1.
Switzerland
–
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
2.
Cologny
–
Cologny is a municipality in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. Cologny is first mentioned in 1208 as Colognier, the oldest trace of a settlement in the area is a Neolithic lake side village which was discovered near the village of La Belotte. The Lake Geneva area was conquered by the Romans in the 2nd century and they built a road from Corsier through the Cologny area to Frontenex during their 2 centuries of residency. During the Middle Ages it was part of the lands of the Counts of Geneva, the village church of Saint Peter was placed under the parish of Vandœuvres in 1406, indicating that it was probably built before the 15th century. In 1536 Cologny, joined the new faith of the Protestant Reformation as nearby Geneva became a center of reform, two years later, in May 1538 a treaty between Bern and Geneva placed Cologny in the city of Geneva. The town council of Cologny met for the first time on 9 December 1800, in the late 16th century and into the 17th century a number of Geneva publishers moved to or set up offices in Cologny. By claiming Cologny or Colonia Allobrogum as the location, they were able to circumvent French laws which banned books from Geneva. Beginning in the 18th century elegant chalets sprung up along the shores of Lake Geneva in Cologny, one of the most famous in Villa Diodati in which Lord Byron, John Polidori, Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley spent part of the Year Without a Summer in 1816. Due to the weather, the guests spent days indoors telling each other horror stories. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and John Polidori’s The Vampyre, the first modern vampire story, the mathematicien Louis Necker, elder brother of the Statesman Jacques Necker, died in Cologny. In the 20th century, many individuals and organizations have moved to Cologny. Traditionally the municipality consisted of villages with many farms. However, by 1965 there were only eight working farms and by 1975 that number had decreased to two, today it is one of the richest municipalities in the Canton of Geneva. Cologny has an area, as of 2009, of 3.67 square kilometers, of this area,0.65 km2 or 17. 7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.15 km2 or 4. 1% is forested. Of the rest of the land,2.88 km2 or 78. 5% is settled,0.01 km2 or 0. 3% is either rivers or lakes. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 60. 5%, power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1. 1% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 4. 4%. Out of the land,2. 2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1. 9% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land,8. 7% is used for growing crops and 5. 4% is pastures, all the water in the municipality is in lakes
3.
Vaud
–
The Canton of Vaud is the third largest of Swiss cantons by population and fourth by size. The capital and biggest city is Lausanne, officially designated Olympic Capital by the International Olympic Committee, the canton had 725,944 inhabitants as of 2011. Along the lakes, Vaud was inhabited in prehistoric times, later, the Celtic tribe of the Helvetii inhabited the area. The tribe was defeated by Caesars troops in 58 BC and as a consequence the Romans settled the area, the towns of Vevey and Lausanne are two of the many towns established by the Romans. In 27 BC the state of Civitas Helvetiorum was established around the capital of Avenches, there are still many Roman remains around the town today. Between the 2nd and the 4th century the area was invaded by Alemannic tribes. The Merovingian Franks later replaced the Burgundians and their occupancy did not last long either, and in 888 the area of the canton of Vaud was made part of the Carolingian Empire. In 1032 the Zähringens of Germany defeated the Burgundians, the Zähringens themselves were succeeded in 1218 by the counts of Savoy. It was only under the counts of Savoy that the area was given political unity, a part stretching from Attalens to the River Sarine, in the north, was absorbed by the canton of Fribourg. As the power of the Savoys declined at the beginning of the 15th century the land was occupied by troops from Bern, by 1536 the area was completely annexed. The Bernese occupiers were not popular amongst the population, later, inspired by the French Revolution, the Vaudois drove out the Bernese governor in 1798 and declared the Lemanic Republic. Under Napoleon I, it became the canton of Léman, in 1803, Vaud joined the re-installed Swiss confederation. In spite of Bernese attempts to reclaim Vaud, it has remained a sovereign canton ever since, separation was prevented at the cost of very few lives. The current constitution dates from 14 April 2003, replacing the one from 1885, in the Jura mountains in the west, the canton borders the French departments of Ain, Jura, and Doubs. In the east, it borders the cantons of Fribourg and Bern, the total area is 3,212 square kilometres. Along with the canton of Berne, Vaud is one of the two cantons whose territory extends from the Jura to the Alps, through the three geographic regions of Switzerland. The areas in the south east are mountainous, situated on the side of the Bernese Alps. This region is named the Vaud Alps
4.
