Sex differences in the association between obesity and albuminuria among Korean adults: a cross-sectional study using the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data.

BACKGROUND: The association between obesity and albuminuria in the general population remains unclear. We aimed to identify the association between obesity and albuminuria as well as sex differences regarding the associations using several obesity indices, including waist circumference (WC), body mass index (BMI), and waist-to-height ratio (WHR). METHODS: This study included 3841 subjects (1730 males and 2111 females; age 20-80 years) who participated in the Fifth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2011. Subjects with hypertension, diabetes, renal failure, or a malignant tumor and those who were pregnant or menstruating were excluded. Albuminuria was defined as a urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio ≥30 mg/g. Anthropometric parameters were categorized into sex-specific quartiles. Logistic regression models were used to assess the associations between each anthropometric parameter and albuminuria. RESULTS: All of the obesity indices of the fourth quartile group of females showed a twofold higher risk for albuminuria than the second quartile group, and it was persistently significant after adjusting for age, smoking, and physical activity. After further adjustment for high blood pressure and impaired fasting glucose and triglyceride levels, WC and BMI of the fourth quartile group of females still showed a significantly higher risk for albuminuria than the second quartile group (odds ratios 1.96 and 2.24; 95 % confidence intervals 1.03-3.74 and 1.15-4.37). None of the associations between albuminuria and the obesity indices were significant in males. CONCLUSION: Higher WC and BMI were significantly associated with the risk of albuminuria among females, but not males.

Molecular Engineering for Enhanced Charge Transfer in Thin-Film Photoanode.

We developed three types of dithieno[3,2-b;2',3'-d]thiophene (DTT)-based organic sensitizers for high-performance thin photoactive TiO2 films and investigated the simple but powerful molecular engineering of different types of bonding between the triarylamine electron donor and the conjugated DTT π-bridge by the introduction of single, double, and triple bonds. As a result, with only 1.3 µm transparent and 2.5-µm TiO2 scattering layers, the triple-bond sensitizer (T-DAHTDTT) shows the highest power conversion efficiency (η = 8.4%; VOC = 0.73 V, JSC = 15.4 mA·cm-2, and FF = 0.75) in an iodine electrolyte system under one solar illumination (AM 1.5, 1000 W·m-2), followed by the single-bond sensitizer (S-DAHTDTT) (η = 7.6%) and the double-bond sensitizer (D-DAHTDTT) (η = 6.4%). We suggest that the superior performance of T-DAHTDTT comes from enhanced intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) induced by the triple bond. Consequently, T-DAHTDTT exhibits the most active photoelectron injection and charge transport on a TiO2 film during operation, which leads to the highest photocurrent density among the systems studied. We analyzed these correlations mainly in terms of charge injection efficiency, level of photocharge storage, and charge-transport kinetics. This study suggests that the molecular engineering of a triple bond between the electron donor and the π-bridge of a sensitizer increases the performance of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) with a thin photoactive film by enhancing not only JSC through improved ICT but also VOC through the evenly distributed sensitizer surface coverage.