Evaluations of some terminating hypergeometric ₂F₁(2) series with applications

Explicit expressions for the hypergeometric series 2F1(-n, a; 2a±j; 2) and 2F1(-n, a;-2n±j; 2) for positive integer n and arbitrary integer j are obtained with the help of generalizations of Kummer's second and third summation theorems obtained earlier by Rakha and Rathie. Results for |j| ≤ 5 derived previously using different methods are also obtained as special cases. Two applications are considered, where the first summation formula is applied to a terminating 3F2(2) series and the confluent hypergeometric function 1F1(x).</p

On extensions of two results due to Ramanujan

The aim in this note is to provide a generalization of an interesting entry in Ramanujan’s notebooks that relate sums involving the derivatives of a function φ(t) evaluated at 0 and 1. The generalization obtained is derived with the help of expressions for the sum of terminating 3F2 hypergeometric functions of argument equal to 2, recently obtained by Kim et. al. [Two results for the terminating 3F2(2) with applications, Bulletin of the Korean Mathematical Society 2012; 49: 621-633]. Several special cases are given. In addition we generalize a summation formula to include integral parameter differences

On two extensions of the canonical Feller–Spitzer distribution

We introduce two extensions of the canonical Feller–Spitzer distribution from the class of Bessel densities, which comprise two distinct stochastically decreasing one-parameter families of positive absolutely continuous infinitely divisible distributions with monotone densities, whose upper tails exhibit a power decay. The densities of the members of the first class are expressed in terms of the modified Bessel function of the first kind, whereas the members of the second class have the densities of their Lévy measure given by virtue of the same function. The Laplace transforms for both these families possess closed–form representations in terms of specific hypergeometric functions. We obtain the explicit expressions by virtue of the particular parameter value for the moments of the distributions considered and establish the monotonicity of the mean, variance, skewness and excess kurtosis within the families. We derive numerous properties of members of these classes by employing both new and previously known properties of the special functions involved and determine the variance function for the natural exponential family generated by a member of the second class

Extensions of beta and related functions

In this paper, we introduce and investigate a new extension of the beta function by means of an integral operator involving a product of Bessel-Struve kernel functions. We also define a new extension of the well-known beta distribution, the Gauss hypergeometric function and the confluent hypergeometric function in terms of our extended beta function. In addition, some useful properties of these extended functions are also indicated in a systematic way

On a result related to transformations and summations of generalized hypergeometric series

We deduce an explicit representation for the coefficients in a finite expansion of a certain class of generalized hypergeometric functions that contain multiple pairs of numeratorial and denominatorial parameters differing by positive integers. The expansion alluded to is given in terms of these coefficients and hypergeometric functions of lower order. Applications to Euler and Kummer-type transformations of a subclass of the generalized hypergeometric functions mentioned above together with an extension of the Karlsson-Minton summation formula are provided

Hypergeometric function representation of the roots of a certain cubic equation

The aim in this note is to obtain new hypergeometric forms for the functions (√z − 1 − √z) b ± (√z − 1 − √z)−b, (√z − 1 + √z)b ± (√z − 1 + √z)−b, where b is an arbitrary parameter, in terms of Gauss hypergeometric functions. An application of these results (when b =1/3) is made to obtain the hypergeometric form of the roots of the cubic equation r3 − r + 2/3√2/3 = 0. This complements the entry in the compendium of Prudnikov et al. on page 472, entry (68) of the table, where only the middle root (either real or purely imaginary) is given in hypergeometric form.Publisher's Versio

The 13th Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the SDSS-IV Survey Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) began observations in July 2014. It pursues three core programs: APOGEE-2,MaNGA, and eBOSS. In addition, eBOSS contains two major subprograms: TDSS and SPIDERS. This paper describes the first data release from SDSS-IV, Data Release 13 (DR13), which contains new data, reanalysis of existing data sets and, like all SDSS data releases, is inclusive of previously released data. DR13 makes publicly available 1390 spatially resolved integral field unit observations of nearby galaxies from MaNGA,the first data released from this survey. It includes new observations from eBOSS, completing SEQUELS. In addition to targeting galaxies and quasars, SEQUELS also targeted variability-selected objects from TDSS and X-ray selected objects from SPIDERS. DR13 includes new reductions ofthe SDSS-III BOSS data, improving the spectrophotometric calibration and redshift classification. DR13 releases new reductions of the APOGEE-1data from SDSS-III, with abundances of elements not previously included and improved stellar parameters for dwarf stars and cooler stars. For the SDSS imaging data, DR13 provides new, more robust and precise photometric calibrations. Several value-added catalogs are being released in tandem with DR13, in particular target catalogs relevant for eBOSS, TDSS, and SPIDERS, and an updated red-clump catalog for APOGEE.This paper describes the location and format of the data now publicly available, as well as providing references to the important technical papers that describe the targeting, observing, and data reduction. The SDSS website, http://www.sdss.org, provides links to the data, tutorials and examples of data access, and extensive documentation of the reduction and analysis procedures. DR13 is the first of a scheduled set that will contain new data and analyses from the planned ~6-year operations of SDSS-IV.PostprintPeer reviewe

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival