As TeV gamma-ray astronomy progresses into the era of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), there is a desire for the capacity to instantaneously follow up on transient phenomena and continuously monitor gamma-ray flux at energies above $10^{12}\,\mathrm{eV}$ . To this end, a worldwide network of Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs) is required to provide triggers for CTA observations and complementary continuous monitoring. An IACT array sited in Australia would contribute significant coverage of the Southern Hemisphere sky. Here, we investigate the suitability of a small IACT array and how different design factors influence its performance. Monte Carlo simulations were produced based on the Small-Sized Telescope (SST) and Medium-Sized Telescope (MST) designs from CTA. Angular resolution improved with larger baseline distances up to 277 m between telescopes, and energy thresholds were lower at 1 000 m altitude than at 0 m. The ${\sim} 300\,\mathrm{GeV}$ energy threshold of MSTs proved more suitable for observing transients than the ${\sim}1.2\,\mathrm{TeV}$ threshold of SSTs. An array of four MSTs at 1 000 m was estimated to give a 5.7 $\sigma$ detection of an RS Ophiuchi-like nova eruption from a 4-h observation. We conclude that an array of four MST-class IACTs at an Australian site would ideally complement the capabilities of CTA.

The Variables and Slow Transients Survey (VAST) on the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is designed to detect highly variable and transient radio sources on timescales from 5 s to $\sim\!5$ yr. In this paper, we present the survey description, observation strategy and initial results from the VAST Phase I Pilot Survey. This pilot survey consists of $\sim\!162$ h of observations conducted at a central frequency of 888 MHz between 2019 August and 2020 August, with a typical rms sensitivity of $0.24\ \mathrm{mJy\ beam}^{-1}$ and angular resolution of $12-20$ arcseconds. There are 113 fields, each of which was observed for 12 min integration time, with between 5 and 13 repeats, with cadences between 1 day and 8 months. The total area of the pilot survey footprint is 5 131 square degrees, covering six distinct regions of the sky. An initial search of two of these regions, totalling 1 646 square degrees, revealed 28 highly variable and/or transient sources. Seven of these are known pulsars, including the millisecond pulsar J2039–5617. Another seven are stars, four of which have no previously reported radio detection (SCR J0533–4257, LEHPM 2-783, UCAC3 89–412162 and 2MASS J22414436–6119311). Of the remaining 14 sources, two are active galactic nuclei, six are associated with galaxies and the other six have no multi-wavelength counterparts and are yet to be identified.

The study was based on correlating a dataset of in vivo mean starch digestibility coefficients obtained in the immediate post-weaning phase of piglets with a range of dietary in vitro variables. The paper presents a model that predicts (R2 0·71) in vivo average starch digestibility coefficients in the 0·5 small-intestinal region of newly weaned piglets fed cereal-based diets using seven in vitro variables describing starch properties that are fundamentally associated with the quality of feed materials, i.e. hydration, structure and amylolytic digestion. The variables were: Rapid Visco Analyser (RVA; measures the viscosity of materials when sheared under defined hydration and temperature regimens); RVA end viscosity; RVA (gelatinisation) peak viscosity; ΔH (gelatinisation enthalpy that provides an estimate of helical order or degree of crystallinity in starch); water solubility index (WSI; that denotes the amount of soluble polysaccharides released from starch granules to the aqueous phase); grain endogenous amylase (concentration of endogenous α-amylase in cereals, assessed by pasting cereal flours in 25 g of AgNO3, an amylase inhibitor v. water using RVA).

There have been many great men in the history of the Canadian eastern Arctic, and it must be admitted from the start that Jackson was not one of them. He was a minor figure, but in the early years of this century he exerted an influence in the region out of proportion to his own importance. It may be that he did nobody any good, and it is true that nobody had any good to say of him. What Jackson did was to promote his own fantasies until solider men fell under his spell, and these men then took actions that ended disastrously. But, when surveying the career of Captain Jackson, one may depart from the usual opinion that he was a rogue and a liar. He was unstable—unstable to, and probably beyond, the point of insanity—and he deserves more sympathy than he received from his contemporaries.

It is certain that the unrest of Europe of the past twenty years will be dispelled. It is even likely that our whole civilisation will be advanced.’ So wrote A. E. Lawrie, Rector of Old St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Edinburgh, in October of 1914. He was spending a three-month leave of absence as chaplain to an army hospital behind the lines in France. He added that the death of a particular soldier ‘spoke so loudly of Another Cruel Death, that one could not but link the two together—the spirit of self-indulgence will be trodden underfoot and exchanged for the spirit of self-discipline.’

The Church of Scotland, from which Episcopalians had departed in 1690, and Covenanters shortly thereafter, suffered further division in the eighteenth century. The Seceders broke off in 1733 and the Relief Presbytery in 1752. The Seceders split into Burghers and Anti-Burghers in 1747, and at the close of that century each of these bodies divided into New Light and Old Light. The Old Lights found their way back into the mainstream by means which need not concern us, while the two New Light bodies united in 1820 and in 1847 joined with the Relief Church to form the United Presbyterian Church.

Why have churches in the U.S.S.R. been harassed in recent years? It has been supposed by many that if Stalin stopped most persecution during the Second World War, then things under Khrushchev could only improve. Instead they deteriorated, and all liberties of Soviet citizens received more respect except the religious.

A common answer has been that the Soviet authorities were horrified by the continued hold of religion which they considered to be a threat to Marxism. Such a view is quite popular in the west where a clash of ideologies, with Christianity triumphing over Marxism, consoles churchmen who cannot find such a triumph in their own society. But this assumes that the Soviet rulers consider Christianity to be a religion based on certain tenets, and as Marxists they cannot be expected to do so. For them religion is primarily an instrument of social control.

‘As for the good things of this life and its ills, God has willed that these should be common to both’ the righteous and the unrighteous. So wrote a well-known north African theologian of the fall of Rome in AD 410, an event which many observers attributed to the abandonment of ancient religious practices and beliefs in favour of Christianity. That they should do so was perhaps natural; it is always easier to claim betrayal than to admit defeat in the field of battle. Even Gibbon, who was judicious enough in assessing the causes of the fall of Rome, held that the main cause was ‘the domestic hostilities of the Romans themselves’, and implied that the city might not have fallen had it not been that, ‘At the hour of midnight, the Salarian gate was silently opened . . . ’ And what was said of the fall of Rome was also said of the fall of France.