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Astronomy is considered by many to be a gateway science owing to its ability to inspire curiosity in everyone irrespective of age, culture, or general inclination towards science. Currently, where there is a global push to get more students engaged in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, astronomy provides an invaluable conduit to achieve this shift. This paper highlights the results of a study which has reviewed the presence and extent to which astronomy has been incorporated into the school curriculum of the Organisation for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) member countries. In addition, two others strong in astronomy research, China and South Africa, are included together with the International Baccalaureate Diploma science curriculum. A total of 52 curricula from 37 countries were reviewed. The results reveal that astronomy and its related topics are prevalent in at least one grade in all curricula. Of the 52 curricula, 44 of them had astronomy-related topics in grade 6, 40 introduced astronomy-related topics in grade 1, whilst 14 had astronomy-related topics explicitly mentioned in all grades. At all year levels, celestial motion is the dominant content area; however, topics such as stars, physics, cosmology, and planetary science become much more frequent as a proportion towards the higher year levels. The most common keywords employed in the curricula related to basic astronomy concepts were the Earth, Sun, Moon, and stars, all with a high frequency of use. There is hardly any focus on Indigenous Astronomy or the role of prominent women astronomers. Relational textual analysis using Leximancer revealed that all the major concepts could be encompassed within two broad themes: Earth and Physics. Astronomy and Physics are often seen as different domains, with astronomy content being more facts based, than based on concepts.

Magnetic parts are usually composed of a stack of electrical steel laminations to reduce the eddy current losses. However, for cost reasons or for specific applications the magnetic core can be made from massive steel and thus manufactured with adapted processes such as forging. Such process may lead to inhomogeneous and degraded magnetic properties. Therefore, this study proposes a specific device for characterizing magnetic properties of samples which are to be representative of a massive part. The measure is based on the Faraday’s equation to determine the magnetic flux density and the Hall effect to estimate the magnetic field inside the sample. Practically this is realized with classical components such as Hall probes, a secondary winding and an electromagnet device. However their combination is unique to perform magnetic characterization on massive samples, which are less affected by the sampling technique and may have anisotropic properties. The device is dimensioned thanks to FE-Simulation and validated according repeatability, sensitivity and trueness analysis. Eventually the characterization is performed on samples with different material parameters showing the effect of the grain size on the specific losses. The expected effect of the grain flow on magnetic properties is however not proven yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The specific loading-path change during sheet metal forming may lead to some abnormal deformation phenomena. Two-stage orthogonal loading paths without elastic unloading have revealed a phenomenon of apparent loss of normality, further modeled in the literature by non-normality theories. In this paper, a particular orthogonal strain-path change is investigated using the Teodosiu–Hu hardening rule within an associated plasticity framework. The results indicate that cross work-hardening has a significant contribution to the apparent loss of normality and subsequent asymmetric yield surface evolution. Detailed contributions of the model's ingredients and features are clarified. The developed material model is intended for sheet metal forming simulation applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]