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Browse the failure-mode index

21,234 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 accessMedicine

Tocilizumab in the treatment of critical COVID-19 pneumonia: A retrospective cohort study of mechanically ventilated patients

Matthew J. Fisher, Luis A Marcos Raymundo, Melinda Monteforte et al. · 2020 · International Journal of Infectious Diseases

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to evaluate clinical outcomes in patients with critical COVID-19 pneumonia requiring invasive mechanical ventilation who were treated with tocilizumab DESIGN: Single-center retrospective cohort…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEconomics, Econometrics and Finance

Does Economic Growth Lead Employment in South Africa?

L. A. Temitope · 2013 · Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies

This paper adopts the Toda-Yamamoto technique of causality in order to examine the direction of causality between employment and economic growth. This is to investigate whether the increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) translates into increased employment or not and vice versa, in South Africa, using quarterly data from 2000Q1 to 2012Q3. South Africa has been experiencing high and increased growth for the past decade, yet the rate of employment is not significantly high. Meanwhile, the objective of the government, since the first democratic election in 1994, was to increase economic gro

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Network integration and limits to social inheritance in vervet monkeys

Jonathan Jarrett, Tyler R. Bonnell, Christopher Young et al. · 2018 · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

, 12084 (doi:10.1038/ncomms12084)) has demonstrated that network structure can be maintained by a simple process of social inheritance. Here, we ask how juvenile vervet monkeys integrate into their adult grooming networks, using the model…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

The Serine Protease Autotransporter Pic Modulates Citrobacter rodentium Pathogenesis and Its Innate Recognition by the Host

Kirandeep Bhullar, Maryam Zarepour, Hongbing Yu et al. · 2015 · Infection and Immunity

Bacterial pathogens produce a number of autotransporters that possess diverse functions. These include the family of serine protease autotransporters of Enterobacteriaceae (SPATEs) produced by enteric pathogens such as Shigella flexneri…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessNeuroscience

Activation of MEK/ERK signaling contributes to the PACAP-induced increase in guinea pig cardiac neuron excitability

John D. Tompkins, Todd A. Clason, Jean C. Hardwick et al. · 2016 · American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology

Pituitary adenylate cyclase (PAC)-activating polypeptide (PACAP) peptides ( Adcyap1) signaling at the selective PAC1 receptor ( Adcyap1r1) participate in multiple homeostatic and stress-related responses, yet the cellular mechanisms…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics and Astronomy

Morphology and metallicity of the Small Magellanic Cloud using RRab stars

Sukanta Deb, Harinder P. Singh, Subhash Kumar et al. · 2015 · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

We present a study of three-dimensional structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The V- and I-band light curves of the fundamental mode RR Lyrae (RRab) stars obtained by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment-III project were…

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Negative / Null Result ReportNeuroscience

Feature overlap slows lexical selection: Evidence from the picture–word interference paradigm

Harrison E. Vieth, Katie L. McMahon, Greig I. de Zubicaray · 2014 · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

How does the presence of a categorically related word influence picture naming latencies? In order to test competitive and noncompetitive accounts of lexical selection in spoken word production, we employed the picture-word interference…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessNeuroscience

Is Ankyrin a genetic risk factor for psychiatric phenotypes?

Alejandro Gella, Mònica Segura, Núria Durany et al. · 2011 · BMC Psychiatry

BACKGROUND: Genome wide association studies reported two single nucleotide polymorphisms in ANK3 (rs9804190 and rs10994336) as independent genetic risk factors for bipolar disorder. Another SNP in ANK3 (rs10761482) was associated with schizophrenia in a large European sample. Within the debate on common susceptibility genes for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, we tried to investigate common findings by analyzing association of ANK3 with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and unipolar depression. METHODS: We genotyped three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ANK3 (rs9804190, rs10994336,

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

A Systems Biology Analysis of Apoptosome Formation and Apoptosis Execution Supports Allosteric Procaspase-9 Activation

Maximilian L. Würstle, Markus Rehm · 2014 · Journal of Biological Chemistry

The protease caspase-9 is activated on the apoptosome, a multiprotein signal transduction platform that assembles in response to mitochondria-dependent apoptosis initiation. Despite extensive molecular research, the assembly of the holo-apoptosome and the process of caspase-9 activation remain incompletely understood. Here, we therefore integrated quantitative data on the molecular interactions and proteolytic processes during apoptosome formation and apoptosis execution and conducted mathematical simulations to investigate the resulting biochemical signaling, quantitatively and kinetically. I

