Many animals possess camouflage markings that reduce the risk of detection by visually hunting predators. A key aspect of camouflage involves mimicking the background against which the animal is viewed. However, most animals experience a wide variety of backgrounds and cannot change their...

Various conspicuous signals in nature promote initial and learned avoidance by predators. It is widely thought that such signals are most effective when highly symmetrical in features such as size and shape, supported by recent laboratory experiments with domestic chicks and artificial prey....

Many animals bear colors and patterns to reduce the risk of predation from visually hunting predators, including warning colors, camouflage, and mimicry. In addition, various species possess paired circular features often called "eyespots," which may intimidate or startle predators preventing or...

Two, logically distinct but sometimes compatible, mechanisms of camouflage are background-matching and disruptive coloration. In the former, an animal's coloration comprises a random sample of the background, and so target--background discrimination is impeded. In the latter, object or feature...

Animal coloration has provided many classical examples of both natural and sexual selection. Methods to study color signals range from human assessment to models of receiver vision, with objective measurements commonly involving spectrometry or digital photography. However, signal assessment by...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the employment conditions of social care personal assistants (PAs) in England. In England, disabled adults have been able to directly employ people to meet their care or support needs for a number of years, little is known about the employment...

Purpose: Signs of Safety (SoS) is a strengths-based approach to child protection casework that has been widely adopted in countries across the world. The purpose of this paper is to report on a study that aimed to synthesise the many evaluations of SoS that have been conducted to assess their...