Donor registration, college major, and prosociality: Differences among students of economics, medicine and psychology

The demand for organ transplants far exceeds supply. Underlying this shortfall is the fact that some people choose to register as organ donors, whereas many others decide not to. Why do people vary in their attitudes and choices regarding organ donation? We hypothesize that attitudes toward organ donation and decisions to register as a donor are linked to prosociality. We test this hypothesis across two studies, both of which suggest that prosociality is linked to attitudes toward organ donation or actual donor status. Study 1 demonstrates that two groups (economics students and psychology students) that have previously been shown to differ in prosocial orientations have different attitudes toward organ donation and are registered as organ donors at different rates. Study 2 investigated three groups (economics, psychology, and medical students), and it found that messages framing organ donation as a prosocial act affect willingness to become a donor, but only among economics students and among students who score lower on an instrument designed to measure prosociality. Implications and future research directions are offered

Protein Components of the microRNA Pathway and Human Diseases

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are key regulators of messenger RNA (mRNA) translation known to be involved in a wide variety of cellular processes. In fact, their individual importance is reflected in the diseases that may arise upon the loss, mutation or dysfunction of specific miRNAs. It has been appreciated only recently that diseases may also develop when the protein components of the miRNA machinery itself are affected. The core enzymes of the major protein complexes involved in miRNA biogenesis and function, such as the ribonucleases III (RNases III) Drosha and Dicer as well as Argonaute 2 (Ago2), appear to be essential. However, the accessory proteins of the miRNA pathway, such as the DiGeorge syndrome critical region gene 8 (DGCR8) protein, Exportin-5 (Exp-5), TAR RNA binding protein (TRBP) and fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), are each related, in various ways, to specific genetic diseases