The Regional Situation in the Middle East: Current State and Prospects for Development

The article analyzes the main trends that determine the dynamics of transformation processes and the future of the entire Middle East region. Projected scenarios are examined through the prism of Russian foreign policy and strategic interests. It has become even more evident that the American scheme of the new world order, including the Middle East, is unviable. Strengthening of Islamic radical organizations and expanded range of their activities were connected with the coming to power of the Obama administration. In Iraq, Syria, the former confrontation has entered a new phase and become even more acute. In 2014, «Islamic State» (ISIS) has begun a largescale expansion, as a result of the bloody battles part of the territory of these countries came under the control of the Islamists. The effectiveness of the fight against the ISIS is due to a combination of political, military, economic and social measures. Furthermore, it should be coordinated internationally. The coordination of anti-terrorist activities of Russia with the countries of East and West can bring positive results. Resolving of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has reached a deadlock. The fundamental unwillingness of governments, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, to go to any concessions to the Palestinians eventually led to the predictable surge in violence between the conflicting parties in the autumn of 2015, which many political observers and analysts attributed to the beginning of the third intifada. In the depths of the Arabian monarchies there are complex social and economic processes. In the period of generational change in some GCC countries the problem of succession is quite acute. In the south of the Arabian Peninsula an assessment of the current difficult situation in Yemen suggests that the least painful exit for this country is federalization. In the final part of the article the system lag of the region in economic development is considered as a further challenge to the states of the Middle East.

Image Registration of Very Large Images via Genetic Programming

Image registration (IR) is a fundamental task in image processing for matching two or more images of the same scene taken at different times, from different viewpoints and/or by different sensors. Due to the enormous diversity of IR applications, automatic IR remains a challenging problem to this day. A wide range of techniques has been developed for various data types and problems. These techniques might not handle effectively very large images, which give rise usually to more complex transformations, e.g., deformations and various other distortions. In this paper we present a genetic programming (GP)- based approach for IR, which could offer a significant advantage in dealing with very large images, as it does not make any prior assumptions about the transformation model. Thus, by incorporating certain generic building blocks into the proposed GP framework, we hope to realize a large set of specialized transformations that should yield accurate registration of very large images.

Genetic Algorithms for Evolving Computer Chess Programs

This paper demonstrates the use of genetic algorithms for evolving: 1) a grandmaster-level evaluation function, and 2) a search mechanism for a chess program, the parameter values of which are initialized randomly. The evaluation function of the program is evolved by learning from databases of (human) grandmaster games. At first, the organisms are evolved to mimic the behavior of human grandmasters, and then these organisms are further improved upon by means of coevolution. The search mechanism is evolved by learning from tactical test suites. Our results show that the evolved program outperforms a two-time world computer chess champion and is at par with the other leading computer chess programs.

A Generalized Genetic Algorithm-Based Solver for Very Large Jigsaw Puzzles of Complex Types

A Genetic Algorithm-Based Solver for Very Large Jigsaw Puzzles

In this paper we propose the first effective automated, genetic algorithm (GA)-based jigsaw puzzle solver. We introduce a novel procedure of merging two "parent" solutions to an improved "child" solution by detecting, extracting, and combining correctly assembled puzzle segments. The solver proposed exhibits state-of-the-art performance solving previously attempted puzzles faster and far more accurately, and also puzzles of size never before attempted. Other contributions include the creation of a benchmark of large images, previously unavailable. We share the data sets and all of our results for future testing and comparative evaluation of jigsaw puzzle solvers.

A hybrid genetic approach for stereo matching

In this paper we present a genetic algorithm (GA)-based approach for the stereo matching problem. More precisely, the approach presented is a combination of a simple dynamic programming algorithm, commonly used for stereo matching, with a practical GA-based optimization scheme. The performance of our scheme was evaluated on standard test data of the Middlebury benchmark. Specifically, the number of incorrect disparities on these data decreases by approximately 20% in comparison to the original approach (without the use of a GA).

Israel Against Democracy, Part 2: Post-Elections Analysis

The recent elections in Israel were held, as in past years, in a climate of resignation. No big surprises were anticipated, and no one for a minute doubted that Benyamin Netanyahu would be elected for a historic third time. Even when the results were announced, the landslide victory of the new party, Yesh Atid (there is a future), led by media celebrity Yair Lapid, was hardly a surprise. It is the third time that a vaguely centrist party with a vaguely anti-religious, patriotic agenda takes a big chunk of the ‘average Israeli’ votes.

On the Least Trimmed Squares Estimator

The linear least trimmed squares (LTS) estimator is a statistical technique for fitting a linear model to a set of points. Given a set of points in ℝ and given an integer trimming parameter ≤, LTS involves computing the (−1)-dimensional hyperplane that minimizes the sum of the smallest squared residuals. LTS is a robust estimator with a 50 %-breakdown point, which means that the estimator is insensitive to corruption due to outliers, provided that the outliers constitute less than 50 % of the set. LTS is closely related to the well known LMS estimator, in which the objective is to minimize the median squared residual, and LTA, in which the objective is to minimize the sum of the smallest 50 % absolute residuals. LTS has the advantage of being statistically more efficient than LMS. Unfortunately, the computational complexity of LTS is less understood than LMS. In this paper we present new algorithms, both exact and approximate, for computing the LTS estimator. We also present hardness results for exact and approximate LTS. A number of our results apply to the LTA estimator as well.

Image registration for remote sensing edited by LeMoigne J., Netanyahu N.S. & Eastman R.D.

Israel and Post‐Mubarak Egypt: Perils of Historical Analogy

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has perceived the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 as a replica of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Drawing on the apparent similarities between the two revolutions—both made against dictators who reigned over secular, Western‐oriented regimes advocating coexistence with Israel, and both having Islamists as the best‐organized opposition force—Netanyahu appears to have concluded that the outcome for Israel would be the same: the advent of an aggressive Islamist regime in Cairo that would initiate a larger conflict. Based on this historical analogy, the Netanyahu government has adopted policies that are meant to help Israel defend against the potential deterioration in relations with Egypt. However, looking at Iran 1979 to draw on lessons about Egypt 2011 is misleading and does not take into account the significant differences that would rather lead Egypt to preserve the peace. This article analyzes Netanyahu's employment of this historical analogy and examines other appropriate lessons that Israel could draw from Iran's Islamic revolution, and proposes that Israel should instead engage the Egyptian revolution and reach a peace deal with the Palestinians so that it avoids misperception and maintains the Egyptian–Israeli peace.