{ "model": { "rank": 18520, "code": "thing-q1144664", "model_id": "vr.tr.cryopreservation", "name": "cryopreservation", "purpose": "Let an agent explain cryopreservation and its methods, relay slow freezing and vitrification, applications and regulation from biomedical sources in general terms, describe fertility preservation options, and distinguish cryopreservation from cryonics, from refrigeration and from cryotherapy, routing personal fertility questions to specialists.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.PRC", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q1144664/", "tier": 2, "score": 29, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "ovarian tissue cryopreservation", "embryo cryopreservation", "Vitrification (ovocytes)", "semen cryopreservation", "planned oocyte cryopreservation" ], "aliasCount": 5, "merged": 5, "knownIn": 29, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q1144664", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1144664", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T14:25:16Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q1144664", "registryId": "vr.tr.cryopreservation", "name": "cryopreservation", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.PRC" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q1144664/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.cryopreservation", "name": "cryopreservation", "purpose": "Let an agent explain cryopreservation and its methods, relay slow freezing and vitrification, applications and regulation from biomedical sources in general terms, describe fertility preservation options, and distinguish cryopreservation from cryonics, from refrigeration and from cryotherapy, routing personal fertility questions to specialists.", "definition": "The preservation of cells, tissues and organs by cooling to very low temperatures, typically in liquid nitrogen, so that biological activity stops and material can be stored for years, including semen and embryo cryopreservation in fertility treatment, oocyte vitrification for planned egg freezing and fertility preservation before cancer therapy, ovarian tissue cryopreservation, and the banking of blood, stem cells, seeds and microbial cultures; the model gives no personal fertility advice.", "what_it_is_for": "Long-term storage of living biological material.", "affordances": [ "explain methods", "relay applications and regulation", "describe fertility preservation", "distinguish related practices" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Very low temperature", "Cryoprotectants", "Slow freezing and vitrification", "Fertility and biobanking use" ], "appearance": "Samples in straws or vials stored in liquid nitrogen tanks.", "visual_identification": [ "Storage of living material at very low temperature", "Semen, embryo, oocyte and ovarian tissue cryopreservation, vitrification, planned oocyte cryopreservation", "Cryonics preserves whole bodies speculatively; refrigeration is mild cooling; cryotherapy treats tissue with cold" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "liquid nitrogen storage", "typical_range": "-196", "unit": "C", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "first human birth from frozen embryo", "typical_range": "1984", "unit": "year", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "vitrification", "typical_range": "glass-like solidification without ice crystals", "unit": "note", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "cryoprotectants", "typical_range": "DMSO, glycerol, ethylene glycol", "unit": "list", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "semen cryopreservation", "embryo cryopreservation", "oocyte vitrification including planned egg freezing", "ovarian and testicular tissue cryopreservation", "stem cell, blood and tissue banking", "seed, culture and biodiversity cryobanks" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "preservation", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "freeze", "why": "process in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is used in", "target": "in vitro fertilisation", "why": "for embryos and gametes" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "cryonics", "why": "speculative whole-body preservation" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Human tissue and fertility regulation such as the HFEA in the UK", "EU tissue and cell directives", "Storage time limits and consent rules" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Agents giving personal fertility advice", "Storage failures and tank incidents", "Confusing cryopreservation with cryonics" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What cryopreservation is.", "rationale": "Science.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition and methods.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is cryopreservation, how do slow freezing and vitrification work, and how does it differ from cryonics, refrigeration and cryotherapy?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about the science, an application, regulation or a personal fertility decision needing a specialist?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "applications", "name": "Applications", "description": "Applications.", "findings": [ { "id": "applications-finding", "name": "Applications", "description": "Applications.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are semen, embryo, oocyte and ovarian tissue cryopreservation and biobanking?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific application?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "science", "name": "Science", "description": "Science.", "rationale": "Science.", "layers": [ { "id": "damage", "name": "Damage", "description": "Ice and cryoprotectants.", "findings": [ { "id": "damage-finding", "name": "Damage", "description": "Damage.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do ice crystals damage cells, and how do cryoprotectants and vitrification prevent it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "survival", "name": "Survival", "description": "Survival and outcomes.", "findings": [ { "id": "survival-finding", "name": "Survival", "description": "Survival.", "questions": [ { "text": "What survival and success rates are reported for frozen gametes, embryos and tissues, with findings attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "fertility", "name": "Fertility", "description": "Fertility preservation.", "rationale": "Clinical.", "layers": [ { "id": "options", "name": "Options", "description": "Options.", "findings": [ { "id": "options-finding", "name": "Options", "description": "Options.", "questions": [ { "text": "What fertility preservation options exist before cancer treatment or for planned egg freezing, as guidelines describe?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user seeking personal advice, which needs a fertility specialist?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "regulation", "name": "Regulation", "description": "Regulation and ethics.", "findings": [ { "id": "regulation-finding", "name": "Regulation", "description": "Regulation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are storage limits, consent and use of stored material regulated, and what ethical debates exist, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits fertility preservation?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Biobanks and history.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "biobanks", "name": "Biobanks", "description": "Biobanks and conservation.", "findings": [ { "id": "biobanks-finding", "name": "Biobanks", "description": "Biobanks.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are cryobanks used for stem cells, seeds and endangered species?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits biobank?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did cryopreservation develop from glycerol discoveries to vitrification?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the history of cryobiology?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should egg freezing and embryo cryopreservation be separate primary entries?", "How should biomedical sources be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming fertility applications; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a cryopreservation, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain cryopreservation and its methods, relay slow freezing and vitrification, applications and regulation from biomedical sources in general terms, describe fertility preservation options, and distinguish cryopreservation from cryonics, from refrigeration and from cryotherapy, routing personal fertility questions to specialists.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: ovarian tissue cryopreservation, embryo cryopreservation, Vitrification (ovocytes), semen cryopreservation, planned oocyte cryopreservation.", "5 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 29 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a cryopreservation, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "ovarian tissue cryopreservation", "embryo cryopreservation", "Vitrification (ovocytes)", "semen cryopreservation", "planned oocyte cryopreservation" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 29 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 5 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one cryopreservation from another, and a cryopreservation from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a cryopreservation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a cryopreservation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a cryopreservation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a cryopreservation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a cryopreservation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a cryopreservation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a cryopreservation sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a cryopreservation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a cryopreservation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a cryopreservation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a cryopreservation from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a cryopreservation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a cryopreservation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a cryopreservation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a cryopreservation passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a cryopreservation between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a cryopreservation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a cryopreservation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a cryopreservation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a cryopreservation, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a cryopreservation is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a cryopreservation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a cryopreservation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a cryopreservation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a cryopreservation proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a cryopreservation, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a cryopreservation and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a cryopreservation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a cryopreservation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a cryopreservation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a cryopreservation consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a cryopreservation takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a cryopreservation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a cryopreservation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a cryopreservation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What cryopreservation is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of cryopreservation are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is cryopreservation operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of cryopreservation and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of cryopreservation?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as cryopreservation?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a cryopreservation came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a cryopreservation and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a cryopreservation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a cryopreservation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a cryopreservation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a cryopreservation is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a cryopreservation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a cryopreservation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a cryopreservation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }