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Provided here is up-to-date
and in-depth information on various swelling phenomena
occurring in living organisms and in the unanimated world.
Thebook is arranged in six parts, which cover fundamentals,
special topics, analytical and experimental methods and
applications relevant to swelling insoils, cells
and tissues of plants and animals. Specifically, it includes
all aspects of osmotic phenomena leading to swelling in
clays, cells, tissues, gels, blisters, colloidal systems,
surfaces and membranes. Forces between surfactant, lipid and
protein membranes and in polymeric systems are also
considered.

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1. Swelling in Soils.- Flow and volume change in soils and other porous media, and in tissues.- Water movement and volume change in swelling systems.- Thermodynamics of soils swelling non-hydrostatically.- Operational aspects of the mechanics of deforming porous media: theory and application to expansive soils.- The osmotic role in the behaviour of swelling clay soils.- 2. Plant Growth.- Osmotic adjustment in plant cells exposed to drought and temperature stress: can a cause and effect hypothesis be formulated and tested?.- On the kinematics and dynamics of plant growth.- Regeneration in the root apex: Modelling study by means of the growth tensor.- Daily variations of stem and branch diameter:Short overview from a developed example.- Physical principles of membrane damage due to dehydration and freezing.- Ion channels in the plasma membrane of plant cells.- The effect of low oxygen concentration and azide on the water relations of wheat and maize roots.- The expansion of plant tissues.- 3. Cells Morphology, Function and Deformation.- MDCK cells under severely hyposmotic conditions.- Osmotic swelling-pressurization-rupture of isolated cells and disjoining of cell aggregates in soft tissues.- Endocrine pituitary cell cultures: cellular morphology, protein secretion, and susceptibility to weak bases and ionophores.- Cytoskeletal networks and osmotic pressure in relation to cell structure and motility.- Control of water permeability by divalent cations.- Mitochondrial volume homeostasis: Regulation of Cation transport systems.- Mechanisms involved in the control of mitochondrial volume and their role in the regulation of mitochondrial function.- The deformation of a spherical cell sheet: A mechanical model of sea-urchin gastrulation.- Epithelial cell volume regulation.- Interactions between liver cell volume and liver cell function.- From glycogen metabolism to cell swelling.- Cell spreading and intracellular pH in mammalian cells.- 4. Function and Deformation of Tissues.- The role of tissue swelling in modelling of microvascular exchange.- Interstitial fluid pressure in control of interstitial fluid volume during normal conditions, injury and inflammation.- Swelling pressure of cartilage: roles played by proteoglycans and Collagen.- Changes in cartilage osmotic pressure in response to loads and their effects on chondrocyte metabolism.- Interstitial macromolecules and the swelling pressure of loose connective tissue.- A mixture approach to the mechanics of the human intervertebral disc.- Blood-tissue fluid exchange-transport through deformable, swellable porous systems.- Rheology of connective tissues as swelling fibrous structures.- The influence of boundary layer effects on atherogenesis in dialysis treatment patients.- 5. Blisters, Forces Between Particles, Phase Transitions of Gels and Flow in Deformable Media.- Blisters.- Origin of short-range forces in water between clay surfaces and lipid bilayers.- Swelling from the perspective of molecular assemblies and single functioning biomolecules.- Attractive double layer interaction: From calcium clays to biological membranes.- Hydration and steric interactions between lipid membranes.- Polymer gel phase transition: the molecular mechanism of product release in mucin secretion?.- Phase transitions of Gels.- Power Generation by Macromolecular Porous Gels.- Swelling and consolidation of a muscle-like hydrogel.- Dynamics of osmotic fluid flow.- Mechanism of osmotic flow.- 6. Developments in Various Techniques.- Cell protrusion formation by external force.- Author and Subject Index.

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