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Negative / Null Result ReportMedicine

An ‘alcohol contract’ has no significant effect on return to drinking after liver transplantation for alcoholic liver disease

Steven Masson, Benjamin Marrow, Stuart Kendrick et al. · 2014 · Transplant International

Return to drinking after liver transplantation for alcoholic liver disease (ALD) remains a source of unease with varying reported rates of return to drinking and impact this has on graft function. In 2005, the UK Transplant liver advisory…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSocial Sciences

No association between numerical ability and politically motivated reasoning in a large US probability sample

Michael N. Stagnaro, Ben M Tappin, David G. Rand · 2023 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

The highly influential theory of "Motivated System 2 Reasoning" argues that analytical, deliberative ("System 2") reasoning is hijacked by identity when considering ideologically charged issues-leading people who are more likely to engage in such reasoning to be more polarized, rather than more accurate. Here, we fail to replicate the key empirical support for this theory across five contentious issues, using a large gold-standard nationally representative probability sample of Americans. While participants were more accurate in evaluating a contingency table when the outcome aligned with thei

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Take caution in using LLMs as human surrogates

Yuan Gao, Dokyun Lee, Gordon Burtch et al. · 2025 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Recent studies suggest large language models (LLMs) can generate human-like responses, aligning with human behavior in economic experiments, surveys, and political discourse. This has led many to propose that LLMs can be used as surrogates…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Replication of Five Prostate Cancer Loci Identified in an Asian Population—Results from the NCI Breast and Prostate Cancer Cohort Consortium (BPC3)

Sara Lindström, Fredrick R. Schumacher, Daniele Campa et al. · 2012 · Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention

BACKGROUND: A recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) of prostate cancer in a Japanese population identified five novel regions not previously discovered in other ethnicities. In this study, we attempt to replicate these five loci in a…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Single nucleotide polymorphisms in the intergenic region between metformin transporter OCT2 and OCT3 coding genes are associated with short-term response to metformin monotherapy in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients

Linda Zaharenko, Ineta Kalniņa, Kristine Geldnere et al. · 2016 · European Journal of Endocrinology

Objective(s) High variability in clinical response to metformin is often observed in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients, and it highlights the need for identification of genetic components affecting the efficiency of metformin therapy. Aim of…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Validation of the Measures of the Transtheoretical Model for Exercise in an Adult African-American Sample

Cerissa L. Blaney, Mark L. Robbins, Andrea L. Paiva et al. · 2012 · American Journal of Health Promotion

PURPOSE: African-Americans have high rates of physical inactivity-related morbidity and mortality, thus effective interventions to increase exercise are necessary. Tailored interventions show promise, but measures need validation in this…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

NASCO: A new method and program to generate dot arrays for non-symbolic number comparison tasks

Mathieu Guillaumé, Christine Schiltz, Amandine Van Rinsveld · 2020 · Journal of Numerical Cognition

Basic numerical abilities are generally assumed to influence more complex cognitive processes involving numbers, such as mathematics. Yet measuring non-symbolic number abilities remains challenging due to the intrinsic correlation between numerical and non-numerical dimensions of any visual scene. Several methods have been developed to generate non-symbolic stimuli controlling for the latter aspects but they tend to be difficult to replicate or implement. In this study, we describe the NASCO method, which is an extension to the method popularized by Dehaene, Izard, and Piazza (2005). Their pro

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Automatic avoidance tendencies for alcohol cues predict drinking after detoxification treatment in alcohol dependence.

Matt Field, Lisa Di Lemma, Paul Christiansen et al. · 2016 · Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

Alcohol dependence is characterized by conflict between approach and avoidance motivational orientations for alcohol that operate in automatic and controlled processes. This article describes the first study to investigate the predictive validity of these motivational orientations for relapse to drinking after discharge from alcohol detoxification treatment in alcohol-dependent patients. One hundred twenty alcohol-dependent patients who were nearing the end of inpatient detoxification treatment completed measures of self-reported (Approach and Avoidance of Alcohol Questionnaire; AAAQ) and auto

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Maternal perinatal depression and infant sleep problems at 1 year of age: Subjective and actigraphy data from a population‐based birth cohort study

Camila S. Halal, Diego G. Bassani, Iná S. Santos et al. · 2020 · Journal of Sleep Research

This study used data from 2,222 mothers and infants participating in a population-based birth cohort to verify whether maternal depression in the perinatal period was associated with poor infant sleep. Mothers who scored ≥13 points on the…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessDecision Sciences

Meta-analyzing the multiverse: A peek under the hood of selective reporting.

