Delegation Model Research Articles

IPFS-blockchain-based delegation model for internet of medical robotics things telesurgery system

The concept of the Internet of Medical Robotics Things (IoMRT) is where intelligent robots assess surrounding events, combine information from their sensors, use both local and dispersed intelligence to determine the best course of action, and move or command objects. Telesurgery is one application of IoMRT (TS). With 5G-enabled Tactile Internet (TI) enabling telesurgery (TS), there is ample opportunity to provide exceptional, accurate, ultra-responsive, and real-time virtual surgical procedures. The potential for accurate surgical diagnosis involving the exchange of patient electronic medical records (EMR) with several doctors using an assistant robot (AR) could be greatly useful in the medical field. As a part of this, permission delegation has emerged as a novel approach for data sharing in TI. Robust control of access guidelines combined with a configurable permission scheme promise secure EMR exchange. The present research proposes a multi-hop permission delegation strategy for EMR exchange based on blockchain technology and with configurable delegation depth. Furthermore, the original EMRs are stored on the interplanetary file system (IPFS). Permission delegation uses smart contracts and proxy re-encryption technology. Attribute-based encryption, which offers fine-grained management of access, is used to guarantee data security. Blockchain is also utilized to accomplish immutability and traceability. Delegators may regulate the depth of delegation by using smart contracts. The suggested approach satisfies the intended aims, according to analysis of the protocol. Lastly, the Ethereum test chain is used to assess and put the suggested method into practice. The outcomes of the conducted experiments demonstrate that the suggested protocol operates better than the competitors.

Policy Diffusion, Environmental Federalism, and Economic Efficiency – How Institutions Influence the Implementation of EU Legislation in Two Nordic Countries

Abstract We explore the changes in central government administration due to European Union (EU) membership and its consequences for policy outcomes and economic efficiency in Finland and Sweden. Both countries became members of the EU in 1995. Upon joining the union, member states are expected to adopt common legislation and are encouraged to develop similar rule-making procedures. The actual implementation of EU directives varies considerably between member states, however. This is also the case for Finland and Sweden. Despite the two Nordic countries for historical reasons having had similar government systems, upon becoming members of the EU, they started to diverge. Using a model of delegation and comparing the more centralized Finnish system with the decentralized institutional setup in Sweden, we show that the Swedish approach leads to a stricter than optimal environmental policy, which in turn makes EU policy non-optimal from a global point of view, ceteris paribus. We also provide empirical support for our findings in the form of some example cases. We focus on environmental policy since this is an area that has been high on the EU agenda.

Quaternary Law in EU Electricity Regulation: Stretching Meroni too Far?

In the European electricity sector, the delegation of rule-making has literally reached the next level. Socalled ‘methodologies’, legally binding rules developed between private electricity companies and specialized regulatory agencies, constitute a vast and growing body of ‘quaternary law’. The methodologies and their unique features raise numerous interesting questions for scholars of EU law, but they remain severely underresearched. This is regrettable, since the methodologies illustrate another pressing issue related to the delegation of rule-making: the fuzzy legal boundaries to delegation. These follow from the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ’s) non-delegation, or Meroni doctrine, which however seems to be subject to a creeping maceration. As the methodologies show, the resulting legal uncertainty encourages ever-bolder models of delegation, raising grave constitutional concerns. At the same time, the methodologies illustrate a need for delegated rule-making in technical sectors, such as electricity. The argument of this article is that the ECJ should therefore revise the Meroni doctrine to restore legal certainty with respect to delegation, while also respecting the requirements of regulatory reality. This article discusses possible approaches and proposes a starting point for a ‘Meroni doctrine 2.0ʹ. Meroni doctrine, non-delegation doctrine, tertiary law, quaternary law, electricity market integration, ACER, Clean Energy Package, European network codes and guidelines, terms, conditions and methodologies

Multilevel Subgranting by Power of Attorney and OAuth Authorization Server in Cyber–Physical Systems

Many Cyber-Physical Systems are today semiautonomous and powerful enough to perform advanced tasks on their own. This means they can also act as representatives of people or devices that have given them an order. However, traditional access control policies and delegation models do not meet industrial requirements such as support for letting autonomous CPS devices act on their own with certified credentials under the sub authorization by subcontractors, without the need for a separate account per device. In this paper, we analyze and compare power of attorney, proxy signature by warrant, and OAuth to identify the strengths and challenges of each. Based on the comparison, we propose an OAuth grant type based on the power of attorney and inspired by the concept of proxy signature by warrant. Power of Attorney is a generic and self-contained document that a principal signs and directs to an agent, thereby providing it the power to execute actions on behalf of the principal for a predefined time, even if it is offline. One key advantage of the power of attorney is that it can support effective sub-granting on several levels to support industrial scenarios where resource owners bring in authorized contractors that can in their turn authorize and bring in several devices without incurring management overhead to the resource owner. A proof-of-concept and performance evaluation of the proposed model is presented using an industrial use-case scenario with multi-level authorization.

