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20,261 real negative results, null findings, and replication failures · 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

A meta-epidemiological study on the reported treatment effect of pregabalin in neuropathic pain trials over time.

Emma T L Cheng, Mohammad Cheik-Hussein, Noelle Lin et al. · 2023 · PLoS ONE

Background Pregabalin is a drug used to treat neuropathic pain, and its use has increased substantially since 2007. Early trials found a strong treatment effect on pain for post-herpetic neuralgia and diabetic neuropathy. However more recent studies have failed to replicate these results. Methods This meta-epidemiological study aimed to assess change in the reported effectiveness of pregabalin in neuropathic pain trials over time, and if a change is present, determine any associated factors. Data sources We performed electronic searches for published trials in Medline, Embase and Cochrane Cent

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMicrobiology

VEGFA Isoforms as Pro-Angiogenic Therapeutics for Cerebrovascular Diseases

Amanda Louise White, Gregory Jaye Bix · 2023 · Biomolecules

Therapeutic angiogenesis has long been considered a viable treatment for vasculature disruptions, including cerebral vasculature diseases. One widely-discussed treatment method to increase angiogenesis is vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) A. In animal models, treatment with VEGFA proved beneficial, resulting in increased angiogenesis, increased neuronal density, and improved outcome. However, VEGFA administration in clinical trials has thus far failed to replicate the promising results seen in animal models. The lack of beneficial effects in humans and the difficulty in medicinal trans

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Antiviral therapy and outcomes of patients with pneumonia caused by influenza A pandemic (H1N1) virus.

Shi-gui Yang, Bin Cao, Li-rong Liang et al. · 2012 · PLoS ONE

BACKGROUND: There is limited data on the clinical outcome of patients with pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1) pneumonia who received oseltamivir treatment, especially when the treatment was administered more than 48 hours after symptom onset. METHODS: During the pandemic in 2009, a cohort of pH1N1 influenza pneumonia was built in China, and their clinical information was collected systematically, and analyzed with Cox models. RESULTS: 920 adults and 541 children with pneumonia who didn't receive corticosteroids were analyzed. In-hospital mortality was higher in adults who did not receive antiviral therapy

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMining engineering. Metallurgy

Comparative Study for Selective Lithium Recovery via Chemical Transformations during Incineration and Dynamic Pyrolysis of EV Li-Ion Batteries

Srija Balachandran, Kerstin Forsberg, Tom Lemaître et al. · 2021 · Metals

Selective leaching of Li from spent LIBs thermally pretreated by pyrolysis and incineration between 400 and 700 °C for 30, 60, and 90 min followed by water leaching at high temperature and high L/S ratio was examined. During the thermal pretreatment Li 2 CO 3 and LiF were leached. Along with Li salts, AlF 3 was also found to be leached with an efficiency not higher than 3.5%. The time of thermal pretreatment did not have a significant effect on Li leaching efficiency. The leaching efficiency of Li was higher with a higher L/S ratio. At a higher leaching temperature (80 °C), the leaching of Li

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessNeurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry

Investigating the Blood Microbiome in Parkinson's Disease, Schizophrenia, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

C. Rust, D. Tonge, L. L. van denHeuvel et al. · 2025 · Brain and Behavior

ABSTRACT Introduction Recent studies have challenged the idea of sterile blood, suggesting the presence of a blood microbiome. The detection of microbial nucleic acids in blood is thought to reflect the status of distant microbial niches, including the gut. However, the origins and viability of these microbes remain debated. In this study, blood microbiome signatures in Parkinson's disease (PD), schizophrenia (SCZ), and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were evaluated by extracting RNA‐sequencing (RNA‐seq) reads that did not map to the human genome. Furthermore, we investigated the correlat

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessNeoplasms. Tumors. Oncology. Including cancer and carcinogens

