The South Pole Telescope (SPT) is a 10 m diameter, wide-field, offset Gregorian telescope with a 966-pixel, multi-color, millimeter-wave, bolometer camera. It is located at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station in Antarctica. The design of the SPT emphasizes careful control of spillover and scattering, to minimize noise and false signals due to ground pickup. The key initial project is a large-area survey at wavelengths of 3, 2 and 1.3 mm, to detect clusters of galaxies via the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect and to measure the small-scale angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The data will be used to characterize the primordial matter power spectrum and to place constraints on the equation of state of dark energy. A second-generation camera will measure the polarization of the CMB, potentially leading to constraints on the neutrino mass and the energy scale of inflation.Comment: 47 pages, 14 figures, updated to match version to be published in PASP 123 903 (May, 2011

Dyslipidemia is one of the most important factors for coronary artery disease (CAD). The atherogenic index of plasma (AIP), a new comprehensive lipid index, might be a strong marker for predicting the risk of CAD.A hospital-based case–control study including 2936 CAD patients and 2451 controls was conducted in a Chinese population. Traditional lipid parameters were detected, and nontraditional lipid comprehensive indexes were calculated.Compared with controls, CAD patients had higher levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). By contrast, the level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was lower in CAD patients. The values of nontraditional lipid profiles, including non-HDL-C, TC/HDL-C, LDL-C/HDL-C, non-HDL-C/HDL-C (atherogenic index, AI), TC∗TG∗LDL/HDL-C (lipoprotein combine index, LCI), and lg (TG/HDL-C) (AIP), were all significantly higher in the cases than in the controls. The results of Pearson correlation analyses indicated that AIP was positively and significantly correlated with TC (r = 0.125, P < .001), TG (r = 0.810, P < .001), LDL-C (r = 0.035, P < .001), non-HDL-C (r = 0.322, P < .001), TC/HDL-C (r = 0.669, P < .001), LDL-C/HDL-C (r = 0.447, P < .001), AI (r = 0.669, P < .001), and LCI (r = 0.688, P < .001) and was negatively correlated with age (r = −0.122, P < .001) and HDL-C (r = −0.632, P < .001). In the univariate logistic regression analysis, AIP was the lipid parameter that was most strongly associated with CAD, with an unadjusted odds ratio of 1.782 (95% confidence interval: 1.490–2.131, P < .001), for an increase of 1-SD. Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that AIP was an independent risk factor for CAD.AIP might be a strong and independent predictor for CAD in the Chinese Han population.

The South Pole Telescope is a 10 m diameter, wide-field, offset Gregorian telescope with a 966-pixel, millimeter-wave, bolometer array receiver. The telescope has an unusual optical system with a cold stop around the secondary. The design emphasizes low scattering and low background loading. All the optical components except the primary are cold, and the entire beam from prime focus to the detectors is surrounded by cold absorber.

The range of movement of the chest cage and spine is more limited in the scoliotic cases. This overall stiffness of the chest cage and the spine may contribute to the mechanical inefficiency and impairment of pulmonary function found in scoliotic patients.