Strengths, challenges, and strategies for implementing pragmatic multicenter randomized controlled trials (RCTs): example of the Personalized Citizen Assistance for Social Participation (APIC) trial.

Background: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are rigorous scientific research designs for evaluating intervention effectiveness. However, implementing RCTs in a real-world context is challenging. To develop strategies to improve its application, it is essential to understand the strengths and challenges of this design.

Empathy arousal and emotional reactions to victims of the gender pay gap.

Men and women are well aware of the gender pay gap. The present study involved four experiments (N = 341, student sample, N = 203 general population sample) in which we indirectly measured empathy by asking participants to rate the non-complex and complex emotions they felt when reading a scenario in which a woman described her pay situation. Experiments 1 (equal pay vs.

Nod1 promotes colorectal carcinogenesis by regulating the immunosuppressive functions of tumor-infiltrating myeloid cells.

Pioneering studies from the early 1980s suggested that bacterial peptidoglycan-derived muramyl peptides (MPs) could exert either stimulatory or immunosuppressive functions depending, in part, on chronicity of exposure. However, this Janus-faced property of MPs remains largely unexplored. Here, we demonstrate the immunosuppressive potential of Nod1, the bacterial sensor of diaminopimelic acid (DAP)-containing MPs.

Sending signals - The microbiota's contribution to intestinal epithelial homeostasis.

The intestine is inhabited by a diverse range of microorganisms, which requires the host to employ numerous barrier measures to prevent bacterial invasion. However, the intestinal microbiota additionally acts symbiotically with host cells to maintain epithelial barrier function, and perturbation to this interaction plays a pivotal role in intestinal pathogenesis. In this review, we highlight current findings of how the intestinal microbiota influences host intestinal epithelial cells.

NOD2 modulates immune tolerance via the GM-CSF-dependent generation of CD103 dendritic cells.

Four decades ago, it was identified that muramyl dipeptide (MDP), a peptidoglycan-derived bacterial cell wall component, could display immunosuppressive functions in animals through mechanisms that remain unexplored. We sought to revisit these pioneering observations because mutations in , the gene encoding the host sensor of MDP, are associated with increased risk of developing the inflammatory bowel disease Crohn's disease, thus suggesting that the loss of the immunomodulatory functions of NOD2 could contribute to the development of inflammatory disease. Here, we demonstrate that intraperitoneal (i.