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Published: 30th October 2010 DOI: 10.4204/EPTCS.40 ISSN: 2075-2180 |
| Preface Gabriel Ciobanu and Maciej Koutny | |
| Stochastic Simulation of Process Calculi for Biology Andrew Phillips, Matthew Lakin and Loïc Paulevé | 1 |
| Measurable Stochastics for Brane Calculus Giorgio Bacci and Marino Miculan | 6 |
| An Abstraction Theory for Qualitative Models of Biological Systems Richard Banks and L. Jason Steggles | 23 |
| Computational Modeling for the Activation Cycle of G-proteins by G-protein-coupled Receptors Yifei Bao, Adriana Compagnoni, Joseph Glavy and Tommy White | 39 |
| Aspects of multiscale modelling in a process algebra for biological systems Roberto Barbuti, Giulio Caravagna, Paolo Milazzo, Andrea Maggiolo-Schettini and Simone Tini | 54 |
| Multiscale Bone Remodelling with Spatial P Systems Diletta Cacciagrano, Flavio Corradini, Emanuela Merelli and Luca Tesei | 70 |
| Modeling biological systems with delays in Bio-PEPA Giulio Caravagna and Jane Hillston | 85 |
| Hybrid Calculus of Wrapped Compartments Mario Coppo, Ferruccio Damiani, Maurizio Drocco, Elena Grassi, Eva Sciacca, Salvatore Spinella and Angelo Troina | 102 |
| Edge- and Node-Disjoint Paths in P Systems Michael J. Dinneen, Yun-Bum Kim and Radu Nicolescu | 121 |
| Lumpability Abstractions of Rule-based Systems Jerome Feret, Thomas Henzinger, Heinz Koeppl and Tatjana Petrov | 142 |
| Qualitative modelling and analysis of regulations in multi-cellular systems using Petri nets and topological collections Jean-Louis Giavitto, Hanna Klaudel and Franck Pommereau | 162 |
Biological membranes play a fundamental role in the complex reactions which take place in cells of living organisms. The importance of this role has been considered in two different types of formalisms introduced recently. Membrane systems were introduced as a class of distributed parallel computing devices inspired by the observation that any biological system is a complex hierarchical structure, with a flow of biochemical substances and information that underlies their functioning. The modeling and analysis of biological systems has also attracted considerable interest of the process algebra research community. Thus the notions of membranes and compartments have been explicitly represented in a family of calculi, such as Ambients and Brane Calculi. A cross fertilization of these two research areas has recently started. A deeper investigation of the relationships between these related formalisms is interesting, as it is important to understand the crucial similarities and the differences.
The main aim of the MeCBIC 2010 was to bring together researchers working on membrane computing, in biologically inspired process calculi, and in other related fields, in order to present recent results and to discuss new ideas concerning such formalisms, their properties and relationships. In the call-for papers, original research papers (including significant work-in-progress) on the membrane systems or biologically inspired process calculi had been sought. All submitted papers were reviewed by three or four referees. As a result, 10 papers were accepted for presentation at the workshop, and we thank the reviewers and authors for doing an outstanding job.
We are also indebted to the members of the Programme Committee: Joern Behre (Germany), Luca Cardelli (United Kingdom), Matteo Cavaliere (Spain), Federica Ciocchetta (Italy), Flavio Corradini (Italy), Erzsebet Csuhaj-Varju (Hungary), Erik de Vink (Netherlands), Marian Gheorghe (United Kingdom), Jean-Louis Giavitto (France), Thomas Hinze (Germany), Paolo Milazzo (Italy), Angelo Troina (Italy), Claudio Zandron (Italy), Gianluigi Zavattaro (Italy). Without their enthusiastic work this volume would not have been possible.
We wish to express our gratitude to the invited speaker Andrew Phillips for his lecture on stochastic simulation of process calculi. Finally, we would like to thank Friedrich Schiller Universität for hosting the workshop and providing financial support, and to Rob van Glabbeek for his kind help in preparing this volume.
Gabriel Ciobanu and Maciej Koutny
Program Committee Chairs, MeCBIC 2010