This dissertation provides an iconographic interpretation of a group of Ancient Puebloan human effigy vessels and fragments from the American Southwest, dating to the Pueblo II period, c. 900 -1150 CE. Initially, this project focuses on Ancient Puebloan human effigy vessels from three specific collections; a single vessel in the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., a human effigy vessel in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the so-called Putnam Human Effigy Jar from Chaco Canyon at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. This study interprets these three vessels primarily as expressive sculptural forms, as opposed to ritual or utilitarian objects. Stylistically and formally, these vessels are similar to several other human effigy vessels attributed to the Ancient Puebloan tradition. Two catalogs have been compiled for this study. Catalog A consists of Ancient Puebloan style human effigy. Catalog B presents comparable human effigy vessels created in a variety of ancient Southwestern styles, related to, but considered distinct from the Ancient Puebloan style. Formal and iconographic similarities between human effigy vessels in these cultures and the Ancient Puebloan culture suggest a shared cultural phenomenon, or, at the very least, is evidence of regional cultural relationships. Similar human effigy vessels can also be found outside of the ancient Greater Southwest in Precolumbian cultures. Of particular scholarly interest is the nature of the perceived relationship between the Ancient Puebloan tradition and the cultures of Casas Grandes, West Mexico, and Mesoamerica. The analysis of these three vessels and their associated tradition provides additional insight into this on-going scholarly discussion.

La réaction sulfatique interne (RSI) dans les ouvrages en béton est une pathologie susceptible de se développer lorsque des conditions particulières portant sur la composition du béton, les conditions thermiques au jeune âge et l'environnement sont réunies. Ce phénomène est attribué à la formation d'ettringite différée qui provoque un gonflement du matériau et une fissuration dans la structure. Deux types de béton sont concernés par cette pathologie : les bétons préfabriqués traités thermiquement et les bétons coulés en place dans les pièces massives. Bien que largement étudiée depuis une dizaine d'années, la RSI n'est pas à ce jour parfaitement connue du fait de la complexité du phénomène au niveau des mécanismes mis en jeu, des paramètres influents et de ses conséquences tant à l'échelle microscopique qu'à l'échelle de l'ouvrage. Ce travail vise donc à apporter des éléments de réponse à plusieurs interrogations concernant cette pathologie, en se focalisant sur l'étude de l'impact de certains facteurs intervenant lors de la réaction et sur l'application nucléaire. De nombreuses études expérimentales ont été ainsi mises en œuvre. Une large étude est consacrée à évaluer le risque de développement de la RSI dans une enceinte de confinement d'une centrale nucléaire, du fait de la présence de structures massives dans ce type d'ouvrages. Ces travaux ont permis de mettre en évidence dans quelle mesure la pathologie influe sur les caractéristiques mécaniques et sur les propriétés de transfert du béton, et ainsi de vérifier si les exigences de sûreté attendues par ces structures sont mises en cause. Ensuite, nous nous sommes intéressés à étudier l'impact de l'hygrométrie du béton sur le développement de la RSI. Nous avons pu identifier le couplage qui existe entre l'humidité environnante et le gonflement. Le rôle joué par la lixiviation des alcalins a été également mis en évidence. Des suivis des propriétés de transfert ont été menés et confrontés aux gonflements observés. Enfin, nous nous sommes intéressés à caractériser le rôle joué par le squelette granulaire sur la cinétique et l'amplitude du gonflement par RSI. Les paramètres étudiés concernent la taille et la fraction volumique des inclusions granulaires. De plus, un exemple d'application d'une modélisation numérique mésoscopique du gonflement est proposé / Delayed ettringite formation (DEF) in concrete structures is a pathology that can develop when special conditions on the concrete composition, the thermal conditions at the young age and the environment are met. This phenomenon provokes swelling of the material and cracking in the structure. It affects two types of concrete : the concrete heat-treated and the concrete cast in place in massive parts. Although many studies were done before in order to better understand this pathology, the DEF is still not well known. This is due to its complex mechanism, the influential parameters and its consequences on microscopic and structural scales. For that purpose, the thesis work was designed in order to better understand this pathology. Experimental studies were done to evaluate the impact of certain factors during the reaction, by focusing on nuclear application. An important part of this study was dedicated to assess the risk of DEF development in a nuclear power plant, and to understand how this pathology affects the mechanical characteristics and transfer properties of the concrete. Then, we have studied the impact of the hygrometry on the development of DEF. This has lead to identify a relation between environmental humidity and swelling. We have also examined the role of alkali leaching. A follow up study of the transfer properties was also done and was confronted to the observed swelling. Finally, we were interested in the characterization of the aggregates effect on the kinetics and the amplitude of DEF swelling. So, we have examined the parameters related to the size and the volume fraction of granular inclusions. Furthermore, an application of a mesoscopic numerical modeling of swelling is proposed

