A Decade of Ecological Membrane Computing Applications

BULLETIN of the International Membrane Computing Society IMCS Number 6 December 2018 Bulletin Webpage: http://membranecomputing.net/IMCSBulletin Webmaster: Andrei Florea, [email protected] Foreword We have here the sixth issue of our Bulletin! I would like to thank, also on behalf of the Membrane Computing community, to Academician Gheorghe P˘aun (George for the community members and most of his collaborators) for editing the first five issues of the IMCS Bulletin, the last one being done under unforseen circumstances. The Bulletin follows the “standard” contents of the previous volumes, as they were conceived and finalised by George. Anything new? Of course, there is the twenty years anniversary of the MC research, outlined several times in this issue, but also new results, events and research group new developments are presented. Like in the previous volumes, one can stress the fact that the IMCS Bulletin is conceived as a working material for the MC community, as a medium for communicating in a fast and efficient way any idea, news, problem, result. As it is already known, each issue gradually grows and remains available at http://membranecomputing. net/IMCSBulletin), also being printed. (If somebody wants to have a printed copy, s/he has to contact the IMCS secretary – see information about the structure of IMCS, including email addresses, in the subsequent pages.) The “instructions to contributors” are minimal. Any material which any MC researcher considers of interest for the community, helping in achieving the goals of IMCS, is very much welcome and can be submitted at any time to me or to any member of the Bulletin Committee. In what concerns the style and format, the previous issues of the Bulletin are available as a model. (LNCS Latex style is the best to be used.) The copyright of all materials remains with their authors. I am hereby inviting all those interested in Membrane Computing to consult the Bulletin and, also, to contribute – “views from outside” are always of interest and useful. * 4 Foreword The realization of the Bulletin of IMCS owns very much (i) to all contributors, (ii) to the webmaster, Andrei Florea, [email protected], and (iii) to Professor Gexiang Zhang, the President of IMCS, to his group, and to the Xihua University in Chengdu, China, where the Bulletin is printed. Marian Gheorghe December 2018 Contents Letter from The President ............................................... 7 IMCS Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Structure of IMCS ................................................... 9 Constitution of IMCS ............................................... 15 IMCS Journal: Journal of Membrane Computing (JMEC) . . . . . . . . . . . 21 News from MC Research Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Xiyu Liu: Research Group on Bio-inspired Intelligent Computing at Shandong Normal University in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Agust´ın Riscos N´u˜nez: Research Group on Natural Computing – Universidad de Sevilla . . . . 29 Ping Guo, Jiao Li: Research Group on Natural Computing at Chongqing University, China .............................................................. 31 Book Presentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Agust´ın Riscos-N´u˜nez: Enjoying Natural Computing – Essays Dedicated to Mario de Jes´us P´erez-Jim´enez on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday ................................................ 35 Tutorials, Surveys, Bibliographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Luis Valencia-Cabrera, Carmen Graciani, Ignacio P´erez-Hurtado, Mario de Jes´us P´erez-Jim´enez, Agust´ın Riscos-N´u˜nez: A Decade of Ecological Membrane Computing Applications . . . . . . . . . 39 Rodica Ceterchi, G. Samdanielthompson, K.G. Subramanian: Array P Systems - A Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Open Problems, Research Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Alberto Leporati, Luca Manzoni, Giancarlo Mauri, Antonio E. Porreca, Claudio Zandron: A Turing Machine Simulation by P Systems without Charges . . . . . . . . 55 6Contents Abstracts of PhD Theses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Tingfang Wu: Research on Modelling and Computational Power of some new Classes of Spiking Neural P Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Ionut¸ Mihai Niculescu: Simulation of kernel P Systems using Communicating X-machines - Applications in FLAME............................................. 69 Andrei George Florea: Contributions to the Control of Collective Robotic Systems using Membrane Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Bosheng Song: Postdoctoral Report: Research on Complexity of Communication Membrane Systems.................................................. 81 Calls for Participation to MC and Related Conferences/Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 The 20th International Conference on Membrane Computing (E)CMC20, 5-8 August, 2019, Curtea de Arge¸s, Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 The 17th Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing BWMC17, 5-8 February, 2019, Sevilla, Spain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 The 4th China Workshop on Membrane Computing CWMC 2019 . . . . 91 Reports on MC Conferences/Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Thomas Hinze: Report on the 19th International Conference on Membrane Computing .............................................. 93 Miguel ´ A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor, Agust´ın Riscos-N´u˜nez, Francis G. Cabarle, Henry N. Adorna, Xiangxiang Zeng: Report on Biologically Inspired Parallel and Distributed Computing, Algorithms and Solutions (BICAS 2018) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Svetlana Cojocaru, Alexandru Colesnicov, Ludmila Malahov, Alexei Muravitsky: The 5th Annual Rogozhin Lectures on Foundations of Informatics and Unconventional Computing Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Gexiang Zhang: The Malaysia Workshop on Data Science and Bio-Inspired Algorithms - A Practical Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Miscellanea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Gheorghe P˘aun: Membrane Computing - After Twenty Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Marian Gheorghe: Twenty Years with Membrane Computing - A very Short Note . . . . . 125 Contents of Previous Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Letter from The President Dear IMCS members, The Bulletin of our Society is now almost three years old. Every Bulletin publication informs, primarily the Membrane Computing (MC) community, about the latest news and key developments related to the MC research, but also presents events and research group achievements. All these are possible due to the e↵orts made by the chair, Academician Gheorghe P˘aun, and the Bulletin committee members, as wel as through the MC members’ contributions. The Bulletin represents a very good communication platform for our members and is also an e↵ective way of advertising MC research to a wider audience. Since this issue, professor Marian Gheorghe, The University of Bradford, has taken over the responsibility of chairing the Bulletin editorial process. I would like to thank Academician Gheorghe P˘aun for his important contribution to defining the main structure and layout of the Bulletin, with key rubrics and adequate templates, and encouraging and motivating MC community members to support and publish in the Bulletin. I am also grateful to Marian Gheorghe for agreeing to become the Bulletin new chair and am wishing him all good luck in this important role. As you may know, the first issue of the journal aiming to publish top MC research papers, Journal of Membrane Computing (JMC) (with the journal website1and the submission website2fully functional), will appear online very soon. Every one of you can have free access to the papers in 2019 and 2020. I will take this opportunity to invite you all to wholeheartedly support JMC by contributing with comprehensive surveys and high quality research papers. I would like to stress and highlight the importance of the journal to our community by referring to its main aims and objectives. The JMC provides a forum for developing and nurturing an international community of scholars and practitioners who are interested in all aspects of Membrane Computing: theories, interdisciplinary areas, applications, and implementations. JMC welcomes high- 1www.springer.com/41965 2www.editorialmanager.com/JMEC 8 Letter from The President quality submissions that contribute to the full range of Membrane Computing research, from cell-like P systems, tissue P systems, spiking neural P systems, and other types of P systems, to membrane algorithms, computational complexity, interdisciplinary research combining Membrane Computing and evolutionary computing and neural networks, to applications like optimization and biosystem modeling, and Membrane Computing implementations with nanotechnology. This uniquely broad range facilitates the cross-fertilization of ideas between biological and technological studies, and helps to spur on the advancement of an interdisciplinary community that is interested in biologically inspired computational intelligence. Accordingly, the JMC editorial board, consisting of Honorary Editorin-Chief, Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor and members, represents experts in a range of fields, including theoretical computer science, engineering, mathematics, and nanotechnology. The journal publishes original, high-quality and previously unpublished research papers, survey and review articles, short communications, and tutorial papers. In the last half of this year, two important conferences have been successfully organised. The 19th International Conference on Membrane Computing (CMC193) was organised by the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, 4–7 September, 2018, Dresden, Germany, and The Asian Branch of International Conference on Membrane Computing (ACMC20184), the name has been changed this year, was organized by the University of Auckland, 10–14 December, Auckland, New Zealand, under the auspices of the International Membrane Computing Society (IMCS). In the coming months, the 17th Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing (BWMC5) will be organised, 5–8 February, 2019, by The Research Group on Natural Computing, Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain, and the 4th China Workshop on Membrane Computing (CWMC) will be held in Chongqing, 19–22 January, 2019. Finally, I would like to thank prof. Marian Gheorghe for his contribution to this issue. The Christmas Festival is coming soon and I take this opportunity to wish you all and your families Merry Christmas and joyful and happy holidays! and also for the New Year A happy, fruitful and prosperous 2019, with many P systems results! Gexiang Zhang Chengu, China Dce. 16, 2018 3http://cmc19.uni-jena.de 4http://2018.asiancmc.org 5http://www.gcn.us.es/17bwmc IMCS Matters Structure of IMCS ' & $ % ' & $ % ' & $ % ⌫   ⌫   ⌫   ⌫   ⌫   ✏   ✏   ✏   ✏   IMCS Board Executive Board President: Gexiang Zhang Vice President: Alberto Leporati Treasurer: Tao Wang Secretary: Tao Song Bulletin Committee Marian Gheorghe, Chair Website Committee: Xiangxiang Zeng, Chair PR Committee: Marian Gheorghe, Chair Publication Committee: Linqiang Pan, Chair Conferences Committee: Claudio Zandron, Chair Advisory Board Erzs´ebet Csuhaj-Varj´u Chair Yu (Kevin) Cao Svetlana Cojocaru Marian Gheorghe Xiyu Liu Vincenzo Manca Giancarlo Mauri Radu Nicolescu Taishin T. Nishida Mario P´erez-Jim´enez K.G. Subramanian Jun Wang Xingyi Zhang 10-20 members 20-30 members ' & $ % Honorary President: Gheorghe P˘aun Honorary Members: Arto Salomaa Grzegorz Rozenberg Kamala Krithivasan Oscar H. Ibarra Takashi Yokomori J¨urgen Dassow Lila Kari Cristian S. Calude ⌫   ' & $ % ' & $ % ' & $ % ' & $ % Institution Members Individual Regular Members Student Members 16 Constitution of IMCS (2.2.) A special attention will be paid to the communication/cooperation inside MC community, to connections with other professional scientific organizations with similar aims, and to promoting MC to young researchers. (2.3.) IMCS will publish proceedings, journals or other materials, printed or electronically, as it sees fit. (2.4.) IMCS will organize yearly MC meetings, such as the European Branch of International Conference on Membrane Computing (ECMC), the Asian Branch of International Conference on Membrane Computing (ACMC), the Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing (BWMC), as well as further workshops/meetings, as it sees fit. Article 3: Membership (3.1.) There are four categories of members: Honorary Members, Regular Members, Student Members, and Institution Members. (3.2.)The Honorary Members are elected by the IMCS Board (email voting, majority rule). Regular membership is open to all persons interested, on completing a membership form. (3.3.) Student Members can be undergraduate, master, and PhD students, and they are eligible for various facilities IMCS is planning for students. (3.4.) Institutions which want to join IMCS and support it can become Institution Members. Any support/sponsorship from an institution will be acknowledged in an appropriate way in IMCS publications. (3.5.) Any member, of any kind, is supposed to know and accept the Constitution of IMCS. Article 4: Structure (4.1.) The structure of IMCS and its governance are as specified in the next figure. The figure also specifies the ten Honorary Members with whom the Society starts (February 2016). (4.2.) Gheorghe P˘aun, the founder of MC, is appointed Honorary President of IMCS. (4.3.) The work of IMCS is organized and conducted by the Board of IMCS, consisting of the Executive Board and the Advisory Board. The Advisory Board should have between 10 and 20 members, hence in total the IMCS Board should contain between 20 and 30 members, (4.4.) The Executive Board consists of four individual positions: President (also called IMCS President), Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary, and five Committees: Bulletin, Website, PR, Publication, and Conferences Committee. Each of these five Committees has a chair person. The Advisory Board also has a chair person. (4.5.) The four individual positions from the Executive Board, the five chair persons of the Committees, the members of the Advisory Board, and the chair of the Advisory Board are elected by the IMCS Board (email voting, majority rule). Each chair of a Committee appoints a number of Committee members as he/she sees fit. Constitution of IMCS 17 (4.6.) All the elected positions are elected for one year. After one year, a change of an elected person can be proposed by the President or the Vice President of the IMCS Board, by the person itself (resignation), or by two thirds of members of the IMCS Board, and it is voted in the IMCS Board (email voting, majority rule). If there is no change proposal, then the person who occupies any position in the IMCS Board continues in the same position, for one further year. ' & $ % ' & $ % ' & $ % ✏   ✏   ✏   ✏   ✏   ✏   ✏   ✏   ✏   IMCS Board Executive Board Advisory Board President Vice President Treasurer Secretary Bulletin Committee Website Committee PR Committee Publication Committee Conferences Committee 10-20 members 20-30 members ' & $ % Honorary President: Gheorghe P˘aun Honorary Members: Arto Salomaa Grzegorz Rozenberg Kamala Krithivasan Oscar H. Ibarra Takashi Yokomori J¨urgen Dassow Lila Kari Cristian S. Calude ⌫   ' & $ % ' & $ % ' & $ % ' & $ % Institution Members Individual Regular Members Student Members Article 5: Duties and competencies (5.1.) The IMCS Board President represents the Society in relation with any external entity, organizes/coordinates the activity of the IMCS Board, initiates voting in the IMCS Board, chairs any panel/meeting of the Society. (5.2.) The Vice President helps the President in all his/her activity, represents the President when he/she is not available (e.g., in chairing panels/meetings). Every year, the President and the Vice President present a common report 18 Constitution of IMCS about IMCS activity, first circulating it by email in the IMCS Board and, after possible corrections, posting it in the IMCS web page. (5.3.) The Treasurer takes care of the income and expenses of IMCS, and each year presents a report in this respect to IMCS Board. This report is analyzed and voted in the IMCS Board (email voting, majority rule). (5.4.) The Secretary is responsible to keep a track record of the IMCS: memberships, reports, voting results, etc. (5.5.) The Bulletin Committee takes care of editing the Bulletin of IMCS, first accumulating information/materials in an electronic format and then printed, if needed/requested, with a periodicity to be decided by the IMCS Board. (5.6.) The Website Committee takes care of the IMCS web page, whose structure should be decided by the IMCS Board. (5.7.) The PR Committee is responsible with developing relationships with other similar organizations and promoting IMCS on various scientific forums, advertising its activity on specialised networks and at international events. (5.8.) The Publication Committee supervises the publication of proceedings, special issues of journals, collective volumes edited under the auspices of IMCS. Two particular goals of this Committee are to initiate a specialized journal, International Membrane Computing Journal, and a specialized series of monographs. (5.9.) The Conference Committee works as a steering committee for the two MC yearly conferences, CMC and ACMC, looking for venues, suggesting (in cooperation with the organizing committees) program committees and invited speakers, possible sponsors and publications. Article 6: The IMCS Awards IMCS awards three yearly IMCS Prizes: (1) The PhD Thesis of the Year, (2) The Theoretical Result of the Year, (3) The Application of the Year, according to the following Rules of IMCS Awards: (6.1.) Each prize consists of one IMCS diploma (signed by the President of IMCS) and one copy of the Hamangia thinker (a Neolithic age clay sculpture, about 4000 years BC, found in Romania), for each winning paper. (6.2.) Any registered member of IMCS can be nominated and can receive any of the three prizes. In cases (2) and (3), at least one of co-authors should be a member of IMCS. (6.3.) Any registered member of IMCS can propose a candidate for any prize, by sending the relevant information to any member of the IMCS Board or to the Honorary President of IMCS. The nominations are centralized by the Honorary President of IMCS, who also takes care of the voting process. (6.4.) The nominations for the year Y should reach the Honorary President of IMCS before 20 of January of the year Y+1. The IMCS Board decides the winners by the middle of February, voting through email messages sent to the Constitution of IMCS 19 Honorary President of