The Strategic Adoption of Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility with Network Externalities

Abstract This paper adopts a green managerial delegation model in a polluting network industry wherein consumers form fulfilled rational expectations of network externalities. We show that firms are consistently incentivized to undertake ECSR (environmental corporate social responsibility) under price competition, while positive network externalities can increase the strategic level of ECSR. We also show that product substitutability between network products can play an important role in determining a firm’s strategic level of ECSR and resulting profits. Finally, ECSR is conducive to increasing environmental quality and social welfare in a high-polluting network industry. Therefore, the strategic adoption of ECSR in a network industry is Pareto-improving as environmental damage becomes serious.

The impact of discriminatory pricing based on customer risk: an empirical investigation using indirect lending through retail networks

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand the profit implications of analytics-driven centralized discriminatory pricing at the headquarter level compared with sales force price delegation in the purchase of an aftermarket good through an indirect retail channel with symmetric information.Design/methodology/approachUsing individual-level loan application and approval data from a North American financial institution and segment-level customer risk as the price discrimination criterion for the firm, the authors develop a three-stage model that accounts for the salesperson’s price decision within the limits of the latitude provided by the firm; the firm’s decision to approve or not approve a sales application; and the customer’s decision to accept or reject a sales offer conditional on the firm’s approval. Next, the authors compare the profitability of this sales force price delegation model to that of a segment-level centralized pricing model where agent incentives and consumer prices are simultaneously optimized using a quasi-Newton nonlinear optimization algorithm (i.e. Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno algorithm).FindingsThe results suggest that implementation of analytics-driven centralized discriminatory pricing and optimal sales force incentives leads to double-digit lifts in firm profits. Moreover, the authors find that the high-risk customer segment is less price-sensitive and firms, upon leveraging this segment’s willingness to pay, not only improve their bottom-line but also allow these marginalized customers with traditionally low approval rates access to loans. This points out the important customer welfare implications of the findings.Originality/valueSubstantively, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to empirically investigate the profitability of analytics-driven segment-level (i.e. discriminatory) centralized pricing compared with sales force price delegation in indirect retail channels (i.e. where agents are external to the firm and have access to competitor products), taking into account the decisions of the three key stakeholders of the process, namely, the consumer, the salesperson and the firm and simultaneously optimizing sales commission and centralized consumer price.

The strategic decentralization of recruiting

We propose a model of strategic delegation in professional labor markets in which big and fringe firms compete for heterogeneous workers. In this context, big firms decide whether to exercise their market power to suppress wages (wage suppression) or to delegate hiring to divisions, thereby committing to bidding more fiercely for more skilled workers (talent acquisition). This reduces the incentive for other firms to go toe-to-toe with the decentralizing firm. In equilibrium, a big firm commanding labor market power opts for either of these two strategies. We find that the presence of a big firm in the labor market is detrimental to social welfare only if its size exceeds the tipping point beyond which it ceases to decentralize. Moreover, our model is compatible with recent studies that negatively link labor market concentration and labor share. Finally, the introduction of a wage floor encourages the big firm to decentralize, increasing match quality, such that social welfare may increase despite a drop in employment.

Edge-Assisted Intelligent Device Authentication in Cyber–Physical Systems

Cyber–physical system (CPS) provides a foundation for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) that interconnects all types of devices. The integration of CPS with IIoT generates the large volumes of data forcing the development of artificial intelligence (AI) to extract information more precisely. Nevertheless, the increasing volume/variety of data traffic and the ever-growing number of IIoT devices bring great challenges for the host-centric communication model of the current Internet. In this work, we present a novel information-centric networking (ICN)-based system model in CPS, which enables processing data from IIoT devices closer to the edge as opposed to a content provider. Based on this ICN system model, we propose an edge-assisted authentication scheme in CPS, aiming to protect the system from unauthorized access and reduce workload for resource-constrained devices. The main features of our scheme include a delegation model of security operations and session handshake procedures through edge routers, addressing the rising challenges in managing and securing IIoT devices in the ICN. We formally prove the security of our scheme and conduct performance analysis to show its practicality.

