Interpreting Sequence-Levenshtein distance for determining error type and frequency between two embedded sequences of equal length

Levenshtein distance is a commonly used edit distance metric, typically applied in language processing, and to a lesser extent, in molecular biology analysis. Biological nucleic acid sequences are often embedded in longer sequences and are subject to insertion and deletion errors that introduce frameshift during sequencing. These frameshift errors are due to string context and should not be counted as true biological errors. Sequence-Levenshtein distance is a modification to Levenshtein distance that is permissive of frameshift error without additional penalty. However, in a biological context Levenshtein distance needs to accommodate both frameshift and weighted errors, which Sequence-Levenshtein distance cannot do. Errors are weighted when they are associated with a numerical cost that corresponds to their frequency of appearance. Here, we describe a modification that allows the use of Levenshtein distance and Sequence-Levenshtein distance to appropriately accommodate penalty-free frameshift between embedded sequences and correctly weight specific error types.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Ethnicity as skill: immigrant employment hierarchies in Norwegian low-wage labour markets

Immigrants are often concentrated in particular, often low-waged, segments of the labour market and employers tend to assume that immigrants posit (soft) skills which make them particularly suited for specific tasks. Less scholarly attention has been given to the real and perceived content of these skills and how employers may shift their view over time. We contribute to the literature by examining changing ethnic employment hierarchies in two immigrant-intensive labour markets in Norway. Drawing on qualitative data from the hotel and fish processing industries, we describe, first, how different ethnic groups are allocated into specific jobs forming a clear hierarchy in the eyes of employers, and, second, how employers’ preferences for particular groups change as new immigrants enter the labour market. Theoretically, we develop the concept of ‘ethnicity as skill’, which points to the tendency among employers to equate ethnic group membership with a set of informal qualifications.publishedVersio

International society is to international system as world society is to...? Systemic and societal processes in English school theory

This article argues that the distinction between international system and international society within the English School of International Relations theory, originally put forward by Bull and Watson, should not be abandoned. The distinction is shown to correspond to complementary etic and emic approaches to the study of social reality. The former approach is most appropriate for studying the unintended emergence of patterns of social organisation, the latter approach for the study of intersubjective negotiations over shared rules and norms within a bounded social context. Elaborating, rather than eliminating, the notion of international system suggests the adoption of the concept of ‘world system’ to complement the English School’s concept of world society. Drawing on the neo-Weberian sociology of Mann and Tilly, the article suggests that the concept of world system is not only theoretically coherent but also congruent with conceptualisations of large-scale change offered by contemporary world historians and historical sociologists

Kritisches Vertrauen : Soziale Bewegungen und Demokratie in Krisenzeiten

Die Krise in der EU und der Eurozone hat in größter Dramatik vor Augen geführt, wie wichtig Fragen des Zusammenhangs von Vertrauen und Demokratie sind. Die Finanzkrise hat eine leidenschaftliche Debatte darüber angeregt, wessen Vertrauen für wessen Demokratie relevant ist