During a server update something went wrong and as a result our database became corrupted, preventing to run not only Neurona@Home but our entire BOINC server.

Things became worse when we realised that our backup script contained a bug, and that our last valid database copy was done on November 2011. The problem was not the lose of some WUs, but the data regarding all users created since then, as well as the credit information.

We have spent a ton of hours and sleepless nights working to recover the corrupted database, and finally, and thanks to the invaluable help of a DDBB expert from http://www.canalboinc.com/, that is one of our project supporters (thanks, Mr. Poveda!), we recovered all the information.

Lessons learned, we have improved our backup system and now are much more aware of what and what not to do with our server without the appropriate technical support.

So, dear volunteers, computation is on the road again. Ensure that you are able to log in and that your account information is OK, but I hope no issues should arise.

Regards,

Javier.

Our BOINC server suffered a data base corruption during a system update. Our last valid backup is several weeks old so we are trying to recover all the information before having to use the backup and lose the last weeks of user information. We have had no success so far. I will keep you informed about this issue. Thank you for your understanding.

We have a problem in our server. The projects are going to be offline until we fix it. We are working on it. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Dear volunteers, in the last weeks you have computed 640000 WUs with peaks of about 10GB RAM, which is pretty high. Congratulations, not many projects can say they have such devoted high spec helpers. From the many results obtained, there is only one promising solution found, and this is the corresponding to the WU labelled Prueba10156690.pro, the only one able to sustain the neuronal activity (firing excitatory neurons) with 1000000 cellular automata neurons. The superimposed fluctuations should correspond to the electroencephalogram.

There is also a second second case (k=1030) where the activity finally fades off at t=1000 but several large peaks are found before the extinction.

We will continue with the analysis of the parameter space to determine the regions where the neural network behave as a real brain concerning the average behaviour of the collective of neurons. You are going now to compute WUs changing the inhibition recovery rate and time, instead of exploring networks with high connectivity. The first effect is that Phase IV requires quite less RAM, 1 or 2 GB should be enough. I expect this batch (which is composed of 680000 WUs) to be finished in just a few weeks.

After analysing the results from this Summer, the model has been found not very conclusive but still intriguing. The best result was found in the test number #464108. This solution allowed the model to evolve for some time with no mental activity extinction in a very irregular but interesting pattern. Maybe the general model using inhibition and excitation is not able to reach a periodic pattern but only a chaotic one. This is unexpected and, somehow, a drawback with respect to my expectations, but could allow us to tune the model to follow a real EEG. Despite of this, we are going to a new calculations phase with about 1000000 WUs to try. They are, somehow, special. They are designed to explore the upper limit of the network connectivity, and this implies that they are going to require more RAM, between 4 and 16 GB, so get prepared.

Today we start operations with a batch of 1000 WU. We will use this to test the worker and check everything runs smoothly. Volunteers willing to help can ask for an invitation code once they have checked the requirements to participate in the project.