Transparent boundary conditions for a class of boundary value problems in some ramified domains with a fractal boundary

We consider some boundary value problems in self-similar ramified domains, with Laplace and Helmholtz equations. We discuss transparent boundary conditions. These conditions permit computing the restriction of the solutions to domains obtained by stopping the geometric construction after a finite number of steps. To cite this article: Y. Achdou et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 342 (2006).     

Heritability of Stroop and flanker performance in 12-year old children

Background  

There is great interest in appropriate phenotypes that serve as indicator of genetically transmitted frontal (dys)function, such as ADHD. Here we investigate the ability to deal with response conflict, and we ask to what extent performance variation on response interference tasks is caused by genetic variation. We tested a large sample of 12-year old monozygotic and dizygotic twins on two well-known and closely related response interference tasks; the color Stroop task and the Eriksen flanker task. Using structural equation modelling we assessed the heritability of several performance indices derived from those tasks.     

Transparent boundary conditions for the Helmholtz equation in some ramified domains with a fractal boundary

The paper addresses a class of boundary value problems in some self-similar ramified domains, with the Laplace or Helmholtz equations. Much stress is placed on transparent boundary conditions which allow the solutions to be computed in subdomains. A self similar finite element method is proposed and tested. It can be used for numerically computing the spectrum of the Laplace operator with Neumann boundary conditions, as well as the eigenmodes. The eigenmodes are normalized by means of a perturbation method and the spectral decomposition of a compactly supported function is carried out. Finally, a numerical method for the wave equation is addressed.     

The contribution of high frequencies to human brain activity underlying horizontal localization of natural spatial sounds

Background  

In the field of auditory neuroscience, much research has focused on the neural processes underlying human sound localization. A recent magnetoencephalography (MEG) study investigated localization-related brain activity by measuring the N1m event-related response originating in the auditory cortex. It was found that the dynamic range of the right-hemispheric N1m response, defined as the mean difference in response magnitude between contralateral and ipsilateral stimulation, reflects cortical activity related to the discrimination of horizontal sound direction. Interestingly, the results also suggested that the presence of realistic spectral information within horizontally located spatial sounds resulted in a larger right-hemispheric N1m dynamic range. Spectral cues being predominant at high frequencies, the present study further investigated the issue by removing frequencies from the spatial stimuli with low-pass filtering. This resulted in a stepwise elimination of direction-specific spectral information. Interaural time and level differences were kept constant. The original, unfiltered stimuli were broadband noise signals presented from five frontal horizontal directions and binaurally recorded for eight human subjects with miniature microphones placed in each subject's ear canals. Stimuli were presented to the subjects during MEG registration and in a behavioral listening experiment.     

A partial differential equation connected to option pricing with stochastic volatility: Regularity results and discretization

This paper completes a previous work on a Black and Scholes equation with stochastic volatility. This is a degenerate parabolic equation, which gives the price of a European option as a function of the time, of the price of the underlying asset, and of the volatility, when the volatility is a function of a mean reverting Orstein-Uhlenbeck process, possibly correlated with the underlying asset. The analysis involves weighted Sobolev spaces. We give a characterization of the domain of the operator, which permits us to use results from the theory of semigroups. We then study a related model elliptic problem and propose a finite element method with a regular mesh with respect to the intrinsic metric associated with the degenerate operator. For the error estimate, we need to prove an approximation result.

     

Comparison of Different Definitions of Traces for a Class of Ramified Domains with Self-Similar Fractal Boundaries

We consider a class of ramified bidimensional domains Ω with a self-similar fractal boundary Γ^?∞?, which is supplied with a probability measure μ called the self-similar measure. Emphasis is put on the case when the domain is not a ε???δ domain as defined by Jones and the fractal set is not totally disconnected. We compare two notions of trace on Γ^?∞? for functions in W ^1,q (Ω): the classical one, see for instance the book by Jonnson and Wallin, 1984, using the strict definition of a function at a point of $\overline{\Omega}$ , and another one proposed in 2007 and heavily relying on self-similarity. We prove that the two traces coincide μ-almost everywhere on Γ^?∞?. As a corollary, we characterize the critical number $\bar q$ for which for all $q<\bar q$ (resp. $q > \bar q$ ) there is a (resp. no) continuous extension operator from W ^1,q (Ω) to W ^1,q (?²).