Date: 2011-08-31

Time: 15:30-16:30

Location: BURN 1205

Abstract:

Volume estimators based on Cavalieri’s principle are widely used in the bio- sciences. For example in neuroscience, where volumetric measurements of brain structures are of interest, systematic samples of serial sections are obtained by magnetic resonance imaging or by a physical cutting procedure. The volume v is then estimated by ˆv, which is the sum over the areas of the structure of interest in the section planes multiplied by the width of the sections, t > 0. Assessing the precision of such volume estimates is a question of great practical importance, but statistically a challenging task due to the strong spatial dependence of the data and typically small sample sizes. In this talk, an overview of classical and new approaches to this problem will be presented. A special focus will be given to some recent advances on distribution estimators and confidence intervals for ˆv; see Hall and Ziegel (2011).

Speaker

Johanna Ziegel is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute of Applied Mathematics at Heidelberg University. She holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from ETH Zürich and spent a year as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Peter Hall at the University of Melbourne.

References

Hall, P. and Ziegel, J. (2011). Distribution estimators and confidence intervals for stereological volumes. Biometrika 98, 417–431.