IMCS. If suitable/necessary, any member of the IMCS Board can send comments about the nominated papers to all members of the Board. (6.5.) The IMCS Board may decide that any of the prizes can be awarded ex aequo, to two winners, or not to be awarded at all. (6.6.) These rules can be changed every year, after March 1, at the proposal of any member of the IMCS Board, subject to a vote in the IMCS Board. Article 7: Voting (7.1.) Each member of the IMCS Board (between 20 and 30 members) has one vote. (7.2.) A voting, on any subject (except the IMCS Awards, for which responsible is the Honorary President) can be initiated by the IMCS President, the Vice President, or by two thirds of the IMCS Board members. (7.3.) The message proposing a vote should specify the issue to be decided in such a way that the alternatives YES and NO are clear. The message should be sent to all members of the IMCS Board, the voting messages of the members should also be sent to all members (full transparency). The voting should last 30 days. If a member is not replying in the first 15 days, the initiator of the vote should contact him/her once again. If a member is not replying even to the second message, then his/her vote is considered abstaining. (7.4.) ”Majority rule” means that at least half of the IMCS Board have voted (YES, NO, or abstaining) and the decision is made according to the number of YES and NO votes which is higher. In case of a draw, the vote of the President is decisive – unless if the President does not decide to repeat the vote, maybe changing the object of the vote. (7.5.) All ambiguities and uncovered cases should be clarified by discussions in the IMCS Board and, if decided so, proposed as amendments to the Constitution. Article 8: Panels (8.1.) On the occasions of IMCS annual meetings, like BWMC, CMC, and ACMC, panels should be organized, chaired by the President, the Vice President or, in their absence, by another member of the IMCS Board designated by the President, to discuss current issues of the Society. Article 9: Finance (9.1.) Income: possible membership fees, as decided by IMCS Board, donations, sponsorhips, conference registration fees, participation to research projects. (9.2.) Expenses: IMCS prizes, students support, Bulletin of IMCS hardcopy, maintaining web pages, sponsoring MC conferences – all these and anything else, under the control of the IMCS Board. Article 10: Amendments (10.1.)Amendments to IMCS Constitution can be proposed by any member of the IMCS Board, at any time. Any amendment should be discussed and voted in 20 Constitution of IMCS the IMCS Board (email voting, majority rule) and then, if accepted, published in the IMCS web page, thus being available to all members of IMCS. Article 11: Dissolution (11.1.) The dissolution of IMCS should be done in two steps: first, a vote in the IMCS Board is organized (email voting, two thirds majority), and, if the dissolution proposal passes, a general vote is organized, where all regular members participate (email voting, two thirds majority; in order the vote to be valid, at least half of the members should vote). (11.2.) If the Society decides to get dissolved, all remaining assets shall be donated to a similar organization, at the choice of the IMCS Board. Article 12. Provisory statement The present Constitution will get provisionally valid by being voted (by email, majority rule), in March 2016, in the IMCS Board, as this Board was constituted by consensus during BWMC 2016 and soon after that. Then, it will be published in the IMCS web page and, as soon as possible, in 2016, it will be voted by all individual members of IMCS (email voting, majority rule). The vote will last one month and to voting will participate all individual members of IMCS, students or regular, registered until the last day of the previous month. IMCS Journal: Journal of Membrane Computing (JMC) International Membrane Computing Society (IMCS) witnesses the processes of gestation and the birth of the new international journal, Journal of Membrane Computing (JMC). The Editor-in-Chief of JMC, Professor Linqiang Pan, signed the publishing agreement with Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. on March 20, 2017, in Wuhan, China. JMC is an international journal with four issues per volume (per year). The Journal Homepage http://www.springer.com/journal/41965 is setting up and will be publicized soon. The first accepted papers are planned to be online in 2018 and thereafter will be published in the Spring of 2019. JMC aims to foster the dissemination of new discoveries and novel technologies in the area of membrane computing and the related areas like bio-inspired computing and natural computing. The focus of this journal is to provide a publication and communication platform for researchers, professionals and industrial practitioners, covering the theoretical fundamentals and technological advances to various applications. JMC solicits original, high-quality and previously unpublished research papers, survey and review articles, short communications, and tutorial papers. 22 Journal of Membrane Computing Journal of Membrane Computing 23 News from MC Research Groups Research Group on Bio-inspired Intelligent Computing at Shandong Normal University in China Xiyu Liu Institute of Management Science Jinan 250014, Shandong, China [email protected] Team Introduction The Research Group on Bio-inspired Intelligent Computing at Institute of Management Science, Shandong Normal University, led by professor Xiyu Liu, focuses on bio-inspired computing (i.e., membrane computing and DNA computing) and their applications in machine learning and data mining. The group consists of •professor Xiyu Liu, •associate professors –Jie Xue ([email protected]), –Wenke Zang ([email protected]), –Feng Qi ([email protected]), and –Jianhua Qu ([email protected]), •lecturers –Hongyan Zhang ([email protected]), –Jianping Zhang ([email protected]) and –Yuzhen Zhao ([email protected]). The group has five PhD students •Jiachao Wu (wujiac[email protected]) working on the Fuzzy system based on argument framework. •Yongxin Zhang (w[email protected]) working on data analysis in medical image. 32 Ping Guo, Jiao Li Research cooperation Researchers who have worked with the research Group for a long time include: Wang Yanxia, associate professor of Chongqing Normal University. Dr. Wang has been long engaged in research related to computational modelling and applications of cell-like P systems. Luo Yueguo, Associate Professor of Yangtze Normal University. Dr. Luo research interest covers tissue P systems, P systems with active membranes, P systems with proteins on membranes. Chen Haizhu, Associate Professor of Chongqing College of Electronic Engineering. Dr. Chen has been engaged in membrane computing optimization applications for a long time. Zheng Hui, Associate Professor of Chongqing College of Electronic Engineering. She has been involved in applications of membrane computing optimization research. References 1. P. Guo, H.Z. Chen, H. Zheng, Arithmetic Expression Evaluations with Membranes, Chinese Journal of Electronics, Vol. 23, No. 1, p. 55-60, 2014. 2. P. Guo, H. Zhang, H.Z. Chen, R. Liu, Fraction Reduction in Membrane Systems, Scientific World Journal, DOI: 10.1155/2014/858527, 2014. 3. P. Guo, J.F. Ji, H.Z. Chen, R. Liu, Evaluating Logical Expressions by Membrane Systems, Chinese Journal of Electronics, Vol. 23, No. 2, p. 278-283, 2014. 4. R.L. Yang, P. Guo, J. Li, P. Gu, Arithmetic P Systems Based on Arithmetic Formula Tables, Chinese Journal of Electronics, Vol. 24, No. 3, p. 542-549, 2015. 5. P. Guo, J.F. Ji, H.Z. Chen, R. Liu, Solving All-SAT Problems by P Systems, Chinese Journal of Electronics, Vol. 24, No. 4, p. 744-749, 2015. 6. P. Guo, H.Z. Chen, H. Zhang, An Integrated P System for Arithmetic Operations, Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, Vol. 12, No. 10, p. 3346-3356, 2015. 7. Y.X. Wang, P. Guo, H.Z. Chen, H.J. Liu, The Design of Arithmetic Unit Based on P System, Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, Vol. 12, No. 10, p. 3894-3901, 2015. 8. P. Guo, L.J. Wei, H.Z. Chen, A P System for Matrix-Vector Multiplication, Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, Vol. 12, No. 11, p. 4279- 4288, 2015. 9. P. Guo, L.P. Su, H.Z. Chen, R. Liu, An Arithmetic P System Based on Formula Tables, Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, Vol. 12, No. 11, p. 4959-4974, 2015. 10. Y.G. Luo, Z.Y. Xiong, H.J Tan, et al., A Uniform Algorithm of Solving All-SAT Using Membrane Systems. Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, Val. 12, No. 12, p. 5825-5832, 2015. Research Group on Natural Computing at Chongqing University, China 33 11. M.X. Tang, J. Lee, K. Morita: General design of reversible sequential machines based on reversible logic elements, Theoretical Computer Science, Vol. 568, p. 19-27, 2015. 12. P. Guo, J. Zhu, M.Q. Zhou, A Family of Uniform P Systems for All- Satisfiability Problem, Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, Vol. 13, No. 1, p. 135-142, 2016. 13. L. Ye, P. Guo, Design a Membrane System for Solving Linear Equations, Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, Vol. 13, No. 3, p. 1561- 1568, 2016. 14. P. Guo, L.J. Wei, M.Q. Zhou, A Family of P Systems Based on Division Formula Table, Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, Vol. 13, No. 6, p. 3909-3917, 2016. 15. Y.G. Luo, Z.Y Xiong, S.Y Xia, et al., Classification Noise Detection Based SMO Algorithm. Optik, Vol. 127, No. 17, p. 7021-7029, 2016. 16. P. Guo, Y.W. Zhong, H.Z. Chen, M.Q. Zhou, A P System for Degree- Constrained Spanning Tree, Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, Vol. 13, No. 6, p. 3918-3925, 2016. 17. Y.G. Luo, Z.Y. Xiong, Y.G. Chen, Efficient Solutions to All-SAT by P Systems with Active Membranes, Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, Vol. 13, No. 6, p. 3887-3894, 2016. 18. Y.X. Wang, P. Guo, H.Z. Chen, H.J. Liu, Arithmetic P Systems with Fixed Length Operands, Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Vol. 50, No. 7, p. 1132- 1138, 2016 19. P. Guo, W. Xu, A Family P System of Realizing RSA Algorithm, Int. Conf. on the 11th International Conference on Bio-inspired Computing-Theories and Applications, BIC-TA 2016, CCIS, Vol. 681, P. 155-167, 2016. 20. L. Ye, P. Guo, An Immune Algorithm Based on P System for Classification, Int. Conf. on the 11th International Conference on Bio-inspired Computing- Theories and Applications, BIC-TA 2016, CCIS, Vol. 681, P. 133-141, 2016. 21. P. Guo, Y.L. Dai, H.Z. Chen, A P System for Hamiltonian Cycle Problem, OPTIK, Vol. 127, No. 20, P. 8461-8468, 2016. 22. L. Ye, P. Guo, Design a Membrane System for Matrix Multiplication, OPTIK, Vol. 127, No. 20, P. 8231-8239, 2016. 23. J. Lee, F. Peper, S.D. Cotofana, M. Naruse, M. Ohtsu, T. Kawazoe, Y. Takahashi, T. Shimokawa, L.B. Kish, T. Kubota: Brownian circuits: designs. International Journal of Unconventional Computing, Vol. 12, No. 5-6, p. 341-362, 2016. 24. J. Lee, F. Peper, K. Leibnitz, P. Gu: Characterization of random fluctuationbased computation in cellular automata, Information Sciences, Vol. 352-353, p. 150-166, 2016. 25. P. Guo, J. Zhu, J. Chen, A Family of P Systems for 0-1 Knapsack Problem, Journal of Residuals Science & Technology, Vol. 14, No. 3, p. 256 -270, 2017. 34 Ping Guo, Jiao Li 26. P. Guo, M.Z. Zhang, H.Z. Chen, A Membrane Computing Model for Genetic Algorithm, Journal of Residuals Science & Technology, Vol. 14, No. 3, p. 205-217, 2017. 27. P. Guo, Y.L. Dai, A P System for Travelling Salesman Problem, In the Proceedings of CMC18, p. 147-165, Bradford, UK. 24-28 July, 2017. 28. P. Guo, L.J. Wei, H.Z. Chen, R. Liu, A Family of P Systems for Solving Linear Equations, Chinese Journal of Electronics, Vol. 26, No. 4, p. 667-674, 2017. 29. P. Guo, X.X. Peng, The P System Design Based on P Module, In the Proceedings of ACMC 2017, P. 124-142, Chengdu, China, 21-25 September, 2017. 30. P. Guo, M.Z. Zhang, J. Chen, A Family of Ant Colony P Systems, Int. Conf. on the 12th International Conference on Bio-inspired Computing-Theories and Applications, BIC-TA 2017, CCIS, Vol. 791, P. 175-193, 2017. 31. Y.G Luo, Z.Y. Xiong, G.H Zhang, Time-free solution to SAT problem by tissue P systems, Mathematical Problems in Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/1567378, 2017. 32. P. Guo, J. Zhu, H.Z. Chen, R.L. Yang, A Linear-Time Solution for All-SAT Problem Based on P System, Chinese Journal of Electronics, Vol. 27, No. 2, p. 367-373, 2018. 33. P. Guo, C.S. Quan, L.Ye, A Simulator for Cell-Like P System, Int. Conf. on the 13th International Conference on Bio-inspired Computing-Theories and Applications, BIC-TA 2018, CCIS, Vol. 951, pp. 223-235, 2018. 34. P. Guo, J.Q. Xiang, An Attribute Reduction P System Based on Rough Set Theory, Int. Conf. on the 13th International Conference on Bio-inspired Computing-Theories and Applications, BIC-TA 2018, CCIS, Vol. 951, pp. 198- 212, 2018. 35. P. Guo, J.Y. Xie, A P System for K-Medoids-Based Clustering, International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, Vol. 9, No. 10, p. 41-48, 2018. 36. Y.G. Luo, H.J Tan, Y. Zhang, et al., The Computational Power of Timed P Systems with Active Membranes Using Promoters, Mathematical Structures in Computer Science, doi:10.1017/S0960129518000282. Book Presentations Enjoying Natural Computing Essays Dedicated to Mario de Jes´us P´erez-Jim´enez on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday Agust´ın Riscos-N´u˜nez Research Group on Natural Computing Dpt. Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Universidad de Sevilla, E.T.S.I. Inform´atica Avda. Reina Mercedes s/n. 41012 Sevilla, Spain E-mail: [email protected] I am very pleased to announce, on behalf of the rest of the editors (Carmen Graciani, Gheorghe P˘aun, Grzegorz Rozenberg, and Arto Salomaa), that the Festschrift Enjoying Natural Computing: Essays Dedicated to Mario de Jes´us P´erez-Jim´enez on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday has been published. The the table of contents is the following: •Chocolate P Automata, by Alhazov, Artiom (et al.) •Solving the N-Queens Puzzle by Using Few Membranes, by Aman, Bogdan (et al.) •A Model of Antibiotic Resistance Evolution Dynamics Through P Systems with Active Membranes and Communication Rules, by Baquero, Fernando (et al.) •Small Spiking Neural P Systems with Structural Plasticity, by Cabarle, Francis George C. (et al.) •Approximating Polygons for Space-Filling Curves Generated with P Systems, by Ceterchi, Rodica (et al.) •A Logical Representation of P Colonies: An Introduction, by Cienciala, Ludˇek (et al.) •The Fair Proportion Is a Shapley Value on Phylogenetic Networks Too,by Coronado, Tom´as M. (et al.) •Deterministic Parsing with P Colony Automata, by Csuhaj-Varj´u, Erzs´ebet (et al.) 36 A. Riscos-N´u˜nez •ACORD: Ant Colony Optimization and BNF Grammar Rule Derivation,by Mingo L´opez, Luis Fernando (et al.) •Membrane Computing as a Modelling Tool: Looking Back and Forward from Sevilla, by Garc´ıa-Quismondo, Manuel (et al.) •Identifiable Kernel P Systems, by Gheorghe, Marian (et al.) •Other Buds in Membrane Computing, by Guti´errez-Naranjo, Miguel A. •The Java Environment for Nature-Inspired Approaches (JENA): A Workbench for BioComputing and BioModelling Enthusiasts, by Hinze, Thomas •WEBRSIM: A Web-Based Reaction Systems Simulator, by Ivanov, Sergiu (et al.) •Open Problems in Membrane Computing and How Not to Solve Them, by Leporati, Alberto (et al.) •A Note on the Entropy of Computation, by Manca, Vincenzo •An Introduction to cP Systems, by Nicolescu, Radu (et al.) •A Look at the Descriptional Complexity of SNQ P Systems, by P˘aun, Andrei (et al.) •Design Patterns for Efficient Solutions to NP-Complete Problems in Membrane Computing, by Romero-Jim´enez, ´ Alvaro (et al.) •Spiking Neural P Systems: Theoretical Results and Applications, by Rong, Haina (et al.) •Aggregating Parallel Multiset Rewriting Systems, by Sburlan, Drago¸s •On Languages Generated by Context-Free Matrix Insertion-Deletion Systems with Exo-Operations, by Song, Bosheng (et al.) •A Simulation Workflow for Membrane Computing: From MeCoSim to PMCGPU Through P-Lingua, by Valencia-Cabrera, Luis (et al.) •An Implementation of Elementary Arithmetic with Virus Machine, by Yan, Xiaoshan (et al.) •A Kernel-Based Membrane Clustering Algorithm, by Yang, Jinyu (et al.) Enjoying Natural Computing 37 Further details about the book can be checked online on Springer’s website (https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783030002640). As one can infer from the contents listed above, a large number of research teams contributed to this volume (actually, more than 70 authors from 15 countries), and not all the papers fall within the scope of membrane computing. A large variety of topics related to natural computing in general are addressed. We are confident that the IMCS community will find the book interesting and useful, and we hope that it may become one of the most relevant references among the collective volumes in the area. Public presentation of the book The volume was publicly presented to Mario on a special surprise ceremony. Everything was organized keeping a friendly and familiar atmosphere, combined with the corresponding academic protocol. We has the opportunity to share memories about our interaction with Mario, both at the scientific level as well as at the personal level. And of course we are looking forward to keep producing new memories for many years to come! Acknowledgements All members of the Research Group on Natural Computing of Universidad de Sevilla are very grateful to Mario J. P´erez Jim´enez for his unconditional support, unlimited generosity, patience and enthusiasm, and particularly for his skillful advising and guiding as our “scientific father”. I would like to thank to the rest of the editors, and to all authors of the contributions published in this volume, for making it possible (and for keeping the secret until the last minute!). Special thanks also to Mario’s family, to the colleagues and friends who traveled to Sevilla for the ceremony, and to those who collaborated in the organization details. Finally, we hereby acknowledge the help and support received from the Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence of Universidad de Sevilla. Tutorials, Surveys, Bibliographies A Decade of Ecological Membrane Computing Applications Luis Valencia-Cabrera, Carmen Graciani, Ignacio P´erez-Hurtado Mario de Jes´us P´erez-Jim´enez, Agust´ın Riscos-N´u˜nez Research Group on Natural Computing Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Universidad de Sevilla Avda. Reina Mercedes s/n, 41012, Sevilla, Spain {lvalencia,cgdiaz,perezh,marper,ariscosn}@us.es Summary. A short summary of recent ecological modelling applications within membrane computing developed by the Research Group on Natural Computing (RGNC) is presented here. A timeline of models presented in the last 10 years is provided, together with some comments on the associated software tools. 1 Introduction Current trends in scientific research pay an increasing attention to practical applications, and the field of membrane computing is not an exception. During the first years of the discipline, most of the research e↵orts were oriented to theoretical results, but already in 2000 we can find some attempts to draw attention from the membrane computing community towards modelling applications (see e.g. [33, 44]). The situation is nowadays quite di↵erent, and the contributions related to practical approaches have significantly increased their number and gained relevance (see e.g. [55], the volumes [17] and [24], or the most recent book devoted to real-life applications [54]). The present survey focuses on one of the currently active research lines pursued by the Research Group on Natural Computing (RGNC) from Universidad de Sevilla, namely on computational modelling for real ecosystems with membrane systems (model design and implementation of associated software tools). Interested readers are advised to read the overview presented in [18] which covers a wider 40 L. Valencia, C. Graciani, I. P´erez, M.J. P´erez, A. Riscos scope (with respect to both time range, and type of biological systems modelled), and which provides a large number of bibliographical references. We would also like to recommend, specially for students or researchers coming from other areas unfamiliar to membrane computing, to have a look at the available online material from the tutorial day celebrated within the 16th Int. Conference on Membrane Computing (http://users.dsic.upv.es/workshops/cmc16/tutorials.html), and also from the 3rd International School on Biomolecular and Biocellular Computing (http://www.redbiocom.es/isbbc17/). 1.1 Computational modelling It is commonly accepted that one of the most important pillars that enables current developments in science is computational modelling. In particular, formal models and simulation tools become specially useful when studying complex systems.The key features that should be taken into account in order to develop a good model (according to Regev and Shapiro [40]) are: relevance, readability, extensibility and computational tractability. That is, a model is an abstraction of a real phenomenon which should be easy to understand (thus, as simple as possible), but at the same time it should integrate all the relevant ingredients of the modelled system (thus, not so simple). On the other hand, from an engineering point of view, it is advisable to schedule several stages of development, adding small extensions on each iteration. It is also necessary to control the complexity of the algorithm capturing the semantics of the model, so that it is feasible to implement simulation software tools. 2 Looking back at nature Tools based on membrane computing (e.g. [1, 6, 34, 47]) are nowadays well recognized as an alternative to more classical approaches (ODEs, Petri Nets, etc) in Computational Systems Biology. In this context, the RGNC has more than 15 years of experience working on computational modelling as one of the main research directions of the group. Actually, the first steps were initiated just after the first edition of the Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing (BWMC) in 2003, although the first publication appeared in 2005 [37]. In particular, some of the case studies that specially called our attention are the modelling works by Suzuki, Ogishima and Tanaka [46, 45]. The applications investigated by RGNC cover a variety of topics, ranging from systems biology (for instance, signalling pathways associated to proteins [37, 39], gene regulation networks [42] and quorum sensing phenomenon [43]), to population dynamics (focusing particularly on two systems: zebra mussels within a reservoir of the Ebro river [11] and the bearded vulture within the Pyrenees [10]), as well as to fault diagnosis on industrial systems (e.g. high-speed railways or electric power plants [53, 52]). A Decade of Ecological Membrane Computing Applications 41 In order to deal with the inherent randomness of the above mentioned processes, we have considered two approaches: stochastic and probabilistic. Most of the modeling works at microscopic level (e.g. molecular interactions) follow a stochastic semantics. This option allow us to indicate that some reactions are more “likely” to be triggered than others, and also we can specify di↵erent reaction speeds. Several algorithms formalizing the semantics of stochastic membrane systems have been described, but we will not get into details here. On the other hand, models at macro level have been designed using probabilistic membrane systems, as we will discuss in the following sections. In this case, we assume a global clock, all rules take “one step” to be executed, and we allow that for a given reactants there may exist several reactions to be triggered. Probabilities will be assigned to rules, and we obviously require that the sum of the probabilities of all non-deterministic choices for a given object(s) is always 1. 2.1 Population Dynamics P systems Let us focus in what follows on the branch devoted to population dynamics for ecosystems. In 2008, a case study dealing with the population dynamics of the Bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) (an endangered species in the Pyrenees) was presented in [4]. This was the first model design for a “real ecosystem” where Mario J. P´erez-Jim´enez, head of the RGNC, was involved. The model was built using Probabilistic P systems, and despite being quite simple, the results obtained were successfully validated against experimental data [4, 5]. On this basis, the model was improved one year later, extending it with additional species in order to make it more accurate and realistic [3]. It is worth recalling that the long-term application of this kind of ecological models is to provide assistance to the policymakers in order to take the right decisions concerning the management of the natural resources (see e.g. [25]). The next upgrade, at the formal level, included into the modelling framework was related to the need to handle “geographical” information, yielding the so-called Multienvironment probabilistic functional extended P systems [2, 10]. The membrane structure of the P system was enriched by considering some environments, which were meant to capture in a direct way information such as, for instance, scavengers moving along di↵erent areas exploring and seeking food. It was also allowed to change the values of the parameters for each environment, enabling in this way that di↵erent environmental conditions could be fine-tuned for each area. This extended formalism was used is modelling the influence of an infection by Border Disease Virus on the population dynamics of Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra p. pyrenaica) in some protected areas in the Pyrenees [8]. In this example, di↵erent thickness of the snow layer were considered for di↵erent areas, yielding di↵erent parameters for the rules governing the life cycle of the chamois. Another relevant case study where this multienvironment setup was proved to be very useful is the study of population density of the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) in Ribarroja reservoir [2]. More precisely, the model proposes 48 L. Valencia, C. Graciani, I. P´erez, M.J. P´erez, A. Riscos Bio-inpired Computing: Theories and Applications (BIC-TA 2010), volume 2, pages 1621–1628, Liverpool, UK, Sept 2010. IEEE Press. 14. M. A. Colomer, I. P´erez-Hurtado, A. Riscos-N´u˜nez, and M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez. Comparing simulation algorithms for multienvironment probabilistic P system over a standard virtual ecosystem. Natural Computing, 11:369–379, 2011. 15. D. D´ıaz-Pernil, I. P´erez-Hurtado, M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez, and A. Riscos-N´u˜nez. P- lingua: A programming language for membrane computing. 6th Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing, 6:135–155, 2008. 16. C. Fondevilla, M. A. Colomer, F. Fillat, and U. Tappeiner. Using a new PDP modelling approach for land-use and land-cover change predictions: A case study in the Stubai valley (central alps). Ecological Modelling, 322:101 – 114, 2016. 17. P. Frisco, M. Gheorghe, and M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez, editors. Applications of Membrane Computing in Systems and Synthetic Biology,volume7ofEmergence, Complexity and Computation. Springer Verlag, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 12/2013 2014. 18. M. Garc´ıa-Quismondo, C. Graciani, and A. Riscos-N´u˜nez. Membrane computing as a modelling tool: Looking back and forward from Sevilla. In Enjoying Natural Computing: Essays Dedicated to Mario de Jes´us P´erez-Jim´enez on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday, volume 11270 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 114– 129. Springer, 2018. 19. M. Garc´ıa-Quismondo, R. Guti´errez-Escudero, I. P´erez-Hurtado, and M. J. P´erez- Jim´enez. P-lingua 2.0: New features and first applications. 7th Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing, I:141–168, 2009. 20. M. Garc´ıa-Quismondo, M. A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor, and M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez. Probabilistic guarded P systems, a formal definition. Twelfth Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing (BWMC2014), pages 183–206, 2014. 21. M. Garc´ıa-Quismondo, M. A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor, and M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez. Probabilistic guarded P systems, a new formal modelling framework. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 8961:194–214, 2014. 22. M. Garc´ıa-Quismondo, J. M. Reed, F. S. Chew, M. A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor, and M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez. Evolutionary response of a native butterfly to concurrent plant invasions: simulation of population dynamics. Ecological Modelling, 360:410–424, 09/2017 2017. 23. C. J. Johnson and M. P. Gillingham. An evaluation of mapped species distribution models used for conservation planning. Environmental Conservation, 32(2):117–128, 2005. 24. V. Manca. Infobiotics - Information in Biotic Systems,volume3ofEmergence, Complexity and Computation. Springer Verlag, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2013. 25. A. Margalida and M. A. Colomer. Modelling the e↵ects of sanitary policies on european vulture conservation. Scientific Reports, 2(753), 2012. 26. M. A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor. Accelerating Membrane Systems Simulators using High Performance Computing with GPU. PhD thesis, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla (Spain), 2013. 27. M. A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor, D. Orellana-Mart´ın, I. P´erez-Hurtado, L. Valencia- Cabrera, A. Riscos-N´u˜nez, and M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez. Simulation of computing P systems: A GPU design for the factorization problem. In 19th International Conference on Membrane Computing, pages 239–242, September 2018. 28. M. A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor, D. Orellana-Mart´ın, A. Riscos-N´u˜nez, and M. J. P´erez- Jim´enez. On GPU-oriented P systems. In 2018 International Conference on High Performance Computing & Simulation (HPCS), pages 780–781, July 2018. A Decade of Ecological Membrane Computing Applications 49 29. M. A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor, I. P´erez-Hurtado, M. Garc´ıa-Quismondo, L. F. Mac´ıas- Ramos, L. Valencia-Cabrera, ´ A. Romero-Jim´enez, C. Graciani-D´ıaz, A. Riscos- N´u˜nez, M. A. Colomer, and M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez. DCBA: Simulating population dynamics P systems with proportional object distribution. Tenth Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing, II:27–56, Feb 2012. 30. M. A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor, I. P´erez-Hurtado, M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez, A. Riscos-N´u˜nez, and M. A. Colomer. A new simulation algorithm for multienvironment probabilistic P systems. In K. Li, Z. Tang, R. Li, A. Nagar, and R. Thamburaj, editors, IEEE Fifth International Conference on Bio-inpired Computing: Theories and Applications (BIC-TA 2010), volume 1, pages 59–68, Changsha, China, Sept 2010. IEEE Press. 31. M. A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor, A. Riscos-N´u˜nez, and M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez. A survey of parallel simulation of P systems with GPUs. Bulletin of the Int. MC Society, pages 55–68, June 2017. 32. E. H. V. Nes and M. Sche↵er. A strategy to improve the contribution of complex simulation models to ecological theory. Ecological Modelling, 185(2):153 – 164, 2005. 33. T. Y. Nishida. Multiset and k-subset transforming systems. In C. Calude, G. P˘aun, G. Rozenberg, and A. Salomaa, editors, Multiset Processing, volume 2235, pages 255–265, 2001. 34. G. P˘aun and F. J. Romero-Campero. Membrane computing as a modeling framework. Cellular systems case studies. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 5016:168–214, 2008. 35. I. P´erez-Hurtado, L. Valencia-Cabrera, M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez, M. A. Colomer, and A. Riscos-N´u˜nez. MeCoSim: A general purpose software tool for simulating biological phenomena by means of P systems. In K. Li, Z. Tang, R. Li, A. Nagar, and R. Thamburaj, editors, IEEE Fifth International Conference on Bio-inpired Computing: Theories and Applications (BIC-TA 2010), volume I, pages 637–643, Changsha, China, 2010. IEEE, Inc. 36. M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez. An introduction to stochastic and probabilistic p systems. Second International School on Biomolecular and Biocellular Computing (ISBBC’13), 2013. (Invited talk) http://www.redbiocom.es/isbbc13/. 37. M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez and F. J. Romero-Campero. Modelling EGFR signalling network using continuous membrane systems. Third International Workshop on Computational Methods in Systems Biology, CMSB 2005, pages 118–129, April 3-5 2005. 38. I. P´erez-Hurtado. Desarrollo y aplicaciones de un entorno de programaci´on para Computaci´on Celular: P-Lingua. PhD thesis, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla (Spain), 2010. 39. M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez. P systems-based modelling of cellular signalling pathways (invited talk). In 2006 Seventh Workshop on Membrane Computing (WMC7), pages 54–73, 2006. 40. A. Regev and E. Shapiro. Cellular abstractions: Cells as computations. Nature, 419(6905):343–343, 2002. 41. F. J. Romero-Campero and M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez. A model of the quorum sensing system in Vibrio fischeri using P systems. Artificial Life, 14:95–109, 2008. 42. F. J. Romero-Campero and M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez. Modelling gene expression control using P systems: The Lac Operon, a case study. Biosystems, 91:438–457, 2008. 43. F. J. Romero-Campero and M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez. A model of the quorum sensing system in Vibrio fischeri using P systems. Artificial Life, 14:95–109, 2008. 44. Y. Suzuki, Y. Fujiwara, H. Tanaka, and J. Takabayashi. Artificial life applications of a class of P systems: Abstract rewriting systems on multisets. In C. Calude, 50 L. Valencia, C. Graciani, I. P´erez, M.J. P´erez, A. Riscos G. P˘aun, G. Rozenberg, and A. Salomaa, editors, Multiset Processing, volume 2235, pages 299–346, 2001. 45. Y. Suzuki, S. Ogishima, and H. Tanaka. Modeling the p53 signaling network by using P systems. In A. Alhazov, C. Mart´ın-Vide, and G. P˘aun, editors, Workshop on Membrane Computing, WMC-2003, pages 449–454, 2003. Rovira i Virgili Univ. Tech. Rep. 28. 46. Y. Suzuki and H. Tanaka. Abstract rewriting systems on multisets and their application for modelling complex behaviours. In M. Cavaliere, C. Mart´ın-Vide, and G. P˘aun, editors, Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing, pages 313–331, 2003. Rovira i Virgili Univ. Tech. Rep. 26. 47. G. Terrazas, N. Krasnogor, M. Gheorghe, F. Bernardini, S. Diggle, and M. C´amara. Environment aware P-system model of quorum sensing. In New Computational Paradigms, volume 3526 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 473–485. Springer, 2005. 48. L. Valencia Cabrera. An environment for virtual experimentation with computational models based on P systems. PhD thesis, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla (Spain), 2015. 49. L. Valencia-Cabrera, M. Garc´ıa-Quismondo, M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez, Y. Su, H. Yu, and L. Pan. Analysing gene networks with PDP systems. Arabidopsis thaliana, a case study. Eleventh Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing (11BWMC), pages 257–272, 2013. 50. L. Valencia-Cabrera, M. Garc´ıa-Quismondo, M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez, Y. Su, H. Yu, and L. Pan. Modeling logic gene networks by means of probabilistic dynamic P systems. International Journal of Unconventional Computing, 9(5-6):445–464, 2013. 51. L. Valencia-Cabrera, M. A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor, and I. P´erez-Hurtado. A simulation workflow for membrane computing: From MeCoSim to PMCGPU through P-Lingua. In Enjoying Natural Computing: Essays Dedicated to Mario de Jes´us P´erez-Jim´enez on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday, volume 11270 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 291–303. Springer, 2018. 52. J. Wang, P. Shi, H. Peng, M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez, and T. Wang. Weighted fuzzy reasoning spiking neural P systems: Application to fault diagnosis in traction power supply systems of high-speed railways. Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, 12(7):1103–1114, 2015. 53. T. Wang, G. Zhang, M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez, and J. Cheng. Weighted fuzzy spiking neural P systems. IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, 21(2):209–220, 2013. 54. G. Zhang, M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez, and M. Gheorghe. Real-life applications with Membrane Computing, volume 25 of Emergence, Complexity and Computation. Springer International Publishing, 2017. 55. G. Zhang, M. J. P´erez-Jim´enez, J. Wang, H. Peng, J. Cheng, X. Wang, L. Mac´ıas- Ramos, T. Wang, A. Riscos-N´u˜nez, L. Valencia-Cabrera, and P. Shi. Real applications of membrane computing models. In Multidisciplinary creativity: homage to Gheorghe P˘aun on his 65th birthday, pages 173–185. Spandugino, 2015. 56. MeCoSim web. http://www.p-lingua.org/mecosim/. 