With maritime industry carrying out nearly 90% of the volume of global trade, the algorithms and solutions to provide quality of services in maritime transportation are of great importance to both academia and the industry. This research investigates an optimization problem using evolutionary algorithms and big data analytics to address an important challenge in maritime disruption management, and illustrates how it can be engaged with information technologies and Internet of Things. Accordingly, in this thesis, we design, develop and evaluate methods to improve decision support systems (DSSs) in maritime supply chain management. We pursue three research goals in this thesis. First, the Vessel Schedule recovery Problem (VSRP) is reformulated and a bi-objective optimization approach is proposed. We employ bi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) to solve optimization problems. An optimal Pareto front provides a valuable trade-off between two objectives (minimizing delay and minimizing financial loss) for a stakeholder in the freight ship company. We evaluate the problem in three domains, namely scalability analysis, vessel steaming policies, and voyage distance analysis, and statistically validate their performance significance. According to the experiments, the problem complexity varies in different scenarios, while NSGAII performs better than other MOEAs in all scenarios. In the second work, a new data-driven VSRP is proposed, which benefits from the available Automatic Identification System (AIS) data. In the new formulation, the trajectory between the port calls is divided and encoded into adjacent geohashed regions. In each geohash, the historical speed profiles are extracted from AIS data. This results in a large-scale optimization problem called G-S-VSRP with three objectives (i.e., minimizing loss, delay, and maximizing compliance) where the compliance objective maximizes the compliance of optimized speeds with the historical data. Assuming that the historical speed profiles are reliable to trust for actual operational speeds based on other ships' experience, maximizing the compliance of optimized speeds with these historical data offers some degree of avoiding risks. Three MOEAs tackled the problem and provided the stakeholder with a Pareto front which reflects the trade-off among the three objectives. Geohash granularity and dimensionality reduction techniques were evaluated and discussed for the model. G-S-VSRPis a large-scale optimization problem and suffers from the curse of dimensionality (i.e. problems are difficult to solve due to exponential growth in the size of the multi-dimensional solution space), however, due to a special characteristic of the problem instance, a large number of function evaluations in MOEAs can still find a good set of solutions. Finally, when the compliance objective in G-S-VSRP is changed to minimization, the regular MOEAs perform poorly due to the curse of dimensionality. We focus on improving the performance of the large-scale G-S-VSRP through a novel distributed multiobjective cooperative coevolution algorithm (DMOCCA). The proposed DMOCCA improves the quality of performance metrics compared to the regular MOEAs (i.e. NSGAII, NSGAIII, and GDE3). Additionally, the DMOCCA results in speedup when running on a cluster.

Charles University Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology Student: Iveta Rajtmajerová Supervisor: PharmDr. Jana Pourová, Ph.D. Title of diploma thesis: The in vitro effects of selected fenolic substances on isolated rat vessels Silymarin flavonolignans are endowed with various aspects. Recently their hepatoprotective effect has been discussed widely as well as their positive influence on the cardiovascular system. This diploma thesis is concerned with the vasodilatory effects of silybin-A, silybin-B, silybin-A + B and isosilybin-A on rat aorta. The aim of this study was to test the vasodilatory effect of selected substances. The dependence of aortic relaxation on the increasing concentration of tested substances was measured. Isolated Wistar breed rat aorta was used. DRC curves were created and EC50 values were assessed from the obtained values of vessel tension. The results were evaluated subsequently. The vasodilator potential of silybin-A and isosilybin-A is comparable; hence the position of the substituents may be irrelevant in having any impact on relaxation of the vessels. Different vasodilatory effects of silybin-A and silybin-B have been observed thus, the relaxation could be stereoselective. The testing of the equimolar mixture of silybin-A and...

