Search Results for: run time
How is "run time" calculated?
"Run time" is simply a measurement of how long a volunteer's device spends running World Community Grid tasks. You accumulate run time for running tasks on your device's GPU, CPU, or both.
How do I know that the BOINC software is running correctly?
One way to check is to double-click on the World Community Grid, or BOINC, icon in the system tray in the lower right of your display. An information panel will pop up that should reflect that the application is running and the panel will also display the “elapsed time” and “time remaining”.
How will statistics be updated for GPU participation?
World Community Grid will award run time based on the elapsed time from when a work unit is started and when it finishes running. Credit and result counts will be awarded in the same manner as CPU participation.
I am running SETI@home on my computer? Will I be able to run both SETI@home and World Community Grid?
Yes and no. Any non-grid.org agent, such as SETI@home, will be able to continue to run on your computer after you download and install the World Community Grid agent. However, while you can run both clients at the same time, SETI@home runs at a higher priority than the World Community Grid agent, so SETI@home will receive all the extra available CPU cycles and will starve the World Community Grid agent. Because of this, you should only run one or the other at any given time.
What is a Team Challenge?
A Team Challenge is essentially a competition between teams to see which team can return the most results, or generate the most points or run time in a given time period. A Team Challenge can be open to all teams on World Community Grid, or limited to only teams invited by the challenge creator.
What was the difference between run time reported by the United Devices version and the BOINC version?
It is important to note, that the time reported to the server doesn't mean that the UD version was doing more work then the BOINC version. The UD version simply overcounted the actual time that was contributed to the project. In fact, the BOINC version actually contributes more time to the project because it is able to take advantage of multi-core processors or multi-processory systems. The UD version could only use one core or processor. The BOINC version will start up a science application on each core or processor and thus be able to get two or more times the work done.
Some Mapping Cancer Markers jobs take longer to run than others. Why?
Each Mapping Cancer Markers task performs a search of multiple combinations of potential cancer biomarkers, representing a piece of a larger search strategy. It is difficult to split this extensive search into perfectly uniform pieces. Additionally, the machine-learning algorithms used to evaluate each combination of markers can take a variable amount of computing time to arrive at an answer. Together, these two factors make the run times of Mapping Cancer Markers tasks variable.
Why does the World Community Grid software only use 60% of my CPU time?
When World Community Grid was started in 2004, we heard isolated reports of computer instability while running the software at 100%. Because of this we changed the default setting to only run at 60% of the unused processor time. Members are able to modify the cpu time from 10% to 100% to suit their own needs by making a change to their device profile. However, anyone making the change to more than 60% should monitor their device to ensure that the change has not had an adverse impact. If it does then they should revert back to the default settings.
I need to completely stop the agent for a while. How do I do it?
If you need to stop your agent for a little while, use the snooze icon (moon shape) on the agent. You can change the default on the preferences page (check icon). If you are running a memory intensive application for a longer period of time and notice slight delays, you might want to set the agent to run only as a screen saver. Go to the preferences window (the one with the check icon) and select "Run only as Screen Saver" and then click on "Apply". This will make the agent only run when your pc is in screen saver mode. Finally, you can completely stop the agent by first minimizing its window, right clicking on its icon in the tray at the lower right, and selecting "Exit". This causes the agent to stop until the next reboot. You can also restart it at any time using the Start menu.
Will work unit deadlines be different for Android devices?
No. For now, all work units for projects that run on Android have been made smaller for all platforms, and are small enough to compute on an Android device in a reasonable amount of time. There are future plans to size work units dynamically based on the device a task is being computed on.
How long did it take to finish work on a protein?
Task execution progress increased slowly. We tuned work units so that they took an average of about a week of wall clock time to complete. However, if you had a very fast computer it might have finished much sooner. In addition, the time to complete depended on the difficulty of folding a particular protein and on how long the computer was running.
Does World Community Grid offer a 64 bit version of the BOINC software?
