text: American culture is exported all over the world and as a result, noticeable display of the Confederate flag is not confined to North America. Various overseas groups, movements and communities make use of it, albeit sporadically in most instances. Much like in the United States, the flag is displayed for range of reasons, but is most often associated with slavery and racism. In countries where most Nazi symbols are prohibited by law, far-right and Neo-Nazi groups often fly the Confederate flag at rallies as a stand-in. In Italy, some Southern soccer fans display the Confederate flag as a symbol of Southern Italy's long-standing dissatisfaction with the North.


title: Modern display of the Confederate battle flag

text: As in the U.S., some display the flag as a light-hearted symbol of "rebellion"; without latching any significant political meaning to it. Fans of both Cork GAA and Cork F.C., have waved the flag at intercounty and league matches; reflecting the nickname of County Cork as "the Rebel County" for its prominence in historical Irish rebellions, and red as the county color GAA Hurling is the most popular sport in Ireland, and the Cork team is called "The Rebels." In 2017, the Cork GAA president appealed to fans not to use such flags, and his successor in 2020 said they would in future be confiscated at Cork stadiums. While the Republic of Ireland is noted for a lack of nativist or far-right activism; Northern Ireland, in contrast has long suffered, often violently, from sectarian division. Confederate symbols, including the battle flag, are often utilized by Ulster Loyalists on far-right. These groups usually passively condone the flag's association with racism and white supremacy, while also invoking the shared Ulster-Scot heritage between some leaders of the Confederacy and Northern Irish Protestants. Several loyalist paramilitary groups have been known to display confederate symbols; most notably the Red Hand Defenders, a designated terrorist group in the U.S., Ireland and the U.K. for their role in sectarian violence, including murder, during the 1990s.


text: The car-centered subculture raggare of Sweden sometimes use the flags on their vehicles and clothing as a kitsch symbol to represent America, without political meanings, along with other American symbols such as cowboy hats, old American muscle cars and other Americana.


text: In none of these instances is the Confederate flag necessarily a long-standing or ubiquitous symbol of the movement or group known for either now or in the past openly displaying it. Both Southern Italian and Cork sports fans display other, most often local symbols, far more widely than they have the confederate flag. For far-right groups outside of the U.S., the Confederate flag is only one of several flags prominently displayed, often alongside those of other historical imperial and/or fascist regimes associated with white supremacy, such as the many flags associated with White and Apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia.


text: On June 18, 2015, the day after a deadly church shooting was perpetrated in Charleston, South Carolina, by white supremacist Dylann Roof, whose website contained pictures of him holding the Confederate Battle Flag, many flags were flown at half-staff, including those at the South Carolina State House. The Confederate battle flag flying over the South Carolina Confederate Monument near the state house was not at half-staff, as South Carolina law prohibits alteration of the flag without the consent of two-thirds of the state legislature. The flagpole lacked a pulley system, and thus the flag could not be flown at half-staff, only removed or left in place, as it was.


text: On June 23, 2015, three state governors—Terry McAuliffe of Virginia (a Democrat), Pat McCrory of North Carolina (a Republican), and Larry Hogan of Maryland (a Republican)—announced plans to seek discontinuation of their states' Confederate-flag specialty license plates. In addition to the Charleston killings, the governors cited the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in "Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans", issued days earlier. The Court affirmed that states are not constitutionally obligated to issue Confederate specialty plates.


text: On June 24, 2015, Robert Bentley, governor of Alabama, ordered the removal of the Confederate flag from a memorial on the state capitol grounds. A spokeswoman for Governor Robert Bentley told the Montgomery Advertiser on Wednesday that he did not want the flag to be a "distraction". Speaking with AL.com, Bentley said he made the decision himself to take the flag down.


text: Following the Charleston shooting, many commentators questioned the continued display of the Confederate flag on the South Carolina State House grounds. Calls to remove the Confederate flag from the State House grounds, as well as debates over the context of its symbolic nature, were renewed after the attack by several prominent figures, including President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and Jeb Bush. On June 20, several thousand people gathered in front of the South Carolina State House in protest. An online petition at MoveOn.org encouraging the removal of the flag had received over 370,000 signatures by that time.


text: At a statehouse press conference on June 22, 2015, Governor Nikki Haley, flanked by elected officials of both parties, including U.S. Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, and former Republican Governor Mark Sanford, called for the flag to be removed by the state legislature, saying that while the flag was "an integral part of our past, it does not represent the future" of South Carolina. "We are not going to allow this symbol to divide us any longer," she said. The legislature, scheduled to meet the following day for a budget session, must vote by a two-thirds majority to extend the debate to the flag issue and by two-thirds to remove the flag from statehouse grounds, although some lawmakers have questioned the legality of that provision. Haley said she would call for a special session if the legislature did not act.


text: "With the winds that started blowing last week, I figured it would just be a matter of time," said Ken Thrasher, speaking for the South Carolina division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which opposed the flag's removal. "Whatever the Legislature decides to do, we will accept it graciously." A number of prominent Republicans who had previously appeared to struggle with the issue immediately endorsed Haley's call to remove the flag, including Kentucky Senator and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, and governors and presidential hopefuls Scott Walker and Rick Perry.


text: On June 23, 2015, the South Carolina General Assembly added discussion of the flag to its special-session agenda in a procedural vote that indicated broad bipartisan support to remove the flag from the Statehouse grounds. The motion carried by a unanimous voice vote in the state senate and by a 103–10 vote in the state house. In the senate chamber, the desk of Clementa Pinckney, the pastor and state senator who died in the attack, was draped in black cloth with a white rose atop it. Among the legislators speaking in favor of removing the flag was Republican State Senator Paul Thurmond, son of Senator Strom Thurmond, whose 1948 "Dixiecrat" segregationist presidential campaign helped politically re-popularize the flag.


text: Eulogizing the Rev. Clementa Pinckney on June 26, 2015, before 5,000 congregants at the College of Charleston, President Barack Obama acknowledged that the shooting had catalyzed a broad movement, backed by both Republicans and Democrats, to remove the flag from official public display. "Blinded by hatred, [the gunman] failed to comprehend what Reverend Pinckney so well understood: the power of God's grace," Obama said. "By taking down that flag we express God's grace. But I don't think God wants us to stop there."


text: In the weeks before the flag was officially removed, several men and women, including activist Bree Newsome, were arrested for removing or attempting to remove the flag as well as various other offenses stemming from the protests around the flagpole. The attempts to remove the flag were criticized by several South Carolina state legislators who supported the flag's removal because they said such actions could hurt their goal to have the flag permanently removed.


text: On July 6, 2015, the South Carolina Senate voted, by the required two-thirds majority, to remove the Confederate flag from display on the South Carolina State House grounds. Following 13 hours of debate and over 60 attempts to amend the bill, the vote in the South Carolina House of Representatives to remove the flag was passed by a two-thirds majority (94–20) on July 9. Governor Nikki Haley signed the bill the same day.


text: On July 10, the Confederate flag was removed from the State House grounds and placed in storage for later display at the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum. Following the removal of the flag, the NAACP announced the end of its 15-year boycott of South Carolina.


text: In June 2015, a controversy at The Citadel over a Confederate Naval Jack, model 1863–1865, ended when the school's Board of Visitors voted in favor of moving the flag from the Summerall Chapel to what was called "an appropriate location on campus." As of September 2017, the flag had not yet been removed, nor had an "appropriate location" been selected.


text: A "Blood-Stained Banner" 3rd CSA flag flying on the grounds of the Marion County Governmental Complex was removed after the Charleston shooting, then reinstated, and eventually removed again. The old flag was taken to the nearby Marion County Historical Museum on Memorial Day 2016 for storage inside, and a new flag in the design of the 1st CSA flag was put up in a public display outside of the museum.


text: Following the Charleston shooting, the retailer Walmart announced that it would no longer sell items with the Confederate flag on them. In a statement to the press, Walmart stated that "We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer. We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the Confederate flag from our assortment – whether in our stores or on our web site."


text: Shortly afterward, a number of other retailers, including Amazon.com, eBay, Etsy, Sears (which also operates Kmart) and Target announced that they would also be removing Confederate flag items from sale. Google also pulled Confederate flag merchandise from their shopping site. Smaller flag retailers are also ceasing to sell it.


text: Valley Forge Flag, Annin Flagmakers, Eder Flag and the Dixie Flag Manufacturing Company, four of the largest U.S. flag manufacturers, also announced that they would cease selling Confederate flags.


text: After the Charleston shooting, Warner Bros. announced that they were halting production of "The Dukes of Hazzard" "General Lee" toy cars, which prominently featured a Confederate flag on the roof of the car. Reruns of "The Dukes of Hazzard" television show were also pulled from TV Land's schedule due to the controversy. On July 2, 2015, professional golfer Bubba Watson announced that he would modify the General Lee car that he purchased at auction by painting an American flag over the Confederate flag that had appeared on the car's roof since it was customized for the TV series in 1978. Actor Ben Jones, who portrayed Cooter in the original series, announced that his chain of Cooter's Place novelty stores would still sell merchandise featuring the flag. Actor John Schneider, who portrayed Bo Duke in "The Dukes of Hazzard" television series, said he was "saddened" that Roof's murders could "cause one of the most beloved television shows in the history of the medium to suddenly be seen in this light."


text: Also, in June 2015, Apple's App Store began removing mobile apps featuring the flag. Several U.S Civil War-based wargames were initially removed. However, Apple later announced that they were only targeting apps "that use the Confederate flag in offensive or mean-spirited ways" and working with developers who felt their apps were wrongly removed.


text: The U.S. National Park Service announced that it is requesting that its retail partners stop selling the Confederate flag, as well as other items that depict the flag as a stand-alone feature.


