The Effect of Metronome Pacing on Gait in Healthy Subjects

The complex process of gait is rendered partially automatic by central pattern generators (CPGs). To further our understanding of their role in gait control in healthy subjects, we applied a paradigm of anti-phase, or syncopated, movement to gait. To provide a context for our results, we reviewed the literature on in-phase, or synchronized, gait. The review results are as follows. Auditory cueing increased step/stride rate for older subjects, but not younger. Stride rate variability decreased for younger subjects, perhaps because the metronome’s cue acted as a temporal ‘anchor point’ for each step. Step width increased in half of the treadmill studies, but none of the overground ones, suggesting a cumulative effect of the attentional demands of synchronizing gait while on a treadmill. Time series analysis revealed that the α exponent was the most sensitive parameter reported, decreasing toward anti-persistence in almost all cued-gait studies. This project compares in-phase (IN) and anti-phase gait (ANTI) in young and old healthy subjects. We expected gait to be less disrupted during ANTI trials at preferred speed, when the facilitating effect of CPGs would be strongest. The measures step time variability, jerk index, and harmonic ratio quantified gait perturbation: none indicated that ANTI was easiest at preferred walking speed. Surprisingly, the gait of older subjects was no more perturbed than that of younger subjects. When they successfully matched the pace of the beat, they unwittingly synchronized to it. The temporal relationship of their steps to the beat was the same in the IN and ANTI conditions. Younger subjects, visibly struggling during ANTI trials, were able to walk in syncopation. This result suggests that cognitive resources available only to the younger group are required to resist synchronizing to the beat.

The Effect of Support Measures on Involvement in Technology Transfer

The present PhD dissertation is dedicated to the general topic of knowledge transfer from academia to industry and the role of various measures at both institutional and university levels in support of commercialization of university research. The overall contribution of the present dissertation work refers to presenting an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the main critical issues that currently exist with regard to commercial exploitation of academic research, while providing evidence on the role of previously underexplored areas (e.g. strategic use of academic patents; female academic patenting) in a general debate on the ways to successful knowledge transfer from academia to industry. The first paper, included in the present PhD dissertation, aims to address this gap by developing a taxonomy of literature, based on a comprehensive review of the existing body of research on government measures in support of knowledge transfer from academia to industry. The results of the review reveal that there is a considerable gap in the analysis of the impact and relative effectiveness of the public policy measures, especially in what regards the measures aimed at building knowledge and expertise among academic faculty and technology transfer agents. The second paper, presented as a part of the dissertation, focuses on the role of interorganizational collaborations and their effect on the likelihood of an academic patent to remain unused, and points to the strategic management of patents by universities. In the third paper I turn to the issue of female participation in patenting and commercialization; in particular, I find evidence on the positive role of university and its internal support structures in closing the gender gap in female academic patenting. The results of the research, carried out for the present dissertation, provide important implications for policy makers in crafting measures to increase the efficient use of university knowledge stock.

The effect of adding features on product attractiveness: the role of product perceived congruity

Technological progress has been enabling companies to add disparate features to their existing products. This research investigates the effect of adding more features on consumers’ evaluation of the product, by examining in particular the role of the congruity of the features added with the base product as a variable the moderates the effect of increasing the number of features. Grounding on schema-congruity theory, I propose that the cognitive elaboration associated with the product congruity of the features added explains consumers’ evaluation as the number of new features increases. In particular, it is shown that consumers perceive a benefit from increasing the number of features only when these features are congruent with the product. The underlying mechanisms that explains this finding predicts that when the number of incongruent features increases the cognitive resources necessary to elaborate such incongruities increase and consumers are not willing to spend such resources. However, I further show that when encouraged to consider the new features thoughtfully, consumers do seem able to infer value from increasing the number of moderately incongruent features. Nonetheless, this finding does not apply for those new features that are extremely incongruent with the product. Further evidence for consumers’ ability to resolve the moderate incongruity associated with adding more features is also shown, by studying the moderating role of temporal construal. I propose that consumers perceive an increase in product evaluation as the number of moderately incongruent features increases when consumers consider purchasing the product in the distant future, whereas such an increase is not predicted for the near future scenario. I verify these effect in three experimental studies. Theoretical and managerial implications, and possible avenues of future research are also suggested.

Effect of estrogen suppression on lung function in pulmonary Lymphangioleiomyomatosis

Background: Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), a rare progressive disease, is characterized by the proliferation of abnormal smooth muscle cells (LAM cells) in the lung, which leads to cystic parenchymal destruction and progressive respiratory failure. Estrogen receptors are present in LAM cells. LAM affects almost exclusively women of childbearing age. These findings, along with reports of disease progression during pregnancy or treatment with exogenous estrogens, have led to the assumption that hormonal factors play an important role in the pathogenesis of LAM. So, various therapies aim at preventing estrogen receptors (ER) by lowering circulating estrogen levels, by trying to block ER activity, or by attempting to lower ER expression in LAM. Prior experience have yielded conflicting results. Objective: The goal of this study was to evaluate, retrospectively, the effect of estrogen suppression in 21 patients with LAM. Design: We evaluated hormonal assays, pulmonary function tests and gas-exchange at baseline and after 12, 24 and 36 months after initiating hormonal manipulation. Results: The mean yearly rates of decline in FEV1 and DLCO are lower than those observed in prior studies and just DLCO decline was statistically significant. We also found an improvement of mean value of FVC and PaO2. Conclusions: Estrogen suppression appears to prevent decline in lung function in LAM.

Study of the effect of minor compounds on the oxidative stability and physical properties of bulk oil, oil-in-water emulsion, and food emulsions

Minor components are of particular interest due to their antioxidant and biological properties. Various classes of lipophilic minor components (plant sterols (PS) and α-tocopherol) were selected as they are widely used in the food industry. A Fast GC-MS method for PS analysis in functional dairy products was set up. The analytical performance and significant reduction of the analysis time and consumables, demonstrated that Fast GC-MS could be suitable for the PS analysis in functional dairy products. Due to their chemical structure, PS can undergo oxidation, which could be greatly impacted by matrix nature/composition and thermal treatments. The oxidative stability of PS during microwave heating was evaluated. Two different model systems (PS alone and in combination) were heated up to 30 min at 1000 W. PS degraded faster when they were alone than in presence of TAG. The extent of PS degradation depends on both heating time and the surrounding medium, which can impact the quality and safety of the food product destined to microwave heating/cooking. Many minor lipid components are included in emulsion systems and can affect the rate of lipid oxidation. The oxidative stability of oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions containing PS esters, ω-3 FA and phenolic compounds, were evaluated after a 14-day storage at room temperature. Due to their surface active character, PS could be particularly prone to oxidation when they are incorporated in emulsions, as they are more exposed to water-soluble prooxidants. Finally, some minor lipophilic components may increase oxidative stability of food systems due to their antioxidant activity. á-tocopherol partitioning and antioxidant activity was determined in the presence of excess SDS in stripped soybean O/W emulsions. Results showed that surfactant micelles could play a key role as an antioxidant carrier, by potentially increasing the accessibility of hydrophobic antioxidant to the interface.