Skin and Temperature Control

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The skin is a continuous layer of tissue covering the surface of the body. It has three principle functions: It protects the tissues beneath from mechanical injury, from the injurious effects of ultraviolet radiation in direct sunlight It contains numerous sense organs which are sensitive to temperature, touch, pressure and pain and so make the organism aware of changes in its surroundings It helps to keep the body temperature constant. The skin consists of two main layers, an outer epidermis and an inner dermis. Malpighian : is the innermost layer of the epidermis. It is a continuous layer of cells which divide actively and so are constantly renewing the epidermis from beneath. The cells may contain granules of dark-brown pigment, melanin, the concentration of which determines the color of the skin. Melanin is opaque to ultraviolet light and protects the tissues beneath it against injury from this radiation. Granular: layer is contains some living cells, but toward the surface it gives way gradually to the cornified layer. Cornified : layer contains dead cells only. They become impregnated with keratin, a fibrous protein and form a tough outer coat which resists mechanical damage and bacterial invasion and reduces the loss of water by evaporation.

EPIDERMIS: the epidermis is made up of three layers:

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DERMIS

the dermis is a layer of connective tissue containing many elastic fibres. It is thicker than the epidermis and contains blood capillaries, nerve endings and sensory organs, lymphatic vessels, sweat glands and hair follicles. The capillaries in the skin supply its cells and those of its associated structures, with the necessary food and oxygen and remove their excretory products .

SKIN :
the skin of an adult person contains between two and three million sweat glands. The gland is supplied with blood by a network of capillaries, the cell absorb fluid from the capillaries and the tissues surrounding them, and pass it into the duct of the gland and hence to the exterior. The fluid consists mainly of water, with salts, principally sodium chloride, and small quantities of urea and lactic acid dissolved in it. Small amounts of water are constantly lost by evaporation through the skin at normal temperatures. If the body temperature rises by 0.2 to 0.5 degree C the glands begin to secrete sweat on to the surface of the skin, where it rapidly evaporates. In hot climate a man doing manual work may lose about 1 kg of sweat in an hour. Since about 0.5 per cent of sweat consists of minerals slats, especially sodium chloride, this represents a considerable loss of salts from the body. If water alone is taken to replace that lost in sweat, the salt and water balance of the blood and tissues is upset, leading to the symptoms of heat cramp.

HAIR FOLLICLE:
the hair follicle is a deep pit in the dermis, lined with cells of the granular and Malphigian layers, which multiply and build up a hair inside the follicle. Growth continuous for about four years ; the hair then falls out and a new period of growth begins. Where hairs grow thickly they form a covering which protects the skin from injury, and which also has an insulting function. The whiskers growing on the sides of the face in mammals such as cats and mice have a sensory role. The sebaceous glands open into the hair follicles and produce an oily secretion which gives the hairs water repelling properties, keeps the epidermis supple, and reduces the tendency for it to become too dry as a result of evaporation. It also has antiseptic properties against certain bacteria. Subcutaneous fat are in the layers of adipose tissue beneath the dermis. The fat may also act as a heat-insulting layer.

TEMPERATURE CONTROL is a process in which change of temperature of a space (and objects collectively
therewithin) is measured or otherwise detected, and the passage of heat energy into or out of the space is adjusted to achieve a desired average temperature.

CONTROL LOOPS
A home thermostat is an example of a closed control loop: It constantly assesses the current room temperature and controls a heater and/or air conditioner to increase or decrease the temperature according to user-defined setting(s). A simple (low-cost, cheap) thermostat merely switches the heater or air conditioner either on or off, and temporary overshoot and undershoot of the desired average temperature must be expected. A more expensive thermostat varies the amount of heat or cooling provided by the heater or cooler, depending on the difference between the required temperature (the "set point") and the actual temperature. This minimizes over/undershoot. The process is called PID and is implemented using a PID Controller.

ENERGY BALANCE
An object's or space's temperature increases when heat energy moves into it, increasing the average kinetic energy of its atoms, e.g., of things and air in a room. Heat energy leaving an object or space lowers its temperature. Heat flows from one place to another (always from a higher temperature to a lower one) by one or more of three processes: conduction, convection and radiation. In conduction, energy is passed from one atom to another by direct contact. In convection, heat energy moves by conduction into some movable fluid (such as air or water) and the fluid moves from one place to another, carrying the heat with it. At some point the heat energy in the fluid is usually transferred to some other object by means conduction again. The movement of the fluid can be driven by negative-buoyancy, as when cooler (and therefore denser) air drops and thus upwardly displaces warmer (less-dense) air (natural convection), or by fans or pumps (forced convection). In radiation, the heated atoms make electromagnetic emissions absorbed by remote other atoms, whether nearby or at astronomical distance. For example, the Sun radiates heat as both invisible and visible electromagnetic energy. What we know as "light" is but a narrow region of the electromagnetic spectrum. If, in a place or thing, more energy is received than is lost, its temperature increases. If the amount of energy coming in and going out are exactly the same, the temperature stays constantthere is thermal balance, or thermal equilibrium..
Poikilothermic : fish, amphibian, reptiles and all the invertebrates are Poikilothermic, that is , their body temperature is the same as, or only a few degrees above, that of their surrounding. This makes their activities very independent on temperature con when their surrounding are warm their bodies are warm too and are normally active, but in cold conditions their body temperature is low, all the chemical changes in their protoplasm are slowed down, and the organism may be reduced to a state of complete inactivity . Insects can be entirely