Nice Day Research Articles

Nice day to go fishing

This article analyzes the representation of repetition in Viva la Dirt League’s online fantasy television series Epic NPC Man. The show is a parodic depiction of a fictional multiplayer fantasy computer game in which a variety of non-player characters (NPCs) exhibit varying degrees of self-awareness. The very concept of the show entails an underlying formal reliance upon strategies of reproduction, with the series providing live-action reenactment of various conventional situations from video games. But repetition also appears within the show as an explicit theme, with the characters defined by and in tension with the repetitive dialogue and routines of the game. This article argues that the significance of repetition in Epic NPC Man is defined by its relationship to the show’s broader investment in thematizing the escapist properties of fantasy. At one level, repetition emerges as a limit point, the moment at which fantasy breaks down. But the show also asserts repetition’s imaginative potential, situating it in opposition to a ludic, instrumental conception of gaming. The resulting image of fantasy gaming constructs the genre as both liberatory and surprisingly fragile, threatened both by the limitations of technology and by the actions of the players themselves.

Meaning and function of Spanish formulemes and pragmatemes vs. illocutionary verbs

From the perspective of Pragmatics, some scholars claim that the taxonomy of illocutionary acts should be revised. The aim of this paper is to propose such a review by means of a research field in which Lexicography and Pragmatics overlap. As we attempt to prove, formulemes offer the advantage of being a narrower field of study than free utterances. Formulemes ( Have a nice day! ) have been defined within the Meaning Text-Theory as a type of cliché and Pragmatemes ( Happy birthday! ) as a type of formuleme more restricted by the extralinguistic situation (someone’s birthday). E-dictionaries require a formal method to express both the meaning and the function of formulemes, yet this lexicographic development may well elicit problems. Within Meaning-Text Theory pragmatemes have been formalized to date by Lexical Functions. However, we have observed that this tool is unsatisfactory for didactic purposes. Therefore, in the Spanish e-dictionary Diretes , we have attached each formuleme to one illocutionary verb that we call “Pragmatic Function” (such as to wish and to congratulate for the examples above). In order to identify whether a formalization by means of Pragmatic Functions could be both possible and successful, we have formalized more than two hundred formulemes (sixty of them pragmatemes). Although the project is in progress, up to now any kind of formuleme (being or not pragmateme) was successfully analyzed by means of thirty Pragmatic Functions created ad hoc . Pragmatic Functions could be useful not only for the formalization of formulemes and pragmatemes when teaching Spanish, but also to revise the list of illocutionary verbs from the perspective of Phraseology and Lexicography.

“Have nou godenai day”

Abstract “Have a good day” and its variant “have a nice day” are among our most common forms of modern leave-taking. Although these expressions may seem modern, they can be traced back to a twelfth century English romance, entitled King Horn, and can also be found in a number of other mediaeval works. Linguists typically treat the expression as token politeness that does not warrant detailed analysis. However, an examination of the mediaeval works containing the expression shows that, from its earliest recording, it appears in unexpected contexts and can carry deeper meaning. Rather than being merely a phatic phrase, the expression has long been used as a meaningful rhetorical device. This diachronic study explores the expression “have a good day” from its earliest occurrence to modern times and shows its potential to move beyond phatic use.

“Have a Nice Day”

“Have a Nice Day”

