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BackgroundAlzheimer's Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive neuropathological changes, including significant hippocampal atrophy. Depression is a common co‐morbidity in AD, and its impact on disease progression remains an area of active research. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of 7T‐MRI‐based measurements of hippocampal subfield volumes for predicting cognitive decline over a year. We explored further the relationship between hippocampal subfield volumes and depression.Method7T‐MRI‐derived hippocampal subfield volumes and clinical data from individuals diagnosed with amyloidβ status AD (n = 31) and HC (n = 26) participants were analysed through the Brain Iron Toxicity and Neurodegeneration (BITaN, IRAS 276174) study. Participants underwent an initial evaluation that included a 7T MRI scan and cognitive testing, followed by a subsequent cognitive assessment one year later. Correlations between hippocampal subfield volumes and depression score were assessed at the baseline. Predictive analyses were conducted to determine the extent to which baseline hippocampal subfield volumes could explain variations in clinical dementia rating (CDR) score decline.ResultIn the AD group, significant negative correlations were observed between depression scores and hippocampal subfield volumes at the baseline, particularly in regions linked to emotional regulation such as the dentate gyrus (r = ‐0.35, p < 0.05) and subiculum (r = ‐0.31, p < 0.05). The average increase of CDR score after 1 year was 2.08±0.83 in the AD group (p <0.05 compared to HC group). Significant correlations were observed between the volume of certain hippocampal subfields (entorhinal cortex, subiculum, cornu ammonis 1 and dentate gyrus) at baseline and worsening CDR decline in a year, suggesting their potential as predictors of cognitive decline (p < 0.05). Interestingly, in the HC group, no significant correlation was found between depression and hippocampal subfield volumes. These findings highlight a differential role of hippocampal subfields in pathological versus non‐pathological aging processes.ConclusionThe study underscores the importance of hippocampal subfield volumes as markers of cognitive decline in AD. While depression correlates with subfield volumes in AD, this relationship is absent in healthy controls, suggesting distinct neurobiological underpinnings. These findings provide insights into potential targets for early intervention and highlight the need for further longitudinal studies.

BackgroundArterial Spin Labelling (ASL) is a non‐invasive MRI technique that enables the measurement of cerebral blood flow (CBF), which is known to change throughout Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression1. CBF within a defined brain region of interest (ROI), or multiple regions, might be used as an imaging biomarker in dementia. This study introduces a novel AD meta‐ROI derived from ASL data and assesses its correlation with cognitive scores to investigate whether ASL could serve as an alternative to PET and other invasive biomarkers.The objective was to track disease progression across the cognitively normal (CN), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD stages.MethodWe analysed a subset of subjects from Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI3) (Table 1). ASL data was processed using qasl pipeline (Quantified Imaging, London, UK), which follows the principles outlined by Alsop2 using a Bayesian algorithm3 to obtain calibrated CBF maps, normalized using the pallidum CBF. ROI‐based CBFwas derived from the FreeSurfer segmentation of the T1‐weighted images using the DKT atlas4. ADAS‐Cog was used as a continuous measure of disease progression across multiple cognitive domains (higher scores indicate advanced disease).The data was stratified into binned groups reflecting the ADAS‐Cog distribution and split into a 70:30 train‐test set. The meta‐ROI was constructed on the training set from 17 ROIs, selected based on their linear relationship against ADAS‐Cog. ROI‐based CBF within the meta‐ROI was used to train a regression model to predict ADAS‐Cog. Correlation was measured by Pearson’s correlation coefficient, R, on the test set.ResultWe observed a correlation between meta‐ROI scores and cognitive performance of R=0.72 (Figure 1). This compared favourably with values reported in literature for PET (R=0.75) and CSF/plasma biomarkers5.ConclusionThe good correlation between perfusion meta‐ROI and cognitive scores supports the use of ASL‐derived biomarkers as a non‐invasive imaging alternative for predicting and monitoring disease progression.

