Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer using Soft Computing Paradigms

The process of diagnosing of prostate cancer using traditional methods is cumbersome because of the similarity of symptoms that are present in other diseases. Soft Computing (SC) paradigms which mimic human imprecise data manipulation and learning capabilities have been reviewed and harnessed for diagnosis and classification of prostate cancer. SC technique based on Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) facilitated symptoms analysis, diagnosis and prostate cancer classification. Age of Patient (AP), Pains in Urination (PU), Frequent Urination (FU), Blood in Semen (BS) and Pains in Pelvic (PP) served as input attributes while Prostate Risk (PR) served as output. Matrix laboratory provided the programming tools for system implementation. The practical function of the system was assessed using prostate cancer data collected from the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital. A 95% harmony observed between the computed and the expected output in the ANFIS model, showed the superiority of the ANFIS model over the fuzzy model. The system is poised to assist medical professionals in the domain of diagnosis and classification of prostate cancer for the promotion of management and treatment decisions

Factors Affecting Ballability of Mixture Iron Ore Concentrates and Iron Oxide Bearing Wastes in Metallurgical Processing

Iron oxide bearing wastes (IOBS) are produced at every part of processing stage of sinter, molten iron and steel production. They are hard to handle and in many cases are stockpiled only to be a source of environmental pollution. However, they can be balled into pellets. Pellets characterized by good ballability values are transportable and recyclable as they can withstand stress without disintegrating back to dust. Yet, ballability is affected by certain factors like the grain sizes of the materials, the moisture and binder contents of the ball mix, wettability of the balled materials and the processing perimeters of the granulator. The objective of this research work is to investigate the factors affecting ballability of mixture of iron ore concentrates and iron oxide bearing wastes in metallurgical processing. The parameters under consideration were: grain size of materials, the moisture contents, speed of balling disc, IOBS and bentonite (binder) contents of the balled mix. The investigation was carried out by balling different volume fractions of mix containing iron oxide concentrate and IOBS using a balling disc and testing the resulting balls for green compressive strength using an universal testing machine. It was found that the ballability of the mixture of iron ore concentrate and IOBS increases as grain sizes of the materials reduce but increases as the moisture contents and IOBS content increase up to an optimum value of moisture content in the mix before it starts to reduce. The ballability also increases along with the speed of the granulator (balling disc) within the limit of this work. An increase in ballability with a slight raise in bentonite content in the mix was observed as well

Investigation of Balling Characteristics of Mixture of Iron Oxide Bearing Wastes and Iron Ore Concentrates

Iron oxide bearing wastes in form of dust and sludges are hard to handle because of their micron size particles and moisture content in case of sludge. More often they are stockpiled in large quantities that can occupy large area of real and agricultural estates and cause pollution. Balling or palettization, an agglomeration process was used to process the wastes in order to address the problem of micron size particles and to make them fit for recycling back into metallic iron production route like blast furnace. Balling or green pelletization is the process of forming nearly spherical shaped granules by tumbling moistened particulates with or without binders in balling drums or discs disc. For a pellet to be effective either for being transported or for being recycled in blast furnace to produce metallic iron without disintegrating to dust its balling characteristics should measure up to required standard. Most outstanding of those balling characteristics include Drop Number, Green or Wet Compression Strength, Dry Compression Strength, Abrasion and Tumbler Indices. In this work iron oxide bearing wastes was mixed with iron ore concentrates in various proportions. These mixes were taken through balling or wet pelletization process using Radicon Balling Disc. The balls formed balls were taken through Drop number tests adopting the Free Fall method, where balls are made to fall freely from a height of 50 mm on steel surface, Green compression and Dry compression tests using a 5 kN Universal Testing Machine (INSTRON Corp., model 1011 UK) System while Abrasion and Tumbler indices tests were conducted using Tumbler Index cylinder or drum and adopting ASTM method. It was found that Drop number as high as 7.8 times, Green compression strength and Dry compression strength up to 11.7 N/pellet and 25.99 N/pellet respectively were attained by some of the pellets. The Tumbler and Abrasion indices recorded were up to above 95% and 5% respectively. These values are higher than the minimum recommende

Factors Affecting Ballability of Mixture Iron Ore Concentrates and Iron Oxide Bearing Wastes in Metallurgical Processing

Iron oxide bearing wastes (IROBEWAS) are produced at every segment of processing stage of sinter, molten iron and steel production. They are hard to handle and in many cases are stockpiled only to be a source of environmental pollution but can be balled into pellets. Pellet of good ballability values are transportable and recyclable as they can withstand stress they will encounter without disintegrating back to dust. But ballability is affected by some factors like the grain sizes of the materials, the moisture and binder contents of the ball mix, wettability of the balled materials and the processing perimeters of the granulator. The objective of this research work is to investigate the factors affecting ballability of mixture of iron ore concentrates and iron oxide bearing wastes (IROBEWAS) in metallurgical processing. The parameters under consideration were grain size of materials, the moisture contents, the speed of balling disc, IROBEWAS and Bentonite (Binder) contents of the balled mix. This was carried out by balling different volume fractions of mix containing iron oxide concentrate and IROBEWAS using a balling disc and testing the resulting balls for green compressive strength using universal testing machine. It was found that the ballability of the mixture of iron ore concentrate and IROBEWAS increases as grain sizes of the materials reduce but increases as the moisture contents and IROBEWAS content increase up to an optimum value of moisture content in the mix before it starts to reduce. The ballability also increases as the speed of the granulator (Balling disc) increases within the limit of this work. It was also observed that there was an increase in ballability with slight increase in bentonite content in the mix

Factors Affecting Ballability of Mixture Iron Ore Concentrates and Iron Oxide Bearing Wastes in Metallurgical Processing

Iron oxide bearing wastes (IROBEWAS) are produced at every segment of processing stage of sinter, molten iron and steel production. They are hard to handle and in many cases are stockpiled only to be a source of environmental pollution but can be balled into pellets. Pellet of good ballability values are transportable and recyclable as they can withstand stress they will encounter without disintegrating back to dust. But ballability is affected by some factors like the grain sizes of the materials, the moisture and binder contents of the ball mix, wettability of the balled materials and the processing perimeters of the granulator. The objective of this research work is to investigate the factors affecting ballability of mixture of iron ore concentrates and iron oxide bearing wastes (IROBEWAS) in metallurgical processing. The parameters under consideration were grain size of materials, the moisture contents, the speed of balling disc, IROBEWAS and Bentonite (Binder) contents of the balled mix. This was carried out by balling different volume fractions of mix containing iron oxide concentrate and IROBEWAS using a balling disc and testing the resulting balls for green compressive strength using universal testing machine. It was found that the ballability of the mixture of iron ore concentrate and IROBEWAS increases as grain sizes of the materials reduce but increases as the moisture contents and IROBEWAS content increase up to an optimum value of moisture content in the mix before it starts to reduce. The ballability also increases as the speed of the granulator (Balling disc) increases within the limit of this work. It was also observed that there was an increase in ballability with slight increase in bentonite content in the mix