57. The P-Lingua Web Site: http://www.p-lingua.org/wiki. Array P Systems - A Bibliography Rodica Ceterchi1, G. Samdanielthompson2, K.G. Subramanian3⇤ 1University of Bucharest Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science 14 Academiei St, 010014 Bucharest, Romania 2Department of Mathematics, Hindustan College of Arts and Science, Rajiv Gandhi Salai (OMR), Padur, Kelambakkam, Chennai 603103 India 3Faculty of Science, Liverpool Hope University, Hope Park, Liverpool L16 9JD, UK ⇤Honorary Visiting Professor Introduction The novel computing model with a generic name of P system, introduced by Gh. Pˇaun based on biological considerations, has served as a versatile framework for studying and solving many kinds of problems in di↵erent areas. Two-dimensional languages of picture arrays is one such area where array P systems have been constructed in a variety of theoretical considerations and have also been used in certain application problems. In this article we provide a bibliography of array P systems, in order to provide the interested reader a source of research articles on this topic. The list covers most of the models considered in the literature with no claims of being exhaustive. References 1. Alhazov, A., Fernau, H., Freund, R., Ivanov, S., Siromoney, R., Subramanian, K.G.: Contextual array grammars with matrix control, regular control languages, and tissue P systems control. Theor. Comput. Sci. 682, 5–21 (2017). 2. Annadurai, S., Thomas, D. G., Dare V. R. and Kalyani, T.: Rewriting P systems generating iso-picture langauges, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4958, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 352-362 (2008). 3. Ceterchi, R., Gramatovici, R., Jonoska, N., Subramanian, K.G.: Tissue-like P Systems with Active Membranes for Picture Generation, Fundamenta Informaticae, 56(4), 311–328 (2003). 4. Ceterchi, R., Gramatovici, R., Jonoska, N.: Tiling Rectangular Pictures with P Systems, Workshop on Membrane Computing 2003, 88–103 (2003). 52 R. Ceterchi, G. Samdanielthompson, K.G. Subramanian 5. Ceterchi, R., Mutyam, M., P˘aun, Gh., Subramanian, K.G.: Array-rewriting P systems. Natural Comput. 2, 229–249 (2003). 6. Ceterchi, R., Subramanian, K.G., Venkat, I.: P Systems with Parallel Rewriting for Chain Code Picture Languages. Evolving Computability - 11th Conference on Computability in Europe, CiE 2015, Bucharest, Romania, 2015. Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 9136, Springer, 145–155 (2015). 7. Ceterchi, R., Nagar A. K., Subramanian, K.G.: Chain Code P System Generating a Variant of the Peano Space-filling Curve. Conference on Membrane Computing 19, 4–7 September 2018, Dresden, Germany, Proceedings (to appear in LNCS Springer, in press) 8. Ceterchi, R., Nagar A. K., Subramanian, K.G.: Approximating polygons for spacefilling curves generated with P systems, C. Graciani et al. (Eds.): P´erez-Jim´enez Festschrift, LNCS 11270, 57–65 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00265-7 5 9. Christinal, H.A., Diaz-Pernil, D., Real, P.: Region-based segmentation of 2D and 3D images with tissue-like P systems. Pattern Recognition Letters 32(16): 2206–2212 (2011). 10. Dersanambika, K.S., Krithivasan, K.: Contextual array P systems. International Journal of Computer Mathematics, 81(8), 955–969 (2004). 11. Dersanambika, K.S., Krithivasan, K., Subramanian, K.G.:P Systems Generating Hexagonal Picture Languages. Workshop on Membrane Computing 2003, 168–180 (2003). 12. Dharani A., Maragatham R.S., Nagar A.K., Subramanian K.G.: Chain Code P System for Generation of Approximation Patterns of Sierpi´nski Curve. Combinatorial Image Analysis, 19th International Workshop, IWCIA 2018, Porto, Portugal, November 2224, 2018, Proceedings, LNCS 11255, Springer, 43–52 (2018). 13. Fernau, H., Freund, R., Ivanov, S., Schmid, M.L., Subramanian, K. G.: Array Insertion and Deletion P Systems, Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation - 12th International Conference, UCNC 2013, Milan, Italy, 2013. Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 7956, Springer, 67–78 (2013). 14. Fernau, H., Freund, R., Schmid, M.L., Subramanian, K. G., Wiederhold, P. : Contextual array grammars and array P systems. Ann. Math. Artif. Intell., 75(1-2), 5–26 (2015). 15. Freund, R.: P Systems working in the sequential mode on arrays and strings. Int. J. Found. Comput. Sci. 16(4): 663–682 (2005). 16. Immanuel, S.J., Thomas, D.G., Thamburaj R., Nagar, A.K.: Parallel Contextual Array Insertion Deletion P System. Combinatorial Image Analysis - 18th International Workshop, IWCIA 2017, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 2017, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 10256, Springer 170–183 (2017). 17. Isawasan, P., Muniyandi, R.C., Venkat, I., Subramanian, K. G.: Array-Rewriting P Systems with Basic Puzzle Grammar Rules and Permitting Features. Membrane Computing - 17th International Conference, CMC 2016, Milan, Italy, 2016, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 10105, Springer , 272–285 (2017). 18. Isawasan, P., Venkat, I., Muniyandi, R.C., Subramanian, K.G.: A membrane computing model for generation of picture arrays, Advances in Visual Informatics - 4th International Visual Informatics Conference, IVIC 2015, Bangi, Malaysia, 2015, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 9429, Springer, 155–165 (2015). 19. Krishna, S.N, Krithivasan, K., Rama, R.: P systems with picture objects. Acta Cybernetica, 15, 53-74 (2001). Array P Systems - A Bibliography 53 20. Pan, L., P˘aun, Gh.: On parallel array P systems. Automata, Universality, Computation: Emergence, Complexity and Computation, 12, 171–181 (2015). 21. Pan, L., Song, B., Isawasan, P., Subramanian, K. G: Array P Systems with Parallel Rewriting and Tables of Context-Free Rules. Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, 13(6), 3636–3642 (2016). 22. Subramanian, K.G.: P Systems and picture languages, Lecture Notes in Computer Sci. Springer Verlag, 4664, 99–109 (2007). 23. Subramanian, K.G., Ali, R.M., Nagar, A.K., Margenstern, M.: Array P systems and t-communication. Fundamenta Informaticae 91(1), 145-159 (2009) 24. Subramanian, K.G., Geethlakshmi, M., Nagar, A.K., Lee, S.K.: Array P system model with pure context-free rules, in: 11th International Conference on Computer Modeling and Simulation, UKSIM 09, 2009, 274-278 (2009). 25. Subramanian K.G., Venkat I., Pan L.: P Systems generating Chain Code Picture Languages, Proc. Asian Conf. Membrane Computing, 115–123 (2012). 26. Subramanian, K. G., Isawasan, P., Venkat, I., Pan, L., Nagar, A.K.: Array P systems with permitting features. J. Comput. Science, 5(2), 243–250 (2014). 27. Subramanian, K.G., Isawasan, P., Venkat, I., Pan, L.: Parallel array-rewriting P systems, Romanian J. Inform. Sci. Tech., 17(1), 103–116 (2014). 28. Subramanian, K. G., Pan, L., Lee, S.K., Nagar, A.K. : A P system model with pure context-free rules for picture array generation. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 52(11-12), 1901–1909 (2010). 29. Subramanian, K.G., Pan, L., Lee, S.K., Nagar, A.K.: P systems and context-free 2D picture languages, Bio-Inspired Computing 2009. BICTA 09, Fourth International Conference, 1–5 (2009). 30. Subramanian, K.G., Pan, L., Lee, S.K., Nagar, A.K.: A P system model with pure context-free rules for picture array generation. Mathematical Comput. Modelling 52, 1901–1909 (2010). 31. Subramanian, K.G., Robinson, T. Nagar, A.K.: Tile pasting P system model for pattern generation, in Third Asian International Conference on Modelling and Simulation , 359–362 (2009). 32. Subramanian, K.G., Saravanan, R., Geethalakshmi, M., Chandra, P. H., Margenstern, M.: P systems with array objects and array rewriting rules. In Pre-proceedings of International Conference on Bio-Inspired Computing - Theory and Applications, BICTA 2006, Membrane Computing Section, Wuhan, China, September, 160-167 (2006). 33. Subramanian, K.G., Saravanan, R., Geethalakshmi, M., Helen Chandra,P., Margenstern, M.: P systems with array objects and array rewriting rules, Progress in Natural Sci. 17(4) 479–485 (2007). 34. Subramanian, K.G., Saravanan, R., Robinson, T.: P system for array generation and application to kolam patterns. Forma. 22 47–54 (2007). 35. Subramanian, K. G., Sriram, S., Song, B., Pan, L.: An Overview of 2D Picture Array Generating Models Based on Membrane Computing, Reversibility and Universality, 333–356 (2018). 36. Subramanian, K. G., Venkat, I., Pan, L., Nagar, A.K.:Permitting Features in P Systems Generating Picture Arrays,Proceedings of Seventh International Conference on Bio-Inspired Computing: Theories and Applications (BIC-TA 2012) - Volume 1. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 201, Springer, 27–38 (2013). 37. Subramanian, K. G., Wiederhold, P., Venkat, I., Abdullah, R. : Generative Models for Pictures tiled by triangles, Romanian J. Inform. Sci. Tech.,, 15(3), 246–265 (2012). 54 R. Ceterchi, G. Samdanielthompson, K.G. Subramanian 38. Sureshkumar, W., Rama, R.: Chomsky hierarchy control on isotonic array P systems, Int. J. Pattern Recogn. Artifcial Intelli. 30(2), 1–20 (2016). 39. Sureshkumar, W., Rama, R., Krishna, S.N.: 8-Directional Array P Systems: Power and Hierarchy. In: M. Gheorghe et al. (eds.), Multidisciplinary Creativity, Spandugino Publ. House, Bucharest, 150–169 (2015). 40. Sureshkumar, W., Mahalingam, K., Rama, R.: Pictures and Chomsky Languages in Array P System. Membrane Computing - 16th International Conference, CMC 2015, Valencia, Spain, 2015, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 9504, Springer, 277–289 (2015). Open Problems, Research Topics ATuringMachineSimulation by P Systems without Charges Alberto Leporati1,LucaManzoni 1,GiancarloMauri 1 Antonio E. Porreca1,2and Claudio Zandron1 1Dipartimento di Informatica, Sistemistica e Comunicazione Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca Viale Sarca 336, 20126 Milano, Italy {leporati,luca.manzoni,mauri,zandron}@disco.unimib.it 2Aix Marseille Université, Université de Toulon CNRS, LIS, Marseille, France antonio.p[email protected] Summary. It is well known that the kind of P systems involved in the definition of the P conjecture is able to solve problems in the complexity class Pby leveraging the uniformity condition. Here we show that these systems are indeed able to simulate deterministic Turing machines working in polynomial time with a weaker uniformity condition and using only one level of membrane nesting. This allows us to embed this construction into more complex membrane structures, possibly showing that constructions similar to the one performed in [1] for P systems with charges can be carried out also in this case1. 1Introduction The construction of P systems simulating Turing machines (TM) using as few membranes (or cells) as possible and limiting the depth of the system is one of the “tricks” that allowed the nesting of multiple machines to solve problems in large complexity classes. For example, nesting of non-deterministic machines (where the non-determinism was simulated by membrane division) and a counting mechanism allows to characterize P #P ,theclassofallproblemssolvablebya deterministic TM with access to a #Poracle [ 1 , 3 ]. The same ideas can be applied 1 The paper was submitted to ACMC2018, 10-14 December 2018, Auckland, but has not been presented at the Conference, hence we make it available to the Membrane Computing community through this issue of the Bulletin. 56 A. Leporati et al to tissue P systems [ 4 ], where the different communication topology makes even more important to keep TM simulations compact [2]. The P conjecture is a long-standing open problem in membrane computing first presented in 2005 [ 7 , Problem F] that, in its essence, asks what is the power of one charge when compared to two charges. We feel that one important step to determine the computational power of active membrane systems without charges and with membrane dissolution is to see which is the minimal system able to simulate a deterministic polynomial-time TM. Here we show that a shallow system is sufficient to perform such a simulation without delegating everything to the machine of the uniformity condition. Hopefully, this construction will allow us to define systems in which different TM can be “embedded” at different levels in a large membrane structure, thus making possible to mimic the construction performed in [ 1 ]for P systems with charges. This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 will recall some basic notions on P systems. The main construction and result is presented in Section 3, while ideas for further research are presented in Section 4. 2BasicNotions For an introduction to membrane computing and the related notions of formal language theory and multiset processing, we refer the reader to The Oxford Handbook of Membrane Computing [ 8 ]. Here we recall the formal definition of P systems with active membranes using weak non-elementary division rules [6, 9]. Definition 1. AP system with active membranes with dissolution rules of initial degree d1is a tuple ⇧=(,⇤, µ, wh1,...,w hd,R) where: • is an alphabet, i.e., a finite non-empty set of symbols, usually called objects; •⇤is a finite set of labels; •µ is a membrane structure (i.e., a rooted unordered tree, usually represented by nested brackets) consisting of d membranes labelled by elements of ⇤ in a one-to-one way; •wh1,...,w hd ,with h1,...,h d2⇤ , are multisets (finite sets with multiplicity) of objects in , describing the initial contents of each of the dregions of µ; •Ris a finite set of rules. The rules in Rare of the following types: (a) Object evolution rules,oftheform[a!w]h. They can be applied inside a membrane labelled by h and containing an occurrence of the object a ;theobject a is rewritten into the multiset w (i.e., a is removed from the multiset in hand replaced by the objects in w). ATuringMachineSimulationbyPSystemswithoutCharges 57 (b) Send-in communication rules,oftheforma[] h![b]h. They can be applied to a membrane labelled by h and such that the external region contains an occurrence of the object a ;theobject a is sent into h becoming b. (c) Send-out communication rules,oftheform[a]h![] hb. They can be applied to a membrane labelled by h and containing an occurrence of the object a ;theobject a is sent out from h to the outer region becoming b . (d) Dissolution rules,oftheform[a]h!b. They can be applied to a non-skin membrane labelled by h and containing an occurrence of the object a ;theobject a is sent out from h to the outer region becoming b ,themembrane h ceases to exist and all the other objects it contains are sent into the outer region. A computation step changes the current configuration according to the following principles: • The application of rules is maximally parallel:eachobjectappearingonthe left-hand side of evolution, communication, or division rules must be subject to exactly one of them. Analogously, each membrane can only be subject to one communication or dissolution rule (types (b)–(d)) per computation step; for this reason, these rules will be called blocking rules in the rest of the paper. As a result, the only objects and membranes that do not evolve are those associated with no rule. • When several conflicting rules can be applied at the same time, a nondeterministic choice is performed; this implies that, in general, multiple possible configurations can be reached after a computation step. • In each computation step, all the chosen rules are applied simultaneously in an atomic way. However, in order to clarify the operational semantics, each computation step is conventionally described as a sequence of micro-steps whereby each membrane evolves only after its internal configuration (including, recursively, the configurations of the membrane substructures it contains) has been updated. • The outermost membrane (the root of the membrane structure) cannot be divided, and any object sent out from it cannot re-enter the system again. Ahalting computation of the P system ⇧ is a finite sequence C =( C0,...,Ck )of configurations, where C0 is the initial configuration, every Ci+1 is reachable from Ci via a single computation step, and no rules of ⇧are applicable in Ck. Psystemscanbeusedaslanguagerecognisers by employing two distinguished objects yes and no :weassumethatallcomputationsarehalting,andthateither one copy of object yes or one of object no is sent out from the outermost membrane, and only in the last computation step, in order to signal acceptance or rejection, respectively. If all computations starting from the same initial configuration are accepting, or all are rejecting, the P system is said to be confluent. In order to solve decision problems (or, equivalently, decide languages), we use families of recogniser P systems ⇧ = {⇧x : x2⌃?