Standardization of hardware description languages and the availability of synthesis tools has brought about a remarkable increase in the productivity of hardware designers. Yet design verification methods and tools lag behind and have difficulty in dealing with the increasing design complexity. This may get worse because more complex systems are now constructed by (re)using Intellectual Property blocks developed by third parties. To verify such designs, abstract models of the blocks and the system must be developed, with separate concerns, such as interface communication, functionality, and timing, that can be verified in an almost independent fashion. Standard Hardware Description Languages such as VHDL and Verilog are inspired by procedural `imperative' programming languages in which function and timing are inherently intertwined in the statements of the language. Furthermore, they are not conceived to state the intent of the design in a simple declarative way that contains provisions for design choices, for stating assumptions on the environment, and for indicating uncertainty in system timing. Hierarchical Annotated Action Diagrams: An Interface-Oriented Specification and Verification Method presents a description methodology that was inspired by Timing Diagrams and Process Algebras, the so-called Hierarchical Annotated Diagrams. It is suitable for specifying systems with complex interface behaviors that govern the global system behavior. A HADD specification can be converted into a behavioral real-time model in VHDL and used to verify the surrounding logic, such as interface transducers. Also, function can be conservatively abstracted away and the interactions between interconnected devices can be verified using Constraint Logic Programming based on Relational Interval Arithmetic. Hierarchical Annotated Action Diagrams: An Interface-Oriented Specification and Verification Method is of interest to readers who are involved in defining methods and tools for system-level design specification and verification. The techniques for interface compatibility verification can be used by practicing designers, without any more sophisticated tool than a calculator.

The question of whether biologists should continue to use the Linnaean hierarchy has been a hotly debated issue. Invented before the introduction of evolutionary theory, Linnaeus's system of classifying organisms is based on outdated theoretical assumptions, and is thought to be unable to provide accurate biological classifications. Marc Ereshefsky argues that biologists should abandon the Linnaean system and adopt an alternative that is more in line with evolutionary theory. He traces the evolution of the Linnaean hierarchy from its introduction to the present. He illustrates how the continued use of this system hampers our ability to classify the organic world, and then goes on to make specific recommendations for a post-Linnaean method of classification. Accessible to a wide range of readers by providing introductory chapters to the philosophy of classification and the taxonomy of biology, the book will interest both scholars and students of biology and the philosophy of science.

Linguistically annotated corpora are becoming a central part of the corpus linguistics field. One of their main strengths is the level of searchability they offer, but with the annotation come problems of the initial complexity of queries and query tools. This book gives a full, pedagogic account of this burgeoning field. Beginning with an overview of corpus linguistics, its prerequisites and goals, the book then introduces linguistically annotated corpora. It explores the different levels of linguistic annotation, including morphological, parts of speech, syntactic, semantic and discourse-level, as well as advantages and challenges for such annotations. It covers the main annotated corpora for English, the Penn Treebank, the International Corpus of English, and OntoNotes, as well as a wide range of corpora for other languages. In its third part, search strategies required for different types of data are explored. All chapters are accompanied by exercises and by sections on further reading.