Architectural drawings as investigating devices : Architecture’s changing scope in the 20th century
Explores how the changing modes of representation in architecture and urbanism relate to the transformation of how the addressees of architecture and urbanism are conceived. Diagnoses the dominant epistemological debates in architecture and urbanism during the 20th and 21st centuries. It traces their transformations, paying special attention to Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s preference for perspective representation, to the diagrams of Team 10 architects, to the critiques of functionalism, and the upgrade of the artefactual value of architectural drawings in Aldo Rossi, John Hejduk, Peter Eisenman, and Oswald Mathias Ungers, and, finally, to the reinvention of architectural programme through the event in Bernard Tschumi and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). Particular emphasis is placed on the spirit of truth and clarity in modernist architecture, the relationship between the individual and the community in post-war era architecture, the decodification of design process as syntactic analogy and the paradigm of autonomy in the 1970s and 1980s architecture, the concern about the dynamic character of urban conditions and the potentialities hidden in architectural programme in the post-autonomy era.
Approaching consumer culture : Global flows and local contexts
This collection analyzes the impact of Western consumer culture on local cultures and consumption in Southeast Europe and East Asia. Cultural, historical, economic and sociopolitical contexts are examined regarding buying behaviors, usage and customization practices and consumer activism, specifically in Bulgaria, Serbia, and Romania as cultures continue to evolve in the post-socialist era, and in China and Japan as a continuation of movements toward modernity and progress. Surprising and thought-provoking contrasts stand out as consumers balance the global with the local in terms of clothing, technology, luxury items, and food.
Advanced NXT : The Da Vinci Inventions Book
About building some of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous inventions with LEGO's breathtaking robot technology, the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT. In this book, you will revive such fascinating devices as the flying machine, the aerial screw, the revolving bridge, the double leaf spring catapult, and the armored car—five centuries after their creation by the great Renaissance engineer.
A History of Limb Amputation
This book traces humanity’s long experience of natural amputations due to congenital absence, disease, frostbite, toxins, domestic and wild animal trauma, and for non-medical reasons related to punitive, ritual, and legal actions, ultimately leading to the development of elective surgical amputation. While the evolution of surgical techniques forms a major chapter in the book, many ancillary problems are addressed including the control of hemorrhage and infection, the approach to pain relief, the development of suitable instruments and equipment, and the invention of prostheses, all suitably illuminated with case histories and relevant illustrations. In addition, alternative procedures designed to avoid amputation, increasingly important in the last two centuries, are debated, and factors associated with self-amputation in extremis, not rare according to press reports, are also examined. A separate chapter considers the philosophy and interpretations of society, patients, and surgeons faced with amputation, particularly before anesthesia.
A compendium of principles and practice of laser biophotonics in oral medicine
The application of photonics technologies and principles to medicine and life sciences is known as biophotonics. Laser is one of the most important inventions of the twentieth century in biophotonic technology. This book a concise but comprehensive body of information, written in a simple tone, attempting to cruise the readers' vision through every perspective, to seek objective information on all aspects of the instrument and its uses, fostering a preliminary step towards efficient laser diagnosis and therapy.




