Welfare Generosity and Well-being: Evidence from Canada

"ERDE Research Project"This paper explores the association between provincial welfare generosity and well-being of poor Canadians. The well-being indicators include poverty incidence, depth of poverty, labor supply, time spent with kids, health status, happiness, and education. Using both macro and micro- level data over the years 1989 to 1996 and 1998 to 2009, I examine the link between welfare generosity and poverty. The micro-level information of General Social Survey (GSS) is used to correlate various indicators of well-being with measures of welfare generosity. The analysis of macro-level CANSIM data is used as a robustness check of the poverty estimation using GSS. In this study I considered total welfare generosity as well as the subcategories, social assistance and other social services spending, as the measure of welfare generosity. With regards to poverty, the result suggest no evidence of determinate relationship between total welfare generosity and poverty rate. However, generosity of social services is associated with a lower poverty rate, while generous income assistance is associated with a higher poverty rate. The total welfare generosity shows a significant association with reduction in employment rate and high school dropout rate among the poor. In the case of health, both total welfare generosity and social assistance appear as significant determinants of better health outcome of the poor. Receipt of other social services appear as a significant determinant of poor individuals time spent with kids and happiness

NeuroBench:Advancing Neuromorphic Computing through Collaborative, Fair and Representative Benchmarking

The field of neuromorphic computing holds great promise in terms of advancing computing efficiency and capabilities by following brain-inspired principles. However, the rich diversity of techniques employed in neuromorphic research has resulted in a lack of clear standards for benchmarking, hindering effective evaluation of the advantages and strengths of neuromorphic methods compared to traditional deep-learning-based methods. This paper presents a collaborative effort, bringing together members from academia and the industry, to define benchmarks for neuromorphic computing: NeuroBench. The goals of NeuroBench are to be a collaborative, fair, and representative benchmark suite developed by the community, for the community. In this paper, we discuss the challenges associated with benchmarking neuromorphic solutions, and outline the key features of NeuroBench. We believe that NeuroBench will be a significant step towards defining standards that can unify the goals of neuromorphic computing and drive its technological progress. Please visit neurobench.ai for the latest updates on the benchmark tasks and metrics

NeuroBench: Advancing Neuromorphic Computing through Collaborative, Fair and Representative Benchmarking

The field of neuromorphic computing holds great promise in terms of advancing computing efficiency and capabilities by following brain-inspired principles. However, the rich diversity of techniques employed in neuromorphic research has resulted in a lack of clear standards for benchmarking, hindering effective evaluation of the advantages and strengths of neuromorphic methods compared to traditional deep-learning-based methods. This paper presents a collaborative effort, bringing together members from academia and the industry, to define benchmarks for neuromorphic computing: NeuroBench. The goals of NeuroBench are to be a collaborative, fair, and representative benchmark suite developed by the community, for the community. In this paper, we discuss the challenges associated with benchmarking neuromorphic solutions, and outline the key features of NeuroBench. We believe that NeuroBench will be a significant step towards defining standards that can unify the goals of neuromorphic computing and drive its technological progress. Please visit neurobench.ai for the latest updates on the benchmark tasks and metrics

Determination of the [¹⁵N]-Nitrate/[¹⁴N]-Nitrate Ratio in Plant Feeding Studies by GC–MS

Feeding experiments with stable isotopes are helpful tools for investigation of metabolic fluxes and biochemical pathways. For assessing nitrogen metabolism, the heavier nitrogen isotope, [15N], has been frequently used. In plants, it is usually applied in form of [15N]-nitrate, which is assimilated mainly in leaves. Thus, methods for quantification of the [15N]-nitrate/[14N]-nitrate ratio in leaves are useful for the planning and evaluation of feeding and pulse–chase experiments. Here we describe a simple and sensitive method for determining the [15N]-nitrate to [14N]-nitrate ratio in leaves. Leaf discs (8 mm diameter, approximately 10 mg fresh weight) were sufficient for analysis, allowing a single leaf to be sampled multiple times. Nitrate was extracted with hot water and derivatized with mesitylene in the presence of sulfuric acid to nitromesitylene. The derivatization product was analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry with electron ionization. Separation of the derivatized samples required only 6 min. The method shows excellent repeatability with intraday and interday standard deviations of less than 0.9 mol%. Using the method, we show that [15N]-nitrate declines in leaves of hydroponically grown Crassocephalum crepidioides, an African orphan crop, with a biological half-life of 4.5 days after transfer to medium containing [14N]-nitrate as the sole nitrogen source