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Commonwealth of Independent States

(Encyclopedia)Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), community of independent nations established by a treaty signed at Minsk, Belarus, on Dec. 8, 1991, by the heads of state of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Bet...

geocentric system

(Encyclopedia)geocentric system: see Ptolemaic system. ...

portal system

(Encyclopedia)portal system: see circulatory system. ...

gastrointestinal system

(Encyclopedia)gastrointestinal system: see digestive system. ...

cardiovascular system

(Encyclopedia)cardiovascular system: see circulatory system. ...

heliocentric system

(Encyclopedia)heliocentric system: see Copernican system. ...

examination system

(Encyclopedia)examination system: see Chinese examination system. ...

Copernican system

(Encyclopedia)Copernican system, first modern European theory of planetary motion that was heliocentric, i.e., that placed the sun motionless at the center of the solar system with all the planets, including the ea...

binary system

(Encyclopedia)binary system, numeration system based on powers of 2, in contrast to the familiar decimal system, which is based on powers of 10. In the binary system, only the digits 0 and 1 are used. Thus, the fir...

bicameral system

(Encyclopedia)bicameral system bīkămˈərəl [key], governmental system dividing the legislative function between two chambers, an “upper,” such as the U.S. Senate and the British House of Lords, and a “low...