From ancient times, the conduct of human beings, and what is deemed acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, has been an intriguing and much-debated topic for people from all walks of life. This is even more so for public officials, both appointed and elected, who by nature of the public duty they fulfil, are held to a higher moral standard by the broader society. Unethical conduct not only impacts negatively on the social contract that government has with the public but also affects the rights of citizens, who are taxpayers. Ethics in the public sector is being published at a time when the South African public sector is grappling with serious issues relating to ethics, with startling revelations of conduct by government officials that directly contradicts the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, which prescribe high standards of ethical behaviour. Ethics in the public sector is arranged in such a way as to provide a unique understanding of public sector ethics. It includes discussions of two other African countries, Botswana and Namibia, to provide perspective. Main themes include the theory and philosophical foundation of public sector ethics, the African context of ethics, the policy framework for ethics, role players in ethics, causes of unethical behaviour and remedies for unethical behaviour. It also comes at a time when most universities across South Africa are reconsidering curricula for alignment and relevance to the challenges that public officials and politicians deal with daily. Ethics is an area that has thus far received insufficient attention both at universities and in practice. Ethics in the public sector is aimed at students, officials and politicians.

Governments of today are under increasing pressure to deliver more and better services within the constraints of limited resources. Employees are central to service delivery and the calibre of those appointed in a public institution is often evident in the quality of services rendered and the number of complaints received. Managing human capital in the public sector encompasses all activities starting from the recruitment of staff to the final termination of services. Managing human capital in the public sector is rooted in theory while using case studies to bring the learning experience closer to a public sector work environment. It supports a problem-based learning approach and prepares graduates to perform duties in a human capital environment with minimal on-the-job training. Contents include the following: Strategic human capital management; Acquisition and assimilation of employees into the workplace; Affirmative action, employment equity and managing diversity; Public sector compensation; Motivating staff; Performance management; Training in the public sector; Career management; Talent and retention management; Employee relations; Managing employee wellness in the workplace. Managing human capital in the public sector is aimed at students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as human capital practitioners in the public sector.

Texas Bodyguard: Chance By Janie Crouch She has secrets she prefers to keep hidden… When a violent attack puts Maci Ford in the hospital, security expert Chance Patterson learns that she’s carrying his baby. Even though she ended their relationship, he’s determined to do whatever it takes to protect her and their child. But, as her stalker’s behaviour escalates, Chance can’t shake the feeling that Maci is still hiding something from him… Chasing a Colton Killer By Deborah Fletcher Mellow They’re on the hunt Journalist Stella Maxwell may be guilty of prying into FBI agent Brennan Colton’s past for a story, but Brennan knows she’s not guilty of murder—despite what’s being alleged. He’s prepared for the risks of protecting Stella from the notorious Landmark Killer. But keeping his guard up to protect his heart might prove to be a different kind of challenge.

Bringing together the wisdom of East and West, the Indian Jesuit Anthony de Mello used stories and parables to awaken his listeners to an awareness of God's presence in their midst. Since his death in 1987, countless readers have been challenged to encounter the God who lies behind words, concepts, and religious formulas.

This volume aims to offer a course on the spiritual life. The author looks at ways in which the words people use can prevent them from being aware of themselves and others. Sharing his own inspirations and including anecdotes, he sets out to provide a practical guide for people trying to live a Christian life.

Make human resources work for you! The third edition of Strategic Human Resources Management offers a truly innovative, integrative framework that examines the traditional functional human resource areas from a strategic perspective. The author undertakes a comprehensive discussion of current issues, practices, and theories while maintaining a coherent and consistent emphasis on strategy. Most human resource textbooks give you the theories without showing you the connections to real life. This textbook lets you see both sides of human resources: the theory and the application. Current examples and references integrated throughout the text and chapter introductions help put human resources into a real-world context.

