Perfect Day Research Articles

PERfect Day: reversible and dose-dependent control of circadian time-keeping in the mouse suprachiasmatic nucleus by translational switching of PERIOD2 protein expression.

The biological clock of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) orchestrates circadian (approximately daily) rhythms of behaviour and physiology that underpin health. SCN cell-autonomous time-keeping revolves around a transcriptional/translational feedback loop (TTFL) within which PERIOD (PER1,2) and CRYPTOCHROME (CRY1,2) proteins heterodimerise and suppress trans-activation of their encoding genes (Per1,2; Cry1,2). To explore its contribution to SCN time-keeping, we used adeno-associated virus-mediated translational switching to express PER2 (tsPER2) in organotypic SCN slices carrying bioluminescent TTFL circadian reporters. Translational switching requires provision of the non-canonical amino acid, alkyne lysine (AlkK), for protein expression. Correspondingly, AlkK, but not vehicle, induced constitutive expression of tsPER2 in SCN neurons and reversibly and dose-dependently suppressed pPer1-driven transcription in PER-deficient (Per1,2-null) SCN, illustrating the potency of PER2 in negative regulation within the TTFL. Constitutive expression of tsPER2, however, failed to initiate circadian oscillations in arrhythmic PER-deficient SCN. In rhythmic, PER-competent SCN, AlkK dose-dependently reduced the amplitude of PER2-reported oscillations as inhibition by tsPER2 progressively damped the TTFL. tsPER2 also dose-dependently lengthened the period of the SCN TTFL and neuronal calcium rhythms. Following wash-out of AlkK to remove tsPER2, the SCN regained TTFL amplitude and period. Furthermore, SCN retained their pre-washout phase: the removal of tsPER2 did not phase-shift the TTFL. Given that constitutive tsCRY1 can regulate TTFL amplitude and period, but also reset TTFL phase and initiate rhythms in CRY-deficient SCN, these results reveal overlapping and distinct properties of PER2 and CRY1 within the SCN, and emphasise the utility of translational switching to explore the functions of circadian proteins.

An Argument Against Weiism: A Nietzschean and Philosophical Posthumanist Reading of Ira Levin’s This Perfect Day

ABSTRACT In this paper, I set out to argue in favour of a philosophical posthumanist and Nietzschean reading of Ira Levin’s This Perfect Day while demonstrating how transhumanism isunbefitting of being called a Nietzschean theory. I will do this by establishing Chip, the protagonist, as a posthuman and being on the path of the ‘Overhuman’ whereas Wei, the antagonist, will be illustrated as Chip’s intended counterpart the Last Human. Through explaining ‘Transhumansim’ and connecting the field to Wei, I will showcase a new way of reading transhumanist ideology, namely ‘Weiism’. The polar opposite in characters of ‘Overhuman’ and ‘Last Human’ will argue in favour of the Nietzschean paradoxical, as part of philosophical posthumanism. Amor fati and the eternal recurrence become posthumanist narrative tools through their weaving into the posthuman narrative of Chip. My argument is that by making philosophical posthumanism more existentialist in nature, it becomes simpler to argue against nihilistic and totalitarian tendencies of worshipping technology. Finally, it is the spiralling motion forward as a mix between the Nietzschean, eternally cyclical re-inventing of oneself and the posthumanist consideration for the future which makes for a literary combination of the two fields of study.

Postponing the day of your dreams? Modern weddings and the impact of COVID-19

COVID-19-related restrictions had an enormous impact on weddings in 2020. For three months, weddings were effectively prohibited, and requirements for social distancing, hand-sanitising and face coverings existed throughout England and Wales for the rest of the year. In August 2020, we conducted a survey of couples who were planning to marry between March and December 2020. This article focuses on how many respondents had postponed their wedding, and what they said about their reasons for doing so. We analyse their responses according to the significance attached to three alternative meanings of a wedding: an event for family and friends, a traditional ceremony that has to be conducted in a particular way, and the individualistic ‘perfect day’. We found that many couples attach considerable importance to who attends their weddings and that some traditions are very important to them, but few responses supported the notion that weddings are principally extravagant displays.

