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142 real negative results, null findings, and replication failures in Mathematics · Negative / Null Result Report. Search the index →

WASTE indexes published research — it does not host or republish full papers. Each entry is a metadata record compiled from open scholarly databases; the abstract is shown in full only where the paper is openly licensed, otherwise a short excerpt under fair use. Classifications are automated and approximate.

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

The differential relationship between finger gnosis, and addition and subtraction: An fMRI study

Fırat Soylu, David Raymond, Arianna Gutierrez et al. · 2018 · Journal of Numerical Cognition

The impact of fingers on numerical cognition has received a great deal of attention recently. One sub-set of these studies focus on the relation between finger gnosis (also called finger sense or finger gnosia), the ability to identify and individuate fingers, and mathematical development. Studies in this subdomain have reported mixed findings so far. While some studies reported that finger gnosis correlates with or predicts mathematics abilities in younger children, others failed to replicate these results. The current study explores the relationship between finger gnosis and two arithmetic o

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Representation of numerical magnitude in math-anxious individuals

Àngels Colomé · 2018 · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

Larger distance effects in high math-anxious individuals (HMA) performing comparison tasks have previously been interpreted as indicating less precise magnitude representation in this population. A recent study by Dietrich, Huber, Moeller, and Klein limited the effects of math anxiety to symbolic comparison, in which they found larger distance effects for HMA, despite equivalent size effects. However, the question of whether distance effects in symbolic comparison reflect the properties of the magnitude representation or decisional processes is currently under debate. This study was designed t

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

A SIMULATION STUDY ON TESTS FOR ONE-WAY ANOVA UNDER THE UNEQUAL VARIANCE ASSUMPTION

Esra Yiğit, Fikri Gökpınar · 2010 · Communications Faculty Of Science University of Ankara Series A1Mathematics and Statistics

The classical F-test to compare several population means depends on the assumption of homogeneity of variance of the population and the normality. When these assumptions especially the equality of variance is dropped, the classical F-test fails to reject the null hypothesis even if the data actually provide strong evidence for it. This can be considered a serious problem in some applications, especially when the sample size is not large. To deal with this problem, a number of tests are available in the literature. In this study, the Brown-Forsythe, Weerahandiís Generalized F, Parametric Bootst

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

The Effect of Omitted Variables on the Sign of Regression Coefficients

Matthew A. Masten, Alexandre Poirier · 2026 · American Economic Review

We show that, depending on how the impact of omitted variables is measured, it can be substantially easier for omitted variables to flip coefficient signs than to drive them to zero. This behavior occurs with “Oster's delta” (Oster 2019a),…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

The Evolution and Future Directions of PBPK Modeling in FDA Regulatory Review

Yong Li, Henry Sun, Zuoli Zhang · 2025 · Pharmaceutics

Background: Physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling is a mathematical approach that integrates human physiological parameters with drug-specific characteristics (including both active pharmaceutical ingredients and excipients), and it has emerged as one of the core technologies for optimizing the efficiency and reliability of drug development. Methods: This study synthesizes applications of PBPK models in FDA-approved drugs (2020–2024), systematically analyzing model utilization frequency, indication distribution, application domains and choice of modeling platforms, to reveal th

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Counting Square-full Solutions to $x+y=z$

D. R. Heath-Brown · 2026 · arXiv

We show that there are $O(B^{3/5-3/1555+\ep})$ triples $(x,y,z)$ of square-full integesr up to $B$ satisfying the equation $x+y=z$ for any fixed $\ep>0$. This is the first improvement over the `easy' exponent $3/5$, given by Browning and Van Valckenborgh. One new tool is a strong uniform bound for the counting function for equations $aX^3+bY^3=cZ^3$.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Dynamics of Stochastic Momentum Methods on Large-scale, Quadratic Models

Courtney Paquette, Elliot Paquette · 2021 · arXiv

We analyze a class of stochastic gradient algorithms with momentum on a high-dimensional random least squares problem. Our framework, inspired by random matrix theory, provides an exact (deterministic) characterization for the sequence of loss values produced by these algorithms which is expressed only in terms of the eigenvalues of the Hessian. This leads to simple expressions for nearly-optimal hyperparameters, a description of the limiting neighborhood, and average-case complexity. As a consequence, we show that (small-batch) stochastic heavy-ball momentum with a fixed momentum parameter pr

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Coherent-Classical Estimation for Linear Quantum Systems

