effect or influence or...?

Dear Teachers,

This is a part of my motivation letter for an internship:

(…) In the past, I studied effects of growth and training on lipids and trace elements metabolism in horses. Lately, I completed a research investigating the influence of training on the energy metabolism of equine erythrocyte and its antioxidant system. (…)

I didn’t want to repeat the word ‘effect’ in my second sentence so I was trying to find other one which has the same or nearly the same meaning. Thus, I use the word ‘influence’. However somebody told me that:  “It seems that your use of influence in a research context is inappropriate as the word influence signals a bit of bias towards a positive out come of your research.” I would like to know your opinion. Is it really wrong to use the expression ‘influence’? Maybe there is other one more appropriate or it is better to repeat the ‘effect’ then use the ‘influence’? Please, could you give me any ideas/advices?

Thank you very much in advance for any help.

 

(…) In the past, I studied effects of growth and training on lipids and trace elements metabolism in horses. Lately, I completed a research investigating the influence of training on the energy metabolism of the equine erythrocyte and its antioxidant system. (…)

I can see no problem with influence in the sentence you have given, since presumably it is the influence of the training on the energy metabolism. However, you could rephrase: "investigating the ways in which training impacted on the energy..."

Hi Maria, I am unhappy about omitting "the" in front of  "erythrocyte", unless you make it plural, "erythrocytes".

Lately, I completed research investigating the impact of training on the energetics and antioxidant defense system of the equine erythrocyte

Lately, I completed research investigating the impact of training on the energetics and antioxidant defense system of equine erythrocytes