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Browse the failure-mode index

12,263 real negative results, null findings, and replication failures in Medicine. 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 accessMedicine

Thyroid stimulating hormone levels in cord blood are not influenced by non-thyroidal mothers' diseases

Laura Sterian Ward, Ilda Shizue Kunii, Rui Monteiro de Barros Maciel · 2000 · São Paulo Medical Journal

CONTEXT: Screening programs not only offer the opportunity to trace and treat almost all cases of congenital hypothyroidism but also mean large savings to the health system. However, carefully planned strategies are necessary to extend their benefits and reduce costs. OBJECTIVE: To determine the possible influence of maternal diseases that affect maternal-fetal placenta dynamics on primary thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) screening for congenital hypothyroidism. DESIGN: Prospective non-randomized clinical trial with at least 3 months of follow-up. SETTING: A public university referral center

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Women and men diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome – sex-related differences

Magdalena Dudek, Marta Kałużna-Oleksy, Jacek Migaj et al. · 2018 · Journal of Medical Science

Background. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the most important causes of death in both men and women. There are many gender differences among patients with CAD, including risk factors and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) outcomes. The latest reports showed that mortality due to CAD is higher in women than in men. Cardiac biomarkers play an important role in risk stratification and choice of treatment strategy in patients with ACS, however some of cardiac biomarkers show worse sensitivity and specificity in women. Aim. The aim was to investigate the sex-related differences in patients with

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Comparison of Transvaginal Ultrasonography and Hysteroscopy in the Diagnosis of Endometrial Polyp in Abnormal Vaginal Bleeding

Chia Hassan Ali, Rozhan Yassin Khalil · 2025 · Advanced Medical Journal

Background and objectives: Various methods and devices are currently applicable to diagnose endometrial polyps with different outcomes. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of trans-vaginal ultra-sonography in relation to the rigid hysteroscopy in the diagnosis of endometrial polyps in patients with abnormal vaginal bleeding. Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled 70 female patients with endometrial polyps at Sulaimani Maternity Teaching Hospital, Iraq, from May 01, 2022 to May 01, 2023. A well-designed questionnaire including the patient's age, gender, residency, educational level,

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Genome-wide association study of vitamin D concentrations and bone mineral density in the African American-Diabetes Heart Study.

Nicholette D Palmer, Lingyi Lu, Thomas C Register et al. · 2021 · PLoS ONE

Relative to European Americans, African Americans have lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) and vitamin D binding protein (VDBP) concentrations, higher 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D3) concentrations and bone mineral density (BMD), and paradoxically reduced burdens of calcified atherosclerotic plaque (subclinical atherosclerosis). To identify genetic factors contributing to vitamin D and BMD measures, association analysis of >14M variants was conducted in a maximum of 697 African American-Diabetes Heart Study participants with type 2 diabetes (T2D). The most significant association signals w

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Circulating inflammatory biomarkers and risk of intracranial aneurysm: a Mendelian randomization study

Jianxun Fang, Yuze Cao, Jun Ni · 2024 · European Journal of Medical Research

Abstract Background Intracranial aneurysm (IA) accounts for a substantial source of non-traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage, with inflammation postulated as a potential factor in its pathogenesis. The present study aims at evaluating the association between circulating inflammatory cytokines and risk of IA under a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) design. Methods For primary analysis, summary statistics of inflammatory regulators was obtained from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) comprising 8293 Finnish participants. Summary data of IA were extracted from a GWAS which c

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Failed Experiment ReportOpen accessMedicine

Genetic variants associated with sepsis-associated acute kidney injury.

Nicholas J Douville, Lisa Bastarache, Emily Bertucci-Richter et al. · 2024 · PLoS ONE

Background Kidney dysfunction is a common complication in septic patients. Studies have identified numerous risk factors for sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (S-AKI), yet there is wide variability in the incidence even among patients with similar risk factors, suggesting the presence of additional uncharacterized risk factors, including genetic differences. The expansion of biobanks, advances in genotyping, and standardized diagnostic criteria have enabled large-scale, hypothesis-generating studies into the genetic mechanisms underlying S-AKI. We hypothesize that the genetic pathway behin

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

The (non-)replicability of regulatory resource depletion: A field report employing non-invasive brain stimulation.

