were already operating. Diversification and specialization mark the ripening and the professional success of planning, but make the identity of planners more uncertain than in the past: at times experts assume the planner approach, at times planners end by acting as experts. Experts are inclined to focus on the specific action they are involved in, and sometimes to succeed they take away the action from the contextual influences; experts place the action in frames of reference which are partial and directly functional to their intervention; an approach not excluding the consideration of risks and opportunities offered by the context, but not assuming as a target the transformation of the context according to a comprehensive political programme. On the contrary, the planners' approach is particularly characterized by a presumed capability of locating a specific action within a comprehensive framework, or rather, of

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Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) treatment for renal stones has been proved safe and effective in the last 10 years. However, we needed to observe the patients for a longer period than a 3-month control to settle the fate of residual fragments. Two hundred fifty-four patients treated with SWL for different types of stones in solitary kidneys have been examined between 24 and 56 months (mean 42 months) after the treatment. When discharged, 31.5% (80) of the patients were stone free, whereas '65.3% (166) had stone dust or passable fragments. After 3 months, 162 (64.8%) of 250 were stone free, and 84 (33.6%) had dust or passable fragments. Twenty-nine (74.4%) of the infected patients had residual fragments, which regrew after discharge in 19 patients (65%). There were 136 stone-free patients (55%) after a followup longer than 24 months (mean 42 months). Recurrence of stones was observed in 34 patients (13.8%), and regrowth of fragments was observed in 55 patients (22.3%). Of 85 évaluable patients with dust and fragments at 3-month followup, 55 (64.7%) had fragment regrowth, 22 (25.8%) were unchanged, and 8 patients (9.4%) were stone free at long-term followup. The fragments still present after 3 months are unlikely to be cleared in a longer followup. The observed incidence of new-onset hypertension in this series was 6.1% (15 patients). In conclusion, SWL should be considered the safe first-choice treatment for all renal stones, in some cases together with auxilliary tools such percutaneous methods.