Society Committee Research Articles

The third nationwide surveillance of antimicrobial susceptibility against Neisseria gonorrhoeae from male urethritis in Japan, 2016–2017

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is one of the important pathogens of sexually transmitted infections. N. gonorrhoeae is rapidly becoming antimicrobial resistant, and there are few drugs that are effective in the initial treatment of gonorrhea. To understand the trends of antimicrobial susceptibility of N. gonorrhoeae, the Surveillance Committee of the Japanese Society of Infectious Diseases, the Japanese Society for Chemotherapy, and the Japanese Society of Clinical Microbiology conducted the third nationwide antimicrobial susceptibility surveillance of N. gonorrhoeae isolated from male urethritis. The specimens were collected from male patients with urethritis at 30 facilities from May 2016 to July 2017. From the 159 specimens collected, 87 N. gonorrhoeae strains were isolated, and 85 were tested for susceptibility to 21 antimicrobial agents. All strains were non-susceptible to penicillin G. Seven strains (8.2%) were β-lactamase-producing strains. The rates of susceptibility to cefixime and cefpodoxime were 96.5% and 52.9%, respectively. Three strains were non-susceptible with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 0.5 mg/L for cefixime. None of the strains were resistant to ceftriaxone or spectinomycin. The susceptibility rate for ciprofloxacin was 23.5% (20 strains), and no strains showed intermediate susceptibility. The susceptibility rate against azithromycin was 81.2%, with one strain isolated with a MIC of 8 mg/L against azithromycin. The results of this surveillance indicate that ceftriaxone and spectinomycin, which are currently recommended for gonococcal infections in Japan, appear to be effective. It will be necessary to further expand the scale of the next surveillance to understand the current status of drug-resistant N. gonorrhoeae in Japan.

Building Career Paths for Ph.D., Basic and Translational Scientists in Clinical Departments in the United States: An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report.

Rationale: To identify barriers and opportunities for Ph.D., basic and translational scientists to be fully integrated into clinical units. Objectives: In 2022, an ad hoc committee of the American Thoracic Society developed a project proposal and workshop to identify opportunities and barriers for scientists who do not practice medicine to develop successful careers and achieve tenure-track faculty positions in clinical departments and divisions within academic medical centers (AMCs) in the United States. Methods: This document focuses on results from a survey of adult and pediatric pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine division chiefs as well as a survey of workshop participants, including faculty in departmental and school leadership roles in both basic science and clinical units within U.S. AMCs. Results: We conclude that full integration of non-clinically practicing basic and translational scientists into the clinical units, in addition to their traditional placements in basic science units, best serves the tripartite mission of AMCs to provide care, perform research, and educate the next generation. Evidence suggests clinical units do employ Ph.D. scientists in large numbers, but these faculty are often hired into non-tenure track positions, which do not provide the salary support, start-up funds, research independence, or space often associated with hiring in basic science units within the same institution. These barriers to success of Ph.D. faculty in clinical units are largely financial. Conclusions: Our recommendation is for AMCs to consider and explore some of our proposed strategies to accomplish the goal of integrating basic and translational scientists into clinical units in a meaningful way.

A Historical Perspective on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: From Past to Present.

René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec in his book "Treatise of the Diseases of the Chest" discussed the emphysema in 1821. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been around for at least 202 years, from 1821 to 2023 (but the disease itself is much older than that). It is believed that William Briscoe first used the term COPD in June 1965, at the 9th Aspen Emphysema Conference. COPD was first defined by the CIBA guest symposium in 1959 and the American Thoracic Society Committee on Diagnostic Standards in 1962; recent definition of COPD was released by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) report 2023. In 1990, it was sixth leading cause of death and in 2020 COPD becomes third leading cause of death. GOLD update 2023 also proposed taxonomy (etiotypes), classification of COPD based on risk factors, and ABE assessment tool for COPD. Now concept of early-COPD, pre-COPD, and, mild-COPD are also emerging, which are helpful in better understanding of COPD. Here, we have discussed historical landmarks, definition, burden, taxonomy, classification, different concept of disease, ABE assessment tool, personalized medicine, and brief description of GOLD and World COPD Day from past to present.

Influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations and risk factors for pneumonia in older adults: A report by the Monitoring Report Committee of the Japanese Society of Public Health

Influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations and risk factors for pneumonia in older adults: A report by the Monitoring Report Committee of the Japanese Society of Public Health

Spotlight on the Youth and Early Career Special Interest Group

Spotlight on the Youth and Early Career Special Interest Group

New Standards Initiatives on Wi-Fi [Standards

The IEEE 802.11 Working Group on Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) is a Working Group of the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee of the IEEE Computer Society. It is chartered to define one medium access control (MAC) and several physical layer (PHY) specifications for wireless connectivity for fixed, portable, and moving stations (STAs) within a local area, with the purpose of providing wireless connectivity for fixed, portable, and moving STAs within a local area <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref1" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">[1]</xref> .

From Nano to Macro: An overview of the IEEE Bio Image and Signal Processing Technical Committee

The Bio Image and Signal Processing (BISP) Technical Committee (TC) of the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) promotes activities within the broad technical field of biomedical image and signal processing. Areas of interest include medical and biological imaging, digital pathology, molecular imaging, microscopy, and associated computational imaging, image analysis, and image-guided treatment, alongside physiological signal processing, computational biology, and bioinformatics.

Chinese expert consensus on CT-guided thermal ablation treatment of primary liver cancer

In order to standardize CT-guided local ablation as treatment of liver cancer in China, integrate advanced concepts of "precision medicine", adopt the image guided thermal ablation (IGTA) technique, and improve multidisciplinary approach in the treatment of liver cancer, experts from the Society of Tumor Ablation Therapy of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, the Ablation Expert Committee of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO), and the Expert Group on Tumor Ablation Therapy of the Chinese Medical Doctors, discussed and developed a consensus on CT-guided percutaneous thermal ablation therapy for primary liver cancer, based on current treatment guidelines in ablation therapy. This was an attempt to standardize and develop clinical practice related to CT-guided thermal ablation treatment in patients with primary liver cancer.

Chest Wall Injury Society Recommendations for Management of Surgical Site or Implant-Related Infections After Surgical Stabilization of Traumatic Rib or Sternal Fractures.

Background: Surgical stabilization of rib fractures (SSRF) and surgical stabilization of sternal fractures (SSSF) involves open reduction and internal fixation of fractures with an implantable titanium plate to restore and maintain anatomic alignment. The presence of this foreign, non-absorbable material presents an opportunity for infection. Although surgical site infection (SSI) and implant infection rates after SSRF and SSSF are low, they present a challenging clinical entity. Methods: The Surgical Infection Society's Therapeutics and Guidelines Committee and Chest Wall Injury Society's Publication Committee convened to develop recommendations for management of SSIs or implant-related infections after SSRF or SSSF. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and the Cochrane database were searched for pertinent studies. Using a process of iterative consensus, all committee members voted to accept or reject each recommendation. Results: For patients undergoing SSRF or SSSF who develop an SSI or an implant-related infection, there is insufficient evidence to suggest a single optimal management strategy. For patients with an SSI, systemic antibiotic therapy, local wound debridement, and vacuum-assisted closure have been used in isolation or combination. For patients with an implant-related infection, initial implant removal with or without systemic antibiotic therapy, systemic antibiotic therapy with local wound drainage, and systemic antibiotic therapy with local antibiotic therapy have been documented. For patients who do not undergo initial implant removal, 68% ultimately require implant removal to achieve source control. Conclusions: Insufficient evidence precludes the ability to recommend guidelines for the treatment of SSI or implant-related infection following SSRF or SSSF. Further studies should be performed to identify the optimal management strategy in this population.

Call for nominations for ACS-CEI Award for Incorporation of Sustainability into Chemical Education

The American Chemical Society Committee on Environment and Sustainability (ACS-CEI) seeks third-party and self-nominations for the ACS-CEI Award for Incorporation of Sustainability into Chemical Education. This award recognizes groups or individuals that have made exemplary contributions to the incorporation of sustainability into chemical education for K–12 students and teachers, undergraduate and graduate students, or the general public. Focus areas for the award include green chemistry, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and systems thinking. Awardees will be expected to present invited talks at a selected conference. More information can be found at cenm.ag/acs-cei-award . The nomination deadline is Sept. 30.

