Baseline Characteristics of the Study Participants^a.

<p>a Data are expressed as n (%) or mean ± SD or median (interquartile range)</p><p>Q1, lowest quartiles; Q2, second quartiles; Q3, third quartiles; Q4, quartiles; HDL cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; LDL cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; eGFR, estimated glomerular filtration rate; HbA1c, hemoglobin A1c</p

Comparison of the Predictive Values of CKD in Each Surrogate Maker of Obesity.

<p>a Adjusted for age, smoking status, alcohol drinking behavior, regular exercise, hypertension, increased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperuricemia, diabetes mellitus, urine occult blood, hemoglobin and preserved eGFR at baseline. Cox proportional-hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Definitions of these confounding factors are shown in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0088873#pone-0088873-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>.</p><p>CI, confidence interval; Q1, lowest quartiles; Q2, second quartiles; Q3, third quartiles; Q4, highest quartiles.</p

Clinical Characteristics of the Study Participants^a,b.

<p>a Data are expressed as n (%).</p><p>b Definitions of these confounding factors are shown in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0088873#pone-0088873-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>.</p><p>WheiR, waist to height ratio; Q1, lowest quartiles; Q2, second quartiles; Q3, third quartiles; Q4, quartiles; LDL cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; HDL cholesterol, High-density lipoprotein cholesterol; eGFR, estimated glomerular filtration rate.</p

Incidence of CKD in Relation to Quartiles of Waist to height ratio (WheiR) Stratified by Gender.

<p>a Adjusted for age, smoking status, alcohol drinking behavior, regular exercise, hypertension, increased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperuricemia, diabetes mellitus, urine occult blood, hemoglobin and preserved eGFR at baseline.</p><p>b (model 3) Adjusted for model 2 plus body mass index. Cox proportional-hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Definitions of these confounding factors are shown in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0088873#pone-0088873-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>.</p><p>WheiR, waist to height ratio; CI, confidence interval; Q1, lowest quartiles; Q2, second quartiles; Q3, third quartiles; Q4, highest quartiles</p

Incidence of CKD in Relation to Quartiles of Waist to height ratio (WheiR).

<p>a (model 2) Adjusted for age, gender, smoking status, alcohol drinking behavior, regular exercise, hypertension, increased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, decreased High-density lipoprotein cholesterol, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperuricemia, diabetes mellitus, urine occult blood, hemoglobin and preserved eGFR at baseline.</p><p>b (model 3) Adjusted for model 2 plus body mass index. Cox proportional-hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Definitions of these confounding factors are shown in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0088873#pone-0088873-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>.</p><p>WheiR, waist to height ratio; CI, confidence interval, Q1, lowest quartiles; Q2, second quartiles; Q3, third quartiles; Q4, highest quartiles</p

Definitions of potential confounders selected from clinical variables and lifestyle factors associated with CKD.

<p>HbA1c, hemoglobin A1c; LDL cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; HDL cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; eGFR, estimated glomerular filtration rate</p

Specific Alkylation of Human Telomere Repeat Sequences by a Tandem-Hairpin Motif of Pyrrole–Imidazole Polyamides with Indole-<i>seco</i>-CBI

We designed and synthesized a tandem-hairpin motif of pyrrole (P)imidazole (I) polyamide 1-(chloromethyl)-5-hydroxy-1,2-dihydro-3<i>H</i>-benz­[e]­indole (<i>seco</i>-CBI) conjugates (<b>1</b>) that targets the human telomere repeat sequence 5′-d­(CCCTAA)_<i>n</i>-3′. As a control, conjugate <b>2</b> (hairpin PI polyamide with <i>seco</i>-CBI), which also targets the human telomere repeat sequence, was synthesized. High-resolution denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) using 5′ Texas Red-labeled 219-bp DNA fragments revealed the outstandingly high sequence selectivity of <b>1</b>, with no mismatch alkylation. Furthermore, an evaluation performed in human cancer cell lines demonstrated that conjugate <b>1</b> has low cytotoxicity compared with conjugate <b>2</b>. In addition, a cell-staining analysis indicated that conjugate <b>1</b> induced apoptosis moderately by DNA damage. This study demonstrated that conjugate <b>1</b> can be used as an effective alkylator for telomere repeat sequences or as an apoptotic inducer

Incidence of Proteinuria and Low eGFR in Relation to Quartiles of Waist to height ratio (WheiR).

<p>a (model 2) Adjusted for age, gender, smoking status, alcohol drinking behavior, regular exercise, hypertension, increased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperuricemia, diabetes mellitus, urine occult blood, hemoglobin and preserved eGFR at baseline.</p><p>b (model 3) Adjusted for model 2 plus body mass index. Cox proportional-hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Definitions of these confounding factors are shown in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0088873#pone-0088873-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>.</p><p>WheiR, waist to height ratio; CI, confidence interval; Q1, lowest quartiles; Q2, second quartiles; Q3, third quartiles; Q4, highest quartiles.</p

Effects of Interface Electronic Structures on Transition Voltage Spectroscopy of Alkanethiol Molecular Junctions

We investigated the charge transport characteristics of alkanemonothiol (C_<i>n</i>H_2<i>n</i>+1SH, <i>n</i> = number of carbons) molecular junctions by means of transition voltage spectroscopy (TVS) based on the observations of the interface electronic structures. The minimum in the Fowler–Nordheim plot was observed at the average positive and negative sample biases of +1.23 and −1.44 V. These voltages (<i>V</i>_min) were insensitive to the molecular length. The low-energy ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (LE-UPS) measurements revealed the presence of an Au–S bond at a binding energy of 1.4 eV with reference to the Fermi level of the Au substrates. The binding energy of the interface electronic state was independent of the molecular length. The TVS results were analyzed based on the LE-UPS results, including the differences in the measurement conditions. The results were consistently explained by the Au–S bond being responsible for <i>V</i>_min at the negative bias. In addition, another interface state was suggested to be responsible for <i>V</i>_min at the positive bias. The effects of the interface electronic structures besides the apparent barrier height should be considered to understand TVS of molecular junctions with wide energy gap molecules

Receiver operating characteristic analyses describing the predictive value of each surrogate marker of obesity.

<p>(A) The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of waist to height ratio (WheiR), body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were calculated as 0.628 (95% Confidence interval; 0.601–0.655), 0.611 (0.584, 0.638), and 0.607 (0.579, 0.635), respectively in all study participants. (B) and (C) Participants were stratified by gender. The AUCs of WheiR, BMI and WC were 0.619 (0.587, 0.650), 0.604 (0.572, 0.635), and 0.604 (0.572, 0.636), respectively, in male gender (B), and 0.660 (0.610, 0.710), 0.656 (0.604, 0.708), and 0.628 (0.572, 0.685), respectively, in female gender (C).</p