Effect of perioperative aspirin continuation on bleeding after pneumonectomy

Qirui Chen, Yan Liu, Yi Liu et al. · 2023 · Thoracic Cancer

Abstract Background To investigate the effect of continuous oral aspirin in perioperative period on bleeding in pneumonectomy. Methods A total of 170 patients who underwent pneumonectomy in our hospital from March 2021 to March 2022 were selected as the study objects. All patients took oral aspirin before surgery and did not take other antiplatelet agent or anticoagulants at the same time. The continuation group included 85 cases and continued to take aspirin 100 mg/day during the perioperative period, and the interruption group included 85 cases who stopped aspirin for 7 days before surgery a

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Negative / Null Result ReportMedicine

Influence of bone marrow lesions in the intercondylar eminence of tibia on postoperative outcomes after medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty -a pilot study.

Suda Y, Ishida K, Shibanuma N et al. · 2026 · BMC musculoskeletal disorders

Background Previously, it was reported that preoperative medial tibial bone marrow lesions (BMLs) were not associated with worse postoperative outcomes after medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA). However, the effect of BMLs in…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessNeurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry

Perception of stroke symptoms and utilization of emergency medical services

Maximiliano A. Hawkes, Mauricio F. Farez, Ismael L. Calandri et al. · Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria

ABSTRACT Lack of stroke awareness and slow activation of emergency medical services (EMS) are frequently reported reasons for delayed arrival to the hospital. We evaluated these variables in our population. Methods Review of hospital records and structured telephone interviews of 100 consecutive stroke patients. Forward stepwise logistic regression was used for the statistical analysis. Results Seventy patients (75%) arrived at the hospital 4.5 hours after stroke symptoms onset. The use of EMS did not improve arrival times. Most patients who recognized their symptoms did not use EMS (p < 0.02)

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Suppression of spontaneous currents in Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ by surface disorder

Samuel Lederer, Wen Huang, Edward Taylor et al. · 2014 · arXiv

A major challenge to the chiral $p$-wave hypothesis for the pairing symmetry of the unconventional superconductor Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ is the null result of sensitive scanning magnetometry experiments designed to detect the expected spontaneous charge currents. Motivated by junction tunneling conductance measurements which indicate the quenching of superconductivity at the surfaces of even high-purity samples, we examine the spontaneous currents in a chiral $p$-wave superconductor near a normal metal / superconductor interface using the lattice Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations and Ginzburg-Landau theor

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessAstrophysics

Strong field vacuum birefringence in plane wave pulses

B. King, T. Heinzl, T. G. Blackburn · 2023 · European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields

Abstract By combining an adiabatic approach based on a ‘locally monochromatic’ approximation with a local Hilbert transform, it is demonstrated how vacuum birefringence in the strong field regime can be calculated using a rate approach suitable for Monte Carlo simulation codes. Results for the flipping of the photon’s polarisation (helicity) are benchmarked with evaluation of exact expressions in a circularly (linearly) polarised plane wave of finite extent. For the circularly polarised case, the Heisenberg–Euler approach predicts a null result; an approximation similar to the ‘locally constan

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPolitical science (General)

Limited backlash? Assessing the geographic scope of electoral responses to refugees

Jeremy Ferwerda, Sascha Riaz · Political Science Research and Methods

Recent research suggests that local exposure to refugees does not increase support for far-right parties. We challenge this null result by drawing on granular data from Berlin in the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis. While prior work in the German context has generally assumed that refugee exposure is exogenous at the local level, we demonstrate that refugee housing was disproportionately concentrated in neighborhoods with young, non-citizen residents. To address this selection bias, we harmonize in-person and mail-in precinct boundaries across elections and implement a difference-in-differen

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Constraining meV axion dark matter with ALMA observations of the galactic center magnetar SGR 1745–2900

Javier De Miguel, Evanthia Hatziminaoglou, Frédéric Poidevin et al. · 2026 · Physics Letters B

