ORCID Profile
0000-0002-7586-7288
Current Organisations
Edith Cowan University
,
Cattani Consulting/ Journey Program
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Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2020
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 02-10-2023
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 03-01-2019
DOI: 10.3390/FIRE2010003
Abstract: Predicting water suppression requirements and its impacts on firefighting strategies and logistics within the urban environment has been the subject of many previous studies, however the same level of research has yet to be applied in the realm of wildfire suppression. To work towards addressing this knowledge gap, this paper provides guidance for Incident Controllers in relation to critical water flow rates required to extinguish large wildfire across a wide range of forest fuel loads, fire weather and active fire front depths. This is achieved through mathematical empirical analysis of water flow rates required for head fire suppression during 540 simulated wildfires in forest vegetation. This research applies a fire engineering approach to wildfire suppression logistics and deterministically assess the suitability of appliance and aircraft based head fire suppression. The results highlight the limitations of offensive wildfire suppression involving direct head fire attacks by appliances once wildfires attain a quasi-steady state in forest fuels.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2021
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 06-2022
DOI: 10.1101/2022.06.01.492581
Abstract: Cells of multicellular organisms exchange nutrients, building blocks and information. In animals, this happens via gap junctions, in plants via plasmodesmata (PD). PD have striking properties, translocating a large range of molecules from ions, to metabolites, RNA and proteins up to 40 kDa. PD are hard to characterize due to being deeply embedded into cell walls and the presence of several membranes. While previous studies of protein composition of PD from angiosperms identified large lists of proteins, few were validated. Here, we developed a PD scoring approach in conjunction with systematic localization on a large scale to define a high-confidence PD proteome of Physcomitrium patens . This high confidence PD proteome comprises nearly 300 proteins, which together with the bona fide PD proteins from literature, are made available in the public PDDB database. Conservation of localization across plant species strengthens the reliability of plant PD proteomes and provides a basis for exploring the evolution of this important organelle. In particular, the P. patens PD proteome was highly enriched in cell wall modifying proteins. Callose-degrading glycolyl hydrolase family 17 (GHL17) proteins are presented as an abundant PD protein family with representatives across an evolutionary scale. Exclusively members of the alpha-clade of the GHL17 family are shown to be PD localized and their orthologs occur only in plant species which have developed PD. Members of the EXORDIUM-family and xyloglucan transglycosylases are additional cell-wall located proteins highly abundant in the P. patens PD proteome also showing evolutionary ersification of PD localized family members from other clade members.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 09-2020
DOI: 10.1093/RPD/NCAA131
Abstract: In the 1990, radon and radon progeny was reported to contribute approximately 70% of the average 1.4 + 1.0-mSv annual dose across 26 Western Australian underground non-uranium mines. The Western Australian underground mining workforce has expanded significantly, and parameters used to calculate doses have changed significantly, warranting a review of the 1990’s data. The review concludes that doses received by the contemporary mining workforce has increased on average, by 5.4%, with annual dose estimates ranging from 0.53 to 3.56 mSv, with a mean of 1.33 mSv. Doses in 12 of the 23 underground mines exceed 1 mSv and are required to comply with radiation safety legislation. It is estimated that 5400 underground workers will fall into the greater than 1-mSv category. The collective dose to the underground worker population has increased by 4.5 times from 3060 man mSv (2173 workers) to 13 669 man mSv (8597 workers).
