{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp05_complete_proposal_portfolio20_20260803","cell_id":"layer_decay_and_expiration_management__environmental_climate","arm":"COMPLETE_PROPOSAL_PORTFOLIO","candidate_id":"watershed-specimen-archive-lifecycle","proposal_index":3,"version":0,"title":"Lifecycle-Governed Archive for Watershed Monitoring Specimens","problem":"Long-running watershed and climate-monitoring programs collect sequential generations of frozen water filters, sediment subsamples, soil aliquots, biological tissues, and related reference materials. Samples can remain in active freezers after their immediate analyses finish because their study dependencies, preservation obligations, and future reassay value are unclear. As containers, freezers, formats, and responsible personnel change, poorly identified legacy specimens occupy monitored capacity and become harder to retrieve. An age-only cleanout could nevertheless destroy irreplaceable evidence from an earlier environmental state or break the reconstruction of published results.","actors":["Environmental sample archive manager","Watershed monitoring scientist","Laboratory manager","Principal investigator or collection custodian","Data and metadata steward","Quality-assurance officer","Biosafety, chemical-safety, or regulatory officer","Researchers requesting historical specimens"],"observable_state":"One monitored storage unit contains specimens deposited across multiple campaigns and projects. Containers differ in age, preservation method, remaining volume, labeling quality, access history, and linkage to field and analytical records. Some are tied to active studies or mandated retention, while others have no current owner or recorded review date. The freezer inventory does not consistently show whether each specimen is active, reference-only, held, suitable for a lower-access archive, approved for representative aliquoting, quarantined for disposition, or irretrievably missing.","consequence":"Active freezer capacity and staff attention can be consumed by specimens whose current role has never been revalidated, increasing search burden and exposure to storage failures. Conversely, ad hoc disposal can erase unique historical material, invalidate chain-of-custody or quality-assurance obligations, prevent reassay with later methods, and make earlier environmental findings harder to reproduce or reinterpret.","affected_objective":"Keep environmental specimen storage bounded and interpretable without destroying irreplaceable temporal evidence, breaking active research dependencies, or representing an archived specimen as recoverable when it cannot actually be located and used.","intervention":"Establish a specimen-lifecycle register for one bounded watershed archive. Assign each container and scientifically meaningful aliquot a stable identity linked to collection event, matrix, preservation method, storage location, remaining quantity, owner, access history, hazards, dependencies, and uncertainty. Give every accession a review date and one explicit state: active analysis, reference collection, review-due, preservation hold, archive-eligible, representation-review, disposition quarantine, disposed, or missing. Use an age-weighted value-and-risk score to order review, with vetoes for legal retention, active study use, irreplaceable time-series coverage, unresolved hazards, and incomplete provenance. Before any archival move, aliquoting, or disposition, trace dependencies to studies, publications, quality controls, permits, and companion specimens. Authorized reviewers may retain a specimen, assign a new review date, move it to a compatible lower-access archive, approve scientifically justified representative aliquoting, or place it intact in a time-limited disposition quarantine. Final disposal occurs only after the quarantine window, renewed dependency review, and required safety approvals. The register retains a tombstone and disposition evidence, while scheduled retrieval drills test whether archived specimens and their metadata can actually be recovered.","structural_mapping":[{"archetype_element":"Sequential deposits","domain_realization":"Repeated field campaigns deposit successive water, sediment, soil, filter, and tissue specimens into laboratory storage."},{"archetype_element":"Layer inventory and identity","domain_realization":"Stable specimen and aliquot identifiers connect physical containers to collection events, metadata, storage positions, and companion materials."},{"archetype_element":"Deposition order and age","domain_realization":"Collection and accession dates establish the temporal sequence of specimens and trigger review without alone determining disposal."},{"archetype_element":"Changed active usefulness","domain_realization":"A specimen can move from active analysis to occasional reference use while retaining scientific, evidentiary, or time-series value."