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Failure-mode index

Search what already failed

A searchable index of real negative results, null findings, and replication failures from the published literature — so you can learn what didn't work before repeating it.

WASTE indexes published research — it does not host or republish full papers. Each entry is a metadata record (title, authors, DOI) compiled from open scholarly databases, with the abstract shown in full only where the paper is openly licensed (e.g. Creative Commons); otherwise a short excerpt is shown for reference under fair use. WASTE classifies each work by failure type; classifications are automated and approximate.

1759 results in Negative / Null Result Report for "Mpro" · page 24 of 59

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Indefinite causal order strategy does not improve the estimation of group action

Masahito Hayashi · 2025 · arXiv

We consider estimation of unknown unitary operation when the set of possible unitary operations is given by a projective unitary representation of a compact group. We show that neither indefinite causal order strategy nor adaptive strategy improves the performance of this estimation when error function satisfies group covariance. That is, the optimal parallel strategy gives the optimal performance even under indefinite causal order strategy and adaptive strategy. To study this problem, we newly introduce the concept of generalized positive operator valued measure (GPOVM), and its convariance c

Negative / Null Result ReportMedicine

Motor imagery and resistance training improve strength in older adults through distinct effects on agonist-antagonist coordination.

Yao, Mamone, Wu et al. · 2026 · Frontiers in psychology

Age-related declines in muscle strength are partly attributable to altered neural drive and agonist-antagonist coordination. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of motor imagery training (MIT) on maximal force production and…

View details →DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1817866
Negative / Null Result ReportMedicine

The effectiveness of vitrified zygote banking for managing the severe diminished ovarian reserve in infertile women: A retrospective cohort study.

Huang, Tsai, Lin et al. · 2026 · Taiwanese journal of obstetrics & gynecology

A higher oocyte yield is generally associated with improved outcomes in assisted reproductive technology (ART). Vitrification enables the accumulation of oocytes, zygotes, or embryos across multiple cycles, offering a potential strategy to…

View details →DOI: 10.1016/j.tjog.2025.06.010
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

What does RL improve for Visual Reasoning? A Frankenstein-Style Analysis

Xirui Li, Ming Li, Tianyi Zhou · 2026 · arXiv

Reinforcement learning (RL) with verifiable rewards has become a standard post-training stage for boosting visual reasoning in vision-language models, yet it remains unclear what capabilities RL actually improves compared with supervised fine-tuning as cold-start initialization (IN). End-to-end benchmark gains conflate multiple factors, making it difficult to attribute improvements to specific skills. To bridge the gap, we propose a Frankenstein-style analysis framework including: (i) functional localization via causal probing; (ii) update characterization via parameter comparison; and (iii) t

Negative / Null Result ReportMedicine

Can Knowledge and Motivation for Lymphedema Self-Management Be Improved with the Use of ICG Lymphography? A Prospective Observational Repeated Measures Study.

Trevethan, Doig, Patterson et al. · 2026 · Lymphology

ICG lymphography is a lymphatic imaging tool that can inform lymphedema treatment, including self-management. Self-management requires patient engagement in a multimodal treatment program. However, lack of knowledge about lymphedema,…

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessEconomics, Econometrics and Finance

Board gender diversity and emissions performance: Insights from panel regressions, machine learning, and explainable AI

Mohammad Hassan Shakil, Arne Johan Pollestad, Khine Kyaw et al. · 2025 · arXiv

With European Union initiatives mandating gender quotas on corporate boards, a key question arises: Is greater board gender diversity (BGD) associated with better emissions performance (EP)? To answer this question, we examine the influence of BGD on EP across a sample of European firms from 2016 to 2022. Using panel regressions, advanced machine learning algorithms, and explainable AI, we reveal a non-linear relationship. Specifically, EP improves with BGD up to an optimal level of approximately 35 %, beyond which further increases in BGD yield no additional improvement in EP. A minimum BGD t

