All posts tagged: performance

Glymphatic dysfunction linked to cognitive performance deficits in adults with ADHD, study finds

Glymphatic dysfunction linked to cognitive performance deficits in adults with ADHD, study finds

Published by José

A new study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders has found that adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show signs of glymphatic system dysfunction, which may be related to their cognitive difficulties. The findings suggest that disruptions in the brain’s waste clearance system could help explain some of the persistent memory and attention problems seen in adults with the condition. ADHD is a common neurodevelopmental disorder marked by symptoms of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. While it is often diagnosed in childhood, many people continue to experience symptoms well into adulthood. In adults, ADHD can interfere with work, relationships, and daily functioning, and is often accompanied by cognitive issues such as forgetfulness and difficulty sustaining focus. Although behavioral symptoms are widely studied, the biological mechanisms that underlie adult ADHD are less understood. One area of growing interest among scientists is the glymphatic system—a network that helps clear waste products from the brain. This system operates mainly during deep sleep and uses cerebrospinal fluid to flush out harmful substances. Problems with glymphatic function have been linked to …

Top Tips to Improve iPhone Performance

Top Tips to Improve iPhone Performance

Published by skeptic

Is your iPhone feeling sluggish or struggling to keep up with your daily tasks? Whether you’re using an older model or the latest version, there are practical steps you can take to enhance its speed, battery life, and overall functionality. By following these proven strategies, you can optimize your device’s performance without sacrificing essential features or usability. The video below from iReviews gives us more details on how to unlock the performance on the iPhone. Free Up Storage Space Your iPhone’s performance is closely tied to its available storage. When storage is nearly full, your device may slow down as it struggles to manage limited resources. To maintain optimal performance, aim to keep at least 20% of your storage free. Here are effective ways to achieve this: Delete unnecessary files, such as old photos, videos, or documents that you no longer need. Uninstall unused apps to free up space and reduce background activity. Clear app caches to remove temporary data that accumulates over time. For apps that store excessive data, uninstall and reinstall them to …

CERN’s EPA project is redefining performance and sustainability

CERN’s EPA project is redefining performance and sustainability

Published by skeptic

The Innovation Platform spoke with Verena Kain, Project Leader of the Efficient Particle Accelerator (EPA) project at CERN, to delve into the project’s objectives, the rationale behind its inception, and the innovative strategies being utilised to achieve its ambitious goals. The Efficient Particle Accelerator (EPA) project is a groundbreaking initiative that aims to revolutionise the operation of particle accelerators at CERN. With the impending transition of the Large Hadron Collider to its high luminosity phase, the EPA project seeks to enhance the overall efficiency of not only the LHC but future accelerators as well. By focusing on improving performance, flexibility, reproducibility, and sustainability, the project positions itself as a critical blueprint for the next generation of particle physics research. As CERN navigates the challenges posed by energy consumption and complex operational demands, the integration of innovative technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) becomes paramount. To find out more, The Innovation Platform spoke with Verena Kain, EPA Project Leader, to delve into the project’s objectives, the rationale behind its inception, and …

How to Enter a ‘Flow State’ on Command: Peak Performance Mind Hack Explained in 7 Minutes

How to Enter a ‘Flow State’ on Command: Peak Performance Mind Hack Explained in 7 Minutes

Published by José

You can be for­giv­en for think­ing the con­cept of “flow” was cooked up and pop­u­lar­ized by yoga teach­ers. That word gets a lot of play when one is mov­ing from Down­ward-Fac­ing Dog on through War­rior One and Two. Actu­al­ly, flow — the state of  “effort­less effort” — was coined by Goethe, from the Ger­man “rausch”, a dizzy­ing sort of ecsta­sy. Friedrich Niet­zsche and psy­chol­o­gist William James both con­sid­ered the flow state in depth, but social the­o­rist Mihaly Csik­szent­mi­ha­lyi, author of Cre­ativ­i­ty: Flow and the Psy­chol­o­gy of Dis­cov­ery and Inven­tion, is the true giant in the field. Here’s one of his def­i­n­i­tions of flow: Being com­plete­ly involved in an activ­i­ty for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, move­ment, and thought fol­lows inevitably from the pre­vi­ous one, like play­ing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost. Author Steven Kotler, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Flow Research Col­lec­tive, not only seems to spend a lot of time think­ing about flow, as a lead­ing expert on human per­for­mance, …

Caffeinated coffee boosts strength and sprint performance in trained men, regardless of chronotype

Caffeinated coffee boosts strength and sprint performance in trained men, regardless of chronotype

Published by José

A new study published in Chronobiology International has found that caffeinated coffee improves physical performance in trained male athletes, regardless of whether they are morning or evening types. The research showed that caffeine enhanced grip strength, back strength, and sprint performance at both morning and evening testing times. However, caffeine had no significant effect on cognitive performance or perceived exertion. The study was conducted by a team of researchers in Türkiye to explore how caffeine affects physical and mental performance in athletes who differ in their natural circadian rhythms, or chronotypes. Chronotype refers to whether someone performs better in the morning or evening, and it is thought to be shaped by internal biological clocks that influence sleep, alertness, and energy levels. Athletic performance is known to vary throughout the day due to factors such as body temperature, hormone levels, and sleep patterns. Some research suggests that evening types perform better in physical tests later in the day, while morning types may excel earlier. However, findings in this area have been inconsistent. Moreover, while caffeine is …

