Understanding Social Exercise: Desire and Intention to Participate in Running Crews.

The current study investigated the determinants of the desire and intention to participate in an inner-city 'running crew' among social runners using a theoretical framework of the model of goal-directed behavior (MGB). Data were obtained from 245 social runners in Korea using an online questionnaire and primarily analyzed with the structural equation modeling technique. The results indicated that the desire to participate in a running crew was influenced most by positive anticipated emotions, followed (in descending order) by attitudes, negative anticipated emotions, social norms, perceived behavioral control, and the frequency of past behaviors. Runners' behavioral intentions were predicted by desire but not directly related to perceived behavioral control and the frequency of past behavior. Overall, the study emphasized the importance of positive anticipated emotions and behavioral desire, among others, to encourage recreational runners' participation in social running activities. Given that social runners rely on mobile apps to participate in running crew activities, the current study's results have practical implications for running crew organizers, sports-branded app developers, and health promotion agencies.

Predicting Continued Participation in Government-Initiated Public Sports Clubs: The Role of Prior Knowledge and Awareness through Health Communications.

Physical activity is the most effective preventive medicine in enhancing our physical health and subjective wellbeing. Since 2013, the South Korean government has introduced and developed the public sports club system as a way to promote exercise and the health of the general public. The current study investigated factors underlying the general public's desires and intentions to join or participate in a public sports club (PSC) using the model of goal-directed behavior (MGB). Data were collected from 254 college students who had prior experience of participating in at least one PSC and were primarily analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results suggest that, among the five MGB determinants, the positive anticipated emotions and perceived behavioral control were significantly associated with participants' desires, and, in turn, their desires were significantly related to their intention to participate in PSCs. Meanwhile, the respondents' prior experience was marginally but significantly associated with desire but not with behavioral intention. Prior knowledge (through health communications) was significantly related to attitude, desire, and behavioral intention. Overall, the findings support the use of positive anticipated emotions, perceived behavioral condition, prior knowledge, and desire as indicators of participation behavior in the PSC context, and may aid the development of health communication and interventions aimed at encouraging future participation.

RET proto-oncogene mutations are restricted to codon 634 and 618 in Korean families with multiple endocrine neoplasia 2A.

Identification of the germline mutation in the RET proto-oncogene is important for the diagnosis of hereditary medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). Hereditary forms account for approximately 25%-30% of all cases of MTC. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of the RET mutation and the genotype-phenotype relation in Korean patients with MTC. Genomic DNAs were obtained from 33 patients with MTC (M:F = 10:23, 39.8 +/- 12.0 years) who underwent total thyroidectomy between 1997 and 2003 at the Samsung Medical Center. Exons 10, 11, 13, 14, 15 and 16 of the RET proto-oncogene were amplified with specific primers using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Sequence analysis was performed on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product using an automatic sequence analyzer. Nine of the 33 patients (M:F = 3:6, 33.3 +/- 10.0 years) were identified as having RET mutations. Six patients had multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) 2A and one had familial medullary thyroid carcinoma (FMTC). The remaining two patients were thought to have sporadic MTC. Five of the patients with MEN 2A had RET mutations in codon 634 of exon 11 (3 patients, C634Y; 2 patients, C634R) and the other patient with MEN 2A had a RET mutation in codon 618 of exon 10 (C618R). The patient with FMTC had a mutation in codon 634 (C634W). The two patients with sporadic MTC had RET mutations in codon 634 (1 patient, C634Y; 1 patient, C634S). We were not able to identify any genotype-phenotype relations because of the limited number of patients. Twenty-seven percent (9/33) of the patients with MTC in this study had RET mutations. Taking other studies into account, 77% (10/13) of Korean families with MEN 2A, including 7 other families in three reports from Korea, had RET mutations in codon 634 (5 families, C634Y; 4 families, C634R; 1 family, C634W), and 23% (3/13) had RET mutations in codon 618 (2 families, C618R; 1 family, C618S). RET proto-oncogene mutations were restricted to codon 634 and 618 in Korean families with MEN 2A.