Over and Under the Rainforest meets This Is How We Do It -celebrating global interconnectedness with an environmental lens, at a time when we need it most. I am dust, the dust of North Africa. I connect continents. The dust of the Sahel-a ribbon of land between the Sahara and the savanna-lifts with the harmattan winds each winter season. But this is not just any dust. The Sahel's dust will mix with dust from the Sahara and travel thousands of miles westward, across the African continent and the Atlantic Ocean, to reunite with its unforgotten home deep in the Amazon basin. Told in the perspective of dust, A River of Dust takes readers on a journey through vibrantly illustrated landscapes, celebrating the power and wonder of Earth's ecosystems, and showing how these tiny particles are in fact key to the health of our planet. Meticulously researched and lushly illustrated, this picture book is a lyrical ode to global interconnectedness and the vital roles that even the smallest play in taking care of our planet.

Invitation to Linear Algebra is an informative, clearly written, flexible textbook for instructors and students. Based on over 30 years of experience as a mathematics professor, the author invites students to develop a more informed understanding of complex algebraic concepts using innovative, easy-to-follow methods. The book is organized into lessons rather than chapters. This limits the size of the mathematical morsels that students must digest, making it easier for instructors to budget class time. Each definition is carefully explained with detailed proofs of key theorems, including motivation for each step. This makes the book more flexible, allowing instructors to choose material that reflects their and their students' interests. A larger than normal amount of exercises illustrate how linear and nonlinear algebra apply in the students' areas of study. Features The book's unique lesson format enables students to better understand algebraic concepts Students will learn key elements of linear algebra in an enjoyable fashion Large number of exercises illustrate the applications of the course material Allows instructors to create a course around individual lessons Detailed solutions and hints are provided to selected exercises

This book examines Chinese film in the twenty-first century. Organised around the themes ‘movements’, ‘genres’, and ‘intermedia’, it reflects on how Chinese cinema has changed, adapted, and evolved over past decades, and prognosticates as to its future trajectories. It considers how established film genres in China have adapted and transformed themselves, and discusses current shifts in documentary filmmaking, the ethos and practices of ‘grassroots intellectual’ independent filmmakers, and the adaption of foreign film genres to serve the ideological and political needs of the present. It also explores how film is drawing upon the socio-historical and political contexts of the past to create new cinematic discourses, and the ways film is providing a voice to previously marginalised ethnic groups. In addition, the book analyses the influences of past aesthetic traditions on the creative and artistic expressions of twenty-first century films, and cinema’s relation to other media forms, including folktales, moving image installations, architecture and painting. Throughout, the book assesses how Chinese films have been conceptualised, examined, and communicated domestically and abroad, and emphasises the importance of new directions in Chinese film, thus highlighting the plurality, vitality, and hybridity of Chinese cinema in the twenty-first century.

Hunt/Mello/Deitz Marketing emphasizes the universal importance of marketing, in business, but also in the lives of students, despite their major! The product, the 1st new Principles of Marketing product to be introduced in the past 10 years, was designed with an emphasis on student engagement and relevance, a focus embodied in these four key benefits: * A career focus, to help students understand how marketing will support whatever career path they choose and how to develop their own personal brand. Features like Career Tips, Executive Perspectives and Today's Professional Interviews make marketing relevant and engaging for the student and can found in every chapter. * Integration of key topics that are part of the daily fabric of marketing- globalization, social media, ethics, and marketing analytics. These are covered THROUGHOUT the product and not in a single chapter. * Seamlessly integrated results-driven technology. Shane Hunt personalized the writes all of the Connect application exercises and teaches using Connect every year! The narrative and Connect content were developed side-by-side, allowing for seamless integration and continuity of coverage. * The right content for a semester-long course. Chapters are direct, concise, and approachable in length and written in an upbeat tone. In this newest edition, we have moved Personal Selling and Branding to earlier in the narrative.