text: The American auto racing sanctioning body NASCAR, which has roots in the Southern United States and has many fans who fly the Confederate flag at campsites, has previously prevented the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization from sponsoring cars bearing the flag twice in 1993 (intended to be driven by Clay Young) and 2009 (intended to be driven by James Hylton in an ARCA race during that year's Speedweeks). ARCA also banned the sponsorship after the SCV planned to run the planned sponsorship on a stand-alone ARCA event.


text: Following the Charleston shooting, NASCAR supported Governor Haley's decision to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State House. In addition, NASCAR chairman Brian France vowed that the members of NASCAR's sanctioning body would not associate themselves with the flag and they also wanted to eliminate the flag from races. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers and teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon, along with team owner and former NBA player Brad Daugherty (at the time the only African-American team owner in NASCAR), also supported eliminating the Confederate flag from racing events. Prior to the Coke Zero 400 race at Daytona International Speedway on July 5, 2015, the track announced fans can voluntarily exchange Confederate flags for American flags. On July 2, 2015, the NASCAR tracks issued a joint statement calling for fans to refrain from flying the Confederate flag at races, but many fans still continued the practice. On June 10, 2020, amid the George Floyd protests, NASCAR announced that it would no longer permit the display of Confederate flags at its events.


text: At the Washington National Cathedral, the Confederate battle flag appeared in two stained glass windows, which memorialize the Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. On June 8, 2016, Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and the interim dean of the cathedral, said they would be removed "as soon as we can do it" and replaced, at least temporarily, with plain glass.


text: The windows were installed in 1953 after lobbying from the Daughters of the Confederacy. The dean of the cathedral, the Very Rev. Gary Hall, said the Charleston shooting was the catalyst for the planned removal, saying "It seemed to me that we couldn't, with credibility, address the race agenda if we were going to keep the windows in there." On September 6, 2017, the windows were removed.


text: Within a year of the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, a backlash against the removal of Confederate flags that the shooting inspired was playing out across the country, according to "Politico". The backlash also extended to the national political scene.


text: Three Sons of Confederate Veterans groups erected the flags of the United States, South Carolina, and the Confederacy on June 16, 2018, on private land which was located outside Holly Hill, South Carolina. A sign said that the Sons of Confederate Veterans is honoring "All of Our Ancestors."


text: On June 21, 2018, a newspaper report said that graffiti that said "Move" and five-dollar signs had been sprayed on the sign.


text: "Holly Hill Town Council asked the Confederate groups in April not to erect the display along U.S. 176. Mayor William Johnson said he was disappointed by the display."


text: After both the Southeastern Conference and the NCAA threatened to ban games in Mississippi until the flag was changed, the Mississippi Legislature passed a bill in June 2020 to abolish the state flag, remove it from public institutions within 15 days of enactment, and create a nine-member commission to design a replacement that would exclude the battle flag and include the motto "In God We Trust". Governor Tate Reeves signed the bill into law on . The flag commission accepted submissions for a new design from the public and the winner was put to a referendum on November 3, 2020. Mississippi voters overwhelmingly approved the measure; the new flag went into effect on January 11, 2021.


title: Cellulose

text: Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked -glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wall of green plants, many forms of algae and the oomycetes. Some species of bacteria secrete it to form biofilms. Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth. The cellulose content of cotton fiber is 90%, that of wood is 40–50%, and that of dried hemp is approximately 57%.


title: Cellulose

text: Cellulose is mainly used to produce paperboard and paper. Smaller quantities are converted into a wide variety of derivative products such as cellophane and rayon. Conversion of cellulose from energy crops into biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol is under development as a renewable fuel source. Cellulose for industrial use is mainly obtained from wood pulp and cotton.


title: Cellulose

text: Some animals, particularly ruminants and termites, can digest cellulose with the help of symbiotic micro-organisms that live in their guts, such as "Trichonympha". In human nutrition, cellulose is a non-digestible constituent of insoluble dietary fiber, acting as a hydrophilic bulking agent for feces and potentially aiding in defecation.


title: Cellulose

text: Cellulose was discovered in 1838 by the French chemist Anselme Payen, who isolated it from plant matter and determined its chemical formula. Cellulose was used to produce the first successful thermoplastic polymer, celluloid, by Hyatt Manufacturing Company in 1870. Production of rayon ("artificial silk") from cellulose began in the 1890s and cellophane was invented in 1912. Hermann Staudinger determined the polymer structure of cellulose in 1920. The compound was first chemically synthesized (without the use of any biologically derived enzymes) in 1992, by Kobayashi and Shoda.


title: Cellulose

text: Cellulose has no taste, is odorless, is hydrophilic with the contact angle of 20–30 degrees, is insoluble in water and most organic solvents, is chiral and is biodegradable. It was shown to melt at 467 °C in pulse tests made by Dauenhauer "et al." (2016). It can be broken down chemically into its glucose units by treating it with concentrated mineral acids at high temperature.


title: Cellulose

text: Cellulose is derived from -glucose units, which condense through β(1→4)-glycosidic bonds. This linkage motif contrasts with that for α(1→4)-glycosidic bonds present in starch and glycogen. Cellulose is a straight chain polymer. Unlike starch, no coiling or branching occurs and the molecule adopts an extended and rather stiff rod-like conformation, aided by the equatorial conformation of the glucose residues. The multiple hydroxyl groups on the glucose from one chain form hydrogen bonds with oxygen atoms on the same or on a neighbor chain, holding the chains firmly together side-by-side and forming "microfibrils" with high tensile strength. This confers tensile strength in cell walls where cellulose microfibrils are meshed into a polysaccharide "matrix". The high tensile strength of plant stems and of the tree wood also arises from the arrangement of cellulose fibers intimately distributed into the lignin matrix. The mechanical role of cellulose fibers in the wood matrix responsible for its strong structural resistance, can somewhat be compared to that of the reinforcement bars in concrete, lignin playing here the role of the hardened cement paste acting as the "glue" in between the cellulose fibers. Mechanical properties of cellulose in primary plant cell wall are correlated with growth and expansion of plant cells. Live fluorescence microscopy techniques are promising in investigation of the role of cellulose in growing plant cells.


title: Cellulose

text: Compared to starch, cellulose is also much more crystalline. Whereas starch undergoes a crystalline to amorphous transition when heated beyond 60–70 °C in water (as in cooking), cellulose requires a temperature of 320 °C and pressure of 25 MPa to become amorphous in water.


title: Cellulose

text: Several types of cellulose are known. These forms are distinguished according to the location of hydrogen bonds between and within strands. Natural cellulose is cellulose I, with structures I and I. Cellulose produced by bacteria and algae is enriched in I while cellulose of higher plants consists mainly of I. Cellulose in regenerated cellulose fibers is cellulose II. The conversion of cellulose I to cellulose II is irreversible, suggesting that cellulose I is metastable and cellulose II is stable. With various chemical treatments it is possible to produce the structures cellulose III and cellulose IV.


title: Cellulose

text: Many properties of cellulose depend on its chain length or degree of polymerization, the number of glucose units that make up one polymer molecule. Cellulose from wood pulp has typical chain lengths between 300 and 1700 units; cotton and other plant fibers as well as bacterial cellulose have chain lengths ranging from 800 to 10,000 units. Molecules with very small chain length resulting from the breakdown of cellulose are known as cellodextrins; in contrast to long-chain cellulose, cellodextrins are typically soluble in water and organic solvents.


title: Cellulose

text: The chemical formula of cellulose is (CHO)n where n is the degree of polymerization and represents the number of glucose groups.


title: Cellulose

text: Plant-derived cellulose is usually found in a mixture with hemicellulose, lignin, pectin and other substances, while bacterial cellulose is quite pure, has a much higher water content and higher tensile strength due to higher chain lengths.


title: Cellulose

text: Cellulose consists of fibrils with crystalline and amorphous regions. These cellulose fibrils may be individualized by mechanical treatment of cellulose pulp, often assisted by chemical oxidation or enzymatic treatment, yielding semi-flexible cellulose nanofibrils generally 200 nm to 1 μm in length depending on the treatment intensity. Cellulose pulp may also be treated with strong acid to hydrolyze the amorphous fibril regions, thereby producing short rigid cellulose nanocrystals a few 100 nm in length. These nanocelluloses are of high technological interest due to their self-assembly into cholesteric liquid crystals, production of hydrogels or aerogels, use in nanocomposites with superior thermal and mechanical properties, and use as Pickering stabilizers for emulsions.


title: Cellulose

text: In plants cellulose is synthesized at the plasma membrane by rosette terminal complexes (RTCs). The RTCs are hexameric protein structures, approximately 25 nm in diameter, that contain the cellulose synthase enzymes that synthesise the individual cellulose chains. Each RTC floats in the cell's plasma membrane and "spins" a microfibril into the cell wall.


title: Cellulose

text: RTCs contain at least three different cellulose synthases, encoded by "CesA" ("Ces" is short for "cellulose synthase") genes, in an unknown stoichiometry. Separate sets of "CesA" genes are involved in primary and secondary cell wall biosynthesis. There are known to be about seven subfamilies in the plant "CesA" superfamily, some of which include the more cryptic, tentatively-named "Csl" (cellulose synthase-like) enzymes. These cellulose syntheses use UDP-glucose to form the β(1→4)-linked cellulose.


title: Cellulose

text: Bacterial cellulose is produced using the same family of proteins, although the gene is called "BcsA" for "bacterial cellulose synthase" or "CelA" for "cellulose" in many instances. In fact, plants acquired "CesA" from the endosymbiosis event that produced the chloroplast. All cellulose synthases known belongs to glucosyltransferase family 2 (GT2).


title: Cellulose

text: Cellulose synthase ("CesA") initiates cellulose polymerization using a steroid primer, sitosterol-beta-glucoside, and UDP-glucose. It then utilizes UDP-D-glucose precursors to elongate the growing cellulose chain. A cellulase may function to cleave the primer from the mature chain.


