Boas of the West Indies is a comprehensive survey of boid snakes, commonly known as boas, found on the islands of the Lucayan Archipelago, the Greater Antilles, and the Lesser Antilles. Bringing together the expertise of leading herpetologists R. Graham Reynolds, Robert W. Henderson, Luis M. Diaz, Tomas Michel Rodriguez, and Alberto R. Puente-Rolon, this volume synthesizes established knowledge and new findings on the evolutionary biology, natural history, and conservation statuses of these iconic snakes. One of the most ecologically diverse snake families, boas have inhabited the West Indies for millions of years. From the Cuban boa, which in many folk legends may grow to over twice a person's height, to the Hispaniolan vineboa, discovered only in 2020 and known to measure less than a meter long, Boas of the West Indies examines the eighteen species extant on these islands along with several others now extinct. Species accounts include details such as phenotypic traits, distribution, and behavior. Introductory chapters discuss the history of human-boa interaction, differences between West Indian and neotropical mainland boids, current conservation efforts, and more. Illustrated with over a hundred color photographs and range maps, Boas of the West Indies is a benchmark reference for herpetologists, conservationists, and snake hobbyists that expands our knowledge of-and celebrates-these fascinating creatures so integral to the ecology of these islands.

As the Department of Defense (DoD) moves to a capability based approach for requirements definition and system development, it has become necessary to conceptualize and evaluate our needs at the System of System (SoS) level. Desired capabilities are often achievable only through seamless integration of many different systems. As the classical system engineering approaches are not suited to effectively handle the complexity of SoS level concepts, an architectures-driven approach has emerged as a way of defining and evaluating these new concepts. While the use of architectures for documenting and tracking interfaces and interoperability concerns is generally understood, architectural analysis and the use of executable models for evaluation of architectures remain an open area of research. With this purpose in mind, this thesis will apply architectural-based analysis to the proposed Time Sensitive Effect Operation (TSEO2012) scenario. This scenario will become the baseline for architectural analysis, and an excursion to this baseline will add a Weapon Born Battle Damage Assessment (WBBDA) capability. By creating an executable model, the two architectural concepts can be compared against each other. The addition of a WBBDA capability to the TSEO architecture improves the efficiency of the time sensitive target operations by shortening the decision cycle for target re-strike. While this effort was successful in obtaining an executable model directly from the architecture description, it highlighted the importance of having sufficient and correct information contained in the architecture products.