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Bulk metallic glasses synthesized at specialized facilities at Yale using magnetron cosputtering are sent to Southern Connecticut State University for elemental characterization. Characterization is done using a Zeiss Sigma VP SEM coupled with an Oxford EDS. Characterization is automated using control software provided by Oxford. Collected data is processed and visualized using computational methods developed internally. Processed data is then organized into a database suitable for web retrieval. This technique allows for the rapid characterization of a combinatorial wafer to be carried out in ~11 hours for a single wafer containing ~600 unique compounds.

In order to carry out a convenient preparation of Pb(Zr_xTi_1-x)O₃ thin films by combinatorial chemical solution deposition process, two kinds of Pb(Zr_xTi_1-x)O₃ precursor solutions (PbTiO₃ precursor solution and PbZrO₃ precursor solution) were prepared by a simple process. There is no distillation and no inert gas shielding in the process, and the precursors are more stable than the conventional precursor solution. A series of Pb(Zr_xTi_1-x)O₃ samples (x = 0.1–0.9, in step of 0.1 amount change) were prepared using the two precursor solutions. The process was fast and saved time. There were strong exothermic reactions for the samples with the Zr content x in a short range from x = 0.23 to 0.27 at 161–200°C. The Pb(Zr_xTi_1-x)O₃ thin films showed perovskite structure with strong (111)-preferred orientation. The structure and ferroelectric property of the PZT thin films are comparable with those of the PZT fabricated by conventional process.

Using a combinatorial synthesis process, compositionally gradient PZT thin films were conveniently prepared by a chemical solution decomposition (CSD) method. The thin films showed a perovskite structure with (111)-preferred orientation and a thickness of around 450 nm. The surface morphology and ferroelectric properties were significantly different, depending on the direction of compositional gradient. The detailed composition and gradient of the composition was seen to affect the property of compositionally gradient PZT thin films. The gradient thin film PZT654, with a Zr:Ti ratio of 6:4 at the bottom of the film nearest to the substrate, and with an total composition around the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB, x = 0.52) showed favorable ferroelectric properties. However, no typical offset of the hysteresis loops was observed in our work.

Of the estimated 300,000 higher plants available today, more than one in ten have a documented medical use, but the pharmacological properties of few of them have been thoroughly investigated. Botanical products are used as traditional medicine in many cultures, where plants are customarily used as plant mixtures, which pose challenges to the identification of active compounds and in ensuring the consistency and quality control of these products. Although the evidence of effectiveness of herbal medicines used by traditional medical systems such as traditional Chinese medicine or ayurveda is often anecdotal, rather than derived from rigorous clinical trials, studies confirmed a biological basis for the effect of many of these traditional herbal preparations. This chapter will discuss the various contexts in which ethno-pharmacological information has led to drug discovery, the different modalities in which plants contributed to drug discovery, as well as some of the challenges arising in designing botanical studies. Since the Industrial Revolution, the process of drug discovery has utilized both traditional methods derived from medicinal plants and combinatorial synthesis. Natural products are likely to remain significant contributors to drug discovery, as the chemical structures found in nature greatly exceed the synthetic capabilities of medicinal chemistry. Even in the context of ready access to purified human enzymes and receptors, 65% of drugs approved for marketing in the last decade of the last century were based on natural products. It may be possible that treating cancer in the future will involve a combined approach, in which Western medicine will be used to destroy the tumour, whereas other treatments, such as traditional Chinese medicine will address the entire “unhealthy” condition, bringing about a change in the body environment that could further facilitate cure.