title: Cellulose

text: Cellulose is also synthesised by tunicate animals, particularly in the tests of ascidians (where the cellulose was historically termed "tunicine" (tunicin)).


title: Cellulose

text: Cellulolysis is the process of breaking down cellulose into smaller polysaccharides called cellodextrins or completely into glucose units; this is a hydrolysis reaction. Because cellulose molecules bind strongly to each other, cellulolysis is relatively difficult compared to the breakdown of other polysaccharides. However, this process can be significantly intensified in a proper solvent, e.g. in an ionic liquid.


title: Cellulose

text: Most mammals have limited ability to digest dietary fiber such as cellulose. Some ruminants like cows and sheep contain certain symbiotic anaerobic bacteria (such as "Cellulomonas" and "Ruminococcus" spp.) in the flora of the rumen, and these bacteria produce enzymes called cellulases that hydrolyze cellulose. The breakdown products are then used by the bacteria for proliferation. The bacterial mass is later digested by the ruminant in its digestive system (stomach and small intestine). Horses use cellulose in their diet by fermentation in their hindgut. Some termites contain in their hindguts certain flagellate protozoa producing such enzymes, whereas others contain bacteria or may produce cellulase.


title: Cellulose

text: The enzymes used to cleave the glycosidic linkage in cellulose are glycoside hydrolases including endo-acting cellulases and exo-acting glucosidases. Such enzymes are usually secreted as part of multienzyme complexes that may include dockerins and carbohydrate-binding modules.


title: Cellulose

text: At temperatures above 350 °C, cellulose undergoes thermolysis (also called 'pyrolysis'), decomposing into solid char, vapors, aerosols, and gases such as carbon dioxide. Maximum yield of vapors which condense to a liquid called "bio-oil" is obtained at 500 °C.


title: Cellulose

text: Semi-crystalline cellulose polymers react at pyrolysis temperatures (350–600 °C) in a few seconds; this transformation has been shown to occur via a solid-to-liquid-to-vapor transition, with the liquid (called "intermediate liquid cellulose" or "molten cellulose") existing for only a fraction of a second. Glycosidic bond cleavage produces short cellulose chains of two-to-seven monomers comprising the melt. Vapor bubbling of intermediate liquid cellulose produces aerosols, which consist of short chain anhydro-oligomers derived from the melt.


title: Cellulose

text: Continuing decomposition of molten cellulose produces volatile compounds including levoglucosan, furans, pyrans, light oxygenates, and gases via primary reactions. Within thick cellulose samples, volatile compounds such as levoglucosan undergo 'secondary reactions' to volatile products including pyrans and light oxygenates such as glycolaldehyde.


title: Cellulose

text: Hemicelluloses are polysaccharides related to cellulose that comprises about 20% of the biomass of land plants. In contrast to cellulose, hemicelluloses are derived from several sugars in addition to glucose, especially xylose but also including mannose, galactose, rhamnose, and arabinose. Hemicelluloses consist of shorter chains – between 500 and 3000 sugar units. Furthermore, hemicelluloses are branched, whereas cellulose is unbranched.


title: Cellulose

text: Cellulose is soluble in several kinds of media, several of which are the basis of commercial technologies. These dissolution processes are reversible and are used in the production of regenerated celluloses (such as viscose and cellophane) from dissolving pulp.


title: Cellulose

text: The most important solubilizing agent is carbon disulfide in the presence of alkali. Other agents include Schweizer's reagent, "N"-methylmorpholine "N"-oxide, and lithium chloride in dimethylacetamide. In general, these agents modify the cellulose, rendering it soluble. The agents are then removed concomitant with the formation of fibers. Cellulose is also soluble in many kinds of ionic liquids.


title: Cellulose

text: The history of regenerated cellulose is often cited as beginning with George Audemars, who first manufactured regenerated nitrocellulose fibers in 1855. Although these fibers were soft and strong -resembling silk- they had the drawback of being highly flammable. Hilaire de Chardonnet perfected production of nitrocellulose fibers, but manufacturing of these fibers by his process was relatively uneconomical. In 1890, L.H. Despeissis invented the cuprammonium process – which uses a cuprammonium solution to solubilize cellulose – a method still used today for production of artificial silk. In 1891, it was discovered that treatment of cellulose with alkali and carbon disulfide generated a soluble cellulose derivative known as viscose. This process, patented by the founders of the Viscose Development Company, is the most widely used method for manufacturing regenerated cellulose products. Courtaulds purchased the patents for this process in 1904, leading to significant growth of viscose fiber production. By 1931, expiration of patents for the viscose process led to its adoption worldwide. Global production of regenerated cellulose fiber peaked in 1973 at 3,856,000 tons.


title: Cellulose

text: Regenerated cellulose can be used to manufacture a wide variety of products. While the first application of regenerated cellulose was as a clothing textile, this class of materials is also used in the production of disposable medical devices as well as fabrication of artificial membranes.


title: Cellulose

text: The hydroxyl groups (−OH) of cellulose can be partially or fully reacted with various reagents to afford derivatives with useful properties like mainly cellulose esters and cellulose ethers (−OR). In principle, although not always in current industrial practice, cellulosic polymers are renewable resources.


title: Cellulose

text: The cellulose acetate and cellulose triacetate are film- and fiber-forming materials that find a variety of uses. The nitrocellulose was initially used as an explosive and was an early film forming material. With camphor, nitrocellulose gives celluloid.


title: Cellulose

text: The sodium carboxymethyl cellulose can be cross-linked to give the croscarmellose sodium (E468) for use as a disintegrant in pharmaceutical formulations.


title: Cellulose

text: Energy crops: The major combustible component of non-food energy crops is cellulose, with lignin second. Non-food energy crops produce more usable energy than edible energy crops (which have a large starch component), but still compete with food crops for agricultural land and water resources. Typical non-food energy crops include industrial hemp, switchgrass, "Miscanthus", "Salix" (willow), and "Populus" (poplar) species. A strain of "Clostridium" bacteria found in zebra dung, can convert nearly any form of cellulose into butanol fuel.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Joseph "Sepp" Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former football administrator who served as the eighth President of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participating in FIFA activities since 2015 as a result of the FIFA corruption case made public that year, and will remain banned until 2027.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: From a background in business, public relations, and sports administration, Blatter became general secretary of FIFA in 1981 and was then elected president at the 51st FIFA Congress on 8 June 1998, succeeding João Havelange, who had headed the organization since 1974. Blatter was re-elected in 2002, 2007, 2011, and 2015.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Like his predecessor Havelange, Blatter built his power base in FIFA by increasing the influence of numerous African and Asian countries in world football through the expansion of participating teams in various FIFA tournaments, culminating in the highly controversial awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a Gulf oil state of 300,000 with little footballing culture. Under Blatter's leadership as President, eleven of the 22 committee members who voted on the 2018 and 2022 tournaments were fined, suspended, banned for life or prosecuted for corruption, including Blatter.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Although he has persistently been dogged by claims of corruption and financial mismanagement, Blatter's reign oversaw a vast expansion in revenues generated by the FIFA World Cup accompanied by the collapse of the marketing company International Sport and Leisure and numerous allegations of corruption in the bidding processes for the awarding of FIFA tournaments.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: On 2 June 2015, six days after the United States government indicted several current and former FIFA officials and sports marketing companies for bribery and money laundering, Blatter announced that he would call for elections to choose a new president of FIFA and that he would not stand in these elections, but he also said he would remain in his position until an extraordinary FIFA Congress could be held for his successor to be elected. Criminal proceedings were announced against Blatter by the Swiss Attorney General's office on 25 September 2015, regarding "criminal mismanagement... and misappropriation".


title: Sepp Blatter

text: In October 2015, Blatter and other top FIFA officials were suspended amid the investigation, and in December the independent FIFA Ethics Committee ejected Blatter from office and banned him from taking part in any FIFA activities over the following eight years. On 24 February 2016, a FIFA appeals committee upheld the suspension but reduced it from eight years to six. On 24 March 2021, he received a second ban for six years and was fined the amount of CHF 1,000,000 by the body's Ethics Committee after a probe into massive bonus payments. Issa Hayatou served as the acting President of FIFA until an extraordinary FIFA Congress was held in late February, electing Gianni Infantino as the 9th president of FIFA.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Blatter was born in Visp in the Swiss canton of Valais with the given name of "Josef". He studied in Saint Maurice, before getting a degree in business and economics from the University of Lausanne in 1959. Blatter has had a long and varied career, including posts such as head of public relations for the tourist board of his native canton, as well as general secretary of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: He was Director of Sports Timing and Relations of Longines S.A., and was involved in the organization of the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: From 1975 onwards, Blatter worked at FIFA, first as technical director (1975–1981), then general secretary (1981–1998), before his election as FIFA president in 1998. He was re-elected as head of FIFA in 2002, and was re-elected unopposed for another four years on 31 May 2007, even though only 66 of 207 FIFA members nominated him.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Blatter and FIFA were often dogged by controversy and allegations of corruption. His tenure saw controversy over allegations of financial mismanagement and the acceptance of bribes resulting in Qatar's successful 2022 World Cup bid.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Blatter has attracted criticism from the media, senior football figures and players, due to controversial statements. These include the claim that Latin American countries would applaud John Terry for having an extramarital affair, and that on-field racism could be corrected with a handshake, among others. He also drew criticism at the 2014 FIFA World Cup seeding, when he interrupted a "one-minute silence" for former South-African president Nelson Mandela, who died the day before, after eleven seconds. Michael van Praag, the chairman of the Royal Dutch Football Association, called his behavior "preposterous" and expressed the hope Blatter would not be reelected in 2015.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Blatter has been publicly heckled, at the World Cup in Seoul and the Confederations Cup in Frankfurt, both in 2002 and 2005, in his home town of Visp in 2011, at the 2012 Women's Olympic Football Final Medal Ceremony, and at the opening of Confederations Cup match in 2013. In order to avoid protest, no speeches were given at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Sepp Blatter's 1998 election to the presidency of FIFA over UEFA President Lennart Johansson occurred amidst much controversy. Blatter's 2002 candidacy has been marked with rumours of financial irregularities and backroom dealings, culminating with direct accusations of bribery, by a third party, made in the British press by Farra Ado, vice-president of the Confederation of African Football and president of the Somali Football Federation, who claimed to have been offered $100,000 to vote for Blatter in 1998.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: In the 2006 FIFA World Cup, after a controversial second-round match between Portugal and the Netherlands, which saw referee Valentin Ivanov issue a record 16 yellow cards and four red cards, Blatter was said to have lambasted the officiating referee, and said that Ivanov should have given himself a yellow card for his poor performance as a referee. He later claimed to regret his words and promised to officially apologise to Ivanov.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Blatter was criticized in 2007 and 2008 for trying to change European Union employment law regarding the number of foreign players that football clubs could field at any one time. His plans were to set a restriction of five foreign players and having six players from the said team's own nationality. Blatter believed this would help the countries' national sides by having more national players playing in their leagues.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Blatter has often referred to the English Premier League as one of the major problems in football and used it as an example, due to the influence of foreign players, coaches and owners in the top teams.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: It was reported that Blatter had "cut an unofficial deal with UEFA head Michel Platini" to ensure Europe would receive the 2018 World Cup, such that if the non-European bids did not withdraw from 2018 "they will find themselves frozen out and not given any backing by the FIFA High Command, damaging their chances of being serious contenders for the second tournament."