},{"archetype_element":"Resource pressure","domain_realization":"Monitored freezer space, backup power, staff attention, and reliable retrieval positions are finite."},{"archetype_element":"Decay and expiration trigger","domain_realization":"A preassigned review date, container deterioration, owner departure, metadata failure, or storage incompatibility moves a specimen to review-due."},{"archetype_element":"Layer value and risk comparison","domain_realization":"Age-discounted operational value is combined with access, condition, quantity, provenance, replacement feasibility, hazard, and reconstruction value, subject to preservation vetoes."},{"archetype_element":"Dependency and reconstruction check","domain_realization":"Review traces active studies, publications, permits, chain-of-custody requirements, quality controls, and relationships to companion specimens."},{"archetype_element":"Differentiated disposition pathways","domain_realization":"Specimens may remain active, become reference-only, move to a compatible archive, undergo approved representative aliquoting, enter quarantine, or be disposed."},{"archetype_element":"Preservation exception","domain_realization":"Named holds protect irreplaceable temporal coverage, mandated evidence, active-study material, type or reference specimens, and unresolved dependency cases."},{"archetype_element":"Reversible cleanup","domain_realization":"A disposition-approved specimen remains intact and recoverable in quarantine for a defined grace period before destruction."},{"archetype_element":"Archive recoverability","domain_realization":"Retrieval drills verify physical location, identifier reconciliation, container condition, metadata readability, and controlled access to archived specimens."},{"archetype_element":"Deletion audit and tombstone","domain_realization":"After disposal, a separate record preserves the former specimen identity, approval basis, date, method, retained representations, and related records."}],"mechanism_mapping":[{"mechanism_slug":"stale_layer_detection_dashboard","role":"Maintains the identity-resolved specimen inventory and surfaces overdue reviews, missing owners, location conflicts, deteriorating containers, broken metadata links, and incompatible storage conditions.","counterfactual_removal":"Without an inventory and staleness surface, reviewers cannot distinguish active specimens from unidentified legacy containers or direct attention to the parts of the archive losing interpretability."},{"mechanism_slug":"age_weighted_value_score","role":"Ranks review-due specimens using age-discounted operational value together with access, condition, remaining quantity, replacement feasibility, provenance, hazard, and reconstruction value. Preservation vetoes override the score, which cannot authorize disposition.","counterfactual_removal":"Without a comparable review ranking, scarce curation effort is allocated by shelf position, visibility, or owner advocacy rather than a declared combination of value, risk, and uncertainty."},{"mechanism_slug":"retention_schedule","role":"Maps specimen classes to minimum retention, review cadence, storage requirements, permissible disposition routes, and legal, safety, evidentiary, or scientific preservation holds.","counterfactual_removal":"Without class-level rules and named exceptions, similar specimens receive inconsistent treatment and precautionary retention can silently become permanent."},{"mechanism_slug":"dependency_safe_delete_check","role":"Blocks aliquoting or disposition until inbound dependencies from studies, publications, quality controls, permits, chain-of-custody records, and companion specimens have been traced and resolved.","counterfactual_removal":"Without this gate, a container that appears unused could be destroyed even though it remains necessary to reproduce an analysis, verify contamination, or interpret another specimen."},{"mechanism_slug":"lifecycle_storage_tiering_policy","role":"Moves retained specimens from frequently accessed working storage to compatible, monitored reference or deep-archive locations as access cools, subject to matrix-specific temperature and handling constraints.","counterfactual_removal":"Without tiering, every retained specimen competes for the most accessible working positions even when its value depends on preservation rather than rapid retrieval."},{"mechanism_slug":"soft_delete_quarantine_window","role":"Separates disposition approval from destruction by holding the intact, clearly marked specimen in controlled quarantine for a grace period sized to its scientific and compliance impact.","counterfactual_removal":"Without the quarantine stage, an incorrect dependency assessment or mistaken identity becomes irreversible as soon as disposal is approved."