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11,325 real negative results, null findings, and replication failures in Medicine · 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 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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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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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

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

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 effect of additional education on long-term brain structure, a preregistered natural experiment in thousands of individuals

Nicholas Judd, Rogier Kievit · 2025 · eLife

Education is related to a wide variety of beneficial health, behavioral, and societal outcomes. However, whether education causes long-term structural changes in the brain remains unclear. A pressing challenge is that individuals self-select into continued education, thereby introducing a wide variety of environmental and genetic confounders. Fortunately, natural experiments allow us to isolate the causal impact of increased education from individual (and societal) characteristics. Here, we exploit a policy change in the UK (the 1972 ROSLA act) that increased the amount of mandatory schooling

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Evaluating the association between lifetime physical activity and oral squamous cell carcinoma: A case-control study.

Seyyed Abolfazl Tabatabaie-Zadeh, Nazanin Mahdavi, Behnaz Mahdaviani et al. · 2024 · PLoS ONE

Purpose Oral cancers are the 6th most common malignancy worldwide and oral squamous cell carcinoma, comprises over 90% of oral cancers. This study investigates the relationship between physical activity level during the lifetime and oral squamous cell carcinoma risk. Methods 100 oral squamous cell carcinoma patients and 200 healthy individuals participated in this case-control study. Physical activity level was evaluated via the Lifetime Physical Activity Questionnaire. The occupational, household, and sports domains of lifetime physical activity were determined. Case and control groups' parti

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

The Problem of Back Pain Among Nurses of Neurology and Neurosurgery Wards

Renata Jabłońska, Marta Gralik, Agnieszka Królikowska et al. · 2016 · Pielęgniarstwo Neurologiczne i Neurochirurgiczne

Introduction. In the occupational medicine back pain is treated as a paraoccupational disease, mainly related to specific professional groups. They include those employed in the sector of health care, who are at the highest risk of developing back pain, nurses in particular. Aim. Assessment of back pain occurrence among nurses and determining the factors affecting this condition. Material and Methods. The study group consisted of 76 nurses working in neurology and neurosurgery wards/clinics. The research methodology applied consisted of diagnostic survey method, and as the technique, a survey

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Adolescent abstinence and unprotected sex in CyberSenga, an Internet-based HIV prevention program: randomized clinical trial of efficacy.

Michele L Ybarra, Sheana S Bull, Tonya L Prescott et al. · 2013 · PLoS ONE

Cost-effective, scalable programs are urgently needed in countries deeply affected by HIV.This parallel-group RCT was conducted in four secondary schools in Mbarara, Uganda. Participants were 12 years and older, reported past-year computer or Internet use, and provided informed caregiver permission and youth assent. The intervention, CyberSenga, was a five-hour online healthy sexuality program. Half of the intervention group was further randomized to receive a booster at four-months post-intervention. The control arm received 'treatment as usual' (i.e., school-delivered sexuality programming).

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Mortality and Functional Outcomes of Liberal versus Restrictive Blood Transfusion in Elderly Patients after Hip Surgery: A Randomised Control Trial.

Patil VE, Barick D, Degloorkar P et al. · 2026 · Hip & pelvis

Purpose There is ongoing debate on the haemoglobin level at which red cell transfusion should be administered following surgery. This study aimed to evaluate the benefits of a restrictive blood transfusion strategy and assess potential…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Sequential therapy versus quadruple therapy for Helicobacter pylori eradication: A prospective double‐blinded randomized controlled trial

Elham Tabesh, Farzad Yadmehr, Awat Feizi et al. · 2024 · Health Science Reports

Abstract Backgrounds and Aims This controlled randomized clinical trial was designed to compare effectiveness, side effects, and severity of symptoms before and after therapy between quadruple (QT) and sequential regimens (SQ) for Helicobacter Pylori (H. pylori). Methods Patients were randomly allocated into two groups. Group A received a 14‐day QT including pantoprazole 40 mg q12 h, bismuth subcitrate 240 mg q12 h, clarithromycin 500 mg q12 h, and amoxicillin 1000 mg q12 h and group B received ST including pantoprazole 40 mg q12 h and amoxicillin 1000 mg q12 h for the initial 5 days followed

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

EVALUATION OF THE EFFECT OF MODE OF DELIVERY ON HEMATOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF HEALTHY FULL-TERM NEWBORNS

Subh Salem Al-Mudallal, Muna Abd Al-Moeen Al- Habbobi · 2016 · The Iraqi Journal of Medical Sciences

Background: Hematological values at birth encompass broader ranges of normal than at any other time in life, and despite advances in perinatology over the past years, the exact influence of perinatal factors on hematological values in cord blood in normal pregnancy is still unclear. Moreover there was a wide variation and overlap in values between normal and abnormal infants with early symptoms and signs of neonatal sepsis. Objectives: 1. To obtain the values of hematological parameters including complete blood picture, red cell indices, nucleated red blood cells and reticulocyte count in heal

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Correction of Coronal Deformities in Pediatric Knees : Guided Growth by 8 plate Versus Corrective Osteotomy

Elsayed Said, Khaled H. Mosallam, Abdelrahman MK Maala* et al. · 2023 · SVU - International Journal of Medical Sciences

Background: Coronal deformities around the knee are most commonly presented in paediatric orthopaedic. Physiological deformities are most often managed conservatively, but severe deformities that cause pain and dysfunction require surgical intervention with acute correction (osteotomy), or gradually by hemiepiphyseodesis. Objectives: The main objective of this prospective study is to assess and compare short term results following correction by osteotomy versus 8-plate hemiepiphyseodesis. Patients and Methods: 30 skeletally immature patient, aged (3-14 years); presented with angular deformitie

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

High-mobility group box 1 protein, histone H3 and histone H4 are not associated with peripheral hypoperfusion in sepsis: a retrospective cohort study

Bruna Cassia Dal Vesco, Ana Carolina de Miranda, Fernanda do Carmo De Stefani et al. · 2026 · Einstein (São Paulo)

ABSTRACT Objective: The causal mechanisms of peripheral hypoperfusion in sepsis have not yet been fully elucidated. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether peripheral hypoperfusion in septic patients is associated with serum levels of damage-associated molecular patterns. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted to compare serum levels of damage-associated molecular patterns - histone H3, histone H4, and high-mobility group box-1 protein (HMGB1) - with markers of tissue hypoperfusion - the peripheral perfusion index and the capillary refill time, using a single measuremen

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