Shibdas Roy, Ian R. Petersen, Elanor H. Huntington · 2015 · arXiv

We study a coherent-classical estimation scheme for a class of linear quantum systems, where the estimator is a mixed quantum-classical system that may or may not involve coherent feedback. We show that when the quantum plant or the quantum part of the estimator (coherent controller) is an annihilation operator only system, coherent-classical estimation without coherent feedback can provide no improvement over purely-classical estimation. Otherwise, coherent-classical estimation without feedback can be better than classical-only estimation for certain homodyne detector angles, although the for

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

A step forwards on the Erdős-Sós problem concerning the Ramsey numbers $R(3,k)$

Rujie Zhu, Xiaodong Xu, Stanisław Radziszowski · 2015 · arXiv

Let $Δ_s=R(K_3,K_s)-R(K_3,K_{s-1})$, where $R(G,H)$ is the Ramsey number of graphs $G$ and $H$ defined as the smallest $n$ such that any edge coloring of $K_n$ with two colors contains $G$ in the first color or $H$ in the second color. In 1980, Erdős and Sós posed some questions about the growth of $Δ_s$. The best known concrete bounds on $Δ_s$ are $3 \le Δ_s \le s$, and they have not improved since the stating of the problem. In this paper we present some constructions, which imply in particular that $R(K_3,K_s) \ge R(K_3,K_{s-1}-e) + 4$. This does not improve the lower bound of 3 on $Δ_s$, b

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Learning the seasonality of disease incidences from empirical data

Karunia Putra Wijaya, Dipo Aldila · 2017 · arXiv

Investigating the seasonality of disease incidences is very important in disease surveillance in regions with periodical climatic patterns. In lieu of the paradigm about disease incidences varying seasonally in line with meteorology, this work seeks to determine how well standard epidemic models can capture such seasonality for better forecasts and optimal futuristic interventions. Once incidence data are assimilated by a periodic model, asymptotic analysis in relation to the long-term behavior of the disease occurrences can be performed using the classical Floquet theory, which explains the s

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Real zeros of mixed random fewnomial systems

Peter Bürgisser · 2022 · arXiv

Consider a system $f_1(x)=0,\ldots,f_n(x)=0$ of $n$ random real polynomials in $n$ variables, where each $f_i$ has a prescribed set of exponent vectors described by a set $A_i \subseteq \mathbb{Z}^n$ of cardinality $t_i$, whose convex hull is denoted $P_i$. Assuming that the coefficients of the $f_i$ are independent standard Gaussian, we prove that the expected number of zeros of the random system in the positive orthant is at most $(2π)^{-\frac{n}{2}} V_0 (t_1-1)\ldots (t_n-1)$. Here $V_0$ denotes the number of vertices of the Minkowski sum $P_1+\ldots + P_n$. However, this bound does not imp

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Stein's method and locally dependent point process approximation

Aihua Xia, Fuxi Zhang · 2011 · arXiv

Random events in space and time often exhibit a locally dependent structure. When the events are very rare and dependent structure is not too complicated, various studies in the literature have shown that Poisson and compound Poisson processes can provide adequate approximations. However, the accuracy of approximations does not improve or may even deteriorate when the mean number of events increases. In this paper, we investigate an alternative family of approximating point processes and establish Stein's method for their approximations. We prove two theorems to accommodate respectively the po

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

An alternative approach to Shnirelman's inequality

Martina Zizza · 2024 · arXiv

In this paper we examine the discrete Shnirelman's inequality [Shnirelman A., 1985], which relates the $L^2$-distance of two discrete configurations of a fluid to the $L^1_tL^2_x$-norm of the vector field connecting them. Our proof is inspired by [Shnirelman A., 1985], where it was obtained $α=\frac{1}{64}$ in dimension $ν=2$, while here we get $α\geq\frac{2}{7}$. Moreover we prove that $α\geq\frac{1}{ν+1}$ for any dimension $ν\geq 3$. We point out that, even if this does not improve the bound in the continuous version, where it was proved that $α\geq\frac{2}{4+ν}$, with $ν\geq 3$, our bound i

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Column generation for the discrete Unit Commitment problem with min-stop ramping constraints