Franziska Emmerling, Carolien Martijn, Hugo J E M Alberts et al. · 2017 · PLoS ONE

Cognitive effort and self-control are exhausting. Although evidence is ambiguous, behavioural studies have repeatedly suggested that control-demanding tasks seem to deplete a limited cache of self-regulatory resources leading to performance degradations and fatigue. While resource depletion has indirectly been associated with a decline in right prefrontal cortex capacity, its precise neural underpinnings have not yet been revealed. This study consisted of two independent experiments, which set out to investigate the causal role of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in a classic d

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Does incidental pride increase competency evaluation of others who appear careless? Discrete positive emotions and impression formation.

Toshiki Saito, Kosuke Motoki, Rui Nouchi et al. · 2019 · PLoS ONE

Emotion plays important and diverse roles across various social relations. Although the social functions of emotion have attracted increased attention, the effects of positive emotions such as pride on impression formation remain poorly understood. Drawing on social projection theory, this study examined how incidental experiences of pride influenced the impressions of those who made a blunder, along with two other characteristics: the person's warmth and competence. Participants were designated randomly to receive inductions of pride, awe, or a neutral emotion. Subsequently, they were asked t

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Does willpower mindset really moderate the ego-depletion effect? A preregistered replication of Job, Dweck, and Walton (2010).

Nicholas P Carruth, Jairo A Ramos, Akira Miyake · 2023 · PLoS ONE

This article reports a preregistered study in which we attempted to replicate the results of an influential study on the ego-depletion effect reported by Job, Dweck, and Walton in 2010. The original Job et al. study (Study 1, N = 60) provided evidence that the ego-depletion effect-a performance decrease on a self-control task after performing another self-control task-occurs only for individuals who hold a belief that their willpower is limited. This moderation of the ego-depletion effect by one's willpower mindset (limited vs. nonlimited) has been interpreted as evidence against a prevalent l

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Culture of skeletal myoblasts from human donors aged over 40 years: dynamics of cell growth and expression of differentiation markers

Cherubino Paolo, Sala Andrea, Casalone Rosario et al. · 2005 · Journal of Translational Medicine

Abstract Background Local myogenesis, neoangiogenesis and homing of progenitor cells from the bone marrow appear to contribute to repair of the infarcted myocardium. Implantation into heart tissues of autologous skeletal myoblasts has been associated with improved contractile function in animal models and in humans with acute myocardial ischemia. Since heart infarction is most prevalent in individuals of over 40 years of age, we tested whether culture methods available in our laboratory were adequate to obtain sufficient numbers of differentiated skeletal myoblasts from muscle biopsy specimens

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

NOS2 polymorphisms in prediction of benefit from first-line chemotherapy in metastatic colorectal cancer patients.

Marta Schirripa, Wu Zhang, Dongyun Yang et al. · 2018 · PLoS ONE

BACKGROUND:Macrophages play a crucial role in the interaction between tumor and immune system, and iNOS is known as a surrogate marker of M1 macrophages activation. The goal of the study was to investigate the role of iNOS polymorphisms as prognostic marker in mCRC patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS:Functional significant polymorphisms in the promoter of INOS gene were analyzed by PCR-based and direct DNA sequencing in 4 cohorts of patients receiving bevacizumab based first-line chemotherapy: two evaluation cohorts (TRIBE ARM A and ARM B) and two validation cohorts (FIRE 3 arm A and MOMA). The re

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Does willpower mindset really moderate the ego-depletion effect? A preregistered replication of Job, Dweck, and Walton (2010)

