Mutation Based Testing of P Systems

Although testing is an essential part of software development, until recently, P system testing has been completely neglected. Mutation testing (mutation analysis) is a structural software testing method which involves modifying the program in small ways. Mutation analysis has been largely used in white-box testing, but only a few tentative attempts to use this idea in black-box testing have been reported in the literature. In this paper, we provide a formal way of generating mutants for systems specified by context- free grammars. Furthermore, the paper shows how the proposed method can be used to construct mutants for a P system specification, thus making a significant progress in the area of P system testin

A Quantum-Inspired Evolutionary Algorithm Based on P systems for a Class of Combinatorial Optimization

This paper introduces an evolutionary algorithm which uses the concepts and principles of the quantum-inspired evolutionary approach and the hierarchical arrangement of the compartments of a P system. The P system framework is also used to formally specify this evolutionary algorithm. Extensive experiments are conducted on a well-known combinatorial optimization problem, the knapsack problem, to test the effectiveness of the approach. These experimental results show that this evolutionary algorithm performs better than quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithms, for certain arrangements of the compartments of the P system structure utilized

Model Checking Based Test Generation from P Systems Using P-Lingua

This paper presents an approach for P system testing, that uses model- checking for automatic test generation and P-Lingua as specification language. This approach is based on a transformation of the transitional, non-deterministic, cell-like P system into a Kripke structure, which is further used for test generation, by adding convenient temporal logic specifications. This paper extends our previous work in this field to multi-membrane, transitional P system, having cooperative rules, communication between membranes and membrane dissolution. A tool, which takes as input a P system specified in P-Lingua and translates it into the language accepted by the model checker NuSMV was developed and used for test case generation. Some hints regarding the automatic test generation using NuSMV and P-Lingua are also given

General Topologies and P Systems

In this paper we investigate the use of general topological spaces as control mechanisms for membrane systems. For simplicity, we illustrate our approach by showing how arbitrary topologies can be used to study the behaviour of membrane systems with rewrite and communication rules

Networks of Cells and Petri Nets

We introduce a new class of P systems, called networks of cells, with rules allowing several cells to simultaneously interact with each other in order to produce some new objects inside some other output cells. We define different types of behavior for networks of cells by considering alternative strategies for the application of the rules: sequential application, free parallelism, maximal parallelism, locally-maximal parallelism and minimal parallelism. We devise a way for translating network of cells into place- transition nets with localities (PTL-nets, for short) - a specific class of Petri nets. Then, for such a construction, we show a behavioral equivalence between network of cells and corresponding PTL-nets only in the case maximal parallelism, sequential execution, and free parallelism, whereas we observe that, in the case of locally-maximal parallelism and minimal parallelism, the corresponding PTL-nets are not always able to mimic the behavior of network of cells. Also, we address the reverse problem of finding a corresponding network of cells for a given PTL-net by obtaining similar results concerning the relation- ships between their semantics. Finally, we present network-of-cells-based models of two classical synchronization problems: producer/consumer and dining philosophers

Frontiers of Membrane Computing: Open Problems and Research Topics

This is a list of open problems and research topics collected after the Twelfth Conference on Membrane Computing, CMC 2012 (Fontainebleau, France (23 - 26 August 2011), meant initially to be a working material for Tenth Brainstorming Week on Membrane Computing, Sevilla, Spain (January 30 - February 3, 2012). The result was circulated in several versions before the brainstorming and then modified according to the discussions held in Sevilla and according to the progresses made during the meeting. In the present form, the list gives an image about key research directions currently active in membrane computing

A Membrane-Inspired Evolutionary Algorithm with a Population P System and its Application to Distribution System Recon guration

This paper develops a membrane-inspired evolutionary algorithm, PSMA, which is designed by using a population P system and a quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm (QIEA). We use a population P system with three cells to organize three types of QIEAs, where communications between cells are performed at the level of genes, instead of the level of individuals reported in the existing membrane algorithms in the literature. Knapsack problems are applied to discuss the parameter setting and to test the effectiveness of PSMA. Experimental results show that PSMA is superior to four representative QIEAs and our previous work with respect to the quality of solutions and the elapsed time. We also use PSMA to solve the optimal distribution system reconfiguration problem in power systems for minimizing the power loss.Junta de Andalucía P08-TIC-04200Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN-2009-1319

Kernel P Systems - Version 1

A basic P system, called kernel P system4 (kP system for short), combining features of di erent P systems introduced and studied so far is de ned and discussed. The structure of such systems is de ned as a dynamic graph, similar to tissue-like P systems, the objects are organised as multisets, and the rules in each compartment, rewriting and communication together with system structure changing rules, are applied in accordance with a speci c execution strategy. The de nition of kP systems is introduced and some examples illustrate this concept. Two classes of P systems, namely neural-like and generalised communicating P systems are simulated by kP systems. Some case studies prove the expressive power of these systems.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2012-37434Junta de Andalucía P08-TIC-0420

Towards an Integrated Approach for Model Simulation, Property Extraction and Veri cation of P Systems

This paper presents an integrated approach for model simulation, property extraction and formal veri cation of P systems, illustrated on a tissue P system with active membranes solving the 3-colouring problem. The paper focuses on this problem and reports the invariants and the properties extracted and veri ed using a series of tools (Daikon, MeCoSim, Maple, Spin, ProB) and languages (P{Lingua, Promela, Event-B). Appropriate tools and integration plugins, which facilitate and even automate the steps involved in the aforementioned approach, have also been developed. The case study chosen is complex (it involves an exponential growth of the number of states through the use of membrane division rules) and the properties obtained are non-trivial.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2009–13192Junta de Andalucía P08–TIC–0420