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Metabolomics examines the small molecules involved in cellular metabolism. Approximately 50% of total phenotypic differences in metabolite levels is due to genetic variance, but heritability estimates differ across metabolite classes. We perform a review of all genome-wide association and (exome-) sequencing studies published between November 2008 and October 2018, and identify >800 class-specific metabolite loci associated with metabolite levels. In a twin-family cohort ( N   =  5117), these metabolite loci are leveraged to simultaneously estimate total heritability (h 2 total ), and the proportion of heritability captured by known metabolite loci (h 2 Metabolite-hits ) for 309 lipids and 52 organic acids. Our study reveals significant differences in h 2 Metabolite-hits among different classes of lipids and organic acids. Furthermore, phosphatidylcholines with a high degree of unsaturation have higher h 2 Metabolite-hits estimates than phosphatidylcholines with low degrees of unsaturation. This study highlights the importance of common genetic variants for metabolite levels, and elucidates the genetic architecture of metabolite classes. Blood metabolite levels are under the influence of environmental and genetic factors. Here, Hagenbeek et al. perform heritability estimations for metabolite measures and determine the contribution of known metabolite loci to metabolite levels using data from 40 genome-wide association studies.

Permanent electric dipole moments (EDMs) violate parity and time-reversal symmetry. Within the Standard Model (SM), they require CP violation and are many orders of magnitude below present experimental sensitivity. Many extensions of the SM predict much larger EDMs, which are therefore an excellent probe for the existence of new physics. Until recently it was believed that only electrically neutral systems could be used for sensitive searches of EDMs. With the introduction of a novel experimental method, high precision for charged systems will be within reach as well. The features of this method and its possibilities and status are discussed.

This document was prepared as part of the briefing material for the Workshop of the CERN Council Strategy Group, held in DESY Zeuthen from 2nd to 6th May 2006. It gives an overview of the physics issues and of the technological challenges that will shape the future of the field, and incorporates material presented and discussed during the Symposium on the European Strategy for Particle Physics, held in Orsay from 30th January to 2nd February 2006, reflecting the various opinions of the European community as recorded in written submissions to the Strategy Group and in the discussions at the Symposium.

Metabolites are small molecules involved in cellular metabolism where they act as reaction substrates or products. The term ‘metabolomics’ refers to the comprehensive study of these molecules. The concentrations of metabolites in biological tissues are under genetic control, but this is limited by environmental factors such as diet. In adult mono- and dizygotic twin pairs, we estimated the contribution of genetic and shared environmental influences on metabolite levels by structural equation modeling and tested whether the familial resemblance for metabolite levels is mainly explained by genetic or by environmental factors that are shared by family members. Metabolites were measured across three platforms: two based on proton nuclear magnetic resonance techniques and one employing mass spectrometry. These three platforms comprised 237 single metabolic traits of several chemical classes. For the three platforms, metabolites were assessed in 1407, 1037 and 1116 twin pairs, respectively. We carried out power calculations to establish what percentage of shared environmental variance could be detected given these sample sizes. Our study did not find evidence for a systematic contribution of shared environment, defined as the influence of growing up together in the same household, on metabolites assessed in adulthood. Significant heritability was observed for nearly all 237 metabolites; significant contribution of the shared environment was limited to 6 metabolites. The top quartile of the heritability distribution was populated by 5 of the 11 investigated chemical classes. In this quartile, metabolites of the class lipoprotein were significantly overrepresented, whereas metabolites of classes glycerophospholipids and glycerolipids were significantly underrepresented.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

The β-decays of the mirror nuclei 12B and 12N both populate states in 12C and they are therefore a precious source of information about this nucleus. Due to the selection rules of β-decay only 0+, 1+ and 2+ states are populated. This allows a very clean study of unbound states just above the 3α-threshold with those spin and parities. This probe has been applied in two experiments using two complementary experimental techniques: in the first the three α-particles emitted after β-decay are measured in coincidence in separate detectors using the ISOL method, while in the second method 12B and 12N are implanted in a detector and the summed energy of the three α-particles is measured directly. Preliminary results from the two approaches are presented.

Possibilities to test the Lorentz invariance of the weak interaction in muon decay are considered. We derive the direction-dependent muon-decay rate with a general Lorentz-violating addition to the W-boson propagator. We discuss measurements of the directional and boost dependence of the Michel parameters and of the muon lifetime as a function of absolute velocity. The total muon-decay rate in the Lorentz-violating Standard Model Extension is addressed. Suggestions are made for dedicated (re)analyses of the pertinent data and for future experiments.

A radioactive beam of 20Na is stopped in a gas cell filled with Ne gas. The stopped particles are polarized by optical pumping. The degree of polarization that can be achieved is studied. A maximum polarization of 50% was found. The dynamic processes in the cell are described with a phenomenological model.

We present some aspects of photon counting to study scintillators at low temperatures. A time-to-digital converter (TDC) had been configured to acquire several-minute-long streams of data, simplifying the multiple photon counting coincidence technique. Results in terms of light yield and time structure of a ZnWO4 scintillator are comparable to those obtained with a fast digitizer. Streaming data also provides flexibility in analyzing the data, in terms of coincidence window between the channels, and acquisition window of individual channels. We discuss the effect of changing these parameters, and use them to confirm low-energy features in the spectra of the number of detected photons, such as the 60 keV line from 241Am in the ZnWO4 sample. We lastly use the TDC to study the transmission of the optical cryostat employed in these studies at various temperatures.