Nicholas P. Carruth, Jairo A. Ramos, Akira Miyake · 2023 · PLoS ONE

This article reports a preregistered study in which we attempted to replicate the results of an influential study on the ego-depletion effect reported by Job, Dweck, and Walton in 2010. The original Job et al. study (Study 1, N = 60) provided evidence that the ego-depletion effect—a performance decrease on a self-control task after performing another self-control task—occurs only for individuals who hold a belief that their willpower is limited. This moderation of the ego-depletion effect by one’s willpower mindset (limited vs. nonlimited) has been interpreted as evidence against a prevalent l

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

DNAm scores for serum GDF15 and NT-proBNP levels associate with a range of traits affecting the body and brain

Danni A. Gadd, Hannah M. Smith, Donncha Mullin et al. · 2024 · Clinical Epigenetics

Abstract Background Plasma growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) and N‐terminal proB‐type natriuretic peptide (NT‐proBNP) are cardiovascular biomarkers that associate with a range of diseases. Epigenetic scores (EpiScores) for GDF15 and NT-proBNP may provide new routes for risk stratification. Results In the Generation Scotland cohort (N ≥ 16,963), GDF15 levels were associated with incident dementia, ischaemic stroke and type 2 diabetes, whereas NT-proBNP levels were associated with incident ischaemic heart disease, ischaemic stroke and type 2 diabetes (all PFDR 95%) with levels of GDF15 an

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Exploration of shared genetic susceptibility loci between type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis in the Pakistani population

Muhammad Muaaz Aslam, Peter John, Kang-Hsien Fan et al. · 2019 · BMC Research Notes

Abstract Objective Type 1 diabetes (T1D) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are autoimmune diseases. It is known that certain genetic loci and factors that increase the overall autoimmunity risk can be shared among different autoimmune diseases. We sought to replicate seven T1D-related SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) that have been previously reported to be associated with RA susceptibility in a small set of mixed family-based and case–control Pakistani sample in a relatively large and independent RA case–control sample from the same population. Seven T1D-associated SNPs (GLIS3/rs7020673, BA

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Ultrastructural investigation and in vitro recapitulation of spermatid differentiation in a potential bio-indicator species - The marine invertebrate Galeolaria gemineoa (Polychaeta: Serpulidae).

Yonggang Lu, Robert John Aitken, Minjie Lin · 2017 · PLoS ONE

Galeolaria gemineoa is a sessile broadcast-spawning marine invertebrate, whose spermatozoa have been regarded as a sensitive indicator for water quality monitoring. In this study, 10 steps of spermiogenesis have been identified at the ultrastructural level and this differentiation process has been recapitulated in vitro up to the point of spermiogenesis (step 7-9 spermatids). On completion of the second meiosis, newly formed spermatids were detached from the seminiferous epithelium and released to the lumen of each germinal chamber. These spermatids were present in pairs and interconnected by

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Is reading fiction associated with a higher mind-reading ability? Two conceptual replication studies in Japan.

Yuka Takahashi, Toshiyuki Himichi, Ayumi Masuchi et al. · 2023 · PLoS ONE

Previous studies have revealed that reading fiction is associated with dispositional empathy and theory-of-mind abilities. Earlier studies established a correlation between fiction reading habits and the two measures of social cognition: trait fantasy (i.e., the tendency to transpose oneself into fictitious characters) and performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET; a test of the ability to identify others' mental states based on their eyes). Recently, experimental studies have shown that brief exposure to fiction enhances RMET performance. Nevertheless, these studies have been

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

No evidence of conditioning of pupillary constriction despite overtraining

Diederick C. Niehorster, Stina Bengtsson, Niklas Brodin et al. · 2022 · PeerJ

Eyeblink conditioning is the most popular paradigm for studying classical conditioning in humans. But the fact that eyelids are under voluntary control means it is ultimately impossible to ascertain whether a blink response is ‘conditioned’ or a timed ‘voluntary’ blink response. In contrast, the pupillary response is an autonomic response, not under voluntary control. By conditioning the pupillary response, one might avoid potential volition-related confounds. Several attempts have been made to condition the pupillary constriction and dilation responses, with the earliest published attempts da

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Causal Link Between Obstructive Uropathy, Estradiol, and Risk of Breast Cancer: Insights From Observational Evidence and Genetic Association Analyses

