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