} .Eachinput x is associated 64 A. Leporati et al 6. Păun, G.: P systems with active membranes: Attacking NP-complete problems. Journal of Automata, Languages and Combinatorics 6(1), 75–90 (2001) 7. Păun, G.: Further twenty six open problems in membrane computing. In: Gutíerrez- Naranjo, M.A., Riscos-Nuñez, A., Romero-Campero, F.J., Sburlan, D. (eds.) Proceedings of the Third Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing. pp. 249–262. Fénix Editora (2005), http://www.gcn.us.es/3BWMC/Volumen.htm 8. Păun, G., Rozenberg, G., Salomaa, A. (eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Membrane Computing. Oxford University Press (2010) 9. Zandron, C., Leporati, A., Ferretti, C., Mauri, G., Pérez-Jiménez, M.J.: On the computational efficiency of polarizationless recognizer P systems with strong division and dissolution. Fundamenta Informaticae 87 ,79–91(2008), http://content.iospress. com/articles/fundamenta-informaticae/fi87-1-06 Abstracts of PhD Theses Research on Modelling and Computational Power of some new Classes of Spiking Neural P Systems Tingfang Wu Key Laboratory of Image Information Processing and Intelligent Control of Education Ministry of China School of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China [email protected] Supervisor: Linqiang Pan Key Laboratory of Image Information Processing and Intelligent Control of Education Ministry of China School of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China [email protected] Thesis Defense Committee: Examiner: Huajing Fang, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Examiner: Anwen Shen, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Examiner: Jian Huang, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Examiner: Shaoping Chen, South-Central Minzu University Examiner: Wenyin Gong, China University of Geosciences Date of Defense: August 28, 2018 Abstract Biological computing is a highly inter-disciplinary field ranging from computer science to biotechnology and it focuses on the development of novel computation 66 Tingfang Wu models and algorithms. As a hot branch of biological computing, membrane computing aims to abstract computation models from the structure and the functioning of the living cell. The computation models developed in the field of membrane computing are called membrane systems or P systems. Spiking neural P systems are known as a class of neural-like computation models, which are inspired by the way in which neurons communicate with each other by means of spikes, and they have been for quite a while a hot research area in the field of membrane computing. The present work mainly focuses on the research of the essential ingredients of spiking neural P systems, including the topology structure, the form of rules, the application conditions of rules, the communication protocol between neurons. The main contents of this dissertation is presented now. Spiking neural P systems have a network structure, while the basic models of membrane computing (cell-like P systems) start from a hierarchical structure. With a mathematical motivation, a combination of the hierarchical structure of cell-like P systems with only one kind of object and evolution rules as those in spiking neural P systems is considered, thus a type of spiking neural P system with a hierarchical arrangement of membranes is constructed, namely cell-like spiking neural P systems. Firstly, the computation power of cell-like spiking neural P systems is investigated as number generators, and the universality of these systems is proved. In addition, the computation power of cell-like spiking neural P systems is also investigated as language generators, and the hierarchy of the languages generated by cell-like spiking neural P systems is constructed. Spiking neural P systems are not appropriate in handling numerical problems, where multisets are used as data structure, and rules in form of formal grammar productions are used as data operation; moreover, due to the discontinuous nature of integrate-and-fire behaviour of neurons, developing learning algorithms is challenging for spiking neural P systems. To avoid these problems, rules in a numerical form are introduced into spiking neural P systems, and numerical spiking neural P systems are proposed. In this kind of spiking neural P system, each neuron substitutes numerical variables and mathematical functions for spikes and evolution rules, which makes numerical spiking neural P systems more suitable for some real-world problems that are amenable to formal quantitative modelling and to numerical computation techniques; and the rules in the form of mathematical functions make it possible to develop a learning algorithm for numerical spiking neural P systems, thus enhancing the application potential of the systems. The computation power of numerical spiking neural P systems is investigated. Specifically, it is proved that such systems are universal as both number generating and number accepting devices. In the classical spiking neural P systems, it is NP-hard to decide whether a rule associated with a regular expression can be applied. This leads to significant increase in computation time for any algorithm. In order to identify an easy way to determine the applicability of rules, inspired by a biological phenomenon that appears at the level of cell membrane, namely membrane polarization, a new rule selection mechanism is considered by introducing polarizations instead of regular PhD thesis: Spiking Neural P Systems- Modelling and Computational Power 67 expressions. Hence, spiking neural P systems with polarizations are investigated. Such systems are proved to be universal. This result has an important consequence by reducing the computation time in selecting the appropriate rule. On this basis of the aforementioned result, by analyzing and optimizing the instructions in the simulated small universal register machine, an universal spiking neural P system with polarizations is constructed as a function computing device. This work investigates the computation power of spiking neural P systems with communication on request in the case of using one type of spikes. It is proved that one type of spike suffices for spiking neural P systems with communication on request achieving Turing universality. This result provides an answer to an open problem formulated by Zhang et al: whether the universality of spiking neural P systems with communication on request can be obtained by using only one type of spikes. The significance of this conclusion is as follows: the reduction to only one type of spike reduces the descriptional complexity of spiking neural P systems with communication on request, and leads to computationally cheaper integration-fire conditions, but without a deterioration of the computation power. Moreover, a parameter, namely the number of unbounded neurons, is proposed for estimating the computation power of various types of spiking neural P systems, and the relationship between this parameter and the complexity of a spiking neural P systems with communication on request is investigated. The software implementation for membrane computing can not only contribute to a better understanding of computation properties of various P systems, but also assist in the design and formal verification of complex P systems, thus saving the researchers heavy hand-made calculations. The framework given by P-Lingua and MeCoSim provides a common infrastructure with facilities to deal with di↵erent types of models based on P systems in terms of design, simulation, analysis, verification. In this work, a simulation application for cell-like spiking neural P systems within the framework of P-Lingua and MeCoSim is developed, and it is used to simulate di↵erent examples of cell-like spiking neural P systems. The simulation results demonstrate that this simulation application can play an important role assisting in tasks related with the simulation and experimental validation of the cell-like spiking neural P systems. The Biography of Tingfang Wu: He received the Ph.D. degree in September 2018 from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China. His research work mainly focused on natural computing, membrane computing, and neural computation. Simulation of kernel P Systems using Communicating X-machines Applications in FLAME Ionut¸ Mihai Niculescu University of Pite¸sti Str. Tˆargu din Vale Pite¸sti, Romania Supervisors: Prof. dr. Tudor B˘al˘anescu, University of Pite¸sti, Romania Prof. dr. Florentin Ipate, University of Bucharest, Romania Thesis committee: President: Assoc. Prof. Doru Constantin, University of Pite¸sti, Romania Examiner: Acad. Gheorghe P˘aun, Romanian Academy, Romania Examiner: Prof. dr. Horia Georgescu, University of Bucharest, Romania Examiner: Prof. dr. Alin S¸tef˘anescu, University of Bucharest, Romania Date of presentation: 25th October 2018 Abstract Membrane systems, also known as P systems, constitute an innovative computational paradigm inspired by the structure and dynamics of the living cell. A P system consists of a set of compartments containing multisets of objects and a finite set of rewriting and communication rules, which, in general, operate in a maximally parallel manner. The membrane systems appear in a broad spectrum 70 Ionut¸ Mihai Niculescu of computational models, called membrane computing models. These models have been intensively studied for their computational power and efficiency, and have been applied to problems from various scientific disciplines. In this thesis we consider a specific type of membrane computing model, called kernel P system (kP system, for short). In this model each rule - either rewriting and communication or giving rise to a new connection between two compartments - has a guard that allows to rule to be applied only when it si true. Each compartment has its own execution strategy. We address two key problems related to this model: (i) the relationships between kP systems and Communicating Stream X-machine Systems (CSXMSs, for short), a parallel and distributed computational model composed of individual stream X-machine models and (ii) the simulation of the kP systems through CSXMSs mapped into an agent based simulation platform, called FLAME, supporting both the sequential and parallel execution of the agents. The current thesis proposes a parallel approach for simulating P systems. By performing parallel processing, the simulation process becomes easily scalable and complex P systems become available for simulation by adding computing resources to the platform. The main contributions of this thesis to the parallel simulation of kP systems are: •Defining a coherent and robust methodology to transform a kP system into a CSXMS. The main theorem asserts that for a kP system with ncompartments there is a CSXMS with n+1 components (individual stream X-machines) that has the same behaviour as the kP system. The theorem is the foundation of the parallel simulator of kP systems. •Extending the kPWorkbench framework, the usual simulator of kP systems, with a new module that allows the transformation of a kP system specified in kP-Lingua into equivalent FLAME model. The module can also transform the FLAME model into an executable form by compiling and running a finite number of steps specified with the kPWorkbench platform. •Providing an algorithm transforming a kPWorkbench specification of a kP system, written in kP-Lingua, into the equivalent Flame model. This algorithm allows the automation of the transformation process. •Compilation and executionof the Flame model obtained from a kP system specified in kP-Lingua. The Flame model thus obtained can be compiled and run in sequentially or in parallel mode. •Providing an exemplu showing how the transformation of the kP system model and its simulation are executed. The approach proposed by this thesis can be extended to other distributed platforms. An immediate direction is to simulate kP systems (with rewriting and communication rules) with a GPU FLAME framework. In this sense, the process of transforming the P-Lingua specifications into GPU FLAME models should be automated with the help of the kPWorkbench framework. PhD thesis: Simulation of kernel P Systems 71 Contents Abstract Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: P Systems Chapter 3: Stream X-machines and FLAME Chapter 4: P Systems to X-machines and FLAME Chapter 5: Simulation of kP Systems in FLAME Chapter 6: Case Study: Subset Sum Problem Chapter 7: Conclusions and other Research Directions Acknowledgements. The author would like to thank Prof. Marian Gheorghe, University of Bradford, UK and Dr. Radu Nicolescu, University of Auckland, New Zealand for their guidance and inspirational discussions throughout the duration of the PhD studies and acknowledge partial support from the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research CNCS-UEFISCDI grant (PNII-ID-PCE-2011-3- 0688). Contributions to the Control of Collective Robotic Systems using Membrane Computing Andrei George Florea Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering Politehnica University of Bucharest [email protected] 1 Introduction 1.1 Motivation The natural world presents as a beautifully crafted, fault-tolerant, scalable system. These attributes are observable at any scale, starting from superorganisms and going down towards cellular level. Arguably, most of these properties as observed at global levels are the results of the interactions that take place at a lower level. It is also clear that only one single individual/part of the system, no matter how complex it may be, cannot o↵er the full set of properties mentioned above. Many technical innovations have started from the study of the natural world. One example is the development of honeycomb-shaped 3D printing support structures that are efficient both in terms of occupied space, resistance and consumed material. Also there are other insect-made structures such as termite nests which use a passive cooling, achieved though an intricate layout of vents and tunnels1. It was only natural for the robotics domain to follow this trend during its transition from complex single robot applications to multi-robot deployments and from centralized to distributed control. Distributed multi-robot systems o↵er substantial advantages but also introduce challenges that need to be overcome. The latter include individual and group modeling of perception, communication, decision and action, all under di↵erent constraints imposed by the hardware platform. Distributed systems o↵er an increased level of fault tolerance by not relying on a centralized communication relay and mission planner. Should one or more nodes fail, the system can recover and maintain execution by redistributing tasks. A scalable system is one that maintains a certain set of performance characteristics even if the number of individuals increases substantially. Although better 1https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/10-technologies-inspired-nature Postdoctoral Report: Research on Complexity of Communication Membrane Systems Bosheng Song Key Laboratory of Image Information Processing and Intelligent Control of Education Ministry of China School of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430074, China b[email protected] Supervisor: Linqiang Pan Key Laboratory of Image Information Processing and Intelligent Control of Education Ministry of China School of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430074, China [email protected] Date of presentation: December 2018 Abstract Natural computing is a field of study observing biological phenomena in nature and developing computational models on this basis. The main fields of research are artificial neural networks, evolutionary computation, quantum computing, DNA computing, membrane computing and so on. Membrane computing is inspired from the structure and the functioning of the living cell as well as from the cooperation of cells in tissues, organs, and other populations of cells, which are distributed and parallel computing devices. How to use the biological characteristics of cells to design an efficient computational model is an extremely important and key scientific problem in membrane computing. However, the cell-rich information processing function has not yet been fully utilized, the role of cell biological properties in the communication membrane system remains to be further studied. Therefore, based on the relevant models and theories of communication membrane systems, and combined with the special biological 82 Bosheng Song functions of cells, various communication membrane computing models based on cell biochemical mechanisms are established, and the complexity of various variants of communication membrane computing models is investigated. The contents of this dissertation are described as follows: Inspired by the communication rules in P systems with active membranes, tissue P systems with evolutional symport/antiport rules were proposed, where objects are moved from one region to another region and may be evolved during this process. It is proved that such P systems with one cell are Turing universal. If we introduce cell division into tissue P systems with evolutional symport/antiport rules, then a limit on the efficiency of such P systems is provided with evolutional communication rules of length at most 2; moreover, a uniform polynomial time solution to the NP-complete problem (SAT problem) by using cell division and evolutional communication rules of length at most 4 has been provided. A variant of tissue P systems with evolutional symport/antiport rules, called tissue P systems with evolutional symport/antiport rules and cell separation was proposed. In such P systems, the length of an evolutional symport/antiport rule is defined as an ordered pair whose first component is the total number of objects involved in the left hand side of the rule and the second component is the total number of objects involved in the right hand side of the rule. It is proved that only problems in class Pcan be efficiently solved by tissue P systems with cell separation with evolutional communication rules of length at most (n, 1) or (1,n), for each natural number n1. In the case where that length is upper bounded by (3,2), a polynomial time solution to the SAT problem is provided. Finally, a new simulator MeCoSim is designed in order to check the correctness of the solution to the SAT problem. Channel states are introduced into cell-like P systems with symport/antiport rules, and we call this variant of communication P systems as cell-like P systems with channel states and symport/antiport rules. The computational power of such P systems is investigated. We show that cell-like P systems with two states and using uniport rules, or with any number of states and using antiport rules of length two, are able to compute only finite sets of non-negative integers; however, if we consider such P systems with one membrane, one channel state, antiport rules of length four or any number of channel states, symport rules of length one, antiport rules of length two characterizate the family of sets of positive integers generated by matrix grammars without appearance checking. We further prove that cell-like P systems with two membranes are as powerful as Turing machines when channel states and symport/antiport rules are suitably combined. Contents 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 Research background and significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Previous researches ....................................................2 1.3 Preliminaries ..........................................................8 1.4 Research contents and innovations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 PostDoc: Research on Complexity of Communication Membrane Systems 83 2 Computational complexity of tissue P systems with evolutional symport/antiport rules and cell division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 2.1 Tissue P systems with evolutional symport/antiport rules and cell division 12 2.2 Computational power of tissue P systems with evolutional symport/antiport rules .........................................................................16 2.3 Computational complexity of tissue P systems with evolutional symport/antiport rules and cell division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 2.4 Summary .............................................................30 3 Computational complexity of tissue P systems with evolutional symport/antiport rules and cell separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 3.1 Tissue P systems with evolutional symport/antiport rules and cell separation .........................................................................31 3.2 Computational complexity of tissue P systems with evolutional symport/antiport rules and cell separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 3.3 Simulation based on MeCoSim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 3.4 Summary .............................................................51 4 Computational complexity of cell-like P systems with channel states and symport/antiport rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 4.1 Cell-like P systems with channel states and symport/antiport rules . . . 