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Failure-mode index

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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 26 of 59

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Prompting Science Report 3: I'll pay you or I'll kill you -- but will you care?

Lennart Meincke, Ethan Mollick, Lilach Mollick et al. · 2025 · arXiv

This is the third in a series of short reports that seek to help business, education, and policy leaders understand the technical details of working with AI through rigorous testing. In this report, we investigate two commonly held prompting beliefs: a) offering to tip the AI model and b) threatening the AI model. Tipping was a commonly shared tactic for improving AI performance and threats have been endorsed by Google Founder Sergey Brin (All-In, May 2025, 8:20) who observed that 'models tend to do better if you threaten them,' a claim we subject to empirical testing here. We evaluate model p

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 ReportOpen accessDiseases of the digestive system. Gastroenterology

Reducing diagnostic delays of extraintestinal manifestations in inflammatory bowel disease: a comparative study of a multidisciplinary outpatient clinic versus conventional referral specialists

Olga Maria Nardone, Giulio Calabrese, Alessia La Mantia et al. · 2025 · Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology

Background: Managing extraintestinal manifestations (EIMs) in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients remains challenging due to considerable heterogeneity in diagnostic criteria and the lack of a standardised definition and validated diagnostic pathways. Delays in recognising and treating EIMs can lead to significant disease progression. Therefore, early detection and treatment are crucial. Objectives: We aimed to assess the effectiveness of a dedicated immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) clinic in reducing EIM diagnostic delays and improving patients’ outcomes. Design: A single-c

View details →DOI: 10.1177/17562848251323529
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 ReportOpen accessOrthopedic surgery

Elastic-stable intramedullary nailing for radial neck fractures in children: clinical and radiological outcomes and risks for poor prognosis

Michał Maciejewski, Piotr Janusz, Michalina Dudkiewicz et al. · 2023 · Chirurgia Narządów Ruchu i Ortopedia Polska

Introduction. Radial neck fractures in children are rare and account for 1-3% of all childhood trauma. Severe displacement of the fracture can lead to a higher incidence of complications, such as limited range of motion (ROM), pain, instability, neurovascular trauma, premature physeal closure, cubitus valgus, radial head overgrowth, avascular necrosis and improper ossification. The treatment outcome depends on the injury type, treatment method and presence of complications.Aim. The purpose of the study was to assess the outcome of patients treated with elastic-stable intramedullary nailing (ES

View details →DOI: 10.31139/chnriop.2023.88.3.4
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Microablative Erbium: YAG Laser Therapy for Vulvodynia – A Report on Efficacy, Safety, and Treatment Satisfaction

Gerda Trutnovsky, MD, Brigitte Bliem, MD, Elfriede Greimel, PhD et al. · 2021 · Sexual Medicine

ABSTRACT: Introduction: Treatment for vulvodynia is challenging and a multidisciplinary approach is recommended. Aim: To examine the effectiveness, safety and treatment satisfaction of vulvovaginal microablative laser treatment for vulvodynia. Methods: Case study of women who received laser treatment as part of a multidisciplinary treatment program for vulvodynia. Subjective improvement was compared to a retrospective cohort of women treated for vulvodynia without LASER therapy. LASER treatment was offered to women with vulvodynia presenting to a gynecologic pain clinic of a tertiary universit

View details →DOI: 10.1016/j.esxm.2021.100432
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessSurgery

The value of blood and urine metabolomics in differential diagnosis of cholestasis in infants

Samah Abdelfatah Eshiaty, Shimaa Abdelsattar, Dina Sweed et al. · 2023 · Egyptian Liver Journal

Abstract Background Early detection of biliary atresia (BA) is a great challenge providing the main useful way to improve its clinical consequence. Promising metabolomics provides an effective method for determining innovative biomarkers and biochemical ways for improving early diagnosis. This study aimed to determine the benefit of serum and urinary potential bile acid metabolites in the differentiation of BA from non-biliary atresia (non-BA) cases using tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Fourteen bile acids metabolites were measured quantitively by MS/MS in serum and urine samples from 102 ch

View details →DOI: 10.1186/s43066-023-00244-0
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 ReportOpen accessScience

Social value orientation and attachment: a replication and extension of Van Lange et al. (1997)

Hans IJzerman, Jaap J. A. Denissen · 2019 · Royal Society Open Science

We report a replication and extension of a finding from Studies 1 and 2 of Van Lange et al.'s influential paper (Van Lange et al. 1997 J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 73, 733–746. (doi:10.1037/0022-3514.73.4.733)), which showed an association between Social Value Orientation (SVO) and attachment security. We report a close replication but with measures of attachment that are considered superior in comparison to measures used by Van Lange et al., due to subsequent psychometric improvements. Psychometric analyses indeed showed that our attachment measures were reliable and valid, demonstrating theoretica

View details →DOI: 10.1098/rsos.181575
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 ReportOpen accessMedicine (General)

An evaluation of the maintenance to abstinence (MTA) program in achieving abstinence in opioid users and improving mental health and quality of life

Madeleine M. Southey, Trent Rees, Margaret Rolfe et al. · 2019 · Addiction Science & Clinical Practice

Abstract Background Residential opioid rehabilitation aims to improve the mental health and quality of life of opioid users through abstinence and residential program participation. This study aimed to determine the depression, anxiety, stress and quality of life amongst maintenance to abstinence (MTA) program residents. Secondary study aims were to assess the personal characteristics of MTA clients, addiction and risk taking behaviours, factors associated with program completion, as well as to assess the reliable change in participants’ mental health and quality of life on exit. Methods Retro

View details →DOI: 10.1186/s13722-019-0132-x
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 accessMedicine