Essaying the Impasse

Essaying the Impasse

Crosshairs

Crosshairs William Fargason (bio) I buy my father a Father's Day cardwith a deer on the front, its fur gold-embossed like a struck coin. After I lie on the inside,I hesitate. Should I tell him how I feel and ruin his day? Hi Dad, thanks for teaching mehow not to be a father. Hope you have a nice day without me. Before I put the card in the envelope,I draw a crosshair on the front shoulder of the deer with a permanent marker.I only know how to relate to my father through death. He taught me to aimfor the shoulder—it will go through the heart, then the lungs if you're at the right angle,each shoulder blade breaking under the impact. The deer will be easy to track.If the card designer meant for that deer to represent the strength and beauty of allfathers, then I am killing my own father in front of him. So be it. He won't understandthe crosshairs as a choice to use the symbols [End Page 115] he gave me against him, the barrelof my pen hot in my hand. When my father opens the card and sees I haven't forgottenthe lessons of death he taught me, he will smile. [End Page 116] William Fargason William Fargason is the author of Love Song to the Demon-Possessed Pigs of Gadara (University of Iowa Press, 2020), winner of the 2019 Iowa Poetry Prize and the 2020 Florida Book Award in Poetry (Gold Medal). His poetry has appeared in The Threepenny Review, New England Review, Barrow Street, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, The Cincinnati Review, Narrative, and elsewhere. He earned an MFA in Poetry from the University of Maryland and a PhD in Poetry from Florida State University. He lives with himself in Sparks Glencoe, Maryland, where he serves as the poetry editor at Split Lip Magazine. Copyright © 2022 Berea College ...

What I want my Neighbors to Know about my Mental Illness

I live in an apartment complex in a busy part of my town. From my second-floor balcony, I can see my neighbors coming and going from their jobs, appointments, and other activities. I don't really know any of my neighbors on a personal level. I live a rather isolated life except for occasional visits from my family. So, my interactions with my neighbors consist of a polite "Hello, how are you?" or "Have a nice day," exchanges. I sometimes wonder how they would react towards me if they knew I have a diagnosed severe mental illness.

Nature-based activities for people living with dementia: a nice day out or a matter of human rights?

PurposeThere is growing interest in and evidence for the benefits of connecting with nature for people living with dementia, sometimes known as “green care”, including reduced stress, improved sleeping and even enhanced cognition. However, many people living with dementia are denied such opportunities, often because of practitioner perceptions of risk and poor design of outdoor spaces. This paper reports on the evaluation of a project that worked with national providers to give people living with dementia opportunities and support to access the natural environment.Design/methodology/approachThe evaluation adopted a mixed-methods approach, using a combination of bespoke and commonly used tools and in-depth case study work to identify the facilitators and challenges to delivering the project and explore the experiences of activity participants.FindingsQualitative measures indicated a significant improvement in mental well-being for participants with dementia and family carers following attendance at activity sessions. Research interviews indicated that participants enjoyed activities based on connecting with nature. Being outdoors was a major factor in the experience, along with taking part in activities that were meaningful and opportunities for social interaction.Originality/valueThis paper provides evidence for the benefits of connecting with nature for people living with dementia. This paper concludes that access to the outdoors is not a luxury, it is a basic human right and one which has become increasingly important in light of restrictions that have emerged as a result of the COVID19 pandemic.

User decisions, and how these could guide developments in probabilistic forecasting

AbstractWe investigate how users combine objective probabilities with their own subjective feelings when deciding how to act on weather forecast information. Results are based on two scenarios investigated at a Live Science event held by the Royal Meteorological Society. When deciding whether to go to the beach with the possibility of warm, dry weather, we find that users attempt to identify their ‘Bayes Action’: the one which minimises their expected negative feeling or utility. Key factors are the ‘thrill’ of a nice day at the beach and the ‘pain’ of coping with, for example, children in wet weather, and the costs of travel. The users' threshold probabilities for deciding to go to the beach thus approximately define their distribution of cost/loss ratios. This is used to calculate a ‘User Brier Score’ (UBS): a measure of the overall utility to society, and which could be used to guide forecast system development. When applied to operational ensemble forecasts issued by the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) over the period 1995–2018, the UBS tends to be higher (i.e., worse) than the Brier Score, largely because users tended not to exhibit high cost/loss ratios. When deciding whether to leave a campsite in the face of potentially dangerous gales, users try to find a balance between the ‘regret’ of serious injury and the ‘pain’ of spoiling an enjoyable holiday. Some users decide to stay even at high probabilities of serious consequences – partly due to a lack of experience. On the other hand, forecasts suffer from ‘complete misses’ – where probabilities of zero are accompanied by non‐negligible outcome frequencies. These dominate the overall Brier Score. The frequency of complete misses halved over the period 1995–2018: a welcome improvement for users who do wish to avoid danger at low probabilities.

