Coat of Arms and Logotypes of Small Cities – Closer to Tradition or to the Modernity

The study concerns signs used in marketing activities of Polish cities. These are traditional coats of arms, often with rich symbolism and historical references, and logos, considered as promotional signs, based on the contemporary values of individual towns. The authors assessed the level of similarity of the two signs in terms of symbolism and color. The results of this assessment were presented in the system of Polish voivodeships and taking into account the size of the city. Particular attention has been given to the category of small towns.Opracowanie dotyczy oznaczeń wykorzystywanych w działaniach marketingowych polskich miast. Są to tradycyjne herby, często o bogatej symbolice i historycznych odniesieniach oraz loga uznawane jako znaki promocyjne, oparte na współczesnych walorach poszczególnych miejscowości. Autorzy dokonali oceny podobieństwa obu tych oznaczeń w zakresie symboliki i kolorystyki. Wyniki tej oceny zaprezentowano w układzie województw oraz z uwzględnieniem wielkości miasta. Szczególną uwagą objęto kategorię miast małych

Differential effects of food availability on minimum and maximum rates of metabolism

Metabolic rates reflect the energetic cost of living but exhibit remarkable variation among conspecifics, partly as a result of the constraints imposed by environmental conditions. Metabolic rates are sensitive to changes in temperature and oxygen availability, but effects of food availability, particularly on maximum metabolic rates, are not well understood. Here, we show in brown trout (Salmo trutta) that maximum metabolic rates are immutable but minimum metabolic rates increase as a positive function of food availability. As a result, aerobic scope (i.e. the capacity to elevate metabolism above baseline requirements) declines as food availability increases. These differential changes in metabolic rates likely have important consequences for how organisms partition available metabolic power to different functions under the constraints imposed by food availability

Limits to sustained energy intake. XXIII. Does heat dissipation capacity limit the energy budget of lactating bank voles?

Acknowledgements We are grateful to our technicians and several students for their help during this study and for animal care. We thank Catherine Hambly and Peter Thompson for technical assistance for the isotope analysis for the DLW measurements. We thank Ulf Bauchinger for stimulating discussion and his comments, and two anonymous referees for comments on the manuscript. Funding This project was supported by grants from the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education [0595/B/P01/2011/40 to E.T.S. and 8167/B/P01/2011/40 to P.K.], and Jagiellonian University [DS/WBINOZ/INOS/757 to P.K.].Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Age-related changes of physiological performance and survivorship of bank voles selected for high aerobic capacity

Variation in lifespans is an intriguing phenomenon, but how metabolic rate influence this variation remains unclear. High aerobic capacity can result in health benefits, but also in increased oxidative damage and accelerated ageing. We tested these contradictory predictions using bank voles (Myodes=Clethrionomys glareolus) from lines selected for high swim-induced aerobic metabolism (A), which had about 50% higher maximum metabolic rate and a higher basal and routine metabolic rates, than those from unselected control lines (C). We measured sprint speed (VSmax), forced-running maximum metabolic rate (VO_{2}run), maximum long-distance running speed (VLmax), running speed at VO_{2}run (VVO_{2}), and respiratory quotient at VO_{2}run (RQ) at three age classes (I: 3-5, II: 12-14, III: 17-19 months), and analysed survivorship. We asked if ageing, understood as the age-related decline of the performance traits, differs between the A and C lines. At age class I, voles from A lines had 19% higher VO_{2}run, and 12% higher VLmax, but tended to have 19% lower VSmax, than those from C lines. RQ was nearly 1.0 for both A and C lines. The pattern of age-related changes differed between the lines mainly between age classes I and II, but not in older animals. VSmax increased by 27% in A lines and by 10% in C lines between age class I and II, but between classes II and III, it increased by 16% in both selection directions. VO_{2}run decreased by 7% between age class I and II in A lines only, but in C lines it remained constant across all age classes. VLmax decreased by 8% and VVO_{2} by 12% between age classes II and III, but similarly in both selection directions. Mortality was higher in A than in C lines only between the age of 1 and 4 months. The only trait for which the changes in old animals differed between the lines was RQ. In A lines, RQ increased between age classes II and III, whereas in C lines such an increase occurred between age classes I and II. Thus, we did not find obvious effects of selection on the pattern of ageing. However, the physiological performance and mortality of bank voles remained surprisingly robust to ageing, at least until the age of 17-19 months, similar to the maximum lifespan under natural conditions. Therefore, it is possible that the selection could affect the pattern of ageing in even older individuals when symptoms of senility might be more profound