A Comparison Between the Efficacy of Venlafaxine and Duloxetine in Improving Chemotherapy-Induced Chronic Neurotoxicity in Cancer Patients

Hanzaleh Jour Ebrahimiyan, Nafise Ansarinejad, Farshid Fardad · 2023 · Disease and Diagnosis

Background: Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is one of the most common side effects of chemotherapy. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of venlafaxine and duloxetine in improving chronic neurotoxicity induced by chemotherapy in cancer patients. Materials and Methods: The study was performed on cancer patients undergoing outpatient chemotherapy or hospitalization in Rasoul Akram hospital. The admitted patients were blindly divided into two groups. The first group was treated with venlafaxine, and the second group was treated with duloxetine. The treatment lasted up until

View details →DOI: 10.34172/ddj.2023.389
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMedicine

Digestive tolerability and acceptability of Fibersol-2 in healthy and diarrheal children 1-3 years old at a rural facility, Bangladesh: Results from a four arm exploratory study.

Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayeem Bin Shahid, Shahnawaz Ahmed, Tanzina Tazul Renesa et al. · 2022 · PLoS ONE

Background Fibersol-2 has some beneficial effects on human health. We aimed to evaluate the digestive tolerability and acceptability of Fibersol-2 in healthy and diarrheal children, as well as improvement in stool consistencies in young diarrheal children. Methods Sixty children of either sex, aged 1-3 years having four groups (healthy children/low dose, healthy children/high dose, children with diarrhea/low dose and children with diarrhea/high dose) were enrolled into this exploratory study between 1st August to 23rd October 2017. Two presumptive doses, low (2.5g) and high (5g), twice daily w

View details →DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274302
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessVeterinary medicine

The effect of yeast β-glucan on the amount of albumin, globulin, urea and total protein of broiler chickens

ali kargarirezapour, somayye ghobadi, afshin zakeri · 2013 · Āsīb/shināsī-i Darmāngāhī-i Dāmpizishkī

Glucans derived from yeast cell wall are promising alternatives to antibiotics, as they have been shown to improve growth performance and stimulate the immune system of immature broilers. In this study we evaluated the effect of different levels of yeast beta-glucan (YBG) on some blood parametrs of broiler chickens. In a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design (the first factor: YBG levels: 0, 0.04 and 0.08% of basal diet and sex as a second factor) 144 day old chicks (72 male and 72 female) were selected and allocated to different treatments (three replicates of each treatm

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 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 ReportOpen accessSurgery

Outcomes in patients with aortic stenosis and severely reduced ejection fraction following surgical aortic valve replacement and transcatheter aortic valve replacement

Eric R. Bain, Bistees George, Syed H. Jafri et al. · 2024 · Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery

Abstract Background Patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) and left ventricular (LV) dysfunction demonstrate improvement in left ventricular injection fraction (LVEF) after aortic valve replacement (AVR). The timing and magnitude of recovery in patients with very low LVEF (≤ 25%) in surgical or transcatheter AVR is not well studied. Objective Determine clinical outcomes following transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and surgical aortic valve repair (SAVR) in the subset of patients with severely reduced EF ≤ 25%. Methods Single-center, retrospective study with primary endpoint of LV

View details →DOI: 10.1186/s13019-024-02724-9
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 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

Induction chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy versus CCRT for locally advanced hypopharynx and base of tongue cancer

Sung Hee Lim, Jong-Mu Sun, Joohyun Hong et al. · 2021 · The Korean Journal of Internal Medicine

Background/Aims Clinical trials have not consistently supported the use of induction chemotherapy (IC) for locally advanced head and neck squamous cell cancer. Hypopharynx and base of tongue (BOT) cancer has shown relatively poor survival. We investigated the role of IC in improving outcome over current chemoradiotherapy (CRT) in patients with hypopharynx and BOT cancer. Methods Treatment-naïve patients with stage III/IV (M0) hypopharynx or BOT cancer were randomly assigned to receive CRT alone (CRT arm: cisplatin 100 mg/m2 on D1 3-weekly, two times plus radiotherapy 68.4 Gy/30 fractions on we

View details →DOI: 10.3904/kjim.2019.161
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

Culture of skeletal myoblasts from human donors aged over 40 years: dynamics of cell growth and expression of differentiation markers

Cherubino Paolo, Sala Andrea, Casalone Rosario et al. · 2005 · Journal of Translational Medicine

Abstract Background Local myogenesis, neoangiogenesis and homing of progenitor cells from the bone marrow appear to contribute to repair of the infarcted myocardium. Implantation into heart tissues of autologous skeletal myoblasts has been associated with improved contractile function in animal models and in humans with acute myocardial ischemia. Since heart infarction is most prevalent in individuals of over 40 years of age, we tested whether culture methods available in our laboratory were adequate to obtain sufficient numbers of differentiated skeletal myoblasts from muscle biopsy specimens

View details →DOI: 10.1186/1479-5876-3-21
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 accessAgriculture

In vitro efficiency of Trichoderma harzianum mutants in biocontrol of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. radicis-cucumerinum

Leila Sahampoor, Fatemeh Zaker Tavallaie, Seyed Reza Fani et al. · 2020 · Journal of Crop Protection

Trichoderma is very important as a bio control agent and probably a good alternative for chemical fungicides. Fusarium oxysporum is a plant pathogen that causes wilt in a wide range of plants. The use of gamma irradiation can be employed to increase Trichoderma efficiency against F. oxysporum. The induced mutation provides genetic changes in Trichoderma and in some of the mutated isolates the efficiency of bio control may be improved. In this study the efficiency of mutated T. harzianum CS5 against the F. oxysporum f.sp. radicis-cucumerinum was evaluated. Among 16 wild isolates of Trichoderma,

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.