Abstract: Drug delivery devices are described that include sensors and processing circuitry that can detect operating events, such as flow rates and drug delivery, in various types of inhalers, such as dry powder inhalers, metered dose inhalers, nasal inhalers and nebulisers. The information determined by the processing circuitry can be used to provide feedback to the user or can be stored or transmitted for subsequent analysis. This information can be used to improve clinical trials by providing information about the way in which the inhalers under test are being used.

Abstract: Drug delivery devices are described that include sensors and processing circuitry that can detect operating events, such as flow rates and drug delivery, in various types of inhalers, such as dry powder inhalers, metered dose inhalers, nasal inhalers and nebulisers. The information determined by the processing circuitry can be used to provide feedback to the user or can be stored or transmitted for subsequent analysis. This information can be used to improve clinical trials by providing information about the way in which the inhalers under test are being used.

Abstract: An object-oriented method and apparatus for delivering information from one component to another across a network of computers includes the steps of loading implementation libraries for adapter and information provider components into memory and creating factory objects for those components. When a request arrives over the network, the factory objects are called and stream objects are created by the factory objects. Data is then streamed from an information provider source to the original requester using the stream objects.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for providing kernel mode support for fast IPC between a client process and a server process. A client application accesses a kernel mode of an operating system via a device driver or similar method. The client creates an abstract "resource" data type and derives a client port therefrom. The client port references a call structure containing object call data. The call is transported via a transport agent to the server. The server accesses the kernel mode of the operating system and creates a resource data type and a server port derived from the resource type. The server awaits calls from the clients using the server port. When a call arrives, the server port extracts the data from the call structure and performs the requested service. The server port then transmits a response back to the client. The use of the abstract resource data type permits portability across different operating systems and platforms.

Abstract: A preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a method and apparatus for sending messages between memory spaces included in a computer network. More specifically, for a preferred embodiment, each memory space included in a computer network is identified by a site id that is composed of a manufacturer id and a machine id. When messages are sent between memory spaces, the site id of the sending memory space is compared to the site id of the receiving memory space. If the site ids match, the message is sent using an intra-memory copy. Otherwise a networking protocol is invoked. Importantly, the comparison between site ids occurs relatively early in the sending of the message. As a result, efficiency is increased in cases where a message is being sent within the same memory space.