<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xml><records><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="6.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>13</ref-type><contributors><authors><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Oscar Ibarra</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Gheorghe Paun</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Membrane computing: a general view</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Annals of European Academy of Sciences</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2008</style></year></dates><urls><web-urls><url><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">www.eurasc.org/annals/docs/Ibarra_TeamR_f(19).pdf</style></url></web-urls></urls><pub-location><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Lieja, Bélgica</style></pub-location><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">83-101</style></pages><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">We give an informal presentation of the basic ideas, results, and applications of membrane
computing, a branch of natural computing inspired by the structure and the functioning of
biological cells, cell tissues, or colonies of cells. Membrane computing has given rise to computing
models (called P systems) that are distributed and parallel, which process multisets of objects
in compartments defined by membranes.
After introducing the main classes of P systems, illustrated with some simple examples, we
recall some results, especially those that concern their computing power and computing effi-
ciency: the equivalence with Turing machines for many classes of P systems, and the possibility
of designing devices which are capable of solving computationally intractable problems in feasi-
ble time. We then briefly discuss some applications (to biology, bio-medicine, economics, etc.),
giving a typical example to illustrate this research direction. Finally, we report on some software
simulators and hardware implementations of P systems that have been developed.</style></abstract></record></records></xml>