Glossary
| aerosol | particles dispersed in a gas |
| aliquot | a subsample drawn from a larger sample |
| alpha-emitting | producing ionizing radiation in the form of alpha particles |
| anthropogenic | referring to environmental alterations resulting from the presence or activities of humans |
| actinides | the series of radioactive elements that starts with actinium and ends with lawrencium |
| coefficient of variation | a statistical parameter that expresses standard deviation as a percentage of the mean, calculated as standard deviation divided by the mean, multiplied by 100 |
| dosimetry | the measurement of radiation doses |
| gamma-emitting | producing ionizing radiation in the form of gamma rays |
| gross alpha | measurement of total number of alpha decays without specification of individual energies |
| in vivo | taking place within a living cell or organism |
| informatics | information management systems |
| photon | a massless particle, the quantum of the electromagnetic field, carrying energy, momentum and angular momentum |
| radionuclide | a type of atom that loses particles and energy through decay or transformation into other elements |
| shield | cast iron or steel enclosure often used in conjunction with gamma detectors to reduce the influence of background radiation on measurements |
| spallation | a nuclear reaction in which several nucleons are released from the nucleus of an atom |
| standard deviation | a statistical parameter, calculated as the positive square root of the expected value of the square of the difference between a random variable and its mean |
| standard error | the standard deviation of the probability function or probability density function of a random variable and of a statistic; typically the standard deviation of the mean |
| temporal | pertaining to or limited by time |
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