No. Our recommended BOINC agents are those of the 32 bit variety because even though the client is 32 bit, it will run 64 bit applications. The agent does not do anything that requires 64 bit execution at this time, thus recommending a version that works on both makes life easier. The science applications are available in both 32 bit and 64 bit. A 64 bit science application can run on 32 bit BOINC client. The opposite is also true, a 32 bit science application can run on a 64 bit BOINC client.
Why are my work units failing with exit code 233 “ERROR: Kernel execution time estimate too high, exiting”?
At the beginning of each work unit run on your graphics card, a small portion of the workload is run to estimate the execution time of a single kernel execution on the graphics card. If this estimate is too high, the application will exit to reduce the risk of Windows restarting the display driver due to the Timeout Detection and Recovery feature of Windows. If this occurs, the above error message will be written to the stderr log. If this occurs multiple times, it is likely the graphics card is not capable of running the project. Please refer to the "What graphics cards are not able to participate in the Help Conquer Cancer research project?"FAQ for a list of graphics cards which are not supported.
If it occurs occasionally but not on every execution, it could be that other graphics intensive work is interfering. We recommend that you set your preferences to not allow World Community Grid to run while you are actively utilizing your computer. This option is available on the Device Profile page under the custom options section. This option is labeled "Do work on my graphics card while computer is in use?". Select "no" and save.
Why does my device show high CPU use?
The CPU in computers and other computing devices is actually highly utilized no matter what is going on, except when it is powered off, or stopped. There is a hidden "idle" task running in the background that runs at lower priority than everything else in the device, even lower than the World Community Grid software. The idle task counts up the percentage of the time it runs and calls this "idle time" and reduces the reported CPU utilization figure accordingly. Neither the World Community Software software nor the idle task will run if your device has other work to do. However, since our software runs at a slightly higher priority than the idle task, the idle task won't run at all and thus report that your computer will be 100% utilized*. Having our software run in the background along with other applications is usually not a problem unless you have a system with relatively little memory. For such systems you may want to change your preferences to meet your requirements.
An overview of the various performance settings may be found here.
* Note: If you set the throttle in the BOINC agent (called: Use no more than: % of processor time) to 60%, the agent will run at 100% for three seconds, and then at 0% for two seconds.
How do the Increase in XXXX challenges work?
The Increase in XXXX challenges, can also be viewed as "percent increase" challenges. In these challenges, a baseline is calculated based on the recent daily average production for each team in the challenge. During the challenge, the daily team statistics are averaged for the current duration of the challenge and then the baseline average is subtracted to yield an average increase (or decrease). That average increase/decrease is divided by the baseline average to determine the percent increase/decrease. For example, if a team averages 3 days of Run Time per day leading up to the challenge, and then averages 4 days of Run Time during the period of the challenge, the percent increase would be 33%. The math would be: (4-3)/3.
The final winner of the challenge will be the team with the largest percent increase over their baseline average.
Please remember our collective goal.
World Community Grid brings together people from across the globe to benefit humanity by creating the world's largest non-profit computing grid. We do this by pooling surplus processing power from volunteers' devices. We encourage your participation on the forums and provide information on team development and progress to make it easier for individuals to participate, to recruit new members and generally increase the amount of computing run time available for the humanitarian research projects we run. This web site is not a place to promote any other cause or issue.
What is unique about how research tasks are managed for FightAIDS@Home – Phase 2? How does this impact how work will be distributed to volunteers?
The simulations researchers need to carry out are typically very long running and complex, each of which would take several months to run on a single device. Instead, researchers split up each simulation for a given drug candidate into shorter running research tasks: much smaller and more manageable pieces. These pieces of work can be run independently and simultaneously on a volunteer devices.
However for FightAIDS@Home – Phase 2, the research tasks within a single drug candidate simulation are dependent on each other where the output of one task is used as the input to the next. This means longer research tasks within each drug candidate simulation which can’t be run simultaneously.
