Foreigners and Religion at Ugarit

During the Late Bronze Age, Syria was mostly dominated by the larger powers of the ancient Near East—Mitanni (the Hurrians), the Hittite Empire, and Egypt. The ancient city of Ugarit yielded numerous texts and artifacts that attest to the presence of foreigners and their influences on local religious traditions. Textually, the best-preserved influences are those of Hurrian origin, although these were probably promoted thanks to the Hittites, who incorporated many Hurrian deities and cults. Hurrian traditions thus influenced both Ugaritic cults and divine pantheons. Egyptian influences, in contrast, are observable mostly in art and material evidence. Art of Egyptian origin was considered prestigious and because of that was prominently seen in trade and international exchange gifts, but it also entered the religious sphere in the form of cultic statues and ex-voto gifts for deities. Egyptian art was also often imitated by local artists. The same can be said of art from the Mediterranean area. Some evidence suggests that foreigners actively related to local traditions as well. Ritual tablets from Ugarit (namely KTU3 1.40 and its variants) illustrate that there were always frictions in a multicultural/national society. These tablets also indicate that such frictions could have been dealt with through ritual action, and thus emphasize the role religion played. The city of Ugarit is used in this paper to illuminate some processes that can be observed in the whole of ancient Syria. Nevertheless, every site has its own outcome of interactions with other cultures.

TWO FINDS OF THE PODILLIA HALF-GROSZES IN LVIV REGION

The article discuss two new finds in the Lviv region of coins of the Podillia principality, minted on behalf of Prince Konstantin Koriatyvych. One Podillia half-grosz was found in the Busk district near the Poltva river, and the second coin was accidentally found in the Zolochiv district of the Lviv region. It is noteworthy that these two districts are neighboring and during the existence of these coins formed the border between Galicia and Podillia. The most probable reason for the discovery of these coins in this area can be explained by the desire of Podillia merchants to sell their goods on the border with the Galicia-Volyn state, because to take them to Lviv through the warehouse right granted to the city was unprofitable. It is known that the main powerful direction of trade in Lviv was the Crimea, trade was carried out through the shopping centers of Podillia. This route of movement of the goods of Lviv merchants is confirmed by the findings of Lviv coins, distributed along the trade routes from Lviv to Moldavia and Kafa. Exotic goods from distant Venice, Persia, China and Alexandria came to Lviv via Kafa, Sudak and Belgorod. Further movement of goods took place to Krakow, Gdansk, Prague and Regensburg. Among the coin finds in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil regions – minted in Lviv, Prague and Polish coins predominate. There are no common treasures of Lviv coins with the Golden Horde coins. In Ivano-Frankivsk region, together with Lviv, Moldovan money was hidden, and in Ternopil region – the so-called «Kyiv imitations» and Podillia coins. In the Chernivtsi region, along with Lviv and Prague coins, Golden Horde dirhams and Moldavian coins were found. Among the Moldavian – coins of the Stephen the Great, which confirms the existence of a trade route from Lviv to the Crimea through the Moldavian lands, starting from the last decades of the XIV century. In Khmelnytsky and Vinnytsia oblasts, finds with Lviv coins show an impressive presence of coins of different monetary systems. Podillia became an important international exchange of goods, which is reflected in the deposition of coins in treasures. In Ternopil, Khmelnytsky and Vinnytsia oblasts, 2,594 Lviv coins accounted for 1,650 coins of Casimir III, Wladyslaw of Opole and Louis of Hungary (from 1350-1380) and 944 coins and half-groszes of Władysław Jagiello, minted in Lviv during 1387-1412. The predominance of coins of Casimir III, Wladyslaw of Opole and Louis of Hungary fits into the assertion that in their time trade routes to the Crimea via Podillia were the main ones. Among the 263 Lviv coins of the 14th century found in the Cherkasy region, only three coins with the name of Wladyslav Jagiello, that is, in the last decades of the 14th century. Lviv merchants hardly reached the Dnieper. They stopped in Podolia, where they bought all the necessary oriental goods. Finds of Lviv silver coins allow us to establish that since the end of the 1380s Podillia lands have been in the center of trade transactions. If before they were a transit territory, now they have become the most important transshipment point in trade with the east. In the end, this eventually led to the minting of a small Podillia coin (half a fraction of Prague money common in Eastern and Central Europe) to meet the needs of a lively local market. The vast majority of Podillia half-groszes recorded by Igor Yakovelis in joint treasures with Lviv coins were found in the Khmelnytsky region. Only one – in Ternopil, 7 pcs. in Vinnytsia and 2 pcs. in the Cherkassy region. The fact that the finds of Podillia coins are localized, mostly in the Khmelnytsky region and partly in the Vinnytsia region, indicates that the reason for their minting was the service of rapid trade right here, in the transshipment point on the way of oriental goods. The two Podillia half-groszes from the Lviv region put into scientific circulation may indicate that the Podillia merchants arrived with their goods (probably also of eastern origin) on the border of the Podillia principality and Galician Rus’. In fact, they did not invent a new route, but used the old «Tatar road» that led from Lviv to Zolochiv, Terebovlia and Kamyanets. Along this path, the two most western finds of Podillia coins were recorded – in Zolochiv and Busk districts.

