1. A drug encapsulation device configured to form drug containing capsules of under 100 microns in diameter, the drug encapsulation device comprising:
a liquid injection device that injects a first liquid to form a core;
a liquid film holder that holds a second liquid in film form, wherein a shell of the second liquid containing the core is formed when the core passes through the second liquid wherein at least one of the first liquid and the second liquid comprises a drug; and
a fluid contact device that makes the shell come into contact with a third liquid,
wherein the first liquid is injected toward a liquid film of the second liquid retained by the liquid film holder,
wherein the core is wrapped with the second liquid on passing through the liquid film of the second liquid,
wherein a chemical reaction is induced in the shell when the shell is in contact with the third liquid;
a distance from the fluid injection device to a surface of the liquid film of the liquid film holder is from 10 to 10,000 \u03bcm; and
wherein a distance from the surface of the liquid film of the liquid film holder to a liquid surface of the fluid contact device is from 0.1 to 50 mm.
2. The drug encapsulation device according to claim 1, wherein
the fluid contact device includes a liquid reservoir that reserves the third liquid in liquid form, and
wherein the second liquid wrapped around the core is made to come into contact with the third liquid when the second liquid enters the liquid reservoir.
3. The drug encapsulation device according to claim 1, wherein
the fluid contact device has a mist generator that mists the third liquid in mist form, and
the second liquid is made in contact with the third liquid by misting the third liquid from the mist generator to an area, toward which the core wrapped with the second liquid is moved.
4. The drug encapsulation device according to claim 2, wherein
the second liquid is an aqueous solution containing a polysaccharide or a protein, and
the third liquid is an aqueous solution containing a polyvalent metal salt.
5. The drug encapsulation device according to claim 1, wherein
the liquid injection device has a nozzle that injects droplets of the first liquid, and a device that is driven by an electric voltage signal to make the droplets to be injected from the nozzle, and
a size of the droplets injected from the liquid injection device is controlled by changing a voltage of the electric voltage signal.
6. The drug encapsulation device according to claim 5, wherein
the liquid injection device has a plurality of the nozzles, and
the droplets are injected from the plurality of the nozzles.
7. A drug encapsulation method to form drug containing capsules of under 100 microns, the method comprising:
forming a core by injecting a first liquid toward a liquid film of a second liquid retained in film form;
wrapping the core with the second liquid by passing the core through the liquid film of the second liquid, thereby forming a shell containing the core; and
making the shell come into contact with a third liquid to induce a chemical reaction; and
controlling a contact time between the core and the second liquid and a contact time between the shell and the third liquid.
8. The drug encapsulation device of claim 1, further comprising:
a third liquid holder that holds in film form the third liquid,
wherein
the droplets wrapped with the second liquid are passed through the liquid film of the third liquid held by the third liquid holder, thereby wrapping the droplets wrapped with the second liquid with the third liquid.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A computer-implemented method of customizing metadata in a software system, comprising:
receiving a customization specification identifying a desired customization to the metadata wherein the metadata is represented by a metadata tree structure having leaves with values indicative of metadata values;
identifying a first metadata value to be customized in a metadata store based on the specification, wherein identifying the first metadata value comprises identifying a leaf in the metadata tree structure that is to be customized based on the customization specification;
storing a separate delta value, in a data store that is separate from the metadata store that includes the identified first metadata value, the delta value being a customization value representing the desired customization for the identified, first metadata value; and
customizing using a processor of the computer, the first metadata value with the delta value based on the customization specification, wherein customizing the first metadata value comprises retrieving the delta value when accessing the first metadata value, without changing the first metadata value in the metadata store.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein customizing the first metadata value comprises:
replacing already existing metadata with the delta value when the first metadata value is retrieved.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein customizing the first metadata value comprises:
adding the delta value to the first metadata value when the first metadata value is retrieved.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the delta value comprises:
storing the delta value in a metadata store that stores the metadata.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the metadata is stored in a metadata store and wherein storing comprises:
storing the delta value in a separate data store, separate from the metadata store.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein storing the delta value comprises:
storing a new value for the identified leaf.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein customizing comprises:
replacing the value for the identified leaf, with the new value for the identified leaf, in the metadata tree structure.
8. A system for customizing metadata in software, comprising: a processor,
a metadata store storing a metadata structure indicative of the metadata, wherein the metadata structure comprises a tree having nodes, each node including at least one metadata value;
a delta store storing delta values indicative of desired customizations to the metadata structure, wherein the delta values are separate from the metadata structure; and
a customization component that receives a request for metadata and customizes the metadata structure using the processor by accessing the delta store and modifying the metadata structure with one or more of the delta values associated with the requested metadata to obtain a customized metadata structure, and return the customized metadata structure, wherein the customization component accesses the metadata structure to obtain the customized metadata structure without changing the metadata structure stored in the metadata store.
9. The system of claim 8 wherein the metadata store and the delta store are implemented on a single storage device.
10. The system of claim 8 wherein the delta values comprise customization values for nodes in the tree to be customized.
11. The system of claim 10 wherein each node has a corresponding node type.
12. The system of claim 11 and further comprising:
a conflict resolution component storing conflict resolution policies associated with nodes in the tree.
13. The system of claim 11 wherein the customization component is configured to identify a customization conflict in which a plurality of different customization values is specified for a single node and to apply a conflict resolution policy to resolve the conflict.
14. The system of claim 13 wherein the conflict resolution policies are associated with the nodes based on the node type of the nodes.
15. The system of claim 8 wherein the customization component comprises:
an adapter entity having methods invoked to receive the request for metadata and to identify metadata customizations to be made.
16. The system of claim 15 wherein the customization component comprises:
a target entity having methods invokable by the adapter to apply the delta values to the metadata to be customized.