To handle this complexity, we are using two different, but related mechanisms called trickle messaging and intermediate uploads to allow us to track your progress through a research task and manage the handover of that task from one volunteer to the next to get it completed in the shortest time possible. This way, we can track the progress of the long simulations to ensure that computations are not delayed or lost, while the researchers get the valuable results back as quickly as possible. In addition, volunteers acquire their credits sooner too.
Will this reduce battery life?
By default, the Android BOINC application is only active when your device is plugged into a power source (AC or USB) and your battery is charged 90% or more. Using the application will not significantly reduce your battery life or your recharge time. If you wish, you can override these default power use settings and customize how World Community Grid runs on your device.
Do World Community Grid projects involve animal testing?
So far, none of our past or current projects have involved animal testing while they were running on World Community Grid.
World Community Grid projects are considered basic research, which means that they are studying the foundations of a particular scientific subject rather than testing treatments in a lab. If a project is successful, it may lead to animal testing (typically by a separate research group) at some time in the future.
What are points?
Your device's contribution is shown in three measures: points, total run time and results returned. The term points is simply used as a way of measuring the amount of computation your device has contributed. For instance, if your device works for three days on one work unit, or in those same three days completes five work units, you will accumulate the same number of points assuming that your device worked at about the same level of effort in each scenario.
What is a World Community Grid team?
Once you register with World Community Grid, you have the option to join an existing team, or create a new team. (Please note: to create a new team you are required to have a username.)
When you are on a team, you may compete with other teams for total run time, points, and results returned. Joining a team does not affect your individual member statistics.
Why did this project download and upload so much data?
Climate simulations require three-dimensional information about temperature, pressure, wind, humidity and surface properties for the entire region being studied at a detailed grid level. In addition, information arriving at the boundary of the region over the time span being studied is needed. This requires a considerable amount of input data, and as the simulation runs, a large quantity of output data is produced.
Why do I get the error: exit code -1073741510 (0xc000013a) (On Windows Vista)?
The message exit code -1073741510 (0xc000013a) means that when you log off of Windows the application gets terminated quite abruptly. Vista can shut down very quickly and not allow BOINC enough time to stop properly. This problem was corrected in the 5.10.45 version of BOINC. Please ensure that you are running the latest recommended version of the World Community Grid software.
To determine what version you are currently running on your computer, right click on the World Community Grid, or BOINC, icon in the bottom right corner of your display (by the date and time). Click on “About World Community Grid – BOINC Client” or “About BOINC” and the current version of the software will be displayed.
You may check if you have the latest supported version of the World Community Grid software by visiting this page: https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ms/viewDownloadAgain.do . The version number is displayed below the name of the agent for each operating system. If this number is the same as the version number that you have installed then you have the latest supported version.
How is my individual member rank calculated?
A member may see their individual stats on their My Contribution page for run time, points, and results returned. Your individual rank is based on the total number of members that have returned a result. You may see how many members there currently are on the Global Statistics page.
Do I have to leave my device on all the time for this to work? Or always be online?
The software can run only when your device is on. The software doesn't need to be connected to the Internet to work its task, but once finished, it needs to reconnect to return data and to get a new task to work on. We do not ask our members to change their normal habits and schedule for using the device. The software will adapt to your usage patterns and only utilize the device's processing power when you don't otherwise need it.
How is my team rank calculated?
A member may see their team stats on their My Team page for run time, points, and results returned. Your team rank is based on the total number of teams that have returned a result. You may see how many teams there currently are on the Team Statistics page.
What software does the Africa Rainfall Project use?
The Africa Rainfall Project uses the Weather Research & Forecasting (WRF) model for the research application. It is used to simulate weather conditions in a geographical region over a defined time period. The work for this project will be broken into small geographical regions of sub-Saharan Africa, and in the end each region will be simulated for one calendar year.
WRF is a very large, mostly Fortran application, and the simulations being run require more resources than are typically used for a World Community Grid project. For this reason, volunteers will not be automatically opted into this project.