University of Geneva
–
The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary and it remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it dropped its religious affiliations and became officially secular, today, the university is the second-largest university in Switzerland by number of students. In 2009, the University of Geneva celebrated the 450th anniversary of its founding, at least 40% of the students come from foreign countries. In 2015, it was ranked 58th worldwide by the Shanghai ranking, in 2011, it was ranked 73rd worldwide by the Academic Ranking of World Universities, and 69th in the QS World University Rankings. UNIGE is a member of the League of European Research Universities the Coimbra Group, the University of Geneva is located in several districts in the eastern part of the city and in the nearby city of Carouge, and the different buildings are sometimes very distant from each other. The oldest building is the Collège Calvin, and is not anymore a university building, built between 1868 and 1871, Uni Bastions is the symbol of Genevas academic life. It is located in the middle of a park and is host to the faculty of Protestant Theology and its architecture was inspired by Le Corbusier. It hosts the Rectorat and the administration of the University and it is Switzerlands biggest building dedicated to social sciences. It currently hosts the Faculty of Law, of Economics and Social Sciences, of Psychology and Education, the University of Geneva is structured in various faculties which are representing teaching, research and service to society in the various disciplines. Founded in 1876, ranked one of the top 100 medical schools in the world and it is one of the larger faculties of the University of Geneva in terms of budget and number of employees. Notable research areas include neuroscience, genetics, and transplantation and it is closely associated with Switzerlands largest hospital complex, the University Hospitals of Geneva. Since 1981, the Faculty of Medicine is located in the buildings of CMU in Champel, the faculty of Humanities and Arts has various departments and research centers. GSEM is a new faculty and exists since January 2014, the creation of the GSEM faculty is a result of a merger between two former departments, Economics and HEC. Students of the GSEM Faculty benefit from a degree in English. This new curriculum is in place since fall 2015, the GSEM counts more than 1.700 students and 200 lecturers. The Executive Education counts more than 1.500 participants and over 45 programs (including an Executive MBA, a number of research institutes provide avenues for graduate studies at Master’s and Doctoral levels. The Faculty Geneva School of Social Sciences, was founded on 1 January 2014, the faculty was created in 1890
5.
Canton of Geneva
–
The Republic and Canton of Geneva is the French-speaking westernmost canton or state of Switzerland, surrounded on almost all sides by France. As is the case in several other Swiss cantons, this canton is referred to as a republic within the Swiss Confederation, the canton of Geneva is located in the southwestern corner of Switzerland, and is considered one of the most cosmopolitan areas of the country. As a center of the Calvinist Reformation, the city of Geneva has had a influence on the canton. The Republic of Geneva was proclaimed in 1541, under John Calvin, the Republic of Geneva reinforced its alliance to the Protestant cantons of the Swiss Confederacy, becoming an everlasting ally in 1584. The French Revolution reached Geneva in 1792, and in February 1794, after the death of Robespierre in July of the same year, there was a counter-revolution, which gained the upper hand by 1796. This prompted the French invasion of 1798, and the annexation of Geneva as part of the French département du Léman, Geneva finally joined the Swiss Confederation in 1815 as the 22nd canton, having been enlarged by French and Savoyard territories at the Vienna Congress. The area of the canton of Geneva is 282 square kilometers, the canton is surrounded on almost all sides by France and bordered by the Swiss canton of Vaud on northeast. The adjoining French départements