Multi-provider NFV network service delegation via average reward reinforcement learning

In multi-provider 5G/6G networks, service delegation enables administrative domains to federate in provisioning NFV network services. Admission control in selecting the appropriate domain for service deployment, without prior knowledge of service requests’ statistical distributions, is fundamental to maximize average profit. This paper analyzes a general federation contract model for service delegation in various ways. First, under the assumption of known system dynamics, we obtain the theoretically optimal performance bound by formulating the admission control problem as an infinite-horizon Markov decision process (MDP) and solving it through dynamic programming, which is used as a benchmark to evaluate practical solutions. Second, we apply Reinforcement Learning (RL) to practically tackle the problem when the arrival and departure rates are not known. For the first time in this context, we analyze the performance of the widely used Q-Learning algorithm, and prove as it maximizes the discounted rewards, it is not an efficient solution due to its sensitivity to the discount factor. Then, we propose the average reward reinforcement learning approach (named “R-Learning”) to find the policy that directly maximizes the average profit. Finally, we evaluate different solutions through extensive simulations and experimentally using the 5Growth management and orchestration platform. Results confirm that the proposed R-Learning solution always outperforms Q-Learning and the greedy policies. Furthermore, while there is at most a 9% optimality gap in the ideal simulation environment, it competes with the MDP solution in the experimental assessment.

Emission taxation, green R&D, and managerial delegation contracts with environmental and sales incentives

AbstractWe extend the analysis of a managerial delegation model with green R&D by incorporating two explicit incentive‐based executive compensation contracts. In the combination of environmental and sales delegations, (i) the incentives are higher than those under a single incentive scheme, (ii) firms' output and abatement efforts are higher, and (iii) total emissions are lower, and (iv) a firm's profits are higher than that under a sales delegation. Therefore, an emission tax policy, along with firms' compensation packages related to environmental delegation, can play a key role in curving market failure and improving welfare.

Comprehension of the EU Political and Legal Development

The dynamic change in the role of the European institutional integration in the joint development of continental Europe, as well as its consequences arises some issues for discussion. The purpose of the research is to offer alternative options for the development of the EU to avoid a perforce change in European integration. Currently, the transition from a narrow economic model of delegation to a broader model of demarcation continues. The EU sees itself as an indispensable tool for implementation of the common interests of states and citizens in different spheres, energy and finances in particular. From the legal point of view, European politicians have grounds for the rule implementation concerning various areas of life, not limited to the economic sphere, and taking the established rule of EU law into account. At the same time, problems arise regarding the understanding of this supremacy. Since the essence of the European Union as an integration association and an international organization is unusual given the independence from the Member States EU policy, the institutions themselves often pursue an aggressive policy to bring national practices on certain issues in line with the Union law. Uncertainty about the further development of Europe has arisen because some states and the EU initially pursued different goals within the framework of the Union. The EU’s approach is increasingly focusing on the creation of common good and search for justice. By these means, the Union seeks to replace the functions of the state. At the same time, guided by the legal point of view and the fact that EU policies do not always suit the nation and its citizens, it may be necessary to rethink the role of EU institutions. It should no longer imply the adoption of binding decisions by the Member States regarding issues of social security and equality of rights of various groups. Otherwise, cases of conflict within the EU will lead to a perforce reduction in the organization’s functions. The article reviews the latest trends concerning the harsh response of several European states to EU extensive policy aimed not only at economic regulation, but also at changing society and the principles of its existence as a whole. The authors believe that in order to force the transfer of powers to the EU level Russia is deemed an eminent factor. The methods of research include both theoretical (analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, analogy) and special legal methods of cognition (formal legal and comparative legal).

Nash versus consistent equilibrium: A comparative perspective on a mixed duopoly location model of spatial price discrimination with delegation

We argue that under the presence of a public firm, discriminatory pricing according to location leads to an efficient consistent equilibrium. We consider a mixed ownership duopoly delegation model with spatial price discrimination and constant, albeit different, marginal production costs. In contrast to what holds true for a private duopoly, we prove that the Nash equilibrium, absent delegation, is both consistent and socially optimal. The consistent equilibrium remains socially optimal regardless of the order in the delegation process. Under Nash conjectures, in most cases, firm owners have a strong incentive to delegate location decisions to managers. In such cases, duopolists locate closer to each other. Nash, compared to consistency of conjectures, leads to lower prices, lower profits, for both firms, and increased surplus for the consumer. The result surprises as it contrasts with respective findings regarding a private duopoly.

