Mössbauer Spectroscopic Study and Magnetic Investigation of Iron(III) Complexes on a Dendrimeric Basis

The functionalization of the molecular surface of various dendrimer generations with a phosphorous core and external amine groups is obtained by converting those amine groups into the corresponding imines of salicylaldehyde creating multiple coordination sites for the iron atoms. Treatment with iron(III) chloride yields multinuclear iron(III) complexes on a dendrimeric basis. The obtained multinuclear molecular systems exhibit extremely high total spin values. The influence of the generation growth on this type of coordination compounds is investigated by Mossbauer spectroscopy and SQUIDmagnetometry

Urban trauma and self-organization of the city: autopoiesis in the Battle of Mogadishu and the Siege of Sarajevo

Cities under armed conflict become urban laboratories. Changes of their urban structure reflect intrinsic properties of the city, hardly noticeable in circumstances of stability. Not only does a conflict-conditioned urban trauma imply shattered spatial and social networks, it also removes memory from space, jeopardizing both city´s history and future. However, viewed through the lens of complexity, “trauma is an element that is not external, but intrinsically constitutive of a city´s organization” (Burke, 2010) – it defines the moment in which the urban system needs to reinvent itself in order not to disappear. In that sense, our object of study addresses an urban specificity that usually occurs in urban conflicts of high uncertainty: self-organization. This paper briefly exposes two cases that concern self-referential systems in war situations. The first case is the city of Mogadishu (Somalia) during the October 1993 pacification attempt by the U.S. Special Forces and the second is the city of Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), held under siege for more than three and a half years, between April 1992 and December 1995, by Bosnian Serb troops. In both cases, armed conflict caused an increase of self-organization in the urban system, changing its future unpredictably and irreversibly.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Iron(III) Complexes on a Dendrimeric Basis and Various Amine Core Investigated by Mössbauer Spectroscopy

Dendrimers of various generations were synthesized by the divergent method. Starting from various amine cores (G(0a), G(0b), G(0c)) the generations were built by reaction of the amine with acrylnitrile followed by hydrogenation with DIBAL-H. Treatment with salicylaldehyde creates a fivefold coordination sphere for iron in the molecular periphery. The resulting multinuclear coordination compounds are investigated by Mossbauer spectroscopy

Investment Diversification as a Strategy for Reducing Investment Risk

Investment diversification is a widely accepted investment strategy, aimed at reducing investment uncertainty, while simultaneously keeping the expected return on investment unaltered. The development of investment diversification coincided with the development of portfolio theory. At the time when traditional portfolio theory was recognized as the leading portfolio management practice, the simple diversification of investments was the most commonly used strategy; however, due to its inability to recognize the importance of the correlation between returns on different investments, simple diversification was later rejected in modern portfolio theory and replaced with efficient diversification. The research study is aimed at conducting a comparative analysis between the simple and efficient diversifications of investments, together with the inevitable analysis of the optimal number of securities in a portfolio and the testing of the validity of the international diversification of investments. By applying a qualitative research methodology, it is concluded that the benefits of the international diversification of investments are still substantial, and as such outweigh specific limitations, and that the number of securities in a portfolio should be increased as long as its marginal benefits, in the form of reduced investment risk, exceed its marginal costs – in terms of increased portfolio management costs, which also represents the main result of the research