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21,300 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.

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBusiness

Which dimensions of AI development shape tourism’s direct contribution to GDP? Evidence from a multi-country panel

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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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 accessNeurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry

Assessing the Functional Role of Frontal Eye Fields in Voluntary and Reflexive Saccades Using Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation

Seref Can Gurel, Seref Can Gurel, Seref Can Gurel et al. · 2018 · Frontiers in Neuroscience

The frontal eye fields (FEFs) are core nodes of the oculomotor system contributing to saccade planning, control, and execution. Here, we aimed to reveal hemispheric asymmetries between left and right FEF in both voluntary and reflexive saccades toward horizontal and vertical targets. To this end, we applied fMRI-guided continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) over either left or right FEF and assessed the consequences of this disruption on saccade latencies. Using a fully counterbalanced within-subject design, we measured saccade latencies before and after the application of cTBS in eighteen

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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 accessChiropractic

A process evaluation of the Mind Your Back trial examining psychologically informed physical treatments for chronic low back pain

M. John Petrozzi, Grace Spencer, Martin G. Mackey · 2021 · Chiropractic & Manual Therapies

Abstract Background In chronic conditions, such as back pain, the use of interventions that address physical, social and psychological aspects within a biopsychosocial framework are encouraged, however, applying this holistic multimodal approach in physical therapy practice (i.e., chiropractic and physiotherapy) is challenging. To explore the problem of delivering a biopsychosocially informed package of care in physical therapy practice a recent randomised control trial (RCT) called ‘Mind Your Back’ was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a combined physical and internet-delivered psych

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPolitical science (General)

Is Bad Always Stronger Than Good? Culture and Negativity Biases in Generalized Trust

Baowen Liang · 2026 · Politics and Governance

Generalized trust refers to individuals’ trust in members of society at large. Previous research highlights negativity bias as a central obstacle to trust development: trust is easily destroyed but difficult to build. Yet, most evidence for this bias comes from Western, individualistic contexts. This study examines whether such findings generalize to collectivist settings. Using a preregistered online experiment in China, I show that negative information about others’ untrustworthiness lowers generalized trust more than positive information raises it, which indicates a clear negativity bias in

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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 accessSpecial aspects of education

Incorporating explicit discussions on the duality of reasoning into physics instruction

Alistair McInerny, Andrew Boudreaux, Mila Kryjevskaia · 2025 · Physical Review Physics Education Research

This article reports on a controlled study to investigate the efficacy of incorporating explicit discussions about the duality of human reasoning and its implications for learning in physics instruction. The central goal is to probe to what extent, if at all, such discussions improve student performance on tasks that tend to elicit intuitively appealing but incorrect responses. We hypothesized that explicitly discussing the reasoning pathways and hazards associated with the interactions between automatic process 1 and deliberate process 2 could boost students’ performance on a variety of topic

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPolitical science (General)

The (null) effect of climate change beliefs on disaster preparedness by houses of worship

Jason M. Pudlo · Politics and Religion

Houses of worship are often shelters after the storm. Yet, as climate change fuels natural disasters and communities increasingly rely on congregations during disaster recovery, are houses of worship ready to be houses of refuge? Examining clergy influence, does a higher concern about climate change by clergy result in improved congregational disaster readiness? Data for the study come from a 2019 nationwide survey of clergy. The survey includes measures of congregational disaster preparedness along with one of the first applications of the SASSY climate concern measure to clergy. Results show

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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 accessNeurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry

The Impact of Visual Feedback Design on Self-Regulation Performance and Learning in a Single-Session rt-fMRI Neurofeedback Study at 3T and 7T

Sebastian Baecke, Ralf Lützkendorf, Johannes Bernarding · 2026 · Brain Sciences

Background: The efficacy of real-time fMRI neurofeedback (NFB) depends critically on how feedback is presented and perceived by the participant. Although various visual feedback designs are used in practice, there is limited evidence on the impact of modality on learning and performance. We conducted a feasibility study to compare the effectiveness of different feedback modalities, and to evaluate the technical performance of NFB across two scanner field strengths. Methods: In a single-session study, nine healthy adults (6 men, 3 women) voluntarily adapted the activation level of the primary s

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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 accessLanguage and Literature

No hesitation at the choice point: verb–particle placement is cost-free in production