Esta dissertação apresenta o desenvolvimento e avaliação de um método para a segmentação de vasos sangüíneos em imagens de retina, em que se usa a transformada wavelet contínua bidimensional combinada com classificação supervisionada. A segmentação dos vasos é a etapa inicial para a análise automática das imagens, cujo objetivo é auxiliar a comunidade médica na detecção de doenças. Entre outras doenças, as imagens podem revelar sinais da retinopatia diabética, uma das principais causas de cegueira em adultos, que pode ser prevenida se detectada em um diagnóstico precoce. A abordagem apresentada consiste na geração de segmentações pela classificação supervisionada de pixels nas classes \"vaso\" e \"não vaso\". As características usadas para classificação são obtidas através da transformada wavelet contínua bidimensional usando a wavelet de Gabor. Resultados são avaliados nos bancos públicos DRIVE e STARE de imagens coloridas através da análise ROC (\"receiver operating characteristic\", ou característica de operação do receptor). O método atinge áreas sob curvas ROC de 0.9614 e 0.9671 nos bancos DRIVE e STARE, respectivamente, ligeiramente superiores àquelas apresentadas por outros métodos do estado da arte. Apesar de bons resultados ROC, a análise visual revela algumas dificuldades do método, como falsos positivos ao redor do disco óptico e de patologias. A wavelet de Gabor mostra-se eficiente na detecção dos vasos, superando outros filtros lineares. Bons resultados e uma classificação rápida são obtidos usando o classificador bayesiano em que as funções de densidade de probabilidade condicionais às classes são descritas por misturas de gaussianas. A implementação do método está disponível na forma de \"scripts\" código aberto em MATLAB para pesquisadores interessados em detalhes de implementação, avaliação ou desenvolvimento de métodos. / This dissertation presents the development and evaluation of a method for blood vessel segmentation in retinal images which combines the use of the two-dimensional continuous wavelet transform with supervised classification. Segmentation of the retinal vasculature is the first step towards automatic analysis of the images, aiming at helping the medical community in detecting diseases. Among other diseases, the images may reveal signs of diabetic retinopathy, a leading cause of adult blindness, which can be prevented if identified early enough. The presented approach produces segmentations by supervised classification of each image pixel as \"vessel\" or \"nonvessel\", with pixel features derived using the two-dimensional continuous Gabor wavelet transform. Results are evaluated on publicly available DRIVE and STARE color image databases using ROC (receiver operating characteristic) analysis. The method achieves areas under ROC curves of 0.9614 and 0.9671 on the DRIVE and STARE databases, respectively, being slightly superior than that presented by state-of-the-art approaches. Though good ROC results are presented, visual inspection shows some typical difficulties of the method, such as false positives on the borders of the optic disc and pathologies. The Gabor wavelet shows itself efficient for vessel enhancement, outperforming other linear filters. Good segmentation results and a fast classification phase are obtained using the Bayesian classifier with class-conditional probability density functions described as Gaussian mixtures. The method\'s implementation is available as open source MATLAB scripts for researchers interested in implementation details, evaluation, or development of methods.

