Abstract : Natural fibers such as sisal fibers have shown great promise as an alternative renewable material that can be used as reinforcement in cement-based composites. One of the ways by which sisal fibers mechanical properties can be improved to enable the fibers to compete with fiber types such as steel and synthetic fibers is through fiber surface modification. In order to improve the surface properties of sisal fibers, three fiber treatment methods namely chemical treatment, thermal treatment and hybrid treatment were carried out on the sisal fibers and the effect of these treatment methods on the mechanical properties and water absorption of the sisal fibers were investigated. Tensile tests were performed on the treated sisal fibers and their tensile strength and tensile modulus were evaluated. The experimental results showed that all the treatment methods considered led to an improvement in the tensile strength, tensile modulus and water absorption of the sisal fibers. The chemical treatment, thermal treatment and hybrid treatment led to 32.9%, 17.5% and 37.4% improvement in the tensile strength respectively. Similarly, the tensile modulus was improved by 30.9%, 13.4%, and 122% for the chemical treatment, thermal treatment and hybrid treatment methods respectively. The water absorption of the treated sisal fibers was reduced by 38.3%, 34.9% and 45.8% for the chemical treatment, thermal treatment and hybrid treatment methods respectively. The results showed that fiber treatment (chemical, thermal and hybrid) methods are effective ways of improving the mechanical properties and water absorption of sisal fibers..
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Abstract : Currently, development in the industrial sector is very advanced. In a development, heavy equipment is definitely needed. In the use of heavy equipment, it certainly requires a lubricant that serves to reduce the wear that occurs due to friction between two surfaces. Grease that is spread on the market today is a petroleum-based product that is not environmentally friendly and not abundant. The manufacture of lubricating grease in this study uses vegetable oil as the base material, which is soybean oil. Lithium as a thickener oil and molybdenum as an additive. The tests carried out in this study were melting point test, corrosion rate test and viscosity test. Based on the research that has been done, the results of soybean oil-based grease lubricants with melting point values below 150o C are obtained. Soybean oil-based grease is included in the NLGI GC standard. Soybean oil-based grease has excellent corrosion resistance..
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Abstract : The identification of emotions has become a significant research area in the current societal landscape, owing to its numerous applications. Facial expression recognition (FER) is one of them and is crucial in conveying emotional information about people. In recent years, the popularity of facial emotion recognition has grown, driven by the advancement of artificial intelligence. Usually, face pre-processing, including facial detection and alignment, contributes to the increased complexity of the facial emotion recognition (FER) classification process. However, in this paper, we simplify the process by concurrently addressing identification, recognition, and classification. Initially, the CK Plus dataset underwent manual annotation. Subsequently, facial expressions were analyzed using an endto-end Facial Emotion Recognition (FER) network named FER using YOLOv8. The architecture of FER using YOLO is derived from YOLOv8. The proposed model exhibits exceptional accuracy on the CK Plus and HFER datasets, with experimental findings revealing high detection performance (mAP50) ranging from 0.974 to 0.989 on the test datasets. Our method ensures both high accuracy and swift inference for Facial Emotion Recognition, demonstrated through real-time image testing with accurate results. Additionally, the model is validated for realtime FER using spontaneous images from a camera, showcasing its robust performance in dynamic scenarios..
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Abstract : The rapid urbanization driven by population growth has impacted the current planning policies and strategies. This phenomenon necessitates a paradigm shift in urban development approaches. Recently, new terms have emerged, such as city resilience, responsive planning and city-wide approach. This paper aims to figure out and study these terms and their impact on the land use plan. The researcher used the informal settlements development and upgrading to framework the effect of city-wide planning on city resilience and how this could help to generate a responsive plan for these areas to mitigate the risks facing the local community, especially those of social, economic and environmental significance..
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