Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessTherapeutics. Pharmacology
Mudit Agarwal, Piyush Ranjan, Upendra Baitha et al. · 2020 · Frontiers in Pharmacology
Hydroxychloroquine has gained much attention as one of the candidate drugs that can be repurposed as a prophylactic agent against SARS-CoV-2, the agent responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to high transmissibility and presence of asymptomatic carriers and presymptomatic transmission, there is need for a chemoprophylactic agent to protect the high-risk population. In this review, we dissect the currently available evidence on hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis from a clinical and pharmacological point of view. In vitro studies on Vero cells show that hydroxychloroquine effectively inhibits SA
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessZoology
Masahiro Sasaki, Hinano Kinoshita, Akitsugu Konno · 2025 · Animal Cognition
Abstract The present study explored whether a well-socialized Steller sea lion named Hama could reproduce similar actions with human demonstrations using the “Do as I do” (DAID) paradigm. Hama had learned 50 types of behaviors, but her social learning ability was unknown. In Study 1, we trained Hama to produce simultaneous DAID responses. After introducing the DAID training, we conducted four tests to confirm Hama’s acquisition of demonstrator-matching behavior. We found that Hama successfully acquired the action-matching ability for human actions, not only with three trained actions but also
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessNeurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Louise Simeonov, Ravi Das · 2025 · Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
A fundamental question in cognitive neuroscience is how multi-sensory elements are bound into a unified memory trace. The formation of memories is thought to be reliant on precisely timed neural activity. Theta frequency neural oscillations have been proposed to orchestrate the timing of different sensory cortices. Here, we attempt to replicate findings that flickering stimuli presented in synchronous theta frequency will lead to enhanced recall. Additionally, we investigate whether theta frequency sensory flicker can improve encoding of emotional associative memories. The current study failed
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessAgriculture
Leila Sahampoor, Fatemeh Zaker Tavallaie, Seyed Reza Fani et al. · 2020 · Journal of Crop Protection
Trichoderma is very important as a bio control agent and probably a good alternative for chemical fungicides. Fusarium oxysporum is a plant pathogen that causes wilt in a wide range of plants. The use of gamma irradiation can be employed to increase Trichoderma efficiency against F. oxysporum. The induced mutation provides genetic changes in Trichoderma and in some of the mutated isolates the efficiency of bio control may be improved. In this study the efficiency of mutated T. harzianum CS5 against the F. oxysporum f.sp. radicis-cucumerinum was evaluated. Among 16 wild isolates of Trichoderma,
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessAgriculture (General)
Lingxiao Zhang, Jinlong Dong, Xiao Ma et al. · 2026 · Agriculture
The uptake and accumulation of mercury (Hg) in rice poses a serious threat to food safety. Pot experiments are widely used to screen for low-Hg-accumulating cultivars, yet their reliability in predicting field performance remains uncertain. This study evaluated pot-based screening by (1) comparing Hg uptake in rice grown in freshly processed versus aged soil; (2) contrasting Hg accumulation in the same cultivars grown in pots versus at two field sites; and (3) isolating micro-environmental effects by burying pots in situ. A total of 22 rice cultivars were used during 2021–2023 in this study. P
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology
Maribeth M. Trego, Julia S. Soares, Annie S. Ditta · 2025 · Behavioral Sciences
Three studies investigated the effects of photo and note taking on memory for lecture content in in-person and online environments. Participants watched slideshow lecture videos and were instructed to only watch, take photos, take notes, or simultaneously take both photos and notes of the information on the slides. Memory for on-slide and only said information was tested using fill-in-the-blank questions. Experiment 1, conducted in-person, found a significant photo-taking impairment and an interaction for on-slide information such that there was a larger impairment when participants took both
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine
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
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine
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
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology
Sabrina M. Di Lonardo Burr, Jill Turner, Jesse Nietmann et al. · 2021 · Journal of Numerical Cognition
Math story problems are difficult for many solvers because comprehension of mathematical and linguistic content must occur simultaneously. Across two studies, we attempted to conceptually replicate and extend findings reported by Mattarella-Micke and Beilock (2010, https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.17.1.106) and Jarosz and Jaeger (2019, https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3471). Mattarella-Micke and Beilock found that multiplication word problems in which an irrelevant number was associated with the protagonist of the problem (i.e., foregrounded in the text) were solved less accurately than problems in othe
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEcology
Ben Langford, James M Cash, Massimo Vieno et al. · 2022 · Environmental Research: Ecology
Isoprene is emitted from numerous plant species in response to light and temperature and parameterisations of these relationships, based on observations from a few vascular plant species, have been shown to be broadly applicable to many different vegetation types. Here, we investigate their performance when applied to an ecosystem dominated by bryophytes. Over a six-week period, emissions of isoprene were measured above a Scottish peat bog. The light response derived on the basis of both canopy-scale flux and whole-plant enclosure measurements, deviated from the classical response, showing no