The first monograph on Richard Smith, a key figure in the development of British art. Richard Smith (1931-2016) was one of the most original painters of his generation, and one of the most underrated. As Barbara Rose said of Smith's major Tate Gallery retrospective in 1975, he was 'at once in and out of touch with the currents of the mainstream ... au courant and aloof at the same time.' That he latterly slipped under the radar to some extent is partly explained by his detachment from the mainstream as well as by his frequent switching of studios between England and the USA, although this helped charge his creative batteries. He is the only artist of his stature who has not been represented by a monograph, which the dazzling presentation of images in Richard Smith: Artworks now fulfils. It has been produced with the generous collaboration of the Richard Smith Foundation. Richard Smith: Artworks traces Smith's entire career, from the breakthrough lyrical abstraction of the early Pop-inflected paintings, through the radical shaped canvases and three-dimensional works that he produced in the 1960s, to the 'Kite' works beginning in 1972 and, eventually, his return to the flat canvas. As a Senior Curator at Tate, Dr Chris Stephens knew Smith well, and he contributes a wide-ranging introduction to Smith's art and life. Prof David Alan Mellor investigates and explains the Anglo-American cultural contexts that drove Smith's art, while Alex Massouras's two themed essays, 'Young and British' and 'From Motion Pictures to Flight', explore Smith's originality from fresh perspectives. The book is completed with an Afterword by its editor, Martin Harrison.

An unflinching, heartbreaking collection of poetry about life in the U.S. as a Brazilian immigrant, Aline Mello's debut poetry collection, More Salt Than Diamond, is a true testament to the power of finding a home. Born in Brazil, Aline Mello immigrated to the United States in 1997. Using her experience as an undocumented woman during a time of incredible flux and tension, Mello's debut collection of poetry, More Salt than Diamond, speaks to her struggles while also addressing the larger cultural issues on an inclusive and global scale. Lyrical, moving, deeply emotional, and sometimes painful to read, Mello uses exquisitely sharp yet widely accessible language to crack open a life in multitudes. She shines a rare light on what it means to be a Brazilian immigrant in diaspora, stretched thin between borders and fraught family tension yet belonging nowhere. Aline is poised to not only change the face of Latinx poetry in years to come but to redefine the power of undocumented creators and artists.

One of the last secret, underground human cities is facing total annihilation and its leader-John Constantine-must plan a suicide mission to assassinate a key lieutenant in the vampire empire! The survivors of a horrifying vampire attack, led by Deathstroke, take shelter with Talia al Ghul. With intel from a hero recently saved from vampirism, John Constantine prepares them for a (suicide) mission, while Midnighter goes through every scenario in his head and finds out the dark truth. Meanwhile the mysterious vampire Lord Cinder has become aware of their plans and prepares a surprise... You won't want ot miss this thrilling companion collection to DC vs. Vampires!

The disintegration and questioning of global governance structures and a re-orientation toward national politics combined with the spread of technological innovations such as big data, social media, and phenomena like fake news, populism, or questions of global health policies make it necessary for the introduction of new methods of inquiry and the adaptation of established methods in Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). This accessible handbook offers concise chapters from expert international contributors covering a diverse range of new and established FPA methods. Embracing methodological pluralism and a belief in the value of an open discussion about methods' assumptions and diverging positions, it provides new, state-of-the-art research approaches, as well as introductions to a range of established methods. Each chapter follows the same approach, introducing the method and its development, discussing strengths, requirements, limitations, and potential pitfalls while illustrating the method's application using examples from empirical research. Embracing methodological pluralism and problem-oriented research that engages with real-world questions, the authors examine quantitative and qualitative traditions, rationalist and interpretivist perspectives, as well as different substantive backgrounds. The book will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and students in global politics, foreign policy, and methods-related classes across the social sciences. Chapters 4, 25 and 32 of this book are available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Women and Puppetry is the first publication dedicated to the study of women in the field of puppetry arts. It includes critical articles and personal accounts that interrogate specific historical moments, cultural contexts, and notions of "woman" on and off stage. Part I, "Critical Perspective," includes historical and contemporary analyses of women's roles in society, gender anxiety revealed through the unmarked puppet body, and sexual expression within oppressive social contexts. Part II, "Local Contexts: Challenges and Transformations," investigates work of female practitioners within specific cultural contexts to illuminate how women are intervening in traditionally male spaces. Each chapter in Part II offers brief accounts of specific social histories, barriers, and gender biases that women have faced, and the opportunities afforded female creative leaders to appropriate, revive, and transform performance traditions. And in Part III, "Women Practitioners Speak," contemporary artists reflect on their experiences as female practitioners within the art of puppet theatre. Representing female writers and practitioners from across the globe, Women and Puppetry offers students and scholars a comprehensive interrogation of the challenges and opportunities that women face in this unique art form.

