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Background and aims General surgery is a specialty that calls for a variety of abilities such as strong hand-eye coordination, the ability to function well under pressure, and the ability to make quick, informed decisions. On the other hand, internal medicine focuses on diagnosing, treating, and preventing adult non-surgical disorders. The present study aims to investigate the commonly used selection criteria employed by program directors (PDs) for general surgery and internal medicine residency programs. It also identifies how PDs value those criteria in the western and central regions of Saudi Arabia. Methods A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire adopted from the literature and modified following expert opinion. It was distributed to PDs in both the central and the western regions of Saudi Arabia. Results In total, 34 PDs completed the questionnaire, of which 32 (94.1%) were men. The mean age of participants was 42.53 ± 5.05 years; 21 (61.8%) PDs were general surgeons, and 47.1% were from the Jeddah region. Conclusion The study showed that the most selected criterion for both specialties was communication skills followed by clinical rotation in the same hospital; leadership skills were also highly considered by PDs.

International audience

International audience; The transport of emerging organic contaminants through the geosphere is often an environmental issue. The sorption of organic compounds slows their transport in soils and porous rocks and retardation is often assessed by extrapolation of batch experiments. However, transport experiments are preferable to strengthen migration data and modelling. In this context, we evaluated the adsorption of various organic acids by means of through-diffusion experiments in a sedimentary clay-rich rock (Callovo-Oxfordian, East of Paris Basin, France). A low diffusivity of organic anions was quantified with effective diffusion coefficients, De, ranged between 0.5 and 7 10$^{−12}$ m$^2$ s$^{−1}$. These values indicated an organic anion exclusion. As for chloride, the porosity accessible to organic anions was lower than that of water: $\varepsilon _a$(organic anions)

International audience

Background The number of partners that individuals mate with over their lifetime is a defining feature of mating systems, and variation in mate number is thought to be a major driver of sexual evolution. Although previous research has investigated the evolutionary consequences of reductions in the number of mates, we know little about the costs and benefits of increased numbers of mates. Here, we use a genetic manipulation of mating frequency in Drosophila melanogaster to create a novel, highly promiscuous mating system. We generated D. melanogaster populations in which flies were deficient for the sex peptide receptor (SPR) gene – resulting in SPR- females that mated more frequently – and genetically-matched control populations, and allowed them to evolve for 55 generations. At several time-points during this experimental evolution, we assayed behavioural, morphological and transcriptional reproductive phenotypes expected to evolve in response to increased population mating frequencies. Results We found that males from the high mating frequency SPR- populations evolved decreased ability to inhibit the receptivity of their mates and decreased copulation duration, in line with predictions of decreased per-mating investment with increased sperm competition. Unexpectedly, SPR- population males also evolved weakly increased sex peptide (SP) gene expression. Males from SPR- populations initially (i.e., before experimental evolution) exhibited more frequent courtship and faster time until mating relative to controls, but over evolutionary time these differences diminished or reversed. Conclusions In response to experimentally increased mating frequency, SPR- males evolved behavioural responses consistent with decreased male post-copulatory investment at each mating and decreased overall pre-copulatory performance. The trend towards increased SP gene expression might plausibly relate to functional differences in the two domains of the SP protein. Our study highlights the utility of genetic manipulations of animal social and sexual environments coupled with experimental evolution. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12862-016-0699-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