Principal–Agent Problems with EU Funds: A Case Study of Patronage in Hungary

EU funds have been linked to high levels of corruption, even given substantial administrative and regulatory requirements and extensive domestic monitoring. We posit that this divergence between actual outcomes and preferred policies can be attributed to the co-optation of the auditing and monitoring processes by member-state governments. We outline the importance of the auditing process and flow of information to the European Commission using a delegation model and then test what occurred when this process was co-opted in Hungary. We find that the co-optation of the auditing process results in a rise in patronage and corruption.

Collaborative Autonomy: Human–Robot Interaction to the Test of Intelligent Help

A big challenge in human–robot interaction (HRI) is the design of autonomous robots that collaborate effectively with humans, exposing behaviors similar to those exhibited by humans when they interact with each other. Indeed, robots are part of daily life in multiple environments (i.e., cultural heritage sites, hospitals, offices, touristic scenarios and so on). In these contexts, robots have to coexist and interact with a wide spectrum of users not necessarily able or willing to adapt their interaction level to the kind requested by a machine: the users need to deal with artificial systems whose behaviors must be adapted as much as possible to the goals/needs of the users themselves, or more in general, to their mental states (beliefs, goals, plans and so on). In this paper, we introduce a cognitive architecture for adaptive and transparent human–robot interaction. The architecture allows a social robot to dynamically adjust its level of collaborative autonomy by restricting or expanding a delegated task on the basis of several context factors such as the mental states attributed to the human users involved in the interaction. This collaboration has to be based on different cognitive capabilities of the robot, i.e., the ability to build a user’s profile, to have a Theory of Mind of the user in terms of mental states attribution, to build a complex model of the context, intended both as a set of physical constraints and constraints due to the presence of other agents, with their own mental states. Based on the defined cognitive architecture and on the model of task delegation theorized by Castelfranchi and Falcone, the robot’s behavior is explainable by considering the abilities to attribute specific mental states to the user, the context in which it operates and its attitudes in adapting the level of autonomy to the user’s mental states and the context itself. The architecture has been implemented by exploiting the well known agent-oriented programming framework Jason. We provide the results of an HRI pilot study in which we recruited 26 real participants that have interacted with the humanoid robot Nao, widely used in HRI scenarios. The robot played the role of a museum assistant with the main goal to provide the user the most suitable museum exhibition to visit.

Empowerment via delegation? The administrative capacity-building potential of Cohesion Policy urban development strategies

ABSTRACT The study examines the implementation of urban development strategies in Scotland, UK, and the Veneto Region of Italy and fills an important gap in the knowledge about the capacity-building potential of such strategies. Following a principal-agent approach, the investigation shows that narrow delegation models incentivize compliance, are less conducive to capacity-building and reinforce an administrative capacity paradox. By contributing an original framework for the study of delegation models, a fine-grained understanding of administrative capacity that acknowledges the importance of agency for the success of capacity-building initiatives and policy recommendations for the period 2021–27, the research will be of interest to scholars and practitioners alike.

Care relationships and the autonomy of people with physical disabilities.

As a form of functional diversity, spinal cord injury expressed by tetraplegia is one of the most serious events that can impact people, affecting their family and socioeconomic life. The type of care relationship established in these cases will be essential for preserving autonomy. The objective of this study was to understand how care relationships influence the autonomy of people with tetraplegia and the dynamics that trigger practices of autonomy violation, maintenance and promotion.This research is inspired by problematization as a methodology using the Arch of Maguerez as an analytical approach strategy that enables an engagement between empirical and theoretical data. Some models of care relationships identified in this study either promote or violate autonomy: the protectionist model, based on the biomedical interpretation model of disability and the bodily impediments caused by spinal cord injury; the participatory model, involving the patient's interest in adapting to their new condition of family and community life, seeking to understand the practical aspects of daily life; the sharing model, in which the complicity and understanding of new forms of bodily expression allow the caregiver to be almost an extension of the tetraplegic person's body; the delegate model, which occurs in relationships with professional caregivers; and the emancipatory model, which seeks to empower the patient, highlight potentialities, and encourage autonomy. The key components of these conceptual care models guided the elaboration of hypotheses for intervention with the objective of maintaining and promoting the autonomy of people with tetraplegia through supported care.