Our Pool by Lucy Ruth Cummins

Reviewed by: Our Pool by Lucy Ruth Cummins Natalie Berglind Cummins, Lucy Ruth Our Pool; written and illus. by Lucy Ruth Cummins. Atheneum, 2023 [48p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781534499232 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781534499249 $10.99 It’s the perfect day to go to the city pool, and our kid narrator and their mother join other parent-child duos heading for a swim. When they arrive, the narrator is covered with a heaping amount of sunblock, and then they cannonball right into the water with the rest of the poolgoers. As they swim, they make various observations about the people around them (“I spy bigger bodies, smaller bodies, taller bodies, and the smallest-of-all-bodies”; “I see lots of different types of skin, [End Page 324] even sunburned skin—OUCH”) and enjoy being part of the flow, as “we do flips and we do handstands” and “take turns swimming through each other’s legs.” This picture book never shows viewers which of the parent-child pairings the narrator belongs to—rather, four or more sets of people of varying races and body types act out the described activities, allowing viewers to insert themselves if they so desire. The gouache art has a childlike draftsmanship, sticking to minimal facial features, squiggly lines, and a marker-like texture, and the vibrant hues convey the chlorine-scented excitement of a cool pool visit on a hot summer day. With an emphasis on inclusivity and communal joy, this is a gentle reminder to kids (and adults) to love the bodies they live in. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Domestic Violence on the Italian Screen: Representation and Resistance.

This article looks at how contemporary Italian films address issues of the tragedy and horror of domestic abuse and attempt to create a space for reflection and change. Ferzan Ozpetek's (2008) Un giorno perfetto (A Perfect Day), Andrès Arce Maldonado's (2017) Dentro (Inside), and Ivano De Matteo's (2016) La vita possibile (A Possible Life) ultimately challenge the perception of domestic violence as a fixed and unchangeable condition for women. The films explore how female solidarity, empathy, and care can serve as pathways to combatting the isolation, guilt, and associated emotions that prevent women from seeking or finding la vita possibile.

Counter-Hegemonic Narratives of White Weddings: Brides Responses to Wedding Disruptions During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Dominant cultural discourses dictate what the ideal wedding should look like, and these discourses often center around the white wedding. White weddings typically include a bride in a white dress, a large reception, and a honeymoon. Given that western culture privileges the white wedding, weddings that deviate from this norm are sometimes delegitimatized. We used Relational Dialectics Theory 2.0 to examine dominant discourses of weddings during Covid-19. Covid-19 necessitated that many couples alter their wedding plans and prompted them to explicitly consider the taken-for-granted assumptions of the white wedding. We conducted a contrapuntal analysis of 87 recently married women’s open-ended survey responses about how Covid-19 changed their wedding plans and what the women liked and disliked about these changes. These disruptions in wedding plans afford the opportunity to explore dominant white wedding discourses among brides. The following discourses emerged from our analysis: the centripetal discourse of the white wedding, the centrifugal discourse of the focus on relationships, the centripetal discourses of the perfect day, and the centrifugal discourses of the perfect day.

Introduction

Introduction

Butterflies

Butterflies

The promise and pitfalls of cross-partisan conversations for reducing affective polarization: Evidence from randomized experiments.

Organizations, activists, and scholars hope that conversations between outpartisans (supporters of opposing political parties) can reduce affective polarization (dislike of outpartisans) and bolster democratic accountability (e.g., support for democratic norms). We argue that such conversations can reduce affective polarization but that these effects are likely to be conditional on topic, being especially likely if the conversations topics avoid discussion of areas of disagreement; usually not persist long-term; and be circumscribed, not affecting attitudes toward democratic accountability. We support this argument with two unique experiments where we paired outpartisan strangers to discuss randomly assigned topics over video calls. In study 1, we found that conversations between outpartisans about their perfect day dramatically decreased affective polarization, although these impacts decayed long-term. Study 2 also included conversations focusing on disagreement (e.g., why each supports their own party), which had no effects. Both studies found little change in attitudes related to democratic accountability.

The perfect smile for the perfect day

Nimisha Nariapara explores how dental professionals can make the most out of wedding season

