After a moment that was characterized by a flurry of constitutional reforms and elections, coups have returned in some states in Western, Central, and Sahel regions in Africa. The rule of law and democratic governance have come under significant stress. A confluence of events – colonial legacies, uprisings, regional conflicts, term elongation, challenges to the dynastic style of leadership, and the rising incidence of coups – challenge the entrenchment of the rule of law in contemporary Africa. Focusing on the period between 2020 and 2023, the chapter asks: Against the background of recent coups, how should we analyze the rule of law in contemporary Africa? Is the decline of the rule of law and democratic governance in sub-Saharan Africa as a region overstated, given that the coups are concentrated in Francophone West and the Central Africa? How should we think of the role of geopolitical contestations and colonial linkages in unsettling democratic regimes and eroding the rule of law in Africa?

The Green’s function method is among the most powerful and versatile formalisms in physics, and its nonequilibrium version has proved invaluable in many research fields. With entirely new chapters and updated example problems, the second edition of this popular text continues to provide an ideal introduction to nonequilibrium many-body quantum systems and ultrafast phenomena in modern science. Retaining the unique and self-contained style of the original, this new edition has been thoroughly revised to address interacting systems of fermions and bosons, simplified many-body approaches like the GKBA, the Bloch equations, and the Boltzmann equations, and the connection between Green’s functions and newly developed time-resolved spectroscopy techniques. Small gaps in the theory have been filled, and frequently overlooked subtleties have been systematically highlighted and clarified. With an abundance of illustrative examples, insightful discussions, and modern applications, this book remains the definitive guide for students and researchers alike.

Dissociative disorders encompass depersonalization, derealization, dissociative amnesia, dissociative identity disorder, and other diagnostic classifications. The treatment literature for dissociative disorders is limited. Some emerging and promising treatments include phase-oriented treatment, cognitive-behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, schema therapy, the Unified Protocol, and the Treatment of Patients with the Dissociative Disorders Network Program. A sidebar provides recommendations for future research; another sidebar discusses access to treatment.

Depressive disorders are responsible for significant morbidity and functional impairment worldwide. This chapter provides an overview of the many depressive disorders encountered in clinical practice. It includes their classification, clinical presentation, diagnostic criteria, and epidemiological aspects. Considerations about the pathophysiological factors involved in depressive disorder and their treatment are also included.

International organizations have issued recommendations and prescriptions on constitution-making and reform, especially since 1989. However, such constitution-shaping activities by European and universal organizations, notably the UN, have for the most part not led to a better operation of the rule of law on the ground. Besides these problems of effectiveness, normative concerns against constitutional assistance and advice by international organizations have been raised. It is suggested that, in order to become more legitimate (which might then also improve effectiveness), constitution-shaping by international organizations needs to absorb postcolonial concerns. This includes respect for local rule-of-law cultures flowing from non-European constitutional thought and the inclusion of a much deeper social agenda with a global ambition. Thus revamped, international organizations’ constitution-shaping role could be reinvigorated so as to sustain the rule of law on the domestic level, thereby contributing to transnational ordering and global constitutionalism.

This chapter examines ways in which longstanding features of the legal system serve to counteract the forces outlined in Chapters 2 and 3 and thereby minimize the influence of improper factors on judicial behavior. It considers the adversarial process, the doctrine of precedent (or stare decisis), and the practice of justifying decisions via written opinions, and examines the ways in which the nature of each – and thus its effectiveness in channeling judges – has decreased. It further explores changes in the practice of law and in the culture more generally, including automation, that have altered the manner and depth in which lawyers and judges engage with the law.

Under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s rule, Turkey has become an autocratic regime. The Turkish case raises questions about how international organizations tasked with upholding the rule of law can not only permit illiberal states to violate rule-of-law norms but also themselves undermine those principles. Conceptually, the rule-of-law/rule-by-law spectrum fails to account for authoritarian contexts. If the rule of law constitutes one end of the analytical spectrum, the other end is lawless rule, not rule by law, and the dual state lies somewhere in between. This chapter analyzes the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) concerning Erdoğan’s resort to the law to consolidate his power (rule by law) and his utter disregard of legal rules in repressing democratic dissent and engaging in state violence (lawlessness). The analysis goes beyond ECtHR judgments to examine inadmissibility decisions and strike-out rulings.

