Partial duality and Bollobás and Riordan’s ribbon graph polynomial

Recently S. Chmutov introduced a generalization of the dual of a ribbon graph (or equivalently an embedded graph) and proved a relation between Bollobás and Riordan’s ribbon graph polynomial of a ribbon graph and of its generalized duals. Here I show that the duality relation satisfied by the ribbon graph polynomial can be understood in terms of knot theory and I give a simple proof of the relation which used the homfly polynomial of a knot.