Hailu Wang, Yingying Dai, Wenhai Pan et al. · 2026 · Medicine Advances

ABSTRACT Background Estradiol, the key endogenous estrogen, reduces the risk of urinary obstruction by smooth muscle relaxation but also increases susceptibility to breast cancer (BC). However, whether estradiol serves as a mechanistic mediator linking urinary tract obstruction and BC remains unclear. This study aimed to determine if there is an association between urinary tract obstruction and the risk of BC and to assess the potential mediating role of systemic estradiol. Methods A case‐control study and survival analysis of Cox regression were conducted using clinical data from the United K

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Failed Experiment ReportOpen accessMedicine

Is reading fiction associated with a higher mind-reading ability? Two conceptual replication studies in Japan

Yuka Takahashi, Toshiyuki Himichi, Ayumi Masuchi et al. · 2023 · PLoS ONE

Previous studies have revealed that reading fiction is associated with dispositional empathy and theory-of-mind abilities. Earlier studies established a correlation between fiction reading habits and the two measures of social cognition: trait fantasy (i.e., the tendency to transpose oneself into fictitious characters) and performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET; a test of the ability to identify others’ mental states based on their eyes). Recently, experimental studies have shown that brief exposure to fiction enhances RMET performance. Nevertheless, these studies have been

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Non-dominant hand contractions do not facilitate performance under pressure in common desktop tasks.

Yu Fan Eng, Daniel R Little, Andy Yang et al. · 2025 · PLoS ONE

Non-dominant hand contractions (NDHCs) have been shown to help expert motor skills in high-pressure scenarios that induce performance anxiety. Most studies of NHDCs under pressure have examined benefits in overlearned specialist movements (e.g., sporting skills), while few have considered if NDHCs can aid common movements with population-wide expertise (e.g., typing). Accordingly, across three experiments, we explored if NDHCs could protect or facilitate performance under time and/or evaluation pressure in a cursor positioning task (Experiments 1 & 2) and a typing task (Experiment 3). Despite

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Effects of invasion history on physiological responses to immune system activation in invasive Australian cane toads

Daniel Selechnik, Andrea J. West, Gregory P. Brown et al. · 2017 · PeerJ

The cane toad (Rhinella marina) has undergone rapid evolution during its invasion of tropical Australia. Toads from invasion front populations (in Western Australia) have been reported to exhibit a stronger baseline phagocytic immune response than do conspecifics from range core populations (in Queensland). To explore this difference, we injected wild-caught toads from both areas with the experimental antigen lipopolysaccharide (LPS, to mimic bacterial infection) and measured whole-blood phagocytosis. Because the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is stimulated by infection (and may influence

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

No evidence that partnered and unpartnered gay men differ in their preferences for male facial masculinity.

Rachel Cassar, Victor Shiramizu, Lisa M DeBruine et al. · 2020 · PLoS ONE

Women's preferences for masculine characteristics in men's faces have been extensively studied. By contrast, little is known about how gay men respond to masculine facial characteristics. One area of disagreement in the emerging literature on this topic is the association between gay men's partnership status and masculinity preference. One study found that partnered gay men showed stronger preferences for masculine faces than did single gay men, while another study found that partnered gay men showed weaker preferences for masculine faces than did single gay men. We re-examined this issue in a

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Trait impulsivity is not related to post-commissural putamen volumes: A replication study in healthy men.

Fernando Caravaggio, Pontus Plavén-Sigray, Granville James Matheson et al. · 2018 · PLoS ONE

High levels of trait impulsivity are considered a risk factor for substance abuse and drug addiction. We recently found that non-planning trait impulsivity was negatively correlated with post-commissural putamen volumes in men, but not women, using the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP). Here, we attempted to replicate this finding in an independent sample using an updated version of the KSP: the Swedish Universities Scales of Personality (SSP). Data from 88 healthy male participants (Mean Age: 28.16±3.34), who provided structural T1-weighted magnetic resonance images (MRIs) and self-repor

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Null effect of perceived drum pattern complexity on the experience of groove.