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessNeurology. Diseases of the nervous system
Arima Kunimasa, Hori Hiroaki, Shizuno Tomoko et al. · 2006 · Behavioral and Brain Functions
Abstract Background Vesicular monoamine transporters (VMATs) mediate accumulation of monoamines such as serotonin, dopamine, adrenaline, and noradrenaline from the cytoplasm into storage organelles. The VMAT1 (alternatively solute carrier family 18: SLC18A1) regulates such biogenic amines in neuroendocrine systems. The VMAT1 gene maps to chromosome 8p21.3, a locus with strong evidence of linkage with schizophrenia. A recent study reported that a non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the gene (Pro4Thr) was associated with schizophrenia. Methods We attempted to replicate this fi
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine
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
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental technology. Sanitary engineering
Halvard Buhaug, Tor A Benjaminsen, Espen Sjaastad et al. · 2015 · Environmental Research Letters
Earlier research that reports a correlational pattern between climate anomalies and violent conflict routinely refers to drought-induced agricultural shocks and adverse economic spillover effects as a key causal mechanism linking the two phenomena. Comparing half a century of statistics on climate variability, food production, and political violence across Sub-Saharan Africa, this study offers the most precise and theoretically consistent empirical assessment to date of the purported indirect relationship. The analysis reveals a robust link between weather patterns and food production where mo
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessAstrophysics
John T. Whelan, Rodrigo Tenorio, Jared K. Wofford et al. · 2023 · The Astrophysical Journal
Improved observational constraints on the orbital parameters of the low-mass X-ray binary Scorpius X-1 were recently published in Killestein et al. In the process, errors were corrected in previous orbital ephemerides, which have been used in searches for continuous gravitational waves from Sco X-1 using data from the Advanced LIGO detectors. We present the results of a reanalysis of LIGO detector data from the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo using a model-based cross-correlation search. The corrected region of parameter space, which was not covered by previous searches
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessScience
Toshikazu Kawagoe, Wataru Teramoto · 2023 · Royal Society Open Science
During the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing a face mask became a global daily practice. Japanese people were already accustomed to wearing masks due to their collectivistic culture, which prioritizes conformity and group harmony. In such a culture, where individuals are concerned about how others perceive them and their actions, wearing masks can be a self-protective action to prevent, escape, or reduce the severity of perceived negative feelings. Previous studies indicate that people experiencing anxiety tend to have negative biases when evaluating emotional expressions on faces. Therefore, we hypo
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
Riccardo Catena, Timon Emken, Nicola A. Spaldin et al. · 2020 · Physical Review Research
In the leading paradigm of modern cosmology, about 80% of our Universe's matter content is in the form of hypothetical, as yet undetected particles. These do not emit or absorb radiation at any observable wavelengths, and therefore constitute the so-called dark matter (DM) component of the Universe. Detecting the particles forming the Milky Way DM component is one of the main challenges for astroparticle physics and basic science in general. One promising way to achieve this goal is to search for rare DM-electron interactions in low-background deep underground detectors. Key to the interpretat
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessAstrophysics
Nima Chartab, Andrew B. Newman, Gwen C. Rudie et al. · 2025 · The Astrophysical Journal
We investigate the environmental dependence of galaxy properties at z ∼ 2.5 using the Ly α Tomography IMACS Survey (LATIS), which provides high-resolution three-dimensional maps of intergalactic medium (IGM) overdensity via Ly α forest tomography. Our analysis focuses on a UV-selected spectroscopic sample of 2185 galaxies from LATIS and a complementary set of 1157 galaxies from heterogeneous spectroscopic surveys in the COSMOS field. We compare these data sets to forward-modeled mock catalogs constructed from the IllustrisTNG300-1 simulation, incorporating realistic selection functions to matc
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessScience
Alex Dinovitser, Dimitar G. Valchev, Derek Abbott · 2017 · Royal Society Open Science
Chemical degradation of edible oils has been studied using conventional spectroscopic methods spanning the spectrum from ultraviolet to mid-IR. However, the possibility of morphological changes of oil molecules that can be detected at terahertz frequencies is beginning to receive some attention. Furthermore, the rapidly decreasing cost of this technology and its capability for convenient, in situ measurement of material properties, raises the possibility of monitoring oil during cooking and processing at production facilities, and more generally within the food industry. In this paper, we test
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial sciences (General)
Anna V. Stol, Marina R. Serbina · 2026 · Векторы благополучия: экономика и социум
Relevance. Paradigm shift in social policy: from narrow indicators of academic performance to a multidimensional concept of child well-being as a key goal of education. Aim. To test the hypothesis about the effect of subjective perception of child well-being on the educational outcomes of schoolchildren in the Republic of Bashkortostan. Methods. Results of an online survey of schoolchildren in grades 5–11 in the Republic of Bashkortostan (N=25,437, 2025) serve as empirical base. The study used methods of descriptive statistics and Spearman's correlation analysis. Results. Contrary to the data
