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Within the efforts of developing a new generation of biomedical electrodes with embedded switching logics, the present work focuses on developing safe and simple procedures for testing these novel systems. An all-printed testbed for automated validation of multi-pad systems is presented based on a Human model equivalent circuit (HMEC), a device that, when connected to the electrical stimulation system, mirrors the electrical behavior of electrodes and their specific interface material as if they are placed on a human subject. In the case of transcutaneous electrical stimulation, after a simulation of the different components of the system to optimize printed component characteristics, the fabricated testbed is composed of five flexible screen-printed layers of different materials (conductors and dielectrics) on flexible PET substrate. Electronic components have been developed and integrated, including capacitors and resistances with the defined HMEC characteristic values, matching the average experimental data acquired from human subjects. Thus, an all printed flexible HMEC is provided allowing the suitable evaluation and optimization of skin stimulation devices, reducing the need for tests on human subjects during developing technological stages., We acknowledge the receipt of funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme for Research, ICT-02-2018 – Flexible and Wearable Electronics, Grant agreement no. 824339 – WEARPLEX. The authors thank the FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) for financial support under the framework of Strategic Funding grants UID/FIS/04650/2020. Vitor Correia thanks FCT for the junior researcher contract (DL57 / 2016) and within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020. Financial support from the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERFD) through the project PID2019-106099RB C43/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and from the Basque Government Industry and Education Departments under the Elkartek, Hazitek and PIBA (PIBA-2018-06) programs, respectively, area also acknowledged. The authors thank for technical and human support provided by SGIker (UPV/EHU/ERDF).

The continuous rise of the Serbian state in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is often described as a typical example of the Piedmont-style of national unification. The conventional historiography emphasises the role popular nationalism has played in this process, making little if any distinctions between the forms of Serbian nationalisms within and outside of the Serbian state. This article challenges such interpretations and argues that the formation and expansion of Serbia had less to do with society-wide national aspirations and much more with the internal elite politics within the Serbian state. Moreover, the paper makes a case that, rather than being a driving force of national unification, the expansionist nationalism was a by-product of the state development. This argument is articulated further through the comparison of the different nationalist trajectories in Serbia and among the ethnic Serbian populations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Summary The article focuses on the extraction of ten phenolic acids from black cumin (Nigella sativa L.), pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) and flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) seed meals. The extracts have been fractionated as free, esterified and insoluble-bound phenolic compounds and quantitatively determined by HPLC–PDA. The analysed meals can be utilised for obtaining valuable phenolic acids. However, the distribution of phenolic compounds varies depending on the meal source. The insoluble-bound fraction has been the richest for the black cumin meal, both qualitatively and quantitatively, containing all ten analysed phenolics. In the pomegranate meal, the main phenolic has been gallic acid, accounting for nearly 48% in free form. The esterified form of the flaxseed meal has been abundant with ferulic (1025.44 ± 3.99 mg kg−1 dry weight), caffeic and p-coumaric acids. The total amount of phenolic acids would be underestimated if only free fractions would be taken into account, while neglecting esterified (for the pomegranate and flax meals) and insoluble-bound fractions (for the black cumin and pomegranate meals).

In this study, we investigated the antimicrobial activity of the young shoots of the smoke tree, Cotinus coggygria Scop., Anacardiaceae. The acetone extract and the derived ethyl acetate fraction effectively inhibited the growth of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria (MIC 25–200 µg/ml), while the chloroform fraction showed pronounced activity against the yeast Candida albicans (MIC 3.12 µg/ml). The ethyl acetate fraction exhibited a significant ferric-reducing ability (10.7 mmol Fe2+/g extract), a very high DPPH radical scavenging activity (SC50 = 1.7 µg/ml) and inhibition of lipid peroxidation (IC50 = 41.8 µg/ml). High amounts of total phenolics (929.8 mg/g), tannins (833.8 mg/g) and flavonoids (35.5 mg/g) were determined in the ethyl acetate fraction, which also exerted significant anti-inflammatory (76.7%) and cytotoxic effects (IC50 = 15.6 µg/ml). Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Nationalism and protracted warfare are often seen as the most important impediments to social advancement in the Balkans. In contrast to these popular perceptions I argue that for much of its history the Balkan region was characterised by limited inter-state violence and by notable lack of nationalist ideologies. Furthermore by comparing the processes of state and nation formation and warfare in the South East Europe with those in the Western Europe the article aims to show that it is the weakness, not the strength, of nationalism and protracted warfare that historically have been the principal obstacles for social development. The general argument of the paper is developed in dialogue with Tilly's theory that ties state formation to proliferation of wars and Gellner's model that links the rise of nationalism to emergence of standardised educational systems and industrialisation. In an attempt to partially disprove Tilly and vindicate Gellner I argue that the experience of the Balkan region indicates that although wars can prove important catalysts of state formation they may not necessarily contribute to nation formation.

Following the successful referendum of May 2006, Montenegro became the last of the former Yugoslav republics to opt for an independent state. Only fifteen years earlier, when the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia collapsed, Montenegro was resolute to continue the Yugoslav state-formation in a union with Serbia. This paper attempts to answer the following questions: Why did it take so much longer for the Montenegrin population to follow the experience of other republics in its decision on independence? How can one explain a staggering change in public opinion on questions of national self-determination over such a short time-span? And, finally, what are the dominant discourses of “Montenegrin-ness”? The authors argue that the answers to these questions are to be found in the particularities of Montenegro's historical development, and especially in the structural legacies of state socialism. The consequence of these developments was the formation of two separate Montenegrin national ideologies: one which sees Montenegrins as ethnically Serb, and the other that defines Montenegrins in civic terms. The paper concludes that these two divergent trajectories of nation-formation in Montenegro are largely the unintended consequence of intensive state-building, cultural and political modernisation and, most of all, the gradual politicisation and institutionalisation of high culture.

This article examines dimensions of ethnic distance in two wartime surveys of university students in Croatia. The data from the surveys is interpreted together with the content analysis of the Croatian daily newspaper vjesnik. The article draws its central conclusion from the striking similarities between the media's depiction of various ethnic groups and the dimensions of ethnic distance towards these groups. In 1992 the prime targets of ethnic distance were Serbs and Montenegrins, while in 1993 Bosnian Moslems received similar attention. Since the majority of respondents had no war experience the authors conclude that the media's influence on popular attitudes was a crucial determinant of ethnic distance. Considering that most of the media is government-controlled, it is argued that changes observed within these two years can be primarily attributed to the concrete political goals of power possessors.