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Eleven bids were submitted in March 2009 covering 13 nations. Mexico and Indonesia withdrew. Five of the remaining nine bids—South Korea, Qatar, Japan, Australia and the United States—were only for the 2022 World Cup, while all the others were bidding for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: However, since all of the bids for the 2018 World Cup were from European nations, and FIFA's rules dictate that countries belonging to confederations that hosted either of the two preceding tournaments are not eligible to host, the bids of England, Russia, Netherlands/Belgium and Spain/Portugal were forced to be for 2018 only.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: The criticism attracted by Blatter's refusal to allow goal-line technology or video replays intensified following the controversial Frank Lampard disallowed goal in the match between England and Germany on 27 June 2010.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Two days later, Blatter stated that he deplored the "evident referee mistakes" in the England v Germany and Mexico v Argentina matches, and apologised to the English Football Association and the Mexican Football Federation (the two organizations directly concerned by the referees' mistakes), acknowledging that Lampard had indeed scored against Germany and that Tévez's goal against Mexico had been scored from an offside position.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: He added: "It is obvious that after the experiences so far at this World Cup it would be a nonsense not to re-open the file on goal-line technology. […] We will come out with a new model in November on how to improve high level referees. […] I cannot disclose more of what we are doing but something has to be changed."


title: Sepp Blatter

text: In 2011, elections were scheduled for the FIFA presidency, in which Blatter was again the incumbent candidate, running for a fourth consecutive term. The ChangeFIFA organisation, on 29 March 2011, endorsed former Chilean defender and for three years running South American Footballer of the Year Elías Figueroa as candidate for the presidency, urging national federations to nominate him, but, subsequently, Figueroa decided not to accept the nomination, stating that "in such a short period of time" he could not develop a case "worthy of the magnitude and importance of such a distinguished job"


title: Sepp Blatter

text: The vote took place at the 61st FIFA Congress in Zurich. The only other candidate, Mohammed bin Hammam of Qatar, withdrew from the presidential race on 28 May, just before the vote. Bin Hammam had supported Blatter's 1998 and 2002 presidential campaigns, but admitted that he had fallen out with Blatter over issues within the FIFA Executive Committee. The FIFA ethics committee that investigated bribery claims against Bin Hammam and CONCACAF head Jack Warner announced that Blatter will not face an investigation into claims that he knew of the bribery and did nothing about it, because of a lack of evidence.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Blatter criticised the International Olympic Committee (IOC), stating FIFA manage their finances "like a housewife", after the IOC announced it would look into allegations of corruption against Issa Hayatou, president of the Confederation of African Football.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: There being no other nominations, Blatter ran unopposed in the ensuing presidential election and was re-elected for a fourth term, with 186 of the 203 votes cast. In his campaign, Blatter had stipulated that, if re-elected in 2011, he would not run again for president. Blatter received criticism for not postponing his 2011 election in which his term as FIFA President was extended through 2015, despite the fact that all other candidates for the role had been suspended or withdrew.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Amidst internal divisions, FIFA's secretary-general Blatter's deputy and former protégé Michel Zen-Ruffinen drew up a 30-page dossier outlining allegations of financial mismanagement within the organisation. The dossier alleged that the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner ISL had led to losses of up to $100m under Blatter's management.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: The allegations were backed by Johansson, and the dossier was handed to the Swiss authorities, but they cleared Blatter of any wrongdoing and FIFA had to pay all the costs. An internal investigation within FIFA was halted by Blatter because members of it broke confidentiality agreements. This questionable behaviour led him to remove Zen-Ruffinen from office immediately before the 2002 FIFA World Cup.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: In April 2012 the Council of Europe published a report which stated it would be "difficult to imagine" that Blatter would have been unaware of "significant sums" paid to unnamed FIFA officials by ISSM/ISL in connection with lucrative contracts for World Cup television rights and the subsequent bankruptcy and collapse of ISL in 2001. The Council of Europe report will be considered by over 300 parliamentarians from the 47 Council of Europe member states in Strasbourg.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Controversy came in the British press when Russia was awarded the 2018 event, with England receiving just two of their "promised" votes; this controversy was dismissed by Blatter as the English showing themselves to be "bad losers". The awarding of the 2022 games to Qatar was also controversial. The illegality of homosexuality in the nation caused Blatter to joke that "I would say they [gay fans] should refrain from any sexual activities", which brought criticism from retired basketball player John Amaechi and gay rights groups.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: On 29 April 2013, FIFA's Ethics Committee concluded its investigation into allegations of illegal payments to FIFA officials from the organisation's former marketing partner International Sports and Leisure (ISL), which went bankrupt in 2001, and published its report.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: FIFA president Sepp Blatter was cleared of any misconduct, but his predecessor, Brazilian João Havelange, resigned as FIFA's honorary president over his part in the scandal, since Havelange along with former FIFA Executive Committee members Ricardo Teixeira and Dr. Nicolás Leoz were found to have accepted illegal payments between 1992 and May 2000. A week before FIFA's ethics committee announced its findings, 84-year-old Leoz had resigned from his post as president of the South American Football Confederation, citing "health reasons".


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Blatter, in a statement, "note[d] with satisfaction" that the report "confirms that 'President Blatter's conduct could not be classified in any way as misconduct with regard to any ethics rules'." He added he has "no doubt that FIFA, thanks to the governance reform process that [Blatter] proposed now has the mechanisms and means to ensure that such an issue does not happen again", though admitting that the scandal "has caused untold damage to the reputation of [FIFA]."


title: Sepp Blatter

text: In 2015, elections were scheduled for the FIFA presidency, in which Blatter was again the incumbent candidate, running for a fifth consecutive term. Prince Ali bin Hussein was his opponent in the election.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: The vote took place at the 65th FIFA Congress in Zürich on 29 May 2015. Neither party received the necessary two-thirds majority of votes from the first round with Blatter receiving 133 to Prince Ali's 73. According to FIFA rules, a second round should have been held for the two candidates, with a simple majority being sufficient for victory. However, before the second round of voting commenced, Prince Ali announced his withdrawal, handing Blatter victory by default.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: On 2 June 2015, FIFA abruptly called a press conference at their Zürich headquarters, where Blatter announced that he would resign from the post of FIFA president amid the ongoing corruption scandal.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: During the news conference he said: "My mandate does not appear to be supported by everybody" and announced an extraordinary congress scheduled "as soon as possible" to elect his successor. Blatter announced that he would remain in office until his successor could be elected at the extraordinary congress, likely to be held some time between December 2015 and March 2016. He continued with the words: "While I have a mandate from the membership of FIFA, I do not feel that I have a mandate from the entire world of football—the fans, the players, the clubs, the people who live, breathe, and love football as much as we all do at FIFA".


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Subsequently, on 26 June Blatter prompted speculation that he might be preparing to renege on this resignation, when he was quoted as saying that "I have not resigned, I put my mandate in the hands of an extraordinary congress". This seemed to contradict his comments from 2 June 2015. He was further quoted as saying that he resigned "to take away the pressure from FIFA and my employees, including [pressure] from the sponsors". Reports speculated that it appears that Blatter will step down at the "extraordinary congress" though the situation remains vague.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: On 25 September, Swiss investigators announced that they were investigating Blatter in relation to payments made to UEFA president Michel Platini. While Blatter and Platini denied any impropriety around the payments, major FIFA sponsors Coca-Cola, Visa Inc., McDonald's, and Budweiser issued public statements requesting that he resign for the good of FIFA.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: On 8 October 2015, he was suspended from FIFA for 90 days while investigations into payments made to Michel Platini were conducted. FIFA said in a statement: "The grounds for these decisions are the investigations that are being carried out by the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee." On 21 December, FIFA's ethics committee banned both Blatter and Platini from football for eight years. In February 2016, a FIFA appeals committee upheld the suspension but reduced it from eight years to six. Platini appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which rejected his appeal.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: On 22 December 2020, FIFA filed a criminal complaint against Blatter relating to his role in the FIFA Museum project.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: On 24 March 2021, he received a second ban for six years and was fined the amount of CHF 1,000,000 by the body's Ethics Committee after a probe into massive bonus payments.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: On 2 November 2021, Blatter was formally charged by Swiss authorities for fraud and falsifying documents in connection with the improper payments to Platini. Blatter and Platini were cleared of the charges eight months later.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: In November 2017, American goalkeeper Hope Solo accused Blatter of sexual assault at the FIFA Ballon d'Or awards in 2013. During an interview with the Portuguese newspaper "Expresso", Solo stated she "had Sepp Blatter grab my ass" just before the two presented an award together to Abby Wambach. She stated she "was in shock and completely thrown off. I had to quickly pull myself together to present my team-mate with the biggest award of her career and celebrate with her in that moment, so I completely shifted my focus to Abby." Blatter's spokesman Thomas Renggli stated "This allegation is ridiculous."


