In design stereology, and in the context of geometric sampling in general, the problem often arises of estimating the integral of a bounded non-random function over a bounded manifold D ⊂ ℝn by systematic sampling with geometric probes. Variance predictors, often based on Matheron's theory of regionalized variables, are available when the relevant function is sampled at the points of a grid intersecting D, but not when the dimension of the probes is greater than zero. For instance, the volume of a bounded object may be estimated using parallel systematic planes, which amounts to sampling on ℝ1 with systematic points, or using parallel systematic slabs of thickness t > 0, which amounts to sampling on ℝ1 with non-overlapping systematic segments of length t > 0. Useful variance predictors exist for the former case, but not for the latter. In this paper we set out a general scheme to predict estimation variances when the dimension of either D, or of the probes, is n. We make some progress when both dimensions are equal to n, and obtain explicit results for n = 1 (e.g. for systematic slice sampling). We check and illustrate our results for the volume estimators of ellipsoids and of rat lung.

We give formulae for different types of contact distribution functions for stationary (not necessarily Poisson) Voronoi tessellations in ℝd in terms of the Palm void probabilities of the generating point process. Moreover, using the well-known relationship between the linear contact distribution and the chord length distribution we derive a closed form expression for the mean chord length in terms of the two-point Palm distribution and the pair correlation function of the generating point process. The results obtained are specified for Voronoi tessellations generated by Poisson cluster and Gibbsian processes, respectively.

A new class of Gibbsian models with potentials associated with the connected components or homogeneous parts of images is introduced. For these models the neighbourhood of a pixel is not fixed as for Markov random fields, but is given by the components which are adjacent to the pixel. The relationship to Markov random fields and marked point processes is explored and spatial Markov properties are established. Extensions to infinite lattices are also studied, and statistical inference problems including geostatistical applications and statistical image analysis are discussed. Finally, simulation studies are presented which show that the models may be appropriate for a variety of interesting patterns, including images exhibiting intermediate degrees of spatial continuity and images of objects against background.

In a real n-1 dimensional affine space E, consider a tetrahedron T0, i.e. the convex hull of n points α1, α2, …, αn of E. Choose n independent points β1, β2, …, βn randomly and uniformly in T0, thus obtaining a new tetrahedron T1 contained in T0. Repeat the operation with T1 instead of T0, obtaining T2, and so on. The sequence of the Tk shrinks to a point Y of T0 and this note computes the distribution of the barycentric coordinates of Y with respect to (α1, α2, …, αn) (Corollary 2.3). We also obtain the explicit distribution of Y in more general cases. The technique used is to reduce the problem to the study of a random walk on the semigroup of stochastic (n,n) matrices, and this note is a geometrical application of a former result of Chamayou and Letac (1994).

We consider a stationary germ-grain model Ξ with convex and compact grains and the distance r(x) from x ε ℝd to Ξ. For almost all points x ε ℝd there exists a unique point p(x) in the boundary of Ξ such that r(x) is the length of the vector x-p(x), which is called the spherical contact vector at x. In this paper we relate the distribution of the spherical contact vector to the times it takes a typical boundary point of Ξ to hit another grain if all grains start growing at the same time and at the same speed. The notion of a typical point is made precise by using the generalized curvature measures of Ξ. The result generalizes a well known formula for the Boolean model. Specific examples are discussed in detail.

An unbiased stereological estimator for surface area density is derived for gradient surface processes which form a particular class of non-stationary spatial surface processes. Vertical planar sections are used for the estimation. The variance of the estimator is studied and found to be infinite for certain types of surface processes. A modification of the estimator is presented which exhibits finite variance.

We discuss the uniqueness of the Fréchet mean of a class of distributions on the shape space of k labelled points in ℝ2, the supports of which could be the entire space. From this it follows that the shape of the means is the unique Fréchet mean shape of the induced distribution with respect to an appropriate metric structure, provided the distribution of k labelled points in ℝ2 is isotropic and satisfies a further mild condition. This result implies that an increasing sequence of procrustean mean shapes defined in either of the two ways used in practice will tend almost surely to the shape of the means.

Mixings of stationary Poisson hyperplane tessellations in d-dimensional Euclidean space are considered. The intention of the paper is to show that the 0-cell of a mixed stationary Poisson hyperplane tessellation Y is in some sense larger than that of stationary Poisson hyperplane tessellations Y' with the same intensity and directional distribution as Y. Related results concerning the moments for the volume of the 0-cell are derived. In special cases, similar statements with respect to the typical cell are proved.