Olivier Senn, Florian Hoesl, Toni Amadeus Bechtold et al. · 2024 · PLoS ONE

There is a broad consensus in groove research that the experience of groove, understood as a pleasurable urge to move in response to music, is to some extent related to the complexity of the rhythm. Specifically, music with medium rhythmic complexity has been found to motivate greater urge to move compared to low or high complexity music (inverted-U hypothesis). Studies that confirmed the inverted-U hypothesis usually based their measure of complexity on the rhythmic phenomenon of syncopation, where rhythms with more and/or stronger syncopation are considered to be more complex than less synco

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Absence of association between N-acetyltransferase 2 acetylator status and colorectal cancer susceptibility: based on evidence from 40 studies.

Lou qian Zhang, Jian nong Zhou, Jun Wang et al. · 2012 · PLoS ONE

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: N-Acetyltransferase (NAT) 2 is an important enzyme involved in the metabolism of different xenobiotics, including potential carcinogens, whose phenotypes were reported to be related to individual susceptibility to colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the results remain conflicting. To assess the relationship between NAT2 phenotypes and CRC risk, we performed this meta-analysis. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify all case-control or cohort studies of NAT2 acetylator status on the susceptibility of CRC by searching of PubMed and EMBASE, u

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Attention neuroenhancement through tDCS or neurofeedback: a randomized, single-blind, controlled trial

Gabriel Gaudencio Rêgo, Óscar F. Gonçalves, Paulo Sérgio Boggio · 2022 · Scientific Reports

Abstract Neurofeedback and transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) are promising techniques for neuroenhancement of attentional performance. As far as we know no study compared both techniques on attentional performance in healthy participants. We compared tDCS and neurofeedback in a randomized, single-blind, controlled experiment assessing both behavioral (accuracy and time reaction) and electrophysiological (N1, P1, and P3 components) data of participants responding to the Attention Network Task (ANT). Eighty volunteers volunteered for this study. We adopted standard protocols for bot

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

The neural determinants of age-related changes in fluid intelligence: a pre-registered, longitudinal analysis in UK Biobank [version 2; referees: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]

Rogier A. Kievit, Delia Fuhrmann, Gesa Sophia Borgeest et al. · 2018 · Wellcome Open Research

Background: Fluid intelligence declines with advancing age, starting in early adulthood. Within-subject declines in fluid intelligence are highly correlated with contemporaneous declines in the ability to live and function independently. To support healthy aging, the mechanisms underlying these declines need to be better understood. Methods: In this pre-registered analysis, we applied latent growth curve modelling to investigate the neural determinants of longitudinal changes in fluid intelligence across three time points in 185,317 individuals (N=9,719 two waves, N=870 three waves) from the U

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

No Association between Personality and Candidate Gene Polymorphisms in a Wild Bird Population.

Hannah A Edwards, Gabriela K Hajduk, Gillian Durieux et al. · 2015 · PLoS ONE

Consistency of between-individual differences in behaviour or personality is a phenomenon in populations that can have ecological consequences and evolutionary potential. One way that behaviour can evolve is to have a genetic basis. Identifying the molecular genetic basis of personality could therefore provide insight into how and why such variation is maintained, particularly in natural populations. Previously identified candidate genes for personality in birds include the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4), and serotonin transporter (SERT). Studies of wild bird populations have shown that explorato

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Sure-thing vs. probabilistic charitable giving: Experimental evidence on the role of individual differences in risky and ambiguous charitable decision-making.

Philipp Schoenegger, Miguel Costa-Gomes · 2022 · PLoS ONE

Charities differ, among other things, alongside the likelihood that their interventions succeed and produce the desired outcomes and alongside the extent that such likelihood can even be articulated numerically. In this paper, we investigate what best explains charitable giving behaviour regarding charities that have interventions that will succeed with a quantifiable and high probability (sure-thing charities) and charities that have interventions that only have a small and hard to quantify probability of bringing about the desired end (probabilistic charities). We study individual difference

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