O planeta Terra tem aproximadamente três quartos submersos em água, ainda assim, estima-se que somente são conhecidos 5% dos mares e oceanos. Nas últimas décadas, os AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles) se converteram em uma ferramenta útil para a exploração dos oceanos por levar a bordo vários equipamentos com um relativo baixo custo de operação. A parte estrutural dos AUVs, usualmente cascas cilíndricas, tem sido estudada. De modo geral, os objetivos desses estudos visam a manter a rigidez e deixar a estrutura mais leve, sob o critério de resistência a flambagem. A falha por flambagem, normalmente, ocorre antes da falha por resistência do material em cascas devido à sua geometria e à influência de imperfeições iniciais. Uma forma de aumentar a rigidez das cascas é o uso de enrijecedores, os quais geralmente são soldados à casca. No entanto, o uso desses enrijecedores em um veículo de pequeno porte diminui o espaço utilizados por diferentes dispositivos e instrumentos do veículo, além de resultar em possíveis inconvenientes na fabricação, tais como aumento do custo e produção de tensões residuais relativas aos processos de soldagem. Portanto, alternativas ao enrijecedor convencional devem ser buscadas para esse tipo de veículo. É possível substituir os enrijecedores convencionais por uma estrutura interna ao vaso de pressão e comum em submersíveis, a prateleira de acomodação da eletrônica. Essa estrutura, chamada aqui de enrijecedores deslizantes, possui cavernas circunferenciais que podem fornecer rigidez à casca e evitar os inconvenientes de redução de volume e de fabricação que os enrijecedores convencionais trazem. No entanto, tal substituição para o aumento de rigidez ainda não foi analisada. Portanto, neste trabalho se propõe analisar o comportamento do enrijecedor deslizante quando utilizado em substituição ao enrijecedor convencional, considerando que ambos fornecem resistência à compressão embora não apresentem as mesmas restrições de graus de liberdade. A análise é feita através de métodos analíticos e numéricos, tipicamente utilizados no estudo de enrijecedores convencionais. / The planet Earth has about three quarters of water, yet it is estimated that only 5% of the seas and oceans are known. In the last decades, the AUVs have become useful tools for the exploration of the oceans by carrying on board several equipment with a relative low cost of operation. The structural part of the AUV\'s, usually cylindrical shells, has been studied as well. In general, the objectives of these studies are to maintain rigidity and to leave the structure lighter, under the criterion of buckling resistance. The buckling failure occurs prior to failure by yielding due to its geometry and the influence of initial shell imperfections. One way to increase the stiffness of the shells is to use stiffeners, which are usually welded to the shell. However, the use of these stiffeners in a small vehicle reduces the space used for different devices and instruments of the vehicle, in addition there are manufacturing drawbacks as residual stresses related to the welding processes. Therefore, alternatives to the conventional stiffener should be sought for this type of vehicle. It is possible to replace conventional stiffeners by an internal structure to the pressure vessel and common in submersibles, the shelf of accommodation of the electronics. This structure, referred to here as sliding stiffeners, has circumferential frame bulkheads that can provide stiffness to the shell and avoid the drawbacks of volume reduction and fabrication that conventional stiffeners bring. However, such substitution for increased rigidity has not yet been analyzed. Therefore, in this work it is proposed to analyze the behavior of the sliding stiffeners when used in substitution of the conventional stiffeners, considering that both provide compressive strength although they do not present the same restrictions of degrees of freedom. The analysis is done by analytical and numerical methods, typical of conventional stiffeners.

O propósito do presente trabalho é desenvolver a avaliação estrutural de um navio \"Nodriza\" de pequeno porte de aplicação militar e cujo projeto inicial foi orientado à navegação em águas abrigadas com restrições de calado. Porém, requisitos e necessidades afetando a concepção inicial do projeto obrigam este a efetuar percursos em águas profundas com possibilidade de experimentar ciclos de onda. A avaliação estrutural pretende determinar o nível de influência da superestrutura sobre a resistência longitudinal do navio considerando-o submetido a esforços solicitantes próprios de águas não abrigadas. As limitações geradas pelas formas e proporções do navio Nodriza, que não permitem implementar de forma direta as regras de Sociedades Classificadoras para a avaliação estrutural em águas profundas, obriga ao uso de cálculos diretos para sua aprovação. Uma análise mediante o uso de elementos finitos, modelando o navio com e sem participação da superestrutura, permite determinar como esta representa uma significativa influência sobre a resistência longitudinal e tensões finais dos membros principais e membros de suporte, quando é considerada dentro da análise estrutural. Igualmente, implementam-se procedimentos determinísticos propostos pelas regras de sociedades classificadoras para navios convencionais, na procura de estabelecer a conveniência ou não da sua aplicação como método de aproximação para uma avaliação estrutural desta classe de navio militar, cujas características tornam dele um caso particular de análise. / The objective of the present work is to conduct a structural evaluation of the small size, military vessel Nodriza which has been designed for navigation in sheltered waters with draft restrictions. However, new requirements and changes in the operation of this vessel forced deep water navigation with the possible action of wave loading. The structural evaluation seeks to determine the effects of the superstructure on the longitudinal structural resistance for the vessel. Since the geometry and overall dimensions of the ship are not covered by the structural rules of the Classification Societies, a numerical analyses based on the finite element method is conducted for a full model of the vessel. The numerical analyses demonstrate the strong effect of the superstructure on the longitudinal resistance which yields reduced stress levels in primary structural members. The work provides a compelling support to use more refined procedures in the structural design of non-conventional small-sized vessels.

Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is a common cause of strokes and dementia. The pathogenesis of SVD is poorly understood, but imaging and biochemical investigations suggest that subtle blood-brain barrier (BBB) leakage may contribute to tissue damage. The most widely-used imaging method for assessing BBB integrity and other microvascular properties is dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI). DCE-MRI has primarily been applied in situations where contrast uptake in tissue is typically large and rapid (e.g. neuro-oncology); the optimal approach for quantifying BBB integrity in diseases where the BBB remains largely intact and the reliability of resulting measurements is unclear. The main purpose of this thesis was to assess and improve the reliability of quantitative assessment of subtle BBB disruption, in order to illuminate its potential role in cerebral SVD. Firstly, a systematic literature review was performed in order to provide an overview of DCE-MRI methods in the brain. This review found large variations in MRI procedures and data analysis methods, resulting in widely varying estimates of tracer kinetic parameters. Secondly, this thesis focused on the analysis of DCE-MRI data acquired in an on-site clinical study of mild stroke patients. After performing basic DCE-MRI processing (e.g. selection of a vascular input function), this work aimed to determine the tracer kinetic modelling approach most suitable for assessing subtle BBB disruption in this cohort. Using data-driven model selection and computer simulations, the Patlak model was found to provide accurate estimates of blood plasma volume and low-level BBB leakage. Thirdly, this thesis aimed to investigate two potential pitfalls in the quantification of subtle BBB disruption. Contrast-free measurements in healthy volunteers revealed that a signal drift of approximately 0.1 %/min occurs during the DCE-MRI acquisition; computer simulations showed that this drift introduces significant systematic errors when estimating low-level tracer kinetic parameters. Furthermore, tracer kinetic analysis was performed in an external patient cohort in order to investigate the inter-study comparability of DCE-MRI measurements. Due to the nature of the acquisition protocol it proved difficult to obtain reliable estimates of BBB leakage, highlighting the importance of study design. Lastly, this thesis examined the relationship between quantitative MRI parameters and clinical measurements in cerebral SVD, with a focus on the estimates of blood volume and BBB leakage obtained in the internal SVD patient cohort. This work did not provide evidence that BBB leakage in normal-appearing tissue increases with SVD burden or predicts disease progression; however, increased BBB leakage was found in white matter hyperintensities. Furthermore, this work raises the possibility of a role for blood plasma volume and dietary salt intake in cerebral SVD. The work described in this thesis has demonstrated that it is possible to estimate subtle BBB disruption using DCE-MRI, provided that the measurement and data analysis strategies are carefully optimised. However, absolute values of tracer kinetic parameters should be interpreted with caution, particularly when making comparisons between studies, and sources of error and their influence should be estimated where possible. The exact roles of BBB breakdown and other microvascular changes in SVD pathology remain to be defined; however, the work presented in this thesis contributes further insights and, together with technical advances, will facilitate improved study design in the future.

The pulmonary vein (PV) constricts to hypoxia however little is known about the underlying mechanisms. Hypoxic PV constriction is proposed to recruit upstream capillary beds and optimise gas exchange in healthy humans and may play a role in high altitude pulmonary oedema. The PV is also intrinsic to disease states including pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary veno-occlusive disease. Blood vessel culture can be a powerful tool to enable assessment of the impact of environmental factors on vessel function and as a disease model. However culture conditions alone affect vessel contractility; the effect of culture conditions on PV function remained to be established. The aim of this project was to investigate hypoxic responses of porcine PVs including the impact of maintenance in culture. Maintenance of PVs in culture conditions for 24 hours increased contraction to hypoxia and inhibited hypoxic relaxation post-contraction. These changes to PV hypoxic responses were thought to result from endothelial dysfunction. However, the endothelial nitric oxide synthase inhibitor L-NAME inhibited PV hypoxic contraction and enhanced relaxation. The impact of K+ channel inhibitors on hypoxic contraction was also investigated. Penitrem A, 4AP, DPO-1, ZnCl2 and glyburide had no significant effect however TEA and BDM inhibited the hypoxic contraction. This suggested that TASK, KV1.5, BKCa and KATP do not play a role in the mechanism of hypoxic pulmonary venoconstriction however KV channels containing KV2.1 α subunits may modulate the response. Results with L-NAME suggested endothelial dysfunction may not fully account for the change in PV function after exposure to culture. Therefore the impact of PV maintenance in culture was further explored using an isolated PV smooth muscle cell (PVSMC) model. Maintenance of PVs in culture conditions had minimal impact on morphology and electrical properties of PVSMCs. Notably, resting membrane potential and hypoxia-induced depolarisation were not significantly different. Based on the findings of this study, the endothelium in PVs appears to a) play a major role in modulation of the hypoxic response b) be sensitive to short-term exposure to culture conditions. K+ channels appear to play a minor role in PV hypoxic contraction and SMCs isolated from PVs maintained in culture conditions have similar morphological and electrophysiological characteristics to freshly isolated PVSMCs. Taking all this into account, endothelial regulation of contractility should be a key focus for future PV research.

