ESTIMATING NUMBER DENSITY NV – A COMPARISON OF AN IMPROVED SALTYKOV ESTIMATOR AND THE DISECTOR METHOD

Ashot Davtian, Ute Hahn, Joachim Ohser, Dietrich Stoyan

Abstract

Two methods for the estimation of number per unit volume NV of spherical particles are discussed: the (physical) disector (Sterio, 1984) and Saltykov's estimator (Saltykov, 1950; Fullman, 1953). A modification of Saltykov's estimator is proposed which reduces the variance. Formulae for bias and variance are given for both disector and improved Saltykov estimator for the case of randomly positioned particles. They enable the comparison of the two estimators with respect to their precision in terms of mean squared error.

Keywords
disector; number density; planar sections; precision; Saltykov estimator

Full Text:

PDF


DOI: 10.5566/ias.v19.p209-214

Copyright (c) 2014 Image Analysis & Stereology

Image Analysis & Stereology
EISSN 1854-5165 (Electronic version)
ISSN 1580-3139 (Printed version)