Publications by authors named "Tahir Akbar"

Attention towards microplastic (MP) pollution in various environments is increasing, but relatively little attention has been given to the freshwater-riverine environment. As the biggest city in the eastern Indonesia region, Makassar can be a potential source of MP pollution to its riverine area. This study aimed to determine the spatial trends, seasonal variation, and characteristics of MPs in the water and sediment of Tallo River, as the main river in Makassar.

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Protected areas are a critical tool to conserve biodiversity in the face of the global crisis of species extinction. Here, we present the first ever management effectiveness assessment of Pakistan's Protected Areas (PAs). We link these assessments to the delivery of conservation outcomes focusing on the threatened Western Tragopan () endemic to Pakistan and India.

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Gadani shipbreaking area, located on the coastline of Pakistan, is an important fish production area. In this study, levels of four metals (Ni, Pb, Cd, and Mn) in 148 muscle and gill samples of seven fish species (Small-scale terapon, Torpedo scade, Sicklefish, Saddle grunt, Gold silk seabream, Indian mackerel, Spotted sickle fish) and seawater samples, taken from 9 sampling sites in the shipbreaking area, were determined. In addition, multiple approaches were used to assess human health risks from fish consumption.

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The Upper Indus Basin (UIB) is a major source of supplying water to different areas because of snow and glaciers melt and is also enduring the regional impacts of global climate change. The expected changes in temperature, precipitation and snowmelt could be reasons for further escalation of the problem. Therefore, estimation of hydrological processes is critical for UIB.

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Plastic pollution is a planetary threat, affecting nearly every marine and freshwater ecosystem globally. In response, multilevel mitigation strategies are being adopted but with a lack of quantitative assessment of how such strategies reduce plastic emissions. We assessed the impact of three broad management strategies, plastic waste reduction, waste management, and environmental recovery, at different levels of effort to estimate plastic emissions to 2030 for 173 countries.

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The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of increasing CO concentration on the growth and the capability of . in removal of nitrate, ammonium and phosphate from shrimp pond wastewater (SPWW). The factorial experimental design was used with the treatment of SPWW percentage in culture medium, namely: 100% SPWW, 75% SPWW + 25% Sea Water (SW) and 75% SW + 25% SPWW coupled with three CO concentration treatments: 390 ppm, 550 ppm and 1000 ppm using CO system.

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Objective: Since nutritional screening is not routinely and accurately performed by busy care workers, the aim of this study was to evaluate a self-screening electronic measuring station that includes sonic height measurements.

Methods: In all, 114 patients, 18 to 85 y of age and attending gastrointestinal outpatient clinics, followed automatically triggered audio-recorded instructions for weight and height measurements. The patients also provided information about unintentional weight loss to establish malnutrition risk using the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST).

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The ubiquity of anthropogenic debris in hundreds of species of wildlife and the toxicity of chemicals associated with it has begun to raise concerns regarding the presence of anthropogenic debris in seafood. We assessed the presence of anthropogenic debris in fishes and shellfish on sale for human consumption. We sampled from markets in Makassar, Indonesia, and from California, USA.

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Groundwater contamination due to pesticide applications on agricultural lands is of great environmental concern. The mathematical models help to understand the mechanism of pesticide leaching in soils towards groundwater. We developed a user-friendly model called ArcPRZM-3 by integrating widely used Pesticide Root Zone Model version 3 (PRZM-3) using Visual Basic and Geographic Information System (GIS) based Avenue programming.

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Two new 20,24-bishomo-25-norscalaranes, compounds 1 and 2, and two new and two known 20,24-bishomoscalaranes, compounds 3-6, have been isolated from the Indonesian marine sponge Carteriospongia foliascens. The structures of 1-6 were determined by spectroscopic analysis. Compounds 1 and 3-6 inhibit RCE-protease activity.

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(+)-Makassaric acid (1) and (+)-subersic acid (2), new meroterpenoid inhibitors of the protein kinase MK2, have been isolated from the marine sponge Acanthodendrilla sp. collected in Indonesia. The structures of (+)-makassaric acid (1) and (+)-subersic acid (2) were determined by spectroscopic analysis.

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Three new sesquiterpenoids, boneratamides A (1)-C (3), have been isolated as their methyl esters 4-6 from extracts of the marine sponge Axinyssa aplysinoides collected in Indonesia. The structures of methyl esters 4-6 were elucidated by analysis of spectroscopic data and confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis of 4.

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[structure: see text] Latonduines A (6) and B (7), two new alkaloids with unprecedented heterocyclic skeletons, have been isolated from the Indonesian marine sponge Stylissa carteri. The structures of the latonduines were elucidated by analysis of spectroscopic data and confirmed by the total synthesis of latonduine A (6). It is proposed that ornithine is the biogenetic precursor to the aminopyrimidine fragment of the latonduines.

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