WebProNews

Tag: computer simulations

  • Camping Manager Simulates Campsite Management

    Do you love camping, but hate the outdoors? Well, finally there is a videogame for you.

    Excalibur Publishing, makers of PC simulation games such as the oddly popular Train Simulator series, will soon release Camping Manager 2012. The game will allow players to build up a campsite and entertain campers with all sorts of outdoor fun.

    As the manager of a new campsite, players will begin with little money, able to buy only a few tents. Later on, they will be able to hire landscapers and other employees to keep the campsite clean. Players can also help make the campsite more popular by building playgrounds and entertainment venues.

    Excalibur boasts that Camping Manager has “Over 50 different 3d objects that can be placed in your camp site!” and “Plant trees and decorations to keep ambience levels high!’ It’s this kind of tongue-in-cheek enthusiasm that let’s you know Excalibur is just as surprised as everyone else that thousands of people buy these types of games.

    The trailer for the game can be seen below. It appears to be a pretty bare-bones SimCity-like game, only with tents. The graphics also appear to be very primitive, but that shouldn’t deter gamers looking for an accurate, exciting campsite managing simulation. Camping Manager 2012 is set to be released September 28th.

  • Computer Simulations Further HIV Research

    Computer Simulations Further HIV Research

    A new research report appearing in the March 2012 issue of the journal Genetics shows why the development of a cure and new treatments for HIV has been so difficult. In the report, an Australian scientist explains how he used computer simulations to discover that a population starting from a single human immunodeficiency virus can evolve fast enough to escape immune defenses. These results are novel because the discovery runs counter to the commonly held belief that evolution under these circumstances is very slow.

    “I believe the search for a cure for AIDS has failed so far because we do not fully understand how HIV evolves,” said Jack da Silva, Ph.D., author of the study from the School of Molecular and Biomedical Science at the University of Adelaide in Adelaide, Australia. “Further insight into the precise genetic mechanisms by which the virus manages to so readily adapt to all the challenges we throw at it will, hopefully, lead to novel strategies for vaccines and other control measures.”

    To make this discovery, da Silva used computer simulation to determine whether, under realistic conditions, the virus could evolve as rapidly as had been reported if the virus population started from a single individual virus. This was done by constructing a model of the virus population and then simulating the killing of virus-infected cells by the immune system, along with mutation, recombination and random genetic changes, due to a small population size, affecting viral genes. Results showed that for realistic rates of cell killing, mutation and recombination, and a realistic population size, that the virus could evolve very rapidly even if the initial population size is one.

    “A cure for HIV/AIDS has been elusive, and this report sheds light on the reason,” said Mark Johnston, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of the journal Genetics. “Now that we know HIV rapidly evolves, even when its population size is small, we may be able to interfere with its ability to evolve so we can get the most out of the treatments that are developed.”