Underground coal mining in Britain spanned several centuries, in multiple different seams, and at depths ranging from near surface to greater than 1 km below surface. Due to this complexity, drilling into abandoned mine workings and especially mine voids is frequently considered challenging and risky. Increasing interest in open loop mine water heat schemes and the need to drill new boreholes for the abstraction and recharge of mine water has highlighted a need to understand the successes and failures of previous operational boreholes in order to de-risk mine water heat schemes. Analysis of 564 boreholes purposely drilled to encounter specific mining targets has enabled the success rates for monitoring and operational boreholes across Great Britain to be assessed for the first time. 87% of boreholes are suitable for their original purpose and, of those planned to hit underground mine voids, there is a good success rate, &gt;75% encountering mine voids. This analysis should provide confidence to those planning to drill boreholes for mine water heating, cooling or storage schemes that, when the correct qualified people are used, hitting targets in abandoned coal mine workings is possible.

This chapter is an authoritative reference on the rearing, breeding, feeding, and keeping of multiple species of poultry starting with the letter ‘J’. It presents production methods, maintenance practices, and poultry stocks. The chapter includes information on the aims of the commercial poultry industry, exhibition poultry fanciers, and garden poultry keepers. It describes genetics and diversity in global poultry production and sustainable poultry production. The chapter is accompanied by up-to-date photographs, and historical images to show the development of poultry breeds. It also presents latest advancements in poultry science, sustainable practices that minimize environmental impact and strategies to enhance animal welfare. The chapter is an essential reference text for a wide range of audiences, including smallholders, feed producers, farmers, agriculturists, veterinarians, and industrial scientists. The text is also highly applicable for courses on animal science, husbandry, food science, and agriculture.

THE lucid contribution by Tom Langton and Paul Torgerson (VR, 6/13 July 2024, vol 195, pp 34–36) clarifies aspects of the current bovine TB (bTB) situation, but their interpretation of the past is questionable. They state: 'The right approach would transform livestock management and only take a few years, as in the 1960s.' Most of the population spoke of TB with dread until at least the mid-1950s. Free school milk was not being pasteurised in some parts of the country. This could have stimulated government to take prompt, drastic action. The major advance in bTB eradication commenced with the application of the Tuberculosis (Attested Herds) Scheme 1950, based on the detection of affected cattle by the single intradermal comparative cervical tuberculin (SICCT) test (using Mycobacterium tuberculosis tuberculin) with culling of reactors. The strategy worked. Years could pass without a letter on the subject in Vet Record. Attestation of the national cattle herd was completed in 1960, when prevalence was 0.19 per cent.1 There was confidence that human knowledge was sufficient to complete eradication. We had weeks of lectures on the disease as students, but by 1962 teaching staff were informally referring to bTB in the past tense. Extension of intertesting intervals commenced in parts of the country and incidence was 0.06 per cent by 1964.1 I SICCT-tested thousands of cattle over the 1960s and never found a confirmed case. Cows were still individually tied in shippons, with individual water bowls, in the 1950s. The move to loose housing and expansion of herds did not commence until the 1960s. I recall an article stating that loose housing of large numbers of cattle with shared watering troughs could not have occurred if bTB had not first been eradicated. There was substantial increased cattle movement during restocking following the 1967/68 foot-and-mouth disease epizootic and pockets of infection persisted in parts of the West Country. The presence of a wildlife host was postulated in 1969 (N Richards, unpublished observations). This was accepted in 1971 when a bTB-positive badger was found on a farm with a persistent bTB problem in the cattle herd.2 Some of the roots of our current problem were actually established in the 1960s.

The use of abandoned mines as a heat source and store has been receiving increased attention as a renewable heat source and storage solution in the transition away from traditional gas heating. The hydraulic, thermal and geomechanical processes governing heat storage and extraction are complex and understanding these processes is critical to safe heat extraction and injection into mine water systems. This paper outlines the development of a fully coupled thermo-hydraulic-mechanical (THM) 2D model to understand the mechanical stability of room and pillar workings during heat injection and extraction. It was found that the cyclical injection and extraction of heat does have an impact on both the modelled displacements and mechanical stability of the system. The impact risk reduces with temperature and the operational processes (e.g. injection temperature and water level) have more of an impact than the underlying geological conditions. These results are significant and could be included in a regulatory system to reduce the likelihood of stability impacts in mine water heating and cooling schemes. Thematic collection: This article is part of The Earth as a thermal battery: future directions in subsurface thermal energy storage systems collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/topic/collections/thermal-energy