Synthesis of Spiro[piperidine‐3,3′‐oxindoles] via Gold(I)‐Catalyzed Dearomatization of N‐Propargyl‐ and N‐Homoallenyl‐2‐bromotryptamines

N‐Propargyl‐ and N‐homoallenyl‐2‐bromo‐β‐tryptamines undergo gold(I)‐catalyzed dearomatizing cyclizations to afford 2‐bromospiroindolenines that are in situ hydrolyzed to furnish spirooxindoles in a one‐pot process. Tryptophane derivatives (R²=CO₂Et) led upon cyclization to chiral spirooxindoles in excellent diastereoselectivities.

     

Structural Analysis of Partial and Total Esters of Glycerol Undecenoate and Diglycerol Undecenoate

The direct esterification reaction between glycerol and undecylenic acid or between diglycerol and undecylenic acid generates all the possible types of glycerol or diglycerol esters. Purification by silica gel chromatography resulted in the isolation of each of these types of ester in a pure form. The molecular structures of the compounds isolated were characterized and identified by mass spectrometry, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and DEPT‐135. We then studied the composition of esters of undecylenic acid formed with glycerol or diglycerol as a function of their reaction conditions, which constitute a highly complex system. We purified undecylenic acid esters from each polyol family to allow the structural identification of each ester of glycerol and each ester of diglycerol with undecylenic acid. We found that the polarity of these non‐ionic amphiphilic esters directly affected their affinity for organic and inorganic solvents and that these esters behaved very differently from anionic amphiphilic molecules, such as undecylenic acid.     

Validation of LAI and assessment of winter wheat status using spectral data and vegetation indices from SPOT VEGETATION and simulated PROBA-V images

Due to the information gap between the VEGETATION sensors and Sentinel-3 mission, the Belgian state decided to build a small satellite, Project for Onboard Autonomy-Vegetation (PROBA-V), to ensure the continuity of the data record for vegetation studies. In this study, simulated PROBA-V data generated by the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) were used to evaluate the potential of this mission to assess winter wheat status. The root mean square error (RMSE) of PROBA-V's leaf area index (LAI), which was generated using the exponential method and the interpolation method, is 0.33 and 0.96 for March 2011 and 1.40 and 3.33 for May 2011, respectively. Système Pour l'Observation de la Terre (SPOT) VEGETATION's LAI does not show a significant relationship with the reference LAI values except for the LAI values during the stem elongation 100% phenological stage generated using the exponential method (correlation coefficient, r = 0.91; p = 0.01). For the tillering and stem elongation 100% phenological stages, linear regression models for the fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) with PROBA-V's normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) were developed (coefficient of determination, R ², of 0.94 and 0.88). Exponential models for LAI (R ² of 0.91 and 0.93) and fresh weight of above-ground biomass (AGBf) (R ² of 0.90 and 0.93) with PROBA-V's near-infrared (NIR) and visible and near-infrared bands (VNIR B2) were developed accordingly. The assessment of winter wheat status showed that the highest and the lowest values of PROBA-V's simulated data (SD), i.e. NDVI, normalized difference water index (NDWI), and LAI of Field 2 and Field 4, correspond to the ground-measured biometric parameters.     

Distribution Update of Deformable Patches for Texture Synthesis on the Free Surface of Fluids

We propose an approach for temporally coherent patch‐based texture synthesis on the free surface of fluids. Our approach is applied as a post‐process, using the surface and velocity field from any fluid simulator. We apply the texture from the exemplar through multiple local mesh patches fitted to the surface and mapped to the exemplar. Our patches are constructed from the fluid free surface by taking a subsection of the free surface mesh. As such, they are initially very well adapted to the fluid's surface, and can later deform according to the free surface velocity field, allowing a greater ability to represent surface motion than rigid or 2D grid‐based patches. From one frame to the next, the patch centers and surrounding patch vertices are advected according to the velocity field. We seek to maintain a Poisson disk distribution of patches, and following advection, the Poisson disk criterion determines where to add new patches and which patches should e flagged for removal. The removal considers the local number of patches: in regions containing too many patches, we accelerate the temporal removal. This reduces the number of patches while still meeting the Poisson disk criterion. Reducing areas with too many patches speeds up the computation and avoids patch‐blending artifacts. The final step of our approach creates the overall texture in an atlas where each texel is computed from the patches using a contrast‐preserving blending function. Our tests show that the approach works well on free surfaces undergoing significant deformation and topological changes. Furthermore, we show that our approach provides good results for many fluid simulation scenarios, and with many texture exemplars. We also confirm that the optical flow from the resulting texture matches the fluid velocity field. Overall, our approach compares favorably against recent work in this area.     

Guided Fine-Tuning for Large-Scale Material Transfer

We present a method to transfer the appearance of one or a few exemplar SVBRDFs to a target image representing similar materials. Our solution is extremely simple: we fine-tune a deep appearance-capture network on the provided exemplars, such that it learns to extract similar SVBRDF values from the target image. We introduce two novel material capture and design workflows that demonstrate the strength of this simple approach. Our first workflow allows to produce plausible SVBRDFs of large-scale objects from only a few pictures. Specifically, users only need take a single picture of a large surface and a few close-up flash pictures of some of its details. We use existing methods to extract SVBRDF parameters from the close-ups, and our method to transfer these parameters to the entire surface, enabling the lightweight capture of surfaces several meters wide such as murals, floors and furniture. In our second workflow, we provide a powerful way for users to create large SVBRDFs from internet pictures by transferring the appearance of existing, pre-designed SVBRDFs. By selecting different exemplars, users can control the materials assigned to the target image, greatly enhancing the creative possibilities offered by deep appearance capture.     

Computing Interpolating Sequences

Naftalevič’s Theorem states that, given a Blaschke sequence, it is possible to modify the arguments of its terms so as to obtain an interpolating sequence. We prove a computable version of this theorem in that it possible, given a Blaschke sequence, to computably modify the arguments of its terms so as to obtain an interpolating sequence. Using this result, we produce a computable, interpolating Blaschke sequence that does not define a computable Blaschke product. This answers a question posed by Matheson and McNicholl in a recent paper. We use Type-Two Effectivity as our foundation.     

Microwave remote sensing of physically buried objects in the Negev Desert: implications for environmental research

We report remote detections of physically buried specularly reflecting objects using microwave radar at two sites: Ashalim and Tseelim in the northern region of the Negev Desert, Israel. These detections provide confirmation that microwave subsurface remote sensing is a genuine phenomenon. At Ashalim, a scatterometer operating in the P-band (441 MHz, 68 cm) was mounted on a cherry picker truck at a height of 8 m and used to detect two triangular aluminum mesh reflectors (forming a 1-m square area reflector) buried down to a depth of 8 cm in dry sand. At Tseelim, the same scatterometer was mounted on an airplane flying at an altitude of 70 m and used to detect 1-m square aluminum reflectors (each one submerged at a different location along the airplane flight path) buried down to a depth of 20 cm. The experimental results compare favorably with a theoretical model that incorporates radar absorption effects arising in the sandy subsurface layer and radar interference effects arising from phase differences between reflections from the surface and buried reflector. The theoretical modeling also predicts the detection of a subsurface reflector down to a depth of about 4.4 m. This experiment and the associated modeling approach is the first of a series of planned experiments, which we outline for the detection and the theoretical evaluation of buried reflectors using remote microwave and VHF radar. We identify potential subject areas for environmental research.