THE TERRITORIAL PROGRAM AS A FACTOR FOR THE FEASIBILITY OF AIRPORT INFRASTRUCTURES: METHODOLOGY FOR IDENTIFICATE OPPORTUNITIES

Concessions or public investments with delegated management were the models adopted until then to make possible investments and operations in the Brazilian airports. But regional airports usually present higher costs than direct revenues, which leads to the need to evaluate new models of delegation and partnerships, taking advantage of the direct effects and the potential growth of the region induced by air transport. The territorial engineering is based on the modernization of productive structures, innovations, R&D and training to compose territorial programs beyond the investment and management of transport infrastructures, generating sustainable growth. This paper presents a methodology to identify cases in which this instrument can be used. The results of the 164 planned airports in the Brazilian National Aviation Plan 2018-2038 made it possible to identify 14 regions that, at first, would need external subsidies, but which proved to be viable and fiscally sustainable when the enterprise is evaluated associated with the main value chain: tourism.

Optimizing blood pressure control by an Information Communication Technology-supported case management (PIA study): study protocol for a cluster-randomized controlled trial of a delegation model for general practices

BackgroundLongitudinal hypertension control prevents heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular diseases. However, 49% of patients in German family medicine practices do not reach blood pressure (BP) targets (< 140/90 mmHg). Drawing on successful international approaches, the PIA study introduces the PIA information and communication technology system (PIA-ICT) for hypertension management in primary care. The PIA-ICT comprises the PIA-App for patients and the PIA practice management center for practices. Case management includes electronic communication with patients, recall, and stepwise medication adjustments following guidelines. The system supports a physician-supervised delegation model to practice assistants. General practitioners are qualified by eLearning. Patients learn how to obtain reliable BP readings, which they communicate to the practice using the PIA-App.MethodsThe effectiveness of the PIA-Intervention is evaluated in a cluster-randomized study with 60 practices, 120 practice assistants, and 1020 patients. Patients in the intervention group receive the PIA-Intervention; the control group receives usual care. The primary outcome is the BP control rate (BP < 140/90 mmHg) after 12 months. Using a mixed methods approach, secondary outcomes address the acceptance on behalf of physicians, practice assistants, and patients. This includes an evaluation of the delegation model.DiscussionIt is hypothesized that the PIA-Intervention will improve the quality of BP care. Perspectively, it may constitute an important health service model for primary care in Germany.Trial registrationGerman Clinical Trials Register DRKS00012680. Registered on May 10, 2019

Populism and foreign aid

Pundits, development practitioners, and scholars worry that rising populism and international disengagement in developed countries have negative consequences on foreign aid. However, how populism and foreign aid go together is not well understood. This paper provides the first systematic examination of this relationship. We adopt the popular ideational definition of populism, unpack populism into its core “thin” elements, and examine them within a delegation model of aid policy—a prominent framework in the aid literature. In so doing, we identify specific domestic political processes through which the core components of populism may affect aid spending. We argue that increases in one component of populism—anti-elitism—and in nativist sentiments, an associated concept, in a donor country lead to a reduction in aid spending through a public opinion channel. We supply both micro- and macro-evidence for our arguments by fielding surveys in the United States and United Kingdom as well as by analyzing aid spending by a large number of OECD donors. Our findings show that nativism and anti-elitism, rather than populism per se, influence not only individual attitudes toward aid but also actual aid policy and generate important insights into how to address populist challenges to foreign aid. Beyond these, our study contributes to the broader International Relations literature by demonstrating one useful analytical approach to studying populism, nativism, and foreign policy.

Where Is Presidential Power? Measuring Presidential Discretion Using Experts

AbstractPresidents' unilateral sway over policy is of global concern to scholars, practitioners and the general public. While pending actions provoke media speculation about how much authority presidents have to change policy without legislatures, scholarship has yet to systematically measure presidential discretion across areas of public policy. This study surveys an interdisciplinary panel of scholars, using discrete choice experiments to estimate the latent level of discretion that US presidents have in fifty-four policy areas. Consistent with models of delegation and unilateralism, these measures confirm that presidents have more discretion in foreign affairs, and that discretion promotes executive action. This approach presents the opportunity to examine differences in presidential discretion and public perceptions of presidential power, and can be applied beyond the US case.