Beef carcasses with larger eye muscle areas, lower ossification scores and improved nutrition have a lower incidence of dark cutting

This study evaluated the effect of eye muscle area (EMA), ossification, carcass weight, marbling and rib fat depth on the incidence of dark cutting (pH u > 5.7) using routinely collected Meat Standards Australia (MSA) data. Data was obtained from 204,072 carcasses at a Western Australian processor between 2002 and 2008. Binomial data of pH u compliance was analysed using a logit model in a Bayesian framework. Increasing eye muscle area from 40 to 80 cm 2, increased pH u compliance by around 14% (P < 0.001) in carcasses less than 350 kg. As carcass weight increased from 150 kg to 220 kg, compliance increased by 13% (P < 0.001) and younger cattle with lower ossification were also 7% more compliant (P < 0.001). As rib fat depth increased from 0 to 20 mm, pH u compliance increased by around 10% (P < 0.001) yet marbling had no effect on dark cutting. Increasing musculature and growth combined with good nutrition will minimise dark cutting beef in Australia.

ACE research vignette 019 : exploring the "Dark Side" of entrepreneurship

This series of research vignettes is aimed at sharing current and interesting research findings from our team of international Entrepreneurhsip researchers. In this vignette, Dr Rene Bakker explores "the dark side" of entrepreneurship.

Pinteresque puppets and masters weave dark tales of a dystopic world

A HARBINGER is a messenger, foreshadowing what is to come. This adult fairytale, told with a cast of human actors and 22 puppets, foretells the story of a little girl found in the shadows of countless books in the library of a character known as the Old Man.

Parking, parties and pets : disputes - the dark side of community living

In the last decade community living, in master planned communities or strata titled complexes, has increased. As land becomes scarcer, the popularity of these schemes is predicted to grow. Offsetting this popularity is the peculiarities of community living, in particular the often unthought-of difficulties arising from living in very close proximity to your neighbour. Such difficulties affect both amenity of life and property value. This paper seeks to inform practitioners of the issues arising from community living. It does this by identifying the more common forms of disputes and considering recent tribunal and court decisions. The paper concludes by identifying the dispute warning signs to assist to practitioners with the valuation process.

Of things in the dark, remembered

Excerpt: "To enter the shadow world cast by each installation of Moule is to enter the waking dream of the half remembered. Each object, in its own pool of light, connected to other objects by fields of the twilit, is evocative of some object from our waking world, but recast into that which cannot be and yet is here, palpably so - insistent. All that confronts us is so determinedly derived from some internal gesture and rendered into some partial-reality, without surety of line or contour to combat our internal world of meaning and sense."

The intervening role of Agreeableness in the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and Machiavellianism : reassessing the potential dark side of EI

Previous research into the potential ‘dark’ side of trait emotional intelligence (EI) has repeatedly demonstrated that trait EI is negatively associated with Machiavellianism. In this study, we reassess the potential dark side of trait EI, by testing whether Agreeableness mediates and/or moderates the relationship between trait EI and Machiavellianism. Hypothesized mediation and moderation effects were tested using a large sample of 884 workers who completed several self-report questionnaires. Results provide support for both hypotheses; Agreeableness was found to mediate and moderate the relationship between trait EI and Machiavellianism. Overall, results indicate that individuals high in trait EI tend to have low levels of Machiavellianism because they generally have a positive nature (i.e. are agreeable) and not because they are emotionally competent per se. Results also indicate that individuals high in ‘perceived emotional competence’ have the potential to be high in Machiavellianism, particularly when they are low in Agreeableness.

Dark Cartographies

‘Dark Cartographies’ is a slowly evolving meditation upon seasonal change, life after light and the occluding shadows of human influence. Through creating experiences of the many ‘times of a night’ the work allows participants to experience deep engagement with rich spectras of hidden place and sound. By amplifying and shining light upon a myriad of lives lived in blackness, ‘Dark Cartographies’ tempts us to re-understand seasonal change as actively-embodied temporality, inflected by our climate-changing disturbances. ‘Dark Cartographies’ uses custom interactive systems, illusionary techniques and real time spatial audio that draw upon a rich array of media, including seasonal, nocturnal field recordings sourced in the Far North Queensland region and detailed observations of foliage & flowering phases. By drawing inspiration from the subtle transitions between what Europeans named ‘Summer’ and ‘Autumn’, and by including the body and its temporal disturbances within the work, ‘Dark Cartographies’ creates compellingly immersive environments that wrap us in atmospheres beyond sight and hearing. ‘Dark Cartographies’ is a dynamic new installation directed & choreographed by environmental cycles; alluding to a new framework for making works that we call ‘Seasonal’. This powerful, responsive & experiential work draws attention to that which will disappear when biodiverse worlds have descended into an era of permanent darkness – an ‘extinction of human experience’. By tapping into the deeply interlocking seasonal cycles of environments that are themselves intimately linked with social, geographical & political concerns, participating audiences are therefore challenged to see the night, their locality & ecologies in new ways through extending their personal limits of perception, imagery & comprehension.

