President Barack Obama (D-IL) won the popular vote in 26 states and the District of Columbia (denoted in blue) to capture 332 electoral votes. Former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) won the popular vote in 24 states (denoted in red) to capture 206 electoral votes.
Xylem consists of three different types of cells: Xylem parenchyma cells and xylem fiber cells, which simply provide structural support for the most important xylem cells, the tracheary elements (TE). The TE are completely dead at maturity, and act like pipes to allow water and dissolved minterals to flow through them. There are two types of tracheary elements: vessel elements and tracheids. Though they have some structural differences, these two types function in the same manner.
To repair the lines of water, plants create root pressure to push water up into the xylem. At night, root cells release ions into the xylem, increasing its solute concentration. Water flows into the xylem by osmosis, pushing a broken water column up through the gap until it reaches the rest of the column.