A new record of Zoraptera (Insecta) from Kenya, with remarks on their habitat

We hereby record a zorapteran insect from Kenya. The species is easily distinguishable from other described African species of Zoraptera because of its distinct sexual dimorphism and male characteristics. Males have a hairy patch on the head and an asymmetric hairy patch with different types of setae on the last sternite, whereas females have no hairy patch. These conspicuous characteristics have not been described for any known African species described to date. The African fauna of Zoraptera were investigated until the 1970s and have not been thoroughly studied since that time. To accumulate knowledge on this enigmatic order and stimulate more research in Africa, we describe the habitat where we found this species in Kenya.Keywords: Angel insects; field work; ground lice; Kakamega National Park; sexual dimorphis

\u3cem\u3eSomalibuthus sabae\u3c/em\u3e sp. n., a new buthid scorpion from Kenya (Scorpiones: Buthidae)

The poorly known buthid genus Somalibuthus Kovařík, 1998, is recorded for the first time from Kenya, with the description of a new species, S. sabae sp. n., from Kiwayu Island in the Kiunga Marine National Reserve. Based on a detailed study of the new materials, a revised diagnosis is given for the genus. Several generic characters suggest affinities with three other genera of small buthids found in the Horn of Africa: Neobuthus Hirst, 1911, Gint Kovařík, Lowe, Plíšková et Šťáhlavský, 2013, and Lanzatus Kovařík, 1998

Mobile based application for sharing building and construction information: a case of Nairobi County

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Mobile Telecommunication and Innovation at (MSc.MTI) at Strathmore UniversityOwning a dream home is one of the key achievements every person wishes to meet in their lifetime. However, this desire faces a lot of challenges as the house prices rise steeply locking out the middle income earners in the country. This results in many people preferring to build their own houses at their own pace due to budget constraints rather than buying a complete built house. Generally, there is a housing deficit in the urban areas due to the increase in the population and urbanization growth rates. Due to the housing deficit, a lot of house contractors have emerged and some unprofessional contractors are exploiting the prospective house owners by offering poor services at high prices. There is lack of information on the available credible contractors who are near the location of the client thus unsuspecting clients engage some rogue and incompetent contractors who build substandard houses which leads to consequential failures such as collapse of the building, loss of resource and lives. This study aimed at creating a mobile application which offers location aware services by displaying a pool of experienced and genuine contractors and informal builders on a Google map. The clients are able to locate these service providers closer to their location and the application facilitates the interaction. The application also provides information on the various approved Appropriate Building Materials and Technologies (ABMT) which help the client to make an informed choice during a house construction. The study adopted the evolutionary prototyping methodology to create the mobile application. This allowed the system to be developed in increments that were readily modifiable according to the user feedback. Later, the study engaged in system testing and validation to ensure the application was working according to the set requirements. Among the tests carried out were: Acceptance, Usability, Speed tests, Functional, Load and Integration tests

Citizen Science as an Approach for Responding to the Threat of 'Anopheles stephensi' in Africa

Even as novel technologies emerge and medicines advance, pathogen-transmitting mosquitoes pose a deadly and accelerating public health threat. Detecting and mitigating the spread of Anopheles stephensi in Africa is now critical to the fight against malaria, as this invasive mosquito poses urgent and unprecedented risks to the continent. Unlike typical African vectors of malaria, An. stephensi breeds in both natural and artificial water reservoirs, and flourishes in urban environments. With An. stephensi beginning to take hold in heavily populated settings, citizen science surveillance supported by novel artificial intelligence (AI) technologies may offer impactful opportunities to guide public health decisions and community-based interventions. Coalitions like the Global Mosquito Alert Consortium (GMAC) and our freely available digital products can be incorporated into enhanced surveillance of An. stephensi and other vector-borne public health threats. By connecting local citizen science networks with global databases that are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR), we are leveraging a powerful suite of tools and infrastructure for the early detection of, and rapid response to, (re)emerging vectors and diseases

Towards Insect Digital Collections and Data Publishing: A journey for the GBIF-funded African Insect Atlas Collaborative Project