Matt Hunt Gardner, Xinyu Leslie Liao · 2026 · Language and Cognition

Using 3,154 tokens from American English, we test whether optionality in verb–particle placement increases speech-planning cost, measured as pre-verbal silence. Tokens were coded for object properties, idiomaticity and verb frequency. We find that pre-verbal silence does not differ between split (pick the book up) and joined (pick up the book) orders. While idiomaticity favours the joined order, it does not raise planning cost. Verb frequency shortens pauses only in fast speech, suggesting predictability acts lexically, not structurally. Choice symmetry does not lengthen pauses. We therefore f

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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 accessPhysics

An Experimental Test of the Classical Interpretation of the Kaluza Fifth Dimension

Martin Tajmar, Lance L. Williams · 2020 · Physics

Kaluza was the first to realize that the four-dimensional gravitational field of general relativity and the classical electromagnetic field behave as if they were components of a five-dimensional gravitational field. We present a novel experimental test of the macroscopic classical interpretation of the Kaluza fifth dimension. Our experiment design probes a key feature of Kaluza unification—that electric charge is identified with motion in the fifth dimension. Therefore, we tested for a time dilation effect on an electrically charged clock. This test can also be understood as a constraint on t

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial sciences (General)

On the Significance of Place: Vaccination Refusal as a Situated Phenomenon

Martijn van der Meer · 2025 · Journal of Trial and Error

Expert endorsement seems a promising tool in countering vaccine hesitancy. Yet findings from an experiment in the United Kingdom, published in this journal, found that repeated expert‐backed “debunking” messages had little effect on vaccination intentions or behaviors. At the same time, a similar study in Italy had earlier observed a slight increase in the intent to vaccinate—despite actual uptake remaining unchanged. In this article, I reflect on the differences between these studies and argue for a situated public health approach: one that opens up on diversity and responds to local trust dy

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessScience

Revisiting 129Xe electric dipole moment measurements applying a new global phase fitting approach

Tianhao Liu, Katharina Rolfs, Isaac Fan et al. · 2021 · New Journal of Physics

By measuring the spin precession frequencies of polarized ^129 Xe and ^3 He, a new upper limit on the ^129 Xe atomic electric dipole moment (EDM) ${d}_{\text{A}}\left({}^{129}\mathrm{X}\mathrm{e}\right)$ was reported in Sachdev et al (2019 Phys. Rev. Lett. 123 , 143003). Here, we propose a new evaluation method based on global phase fitting (GPF) for analyzing the continuous phase development of the ^3 He– ^129 Xe comagnetometer signal. The Cramer–Rao lower bound on the ^129 Xe EDM for the GPF method is theoretically derived and shows the potential benefit of our new approach. The robustness o

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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 accessEducation

An Efficacy Study of a Digital Core Curriculum for Grade 5 Mathematics

Nicole Shechtman, Jeremy Roschelle, Mingyu Feng et al. · 2019 · AERA Open

The Math Curriculum Impact Study was a large-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the efficacy of a digital core curriculum for Grade 5 mathematics. Reasoning Mind’s Grade 5 Common Core Curriculum was a comprehensive, adaptive, blended learning approach that schools in the treatment group implemented for an entire school year. Schools in the control group implemented their business-as-usual mathematics curriculum. The study was completed in 46 schools throughout West Virginia, resulting in achievement data from 1,919 students. It also included exploratory investigations of teacher p

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine (General)

Alcohol Drinking and Bladder Cancer Risk From a Pooled Analysis of Ten Cohort Studies in Japan

Hiroyuki Masaoka, Keitaro Matsuo, Isao Oze et al. · 2020 · Journal of Epidemiology

Background: The association of alcohol drinking with bladder cancer risk remains unclear in East Asian populations. Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) enzyme oxidizes alcohol-metabolized carcinogenic acetaldehyde into acetate. It is well known that the inactive ALDH2 carriers, specific to East Asian populations, have an increased risk of several cancer types because of increased exposure to acetaldehyde after alcohol consumption. The aim of this study was to examine the association between alcohol drinking and bladder cancer risk using data from ten population-based prospective cohort studies in

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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 accessSpecial aspects of education

