Author: Frances Larson File Type: pdf Richly illustrated throughout, including 8 pages of color plates, An Infinity of Things tells the story of the greatest private collection ever made, and the life of the man behind it. American-born Henry Wellcome made his millions as one of the worlds first pharmaceutical entrepreneurs. Drawing on his massive wealth, he planned a great museum filled with treasures from all corners of the globe, charting the history of human health from prehistory to the present day. Demonstrating what can happen when a collectors aspirations are left unconstrained by wealth, Frances Larson explores Wellcomes life through his possessions, revealing the many tensions in his character between his talents as a businessman and his desire for scholarly recognition his curiosity and his perfectionism and his philanthropic aspirations and his drive for personal glory. During the opening decades of the twentieth century he acquired a collection so large that later generations of staff took to describing its contents by the ton. But Wellcomes museum was never finished, and his collection was still stored in vast warehouses when he died, unseen and incomplete.ReviewAn incredibly detailed history...Larsons account of Wellcomes ambitious collection amounts to a deftly-researched and poignant tale of an energetic collector and the social network that not only shaped his affinity for things but also shaped the contents of his immense collection. --Museum Anthropology ReviewAbsorbing...Ms. Larsons story of Wellcomes truly odd and amazing mania shows how it was rooted in his business and intellectual interests but came to control his existence. --Wall Street Journal [Wellcomes] quest for obsessional collecting also overtook any possibility of continuing commercial innovation. Yet this biography of a collection memorializes something splendid as well - an amazing energy, a continuing fascination with probing the past. And then of course, the man, that force of nature behind it all. Theres a great deal in this book to enthrall the reader. --Washington Times Fleshes out the man behind the collection. -- The Explorers JournalLarsons book is too good to fall into glib psychological speculation, but the astounding story she presents by itself invites us to think about the relationship between collectors, their objects, and their friends and family, and also to situate this relationship historically...Meticulously researched and beautifully written. --The Journal of Modern HistoryAbout the AuthorFrances Larson is Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Anthropology, at Durham University.

Author: Junjie Xi File Type: pdf This book investigates the design, operation and use of contemporary transportable buildings, and explores how functional performance can be assessed in small-scale examples for public use alongside their relationship to other design elements. The research focuses on three case studies, Chengdu Hualin Elementary School, Exxopolis and Kreod, that do not require a high-technology building environment or complex construction skills. Transportable buildings are defined as those that are transported in a number of parts for assembly on site. Contemporary transportable buildings respond to ecological issues, social impacts, technological innovation and economic demands. They can be used to measure a societys development in environmental sustainability, innovation and economic growth through various forms. Small-scale transportable buildings fulfil many temporary habitation needs in diverse roles, such as non-emergency transitional housing, ephemeral exhibition buildings and seasonal entertainment facilities. Small-Scale Public Transportable and Pre-Fabricated Buildings will be a useful research text for academics and students in architecture, design and sustainable building performance. **About the Author Junjie Xi is a lecturer in the Department of Architecture, Xian Jiaotong Liverpool University. She graduated with a PhD in Architecture from the University of Liverpool in 2013, and continues this research through her ongoing collaboration with Liverpools School of Architecture, where she is an Honorary Research Fellow. She is also a researcher for the China Railway Group Ltd and School of Architecture, Tsinghua University. The research outputs will be used by China Railway Group Ltd in its construction work in the near future.

Author: John F. Schumaker File Type: pdf From BooklistSure to be labeled immoral by some organized-religion enthusiast, balderdash by some ultrarational pragmatist, Schumakers book makes a case for the essential sameness of religion, hypnosis, and psychopathology. Cogently reasoned, laboriously constructed, its arguments are obviously not for everyone, but they will inspire and animate adherents and opponents alike. Are these three areas of human behavior merely different manifestations of the desire, conscious or unconscious, to bend reality and the perception of it to personal ends? Schumaker deals with reality, sanity, culture, dissociation and suggestion, and the roles and interactions of society and the individual, reducing each to its essence and examining and evaluating it individually and in concert with the others. Citing noted researchers and observers, he demonstrates how humans generally are inclined to construct insane realities that distance them from objective but possibly undesirable reality. Furthermore, Schumakers views and findings on the roles of ritual and perception in our lives and in our views of reality are fascinating. Mike Tribby

Author: Donald R. Peterson File Type: pdf Traditionally, applications of biomechanics will model system-level aspects of the human body. As a result, the majority of technological progress to date appears in system-level device development. More recently, biomechanical initiatives are investigating biological sub-systems such as tissues, cells, and molecules. Fueled by advances in experimental methods and instrumentation, these initiatives, in turn, directly drive the development of biological nano- and microtechnologies. A complete, concise reference, Biomechanics integrates coverage of system and sub-system models, to enhance overall understanding of human function and performance and open the way for new discoveries. Drawn from the third edition of the widely acclaimed and bestselling The Biomedical Engineering Handbook, this is a comprehensive, state-of-the-science resource concerning the principles and applications of biomechanics at every level. The book presents substantial updates and revisions from the Handbooks previous editions, as well as an entirely new chapter introducing current methods and strategies for modeling cellular mechanics. Organized in a systematic manner, the book begins with coverage of musculoskeletal mechanics including hard- and soft tissue and joint mechanics and their applications to human function. Contributions explore several aspects of biofluid mechanics and cover a wide range of circulatory dynamics such as blood vessel and blood cell mechanics and transport. Other topics include the mechanical functions and significance of the human ear and the performance characteristics of the human body during exercise and exertion. The book contains more than 140 illustrations, 60 tables, and a variety of useful equations to assist in modeling biomechanical behaviors. Incorporating material across the breadth of the field, Biomechanics is a complete, concise reference for the skilled professional as well as an introduction to the novice or student of biomedical engineering.**