Embodied intelligence for drumming; a reinforcement learning approach to drumming robots.

This paper investigates the potential of the intrinsically motivated reinforcement learning (IMRL) approach for robotic drumming. For this purpose, we implemented an IMRL-based algorithm for a drumming robot called , an underactuated two-DoF robotic arm with flexible grippers. Two ZRob robots were instructed to play rhythmic patterns derived from MIDI files.

Relative efficacy of anti-Plasmodium vivax malaria combination drugs in preventing transmission to two major Anopheles mosquitoes in the first few days of treatment.

Objectives: The World Health Organization recommends three drug anti-malarial combinations: cloroquine+primaquine, artesiminin+primaquine, and cloroquine+tafenoquine. These combinations aim to eradicate Plasmodium by disrupting its life cycle within the human body. We evaluated the effect of these medications on the vectorial competence of two main vectors in the New World.

Motion shapes for sound shaping.

The focus of this perspective paper is on relationships between sound-producing body motion and corresponding perceived sound features, guided by the idea of shapes as the common denominator of these two domains. The term is used to denote graphical-pictorial renderings of phenomena that we perceive or imagine, and may have physical manifestations as tracings on paper or on screen, or as gesticulations, or just as imagined tracings in our minds. Shapes give us intermittent snapshots of unfolding motion and sound fragments, and the point of shapes is to make ephemeral sound and motion features tractable as more permanent objects.

Exploring the midgut physiology of the non-haematophagous mosquito .

mosquitoes have an exclusively phytophagous feeding habit as adults, which leads to significant differences in their morphophysiology compared with haematophagous mosquitoes. However, the molecular mechanisms of digestion in this mosquito are not well understood. In this study, RNA sequencing of the posterior midgut (PMG) of the mosquito was undertaken, highlighting its significance in mosquito digestion.

Reading tea leaves worldwide: Decoupled drivers of initial litter decomposition mass-loss rate and stabilization.

The breakdown of plant material fuels soil functioning and biodiversity. Currently, process understanding of global decomposition patterns and the drivers of such patterns are hampered by the lack of coherent large-scale datasets. We buried 36,000 individual litterbags (tea bags) worldwide and found an overall negative correlation between initial mass-loss rates and stabilization factors of plant-derived carbon, using the Tea Bag Index (TBI).