Mandy Xinyuan Xu, piano, May 3, 2016

This is the concert program of the Mandy Xinyuan Xu, piano performance on Tuesday, May 3, 2016 at 4:30 p.m., at the Concert Hall, 855 Commonwealth Avenue. Works performed were Three Intermezzi, Op. 117 by Johannes Brahms, Abegg Variations by Robert Schumann, Sonata in A major, D664 by Franz Schubert, and Improvisation No. 1 by Francis Poulenc. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

The Legitimacy of the Contracting State

Globalization challenges our understanding of the state as the main source of legitimate law. This article will take this claim one step further. Today, we may also see the decline of the state, in its modern sense, from within. Evidence for this may be found in the rising importance of contracting by the administrative state fulfilling its duties. For example, in various countries in Europe, the administrative agencies make contracts with people regarding the conditions they must meet to obtain asylum, parole, and social welfare assistance. Furthermore, there are many types of contracts between administrative agencies and private companies securing public services or promoting public policies. For example, the federal administration of Switzerland recently hired a private company to run the electronic cadastral register, a task clearly once thought of as a core responsibility of the state. In the law of continental Europe, the contract between the state and private persons – also generally known as the administrative contract – appears in two manifestations: as a private law contract between the administrative state and private persons on the one hand, and as a public law contract between the administrative state and private persons on the other. With this contract, either in the private law or the public law manifestation, the state is using the tool of legally stabilized cooperation to achieve its political goals. Thus, in the private law administrative agreement, a public element is introduced with the setting of a political goal, and in the administrative-law agreement, a traditional element of the private is introduced with the cooperation form of contract

The impact of the liberalization of public services on the competitiveness of firms in the Alpine regions of Switzerland

Businesses in outlying regions, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), are having to face a broad range of different challenges in order to maintain their competitiveness. An important input factor has in the past always been the supply of public services. In recent years, public services have undergone a number of radical changes. This paper works on the hypotheses that the market-oriented reorganisation of capacity in the supply of public services has affected outlying regions more than urban centres and led to an increase in economic concentration and regional disparities. The paper has the following objectives: (1) to look at the interconnections between the different aspects of change in the supply of public services and the development of business; (2) to outline the empirical design for analysing the relative significance of supply of services as a dynamic locational factor for businesses in the Swiss Alpine regions. This paper will draw from an ongoing empirical study, but cannot yet indicate policy implications. We will argue that the companies based in outlying regions are affected in two respects by the reduction in public services. On the one hand, the changed provision of public services is becoming more significant for businesses as a hard locational factor and can have a negative effect on production processes. The main analytical approach to assess firms behaviour within a regional context is the concept of 'regional production systems' (RPS). RPS are characterised by their scope for autonomous decision-making, their coordination mechanisms and their specific resources. The extent to which they are anchored in their particular region influences their capacity for innovation and adaptation to a changing economic context. Thus companies are being forced to react to the dynamic environment and to develop - probably in cooperation with regional public bodies - corresponding response strategies. On the other hand, public services work as soft, person-centred, locational factors that make a major contribution to the quality of life a location has to offer. An deterioration in services means that outlying regions become less attractive as a place to live and consequently it becomes more difficult for companies based there to recruit well-qualified employees. Companies are being forced to react to the dynamic environment and to develop corresponding response strategies.

The liberalization of public services and their impact of on the competitiveness of firms: a case study in the Alpine regions of Switzerland

In the wake of a general process of economic transformation public services in recent years have undergone a number of radical changes. Under the key word of ?liberalization? the markets of public services in Europe have been opened up to market competition. Questions of efficiency and productivity in the provision are gaining significance. But the liberalization cannot only be analysed through a one-dimensional economic lense. Therefore, the goal of our paper is to clarify the spatial impact of these liberalization trends. We focus on four public services: regional public transport, postal services, telecommunications and electricity. In the first part we will lay the conceptual basis for a differentiated consideration of the spatial effects of the liberalization of public services. We hypothesize that the liberalization of the public services has given rise to spatial differentiation in the provision of these public services, which in turn reduces the competitiveness of companies in the peripheral and mountain regions. Thus, it is a typology of the functions of public services that will help to sharpen the view on the various ongoing changes. To analyse the impact on the competitiveness of firms the paper will look at the relative significance of the following aspects of public services: locational factors; direct and indirect effects on the production process; companies? ability to adapt to external changes. The main analytical approach to assess firms behaviour within a regional context is the concept of ?regional innovation and production systems? (RIPS). RIPS are characterised by their scope for autonomous decision-making, their coordination mechanisms and their specific resources. The extent to which they are anchored in their particular region influences their capacity for innovation and adaptation to a changing economic context. The second part of the paper presents some first results from an ongoing empirical study in the Alpine Regions of Switzerland, using data from a written firm survey. The third section draws first conclusions regarding the relative spatial impacts of the liberalisation processes. The paper finishes off with some preliminary implications on political strategies for guaranteeing sufficient provision of public services to peripheral and mountain regions.

