A practical index for approximate dictionary matching with few mismatches

Approximate dictionary matching is a classic string matching problem (checking if a query string occurs in a collection of strings) with applications in, e.g., spellchecking, online catalogs, geolocation, and web searchers. We present a surprisingly simple solution called a split index, which is based on the Dirichlet principle, for matching a keyword with few mismatches, and experimentally show that it offers competitive space-time tradeoffs. Our implementation in the C++ language is focused mostly on data compaction, which is beneficial for the search speed (e.g., by being cache friendly). We compare our solution with other algorithms and we show that it performs better for the Hamming distance. Query times in the order of 1 microsecond were reported for one mismatch for the dictionary size of a few megabytes on a medium-end PC. We also demonstrate that a basic compression technique consisting in $q$-gram substitution can significantly reduce the index size (up to 50% of the input text size for the DNA), while still keeping the query time relatively low

Lightweight Fingerprints for Fast Approximate Keyword Matching Using Bitwise Operations

We aim to speed up approximate keyword matching with the use of a lightweight, fixed-size block of data for each string, called a fingerprint. These work in a similar way to hash values; however, they can be also used for matching with errors. They store information regarding symbol occurrences using individual bits, and they can be compared against each other with a constant number of bitwise operations. In this way, certain strings can be deduced to be at least within the distance k from each other (using Hamming or Levenshtein distance) without performing an explicit verification. We show experimentally that for a preprocessed collection of strings, fingerprints can provide substantial speedups for k = 1, namely over 2.5 times for the Hamming distance and over 30 times for the Levenshtein distance. Tests were conducted on synthetic and real-world English and URL data

Political conservatism, need for cognitive closure and intergroup hostility

Two studies examined the interaction of political conservatism and the need for cognitive closure in predicting aggressiveness in intergroup conflict and hostility toward out-groups. In the first study, Polish participants indicated their preference for coercive conflict strategies in the context of a real-life intergroup conflict. Only among participants who identify themselves as conservative, need for cognitive closure was positively and significantly related to preference for aggressive actions against the out-group. In the second study, the predicted interaction was investigated in the context of the terrorist threat in Poland. The findings indicated that high in need for closure conservatives showed greater hostility against Arabs and Muslims only when they believed that Poland was under threat of terrorist attacks inspired by Islamist fundamentalism

Need for closure and coercion in inter-group conflicts: experimental evidence for the mitigating effect of accessible conflict schemas

Three experimental studies demonstrate that momentarily-accessible conflict-schemas moderate the relationship between need for closure and conflict-strategy preferences, with the relationship between a high need for closure and increased competitiveness reduced to non-significance when a cooperative conflict schema is made salient but strengthened when a hostile one is activated. Study 1 manipulated the accessibility of competitive versus cooperative conflict schemas using different descriptions of a contemporary political conflict, while Studies 2 and 3 manipulated conflict-schema accessibility using primes embedded in an ostensibly-unrelated lexical decision task. Together, the present studies provide a strong pattern of experimental support for the moderating effect of conflict-schema accessibility suggested by earlier correlational studies. The implications for conflict reduction are discussed

The Protection of Legal Order by Administrative Courts

The position of the administrative judiciary, as it has functioned since 2004, situates this institution not only as a guarantor of the legality of public authority action in a given case, but also of the coherence and functionality of the administrative law system as such. The protection of the legal order by administrative courts is naturally related to the issue of the stability of the judicial practice and the responsibility of the judge for the content of the ruling, and further to the effectiveness of the judicial-administrative application of the law. Thus, this issue is situated on the edge of different methodological planes, covering such threads of analysis as: the place and role of administrative courts in the modern legal order (constitutional-legal method), the procedural model of judicial application of law and its effectiveness (administrative-legal method), or theoretical and even ethical-legal aspects of judicial application of law. In the light of the decisional model of judicial application of law, the issue of care for legal order is revealed with particular force in the layer of validation and interpretation findings, which gives significant importance to the reasons for the justification, especially if one takes into account that the execution of the decision in principle remains outside the competence of the administrative court. Against this background authors pay attention on the relatively restrained use of reformatory powers and disciplinary measures by administrative courts, as a kind of last resort legal remedy. This allows to maintain thesis that administrative courts generally protect the legal order with the force of arguments rather than with the argument of force. On the other hand, they treat measures to ensure the certainty and effectiveness of decisions of judicial application of law as measures to protect the legal order.Pozycja ustrojowa sądownictwa administracyjnego, w kształcie funkcjonującym od 2004 r., sytuuje tę instytucję nie tylko w roli gwaranta legalności działania władzy publicznej w konkretnym przypadku, lecz również koherencji i funkcjonalności systemu prawa administracyjnego jako takiego. Ochrona porządku prawnego przez sądy administracyjne w naturalny sposób wiąże się z zagadnieniem stabilności praktyki orzeczniczej i odpowiedzialnością sędziego za treść orzeczenia, w dalszej kolejności ze skutecznością sądowoadministracyjnego stosowania prawa. Problematyka ta plasuje się tym samym na krawędzi różnych płaszczyzn metodologicznych, obejmując takie wątki analizy, jak: miejsce i rola sądów administracyjnych we współczesnym porządku prawnym (metoda konstytucyjno-prawna), model proceduralny sądowego stosowania prawa i jego efektywność (metoda administracyjno-prawna), czy też teoretyczno-, a nawet etyczno-prawne aspekty sądowego stosowania prawa. W świetle decyzyjnego modelu sądowego stosowania prawa zagadnienie dbałości o ład prawny ujawnia się ze szczególną mocą w warstwie ustaleń walidacyjnych i interpretacyjnych, co nadaje istotne znaczenie motywom uzasadnienia, zwłaszcza jeśli wziąć pod uwagę, że wykonanie orzeczenia w zasadzie pozostaje poza kompetencją sądu administracyjnego. Na tym tle autorzy zwracają uwagę na stosunkowo powściągliwe korzystanie przez sądy administracyjne z kompetencji reformatoryjnych i środków dyscyplinujących jako swego rodzaju rozwiązań ostatecznych. Pozwala to sformułować tezę, że sądy administracyjne zasadniczo chronią porządek prawny siłą argumentów, nie zaś argumentem siły. Działania zapewniające pewność i skuteczność decyzji sądowego stosowania prawa traktują zaś jako środki ochrony porządku prawnego

Complementary stereotyping of ethnic minorities predicts system justification in Poland

We investigate the phenomenon of complementary stereotyping of ethnic minorities in Poland and its relationship to system justification. Using results from a nationally representative survey we test the hypothesis that complementary stereotypes—according to which ethnic minorities are seen as possessing distinctive, offsetting strengths and weaknesses—would be associated with system justification among Polish majority citizens. For four minorities, results indicated that stereotyping them as (a) low in morality but high in competence or (b) high in morality but low in competence predicted greater system justification. These results suggest that even in a context that is low in support for the status quo, complementary stereotyping of ethnic minorities is linked to system justification processes. For the three minority groups that were lowest in social status, complementary stereotyping was unrelated to system justification. It appears that negative attitude towards these groups can be expressed openly, regardless of one’s degree of system justification