53 4.2 Computational complexity of cell-like P systems with channel states and symport/antiport rules ......................................................55 4.3 Summary .............................................................71 5 Summarize and expectation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 5.1 Summarization of thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 5.2 Future works .........................................................73 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 The Biography of Bosheng Song: B. Song received the Ph.D. degree from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2015. He spent eighteen months with the Research Group on Natural Computing, University of Seville, Seville, Spain, from November, 2013 to May, 2015. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow with the School of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, from February, 2016, working with Prof. Linqiang Pan. His current research interests include membrane computing and formal language theory. Calls for Participation to MC and Related Conferences/Meetings CALL FOR PARTICIPATION 20th Conference on Membrane Computing – (E)CMC20 5 – 8 August, 2019, Curtea de Arge¸s, Romania, organized under the auspices of the International Membrane Computing Society (IMCS) AIM AND SCOPE This anniversary edition of the Conference on Membrane Computing returns to the place where this series of meetings started – in 2000, with the Workshop on Membrane Computing, turned into Conference on Membrane Computing after its tenth edition, also held in Curtea de Arge¸s, in 2009. (Curtea de Arge¸s is one of the voievodal capitals of Wallachia, in XIV century, placed close to Carpathian mountains, at about 150 km from Bucharest1.) As usual, the meeting is intended to bring together researchers working in Membrane Computing and related areas in a friendly atmosphere enhancing communication and cooperation. Being an anniversary edition, CMC20 also provides the opportunity of remembering the two decades of research in membrane computing, that is why a large number of “senior researchers” in this area will be invited to present their views about the state-of-the-art of the domain, surveys of their results, research topics. 1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtea de Arges 86 DEADLINES Submission deadline (non-extendable!): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . May 13, 2019 Notification of acceptance: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June 17, 2019 Final version (Latex, LNCS style): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .July 8, 2019 The handling of submissions will be done through EasyChair2. A pre-proceedings volume will be available during the conference, while a selection of papers, additionally refereed, will be published in the Springer-Verlag Journal of Membrane Computing 3. VENUE, ACCOMMODATION, REGISTRATION AND COMMITTEES The meeting will take place in Hotel Posada4from Curtea de Arge¸s. The registration fee, estimated at about 350 euros, will cover all local costs, as well as the transport (by bus) from Bucharest to Curtea de Arge¸s and back. All reservations and local arrangements are done by the Organizing Committee. The Program Committee will be identical to the Conference Committee of IMCS5. The Organizing Committee is chaired by Gheorghe P˘aun: [email protected], [email protected], tel.: (+004) 0723 861018. 2https://easychair. org/conferences/?conf=cmc20 3https://www.springer.com/computer/theoretical+computer+ science/journal/41965 4http://www. hotelposada.ro/en/ 5http://membranecomputing.net/IMCSBulletin/index.php?page=imcs structure CALL FOR PARTICIPATION 17th Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing (BWMC17) 5-8 February 2019, Sevilla, Spain Research Group on Natural Computing Universidad de Sevilla, Spain http://www.gcn.us.es http://ppage.psystems.eu AIM AND SCOPE Similarly to the previous editions, the main goal is to provide an opportunity for interacting, and to use the friendly atmosphere of this dynamic meeting as an incubator for new joint works. It is important to highlight that this call for participation is not restricted to researchers already working in Membrane Computing. Students are welcome, as well as researchers from other fields including (but not restricted to) Mathematics, Computer Science, Biology, Physics and Medicine. The Brainstorming Week is an excellent forum to discuss about potential collaborations and interdisciplinary approaches. To this aim, the participants are invited to give short and provocative talks (possibly presenting ongoing work and/or open problems), and the program also includes joint work sessions (usually scheduled on the afternoons). Researchers from MC community, and from other areas as well, are strongly encouraged to circulate open problems and research ideas before the event, even if they cannot attend the meeting (please send to {cgdiaz,mdelamor}@us.es your proposals, and we will post them on the BWMC web page). The members of the RGNC would like to dedicate this edition to Prof. Mario J. P´erez-Jim´enez on the occasion of his 70th anniversary. Dates: February 5, 2019 (Tuesday) - February 8, 2019 (Friday) 88 EVENT ORGANIZATION Organizing Institution: •Research Group on Natural Computing (RGNC) •Department of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence •Universidad de Sevilla, Spain Venue: •E.T.S. Ingenier´ıa Inform´atica, module H, first floor •Avda. Reina Mercedes s/n. (41012) Sevilla Web page: News will be communicated through the BWMC17 web page at the Research Group on Natural Computing: http://www.gcn.us.es/17bwmc and through the P systems web page: http://ppage.psystems.eu Proceedings: As usual, after the meeting a proceedings volume will be published as a research report of RGNC. Then, a selection of final papers will be invited to a special issue of the new Journal on Membrane Computing. Registration: The participants should email Carmen Graciani ([email protected]) in order to register. A registration fee of 100ewill be requested on arrival at the registration desk. This will cover workshop materials, co↵ee breaks, lunch, social dinner and proceedings. Several accommodation options are listed on the webpage of the BWMC17 that need to be booked by the participants. Important advice: Bookings should be arranged the sooner the better, in order to avoid availability restrictions. In particular, reservations for university residences should be made not later than January 20, 2019 (by email to [email protected]). Organizing committee: •Gh. P˘aun, Co–Chair •M.J. P´erez Jim´enez, Co–Chair •J. A. Andreu Guzm´an •C. Graciani •M.´ A. Mart´ınez del Amor •D. Orellana Mart´ın •I. P´erez Hurtado de Mendoza •A. Riscos N´u˜nez •´ A. Romero Jim´enez •L. Valencia Cabrera PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS Here is the complete list of special issues devoted to previous editions (all journals, except two, are currently indexed in the ISI-JCR): BWMC 2019 89 •BWMC 2003: Natural Computing 2 (3), 2003, and New Generation Computing 22 (4), 2004; •BWMC 2004: Journal of Universal Computer Science 10 (5), 2004, and Soft Computing 9 (5), 2005; •BWMC 2005: Int. Journal of Foundations of Computer Science 17 (1), 2006); •BWMC 2006: Theoretical Computer Science 372 (2-3), 2007; •BWMC 2007: Int. Journal of Unconventional Computing 5 (5), 2009; •BWMC 2008: Fundamenta Informaticae 87 (1), 2008; •BWMC 2009: Int. Journal of Computers, Control and Communication 4 (3), 2009; •BWMC 2010: Romanian Journal of Information Science and Technology 13 (2), 2010; •BWMC 2011: Int. Journal of Natural Computing Research 2 (2-3), 2011; •BWMC 2012: Int. Journal of Computer Mathematics 99 (4), 2013; •BWMC 2013: Int. Journal of Unconventional Computing 9(5-6) 2013; •BWMC 2014: Fundamenta Informaticae 134 (1-2), 2014; •BWMC 2015: Natural Computing 15 (4), 2016; •BWMC 2016: Theoretical Computer Science 724, 2018 (also including selected papers from ACMC 2016); •BWMC 2017: Theoretical Computer Science – (in press, available online); •BWMC 2018: Journal of Membrane Computing – (in press). 96 T. Hinze research vistas theory of networks of language processors and P automata theory. Her publications obtained more than 1500 independent citations. She has been the principal investigator and participant of several Hungarian and bilateral granted research projects, team leader of EU projects. In the last ten years, she has been programme committee chair, co-chair, or programme committee member, organizer of more than 50 international workshops and conferences. In P systems community, she is the chair of the Advisory Board of the International Membrane Computing Society and member of the Steering Committee of the annual series of Conference on Membrane Computing. How Membrane Computing Influences Theoretical Computer Science Membrane computing has become a vivid, successful area of natural computing since 1998 when the notion of a membrane system (later called a P system) was introduced by Gheorghe Paun. The original concept aimed at providing a formal computational model of a distributed system that mimics the living cell. Although a lot of research has been devoted to studying P systems as computing devices, in particular variants that are as powerful as Turing machines, the applicability of membrane systems in several other areas of theoretical computer science has also been demonstrated during the years. Algorithms in terms of P systems, applications in graphics, cryptography, Boolean circuits, parallel architectures have been presented and links to Petri nets, process algebra, X-machines have been examined, only to mention a few. The aim of this talk is twofold. Firstly, by well-chosen models and results we demonstrate the benefits of applying methods and approaches of membrane computing for solving some well-known problems in di↵erent areas of theoretical computer science. Secondly, we discuss how much extent the boundaries of certain areas of theoretical computer science can be expanded by using P system variants as computing devices. •Alberto Leporati is an Associate Professor at the Department of Informatics, Systems and Communication (DISCo) of the University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy. He has obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Milan in 2003, defending a thesis on Quantum Computing. His research activity is in the field of Theoretical Computer Science. In particular, he studies the computational power of models of computation wich are inspired by the operation of living cells (Membrane Computing) or by the laws of quantum mechanics (Quantum Computing), using techniques from the theory of Computational Complexity. He has also interests towards Cryptography, and the implementation of strong cryptographic primitives through parallel computation devices, mainly Boolean circuits and Cellular Automata. On these subjects, he has published about 100 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and conferences. He has participated to several nationally and internationally funded competitive projects. He has supervised two Ph.D. theses and two post-doc research Report on the 19th International Conference on Membrane Computing 97 projects. In the Membrane Computing community, he serves as the vicepresident of the International Membrane Computing Society, and as a member of the Steering Committee for the annual series of Conferences on Membrane Computing (CMC). Time and Space Complexity of P Systems - And Why They Matter P systems constitute an incredibly rich and interesting framework for defining parallel and distributed models of computation. Computational complexity theory can be used to study the computing capabilities, and the computational features of these systems, mainly with two goals: (1) understanding what kind of problems can or cannot be solved, and (2) how much time and space the P systems need to solve a given problem. During my presentation, I will review some of the techniques which are typically used to prove this kind of results. In particular, we will see how the comparison (by simulations) with other models of computation - usually Turing machines, register machines, and Boolean circuits - allows one to obtain di↵erent views on both the investigated problems and the computational models. Rather than delve into the technical details of the simulations I will discuss over their significance, both at the theoretical level and in the view of possible applications. •Thomas Preußer is a Managing R&D Engineer at Accemic Technologies in Dresden. He studied Computer Science at the Technische Universitt Dresden and at the University of Texas at Austin before earning his PhD at TU Dresden. After having spent many years as PostDoc researcher and instructor in academia, Thomas joined Michaela Blott’s research group at Xilinx Ireland as an EU-funded Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Fellow. There he was working on the efficient implementation of neural network inference engines on the Xilinx portfolio of heterogeneous hardware devices. His research interests are embedded and digital design with a focus on computer arithmetic and high-performance data processing. Thomas has published more than 50 peer-reviewed research papers and articles, has won a Michael-Servit-Award and has been the holder of the world record in computing solution counts of the N-Queens Puzzle since 2009. A Brute-Force Solution to the 27-Queens Puzzle Using Distributed Computation The N-Queens Puzzle is an intriguing mathematical riddle that provokes many interesting but hard questions albeit having an astonishingly simple problem statement. One of these questions asks for the number of non-attacking placements of N queens onto a generalized NxN chessboard. While estimates and bounds can certainly be given, the exact solution counts, so far, have not lent themselves to a reasonable closed-form solution but rather to showcasing the arts of computer programming - and of digital design - in a tedious systematic exploration of the vast solution space. Already, Donald Knuth 98 T. Hinze has made it a classic example illustrating the technique of backtracking. The largest problem sizes with known solution counts are N=26 and N=27. Both of them were first obtained by distributed computations relying on nodes featuring solver engines built within field-programmable hardware. This presentation will briefly introduce the capabilities and opportunities of programmable hardware highlighting its great fit for exploring the N-Queens Puzzle. It will illustrate how the computations were partitioned and how symmetries were used to prune the search spaces before even starting. Finally, the distributed architectures running the actual computations over several months each will be detailed. •Stefan Schuster is a full professor for Bioinformatics at the Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Jena, Germany. He studied biophysics at Humboldt University, Berlin and obtained his PhD in Theoretical Biophysics at that university in 1988. He worked as a postdoc at Bordeaux University (France) and the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam and returned as a lecturer to Humboldt University. In 2003, he was appointed to his present position. Stefans research interests include the mathematical modelling of metabolic networks and intracellular signaling, evolutionary game theory, alternative splicing and the molecular structure of biomolecules. His work is at the interface between biology, biochemistry, mathematics and computer science. One of his most prominent achievements is the development of elementary flux modes, which has proved to be instrumental in analyzing metabolic networks. He is one of the Editors of the journal BioSystems. Algebra Meets Biology Fibonacci numbers and the Golden Section occur in many instances in Biology. We have recently found that the potential number of fatty acids increases with their chain length according to the famous Fibonacci series, when cis/trans isomerism is neglected. Since the ratio of two consecutive Fibonacci numbers tends to the Golden section, 1.618 ..., organisms can increase fatty acid variability approximately by that factor per carbon atom invested. Moreover, we show that, under consideration of cis/trans isomerism, modification by hydroxy and/or oxo groups, triple bonds or adjacent double bonds, diversity can be described by generalized Fibonacci numbers (e.g. Pell numbers). Similar calculations can be applied to aliphatic amino acids. Our results should be of interest for mass spectrometry, combinatorial chemistry, synthetic biology, patent applications, use of fatty acids as biomarkers and the theory of evolution. A second example of the role of algebra in biology discussed in this talk concerns intracellular calcium oscillations. Such oscillations are transformed (in a sense, decoded) in the cell by phosphorylation of proteins. In this way, an approximate temporal integral of the signal is computed. This implies that the number of spikes in the oscillation can be counted. In plant cells, an e↵ect is often triggered only if a certain number of spikes (e.g., five) occurred. Some Report on the 19th International Conference on Membrane Computing 99 techniques for the mathematical modelling of such phenomena are reviewed here. Awards It is our pleasure to announce that two awards have been available for the authors of CMC19 contributions. The Best Student Paper Award sponsored by Springer Verlag (EUR 500) went to Ana Turlea based on the decision of the IMCS Awards Committee for the paper •M. Gheorghe, F. Ipate, R. Lefticaru, A. Turlea. Testing Identifiable Kernel P Systems using an X-machine Approach. This paper presents a testing approach for kernel P systems (kP systems), based on the X-machine testing approach and the concept of cover automaton. The testing methodology ensures that the implementation conforms the specifications, under certain conditions, such as the identifiability concept in the context of kernel P systems. The Best Paper Award has been given based on a voting among the CMC19 participants. Two papers received a maximum number of votes: •A. Leporati, L. Manzoni, G. Mauri, A.E. Porreca, C. Zandron. Solving QSAT in Sublinear Depth. Among PSPACE-complete problems, QSAT, or quantified SAT, is one of the most used to show that the class of problems solvable in polynomial time by families of a given variant of P systems includes the whole PSPACE. However, most solutions require a membrane nesting depth that is linear with respect to the number of variables of the QSAT instance under consideration. While a system of a certain depth is needed, since depth 1 systems only allows to solve problems in P#P , it was until now unclear if a linear depth was, in fact, necessary. Here we use P systems with active membranes with charges, and we provide a construction that proves that QSAT can be solved with a sublinear nesting depth of order n log n,wherenis the number of variables in the quantified formula given as input. •A. Melcher, I. Vukorep, T. Hinze Construction of Stable and Lightweight Technical Structures Inspired by Ossification of Bones using Osteogenetic P Systems. Vertebrates come with a skeleton of bones whose inner structure combines two contradicting properties in a fascinating way: On the one hand, bones are stable and robust against mechanical stress, and on the other hand they are lightweight to minimise the energy necessary for motion of the organism. By means of a biological process called ossification, the inner structure of bones 100 T. Hinze becomes permanently optimised during organism’s lifetime which implies a high adaptability to varying environmental and behavioural needs. An appropriate computational model of ossification provides a promising bionics tool with widespread applicability for instance in architecture for construction of technical structures. To this end, we introduce the framework of osteogenetic P systems able to generate and to manage the spatial inner structure of bones in a dynamical manner during ossification. Starting from an initial porous network of interwoven filaments surrounded by vesicles, a variety of osteoblasts and osteoclasts is placed alongside the filaments throughout the whole network. External forces, freely configurable in their intensity and e↵ective direction, a↵ect the outer nodes of the network inducing a spatial distribution of mechanical stress in its inner filamentary structure. Now, the osteoblasts move towards heavily loaded positions and strengthen the corresponding filaments while osteoclasts eliminate filamentary material wherever dispensible. Over time, the inner network structure adapts to its demands by strong filaments along the main force lines. Complementing our framework of osteogenetic P systems, we demonstrate its practicability using two case studies: The first one describes generation of a dice-shaped cage resistant against weights on top. The second study addresses construction of an arched bridge with two opposite bearings. Preliminary Proceedings The Preliminary Proceedings are available as a book handed out to all CMC19 participants. Additional hardcopies can be ordered online on demand when consulting the page: http://www.book-on-demand.de/shop/15551 •T. Hinze, J. Behre (Eds.) Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Membrane Computing (CMC19). Verlag ProBusiness Berlin, 276 p., 2018 ISBN 978-3-96409-030-0 The final post-conference proceedings have been approved to appear within series Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) by Springer Verlag in February, 2019. Report on Biologically Inspired Parallel and Distributed Computing, Algorithms and Solutions (BICAS 2018) Miguel ´ A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor1, Agust´ın Riscos-N´u˜nez1, Francis G. Cabarle2,3, Henry N. Adorna2, Xiangxiang Zeng3 1Research Group on Natural Computing Universidad de Sevilla, Spain Dpt. Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Universidad de Sevilla, E.T.S.I. Inform´atica Avda. Reina Mercedes s/n. 41012 Sevilla, Spain E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] 2Algorithms and Complexity Laboratory Department of Computer Science University of the Philippines Diliman Diliman 1101 Quezon City, Philippines E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] 3Department of Computer Science School of Information Science and Engineering Xiamen University Xiamen 361005, Fujian, China E-mail: [email protected] The 2018 Biologically Inspired Parallel and Distributed Computing, Algorithms and Solutions (BICAS 2018) was held in Orl´eans, France, on Thursday July 19, 2018. BICAS is a Special session of The 16th International Conference on High Performance Computing & Simulation (HPCS 2018), that took place from July 16 to 20, 2018. BICAS 2018 aimed at examining di↵erent solutions to complex problems using nature inspired approaches, and their interplay with cutting-edge technology in High Performance Computing. In this second edition of the Special Session, the first one organized by this committee, five papers of researchers from di↵erent parts of the world were presented. They have been published, and are available, at the HPCS 2018 proceedings in IEEE Xplore [3]. The event run smoothly and encouraged the interaction of the attendees with other researchers from di↵erent fields. The HPCS 2018 provided an open, large and heterogeneous forum with hundreds of researchers having special interest on 102 M. ´ A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor et al parallelism, high performance computing, and future supercomputing architectures (including non conventional). HPCS 2018 included tutorials, keynotes (by Thomas Sterling, Bernd Mohr, Marc Duranton and Christian Perez), Symposia, Workshops, Special Sessions, main track sessions, panels and posters. Sessions run in parallel, so it was easy to attend just those with one’s special interests. The venue was Lab’O, Orl´eans Val de Loire Technopole (OVLT), which was very close to the city center. More information can be found at the website [1] and the program [2]. The titles of the papers presented in the session are the following: •Towards Probabilistic Networks of Polarized Evolutionary Processors,byFernando Arroyo, Sandra Gomez-Canaval, Victor Mitrana, Mihaela Paun, Jose Ramon Sanchez-Couso •Relevance of Error Function in Input Parameter Calibration in a Coupled Wind Field Model-Forest Fire Spread Simulator, by Carlos Carrillo, Ana Cort´es, Tom`as Margalef, Antonio Espinosa, Andr´es Cencerrado •On GPU-Oriented P Systems, by Miguel ´ A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor, David Orellana- Mart´ın, Agust´ın Riscos-N´u˜nez, Mario J. P´erez-Jim´enez •Genetic Algorithm for Solving a Dynamic Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows, by Hamida Abidi, Khaled Hassine, Fethi Mguis •Fast Computation of High-resolution Solvent Excluded Protein Surface with OpenMP, by Sebastian Daberdaku, Carlo Ferrari The Organizing Committe of BICAS 2018 consisted of •Miguel ´ A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor (University of Seville), •Agust´ın Riscos-N´u˜nez (University of Seville), •Francis G.C. Cabarle (University of the Philippines Diliman), •Henry N. Adorna (University of the Philippines Diliman), •Xiangxiang Zeng (Xiamen University) The international Program Committe of BICAS 2018 consisted of •Rene Batac, National Institute of Physics, Quezon City, The Philippines •Miguel Cardenas Montes, CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain •Anne C. Elster, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway •Manuel Garc´ıa-Quismondo, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA •Juan A. G´omez Pulido, University of Extremadura, C´aceres, Spain •Jos´e L. Guisado, University of Seville, Sevilla, Spain •Pauline C. Haddow, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway •Richelle A.B. Juayong, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, The Philippines •Ignacio P´erez Hurtado, University of Seville, Sevilla, Spain •Jaderick Pabico, Institute of Computer Science, Los Banos, Laguna, The Philippines •Bosheng Song, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China Report on BICAS 2018 103 •Miguel A. Vega-Rodr´ıguez, University of Extremadura, C´aceres, Spain •Jianhua Xiao, Nankai University, Nankai, China •Pan Zheng, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Kuching, Malaysia References 1. BICAS 2018 website. http://hpcs2018.cisedu.info/2-conference/ special-sessions---hpcs2018/session03-bicas 2. HPCS 2018 preliminary program. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid= sites&srcid=Y2lzZWR1LmluZm98aHBjcy0yMDE4fGd4OjFkNGIwNGRkZGM4NzQ2M2M 3. 2018 International Conference on High Performance Computing & Simulation (HPCS), IEEE Xplore. W.W. Smari (ed.), 2018. ISBN: 978-1-5386-7879-4, https: //ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=8513913 The 5th Annual Rogozhin Lectures on Foundations of Informatics and Unconventional Computing Systems; in commemoration of Yurii Rogozhin, Chi¸sin˘au, Moldova, November 13-14, 2018 Svetlana Cojocaru, Alexandru Colesnicov, Ludmila Malahov, Alexei Muravitsky The Vladimir Andrunachievici Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science Chi¸sin˘au Moldova The 2018 Workshop consisted of one invited talk and five contributed presentations. The invited talk “Turing’s Vision & Deep Learning” was presented by Martin Davis from New York University and the University of California at Berkeley. Martin Davis has had a career of more than six decades devoted to the important interface between logic and computer science. He is co-inventor of the Davis-Putnam algorithm and the DPLL algorithms. He is known for his model of Post-Turing machines, and his work on Hilbert’s tenth problem leading to the MRDP theorem. Invited talk and contributed presentations We first present the summaries of the contributed presentations. 1. Artiom Alhazov, Rudolf Freund, and Sergiu Ivanov: “Activation and Blocking of Rules” Within a general model for sequential grammars, we introduce a new concept to control the application of rules based on the preceding application of rules, i.e., with the application of a rule in a derivation step, specific rules in further derivation steps are activated or blocked. We show some relations of activating and blocking of rules to other control mechanisms such as graph-controlled grammars and matrix grammars with and without appearance checking, as well as to grammars with random context conditions. Using both activation and blocking of 112 Gexiang Zhang DAY 2: REAL-LIFE APPLICATIONS 1. Data-driven modelling for ecological systems 2. Data-driven modelling for electric power systems 3. Membrane controllers for mobile robots 4. Image processing with membrane computing Miscellanea Membrane Computing After Twenty Years Gh P˘aun Romanian Academy Bucharest, Romania [email protected]; [email protected] Summary. Below are the slides presented at the 19th International Conference on Membrane Computing (CMC19) that took place at the NH Hotel and Conference Center Dresden-Neustadt (Germany) from 4th to 7th September 2018, organised by the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena (Germany) under the auspices of the International Membrane Computing Society(IMCS). 114 Gh P˘aun Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 11 MMeemmbbrraannee CCoommppuuttiinngg After TTwenty YYears GGhheeoorrgghhee PPããuunn Romanian AAcademy, BBucharest [email protected], cc[email protected] Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 22 MMeemmbbrraannee CCoommppuuttiinngg After TTwenty YYears* GGhheeoorrgghhee PPããuunn Romanian AAcademy, BBucharest [email protected], cc[email protected] CCMMCC 2200 **AAlleexxaannddeerr DDuummaass:: TTwweennttyy YYeeaarrss AAfftteerr//VViinnggtt aannss aapprrèèss,, ccoonnttiinnuuaattiioonn ooff TThhee TThhrreeee MMuusskkeetteeeerrss//LLeess ttrrooiiss mmoouussqquueettaaiirreess Membrane Computing - After Twenty Years 115 Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 33 Pre-hhistory ((of ccomputer sscience): David HHilbert ((1928): wwhat ccan bbe mechanically computed? Answer: AAlan TTuring, 11936 ((after sseveral oother pproposals: PPost, CChurch, KKleene, Gödel...) Turing PPhD tthesis, PPrinceton, 11939: Systems oof LLogic BBased oon OOrdinals (supervisor: AA. CChurch) Actually, aalso iin NNatural CComputing ““everything” ggoes bback tto Turing ((genetic, nneural ccomputing, ooracles, hhypercomputation...) Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 44 Pre-hhistory ((of ccellular/DNA ccomputing): Michael CConrad, RRichard FFeynman, CCharles BBennett ((1970) IInniittiiaattoorrss ooff DDNNAA ccoommppuuttiinngg Tom HHead ((1987) Leonard AAdleman ((1994) 116 Gh P˘aun Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 55 HHoowweevveerr...... J. HHartmanis: AAbout tthe nnature oof ccomputer sscience. Bulletin oof the EEATCS, 53 ((June 11994), 1170-1190 J. HHartmanis: OOn tthe wweight oof ccomputation. Bulletin oof tthe EEATCS , 555 ((February 11995), 136-1138 Adleman == ddemo, bbut tthe weight is aa nnew ((prohibitive) ccomplexity mmeasure Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 66 HHoowweevveerr...... A llot oof ttheory, eexperiments, ttoy pproblems ssolved, nnew ttechnologies, nnano-cconstructions, by-pproducts, m maybe cclassified aapplications ((cryptography),... GGhh.. PPããuunn,, GG.. RRoozzeennbbeerrgg,, AA.. SSaalloommaaaa:: DDNNAA CCoommppuuttiinngg.. NNeeww CCoommppuuttiinngg PPaarraaddiiggmmss,, SSpprriinnggeerr 11999988;; TTookkyyoo 11999999;; TTssiinngghhuuaa UUnniivv.. PPrreessss,, BBeeiijjiinngg,, 22000044;; MMiirr,, MMoosskkooww,, 22000055 IItt wwaass iinn TTuurrkkuu ((wwiitthh SShheenngg YYuu aanndd AAlleexxaannddrruu MMaatteeeessccuu)) TTrrooiiss MMoouussqquueettaaiirreess...... Membrane Computing - After Twenty Years 117 Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 77 I aalso hhad aa ssword aand aa hhigh hhat... GGhh.. PPããuunn,, GG.. RRoozzeennbbeerrgg,, AA.. SSaalloommaaaa:: DDNNAA CCoommppuuttiinngg.. NNeeww CCoommppuuttiinngg PPaarraaddiiggmmss,, SSpprriinnggeerr 11999988;; TTookkyyoo 11999999;; TTssiinngghhuuaa UUnniivv.. PPrreessss,, BBeeiijjiinngg,, 22000044;; MMiirr,, MMoosskkooww,, 22000055 But aa llittle bbit ttoo bbig ffor mme... Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 88 And tthe iidea aarised: let uus ggo tto tthe ccell! GGhh.. PPããuunn:: CCoommppuuttiinngg wwiitthh MMeemmbbrraanneess.. JJoouurrnnaall ooff CCoommppuutteerr aanndd SSyysstteemm SScciieenncceess,, 6611,, 11 ((22000000)),, 110088-114433 118 Gh P˘aun Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 99 SSoommee bbaassiicc rreeffeerreenncceess:: Gh. PPãun: CComputing wwith MMembranes. Journal oof CComputer aand SSystem SSciences , 661, 11 ((2000), 1108- 143 (cell-llike PP ssystems, ssymbol oobjects, sstring oobjects) Gh. PPãun: PP ssystems wwith active mmembranes: Attacking NNP-ccomplete pproblems, J. AAutomata,, Languages,, aand CCombinatorics,, 6, 11 ((2001), 775-990 A. PPãun, GGh. PPãun: TThe ppower oof ccommunication: PP ssystems wwith symport/antiport, New GGeneration Computing,, 20, 33 ((2002), 2295-3306 C. MMartin-VVide, JJ. PPazos, GGh. PPãun, AA. RRodriguez-PPaton: Tissue PP ssystems, Theoretical CComputer SSci. , 296, 22 ((2003), 2295-3326 Gh. PPãun, RR. PPãun: MMembrane ccomputing aand eeconomics: Numerical PP ssystems, Fundamenta Informaticae,, 73, 11-22 ((2006), 2213-2227 M. IIonescu, GGh. PPãun, TT. YYokomori: Spiking nneural PP ssystems, Fundamenta IInformaticae , 771, 22-33 (2006), 2279-3308 Gh. PPãun, MM.J. PPerez-JJimenez: SSolving pproblems iin aa ddistributed wway iin mmembrane ccomputing: dP ssystems, International JJ. oof CComputers,, CCommunication aand CControl,, 5, 22 ((2010), 2238-2252 Other bbranches: cconformon, ppopulation, kkernel, mmetabolic, mmulti-eenvironment, ppolymorphic, eetc. eettcc.. etc. eettcc.. ...... Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 110 MMoonnooggrraapphhss//vvoolluummeess Membrane Computing - After Twenty Years 119 Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 111 WWeebb ssiitteess:: hhttttpp::////ppssyysstteemmss..ddiissccoo..uunniimmiibb..iitt hhttttpp::////ppppaaggee..ppssyysstteemmss..eeuu// wwwwww..ggccnn..uuss..eess hhttttpp::////mmeemmbbrraanneecco ommppuuttiinngg..nneett//IIMMCCSSBBuulllleettiinn// hhttttpp::////iimmccss..oorrgg..ccnn// hhttttppss::////wwwwww..sspprriinnggeerr..ccoomm//ccoommppuutteerr//tthheeoorreettiiccaall++ccoommppuutteer r++sscciieennccee// jjoouurrnnaall//4411996655 Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 112 Meetings WWoorrkksshhoopp oonn MMeemmbbrraannee CCoommppuuttiinngg ((WWMMCC))::CCuurrtteeaa ddee AArrggeeºº ((22000000,, 22000011,, 22000022)),, TTaarrrraaggoonnaa ((22000033)),, MMiillaann ((220 00044)),, VViieennnnaa ((22000055)),, LLeeiiddeenn ((22000066)),, TThheessssaalloonniikkii ((22000077)),, EEddiinnbbuurrgghh ((22000088)) CCoonnffeerreennccee oonn MMeemmbbrraannee CCoommp puuttiinngg ((CCMMCC))::CCuurrtteeaa ddee AArrggeeºº ((22000099)),, JJeennaa ((22001100)),, FFoonnttaaiinneebblleeaauu ((22001111)),, BBuuddaappeesstt ((22001122)),, CChhiiººiinnããuu ((220 01133)),, PPrraagguuee ((22001144)),, VVaalleenncciiaa ((22001155)),, MMiillaann ((22001166)),, BBrraaddffoorrdd ((22001177)),, DDrreessddeenn ((22001188)),, CCuurrtteeaa ddee AArrggeeºº ( (22001199)) 120 Gh P˘aun Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 113 Brainstorming WWeek oon MMembrane Computing Tarragona, 22013 Sevilla, 22014 - 22018 ...very eefficient! Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 114 BBiibblliiooggrraapphhyy ((eessttiimmaattiioonn)):: - mmoorree tthhaann 33000000 ppaappeerrss - mmoorree tthhaann 110000 PPhhDD tthheesseess - 5500 - 6600 mmoonnooggrraapphhss aanndd ccoolllle eccttiivvee vvoolluummeess ((iinncclluuddiinngg aa hhaannddbbooookk)) - mmoorree tthhaann 3300 ssppeecciiaall iissssuueess ooff iinntteerrnnaattiioonnaall jjoouurrnnaallss IISSII ((IInns sttiittuuttee ffoorr SScciieennttiiffiicc IInnffoorrmmaattiioonn ((hhttttpp::////eessii-ttooppiiccss..ccoomm)),, FFeebbrruuaarryy 22000033,, nnoommiinnaatteedd ““CCoommppuuttiinngg wwiitthh m meemmbbrraanneess”” aass ffaasstt bbrreeaakkiinngg ppaappeerr aanndd,, iinn OOccttoommbbeerr 22000033,, tthhee SS//AA ppaappeerr wwaass ccoonnssiiddeerreedd ““tthhee cciittaattiioonn lleeaaddeerr iinn tthhee ccaatteeggoorryy ooff EEmmeerrggeenntt R Reesseeaarrcchh FFrroonntt iinn CCoommppuutteerr SScciieennccee:: MMeemmbbrraannee CCoommppuuttiinngg"" Membrane Computing - After Twenty Years 121 Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 115 IImmppoorrttaanntt sstteepp:: TThhee IInntteerrnnaattiioonnaall MMeemmbbrraannee CCoommppuuttiinngg SSoocciieettyy ((IIMMCCSS)) - ffoouunnddeedd dduurriinngg 1144tthh BBrraaiinnssttoorrm miinngg WWeeeekk oonn MMeemmbbrraannee CCoommppuuttiinngg,, SSeevviillllaa,, SSppaaiinn,, 11-55 FFeebbrruuaarryy 22001166 - wweebb aaddddrreessss:: hhttttpp::////iimmccss..oorrgg..ccnn// - mmaaiinn ggooaallss:: ““ccoonnnneeccttiinngg ppeeooppllee”” aanndd pprroommoottiinngg MMCC ttoo yyoouunngg rreesseeaarrcchheerrss - ttwwoo ppuubblliiccaattiioonnss:: BBuulllleettiinn ooff I IMMCCSS hhttttpp::////mmeemmbbrraanneeccoommppuuttiinngg..nneett//IIMMCCSSBBuulllleettiinn// aanndd JJoouurrnnaall ooff MMeemmbbrraannee CCoommppuuttiinngg ((JJMMCC)),, SSpprriinnggeerr-VVeer rllaagg hhttttppss::////wwwwww..sspprriinnggeerr..ccoomm//ccoommppuutteerr// tthheeoorreettiiccaall++ccoommppuutteerr++sscciieennccee//jjoouurrnnaall//4411996655 - tthhrreeee aannnnuuaall PPrriizze ess::((ii)) TThhee PPhhDD TThheessiiss ooff tthhee YYeeaarr,, ((iiii)) TThhee TThheeoorreettiiccaall RReessuulltt ooff tthhee YYeeaarr,, ((iiiiii)) TThhee AApppplliiccaattiioonn oof f tthhee YYeeaarr.. Gh. PPãun: MMembrane CComputing. AAfter TTwenty YYears 116 - ffoouurr yyeeaarrllyy ddeeddiiccaatteedd mmeeeettiinnggss:: tthhee EEuurrooppeeaann BBrraanncchh ooff IInntteerrnnaattiioonnaall CCoonnffeerreennccee oonn MMeemmbbrraannee CCoommppuuttiin ngg ((EECCMMCC)),, tthhee AAssiiaann BBrraanncchh ooff IInntteerrnnaattiioonnaall CCoonnffeerreennccee oonn MMeemmbbrraannee CCoommppuuttiinngg ((AACCMMCC)),, tthhee BBrraaiinnssttoorrmmi inngg WWeeeekk oonn MMeemmbbrraannee CCoommppuuttiinngg ((BBWWMMCC)) aanndd tthhee CChhiinneessee WWoorrkksshhoopp oonn MMeemmbbrraannee CCoommppuuttiinngg ((CCWWMMCC)) Contents of Previous Volumes June 2016 Volume Letter from the President .............................................. 