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Background/Objectives: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Australian state and federal governments enacted boarder closures, social distancing measures, and lockdowns. By the end of October 2020, the 112-day lockdown in the Australian state of Victoria was the longest continuous lockdown period internationally. Previous studies have examined how the COVID-19 pandemic and government restrictions have affected Australians' mental health and well-being; however, less is known about the relationship between psychological variables and well-being. Methods: We administered a national survey of Australians aged 16 years and over (N = 1380) in November 2020 to examine the psychological factors that promoted and hindered Australians' well-being and resilience during the first year of the pandemic. Results: Our study found that Australians reported normal to moderate levels of anxiety, moderate stress, mild depression, and moderate to high loneliness. Interpersonal trust was consistently a protective factor for well-being and resilience and was associated with less depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness, and greater resilience. Participants with greater inhibitory anxiety (intolerance of uncertainty) and an external locus of control were more likely to be depressed, anxious, stressed, and lonely, and less resilient, compared with those with less inhibitory anxiety and those who believed that these outcomes were determined by their own actions. COVID-19 beliefs were associated with more depression, anxiety, stress, and resilience. Conclusions: This study seeks to inform the development of mental-health, well-being, and resilience strategies by government agencies, non-government organisations, and healthcare providers in times of crisis and in "ordinary" times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we reveal three classes of asylum seeker sentiment in the Australian population. The first group are pro-asylum seekers who think Australians should help refugees, that government agencies should not be turning back boats carrying people seeking asylum, that immigration levels are low, and that current government policy is too tough. The second group are anti-asylum seekers who strongly disagree with helping refugees and people seeking asylum, and support a tough border policy. A third group are pro-government policy but largely sympathetic to refugees and people seeking asylum. We explain the demography and attitudes of these three groups using the theory on border securitisation. The securitisation actions and discourse position people seeking asylum as a threat. This has received widespread public endorsement. This is an empirical reflection of over two decades of influential Australian government discourse of antipathy towards refugees and asylum seekers. Successive Australian governments have tied those seeking asylum who arrive by boat with strict border enforcement policies that target people seeking asylum as a security threat to be repelled from the Australian mainland. This largely negative discourse has supported the merits of tough border controls. However, this discursive campaign has not entirely eradicated sympathy towards refugees and asylum seekers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract There is a dearth of empirical evidence on the extent of racist attitudes, broadly defined, in Australia. A telephone survey of 5056 residents in Queensland and NSW examined attitudes [...]

The rising number of roadside memorials to motor vehicle accident victims threatens to create a problematic interpretation of young masculinity. Since most of the memorials are for young males, they are being interpreted as monuments to egocentristic bravery, disregard for personal safety and machismo. Memorials instead should be culturally re-read as symbols of social and behavioral flaws.

The field of cultural geography is contributing to transformative human studies projects in several ways. These include the use of critically reflexive modalities for conceptual categorizations, analysis and exposure of flawed ideologies, and promotion of theories and solutions for more relevant and applicable institutional structures that address the needs of culturally diverse societies.

The Woodward–Hoffmann forbidden dissociation of tetrahedral N4 to 2N2 has been explored at several levels of ab initio molecular orbital theory. In Cs symmetry, both reactants and products belong to the A’ representation but have different orbital occupancy at the restricted Hartree–Fock (RHF) level. The minimum in the seam of crossing between the reactant and product RHF potential energy surfaces provides a qualitative estimate of the transition state. With a multiconfigurational wave function, this becomes an avoided crossing with a true transition state. The barrier to dissociation at our best level of theory is 63 kcal/mol. © 1995 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyclotetraoxygen is hypothesized to be a substance of high energy density. In order to aid in the identification of this molecule, its structure and infrared spectrum have been predicted using the coupled cluster single and double excitation (CCSD) method. At this level of theory, the bond length is predicted to be 1.473 Å and the O–O–O–O torsional angle is 27°. The heat of formation is estimated to be 83 kcal/mol; thus O4 is predicted on a per atom basis to lie 21 kcal/mol above two separated O2 molecules. The full quartic force field was determined from theory and an anharmonic prediction of the infrared-active fundamentals places them close to 815 and 724 cm-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy levels up to 6000 cm-1 above the zero point energy have been calculated for methyl fluoride using an ab initio potential function adjusted to reproduce the fundamental frequencies. The calculations were made using a novel variational procedure analogous to CI methods used in electronic structure theory. The calculated energy levels agree with the available experimental spectra with an rms error of 6.2 cm-1. In particular, the calculations reproduce the complicated resonances involving the CH stretching fundamentals. Some energy levels for CD2HF are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sixty-nine vibrational energy levels have been calculated for HCN, using an ab initio potential energy function adjusted to the fundamentals, and also an empirical potential function by Murrell et al. The energy levels were calculated variationally, using a novel direct CI procedure analogous to methods widely used in electronic structure theory. The present paper includes states with up to four quanta of excitation distributed among the four modes. Agreement with experimental spectra is good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanism of photodecomposition of trans-azomethane (CH3–N=N–CH3→2CH3·+N2) has been investigated with high level ab initio molecular orbital calculations. Potential surfaces of the low-lying electronic states were explored by state-average complete active space self-consistent-field (sa-CASSCF) and multireference configuration interaction with single and double excitation (MRCISD) methods. The calculated vertical excitation energies for S0→S1 and S0→T1 transitions are in good agreement with experiments. The lowest crossing point between the S0 and S1 surfaces, around which excited molecules would make efficient internal conversion to the ground state, is found to be asymmetrical with a CNNC dihedral angle of 92.8° and two CNN angles of 132.0° and 115.6°, respectively. Transition structures for both simultaneous and sequential C–N bond cleavages on the S0 surface were found. Though the activation energy of sequential C–N bond cleavage is about 7 kcal/mol higher than that of the simultaneous C–N bond cleavage, the Gibbs free energy of activation is lower above 0 °C, indicating that thermal decomposition of trans-azomethane is sequential. Photodissociation is expected to take place sequentially as well. In the sequential mechanism, dissociation of the first C–N bond on the S0 surface takes place endoergically without reverse barrier resulting in CH3N2 intermediate, which should decompose almost immediately over a barrier of less than 1 kcal/mol. Thus, the photodissociation reaction is highly asynchronous but is nearly concerted. This mechanism can explain two seemingly contradictory photodissociation experiments that two methyl radicals have very different translational as well as internal energies and that the velocity vectors of the three fragments are strongly correlated. © 1996 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]