الضغوط المهنية لمعلمي التربية الخاصة في ضوء بعض المتغيرات (دراسة عبر ثقافية) Special Education Teachers' Professional Stress in the Light of Some Variables ( A Cross-Cultural Study )

علي عبدالله علي مسافر · 2016 · مجلة التربیة الخاصة والتأهیل

تهدف الدراسة الحالية إلى استقصاء الضغوط المهنية لمعلمي التربية الخاصة في کل من البيئة الثقافية السعودية والمصرية، ومعرفة الفروق في نوعية تلک الضغوط في هاتين البيئتين تبعاً لمتغيرات فئة الإعاقة التي يعمل معها المعلم (عقلية وتوحد/ بصرية/ سمعية)، وجنس المعلم (ذکر/ أنثى)، وسنوات خبرة المعلم (أقل من 5 سنوات/ 5 سنوات فأکثر). وأجريت الدراسة على عينة قوامها (224) معلماً ومعلمةً من معلمي التربية الخاصة بجمهورية مصر العربية والمملکة العربية السعودية، واستخدمت الدراسة مقياس الضغوط المهنية لمعلمي التربية الخاصة (إعداد الباحث)، ولتحليل البيانات تم تطبيق اختبار "ت"، وتحليل التباين المتعدد MANOVA، واختبار شي

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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 (General)

Rheumatoid Arthritis and Cardiovascular Risk: Retrospective Matched-Cohort Analysis Based on the RECORD Study of the Italian Society for Rheumatology

Lisa Argnani, Anna Zanetti, Anna Zanetti et al. · 2021 · Frontiers in Medicine

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with an increase in cardiovascular (CV) risk. This issue maybe not only explained by a genetic component, as well as by the traditional CV risk factors, but also by an underestimation and undertreatment of concomitant CV comorbidities.Method: This was a retrospective matched-cohort analysis in the Italian RA real-world population based on the healthcare-administrative databases to assess the CV risk factors and incidence of CV events in comparison with the general population. Persistence and adherence to the CV therapy were also evaluated in

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Abandoned HypothesisOpen accessMedicine (General)

Personal preventive protocols and travel patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic

Homayoun Sadeghi-Bazargani, Ali Jafari-Khounigh, Hamid Sharifi et al. · 2025 · Russian Open Medical Journal

Background — Travel restrictions and adhering to health protocols while traveling was among the key strategies to combat COVID-19 pandemic. Objective — The present study aims to measure and evaluate travel patterns and compliance with COVID-19 prevention protocols during traveling. Methods — In this cross-sectional study, 589 individuals from the capitals of six provinces of Iran were included in the study using the cluster sampling method. There were 40 clusters. For data analysis, the mean value of responses in each individual was calculated for each section of the questionnaire. Results — T

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Abandoned HypothesisOpen accessEducation

Hermann's Brain Dominance and its Relationship with Habits of Mind in Classroom Management among Preparatory Stage Teachers

Walid Samir Ahmed Ismail Gharib, Prof. Dr. Hayam Saber Shaheen · 2023 · مجلة بحوث التعليم والإبتكار

This study aimed at exploring the relationship between Hermann's brain dominance and habits of mind in class management for preparatory stage teachers, in addition to examining the difference in the study variables according to the demographic variables, gender (males-females), and the number of years of experience (less than 5 years, 5-10 years, 10-15 years, 15 years or more). The methodology and procedures of the study are based on the comparative descriptive relational approach. The study sample consisted of (107) male and female teachers, whose ages ranged between (25-60) years, with an av

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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 accessDiseases of the genitourinary system. Urology

Focal Cryotherapy in Prostate Cancer. Does Gleason Impact Results?

Kinga Mate, Pedro de Pablos-Rodríguez, Marta Burbano Herraiz et al. · 2026 · International Brazilian Journal of Urology

ABSTRACT Purpose: Focal cryotherapy is a minimally invasive treatment for localized prostate cancer (PCa), but its oncological outcomes, particularly in relation to baseline Gleason Grade Group (GG), remain understudied. This study evaluates its efficacy and the impact while radical of baseline Gleason score on recurrence-free survival. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis included 111 patients with localized PCa treated with focal cryotherapy between 2014 and January 2024. Patients with prior treatments or follow-up 1. Results: Median follow-up was 35 months (IQR 24–49). Confirmato

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