Prigogine's Theory Research Articles

Flow injection analysis: An approach via linear non-equilibrium thermodynamics

A novel approach to flow injection analysis (FIA) was proposed based on the main principles of linear non-equilibrium thermodynamics (LNET). The basic principles of I. Prigogine theory for dissipative structures, internal entropy production rates, thermodynamic forces and fluxes arising in flow systems were shown to be applicable to FIA. The practical application of this novel FIA approach allowed the use of the extent of analytical reaction and the entropy production rates for flow system optimization, and in-depth understanding of the steady state. The FIA approach was also found to be a suitable technique for and characterizes its quality, explaining the peculiarities of short-term and long-term steady states in a FIA system and their role for reproducibility of practical measurements. The practical application o the FIA approach was found to support its theoretical principles and allow formulating an original manner to derive a basic equation in FIA theory.

The Difficult And Unpredictable Healing Of Chronic Diseases Explained By The Nonequilibrium Theory Of Prigogine

Chronic diseases result from strong or prolonged stress. Prolonged stress is a series of milder stressors acting through small intervals of time, which allows their negative effects on the body to accumulate. A series of milder stressors (prolonged stress) led to the onset of the chronic disease and only a series of very mild stressors (acupuncture treatments) done on a daily basis 14 to 20 days in a row could heal the chronic disease through accumulation of the positive stimulation effect of each treatment. This article uses the nonequilibrium theory of Prigogine to explain that the healing of chronic diseases is difficult and unpredictable in principle. If the series of acupuncture treatments need to be repeated, the acupuncturist shouldn't be blamed for this because the healing is unpredictable in principle. This makes essential the early detection and prevention of chronic diseases. For early detection, pulse diagnostic was used in ancient times, pulsographs in modern times, and the patients' complaint about 'moving pain' could be used for this. This article offers a nonlinear mathematical model allowing computerized-measurements for early detection of oncoming chronic disease, which is a glimpse to the preventive acupuncture medicine of the future.

Chaos and beauty in a beaker: The early history of the Belousov‐Zhabotinsky reaction

Discovered in 1950 by Belousov in the Soviet Union and further investigated by Zhabotinsky and his research group in the 1960s, the Belousov‐Zhabotinsky reaction soon came to the wider attention of scientists on both sides of the Iron Curtain and made an important contribution to consolidating Prigogine's theory of nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Allowing scientists to study chaotic behavior in the laboratory, it also paved the way for further investigations of self‐organizing systems in biology and played an important part in the formation of the field of nonlinear science. Focusing on the period between 1950 and 1975, this paper explores the early history of this enigmatic reaction.

On the thermal diffusion in polymer solutions: Case study on bicomponent film drying

This paper aims to theoretically explain experimental observations regarding the thermal diffusion of polymers in polymer solutions. 3D governing equations for mass and heat diffusion in polymer solutions were derived in the framework of classical irreversible thermodynamics using local equilibrium hypothesis, Onsager reciprocal relations and Prigogine's theory in systems in mechanical equilibrium. The mutual diffusion coefficient, thermal diffusion coefficient and thermal conductivity enter the governing equations as functions of thermodynamic variables and phenomenological coefficients that are bounded to some theoretical constraints. It was shown that the derivative of the linear combination of chemical potentials of polymer and solvent with respect to temperature plays an important role in thermal diffusion in polymer solutions. Thermal diffusion coefficient derived in the model can qualitatively explain the experimental observations in the literature regarding the dependence of thermal diffusion of polymers to molecular weight, polymer chain rigidity and viscosity of the solvent. Numerical simulation of the governing equations for a 1D drying process of polymer solutions indicates that the model is able to capture the effect of thermal diffusion. This effect manifests itself as an increase in local concentration of the solvent on the warm side of a temperature gradient during a solution casting process.

Emergent quantum mechanics as a thermal ensemble

It has been argued that gravity acts dissipatively on quantum-mechanical systems, inducing thermal fluctuations that become indistinguishable from quantum fluctuations. This has led some authors to demand that some form of time irreversibility be incorporated into the formalism of quantum mechanics. As a tool toward this goal, we propose a thermodynamical approach to quantum mechanics, based on Onsager's classical theory of irreversible processes and Prigogine's nonunitary transformation theory. An entropy operator replaces the Hamiltonian as the generator of evolution. The canonically conjugate variable corresponding to the entropy is a dimensionless evolution parameter. Contrary to the Hamiltonian, the entropy operator is not a conserved Noether charge. Our construction succeeds in implementing gravitationally-induced irreversibility in the quantum theory.

The Mechanisms Operation of Thermodynamic System of a Human Organism

Studying the open non equilibrium non linear thermodynamic system of an organism there were explained mechanisms maintenance stability Internal Energy and Internal Medium as an organism as well as cells an organism in norm and in quasi-stationary pathologic states from the point of view of thermodynamic laws. There were calculated the main thermodynamic parameters according thermodynamic laws of open non equilibrium non linear thermodynamic system of a human organism. Also it was explained thermodynamic mechanisms stability open non equilibrium non linear thermodynamic system of a human organism, according Prigogine theorem, as well as development open non equilibrium non linear thermodynamic system of a human organism, according Glansdorff and Prigogine theories. There were explained the mechanisms of mutual interactions and interdependence between thermodynamic system of an organism and thermodynamic systems of cells of an organism for maintenance stability Internal Energy both an organism and cells of an organism. Besides there were described mechanisms operation of cellular capacitors contributing to maintenance stability Internal Energy both an organism and cells of an organism. Moreover there were described remote cellular reactions via cellular capacitors operations which are preceding contacts cellular reactions leading to immune reaction on strange objects into an organism that saves stability Internal Energy and Internal Medium of an organism. Also it was described interdependence between nuclear capacitors, mitochondrial capacitors, intracellular organelles capacitors and cellular capacitors for maintenance stability Internal Energy both an organism and cells of an organism. Besides there were elucidated oscillating interdependence between anabolic and catabolic processes both in nucleus and mitochondria leading to cells development via cellular cycle.

Characterizing Travel Time Variability in Vehicular Traffic Networks

Modeling travel time reliability requires characterizing travel time distributions. Two key statistics commonly used to describe a distribution are the mean deviation and the standard deviation, with one depicting the central tendency and the other describing the dispersion. Although the mean travel time is easier to measure and predict, the corresponding standard deviation is usually hard to obtain because of the insufficiency of individual trip data. Building on seminal insight that goes back to Herman and Prigogine's kinetic theory, this study explores a robust characterization of travel time variability that provides for a near-linear relation between the standard deviation of travel time per unit distance and the corresponding mean value. Simulation-generated vehicle trajectory data from three road networks are used to explore this relationship. On the basis of multiscale and multilevel analysis, large amounts of data show that these two quantities are highly positively correlated; that is, the dispersion of the distribution of individual travel time per unit distance increases with increasing value of the mean travel time per unit distance. Furthermore, regression models and statistical testing indicate that this relation is linear or near-linear. The relation is also validated by Global Positioning System probe data from the Seattle, Washington, area. This relation provides a robust basis for predicting the standard deviation per unit distance when the mean value is known and thus for characterizing the reliability of travel in a network in strategic and operational studies.

Flow stability and Prigogine theorem for the stationary flow of a viscoplastic body

A slow flow of a nonlinear viscoplastic body on whose boundary the velocities of travel are given has been investigated for stability. We have also proved the Prigogine theory on minimum entropy production in the case of the isothermal special stationary flow of such a body.

Creative Entropy in Rafael Alberti's Sobre los ángeles

Rafael Alberti's Sobre los angeles has been read as the expression of the poet's personal and religious crisis and as a manifestation of the crisis of modernism and the social and political upheavals affecting Europe and Spain in the early decades of the twentieth century. While taking into consideration these valid approaches, this paper approaches Alberti's book by establishing an analogy with chaos theory, not simply as another discourse or vocabulary but because the properties found in the physics theory of complexity are also found in Sobre los angeles. Like others in his generation, Alberti articulates his crisis in images from physical, material reality. Radical changes were taking place in physics, and relativity, electromagnetism and thermodynamics were being discussed widely at the time of this book's composition. Prigogine's theory of creative chaos serves as framework for Alberti and his creation out of the ashes of youthful romantic constructions.Sobre los angeles de Rafael Alberti se ha leid...

Towards a unified formulation of dynamics and thermodynamics II. Dissipative processes and entropy production

AbstractThe mean values of the macroscopic observables determined in the first paper of the series are used to estimate the intensive parameters of extended Gibbs probability densities. Assuming that the standard deviations of the observables are constant leads to simple exact formulae for the entropy production, thus, extending far from equilibrium, the range of validity of the classical Onsager–Prigogine theory. The regression of a fluctuation and a model of chemical reaction allow to quantify the concept of time‐dependent accompanying entropy. The analysis is especially relevant for oscillating regimes. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2011

Prigogine's Theory of the Dynamics of Far-from-Equilibrium Systems Informs the Role of Strategy-Making in Organizational Evolution

