Publications by authors named "D M Bethea"

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a highly prevalent joint disorder that is emerging as a global threat to health. OA is associated with low-grade chronic systemic inflammation that can affect overall health, leading to a sedentary lifestyle and potentially increased risk of neurological disorders (ND) such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and multiple sclerosis (MS). A meta-analysis was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for 2020 Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.

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Understanding how interactions among microevolutionary forces generate genetic population structure of exploited species is vital to the implementation of management policies that facilitate persistence. Philopatry displayed by many coastal shark species can impact gene flow and facilitate selection, and has direct implications for the spatial scales of management. Here, genetic structure of the blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) was examined using a mixed-marker approach employing mitochondrial control region sequences and 4339 SNP-containing loci generated using ddRAD-Seq.

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Nitrogen isotope (δN) analysis of bulk tissues and individual amino acids (AA) can be used to assess how consumers maintain nitrogen balance with broad implications for predicting individual fitness. For elasmobranchs, a ureotelic taxa thought to be constantly nitrogen limited, the isotopic effects associated with nitrogen-demanding events such as prolonged gestation remain unknown. Given the linkages between nitrogen isotope variation and consumer nitrogen balance, we used AA δN analysis of muscle and liver tissue collected from female bonnethead sharks (Sphyrna tiburo, n = 16) and their embryos (n = 14) to explore how nitrogen balance may vary across gestation.

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Programs to eliminate trachoma as a public health problem use prevalence of the clinical sign trachomatous inflammation-follicular (TF) in 1- to 9-year-olds in endemic districts to make decisions to begin or end mass drug administration with azithromycin. Trachomatous inflammation-follicular is used as a proxy for transmission of ocular Chlamydia trachomatis infection. Long-term monitoring of previously endemic districts for recrudescence of ocular C.

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The Trachoma Control Program in Amhara region, Ethiopia, scaled up the surgery, antibiotics, facial cleanliness, and environmental improvement (SAFE) strategy in all districts starting in 2007. Despite these efforts, many districts still require additional years of SAFE. In 2017, four districts were selected for the assessment of antibody responses against antigens and infection to better understand transmission.

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