A Combintorial Proof of the Sum of q-Cubes

We give a combinatorial proof of a q-analogue of the classical formula for the sum of cubes

Variants of the Rogers–Ramanujan Identities

AbstractWe evaluate several integrals involving generating functions of continuous q-Hermite polynomials in two different ways. The resulting identities give new proofs and generalizations of the Rogers–Ramanujan identities. Two quintic transformations are given, one of which immediately proves the Rogers–Ramanujan identities without the Jacobi triple product identity. Similar techniques lead to new transformations for unilateral and bilateral series. The quintic transformations lead to curious identities involving primitive fifth roots of unity which are then extended to primitive pth roots of unity for odd p

Saccharomyces cerevisiae Fermentation Products That Mitigate Foodborne Salmonella in Cattle and Poultry

Prior studies revealed that yeast fermentation products, specifically XPC™ and related products (Diamond V, Cedar Rapids, IA), serve as viable food safety tools across multiple food animal species including cattle and poultry. Providing this supplement in feed leads to reduced prevalence, load, virulence, and antibiotic resistance of foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli O157:H7. These findings are worthy of further study, especially when coupled with the enhanced growth and performance observed with these products. Mechanistically, XPC appears to modulate these effects through the immune system and gut microbiome. Herein we further investigated this product and demonstrate that XPC mediates an enhancement of immunocyte killing of Salmonella in calves fed the product. Additionally, these studies reveal that XPC reduces the lymph node infiltration, invasiveness, and antibiotic resistance of Salmonella in dairy calves fed the product-consistent with findings observed in poultry and adult beef cattle. Furthermore, the reduction in invasiveness does not lead to a rebound hyperinvasive phenotype in Salmonella obtained from XPC-fed animals. In summary, these studies suggest that XPC reduces the invasion of Salmonella and may alter various phenotypic characteristics of the pathogen

Theoretical Engineering of the Gut Micro biome for the Purpose of Creating Superior Soldiers

The purpose of this review is to highlight research raising the possibility of exploiting the host-microbiome gut axis for military purposes. Through optimizing the gut-microbiome environment it is possible to enhance nutritional access to indigestible material, provide local and systemic analgesia, enhance psychological robustness to battlefield stress, produce endogenous steroids, reduce muscle fatigue, and promote peripheral wound healing. However, this approach is still in its early stages and thus has not been explored to its full potential. The challenges that are currently preventing the practical use of gut bacteria include the following: inconsistency of clinical outcomes, transient effects requiring continuous supplementation, the type of regimen selected, the initiation and cessation of regimen, and the broader clinical studies needed to validate this research. This review is intended to shed light on the numerous and varied positive impacts such an approach could have for the military if further developed

Corrigendum to “Randomized phase 2 trial and open-label extension of domagrozumab in Duchenne muscular dystrophy” [Neuromuscular Disorders, Vol. 30 (6) 2020, 492-502] (Neuromuscular Disorders (2020) 30(6) (492–502), (S0960896620301188), (10.1016/j.nmd.2020.05.002))