This paper offers a perspective on how Ilya Prigogine’s theoretical ideas rooted in the physical sciences can inform and inspire organization theory and strategic management scholars. To that end, the next section of this paper provides a brief synopsis of some of Prigogine and his collaborators seminal scientific insights in the dynamics of far-from-equilibrium systems in the physical sciences. This is followed by a brief summary of how their insights gleaned from studying the dynamics of far-from-equilibrium systems in the physical sciences may inform the study of social systems. The section following this provides examples of the general applicability of the theory of nonlinear dynamics of far-from-equilibrium systems in economics and organization theory. While Prigogine’s theoretical insights have important implications for all levels of social systems, the main purpose of this paper is to examine how his insights inform the role of the strategy-making process in matching the internal and external ecological dynamics that together determine an individual organization’s evolution and its longevity. Consequently, in the next to last section of the paper I draw on my own work about the role of strategy-making in organizational evolution to establish conceptual links with the fundamental insights generated by Prigogine and his collaborators. The conclusion section suggests the potential of Prigogine’s work to unify the physical and social sciences and to motivate a new philosophy of science.

Symmetry Rules: How Science and Nature Are Founded on Symmetry. By Joe Rosen. Springer: Berlin. 2008, XIV, 305 p. 86 illus., Hardcover. CHF 70. ISBN: 978-3-540-75972-0

This book belongs to the book series The Frontiers Collection, edited by A.C. Elitzur, M.P. Silverman, J. Tuszynski, R. Vaas and H.D. Zeh.[...]

A new holistic exploratory approach to Systems Biology by Near Infrared Spectroscopy evaluated by chemometrics and data inspection

AbstractThere is a need for an improved biological and theoretical interpretation of Near Infra‐Red Spectral (NIRS) fingerprints from tissues that could contribute with holistic overview to fine‐grained detail modelled in Systems Biology. The concept of gene expression in self‐organised networks was experimentally tested in a barley endosperm model with molecularly defined and undefined mutants. Surprisingly reproducible gene‐specific NIRS fingerprints were observed directly in log1/R MSC pre‐treated spectra that could not be accurately represented by destructive mathematical models. A mutant spectrum in an isogenic background represents the physiochemical expression of the gene in the whole network (tissue). The necessary holistic overview that is needed experimentally to introduce Ilya Prigogine's theory on self‐organisation in Systems Biology was supplied by defining the spectral phenome. Interval spectral information on genotypes and environment was classified by interval Extended Canonical Variates Analysis (iECVA). Genetic changes in spectra were interpreted by interval Partial Least Squares Regression (iPLSR) correlations to chemical variables. A new pathway regulation was detected. The finely grained ‘bottom up’ modelling of molecular and chemical data from pathways requires a coarsely grained exploratory ‘top down’ overview by NIRS to account for the outcome of self‐organisation. The amplification of expression from a gene to the phenome (pleiotropy) can now for the first time be quantified as a whole reproducible phenomenological pattern by NIRS and compared to other gene spectra. It explains published findings that transformed respectively mutated genes in genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and cancer patients can be detected unsupervised from tissues by spectroscopy, chemometrics and data inspection. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Calorimetric and Microstructural Investigation of Frozen Hydrated Gluten

The thermal and microstructural properties of frozen hydrated gluten were studied by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), modulated DSC, and low-temperature scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM). This work was undertaken to investigate the thermal transitions observed in frozen hydrated gluten and relate them to its microstructure. The minor peak that is observed just before the major endotherm (melting of bulk ice) was assigned to the melting of ice that is confined to capillaries formed by gluten. The Defay–Prigogine theory for the depression of melting point of fluids confined in capillaries was put forward in order to explain the calorimetric results. The pore radius size of the capillaries was calculated by using four different empirical models. Kinetic analysis of the growth of the pore radius size revealed that it follows first-order kinetics. Cryo-SEM observations revealed that gluten forms a continuous homogeneous and not fibrous network. Results of the present investigation showed that is impossible to assign a Tg value for hydrated frozen gluten because of the wide temperature range over which the gluten matrix vitrifies, and therefore the construction of state diagrams is not feasible at subzero temperatures for this material. Furthermore, the gluten matrix is deteriorated with two different mechanisms from ice recrystallization, one that results from the growth of ice that is confined in capillaries and the other from the growth of bulk ice.

Surface tension of quantum fluids from molecular simulations.

