DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 23 (UPI) — OPEC officials say $55 a barrel of oil is its preferred price, lower than recent preference statements, as the cartel battles to catch falling prices.

Mohammed Al Hamli, the United Arab Emirates’ oil minister and the current president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said oil’s drop from record highs of $78 a barrel in the summer to around $50 isn’t a big worry.

“We are not panicking,” Hamli said. “Concerned, I think, because we are embarking on huge investment programs and the price in that respect is very important because of the outlays.”

OPEC officials had said recently they thought $60 a barrel was a fair price for producers and consumers.

“There is no specific price in mind, but anything around $55 is considered reasonable,” Hamli said Monday, the Trade Arabia news service reports.

OPEC is amid production quota cuts to buoy prices, though the goals have not been met.

Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s and the world’s largest producer, said last week further cuts aren’t necessary.

Saudi Arabia’s talk could be a message to Iran in the battle over Iraq, as a way to weaken the Iranians who are dependent on high oil prices.

“The current Saudi stance is an attempt to put pressure on other members of OPEC to increase compliance with production cuts,” Greg Priddy, global energy analyst for the Eurasia Group, wrote in Tuesday’s Eurasia Group Energy Trendwatch.

“Compliance with the original round of cuts announced in December has increased in the past month, but is still only about 800,000 bpd out of the 1.2 million bpd to which the cartel’s members had committed themselves,” he added.

Another round of cuts is supposed to take effect in February but, Priddy writes, he expects even less compliance.

MSPs today called into question the design of Holyrood’s controversial “think bubble” windows after a spate of leaks during the recent bad weather.

Some politicians had to use buckets to catch water coming into their offices via the jagged-shaped sit-in windows, which have become an icon of the 431 million Scottish Parliament building.

Tory MSP Ted Brocklebank said there was a persistent drip from the lower edge of the overhang, the same spot where padded strips were installed to stop MSPs bumping their heads as they lean forward in the window seat.

He said: “Every time it rains there’s a drip, drip, drip.

“It first happened in September and they came and put a bit of Sellotape on it. But sticking plaster is not going to stop this if there is heavy rain.”

He said the fact several MSPs had reported leaks in a similar place suggested it was a fault which went right back to the design of the windows, which cost more than 17,000 a piece.

Architect Enric Miralles envisaged that the windows would allow MSPs to contemplate as they looked towards Salisbury Crags.

But Mr Brocklebank said: “One of the first questions I asked when I saw the building was whether special steps had been taken in view of the Scottish winter.

“Everywhere you look in this building there are peaks and troughs and angles. It was obvious there was going to be problems with water. It’s just asking for trouble.”

He said he feared rainwater could be building up inside the jutting-out wall of the windows.

“That means there is the threat of dry rot or wet rot setting in. It’s where water can lie that these things can start.”

There was also a leak from a roof light in the black and white foyer, where MSPs and ministers mingle on their way in and out of the debating chamber.

A blue bucket was placed underneath to catch the drips with a “Caution - wet floor” sign next to it.

One MSP’s aide said: “When we reported our leak, we were told there had been lots of similar calls.”

Tory deputy leader Murdo Fraser said his office had also been affected. He said: “It is extraordinary that more than two years after we moved in we are still finding quite serious snagging problems like this.

“It raises questions about both the design and craftsmanship of the building.

“Considering how much it cost, it’s extremely disappointing we are having problems like this.”

Liberal Democrat MSP Donald Gorrie said: “It’s typical if these completely useless bits of the think pods, which spoil them anyway, are now leaking.”

And he said having a bucket catching drips right outside the debating chamber was embarrassing for the parliament.

A Scottish Parliament spokesman said: “Eleven minor leaks were reported yesterday.

“It has yet to be established if there is a common problem with the leaks following heavy rain.”

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http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=177

Slide Show >>There are many reasons for the current growth spurt in medical device innovation. For one thing, aging baby boomers are more than happy to spend their money on devices that will help them live longer or better.

“You see a bigger growth [in innovation] in areas associated with an aging population,” says Jay Goldberg, the director of the health-care technologies management program at Milwaukee’s Marquette University, who points to examples in orthopedics and the cardiovascular arena.

The spread of diabetes is creating a growing market of consumer medical products such as blood-glucose meters. And on the regulatory front, the Food and Drug Administration, the agency responsible for approving new devices, endorsed new design standards in 2001 that have forced every device manufacturer to focus on human factors in design.

SOCIAL CHANGE.”There’s a new focus on innovation and ideas that change health care for the patient,” said Mary Beth Privetera, a faculty member in the Medical Device Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Cincinnati.

Privetera said the best product design goes from “bench top to bedside,” meaning that it reflects the latest advancements in medical science and product engineering, as well as the functional, ergonomic, and other needs of both doctors and patients.

Political and social changes can create new needs, which open up opportunities for innovation. Rising obesity rates, for instance, and the “graying” of the U.S. have spurred development of insulin-management solutions and a new hip-replacement technique. War, Privetera points out, drives improvements in prosthetics.

BUILDING ON SUCCESS. Other innovations reflect more incremental breakthroughs in diagnostic or imaging technologies. New CT scanners, for example, are smaller or more powerful than previous models, though the basic technology has not changed. These advances can have significant impact, either by bringing the cost down, by allowing hospitals to bring the machine to the patient rather than the other way around, or by enabling doctors to catch diseases far earlier.

Such incremental innovations also offer manufacturers a regulatory advantage. By building on old technologies rather than starting from scratch, manufacturers can move new products to market quickly, without being stalled by FDA-mandated clinical trials. “Companies are always jockeying to be the next one with the one generational advance,” said Steve Halasey, an editor at Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry magazine, adding that progress in the medical device industry is more incremental than in other subsectors such as drugs or biotechnology.

WINNING COMBINATION. After reviewing products introduced over the past few years and talking to industry experts, BusinessWeek.com selected 10 innovative products to highlight. The Birmingham Hip, for instance, uses a new material to revolutionize hip-replacement surgery, while the OmniPod Insulin Management System makes diabetes treatments needle-free.

We focused on products that improve on an existing solution or address a previously unsolved problem—from high-tech CT scanners to an ear curette that incorporates the old technology of LEDs. Some, like the LifePort kidney carrier, can be life-saving. Others, such as a solar-powered battery recharger, will bring hearing aids within reach of millions in the developing world. Every one of these products relies on a winning combination of technology and design to fill a medical need.
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