70 IMCS Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 – Structure of IMCS .................................................. 11 – Constitution of IMCS ............................................... 17 – Report from the Treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 News from MC Research Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 – Gexiang Zhang: NICSG: Nature-Inspired Computation and Smart Grid Lab in China .................................................. 25 – Thomas Hinze: Interlocal Research Group on Molecular and Membrane Computing at Brandenburg University of Technology (Cottbus) and Friedrich Schiller University (Jena) . . . . 29 – Research Group of Theoretical Computer at Science Silesian University in Opava ................................................. 33 – Research Group on Natural Computing – Universidad de Sevilla . . . . 37 – Vincenzo Manca: The Research Group in Bioinformatics at the University of Verona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Tutorials, Surveys, Bibliographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 – Marian Gheorghe: A Survey of Membrane Computing Results Published Between CMC14 and CMC15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 – Zhiqiang Zhang, Tingfang Wu: A Bibliography of Numerical P Systems........................................................... 59 126 Contents of Previous Volumes – Linqiang Pan, Tingfang Wu, Zhiqiang Zhang: A Bibliography of Spiking Neural P Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Open Problems, Inquiries, Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 – Gheorghe P˘aun, Tingfang Wu, Zhiqiang Zhang: Open Problems, Research Topics, Recent Results on Numerical and Spiking Neural P Systems (The “Curtea de Arge¸s 2015 Series”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 – Artiom Alhazov, Rudolf Freund, Sergiu Ivanov: Spiking Neural P Systems with Polarizations – Two Polarizations Are Sufficient for Universality ..................................................... 97 Software News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 – Andrei George Florea, C˘at˘alin Buiu: Lulu, an open-source P colony/P swarm simulator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Abstracts of PhD Theses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 – Luis Felipe Mac´ıas-Ramos: Developing Efficient Simulators for Cell Machines .................................................. 107 – Pradeep Isawasan: Variants of Array-Rewriting P Systems for Generating Picture Arrays ..................................... 112 – Francis George C. Cabarle: Computations in Spiking Neural P Systems: Simulations and Structural Plasticity ................... 116 Reports on MC Conferences/Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 – Report about 14th BWMC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 – H.N. Adorna, F.G.C. Cabarle, N.H.S. Hernandez, R.A.B. Juayong: A Report about the Membrane Computing Seminar (together with PCSC2016), March 2016, at Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines ........................................................ 125 – A Summary of 2016 China Workshop on Membrane Computing (CWMC 2016) ......................................... 127 Miscellanea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Gheorghe P˘aun: Obituary Solomon Marcus (1925–2016) . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Contents of Previous Volumes 127 December 2016 Volume Letter from the President ................................................ 9 IMCS Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 – Structure of IMCS .................................................. 11 – Constitution of IMCS ............................................... 17 News from MC Research Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 – The Research Group on Modeling, Simulation and Verification of Biological Systems at the University of Pisa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 – Research Group on Bio-Inspired Computing at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 – Hong Peng, Jun Wang: RGMCA: Research Group on Membrane Computing and Applications at Xihua University, Chengdu . . . . . . . . . . 31 – Jos´e M. Sempere: The Spanish Thematic Network on Biomolecular and Biocellular Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 – Formal Methods Laboratory (FML) in Ia¸si . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Bibliographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 – Marian Gheorghe: Kernel P Systems Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 – PhD Theses in Membrane Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 – Membrane Computing, 16th International Conference, CMC 2015, Valencia, Spain, August 17-21, 2015, Revised Selected Papers, LNCS 9504, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 – Ludek Cienciala: Membrane Agents – Book Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 – Andrew Adamatzky, ed.: Advances in Unconventional Computing. Vol. I: Theory, Vol. 2: Prototypes, Models and Algorithms. Springer, 2016 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Tutorials, Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 – Luis Valencia-Cabrera, David Orellana-Mart´ın, Agust´ın Riscos-N´u˜nez, Mario J. P´erez-Jim´enez: Complexity Perspectives on Minimal Cooperation in Cell-like Membrane Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 – Artiom Alhazov, Rudolf Freund, Sergiu Ivanov: Polymorphic P Systems: A Survey ............................................... 79 – Daniel D´ıaz-Pernil, Miguel A. Guti´errez-Naranjo, Hong Peng: Some Notes on Membrane Computing and Image Processing . . . . . . . 103 128 Contents of Previous Volumes – Lucie Ciencialov´a, Erzs´ebet Csuhaj-Varj´u, Ludˇek Cienciala, Petr Sos´ık: P Colonies ............................................. 129 Technical Notes, Open Problems, Inquiries, Answers . . . . . . . . 157 – Vincenzo Manca: Multiset Generalization of Balanced Chemical Reactions ................................................ 157 – Matteo Cavaliere, Alvaro Sanchez: Evolutionary Resilience of Membrane Computations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 – Gheorghe P˘aun, Jos´e M. Sempere: Families of Languages Associated with SN P Systems: Preliminary Ideas, Open Problems .................................................... 161 – Marian Gheorghe: Membrane Systems Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 – Alan Mehlenbacher: P System for Two-Level Economic Exchange with Investment ................................................... 167 – Linqiang Pan, Gheorghe P˘aun, Gexiang Zhang: SN P Systems with Communication on Request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Abstracts of PhD Theses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 – Christian Bodenstein: Theoretical Analysis of Cyclic Processes in Biology in the Context of Ca2+ Oscillations, Circadian Rhythms and Synthetic Oscillators ................................. 195 – Zhiqiang Zhang: Research on the Computational Power of Numerical P Systems ........................................... 200 – Lea Weber: Implementation of an Artificial Evolution for Optimal Placement of Processing Units on a Freely Configurable Two-dimensional Grid Map ........................... 204 – Sergiu Ivanov: On the Power and Universality of Biologically-Inspired Models of Computation ..................... 207 – Ciprian Dragomir: Formal Verification of P Systems ............... 210 – Tao Wang: Spiking Neural P Systems and Their Applications in Fault Diagnosis of Electric Power Systems ...................... 212 Calls for Participation to MC Conferences/Meetings . . . . . . . . 217 – Call for Participation Fifteenth Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing .......................................... 217 – CMC 18, 24-28 July 2017, Bradford, UK. First Call for Papers . . . . . 219 – Call for Papers WMC at UCNC 2017, Fayetteville, USA . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Reports on MC Conferences/Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 Contents of Previous Volumes 129 – Alberto Leporati, Claudio Zandron: Report on CMC17 The Seventeenth Conference on Membrane Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 – Linqiang Pan, Gexiang Zhang, Ravie Chandren Muniyandi, Bosheng Song: A Summary of The 5th Asian Conference on Membrane Computing (ACMC 2016) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 – Marian Gheorghe, Savas Konur: Workshop on Membrane Computing at the International Conference on Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation, Manchester, UK, July 11-15 2016................................................ 235 – Svetlana Cojocaru, Alexandru Colesnicov, Ludmila Malahov: Workshop on Unconventional Computing Systems in commemoration of Yurii Rogozhin Chi¸sin˘au, Moldova, November 11, 2016 . . . . . . . . . . 237 Miscellanea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 Gheorghe P˘aun: Some Wonders of a Bio-Computer-Scientist . . . . . . . 241 June 2017 Volume Letter from The President ............................................... 7 IMCS Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Structure of IMCS ................................................... 9 Constitution of IMCS ............................................... 15 IMCS 2016 Prizes ................................................... 21 IMCS Journal: Journal of Membrane Computing (JMEC) . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Tutorials, Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Marian Gheorghe: A Survey of Kernel P Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Alberto Leporati, Luca Manzoni, Giancarlo Mauri, Antonio E. Porreca, Claudio Zandron: Space Complexity of P Systems with Active Membranes: A Survey ........................................................... 41 Miguel A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor, Agust´ın Riscos-N´u˜nez, Mario J. P´erez-Jim´enez: A Survey of Parallel Simulation of P Systems with GPUs . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Bibliographies ........................................................ 69 Gexiang Zhang, Qiang Yang, Linqiang Pan: A Bibliography of Technological Applications of Spiking Neural P Systems . . . . . . . . . . 69 130 Contents of Previous Volumes Book Presentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Andrei George Florea, C˘at˘alin Buiu: Membrane Computing for Distributed Control of Robotic Swarms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Gexiang Zhang, Mario J. P´erez-Jim´enez, Marian Gheorghe: Real-Life Applications with Membrane Computing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Open Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Zhiqiang Zhang: Some Open Problems on Numerical P Systems with Production Thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Bosheng Song: Open Problems on Symport/Antiport (Tissue) P Systems with Channel States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Calls for Participation to MC and Related Conferences/Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 18th International Conference on Membrane Computing (CMC18), Bradford, UK ....................................................... 89 The 6th Asian Conference on Membrane Computing (ACMC2017) 21-25 September, 2017 Chengdu (P.R. China) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 15th International Conference on Automata and Formal Languages, Debrecen, Hungary ................................................. 99 Reports on MC Conferences/Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Report about 15th BWMC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Gexiang Zhang, Qiang Yang, Linqiang Pan: A Summary of the Second China Workshop on Membrane Computing (CWMC 2017) . . . . . . . . . 107 Miscellanea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Gheorghe P˘aun: About the Limits of (Bio)Informatics with Some Illustrations from DNA and Membrane Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Contents of Previous Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 December 2017 Volume Letter from The President ............................................... 7 IMCS Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Structure of IMCS ................................................... 9 Constitution of IMCS ............................................... 15 IMCS Journal: Journal of Membrane Computing (JMEC) . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Contents of Previous Volumes 131 News from MC Research Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Vincenzo Manca: Bioinformatics and Natural Computing at the University of Verona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Francis George C. Cabarle, Jym Paul Carandang, Ren Tristan dela Cruz, Kelvin C. Bu˜no, John Matthew Villaflores, Miguel ´ Angel Mart´ınez-del-Amor, Nestine Hope Hernandez, Richelle Ann B. Juayong, Henry N. Adorna: Spiking Neural P Systems Research at Algorithms and Complexity Laboratory of the University of the Philippines Diliman . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Book Presentations .................................................. 69 Thomas Hinze: Computer der Natur (Computers Found in Nature) . . 69 Tutorials, Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Luis Valencia-Cabrera, Miguel A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor, D. Orellana-Mart´ın, Ignacio P´erez-Hurtado, Mario J. P´erez-Jim´enez: Cooperative P Systems and the PVersus NP Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Luis Valencia-Cabrera, David Orellana-Mart´ın, Miguel ´ A. Mart´ınez-del-Amor, Mario J. P´erez Jim´enez: From Super-cells to Robotic Swarms: Two Decades of Evolution in the Simulation of P Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Open Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Gheorghe P˘aun: A Dozen of (Meta/Mega?) Research Topics . . . . . . . . 81 Luca Manzoni, Antonio E. Porreca: Dualistic Open Problems in Membrane Computing ........................................... 87 Mike Stannett: With Theorem Provers and P systems: How to Build a New Computational Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Abstracts of PhD Theses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 – Richelle Ann B. Juayong: Communication Complexity in P Systems with Energy ......................................................... 87 Calls for Participation to MC and Related Conferences/Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 16th Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing (BWMC18), Sevilla, Spain ....................................................... 89 The 19th International Conference on Membrane Computing (CMC2019), 4-7 September, 2018, Dresden, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Reports on MC Conferences/Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 132 Contents of Previous Volumes Marian Gheorghe: The 18th International Conference on Membrane Computing, Bradford, UK, July 25 – 28, 2017 . . . . . . . 103 Miscellanea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Prithwineel Paul: Call for a Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 IMCS Prize Arriving in Sevilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Thomas Hinze: Interview with Gheorghe P˘aun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Natasha Jonoska, Gheorghe P˘aun, Grzegorz Rozenberg: Obituary for Tom Head ............................................ 121 Contents of Previous Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 June 2018 Volume Letter from The President ............................................... 7 IMCS Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Structure of IMCS ................................................... 9 Constitution of IMCS ............................................... 15 IMCS Journal: Journal of Membrane Computing (JMEC) . . . . . . . . . . . 21 News from MC Research Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Tseren-Onolt Ishdorj, Erdenebaatar Altangerel: A Natural Computing Research Team in Mongolia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Andrei George Florea, C˘at˘alin Buiu: A Symbolic Membrane Computing Approach to the Control of Multi-Robot Systems ............................................. 27 Andrei George Florea, C˘at˘alin Buiu: PeP, an Open-Source Enzymatic Numerical P Systems Simulator . . . . 31 Book Presentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Taishin Y. Nishida: Cell Membrane Computing ...................... 33 Tutorials, Surveys, Bibliographies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Haina Rong, Tingfang Wu, Linqiang Pan, Gexiang Zhang: Spiking Neural P Systems: Theoretical Results and Applications . . . . 37 Bosheng Song, Yingxin Hu, Henry N. Adorna, Fei Xu: A Survey of Tissue-like P Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Hong Peng, Jun Wang, Tao Wang: A Bibliography of Fuzzy Membrane Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Contents of Previous Volumes 133 Open Problems, Research Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Alberto Leporati, Luca Manzoni, Giancarlo Mauri, Antonio E. Porreca, Claudio Zandron: Open Problems in Membrane Computing and How Not to Solve Them......................................... 67 Miguel A. Guti´errez-Naranjo: Other Buds in Membrane Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Jos´e Antonio Andreu-Guzm´an, Luis Valencia-Cabrera: Towards a General Framework for Membrane Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . 91 David Orellana-Mart´ın, Luis Valencia-Cabrera, Jos´e L. Guisado, Francisco Jim´enez-Morales, Agust´ın Riscos-N´u˜nez, Mario J. P´erez-Jim´enez: Laser Dynamics from a Membrane Computing Perspective . . . . . . . . . . 97 Marian Gheorghe, Florentin Ipate: MACPS (Modelling and Analysis of Cyber-Physical Systems) . . . . . . 109 Calls for Participation to MC and Related Conferences/Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 The 19th International Conference on Membrane Computing (CMC2019), 4-7 September, 2018, Dresden, Germany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Asian Branch of International Conference on Membrane Computing (ACMC2018) 10-16 December, Auckland–New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Reports on MC Conferences/Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Report about the 16th Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing .......................................... 129 Xiangxiang Zeng, Xiangrong Liu, Gexiang Zhang, Linqiang Pan: A Summary of 2018 China Workshop on Membrane Computing (CWMC 2018) ......................................... 137 Contents of Previous Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141