Pool Free Rapid Segmentation Network (PFRS-Net) to detect human blastocyst compartments for embryonic assessment

<p>Assisted reproductive technology has become an increasingly popular solution to address infertility in humans, primarily by in vitro fertilization (IVF). IVF is a complex process where eggs and sperm are combined outside the human body. This occurs in a controlled, specialized laboratory se...

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Main Author: Abida Hussain (22049752) (author)
Other Authors: Adnan Haider (1642249) (author), Saima Ashraf (6509465) (author), Syed Muhammad Ali Imran (22804130) (author), Muhammad Arsalan (10668834) (author)
Published: 2025
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author Abida Hussain (22049752)
author2 Adnan Haider (1642249)
Saima Ashraf (6509465)
Syed Muhammad Ali Imran (22804130)
Muhammad Arsalan (10668834)
author2_role author
author
author
author
author_facet Abida Hussain (22049752)
Adnan Haider (1642249)
Saima Ashraf (6509465)
Syed Muhammad Ali Imran (22804130)
Muhammad Arsalan (10668834)
author_role author
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Abida Hussain (22049752)
Adnan Haider (1642249)
Saima Ashraf (6509465)
Syed Muhammad Ali Imran (22804130)
Muhammad Arsalan (10668834)
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025-08-22T15:00:00Z
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv 10.1016/j.compeleceng.2025.110636
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Pool_Free_Rapid_Segmentation_Network_PFRS-Net_to_detect_human_blastocyst_compartments_for_embryonic_assessment/30820022
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv CC BY 4.0
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Biomedical and clinical sciences
Reproductive medicine
Information and computing sciences
Artificial intelligence
Machine learning
Rapid convolutional block
Blastocyst
Embryological analysis
Embryo
In vitro fertilization (IVF)
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Pool Free Rapid Segmentation Network (PFRS-Net) to detect human blastocyst compartments for embryonic assessment
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv Text
Journal contribution
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
text
contribution to journal
description <p>Assisted reproductive technology has become an increasingly popular solution to address infertility in humans, primarily by in vitro fertilization (IVF). IVF is a complex process where eggs and sperm are combined outside the human body. This occurs in a controlled, specialized laboratory setting that supports and encourages the growth of embryos before they are transferred to the uterus. The IVF process is carefully monitored and regulated within a laboratory environment until the embryos develop and progress to the blastocyst stage. The standard procedure for in vitro fertilization (IVF) involves transferring one or two blastocysts from a batch that has been developed under controlled conditions. A detailed morphological analysis of these blastocysts is performed, assessing their distinct components, including the trophectoderm (TE), zona pellucida (ZP), inner cell mass (ICM), and blastocoel (BL), using manual microscopic techniques. Although deep learning has been successfully utilized in various medical diagnostic and analytical applications, its integration for automating the morphological analysis of human blastocysts continues to face several obstacles. Current methodologies often exhibit inaccuracies and necessitate considerable preprocessing along with expensive computational architectures. As a result, further research is needed to improve the accuracy and efficiency of deep learning techniques in this field to enable their full potential in assisted reproductive technology. To address this challenge, we introduce the Pool Free Rapid Segmentation Network (PFRS-Net), which is specifically developed to effectively identify the compartments of human blastocysts without relying on pooling operations. The network utilizes rapid convolutional block (RCB) modules to achieve accurate detection. The RCB module is specifically designed to capture valuable deep features with computational efficiency. The Swift Decoder block is then used to up-sample the feature maps to their original size using a few layers. This specialized design helps to reduce the number of trainable parameters while maintaining high segmentation accuracy and recovering the lost spatial information using a feature enhancement block (FEB). Our proposed PFRS-Net accurately detects the blastocyst compartments without preprocessing the image and consuming 1.1 million trainable parameters only. This method is trained and tested using a publicly accessible dataset of human blastocyst images. The experimental outcomes demonstrate superior segmentation performance in detecting blastocyst components, which is vital for embryonic research and analysis.</p><h2>Other Information</h2> <p> Published in: Computers and Electrical Engineering<br> License: <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</a><br>See article on publisher's website: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2025.110636" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2025.110636</a></p>
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
id Manara2_2235022c4811293c02f2c29781e44eae
identifier_str_mv 10.1016/j.compeleceng.2025.110636
network_acronym_str Manara2
