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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.

1761 results in Negative / Null Result Report for "Mpro" · page 52 of 59

Negative / Null Result Report

Additional Decitabine Did Not Improve Outcomes of Elder Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients Based on Microtransplantation with Cytarabine and Anthracycline Chemotherapy

Kaixun Hu, Yajing Huang, Huisheng Ai et al. · 2015 · Blood

Abstract Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) of older patients is an aggressive malignancy. Despite decitabine is performed some clinic trials in these patients, however there is little data on efficacy and is more controversial on it. Recent…

View details →DOI: 10.1182/blood.v126.23.1318.1318
Negative / Null Result Report

Did multiagent chemotherapy improve clinical outcomes of advanced pancreatic cancer? A single center experience of 408 cases.

Yousuke Nakai, Hiroyuki Isayama, Kazunaga Ishigaki et al. · 2016 · Journal of Clinical Oncology

293 Background: We previously reported the introduction of S-1 improved overall survival (OS) in advanced pancreatic cancer (PC), but in a pooled analysis of 3 RCTs, a combination of gemcitabine and S-1 (GS) improved OS in locally advanced…

View details →DOI: 10.1200/jco.2016.34.4_suppl.293
Negative / Null Result Report

Delaying Shoulder Motion and Strengthening and Increasing Achilles Allograft Thickness for Glenoid Resurfacing Did Not Improve the Outcome for a 30-Year-Old Patient with Postarthroscopic Glenohumeral Chondrolysis

John G. Skedros, Tanner R. Henrie, Chad S. Mears · 2014 · Case Reports in Orthopedics

Although interposition soft-tissue (biologic) resurfacing of the glenoid with humeral hemiarthroplasty has been considered an option for end-stage glenohumeral arthritis, the results of this procedure are highly unsatisfactory in patients…

View details →DOI: 10.1155/2014/517801
Negative / Null Result Report

Postoperative Doxycycline Did Not Improve Early Postoperative Outcomes in Hip Arthroscopy Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Zeeshan M. Akhtar, Emily R. Hunt, Brooks N. Platt et al. · 2021 · The Journal of Hip Surgery

Abstract Doxycycline has been shown to reduce fibroblast activity in the treatment of multiple pathologies, and was utilized as part of the postoperative medication protocol to help prevent adhesions from developing after hip arthroscopy.…

View details →DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1739456
Negative / Null Result Report

Did the 2017 wage increase improve job satisfaction of academic staff? A case study of the university of Nigeria, Nsukka

Abdullahi Abubakar, Boniface Denis Umoh · 2023 · Caleb International Journal of Development Studies

Many employees are merely holding on to their current jobs for lack of alternatives. Such staff members are no longer deriving satisfaction from their current jobs. Lack of satisfaction impinges on workers productivity and attitude to work…

View details →DOI: 10.26772/cijds-2023-06-01-06
Negative / Null Result Report

P0603 Early tumour necrosis factor inhibitor initiation is associated with increased persistence in Crohn’s Disease but not Ulcerative Colitis, whereas early ustekinumab, vedolizumab and tofacitinib did not improve persistence

B Gu, J Chetwood, A Pudipeddi et al. · 2026 · Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis

Abstract Background Emerging evidence suggests early initiation of advanced therapies (AT) may improve outcomes, but optimal timing remains unclear. We aimed to assess the impact of AT timing on persistence. Methods We interrogated the…

View details →DOI: 10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjaf231.784
Negative / Null Result Report

A Novel Honey Powder-Based Supplement Containing Carbohydrate and Protein Did Not Improve Endurance Performance in Recreationally Trained Cyclists

Taíse Toniazzo, Rafael de Almeida Azevedo, Tamires Nunes Oliveira et al. · 2025 · International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism

Sports supplements composed of carbohydrate and protein are widely used by endurance athletes and recreational practitioners, mostly aimed at improving performance. This study investigated the effect of a novel carbohydrate + protein honey…

View details →DOI: 10.1123/ijsnem.2025-0021
Negative / Null Result Report

Rapamycin adjuvant therapy did not improve the outcome of severe influenza virus infection in an experimental mouse model system

Ching-Tai Huang, Avijit Dutta, Tse-Ching Chen et al. · 2016 · The Journal of Immunology

Abstract The host immune system responds to influenza virus infection for eradication of the virus but the immune response associated inflammation causes tissue injury and damage to the host as well. Severe influenza with morbidity and…

View details →DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.196.supp.76.21
Negative / Null Result Report

Cyber defence automation: Can AI outperform hackers?

Vitalii Yasenenko · 2025 · Technologies and Engineering

Growing cyber threats in the context of digital transformation require improved methods of automating cyber defence, in particular, through the use of artificial intelligence to detect and respond to attacks. The purpose of the study was…

View details →DOI: 10.30857/2786-5371.2025.3.7
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 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 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

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 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 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

End-to-End Fidelity Analysis of Quantum Circuit Optimization: From Gate-Level Transformations to Pulse-Level Control

Rylan Malarchick · 2026 · arXiv

We present an analysis of quantum circuit fidelity across the full compilation stack, from high-level gate optimization through pulse-level control. We connect a C++ circuit optimizer to a per-gate Lindblad master-equation fidelity model whose decoherence channels are cross-validated against qiskit-dynamics and whose absolute predictions are benchmarked against execution on real hardware. Across a campaign of 4,452 experiment runs over 371 benchmark circuits, gate cancellation provides the dominant improvement ($d = 1.66$, 72% of circuits improved), while circuit size and pulse duration are th

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

More Rounds, More Noise: Why Multi-Turn Review Fails to Improve Cross-Context Verification

