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The paper aims to focus on a unique quality control system that was set up ten years ago to evaluate Medical Classification Committee decision‐making processes at the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conscription center.

Two main approaches were deployed by the control system to assess medical classification committees' performance. The first was direct assessment of the medical committees' clinical work and decision‐making processes. The second applied data mining procedures to the computerized medical databases. The functional classification codes (FCCs) – codes for the most common medical disorders assigned to male recruits from the central computerized central IDF database, the sub‐districts comprising the recruitment centers, and the chairmen assigning the FCCs to recruits – were all analyzed.

A total of 26 FCCs, each indicating a common medical problem and its severity, constituted approximately 90 percent of all FCCs assigned at recruitment centers between 2001 and 2006. Major contributors to medical profiling outcomes were underweight, asthma, chronic headache, mental illness, symptomatic scoliosis, hypnosis, chronic back pain, knee joint disorders, allergic rhinitis and sinusitis. Evaluating the computerized medical database revealed significant differences in: medical profile prevalence; recruitment center FCCs; different sub‐districts in a given recruitment center; and profiling by medical committee chairmen.

Findings indicate disparities between recruitment centers and their chairmen in the medical profiling process owing to variations in recruitment center working methods and medical history taking, physical examinations, interpreting medical information and individual differences in the chairmen's decision‐making process. Other reasons include technician and laboratory staff inaccuracies. These significant discrepancies highlighted the need for an intervention program. To minimize variations and create a uniform work platform, an orderly instruction system and training programs for the committee chairmen, technicians and laboratory staff were established. These actions resulted in improved performance in 2007 as confirmed by a decreased variability in the assignment of medical FCCs.

The paper highlights methods that can be used to assess disability screening, sports medicine committees and primary care setting procedures.

As part of the routine work of the medical committees in the Israel Defense Forces, a unique nationwide computerized control system is being implemented to assess and manage medical processes. The purpose of this paper is to report on that implementation.

The computerized system consists of three main components: a specific status indicating the processes in each file, an appointment system, and an internal computerized system that uses a magnetic card for the regulation of the local waiting lists.

The combined computerized system improves the control and management of the medical processes and informatics from the point‐of‐view of both the patients and system operators. Different parameters of quality control regarding the medical and administrative processes are assessed (such as efficiency), and solutions are sought. Computerized system‐based design and re‐allocation of human and medical resources were implemented according to the capacities and limitations of the medical system. A reduction in the daily number of invited recruits improved the quality of the medical encounters. Specific combined status codes were introduced for the efficient planning of the medical encounters. Implementation and automation of medical regulations and procedures within the computerized system make the latter play a key role and serve as a control tool during the decision‐making process.

The computerized system allows efficient follow‐up and management of medical processes and informatics, led to a better utilization of human and medical resources, and becomes a component of the decision making by the system operators and the administrative staff. Such a system could be used with success in clinics, hospitals, and other medical facilities.

Digital design technologies play a significant role in assisting the designer through conceptual architectural design. Computer supported design systems can generate various images at the early design phase and can contribute to seeking alternative architectural forms. Currently, different design approaches are being employed in the formation of architectural products. Examples of architecture that produce unusual forms are often encountered within unique conceptual approaches. The development of new design examples is supported by the digital production of forms, and three-dimensional models through varying geometric approaches. In this study, a design approach that uses computer aided architectural design to produce architectural forms will be suggested. This approach utilizes principles existing in the unique fractal dimension of elements based on a vocabulary relevant to a specific architectural language. By relying on the fractal dimension and features of an existing architectural pattern, this generative design approach supports creativity in the production of new forms. The proposed approach is evaluated as a creative tool in architectural design. The subject of architecture; buildings, spaces, surroundings, symbols of that particular society are also the elements of a meta-language which creates a fractal geometry based relation. It is possible to analyse this relation through a fractal geometry-based principle. In short, a fractal geometrical generative method is suggested. Also, recently-surfaced discussions about "Chaos Theory" and its effects on the design process via "Chaos and Self - Similarity" are studied. The significance of these different phenomena and disciplines upon architectural design are also studied for developing a possible creative tool.

The involvement of organizational development (OD) consultants in schools has become widespread in recent years. In Israel, their presence increased in the past 2 decades when the Ministry of Education encouraged their entry as support for the self-management reform and improvement of failing schools. Despite accumulated experience and the research literature, little is known about their work patterns and how they contribute to school improvement. Therefore, our main research question is what they do and how their actions contribute to the school. We investigated this question based on an innovative conceptual framework that combines the focus of organizational intervention (individual, group and organization) and professional skills (diagnosis, intervention and inference).

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 Israeli OD consultants, and content analysis revealed a total of 86 consulting events.

The findings of this study show significant events at individual and group levels, and only a few at the organization level. It was also found that while all the events focused on intervention, very few presented the professional skills of diagnosis and inference. We conclude that while the involvement of OD consultants in schools might contribute to immediate relief for the educational staff and to the symbolic appearance of rational management, their contribution to school improvement is still uncertain. Further theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The conceptual framework of organizational level and professional skills bridges the gap between organizational development goals and the professional skills needed to implement these goals, indicating areas that require further theoretical and practical development.

This paper defines Continuous Productive Urban Landscape (CPUL) as a strategy for the coherent integration of urban agriculture into urban space planning. The case is made for considering urban agriculture as an essential element of sustainable infrastructure.