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology
Karin eWanrooij, Paul eBoersma, Titia eBenders et al. · 2015 · Frontiers in Psychology
Distributional learning of speech sounds is learning from simply being exposed to frequency distributions of speech sounds in one’s surroundings. In laboratory settings, the mechanism has been reported to be discernible already after a few minutes of exposure, in both infants and adults. These effects of distributional training have traditionally been attributed to the difference in the number of peaks between the experimental distribution (two peaks) and the control distribution (one or zero peaks). However, none of the earlier studies fully excluded a possibly confounding effect of the dispe
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine
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
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPublic aspects of medicine
Simiao Chen, Pascal Geldsetzer, Till Bärnighausen · 2020 · SSM: Population Health
Population aging in middle-income countries, including China, has resulted in strong economic incentives to increase the retirement age. These economic incentives should be weighed up against the effects of later retirement on physical and mental health and wellbeing. We aimed to determine the causal effect of retirement on perceived stress, an important measure of mental well-being. We used data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey in 2015 and adopted a non-parametric regression discontinuity design (RDD) to measure the causal effect of retirement on stress. Stress was assessed using th
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine
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
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine
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
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessScience
Leonor Neves, Marta Martins, Ana Isabel Correia et al. · 2021 · Royal Society Open Science
The human voice is a primary channel for emotional communication. It is often presumed that being able to recognize vocal emotions is important for everyday socio-emotional functioning, but evidence for this assumption remains scarce. Here, we examined relationships between vocal emotion recognition and socio-emotional adjustment in children. The sample included 141 6- to 8-year-old children, and the emotion tasks required them to categorize five emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, plus neutrality), as conveyed by two types of vocal emotional cues: speech prosody and non-verbal
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessScience
John P. McElderry, Tongwu Zhang, Wei Zhao et al. · 2025 · Nature Communications
Abstract In spite of the growing interest in the microbiome in human cancer, there are currently only small-scale lung cancer microbiome studies conducted directly on tissue. As part of the Sherlock-Lung study, we studied the microbiomes of 940 lung cancers (4090 samples) in never smokers (LCINS) directly from lung tissue using three data types: 16S rRNA gene sequencing (16S), whole-genome sequencing (WGS) with paired blood, and RNA-seq. We observe very low biomass and few microbiome associations in LCINS using 16S and WGS tissue. Using RNA-seq, we observe more total microbial reads, and decre
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine
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
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMaterials of engineering and construction. Mechanics of materials
Thomas L. Goût, Anamul H. Mir, Simon M. Fairclough et al. · 2024 · npj Materials Degradation
Abstract Zirconolite ceramics present a chemically durable host matrix for waste actinides, but zirconolite dissolution rates reported in the literature often vary significantly. Here, the release of Ca and Al from a hot isostatically pressed zirconolite (Ca0.8Zr0.9Ce0.3Ti1.6Al0.4O7.0) was shown to be predominantly driven by preferential dissolution of minor perovskite and alumina phases. Both phases were undetectable by XRD, and the perovskite was difficult to detect by SEM-EDS. Whilst the zirconolite phase exhibited no signs of alteration, dissolution of the perovskite proceeded congruently
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics
N. Mahfouz, J. Mülmenstädt, S. Burrows · 2024 · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Cloud albedo susceptibility to droplet number perturbation remains a source of uncertainty in understanding aerosol–cloud interactions and thus both past and present climate states. Through the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) v2 experiments, we probe the effects of competing processes on cloud albedo susceptibility of low-lying marine stratocumulus in the northeast Pacific. In present-day conditions, we find that increasing precipitation suppression by aerosols increases cloud albedo susceptibility, whereas increasing cloud sedimentation decreases it. By constructing a hypothetical m
View details →Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBusiness
Farhad Rahmanov, Anar Azizov , Elnara Samedova et al. · 2026 · Knowledge & Performance Management
Type of the article: Research Article Whether national artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem development shapes tourism’s contribution to GDP is an open empirical question, particularly given the multidimensional nature of modern AI ecosystems and the heterogeneous reliance of countries on tourism. This study identifies which dimensions of national AI ecosystem development drive within-country changes in tourism’s direct GDP share, using panel data from 33 countries over 2017–2023. Fixed-effects estimation with clustered standard errors is applied to both the composite Stanford HAI AI Vibranc
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