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Radioactive elements are ubiquitous in nature. We live in an environment filled with radiation from these elements. Soil, rock, water, air, etc. contain radionuclides of varying concentrations. The concentration also depends on the position of place on Earth. The presence radioactive materials occurring naturally in nature is responsible for radiation dose to the people even in indoors and outdoor. The exposure to radiation is inevitable to human beings. Some region has high amount of radiation and some low. As a result, population experience varying amount of radiation dose from these materials. An estimation of radiation dose due to ambient gamma radiation and gross alpha activity from soil sample were studied. In this research work, the gamma radiation and alpha activity were measured using Scintillation counter and Alpha counting system respectively. Tumakuru is the present study area, which is located in southern India, in the state of Karnataka. The study revealed that, the gamma absorbed dose due to outdoor changed from 44 nGyh-1 to 191 nGyh-1 with a mean of 101 nGyh-1. The average of effective dose from gamma outdoor was 124 μSv/year. The indoor absorbed dose varied from 113 nGyh-1 to 218 nGyh-1 with an average of 124 nGyh-1. The mean effective dose was 742 μSv/year. The indoor gamma radiation level was higher than that of outdoor as expected due to poor ventilation and for the fact that, the average indoor occupancy is higher than that of outdoor. The correlation between gamma radiation level and alpha activity was moderate and the correlation coefficient was 0.4881. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bandgap energy and density of the sample were found by the analytical method. The density was found to increase up to 5 mol%, depicting the compactness of the sample and then decreasing with gadolinium content. Molar volume (Vm), Gd3+ ion concentration (N), refractive index (n), electronic polarizability (αe), reflection loss (RL), polaron radius (rp), internuclear distance (ri), field strength(F), dielectric constant(ɛ) of the sample were calculated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]