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The Impact of Race, Education, Economic Vulnerability, and Stigma on Viral Load Detectability Among People Living with HIV in Brazil.
No full textBackground: Understanding barriers to viral undetectability is crucial for developing targeted interventions for populations struggling with treatment adherence. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of race, education, economic vulnerability and HIV-related stigma on viral load detectability among people living with HIV (PLWHA) in Brazil.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional, community-based study. The sample consisted of 1767 participants. We used the Brazilian version of the HIV Stigma Index 2.0 questionnaire, the Internalized AIDS-Related Stigma Scale, and a sociodemographic questionnaire. Viral load was self-reported. Data were collected by 30 PLHV themselves in 2019, after receiving training on the Brazilian Stigma Index. Data was analyzed with both descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS.
Results: Our generalized linear model showed that participants who were non-white, with low education and of lower economic status had a lower likelihood of reporting undetectable viral load (UVL) compared compared to their respective counterparts (white participants, those with higher education, and those of higher economic status). Key population group membership was not significantly associated with UVL. Higher internalized stigma was negatively associated with lower UVL.
Conclusion: Our findings highlight the impact of racial, educational and economic disparities and internalized stigma on HIV outcomes and underscore the need for tailored interventions that address the specific challenges faced by different racial/ethnic and more vulnerable groups. These findings challenge the dominant treatment-as-prevention framework that focuses primarily on key populations, suggesting the need to broaden our focus to include other vulnerable populations, such as non-whites and those experiencing economic hardship. Such approach is critical to avoid overlooking situations where community viral load remains high
The Quiet Left: Germany and the Elusive Appeal of Left-Wing Populism Amidst Europe's Right-Wing Populist Surge
No full textMaster of Arts in International Affairs -- John Cabot University, Fall 2025.This thesis endeavours to investigate why left-wing populist movements fail to achieve the broad and durable electoral resonance enjoyed by their right-wing counterparts. Using a mixed-methods approach to the research design, the thesis integrates historical analysis, theoretical synthesis, demographic data, media text-mining and elite survey responses to identify structural, cultural and communicative factors that constrain the appeal of parties such as Die Linke and Bundnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW). Historically, Germany’s encounter with fascism, state-socialism and post-reunification socioeconomic and cultural divergence, produced a political culture that is wary of ideological extremity, yet frag mented along East-West lines. These divisions continue to shape trust in institutions, attitudes toward migration, and the salience of economic versus cultural grievances. Theoretically, the thesis draws on ideational, strategic, and relational approaches to populism to demon strate that left-wing populists struggle to mobilise emotion around identity-driven issues. Whereas right wing populist actors effectively frame migration as an exogenous threat and dominate media agenda setting, left-wing populist actors anchor their rhetoric to socio-economic critique that resonates less within emotive contemporary communication. Quantitative analysis of YouGov, Statista, and GESIS datasets show that left-wing populist support is concentrated among younger, highereducated, and disproportionately Eastern voters, with limited pen etration across older or less educated groups. Social media corpus analysis further finds that right-wing narrative receives greater amplification and sharper moral framing—advantages that left-wing actors rarely match. Overall, the thesis argues that the asymmetry between left-wing and rightwing populism in Germany stems from differences in demographic reach, media resonance and the structural makeup of the Ger man political system vis-à-vis the 5% threshold hurdle. 2 Ultimately, left-wing populism in Germany is weakened not by a lack of adequate policy but by history, identity, and message misalignment
The Role of Self-Reassurance in the Relation Between Internalized Gender Stigma, Self-Criticism, and Depression Among Transgender and Nonbinary Patients
No full textPurpose: This cross-sectional study investigated self-reassurance as a protective factor in mitigating depression related to internalized gender stigma and enhancing overall well-being among transgender and nonbinary (TNB) individuals during the first step of the gender-affirmation process.
Methods: The study included 101 TNB individuals (mean age = 26.42, standard deviation = 8.83) accessing the “Be as You Are” Clinical and Research Center at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, which offers psychological support for individuals undergoing gender-affirmation processes, from 2021 to 2024. Participants completed the Gender Minority Stress and Resilience Scale to assess internalized gender stigma; the Self-Criticizing/Attacking and Self-Reassuring Scale to evaluate self-criticism (i.e., hated-self and inadequate-self), and self-reassurance; and the Symptom Checklist-90 to measure depressive symptoms. Mediation and moderated mediation models were tested.
Results: Mediation models indicated that inadequate-self significantly mediated the relationship between internalized gender stigma and depressive symptoms. The moderated mediation analysis revealed a complex pattern: higher levels of self-reassurance were associated with a more pronounced mediating effect of inadequate-self, suggesting that self-reassurance may facilitate awareness and processing of self-critical thoughts rather than simply buffer their impact. These findings suggest that self-reassurance is a complex psychological resource that may facilitate recognizing self-critical processes and contribute to emotional regulation during the gender-affirming process.
