Virtual Freezers

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Virtual Freezers

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The two primary components of freezer management, configuration and specimen location management, can be controlled via the Locations manager. In BSI, the virtual representation of a physical facility where specimens are stored is defined by the virtual freezer configuration and containers set up via this manager. Containers come in a variety of levels that can be nested together to describe the hierarchy, such as room with 2 freezers inside it, each of which have 30 boxes that specimens can be stored directly in.

The location hierarchy in BSI can be configured and labeled to match the organization and capacity of the physical storage containers in your facility. Containers can be created, copied, and moved using the available tools. Specimens can also be managed in a variety of ways relative to their virtual storage location, including location movement, processing, and specimen creation.

Freezer Configuration

To create a single new container:

  1. In the Locations Manager, select the immediate parent container under which the new container will be added in the Location Tree and use the right mouse button (RMB) to select New Subcontainer. The New Container dialog will open.
  2. Select the General Container Type to be created. This will be the type of container you are creating (I.e. freezer, rack, box, etc.). Specifics of the container being created will be configured later.
    • A saved configuration of the container type can be selected in this dialog. A saved configuration includes any subcontainers under the original saved container, such as a freezer configuration with 5 racks inside it, each of which having 10 boxes inside them.
    • If no configurations have been saved for the selected container type, "<No configurations saved>" will be displayed on the New Container dialog.
  3. Press OK on the New Container dialog.  The Locations Editor will open for the selected container.
  4. Enter properties for the container and select Save from the File menu or press the Save button.
    • If any errors exist on the Locations Editor, the container will not be saved.  Resolve any errors before saving again.
    • Fields with errors will be shaded red and will be listed in an error table at the bottom of the Locations Editor.
    • If you want to create a label after saving the new container, click the Generate button next to the Label field.  When prompted, click Yes to replace the label with a system-generated label or click No to keep the current label.

Once the container has been saved, it will appear in the location tree.

Drag and Drop Containers

Subcontainers and their contents can be moved to other places in the locations hierarchy via drag and drop. For instance, a box full of glass tubes can be moved from Freezer A to Freezer B in this manner.

To drag and drop a container:

  1. Expand the Location Tree to display the container to be moved and the target location.
  2. Select the container to be moved and hold down the mouse button.
  3. Drag the mouse pointer to the target location and release the mouse button. A confirmation dialog will be displayed, prompting the user to add an optional comment.
  4. Select Yes to drop the containers into the target location. Select No to cancel the operation.
  5. A message will be sent when the operation is successfully completed. Users may continue working in BSI while the move is being processed.

Cut and Paste Containers

Subcontainers and their contents can be moved to other places in the locations hierarchy via cut and paste. For instance, a box with a single specimen can be moved from Freezer A to Freezer B in this manner.

To cut and paste a container to a new location:

  1. In the Location Tree, right-click on the container to be moved.  A menu will be displayed with available options.
  2. Select Cut from the right-click menu.
  3.  In the location tree, right-click on the location into which the container is to be pasted.  A menu will be displayed with available options.
  4. Select Paste from the right-click menu.  A confirmation dialog will be displayed, prompting the user to add an optional comment.
  5. Select Yes to paste the containers into the selected location.  Select No to cancel the operation. The Automatically rename containers if necessary checkbox is available. There is a comment text field.
  6. A message will be sent when the operation is successfully completed.  Users may continue working in BSI while the move is being processed.

Example: Dr. Davis is moving several boxes between the racks in his freezer. He moves Box A, including the specimens inside, from Rack 2 to Rack 1 by cutting the box and pasting it in the new rack. He adds two new boxes to Rack 2 by copying Box A and pasting into Rack 2.

Specimen Location Management

Users have the ability to drag and drop specimens within the current box or between boxes in the Locations manager. This is a quick way to transfer specimens between virtual storage containers.