Negative / Null Result Report

Improvement in Long‐term Household Food Security among Indiana Households with Children did not Differ between Rural and Urban Counties after a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program‐Education Intervention

Rebecca L Rivera, Melissa K Maulding, Angela R Abbott et al. · 2016 · The FASEB Journal

Objective To determine the relationship of rural and urban county household status to long‐term food security among households with children in Indiana after a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program‐Education (SNAP‐Ed) intervention.…

View details →DOI: 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.674.26
Negative / Null Result ReportMedicine

Optimising the implementation of adolescent-friendly health services and its effects on contraceptive uptake and adolescent pregnancy in rural Mozambique: an implementation research study of the S-NICE intervention.

Chilundo, Xinavane, Huo et al. · 2026 · Frontiers in reproductive health

Despite national policies promoting adolescent- and youth-friendly health services, implementation gaps hinder improvements in adolescent sexual and reproductive health outcomes in Mozambique. S-NICE is a structured, participatory…

View details →DOI: 10.3389/frph.2026.1828528
Negative / Null Result ReportMedicine

Association of advanced therapies for intermediate- to high-risk pulmonary embolism with improved right ventricular function on outpatient follow-up among survivors.

Sheikh, Singh, Smith et al. · 2026 · Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine

The impact of catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT), catheter-directed embolectomy (CDE) and surgical pulmonary embolectomy (SPE) on long term RV function among patients with acute PE remains unclear. We investigated the association of…

View details →DOI: 10.3389/fcvm.2026.1767184
Negative / Null Result ReportMedicine

Pre-synchronization with GnRH or hCG enhances fertility outcomes of heat synch protocol in Holstein dairy cows across parities: A pilot study.

Navidifar, Kaveh, Hosseini et al. · 2026 · Veterinary and animal science

Efficient estrus synchronization is important for improving reproductive performance in dairy herds; however, variations in ovarian activity among cows of different parities may influence responses to synchronization protocols. The present…

View details →DOI: 10.1016/j.vas.2026.100739
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Scale Alone Does not Improve Mechanistic Interpretability in Vision Models

Roland S. Zimmermann, Thomas Klein, Wieland Brendel · 2023 · arXiv

In light of the recent widespread adoption of AI systems, understanding the internal information processing of neural networks has become increasingly critical. Most recently, machine vision has seen remarkable progress by scaling neural networks to unprecedented levels in dataset and model size. We here ask whether this extraordinary increase in scale also positively impacts the field of mechanistic interpretability. In other words, has our understanding of the inner workings of scaled neural networks improved as well? We use a psychophysical paradigm to quantify one form of mechanistic inter

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPhysics

Why material slow light does not improve cavity-enhanced atom detection

B. Megyeri, A. Lampis, G. Harvie et al. · 2017 · arXiv

We discuss the prospects for enhancing absorption and scattering of light from a weakly coupled atom in a high-finesse optical cavity by adding a medium with large, positive group index of refraction. The slow-light effect is known to narrow the cavity transmission spectrum and increase the photon lifetime, but the quality factor of the cavity may not be increased in a metrologically useful sense. Specifically, detection of the weakly coupled atom through either cavity ringdown measurements or the Purcell effect fails to improve with the addition of material slow light. A single-atom model of

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Effect of implant position on clinical outcomes of two implant overdentures: a 3-year randomized clinical trial.

Raafat MH, Mourad KE, Elsyad MA · 2026 · BMC oral health

Background Reviewing the literature, the optimal implant position for 2-implant retained mandibular overdentures, which would be associated with improved peri-implant tissues, higher retention values, and better patient satisfaction,…

View details →DOI: 10.1186/s12903-026-08441-0
Negative / Null Result Report

Modified string test to improve and confirm by molecular characterization for bacterial identification

Muhammad Dawood Mian, Saadullah Jan Khan, Rehana Rani et al. · 2026 · Access Microbiology

Rapid and reliable identification of bacteria is essential in clinical and environmental microbiology. Gram staining remains a widely used method for preliminary classification; however, it may require additional steps and can be difficult…

