Posted on 04/06/2007 10:04:12 AM PDT by texas booster
HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE (HD) is caused by the aggregation of a different type of proteins. Some proteins have a repeat of a single amino acid (glutamine, often abbreviated as "Q"). These poly-Q repeats, if long enough, form aggregates which cause HD. We are studying the structure of poly-Q aggregates as well as predicting the pathway by which they form. Similar to Alzheimer's Disease, these HD studies, if successful, would be useful for rational drug design approaches as well as further insight into how HD aggregates form kinetically (hopefully paving the way for a method to stop the HD aggregate formation).
The folding process for each protein is broken down into tiny slices of time suitable for processing by an individual CPU, or in the case of recent FAH client releases, by a GPU, or several CPUs at once using the SMP client.
The cell processor of the PS3 is at least one order of magnitude faster than the fastest GPU available, which is in turn at least one order faster than the fastest CPU.
Hopefully the power of the PS3 will enable enough small time slices of DARPP-32 (a master protein in the brain) to yield meaningful research. The larger problems being studied right now are so slow to complete for donors with even the fastest CPUs that there is a lot of commentary about them in the forum.
F@H is hangin' out there on the edge of what can be done, bitin' off all we can chew. F@H may effectively be the world's largest supercomputer, but still there are limits as to what can be done. The release last October of the F@H GPU beta client opened the door to processing in the time frame of weeks that which would previously have taken years, if then even possible.
Vijay Pande: "It's taken us many years to get our first Alzheimer's results out. If we can turn 3 years into 1 month, we can both greatly speed our ability to make advances as well as tackle larger, more complex systems. Both are critical advances."
How does it work?: You download a safe, tested program (see link below) that is certified by Stanford University. It gets work from Stanford, runs calculations using your spare computer power, and sends the results back to the University.
Is it safe? Yes! Folding@Home rarely effects computer performance in any way and won't compromise your privacy in any way. It only uses the computing power you aren't using so it doesn't slow down other programs.
How do I get started folding for Team FreeRepublic?:
1.) Download the folding program from Stanford University's folding download page (Folding@home Client Download). Type in your desired username.
2.) Type in 36120 for the team number. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - if you get the number wrong, you won't be folding for team FreeRepublic!
3.) The third question asks, "Launch automatically at machine startup, installing this as a service?" - We recommend you answer YES. Otherwise you will have to manually start the program after every reboot.
How can my computer help? Even if they were given exclusive access to all of the world's supercomputers, Stanford still wouldn't have as much processing power as they get from the supercluster of people's desktop systems Folding@home relies on. Modern supercomputers are essentially a cluster of hundreds of processors linked by fast networking. But Stanford needed the power of hundreds of thousands of processors, not just hundreds.
There's no reason to not get involved! It's free, easy, and you can know you're helping every minute without lifting a finger.
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List of Relevant Folding Links
Why Fold - Watch This !!
Extreme Overclockers Stats for FreeRepublic
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Competition (Not!!) Dummies ..Daily Kos
Dummie Folding Threads #7 #8 #9#10#11 #12
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Other Useful Stuff - Links
How much are those work units worth? And what are they?
All Projects Listed
Point Summary for Workunits
Fahmon Third Party Monitoring Software
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Past FreeRepublic Folding threads
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 #32 #33 34
Bump for new thread.
Start of new thread bump!
Bump for new thread!
General use CPU: Average speed, but flexible enough to solve any folding problem they want.
GPU: Extreme speed, but so unflexible that it can only solve a small subset of possible folding problems.
PS3: Somewhere in between, not as fast as a GPU, but capable of solving a somewhat wider range of problems (not not as many as a CPU).
So when the PS3 comes in with crazy work unit numbers, remember they are working on simpler jobs than the CPUs out there.
Still, I like the range. They can give their simple problems to the GPUs and PS3s, and keep the hard ones for the CPUs. The only problem I see is whether they will have enough simple problems to feed the GPUs and PS3s out there given how fast they crunch through them.
BTTT
BTTT
Good Friday bump.
(and a fond hello to my Jewish friends and others that may not share my faith. We can all still “fold”)
If you're interested in tracking your folding machine(s) over the web, please Freepmail me.
Available features include:
Hello from Honolulu! I’m very happy to have joined my fellow folding Freepers. I’m visiting my kids on the mainland next week and will shut down my computer, but I’ll be back soon.
I do have one little problem. On my page it shows me belonging to the FR team, but also another team I know nothing about. Granny Mary’s Funny Farm? I don’t know how that happened and I don’t know how to get rid of it. Any help would be appreciated...
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=userpage&username=IslandGirl
F@H allows the same name to be used on different teams. It happens among the hyper geeks that someone will switch teams due to imagined slights and the like. Teams may also merge to play points games.
At least you are ahead of the faux IslandGirl!
How dare there be another Island Girl! I am appalled. I bet she’s ugly and doesn’t even live on an island...
Now be kind. Remember imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Just be gracious and accept the compliment.
Hey, there’s only ONE IslandGirl. You are the fragrance that flows from the blossom, the kindness that flows from a heart ...
now go out there and fold her under the curb! Run her over!
(rumor has it that not only is she ugly and lives on a peninsula, she is as feminine as an East German shot putter from the 80’s, if you know what I mean ...)
Happy Easter one and all! :)
http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_list.php?s=&t=36120
A general howdy, to some of the new “folders”. First of all thanks. Second, if you have any questions, ask and we will try to help out. Finally, click on the links to check your status...The worst thing about “folding” IMHO is that I’m always trying to climb the charts. It’s infectious.
http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=36120
Congrats to andyk for folding to the 1,000,000 point mark!
http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s=&u=179164
WooHoo!!
A MILLION!
Go, man, GO!
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