Nicolas Dupin · 2019 · arXiv

The discrete unit commitment problem with min-stop ramping constraints optimizes the daily production of thermal power plants (coal, gas, fuel units). For this problem, compact Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulations have been designed to solve exactly small instances and heuristically real-size instances. This paper investigates whether Dantzig-Wolfe reformulation allows to improve the previous exact method and matheuristics. The extended ILP formulation is presented with the column generation algorithm to solve its linear relaxation. The experimental results show that the Dantzig-Wolfe

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

On the numerical stability of the least-squares method for the planar scattering by obstacles

Gilles Chardon · 2014 · arXiv

The scattering of waves by obstacles in a 2D setting is considered, in particular the computation of the scattered field via the collocation or the least-squares methods. In the case of multiple scattering by smooth obstacles, we prove that the scattered field can be uniformly approximated by sums of multipoles. For a unique obstacle, the choice of the number of points and their positions for the estimation of the error on the border of the scatterer is studied, showing the benefit of using a non-uniform distribution of points dependent on the scatterer and the approximation scheme. In general

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

The Second Picard iteration of NLS on the $2d$ sphere does not regularize Gaussian random initial data

Nicolas Burq, Nicolas Camps, Mickaël Latocca et al. · 2024 · arXiv

We consider the Wick ordered cubic Schrödinger equation (NLS) posed on the two-dimensional sphere, with initial data distributed according to a Gaussian measure. We show that the second Picard iteration does not improve the regularity of the initial data in the scale of the classical Sobolev spaces. This is in sharp contrast with the Wick ordered NLS on the two-dimensional tori, a model for which we know from the work of Bourgain that the second Picard iteration gains one half derivative. Our proof relies on identifying a singular part of the nonlinearity. We show that this singular part is re

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

On lower bounds of the density of planar periodic sets without unit distances

Alexander Tolmachev · 2024 · arXiv

Determining the maximal density $m_1(\mathbb{R}^2)$ of planar sets without unit distances is a fundamental problem in combinatorial geometry. This paper investigates lower bounds for this quantity. We introduce a novel approach to estimating $m_1(\mathbb{R}^2)$ by reformulating the problem as a Maximal Independent Set (MIS) problem on graphs constructed from flat torus, focusing on periodic sets with respect to two non-collinear vectors. Our experimental results, supported by theoretical justifications of proposed method, demonstrate that for a sufficiently wide range of parameters this approa

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Does enforcing fairness mitigate biases caused by subpopulation shift?

Subha Maity, Debarghya Mukherjee, Mikhail Yurochkin et al. · 2020 · arXiv

Many instances of algorithmic bias are caused by subpopulation shifts. For example, ML models often perform worse on demographic groups that are underrepresented in the training data. In this paper, we study whether enforcing algorithmic fairness during training improves the performance of the trained model in the \emph{target domain}. On one hand, we conceive scenarios in which enforcing fairness does not improve performance in the target domain. In fact, it may even harm performance. On the other hand, we derive necessary and sufficient conditions under which enforcing algorithmic fairness l

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Does preregistration improve the credibility of research findings?

Mark Rubin · 2020 · arXiv

Preregistration entails researchers registering their planned research hypotheses, methods, and analyses in a time-stamped document before they undertake their data collection and analyses. This document is then made available with the published research report to allow readers to identify discrepancies between what the researchers originally planned to do and what they actually ended up doing. This historical transparency is supposed to facilitate judgments about the credibility of the research findings. The present article provides a critical review of 17 of the reasons behind this argument.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

The Poincaré Inequality does not improve with blow-up

Andrea Schioppa · 2015 · arXiv

For each $β>1$ we construct a family $F_β$ of metric measure spaces which is closed under the operation of taking weak-tangents (i.e.~blow-ups), and such that each element of $F_β$ admits a $(1,P)$-Poincaré inequality if and only if $P>β$.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Preregistration does not improve the transparent evaluation of severity in Popper's philosophy of science or when deviations are allowed

Mark Rubin · 2024 · arXiv

One justification for preregistering research hypotheses, methods, and analyses is that it improves the transparent evaluation of the severity of hypothesis tests. In this article, I consider two cases in which preregistration does not improve this evaluation. First, I argue that, although preregistration may facilitate the transparent evaluation of severity in Mayo's error statistical philosophy of science, it does not facilitate this evaluation in Popper's theory-centric approach. To illustrate, I show that associated concerns about Type I error rate inflation are only relevant in the error

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Efficient routing of multiple vehicles with no communications

