Notes about the book: Practical Stereology Second edition John C, Russ Chapter I.

Introduction Stereology is the science of geometrical relationships between a structure the exists in three dimensions and the images of that structure that are fundamentally two dimensional, exist two basic categories: images of sections trough the structure and projection images viewed through it. The basic methods are appropriate for studies macroscopic and microscopic. What are the basic elements of structures? Three-dimensional object that have volume, two-dimensional surfaces, one-dimensional include curves in space formed by the intersection of surface and zero-dimensional that are basically points in space. Geometric proprieties of features The features fall into two categories: topological and metric. The metric properties are V(volume), S(surfaces), L(length) and M(curvature). VV, the volume fraction (volume per unit volume). SV the specific surface area (area per unit volume m-1), LV the specific line length (length per unit volume m-2) and MV the specific curvature of surfaces (with units of m-2) The two principle topological properties are number NV and connectivity CV, both of which have dimension of m-3. NA is the number of objects seen per unit area (referring to the area of the image on a section plane) has units of m-2. The relationship between the desired NV parameter and the measured NA value is NV=NA/<D> where <D> is the mean particle diameter in 3D. Typical stereological procedures The 3D microstructure is measured by sampling it with probes. The most common stereological probes are points, lines, surfaces and volumes. The counting events is very efficient, has statistical precision that is easily calculate. However, the precision and accuracy of such measurements are hard to estimate. Fundamental relationships The classical rules of Stereology are a set of relationship that connect the various measures obtained with the different probes with the structural parameters. The most fundamental rule is VV=AA. All of the stereological relationships are based on the need to sample the structure to obtain a mean value. And the sampling must be IUR, isotropic, uniform and random.

The point fraction PP is given by the number of events when points (the intersections of lines in the grid) coincide with the phase divided by total number of points. Averaged over many fields, the result is a measurement of the volume fraction of the phase VV. Intercept length and grain size A typical grain structure in a metal consists of a space filling array of more-or-less polyhedral crystal. The mean intercept length seems to offer a useful measure of the scale of the structure that can be efficiently measured and correlated with various physical properties or with fabrication procedures. Second order Stereology Consider the case in which a grid of points is placed onto a field of view and the particles which are hit by the points in the grid are selected for measurement in proportion to their volume (points are more likely to hit large than small particles). For each particle that is thus selected, a line is drawn through the selection point to measure the radius from that point to the boundary of the particles. Stereology of singles object The geometric properties of entire objects can also be estimated using the same methods provided that the grid. For example the area of an irregular object. Chapter 2.- Basic Stereological Procedures How Stereology Works Insight into the geometry of a three dimensional microstructure is acquired by sampling the structure whit probes, this probes is an array of plane sections, collection of line, points or small thin volume elements called disector probes. Thus a field on a microstructural section is viewed as a sample of planes that can be constructed in the three dimensional space that the specimen occupies. The disector volume element probe, consist of a pair of planes spaced closely enough so that unambiguous inferences may be made about how features appearing on the two planes are connected in the volume between the planes. Each of these simple counting experiments is repeated on a number of fields that appropriatelysample the three dimensional structure. What is meant by an appropriate sample is a central issue in Stereology. Some relation is limited en its application to structures with features that are convex bodies, although it is otherwise independent of their shape. For, features of more general shape <NA> measures a property called the integral mean curvature.

Ground Rules for applying Stereology The connecting relationships are expected value theorems relating the average value of counts for the entire population of probes to a corresponding geometric property. The fundamental relationships assume that the elements of the population of each class of probes. points, lines, planes, dissector, etc.,- are uniformly distributed in space. The typical design of the selection of fields, grids, and probes for examination in stereological experiment strives to attain an Isotropic, Uniform, Random sample (IUR) Chapter 3 Geometry of microstructures The Quantitative Microstructural State Topological properties Line length, surface area and volume are called metric properties because depend explicitly on the dimensions of the features under examination. Geometric properties that don not depend upon shape, size, or size distribution are called the topological properties.