The education system in Oman underwent tremendous development during the past four decades, however, the national economy dependency on oil threatens the sustainability of its education funding. This study aims to explore the relationship between education funding and oil price fluctuations in Qatar, U.A.E., and Oman from 1975 to 2015. Moreover, it aims to suggest new economic alternatives to diversify the education funding sources in Oman. This quantitative study, under the framework of Human Capital Theory, utilized descriptive and associational approaches to study the association between oil prices and education expenditures in the three countries. Multiple regression analyses showed that oil prices significantly predicted the government expenditure on education in Oman and Qatar with (β = -0.40, p = 0.013) and (β = 2.47, p = 0.02) respectively, while it was not significant in predicting the government expenditure on education (β = 0.36, p = 0.40) in the U.A.E. This study highlighted how Qatar and U.A.E were successful in moving away from oil dependency. The researcher recommended that the Omani government must encourage the inflow of direct foreign investment into its education field, like establishment of new education hubs, educational cities, and opening new branches for some of the leading educational institutions from around the world. The researcher plans to conduct future qualitative research to enrich knowledge in this area.

The thesis presents the application of the magnetotelluric (MT) sounding method to image Earth’s crust in Oman and South Australia. The aim of these MT surveys is to provide constraints on the geological interpretation of emplacement scenarios and the tectonic evolution of the geological domain. The thesis concentrates on the methodological aspects of the MT technique, e.g. the data analysis and modelling of electromagnetic fields. The phase tensor approach by Caldwell et al. (2004) is applied to the data and provides insights into the dimensionality of the MT data in even complex and electrically distorted terranes. Modelling and inversion of the MT data is performed with various 2-D and 3-D codes to show how the interpretation of the data can benefit from multiple modelling approaches. Data collected in a 2-D survey across the Oman ophiolite mountains show complex behaviour and 2-D inversion and 3-D forward modelling resolve ambiguities in the emplacement scenario of the Oman ophiolite. It is believed that initial underthrusting of the Jurassic-Cretaceous oceanic lithosphere was followed by exhumation. Further oceanic thrusting subsequently led to rising of lower-plate eclogites and eventually gravitational collapse of the ophiolite onto the margin (Gray et al., 2000). The 3-D inversion code by (Siripunvaraporn et al., 2005a) was expanded to incorporate static shift corrections and inversion model misfits have therefore improved significantly compared to inversion models without static shift correction. 2-D and 3-D surveys across the South Australian Gawler Craton reveal deep crustal conductors which are connected to near surface mineralisation systems of the IOCG Olympic Dam deposit in the north-eastern part of the craton and the Au-dominated central Gawler Craton provinces. / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 2008

The scarcity of freshwater resources in the Sultanate of Oman, makes it essential that both surface and groundwater resources are carefully managed. Introducing new water demand management tools is important, especially for the coastal agricultural areas (e. g. Al Batinah coastal region) which are affected by sea water intrusion. Based on a social survey performed during this work, the existing situation generates conflicts between different stakeholders (SHs) which have different interests regarding water availability, sustainable aquifer management, and profitable agricultural production. The current aim is to evaluate the implementation potential of several management interventions and their combinations by analysing opinions and responses of the relevant stakeholders in the region. Influencing the behavior and drivers affecting farmers’ decision-making manner, can be a valuable tool to improve water demand management. The work also introduces the use of a participatory process within the frame of an integrated water resources management (IWRM) to support decision makers in taking better informed decisions. Data were collected by questionnaires from different groups of stakeholders. These data were analysed statistically for each group separately as well as relations amongst groups by using the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) software package. Differences were examined between opinions of farmers and decision makers (DM’s) regarding potential interventions. Farmers’ frequency curves showed differences in opinions in some interventions, while differences in opinions were not so high within the group of DM’s. Therefore, Cross Tabulation and Discriminant Analysis (DA) were performed to identify the drivers influencing farmers’ opinions regarding the intervention measures. As an advanced step, a Bayesian Networks (BNs) approach is used for mapping stakeholders’ behaviors and to show the strength of a relationship between dependent and predictor variables. By using BNs it is possible to analyse future scenarios for implementation and acceptance of interventions.