This article reported on the results from a phase 2 trial of domagrozumab and its open-label extension in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Clinicaltrials.gov identifiers: NCT02310763 and NCT02907619). The manuscript also provided results on two secondary endpoints for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), muscle volume and muscle volume index. The authors regret that, following publication of the results and in preparation for a separate publication on MRI results from this trial, the MRI images were reviewed and segmentation errors were identified. As a result, the team worked to (1) Perform a rigorous quality inspection of all analysed data; (2) Identify cases where there were incorrect segmentations; (3) correct segmentation errors; (4) Re-analyse all data with correct segmentation. Using the updated MRI data, the MMRM analysis showed there was a change in the significance of secondary endpoints evaluating Thigh Muscle Volume and Muscle Volume Index. No significant differences between treatment groups in muscle volume measures were found in the original analysis. These results have not altered the overall interpretation of the study results but do necessitate revisions to the article. These data confirm that the trial design and execution adequately tested the hypothesis that myostatin inhibition would slow or delay the loss of function in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The increase in muscle volume observed by MRI in patients with DMD treated with domagrozumab is in accordance with mechanism of action for domagrozumab, which targets myostatin, a negative regulator of muscle growth. The increase in muscle volume did not lead to a clinical benefit in patients with DMD. The primary endpoint (4 stair climb) did not meet statistical significance, nor did the other functional tests. The study was terminated due to lack of efficacy. Full details of the needed revisions are as follows: 1. In the results section 3.6 (page 8, second paragraph), we reported no significant differences in mean percent change from baseline between domagrozumab and placebo for both muscle volume and muscle volume index. This paragraph was replaced with the following text: “There was a significant difference between domagrozumab and placebo in the mean percent change from baseline in thigh muscle volume at Week 17 (difference 2.945%, P=0.0087) and Week 49 (differences 4.087%, P=0.0298), and in muscle volume index at Week 33 (difference 2.612%, P=0.0376) and Week 49 (differences3.208%, P=0.0411).” 2. In the discussion (page 9), the following sentence, “Although neither muscle volume nor muscle volume index measures were statistically significant in this study, they are both consistent with a potential anabolic effect.” was replaced with, “The increase in muscle volume observed on MRI in patients with DMD treated with domagrozumab, is in accordance with mechanism of action for this compound which targets myostatin, a negative regulator of muscle growth. However, the increase in muscle volume did not lead to a clinical benefit (improved function) in patients with DMD.” 3. In view of the correction to the Results section, this is now reflected in the abstract which has changed to read: “There were no significant between-group differences in secondary clinical endpoints, except for the thigh muscle volume and muscle volume index measures (P\u3c0.05).” The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused

Alternative scenarios: harnessing mid-level providers and evidence-based practice in primary dental care in England through operational research

Background: In primary care dentistry, strategies to reconfigure the traditional boundaries of various dental professional groups by task sharing and role substitution have been encouraged in order to meet changing oral health needs. Aim: The aim of this research was to investigate the potential for skill mix use in primary dental care in England based on the undergraduate training experience in a primary care team training centre for dentists and mid-level dental providers. Methods: An operational research model and four alternative scenarios to test the potential for skill mix use in primary care in England were developed, informed by the model of care at a primary dental care training centre in the south of England, professional policy including scope of practice and contemporary evidence-based preventative practice. The model was developed in Excel and drew on published national timings and salary costs. The scenarios included the following: “No Skill Mix”, “Minimal Direct Access”, “More Prevention” and “Maximum Delegation”. The scenario outputs comprised clinical time, workforce numbers and salary costs required for state-funded primary dental care in England. Results: The operational research model suggested that 73% of clinical time in England’s state-funded primary dental care in 2011/12 was spent on tasks that may be delegated to dental care professionals (DCPs), and 45- to 54-year-old patients received the most clinical time overall. Using estimated National Health Service (NHS) clinical working patterns, the model suggested alternative NHS workforce numbers and salary costs to meet the dental demand based on each developed scenario. For scenario 1:“No Skill Mix”, the dentist-only scenario, 81% of the dentists currently registered in England would be required to participate. In scenario 2: “Minimal Direct Access”, where 70% of examinations were delegated and the primary care training centre delegation patterns for other treatments were practised, 40% of registered dentists and eight times the number of dental therapists currently registered would be required; this would save 38% of current salary costs cf. “No Skill Mix”. Scenario 3: “More Prevention”, that is, the current model with no direct access and increasing fluoride varnish from 13.1% to 50% and maintaining the same model of delegation as scenario 2 for other care, would require 57% of registered dentists and 4.7 times the number of dental therapists. It would achieve a 1% salary cost saving cf. “No Skill Mix”. Scenario 4 “Maximum Delegation” where all care within dental therapists’ jurisdiction is delegated at 100%, together with 50% of restorations and radiographs, suggested that only 30% of registered dentists would be required and 10 times the number of dental therapists registered; this scenario would achieve a 52% salary cost saving cf. “No Skill Mix”. Conclusion: Alternative scenarios based on wider expressed treatment need in national primary dental care in England, changing regulations on the scope of practice and increased evidence-based preventive practice suggest that the majority of care in primary dental practice may be delegated to dental therapists, and there is potential time and salary cost saving if the majority of diagnostic tasks and prevention are delegated. However, this would require an increase in trained DCPs, including role enhancement, as part of rebalancing the dental workforce

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Non-cationic proteins are associated with HIV neutralizing activity in genital secretions of female sex workers.

CAPRISA, 2015.Abstract available in pdf