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Blatter has been the recipient of numerous awards, medals, honorary degrees, and citizenships from nation states, sport governing bodies, special interest groups, universities, and cities.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: His honorary degree from De Montfort University was revoked by the institution in October 2015, as it had previously been given in recognition of his ethical conduct.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Blatter's first wife was Liliane Biner. The couple had a daughter, Corinne, and divorced shortly after. In 1981, Blatter married Barbara Käser, the daughter of Helmut Käser, Blatter's predecessor as secretary general of FIFA. Their marriage lasted ten years until Barbara died from complications after an operation. In 1995, Blatter began dating Ilona Boguska, a Polish friend of his daughter Corinne, before they separated in 2002.


title: Sepp Blatter

text: Blatter married for a third time on 23 December 2002, to Graziella Bianca, a dolphin trainer who was a friend of his daughter. Their marriage ended in divorce in 2004. Since 2014, he has been in a domestic partnership with Linda Barras.


title: 2018–19 Premier League

text: The 2018–19 Premier League was the 27th season of the Premier League, the top English professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992, and the 120th season of top-flight English football overall. The season started on 10 August 2018 and concluded on 12 May 2019. Fixtures for the 2018–19 season were announced on 14 June 2018. The league was contested by the top 17 teams from the 2017–18 season as well as Wolverhampton Wanderers, Cardiff City and Fulham, who joined as the promoted clubs from the 2017–18 EFL Championship. They replaced West Bromwich Albion, Swansea City and Stoke City who were relegated to the 2018–19 EFL Championship.


title: 2018–19 Premier League

text: Defending champions Manchester City won their fourth Premier League title, and sixth English top-flight title overall. They won their last 14 league games and retained the league title on the final day of the season, finishing on 98 points. Liverpool finished runners-up with 97 points – the highest total in English top-flight history for a second-placed team.


title: 2018–19 Premier League

text: Manchester City claimed the league title on the final day of the season with a 4–1 win at Brighton & Hove Albion, finishing on 98 points after a run of 14 wins. Liverpool held a 7-point lead over Manchester City on 3 January, but finished runners-up with 97 points – the third highest total in Premier League history and the highest in English top-flight history for a second-placed team, having lost only one league match all season – to eventual champions City.


title: 2018–19 Premier League

text: Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur claimed the other two Champions League berths, finishing in third and fourth place respectively. Tottenham were in third place for much of the season and were considered potential title challengers until a 1–2 loss to Burnley in February. Chelsea would go on to win the season's UEFA Europa League, defeating Arsenal in the final 4–1. Arsenal had gone on a fourteen-game unbeaten run near the start of the season and began April in third place, but a run of four points in six matches saw them drop to fifth place, finishing outside of the Champions League spots.


title: 2018–19 Premier League

text: Manchester United's worst start to the season for 28 years led to the sacking of manager José Mourinho in December, with former player Ole Gunnar Solskjær replacing him, initially as a caretaker. Solskjær was appointed permanently after an impressive run of results which culminated in United's away goals victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League, but the team's poor form soon returned, and they eventually finished sixth after the team had won none of their final five league matches. Newly promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers achieved their highest finish since 1980 by finishing seventh, having taken points off every team in the league except Liverpool and Huddersfield Town. Their seventh-place finish was the highest for a newly promoted team since Ipswich Town finished 5th in the 2000–01 season.


title: 2018–19 Premier League

text: Huddersfield were the first team to be relegated, following their 0–2 defeat at Crystal Palace on 30 March 2019, coinciding with victories for Burnley and Southampton. They were relegated with six games remaining. This made Huddersfield the second team in Premier League history to be relegated before March ended, following Derby County in 2007–08. Fulham joined them after a 1–4 defeat at Watford on 2 April, relegated with five games remaining. Cardiff City were the final team to be relegated following a 2–3 loss at home to Crystal Palace on 4 May with one game remaining.


title: 2018–19 Premier League

text: The fastest goal in Premier League history was scored this season on 23 April by Shane Long in a 1–1 draw between his side Southampton and Watford after 7.69 seconds. On 4 May 2019, Fulham's Harvey Elliott became the youngest ever Premier League player at 16 years and 30 days. Tottenham Hotspur had a run of 28 games without a draw, the longest ever recorded from the start of a Premier League season. Manchester City did not draw any of their final 30 matches.


title: 2018–19 Premier League

text: The season saw two aviation incidents involving Premier League personnel. On 27 October 2018, Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was killed in a helicopter crash outside the King Power Stadium, shortly after a 1–1 home draw against West Ham United. Almost three months later, on 21 January 2019, Cardiff City player Emiliano Sala, en route to join the club following his record signing from Nantes, died on board a Piper PA-46 Malibu aircraft that crashed off Alderney.


title: 2018–19 Premier League

text: Twenty teams competed in the league – the top seventeen teams from the previous season and the three teams promoted from the Championship. The promoted teams were Wolverhampton Wanderers (returning to the top flight after a six-year absence), Cardiff City and Fulham (both teams returning after a four-year absence). They replaced Swansea City, Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion, ending their top flight spells of seven, ten and eight years respectively.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: Chartreuse (, , ) is a French herbal liqueur available in green and yellow versions that differ in taste and alcohol content. The liqueur has been made by the Carthusian monks since 1737 according to the instructions set out in a manuscript given to them by François Annibal d'Estrées in 1605. It was named after the monks' Grande Chartreuse monastery, located in the Chartreuse Mountains north of Grenoble. Today the liqueur is produced in their distillery in nearby Aiguenoire. It is composed of distilled alcohol aged with 130 herbs, plants and flowers.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: According to tradition, a marshal of artillery to French king Henry IV, François Hannibal d'Estrées, presented the Carthusian monks at Vauvert, near Paris, with an alchemical manuscript that contained a recipe for an "elixir of long life" in 1605. The recipe eventually reached the religious order's headquarters at the Grande Chartreuse monastery, north of Grenoble. The formula is said to include 130 herbs, plants and flowers and secret ingredients combined in a wine alcohol base. The recipe was further enhanced in 1737 by Brother Gérome Maubec.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: The beverage soon became popular, and in 1764 the monks adapted the elixir recipe to make what is now called the "Elixir Végétal de la Grande Chartreuse".


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: In 1793, the monks were expelled from France along with all other religious orders and manufacture of the liqueur ceased. A copy of the manuscript was made and kept at the monastery. The original left with the monks. On the way there, the monk was arrested and sent to prison in Bordeaux. He was not searched and was able to secretly pass the manuscript to one of his friends: Dom Basile Nantas. This friend was convinced that the order would remain in Spain and never come back and that the manufacturing of the liqueur would cease. He sold the manuscript to a pharmacist in Grenoble, Monsieur Liotard. In 1810, Napoleon ordered that all "secret" recipes of medicine be sent to the Ministry of Interior for review. The manuscript was sent and returned as "Refused" as it was not a secret but well known. At the death of the pharmacist, his heirs returned the manuscript to the monks who had been back at the monastery since 1816.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: In 1840, they developed a milder version called Green Chartreuse and a sweeter version called Yellow Chartreuse.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: The monks were again expelled from the monastery following a French law in 1903, and their real property, including the distillery, was confiscated by the government. The monks took their secret recipe to their refuge in Tarragona, Catalonia, and began producing their liqueurs with the same label, but with an additional label which said "Liqueur fabriquée à Tarragone par les Pères Chartreux" ("liqueur manufactured in Tarragona by the Carthusian Fathers"). At the same time, the "Compagnie Fermière de la Grande Chartreuse", a corporation in Voiron that obtained the Chartreuse assets, produced a liqueur without benefit of the monks' recipe which they sold as Chartreuse. While the French corporation was acting legally in France, the monks successfully prevented the export of the liqueur to many other countries, since the order retained ownership of its foreign trademark registrations, largely because the recipe had been kept secret. One dispute was litigated in the United States, in which the monks won a lawsuit defending their trademark in "Baglin v. Cusenier".


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: Sales at the French company were very poor, and by 1929, it faced bankruptcy. A group of local businessmen in Voiron bought all the shares at a low price and sent them as a gift to the monks in Tarragona.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: After regaining possession of the distillery, the Carthusian brothers returned to the monastery with the tacit approval of the French government and began to produce Chartreuse once again. Despite the eviction law, when a mudslide destroyed the distillery in 1935, the French government assigned army engineers to relocate and rebuild it at a location near Voiron where the monks had previously set up a distribution point. After World War II, the government lifted the expulsion order, making the Carthusian brothers once again legal French residents.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: Today, the liqueurs are produced using the herbal mixture prepared by two monks at Grande Chartreuse. They are the only ones to know the secret recipe. The marketing, bottling, packaging, management of the distillery and tours are done by "Chartreuse Diffusion", a company created in 1970. Other related alcoholic beverages are manufactured in the same distillery (e.g. Génépi).