Why is no task executing after I complete a work unit?
It is normal for the software to spend a couple of minutes preparing to send data to the server. During this time, it is running some final calculations and formatting the results for transmission. If you still do not have a task after more than five minutes, it could be due to one of the following reasons:
- If the software is unable to detect network connectivity, the software will continue to retry until it is able to send results.
- If we are experiencing very heavy traffic on our servers, you may see delays in the distribution of new work.
What are the advantages of running World Community Grid on a computer's GPU?
GPUs can perform certain types of computations significantly faster than the central processing units (CPUs) that power computers. When the manufacturers of GPUs realized this, they extended the capabilities of some GPUs so that they could run tasks that were written in a specialized development language. As a result, applications that are modified to use this specialized development language–and can leverage GPUs' specialized capabilities appropriately–can potentially run many times faster on GPU than on the CPU.
If you run a World Community Grid project that is modified to use GPU power on a device that has a GPU, and you adjust your settings accordingly, that device can complete work units more quickly than a device using just a CPU.
However, GPU processing is different than CPU processing on World Community Grid. Specifically, GPUs don't have operating system capabilities that allow us to ensure that running work units doesn't interfere with your use of your computer. Many GPUs can run World Community Grid without any interference; however, some will cause your computer to be slow in responding to you. GPU usage for World Community Grid is therefore opt-in only; by default, World Community Grid will not use GPUs. You can opt in through the Device Profiles page - please refer to "How do I configure my settings so that World Community Grid uses my device's GPU?" for details.
Can I set the agent not to run while I am using the device?
Yes, you may customize the agent not to run when you are using the device. This is done by updating the device profile associated with the device where the agent is running. You can update the device profile by visiting the Device Manager on our website. Once there, click on the device profile for the device whose schedule you want to change. Once on the Device Profiles page, select 'Custom Profile'. Under 'Advanced Options' 'Processor Usage' set 'Do work while computer is in use' to 'No' and 'Do work only after computer is idle for' to the number of minutes you want the agent to delay. When finished, press save. After you press save, the schedule will go into effect the next time your grid agent communicates with the grid servers.
I can't run the agent all the time. Is there a way to establish a set schedule?
Yes, you may customize when the agent runs. This is done by updating the device profile associated with the device where the agent is running. You can update the device profile by visiting the Device Manager. Once there, click on the device profile for the device whose schedule you want to change. Once on the Device Profile page, you can set a customized schedule for each day that you need one. When finished, press save. After you press save, the schedule will go into effect the next time your grid agent communicates with the grid servers. When establishing the customized schedule, the drop-down for Hard drive space may be ignored.
If needed, you can create additional device profiles by visiting the Device Profiles screen. This screen has an option that allows you to create new profiles.
Changing your profile on the website will change your preferences for all of the computers you have under your member name. If you need to have different preferences for different computers you may set preferences for each computer by double clicking on the World Community Grid or BOINC icon in your system tray and selecting Advanced View. From the menu at the top of your screen, select: Advanced>Preferences and then set your preferences for that specific computer. Remember to select “OK” after you have set your preferences. Please note: Local preferences set at your computer will override preference settings on the website
How are points calculated?
Points are calculated in a two-step process which attempts to give a consistent number of points for similar amounts of research computation. First, the computational power/speed of the computer is determined by periodically running a benchmark calculation. Then, based on the central processing unit (CPU) time spent computing the research result for a work unit, the benchmark result is used to convert the time spent on a work unit into points. This adjusts the point value so that a slow computer or a fast computer would produce about the same number of points for calculating the research result for the same work unit. This value is the number of point credits "claimed" by the client. More information about that formula is available here.
Second, research results returned to the servers are validated in a manner which depends on the research project. Then the claimed points for valid results are examined for anomalous (excessively high or low compared to other machines computing the same or equivalent work unit) values and adjusted accordingly. The servers assign the resulting adjusted point values to the member (and team) for each of the returned work units. This process eliminates the ability for malicious users to tamper with results and artificially claim higher points for their work.