Recent and historic arguments are used to support the qualitative and quantifiable advantages of introducing urban agriculture into contemporary open urban space design.

The body of the paper focuses on design issues related to the placing and perception of CPUL and urban agriculture. It draws on primary research undertaken in Cuba, considering Cuba as a laboratory for design research into urban agriculture.

Design studies by the authors are used to demonstrate the viability and physical manifestation of urban agriculture within a Continuous Productive Urban Landscape. The paper proposes that, while an environmental and design case can be made for the integration of urban agriculture, planners and designers need to explore the public perception of productive landscape if its full potential is to be realized.

The idea that urban agriculture can be read as “ornament” is discussed with reference to the writing of British artist Tom Phillips. Contemporary cultural/artistic practice is referred to as a means for exploring and communicating ideas related to productive urban landscapes.

The paper concludes with new research findings related to the public perception of open urban space based on the Havana CPUL design research project “Finding Parque Lenin”.

This study investigated the emerging progressive use of ornamental art in the landscape architecture of Kazakhstan and determined the influence of symbolism on the quality of new urban environments. The study analysed the existing recreational facilities in Kazakhstan in order to establish their symbolic meaning, the level of utilisation of symbolic ornaments, and the socio-economic factors that influence the design structure of landscape elements. The results revealed that symbolic meanings of the ornaments stem from historic, legal and cultural traditions of different ethnic groups in Kazakhstan. Therefore, the form depends on not only the topography of the area, but also the traditional symbolism and numerology. This study categorised the studied places according to their size: large gardens, small squares and small landscape forms. Taking into account the natural and climatic features of Kazakhstan, small landscape forms acquire the quality of arid zone gardens. However, lack of identity and consistency appears to be a major problem in design of larger scale landscapes. This article posits that coordination between socio-economic and historical-cultural factors will open new creative opportunities for the development of an original landscape architecture in Kazakhstan, yet balance between environmental construction and contextually meaningful urban planning will still be needed.

An enterprise exists as a congress of information and knowledge: it is the knowledge embedded in it, and the processing of information throughout it, that lead to the strategy, change and action that convert the enterprise into a dynamic reality. Management, however else it may be defined, is also the process that ensures that information and knowledge are effectively deployed in an enterprise's interests. In this the manager is joined by all the knowledge workers in the organization—the designers, researchers, engineers, trainers, administrators, accountants — who provide the enterprise with its collective brainpower. That brainpower, focused on the wellbeing and success of the enterprise, is the true generator of value added and must therefore be the chief asset of any business or institution.

The authors set out to study institutional work under complexity building on the struggle for legitimacy of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community in Israel as their case study. The authors took a discursive approach and were interested in what actors claim they do. The findings suggest that actors manipulate the intentions and outcomes of their acts, thereby claiming for actorhood or negating it. These differential constructions are not random but echo the norms of the discursive spaces within which they are presented and interact with other actors’ work. Overall, the authors argue that actorhood is not a pre-condition for institutional work, nor is it its outcome, but rather an integral part thereof.

According to Truth the War Office has selected Mr. C. C. DUNCAN, F.I.C., the Public Analyst for the County of Worcester, for a special post, in which “ he will be responsible for the examination of the water supply for the troops.” “It might be supposed,” our contemporary observes, “that the services of this scientific expert would be worth at least the pay of a Captain. The War Office thinks differently. It is giving Mr. Duncan the pay of a private soldier, a piece of parsimony in no wise excused by the fact that the difference between his military pay and his regular salary will be made up by the Worcestershire County Council.” It appears that MR. DUNCAN has been selected for the post in question on the recommendation of a body described by Truth as “ The Institute of Analysts.” As no such body exists we presume that either the Institute of Chemistry or the cumbrously‐named “ Society of Public Analysts and Other Analytical Chemists” is referred to. It would be interesting to know what the Councils of either or both of these concerns have got to say about the treatment of this member of the profession which they are supposed to represent and whose dignity and interests they are supposed to maintain. The monstrous advertisement issued by the Woolwich Arsenal authorities about a year ago in which scientific chemists with University degrees were invited to apply for appointments at the munificent remuneration of £2 per week is a sufficient illustration of the value put upon scientific attainments by Government Departments in this country. But even this example of fatuous ignorance and inane parsimony has been eclipsed by the present arrangements for the employment of scientific chemists in the Royal Engineers, in which they are invited to enlist with the rank of Corporal and with Corporal's pay and “allowances.” The sulphuric acid scandal recently exposed by The Globe makes it once more abundantly clear that where scientific advice even of an elementary kind is needed no attempt is made to obtain reliable guidance. The wrong people are invariably applied to for advice and the wrong men are appointed to fill responsible posts. The following remarks appear in The Globe of September 23rd :—“We have evidence of the incompetence of the High Explosives Department which thought it fitting to appoint as the comptroller of the shipment of oleum” (i.e., a form of sulphuric acid shipped from America) “a young man, wholly inexperienced, at a handsome salary, his only qualification apparently being that he was the son of his father. This young man was completely ignorant of the properties of oleum. His first introduction to the acid was when he was called upon to advise as to the best method of shipment.” According to the facts stated in The Globe the result of this bungling has been a loss of some hundreds of thousands of pounds to the taxpayers of this country.