Evidence for B- -> Ds+ K- l- nubar and search for B- -> Ds*+ K- l- nubar

We report measurements of the decays B- -> Ds(*)+ K- l- nubar in a data sample containing 657x10^6 BBbar pairs collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider. We observe a signal with a significance of 6 sigma for the combined Ds and Ds* modes and find the first evidence of the B- -> Ds+ K- l- nubar decay with a significance of 3.4 sigma. We measure the following branching fractions: BF(B- -> Ds+ K- l nubar) = (0.30 +/- 0.09(stat) +0.11 -0.08(syst)) x 10^-3 and BF(B- -> Ds*+ K- l- nubar) = (0.59 +/- 0.12(stat) +/- 0.15(syst)) x 10^-3 and set an upper limit BF(B- -> Ds*+ K- l- nubar) < 0.56 x 10^-3 at the 90% confidence level. We also present the first measurement of the Ds+K- invariant mass distribution in these decays, which is dominated by a prominent peak around 2.6 GeV/c^2.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Constrained Optimization in Simulation: A Novel Approach

This paper presents a novel heuristic for constrained optimization of random computer simula-tion models, in which one of the simulation outputs is selected as the objective to be minimized while the other outputs need to satisfy prespecified target values. Besides the simulation out-puts, the simulation inputs must meet prespecified constraints including the constraint that the inputs be integer. The proposed heuristic combines (i) experimental design to specify the simu-lation input combinations, (ii) Kriging (also called spatial correlation modeling) to analyze the global simulation input/output data that result from this experimental design, and (iii) integer nonlinear programming to estimate the optimal solution from the Kriging metamodels. The heuristic is applied to an (s, S) inventory system and a realistic call-center simulation model, and compared with the popular commercial heuristic OptQuest embedded in the ARENA ver-sions 11 and 12. These two applications show that the novel heuristic outperforms OptQuest in terms of search speed (it moves faster towards high-quality solutions) and consistency of the solution quality

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Not AvailableA field experiment was conducted in maize under medium-term conservation agriculture (CA) based maize- wheat system at B1SA-CIMMYT, Ladhowal, Punjab during £âar/2019 to assess the effect of CA* practices (CA with sub-surface drip irrigation) with variable N doses on maize. The CA* treatments were residue retained (WR) permanent bed (PB) with sub-surface drip fertigation (PB-SSD): without N (N0), 120 kg N/ha,150 kg N/ha applied in 4-equal (Eq) and differential splits ( Df); CA alone treatment includ PB furrow irrigation with 120 kg N/ha (PBWR- Furrow-N 120): conventional tillage (CT) invol ved furrow irrigation with 120 kg N/ha (CTWOR-Furrow-N120) and other treatments were residue removed (WOR) PB: PBWOR-without N (NO), with 120 kg N/ha, and 150 kg N/ha applied in four Eq-splits and Df-splits. The findings of the present experiment showed that the numerical value of yield attributing characters were highet under CA+ plots as compared to CA alone (PBWR-Furrow-N120) and CT (CTWOR-Furrow-N120). Biological yield of maize was significantly higher in all CA* plots as compared to CA alone and CT plots. Highest biological yield was recorded under PBWR-SSD-N 150 Df (23.45 t/ha). Highest no. of cobs (72800/ha), no. of grains/cob (605) and cob length (22.61 cm) along with dry matter resulted highest biological yield in PBWR-SSD-N 150 plots. The gfain N content remained statistically similar across all the N management plots, but in case of total N uptake, PBWR-SSD-N 150 Df (CA*) plots dominated due to higher biomass, Besides, CA+ based PBWR-SSD-N 120 (average of Df and Eq) registered 23-24% higher total N uptake than CA alone (PBWR- Furrow-N 120) and conventional (CTWOR-Furrow-N120) plots. Improved agronomic N use-efficiency was also recorded under CAT plots as compared to CA alone (36.4 kg/kg N) and CT (36.7 kg/kg N) plots.Not Availabl