The Consolation of Profit

Incessant marketing generates a concomitant reassurance: nothing is asked but purchasing. The desperation of sales might be reasonably expected to protect consumers from further complications. This consolation of profit helps explain a wide range of otherwise surprising preferences – for commercially bottled over tap water, for example. As a case study, this paper investigates the success of formulaic, fast food over riskier and possibly more rewarding restaurants. Predictable food – 'Do you want fries with that?' – and stilted interactions – 'Have a nice day' – congeal into a multimodal text announcing that profit is pursued, to the exclusion of any other demands. In another example, the extraordinary growth of so-called megachurches, as other forms of organised Christianity decline, attests the power of deliberately appropriating marketing culture. The self-styled pastorpreneurs' constant appeal for funds reassures newcomers that, only payment being wanted, these churches uniquely present no unanticipated challenge. Finally, marketing's surreal hammering of capitalism's simple demand helps explain how an obsessive artist of 'the deal' might have been welcomed as US president.

Impact! IV. In defense of journals

Impact! IV. In defense of journals

What Makes Consumers Satisfied?

What Makes Consumers Satisfied?

Wouldn't it, too, be nice?

Wouldn't it, too, be nice?

Interviewer effects on the phonetic reduction of negative tags, innit?

This paper investigates interviewer effects on speakers' use of full, reduced or coalesced variants of negative tags, e.g. it's a nice day, isn't it/int it/innit? Using a corpus of North East English containing interviews with a range of participants and interviewers, I examine whether speakers use more phonetically-reduced variants when interviewed by someone who is more familiar to them and speaks a variety of English more similar to their own. Quantitative variationist analysis reveals that these interviewer effects do have an impact on the variation and apply in addition to linguistic and social constraints. When speakers use more full variants, this is characteristic of either a more careful speech style or, in some contexts, so-called “foreigner-directed speech”, both of which typically have less lenition and contraction than the vernacular. The findings of this study emphasise that through proper consideration of the effects that interviewers have on the data they collect, we can gain a more comprehensive, reliable interpretation of linguistic variation.

The influence of quotations uttered in emergency service triage traffic and hospitalization (Quiet).

This study aims to determine whether the use of the word, Quiet increases veterinary emergency service triage traffic or hospital admissions. Days were randomized to be a control or test phrase day. On control days, the phrase, Have a nice day! was announced to the entire hospital staff. On test days, the phrase, Have a quiet day! was announced. No statistical difference in mean number of the patients presenting to the emergency service for triage (test phrase 30.1 ± 10.4 cases vs control phrase 30.3 cases ± 10.5, p = 0.91) or hospital admissions (test phrase 3.5 ± 1.9 cases vs control phrase 4.3 ± 2.4 cases, p = 0.13) was found for 24-h following phrase utterance. No statistical difference in mean number of patients presenting to the emergency service for triage (test phrase 2.7 ± 1.4 cases vs control phrase 2.6 ± 1.9 cases, p = 0.84) or hospital admissions (test phrase 0.3 ± 0.5 cases vs control phrase 0.5 ± 0.8 cases, p = 0.08) was found in the 2-h window immediately following phrase announcement. Despite popular myth, using the word, Quiet does not increase veterinary emergency service triage traffic or hospital admissions.