What is the difference between the Vina and AutoDock software packages used in the FightAIDS@Home project?
AutoDock and Vina are automated docking software tools. They are designed to predict how a small molecule, such as a substrate or drug candidate, binds to a receptor molecule of known 3D structure. In the context of this project, these docking tools are being used to find potential drug compounds which may inhibit the HIV-1 protease (a protein which encourages and controls the progression of the virus).
The two software programs use different algorithms, each of which may provide better results depending on the types of molecules being docked. The FightAIDS@Home project uses both software tools in its calculations: the Scripps researchers determine ahead of time which software package is more suited to the particular task at hand, and the selected software for those work units then runs on World Community Grid. The project may therefore switch back and forth between the two software packages depending on its needs. As a contributor to the FightAIDS@Home project, you may notice either of those software packages being run for this project, each of which has a unique screen saver (see below for details on both screen savers).
Will running the World Community Grid Software cost me more in electricity?
The amount of electrical energy consumed by your computer or other computing device is in many ways related to how much processing that it is doing at any given time. If it is sitting completely idle, then it uses relatively little power (usually about 50% of the maximum value). Actively using the device and simultaneously using more programs causes the device to consume more power. The World Community Grid software runs during times at which your device would otherwise be idle. This will cause it to use slightly more electricity (power) and therefore you may see a slight increase in your electricity costs. Exactly how much this increase will impact you depends on conditions where you live and how you have set your preferences. In most cases, the impact will be the equivalent of an additional low wattage light bulb. If these costs are a concern, you may limit the operational time for the software through preference settings on your Settings page or on your computer.
The default values of the BOINC agent are set so that the impact on average computers is minimal. Setting this to a higher value increases energy consumption and lowering it reduces energy consumption. We have chosen 60% because for most computers this figure seems to keep the energy consumption from increasing significantly and keeps laptop computers from getting too hot. In a multiple processor computer, reducing the number of processors permitted to run World Community Grid software may also control energy consumption. However, different machines vary in energy consumption patterns, so the maximum percent of the processor time and number of processors to be used by World Community Grid may be changed to custom values as follows:
Changing the above settings will correspondingly increase or decrease the amount of contribution your computer is making to the research projects.
Why do I receive tasks / work units for research projects other than the projects I have selected on "My Projects" page?
On the server, there is a daemon called the 'feeder' which loads tasks into a shared memory segment every second. The shared memory segment can store up to 1000 tasks. When the scheduler receives a request from a client to fetch new tasks to work on, the scheduler only looks at this shared memory segment for tasks that it considers for sending. This is done because at any given time there are up to 1 million tasks available to send for a project. If the scheduler hit the database directly to search for tasks to send on each request, then the load on the database would be overwhelming.
The shared memory is divided into 'slots' that are allocated to the different projects that we have active. Only a task for that project can be assigned to a specific slot.
There are certain times each day when the slots for a given project in the shared memory segment become "full" of tasks that are designated for a particular platform (Linux or Windows). These usually only last a few minutes or seconds, but can sometimes last up to 30 minutes.
If for example, you are running Linux and the slots assigned to your selected research projects are full of tasks that are already assigned to Windows, then the server will treat it as no work is available for your selected research projects for you. (This is what triggers the 'tasks are assigned to another platform' message). If you have the 'send other' work preference checked on your preference settings, it will then look for other projects to send you tasks.
At this time, the best option for you is to uncheck the 'send other' preference if you do not want to receive work from other projects when the events described above occur.
How do I create a Team Challenge?
As the captain of a team, you may create as many Team Challenges as you want; the only requirement is that they have different names so members can tell them apart from other Team Challenges.
To create a Team Challenge, go to My Contribution and click on My Team in the lefthand navigation. Just under the Team Information, you'll see the Team Control Panel with an Issue Team Challenge button. Click the button to be taken to the Issue Team Challenge page.