View details →DOI: 10.1099/acmi.0.000965.v3
Negative / Null Result Report

Abstract 17917: Is Small Change Significant? Association of Small Differences in Life's Simple 7 and Mortality: the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) Cohort

Mary Cushman, Suzanne E Judd, Virginia J Howard et al. · 2011 · Circulation

Background. The AHA 2020 Goal includes improving cardiovascular health, defined using a metric consisting of 7 health factors, Life's Simple 7. A central concept of the goal is that small improvements in behavior / lifestyle factors at the…

View details →DOI: 10.1161/circ.124.suppl_21.a17917
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Does Diversity Improve the Test Suite Generation for Mobile Applications?

Thomas Vogel, Chinh Tran, Lars Grunske · 2019 · arXiv

In search-based software engineering we often use popular heuristics with default configurations, which typically lead to suboptimal results, or we perform experiments to identify configurations on a trial-and-error basis, which may lead to better results for a specific problem. To obtain better results while avoiding trial-and-error experiments, a fitness landscape analysis is helpful in understanding the search problem, and making an informed decision about the heuristics. In this paper, we investigate the search problem of test suite generation for mobile applications (apps) using SAPIENZ w

Negative / Null Result Report

Under-correction is not advisable in valgus knee and lateral approach is more feasible than medial approach to achieve this: A 5-year follow-up study

Li S, Chai H, Bao W et al. · 2026 · Preprint

Abstract Background: It is commonly recommended to restore the mechanical axis to within –0° ± 3° in valgus knee. However, the situation is quite different when the alignment is –3° or 3° in the presence of a compromised MCL in Ranawat…

View details →DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9715753/v1
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

KNN-LM Does Not Improve Open-ended Text Generation

Shufan Wang, Yixiao Song, Andrew Drozdov et al. · 2023 · arXiv

In this paper, we study the generation quality of interpolation-based retrieval-augmented language models (LMs). These methods, best exemplified by the KNN-LM, interpolate the LM's predicted distribution of the next word with a distribution formed from the most relevant retrievals for a given prefix. While the KNN-LM and related methods yield impressive decreases in perplexity, we discover that they do not exhibit corresponding improvements in open-ended generation quality, as measured by both automatic evaluation metrics (e.g., MAUVE) and human evaluations. Digging deeper, we find that interp

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Dexmedetomidine for improving postpartum sleep quality following cesarean section in women: a randomized controlled trial.

Gao J, Hu CC, Wang XY et al. · 2026 · Frontiers in medicine

Background Perinatal sleep disturbance is highly prevalent among women undergoing elective cesarean section. Dexmedetomidine has been proven effective in improving sleep quality in patients undergoing general surgery, and this study aimed…

View details →DOI: 10.3389/fmed.2026.1823100
Negative / Null Result Report

Dampak Sosial Ekonomi pada Keluaga Penerima Manfaat (KPM) Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) Exit Mandiri di Kecamatan Pagelaran Kabuoaten Pringsewu dalam Perspektif The Most Significant Change Technique (MSCt)

Ainun Oktavia Sari, Rahayu Sulistyowati, Ita Prihantika · 2020 · Administrativa: Jurnal Birokrasi, Kebijakan dan Pelayanan Publik

The Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) is a conditional social cash transfer program that provides assistance to Very Poor Households (RTSM) appointed as participants in the Conditional Cash Transfer program which is related to improving the…

View details →DOI: 10.23960/administrativa.v2i3.51
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

The effects of 8 weeks of repeated sprint training on aerobic endurance, anaerobic power, agility and explosive strength in college badminton players.