We report a mm-wave search for axion dark matter from SGR 1745–2900, based on 4.8 h of ALMA observations. No candidate features are found between 133.99–135.78, 135.91–137.70, 145.99–147.78, and 147.99–149.78 GHz, corresponding to 0.55–0.62 meV. Interpreting this null result within a state-of-the-art stellar framework, we derive sensitivity to the axion–photon coupling at the level of gγ≳2×10−11 GeV−1 under a standard Navarro–Frenk–White profile; down to gγ≳2×10−13 GeV−1 upon accounting for a dense dark-matter spike around Sagittarius A*, probing the quantum chromodynamics axion parameter spac

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Exploration of Attentional and Executive Abilities in French-Speaking Children Immersed in Dutch Since 1, 2, 3, and 6 Years

Sophie Gillet, Cristina Anca Barbu, Martine Poncelet · 2020 · Frontiers in Psychology

Advantages in diverse aspects of cognitive functioning have been reported in early bilinguals (Bialystok, 2011) as well as in children frequenting an early bilingual immersion school program (Nicolay and Poncelet, 2015). However, during the last decade, some studies failed to replicate these advantages. Currently, the presence of cognitive benefits in children frequenting an immersion program remains debated. The lack of consistency between the studies could come from the fact that time spent by children within the immersion program is variable from one study to the other and that studies used

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessTechnology

Assessing Cognitive–Motor Performance in Table Tennis: Validity and Reliability of the Reactive Table Tennis Test

Alessandro Guarnieri, Fabiana Laurenti, Salvatore Mazzei et al. · 2025 · Applied Sciences

Table tennis (TT) is a high-speed sport requiring integrated cognitive and motor skills. However, the existing assessment tools have failed to replicate its sport-specific demands. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Reactive Table Tennis test designed to assess cognitive–motor performance in TT. Sixty athletes were recruited from TT, combat sports (CS), team sports (TS), and track and field (TF). Participants were required to react to 10 visual stimuli randomly emitted from three devices placed 3 m frontally by performing 1.5 m lateral or frontal displa

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Constraining meV Axion Dark Matter with ALMA Observations of the Galactic Center Magnetar SGR 1745-2900

Javier De Miguel, Evanthia Hatziminaoglou, Frédéric Poidevin et al. · 2025 · arXiv

We report a mm-wave search for axion dark matter from SGR 1745-2900, based on 4.8 h of ALMA observations. No candidate features are found between 133.99-135.78, 135.91-137.70, 145.99-147.78, and 147.99-149.78~GHz, corresponding to 0.55-0.62 meV. Interpreting this null result within a state-of-the-art stellar framework, we derive sensitivity to the axion-photon coupling at the level of $g_γ\gtrsim 2\times10^{-11}$ GeV$^{-1}$ under a standard Navarro-Frenk-White profile; down to $g_γ\gtrsim 2\times10^{-13}$ GeV$^{-1}$ upon accounting for a dense dark-matter spike around Sagittarius A*, probing t

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

DAMA confronts null searches in the effective theory of dark matter-nucleon interactions

Riccardo Catena, Alejandro Ibarra, Sebastian Wild · 2016 · arXiv

We examine the dark matter interpretation of the modulation signal reported by the DAMA experiment from the perspective of effective field theories displaying Galilean invariance. We consider the most general effective coupling leading to the elastic scattering of a dark matter particle with spin 0 or 1/2 off a nucleon, and we analyze the compatibility of the DAMA signal with the null results from other direct detection experiments, as well as with the non-observation of a high energy neutrino flux in the direction of the Sun from dark matter annihilation. To this end, we develop a novel semi-

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessScience

Eleven years of student replication projects provide evidence on the correlates of replicability in psychology

Veronica Boyce, Maya Mathur, Michael C. Frank · 2023 · Royal Society Open Science