Anton Olsson-Collentine, Robbie C. M. van Aert, Marjan Bakker et al. · 2023 · Psychological Methods

-hacking) from this "multiverse" of outcomes can inflate effect size estimates and false positive rates. We studied the effects of researcher degrees of freedom and selective reporting using empirical data from extensive multistudy…

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Lack of Replication of the GRIN2A-by-Coffee Interaction in Parkinson Disease

Ismaïl Ahmed, Pei‐Chen Lee, Christina M. Lill et al. · 2014 · PLoS Genetics

The etiology of Parkinson disease (PD) involves both genetic susceptibility and environmental exposures. In particular, coffee consumption is inversely associated with PD but the mechanisms underlying this intriguing association are unknown. According to a recent genome-wide gene-environment interaction study, the inverse coffee-PD association was two times stronger among carriers of the T allele of SNP rs4998386 in gene GRIN2A than in homozygotes for the C allele. We attempted to replicate this result in a similarly sized pooled analysis of 2,289 cases and 2,809 controls from four independent

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Subpopulations of Addictive Behaviors in Different Sample Types and Their Relationships with Gender, Personality, and Well-Being: Latent Profile vs. Latent Class Analysis

Paweł A. Atroszko, Bartosz Atroszko, Edyta Charzyńska · 2021 · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Background: Relatively strong theoretical assumptions and previous studies concerning co-occurring addictive behaviors suggest a subpopulation representing general proclivity to behavioral addictions (BAs), and there are gender-specific subpopulations. This study aimed to compare latent profile analysis (LPA) and latent class analysis (LCA) as the methods of investigating different clusters of BAs in the general student population and among students positively screened for at least one BA. Participants and procedure: Analyses of six BAs (study, shopping, gaming, Facebook, pornography, and food

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

No evidence for altered plasma NGF and BDNF levels in fibromyalgia patients

David Baumeister, Wolfgang Eich, Silvia Saft et al. · 2019 · Scientific Reports

There has been a surging interest in the putative role of peripheral growth factors in the pathophysiology of fibromyalgia, specifically in the peripheral sensitization that occurs in chronic pain disorders. This cross-sectional study set out to assess and compare brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and nerve growth factor (NGF) in plasma samples from fibromyalgia patients and healthy controls. Plasma BDNF and NGF were measured in 89 fibromyalgia patients and 36 pain-free controls, and compared using ANCOVA controlling for potential confounders, as well as Bayesian methods for parameter e

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Investigation of Genetic Variation Underlying Central Obesity amongst South Asians

William R. Scott, Weihua Zhang, Marie Loh et al. · 2016 · PLoS ONE

South Asians are 1/4 of the world's population and have increased susceptibility to central obesity and related cardiometabolic disease. Knowledge of genetic variants affecting risk of central obesity is largely based on genome-wide association studies of common SNPs in Europeans. To evaluate the contribution of DNA sequence variation to the higher levels of central obesity (defined as waist hip ratio adjusted for body mass index, WHR) among South Asians compared to Europeans we carried out: i) a genome-wide association analysis of >6M genetic variants in 10,318 South Asians with focused analy

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Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEngineering

Multi-band provisioning in dynamic elastic optical networks: a comparative study of a heuristic and a deep reinforcement learning approach

Nour El Din El Sheikh, Esteban Paz, Juan Pinto et al. · 2021

The blocking performance of a heuristic and a deep reinforcement learning approach for resource provisioning in a dynamic multi-band elastic optical network is evaluated. The heuristic is based on a previous proposal that prioritises the…

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Negative / Null Result ReportPsychology

An Internet-based controlled trial of interpretation bias modification versus progressive muscle relaxation for body dysmorphic disorder.

Natalie L. Wilver, Jesse R. Cougle · 2018 · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

OBJECTIVE: The current study extended upon previous research efforts by evaluating the utility and feasibility of an 8-session Internet-based interpretation bias modification (IBM) training protocol targeting evaluation- and…

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