Once on the Issue Team Challenge page, you start by picking a name for your Team Challenge. After that, decide if you want your Team Challenge to be open to all teams, or if you want to choose which teams to invite. If you want an Open Challenge, check the box next to "Open Challenge?"
Next up, pick the dates for your Team Challenge. The Start Date must be at least one day in the future, but not more than 30 days away. The End Date must be at least one day after the Start Date, but not more than 180 days after the Start Date.
Once you've chosen the dates, select what type of Team Challenge you'd like. The choices are Points, Run Time, and Results Returned, or an Increase in one of Points, Run Time, or Results Returned. For more in the "increase" challenges, read this FAQ.
Next choose whether or not you want to allow Late Joiners; that is, allow teams to join the challenge after the Start Date. This applies to teams that are invited as well as for Open challenges. Teams that join a challenge after the Start Date will only receive credit for statistics after they join the challenge.
Last but not least, you may invite other teams to participate in your Team Challenge. You may invite teams even if your are issuing an Open Challenge. If you are issuing a Closed Challenge you must invite at least one team.
To invite teams, just search for the name of the team you want to invite, and click the link to "Invite This Team." For more general searches, only the first 25 teams are returned. If this happens, try being a little more specific in your search.
What are Project and Recruitment Badges?
Project badges recognize the contribution that a member has made to a research project running on World Community Grid, and recruitment badges recognize the member's contribution to introducing new volunteers to World Community Grid. All available project badges may be viewed here and all available recruitment badges may be viewed here.
Badges appear on a member's My Contribution page and next to their name in the forums.
Project Badges: There are 11 levels of badges awarded based upon how much computing time a member has contributed to each project:
Recruitment Badges: There are 5 levels of badges awarded based on how many new people a member has recruited to World Community Grid:
Members receive credit towards recruitment badges when someone signs up for World Community Grid using that member's unique recruitment URL and begins contributing computing power. You can get your recruitment URL and see which members you've recruited on your My Contribution page.
Recruitment badges are different from project badges in that they must be maintained. Recruited members must actively contribute computing power (return a result at least every 30 days) to count towards a member's recruitment badge. If an inactive recruited member becomes active again, they will once again count towards the recruitment total of the member who introduced them to World Community Grid.
How much data will I download and upload while participating with World Community Grid?
The amount of data that you transfer depends upon how your processing preferences are set to run, how powerful your computer is and how often your computer is on. It also varies based upon which research projects you run on your computer. An average computer contributing to World Community Grid returns about 2 results per day.
Each of the research projects at World Community Grid uses a different application, input files and output files. As a result, the size used for each of these varies by project. This is outlined on the chart below. Please note that the data is compressed during transfer and is decompressed after it has been downloaded. As a result it will occupy more space on disk then the numbers shown below.
| Research Project | One-Time Download | Per Workunit Download | Per Workunit Upload |
| Africa Rainfall Project | 100 MB | 100 MB | 60 MB |
| FightAIDS@Home - Phase 2 | 10 MB | 0.2 MB | 1 MB |
| Help Stop TB | 30 MB | 5 MB | 10 MB |
| Mapping Cancer Markers | 40 MB | 0.1 MB | 3 MB |
| Microbiome Immunity Project | 100 MB | 50 MB | 1.5 MB |
| OpenPandemics - COVID19 | 10 MB | 0.2 MB | 0.1 MB |
| Smash Childhood Cancer | 2 MB | 0.2 MB | 0.1 MB |
Which World Community Grid projects can be run on Android devices?
Please see this FAQ for World Community Grid projects currently running on Android devices.
How do I keep the software from running while my laptop is only using battery power?
The software is configured so that it will not run while your laptop is on battery power.
Will the software run faster if I do not run the screen saver?
Yes. The screen savers divert your computer resources to motion and graphic processing. This is not just for the World Community Grid's screen savers, but for most screen savers.
What is validation?
