The origin of the core-level binding energy shifts in nanoclusters

We investigate the shifts of the core-level binding energies in small gold nanoclusters by using {\it ab initio} density functional theory calculations. The shift of the 4$f$ states is calculated for magic number nanoclusters in a wide range of sizes and morphologies. We find a non-monotonous behavior of the core-level shift in nanoclusters depending on the size. We demonstrate that there are three main contributions to the Au 4$f$ shifts, which depend sensitively on the interatomic distances, coordination and quantum confinement. They are identified and explained by the change of the on-site electrostatic potential.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure

Refugee Women Resettling in the United States at Mid-Life aftter Ethnic Cleansing

This is a case study of two women resettling in the United States after surviving ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and a discussion of refugee women at mid-life. We learned about their lives through their participation in testimony and biographical interviewing. Daniel Levinson's study of women's lives provides a frame for thinking about the refugee woman's life after ethnic cleansing. The mid-life refugee woman's experience in the private and public spheres is changed by their traumas, but also by the transition from early to middle adul thood. Her recovery will be further shaped by the contours of her continued adult development as will the lives of her children.Ceci est une étude de cas portant sur deux femmes s'installant pour vivre aux États-Unis après avoir survécu à l'expérience de la purification ethnique en Bosnie. Il s'agit aussi d'une discussion de la question de la femme quadragénaire réfugiée. Nous avons eu accès aux détails de la vie de ces deux femmes grâce à leur participation à des témoignages et à des entrevues à visée biographique. L'étude de Daniel Levinson sur la vie de la femme produit le cadre de départ permettant de poser le problème de la vie de la femme réfugiée après le drame de la purification ethnique. L'expérience de la femme quadragénaire dans les sphères publiques et privées est tranformée par le traumatisme qu'elle a vécu, mais tout autant par la transition qui la voit passer de jeune adulte à adulte mûre. Son rétablissement sera désormais façonné par le profil de son développement continu dans la vie adulte. Il en est autant de la vie de ses enfants

BUILDING ONLINE AND TELEPHONE PSYCHOLOGICAL FIRST AID SERVICES IN A LOW RESOURCE SETTING DURING COVID-19: THE CASE OF KOSOVO

The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures brought for prevention of infections are associated with considerable psychosocial and psychological morbidity in the general population. Providing continuous mental health services during the pandemics is a challenge worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper reports on the strategies and activities taken to protect public mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kosovo. This included establishing online and phone psychological first aid services and developing psychoeducational videos and webinars. The paper concludes with several lessons learned during the process of establishing and maintaining these interventions, such as: initial political endorsement is crucial to gain and maintain the momentum of services; continuous training of volunteers is crucial for both addressing the needs/problems, which arise during the process of work and maintain the motivation of volunteers; promotion of the services is crucial; academic curricula training mental health professionals should include digital mental health related courses and manualization on how to establish this kind of services in midst of crisis is crucial in order to ensure quick operationalization when needed again especially in LMIC settings. The interventions developed provide opportunity for further research especially by evaluating the impact of the services and exploring how online and provision of mental health and psychoeducation services online could help to cover services gap in times of isolation, limited movement and situations similar to pandemics in settings with limited mental health services and resources. The situation with pandemics with COVID 19 is still far from ending. Future waves of infections and restriction could again spike the mental health and psychosocial and psychological strain of the general population, therefore being prepared in provisions of psychological first aid and other mental health services online is crucial

Application of Equal Local Levels to Improve Q-Q Plot Testing Bands with R Package qqconf

Quantile-Quantile (Q-Q) plots are often difficult to interpret because it is unclear how large the deviation from the theoretical distribution must be to indicate a lack of fit. Most Q-Q plots could benefit from the addition of meaningful global testing bands, but the use of such bands unfortunately remains rare because of the drawbacks of current approaches and packages. These drawbacks include incorrect global Type I error rate, lack of power to detect deviations in the tails of the distribution, relatively slow computation for large data sets, and limited applicability. To solve these problems, we apply the equal local levels global testing method, which we have implemented in the R Package qqconf, a versatile tool to create Q-Q plots and probability-probability (P-P) plots in a wide variety of settings, with simultaneous testing bands rapidly created using recently-developed algorithms. qqconf can easily be used to add global testing bands to Q-Q plots made by other packages. In addition to being quick to compute, these bands have a variety of desirable properties, including accurate global levels, equal sensitivity to deviations in all parts of the null distribution (including the tails), and applicability to a range of null distributions. We illustrate the use of qqconf in several applications: assessing normality of residuals from regression, assessing accuracy of p values, and use of Q-Q plots in genome-wide association studies