Mechanics of Swelling

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.