Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 14.9 The Principle of Dynamic Balance (PDB): X
¼
any physicochemical entity; E
¼
energy; S
¼
entropy; I
¼
information (Volkenstein 2010, pp. 142-144); dS
i
¼
the entropy
production due to irreversible process (Kondepudi and Prigogine 1998, p. 88); dS
e
the entropy
change of the system due to the energy and matter exchange between the system and its environ-
ment (Kondepudi and Prigogine 1998, p. 88)
Function
¼
D
X
X
+
X
Thermodynamic laws
1. Structure
D
E
E
+
(or Q)
E
(or W)
The first law (
principle
of conservation of
mattergy
)
2. Process
D
S (or dS) S
+
(e.g., d
i
S) S
(or d
e
S)
The second law
(
principle of
disorganization
)
3. Control (
communication,
organization,
development, selection,
and evolution
)
D
I
I
+
I
The fourth law (?)
(
principle of
organization
)
emergence of self-replicating systems that can survive under increasingly
complexifying environment). These three ingredients are (1)
energy
(i.e., energy-
matter or mattergy) to ground (i.e., to provide a material basis for) a process,
(2)
entropy
to cause a process (since, according to the Second Law of thermody-
namics, no process can occur without entropy production), and (3)
information
to
control a process, that is, to provide the constraints in the form of boundary and
initial conditions. The relation among these three entities is compared in Table
14.9
.
This table is organized on the basis of the principle here called the
Principle of
Dynamic Balance
(PDB), the same principle also operating in the triadic control
mechanism postulated in Sect.
15.3
, which is deduced on the basis of the goal-
directed changes in genome-wide RNA levels in budding yeast undergoing
glucose-galactose shift (Sect.
12.3
). The Principle of Dynamic Balance can be
expressed algebraically as shown in Eq. 14.26:
D
X
¼
X
þ
X
(14.27)
where X is any observable (or state variable) of a physical system,
D
X is the net
change in the observable, X
+
is any physicochemical process that contributes to
increasingX, andX
is any physicochemical process that contributes to decreasingX.
It is interesting to note that PDB can be utilized to express the content of the First
Law of thermodynamics by equating X with energy, X
+
with heat (normally
designated as Q), and X
with work (designated as W) (see the second row of
Table
14.9
). PDB can also be utilized to express the Second Law by equating X
with entropy (designated as S), X
+
with any process that contributes to increasing
the entropy of the thermodynamic system under consideration (such as irreversible
process and the import of high-entropy materials into the system), and X
with any
process that contributes to decreasing the entropy of the system (such as the
synthesis of low-entropy materials in the system or the import of low-entropy
material into the system from environment). The well-known
entropy balance
equation of Prigogine
(EBEP), that is, Eq. 14.27,