Inclusive education is an international philosophy that places emphasis on the provision of special education services to students with special learning needs within regular classrooms. Teachers, regardless of where in the world they are, require positive attitudes to engage in discussions, adapt curricula, develop strategies and acquire the necessary knowledge and skills for the implementation of inclusionary practices. The aim and rationale for this study was to explore the attitudes of South Africans as expatriates in a foreign country (Oman) at schools where inclusion was recently implemented but where little research was conducted in the area. In addition, the purpose was also to gain more knowledge about the elements that may influence teacher attitudes towards inclusion. A quantitative approach was employed and an online questionnaire was used to obtain data. The small sample (N=35) limited findings to descriptive statistics only. The study revealed that most teachers held positive attitudes towards the fundamental principles of inclusive education but teachers held negative attitudes towards the practical implementation of inclusion within classrooms. Teachers who received training were more positive to supporting inclusion. Male teachers expressed greater negativity than female teachers towards inclusionary practices in schools but then male teachers were more supportive and willing to undertake training, engage in teacher support and work collaboratively. Teachers teaching older groups of students appear to be less knowledgeable and less prepared or equipped to deal with inclusion. Teachers with less teaching experience held more positive attitudes towards inclusive education. Recommendations were made to provide suggestions of ways to eliminate and discourage negative attitudes and research based recommendations for future research were listed. / Inclusive Education / M. Ed. (Inclusive Education)

In this thesis, Oman&rsquo / s foreign policy between 1970 and 2008 is examined. The main question of this thesis is what the main characteristics of Oman&rsquo / s foreign policy are. In order to identify the main characteristics of Oman&rsquo / s foreign policy its determinants are analyzed by looking at its three interacting environments: domestic, regional and international. In other words, the impacts of these three environments on Oman&rsquo / s foreign policy conceptions, behaviors and decisions are discussed. While examining Oman&rsquo / s foreign policy, special attention is exerted to its foreign policy towards Iran which is the most influential regional power in the Gulf. It is observed that Oman&rsquo / s foreign policy towards Iran is the best telling example of how Oman balances the benefits and constraints of the three environments. Keywords: Oman&rsquo / s Foreign Policy, Characteristics of Oman&rsquo / s Foreign Policy, Domestic, Regional and International Environments, Oman&rsquo / s Foreign Policy Towards Iran.

Imperial powers have employed a range of strategies to establish and then maintain control over foreign territories and communities. As deploying military forces from the home country is often costly – not to mention logistically stretching when long distances are involved – many imperial powers have used indigenous forces to extend control or protect influence in overseas territories. This study charts the extent to which Britain employed this method in its informal empire among the small states of Eastern Arabia: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the seven Trucial States (modern day UAE), and Oman before 1971. Resolved in the defence of its imperial lines of communication to India and the protection of mercantile shipping, Britain first organised and enforced a set of maritime truces with the local Arab coastal shaikhs of Eastern Arabia in order to maintain peace on the sea. Throughout the first part of the nineteenth century, the primary concern in the Gulf for the British, operating through the Government of India, was therefore the cessation of piracy and maritime warfare. Later, British interests were expanded to suppressing the activities of slave traders and arms traffickers. At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, Britain also sought to exclude foreign powers from gaining a foothold in the area. It was during this time that the British government assumed full responsibility for the external relations of these shaikhdoms and that Britain conferred the status of ‘protected state’ upon them. Up to this point, when Britain needed to protect these interests or use force to compel local rulers to comply with its wishes, naval power usually sufficed. By the midpoint of the twentieth century, Britain’s interests in the area had swelled and migrated inland – first because of the establishment of air stations servicing the imperial route to India, then as a result of oil exploration and production. At the same time, growing international opposition to colonialism and a steady reduction in Britain’s ability to project military power overseas made it more and more difficult for Britain to discharge it security duties in the Gulf. So how did Britain bridge this gap? Studies of British security policy towards the Gulf have focused almost exclusively on Britain’s formal military architecture. Using India Office records and British Government archival documents, this study provides a reinterpretation of the means by which Britain sought to maintain order, protect its interests in the region and discharge its defence obligations. The records, it will be shown, point to a broad British policy before 1971 of enhancing the coercive instruments available to the local rulers. Rather than having to revert to using its own military forces, Britain wanted the Gulf rulers to acquire a monopoly over the use of force within their territories and to be in a stronger position to defend their own domains against cross-border raiders and covetous neighbours. This policy was not always successful; Britain was progressively drawn into the internal security affairs of a number of ITS protégés, especially after the Second World War. The security forces that emerged – armed police forces, gendarmeries and militaries – varied considerably, as did Britain’s involvement in their establishment and running. Nevertheless, taken as whole, a trend emerges between 1921 and 1971 of Britain pushing the Gulf states to take over more and more of the security burden. Indeed, at a time when its traditional sources of global power were fading, indigenous security forces were an important tool in Britain’s pursuit of its interests before its military withdrawal from the Gulf in December 1971. This aspect of Britain’s approach to security in the Gulf has largely been overlooked.

