TOWARDS IMPROVING THE EDUCATION FUNDING POLICY IN OMAN: LESSONS LEARNED FROM OTHER OIL DEPENDENT NATIONS

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

EVOLUTION OF THE OMANI HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM AND ECONOMIC CHALLENGES 1970-2014

The Sultanate of Oman underwent a tremendous development in all its vitals sectors since 1970. The lag in Oman infrastructure development was mainly due to its very weak economic system. Prior to this date, there was no fundamental education system in Oman, not even dreaming about higher education. After His Majesty Qaboos bin Said took the lead of the country on 18th of November 1970, he started building the infrastructure of the country. He began by strengthening the country economy mainly utilizing the oil treasure in order to build and enhance the country\u27s major systems like health, education, transportation and other vitals sectors. Throughout the past forty-five years, Oman had made a huge leap in the areas of economy, education, as well as higher education. This paper will discuss the development in those areas, while linking economy development to the education and higher education development throughout the above-mentioned period

Paternal Ages and Genetic Diseases and Congenital Anomalies

he purpose of this research is to investigate the link between Advanced Paternal Ages (APA) (i.e., APA ≥ 35 years and APA ≥ 50 years) and genetic diseases and congenital anomalies. Currently, the relationship between both APA and genetic diseases and congenital anomalies remains unclear. There is room for improvement, however, to investigate systematically the relationship between specific congenital anomalies in newborns and APA. More recently, the link between APA (as opposed to existing studies analyzing Advanced Maternal Age alone) and genetic diseases has been recognized by researchers, epidemiologists, and various health experts. Thus, this study serves to examine the effect of APA on the likelihood of birth defects using a new dataset intended to discover those relationships. I created three datasets and utilized 12 statistical models to analyze the relationship between Advanced Paternal Ages (APA ≥ 35 years and APA ≥ 50 years, while including Advanced Maternal Age (AMA) [AMA ≥ 35 years]) and reproductive defects. This study focuses on Down syndrome, cleft lip with or without cleft palate, and meningocele/spina bifida, and explores the relationship between both advanced parental ages. I performed the analyses using logistic regression models that provide explanations of the relationship between each birth defect and APA. The results suggest that APA are positively associated with Down syndrome, whereas APA is negatively associated with cleft lip with or without cleft palate

PREDICTING BEAR TREND IN THE UAE STOCK MARKETS USING MACRO-FINANCIAL VARIABLES

Understanding the effects of macroeconomic and financial variables on stock market trends, especially bear markets, can help different stakeholders and concerned parties to react according to their goals and tasks. Investors can make better investment decisions and allocate assets in their portfolios based on trend expectations. Regulators and decision-makers can adopt adequate precautious regulations to protect the stock market and economy in general from any negative consequences in the case of a stock market recession.The purpose of this study is to investigate whether it is possible to predict UAE stock market bear states through the use of macro-financial variables. Monthly data from the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) were gathered, along with the publicly available Macroeconomic and Financial data. The stock markets indices between January 2004 and August 2022 were utilized to identify the market states or regimes (bear and bull). The Markov-regime switching model (MS), as a parametric measure, was used to identify market states. Three different models (Constant, Trend, Three-regimes) were used to test the prediction ability of each model. The binary logit model using the naïve approach was employed to compute variables prediction ability. Out-of-sample tests were conducted to examine the prediction’s robustness.The first hypothesis (H1) assumes that it is possible to predict the UAE bear stock market by using the macroeconomic and financial variables. The computed results of the three models showed that all of the variables, in at least one model, were statistically significant to predict both ADX and DFM trends. Therefore, H1 was supported.The practical economic benefits of such a prediction were then assessed, as a study application. The second hypothesis (H2) assumes that the investment return of implementing a switching strategy (buy and sell relying on a prediction model) will significantly outperform a buy-and-hold strategy. The test results confirmed and supported this second hypothesis (H2). Implementing a switching strategy in the DFM index yielded considerable profit due to the stationary feature of the DFM index movements. The significant output indicates that investors will be better off if they adopt the switching strategy (assuming that they can predict the market trends).During this study, a range of tests were conducted using different techniques and methods to achieve the objectives. First, the graphical trends of all variables were analyzed to check for similar movement patterns. Then fluctuations in the stock market were identified and classified. The cyclical variations (regime classification) in ADX and DFM indices were empirically examined using parametric approaches. After the bull and bear periods were identified and classified, different types of Markov-switching models (Constant, Trend, Three-regimes) were employed to investigate whether the market trends could be predicted by the study variables. The variables considered were: Crude Oil price; Saudi Tadawul (TASI) index; S&P 500 index; Broad Effective Exchange Rate for UAE; Baa Corporate Bond Yield Relative to Yield on 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity (default spread); and 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Minus 3-Month Treasury Constant Maturity (interest spread).Both in-sample and out-of-sample tests were conducted. The empirical results from monthly data on ADX and DFM price index suggest that the variables are useful predictors of the market trend in all the three models. Finally, a further out-of-sample test for forecasting measure was conducted. The empirical results are robust for the different types of MS models but suggest that the variable can predict ADX out-of-sample more accurately compared to that of DFM, and this was supported by the calculated MAPE values, which are used to assess a model’s forecasting ability. This result may demonstrate the usefulness of forecasting market trends.The thesis is structured as follows: Chapter 1 presents the introduction; Chapter 2 presents the literature review; Chapter 3 presents the methodological framework and hypotheses building; Chapter 4 describes the research methodology; and Chapter 5 represents the empirical results of the applied models, bull or bear market classification, and model predictability when using the study variables as leading indicators. Robustness tests and the economic value of predicting bear markets are provided in this chapter as well. Finally, the conclusion, limitations, remarks, and recommendations are offered in Chapter 6