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: The book "The Practical Hotel Steward" (1900) states that Green Chartreuse contains "cinnamon, mace, lemon balm, dried hyssop flower tops, peppermint, thyme, costmary, arnica flowers, genepi, and angelica roots", and that yellow chartreuse is "similar to above, adding cardamom seeds and socctrine aloes." The monks intended their liqueur to be used as medicine. The exact recipes for all forms of Chartreuse remain trade secrets and are known at any given time only to the three monks who prepare the herbal mixture. The only formally known element of the recipe is that it uses 130 different plants.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: Green Chartreuse (110 proof or 55% ABV) is a naturally green liqueur made from 130 herbs and other plants macerated in alcohol and steeped for about eight hours. A last maceration of plants gives its color to the liqueur. The first version of the liqueur was devised in 1825, with the modern version first released in 1840.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: Yellow Chartreuse (80 proof or 40%) has a milder and sweeter flavor and aroma than Green Chartreuse, and is lower in alcohol content.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: VEP stands for "Vieillissement Exceptionnellement Prolongé", meaning "exceptionally prolonged aging". It is made using the same processes and the same secret formula as the traditional liqueur, and by extra long aging in oak casks it reaches an exceptional quality. Chartreuse VEP comes in both yellow and green.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: Élixir Végétal de la Grande-Chartreuse (138 proof or 69%) has the same base of about 130 medicinal and aromatic plants and flowers but is more alcoholic. It can be described as a cordial or a liqueur, and is claimed to be a tonic. Sold in small wood-covered bottles.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: Liqueur du 9° Centenaire (47%) was created in 1984 to commemorate the 900 year anniversary of the foundation of the abbey. It is similar to Green Chartreuse, but slightly sweeter.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: Chartreuse 1605 – Liqueur d'Elixir (56%) was created to commemorate the return of a mysterious manuscript concerning an elixir of long life to the Carthusian monks by Marshal François Annibal d'Estrées.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: The monks make a Génépi which is the general term in the Alps for a homemade or local liqueur featuring local mountain flora. There are hundreds or even thousands of different Génépi liqueurs made, many simply by families for their own use each year. As they have been making Chartreuse from local plants for centuries, the monks started in the 2000s to make a Génépi as a sideline product. It is labelled "Génépi des Pères Chartreux" and is generally only available locally in a 70 cl bottle, usually labelled 40% alcohol.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: In 2007, a special edition was created by the "Cuvée des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France" Sommeliers (Best Craftsmen of France) in partnership with the distillery. It is yellow in color (45% alcohol).


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: Chartreuse has a very strong characteristic taste. It is very sweet, but becomes both spicy and pungent. It is comparable to other herbal liqueurs such as Galliano, Liquore Strega or Kräuterlikör, though it is distinctively more vegetal, or herbaceous. Like other liqueurs, its flavor is sensitive to serving temperature. If straight, it can be served very cold, but is often served at room temperature. It is also featured in some cocktails. Some mixed drink recipes call for only a few drops of Chartreuse due to its strong flavor. It is popular in French ski resorts where it is mixed with hot chocolate and called Green Chaud.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: Chartreuse liqueurs generally have performed well at international spirit ratings competitions. The basic green offering has won silver and double gold medals from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. It has also earned an above-average score of 93 from the Beverage Testing Institute and has been given scores in the 96-100 interval by Wine Enthusiast. The VEP Green and VEP Yellow have generally earned similarly impressive scores. The basic Yellow Chartreuse has received more modest (though still average or above) ratings.


title: Chartreuse (liqueur)

text: Chartreuse gives its name to the color chartreuse, which was first used as a term of color in 1884. Chartreuse yellow is a color originally named "chartreuse" in 1892 after Yellow Chartreuse liqueur, but since 1987 it has been called "chartreuse yellow" to avoid confusion with the green version of chartreuse.


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: Dependent and independent variables are variables in mathematical modeling, statistical modeling and experimental sciences. Dependent variables receive this name because, in an experiment, their values are studied under the supposition or demand that they depend, by some law or rule (e.g., by a mathematical function), on the values of other variables. Independent variables, in turn, are not seen as depending on any other variable in the scope of the experiment in question. In this sense, some common independent variables are time, space, density, mass, fluid flow rate, and previous values of some observed value of interest (e.g. human population size) to predict future values (the dependent variable).


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: Of the two, it is always the dependent variable whose variation is being studied, by altering inputs, also known as regressors in a statistical context. In an experiment, any variable that can be attributed a value without attributing a value to any other variable is called an independent variable. Models and experiments test the effects that the independent variables have on the dependent variables. Sometimes, even if their influence is not of direct interest, independent variables may be included for other reasons, such as to account for their potential confounding effect.


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: In mathematics, a function is a rule for taking an input (in the simplest case, a number or set of numbers) and providing an output (which may also be a number). A symbol that stands for an arbitrary input is called an independent variable, while a symbol that stands for an arbitrary output is called a dependent variable. The most common symbol for the input is , and the most common symbol for the output is ; the function itself is commonly written .


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: It is possible to have multiple independent variables or multiple dependent variables. For instance, in multivariable calculus, one often encounters functions of the form , where is a dependent variable and and are independent variables. Functions with multiple outputs are often referred to as vector-valued functions.


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: In mathematical modeling, the dependent variable is studied to see if and how much it varies as the independent variables vary. In the simple stochastic linear model the term is the th value of the dependent variable and is the th value of the independent variable. The term is known as the "error" and contains the variability of the dependent variable not explained by the independent variable.


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: The linear regression model is now discussed. To use linear regression, a scatter plot of data is generated with as the independent variable and as the dependent variable. This is also called a bivariate dataset, . The simple linear regression model takes the form of , for . In this case, are independent random variables. This occurs when the measurements do not influence each other. Through propagation of independence, the independence of implies independence of , even though each has a different expectation value. Each has an expectation value of 0 and a variance of .


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: The line of best fit for the bivariate dataset takes the form and is called the regression line. and correspond to the intercept and slope, respectively.


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: In simulation, the dependent variable is changed in response to changes in the independent variables.


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: In an experiment, the variable manipulated by an experimenter is something that is proven to work, called an independent variable. The dependent variable is the event expected to change when the independent variable is manipulated.


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: In data mining tools (for multivariate statistics and machine learning), the dependent variable is assigned a "role" as (or in some tools as "label attribute"), while an independent variable may be assigned a role as "regular variable". Known values for the target variable are provided for the training data set and test data set, but should be predicted for other data. The target variable is used in supervised learning algorithms but not in unsupervised learning.


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: Depending on the context, an independent variable is sometimes called a "predictor variable", "regressor", "covariate", "manipulated variable", "explanatory variable", "exposure variable" (see reliability theory), "risk factor" (see medical statistics), "feature" (in machine learning and pattern recognition) or "input variable".


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: "Explanatory variable" is preferred by some authors over "independent variable" when the quantities treated as independent variables may not be statistically independent or independently manipulable by the researcher. If the independent variable is referred to as an "explanatory variable" then the term "response variable" is preferred by some authors for the dependent variable.


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: Depending on the context, a dependent variable is sometimes called a "response variable", "regressand", "criterion", "predicted variable", "measured variable", "explained variable", "experimental variable", "responding variable", "outcome variable", "output variable", "target" or "label". In economics endogenous variables are usually referencing the target.


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: "Explained variable" is preferred by some authors over "dependent variable" when the quantities treated as "dependent variables" may not be statistically dependent. If the dependent variable is referred to as an "explained variable" then the term "predictor variable" is preferred by some authors for the independent variable.


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: Variables may also be referred to by their form: continuous or categorical, which in turn may be binary/dichotomous, nominal categorical, and ordinal categorical, among others.


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: An example is provided by the analysis of trend in sea level by . Here the dependent variable (and variable of most interest) was the annual mean sea level at a given location for which a series of yearly values were available. The primary independent variable was time. Use was made of a covariate consisting of yearly values of annual mean atmospheric pressure at sea level. The results showed that inclusion of the covariate allowed improved estimates of the trend against time to be obtained, compared to analyses which omitted the covariate.


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: A variable may be thought to alter the dependent or independent variables, but may not actually be the focus of the experiment. So that the variable will be kept constant or monitored to try to minimize its effect on the experiment. Such variables may be designated as either a "controlled variable", "control variable", or "fixed variable".


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: Extraneous variables, if included in a regression analysis as independent variables, may aid a researcher with accurate response parameter estimation, prediction, and goodness of fit, but are not of substantive interest to the hypothesis under examination. For example, in a study examining the effect of post-secondary education on lifetime earnings, some extraneous variables might be gender, ethnicity, social class, genetics, intelligence, age, and so forth. A variable is extraneous only when it can be assumed (or shown) to influence the dependent variable. If included in a regression, it can improve the fit of the model. If it is excluded from the regression and if it has a non-zero covariance with one or more of the independent variables of interest, its omission will bias the regression's result for the effect of that independent variable of interest. This effect is called confounding or omitted variable bias; in these situations, design changes and/or controlling for a variable statistical control is necessary.


title: Dependent and independent variables

text: In modelling, variability that is not covered by the independent variable is designated by formula_2 and is known as the "residual", "side effect", "error", "unexplained share", "residual variable", "disturbance", or "tolerance".