Das Down Syndrom trägt wesentlich zur Morbidität und Mortalität im Kindesalter bei und ist die häufigste Ursache geistiger Behinderung bei Neugeborenen. Überwiegend handelt es sich um Neumutationen mütterlichen Ursprungs. Die hohe Rate an Neumutationen und deren starke Zunahme mit dem mütterlichen Alter sprechen dafür, dass die Chromosomensegregation in der Oogenese ein sehr fehleranfälliger Prozess ist. Im Rahmen dieser Pilotstudie konnte eine deutliche Alterskorrelation zwischen dem Auftreten der Geburt eines Down Syndrom Kindes und dem elterlichen Alter beobachtet werden. Wie in anderen publizierten Studien wurde in der vorliegenden Studie gezeigt, dass das Geschlechterverhältnis bei den Down Syndrom Kindern von 1.37:1 (m:w ) deutlich zugunsten der Jungen verschoben ist. Der Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit lag auf der molekulargenetischen Analyse der elterlichen Herkunft des zusätzlichen Chromosoms 21, der Verteilung der Cross-over, und der Analyse des MTHFR-Polymorphismus. Betrachtet man die 72 voll informativen maternalen Meiosen, so ergibt sich ein Verhältnis von Meiose I zu Meiose II von 80:20. Dieses Verhältnis korreliert mit anderen Studien zur parentalen Herkunft des zusätzlichen Chromosoms 21. Bemerkenswerter Weise fand sich unter den 93 paternal informativen Meiosen kein paternales Non-disjunction Ereignis. Dieses Ergebnis unterscheidet sich von den bisherigen epidemiologischen Studien zur parentalen Herkunft des zusätzlichen Chromosoms 21, wofür derzeit keine Erklärung existiert. Die Assoziation zwischen mütterlichem Alter und meiotischer Rekombination wurde analog zu der Studie von [Lamb et al. 2005] durchgeführt und bestätigt. Die erhobenen Daten aus dem Oman zeigen, dass das C-Allel mit 87% im Oman deutlich häufiger ist als in den anderen untersuchten Populationen. Dieses Ergebnis spricht für eine große geographische Variabilität des Polymorphismus und dafür, dass möglicherweise besondere Selektionsbedingungen auf der arabischen Halbinsel vorliegen. / Down syndrome (DS) is a main cause of human prenatal and postnatal morbidity and mortality, and a leading cause of birth defects and mental retardation. There is increasing evidence that maternal meiosis is an error prone process that is most sensitive to the effect of exogenous factors at the time of chromosomal segregation, which is around conception. In addition to environmental factors, various genetic factors have been described which seem to influence the nondisjunction rate during meiosis. The first data of DS in the Oman yielded a high prevalence among live births. The birth prevalence of Trisomy 21 in Oman with 1:454 newborns is, perhaps, the highest reported so far. We have performed a case control study based on a structured questionnaire, which covers socio demographics, family history and potential risk factors. We identified increased maternal age as one factor for the birth of a DS child. The sex ratio among Down Syndrome children showed a predominance of boys of 1.37:1 (m:f ) as reported from other studies. The main aim of the thesis was to investigate the parental origin of the extra chromosome 21, the number and chromosomal distribution of recombination events. Of the 72 informative cases, 80% were consistent with meiosis I (MI) nondisjunction and 20% with a meiosis II (MII) error during oogenesis. Surprisingly, there were no cases of paternal non-disjunction. These findings differ significantly from other publications where at least 8% were of paternal origin. There is no explanation for this phenomenon at present. Analogous to Lamb et al. we analyzed the association between maternal age and meiotic recombination events and revealed similar results. Furthermore, we investigated the MTHFR-polymorphism among 83 families. In the Oman, the C-allele is more frequent (87%) than in other publications. The results indicate, this polymorphism emerges in a large geographical variety and underlies perhaps special selection on the Arabic Peninsula.

