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Saudi Hospital Establishes World’s 1st Automated Medication Dispensing Machine

The hospital has introduced a groundbreaking global initiative by establishing the world's first automated medication dispensing device. SPA
The hospital has introduced a groundbreaking global initiative by establishing the world's first automated medication dispensing device. SPA
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Saudi Hospital Establishes World’s 1st Automated Medication Dispensing Machine

The hospital has introduced a groundbreaking global initiative by establishing the world's first automated medication dispensing device. SPA
The hospital has introduced a groundbreaking global initiative by establishing the world's first automated medication dispensing device. SPA

The General Directorate for Health Services at the Ministry of Defense (MODHS), represented by King Salman Armed Forces Hospital in the Northwestern region, has achieved a significant milestone that adds to Saudi Arabia's impressive track record of technological innovations.

The hospital has introduced a groundbreaking global initiative by establishing the world's first automated medication dispensing device, revolutionizing the way medications are distributed without requiring hospital visits.

According to director of the hospital’s pharmacy department, Olayan Alatawy, the machine is the first of its kind worldwide.

The machine consists of a workstation that handles the prescription barcode, a screen for interaction with the beneficiaries, a specialized operating system and a messaging platform that notifies beneficiaries while the medication is being packaged ahead of delivery.

With a storage capacity ranging from 102 to 700 medical prescriptions, the machine is capable of filling prescriptions containing multiple medications, while ensuring extremely high protection against damage, tampering, or theft.

Additionally, it provides statistical data on the dispensed medications to the beneficiaries on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis.

Explaining the steps for obtaining the medication through the machine, Alatawy said beneficiaries submit requests to get their prescriptions filled by scanning the barcode attached to the prescription.

The user then fills in the required information and selects the nearest dispensing machine to their location, Alatawy said. Subsequently, a pharmacist verifies the beneficiary's prescription data through an electronic system.

Once the prescription request is accepted, a text message is sent to the beneficiary with a code, the location of the device, and the status of the request.

Beneficiaries can then get their medication within 48 hours from the machine by filling in the required data and entering the verification code sent to their phone, added Alatawy.

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Varieties

Jungle Music: Chimp Drumming Reveals Building Blocks of Human Rhythm

In this photo provided by researchers, a wild male chimpanzee produces a pant-hoot call to elicit a response from distant group members and reunite with them in the Budongo Forest of Uganda in June 2016. (Adrian Soldati via AP)
In this photo provided by researchers, a wild male chimpanzee produces a pant-hoot call to elicit a response from distant group members and reunite with them in the Budongo Forest of Uganda in June 2016. (Adrian Soldati via AP)
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Jungle Music: Chimp Drumming Reveals Building Blocks of Human Rhythm

In this photo provided by researchers, a wild male chimpanzee produces a pant-hoot call to elicit a response from distant group members and reunite with them in the Budongo Forest of Uganda in June 2016. (Adrian Soldati via AP)
In this photo provided by researchers, a wild male chimpanzee produces a pant-hoot call to elicit a response from distant group members and reunite with them in the Budongo Forest of Uganda in June 2016. (Adrian Soldati via AP)

Like humans, chimpanzees drum with distinct rhythms - and two subspecies living on opposite sides of Africa have their own signature styles, according to a study published in Current Biology.

Previous work showed chimpanzees pound the huge flared buttress roots of rainforest trees to broadcast low‑frequency booms through dense foliage.

The idea that ape drumming might hold clues to the origins of human musicality has long fascinated scientists, but collecting enough clean data amid the cacophony of the jungle had, until now, proven elusive.

“Finally we've been able to quantify that chimps drum rhythmically - they don't just randomly drum,” lead author Vesta Eleuteri of the University of Vienna told AFP.

The findings lend fresh weight to the theory that the raw ingredients of human music were present before our evolutionary split from chimpanzees six million years ago.

For the new study, Eleuteri and colleagues - including senior authors Catherine Hobaiter of the University of St Andrews in the UK and Andrea Ravignani of Sapienza University in Rome - compiled more than a century's worth of observational data.

After cutting through the noise, the team focused on 371 high-quality drumming bouts recorded from 11 chimpanzee communities across six populations living in both rainforest and savannah-woodland habitats across eastern and western Africa.

Their analysis showed that chimpanzees drum with definitive rhythmic intent - the timing of their strikes is not random.

Distinct differences also emerged between subspecies: western chimpanzees tended to produce more evenly timed beats, while eastern chimpanzees more frequently alternated between shorter and longer intervals.

Western chimps also drummed more frequently, kept a quicker tempo, and began drumming earlier in their signature chimp calls, made up of rapid pants and hoots.

The researchers do not yet know what is driving the differences - but they propose that it might signify differences in social dynamics.

The western chimps' faster, predictable pulse might promote or be evidence of greater social cohesion, the authors argue, noting that western groups are generally less aggressive toward outsiders.

By contrast, the eastern apes' variable rhythms could carry extra nuance - handy for locating or signaling companions when their parties are more widely dispersed.

Next, Hobaiter says she would like to study the data further to understand whether there are intergenerational differences between rhythms within the same groups.

“Music is not only a difference between different musical styles, but a musical style like rock or jazz, is itself going to evolve over time,” she said.

“We're actually going to have to find a way to tease apart group and intergenerational differences to get at that question of whether or not it is socially learned,” she said. “Do you have one guy that comes in with a new style and the next generation picks it up?”