Song Tae-Eun · 2026 · arXiv

Cross-Context Review (CCR) improves LLM verification by separating production and review into independent sessions. A natural extension is multi-turn review: letting the reviewer ask follow-up questions, receive author responses, and review again. We call this Dynamic Cross-Context Review (D-CCR). In a controlled experiment with 30 artifacts and 150 injected errors, we tested four D-CCR variants against the single-pass CCR baseline. Single-pass CCR (F1 = 0.376) significantly outperformed all multi-turn variants, including D-CCR-2b with question-and-answer exchange (F1 = 0.303, $p < 0.001$, $d

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

An Analysis of BPE Vocabulary Trimming in Neural Machine Translation

Marco Cognetta, Tatsuya Hiraoka, Naoaki Okazaki et al. · 2024 · arXiv

We explore threshold vocabulary trimming in Byte-Pair Encoding subword tokenization, a postprocessing step that replaces rare subwords with their component subwords. The technique is available in popular tokenization libraries but has not been subjected to rigorous scientific scrutiny. While the removal of rare subwords is suggested as best practice in machine translation implementations, both as a means to reduce model size and for improving model performance through robustness, our experiments indicate that, across a large space of hyperparameter settings, vocabulary trimming fails to improv

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Learning to Learn End-to-End Goal-Oriented Dialog From Related Dialog Tasks

Janarthanan Rajendran, Jonathan K. Kummerfeld, Satinder Singh · 2021 · arXiv

For each goal-oriented dialog task of interest, large amounts of data need to be collected for end-to-end learning of a neural dialog system. Collecting that data is a costly and time-consuming process. Instead, we show that we can use only a small amount of data, supplemented with data from a related dialog task. Naively learning from related data fails to improve performance as the related data can be inconsistent with the target task. We describe a meta-learning based method that selectively learns from the related dialog task data. Our approach leads to significant accuracy improvements in

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Rethinking Neural Width for Alternating Current Optimal Power Flow Proxies

Dhruvi Khandelwal, Anurag Basistha, Ayushi Jolotia et al. · 2026 · arXiv

Deep learning proxies for Alternating Current Optimal Power Flow (ACOPF) lack systematic methods for determining architectural size. This paper conducts a constructive thought experiment to answer a fundamental inquiry: how wide must a neural network be to almost accurately approximate the ACOPF manifold? We introduce a Loss-Guided Neural Densification (LG-ND) algorithm that incrementally discovers necessary capacity by expanding only when the current deep neural network topology fails to improve further. Empirical results across various IEEE systems show that LG-ND achieves performance parity

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Meta-Curriculum Learning for Domain Adaptation in Neural Machine Translation

Runzhe Zhan, Xuebo Liu, Derek F. Wong et al. · 2021 · arXiv

Meta-learning has been sufficiently validated to be beneficial for low-resource neural machine translation (NMT). However, we find that meta-trained NMT fails to improve the translation performance of the domain unseen at the meta-training stage. In this paper, we aim to alleviate this issue by proposing a novel meta-curriculum learning for domain adaptation in NMT. During meta-training, the NMT first learns the similar curricula from each domain to avoid falling into a bad local optimum early, and finally learns the curricula of individualities to improve the model robustness for learning dom

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Not How Many, But Which: Parameter Placement in Low-Rank Adaptation

Arijit Sehanobish, Charles Lovering · 2026 · arXiv

We study the \textit{parameter placement problem}: given a fixed budget of $k$ trainable entries within the B matrix of a LoRA adapter (A frozen), does the choice of which $k$ matter? Under supervised fine-tuning, random and informed subsets achieve comparable performance. Under GRPO on base models, random placement fails to improve over the base model, while gradient-informed placement recovers standard LoRA accuracy. This regime dependence traces to gradient structure: SFT gradients are low-rank and directionally stable, so any subset accumulates coherent updates; GRPO gradients are high-ran

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

InsCLR: Improving Instance Retrieval with Self-Supervision

Zelu Deng, Yujie Zhong, Sheng Guo et al. · 2021 · arXiv

This work aims at improving instance retrieval with self-supervision. We find that fine-tuning using the recently developed self-supervised (SSL) learning methods, such as SimCLR and MoCo, fails to improve the performance of instance retrieval. In this work, we identify that the learnt representations for instance retrieval should be invariant to large variations in viewpoint and background etc., whereas self-augmented positives applied by the current SSL methods can not provide strong enough signals for learning robust instance-level representations. To overcome this problem, we propose InsCL

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessMathematics

ScoreStop: Gradient-based early stopping using functional score tests

Oliver J. Hines, Christian L. Hines · 2026 · arXiv

Gradient boosted decision trees require a stopping rule to avoid overfitting. The standard rule monitors a validation loss and stops if the loss fails to improve for a fixed patience period. However, the patience parameter has no interpretable scale and validation losses can be noisy or implicitly defined by a user-specified gradient. We propose ScoreStop, a gradient-based early-stopping rule that casts the stopping decision at each iteration as a test of the null hypothesis that the current predictor is the population risk minimizer. We use a functional score test, computed on validation data

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessComputer Science

Uncovering the Impact of Chain-of-Thought Reasoning for Direct Preference Optimization: Lessons from Text-to-SQL

Hanbing Liu, Haoyang Li, Xiaokang Zhang et al. · 2025 · arXiv

Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) has proven effective in complex reasoning tasks like math word problems and code generation. However, when applied to Text-to-SQL datasets, it often fails to improve performance and can even degrade it. Our investigation reveals the root cause: unlike math and code tasks, which naturally integrate Chain-of-Thought (CoT) reasoning with DPO, Text-to-SQL datasets typically include only final answers (gold SQL queries) without detailed CoT solutions. By augmenting Text-to-SQL datasets with synthetic CoT solutions, we achieve, for the first time, consistent and