  Boundary value problems for integrable nonlinear evolution PDEs formulated on
the half-line can be analyzed by the unified method introduced by one of the
authors and used extensively in the literature. The implementation of this
general method to this particular class of problems yields the solution in
terms of the unique solution of a matrix Riemann-Hilbert problem formulated in
the complex $k$-plane (the Fourier plane), which has a jump matrix with
explicit $(x,t)$-dependence involving four scalar functions of $k$, called
spectral functions. Two of these functions depend on the initial data, whereas
the other two depend on all boundary values. The most difficult step of the new
method is the characterization of the latter two spectral functions in terms of
the given initial and boundary data, i.e. the elimination of the unknown
boundary values. For certain boundary conditions, called linearizable, this can
be achieved simply using algebraic manipulations. Here, we present an effective
characterization of the spectral functions in terms of the given initial and
boundary data for the general case of non-linearizable boundary conditions.
This characterization is based on the analysis of the so-called global
relation, on the analysis of the equations obtained from the global relation
via certain transformations leaving the dispersion relation of the associated
linearized PDE invariant, and on the computation of the large $k$ asymptotics
of the eigenfunctions defining the relevant spectral functions.
