Emerson College

This article examines the role of status in the life of Venezuelan migrants (asylum seekers and refugees) living in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). The non-compliance by T&T with international obligations toward the protection of asylum seekers and refugees, places these Venezuelan migrants in a precarious situation due to the intersectional and layered nature of their status in T&T. The consequence of their legal status results in the targeting of Venezuelan migrants for having irregularly entered T&T. Racial and ethnic markers of status, along with sociocultural status are linked to attitudes of xenophobia by T&T nationals toward Venezuelan migrants and reinforce challenges of integration. The totality of these consequences of status on the reality for Venezuelan migrants in T&T undergirds a persistent state of fear. In an attempt to facilitate acceptance in T&T, they hide their accent, primary language spoken, and other aspects of their culture. Their voice is silenced but their stories are told through the advocates who work with them in T&T. In the midst of a hostile environment, these advocates use their status as T&T nationals to illuminate the fear-filled realities of Venezuelan migrants in T&T.

ABSTRACT With the explosive growth of short-video sharing apps (e.g., TikTok and Instagram Reels) in the social media landscape, companies actively create and disseminate branded content for desirable brand outcomes. However, app users’ psychological factors underlying their responses to branded content have not yet been examined. Integrating theoretical frameworks of technological affordances, sensation seeking trait, and behavioral engagement, this study investigated how app users’ sensation seeking drives their perceptions of branded content credibility and attitudes toward branded content, which may influence behavioral engagement and purchase intentions. Using an online survey, video-sharing app users who have engaged with branded content were recruited in the U.S. Our findings revealed that app users’ sensation seeking emerged as an important personality trait that prompted their perceptions of content credibility. Subsequently, perceived credibility of branded content resulted in enhancing app users’ attitudes toward branded content, behavioral engagement, and purchase intentions. Users’ attitudes toward branded content also generated greater behavioral engagement and purchase intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Abstract While premillennial Hollywood’s romcom revival reverted to familiar, idealizing strategies for representing romance, twenty-first-century romantic comedy refashions postclassical Hollywood’s “radical romantic comedy” through genre hybridization. After tracing radical romcom from its 1970s heyday, through its eclipse amid the reactionary return of (neo)traditionalist romcom, and then to its re-emergence thanks to “Peak TV” serializing and the streaming era, this chapter explores recent romcom’s creative crossbreeding with science/speculative fiction. Taking as case studies three pivotal works distributed across the millennium’s first three decades—2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2013’s Her, and the Amazon original series Upload (2020–2025)—this chapter considers each work’s importance for revitalizing radical romcom’s aim to confront the labors and letdowns of love and the compromises involved in coupling. Expanding to include sci-fi concerns through the central couples’ grappling with evolving technology, escalating social estrangement, and intermodal intimacy, these works engage speculatively with the affordances and dangers of emergent technologies to imagine more ethical, mutually fulfilling means of forming and sustaining relationships with one another and with future beings—human, virtual, and artificial. The new millennium’s marriage of romcom and sci-fi revives imaginings of romantic and social egalitarianism and justice for all (even post)humans. In so doing, these works indicate hybridized romcom’s potential to expose (neo)traditionalist romantic comedy’s myths and to contest the intrusion of neoliberal capitalism into our intimate lives.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the implementation of the Green Light Tool for the evaluation and treatment of tracheostomy patients hospitalized at Maine Medical Center affects the time to initiating oral nutrition, use of speaking valves, and/or time to decannulation for temporary tracheostomies. This pre-/post-intervention study uses retrospective chart review to collect data pre-intervention (e.g., Time 1) and at two time points post-intervention: 6 and 12 months after the Green Light Tool was implemented (e.g., Times 2 and 3, respectively). Data from 200 participants were included (Time 1: n = 100, Time 2: n = 50, Time 3: n = 50). Participants from each time period were similar along sex, age, and diagnosis. Participants in Time 1 had a statistically significant shorter length of stay compared to participants in Time 2 (adjusted [adj] p = .005) and Time 3 (adj p = .010). Following implementation of the Green Light Tool, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) received assessment consults sooner after a temporary tracheostomy was placed (adj p < .001), and patients with tracheostomies were evaluated by SLPs earlier in their hospitalization (adj p = .006). There was no significant difference on patient-centered outcomes, such as time to speaking valve use, capping trials, decannulation, oral trials, diet initiation, modified barium swallow, or placement of a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube. Use of the Green Light Tool improved the timeliness and consistency with which SLPs evaluated patients and the self-reported comfort SLPs felt when assessing patients with tracheostomies. Possible reasons for a lack of effect on patient-centered outcomes, including the interference of COVID-19, are discussed.

ABSTRACT Visual information had been found to be superior to textual information in enhancing processing ease, preference, attitude, and purchase intention. However, these visual format’s superior effects were mainly established for hedonic products (e.g. jackets, crackers) without a clear measure of objective decision quality. In complex decision environments (e.g. healthcare and credit card), it is unclear whether the visual advantage persists – especially when objective decision quality is a more important outcome than attitude or behavioral intentions. This research addresses this gap and examines the effect of visual vs. textual information on measures of objective decision quality in three different decision tasks (i.e. health insurance, credit card, jacket). The empirical findings suggest that the visual advantage does not extend to objective decision quality as measured by (i) the proportion to choose a dominant alternative within a choice task, and (ii) the proportion to remain with the chosen alternative when a change is allowed. Additionally, the findings show that an individual’s confidence in his/her chosen alternative was higher in the visual than textual condition for the jacket but not for health insurance and credit card decision tasks. The findings also provide evidence supporting the visual advantage effects on subjective measures of perceived time spent on task, attitude, and purchase intention.

Review of: Crisis Urbanism and Postcolonial African Cities in Postmillennial Cinema, Addamms Mututa (2022) New York: Routledge, 150 pp., ISBN 978-0-36764-085-9, p/bk, $54.99

Abstract This study examines the architectural and astronomical significance of Chogha Zanbil Ziggurat and Radkan Tower, emphasizing their cultural, scientific, and engineering contributions. Built in distinct historical periods, these monuments demonstrate the evolution of ancient Iranian timekeeping and astronomical practices, transitioning from shadow-based solar observations to advanced solar tracking techniques. Chogha Zanbil (circa 1250 BC) functioned as both a ceremonial center and a rudimentary solar observatory, while Radkan Tower (660 AH/1262AD), attributed to Khwaja Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, was designed as a precise calendrical tool, aligned with cardinal directions and the Vernal Equinox. Using descriptive, interpretive, and comparative analyses, this study explores how celestial knowledge was embedded within architectural heritage, reinforcing these monuments' relevance in sustainable heritage conservation and cultural memory. The comparative analysis situates Chogha Zanbil and Radkan Tower within a broader scientific and architectural discourse, illustrating their contributions to global astronomical knowledge and engineering advancements. Additionally, this research aligns with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, advocating for the preservation of historic observatories as vital components of cultural and scientific heritage.