The RAE: The Early Studies

This presentation will discuss the discovery of the relative age effect (RAE), which emerged from observations about a higher incidence of younger children in a classroom or grade labelled as learning disabled. Early explanations of maturity, critical periods, and school readiness failed to explain the number of false positives in these younger children. Further, personal observations of hockey players suggested that skill and achievement were highly correlated with relative age. These issues were examined by analyzing the birthdates of NHL, major junior, and minor hockey players. Based on these early studies, the RAE was found when: a) children were placed in defined age (cohort) groups for an activity; b) children in an age cohort are evaluated on a particular skill or ability; c) based upon the results of an evaluation, children are labelled or placed in skill/achievement specific groups, and; d) these defined groups received differentiated programs and experiences

What can go wrong will go wrong: Birthday effects and early tracking in the German school system

At the age of ten German pupils are given a secondary school track recommendation which largely determines the actual track choice. Track choice has major effects on the life course, mainly through labor market outcomes. Using data from the German PISA extension study, we analyze the effect of month of birth and thus relative age on such recommendations. We find that younger pupils are less often recommended to and actually attend Gymnasium, the most attractive track in terms of later life outcomes. Flexible enrolment and grade retention partly offset these inequalities and the relative age effect dissipates as students age

Modeling of bremsstrahlung emission from the confined runaway electrons and applications to the hard x-ray monitor of ITER

International audienc

The Influence of Benoît B. Mandelbrot on Mathematics

We begin this article, which deals largely with Benoît B. Mandelbrot’s contributions to and influence upon mathematics, with a quotation from the introduction to Fractals: Form, Chance, and Dimension [16]. This essay, together with many pictures and numerous lectures in the same vein, changed the way science looks at nature and had a significant impact on mathematics. It is easy for us now to think that what he says is obvious; it was not

Effect of wall light reflection in ITER diagnostics

The reflection of light from walls will result in parasitic signals for various optical diagnostics and can be a serious issue in ITER. In this study, we show recent progress in the assessment of the effects of wall reflections in ITER based on ray tracing simulation results. Four different diagnostics in ITER were chosen for the simulation, i.e. visible spectroscopy, infrared thermography, edge laser Thomson scattering, and charge exchange recombination spectroscopy