are Ain and Haute-Savoie, the current boundaries of the canton were established in 1815. There are 45 municipalities in the canton, Geneva does not have any administrative districts. There are 10 cities with a population of over 10,000 as of 2007, Genève, Vernier, Lancy, Meyrin, Carouge, Onex, Thônex, Versoix, Grand-Saconnex, Chêne-Bougeries. The constitution of the canton was established in 1847, and has, the cantonal government has seven members who are elected for four years. The legislature, the Grand Council, has 100 seats, with deputies elected for four years at a time, the last elecation was held on 7 October 2013. In a similar way to what happens at the Federal level, in addition, any law can be subject to a referendum if it is demanded by 7,000 persons entitled to vote, and 10,000 persons may also propose a new law. The republique and canton of Geneva has 11 seats in the National Council, on 18 October 2015, in the federal election the most popular party was the The Liberals which received three seats with 20. 5% of the votes. In the federal election, a total of 106,852 votes were cast, and she is part of the Council of States since 2007. Councilor Robert Cramer, member of the Green Party, was re-elected in the round with a majority of 42,075 votes. He is part of the Council of States since 2007, ^a FDP before 2009, FDP. The Liberals after 2009 ^b * indicates that the party was not on the ballot in this canton. ^c Part of the FDP for this election ^d Part of the SD for this election The population of the canton is 484,736, as of 2013, the population included 194,623 foreigners from 187 different nations, or about 40. 1% of the total population
6.
Swiss Armed Forces
–
The Swiss Armed Forces operates on land, in the air, and in international waters. Under the countrys system, professional soldiers constitute about 5 percent of the military. Because of Switzerlands long history of neutrality, the armed forces do not take part in conflicts in other countries, Switzerland is part of the NATO Partnership for Peace programme. The structure of the Swiss militia system stipulates that the soldiers keep their own equipment, including all personally assigned weapons. Compulsory military service applies to all male Swiss citizens, with women serving voluntarily, males usually receive initial orders at the age of 18 for military conscription eligibility screening. About two-thirds of young Swiss men are found suitable for service, annually, approximately 20,000 persons are trained in basic training for a duration from 18 to 21 weeks. The reform Army XXI was adopted by vote in 2003. The land component of the Swiss Armed Forces originated from the troops of the Old Swiss Confederacy. The cantonal armies were converted into the army with the constitution of 1848. From this time, it was illegal for the cantons to declare war or to sign capitulations or peace agreements. Paragraph 13 explicitly prohibited the federation from sustaining a standing army, the first complete mobilization, under the command of Hans Herzog, was triggered by the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. In 1875, the army was called in to crush a strike of workers at the Gotthard tunnel, four workers were killed and 13 were severely wounded.5 million, the second largest armed force per capita after the Israeli Defence Forces. Wille was subsequently put in command of the complete mobilization in 1914. Wille also ordered the suppression of the 1918 general strike with military force, three workers were killed, and a rather larger number of soldiers died of the Spanish flu during mobilization. In 1932, the army was called to suppress an anti-fascist demonstration in Geneva, the troops shot dead 13 demonstrators, wounding another 65. This incident long damaged the reputation, leading to persistent calls for its abolition among left-wing politicians. The third complete mobilization of the army took place during World War II under the command of Henri Guisan, the Patrouille des Glaciers race, created to test the abilities of soldiers, was created during the war. In the 1960s and 1970s, the forces were organised according to the Armee 61 structure
7.
