Hi Adam,

>    let $vbFailure1 := ($perm?authorization !=  'example' or exists( $perm?authorization )=false())

If you want, you can simplify this to:

  let $vbFailure1 := not($perm?authorization =  'example')

If $perm?authorization yields no item (i.e., an “empty sequence”), the
comparison () != 'example' will give you false, because there is no
item on the left-hand side of the comparison that matches 'example'.

Hope this helps,
Christian