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Browse the failure-mode index

21,691 real negative results, null findings, and replication failures. 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.

Replication FailureBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Identification of Statistically Significant Features from Random Forests

Jérôme Paul, Michel Verleysen, Pierre Dupont · 2013

Abstract. Embedded feature selection can be performed by analyzing the variables used in a Random Forest. Such a multivariate selection takes into account the interactions between variables but is not easy to interpret in a statistical…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Trust Nobody: How Voters React to Conspiracy Theories

Giovanna M. Invernizzi, Ahmed Ezzeldin Mohamed · 2022 · Journal of Experimental Political Science

Abstract How does exposure to conspiracy theories affects voters’ political attitudes? Using an online experiment among US subjects, we show that exposure to conspiracy theories decreases voters’ trust in the domestic informational…

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Negative / Null Result ReportEconomics, Econometrics and Finance

Does the SARB respond to oil price movements? Historical evidence from the frequency domain

Goodness C. Aye, Olorato Gadinabokao, Rangan Gupta · 2016 · Energy Sources Part B Economics Planning and Policy

Causality testing procedures in the frequency domain and the time domain are employed to analyses the relationship between oil prices and interest rate in South Africa, covering the time period January 1936–November 2013 . Results show…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Dental Hygiene Students’ Perceptions of Older Adults

R. Constance Wiener, Alcinda Trickett Shockey, D. Leann Long · 2014 · Journal of Dental Education

Geriatric education is an important component of the dental hygiene curriculum because, in it, students acquire skills and attitudes to help provide quality care to older adults. The purpose of this study was to determine if off-site…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessHealth Professions

Determination of Ambient Noise Levels and Perception of Residents in Halls at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana

Paul Kwame Essandoh, Frederick Ato Armah, Ernest K. A. Afrifa et al. · 2011 · Environment and Natural Resources Research

Environmental noise pollution generated from industrial and transport activities in Ghana have received considerable attention from regulators and policy makers unlike rising noise levels in residential settings. This study measured ambient noise levels in four halls of residence in the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana to ascertain compliance with permissible limits. Questionnaires were also used to evaluate the possible non-auditory noise effects. The results indicate that the same sex halls (Adeyhe and Casford) were within the day and night permissible noise limit of the Ghana Environme

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

First-Year Students’ Research Challenges: Does Watching Videos on Common Struggles affect Students’ Research Self-Efficacy?

Savannah Kelly · 2017 · Evidence Based Library and Information Practice

Abstract Objective – The purpose of this quantitative study was to measure the impact of providing research struggle videos on first-year students’ research self-efficacy. The three-part video series explicated and briefly addressed common…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

EFFECTS OF ROUTINE PHYSICAL THERAPY WITH AND WITHOUT HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING ON BALANCE, QUALITY OF LIFE AND FUNCTION IN PARKINSON’S DISEASE PATIENTS

Muhammad Junaid Tahir, Komal Tehzeeb, Farah Javaid et al. · 2023

Background: Parkinson's disease, is a degenerative neurological disorder, may have an adverse effect on movement, balance, and coordination. Physical therapy, a frequent Parkinson's disease treatment, tries to improve the patient's…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

The Influence of Reward on Facial Mimicry: No Evidence for a Significant Effect of Oxytocin

Irene Trilla, Hanna Drimalla, Malek Bajbouj et al. · 2020 · Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

Recent findings suggest a role of oxytocin on the tendency to spontaneously mimic the emotional facial expressions of others. Oxytocin-related increases of facial mimicry, however, seem to be dependent on contextual factors. Given previous literature showing that people preferentially mimic emotional expressions of individuals associated with high (vs. low) rewards, we examined whether the reward value of the mimicked agent is one factor influencing the oxytocin effects on facial mimicry. To test this hypothesis, 60 male adults received 24 IU of either intranasal oxytocin or placebo in a doubl

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEngineering

Significant effect of image contrast enhancement on weld defect detection

Wan Azani Mustafa, Haniza Yazid, Hiam Alquran et al. · 2024 · PLoS ONE

Weld defect inspection is an essential aspect of testing in industries field. From a human viewpoint, a manual inspection can make appropriate justification more difficult and lead to incorrect identification during weld defect detection. Weld defect inspection uses X-radiography testing, which is now mostly outdated. Recently, numerous researchers have utilized X-radiography digital images to inspect the defect. As a result, for error-free inspection, an autonomous weld detection and classification system are required. One of the most difficult issues in the field of image processing, particu

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Negative / Null Result ReportNeuroscience

Failure to replicate talker-specific syntactic adaptation.

