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This article presents an update of some of the developments in the field of management science. One of the development was related to the research of the Statistics and Operations Research Laboratory (SORL) of Trinity College Ireland that has been researching since 1975 mathematical modeling of systems designed to collect and store solar thermal energy. These systems consist of solar panels, which absorb energy when exposed to solar radiation, energy storage units, to which the energy is transferred from the panels by means of a circulating fluid and distribution systems for passing this energy, as required, to the user. Variations include the use of alternative circulating fluids (air, water water with anti-freeze) various storage mechanisms and different distribution systems. Such systems are referred to as "active" systems for collecting and storing solar thermal energy. The purpose of the models considered by SORL is to predict the long term sayings in energy as a function of the system type, and of the parameters specifying that system for given meteorological conditions.

The article reports that the sixth international conference on operation research was held in August 1972 on the campus of Dublin's sixteenth century Trinity College in the Republic of Ireland. An analysis of feedback reports circulated at the conference afforded deep satisfaction to the Irish committee led by Fred Ridgeway, which had striven hard to make the international meeting a memorable occasion. Four simultaneous streams characterized the conference. The mainstream was made up of three highlight papers, the "statement of the problem" by the chairman of each of the eight workshop groups, two papers read by representatives of Allied organizations, eight state-of-the-art sessions consisting of a central paper and two discussants, and finally the eight reports of the workshop groups. A second stream consisted of the twenty-eight national contributions. A third stream was comprised of the meeting of the individual workshops while the fourth stream was devoted to the discussion forum.

The article presents information on a project initiated by the Statistics and Operations Research Laboratory of Trinity College in Ireland in 1975 to investigate the nutritional status of the Irish population. This study investigated the relationship between the nutritional needs of the population of Ireland according to 1971 Census figures and compared them with the food supply. Nutrition requirements were calculated by dividing the population into age, sex and activity groups and allocating to each category allowances recommended by the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization. Food supply was estimated from the Central Statistics Office's Food Balance Sheet. Obviously, further research has to be carried out on more representative data on food consumption patterns and the low-cost diet price calculations compared with the present levels of food expenditure and also with tax allowances and social security payments. The operational aspects of the information system that would be designed to compute low-cost diets and promote their use on a continuing basis need to be studied and field tested.