},{"mechanism_slug":"archive_restore_test","role":"Exercises the real retrieval path for sampled archived specimens across age, matrix, and storage classes, verifying location, identifier reconciliation, metadata readability, container condition, and access procedure.","counterfactual_removal":"Without retrieval drills, an inventory entry can imply recoverability even when the specimen is misplaced, unreadable, compromised, or inaccessible under current procedures."},{"mechanism_slug":"tombstone_or_deletion_marker","role":"Preserves an unambiguous record after disposal or confirmed loss, including what existed, why it is unavailable, what representation remains, and how surviving references should resolve.","counterfactual_removal":"Without a tombstone, later researchers may interpret an empty location as a catalog error, repeatedly search for a destroyed specimen, or assume it was never collected."}],"causal_chain":["Monitoring campaigns deposit specimens into active storage faster than completed projects consistently retire or reclassify them.","Ownership changes, incomplete metadata, and uncertain future value leave older specimens active by default.","The undifferentiated archive consumes scarce monitored capacity, while the fear of destroying unique evidence delays systematic cleanup.","The lifecycle register resolves containers and aliquots, assigns explicit states, and surfaces elapsed review dates and deterioration signals.","A value-and-risk score orders review, while preservation vetoes prevent age or low access from becoming a disposal decision.","Dependency tracing separates specimens still supporting studies, obligations, time-series interpretation, or companion materials from candidates with no resolved live use.","Authorized reviewers choose renewed retention, compatible archival tiering, scientifically reviewed representation, or intact disposition quarantine.","The quarantine window permits correction before destruction, and final disposition leaves an auditable tombstone rather than an ambiguous gap.","Retrieval drills expose archive failures while remediation is still possible, keeping retained historical material demonstrably recoverable.","Repeated review bounds active storage and search burden while preserving named exceptions and reconstruction paths."],"baseline":"Individual projects label and retain specimens under local protocols. Containers commonly remain in the freezer until an owner requests them, storage fails, a laboratory moves, or capacity pressure prompts a cleanout. Spreadsheets or freezer maps may record location, but they do not consistently govern review dates, dependencies, preservation exceptions, storage tiers, reversible disposition, or proof of retrievability.","nearest_rivals":["Keeping every collected specimen frozen indefinitely as insurance against future research needs.","Destroying specimens after a fixed number of years regardless of provenance or dependency.","Digitizing analytical results and treating the resulting dataset as a complete substitute for retained physical material.","Reducing prospective sampling volume without governing specimens already accumulated.","Installing a barcode inventory that tracks locations but provides no retention, exception, quarantine, or disposition rules.","Transferring all legacy containers to an external repository without first resolving identity, hazards, dependencies, or acceptance conditions."],"remaining_contrastive_claim":"The proposal treats stored environmental specimens as aging, dependency-bearing physical evidence with differentiated active, archival, representation, quarantine, and disposition states. Its causal contribution is not inventory alone or a fixed cleanout rule: it couples review triggers and triage with preservation vetoes, dependency-gated action, reversible disposal, durable tombstones, and tested retrieval.","authority_safety":{"decision_authority":"The archive manager may inventory specimens and propose lifecycle states. The collection custodian or delegated scientific review committee approves retention, archival, or representative-aliquot decisions. Final disposal additionally requires the laboratory manager and any applicable biosafety, chemical-safety, records, permit, or quality-assurance authority.","authorized_first_step":"Inventory one selected storage unit from existing labels, freezer maps, accession records, and external container observations; create provisional identities and lifecycle states without opening, thawing, sampling, moving, relabeling, or disposing of any container.","excluded_actions":["Discarding or destructively sampling a specimen because it is old, rarely accessed, poorly labeled, or low-scoring","Opening, thawing, moving, compositing, or subdividing containers during the inventory-only step","Breaking chain of custody or separating a specimen from required companion material","Treating unknown contents, hazards, ownership, or provenance as evidence that disposal is safe","Moving