Abstract
In this study, we developed an online graphical and intuitive interface connected to a server aiming to facilitate professional access worldwide to those facing problems with bovine blastocysts classification. The interface Blasto3Q, where 3Q refers to the three qualities of the blastocyst grading, contains a description of 24 variables that were extracted from the image of the blastocyst and analyzed by three Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) that classify the same loaded image. The same embryo (i.e., the biological specimen) was submitted to digital image capture by the control group (inverted microscope with 40× magnification) and the experimental group (stereomicroscope with maximum of magnification plus 4× zoom from the cell phone camera). The images obtained from the control and experimental groups were uploaded on Blasto3Q. Each image from both sources was evaluated for segmentation and submitted (only if it could be properly or partially segmented) for automatic quality grade classification by the three ANNs of the Blasto3Q program. Adjustments on the software program through the use of scaling algorithm software were performed to ensure the proper search and segmentation of the embryo in the raw images when they were captured by the smartphone, since this source produced small embryo images compared with those from the inverted microscope. With this new program, 77.8% of the images from smartphones were successfully segmented and from those, 85.7% were evaluated by the Blasto3Q in agreement with the control group.
Highlights
Brazil is the largest beef exporter in the world with a cattle herd of 218.2 million [1], which is more cattle than the Brazilian population of 207 million in 2017 [2]
Dataset 1 was derived from two biological replicates and 18 embryos were used for image capture both from an inverted microscope and a smartphone source
For the first experimental group, the embryo digital image was captured with a smartphone G4 Plus (Motorola, Chicago, IL, USA) and ANDROIDTM 7.0 system (Google, Mountain View, CA, USA) with 16 megapixels of camera, lens aperture f/2.0 and digital zoom of 4× through the ocular lens from a stereomicroscope S8 APO, 10× magnification (Leica, Wetzlar, Germany) with maximum zoom magnification
Summary
Brazil is the largest beef exporter in the world with a cattle herd of 218.2 million [1], which is more cattle than the Brazilian population of 207 million in 2017 [2]. The Brazilian program of in vitro production (IVP) of bovine embryos started in 1990, but the first three births only occurred in 1994 [4]. This achievement used Nellore breed immature oocytes, frozen-thawed semen, and a culture system. IVP is used commercially for several laboratories to research and multiply genetic material for animal production [5]. This production is of utmost importance for international and national improvement in cattle genetics and productivity
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