Let n points be placed independently in ν-dimensional space according to the standard ν-dimensional normal distribution. Let Mn be the longest edge-length of the minimal spanning tree on these points; equivalently let Mn be the infimum of those r such that the union of balls of radius r/2 centred at the points is connected. We show that the distribution of (2 log n)1/2Mn - bn converges weakly to the Gumbel (double exponential) distribution, where bn are explicit constants with bn ~ (ν - 1)log log n. We also show the same result holds if Mn is the longest edge-length for the nearest neighbour graph on the points.

We prove central limit theorems for certain geometrical characteristics of the convex polygons determined by a standard Poisson line process in the plane, such as: the angles at the vertices of the polygons, the empirical mean of the number of vertices and the empirical mean of the perimeter of the polygons.

In this paper we study finite clusters in a high density Boolean model with balls of two distinct sizes. Alexander (1993) studied the geometric structures of finite clusters in a high density Boolean model with balls of fixed size and showed that the only possible structure admitted by such events is that all Poisson points comprising the cluster are packed tightly inside a small sphere. When the balls are of varying sizes, the event that the cluster consists of k1 big balls and k2 small balls (both k1, k2 ≥ 1) occurs only when the centres of all big balls are compressed in a small sphere and the centres of the small balls are distributed uniformly inside the region formed by the big balls in such a way that the small balls are totally contained inside the big balls. We also show that it is most likely that a finite cluster in a high density Boolean model with varying ball sizes is made up only of small balls.

A common problem in Bayesian object recognition using marked point process models is to produce a point estimate of the true underlying object configuration: the number of objects and the size, location and shape of each object. We use decision theory and the concept of loss functions to design a more reasonable estimator for this purpose, rather than using the common zero-one loss corresponding to the maximum a posteriori estimator. We propose to use the squared Δ-metric of Baddeley (1992) as our loss function and demonstrate that the corresponding optimal Bayesian estimator can be well approximated by combining Markov chain Monte Carlo methods with simulated annealing into a two-step algorithm. The proposed loss function is tested using a marked point process model developed for locating cells in confocal microscopy images.

The immigration processes associated with a given branching particle system are formulated by skew convolution semigroups. It is shown that every skew convolution semigroup corresponds uniquely to a locally integrable entrance law for the branching particle system. The immigration particle system may be constructed using a Poisson random measure based on a Markovian measure determined by the entrance law. In the special case where the underlying process is a minimal Brownian motion in a bounded domain, a general representation is given for locally integrable entrance laws for the branching particle system. The convergence of immigration particle systems to measure-valued immigration processes is also studied.

This paper considers a branching process generated by an offspring distribution F with mean m < ∞ and variance σ2 < ∞ and such that, at each generation n, there is an observed δ-migration, according to a binomial law Bpvn*Nnbef which depends on the total population size Nnbef. The δ-migration is defined as an emigration, an immigration or a null migration, depending on the value of δ, which is assumed constant throughout the different generations. The process with δ-migration is a generation-dependent Galton-Watson process, whereas the observed process is not in general a martingale. Under the assumption that the process with δ-migration is supercritical, we generalize for the observed migrating process the results relative to the Galton-Watson supercritical case that concern the asymptotic behaviour of the process and the estimation of m and σ2, as n → ∞. Moreover, an asymptotic confidence interval of the initial population size is given.

Let {Ai : i ≥ 1} be a sequence of non-negative random variables and let M be the class of all probability measures on [0,∞]. Define a transformation T on M by letting Tμ be the distribution of ∑i=1∞AiZi, where the Zi are independent random variables with distribution μ, which are also independent of {Ai}. Under first moment assumptions imposed on {Ai}, we determine exactly when T has a non-trivial fixed point (of finite or infinite mean) and we prove that all fixed points have regular variation properties; under moment assumptions of order 1 + ε, ε > 0, we find all the fixed points and we prove that all non-trivial fixed points have stable-like tails. Convergence theorems are given to ensure that each non-trivial fixed point can be obtained as a limit of iterations (by T) with an appropriate initial distribution; convergence to the trivial fixed points δ0 and δ∞ is also examined, and a result like the Kesten-Stigum theorem is established in the case where the initial distribution has the same tails as a stable law. The problem of convergence with an arbitrary initial distribution is also considered when there is no non-trivial fixed point. Our investigation has applications in the study of: (a) branching processes; (b) invariant measures of some infinite particle systems; (c) the model for turbulence of Yaglom and Mandelbrot; (d) flows in networks and Hausdorff measures in random constructions; and (e) the sorting algorithm Quicksort. In particular, it turns out that the basic functional equation in the branching random walk always has a non-trivial solution.