The phrase "associated merely" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to indicate that something is connected or linked in a way that is not significant or substantial.
Example: "The findings of the study are associated merely with the initial hypothesis, lacking further evidence."
Alternatives: "linked only" or "connected simply".
These data also indicate that treatment with M+R was associated not merely with weight gain but also with more fat deposition than M or M+L treatment.
Imperialism was the key word of the 1890s, just as Home Rule had been in the critical decade of the 1880s, and the cause of empire was associated not merely with the economic interests of businessmen looking for materials and markets and the enthusiasm of crowds excited by the adventure of empire but also with the traditional lustre of the crown.
Here, the forward process would require 19.4 kcal mol−1, whereas the reversed reaction would be associated with merely a 6.1 kcal mol−1 barrier, showing that the equilibrium should be heavily shifted toward 48.
The point here is not that we must successfully identify which representations necessarily belong together and which are merely associated contingently, but rather that to be self-conscious we must at least make this general distinction between objective and merely subjective connections of representations.
In these cells, the cell death may be merely associated with apoptosis, but not determined by apoptosis.
This three-way association conveys a pattern where disadvantage is not merely associated with lower life quality but also with attrition.
According to Kant, the mind achieves this by distinguishing representations that necessarily belong together from representations that are not necessarily connected but are merely associated in a contingent way.
In particular, it has not been established whether somatic mutations of mtDNA are involved in molecular mechanisms of tumour development or whether these mutations are merely associated with the tumourigenic process but lack a causative role.
Several criteria have been proposed to discriminate an endophenotype from other biological markers that are not causally involved in the disorder but are merely associated with the disorder (Durston et al. 2004; Gottesman and Gould 2003).
But if it was merely associated with the disease, lowering CRP would have no more effect on health than quelling a shrieking fire alarm would have on putting out a fire.