Les aflaj sont des techniques anthropiques typiques d’acquisition et de distribution de l’eau en Oman. Ils constituent un héritage national et mondial ; leur gestion comme système de propriété communautaire privée a déjà construit une certaine intégrité quant à la gestion de la ressource et des institutions connexes. Nous proposons d’étudier ces systèmes, spécifiquement dans la wilayat de Nizwa, car nous faisons l’hypothèse qu’ils sont à l’origine du paysage culturel repéré. Nous proposons de cerner, selon des regards croisés, les deux réalités, matérielle et sociale, de ce paysage. Nous avons eu recours à l’analyse spatiale et spatio-temporelle du paysage de la zone d’étude par des moyens de repérage et de caractérisation des composantes de la surface basés sur la télédétection spatiale multispectrale associée à une bonne connaissance de terrain, et à l’évaluation du « regard social », qui engage essentiellement les forces humaines, par le biais d’une enquête au près de la population vivant en Oman. Comme principaux résultats, nous avons effectué une lecture descriptive multi-dates des composantes du paysage de la wilayat de Nizwa, ce qui nous a permis d’identifier une certaine traçabilité de l’évolution dans le temps des composantes anthropiques du paysage. Concernant la réalité sociale du paysage, nous avons établie des analyses statistiques des données de l’enquête qui nous ont renseignées sur des données socio-économiques spécifiques aux aflaj, des données socioculturelles concernant les pratiques et la perception et des données sur les comportements à incidence environnementale et qui peuvent, entre autres, menacer la survie de ces systèmes. / Aflaj are typical man-made water acquisition and distribution techniques in Oman. They constitute a national and global heritage; their management as a private communal property system has already built the integrity of the resource and the related institutions. We propose to study these systems, specifically in the wilayat of Nizwa, as we hypothesize that they are behind the identified cultural landscape. We propose to define, from crossed perspectives, the two realities, material and social, of this landscape. We used spatial and spatio-temporal analyses of the landscape of the study area by means of identification and characterization of surface components based on multi-spectral spatial remote sensing combined with a good knowledge of the field, and the assessment of the "social gaze", which essentially involves human forces, through a survey among the population living in Oman. As principal results, we carried out a multi-dated descriptive reading of the landscape components of the wilayat of Nizwa, which enabled us to identify a certain tracking of the evolution over time of the anthropic components of the landscape. Concerning the social reality of the landscape, we have established statistical analyses of the survey data which have informed us about socio-economic data specific to aflaj, socio-cultural data concerning practices and perceptions and data on behaviors with an environmental impact and which may, inter alia, threaten the survival of these systems.

Il est difficile de parler de relations internationales sans évoquer les alliances militaires entre les États du système international. Selon l'école réaliste, une superpuissance est portée à accepter les propositions d'alliance, surtout en période de guerre froide. Cependant, l'analyse de la politique étrangère des États-Unis (une superpuissance) envers le Sultanat d'Oman entre 1975 et 1979 témoigne du contraire; en effet, Washington a refusé deux offres d'alliance militaireproposées par Mascate en 1975 puis en 1977. C'est seulement en 1979 que la Maison-Blanche a décidé de proposer une alliance militaireà Oman qui sera officialisée en juin 1980.Le but de cette étude est donc d'analyser et de comprendre les changements dans le comportement de Washington quant à ces trois propositions. Notre recherche démontre qu'une superpuissance peut refuser une proposition d'alliance militaire venant d'une puissance mineure même au cours de la guerre froide. Dans le cas d'Oman, ce refus s'explique à la fois par la situation interne de la puissance mineure ainsi quepar la situation régionale de celle-ci, caractérisée par la présence d'une menace contre les intérêts de la superpuissance. Ainsi, notre étude infirme les arguments habituellement invoqués pour expliquer les changements dans le comportement de Washington pour l'établissement d'une alliance militaire avec Mascate. En effet, ni la doctrine américaine des deux piliers - Twinpillars - qui était mise en oeuvre depuis 1970 dans la région du golfe Persique par les différentes administrations de la Maison-Blanche, ni la révolution iranienne et l'invasion soviétique en Afghanistan, ne s'avèrentles raisonsqui ont motivé le revirement de Washington quant à sa décision de s'allier militairement avec Mascate.

The research applies the contextual context, content, and process (CCP) framework to explore the contextual and processual factors that are associated with implementing interorganisational collaborative arrangements in the public sector. Collaborative arrangements in the public sector are found to be complex, difficult to implement, and liable to failure when not fully explored and recognised. Background theory reveals the absence of a multilevel lens that can embrace the multifaceted nature of interorganisational collaborations, the multiple contextual levels, the process stages and micro-actions, and the interplay between the process and the context. By identifying the need to explore contextual and processual factors, the background theory informs the focal theory which proposes an extended CCP framework as a useful multilevel lens to elucidate the research problem. The framework is developed and validated through multidisciplinary literature synthesisation, the pilot stage, and the main fieldwork which applies qualitative methods based on multiple case studies from the public sector in Oman as data sources’ techniques. The originality of this study stemming from developing and validating a novel multilevel contextual framework. The emerged multifaceted CCP framework, used to explore contextual and processual factors when implementing collaborative arrangements in the public sector, is found to be an applicable, feasible, and useful analysis tool. It can help public policy-makers, public management, academics, change agents, and collaborating organisations in identifying the inhibitive, supportive prerequisites, and in general influencing contextual factors. It helps also in elucidating and minimising uncertainty about the nature and micro-actions of the processual stages.