Aarhus Universitets segl

Stereological estimation of particle shape from vertical sections

by Nick Yin Larsen, Johanna F. Ziegel, Jens R. Nyengaard and Eva B. Vedel Jensen
CSGB Research Reports Number 12 (December 2018)

In the present paper, we describe a new simple stereological method of estimating volume tensors in 3D from vertical sections. The volume tensors provide information about particle shape in 3D. In a model-based setting, the method requires that the particle distribution is invariant under rotations around the vertical axis. In a design-based approach, where the vertical section is uniformly rotated around the vertical axis, the method provides information about an index of elongation of the particles in the direction of the vertical axis. The method has been implemented on human brain tissue for the analysis of neurons in layer III of the medial frontal gyrus of Brodmann Area 46. In the actual implementation, the new estimator shows similar precision as an earlier estimator, based on an optical rotator design, but it is a factor 3 faster to collect the measurements for the new estimator.

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