“Statement on Tobacco 21 from the European Respiratory Society Tobacco Control Committee.” D.W. Cox, L. Rodriguez and J. Grigg on behalf of the Tobacco Control Committee of the European Respiratory Society.Eur Respir J2023; 61: 2300134

“Statement on Tobacco 21 from the European Respiratory Society Tobacco Control Committee.” D.W. Cox, L. Rodriguez and J. Grigg on behalf of the Tobacco Control Committee of the European Respiratory Society.<i>Eur Respir J</i>2023; 61: 2300134

Nationwide surveillance of bacterial respiratory pathogens conducted by the surveillance committee of the Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, the Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases, and the Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology in 2019–2020: General view of the pathogens' antibacterial susceptibility

The trends and prevalence of antimicrobial susceptibility of pathogens vary by country, region, and time. Long-term regular surveillance is required to investigate trends in the antimicrobial resistance of various isolated bacterial pathogens. We report the results of a nationwide surveillance on the antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial respiratory pathogens in Japan conducted by the Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, the Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases, and the Japanese Society for Clinical Microbiology. The isolates were collected from clinical specimens obtained from adult patients who visited a collaborating medical facility between June 2019 and December 2020 and were diagnosed with respiratory tract infections by a physician. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed in a centralized laboratory according to the methods recommended by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute.Susceptibility testing was performed for 932 strains (201 Staphylococcus aureus, 158 Streptococcus pneumoniae, 6 S. pyogenes, 136 Haemophilus influenzae, 127 Moraxella catarrhalis, 141 Klebsiella pneumoniae, and 163 Pseudomonas aeruginosa) collected from 32 facilities in Japan. The proportions of methicillin-resistant S. aureus and penicillin-resistant S. pneumoniae were 35.3% and 0%, respectively. In H. influenzae, 16.2% and 16.9% were β-lactamase-producing ampicillin resistant and β-lactamase-negative ampicillin resistant, respectively. Extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing K. pneumoniae accounted for 5.0% of all K. pneumoniae infections. Carbapenemase-producing K. pneumoniae and multi-drug-resistant P. aeruginosa with metallo-β-lactamase were not detected in this study. This surveillance will be a useful reference for treating respiratory infections in Japan and will provide evidence to enhance the appropriate use of antimicrobial agents.

International guideline on natural orifice specimen extraction surgery (NOSES) for colorectal cancer (2023 version)

PurposeIn recent years, natural orifice specimen extraction surgery (NOSES) has gained widespread attention as an alternative approach. Although the safety and feasibility of NOSES have been well documented, many questions remain open for discussion. The aim of this guideline is to provide more evidence for the promotion of NOSES.MethodsThis guideline has been prepared by the CACA Committee of Colorectal Cancer Society and the International NOSES Alliance, based on the latest evidence.ResultsThe guideline on NOSES for colorectal cancer include the definition, classification, technology requirement, indications, technical difficulties and clinical research.ConclusionThe guideline provides a full introduction of the theoretical and technical aspects of NOSES for colorectal cancer which will beneficial to development of NOSES.

Current Progress in Standardization of Shielding Concrete Composition for Japanese Facility Design

The working group on shielding materials under the Standards Committee of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan has been studying the standard composition of shielding concrete that has a clear basis for use in the design of Japanese facilities. The policy for determining the composition, the procedure of study, the results obtained to date, and future tasks are described. Concrete is broadly classified into silicon type and calcium type depending on the aggregate. The reference mix design and composition were selected from the Japanese recommendation, and minor elements in the composition were replaced with silicon and calcium while preserving their weight in order to reduce regional differences. However, the penetration dose calculation for 235U thermal fission neutrons indicated that iron and carbon should be retained. The penetration dose calculations for photons from 235U prompt fission and radioisotopes showed that the attenuation ratios of silicon-type and calcium-type concretes differ in the energy region where electron pair production becomes dominant. The water content of concrete was found to vary with thickness as a result of moisture migration analysis over time. Finally, a draft composition of silicon-type concrete by thickness was determined using the residual water content at 60 years after placement. A method for correcting the elemental content under different mix conditions was also proposed.

Key points of anti-tumor treatment in breast cancer patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Internationally, the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become the most serious public health emergency. With the adjustment of the prevention and control policies, China downgraded the management of COVID-19 from Class A to Class B, causing new challenges in the clinical management of patients with breast cancer. It is necessary to formulate clinical strategies for timely and reasonable anti-tumor treatment after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. By combing the relevant evidence and summarizing the anti-tumor treatment experience for breast cancer patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection in various regions, the expert panel of the Breast Cancer Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO-BC) discussed and voted on hot and difficult issues of this situation timely. Based on the vote results, combined with domestic and foreign guidelines and consensus, the key points of treatment and management of breast cancer patients who were infected with COVID-19 have been established to provide suggestions and recommendations for clinical practice, such as restart time of anti-tumor treatment, application of anti-tumor drugs and other considerations. In the formulation of this key point, we mainly focus on mild to moderate and asymptomatic infection patients who account for the largest proportion of COVID-19 patients, and propose diagnosis and treatment recommendations for breast cancer patients with different infections and after SARS-CoV-2 infection, aiming to provide a reference for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Publications, our window on the chemical sciences

