Turnaround Procedures to Ensure Personnel Safety During Covid-19: Best Practices and Case Study

As industry returns to work and restarts planning and execution of turnarounds and other maintenance projects, there will be regulatory, corporate and social responsibilities in order to safely restart and sustain activities. Major maintenance events and projects already bring complex challenges as multiple activities are carried out by numerous personnel and contractors, in a short duration of time. This risk is further amplified with the additional restrictions, challenges and complications posed by COVID-19. The key challenge for turnaround managers in current times is to ensure the safety of their personnel while delivering a successful turnaround. Through a detailed analysis and breakdown of the various stages of a turnaround, this paper attempts to answer one core question- How do you keep onsite personnel safe during turnarounds in the COVID-19 era? United Safety has developed a series of planning and prevention tools to help projects identify and implement robust actions that prevent the spread of COVID-19 onsite. These steps have been successfully implemented on site during a turnaround for a major Client in Canada. From additional precautions to new operating procedures, modifications were made at various stages including pre-planning, during the turnaround and post-turnaround stage to ensure the safety of onsite personnel. The result was an incident-free turnaround with zero recorded transmissions on site and a comprehensive COVID-19 Turnaround Response Plan.

A multiplex chemiluminescent immunoassay for serological profiling of COVID-19-positive symptomatic and asymptomatic patients

The COVID-19 pandemic affects more than 81 million people worldwide with over 1.7 million deaths. As the population returns to work, it is critical to develop tests that reliably detect SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies. Here we present results from a multiplex serology test for assessing the antibody responses to COVID-19. In an initial large cohort, this test shows greater than 99% agreement with COVID-19 PCR test. In a second outpatient cohort consisting of adults and children in Colorado, the IgG responses are more robust in positive/symptomatic participants than in positive/asymptomatic participants, the IgM responses in symptomatic participants are transient and largely fall below the detection limit 30 days after symptom onset, and the levels of IgA against SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain are significantly increased in participants with moderate-to-severe symptoms compared to those with mild-to-moderate symptoms or asymptomatic individuals. Our results thus provide insight into serology profiling and the immune response to COVID-19.

Serology profile and effects of influenza vaccination on COVID-19-positive symptomatic and asymptomatic patients

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected more than 6.6 million people worldwide. As the population returns to work, it is critical to develop tests that can reliably detect SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies. Here, we present the results of a novel multiplex serology test to assess the immune response to COVID-19 in an outpatient cohort consisting of adults and children in Colorado. The IgG response was more robust in positive/symptomatic participants than in positive/asymptomatic participants. The IgM response in symptomatic participants was transient and largely fell below the detection limit 30 days after symptom onset. Influenza vaccination gave rise to milder symptomology, but did not protect against contagion. These results provide novel insight into serology profiling and the immune response to COVID-19.

Earnings Dynamics, Changing Job Skills, and STEM Careers*

This article studies the impact of changing job skills on career earnings dynamics for college graduates. We measure changes in the skill content of occupations between 2007 and 2019 using detailed job descriptions from a near universe of online job postings. We then develop a simple model where the returns to work experience are a race between on-the-job learning and skill obsolescence. Obsolescence lowers the return to experience, flattening the age-earnings profile in faster-changing careers. We show that the earnings premium for college graduates majoring in technology-intensive subjects such as computer science, engineering, and business declines rapidly, and that these graduates sort out of faster-changing occupations as they gain experience.

New Evidence on International Transferability of Human Capital

This article sheds new light on the portability of human capital. We estimate the returns to source country experiences, viz., general, occupation-specific, and task-specific experiences, using data from the New Immigrant Survey (NIS), conducted in 2003. While the “returns to general experience” has been discussed in the literature, we are not aware of any previous attempt to estimate the returns to source country occupation-specific and task-specific experiences. Our estimates show that even though the returns to source country general experience is negligible, returns to source country occupation-specific experience is economically and statistically significant. We also find that returns to source country abstract (specifically analytical) task-specific experience is substantial and significant. Our results are robust to inclusion of source country wage, which may reflect unobservable characteristics that influence wages. We explore whether returns to work experience vary by income level in the source country or by an immigrant’s skill level.

Daddy Butch

Helene leaves Mussie and comes home. Dolores grows closer to Dr. Vruwink, who her children call Daddy Butch. Before they can marry, he’ll have to divorce his wife Laura. With Jack’s support payments already in arrears, Dolores returns to work. David O. Selznick casts her in the plum role of Dearest in Little Lord Fauntleroy, which becomes a critical and financial success. With her money from the film, Dolores buys a house in the Windsor Square neighborhood of Los Angeles. She sails to Europe with the children to view the coronation of King George VI, but has to come home early when Helene’s recently diagnosed tuberculosis takes a turn for the worse. Helene rallies and gets a bit part in MGM’s Riff Raff, starring Jean Harlow. A grueling rain scene puts her out of commission for several months. In New York, she tries her hand at stage acting, with less than encouraging results. She and Mussie agree to divorce.