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Bojan Krkić Pérez (; , ; born 28 August 1990), also known as simply Bojan, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a forward for J1 League club Vissel Kobe.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Bojan began his career at Barcelona after progressing through the youth ranks at La Masia. His early promise saw him make his first-team debut at the age of 17 years and 19 days, breaking the record set by Lionel Messi. In his debut season, he scored 12 goals in 48 matches. In total, he spent four seasons at Camp Nou, scoring 41 goals in 162 games before he was sold in July 2011 to Italian side Roma for a fee of €12 million. While in Rome, he scored seven goals in 37 appearances in 2011–12 and then spent the 2012–13 on loan at Milan, where he scored three goals in 27 games.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Roma did not exercise their option of an additional €28 million to sign Bojan definitively, and so Barcelona re-signed him for €13 million. He spent the 2013–14 season on loan at Dutch club Ajax with whom he helped win the Eredivisie title. In July 2014, Bojan joined English club Stoke City for €1.8 million.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: As a Spanish youth international, he won European Championships with the Under-17 team in 2007 and the Under-21 team in 2011, as well as earning his only cap for the senior team in 2008. He has also represented the Catalan national team eight times since 2007.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Born in Linyola, Lleida, Catalonia, to a Serbian father, Bojan Krkić Sr., who was a professional footballer for Serbian side OFK Beograd, and a Spanish mother, Maria Lluïsa Pérez, Bojan played for Barcelona's youth teams from 1999 to 2006. A quick striker with quite notable dribbling skills, it was reported that he scored over 900 goals for various youth teams since joining the club as an eight-year-old, breaking Lionel Messi's record. He then played the 2006–07 season with the Barcelona B team until he signed a professional contract with the first team upon turning 17. Bojan played his first match with Barcelona on 24 April 2007, scoring a goal in a friendly match against Egyptian club Al Ahly.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: On 16 September 2007 (at 17 years and 19 days), Bojan made his official debut for Barcelona against Osasuna, replacing Giovani dos Santos in the 78th minute and breaking Lionel Messi's record of the youngest Barcelona player to feature in a La Liga match. Three days later, he made his UEFA Champions League debut against Lyon, coming on at the 88th minute for Messi. He was, at the time, the youngest Barcelona player ever to feature in a Champions League game, at 17 years and 22 days. He made his second Champions League appearance on 2 October, coming on at the 81st minute for Ronaldinho against VfB Stuttgart. On 20 October 2007 (at 17 years and 53 days), Bojan made his first league start for Barcelona away to Villarreal and scored in the 25th minute. It was his first goal for the club's first team and it made him the youngest ever goalscorer for Barcelona in a league match.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Bojan scored his first ever Champions League goal on 1 April 2008 (at 17 years and 217 days) against Schalke 04, netting the only goal in the first (away) leg of the quarter-finals, making him the first person born in the 1990s to score in the Champions League, and the youngest player to score in the knockout phase. Bojan finished the season with a record of ten goals, breaking Raúl's record of most goals scored in a debut season.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Upon the departure of Gianluca Zambrotta, Bojan was handed the number 11 shirt. After 14 games (13 of which he entered as a substitute), Bojan ended a goal drought by netting a brace against Almería in a 2–0 victory. Despite featuring less compared to the previous season, Bojan helped Barcelona to their 19th La Liga title. He also aided Barcelona to their first Copa del Rey win in 11 years by scoring five goals in the competition, including one in the final against Athletic Bilbao. Bojan was an unused substitute in the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final against Manchester United, which Barcelona won 2–0 and saw them cap off a treble-winning campaign. Bojan's three goals in ten appearances throughout the competition saw him finish as the equal sixth-highest goalscorer for the season.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: On the first day of the 2009–10 La Liga campaign against Atlético Madrid, Bojan scored a header in the 18th minute courtesy of a flick-on from Seydou Keita. Barcelona went on to win the game by a scoreline of 3–0. On 10 November, he scored twice in the second leg of the Copa del Rey against Cultural Leonesa, helping his team to a 5–0 victory. Coming off the bench as a late substitute for Andrés Iniesta, Bojan scored his first and only Champions League goal of the season against VfB Stuttgart. He began finding the net more often towards the end of the season; seven of his eight league goals for the season came from the last 12 games.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Bojan took the number 9 shirt after Zlatan Ibrahimović moved on loan to A.C. Milan. The season saw Bojan find himself behind Lionel Messi, Pedro and newly-signed David Villa in the pecking order. In the match against Ceuta in the Copa del Rey, Bojan captained Barcelona for the first time in an official match. He came off of the bench against Almería to score the sixth and eighth goals in an 8–0 win and later came on against Real Madrid in "El Clásico" to set up the fifth goal for Jeffrén in the famous 5–0 win. In a La Liga match against Real Sociedad, Bojan again came off the bench to score the fifth goal in 5–0 win. He scored a crucial league goal from a Dani Alves assist for Barcelona against Sevilla in a 1–1 draw, then marked his 100th league appearance for the Catalan club with a goal against Getafe.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: On 22 July 2011, Italian club Roma bought Bojan for a fee of €12 million. The sale includes a buyback clause giving Barcelona the option to re-sign Bojan in 2012 or obligatory in 2013, although with the option of Roma paying an additional €28 million to retain the player.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: He made his unofficial debut on 3 August 2011 against Vasas in Budapest. He scored his first goal from an assist from Daniele De Rossi for Roma against Atalanta on 1 October 2011. He made 33 league appearances for Roma in his first season with the club, scoring seven times in total.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: On 29 August 2012, Bojan joined A.C. Milan on a season-long loan from Roma. Barcelona later announced that the move would not affect the prior buyback agreement between Roma and them. Milan CEO Adriano Galliani, however, stated that a new agreement was worked out so that Milan have an option to sign the player at the end of the season, but Barcelona would still retain their buyback option. Bojan made his debut for Milan on 1 September, coming off the bench during the second half of a 3–1 away win over Bologna.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: He scored his first goal for Milan against Chievo on 3 November 2012, the third of a 5–1 win at the San Siro.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Following the 2012–13 season in Italy, Bojan returned to his former club Barcelona for €13 million, having made 19 league appearances for Milan, and scoring three goals. He revealed his desire for more playing time, or otherwise interest to play for a club where he will receive more minutes. Milan decided not to extend their loan of the young player, as they were not able to guarantee him minutes, while Roma did not exercise their option of additional €28 million to sign Bojan definitively. He was free to find an alternative club to play for if he pleased, and talks began with Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: On 6 July 2013, it was announced that Ajax had signed Bojan on a one-year loan deal, with an option for a second year loan spell from Barcelona. Director of football Marc Overmars and CEO Michael Kinsbergen flew into Barcelona a day prior to finalize the deal. Bojan explained that conversations with Johan Cruyff had influenced his decision to move to Ajax, as well as the opportunity to play in the Champions League. Bojan made his debut for his new club on 13 July 2013 in a pre-season friendly encounter against Waalwijk. The match ended in a 5–1 victory for Ajax at the Mandemakers Stadion, as he was substituted on for Danny Hoesen in the 60th minute, assisting Boban Lazić in the final goal for the Amsterdam side in the closing minutes of the game. He scored his first goal for Ajax in another pre-season friendly encounter, this time against Werder Bremen on 19 July 2013, scoring the second goal for Ajax in the 43rd minute in the 3–2 away win in Germany.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: On 27 July 2013, Bojan won his first trophy with Ajax, winning the Johan Cruyff Shield (Dutch Super Cup) against AZ Alkmaar, 3–2 after extra time. He started the match on the right wing, playing for 61 minutes before being substituted off for Lucas Andersen, as Ajax acquired their eighth Dutch Super Cup title overall. Following a hamstring injury sustained on 29 September 2013 in a 6–0 victory over Go Ahead Eagles, Bojan scored his first regular season goal after eight weeks of absence on 1 December 2013 in a 4–0 victory in The Hague over Den Haag in the 90th minute of the match. On 8 May 2014, it was announced that Ajax would waive the option to extend Bojan's contract, with Bojan returning to Barcelona, having scored four goals in 24 regular season matches (5 goals in 32 matches overall) and helping Ajax to secure their 33rd Eredivisie title and fourth consecutive.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: On 22 July 2014, Bojan signed a four-year contract with Premier League side Stoke City for €1.8 million. Manager Mark Hughes said, "Anyone who knows European football will be aware of him as a player and the fact that he sees his future at Stoke City is really exciting."


