Membrane Systems Working in Generating and Accepting Modes: Expressiveness and Encodings

Membrane systems can be seen either as generators or as acceptors of multiset languages. In this paper we compare the expressive power of membrane systems working in accepting mode with that of membrane systems working in generating mode. Features like determinism, presence of promoters and of cooperative rules are considered. The comparison between some of the considered classes of membrane systems is carried out by defining encodings of one class into another.