Gait analysis can objectively assess abnormal walking, and some walking parameters can help recognize the disease. Existing commercial systems are either too expensive and require attachments to the body or have limitations in detecting abnormal gait. A vision system has been proposed to address this. However it had limitations where the accuracy was inferior in some parameters such as gait phase, step length and width, etc. Therefore we developed a Tactile sensor-based treadmill to detect gait phase, step length, and width. A pilot test was performed and analyzed through an infrared marker-based motion capture system to compare the accuracy of the proposed system. The measured spatiotemporal gait parameters were analyzed through mean and standard deviation and compared to the baseline system. As a result of the experiments, it was confirmed that higher step width performance was achieved compared to previous studies. Future studies will validate the system with many participants and conduct clinical studies on gait recognition through abnormal gait analysis.

Background : Ephedra Sinica has been used to treat obesity in Korean medicine and brown adipocytes also have potential in obesity treatment. Recently, p53 is considered as one of transcriptional regulators regarding thermogenesis of brown adipocytes. Methods and Results : E. Sinica extraction was made with DW and brown preadipocytes were differentiated with adipogenic reagents by incubating for 6 days in the absence or presence of E. Sinica extraction 5 ㎍/㎖ and 10 ㎍/㎖, non-cytotoxic concentration determined by MTT assay. Studies were conducted to see whether E. Sinica modulates the expression of thermogenic and adipogenic genes by qPCR and Western blot. Results showed that E. Sinica significantly activated thermogenesis of brown adipocytes by increasing the mRNA expressions of Uncoupling Protein 1 (UCP1), Cell Death-inducing DNA Fragmentation Factor Alpha-like Effector A (CIDEA), Interferon Regulatory Factor 4 (IRF4) and Beta-3 Adrenergic Receptor (ADRB3). However, major adipogenic genes such as Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor Gamma (PPARλ) and PR Domain Containing 16 (PRDM16), showed no significant differences. In addition, the expression level of p53 was decreased by E. Sinica. Conclusion : It is suggest that E. Sinica stimulates the thermogenesis of brown adipocytes via p53 inhibition.