Holding Gusti’s Hand

Holding Gusti’s Hand Ana Emilia Silva (bio) Translated by Stella M. Rizzo Going through the works of Argentine artist Gusti (Gustavo Ariel Rosemffet) is a transforming experience. Each of his books bears his mark and at the same time presents something new; the reader discovers a different path to follow. Like the waters of a flowing river, there is no repetition, but his essence navigates between pages and proposes other ways of seeing things. The drawings are so eloquent that we stop and take in the amazing landscape as one who explores the world. Today we will stop at four of his works: La mosca (The Fly; 2005); Animales escondidos (Hidden Animals; 2017); Mallko y papá (Mallko and Dad; 2014); and No somos angelitos (We Are Not Little Angels; 2017). Click for larger view View full resolution The Fly—La mosca In this picturebook, Gusti plays with scatological humor. He tells the story of an atypical fly that decides to take a delicious bath on a perfect day. The omniscient narrator shows, step by step, through a synergy of text and image, how the initial situation takes unexpected twists. At the end of the picturebook, the protagonist is very annoyed and promises never to bathe again. The book cover features the protagonist as well as a phrase in red that warns the reader that something disturbing is going to happen: “A perfect day can turn into a nightmare.” Decorative patterns scattered with little flies reaffirm the leading role of the fly and plunge us into a special world that appears on the back cover: a perfect day to take a bath. What seemed to be ideal gets more and more complicated, and the use of black color is a sign of danger. Shadow is imposed on bright sky blue. The story is told by means of brief texts entwined with illustrations. Images get closer by zooming. Simple illustrations, the use of collage, and cut-out cardboard figures painted in tempera in a not very neat way enable the reader to follow the adventures of the main character. Varied materials, such as cloth, paper, wood, and screws, give movement and color and increase tactile sensations. Click for larger view View full resolution Hidden Animals—Animales Escondidos This picturebook explores the varied world of the animal kingdom. Each of its pages shows different animals in wide community. Two voices make up the story: poems by Lola Casas playfully dialogue with the colorful illustrated world of Gusti. The Casas-Gusti duo has also created ¿Feos y feas? (Ugly and Ugly?), another unforget-table picturebook that shows a very peculiar parade of faces. From the very book cover a wide variety of animals, colors, and shapes make up an intricate diversity. The reader is then invited to find the [End Page 58] character suggested by the verses and the drawings in a guessing game. The text is hidden between legs or somewhere on the sheet, never in the same spot. This coming and going of the gaze creates an atmosphere of expectation and opens out to a world of search and fun. Click for larger view View full resolution Mallko and Dad—Mallko y Papá Both this book and No somos angelitos (We Are Not Little Angels) tackle a subject closely related to Gusti’s life. In Mallko and Dad, the author/illustrator draws a path in which personal life and artistic work merge. By means of texts similar to those written in a notepad, he organizes a daily parade of moods ranging from grief to acceptance. Eventually, he takes the big leap: his love for his child with Down syndrome. In his journey toward both his inner self and those who are close to him, Gusti learns to see inside himself while also learning from his older son, Théo, and from Anne, his wife. The evolution of this parallel process goes beyond the individual and testimonial value; it impinges on the outside as it also reflects the experiences of many families in similar situations. The picturebook offers multiple reading possibilities, from the deepening of a suffering subjectivity to the growth implied in reaching absolute love without hesitation. As it contains...

Turning Romanticism on its Head: The Peripheral Symbolic Geography of Aldous Huxley and Ira Levin

Within the present paper, I aim to discuss how Aldous Huxley and Ira Levin have employed the peripheral symbolic geography of their two works (Brave New World and This Perfect Day) to articulate their debate between different sets of social values. Unlike other authors of negative utopias such as George Orwell or Yevgeny Zamyatin, neither Huxley nor Levin idealized pre-modern values. In order to highlight how the two articulated their views with the help of symbolic geography, I will also make use of Michel Foucault’s theoretical concepts of heterotopias, heterochrony as well as the ideas developed by the critics Michael Lowy and Robert Sayre in their seminal work Romanticism against the Tide of Modernity. My purpose is thus firstly to point out how and why Huxley and Levin divided the symbolic geography of their works in two parts as well as how they employed the Romantic critique of modernity. Secondly, I aim to show how despite using this analytical tool, they also employed symbolic geography with the purpose of turning the critique on its head, thus unveiling both its strong points as well as its shortcomings.

Animal-free dairy firm raises $350 million

The animal-free dairy company Perfect Day has raised $350 million in series D funding, bringing its total financing to $750 million. Perfect Day launched in 2014 and introduced its flagship product, a fermented protein, last year. Plant-based ice cream was later launched by a consumer products division. The firm also acquired a bioprocessing facility in Utah last year that it now offers to other companies looking to scale up their own animal-free ingredients.

Animal-free dairy firm Perfect Day raises $350 million

Animal-free dairy firm Perfect Day raises $350 million

Latency in Lebanon, or bringing things (back) to life: A Perfect Day (Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, 2005)

Many Lebanese films and documentaries of the last few decades have focused on the hidden legacies of the civil war (1975–1991) that remain unprocessed in public, and often private, life. Unsurprisingly, these works have often been discussed by critics through the lens of traumatic cultural memory. In the first part of this article I argue that this model is productive yet insufficient. I suggest, instead, a methodological approach which acknowledges the intersections between trauma and other processes underpinning everyday life in the city. In the second part of the article I apply this approach to the film A Perfect Day (Hadjithomas and Joreige, 2005). Using the directors’ own concept of latency, I analyse the affective modes of touch, breath and the hidden life of objects to show how the performative existential drama that unfolds in the film opens out onto processes that go beyond the haunting legacies of violence from the civil war and includes a vision of singularity and infinite possibility that relates back to the birth of cinema itself.

