Journals / Fırat Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Dergisi / 2026 / Cilt: 38 Sayı: 2

Deep Learning-Based Segmentation of Diatoms in Microscopic Images

Mikroskobik Görüntülerde Diyatomların Derin Öğrenme Tabanlı Segmentasyonu

Pages
59–68
Publication Date
2026-09-30
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AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

Experimental results demonstrated that Attention U-Net and DeepLabV3+ achieved superior segmentation performance compared to the baseline U-Net model.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

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Objective & Hypothesis:This study investigates deep learning-based semantic segmentation approaches for the automatic pixel-level segmentation of microscopic diatom images.
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Key Findings & Data:The complex morphological structures of diatoms, varying illumination conditions, and background noise make accurate segmentation challenging for traditional image processing techniques.
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Conclusion & Impact:Experimental results demonstrated that Attention U-Net and DeepLabV3+ achieved superior segmentation performance compared to the baseline U-Net model.
🔬Design:Modeling & Simulation
📍Scope:Comprehensive Sample
⚙️Variables:Diyatom · anlamsal segmentasyon · derin öğrenme

Abstract

This study investigates deep learning-based semantic segmentation approaches for the automatic pixel-level segmentation of microscopic diatom images. The complex morphological structures of diatoms, varying illumination conditions, and background noise make accurate segmentation challenging for traditional image processing techniques. In this study, three widely used convolutional neural network architectures—U-Net, Attention U-Net, and DeepLabV3+—were comparatively evaluated for the segmentation of diatoms in microscopic images. The experiments were conducted on a dataset consisting of 2,197 high-resolution microscopic images along with their manually annotated binary segmentation masks. All models were trained under identical experimental conditions using the same data split, training strategy, and evaluation metrics to ensure a fair comparison. Segmentation performance was assessed using Dice coefficient, Intersection over Union (IoU), precision, and recall metrics. Experimental results demonstrated that Attention U-Net and DeepLabV3+ achieved superior segmentation performance compared to the baseline U-Net model. Among the evaluated models, DeepLabV3+ produced the best results, achieving a Dice score of 0.8372 and an IoU value of 0.7728. The visual evaluation of the segmentation outputs also showed that DeepLabV3+ was able to capture thin and elongated diatom structures more accurately and consistently. These findings indicate that multi-scale contextual feature extraction plays a crucial role in improving the segmentation of complex microscopic structures such as diatoms.

Özet

Bu çalışmada, mikroskobik diyatom görüntülerinin piksel seviyesinde otomatik olarak segmentasyonu için derin öğrenme tabanlı anlamsal segmentasyon yaklaşımları ele alınmıştır. Diyatomların ince ve karmaşık morfolojik yapıları, değişken aydınlatma koşulları ve arka plan gürültüsü, klasik görüntü işleme yöntemleriyle güvenilir segmentasyon elde edilmesini zorlaştırmaktadır. Bu kapsamda, diyatom segmentasyonu problemine yönelik olarak U-Net, Attention U-Net ve DeepLabV3+ mimarileri karşılaştırmalı olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Çalışmada, 2197 adet yüksek çözünürlüklü mikroskobik görüntü ve bu görüntülere ait manuel olarak oluşturulmuş ikili segmentasyon maskelerinden oluşan bir veri seti kullanılmıştır. Tüm modeller, aynı veri bölünmesi, ortak eğitim stratejileri ve aynı değerlendirme ölçütleri altında eğitilmiştir. Segmentasyon performansı, Dice katsayısı, IoU, precision ve recall metrikleri kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Deneysel sonuçlar, Attention U-Net ve DeepLabV3+ modellerinin klasik U-Net’e kıyasla daha yüksek segmentasyon başarımı sunduğunu göstermiştir. Özellikle DeepLabV3+ modeli, 0,8372 Dice katsayısı ve 0,7728 IoU değeri ile en yüksek performansı elde ederek diyatom sınırlarını daha doğru ve tutarlı biçimde ayırt edebilmiştir. Görsel değerlendirmeler de, DeepLabV3+’ın ince ve uzun yapılı diyatomların segmentasyonunda daha pürüzsüz ve bütüncül sonuçlar ürettiğini ortaya koymuştur.

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Cite This Article

Utku, E. D. B., Kutlu, B. (2026). Deep Learning-Based Segmentation of Diatoms in Microscopic Images. Fırat Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Dergisi, Cilt: 38 Sayı: 2, 59–68. https://doi.org/10.66605/fufbd.1877905

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