In core/db_mysql41.php:
<br />
function db_connect($db_host, $db_user, $db_password, $clean = false)<br />
{<br />
$db_conn = mysqli_connect($db_host, $db_user, $db_password);<br />
if ($db_conn) {<br />
mysqli_set_charset($db_conn, 'utf8');<br />
mysqli_query($db_conn, "SET collation_connection = 'utf8_general_ci'");<br />
}<br />
return $db_conn;<br />
}<br />