@article {417,
	title = {Membrane computing: a general view},
	journal = {Annals of European Academy of Sciences},
	year = {2008},
	pages = {83-101},
	address = {Lieja, B{\'e}lgica},
	abstract = {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.},
	url = {www.eurasc.org/annals/docs/Ibarra_TeamR_f(19).pdf},
	author = {Oscar Ibarra and Gheorghe Paun}
}
