In this paper we consider the notion of deadlines in the context of dense time. We show that obligations and actions are essential elements for the speciication of deadlines. These notions can be relatively easy combined when a discrete temporal framework is used. However, we show that, once a dense time is introduced , several problems appear. In solving these problems we cannot use the same f...

In this article, it is argued that grandparents' obligations originate from parental obligations (i.e from the relationship they have with their children, the parents of their grandchildren) and not from the role of grandparent per se, and any entitlements flow from the extent to which these obligations are met. The position defended is, therefore, that grandparents qua grandparents are not ent...

This paper enquires into the nature and the extent of the obligations of nurses. It is argued that nurses appear to be obliged to undertake supererogatory acts if they take clause one of the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC) Code of Professional Conduct seriously (as, indeed, they are required to do). In the first part of the paper, the nature of n...

BACKGROUND Despite common recognition of joint responsibility for global health by all countries particularly to ensure justice in global health, current discussions of countries' obligations for global health largely ignore obligations of developing countries. This is especially the case with regards to obligations relating to health financing. Bearing in mind that it is not possible to achiev...

Policy-based systems rely on the separation of concerns, by implementing independently a software system and its associated security policy. XACML (eXtensible Access Control Markup Language) proposes a conceptual architecture and a policy language to reflect this ideal design of policy-based systems. However, while rights are well-captured by authorizations, duties, also called obligations, are...

Pre-obligations denote actions that may be required before access is granted. The successful fulfillment of pre-obligations leads to the authorization of the requested access. Pre-obligations enable a more flexible enforcement of authorization policies. This paper formalizes interactions between the obligation and authorization policy states when pre-obligations are supported and investigates t...

This study investigates how inspirational leadership and technology support for contextualization influence individuals’ psychological contract and knowledge sharing in distributed teams. Drawing on the intersection between social identity, psychological contract and leadership theories, the current research highlights the importance of inspirational leaders who foster two kinds of psychologica...

This paper presents a formal system for reasoning about violations of obligations in contracts. The system is based on the formalism for the representation of contrary-to-duty obligations. These are the obligations that take place when other obligations are violated as typically applied to penalties in contracts. The paper shows how this formalism can be mapped onto the key policy concepts of a...

Policies are widely used in modern systems and applications. Recently, it has been recognized that simple decisions are just not enough for many systems and applications. Many policies require actions to be performed after a decision is made in accordance with the policy. To address this need, this paper studies the notions of obligations, which are those conditions or actions that must be full...