Experimental evolution on a wild mammal species results in modifications of gut microbial communities

Comparative studies have shown that diet, life history, and phylogeny interact to determine microbial community structure across mammalian hosts. However, these studies are often confounded by numerous factors. Selection experiments offer unique opportunities to validate conclusions and test hypotheses generated by comparative studies. We used a replicated, 15-generation selection experiment on bank voles (Myodes glareolus) that have been selected for high swim-induced aerobic metabolism, predatory behavior toward crickets, and the ability to maintain body mass on a high-fiber, herbivorous diet. We predicted that selection on host performance, mimicking adaptive radiation, would result in distinct microbial signatures. We collected foregut and cecum samples from animals that were all fed the same nutrient-rich diet and had not been subjected to any performance tests. We conducted microbial inventories of gut contents by sequencing the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. We found no differences in cecal microbial community structure or diversity between control lines and the aerobic or predatory lines. However, the cecal chambers of voles selected for herbivorous capability harbored distinct microbial communities that exhibited higher diversity than control lines. The foregut communities of herbivorous-selected voles were also distinct from control lines. Overall, this experiment suggests that differences in microbial communities across herbivorous mammals may be evolved, and not solely driven by current diet or other transient factors

The optimal combination of standard metabolic rate and aerobic scope for somatic growth depends on food availability

Metabolic rates can vary as much as threefold among individuals of the same size and age in a population, but why such variation persists is unclear given that they determine the energetic cost of living. Relationships between standard metabolic rate (SMR), growth and survival can vary with environmental conditions, suggesting that the fitness consequences of a given metabolic phenotype may be context-dependent. Less attention has focused on the link between absolute aerobic scope (AS, the difference between standard and maximum metabolic rate) and fitness under different environmental conditions, despite the importance of aerobic scope to an organism's total energetic capacity.<p></p> We examined the links between individual variation in both SMR and AS and somatic growth rates of brown trout (Salmo trutta) under different levels of food availability.<p></p> Standard metabolic rate and AS were uncorrelated across individuals. However, SMR and AS not only had interactive effects on growth, but these interactions depended on food level: at ad libitum food levels, AS had a positive effect on growth whose magnitude depended on SMR; at intermediate food levels, AS and SMR had interactive effects on growth, but at the low food level, there was no effect of either AS or SMR on growth. As a result, there was no metabolic phenotype that performed best or worst across all food levels.<p></p> These results demonstrate the importance of aerobic scope in explaining somatic growth rates and support the hypothesis that links between individual variation in metabolism and fitness are context-dependent.<p></p> The larger metabolic phenotype and the environmental context in which performance is evaluated both need to be considered in order to better understand the link between metabolic rates and fitness and thereby the persistence of individual variation in metabolic rates.<p></p&gt

Evolution of basal metabolic rate in bank voles from a multidirectional selection experiment

A major theme in evolutionary and ecological physiology of terrestrial vertebrates encompasses the factors underlying the evolution of endothermy in birds and mammals and interspecific variation of basal metabolic rate (BMR). Here, we applied the experimental evolution approach and compared BMR in lines of a wild rodent, the bank vole (Myodes glareolus), selected for 11 generations for: high swim-induced aerobic metabolism (A), ability to maintain body mass on a low-quality herbivorous diet (H) and intensity of predatory behaviour towards crickets (P). Four replicate lines were maintained for each of the selection directions and an unselected control (C). In comparison to C lines, A lines achieved a 49% higher maximum rate of oxygen consumption during swimming, H lines lost 1.3 g less mass in the test with low-quality diet and P lines attacked crickets five times more frequently. BMR was significantly higher in A lines than in C or H lines (60.8, 56.6 and 54.4 ml O2/h, respectively), and the values were intermediate in P lines (59.0 ml O2/h). Results of the selection experiment provide support for the hypothesis of a positive association between BMR and aerobic exercise performance, but not for the association of adaptation to herbivorous diet with either a high or low BMR

Maternal dietary fat during lactation shapes single nucleus transcriptomic profile of postnatal offspring hypothalamus in a sexually dimorphic manner in mice

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