WHOI Mass Spec Data entry, Edited May 2008, DRO

Preparation Field

Within the field are semi-colon (";") separate “tags” that give the user a great deal of flexibility in describing the specimen. You may use any, all or none of the “tags”, as your data requires. We have adopted the convention of describing each “tag” followed by a colon and a “description” as follows:

Tag:description

The tags currently allowable are described in the following section, along with their use. A rule-of-thumb here is lower case tokens indicate system tags whereas upper case tags indicate a user parameter.

a:archive	Mostly used for ODP archive vs. working samples
c:comment	Multiple comments may be used, up to 256 characters
D:depth	Core depth, in meters.
f:size_fraction	categorization of the specimen size distribution, usually entered in the forms e.g. 250- 500, <250, >500. Try not to use embedded spaces.
n:count	count of number of specimens.
o:operator	Initials of the person loading the carousel at WHOI. Identifiers may be no more than four characters in length. We prefer three characters.
p:	identifies the use of pyrite. No string is necessary.
I:information	user assigned ID number or string- Note the identifier may contain both letters and numbers, the only constraint being that it may not use semi-colons, colons or commas.
Q:quality	a user assigned integer quality value to the specimen. The Convention is 0:good (default) to 9:very bad.
R:requestor	Initials of the person whose samples are in the carousel. Identifiers may be no more than four characters in length. We prefer three characters.
s:	identifies sonification. No string is necessary.
u:units	is the identifier assigned to describe the units associated with the Core-Depth field which contains the distance taken from the top of the core in centimeters ("cm"). Other two character identifiers could be used, e.g. "m." (meters), "mm", "ft", "in", etc. If the sample was take from a depth of 4 to 6 centimeters the value entry must be constructed as "4-6". The hyphen must be used.
U:units	specifies some special units of measurement associated with the users value of measurement. Length is limited to 16 characters.
V:value_string	a user specified value associated with the specimen. The string may be no longet than 32 characters. The units are as described in the U: token.
X:longitude	denotes the decimal degrees of longitude of the position from which the specimen was taken. East of Greenwich is positive and the allowable range is -180 to +180. West is negative.
Y:latitude	denotes the decimal degrees of latitude of the position from which the specimen was taken. North of the equator is positive and the allowable range is -90 to +90. South is negative.

Examples of data entry

Core Depth:

Enter the weight for standards ( eg. 94)
or
Enter the depth (eg. 105)
or
Enter the depth range (eg. 95-97)

Cruise-Core

Enter the Cruise-Core

KNR166-2-94MC-A
1024C-15H-02

Genus. species

Enter the genus and species (eg. G. ruber-w or N. pachy-L)
or
Standard information (powder standard)

Preparation

Many items can be strung together and are separated by a semicolon

for example R:WBC;o:DRO;u:cm;f:125-150;s:;n:10
these are Curry samples loaded by ostermann, depth in cm, fraction 125-150, sonicated, n=10

NOTE: enter the things which may change, like n;10, last in the list for ease of editing

u:	units (in core depth)	u:cm or u:ft
f:	size fraction	f:125-150 or f:>250
n:	number of specimens	n:10
s:	sonicated	s:
p:	pyrite present	p:
c:	comment	c: these were very dirty bugs in general
o:	operator	o:DRO
R:	requestor	R:WBC (the PI who is paying)
V:	weight (for instance)	V:527
U:	“V” units	U:ug
OR
I:	PI supplied ID number or string	I:5 or I:PT10039
V:	PI supplied weight or other info	V:52
U:	“V” units	U:ug - eg. 52 ug
a:	Archive usually used with ODP samples