17 May 2013

Present: Brad Julson, Amy McWilliams, Gemma Maxwell, Katerina Petronotis, Carlos Zarikian, John Howell, Paul Foster, David Houpt.

Item 1: Items from last LWG meeting

Paul Foster will have the programmers do the necessary work to incorporate the SEM option under the TEST list in SampleMaster for Expedition 341.

Item 2: Comments from Exp. 345 

Naomi Marks made this comment on the post cruise evaluation - "Don't put coffee cups on or near the cores, make sure not to eat cookies while leaning over the cores, make sure not to leave dirty dishes in the core lab, don't put "stuff" on or in sediment cores, don't disturb sediment in cores. This stuff should be obvious, and it was to me, but it seemed like a lot of my colleagues needed a more pro-active reminder, preferably early in the cruise." 

The group thought that this point was covered by the Curatorial Specialist during sample training and also the Staff Scientist during their introduction. Gemma will put up a sign alongside the “No Jewelry” sign re-enforcing the policy. Both the Staff Scientist and the Curator will be vigilant in enforcing strict adherence to the policy.

Action: Comment forwarded to EPM Adam Klaus 5/20/13

Item 3: The # character associated with piece number

Historically the # character has preceded piece number on sample ID’s and labels in order to distinguish the piece number from other numbers in the string. 

For example: 345-U1415H-1R-1- #1-A. 

It was proposed that the use of the # be suspended because the use of special characters has caused, and will continue to cause, issues with programming especially for web applications. The LWG agreed that the # character should be replaced with PC. 

For example: 345-U1415H-1R-1- PC1-A. 

Furthermore, it was recommended that database should be amended so that the # characters already in place would be changed to reflect the new PC designation.

The LWG recognized that the work involved in making this change would be significant and therefore it would need to be presented as a Category II Project to the IMT.

Action: Rumford will scope out and present the project to the IMT.

Item 4: Shipping working halves to the JR for sampling

The group was asked to discuss and make recommendations on the practice of shipping legacy working half cores to the JR to be sampled by the scientific party of another Expedition. Observations from Exp 345 revealed that 467 personal samples were taken from the Leg147 cores that were sent to the ship (1,603 personal samples were taken on Leg 147). This compared to the 837 samples taken on Exp 345 from Exp 345 cores.

On Exp 335, 260 personal samples were taken from Leg 312 cores. This compared to the 512 samples taken on Exp 335 from Exp 335 cores.

Both Exp 335 and Exp 345 were hard rock cruises and from each an average of 35% of the total number of personal samples taken, were from legacy core material.

With this data in mind a couple of questions arise:

·         With such a significant amount of research coming from the post cruise analyses of legacy samples is it a legitimate question to ask if this work was anticipated and accounted for in the scientific objectives of the cruise? Looking at the requests from Exp 345 only 1 of the legacy sample requests was directly tied to Exp 345 objectives. Only 1 of the Leg 147 requests included Leg 147 material that remained stored in the GCR (25%).

·         Is it necessary to sample the working halves on the ship?

Obviously sampling of the legacy cores can easily be done on shore. In fact samples would arrive at the scientist labs much quicker if they were taken on shore.

From a scientific point of view it would be of more value to have the archives available for examination, re-description, and possibly running through the track systems.

It is a simple process to scan the working halves with the SHIL and send the images to the ship in order for the scientists to see what material is available to sample.

Some other considerations:

·         If scientists wish to perform shipboard analyses on the legacy material, residues could be sent to the ship for this purpose.

·         Having working halves on the ship makes it impossible to take samples for other shore-based investigators for about 4 months.

It was also noted that this practice of sending legacy cores to the ship (working and archive) will soon be a consideration for the KCC. A policy from the USIO would be a good reference point from which to start discussions with the KCC.

Action: Rumford will write a short document summarizing the above and circulate it to Jay Miller for his comments. With Jays comments and approval the matter will then be raised with the Staff Scientists . Comments will be returned to the LWG for further consideration, with the aim of establishing a policy statement.

Further Action: After discussion with Jay it was decided to bring up the matter at the June 3 IMT meeting. 

Item 5: LIMS Reports – alternate depths

FYI: