This might explain why we observed a larger effect on AMPK activation and Thr phosphorylation by modulation of Akt in intact cells than in cell-free assays (compare Figures 1 and 3 with Figures 4– 6).
In contrast, Gouveia and Fletcher (2000) observed a larger effect of air pollution in areas of higher SES level; Bateson and Schwartz (2004) found no indication that susceptibility to air pollution varied by group-level SES measures.
We did not observe a large effect of the TLR1, TLR2, TLR4, TLR6, or TLR9 genes in a cohort of French Caucasian families with RA.
If there is only one study, then it must have been a high quality study observing a large effect in order to permit any conclusion.
Using G*Power 3.1.9.2, a sample size of at least 18 per group, at a power of 0.8 was deemed acceptable to observe a large effect size in this pilot study.
As we did not observe a large effect it seems that an association between polymorphisms of other TLR genes and RA and/or a functional role for TLR genes in the pathogenesis of RA would be weakly predictable.
Lastly, as expected for a rare disease our case numbers are low and our study was powered to only observe a large effect size and unable to detect smaller differences in other lung function parameters.
Although previous studies have found that serum MMP9 estimation may have some predictive value in indicating patients with colorectal neoplasia (Hurst et al, 2007; Wilson et al, 2012), these studies did not observe a large effect.
This implies that the total residual confounding (including residual confounding from unmeasured factors) likely biases, but only very modestly, towards observing a larger effect size for statins than is genuinely present.
Since it is well-established that skin thickening progresses more rapidly in early than in late disease [ 1, 2], inclusion of women with longer disease duration might have limited our ability to observe a larger effect of menopausal status on skin thickening.