Anne and Aaron Richmond Scholarship Recital: Sungeun Han, piano, February 15, 1983

This is the concert program of Anne and Aaron Richmond Scholarship Recital: Sungeun Han, piano on Tuesday, February 15, 1983 at 8:00 p.m., at the Concert Hall, 855 Commonwealth Avenue. Works performed were Variations on the name "Abegg" Op. 1 by Robert Schumann, Waldesrauschen and Gnomenreigen by Franz Liszt, Jeux D'eau by Maurice Ravel, Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 (Appassionata) by Ludwig van Beethoven, and Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23 by Frederic Chopin. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Nuclear medium modifications of the NN interaction via quasielastic (p⃗,p⃗′\vec p,\vec p ') and (p⃗,n⃗\vec{p},\vec{n}) scattering

Within the relativistic PWIA, spin observables have been recalculated for quasielastic ($\vec p,\vec p '$) and ($\vec p,\vec n$) reactions on a $^{40}$Ca target. The incident proton energy ranges from 135 to 300 MeV while the transferred momentum is kept fixed at 1.97 fm^{-1}. In the present calculations, new Horowitz-Love--Franey relativistic NN amplitudes have been generated in order to yield improved and more quantitative spin observable values than before. The sensitivities of the various spin observables to the NN interaction parameters, such as (1) the presence of the surrounding nuclear medium, (2) a pseudoscalar versus a pseudovector interaction term, and (3) exchange effects, point to spin observables which should preferably be measured at certain laboratory proton energies, in order to test current nuclear models. This study also shows that nuclear medium effects become more important at lower proton energies ($\leq$ 200 MeV). A comparison to the limited available data indicates that the relativistic parametrization of the NN scattering amplitudes in terms of only the five Fermi invariants (the SVPAT form) is questionable.Comment: 10 pages, 6 Postscript figures, uses psfig.sty and article.sty, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Macular Microcysts in Mitochondrial Optic Neuropathies: Prevalence and Retinal Layer Thickness Measurements.

PurposeTo investigate the thickness of the retinal layers and to assess the prevalence of macular microcysts (MM) in the inner nuclear layer (INL) of patients with mitochondrial optic neuropathies (MON).MethodsAll patients with molecularly confirmed MON, i.e. Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON) and Dominant Optic Atrophy (DOA), referred between 2010 and 2012 were enrolled. Eight patients with MM were compared with two control groups: MON patients without MM matched by age, peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, and visual acuity, as well as age-matched controls. Retinal segmentation was performed using specific Optical coherence tomography (OCT) software (Carl Zeiss Meditec). Macular segmentation thickness values of the three groups were compared by one-way analysis of variance with Bonferroni post hoc corrections.ResultsMM were identified in 5/90 (5.6%) patients with LHON and 3/58 (5.2%) with DOA. The INL was thicker in patients with MON compared to controls regardless of the presence of MM [133.1±7μm vs 122.3±9μm in MM patients (p<0.01) and 128.5±8μm vs. 122.3±9μm in no-MM patients (p<0.05)], however the outer nuclear layer (ONL) was thicker in patients with MM (101.4±1mμ) compared to patients without MM [77.5±8mμ (p<0.001)] and controls [78.4±7mμ (p<0.001)]. ONL thickness did not significantly differ between patients without MM and controls.ConclusionThe prevalence of MM in MON is low (5-6%), but associated with ONL thickening. We speculate that in MON patients with MM, vitreo-retinal traction contributes to the thickening of ONL as well as to the production of cystic spaces