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2020
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2019
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.33151/AJP.16.652
Abstract: Paramedics are employed by Australian and international mining and petroleum organisations to provide emergency medical response, injury prevention, health promotion, chronic disease management, medical referral, primary healthcare and repatriation co-ordination for miners in exploration, construction and production. These are challenging roles given the often isolated, potentially hazardous and clinically unpredictable nature of the sites where these paramedics work. The purpose of this article is to review injuries that occurred in the mining industry with a view to sharing this information with paramedics who work within the mining sector. Data was collected under legislative authority by the Western Australian Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS). Data efficacy was optimised via strong legislative support whereby all organisations involved in mining activities are legally compelled to report to the DMIRS all accidents involving injury. A total of 837 injuries were reported during the 6-month period between 1 July and 31 December 2013. These comprised 658 serious injuries, including three fatalities, and 179 minor injuries. Sprains and strains were the most common injury comprising 69% of injuries followed by fractures 10%, lacerations 6%, crushing injuries 5%, bruises and contusions 4%, and dislocations and displacements 2%. Foreign bodies, punctures, bites, utations, chemical effects, thermal burns, flash and arc burns and loss of consciousness each recorded less than 1% of the injuries. Findings presented in this article can be used by paramedics working in the mining sector across Australia and worldwide. Paramedic awareness of the nature and cause of injury is useful for optimally preparing paramedics to perform appropriate diagnosis and treatment and to minimise patient mortality and morbidity.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 06-2023
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2023
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 07-09-2022
Abstract: Across the global construction industry, fatalities continue to occur from high-risk activities, where the risk controls have been defined however, these were unreliable. In the mining industry, Critical Control Risk Management has provided positive results in reducing major accidents, which raises the question, could the Critical Control approach reduce the fatality rate in the construction industry? This study analyzed 10 years of serious and fatal incident investigation reports from four international construction companies to (i) assess the reliability of their Critical Controls (CCs) and (ii) assess the factors that affect the reliability of CCs. The results show the reliability of CCs, measured by implementation and effectiveness, averaged just 42%. Insight into human performance and organizational factors, including risk identification, decision-making and competency, together with supervision, job planning and communication, were identified as opportunities to improve the reliability of CCs. The study used bowtie diagrams with real event data to find the actual CC reliability. This appears to be the first published study that reports on the reliability of critical risk controls in construction. It demonstrates a feasible method for determining and communicating control effectiveness that can be used to deliver meaningful insights to industry practitioners on actual control performance and focus areas for improvement. In addition, actionable findings directly related to in idual CCs can be derived that enable the participating organization to focus resources on improving specific verification processes. The results confirm the applicability of CCs for the Major Accident Event hazards analyzed and highlights that further reviews are required on the factors that need to be considered when implementing a CC program. This paper details our methodology and results, to assist others applying CCs as a risk management tool.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 31-05-2022
DOI: 10.3390/FIRE5030073
Abstract: Working in high consequence yet low frequency, events Australian fire service Incident Controllers are required to make critical decisions with limited information in time-poor environments, whilst balancing competing priorities and pressures, to successfully solve dynamic large-scale disaster situations involving dozens of personnel within the Incident Management Team, including of front-line responders from multiple jurisdictions. They must also do this within the boundaries of public and political expectations, industrial agreements, and the legal requirement to maintain a safe workplace for all workers, inclusive of volunteers. In addition to these operational objectives, fire services must also provide realistic training to prepare frontline staff, whilst satisfying legislative requirements to provide a safe workplace under legislation that does not distinguish between emergency services and routine business contexts. In order to explore this challenge, in this article we review the different safety standards expected through industrial and legal lenses, and contextualize the results to the firefighting environment in Australia. Whilst an academic argument may be presented that firefighting is a reasonably unique workplace which exposes workers to a higher level of harm than many other workplaces, and that certain levels of firefighter injury and even fatality are acceptable, no exception or distinction is provided for the firefighting context within the relevant safety legislation. Until such time that fire services adopt the legal interpretations and applications and develop true safety management systems as opposed to relying on “dynamic risk assessment” as a defendable position, the ability of fire services and in idual Incident Controllers to demonstrate they have managed risk as so far as reasonably practicable will remain ultimately problematic from a legal perspective.