material to a temperature or storage tier incompatible with its matrix or preservation protocol","Allowing an elapsed review date to trigger automatic destruction","Overriding legal, permit, biosafety, quality-assurance, cultural, or evidentiary holds","Claiming a specimen is recoverable solely because it appears in the register","Erasing metadata or analytical records when the associated physical specimen is disposed"],"halt_rollback":"Stop the inventory if a container is leaking, unstable, unexpectedly thawed, mislabeled in a way that could cause a hazardous mix-up, or subject to an unrecognized chain-of-custody or safety restriction. Keep the storage unit closed or return it to its prior safe operating state, restrict access, preserve the original records, and notify the responsible laboratory and safety authority. Provisional registry entries can be withdrawn without changing the physical archive, while the uncertainty and incident record remain auditable."},"negative_tests":{"strongest_counterevidence":"The bounded storage unit has complete accession and location records, every specimen has a current owner and explicit retention basis, storage remains within its governed capacity, retrieval is routinely demonstrated, and no container is retained by default or threatened by ad hoc disposal.","problem_falsifier":"Every specimen in the selected unit is either tied to an active or mandated use with a scheduled review or governed under an explicit archival or disposition state, and reconciliation finds no unidentified, overdue, inaccessible, duplicated, or dependency-ambiguous material.","intervention_falsifier":"Independent reviewers cannot assign provisional identities and lifecycle states with usable agreement, dependencies cannot be resolved well enough to distinguish any disposition pathway, or sampled archive entries cannot be connected to physical containers without handling that exceeds acceptable safety or chain-of-custody limits.","risks":["Legacy labels may be too incomplete to resolve specimen identity without destructive or unauthorized handling.","Composite scores may create false precision or undervalue scientific uses that cannot yet be anticipated.","Repeated retrieval tests can consume staff time, disturb storage conditions, or damage fragile containers.","Representative aliquoting may erase heterogeneity or exhaust scarce material if its scientific basis is weak.","A quarantine area can become another permanent accumulation layer if expiration and review are not enforced.","Tiering may place a specimen in a location that meets temperature requirements but impedes urgent or equitable access.","Disposition may conflict with later research interests even when current dependencies are absent.","Preserved metadata can expose sensitive site, species, landowner, or contamination information.","Unknown chemical or biological hazards can make inventory reconciliation and eventual disposal unsafe.","Freezer capacity may remain constrained if most specimens qualify for justified preservation exceptions." ]},"next_evidence_step":"Select one storage unit and reconcile its existing freezer map, accession records, project lists, and externally visible container labels into a shadow lifecycle register. Have two qualified reviewers independently classify a bounded sample spanning age, matrix, owner status, and metadata quality; record agreement, unresolved identities, live dependencies, preservation vetoes, and candidate storage states. Using records only, simulate the dependency and approval path for a small subset of review-due specimens. No container is opened, moved, thawed, sampled, quarantined, or disposed during this evidence step.","prior_art_status":"UNSEARCHED","diversity_from_prior_proposals":"Proposal 1 governs erosion-control mats embedded in restored banks and wetlands, where retirement changes habitat and sediment stability. Proposal 2 governs digital climate-hazard map editions, where decision authority expires while historical information remains reference-resolvable. This proposal governs custodial physical specimens collected across environmental monitoring campaigns. Its central constraints are freezer capacity, preservation compatibility, specimen identity, chain of custody, scientific irreplaceability, and destructive disposition. Its intervention is a specimen accession, tiering, dependency, quarantine, tombstone, and retrieval regime; its causal path converts completed-project material from indefinite active storage into reviewed physical-evidence states. It is neither a component of site-material maintenance nor an extension of digital map supersession, and a laboratory archive can adopt it independently of both earlier proposals.","revision_record":{"parent_version":null,"progress_targets_addressed":[],"conceptual_changes":[],"operational_changes":[],"evidence_changes":[],"claim_changes":[]}}