In this paper, we consider verifying properties of mixed-signal circuits, i.e., circuits for which there is an interaction between analog (continuous) and digital (discrete) values. We use a simulation-based approach that consists of evaluating the property on a representative subset of behaviors and answering the question of whether the circuit satisfies the property with a probability greater...

The concept of “contract” has similar but not identical interpretations for lawyers and economists. Both Economic and Legal theories distinguish transactions from contracts based on the possibility to rely on court enforcement. Formal and informal promises are enforceable by courts, however there is not a clear distinction between a contract and an agreement since agents do not know a priori th...

What counts as human rationality: reasoning processes that embody content-independent formal theories, such as propositional logic, or reasoning processes that are well designed for solving important adaptive problems? Most theories of human reasoning have been based on content-independent formal rationality, whereas adaptive reasoning, ecological or evolutionary, has been little explored. We e...

In Brazil, workers without a formal job contract comprise more than half of the labor force, a contingent formed mainly by women. This study presents estimates of the annual incidence of non-fatal work-related injuries and their distribution by gender and type of job contract in an urban area of Brazil. This was a community-based study with a random cluster area sample of the inhabitants from t...

Research on the governance of IS outsourcing has recognized two moments of governance: the formal outsourcing contract (promissory contract) and post-contractual relationship management (psychological contract). While this research has been prescriptive of contract terms that lead to successful outsourcing, there is need for clarity on what specific governance options are available at each mome...

When investments are non-verifiable, inducing cooperative investments with simple contracts may not be as difficult as previously thought. Indeed, modeling " expectation damages " close to legal practice, we show that the default remedy of contract law induces the first best. Hence, there is no need for privately stipulated remedies. Yet, in order to lower informational requirements of courts, ...

This paper discusses preliminary investigations on the monitorability of contracts for web service descriptions. There are settings where servers do not guarantee statically whether they satisfy some specified contract, which forces the client (i.e., the entity interacting with the server) to perform dynamic checks. This scenario may be viewed as an instance of Runtime Verification, where a per...

We present formal and practical foundations for Web service composition framework with composition correctness guarantees. We introduce contractual composition model based on two isomorphic description models: Contract Definition Language (XML) and abstract machines (formal notation). Composition operators (patterns) are used to perform composition which is then formally verified with respect t...

In the managed care era, mental health professionals increasingly rely upon suicide prevention contracts in the management of patients at suicide risk. Although asking a patient if he or she is suicidal and obtaining a written or oral contract against suicide can be useful, these measures by themselves are insufficient. "No harm" contracts cannot take the place of formal suicide risk assessment...