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 20-11-2020
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of recent revisions to the dose coefficients published in ICRP-137 and ICRP-141 for members of the 232 Th, 238 U and 235 U decay series on radiation doses received by Western Australian mine workers via the inhalation of insoluble dusts containing long-lived alpha particle emitting radionuclides. Whilst some dose coefficients for in idual members of the decay series have decreased, the nett effect is that the sum of all dose coefficients in all three decay series have increased as a result of the revisions. The increase is inversely related to Activity Median Aerodynamic Diameter. Assuming the radionuclides in the inhaled dusts are in secular equilibrium, the dose conversion factors (the mean committed effective dose per unit intake of alpha activity) will increase by a factor between 1.9 and 2.9 times. In 2019, 11 mining operations in Western Australia submitted an annual report of worker radiation exposures to the regulatory authority. The reports indicate that between 35% and 60% of the committed effective doses to workers arises from inhalation of insoluble radioactive dusts. Applying an AMAD of 5 μm and a 232 Th decay series to 238+235 U decay series ratio of 10:1, committed effective doses to the workforce are greater by a factor of between 0.74 and 1.26 times from those reported in 2018–19 as a result of the revised DCs published in ICRP-137 and ICRP-141. Guidance on how to calculate doses from the inhalation of radioactive dusts is provided in the regulatory authority’s Guideline ‘ NORM-5: Dose Assessment ’, which will need revision to incorporate the revised dose coefficients. The Guideline has been widely distributed outside of Western Australia, and those jurisdictions which have adopted all, or sections of it, into their legal framework for radiation protection may need to consider the impact of the revision.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2001
DOI: 10.1016/S0300-483X(01)00509-1
Abstract: Occupational exposure to organophosphorus insecticides (OPs), such as chlorpyrifos, may be monitored by the measurement of the activity of peripheral cholinesterase (ChE) enzymes, including erythrocyte acetylcholinesterase (EAChE) and serum cholinesterase (SChE). Lymphocyte neuropathy target esterase (NTE) is thought to have potential as a predictor of organophosphate-induced delayed neuropathy (OPIDN). This paper describes work performed in 39 Australian pest control operators (PCOs) exposed to a termiticide containing chlorpyrifos, and 34 unexposed control subjects. EAChE activities in PCOs did not differ from those of unexposed control workers. Mean NTE activity was slightly higher in PCOs than in controls and mean SChE was 52% of control activity. These results indicate that exposure of Australian PCOs to termiticides containing chlorpyrifos may be monitored using SChE but not EAChE or NTE, and that workers in this industry have sufficiently high OP exposure to significantly depress SChE activity. SChE inhibition of 70-80% may be associated with symptoms. Although no current symptoms were reported to be associated with occupational OP exposure, these workers may be at increased risk of acute effects following inadvertent spills or self-contamination due to their background level of exposure to OPs. While it is preferable to compare ChE enzyme activities between pre- and post-exposure periods to evaluate OP-related effects in in iduals, in some cases there is an absence of pre-exposure data. The results of this study suggest that a screening value for SChE of 550 nmol/min/ml in a single blood s le may be useful to identify potentially OP-exposed in iduals in the Australian population. Australian control subjects were similar with respect to EAChE, but displayed activities of NTE and SChE approximately 50 and 23% lower than an unexposed UK reference group. While these comparisons are presently speculative, they suggest that there may be differences in SChE and NTE activities in control populations of the two countries. The routine treatment of Australian homes with termiticides containing OPs, or differences in the availability and use of domestic OP-containing insecticides may explain these population differences. Further work is required to examine whether these differences are real, and if so their likely cause.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 07-01-2021
DOI: 10.3389/FNINS.2020.579668
Abstract: Shiftwork may adversely impact an in idual’s sleep-wake patterns and result in sleep loss (& h. following night shift), due to the circadian misalignment and the design of rosters and shifts. Within a mining operation, this sleep loss may have significant consequences due to fatigue, including an increased risk of accidents and chronic health conditions. This study aims to (i) determine the efficacy of an intervention that comprises a sleep education program and biofeedback through a smartphone app on sleep quality, quantity, and alertness (ii) determine the prevalence of risk for a potential sleep disorder, and (iii) quantify and describe the sleep habits and behaviors of shift workers in a remote mining operation. This study consists of a randomized controlled trial whereby eighty-eight shift workers within a remote mining operation are randomized to a control group or one of three different treatment groups that are: (i) a sleep education program, (ii) biofeedback on sleep through a smartphone app, or (iii) a sleep education program and biofeedback on sleep through a smartphone app. This study utilizes wrist-activity monitors, biomathematical modeling, and a survey instrument to obtain data on sleep quantity, quality, and alertness. A variety of statistical methods will determine the prevalence of risk for a potential sleep disorder and associations with body mass index, alcohol, and caffeine consumption. A generalized linear mixed model will examine the dependent sleep variables assessed at baseline and post-intervention for the control group and intervention groups, as well as within and between groups to determine changes. The findings from this study will contribute to the current understanding of sleep and alertness behaviors, and sleep problems and disorders amongst shift workers. Importantly, the results may inform fatigue policy and practice on interventions to manage fatigue risk within the mining industry. This study protocol may have a broader application in other shiftwork industries, including oil and gas, aviation, rail, and healthcare.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2022