Linda Liu, Zachary Burchill, Michael K. Tanenhaus et al. · 2017 · eScholarship (California Digital Library)

Sentence understanding is affected by recent experience. Animportant open question is whether this reflects adaptationto the statistics of the input. Support for this hypothesiscomes from the recent finding that listeners can…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Accurate modeling of replication rates in genome-wide association studies by accounting for Winner’s Curse and study-specific heterogeneity

Jennifer Zou, Jinjing Zhou, Sarah Faller et al. · 2022 · G3 Genes Genomes Genetics

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified thousands of genetic variants associated with complex human traits, but only a fraction of variants identified in discovery studies achieve significance in replication studies. Replication in genome-wide association studies has been well-studied in the context of Winner's Curse, which is the inflation of effect size estimates for significant variants due to statistical chance. However, Winner's Curse is often not sufficient to explain lack of replication. Another reason why studies fail to replicate is that there are fundamental difference

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Abandoned HypothesisBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Are we ready to genetically modify a human embryo? Or is it too late to ask?

Kirstin R.W. Matthews, Ana S. Iltis · 2019 · Accountability in Research

After the announcement that a scientist genetically altered human embryos and implanted them for gestation last November, the increased discussion has revolved around the ethical lapses that occurred in the process. The scientist, He…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Sexual victimization histories and substance use trajectories during the transition out of college.

Jessica A. Blayney, Matthew D. Scalco, Sharon Radomski et al. · 2019 · Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

= 480; 61% female) reported on their alcohol and drug use behaviors across 5 time points spanning 1 calendar year. For many, this year included the transition out of college. Latent growth curve analysis was used to determine whether…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

What Goes Around Comes Around: How Perpetrators of Workplace Bullying Become Targets Themselves

Ivana Vranješ, Tinne Vander Elst, Yannick Griep et al. · 2022 · Group & Organization Management

In this study, we investigated whether and how perpetrators of bullying become targets themselves. Building on the notion of bullying as an escalation process and the Conservation of Resources Theory, we hypothesized that following enactment of bullying, people would experience increased relationship conflicts with colleagues, diminishing their sense of control and making them more likely to become exposed to bullying themselves. We tested this idea using longitudinal sequential mediated Structural Equation Modelling in a sample of 1420 Belgian workers. Our results confirmed that enactment of

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Negative / Null Result ReportMedicine

Confirming Savoring’s Link to Fewer Cannabis Problems

Maha N. Mian, Brianna R. Altman, Luna F. Ueno et al. · 2020 · Journal of Psychoactive Drugs

Savoring has covaried inversely with cannabis problems and moderated the association between cannabis use and negative consequences related to use. Research has not yet addressed the acceptability of savoring interventions for cannabis…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessAgricultural and Biological Sciences

Persistence and Retention of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus in Stable Flies (Diptera: Muscidae)

Kateryn Rochon, Rodney B. Baker, Glen W. Almond et al. · 2015 · Journal of Medical Entomology

We investigated the acquisition of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus by the stable fly (Diptera: Muscidae; Stomoxys calcitrans (L.)) through a bloodmeal, and virus persistence in the digestive organs of the fly…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Food preferences throughout the menstrual cycle – A computer-assisted neuro-endocrino-psychological investigation

Marie Lefebvre, Michael P. Hengartner, Enrico Tronci et al. · 2022 · Physiology & Behavior

BACKGROUND: As eating behavior changes in relation to the menstrual cycle and weight changes with menopausal transition, ovarian hormones appear to be involved in regulating eating behavior. However, observations are contradictory and are difficult to compare, due to methodological problems related to nutritional epidemiology. To better understand the relationship between ovarian steroid hormones and eating behavior, our study evaluates women's responses to visual food cues at different points in the menstrual cycle with their specific serum estrogen/progesterone levels and women's responses i

