This forward-thinking book examines the future of public policy as a discipline, both as it is taught and as it is practiced. Critically assessing the limits of current theories and approaches, leading scholars in the field highlight new models and perspectives. Chapters present data on what is taught in policy schools, using survey results from schools of public policy to assess pedagogical scope and adequacy. The book also considers policy work in government, and whether theory matches practice. Reflecting on the future of policy making, policy advice, implementation and governance in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it analyses how policy issues are now framed and debated, the range of available tools, and how public compliance and popular support have been eroded by the crisis. This book will be an essential guide to re-thinking the field of public policy and its theories, methods, and applications. It will help teachers, students, public managers and policy-makers navigate the new, turbulent governance landscape that lies ahead.

The book discusses the failure of many African governments in providing the social needs of the masses, thereby placing the citizenry on the desperate quest for economic resources. Unfortunately, in many African States, mineral resources are owned, explored and marketed by the machinery of the state. The problem arises when the masses begin to challenge state access and ownership of resources that are domiciled within their ancestral land, communities, and constituencies. Often the challenge and resistance to state ownership of resources is generated by communal or group sense of exploitation, negligence and widespread poverty in the face of high resource endowment and waste by the government officials.  Paradoxically, in Niger Delta of Nigeria, as discussed in the book, the state has unleashed unlimited might upon all social groups and agitators, thereby leading to the increased act of taking arms by such groups. When the informal resource agitators succeed in arming themselves, they begin to demand social and environmental justice, thereby leading to mass armed conflict between them and the government security agencies. Sometimes, the confrontation could be between them and other rival local resource actors in the informal sector of their country’s economy bearing in mind that the resources within their jurisdiction have become the central determinant of national commonwealth.   It is at that state of desperado to control access, extraction and sale of natural resources in a State, by different armed groups that the process of natural resources extraction qualifies as the most visible cause of conflicts and crises around the African continent that is the centrepiece of the book. This is quite understandable given that mineral resource is a gift of nature; and nature is that phenomenon that every human, group and nation claim to represent, or, believe to represent them.

This book is the sixth volume of the successful book series on Robot Operating System: The Complete Reference. The objective of the book is to provide the reader with comprehensive coverage of the Robot Operating Systems (ROS) and the latest trends and contributed systems. ROS is currently considered as the primary development framework for robotics applications. There are seven chapters organized into three parts. Part I presents two chapters on the emerging ROS 2.0 framework; in particular, ROS 2.0 is become increasingly mature to be integrated into the industry. The first chapter from Amazon AWS deals with the challenges that ROS 2 developers will face as they transition their system to be commercial-grade. The second chapter deals with reactive programming for both ROS1 and ROS. In Part II, two chapters deal with advanced robotics, namely on the usage of robots in farms, and the second deals with platooning systems. Part III provides three chapters on ROS navigation. The first chapter deals with the use of deep learning for ROS navigation. The second chapter presents a detailed tuning guide on ROS navigation and the last chapter discusses SLAM for ROS applications. I believe that this book is a valuable companion for ROS users and developers to learn more ROS capabilities and features.

This is the fourth volume of the successful series Robot Operating Systems: The Complete Reference, providing a comprehensive overview of robot operating systems (ROS), which is currently the main development framework for robotics applications, as well as the latest trends and contributed systems. The book is divided into four parts: Part 1 features two papers on navigation, discussing SLAM and path planning. Part 2 focuses on the integration of ROS into quadcopters and their control. Part 3 then discusses two emerging applications for robotics: cloud robotics, and video stabilization. Part 4 presents tools developed for ROS; the first is a practical alternative to the roslaunch system, and the second is related to penetration testing. This book is a valuable resource for ROS users and wanting to learn more about ROS capabilities and features.

Seven-year-old Anthony Majok was torn from his happy African village and began running for his life, due to ongoing civil war, sparked by religious and political strife. The Christian Majok family, along with many others, refused to take up the Islam faith. Over the next 17 years, Majok and thousands of lost boys and girls of Sudan battled well-armed soldiers, vicious animals, hunger and disease as they fled across the continent. Set in South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and, finally, the United States, it is Majok's unwavering faith that helps him withstand devastating hardship. Journey of Faith conveys not only Majok's moving personal story, it illuminates the reasons for decades of war in Sudan.