The principle of "a calorie is a calorie," that weight change in hypocaloric diets is independent of macronutrient composition, is widely held in the popular and technical literature, and is frequently justified by appeal to the laws of thermodynamics. We review here some aspects of thermodynamics that bear on weight loss and the effect of macronutrient composition. The focus is the so-called m...

Contents 1. Introduction: On the nature and importance of thermodynamic laws 2. Thermodynamic systems and their description 2.1.

We summarize in this article the experiments which have been performed to test the theoretical findings in stochastic thermodynamics such as fluctuation theorem, Jarzynski equality, stochastic entropy, out-ofequilibrium fluctuation dissipation theorem, and the generalized first and second laws. We briefly describe experiments on mechanical oscillators, colloids, biological systems, and electric...

Published data imply an average thermal efficiency of about 0.34 for U.S. electricity generating plants. With clever use of thermodynamics and technology, modern gas and steam turbines can be coupled, to effect dramatic efficiency increases. These combined-cycle power plants now reach thermal efficiencies in excess of 0.60. It is shown how the laws of thermodynamics make this possible. VC 2012 ...

Several models of quantum open systems are known at present to violate, according to principles of the standard quantum theory of open systems, the second law of thermodynamics. Here, a new and rather trivial model of another type is suggested describing mechanism that violates, according to the same principles, the zeroth and the second laws of thermodynamics simultaneously. Up to a technicall...

We discuss the different roles of the entropy principle in modern thermodynamics. We start with the approach of rational thermodynamics in which the entropy principle becomes a selection rule for physical constitutive equations. Then we discuss the entropy principle for selecting admissible discontinuous weak solutions and to symmetrize general systems of hyperbolic balance laws. A particular a...

Several models of quantum open systems are known at present to violate, according to principles of the standard quantum theory of open systems, the second law of thermodynamics. Here, a new and rather trivial model of another type is suggested describing mechanism that violates, according to the same principles, the zeroth and the second laws of thermodynamics simultaneously. Up to a technicall...