Thermal And Structural Analyses Of Roller Compacted Concrete Dams

In the present study, a finite element computer code has been developed and is capable for simulating the sequence of construction of the roller compacted concrete dams taking into account the effects of the reservoir water temperature and climatic changes. The probability of cracking can be determined where the variation of the material mechanical properties with time are incorporated using the newly efficient experimental models found in literature. The developed code has been validated first for some numerical examples found in literature. Then the code has been verified against the monitoring temperatures measured by the installed thermocouples in a real case study in Malaysia where good agreement has been obtained between the code predicted results and monitoring temperatures. Then the developed code has been applied for the simulation of sequence of construction and operation phase taking into account the reservoir water operation affects on the upstream dam side. Realistic and identical thermal and structural responses from both the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional models have been obtained. Thus the two-dimensional model can be sufficiently used for the analysis of gravity roller compacted concrete dams without losing or sacrificing the accuracy level. The capability of the developed code has been demonstrated by analyzing a large roller compacted concrete dam of 169 m in height where the impact of the placement schedule on the thermal and structural response has been investigated. The obtained results show that, the placement schedule has significant effect in reducing the tensile stresses at the critical zones of high foundation restraints. Moreover, the developed code has been applied for the determination of the thermal and structural response of an unsymmetrical double curvature arch concrete dam as a general case. The roller compacted concrete technology has been tried as an alternative to the proposed conventional method utilizing the special code for the discretization of the arch dam gorges which was modified in the present study for roller compacted concrete arch dam problem. High tensile stresses at the dam bottom and the abutment boundaries in the upstream side have been observed. In addition to small regions of high compressive stresses near the abutment sides in the downstream side. Thus, a special attention should be paid to these regions in the design of roller compacted concrete arch dams

Requirement Model for CIAC Services Feedback System (CSFS)

The universities may have an edge on the candidate’s competition, each strives to be a world recognized educational institution therefore Universiti Utara Malaysia is striving to keep hold of its global vision through the Centre for International Affairs & Cooperation (CIAC) department which is in charge of this mission. Services provided by the CIAC such as visa, accommodation and transportation are very important for the improvement of the academic and administrative quality and excellence in the education in Universiti Utara Malaysia. A requirement model for CIAC services feedback system based on the perspective of the students is developed to provide the CIAC’s decision-makers a wealth of valuable information about the response levels of the students regarding the critical services provided by the university. This requirements were gathered and developed in order to come out with a system that can perform survey easily, cost- effectively, time shortly with reports in the form of charts, graphs without needs of using data analysis tools. The collected requirements are verified and validated using a prototype to confirm that it fulfills the client needs and specifications. Rational Unified Process (RUP) methodology was adopted in order to fulfill the objectives

Direct split-radix algorithm for fast computation of type-II discrete Hartley transform

In this paper, a novel split-radix algorithm for fast calculation the discrete Hartley transform of type-II (DHT-II) is intoduced. The algorithm is established through the decimation in time (DIT) approach, and implementedby splitting a length N of DHT-II into one DHT-II of length N/2 for even-indexed samples and two DHTs-II of length N/4 for odd-indexed samples. The proposed algorithm possesses the desired properties such as regularity, inplace calculation and it is represented by simple closed form decomposition sleading to considerable reductions in the arithmetic complexity compared to the existing DHT-II algorithms. Additionally, the validity of the proposed algorithm has been confirmed through analysing the arithmetic complexityby calculating the number of real additions and multiplications and associating it with the existing DHT-II algorithms