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The present study involves experiments and modelling aimed at characterizing the passive structural mechanical behavior of the chronic hypoxic lamb thoracic aorta, whose gestation, birth and postnatal period were carried at high altitude (3600 masl). To this end, the mechanical response was studied via tensile and pressurization tests. The tensile and pressurization tests measurements were used simultaneously to calibrate the material parameters of the Gasser–Holzapfel–Ogden (GHO) hyperelasctic anisotropic constitutive model through an analytical-numerical optimization procedure solved with an evolutionary strategy that guarantees a stable response of the model. The model and procedure of calibration adequately adjust to the material behavior in a wide deformation range with an appropriate physical description. The results of this study predict the mechanical response of the lamb thoracic aorta under generalized loading states like those that can occur in physiological conditions and/or in systemic arterial hypertension. Finally, the novel use of the evolutionary strategy, together with the set of experiments and tools used in this study, provide a robust alternative to validate biomechanical characterizations.

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All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science-r Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief cxceipts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.Primed on acid-free paper ForewordThe challenges faced by market competition have been more widely recognized in the Latin American region over the last few years. There has been renewed interest in antitrust policies, in modernizing various regulations and achieving greater trans parency in the way firms operate. The relevance this topic has acquired has grown precisely at a time when the concentration of wealth has deepened regionally and globally. The lack of appropriate pro-competition legal and institutional frame works during the privatization process of large public enterprises in the 1980s and 1990s and a great number of ensuing mergers and acquisitions have made possible frequent anti-competitive practices, adversely affecting consumers and the competi tiveness of producers.In a number of public utility services essential to the economy, large privatized firms, formerly under public ownership, often act as monopolies. These practices have spread internationally. Economic liberalization and digitalization have made it easier to invest capital in foreign markets, but little has been done to curb abuse of market power in many developing countries where they operate.This book addresses competition policies in Central America and Mexico, particularly in the banking and telecommunications sectors, in which market distor tions have led to low levels of efficiency and competitiveness. In the cases of both of these sectors, access to credit and a modern telecommunications system is vital for the constant innovation and efficiency of their services. On the other hand, access to these services has become part of the population's basic well-being. The arrival of foreign direct investment (both regional and international) in the banking system and in the telecommunications sector has not produced improvement in quality or more competitive prices of these services in most of the countries studied. An effectively enforced competition policy can go a long way towards strengthening these sectors, among others, especially in small economies where this policy faces many obstacles set up by strong economic and political interests.The experiences of the seven countries studied in this volume are a valuable point of reference for competition policy officials, who are either adapting their laws in order to st...