Why may evidence-based policies fail to improve policy performance – and what can be done about it? – Evidence & Policy Blog

Why may evidence-based policies fail to improve policy performance – and what can be done about it? – Evidence & Policy Blog

Published by skeptic

Jesper Dahl Kelstrup, Jonas Videbæk Jørgensen and Magnus Paulsen Hansen This blog post is based on the Evidence & Policy article, ‘The disenchanted fairy godmother: comparing how and why evidence-based management and public service professionals influenced policy performance in public school and active labour market policy in Denmark’. Almost two decades ago Carol H. Weiss and co-authors described the idea of evidence-based policies as a ’fairy godmother’ with ’some warts’. In other words, although evidence-based policies clearly entailed some challenges and drawbacks, like discounting local professional judgement, it was still worth pursuing to ’increase the rationality of decision-making’, as they put it. Yet, studies of evidence-based policy making in action in the past decades have shown that although the aspiration to use evidence to enhance the legitimacy and effectiveness of policies is still widely shared, it often falls short. A common explanation for failure is the presence of various barriers. In our Evidence & Policy article, we critically revisit Weiss and her co-authors’ argument to question whether the challenges related to evidence-based policy making are …

Torvill and Dean fans all saying same thing about skating duo’s final TV performance

Torvill and Dean fans all saying same thing about skating duo’s final TV performance

Published by skeptic

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean took to the skating rink for their final TV performance on Sunday night. The skating duo, who won gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics with their iconic Bolero dance, performed a historic routine during the grand final of ITV’s Dancing on Ice. The pair will retire from skating after 50 years following their upcoming UK arena tour, Our Last Dance. “It is very emotional for us,” Christopher said. “It’s been a fantastic ride. We’ve been here 17 series, something like over 80 performances, but last one tonight.” The duo performed a stunning routine set to the Lighthouse Family song ‘Lifted’, while wearing purple costumes as a nod to their outfits at the 1984 Olympics.  © ITVThe duo took to the ice for one final performance on the show Following their performance, host Holly Willoughby said: “Just so good. [The crowd] are all on their feet behind us and quite rightly so. What an amazing moment that was!” Viewers were in tears over the moving performance, which they said marked the …

The TCL QM6K Trades Picture Punch for Refined Performance

The TCL QM6K Trades Picture Punch for Refined Performance

Published by skeptic

You will, of course, have to sign a bit of your life away as far as personal data, so pay close attention before accepting terms. You may also want to mute the TV’s onboard microphone and just use the new angular remote’s central key to summon Google Assistant. As for the remote, it’s backlit and generally well laid out but TCL’s decision to move the mute key away from the volume to the very top left is … a choice. Photograph: Ryan Waniata A Light Touch Adjusting the picture is nearly as simple as setup. I recommend starting with the Filmmaker Mode, as it offers good default settings and disables garish ones like motion smoothing. I made a few tweaks, starting with turning off the Adaptive Brightness under the Eye Health tab. In SDR mode, I backed off the Contrast a smidge and raised the backlight significantly. Don’t hesitate to crank it in SDR—some modes, like Standard, have the backlight maxed which is telling, and anything below the halfway point keeps the TV in Eco …

Zuchongzhi-3 quantum processor sets new performance record

Zuchongzhi-3 quantum processor sets new performance record

Published by skeptic

A team of researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) achieved a major advancement in quantum computing. Their latest innovation, the Zuchongzhi-3 quantum processor, has set new records in computational power, reinforcing China’s leadership in the field of quantum technology. The superconducting quantum computing prototype boasts an impressive 105 qubits and 182 couplers, significantly surpassing its predecessor, Zuchongzhi-2. Unprecedented computational speed The Zuchongzhi-3 quantum processor has demonstrated an extraordinary computational speed, operating 10¹⁵ times faster than the most advanced supercomputer currently available. This achievement also outpaces Google’s latest results by a factor of one million, making it one of the most powerful quantum devices ever developed. Quantum supremacy and competitive advances Quantum supremacy, the point at which a quantum processor outperforms classical supercomputers, has long been a benchmark in quantum computing. In 2019, Google’s Sycamore processor, with 53 qubits, completed a complex computational task in 200 seconds, a task estimated to take classical supercomputers 10,000 years. However, in 2023, USTC researchers demonstrated that with advanced classical algorithms and over 1,400 A100 …

New open-source math model Light-R1-32B surpasses equivalent DeepSeek performance with only 00 in training costs

New open-source math model Light-R1-32B surpasses equivalent DeepSeek performance with only $1000 in training costs

Published by skeptic

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More A team of researchers has introduced Light-R1-32B, a new open-source AI model optimized for solving advanced math problems, making it available on Hugging Face under a permissive Apache 2.0 license — free for enterprises and researchers to take, deploy, fine-tune or modify as they wish, even for commercial purposes. The 32-billion parameter (number of model settings) model surpasses the performance of similarly sized (and even larger) open source models such as DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B and DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B on third-party benchmark the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME), which contains 15 math problems designed for extremely advanced students and has an allotted time limit of 3 hours for human users. Developed by Liang Wen, Fenrui Xiao, Xin He, Yunke Cai, Qi An, Zhenyu Duan, Yimin Du, Junchen Liu, Lifu Tang, Xiaowei Lv, Haosheng Zou, Yongchao Deng, Shousheng Jia, and Xiangzheng Zhang, the model surpasses previous open-source alternatives on competitive math benchmarks. Incredibly, the researchers completed the model’s training in fewer than …