Museums from six African countries (Botswana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Madagascar, Mozambique), with support from the California Academy of Sciences, are currently collaborating on the GBIF funded project: African Insect Atlas: unleashing the potential of insects in conservation and sustainability research in Africa (BID-AF2015-0134-REG). This project was initiated to move biodiversity knowledge out of insect collections into the hands of a new generation of global biodiversity researchers interested in direct outcomes. The project acknowledges that insects are the glue that hold ecosystems together, and are ideal organisms for climate change biology, conservation planning, mapping local and regional patterns of diversity, and monitoring threats to ecosystem services and natural capital, thereby addressing the Sustainable Development Goal #15, 'Life on Land (http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html). The consortium partners have, since June 2016, embarked on a journey to learn digitization techniques and have successfully digitized 50% of the project goals. The targeted insect orders include Coleoptera, Odonata, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera and Hymenoptera. The data being mobilized includes specimen and species data, habitat information as well as identification of possible threats such as deforestation. These are being captured into a standardized platform using Darwin Core. Elaborate data cleaning is being carried out using tools in OPEN Refine (http://openrefine.org) and Microsoft Excel 2010. The captured data is also being geo-referenced using appropriate software such as GEOLocate (http://www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate) and GEO-Calculator (http://manisnet.org/gci2.html). The specimen occurrence records will be made available on the GBIF platform and will continuously be updated as more information becomes available. Any specimen images taken will also be linked to the database (SPECIFY and Microsoft Excel). Assessments will be carried out to establish which species are native and endemic as well as to establish their conservation status. Simplified image catalogues, checklists, distribution and habitat maps in suitable formats will also be produced to help scientists and other users to identify these species during their research and in the field

Subalusky_2018_mara_river_biofilm_alldata

This file contains data on the biofilm growth and production on individual ceramic tiles placed in the Mara River at our three primary study sites for 3-4 weeks at a time; these are the individual values for 4-5 tiles at each site at each sampling period. The mean values for each site and visit were used for analysis

Subalusky_2018_mara_nutrient_limitation_assays

This file contains data on biofilm growth on nutrient-diffusing substrates, comprised of glass discs (for measurements of cholorophyll a) and cellulose sponges (for measurements of respiration) on cups of agar amended with different nutrients

Subalusky_2018_mara_experimental_stream_tiles

This file contains data on the biofilm growth and production of indvidual ceramic tiles placed in experimental streams and destructively sampled weekly to measure biofilm growth over time

Subalusky_2018_mara_river_nutrients_tenpttransect

This file contains data on carbon and nutrient concentrations measured along a 10 point sampling transect down the Mara River, and the mean and standard error of all C and nutrient measurements over the period of study at our three primary study sites

Data from: Organic matter and nutrient inputs from large wildlife influence ecosystem function in the Mara River, Africa

Animals can be important vectors for the movement of resources across ecosystem boundaries. Animals add resources to ecosystems primarily through egestion, excretion and carcasses, and the stoichiometry and bioavailability of these inputs likely interacts with characteristics of the recipient ecosystem to determine their effects on ecosystem function. We studied the influence of hippopotamus excretion/egestion and wildebeest carcasses, and their interactions with discharge, in the Mara River, Kenya. We measured nutrient dissolution and decomposition rates of wildlife inputs, the influence of inputs on nutrient concentrations and nutrient limitation in the river and the influence of inputs on biofilm growth and function in both experimental streams and along a gradient of inputs in the river. We found that hippopotamus excretion/egestion increase ammonium and coarse particulate organic matter in the river, and wildebeest carcasses increase ammonium, soluble reactive phosphorus, and total phosphorus. Concentrations of dissolved carbon and nutrients in the water column increased along a gradient of wildlife inputs and during low discharge, although concentrations of particulate carbon decreased during low discharge due to deposition on the river bottom. Autotrophs were nitrogen-limited, and heterotrophs were carbon-limited and nitrogen- and phosphorus- co-limited, upstream of animal inputs, but there was no nutrient limitation downstream of inputs. In experimental streams, hippo and wildebeest inputs together increased biofilm GPP and R. These results differed in the river, where low concentrations of hippo inputs increased gross primary production (GPP) and respiration (R) of biofilms, but high concentrations of hippo inputs in conjunction with wildebeest inputs decreased GPP. Our research shows that inputs from large wildlife alleviate nutrient limitation and stimulate ecosystem metabolism in the Mara River, and that the extent to which these inputs subsidize the ecosystem is mediated by the quantity and quality of inputs and discharge of the river ecosystem. Thus, animal inputs provide an important ecological subsidy to this river, and animal inputs were likely important in many other rivers prior to the widespread extirpation of large wildlife