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Bojan scored his first goal for Stoke in a 1–2 friendly defeat against Schalke 04 on 29 July 2014. He also scored in friendlies against Blackburn Rovers and Real Betis. He made his league debut at home on 16 August, playing the full 90 minutes of a 1–0 defeat to Aston Villa. BBC Sport said that Bojan "impressed" for Stoke in the match. However, after a couple of ineffective performances, Hughes stated that he was prepared to give Bojan time to adapt to English football. He returned to the starting line-up on 1 November 2014 in a 2–2 draw against West Ham United. Eight days after that, he scored his first Stoke goal to open a 2–1 win at Tottenham Hotspur, a dribble followed by a shot from outside the penalty area. On 6 December 2014, Bojan scored in a 3–2 win over Arsenal. On 26 December, he won a contested penalty in the first half at Goodison Park when referee Lee Mason declared that he had been fouled by Everton's James McCarthy; Bojan then converted the spot-kick past Tim Howard for the only goal of the game. Bojan scored in a 1–0 victory against Leicester City on 17 January 2015. Nine days later, he scored his fifth goal of the season in a 4–1 victory in the FA Cup fourth round against Rochdale, but was later substituted having suffered a knee injury which ruled him out for the remainder of the 2014–15 season.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Bojan returned from injury in July 2015 playing in a pre-season friendly against Brentford. He made his first league start for over eight months on 19 September 2015, scoring in a 2–2 draw against Leicester City. A month later, he won a fourth-minute penalty when fouled by Swansea City's Ashley Williams, and dispatched it past Łukasz Fabiański for the only goal of the game at the Liberty Stadium. Bojan signed a new contract with Stoke in February committing him to the club until the summer of 2020. Towards the end of the campaign, however, he lost his place in the side, spending most of his time on the bench. In total, he played 31 times for Stoke in 2015–16, scoring seven goals as the "Potters" finished in ninth position.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Bojan struggled for playing time under Hughes in 2016–17 starting just five league matches in six months and in January 2017, Bojan admitted he would be ready to leave Stoke in order to gain regular football.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: On 29 January 2017, Bojan joined Bundesliga side Mainz 05 on loan for the remainder of the 2016–17 season. Mainz were struggling in a relegation battle at the bottom of the table and Bojan admitted he was surprised at their situation. He scored his first goal for Mainz in a 2–2 against Bayern Munich, making him only the seventh player to score in the four top leagues in Europe. Bojan helped Mainz secure their Bundesliga status with a 4–2 win against Eintracht Frankfurt on 13 May 2017.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: On 31 August 2017, Bojan joined La Liga side Alavés on a season-long loan deal. Bojan played 15 times for Alavés in 2017–18 as the team finished in 14th position.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Bojan remained with Stoke in the second tier for the 2018–19 season. Despite being a fan favorite he struggled to impress manager Gary Rowett. The situation came to a head in late December when Bojan was left out the squad against Bolton Wanderers and supporters began chanting for his inclusion which angered Rowett. Rowett was soon sacked and replaced by Nathan Jones, but Bojan again struggled for establish himself as a regular starter. He played 23 times in 2018–19 as Stoke finished in 16th position and it was reported that he was told to look for another club. He left Stoke by mutual consent on 6 August 2019.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: On 7 August 2019, Bojan joined Major League Soccer side Montreal Impact with a deal through to the end of the 2020 season. He made his debut four days later in a 2–3 loss against Chicago Fire, replacing Shamit Shome in the 63rd minute. On 25 August, he scored his first goal with a 25-yard strike to open a 1–2 loss away to Toronto FC in the Canadian Classique; it was his first goal in 11 months.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: In December 2020, with the Impact declining to activate the option to keep him for the next year, Bojan was left out of their CONCACAF Champions League squad.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: In August 2021, Bojan joined J1 League club Vissel Kobe. He made his debut on 5 September, coming on in the 75th minute for former Barcelona teammate Andrés Iniesta in a 1–1 draw at Sanfrecce Hiroshima. On 2 October, on for the same player, he scored his first goal to conclude a 5–1 home victory over Urawa Red Diamonds.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Bojan shot to prominence as a 15-year-old at the UEFA European Under-17 Championship in Luxembourg in May 2006 when he was joint top-scorer, despite being a year younger than most of the other players in the tournament and only playing 40 minutes in four out of Spain's five matches. He scored a hat-trick against Luxembourg before inspiring his side to a 3–0 victory over the eventual champions Russia, with all of the goals being scored after he came on as a second-half substitute. In the third match, he scored a penalty after once again being introduced at half time. He started the semi-final against the Czech Republic but, after his teammate Roberto García was sent off, Spain struggled and lost 0–2 in a shock result. In the third-place play-off, Bojan was once again a second-half substitute and scored the opener in the 53rd minute. When the match went to penalties, he scored and Spain won 5–4 to finish third. In the 2007 European Under-17 Football Championship, Bojan led Spain to victory, scoring the only goal against England in the final. He also scored in the semi-final against Belgium.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: There was controversy surrounding Bojan's call up to the Spain U17 squad for the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup in South Korea, because Barcelona wanted to keep him so that he could be part of their Asian tour. The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) denied the request, and further controversy arose when the RFEF denied one of Barcelona's medics, Ricard Pruna, the opportunity to accompany Bojan to the tournament to monitor a tendon problem in the player's knee.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: During the tournament, Bojan scored five goals, finishing as joint third top scorer along with Germany midfielder Toni Kroos. He was inspirational in leading Spain to the final. In the semi-final against Ghana, however, Bojan was sent off for his second yellow card with only seconds left to play. He was suspended for the final and Spain lost to Nigeria on penalties. Because of his performances, Bojan was given the Adidas Bronze Ball, naming him the third best player in the tournament, behind Nigeria's Macauley Chrisantus (silver) and Toni Kroos (gold).


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Bojan scored for the Spanish under-21s in their 2–0 win over Poland, on 12 October 2007, quickly establishing himself as an important player, also prompting rumours of an eventual call-up from senior side's manager Luis Aragonés. Bojan was selected in the squad for the 2009 UEFA Under-21 Championship. The Spanish team, however, underperformed and picked up one point from their first two games, leaving progression almost impossible. Bojan was called up to the Spain U-21 squad for 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Bojan was approached to play for Serbia in 2008 but declined because of his wish to play for Spain. He was included in the Spanish squad for a friendly game against France on 6 February 2008. Should he have featured in that match, Bojan would have made history by becoming the youngest player ever to represent Spain at 17 years, 5 months and 9 days, eclipsing Ángel Zubieta's record of 17 years and 9 months, which had stood for over 70 years. Bojan, however, fell ill and could not play.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: On 17 May 2008, it was revealed that Bojan had been left out of Spain's 23-man squad for UEFA Euro 2008 having asked if he could be left out on personal grounds, and also citing fatigue. In an interview with "The Guardian" ten years later, he revealed that he missed both his international debut and UEFA Euro 2008 because of anxiety issues, covering it up by giving other reasons he could not play. Bojan claims that his mental health issues were well known by members of the Spanish Football Federation, such as first team coach Luis Aragonés, sporting director Fernando Hierro and teammate Carles Puyol.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: He made his full Spanish debut on 10 September 2008 (at 18 years and 13 days) under Vicente del Bosque against Armenia, where he came on during the last ten minutes for Santi Cazorla and played on the right wing for his only senior cap.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: Bojan made his official debut with Catalonia in the friendly match against the Basque Country, on 29 December 2007 in Bilbao and he scored the Catalan goal in the 1–1 draw. He also scored a year later on 29 December 2008 in the 2–1 win over Colombia and in the 4–2 win against Argentina, on 22 December 2009. He scored twice and also provided two assists in a 4–0 win against Honduras, on 29 December 2010.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: On 25 March 2019, Bojan scored the opening goal in a 2–1 friendly match victory over Venezuela at Girona's Montilivi Stadium.


title: Bojan Krkić

text: According to a genealogical research conducted by "Diari Segre" in 2011, Bojan is a fourth cousin of former teammate Lionel Messi; both are the great-great-great-grandchildren of Mariano Pérez Miralles and Teresa Llobrera Minguet, who married in El Poal in the Spanish Province of Lleida in 1846. The finding had a very significant coverage in Spanish media: it was reported by all four major sports newspapers and by some of the largest general-interest newspapers, including "ABC" and "La Vanguardia".


title: Bojan Krkić

text: In 2021, Bojan obtained his academic degree as a master in Sport Management from Johan Cruyff Institute.


title: Aleksandar Vučić

text: Aleksandar Vučić (, ; born 5 March 1970) is a Serbian politician serving as the president of Serbia since 2017, and as the president of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) since 2012.


title: Aleksandar Vučić

text: Vučić served as the Prime Minister of Serbia in two terms, from 2014 to 2016 and from 2016 until 2017, as well as the deputy prime minister from 2012 until 2014. Furthermore, he served as a member of the Serbian parliament, Minister of Information from 1998 to 2000, and later as Minister of Defence from 2012 to 2013. In April 2017, he was elected president with over 55% of the vote in the first round, thus avoiding a runoff. He formally assumed office on 31 May 2017, succeeding Tomislav Nikolić. His ceremonial inauguration ceremony was held on 23 June 2017.


title: Aleksandar Vučić

text: As Minister of Information under the Slobodan Milošević administration, Vučić introduced restrictive measures against journalists, especially during the Kosovo War. In the period after the Bulldozer Revolution, he was one of the most prominent figures of the opposition. Since the establishment of the new party in 2008, he shifted away from his original far-right and hard Eurosceptic platform toward pro-European, conservative and populist political positions. The SNS-led coalition won the 2012 election and the Serbian Progressive Party became part of the government for the first time, leading to the establishment of the dominant-party system. After he became the head of government in 2014, he promised to continue to follow the accession process to the European Union (EU) by privatizing state businesses and liberalizing the economy.


title: Aleksandar Vučić

text: In December 2015, the EU opened first chapters during the accession conference with the Serbian delegation led by Vučić. He was one of the crucial figures in cooperation and EU-mediated dialogue between the governments of Kosovo and Serbia, advocating the implementation of the Brussels Agreement on the normalization of their relations. Following United States-mediated negotiations, he signed an agreement in September 2020 to normalize economic relations with Kosovo, and also to move the Serbian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. He is one of the initiators of Open Balkan (formerly known as Mini Schengen Zone), an economic zone of Balkan countries intended to guarantee "four freedoms". Observers have described Vučić's rule as an authoritarian, autocratic or illiberal democratic regime, citing curtailed press freedom.


title: Aleksandar Vučić

text: Aleksandar Vučić was born in Belgrade to Anđelko Vučić and Angelina Milovanov. He has a younger brother, Andrej.


title: Aleksandar Vučić

text: His paternal ancestors came from Čipuljić, near Bugojno, in central Bosnia. They were expelled by the Croatian fascists (Ustaše) during World War II and settled near Belgrade, where his father was born. According to Vučić, his paternal grandfather Anđelko and tens of other close relatives were killed by the Ustaše.


title: Aleksandar Vučić

text: His mother was born in Bečej in Vojvodina. Both of his parents were economics graduates. His father worked as an economist, and his mother as a journalist.


title: Aleksandar Vučić

text: Vučić was raised in New Belgrade, where he attended the Branko Radičević elementary school, and later a gymnasium in Zemun. He graduated from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law. He learned English in Brighton, England, and worked as a merchant in London for some time. After returning to Yugoslavia, he worked as a journalist in Pale, Bosnia and Herzegovina. There, he interviewed politician Radovan Karadžić and once played chess with general Ratko Mladić. As a youngster, Vučić was a fan of Red Star Belgrade, often attending their matches, including the one played between Dinamo Zagreb and Red Star on 13 May 1990, which turned into a huge riot. The homes of his relatives were destroyed in the Bosnian War.


title: Aleksandar Vučić

text: Vučić joined the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) in 1993, a far right party whose core ideology is based on Serbian nationalism and the goal of creating a Greater Serbia, and was elected to the National Assembly following the 1993 parliamentary election. Two years later, Vučić became secretary-general of the SRS. He was one of the SRS's volunteers who visited the army that kept Sarajevo under the siege.