Durante um acidente em uma usina nuclear, a integridade do vaso pressurizado deve ser assegurada. Em resposta a um possível derretimento do combustível nuclear, a atual geração de usinas possui um sistema para a injeção de água potável na cavidade do vaso pressurizado com intuito de resfriar sua parede, prevenindo danos a sua estrutura e evitando o vazamento de material radioativo. Esse estudo considerou o uso de água marinha como refrigerante para inundar a cavidade do vaso pressurizado combinado com a fixação de um estrutura porosa em forma de grade em sua parede externa como meio de aprimorar a margem de segurança durante a contenção de acidentes. Experimentos de longa duração para a ebulição em piscina de água marinha artificial foram conduzidos em uma superfície circular de cobre plana com 30 mm de diâmetro. Foi encontrado um fluxo de calor crítico de 1; 6 MW/m2 sob pressão atmosférica. Esse valor é significantemente maior que aquele obtido (1; 0 MW/m2) nas mesmas condições experimentais. Foi verificado que os depósitos de sais marinhos podem aumentar a molhabilidade e a capilaridade da superfície de teste, aprimorando assim o fluxo crítico. Combinando a água marinha e a fixação da estrutura porosa sobre a superfície de teste, verificou-se um melhora no coeficiente de transmissão de calor e no fluxo de calor crítico de até 110 % (2; 1 MW/m2), quando comparado a água destilada na superfície limpa, sem a instalação da estrutura. Após os experimentos, foi identificado que muitos dos poros presentes nas superfícies da estrutura porosa encontravam-se bloqueados devido ao aglutinamento de sais marinhos. Isso levou a conclusão que o aumento no valor do fluxo crítico observado para a água marinha artificial ocorreu devido, principalmente, a separação das fases líquida e gasosa do fluido na região próxima a superfície de teste, efeito proporcionado pela forma de grade da estrutura porosa, e ao aumento da molhabilidade e capilaridade da superfície devido a formação dos depósitos marinhos. / During a severe nuclear power plant accident, the integrity of the reactor pressure vessel must be assured. In response to a possible fuel meltdown, operators of the current generation of nuclear power plants are likely to inject water into the reactor pressure vessel to cool down the reactor vessel wall, preserving its integrity and avoiding leakage of radioactive material. This study considers the use of seawater to flood a reactor pressure vessel combined with the attachment of a honeycomb porous plate (HPP) on the vessel outer wall as a way to improve the safety margins for in-vessel retention of fuel. In long-duration experiments, saturated pool boiling of artificial seawater was performed with an upward-facing plain copper heated surface 30 mm in diameter. The resulting value for critical heat flux (CHF) was 1; 6 MW/m2 at atmospheric pressure, a value significantly higher than the CHF obtained when the working fluid was distilled water (1; 0 MW/m2). It was verified that sea-salt deposits could greatly improve surface wettability and capillarity, enhancing the CHF. The combination of artificial seawater and an HPP attached to the heated surface improved the boiling heat transfer coefficient and increased the CHF up to 110% (2; 1 MW/m2) as compared to distilled water on a bare surface. After the artificial seawater experiments, most of the wall micropores of the HPP were clogged because of sea-salt aggregation on the HPP top and bottom surfaces. Thus, the CHF enhancement observed in this case was attributed mainly to the separation of liquid and vapor phases provided by the HPP channel structure and improvement of surface wettability and capillarity by sea-salt deposition.