Frieder Jäkle

Angewandte Chemie International EditionVolume 57, Issue 41 p. 13378-13378 Author ProfileFree Access Frieder Jäkle First published: 04 June 2018 https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201805615AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Graphical Abstract “My not-so-secret passion is a delicious piece of French cheese. I would have liked to have discovered ”frustrated“ Lewis pairs …” Find out more about Frieder Jäkle in his Author Profile. Frieder Jäkle The author presented on this page has recently published his 10th article in Angewandte Chemie in the last 10 years: “p-π Conjugated Polymers Based on Stable Triarylborane with n-Type Behavior in Optoelectronic Devices”: B. Meng, Y. Ren, J. Liu, F. Jäkle, L. Wang, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 2183; Angew. Chem. 2018, 130, 2205. The work of F. Jäkle has been featured on the inside cover of Angewandte Chemie: “Regioregular Synthesis of Azaborine Oligomers and a Polymer with a syn Conformation Stabilized by N–H⋅⋅⋅π Interactions”: A. W. Baggett, F. Guo, B. Li, S. Liu, F. Jäkle, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 11191; Angew. Chem. 2015, 127, 11343. Date of birth: April 11, 1969 Position: Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University, Newark E-mail: fjaekle@newark.rutgers.edu Homepage: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/∼fjaekle/index.htm ORCID: 0000-0001-8031-9254 Education: 1995 Diploma in chemistry, Technische Universität München (TUM) 1997 Dr. rer. nat. supervised by Prof. Matthias Wagner, TUM 1997–2000, DFG postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Ian Manners, University of Toronto Awards: 2004 NSF Career Award; 2006 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, 2009 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; 2012 ACS Akron Section Award; 2012 Boron in the Americas Award; 2017 Rutgers Board of Trustees Research Award Current research interests: Organoborane Lewis acids and Lewis pairs; conjugated polymers; organometallic polymers; optoelectronic materials; chemical sensors; supported catalysts Hobbies: Hiking, traveling, enjoying fine cuisine with my wife My not-so-secret passion is a delicious piece of French cheese. I would have liked to have discovered “frustrated” Lewis pairs. If I won the lottery, I would expand my research group and otherwise stay true to my “Swabian” upbringing. My favorite place on earth is the Munich beer gardens on a nice summer day, or maybe a hard-to-reach mountain top. I chose chemistry as a career because my soccer skills were not good enough, and I guess I like to play with fire. So what better than to have fun every day! If I were not a scientist, I would be making tons of money on Wall Street while driving a taxi in Manhattan for fun. The most important thing I learned from my parents is to be modest and enjoy a good glass of wine. My greatest achievement has been passing the physics “Vordiplom” (intermediate diploma). My worst nightmare is a lab accident involving one of my students. If I could go back in time and do any experiment, it would be … I prefer to look to the future. I celebrate success by opening a bottle of champagne when my students graduate. My piece of music is Modest Mussorgski's Pictures at an Exhibition. My 5 top papers: 1“Well-Defined Boron-Containing Polymeric Lewis Acids”: Y. Qin, G. Cheng, A. Sundararaman, F. Jäkle, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2002, 124, 12672. (A selective borylation method that has enabled access to many new materials over the years.) 2“Reversible Expansion and Contraction of a 1,2-Diborylated Ferrocene Dimer Promoted by Redox Chemistry and Nucleophile Binding”: K. Venkatasubbaiah, L. N. Zakharov, W. S. Kassel, A. L. Rheingold, F. Jäkle, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2005, 44, 5428; Angew. Chem. 2005, 117, 5564. (A redox-active analogue of diborabenzene undergoes unique structural changes when applying external stimuli.) 3“π-Expanded Borazine: An Ambipolar Conjugated B–π–N Macrocycle”: P. Chen, R. A. Lalancette, F. Jäkle, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 7994; Angew. Chem. 2012, 124, 8118. (A boron-containing donor–acceptor macrocycle that we succeeded to structurally characterize by X-ray analysis.) 4“Electron-Deficient Triarylborane Block Copolymers: Synthesis by Controlled Free Radical Polymerization and Application in the Detection of Fluoride Ions”: F. Cheng, E. M. Bonder, F. Jäkle, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 17286. (Polymer effects and block copolymer self-assembly allow for fluoride ion detection in aqueous solutions at extremely low concentrations.) 5“B–N Lewis Pair Functionalization of Anthracene: Structural Dynamics, Optoelectronic Properties, and O2 Sensitization”: K. Liu, R. A. Lalancette, F. Jäkle, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 18170. (A new class of “contorted” conjugated hybrid materials.) Volume57, Issue41October 8, 2018Pages 13378-13378 ReferencesRelatedInformation

Switching Language Modes: Complementary Brain Patterns for Formulaic and Propositional Language.

