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Although Saudi Arabia has made great progress in almost all aspects of development, the availability of water has remained problematic. It is, therefore, important to study water resources, and also the increasing water demands in Saudi Arabia in general, and in Tihama Asir in particular. Climate is influenced to a limited extent by the relatively high altitude of the mountains, especially where rainfall is concerned, and an annual average between 30mm and 300mm is recorded. The rate of evaporation, however, is very high, because of the cloudless sky and high temperatures. Runoff occurs only after torrential and monsoon rain, when the wadis collect floodwaters from their many tributaries. Two hundred dams have been built in recent years in an attempt to increase underground water recharge, and to provide potable water in sufficient quantity and quality, and to provide for irrigation. The ground water resources, including the shallow aquifers of wadis and the deep aquifers, could be of greater benefit with the modification of their current use. A large number of desalination plants have been constructed along the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf to meet the increasing water demands of Saudi Arabia's increasing population. The utilization of treated sewage effluent should be increased to stop the threat of ground water contamination and to reduce the pressure exerted on available resources. Results indicate that modem irrigation methods reach high levels of average field irrigation efficiency, and traditional practices show the highest average levels of energetics performance. Based on water resources and water budget analysis the following recommendations are suggested to the Ministry of Agriculture and Water with regard to water uses in Saudi Arabia and Tihama Asir in particular.- Modernize traditional and intermediate irrigation methods on as many acres as feasible.- Introduce small green-houses on as many private farms as possible.- Develop water resources extension service programmes and training programmes that address fundamental aspects of improving domestic water use, and alternatives to natural and artificial supplies. The developed database can be used as an information source to support future water resource-oriented decision making.

<p> The Failure of Mehdi Bazargan How the Revolutionary Council, the Clerical Oligarchy, and United States Foreign Policy Undermined the Liberal Democracy of Iran in 1979 The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that the downfall of Mehdi Bazargan and the Provisional Government is due less to the deliberate manipulations of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as depicted in popular narratives, than to both the conflicts between rival power centers in the government, foreign influence, and Bazargan&rsquo;s administrative mismanagement, poor leadership skills, and failure to successfully project his own vision. </p><p> The conclusions of this thesis were reached based on leading secondary sources from both Western and Iranian writers, as well as the extensive use of contemporary news sources, revealed internal Iranian government communiques, and archived interviews with principle actors. </p><p> The thesis identifies the rival power centers at conflict in Iran during the Provisional Government Era from February &mdash; November 1979 as Bazargan&rsquo;s Provisional Government, the Revolutionary Council, Ayatollah Khomeini&rsquo;s evolving concentration of power, and U.S. foreign policy. Chapter one describes the oppositional background of Bazargan, illuminates his own vision for Islamic government, and introduces his deliberate methodology for instituting revolution. </p><p> Chapter two explains the rival power centers at play during the Provisional Government Era. The Provisional Government is depicted as Bazargan&rsquo;s main source of support, the legal administrators of the transitional government, and as such, it represents his vision. The Revolutionary Council, dominated by clerics loyal to Khomeini, referred to as the clerical oligarchy, represent diverging agendas within the clerical leadership who operated in Khomeini&rsquo;s name but often without his explicit consent. The clerics within the Revolutionary Council exerted their greatest usurpation of Bazargan&rsquo;s legal authority through their control over the extralegal revolutionary committees and the judiciary, circumventing his ability to provide state-controlled security and enact state-sanctioned justice. Khomeini lacked consolidated control in the early months of the Provisional Government Era, instead relying on the infighting between the government and the Revolutionary Council, and allowing for the popular momentum of the revolution to guide his political moves, but ultimately exercised decisive action to consolidate all political authority. Finally, the thesis argues that U.S. foreign policy had been to support the Provisional Government through intelligence-sharing, hoping that by supporting the liberal democratic stream of power they could offset the radical religious stream and undermine Khomeini&rsquo;s personal influence. </p><p> Chapter three reveals how Bazargan chose to react to the challenges each rival power center presented. Despite the momentum of the popular revolution, Bazargan insisted in moderating the tone and progress of change, ignoring how ineffective his methods were in effecting positive change.</p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative, multi-case study is to identify the traits three middle school classroom teachers share, which seemingly enable them to successfully engage their students in performance-based activities and assessments. This study investigates the research behind the use of performance tasks, authentic learning and assessment and connects the data gleaned from observations and interviews with participants and administrators to the literature review. Data analysis and summations connect performance tasks to authentic learning but also identify more subjective traits such as relationship building, riskiness in instructional methodology, and the innate skills of a teacher, which appear to enhance students&rsquo; learning experiences. Students observed in the classrooms are asked not only to <i>know</i> content and cultivate an appropriate skill base, but also asked to <i> use</i> that knowledge and those skills to solve real-world problems. Data from the three participants not only illustrates the findings of other relevant research, but characterizes the types of teachers who inspire students to perform on a more complex level in order to solve complex problems.</p>