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Browse the failure-mode index

21,681 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 ReportMedicine

Significant Association of Annual Hospital Volume With the Risk of Inhospital Stroke or Death Following Carotid Endarterectomy but Likely Not After Carotid Stenting

Andreas Kuehnl, Pavlos Tsantilas, Christoph Knappich et al. · 2016 · Circulation Cardiovascular Interventions

BACKGROUND: Associations between hospital volume and the risk of stroke or death following carotid endarterectomy (CEA) and carotid artery stenting (CAS) on a national level in Germany were analyzed. METHODS AND RESULTS: Secondary data…

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Negative / Null Result ReportSocial Sciences

When are victims unlikely to cooperate with the police?

Richard B. Felson, Brendan Lantz · 2015 · Aggressive Behavior

Data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) are used to examine the tendency for victims of physical assault, sexual assault, and robbery to refuse to cooperate with the police (N= 3,856,171). Analyses of physical…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessDecision Sciences

A Model for Improving E-Tax Systems Adoption in Rural Zambia Based on the TAM Model

Patience Njina Soneka, Jackson Phiri · 2019 · Open Journal of Business and Management

The objective of this study was to assess the factors that influence the level of e-tax systems adoption in Zambia. The study focused on TaxOnline system used by domestic taxes division in Zambia. The study was conducted in rural Zambia. In this study, the researcher used Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The sample size was purposively selected from various taxpayers who were coming through to Zambia Revenue Authority Solwezi internet bureau. 100 semi structured survey questionnaires were distributed with 100% response. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The result

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Alcohol use and cardiometabolic risk in the UK Biobank: A Mendelian randomization study

Joanna Lankester, Daniela Zanetti, Erik Ingelsson et al. · 2021 · PLoS ONE

Observational studies suggest alcohol use promotes the development of some adverse cardiometabolic traits but protects against others including outcomes related to coronary artery disease. We used Mendelian randomization (MR) to explore causal relationships between the degree of alcohol consumption and several cardiometabolic traits in the UK Biobank. Using the well-established ADH1B Arg47His variant (rs1229984) and up to 24 additional SNPs recently found to be associated with alcohol consumption in an independent dataset as instruments, we conducted two-stage least squares and inverse weighte

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Failure to CAPTCHA Attention: Null Results from an Honesty Priming Experiment in Guatemala

Stewart Kettle, Marco Hernandez, Mike Sanders et al. · 2017 · Behavioral Sciences

We report results from a large online randomised tax experiment in Guatemala. The trial involves short messages and choices presented to taxpayers as part of a CAPTCHA pop-up window immediately before they file a tax return, with the aim of priming honest declarations. In total our sample includes 627,242 taxpayers and 3,232,430 tax declarations made over four months. Treatments include: honesty declaration; information about public goods; information about penalties for dishonesty, questions allowing a taxpayer to choose which public good they think tax money should be spent on; or questions

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Prospective associations of plasma phospholipids and mild cognitive impairment/dementia among African Americans in the ARIC Neurocognitive Study

Danni Li, Jeffrey R. Misialek, Eric Boerwinkle et al. · 2016 · Alzheimer s & Dementia Diagnosis Assessment & Disease Monitoring

INTRODUCTION: The objective of this study was to investigate whether 10 phospholipids/metabolites previously identified as prospectively predictive of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia in whites would also be predictive in a…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessNeuroscience

The Statistical Analysis of Multi-Voxel Patterns in Functional Imaging

Kai Schreiber, Bart Krekelberg · 2013 · PLoS ONE

The goal of multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) in BOLD imaging is to determine whether patterns of activation across multiple voxels change with experimental conditions. MVPA is a powerful technique, its use is rapidly growing, but it poses serious statistical challenges. For instance, it is well-known that the slow nature of the BOLD response can lead to greatly exaggerated performance estimates. Methods are available to avoid this overestimation, and we present those here in tutorial fashion. We go on to show that, even with these methods, standard tests of significance such as Students' T

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessAgricultural and Biological Sciences

Phylogenomic resolution of order- and family-level monocot relationships using 602 single-copy nuclear genes and 1375 BUSCO genes

Prakash Raj Timilsena, Eric Wafula, Craig F. Barrett et al. · 2022 · Frontiers in Plant Science

We assess relationships among 192 species in all 12 monocot orders and 72 of 77 families, using 602 conserved single-copy (CSC) genes and 1375 benchmarking single-copy ortholog (BUSCO) genes extracted from genomic and transcriptomic datasets. Phylogenomic inferences based on these data, using both coalescent-based and supermatrix analyses, are largely congruent with the most comprehensive plastome-based analysis, and nuclear-gene phylogenomic analyses with less comprehensive taxon sampling. The strongest discordance between the plastome and nuclear gene analyses is the monophyly of a clade com

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Association of substance dependence phenotypes in the COGA sample