Cumulative scientific progress requires empirical results that are robust enough to support theory construction and extension. Yet in psychology, some prominent findings have failed to replicate, and large-scale studies suggest replicability issues are widespread. The identification of predictors of replication success is limited by the difficulty of conducting large samples of independent replication experiments, however: most investigations reanalyse the same set of [Formula: see text]. We introduce a new dataset of 176 replications from students in a graduate-level methods course. Replicati

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEconomics, Econometrics and Finance

Talents from Abroad. Foreign Managers and Productivity in the United Kingdom

Dimitrios Exadaktylos, Massimo Riccaboni, Armando Rungi · 2020 · arXiv

In this paper, we test the contribution of foreign management on firms' competitiveness. We use a novel dataset on the careers of 165,084 managers employed by 13,106 companies in the United Kingdom in the period 2009-2017. We find that domestic manufacturing firms become, on average, between 7% and 12% more productive after hiring the first foreign managers, whereas foreign-owned firms register no significant improvement. In particular, we test that previous industry-specific experience is the primary driver of productivity gains in domestic firms (15.6%), in a way that allows the latter to ca

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Threatened suicide and baiting crowd formation: a replication and extension of Mann (1981)

Christine M. Smith, Paulina Dzik, Errin Fornicola · 2019 · Social Influence

Using the lens of Deindividuation Theory, Leon Mann explored the formation of baiting crowds in a small sample of public suicides/suicide attempts. Instead of attempting to prevent the suicide, baiting crowds encourage the victim to jump. Our aim was to replicate Mann's study with a larger more diverse sample of suicide attempts and a broadened theoretical lens (Frustration-Aggression). Using ProQuest, we identified 152 public suicide attempts reported in English language newspapers and failed to replicate Mann’s findings. Rather, baiting crowd formation was associated with variables that incr

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Can automated smoothing significantly improve benchmark time series classification algorithms?

James Large, Paul Southam, Anthony Bagnall · 2018 · arXiv

tl;dr: no, it cannot, at least not on average on the standard archive problems. We assess whether using six smoothing algorithms (moving average, exponential smoothing, Gaussian filter, Savitzky-Golay filter, Fourier approximation and a recursive median sieve) could be automatically applied to time series classification problems as a preprocessing step to improve the performance of three benchmark classifiers (1-Nearest Neighbour with Euclidean and Dynamic Time Warping distances, and Rotation Forest). We found no significant improvement over unsmoothed data even when we set the smoothing param

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Microlensing Searches for Extrasolar Planets: Current Status and Future Prospects

B. Scott Gaudi · 2002 · arXiv

I review results from, and future prospects for, microlensing searches for extrasolar planets. Analyses of well-sampled microlensing light curves by several collaborations have demonstrated that current searches are sensitive to Jupiter-mass planets with few AU separations from M-dwarfs in the Galactic bulge. To date, however, no unambiguous planetary detections have been made. Detailed analysis has shown that this null result implies that <33% of typical stars (i.e. M-dwarfs) in the Galactic bulge have Jupiter-mass companions with separations between 1.5 and 4 AU, and <45% have three-Jupiter-

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBiology (General)

Wildtype epidermal growth factor receptor ( Egfr ) is not required for daily locomotor or masking behavior in mice

Sancar Aziz, Mankinen Richard W, Lee Daekee et al. · 2006 · Journal of Circadian Rhythms

Abstract Background Recent studies have implicated the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) within the subparaventricular zone as being a major mediator of locomotor and masking behaviors in mice. The results were based on small cohorts of mice homozygous for the hypomorphic Egfr wa 2 allele on a mixed, genetically uncontrolled background, and on intraventricular infusion of exogenous EGFR ligands. Subsequenlty, a larger study using the same genetically mixed background failed to replicate the original findings. Since both previous approaches were susceptible to experimental artifacts relat

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMicrobiology

SARS-CoV-2 Isolates Show Impaired Replication in Human Immune Cells but Differential Ability to Replicate and Induce Innate Immunity in Lung Epithelial Cells

Miao Jiang, Pekka Kolehmainen, Laura Kakkola et al. · 2021 · Microbiology Spectrum

