Payload/orbiter contamination control requirement study: Spacelab configuration contamination study

The assessment of the Spacelab carrier induced contaminant environment was continued, and the ability of Spacelab to meet established contamination control criteria for the space transportation system program was determined. The primary areas considered included: (1) updating, refining, and improving the Spacelab contamination computer model and contamination analysis methodology, (2) establishing the resulting adjusted induced environment predictions for comparison with the applicable criteria, (3) determining the Spacelab design and operational requirements necessary to meet the criteria, (4) conducting mission feasibility analyses of the combined Spacelab/Orbiter contaminant environment for specific proposed mission and payload mixes, and (5) establishing a preliminary Spacelab mission support plan as well as model interface requirements; A summary of those activities conducted to date with respect to the modelling, analysis, and predictions of the induced environment, including any modifications in approach or methodology utilized in the contamination assessment of the Spacelab carrier, was presented

Payload/orbiter contamination control requirement study: Computer interface

A preliminary assessment of the computer interface requirements of the Spacelab configuration contamination computer model was conducted to determine the compatibility of the program, as presently formatted, with the computer facilities at MSFC. The necessary Spacelab model modifications are pointed out. The MSFC computer facilities and their future plans are described, and characteristics of the various computers as to availability and suitability for processing the contamination program are discussed. A listing of the CDC 6000 series and UNIVAC 1108 characteristics is presented so that programming requirements can be compared directly and differences noted

Feature weighting techniques for CBR in software effort estimation studies: A review and empirical evaluation

Context : Software effort estimation is one of the most important activities in the software development process. Unfortunately, estimates are often substantially wrong. Numerous estimation methods have been proposed including Case-based Reasoning (CBR). In order to improve CBR estimation accuracy, many researchers have proposed feature weighting techniques (FWT). Objective: Our purpose is to systematically review the empirical evidence to determine whether FWT leads to improved predictions. In addition we evaluate these techniques from the perspectives of (i) approach (ii) strengths and weaknesses (iii) performance and (iv) experimental evaluation approach including the data sets used. Method: We conducted a systematic literature review of published, refereed primary studies on FWT (2000-2014). Results: We identified 19 relevant primary studies. These reported a range of different techniques. 17 out of 19 make benchmark comparisons with standard CBR and 16 out of 17 studies report improved accuracy. Using a one-sample sign test this positive impact is significant (p = 0:0003). Conclusion: The actionable conclusion from this study is that our review of all relevant empirical evidence supports the use of FWTs and we recommend that researchers and practitioners give serious consideration to their adoption

Recursive Polynomial Remainder Sequence and the Nested Subresultants

We give two new expressions of subresultants, nested subresultant and reduced nested subresultant, for the recursive polynomial remainder sequence (PRS) which has been introduced by the author. The reduced nested subresultant reduces the size of the subresultant matrix drastically compared with the recursive subresultant proposed by the authors before, hence it is much more useful for investigation of the recursive PRS. Finally, we discuss usage of the reduced nested subresultant in approximate algebraic computation, which motivates the present work.Comment: 12 pages. Presented at CASC 2005 (Kalamata, Greece, Septermber 12-16, 2005

Analysis of hadronic invariant mass spectrum in inclusive charmless semileptonic B decays

We make an analysis of the hadronic invariant mass spectrum in inclusive charmless semileptonic B meson decays in a QCD-based approach. The decay width is studied as a function of the invariant mass cut. We examine their sensitivities to the parameters of the theory. The theoretical uncertainties in the determination of $|V_{ub}|$ from the hadronic invariant mass spectrum are investigated. A strategy for improving the theoretical accuracy in the value of $|V_{ub}|$ is described.Comment: 13 pages, 5 Postscript figure

Higher analogues of the discrete-time Toda equation and the quotient-difference algorithm

The discrete-time Toda equation arises as a universal equation for the relevant Hankel determinants associated with one-variable orthogonal polynomials through the mechanism of adjacency, which amounts to the inclusion of shifted weight functions in the orthogonality condition. In this paper we extend this mechanism to a new class of two-variable orthogonal polynomials where the variables are related via an elliptic curve. This leads to a `Higher order Analogue of the Discrete-time Toda' (HADT) equation for the associated Hankel determinants, together with its Lax pair, which is derived from the relevant recurrence relations for the orthogonal polynomials. In a similar way as the quotient-difference (QD) algorithm is related to the discrete-time Toda equation, a novel quotient-quotient-difference (QQD) scheme is presented for the HADT equation. We show that for both the HADT equation and the QQD scheme, there exists well-posed $s$-periodic initial value problems, for almost all \s\in\Z^2. From the Lax-pairs we furthermore derive invariants for corresponding reductions to dynamical mappings for some explicit examples.Comment: 38 page

