Blood pressure was measured in the prospective randomized Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project Study with an oscillometric method every year from 7 months to 15 years of age in 540 children receiving a low-saturated-fat, low-cholesterol diet and in 522 control children. Dietary intakes, family history of parental hypertension, and grandparental vascular disease were recorded. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures were 1.0 mm Hg lower (95% CI for systolic: -1.7 to -0.2 mm Hg; 95% CI for diastolic: -1.5 to -0.4 mm Hg) in children receiving low-saturated-fat counseling through childhood than in control children. Intakes of saturated fat were lower (P<0.001), those of polyunsaturated fat higher (P<0.001), and intakes of potassium slightly higher (P=0.002) in the intervention group, but sodium intakes were not influenced by the intervention (P=0.76). Children whose parents were hypertensive had 4- to 6-mm Hg higher systolic and 3- to 4-mm Hg higher diastolic blood pressures than children of normotensive parents (P<0.001). Diastolic blood pressure of children with grandparental vascular disease, ie, early cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease, tended to be higher than that of children with no grandparental disease (P=0.051). We conclude that restriction of saturated fat from infancy until 15 years of age decreases childhood and adolescent blood pressure with a meaningful population-attributable amount. The importance of childhood lifestyle counseling and primary prevention of hypertension should be emphasized, especially in those children with a family history of hypertension or atherosclerotic vascular disease.

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Mechanical properties of copper have been studied using effective-medium theory and Molecular-Dynamics simulations. At room temperature we calculate the tensile moduli of systems that are elongated along different crystal orientations. These moduli are in very good agreement with the experimental values, the difference being less than 6%. The elastic constants obtained from simulations were also in good agreement with experiments. In addition, the point of maximum stress is found to be of the same order of magnitude as the experimental value. Also crack propagation in systems with periodic boundaries has been studied and micro-voids are seen to generate near the crack tip. Crack propagation is found to be a result of coalescing micro-voids.c EDP Sciences

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