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessHealth Professions

Experience of irreproducibility as a risk factor for poor mental health in biomedical science doctoral students: A survey and interview-based study

Nasser Lubega, Abigail Anderson, Nicole Nelson · 2023 · PLoS ONE

High rates of irreproducibility and of poor mental health in graduate students have been reported in the biomedical sciences in the past ten years, but to date, little research has investigated whether these two trends interact. In this study, we ask whether the experience of failing to replicate an expected finding impacts graduate students' mental health. Using an online survey paired with semi-structured qualitative interviews, we examined how often biomedical science doctoral students at a large American public university experienced events that could be interpreted as failures to replicat

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessNeuroscience

Exploring Bottom-Up Visual Processing and Visual Hallucinations in Parkinson's Disease With Dementia

Nicholas Murphy, Alison Killen, Rajnish Kumar Gupta et al. · 2021 · Frontiers in Neurology

Visual hallucinations (VH) are a common symptom of Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD), affecting up to 65% of cases. Integrative models of their etiology posit that a decline in executive control of the visuo-perceptual system is a primary mechanism of VH generation. The role of bottom-up processing in the manifestation of VH in this condition is still not clear although visual evoked potential (VEP) differences have been associated with VH at an earlier stage of PD. Here we compared the amplitude and latency pattern reversal VEPs in healthy controls ( n = 21) and PDD patients ( n = 34) w

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

A Potential Role of Progestin-Induced Laminin-5/α6-Integrin Signaling in the Formation of Side Branches in the Mammary Gland

Gabriele Meyer, Jeffrey R. Leipprandt, Jianwei Xie et al. · 2012 · Endocrinology

Mammary organoids from adult mice produce tubules, analogous to mammary ducts in vivo, in response to hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) when cultured in collagen gels. The combination of HGF plus progestin (R5020) causes reduced tubule number…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessHealth Professions

Assessing the feasibility of measuring residents’ quality of life in English care homes and the construct validity and internal consistency of measures completed by staff proxy: a cross-sectional study

Ann‐Marie Towers, Stacey Rand, Stephen Allan et al. · 2025 · BMJ Open

OBJECTIVES: To assess the feasibility of capturing older care home residents' quality of life (QoL) in digital social care records and the construct validity (hypothesis testing) and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) of four QoL measures. DESIGN: doption) study, a mixed-methods pilot of a prototype minimum dataset (MDS). SETTING: Care homes (with or without nursing) registered to provide care for older adults (>65 years) and/or those living with dementia. All homes used a digital record system from one of two suppliers. PARTICIPANTS: Data were extracted from 748 residents. All permanent

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Genetic Predictors of Depressive Symptoms in the Look AHEAD Trial

Jeanne M. McCaffery, George D. Papandonatos, Lucy F. Faulconbridge et al. · 2015 · Psychosomatic Medicine

OBJECTIVES: Numerous studies have found elevated depressive symptoms among individuals with Type 2 diabetes, yet the mechanisms remain unclear. We examined whether genetic loci previously associated with depressive symptoms predict…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessNeuroscience

Disconnected and Hyperactive: A Replication of Sensorimotor Cortex Abnormalities in Patients With Schizophrenia During Proactive Response Inhibition

Christopher J. Wertz, Faith M Hanlon, Nicholas A. Shaff et al. · 2018 · Schizophrenia Bulletin

Inhibitory failure represents a core dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia (SP), which has predominantly been tested in the literature using reactive (ie, altering behavior after a stimulus) rather than proactive (ie, purposefully…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessAgricultural and Biological Sciences

A novel strategy to attenuate porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus by inhibiting viral replication in the target pulmonary alveolar macrophages via hematopoietic-specific miR-142

Shaoyuan Tan, Weixin Wu, Xinna Ge et al. · 2023 · One Health Advances

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is an economically important pathogen for the global pork industry. Although modified live virus (MLV) vaccines are commonly used for PRRSV prevention and control, they still carry a risk of infecting the host and replicating in target cells, thereby increasing the likehood of virus recombination and reversion to virulence. In this study, we inserted the target sequence of miR-142 into the nsp2 hypervariable region of PRRSV to inhibit viral replication in its host cells of pigs, with the aim of achieving virus attenuation. The chimeri

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