diff --git a/demos/python/example1TeBinaryData.py b/demos/python/example1TeBinaryData.py
old mode 100755
new mode 100644
index 78556ab3..a47f79c3
--- a/demos/python/example1TeBinaryData.py
+++ b/demos/python/example1TeBinaryData.py
@@ -52,8 +52,8 @@
 # Next, demonstrate how to do this with a numpy array
 teCalc.initialise()
 # Create the numpy arrays:
-sourceNumpy = numpy.array(sourceArray, dtype=numpy.int)
-destNumpy = numpy.array(destArray, dtype=numpy.int)
+sourceNumpy = numpy.array(sourceArray, dtype=int)
+destNumpy = numpy.array(destArray, dtype=int)
 # The above can be passed straight through to JIDT in python 2:
 # teCalc.addObservations(sourceNumpy, destNumpy)
 # But you need to do this in python 3:
diff --git a/demos/python/example9TeKraskovAutoEmbedding.py b/demos/python/example9TeKraskovAutoEmbedding.py
index 6c0df669..ba91729d 100644
--- a/demos/python/example9TeKraskovAutoEmbedding.py
+++ b/demos/python/example9TeKraskovAutoEmbedding.py
@@ -33,7 +33,8 @@
 if (not(os.path.isfile(jarLocation))):
 	exit("infodynamics.jar not found (expected at " + os.path.abspath(jarLocation) + ") - are you running from demos/python?")
 # Start the JVM (add the "-Xmx" option with say 1024M if you get crashes due to not enough memory space)
-startJVM(getDefaultJVMPath(), "-ea", "-Djava.class.path=" + jarLocation)
+# see: https://jpype.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html#jpype.startJVM and https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64841426/duckling-int-argument-must-be-a-string-a-bytes-like-object-or-a-number-not
+startJVM(getDefaultJVMPath(), "-ea", "-Djava.class.path=" + jarLocation, convertStrings=True)
 
 # Examine the heart-breath interaction that Schreiber originally looked at:
 datafile = '../data/SFI-heartRate_breathVol_bloodOx.txt'