World Community Grid is a volunteer computing grid. This means that work is being sent to computing devices that are outside the control of World Community Grid. Most devices that perform this work are reliable. However, there are a few devices that are not reliable due to things such as users over-clocking their machines, memory errors, disk errors, CPU errors or viruses being present. This means that the results returned need to be validated to make sure that they represent the correct answer.
We perform three different types of validation at World Community Grid:
- Redundant Computations: In this type of validation, two copies of the work unit are sent to members devices. Once both results are returned, they are compared to ensure that the results are identical. If they are, then the result is accepted. If they are not identical, then additional copies are sent until several devices agree on what the result should be. This policy establishes a very high level of confidence in the reliability of the results. Mapping Cancer Markers and Uncovering Genome Mysteries are examples of projects that use this technique.
- Single Validation - Type 1: In this type of validation, only one copy of a work unit will be sent to a device if the device is "trusted", that is, if it has been participating long enough and returning good results. If the device is not trusted, then it will still be assigned the work unit, but a second copy will be sent to another device and the rules for redundant computation above apply. As a precaution, the research code computes certain items that allow us to quickly check on the server if the computation is likely to have finished correctly. Additionally, trusted devices are randomly sampled to have their results double-checked. These techniques provide a very high level of confidence in the reliability of the results. FightAIDS@Home and Outsmart Ebola Together are examples of projects that have used this technique.
- Single Validation - Type 2: This is similar to Single Validation - Type 1 except that due to the fact that different results are generated each time the work unit is run (due to the research techniques applied in the application), we send out many copies of each work unit. We currently do not have any research projects utilizing this technique.
What will World Community Grid's calculations produce?
The calculations done on World Community Grid will predict which small molecule compounds, out of the millions contained in a library database, should be tested for their ability to inhibit the flavivirus protease. This is a major step towards the ultimate goal of discovering new drugs to stop flavivirus infections.
Phase 1 of this project predicted how each small drug molecule might bind to the active site of the viral protease. This phase also produced preliminary "energies" that coarsely rank the strength of the intermolecular interactions between the compounds and viral protease.
Phase 2 will accurately predict free energies of binding between each drug compound and the viral protease. This calculation utilizes the binding orientations calculated in Phase 1. Due to computation time required for each free energy of binding calculation, only compounds with "good" scores from Phase 1 will be selected for Phase 2 calculations.
As an analogy, Phase 1 will tell us how two people might hold hands, whereas Phase 2 will tell us whether or not they want to hold hands.
Phase 2 of our project is designed to reduce the number of Phase 1 false positives (i.e., dead ends) that are tested in our laboratory. Phase 2 will take several thousand Phase 1 hits, run each hit through computationally demanding free energy calculations, and remove many of the false positives from the hit list. Phase 2 is expected to produce an updated list of hits that contains ~80% true positives. Testing Phase 2 hits in the laboratory will be much more productive, efficient, and rewarding than testing Phase 1 hits. For instance, to find 25 small molecules that stop dengue virus replication in the laboratory, we would need to synthesize and test either 250-500 Phase 1 hits or ~30 Phase 2 hits.
Could running the software cause my computer to overheat?
A few machines have not been designed with sufficient cooling, fins sometimes fill with dust, and some fans run slower with age. This could be a problem whether you are running our software or not. However, we have found that some recently designed machines deal with the slight increase in CPU temperature from running at higher utilization percentages, by slowing the system clock rather than speeding up the cooling fan as needed. This could cause everything to run slower on such a machine. To keep this from happening, the software’s default CPU throttle is set to around 60%.
May I join more than one team?
No. A member may join only one team at a time but may leave a team and join another team at any time. The statistics that you accrue while on a team, remain with that team.
My computer seems to be running slow since I installed the World Community Grid agent?