We present the first molecular simulations of the vapor-liquid surface tension of quantum liquids. The path integral formalism of Feynman was used to account for the quantum mechanical behavior of both the liquid and the vapor. A replica-data parallel algorithm was implemented to achieve good parallel performance of the simulation code on at least 32 processors. We have computed the surface tension and the vapor-liquid phase diagram of pure hydrogen over the temperature range 18-30 K and pure deuterium from 19 to 34 K. The simulation results for surface tension and vapor-liquid orthobaric densities are in very good agreement with experimental data. We have computed the interfacial properties of hydrogen-deuterium mixtures over the entire concentration range at 20.4 and 24 K. The calculated equilibrium compositions of the mixtures are in excellent agreement with experimental data. The computed mixture surface tension shows negative deviations from ideal solution behavior, in agreement with experimental data and predictions from Prigogine's theory. The magnitude of the deviations at 20.4 K are substantially larger from simulations and from theory than from experiments. We conclude that the experimentally measured mixture surface tension values are systematically too high. Analysis of the concentration profiles in the interfacial region shows that the nonideal behavior can be described entirely by segregation of H(2) to the interface, indicating that H(2) acts as a surfactant in H(2)-D(2) mixtures.

Thermodynamics of polymer mixtures: study on the mixing process of the poly(styrene)/poly(vinylmethylether) system

The miscibility of poly(styrene) and poly(vinylmethylether) is studied both by measuring the glass transition temperatures of the mixture and with the application of the Flory–Prigogine theory in the approximated form due to Patterson. For these calculations, the enthalpy of mixing of the two polymers is evaluated by measuring the enthalpies of solution of the pure polymers and of the mixture. The trend of the interaction parameters with the temperature for two samples of poly(styrene) of different molecular weight is discussed.

Diversity and Entropy

Entropy has been launched as a scientific journal to provide an advanced forum for the community of entropy and information researchers. [...]

P-V-T relations in a series of longitudinal polymer liquid crystals with varying mesogen concentration

Pressure-volume-temperature (P-V-T) relationships were determined for polymer liquid crystal (PLC) solids and melts up to 400°C and 240 J cm −3. We have studied a series of longitudinal PLC copolymers with the formula PET/ xPHB, where PET = poly(ethylene terephthalate), PHB = p-hydroxyben-zoic acid (the LC component), with the mole fractions of the LC component 0 ≥ x > 0.8. The P-V-T results are represented by the Hartmann equation of state and its characteristic parameters ν ∗, T ∗ and P ∗ evaluated. In both solid and liquid phases the ν ∗(x) and T ∗(x) curves show minima near the concentration θ LC limit above which islands of the LC-rich phase are formed. Surface tensions of melts are calculated as a function of x from the P-V-T data for the liquid state using the theory of Prigogine and Patterson. Increasing x first causes lowering of the cohesion of the single-phase structure dominated by the flexible PET. Above θ LC limit the islands appear to impart their orientation to both phases; this is the channeling effect predicted earlier from the Flory statistical-mechanical theory of PLCs (Blonski et al., Macromolecules, 1993, 26, 84)

An increasing entropy for a free quantum particle

For a quantum-mechanical particle without interaction, a linear manifold of states is identified that has a preferred time direction pointing to the future. States with the broken time-reversal symmetry are singled out by their behavior under dilations. At positive times such states can be described in terms of a density operator with the property that the trace of its square decreases as the time increases. This density operator determines an entropy that approaches its least upper bound when the time tends to infinity. The expectation value of the dilation operator was negative in the distant past and will be positive in the remote future. This is the irreversible aspect of the time evolution that causes the entropy to increase, although there is no approach to equilibrium. The density operator with increasing entropy is obtained from the usual density operator by an invertible transformation that is compared with the Λ-transformation in the Prigogine theory of irreversible behavior in K-systems and large Hamiltonian systems with many resonances.

Influence of the lattice site size in cell model theories on the prediction of thermodynamic properties of polymers and their mixtures

Model calculations with the equation of state theories of Prigogine and Simha et al. were performed to investigate the influence of the lattice site size on the predicted thermodynamic properties. In these theories, as well as in some other equation of state theories, this quantity can be chosen arbitrarily, but it turns out that some properties of the theories depend appreciably on that choice. The theory of Simha et al. contains an equilibrium condition which serves to determine the fraction of occupied lattice sites. This condition contains the quantity 3 c/r, where 3 c is the number of degrees of freedom per chain, and r the number of segments per chain. It is common practice to set this quantity equal to unity, thus fixing the lattice site size. In the present work, it is also investigated how different choices for the lattice site size alter the description of pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) data of polymers. It turns out that for the theory of Simha et al., the reduction parameters of the polymers strongly depend on this choice, but the description of PVT behaviour and the prediction of free volume is almost independent of this choice. The prediction of phase behaviour of binary blends, however, can completely change when different choices for this quantity are made. It turns out that this change occurs in a way very similar to that of the Prigogine theory, in spite of the fact that the reduction parameters of the latter do not change. It seems that only the ratio of the lattice site volumes is important, not, however, their absolute size.