ABSTRACT The primary target organ of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection is the respiratory tract. Currently, there is limited information on the ability of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to infect and regulate innate immunity in human immune cells and lung epithelial cells. Here, we compared the ability of four Finnish isolates of SARS-CoV-2 from COVID-19 patients to replicate and induce interferons (IFNs) and other cytokines in different human cells. All isolates failed to replicate in dendritic cells, macrophages, monocytes, and lymphocytes, and no in

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Hunting for super-heavy dark matter with the highest-energy cosmic rays

Esteban Alcantara, Luis A. Anchordoqui, Jorge F. Soriano · 2019 · arXiv

In 15 years of data taking the Pierre Auger Observatory has observed no events beyond $10^{11.3}$ GeV. This null result translates into an upper bound on the flux of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays implying $J (> 10^{11.3}$ GeV) $< 3.6 \times 10^{-5}$ km$^{-2}$ sr$^{-1}$ yr$^{-1}$, at the 90\%C.L. We interpret this bound as a constraint on extreme-energy photons originating in the decay super-heavy dark matter (SHDM) particles clustered in the Galactic halo. Armed with this constraint we derive the strongest lower limit on the lifetime of hadronically decaying SHDM particles with masses in the ra

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessNutrition. Foods and food supply

Genome- and CD4+ T-cell methylome-wide association study of circulating trimethylamine-N-oxide in the Genetics of Lipid Lowering Drugs and Diet Network (GOLDN)

Stella Aslibekyan, Marguerite R. Irvin, Bertha A. Hidalgo et al. · 2017 · Journal of Nutrition & Intermediary Metabolism

Background: Trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), an atherogenic metabolite species, has emerged as a possible new risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Animal studies have shown that circulating TMAO levels are regulated by genetic and environmental factors. However, large-scale human studies have failed to replicate the observed genetic associations, and epigenetic factors such as DNA methylation have never been examined in relation to TMAO levels. Methods and results: We used data from the family-based Genetics of Lipid Lowering Drugs and Diet Network (GOLDN) to investigate the heritable determi

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Comparative Computational Strength of Quantum Oracles

Alp Atici · 2003 · arXiv

It is an established fact that for many of the interesting problems quantum algorithms based on queries of the standard oracle bring no significant improvement in comparison to known classical algorithms. It is conceivable that there are other oracles of algorithmic importance acting in a less intuitive fashion to which such limitations do not apply. Thus motivated this article suggests a broader understanding towards what a general quantum oracle is. We propose a general definition of a quantum oracle and give a classification of quantum oracles based on the behavior of the eigenvalues and ei

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessDiseases of the endocrine glands. Clinical endocrinology

Revisiting the Role of Vitamin D in Fracture Prevention in the Era of Mega-Trials

Sung Hye Kong · 2026 · Endocrinology and Metabolism

For decades, vitamin D has been a cornerstone of preventive medicine. However, recent large-scale randomized controlled trials have failed to replicate the broad benefits previously observed in epidemiological studies, particularly with respect to fracture and fall prevention in vitamin D-replete populations. Moreover, growing evidence suggesting an increased fall risk associated with high-dose bolus administration has necessitated a re-evaluation of safety assumptions. This review synthesizes these discordant findings to propose a framework grounded in precision medicine. We explore the ‘dive

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessElementary particle physics

Avoiding Bias in Measurements of Fundamental Constants from High Resolution Quasar Spectra

John K. Webb, Chung-Chi Lee, Dinko Milaković · 2022 · Universe

Recent advances in spectroscopic instrumentation and calibration methods dramatically improve the quality of quasar spectra. Supercomputer calculations show that, at high spectral resolution, procedures used in some previous analyses of spacetime variations of fundamental constants are likely to generate spurious measurements, biased systematically towards a null result. Developments in analysis methods are also summarised and a prescription given for the analysis of new and forthcoming data.

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