network_name_str Manara2
oai_identifier_str oai:figshare.com:article/30820022
publishDate 2025
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rights_invalid_str_mv CC BY 4.0
spelling Pool Free Rapid Segmentation Network (PFRS-Net) to detect human blastocyst compartments for embryonic assessmentAbida Hussain (22049752)Adnan Haider (1642249)Saima Ashraf (6509465)Syed Muhammad Ali Imran (22804130)Muhammad Arsalan (10668834)Biomedical and clinical sciencesReproductive medicineInformation and computing sciencesArtificial intelligenceMachine learningRapid convolutional blockBlastocystEmbryological analysisEmbryoIn vitro fertilization (IVF)<p>Assisted reproductive technology has become an increasingly popular solution to address infertility in humans, primarily by in vitro fertilization (IVF). IVF is a complex process where eggs and sperm are combined outside the human body. This occurs in a controlled, specialized laboratory setting that supports and encourages the growth of embryos before they are transferred to the uterus. The IVF process is carefully monitored and regulated within a laboratory environment until the embryos develop and progress to the blastocyst stage. The standard procedure for in vitro fertilization (IVF) involves transferring one or two blastocysts from a batch that has been developed under controlled conditions. A detailed morphological analysis of these blastocysts is performed, assessing their distinct components, including the trophectoderm (TE), zona pellucida (ZP), inner cell mass (ICM), and blastocoel (BL), using manual microscopic techniques. Although deep learning has been successfully utilized in various medical diagnostic and analytical applications, its integration for automating the morphological analysis of human blastocysts continues to face several obstacles. Current methodologies often exhibit inaccuracies and necessitate considerable preprocessing along with expensive computational architectures. As a result, further research is needed to improve the accuracy and efficiency of deep learning techniques in this field to enable their full potential in assisted reproductive technology. To address this challenge, we introduce the Pool Free Rapid Segmentation Network (PFRS-Net), which is specifically developed to effectively identify the compartments of human blastocysts without relying on pooling operations. The network utilizes rapid convolutional block (RCB) modules to achieve accurate detection. The RCB module is specifically designed to capture valuable deep features with computational efficiency. The Swift Decoder block is then used to up-sample the feature maps to their original size using a few layers. This specialized design helps to reduce the number of trainable parameters while maintaining high segmentation accuracy and recovering the lost spatial information using a feature enhancement block (FEB). Our proposed PFRS-Net accurately detects the blastocyst compartments without preprocessing the image and consuming 1.1 million trainable parameters only. This method is trained and tested using a publicly accessible dataset of human blastocyst images. The experimental outcomes demonstrate superior segmentation performance in detecting blastocyst components, which is vital for embryonic research and analysis.</p><h2>Other Information</h2> <p> Published in: Computers and Electrical Engineering<br> License: <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</a><br>See article on publisher's website: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2025.110636" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2025.110636</a></p>2025-08-22T15:00:00ZTextJournal contributioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersiontextcontribution to journal10.1016/j.compeleceng.2025.110636https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Pool_Free_Rapid_Segmentation_Network_PFRS-Net_to_detect_human_blastocyst_compartments_for_embryonic_assessment/30820022CC BY 4.0info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:figshare.com:article/308200222025-08-22T15:00:00Z
spellingShingle Pool Free Rapid Segmentation Network (PFRS-Net) to detect human blastocyst compartments for embryonic assessment
Abida Hussain (22049752)
Biomedical and clinical sciences
Reproductive medicine
Information and computing sciences
Artificial intelligence
Machine learning
Rapid convolutional block
Blastocyst
Embryological analysis
Embryo
In vitro fertilization (IVF)
status_str publishedVersion
title Pool Free Rapid Segmentation Network (PFRS-Net) to detect human blastocyst compartments for embryonic assessment
title_full Pool Free Rapid Segmentation Network (PFRS-Net) to detect human blastocyst compartments for embryonic assessment
title_fullStr Pool Free Rapid Segmentation Network (PFRS-Net) to detect human blastocyst compartments for embryonic assessment
title_full_unstemmed Pool Free Rapid Segmentation Network (PFRS-Net) to detect human blastocyst compartments for embryonic assessment
title_short Pool Free Rapid Segmentation Network (PFRS-Net) to detect human blastocyst compartments for embryonic assessment
title_sort Pool Free Rapid Segmentation Network (PFRS-Net) to detect human blastocyst compartments for embryonic assessment
topic Biomedical and clinical sciences
Reproductive medicine
Information and computing sciences
Artificial intelligence
Machine learning
Rapid convolutional block
Blastocyst
Embryological analysis
Embryo
In vitro fertilization (IVF)