Fishing is common among the inhabitants in every coastal region. Oman’s Al-Batinah coast accounts for 20% of the national catch. However, poor uptakes of improved fishing technologies and practices, weak management, inefficiency and ineffective marketing have resulted in Al-Batinah fishermen securing low earnings (Al-Zabri, 2008). This study assesses the situation of the fishermen on the Batina...

Food and feeding habits of the Santer Seabream Cheimerius nufar were studied from the Arabian Sea coast of Oman for two years during April 2005-March 2007. The stomach contents consisted of substantial quantities of semi-digested matter and identifiable items like sardines, crab, squid, cuttlefish and other crustacean remains indicating the fish is an active carnivore. There was not much variat...

This article presents the incidence of female breast cancer in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and reviews the data in relation to established reproductive factors. Overall 4480 female breast cancer cases were diagnosed during 1998-2002 among GCC country nationals. Breast cancer was the most common malignancy in all GCC countries, ranging from 16.1% of female cancers in Oman to 35....

This paper presents the trend of spina bifida and other neural tube defects in Oman after the nationwide implementation of folate supplementation of pregnant women in 1990 and the fortification of wheat flour with iron and folate in 1996. The annual incidence of spina bifida fluctuated from 2.34 to 4.03 per 1000 deliveries between 1991 and 1996, but fell sharply to 2.11 per 1000 deliveries in 1...

A new fossiliferous locality is discovered from the upper Eocene Aydim Formation, in Dhofar, Southern Sultanate of Oman. A left ulna of rsinoitherium is described, and cranial and postcranial specimens found in close proximity are referred to the same taxon. The locality is romising for the recovery of additional fossil specimens. Moreover, the presence of Arsinoitherium in Oman is of biogeogra...

Following four decades of economic growth the public sector in Oman is experiencing an emerging problem of labour turnover to the private sector. We examine this phenomenon through semi-structured interviews with 26 current and former public employees. The rate of turnover is low but this masks the impact of losses to key technical and management roles. The main reasons for turnover are dissati...

Imagine you were put in charge of a country of 2 million inhabitants, most of whom were illiterate, and you were given what seemed to be incredible riches, how would you start to spend the money? This situation was faced by the present Sultan Qaboos of Oman about twenty years ago and the achievements of the sultanate in the ensuing twenty years have been incredible. The level of literacy has im...

As an emerging business model, cloud computing has been initiated to satisfy the need of organizations and to push Information Technology as a utility. The shift to the cloud has changed the way Information Technology departments are managed traditionally and has raised many concerns for both, public and private sectors. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of cloud compu...

24 25 Cenozoic alkaline lavas from the Al Ashkharah area, facing the Indian ocean along 26 the North-East Oman coastline, contain numerous small (‹ 2cm) mantle xenoliths. 27 They provide a unique opportunity to investigate the nature and evolution of the 28 upper mantle beneath the Oman passive margin, bordering the Owen Basin. All 29 studied xenoliths are porphyroclastic to equigranular spinel...