An Equity Response to COVID-19 in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: The Development and Work of the Black Equity Coalition

From the onset of the pandemic in the United States, racial disparities in COVID-19 outcomes have been evident. In April 2020, several events prompted a concerned group of colleagues to form the Black Equity Coalition (BEC), a Black-led coalition in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, which brings together professionals from multiple sectors who aim to ensure an equitable response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several significant milestones have been achieved, and this article describes the development, functioning, and outcomes of the Coalition in the first 15 months of operation (April 2020-June 2021). COVID-19 was the reason for such an unprecedented effort, but this BEC infrastructure will be needed long after COVID-19 is controlled. In addition to short-term activities and reactive measures to prevent and mitigate COVID-19 in Black populations, the BEC is serving as a crucial link between government, health care stakeholders, and communities to produce long-term systemic change.

A-12 Differential Effects of Symptom Clusters at Baseline on Cognitive Performance

Objective

The purpose of this study was to observe the effects of self-reported affective, sleep, and vestibular-somatic symptomatology on cognitive performance at baseline as measured by ImPACT.

Method

Participants were selected from a de-identified archival database of high school athletes aged 13–18. Symptom clusters included affective (N = 435, 61.7% female, Mage = 15.46), sleep (N = 435, 53.8% female, Mage = 15.49), and vestibular-somatic (N = 435, 52.2% male, Mage = 15.31). Three One-Way ANOVAs compared baseline composite scores between athletes who reported varying levels of symptomatology within each symptom cluster. Athletes were divided into groups based on their reported symptoms: None (n = 145), Mild (n = 145), and Moderate/Severe (n = 145). Significance was found at p = 0.01.

Results

No significant relationship between self-reported affective or sleep symptomatology and cognitive performance was observed. A significant relationship was shown between self-reported vestibular-somatic symptomatology regarding the Visual-Motor composite [F (2,432) = 5.925, p = .003]. Bonferroni pairwise comparisons revealed athletes with no reported vestibular-somatic symptoms performed significantly better on Visual-Motor tasks than those with Mild and Moderate/Severe symptoms.

Conclusions

These results may assist in the understanding of the influence of symptoms reported by athletes’ post-concussion. While those with varying levels of vestibular-somatic symptomatology were found to have significantly different performance on Visual-Motor tasks, this cluster of symptoms was not found to impact other domains of cognitive functioning. The influence of symptoms on cognitive performance likely varies between individual athletes, which can have implications on return-to-play decisions. This highlights the critical need for an individualized approach to be utilized when evaluating athletes post-concussion considering the current literature to date.

Effect of re-using nickel-chromium alloy on its ultimate tensile strength, yield strength and modulus of elasticity

In order to bring down the cost of the castings used in fixed partial denture prosthesis, a study was conducted by reusing the nickel chromium alloy without adding any new material. We studied the effect on the ultimate tensile strength, yield strength and modulus of elasticity after reusing the nickel-chromium alloys. Results showed degenerative changes in the properties evaluated after recasting. These changes were statistically significant, suggesting that it can not be reused.