It Began with Lemonade by Gideon Sterer

Reviewed by: It Began with Lemonade by Gideon Sterer Kate Quealy-Gainer, Assistant Editor Sterer, Gideon It Began with Lemonade; illus. by Lian Cho. Dial, 2021 [40p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780735228283 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780593111406 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R 4-7 yrs The first Saturday of summer is “hot as an oven with blazing blue skies, ” a perfect day, our young protagonist thinks, to sell some lemonade. Unfortunately, after a morning of chopping, squeezing, and stirring, she finds that the streets are crowded with lemonade sellers, so she trudges along further and further away from town, with her luck eventually going from bad to worse when her stand on wheels rolls down a hill, through the scorching countryside, stopping at the edge of the river. She’s about to give up and head back, but she’s surprised by a boater who floats along looking for a cool drink. Soon she’s got herself a slew of buyers in her new location, including canoeing crocodiles, tubing bears, an octopus, a sea monster, and even a mermaid, and she returns home that night with pockets full and pitchers empty. With pigtails bouncing and wide smile grinning (and then grimacing), our young entrepreneur brings a frantic energy to the scene, pushing and then chasing her homemade stand (topped with a bespectacled lemon with its own delightful expressions) through scenes vibrant with urban chaos and then pastoral sunniness. Her animated shouting to new riverside customers brings further verve, and the parade of thirsty creatures gets increasingly silly as the afternoon wears on. Pair this with Hoffmann’s Dirt Cheap (BCCB 4/20) for a lesson in creative capitalism. Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Alt-dairy protein firm nets $300 million

The California start-up Perfect Day has added $160 million to an initial $140 million round from investors to boost output of fermentation-derived dairy proteins. The latest funding round was led b...

The Prose by Salinger and the Metaphysics of Gilles Deleuze

Introduction. This article aims at analyzing prose of Jerome D. Salinger (Nine Stories and Catcher in Rye). The main innovative element of this research is to study prose by Salinger as an example of post-avant-garde American prose with application of philosophical concepts introduced by French post-structuralist Gilles Deleuze. The benefit and importance of such research are determined by fact that prose developed by Salinger (especially in Nine Stories) is characterized by new type of narrative developed after Second World War, similar to certain patterns observed not only in literature, but also in music and art. Methodology and sources. The research method used is coined as structural-semantic analysis. Methodology also implies use of main principles of metaphysics developed by Gilles Deleuze, which is reflected in his book Difference and Repetition, and is analyzed in scientific works on theory of post-avant-garde art and music. Results and discussion . The fusion of crystal-like, mirror-isomorphic structure of Salinger's prose (Nine Stories) and fragments of real experience rendered in his stories (such as feelings and sensations of characters) do not even create their own image, as I. Galinskaya writes, but manifest a living, echoing shadow of picture, which allows not only to interpret events, but create special mood, sensation in reader. In this sense, remark of Hassan, famous theoretician of postmodernism, is very accurate: in postmodern literature place of the Father God (that is voice of reader) is occupied by the Holy Spirit (that is voice of narrative beyond actual wording). The meaning of story (on macro-level), as well as pragmatic meaning of some of statements and words (on micro-level) lie somewhere beyond words and concepts, outside storyline or composition, appears alongside with predetermined structure, as if against will of author. Deliberate simplicity, minimal lexical workload or density, and absence of obvious cause-effect relationships create feeling of trance, which makes reader address story again and again in an attempt to find an accurate interpretation. Conclusion. In one of Salinger's saddest cycle of stories (in this analysis A Perfect Day for Bananafish) about fate of post-war generation, feeling of an otherworldly, different presence arises. A series of repetitions gives feeling of difference, allows for understanding how close attention to situation gives new opportunities for decisions, actions and meanings.

Capitol Hill Briefing Highlights Telemedicine’s Benefits, Barriers, Solutions

Capitol Hill Briefing Highlights Telemedicine’s Benefits, Barriers, Solutions

Experimental investigations of single-slope solar still integrated with a hollow rotating cylinder

The main objective of the current study is to increase the productivity rate of conventional solar still by increasing the surface area of heat transfer in the evaporation section within solar still. Lightweight rotating hollow metal cylinder made of galvanized iron layer (0.06 cm thickness and diameter of 32 cm) with a length of 90 cm was used as evaporation section within the improved single slope solar still. The tests were carried out for 3 months (Jun, July and August) at the Ural Federal University of Yekaterinburg/Russia, the experimental results taken for a perfect day on 12 Jun 2019. The impact of different parameters on the productivity of freshwater has been investigated using the new improved solar still. Study results reveal that environmental factors such as the intensity of solar radiation, ambient temperature, relative humidity and wind speed have the greatest impact on freshwater productivity. The analyses of results show that the ratio of water productivity enhancement found to be about 161% than that of the conventional solar still over the long day period.