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President - Peter Tsykov (member of The Canadian Public Relations Society)

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Non-equilibrium thermodynamics is a branch of thermodynamics that deals with 
physical systems that are not in thermodynamic equilibrium but can be 
adequately described in terms of variables (non-equilibrium state variables) 
that represent an extrapolation of the variables used to specify the system in 
thermodynamic equilibrium.
Almost all systems found in nature are not in thermodynamic equilibrium; for 
they are changing or can be triggered to change over time, and are 
continuously and discontinuously subject to flux of matter and energy to and 
from other systems.
One fundamental difference between equilibrium thermodynamics and 
non-equilibrium thermodynamics lies in the behaviour of inhomogeneous 
systems, which require for their study knowledge of rates of reaction which 
are not considered in equilibrium thermodynamics.
Another fundamental and very important difference is the difficulty or 
impossibility in defining entropy at an instant of time in macroscopic terms 
for systems not in thermodynamic equilibrium.

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