To drag and drop single/multiple specimens within the same container:

  1. Expand the locations tree and select the container.
  2. Using the Location Manager Preview pane, select one or more specimens to be moved and hold down the mouse button.
  3. Drag the mouse pointer to the unoccupied spaces within the box and release the mouse button.

To drag and drop single/multiple specimens between containers:

  1. Expand the Location Tree, press the Ctrl button on the keyboard, and select two of the containers you wish to transfer specimens between.
  2. Right click on one of the selected specimens and select Move Specimens.
  3. The Drag and Drop Specimens Transfer Editor will appear.
  4. Select one or more specimens to be moved and hold down the mouse button.
  5. Drag the mouse pointer to the unoccupied spaces in the new location and release the mouse button.

 *Note – To move specimens between or within a container via drag and drop, the container layout must be displayed. The container layout may not be available if two specimens occupy the same container row and column space. You can select Edit from the right mouse button menu to edit these specimens and assign them new location values.

Condensing Inventory Containers

Specimens in all containers—except repository, building, and room—can be condensed to maximize the number of available spaces. Boxes will be filled, starting with the first box listed, by shifting specimens into empty slots using a left-to-right, top-to-bottom fill pattern. If the user chooses to condense a rack, specimens may be moved to a new box.  If the user chooses to condense a freezer, specimens may be moved into a new box or even a new rack.

To condense a container:

  1. Right-click on the location to be condensed in the location tree and select Condense Specimens from the right mouse button (RMB) menu. To select only a few boxes within a rack or freezer, select the first box, then select any subsequent boxes while holding the Ctrl key.
  2. The Change Box Size dialog will be displayed. Select Yes to open the look-up table associated with box size, No to continue without changing the box size or Cancel to exit the dialog and return to the Locations manager. If Yes is selected, choose the new box size from the code list and press OK to continue. The new box size must be large enough to fit all specimen after condensing.
  3. If the specimens can be condensed, a dialog will be displayed with the following counts:
    • Specimen Moves - How many specimens will be moved.
    • Empty Boxes - How many empty boxes will be available in the location.
    • Available Slots - How many slots will be available in the location.
  4. Click Cancel to exit without condensing or click OK to condense the location.

It is not possible to condense a location if there are locks or location reservations that would be violated on any of the containers and sub-containers involved. Multi-Specimen Containers (MSCs) or boxes not contained in racks will be ignored if the user has selected them.

If the condensing locations will violate study reservations, a warning will appear before the condense process has started. Users can press Cancel on the Condense Container Estimations dialog to exit without condensing. Closing the Condense Container Estimations dialog will prevent any study reservations from being overridden. If the user presses OK on the Condense Container Estimations dialog, the condense process will be carried out and study reservations will be ignored.

It is not possible to condense boxes that are different types (for example, a 2” 9x9 box will not be condensed into a 3” 9x9 box). If the user attempts to condense two boxes with different formats, they will receive an error stating that this cannot be done. The user will need to choose a box with the same format.

Study Reservations

Locations can be reserved for particular studies from the tocation tree.

To reserve a location for a study:

  1. Right-click on the container you would like to reserve and select Reserve For Study.
  2. The Study Location Reservation dialog appears.  Check the box next to Apply to all subcontainers to set all subcontainers of that container to that particular Study ID too.  If the box is not selected, the study reservation for all subcontainers will be left unchanged.  Select the ellipsis button to choose a Study ID from the Select Codes dialog. Click OK on the Select Codes dialog.  Click the OK button on the Study Location Reservation dialog to save all of the requested study reservations in the database. 

To edit or delete a location from a study:

  1. Open the Study Location Reservation dialog by selecting Reserve For Study on the right-mouse button container menu and select a different study from the drop-down list to change the study or reset the field to blank to delete the reservation.  
  2. Click OK to save the changes.

When a location is added to a study, a non-editable study reservation setting will be added to the Locations Editor so the reservation can be viewed.