Alessandro Arsie, Emilio Frazzoli · 2006 · arXiv

In this paper we consider a class of dynamic vehicle routing problems, in which a number of mobile agents in the plane must visit target points generated over time by a stochastic process. It is desired to design motion coordination strategies in order to minimize the expected time between the appearance of a target point and the time it is visited by one of the agents. We propose control strategies that, while making minimal or no assumptions on communications between agents, provide the same level of steady-state performance achieved by the best known decentralized strategies. In other words

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Cowen's class and Thomson's class

Kunyu Guo, Hansong Huang · 2013 · arXiv

In studying commutants of analytic Toeplitz operators, Thomson proved a remarkable theorem which states that under a mild condition, the commutant of an analytic Toeplitz operator is equal to that of Toeplitz operator defined by a finite Blaschke product. Cowen gave an significant improvement of Thosom's result. In this paper, we will present examples in Cowen's class which does not lie in Thomson's class.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Characters of p'-degree and Thompson's character degree theorem

Nguyen Ngoc Hung · 2015 · arXiv

A classical theorem of John Thompson on character degrees asserts that if the degree of every ordinary irreducible character of a finite group $G$ is 1 or divisible by a prime $p$, then $G$ has a normal $p$-complement. We obtain a significant improvement of this result by considering the average of $p'$-degrees of irreducible characters. We also consider fields of character values and prove several improvements of earlier related results.

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Parallelizing Explicit and Implicit Extrapolation Methods for Ordinary Differential Equations

Utkarsh, Chris Elrod, Yingbo Ma et al. · 2022 · arXiv

Numerically solving ordinary differential equations (ODEs) is a naturally serial process and as a result the vast majority of ODE solver software are serial. In this manuscript we developed a set of parallelized ODE solvers using extrapolation methods which exploit "parallelism within the method" so that arbitrary user ODEs can be parallelized. We describe the specific choices made in the implementation of the explicit and implicit extrapolation methods which allow for generating low overhead static schedules to then exploit with optimized multi-threaded implementations. We demonstrate that wh

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

A New Bound for the Brown--Erdős--Sós Problem

David Conlon, Lior Gishboliner, Yevgeny Levanzov et al. · 2019 · arXiv

Let $f(n,v,e)$ denote the maximum number of edges in a $3$-uniform hypergraph not containing $e$ edges spanned by at most $v$ vertices. One of the most influential open problems in extremal combinatorics then asks, for a given number of edges $e \geq 3$, what is the smallest integer $d=d(e)$ so that $f(n,e+d,e) = o(n^2)$? This question has its origins in work of Brown, Erdős and Sós from the early 70's and the standard conjecture is that $d(e)=3$ for every $e \geq 3$. The state of the art result regarding this problem was obtained in 2004 by Sárközy and Selkow, who showed that $f(n,e + 2 + \lf

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Obstructions for automorphic quasiregular maps and Lattès-type uniformly quasiregular maps

Ilmari Kangasniemi · 2019 · arXiv

Suppose that $M$ is a closed, connected, and oriented Riemannian $n$-manifold, $f \colon \mathbb{R}^n \to M$ is a quasiregular map automorphic under a discrete group $Γ$ of Euclidean isometries, and $f$ has finite multiplicity in a fundamental cell of $Γ$. We show that if $Γ$ has a sufficiently large translation subgroup $Γ_T$, then $\dim Γ\in \{0, n-1, n\}$. If $f$ is strongly automorphic and induces a non-injective Lattès-type uniformly quasiregular map, then the same holds without the assumption on the size of $Γ_T$. Moreover, an even stronger restriction holds in the Lattès case if $M$ is

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Combinatorics of skew lines in $\mathbb P^3$ with an application to algebraic geometry

Luca Chiantini, Łucja Farnik, Giuseppe Favacchio et al. · 2023 · arXiv

This article introduces a previously unrecognized combinatorial structure underlying configurations of skew lines in $\mathbb{P}^3$, and reveals its deep and surprising connection to the algebro-geometric concept of geproci sets. Given any field $\mathbb{K}$ and a finite set $\mathcal L$ of 3 or more skew lines in $\mathbb{P}^3_\mathbb{K}$, we associate to it a group $G_{\mathcal L}$ and a groupoid $C_{\mathcal L}$ whose action on the union $\cup_{L\in\mathcal L}L$ provides orbits which have a rich combinatorial structure. We characterize when $G_{\mathcal L}$ is abelian and give partial resul

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