Since its inception in 1876, the American Chemical Society has played a crucial role in the communication of scientific information. In 1879, it began publishing its flagship scientific publication, the Journal of the American Chemical Society , and today ACS publishes more than 75 peer-reviewed journals related to chemistry. It also communicates to both members and nonmembers globally through various channels including the ACS Publications website, social media, the ACS website, and C&EN. The Society Committee on Publications (SCOP) has several tasks, but foremost is its role to review and assess the editorial quality and content of the ACS publication program. The membership of SCOP reflects the broad makeup of ACS in all its diversity. Each year, one member is appointed by the ACS president, another by the chair of the ACS Board of Directors, and any additional members are appointed jointly using advice from the Committee on Committees. The

ASM News for March 2023

Abstract News about ASM members, chapters, events, awards, conferences, affiliates, and other society activities. Topics include: appointment of the 2023 ASM Nominating Committee; ASM affiliate society committee chairs for 2022-2023; column from ASM President David B. Williams on realigning the organization for future growth; overview of the ASM Emerging Professionals Committee by Kentaro Lunn; professional profile for Victoria Reichelderfer.

2022 Renal denervation therapy for the treatment of hypertension: a statement from the Thai Hypertension Society

Hypertension remains a significant risk factor for major cardiovascular events worldwide. Poor adherence to treatment is extremely common in clinical practice, leading to uncontrolled hypertension. However, some patients with resistant hypertension still have uncontrolled blood pressure despite good medical compliance. A specific group of patients also develop adverse reactions to many blood pressure-lowering medications. These scenarios indicate that innovative strategies to lower blood pressure in challenging cases of hypertension are needed. The blood pressure-lowering efficacy of catheter-based renal denervation therapy to decrease sympathetic tone has been confirmed in many publications in recent years. Apart from both the invasiveness and the expensiveness of this technology, appropriate case selection to undergo this procedure is still developing. The utilization of renal denervation therapy for hypertension treatment in Thailand has lasted for 10 years with a good response in most cases. Currently, only certain interventionists at a few medical schools in Thailand can perform this procedure. However, more physicians are now interested in applying this technology to their patients. The Thai Hypertension Society Committee has reviewed updated information to provide principles for the appropriate utilization of renal denervation therapy. The blood pressure-lowering mechanism, efficacy, suitable patient selection, pre- and postprocedural assessment and procedural safety of renal denervation are included in this statement.

Chinese consensus guidelines for therapeutic drug monitoring of polymyxin B, endorsed by the Infection and Chemotherapy Committee of the Shanghai Medical Association and the Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Committee of the Chinese Pharmacological Society.

Polymyxin B, which is a last-line antibiotic for extensively drug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections, became available in China in Dec. 2017. As dose adjustments are based solely on clinical experience of risk toxicity, treatment failure, and emergence of resistance, there is an urgent clinical need to perform therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) to optimize the use of polymyxin B. It is thus necessary to standardize operating procedures to ensure the accuracy of TDM and provide evidence for their rational use. We report a consensus on TDM guidelines for polymyxin B, as endorsed by the Infection and Chemotherapy Committee of the Shanghai Medical Association and the Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Committee of the Chinese Pharmacological Society. The consensus panel was composed of clinicians, pharmacists, and microbiologists from different provinces in China and Australia who made recommendations regarding target concentrations, sample collection, reporting, and explanation of TDM results. The guidelines provide the first-ever consensus on conducting TDM of polymyxin B, and are intended to guide optimal clinical use.

Sustaining Our Mission to Support Humanitarian Activities [Cope Corner

In this first “COPE Corner” column of 2023, the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) Committee on Promoting Equality (COPE) is pleased to share the progress that it has been making and a recap of the journey so far. The COPE chair, Prof. Weng Chew, scheduled a Zoom meeting, on 3 November 2022, with the committee members to have a brainstorming session for COPE project topics and ideas for next year and to discuss ideas as to how COPE can be instrumental in providing Internet access to the remote villages of the world. <xref ref-type="fig" rid="fig1" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Figure 1</xref> shows the attendees of the COPE Zoom meeting.