Swiss Federal Council
–
While the entire council is responsible for leading the federal administration of Switzerland, each Councillor heads one of the seven federal executive departments. The position of Federal President rotates among the seven Councillors on a yearly basis, when the Constitution was written, constitutional democracy was still in its infancy, and the founding fathers of Switzerland had little in the way of examples. While they drew heavily on the U. S, Constitution for the organisation of the federal state as a whole, they opted for the collegial rather than the presidential system for the executive branch of government. This accommodated the long tradition of the rule of collective bodies in Switzerland, today, only three other states, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Andorra and San Marino, have collective rather than unitary heads of state. However the collegial system of government has found widespread adoption in modern democracies in the form of government with collective responsibility. Nonetheless, some significant developments deserve to be mentioned here, the 1848 Constitution was one of the few successes of the Europe-wide democratic revolutions of 1848. In Switzerland, the movement was led – and the new federal state decisively shaped – by the Radicals. After winning the Sonderbund War against the Catholic cantons, the Radicals at first used their majority in the Federal Assembly to fill all the seats on the Federal Council and this made their former war opponents, the Catholic-Conservatives, the opposition party. Only after Emil Weltis resignation in 1891 after a referendum on railway nationalisation did the Radicals decide to co-opt the Conservatives by supporting the election of Josef Zemp. The process of involving all political movements of Switzerland into the responsibility of government continued during the first half of the 20th century. It was hastened by the FDPs and CVPs gradually diminishing voter shares and these were the Social Democratic Party on the Left and the Party of Farmers, Traders and Independents on the Right. In due course, the CVP received its seat in 1919 with Jean-Marie Musy. In 1943, during World War II, the Social Democrats were also included with Ernst Nobs. During that time, the FDP and CVP very slowly but steadily kept losing voter share to the SVP and SP, respectively, which overtook the older parties in popularity during the 1990s. The governmental balance was changed after the 2003 elections, when the SVP was granted a Council seat for their leader Christoph Blocher that had belonged to the CVPs Ruth Metzler. This led to a split of the SVP in 2008, the SVP regained its second seat on the Council in 2015, when Widmer-Schlumpf decided to resign after the SVPs large election gains in the 2015 election, being replaced by Guy Parmelin. Women gained suffrage on the level in 1971. They remained unrepresented in the Federal Council for three legislatures, until the 1984 election of Elisabeth Kopp
8.
German National Library of Economics
–
The ZBW is Germany’s central subject library and research infrastructure for economics in Germany. The ZBW is part of the system of national literature provision within the German Research Foundation, the ZBW holds almost 4.4 million items. The ZBW subscribes to more than 27,100 journals and enables access to 2.3 million electronic documents, the search portal EconBiz gives free access to 10 million datasets. More than 134,000 full-texts from German research institutes and universities are available online, the ZBW creates content-descriptive metadata not only for books, but also for articles in journals and working papers, i. e. they are indexed with keywords from the Standard Thesaurus for Economics. The ZBW maintains the search portal EconBiz containing more than 10 million datasets of bibliographic references for economics, the ZBW also offers an online reference service, Research Guide EconDesk, which provides guidance for literature and data searches in economics and business studies. The ZBW is a player in the Open Access movement which aims for free access to scholarly research output. It is the negotiator for national licences in economics in Germany. The repository EconStor serves as a platform for the publication of research output in economics. Authors and publishing institutions can publish without charges on EconStor, more than 400 institutions use EconStor for the digital dissemination of their publications in Open Access. It is a service for RePEc and one of its most frequently used archives. All titles in EconStor are indexed by search engines such as Google, Google Scholar and BASE, the ZBW Journal Data Archive is a service for the editors of scholarly journals in economics. Editors can deposit datasets and other relating to empirical articles. The ZBW publishes two journals of economic policy, Wirtschaftsdienst and Intereconomics, the ZBW also provides support for researchers dealing with the different aspects of the digitisation of the science system, such as publishing in Open Access or research data management. The ZBW participates in national and international projects to new services for its users. GeRDI – Generic Research Data Infrastructure, the project aims to develop a distributed and linked-up research data infrastructure. It aims to link existing and future research data centres all over Germany. This allows scientists to search for and re-use research data across disciplines, the ZBW coordinates the project which is funded by the German Research Foundation. It aims to show that extensive automation of metadata creation can produce relevant added value to scholarly information discovery, metrics, MEasuring The Reliability and perception of Indicators for interactions with sCientific productS
9.
