Insect water balance plays an important role in determining energy budgets, activity patterns, survival, and population dynamics and, hence, geographic distribution. Tsetse (Glossina spp.) are important vectors of human and animal disease occupying a wide range of habitats in Africa and are notable for their desiccation resistance in xeric environments. Here, we measure water balance and relate...

The availability of water is recognized as the most important determinant of the distribution and activity of terrestrial organisms within the maritime Antarctic. Within this environment, arthropods may be challenged by drought stress during both the austral summer, due to increased temperature, wind, insolation, and extended periods of reduced precipitation, and the winter, as a result of vapo...

period, they were exposed not only to new ecological opportunities but also to a desiccating environment (Williams and Tieleman, 2002). To maintain cellular water homeostasis in such an environment, natural selection modified the integument of pioneering terrestrial animals, enabling them to reduce water loss through the skin. Nowhere is this modification of the integument more important than f...

Water within pores of cementitious materials plays a crucial role in the damage processes of cement pastes, particularly in the binding material comprising calcium-silicate-hydrates (C-S-H). Here, we employed Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the properties of water confined at ambient temperature within and between C-S-H nanoparticles or "grains" as a function of the relat...

Graphene oxide (GO) is hydrophilic and swells significantly when in contact with water. Here, we investigate the change in thickness of multilayer graphene oxide membranes due to intercalation of water, via humidity-controlled observation in an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). The thickness increases reproducibly with increasing relative humidity. Electron energy loss spectros...

Hypertonicity causes severe clinical manifestations and is associated with mortality and severe short-term and long-term neurological sequelae. The main clinical syndromes of hypertonicity are hypernatremia and hyperglycemia. Hypernatremia results from relative excess of body sodium over body water. Loss of water in excess of intake, gain of sodium salts in excess of losses or a combination of ...

Cigarette smoking is associated with increased prevalence and severity of destructive periodontal disease in terms of periodontal pocketing, periodontal bone loss, and tooth loss. The smoking destructive effect on periodontal bone may be of even "horizontal" and vertical "angular" pattern. The vertical bone loss or the "vertical defect" is a sign of progressive periodontal breakdown that involv...