A study of western influence on timber supply and carpentry in south China in the early 20th century

© 2017, Architectural Institute of Japan. All rights reserved. The formation of the Treaty Ports after the Opium Wars saw the introduction of the ideas of the Industrial Revolution to Imperial China. The Treaty Ports acted as the intersection of Chinese and Western cultures, playing a crucial role in introducing Western technology. This article shows for the first time how, counter-intuitively, the problems of supply of Chinese timber actually provided the impetus for the wider adoption of Western forms of carpentry construction such as purlin roofs with king-post trusses. It also shows how the competition between timber suppliers ultimately led to Chinese nationalist backlash against imported timber and techniques

A study of western influence on Chinese building tools in chinese treaty ports in the early 20th century

This article looks at building tools and the significant evidence for the transition from craftsmanship and the mixing of Chinese and foreign working methods in the early 20th century. Although a number of Western scholars and Chinese researchers have studied traditional Chinese traditional tools, the transformation of tools from their traditional forms to modern ones in China has not been properly investigated. This article provides the first discussion of the introduction of Western tools and machinery and their effects on the building industry in Chinese Treaty Ports in the early 20th century. It highlights how the contemporary Western standards and expectations distorted Western perceptions of Chinese tools, and how European traders promoted Western hand tools and machines in China. It also shows how the Chinese fascination with Western machinery in turn blinded them from appreciating their traditional heritage in the eyes of some Westerners

The problems of meaning and use of the puer mingens motif in fountain design 1400–1700

This paper examines the use and distribution of the Puer Mingens motif in fountain design in the period 1400-1700. Previous studies had looked at the Puer MIngens in its wider context in art but this is the first study of its specific occurrence in fountain design and the various meaning which were attached to this curious motif in the period which represented its greatest popularity. In particular this paper shows that the motif is generally less prevalent in fountain design than sometimes supposed, making occurrences more interesting as a result.Seear Fund, Queens' College, Cambridg

Myocardial Extracellular Matrix

The cardiac extracellular matrix (ECM) is a complex architectural network consisting of structural and nonstructural proteins, creating strength and plasticity. The nonstructural compartment of the ECM houses a variety of proteins, which are vital for ECM plasticity, and can be divided into 3 major groups: glycoproteins, proteoglycans, and glycosaminoglycans. The common denominator for these groups is glycosylation, which refers to the decoration of proteins or lipids with sugars. This review will discuss the fundamental role of the matrix in cardiac development, homeostasis, and remodeling, from a glycobiology point of view. Glycoproteins (eg, thrombospondins, secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine, tenascins), proteoglycans (eg, versican, syndecans, biglycan), and glycosaminoglycans (eg, hyaluronan, heparan sulfate) are upregulated on cardiac injury and regulate key processes in the remodeling myocardium such as inflammation, fibrosis, and angiogenesis. Albeit some parallels can be made regarding the processes these proteins are involved in, their specific functions are extremely diverse. In fact, under varying conditions, individual proteins can even have opposing functions, making spatiotemporal contribution of these proteins in the rearrangement of multifaceted ECM very hard to grasp. Alterations of protein characteristics by the addition of sugars may explain the immense, yet tightly regulated, variability of the remodeling cardiac matrix. Understanding the role of glycosylation in altering the ultimate function of glycoproteins, proteoglycans, and glycosaminoglycans in the myocardium may lead to the development of new biochemical structures or compounds with great therapeutic potential for patients with heart disease