Butterfly: the dark fluidity of suburban life

The American Association of Australasian Literary Studies (AAALS) Annual Conference, Forth Worth, Texas, 9–11 April 2015. The dark fluidity of Melbourne suburbia in Sonya Hartnett’s Butterfly Sonya Hartnett’s Butterfly (2009) is a fictional account of the suburban family life of the Coyles in 1980’s outer suburban Melbourne written from the perspective of teenager Plum Coyle. The Coyle family at first glance appear to be living a textbook example of the suburban lifestyle developed from the 19th century and sustained well into the twentieth century, in which housing design and gender roles were clearly defined and “connected with a normative heterosexuality” (Johnson 2000: 94). The Australian suburban space is also well documented as a place where people often have to contend with oppressive rigid social and cultural ideals (ie Rowse 1978, Johnson 1993, Turnbull 2008, and Flew 2011). There is a tendency to group “suburb” as one monolithic space but this paper will argue that Hartnett exposes the dark fluidity and the complexity of the term, just as she reveals that despite or perhaps because of the planned nature of suburbia, the lives that people live are often just as complex.

Frequent (flier) frustration and the dark side of word‐of‐web: exploring online dysfunctional behavior in online feedback forums

Purpose Following the perspective of frustration theory customer frustration incidents lead to frustration behavior such as protest (negative word‐of‐mouth). On the internet customers can express their emotions verbally and non‐verbally in numerous web‐based review platforms. The purpose of this study is to investigate online dysfunctional customer behavior, in particular negative “word‐of‐web” (WOW) in online feedback forums, among customers who participate in frequent‐flier programs in the airline industry. Design/methodology/approach The study employs a variation of the critical incident technique (CIT) referred to as the critical internet feedback technique (CIFT). Qualitative data of customer reviews of 13 different frequent‐flier programs posted on the internet were collected and analyzed with regard to frustration incidents, verbal and non‐verbal emotional effects and types of dysfunctional word‐of‐web customer behavior. The sample includes 141 negative customer reviews based on non‐recommendations and low program ratings. Findings Problems with loyalty programs evoke negative emotions that are expressed in a spectrum of verbal and non‐verbal negative electronic word‐of‐mouth. Online dysfunctional behavior can vary widely from low ratings and non‐recommendations to voicing switching intentions to even stronger forms such as manipulation of others and revenge intentions. Research limitations/implications Results have to be viewed carefully due to methodological challenges with regard to the measurement of emotions, in particular the accuracy of self‐report techniques and the quality of online data. Generalization of the results is limited because the study utilizes data from only one industry. Further research is needed with regard to the exact differentiation of frustration from related constructs. In addition, large‐scale quantitative studies are necessary to specify and test the relationships between frustration incidents and subsequent dysfunctional customer behavior expressed in negative word‐of‐web. Practical implications The study yields important implications for the monitoring of the perceived quality of loyalty programs. Management can obtain valuable information about program‐related and/or relationship‐related frustration incidents that lead to online dysfunctional customer behavior. A proactive response strategy should be developed to deal with severe cases, such as sabotage plans. Originality/value This study contributes to knowledge regarding the limited research of online dysfunctional customer behavior as well as frustration incidents of loyalty programs. Also, the article presents a theoretical “customer frustration‐defection” framework that describes different levels of online dysfunctional behavior in relation to the level of frustration sensation that customers have experienced. The framework extends the existing perspective of the “customer satisfaction‐loyalty” framework developed by Heskett et al.

Dark city

A synopsis and critique of an Australian/American film, Dark City, directed by Alex Proyas in the science fiction genre.

LISA as a dark energy probe

Recently, it has been shown that the inclusion of higher signal harmonics in the inspiral signals of binary supermassive black holes (SMBH) leads to dramatic improvements in the parameter estimation with Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). In particular, the angular resolution becomes good enough to identify the host galaxy or galaxy cluster, in which case the redshift can be determined by electromagnetic means. The gravitational wave signal also provides the luminosity distance with high accuracy, and the relationship between this and the redshift depends sensitively on the cosmological parameters, such as the equation-of-state parameter w = p(DE)/rho(DE) of dark energy. Using binary SMBH events at z < 1 with appropriate masses and orientations, one would be able to constrain w to within a few per cent. We show that, if the measured sky location is folded into the error analysis, the uncertainty on w goes down by an additional factor of 2-3, leaving weak lensing as the only limiting factor in using LISA as a dark energy probe.

Dark Spots, Bubbles, and Shells in the Lobes of Extragalactic Radio Sources

Based on maps of the extragalactic radio sources Cyg A, Her A, Cen A, 3C 277.3 and others, arguments are given that the twin-jets from the respective active galactic nucleus ram their channels repeatedly through thin, massive shells. The jets are thereby temporarily choked and blow radio bubbles. Warm shell matter in the cocoon shows up radio-dark through electron-scattering.