title: Bias of a length density estimator based on vertical projections.
abstract: Attention is paid to the stereological estimator of the length density of lineal features in three-dimensional space. In Gokhale (J. Microsc. (1990) 159, 133-141), the estimator based on measurements performed on a projection of the content of vertical slices with a given thickness Delta was derived. The aim of this paper is to show that using five vertical slices with systematically chosen orientations yields a reliable result, i.e. the bias of the estimator is smaller than 5%. In the case of a choice of the vertical axis such that most lineal features are not perpendicular or nearly perpendicular to the vertical axis, a reliable result can be obtained using only three systematic orientations of vertical slices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Probability and Statistics, Charles University, Sokolovská 83, 186 75 Praha 8, Czech Republic. marcela_hlawiczkova@kb.cz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hlawiczková
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gokhale
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Benes