The diagnostic process is a crucial aspect of medical practice. Psychiatric diagnosis involves information gathering, mental state assessment, hypothesis integration with laboratory or imaging when needed, and data interpretation. Clinical reasoning operates through two systems: System 1, characterized by intuitive pattern recognition; and System 2, which employs meticulous critical thinking. These systems complement each other, with System 1 being faster but riskier while System 2 offers a more planned approach. Today, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) are the two primary diagnostic manuals. Despite their imperfections and reliance on symptom descriptions, the DSM and ICD remain indispensable tools in psychiatry for communication, research, and clinical decision-making.

Religious beliefs and practices play a critical role in how public health and health care outcomes are realized. While there is little research on non-Muslim experiences with public health initiatives and health outcomes in Muslim Majority Countries (MMCs), there is a body of literature that identifies multiple social determinants of health that lead to poorer indicators of health and health outcomes in these countries. In addition, in societies where there are large immigrant Muslim populations, perceptions of the quality of care, participation in public health initiatives, and access to health care that is culturally relevant and aligned with belief systems has been found to impact health outcomes. Barriers and facilitators to accessing and receiving care in both MMCs and communities serving Muslim populations have been identified. Social determinants of health such as economic status, access to and quality of education and health care, social and built environment, foodways, and collaborative community action to advance cultural competence of providers and other public health stakeholders can all improve health indicators and health outcomes of MMCs and communities with Muslim populations.

Delirium or acute brain dysfunction is the most common psychiatric condition. In the medical hospital. It is often not recognized and minimized by staff and predisposes patients to accelerated cognitive decline, depression, and PTSD. Treatment of the underlying medical conditions is essential. Keeping the patient safe and education of family members are equally important. There are no FDA approved medications to treat delirium, but Dexmedetomidine (alpha-2 agonist) has been beneficial in controlling agitation.

Dinah Craik’s 1851 novella The Half-Caste tells the story of how a half-Indian heiress, Zillah Le Poer, faces manipulative attempts by the greedy British side of her family to control her fortune, which she thwarts by marrying her older Scottish guardian. This reading of Craik’s novel examines the production of race at a period when dominant British imperialism was believed to depend largely on hierarchies of race allegedly constructed by heredity. Walters argues that Craik describes how new racial identities can be produced by the ‘affective capacity of brown, Eurasian, female bodies to feel connection with, and dependence on, white women’, with resulting implications for racial hierarchies, and for Empire itself. The chapter examines the idea of race in part as a function of feeling and reveals a ‘slippage between affective and racially scientific methods of assessing difference’.

The chapter explores the dualistic cosmology of Nature/Culture and its influence on individual and collective behavior narratives. It presents various instances of disputes and debates that underscore the indistinct boundaries between Nature/Culture and between determinism and choice. These include the IQ controversy, genetic engineering, human perfectibility, global warming, the Pygmy tribe categorization debate, and the self-definition of groups in organic/biological versus associative/cultural terms. These discussions highlight the complexities in delineating Nature/Culture boundaries. Ezrahi suggests that the inherent ambiguity in demarcating Nature from Culture has, from a liberal open-ended worldview, engendered undecidability between such competing frames. This ambiguity has opened up possibilities to leverage the authority of Nature to either strengthen or weaken that of Culture and politics and vice versa. It has also enabled the blending of both in varying degrees in fields like technology, medicine, and arts. The chapter further explores the ongoing debate on whether the Holocene epoch of an independent Nature is giving way to the Anthropocene era characterized by significant human impact on Nature’s form. Ezrahi proposes a hybrid perspective of Nature as both separate from humans and humanized, questioning the sustainability of modern democracy’s epistemological constitution premised on an autonomous Nature.

Agitation is an umbrella term for a spectrum of behaviors characterized by increased motor activity, restlessness, and emotional tension. Agitation is a cause of morbidity and complications during emergency center or hospital stays. The etiology of agitation states can be medical, psychiatric, substance or medication related, or as a result of delirium, and can be exacerbated by environmental factors. The goals of agitation assessment and management are (1) to ensure the safety of the patient and other individuals present, (2) the identification of risk factors (and cause, if possible) for psychomotor agitation, and (3) the implementation of the appropriate treatment in a timely and efficient manner. Pharmacological and nonpharmacological management strategies are needed for proper management, and teams should always start with verbal de-escalation and environmental modifications, followed by least-invasive means of administration of pharmacological agents, and potentially advancing to seclusion and restraints. Special considerations should be assessed in children, elderly, pregnant women, and those with medically unstable pictures who present with agitation, keeping in mind that delirium is underdiagnosed and goals of treatment must be customized.