Men in menopause? Experimental verification of the mate choice theory with Drosophila melanogaster shows both sexes can undergo menopause.

Various hypotheses regarding the origin of menopause have been proposed, and although the kin-selection-based theory appears promising, it involves population genetic processes that are insufficient to compensate for loss of fitness. The grandmother hypothesis and its variation the live long hypothesis is untenable; the former requires "climbing a steep fitness hill", as grandmothers share only 25% of their genes with their grandchildren, compared to 50% with their direct offspring, while the latter proposes a prolongation of the post-menopausal lifespan through selection, which is not possible in a population of non-reproducing females. The mate choice theory explains menopause as the result of asymmetric mating involving younger females and older males that leads to an accumulation of infertility mutations and the evolution of menopause in older females.

Respiratory burden in post-acute COVID-19 sequelae: a longitudinal study of airway and systemic inflammation and clinical outcomes.

Background: It is unclear why patients with post-acute coronavirus disease 2019 sequelae (PACS) often present with persistent respiratory symptoms. We hypothesised that autoimmune inflammatory biomarkers may be associated with the persistence and/or resolution of these symptoms. We performed symptom-based unsupervised cluster analysis to evaluate airway and systemic immune responses in PACS participants over time.

An Inferential Model for Understanding the Effects of Demographic and Gait Factors and Their Interactions on the Human Gait Index: A Beta Regression Approach.

The gait index (GI), a valuable metric to assess human gait, incorporates clinically relevant parameters such as walking speed, knee angle, stride length, and stance-to-swing phase ratio. This index offers insights into an individual's gait pattern, aiding in the identification of subtle gait abnormalities and enabling continuous monitoring of gait changes over time. Building upon this foundation, the present study investigated the influence of specific gait parameters and demographic factors on the gait index, alongside their interaction effects.

Circulating anti-nuclear autoantibodies in COVID-19 survivors predict long COVID symptoms.

Background: Autoimmunity has been reported in patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We investigated whether anti-nuclear/extractable-nuclear antibodies (ANAs/ENAs) were present up to a year after infection, and if they were associated with the development of clinically relevant post-acute sequalae of COVID-19 (PASC) symptoms.

Methods: A rapid-assessment line immunoassay was used to measure circulating levels of ANAs/ENAs in 106 convalescent COVID-19 patients with varying acute phase severities at 3, 6 and 12 months post-recovery.