The ethics of the AIDS-afflicted physician: The death of voluntary compliance

This argument will examine the ethical issues, policies, and controversy surrounding the AIDS afflicted health care worker, especially the HIV positive Physician/Surgeon. The discussion encompasses evaluation of rights of the individual, natural and otherwise, with focus on the rights of confidentiality, privacy, and disability rights and related laws that pertain to afflicted individuals. The discussion will examine the ethical responsibilities of the HIV positive health care worker within the medical practice, along with issues of the patient rights of informed consent, institutional responsibility, and the policy positions of professional associations representing afflicted individuals. Protective legislation for victims of communicable disease will be balanced against the issues of public health with focus on the legislative beginnings of these protective laws, and protections offered by the various laws, common and otherwise. Policy recommendations for the treatment of these individuals and those that are affected by their actions will be offered

Ecological Guild Evolution and the Discovery of the World's Smallest Vertebrate

Living vertebrates vary drastically in body size, yet few taxa reach the extremely minute size of some frogs and teleost fish. Here we describe two new species of diminutive terrestrial frogs from the megadiverse hotspot island of New Guinea, one of which represents the smallest known vertebrate species, attaining an average body size of only 7.7 mm. Both new species are members of the recently described genus Paedophryne, the four species of which are all among the ten smallest known frog species, making Paedophryne the most diminutive genus of anurans. This discovery highlights intriguing ecological similarities among the numerous independent origins of diminutive anurans, suggesting that minute frogs are not mere oddities, but represent a previously unrecognized ecological guild

The evolution of mammalian brain size

Relative brain size has long been considered a reflection of cognitive capacities and has played a fundamental role in developing core theories in the life sciences. Yet, the notion that relative brain size validly represents selection on brain size relies on the untested assumptions that brain-body allometry is restrained to a stable scaling relationship across species and that any deviation from this slope is due to selection on brain size. Using the largest fossil and extant dataset yet assembled, we find that shifts in allometric slope underpin major transitions in mammalian evolution and are often primarily characterized by marked changes in body size. Our results reveal that the largest-brained mammals achieved large relative brain sizes by highly divergent paths. These findings prompt a reevaluation of the traditional paradigm of relative brain size and open new opportunities to improve our understanding of the genetic and developmental mechanisms that influence brain size