National Council (Switzerland)
–
The National Council is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, the upper house being the Council of States. With 200 seats, the National Council is the larger of the two houses, adult citizens elect the councils members, who are called National Councillors for four year terms. These members are apportioned to the Swiss cantons in proportion to their population, both houses meet in the Federal Palace of Switzerland in Berne. With 200 members, the National Council is the house of the Swiss legislature. When the Swiss federation was founded in 1848, the number of seats was not yet fixed, according to the provisions of the federal constitution at that time, a canton was to receive one National Council member for every 20,000 citizens. Thus, the first National Council, which met in 1848, had 111 members, in 1963, the number of members was fixed at 200. The division of the seats between the individual cantons is determined by each percentage of the national population, as revealed in the national census. A change in the division of the seats occurred in 2003, every canton is entitled to at least one seat in the National Council. Elections are held for the National Council every four years by the Swiss people, the most recent election took place on Sunday,18 October 2015. Since a popular initiative in 1918, elections have been by proportional representation, since 1971 women have been entitled to vote and stand in National Council elections. There is a proviso that each canton is entitled to at least one seat, the number of seats given to the cantons which are entitled to more than one seat is determined using the largest remainder method. Cantons which can are only entitled to send one councillor to the National Council, the cantons use a unique system of proportional representation, sometimes called a free list. Each citizen may cast as many votes as there are available to their constituency. For every vote received by a candidate, that candidates party also receives a vote, voters also list a party vote, in which all blank candidate votes contribute towards the parties total. In elections, political parties publish lists in the cantons with their candidates, each list contains at most the number of candidates which the canton is entitled to send to the National Council. It is possible for one or more candidates to be listed twice, in addition, each party can produce multiple lists to the canton. It is also possible for parties to enter a single shared list. Voters are entitled to choose a party list without making changes or they can alter it by cumulative voting or panachage
10.
Alma mater
–
Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website
11.
Public domain
–
The term public domain has two senses of meaning. Anything published is out in the domain in the sense that it is available to the public. Once published, news and information in books is in the public domain, in the sense of intellectual property, works in the public domain are those whose exclusive intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, or are inapplicable. Examples for works not covered by copyright which are therefore in the domain, are the formulae of Newtonian physics, cooking recipes. Examples for works actively dedicated into public domain by their authors are reference implementations of algorithms, NIHs ImageJ. The term is not normally applied to situations where the creator of a work retains residual rights, as rights are country-based and vary, a work may be subject to rights in one country and be in the public domain in another. Some rights depend on registrations on a basis, and the absence of registration in a particular country, if required. Although the term public domain did not come into use until the mid-18th century, the Romans had a large proprietary rights system where they defined many things that cannot be privately owned as res nullius, res communes, res publicae and res universitatis. The term res nullius was defined as not yet appropriated. The term res communes was defined as things that could be enjoyed by mankind, such as air, sunlight. The term res publicae referred to things that were shared by all citizens, when the first early copyright law was first established in Britain with the Statute of Anne in 1710, public domain did not appear. However, similar concepts were developed by British and French jurists in the eighteenth century, instead of public domain they used terms such as publici juris or propriété publique to describe works that were not covered by copyright law. The phrase fall in the domain can be traced to mid-nineteenth century France to describe the end of copyright term. In this historical context Paul Torremans describes copyright as a coral reef of private right jutting up from the ocean of the public domain. Because copyright law is different from country to country, Pamela Samuelson has described the public domain as being different sizes at different times in different countries. According to James Boyle this definition underlines common usage of the public domain and equates the public domain to public property. However, the usage of the public domain can be more granular. Such a definition regards work in copyright as private property subject to fair use rights, the materials that compose our cultural heritage must be free for all living to use no less than matter necessary for biological survival
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Ador, Gustave". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
