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Purpose: To examine the 6-year incidence of visual impairment (VI) and identify risk factors associated with VI in a multiethnic Asian population. Design: Prospective, population-based, cohort study. Participants: Adults aged ≥ 40 years were recruited from the Singapore Epidemiology of Eye Diseases cohort study at baseline. Eligible subjects were re-examined after 6 years. Subjects included in the final analysis had a mean age of 56.1 ± 8.9 years, and 2801 (50.5%) were female. Methods: All participants underwent standardized examination and interviewer-administered questionnaire at baseline. Incidences were standardized to the Singapore Population Census 2010. A Poisson binomial regression model was used to evaluate the associations between baseline factors and incident presenting VI. Main Outcome Measures: Incident presenting VI was assessed at the 6-year follow-up visit. Visual impairment (presenting visual acuity < 20/40), low vision (presenting visual acuity < 20/40 but ≥ 20/200), and blindness (presenting visual acuity < 20/200) were defined based on United States definition. Results: A total of 5551 subjects (2188 Chinese, 1837 Indians, and 1526 Malays) were evaluated, of whom 514 developed incident presenting VI over 6 years. Malays had a higher incidence of low vision and blindness (13.0%; 0.6%) than Indians (7.0%; 0.1%) and Chinese (7.7%; 0.2%). Among Malay individuals with VI at baseline, 52.8% remained visually impaired after 6 years, which was considerably higher than Chinese (32.4%) and Indians (37.2%). Older age (per decade; relative risk [RR] = 1.59), a history of cardiovascular disease (RR = 1.38), current smoking (RR = 1.31), smaller housing type (1- to 2-room public flat; RR = 2.01), and no formal education (RR = 1.63) at baseline were associated with a higher risk of incident VI (all P ≤ 0.027). Older age (> 60 years) contributed the highest population attributable risk to incident VI (27.1%), followed by lower monthly income (Singapore dollar < $2000; 26.4%) and smaller housing type (24.7%). Overall, undercorrected refractive error (49.1%) and cataract (82.6%) were leading causes for low vision and blindness, respectively. This was consistently observed across the 3 ethnicities. Conclusions: In this multiethnic Asian population, Malays had a higher VI incidence compared to Indians and Chinese. Leading causes of VI are mostly treatable, suggesting that more efforts are needed to further mitigate preventable visual loss. Financial Disclosure(s): The authors have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.

Graphene oxide (GO) has become one of the emerging and important sole photocatalyst nanomaterials in recent years due to its exceptional/tunable optoelectronic properties, multifunctionality, and eco‐friendly nature. However, challenges remain in tuning surface chemistry, tailoring the band gap, developing doping strategies, and understanding the sole photocatalytic mechanism. This contribution investigated the synthesis of GO via the improved Hummers method by varying the ratio of the oxidizing agents (K2Cr2O7:KMnO4), as well as modifications by nitrogen (N) and boron (B) doping in view of its applications in photocatalytic degradation of organic dye pollutants. Furthermore, changes in surface chemistry, optical, compositional, morphological, and structural properties are investigated to understand the photocatalytic mechanism. The synthesized GO showed a broad spectrum of light absorption with a tunable band gap of 2.4–4.3 eV and exhibited more than 91% degradation of methylene blue dye under direct sunlight. However, the photocatalytic activity decreased after N and B doping attributed to reduced oxygen‐containing functional groups, low surface area, and dopants‐induced bonding configurations within the GO structure. This study provides a new insight into replacing metallic semiconductor photocatalysts with highly affordable, environmentally friendly, and potent metal‐free GO photocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and construction of a duo-active electrocatalyst with effective performance and enhanced stability for overall water splitting have been in the spotlight to meet the demand for renewable energy. Herein, we report the fabrication of a stannatranone pillared metal-organic framework via a coprecipitation approach and further its decoration with gold nanoparticles (size D 10.86 nm) for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The Au-anchored Sn-Na MOF (Au NPs/Sn-Na MOF) exhibited a remarkable electric activity with low overpotential (Z) of 129 mV for the HER at a current density of 10 mA cm-2, and 650 mV for the OER at a current density of 20 mA cm-2. The slope values were found to be 62.3 mV dec-1 and 37.8 mV dec-1, respectively. The heightened OER and HER activities can be ascribed to its substantial electrochemically active surface area of 17.4 mF cm-2. The mechanistic studies revealed that Au NPs/Sn-Na MOF provides active surface sites for water adsorption and facilitates subsequent dissociation to form H2 and O2. Furthermore, the pillared structure of the MOF with stannatranone knots made the skeleton highly stable under basic conditions for its potential application in overall water splitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]