Wei C, An J, Lin Y et al. · 2026 · PeerJ

Background Badminton is a physically demanding sport requiring a combination of aerobic endurance, anaerobic power, agility, and explosive strength. Repeated sprint training (RST) has emerged as a time-efficient strategy for improving…

View details →DOI: 10.7717/peerj.21111
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Haptic human-human interaction does not improve individual visuomotor adaptation

Niek Beckers, Edwin van Asseldonk, Herman van der Kooij · 2020 · arXiv

Haptic interaction between two humans, for example, a physiotherapist assisting a patient regaining the ability to grasp a cup, likely facilitates motor skill acquisition. Haptic human-human interaction has been shown to enhance individual performance improvement in a tracking task with a visuomotor rotation perturbation. These results are remarkable given that haptically assisting or guiding an individual rarely benefits their individual improvement when the assistance is removed. We, therefore, replicated a study that reported that haptic interaction between humans was beneficial for individ

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Daily supplementation of D-ribose shows no therapeutic benefits in the MHC-I transgenic mouse model of inflammatory myositis.

William Coley, Sree Rayavarapu, Jack H van der Meulen et al. · 2013 · PLoS ONE

BACKGROUND: Current treatments for idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (collectively called myositis) focus on the suppression of an autoimmune inflammatory response within the skeletal muscle. However, it has been observed that there is a poor correlation between the successful suppression of muscle inflammation and an improvement in muscle function. Some evidence in the literature suggests that metabolic abnormalities in the skeletal muscle underlie the weakness that continues despite successful immunosuppression. We have previously shown that decreased expression of a purine nucleotide cycle

View details →DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0065970
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessOphthalmology

Severe ocular and adnexal complications in dengue hemorrhagic fever: A report of 29 eyes

V S Vijitha, Tarjani Vivek Dave, Somasheila I Murthy et al. · 2021 · Indian Journal of Ophthalmology

Purpose: To describe a series of sight-threatening ocular and adnexal involvement associated with dengue hemorrhagic fever and their treatment options. Methods: Retrospective, interventional, non-comparative case series. Medical records of patients who presented with ocular symptoms attributed to dengue hemorrhagic fever were reviewed. Demography, presenting features, and treatment outcomes were recorded. Outcome measures assessed included globe salvage, vision salvage, and visual improvement. The outcome was deemed as favorable if vision salvage was possible and unfavorable if the vision was

View details →DOI: 10.4103/ijo.ijo_1588_20
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPublic aspects of medicine

Supporting antiretroviral therapy uptake and adherence: the SUPA research programme and RCT

Rob Horne, Caroline Sabin, Trudie Chalder et al. · 2025 · Programme Grants for Applied Research

Background Antiretroviral therapy has transformed human immunodeficiency virus infection intoa chronic condition associated with normal life expectancy. In the United Kingdom, the uptake of antiretroviral therapy is generally high, but a delay in starting antiretroviral therapy and non-adherence compromise the health and well-being of people living with human immunodeficiency virus, increase the risk of transmission of human immunodeficiency virus and increase National Health Service costs. Objectives The overall aim was to improve antiretroviral therapy uptake and adherence by addressing perc

View details →DOI: 10.3310/kppw8401
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Understanding Why Generalized Reweighting Does Not Improve Over ERM

Runtian Zhai, Chen Dan, Zico Kolter et al. · 2022 · arXiv

Empirical risk minimization (ERM) is known in practice to be non-robust to distributional shift where the training and the test distributions are different. A suite of approaches, such as importance weighting, and variants of distributionally robust optimization (DRO), have been proposed to solve this problem. But a line of recent work has empirically shown that these approaches do not significantly improve over ERM in real applications with distribution shift. The goal of this work is to obtain a comprehensive theoretical understanding of this intriguing phenomenon. We first posit the class o

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

Does preregistration improve the credibility of research findings?

Mark Rubin · 2020 · arXiv

Preregistration entails researchers registering their planned research hypotheses, methods, and analyses in a time-stamped document before they undertake their data collection and analyses. This document is then made available with the published research report to allow readers to identify discrepancies between what the researchers originally planned to do and what they actually ended up doing. This historical transparency is supposed to facilitate judgments about the credibility of the research findings. The present article provides a critical review of 17 of the reasons behind this argument.