International audience

Jordan is a developing non-producing oil country; the major part of its needed energy is imported from the neighboring countries in the forms of oil and gas, for example, in year 2007 the demand for primary energy reached about 7438 million tons of oil equivalent, with a growth rate 3.5 % which is 1.2% more than the year before and is expected to be much more in the future due to the immigration from the neighboring countries because of the war crisis in the neighboring countries. The cost of this imported energy creates a heavy financial burden on the national economy which reflects on the development plans and the standard living of the people. Therefore it is of great necessity to look for utilizing other energy resources. Investigations and research work carried out by universities staff and the National Energy Research Center have shown evidence that Jordan has a potential geothermal source of energy which can be utilized in producing heat and electricity. In this paper Bouguer gravity data, obtained from a detailed gravity survey that was conducted at the Zarqa Main Zara geothermal field, east of the Dead Sea, are evaluated and combined with other previously obtained geophysical results including aeromagnetic, deep seismic soundings and seismicity. The observed gravity data clearly reflect the complex nature of the structural geology and tectonics of the study region. It revealed the presence of a number of local and regional Bouguer anomalies with different sizes, amplitudes and orientations. These anomalies are interpreted to have been caused by subsurface basic to ultrabasic igneous intrusions located within the uppermost part of the crust, mostly at depths 0.5km–1.5km or shallower. With a density 3.15 g/cm3–3.2 g/cm3, these have originated from the upper mantle. Travel times of P and S-waves propagating through the study region indicate that some of the subsurface bodies may be in a semi-solid state. The elevated temperature of the geothermal springs of the study area is suggested to be caused by deep water circulation that is facilitated by the permeability of the sedimentary and igneous rocks and both local and regional faults. The hot igneous intrusions remain the major source of heating, though normal geothermal gradient may add slightly to this heating process. The temperatures of the water springs in Zarqa Main- Zara thermal springs are below the boiling point; several applications are suggested to be utilized in the agricultural and industrial fields. Finally, the binary thermodynamic cycle is suggested to utilize this geothermal source in a power plant for generating electricity as the total flow of this thermal water is 25X 10⁁6 m3/year with an average temperature of 50 degrees centigrade. An approximate estimation of the output power is 3–4 Mega-Watt.

Energy is a main factor in developing nations. Energy is almost a must for surviving with dignity. Palestine situation is different from other countries which can import their energy needs from outside. Palestinians are facing a critical shortage in energy due to Israeli Occupation. They must depend on the naturally available energy to survive in dignity and develop their lives. In this paper the scope of using geothermal energy in Palestine is taken into consideration, its availability and practical applications, as a source of renewable energy, which is identified by the reliability and sustainability. It has been found that the Palestinians should depend on their own free energy, geothermal energy has a notable role in reducing the residential energy consumption specially for the heating and cooling purposes. Geothermal energy could also be used to reduce the electrical bill that overloading the Palestinians shoulders by using low temperature geothermal water in generating electricity.

The people in Palestine are facing critical situation concerning the achievement of reliable and sustainable energy. The absence of fossil fuel, the scarcity of conventional energy resources and lack of a Palestinian infrastructure for about four decades due to the continuous Israeli occupation had resulted in hindering the development of the country. Palestine has to import all its needs of petroleum products and about 92% of its needs of electrical energy from the Israeli Occupier. This resulted in continuous deterioration of the development plans and also hindered the development initiatives. Recent exploration of natural gas in Gaza Strip gives hopes and new opportunities for gas industry in Palestine; these hopes are constrained by the Occupation. In spite of all these challenges, Palestine has gone forward to utilize its natural resources for rehabilitation and construction. In this study the possibility of utilizing the available renewable energies in Palestine is taken into consideration, these include: wind, solar, geothermal and biomass energies. Obstacles facing renewable energy development were discussed in terms of Policy and politics obstacles, technical obstacles and social obstacles. Suggested policies were proposed to overcome those obstacles, such as the creation of a national fund, the development of governmental policies, regulations, provisions and incentives to encourage use and investment in renewable technologies, experience exchange and giving attention to small scale projects which when accumulated can produce a value.

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While the Dead Sea basin has been studied for a long time, the available knowledge about the detailed seismicity distribution in the area, as well as the deeper structure of the basin, is limited. Therefore, within the framework of the international project DESIRE (DEad Sea Integrated REsearch project), a dense temporary local seismological network was operated in the southern Dead Sea area. We use 530 local earthquakes, having all together 26 730 P- and S-arrival times for a simultaneous inversion of 1-D velocity models, station corrections and precise earthquake locations. Jackknife tests suggest an accuracy of the derived hypocentre locations of about 1 km. Thus, the result is the first clear image of the absolute distribution of the microseismicity of the area, especially in depth. The seismicity is concentrated in the upper crust down to 20 km depth while the lower limit of the seismicity is reached at 31 km depth. The seismic events at the eastern boundary fault (EBF) in the southern part of the study area represent the northward transform motion of the Arabian Plate along the Dead Sea Transform. North of the Boqeq fault the seismic activity represents the transfer of the motion in the pull-apart basin from the eastern to the western boundary. We find that from the surface downward the seismic events are tracing the boundary faults of the basin. The western boundary is mapped down to 12 km depth while the EBF reaches about 17 km depth, forming an asymmetric basin. One fifth of the data set is related to a specific cluster in time and space, which occurred in 2007 February at the western border fault. This cluster is aligned vertically, that is, it is perpendicular to the direction of the dominating left-lateral strike-slip movement at the main transform fault.