Conclusion: These results underscore the dynamic role of self-reassurance in the initial stages of the gender-affirming process. Clinical approaches such as compassion-focused therapy may help foster self-reassurance and alleviate the psychological burden of minority stress, particularly during the vulnerable period of accessing gender-affirming care
Constructing Roles in the Early Modern Novel: Contrasting Views on Women and Female Virtue in Richardson’s Pamela and Haywood’s Fantomina
No full textThesis (B.A. in English Language and Literature, Minors in Creative Writing and Philosophy)--John Cabot University, Spring 2025.This thesis investigates eighteenth-century novels and their role in shaping social expectations on women, particularly regarding the preservation of premarital chastity, which was widely considered a marker of moral excellence. To contextualize this analysis, primary sources such as conduct books are examined to illuminate the moral framework of the time, providing deeper insight into the cultural significance of the novels under consideration. The thesis also adopts a combined lens of New Historicism and feminist literary criticism to explore the construction of gender, the performative nature of femininity, and broader social concerns of the period. The core of the analysis focuses on two novels: Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina. While Richardson reinforces the period’s moral expectations and endorses societal pressures placed upon women, Haywood subverts and challenges them. Both novels are examined through the authors’ use of metatextual elements, characterization of their heroines, and the outcomes or rewards each heroine receives. Read in contrast, these texts reveal a more complex portrayal of eighteenth-century femininity, exposing the tensions between conformity and resistance. Furthermore, this comparison offers a reflection on contemporary understandings of gender roles and highlights literature’s enduring capacity not only to mirror societal norms but also to actively shape and challenge them
Shapes of Collectivity in Rome: The Case of Stalker and Artist-Run Spaces
No full textThesis (B.A. in Art History, Minor in Art and Design)--John Cabot University, Spring 2025.This thesis explores the formation of contemporary artists’ ‘collective’ spaces in Rome, a cultural phenomenon discussed by the 2021 publication Vera, Roma, 8 Spazi, 54 Studi. Unlike Vera, this thesis approaches the issue historically, and critically. Since the late 1980s, Roman artists have struggled to maintain sustainable practices: collectors are rare, and both studio and exhibition spaces privatized. One response to the transformation of the Roman cultural landscape has been an unprecedented rise of artists’ collectives, which take on varying forms. Some share studio-space, others share exhibition venues, or even collectively produce artworks together—each iteration of “collective” attempts to gain a voice in current artistic debates. To examine some of these issues, in the context of artistic theory and practice since the 1990s, this research focuses on a case-study: the Stalker collective, founded in 1995. This long-standing collective has been the subject of art-historical, critical, and curatorial writings over the past thirty years. In many ways, Stalker has become a counterpoint to the mainstream narrative of collective practices in Rome’s cultural fabric. Stalker’s artistic practice is rooted in itinerant public participation and urban regeneration through walking, relying on post-1968 Situationist approaches, and more recent frameworks of participation, such as social practice. Whether Stalker has served as a model for the form of the collective itself is debatable, but its relevance prompts the question of what theoretical and artistic models are at the heart of this “collective” surge—and whether this model is an efficient mode of countering the neglect, or even hindrance, of public powers in the sphere of contemporary production. Many of the primary sources used for research are from Stalker’s archives, artist interviews and publications, and the specialized press. The methods used to finalize these findings rely on the model of participant-observer as well as an interdisciplinary critical iii framework rooted in art-historical literature and branching to socio-geographical studies. The development of modern collectives, their contemporary struggle for recognition, and the use of participatory aesthetic practices are paired with literature on ‘commoning' within “informal” urban spaces
Blues v. Rock ‘n’ Roll: Reactions to the Music
No full textThesis (B.A. in History, Minor in Communications)--John Cabot University, Spring 2025.Music and cultural history have been studied for many years, yet comparative studies on reactions to different types of music are often overlooked. While early blues and rock ‘n’ roll music in the United States and the reactions they elicited have both been studied separately (to a certain extent), very little research has been done to compare reactions between the two types of music. Drawing on previous blues and rock ‘n’ roll scholars as well as primary sources such as newspapers and interviews, this thesis will compare how the two genres were similar, which demographics reacted positively and negatively to each genre, and what the reactions say about the ways in which related genres elicit responses from the general public
COVID 19 and Wage Polarization: A task based approach
No full textThe aim of this paper is to estimate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the wage polarization in Italy, combining individual characteristics with their task content in terms of physical proximity within the workplace. We use an innovative dataset which combines data from two sample surveys, the Italian Labor Force Survey and Italian Survey of Professions, which provides information on nature and content of the tasks. First, by employing a non-parametric method (the Relative Distribution) we detect a general increasing wage polarization in the sub-period 2020–2019, driven by lowest deciles, after a reduction in the previous one (2019–10). Different groups have been also isolated. Workers with low education, high proximity to customers job, such as the immigrant, younger and female ones are the categories that more suffered the general downgrading of the Italian wages happened during the COVID-19 crisis
Modern Slavery and the International Human Rights Regime
No full textThis chapter considers the intersections between the concepts of modern slavery and human rights. It first considers their conceptual complexity and how this affects their practical implementation. Second, it examines how the two concepts developed throughout history, emphasizing that a system aimed at eliminating the slave trade and, subsequently, slavery, has existed since the eighteenth century. Thus, the abolitionist ideal existed well before the affirmation of the modern concept of human rights, which, notwithstanding its multiple historical roots, certainly developed after the end of World War II. Finally, the chapter considers the present-day efforts of various global governance actors at multiple levels—universal, regional, and subregional—and the ways in which the modern slavery paradigm is advanced within, but on some occasions also outside, the international human rights regime
Recognizing Map Graphs of Bounded Treewidth
No full textA map is a partition of the sphere into interior-disjoint regions homeomorphic to closed disks. Some regions are labeled as nations, while the remaining ones are labeled as holes. A map in which at most k nations touch at the same point is a k-map, while it is hole-free if it contains no holes. A graph is a map graph if there is a bijection between its vertices and the nations of a map, such that two nations touch if and only the corresponding vertices are connected by an edge. We present a fixed-parameter tractable algorithm for recognizing map graphs parameterized by treewidth. Its time complexity is linear in the size of the graph. It reports a certificate in the form of a so-called witness, if the input is a yes-instance. Our algorithmic framework is general enough to test, for any k, if the input graph admits a k-map or a hole-free k-map