If your computer seems to run slower when running the agent, then you may have relatively little memory in your system. Using 100% CPU alone will not slow things down because the agent runs at lowest priority so that it yields to any other work. Otherwise, it consumes the unused CPU which makes the total go to 100%. However, if your system has relatively little real memory (usually about 512 meg or less) and you are running other memory hungry applications, then there might be disk paging delays. To solve the problem, you could set your agent to run in screen saver mode only. Then, while you are actively using the machine, the agent will stay out of the way.
Does Leishmaniasis kill?
The cutaneous and mucocutaneous forms are not fatal, but the visceral form of the disease may cause death if the patient is not treated properly in time.
How will my computer make a difference on this project?
While your computer is powered on, much of the time the processor inside your computer is just waiting for something to do, such as processing your next keystroke or mouse click. These idle times add up to a very large amount of processor time, when multiplied across millions of computers, that could be tapped and used for productive purposes such as this project. This can accelerate the research dramatically. Some of these projects would take hundreds or thousands of years to accomplish with the normal resources available to the scientists, and thus are likely not to even be attempted. World Community Grid and your contributions make projects such as these possible for the first time.
Will World Community Grid ever run on a game box?
Running on game consoles requires specialized technical knowledge, plus the right kind of research project. The technical knowledge can be acquired but the research projects for game consoles must have a very small footprint.
Which World Community Grid research projects can run on GPUs?
For the latest on which World Community Grid research projects run on GPU, please refer to our system requirements.
Does World Community Grid Software run on Windows 95?
Windows 95 is no longer supported by Microsoft, therefore we do not offer an installer for that platform.
How can I limit when the software connects to the Internet?
There are two ways to do this:
- Enter the Device Profiles section of the site. Next click on the default profile and then select "Custom Profile". Change the settings for "Connect to the Internet only between:" to the times that you want. Click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page. This will change the connection times for all computers under your member name that use the default profile. Next click on the default profile and follow the instructions to change the execution time for your computer(s) and save. This will change the connection times for all computers under your member name.
- To change the connection times for a particular computer under your member name. Double click on the World Community Grid, or BOINC, icon in your system tray. Select Options and the select Computing Preferences. In the dialogue box that comes up select "Daily Schedules" and under the "Network" section designate your preferred connections under times and select “save”.
Can devices listed on my Device Manager page be deleted or merged?
Devices listed on your Device Manager page cannot be deleted or merged at this time.
How does Phase 2 relate to Phase 1?
Phase 2 further refines the results from Phase 1 and helps us identify "false positives," thus saving time and money in future drug development processes.
What will happen with the data generated by all these calculations?
After the scientists have received all of the computed results for the project, they will analyze the data and publish their findings. The raw data and algorithms will be made publicly available at that time.
What is the BOINC Manager?
The BOINC manager is a graphic user interface that provides the ability to control a BOINC client and all of its functions. The manager can connect to BOINC clients running on the same or different computers. There is a version of the BOINC manager available for both Linux and Windows. This means that you can run the BOINC manager on your windows computer and connect to BOINC clients running on your Linux servers. Much more information about the BOINC manager is available at: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/manager.php
What computers can run the "AfricanClimate@Home" Project?
AfricanClimate@Home can run on computers that use a high speed internet connection and that run the Windows and Linux operating systems. AfricanClimate@Home will be available using the BOINC agent. You can check to see if you are using the BOINC agent by following the information available here. For system requirements, click here.
How are points used?
The calculation of Points is the method World Community Grid uses to measure your contribution to individual research projects running on World Community Grid. Points are one method for competitive comparison on the stats pages.
Why does the software immediately download a large file as soon as it is started?
The task downloaded by your software is comparing small pieces of data against a larger database. In order to make this task effective and to maximize the potential of your machine, it is necessary to keep some data locally. For the time being, this is a one-time download. Subsequent tasks may or may not have an up-front download depending upon the nature of the computational problem.
Why am I periodically asked to log into World Community Grid again?
The World Community Grid grants you the ability to use the website for a specific length of time after you log into the website. Once that length of time has been reached, you will be asked log in again. This is done in order to ensure that the member using the website is the member who logged in.