A Reduction from Unbounded Linear Mixed Arithmetic Problems into Bounded Problems

We present a combination of the Mixed-Echelon-Hermite transformation and the Double-Bounded Reduction for systems of linear mixed arithmetic that preserve satisfiability and can be computed in polynomial time. Together, the two transformations turn any system of linear mixed constraints into a bounded system, i.e., a system for which termination can be achieved easily. Existing approaches for linear mixed arithmetic, e.g., branch-and-bound and cuts from proofs, only explore a finite search space after application of our two transformations. Instead of generating a priori bounds for the variables, e.g., as suggested by Papadimitriou, unbounded variables are eliminated through the two transformations. The transformations orient themselves on the structure of an input system instead of computing a priori (over-)approximations out of the available constants. Experiments provide further evidence to the efficiency of the transformations in practice. We also present a polynomial method for converting certificates of (un)satisfiability from the transformed to the original system

A connection between inclusive semileptonic decays of bound and free heavy quarks

A relativistic constituent quark model, formulated on the light-front, is used to derive a new parton approximation for the inclusive semileptonic decay width of the B-meson. A simple connection between the decay rate of a free heavy-quark and the one of a heavy-quark bound in a meson or in a baryon is established. The main features of the new approach are the treatment of the b-quark as an on-mass-shell particle and the inclusion of the effects arising from the b-quark transverse motion in the B-meson. In a way conceptually similar to the deep-inelastic scattering case, the B-meson inclusive width is expressed as the integral of the free b-quark partial width multiplied by a bound-state factor related to the b-quark distribution function in the B-meson. The non-perturbative meson structure is described through various quark-model wave functions, constructed via the Hamiltonian light-front formalism using as input both relativized and non-relativistic potential models. A link between spectroscopic quark models and the B-meson decay physics is obtained in this way. Our predictions for the B -> X_c l nu_l and B -> X_u l nu_l decays are used to extract the CKM parameters |V_cb| and |V_ub| from available inclusive data. After averaging over the various quark models adopted and including leading-order perturbative QCD corrections, we obtain |V_cb| = (43.0 +/- 0.7_exp +/- 1.8_th) 10^-3 and |V_ub| = (3.83 +/- 0.48_exp +/- 0.14_th) 10^-3, implying |V_ub / V_cb| = 0.089 +/- 0.011_exp +/- 0.005_th, in nice agreement with existing predictions.Comment: revised version with pQCD corrections included, to appear in Physical Review

Leptonic and Semileptonic Decays of Charm and Bottom Hadrons

We review the experimental measurements and theoretical descriptions of leptonic and semileptonic decays of particles containing a single heavy quark, either charm or bottom. Measurements of bottom semileptonic decays are used to determine the magnitudes of two fundamental parameters of the standard model, the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements $V_{cb}$ and $V_{ub}$. These parameters are connected with the physics of quark flavor and mass, and they have important implications for the breakdown of CP symmetry. To extract precise values of $|V_{cb}|$ and $|V_{ub}|$ from measurements, however, requires a good understanding of the decay dynamics. Measurements of both charm and bottom decay distributions provide information on the interactions governing these processes. The underlying weak transition in each case is relatively simple, but the strong interactions that bind the quarks into hadrons introduce complications. We also discuss new theoretical approaches, especially heavy-quark effective theory and lattice QCD, which are providing insights and predictions now being tested by experiment. An international effort at many laboratories will rapidly advance knowledge of this physics during the next decade.Comment: This review article will be published in Reviews of Modern Physics in the fall, 1995. This file contains only the abstract and the table of contents. The full 168-page document including 47 figures is available at http://charm.physics.ucsb.edu/papers/slrevtex.p

Motion of b-quark inside B meson: the Parton Model vs. the ACCMM Model

We study the distribution function of the b-quark for inclusive semileptonic B decays in the framework of the parton model. We compare the functional behavior of the fragmentation inspired function and the Gaussian ACCMM function, and discuss their validity. Using the HQET parameters, we can critically test these models.Comment: 24 pages, ReVTex with 6 eps figure files embedded with epsfig.sty the 1st revised version, to appear in Phys. Rev.