A comprehensive and accessible guide to learning and successfully applying QCA Social phenomena can rarely be attributed to single causes-instead, they typically stem from a myriad of interwoven factors that are often difficult to untangle. Drawing on set theory and the language of necessary and sufficient conditions, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is ideally suited to capturing this causal complexity. A case-based research method, QCA regards cases as combinations of conditions and compares the conditions of each case in a structured way to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for an outcome. Qualitative Comparative Analysis: An Introduction to Research Design and Application is a comprehensive guide to QCA. As QCA becomes increasingly popular across the social sciences, this textbook teaches students, scholars, and self-learners the fundamentals of the method, research design, interpretation of results, and how to communicate findings. Following an ideal typical research cycle, the book's ten chapters cover the methodological basis and analytical routine of QCA, as well as matters of research design, causation and causal complexity, QCA variants, and the method's reception in the social sciences. A comprehensive glossary helps to clarify the meaning of frequently used terms. The book is complemented by an accessible online R manual to help new users to practice QCA's analytical steps on sample data and then implement with their own findings. This hands-on textbook is an essential resource for students and researchers looking for a complete and up-to-date introduction to QCA.

Key Questions in Environmental Toxicology is designed as a self-study tool for undergraduate students. Questions review the origin, characterization and environmental distribution of major pollutants, followed by their absorption and metabolic disposition in living organisms. They address implications for the development of cancer, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary dysfunction and neurological conditions in relation to gaseous pollutants, particulates, persistent organic compounds and radioactive emissions, then cover the impact of pollutants on biodiversity, food safety, and water contamination. This book: Covers toxicology from human morbidity, ecological impact and biodiversity perspectives, and emphasizes the impact of diverse organic pollutants in worsening these interconnected phenomena, leading to wider environmental emergencies; Provides a selection of fill-in-the-gap, multiple choice and short answer question types for students to vary their learning and enhance motivation; Includes full answer rationales, allowing students to gain true insight into the subject. Providing support to programs across environmental science, ecology and human health, and covering all the major biological toxins and pollutants as well as unintended consequences of actions designed to improve outcomes, this book may be used in conjunction with the companion volume Introduction to Environmental Toxicology.

This book presents the Statistical Learning Theory in a detailed and easy to understand way, by using practical examples, algorithms and source codes. It can be used as a textbook in graduation or undergraduation courses, for self-learners, or as reference with respect to the main theoretical concepts of Machine Learning. Fundamental concepts of Linear Algebra and Optimization applied to Machine Learning are provided, as well as source codes in R, making the book as self-contained as possible. It starts with an introduction to Machine Learning concepts and algorithms such as the Perceptron, Multilayer Perceptron and the Distance-Weighted Nearest Neighbors with examples, in order to provide the necessary foundation so the reader is able to understand the Bias-Variance Dilemma, which is the central point of the Statistical Learning Theory. Afterwards, we introduce all assumptions and formalize the Statistical Learning Theory, allowing the practical study of different classification algorithms. Then, we proceed with concentration inequalities until arriving to the Generalization and the Large-Margin bounds, providing the main motivations for the Support Vector Machines. From that, we introduce all necessary optimization concepts related to the implementation of Support Vector Machines. To provide a next stage of development, the book finishes with a discussion on SVM kernels as a way and motivation to study data spaces and improve classification results.