Language has been modeled as a rule governed behavior for generating an unlimited number of novel utterances using phonological, syntactic, and lexical processes. This view of language as essentially propositional is expanding as a contributory role of formulaic expressions (e.g., you know, have a nice day, how are you?) is increasingly recognized. The basic features of the functional anatomy of this language system have been described by studies of brain damage: left lateralization for propositional language and greater right lateralization and basal ganglia involvement for formulaic expressions. Positron emission tomography (PET) studies of cerebral blood flow (CBF) have established a cortical–subcortical pattern of brain activity predictive of syllable rate during phonological/lexical repetition. The same analytic approach was applied to analyzing brain images obtained during spontaneous monologues. Sixteen normal, right-handed, native English speakers underwent PET scanning during several language tasks. Speech rate for the repetition of phonological/lexical items was predicted by increased CBF in the left inferior frontal region and decreased CBF in the head of the right caudate nucleus, replicating previous results. A complementary cortical–subcortical pattern (CBF increased in the right inferior frontal region and decreased in the left caudate) was predictive of the use of speech formulas during monologue speech. The use of propositional language during the monologues was associated with strong left lateralization (increased CBF at the left inferior frontal region and decreased CBF at the right inferior frontal region). Normal communication involves the integration of two language modes, formulaic and novel, that have different neural substrates.

Meditation at 6 PM, and: St. Dismas

Meditation at 6 PM, and: St. Dismas Sarah Barber (bio) Meditation at 6 PM Of interesting things in the kitchen,let me remember these are not the least, this water and this potato. Even leavingaside the familiar miracles of pipe and pump and chlorine, the complex filteringsystem that lets me piss in the river I drink from, let me note how water fillsthe Pyrex the way it does, quick blisters into the cup, the very rush of it cloudingitself up, then settles, pours into a superlative clarity through which I see grains of salt fallto the bottom of the pot. And let me consider, as I scrub this potato with a potato-shapedbrush, how, though no potato is truly ovoid, this one is like a pebble or old boiled eggin that none of the three should be eaten: for this potato is green. But let me praise,while cream thickens over a low burner and butter softens in its wax paper wrapper,how this potato grew in horseshit and kept on growing all month in its bowl on the counter.Let me not throw it out; let me not think, as I fold dishtowels into small soft squares,of vomiting or the gastrointestinal tract but that in twenty minutes we’ll all be onlytwenty minutes older. Let me watch the pot. [End Page 69] St. Dismas He’s patron of the honor block, good thief,the famous late penitent—and might you not,dwelling in the desert, also murder to rob? Amen, I said, and signed up to teachat the supermax, Amen, but did not meantoday they should be with me in paradise which is my backyard by the river not farenough from Dannemora’s wall, thirtyconcrete feet through the village the prison built in mountains convicts mined. Hereis its post-office, here is its gas station,between them the wall. This road is closed but here are the troopers, here are the dogs.The manhunt lasts three weeks and I am notJesus, I lock my doors until I hear one’s dead, the other caught. Like anyone elsein the northern counties, I’ve seen the holein the steam-pipe and the smiley face on the post-it note that read have a nice day,I’ve tried to imagine how naïveone might have to be to smuggle tools or drive a getaway car or think it could notbe dangerous to be living in a place like this,bolt after gate after wall not unlike hell in late medieval images of its harrowing—here is St. Dismas, holding his cross,while, like a common criminal, Jesus [End Page 70] tramples demons who might only be doingtheir jobs, the only steady middle classones they could get in that region of bare storefronts and rocky farms. I don’t knowwhat makes a man kill a man—but eventhe river hates its dams. It floods that June: fish flashed through my backyard’s grassand, as if this paradise were not provisional,the geese grew bolder every day. [End Page 71] Sarah Barber Sarah Barber’s poetry collection Country House won the Pleiades Press Editors’ Prize and is forthcoming in fall 2018. Copyright © 2018 Pleiades and Pleiades Press

40 ED crowding: the acceptability of dysfunction

BackgroundCrowding in the Emergency Department is internationally recognised as one of the greatest challenges to healthcare provision. Numerous studies have highlighted the ill-effects of crowding, including increased length of stay,...

Lessons From a Backache

Lessons From a Backache