Towards bridging two cell-inspired models: P systems and R systems

We examine, from the point of view of membrane computing, the two basic assumptions of reaction systems, the threshold and no permanence ones. In certain circumstances (e.g., defining the successful computations by local halting), the second assumption can be incorporated in a transition P system or in a symport/antiport P system without losing the universality. The case of the first postulate remains open: the reaction systems deal, deterministically, with finite sets of symbols, which is not of much interest for computing; three ways to introduce nondeterminism are suggested and left as research topics. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.