FAQ

Subject

Access

The doors into AMCF are locked.
Your key card needs to be registered to open the doors.
Please send an e-mail to Tom-Ivar (tom-ivar.eilertsen@uit.no) that includes;

• the endorcement of your principal investigator
• your name
• your department
• your key card number (on the back of your key card)
• the instruments you need access to
• your PPMS registration (see below)

Access

There are update boxes on the wall at level 8 by the west entrance at MH2 (near the GRUT coffee bar) and on level 7 (lysgården) in MH1.

Access

You need to book an instrument before you are allowed to use it, see below.

Booking

At AMCF we use a booking system called PPMS (Pasteur Platform Management System), and you will need to register as a PPMS user in order to use it.
PPMS will allow you to book instruments at AMCF from wherever you may be situated as long has you have an internet connection.
The PPMS user interface is a web page, thus it works on all units with a web browser installed, including smartphones and tablets.

Booking

In your web browser, go to this web page and click on the AMCF link.
Click on the Account creation request link near the top of the page.
Start the registration process by choosing between:
           Your institution is UiT     or      Your institution is NOT UiT.
UiT users will be redirected to Feide login and then to the account creation request form.
You will need to choose between-, or provide the following information (all in English), so please look it up before you start the registration process (note that some fields are optional);

• The name of your research group
• The name of your department
• The name and e-mail address of your principal investigator
• Your personal/project financial account number (if you have one)
• The default financial account number of your group
• Your affiliation:
• Helsefak users, choose: HF
• UNN/clinical pathology, choose: Klin Pat
• Department of Geology, choose: Geo
• Others, choose: None
  

If you are the principal investigator of the group, check the box: I request management rights….

Click submit. Your account creation request will then be validated by AMCF staff, and you will be informed by e-mail when everything is ready.
When ready you can book instruments through the link given above.

NB: We strongly encourage principal investigators to register and claim management rights of their group.
This will allow tracking of expenditure, give access to draft invoices, usage statistics, and other useful features.

Booking

Registering as a PPMS user doesn't automatically give you access to all instruments.
In PPMS you can only book instruments on which you have user rights.
User rights are granted per instrument based on whether you have been trained on that instrument, and will give you status as an autonomous user, i.e. only autonomous users are allowed to book their instrument in PPMS.
If you are registered as a PPMS user, but not registered as an autonomous user of a particular instrument, you are only allowed to see the schedule for that instrument (click "Schedules" in the upper red bar on the PPMS web page).
In order to to book time on the instrument as a non-autonomous user, you must send an e-mail to the super-user of that instrument, asking for assistance and to be booked in.

As of october 2020 we don’t have a complete record of who has been trained on each instrument in the past before we started to use PPMS, thus your PPMS profile may initially be missing user rights on some instruments. If this is the case, send an e-mail to Tom-Ivar (tom-ivar.eilertsen@uit.no) and/or Kenneth (kenneth.larsen@uit.no) and tell us what you are missing.

Booking

The booking schedule inside PPMS is divided into time periods, e.g. minimum 15 minutes each, or minimum a half hour each, depending on which instrument.
Thus, if you want to book an instrument from say 09.00 to 11.00, i.e. 2 hours, you will need to book 4 x half hours.
You cannot cancel the half hour of your booked time that you have already started on, e.g. if the time is 09.01 when you try to cancel all your booking, you will only be able to cancel the next three half hours, i.e. from 09.30 to 11.00.
You can cancel all of your booked time if you cancel it more than 1 hour before it starts, e.g. if the time is 07.59 when you try to cancel all your booking, it is possible to cancel all of it.
If the time is 08:01 when you try to cancel all your booking, you will only be able to cancel the first half hour of your booked time.

Operative system (MS Windows) updates are frequently sent out to all PC's connected to the network and these may sometimes induce compatibility issues and bugs regarding the installed software of the PC, e.g. the software that controls the instrument.
In the worst case scenario the software stops working.
An instrument PC is solely dedicated to controlling the instrument and doesn't need operative system updates.
However, it is possible for you to copy/transfer your data by other means; see below.

If your USB memory contains some computer virus, it could infect the instrument PC, in the worst case brick it, making it impossible for other people to use the instrument (the majority of people with computer viruses on their USB memory doesn't know).
However, it is possible for you to copy/transfer your data by other means; see below.

In FileZilla you can navigate to the relevant instrument and find your personal folder with your data, then download your files to your personal computer.
If you are on a PC outside of the UiT network you need to log on via VPN first in order to access the FTP server.

Warning: Data stored elsewhere (e.g. on the instrument PC desktop) may be deleted without notice!

Download legacy versions of Volocity from CNET. Note that ver. 6.3.1 is the last available version of the program (released in 2013) and it may not work properly on new PCs.

Next, contact the staff at AMCF to create a personal user on our Volocity server.

Install and run Volocity on your PC (you may need administrative privileges). On startup, choose the server option and fill in lisens-volocity.uit.no and port 15002.

When prompted, fill in your Volocity user name and password, and choose one of the available configurations from the dropdown list. The program should now start.

NB! Remember to exit the program when you are done so that the license becomes available for someone else.

There are many types available from different vendors (see list below). You should choose the format that best matches your particular assay and experimental setup (single or quad dish, multiwell plate, multichamber coverglass, etc.), but in general you should always use labware with a type #1.5 glass or polymer bottom. Using the wrong coverslip thickness (like a type #1 or type #0) can dramatically degrade image quality! Some of the most common types can be ordered through PPMS (under Order > Plates and dishes). Otherwise, chances are good that you'll find what you need from one of these companies:

• VWR – standard 35 mm glass-bottom dishes
• Ibidi – plates, slides, and dishes in many different formats. Both polymer and glass-bottom variants are available. The polymer variants usually work very well with cell types that tend not to attach well to glass.
• Cellvis (formerly In Vitro Scientific) – plates, slides, and dishes in many different formats, also with polymer bottom, or coated with a number of different extracellular matrix proteins.
• ThermoFisher Scientific – offers the popular Nunc Lab-Tek II variants of chambered coverglass, with 1–8 wells.
• Neuvitro Corporation – high quality round coverslips in many sizes, suitable for mounting on slides.