Leah Wetherill, Arpana Agrawal, Manav Kapoor et al. · 2014 · Addiction Biology

Alcohol and drug use disorders are individually heritable (50%). Twin studies indicate that alcohol and substance use disorders share common genetic influences, and therefore may represent a more heritable form of addiction and thus be…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Characterisation of age and polarity at onset in bipolar disorder

János Kálmán, Loes M. Olde Loohuis, Annabel Vreeker et al. · 2021 · The British Journal of Psychiatry

BACKGROUND: Studying phenotypic and genetic characteristics of age at onset (AAO) and polarity at onset (PAO) in bipolar disorder can provide new insights into disease pathology and facilitate the development of screening tools. AIMS: To examine the genetic architecture of AAO and PAO and their association with bipolar disorder disease characteristics. METHOD: Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) and polygenic score (PGS) analyses of AAO (n = 12 977) and PAO (n = 6773) were conducted in patients with bipolar disorder from 34 cohorts and a replication sample (n = 2237). The association of on

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Rapid Accumulation of Virulent Rift Valley Fever Virus in Mice from an Attenuated Virus Carrying a Single Nucleotide Substitution in the M RNA

John C. Morrill, Tetsuro Ikegami, Naoko Yoshikawa-Iwata et al. · 2010 · PLoS ONE

BACKGROUND: Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV), a member of the genus Phlebovirus within the family Bunyaviridae, is a negative-stranded RNA virus with a tripartite genome. RVFV is transmitted by mosquitoes and causes fever and severe hemorrhagic illness among humans, while in livestock it causes fever and high abortion rates. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Sequence analysis showed that a wild-type RVFV ZH501 preparation consisted of two major viral subpopulations, with a single nucleotide heterogeneity at nucleotide 847 of M segment (M847); one had a G residue at M847 encoding glycine in a major

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

A test of the micro‐expressions training tool: Does it improve lie detection?

Sarah Jordan, Laure Brimbal, David B. Wallace et al. · 2019 · Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling

Abstract The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of the micro‐expressions training tool (METT) in identifying and using micro‐expressions to improve lie detection. Participants ( n = 90) were randomly assigned to receive…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEconomics, Econometrics and Finance

A Causality Analysis of Coal Consumption and Economic Growth for China and India

Jinke Li, Zhongxue Li · 2011 · Natural Resources

China and India are the two countries with the strongest economic growth in the world. Meanwhile they consume much of the global coal to fuel their economic development. With coal burning as a major factor contributing to global greenhouse gas emissions, China and India are confronted with a dilemma of economic growth and environment protection. Will coal consumption reduction cause economic shocks? Is there a causal relationship between coal consumption and economic growth in China and India? In this paper Granger causality tests were used to examine the relationship between coal consumption

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Negative / Null Result ReportMedicine

The significant effect of the medial hamstrings on dynamic knee stability

Aneet S. Toor, Orr Limpisvasti, Hansel Ihn et al. · 2018 · Knee Surgery Sports Traumatology Arthroscopy

PURPOSE: While hamstring autograft is a popular option for the general population, BTB autograft is still significantly more popular among professional athletes due to concerns of altering knee kinematics with hamstring harvest. This study…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEnvironmental Science

First Insights into the Microbiome of a Mangrove Tree Reveal Significant Differences in Taxonomic and Functional Composition among Plant and Soil Compartments

Witoon Purahong, Dolaya Sadubsarn, Benjawan Tanunchai et al. · 2019 · Microorganisms

Mangrove forest trees play important ecological functions at the interface between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. However, despite playing crucial roles in plant health and productivity, there is little information on microbiomes of the tree species in mangrove ecosystems. Thus, in this study we aimed to characterize the microbiome in soil (rhizosphere) and plant (root, stem, and leaf endosphere) compartments of the widely distributed mangrove tree Rhizophora stylosa. Surprisingly, bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were only confidently detected in rhizosphere soil, while fungal

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Development to Term of Cloned Cattle Derived from Donor Cells Treated with Valproic Acid

Juliano Rodrigues Sangalli, Marcos Roberto Chiaratti, Tiago Henrique Camara De et al. · 2014 · PLoS ONE

Cloning of mammals by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is still plagued by low efficiency. The epigenetic modifications established during cellular differentiation are a major factor determining this low efficiency as they act as epigenetic barriers restricting reprogramming of somatic nuclei. In this regard, most factors that promote chromatin decondensation, including histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis), have been found to increase nuclear reprogramming efficiency, making their use common to improve SCNT rates. Herein we used valproic acid (VPA) in SCNT to test whether the treatment

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Case series of cancer patients who developed cholecystitis related to immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment

Hamzah Abu‐Sbeih, Cynthia N. Tran, Phillip S. Ge et al. · 2019 · Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer

BACKGROUND: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) represent a promising novel class of cancer therapy, but immune-mediated adverse events can complicate ICI treatment. Acute cholecystitis in patients receiving ICI therapy has not been characterized. We aimed to describe the clinical features of patients who developed ICI-related cholecystitis. METHODS: We evaluated a case series of patients at a tertiary cancer center who received ICI therapy and developed cholecystitis, diagnosed by clinical presentation and diagnostic imaging, during 2010-2018. Patients with a history of chronic cholecystitis

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessNeuroscience

Tryptophan Catabolism as Immune Mechanism of Primary Resistance to Anti-PD-1

Andrea Botticelli, Silvia Mezi, Giulia Pomati et al. · 2020 · Frontiers in Immunology

Backgrounds. Clinical trials showed that only a subset of patients benefits from immunotherapy suggesting the need to identify new predictive biomarker of resistance.. Indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) has been proposed as a mechanism of resistance to anti-PD1 treatment and serum kyn/trp ratio represent a possible marker of IDO activity. Methods. Metastatic NSCLC, RCC and HNSCC treated in second line with nivolumab were included in this prospective study. Baseline serum kynurenine and tryptophan levels were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography to define the kyn/trp ratio. The 2–t

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Plasma sTNFR1 and IL8 for prognostic enrichment in sepsis trials: a prospective cohort study

Brian J. Anderson, Carolyn S. Calfee, Kathleen D. Liu et al. · 2019 · Critical Care

BACKGROUND: Enrichment strategies improve therapeutic targeting and trial efficiency, but enrichment factors for sepsis trials are lacking. We determined whether concentrations of soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor-1 (sTNFR1), interleukin-8 (IL8), and angiopoietin-2 (Ang2) could identify sepsis patients at higher mortality risk and serve as prognostic enrichment factors. METHODS: In a multicenter prospective cohort study of 400 critically ill septic patients, we derived and validated thresholds for each marker and expressed prognostic enrichment using risk differences (RD) of 30-day mortal

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Deep learning for spoken language identification

Matias Lindgren · 2020 · Aaltodoc (Aalto University)

This thesis applies deep learning based classification techniques to identify natural languages from speech. The primary motivation behind this thesis is to implement accurate techniques for segmenting multimedia materials by the languages…

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Failed Experiment ReportOpen accessPhysics and Astronomy

The Aegis Forward-Base Burner: Q_E Closure, Plug Requirement, and Mirror Confinement in an Islanded Low-Neutron D–³He Tandem Mirror

Priyanca Ford, G L Kulcinski · 2026 · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

Aegis is the forward-base configuration of the Kronos deuterium–helium-3 tandem-mirror burner: a fixed, hardened, grid-independent installation that turns an aneutronic-dominated fusion source into firm electrical power for a defence site without a fuel-convoy tail. This paper is a comprehensive, review-article treatment of the integrated physics case for that machine, and it separates, throughout, what is robust from what is conditional. At the frozen design point the plant reaches an engineering gain =1.318 at fusion power 4298.5 MW, of which 3868.0 MW is the charged-particle D+ ³He p (14.68

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cancer: from mechanism to therapeutic implications

Sharmin Akter, Rajesh Madhuvilakku, Anik Kumar Kar et al. · 2026 · Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) act as critical secondary messengers in various intracellular signaling pathways that regulate cellular proliferation, differentiation, and survival under normal physiological conditions. However, dysregulation of redox signaling-driven by genetic mutations, epigenetic alterations, and posttranscriptional or posttranslational modifications-plays a central role in malignant transformation and cancer progression. Cancer cells typically exhibit elevated basal ROS levels due to increased metabolic activity, mitochondrial dysfunction, and oncogene activation. This mode

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

Fuzzy constructs in technology usage scales

Brittany I Davidson, Heather Shaw, David A. Ellis · 2022 · Computers in Human Behavior

The mass adoption of digital technologies raises questions about how they impact people and society. Associations between technology use and negative correlates (e.g., depression and anxiety) remain common. However, pre-registered studies have failed to replicate these findings. Regardless of direction, many designs rely on psychometric scales that claim to define and quantify a construct associated with technology engagement. These often suggest clinical manifestations present as disorders or addictions. Given their importance for research integrity, we consider what these scales might be mea

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Multibreed genomic prediction using multitrait genomic residual maximum likelihood and multitask Bayesian variable selection

M.P.L. Calus, Michael E. Goddard, Yvonne C. J. Wientjes et al. · 2018 · Journal of Dairy Science

Genomic prediction is applicable to individuals of different breeds. Empirical results to date, however, show limited benefits in using information on multiple breeds in the context of genomic prediction. We investigated a multitask…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Estimating Gestational Age From Ultrasound Fetal Biometrics

Daniel Skupski, John Owen, Sungduk Kim et al. · 2017 · Obstetrics and Gynecology

OBJECTIVE: To compare the accuracy of a new formula with one developed in 1984 (and still in common use) and to develop and compare racial and ethnic-specific and racial and ethnic-neutral formulas. METHODS: The Eunice Kennedy Shriver…

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