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 22-11-2022
Abstract: COVID-19 had a significant impact on construction projects due to labor shortages and COVID-19 restrictions, yet little is known about the impact it had on construction safety. To address this gap, an Australian construction project was selected to study the impact of COVID-19 on safety performance, safety climate and safety leadership. The study collected data from safety climate surveys, leading and lagging safety indicators and used linear regression to compare safety performance pre and post the onset of COVID-19. Our results showed after the onset of COVID-19 there was a significant reduction (Pr F at 0.05%) in incident rate, an improvement in supervisor safety leadership and safety climate, and satisfaction with organisational communication. The study identified the increase level of safety awareness due to COVID-19 did not result in an increase in the level of engagement in safety leadership. Interestingly, participation in the safety leadership activities did not improve until a change of Project Manager occurred. The study determined leaders who establish a positive safety climate within a project could negate the safety performance impact of COVID-19. The study confirms the importance of site safety leadership in maintaining engagement in risk management and the value of focused safety communication.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-02-2023
DOI: 10.1111/NPH.18730
Abstract: Plasmodesmata (PD) facilitate movement of molecules between plant cells. Regulation of this movement is still not understood. Plasmodesmata are hard to study, being deeply embedded within cell walls and incorporating several membrane types. Thus, structure and protein composition of PD remain enigmatic. Previous studies of PD protein composition identified protein lists with few validations, making functional conclusions difficult. We developed a PD scoring approach in iteration with large‐scale systematic localization, defining a high‐confidence PD proteome of Physcomitrium patens (HC300). HC300, together with bona fide PD proteins from literature, were placed in P ddb . About 65% of proteins in HC300 were not previously PD‐localized. Callose‐degrading glycolyl hydrolase family 17 (GHL17) is an abundant protein family with representatives across evolutionary scale. Among GHL17s, we exclusively found members of one phylogenetic clade with PD localization and orthologs occur only in species with developed PD. Phylogenetic comparison was expanded to xyloglucan endotransglucosylases/hydrolases and Exordium‐like proteins, which also ersified into PD‐localized and non‐PD‐localized members on distinct phylogenetic clades. Our high‐confidence PD proteome HC300 provides insights into ersification of large protein families. Iterative and systematic large‐scale localization across plant species strengthens the reliability of HC300 as basis for exploring structure, function, and evolution of this important organelle.
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 23-11-2020
Abstract: Naturally occurring radionuclides (NORs) are encountered in varying concentrations in a wide range of commodities that are mined and processed in Western Australia (WA), including mineral sands, coal, phosphate ores, sandblasting materials, and the production of bauxite, titanium dioxide pigment, copper, zinc, lead, tin, tantalum and the refining of zircon. Because they have the potential for workers to receive annual doses in excess of 1 mSv, 14 mining operations in WA are required to submit an annual report of worker doses to the regulatory authority. This research provides a summary of the workforce demographics and radiation doses reported by mining operations for the 2018–19 reporting period in order to establish a benchmark against which to compare future worker exposures. The 2018–19 data is compared to that presented in the last peer-reviewed research, published in 1994 in order to evaluate changes in worker dose profiles over the intervening period. In 1992–93, the collective effective dose received by 1496 workers across seven mining operations was 2824 man.mSv, whereas in 2018–19 it had decreased to 784 man.mSv for 1474 workers in 13 operations. The maximum committed effective dose (CED) decreased by 76%, from 18 mSv (36% of the annual limit) in 1992–93 to 4.4 mSv (22% of the derived annual limit) in 2018–19. The mean CED decreased by 49%, from 1.8 mSv in 1992–93 to 0.97 mSv in 2018–19. As a result of revised DC’s published in ICRP-137 and ICRP-141, the impacts upon the mean CED per unit intake of alpha activity arising from inhalation of insoluble NORs-containing dusts, and contribution to CED from inhalation of radon, thoron and their progeny will require evaluation for in idual mining operations in the WA mining industry.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2022
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for Marcus Cattani.