Information Flow Network of International Exchange Rates and Influence of Currencies

The main purpose of the study is to investigate how price fluctuations of a sovereign currency are transmitted among currencies and what network traits and currency relationships are formed in this process under the background of economic globalization. As a universal equivalent, currency with naturally owned network attributes has not been paid enough attention by the traditional exchange rate determination theories because of their overemphasis of the attribute of value measurement. Considering the network attribute of currency, the characteristics of the information flow network of exchange rate are extracted and analyzed in order to research the impact they have on each other among currencies. The information flow correlation network between currencies is researched from 2007 to 2019 based on data from 30 currencies. A transfer entropy is used to measure the nonlinear information flow between currencies, and complex network indexes such as average shortest path and aggregation coefficient are used to analyze the macroscopic topology characteristics and key nodes of information flow-associated network. It was found that there may be strong information exchange between currencies when the overall market price fluctuates violently. Commodity currencies and currencies of major countries have great influence in the network, and local fluctuations may result in increased risks in the overall exchange rate market. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor exchange rate fluctuations of relevant currencies in order to prevent risks in advance. The network characteristics and evolution of major currencies are revealed, and the influence of a currency in the international money market can be evaluated based on the characteristics of the network. The world monetary system is developing towards diversification, and the currency of developing countries is becoming more and more important. Taking CNY as an example, it was found that the international influence of CNY has increased, although without advantage over other major international currencies since 2015, and this trend continues even if there are trade frictions between China and the United States.

G. E. Sukhareva's place in the history of autism research: Context, reception, translation

<p>Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva was a Soviet child psychiatrist and neurologist who described an autism-like condition closely resembling Asperger’s syndrome about 20 years before Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner published their descriptions of autistic psychopathy and early infantile autism, first naming it schizoid psychopathy (1925), later renaming it autistic psychopathy (1959). While autistic-like syndromes were repeatedly described independently in many countries in the first half of the 20th century, Sukhareva seems to have been the only person to give a detailed description of the syndrome’s presentation in girls and its sex differences. Considered the founder of child psychiatry in Russia, she is little known elsewhere, despite a significant portion of her work being written in German. Awareness of Sukhareva and her work has been slowly making its way into autistic history, largely as a result of the 1996 publication of Sula Wolff’s translation of the 1926 case studies on schizoid psychopathy in boys, but the large majority of her work remains untranslated from German and/or Russian and inaccessible to many people. Her 1927 paper of case studies on girls, describing sex differences similar to those being described now, are virtually unknown even in German texts. Including the translation of Sukhareva’s German-language paper on schizoid psychopathy in girls, summaries of her Russian-language texts on the syndrome, and what is hoped is a comprehensive bibliography of her published work, this thesis seeks to place Sukhareva’s work and its reception within the wider context of research into autistic-like syndromes in Anglo-European medical literature, and to understand the impact of domestic and international politics of the 20th century on child psychiatry and the international exchange of scientific knowledge. The thesis also corrects misinformation found in some recent popular histories of autism.</p>

G. E. Sukhareva's place in the history of autism research: Context, reception, translation

<p>Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva was a Soviet child psychiatrist and neurologist who described an autism-like condition closely resembling Asperger’s syndrome about 20 years before Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner published their descriptions of autistic psychopathy and early infantile autism, first naming it schizoid psychopathy (1925), later renaming it autistic psychopathy (1959). While autistic-like syndromes were repeatedly described independently in many countries in the first half of the 20th century, Sukhareva seems to have been the only person to give a detailed description of the syndrome’s presentation in girls and its sex differences. Considered the founder of child psychiatry in Russia, she is little known elsewhere, despite a significant portion of her work being written in German. Awareness of Sukhareva and her work has been slowly making its way into autistic history, largely as a result of the 1996 publication of Sula Wolff’s translation of the 1926 case studies on schizoid psychopathy in boys, but the large majority of her work remains untranslated from German and/or Russian and inaccessible to many people. Her 1927 paper of case studies on girls, describing sex differences similar to those being described now, are virtually unknown even in German texts. Including the translation of Sukhareva’s German-language paper on schizoid psychopathy in girls, summaries of her Russian-language texts on the syndrome, and what is hoped is a comprehensive bibliography of her published work, this thesis seeks to place Sukhareva’s work and its reception within the wider context of research into autistic-like syndromes in Anglo-European medical literature, and to understand the impact of domestic and international politics of the 20th century on child psychiatry and the international exchange of scientific knowledge. The thesis also corrects misinformation found in some recent popular histories of autism.</p>

Spiritual Needs Assessment in Post-Secular Contexts: An Integrative Review of Questionnaires

Research across healthcare contexts has shown that, if provided appropriately, spiritual care can be of significant benefit to patients. It can be challenging, however, to incorporate spiritual care in daily practice, not least in post-secular, culturally entwined, and pluralist contexts. The aim of this integrative review was to locate, evaluate and discuss spiritual-needs questionnaires from the post-secular perspective in relation to their applicability in secular healthcare. Eleven questionnaires were evaluated and discussed with a focus on religious/spiritual (RS) wording, local culturally entwined and pluralist contexts, and on whether a consensual understanding between patient and healthcare professional could be expected through RS wording. By highlighting some factors involved in implementing a spiritual-needs questionnaire in diverse cultural and vernacular contexts, this article can assist by providing a general guideline. This article offers an approach to the international exchange and implementation of knowledge, experiences, and best practice in relation to the use of spiritual needs-assessment questionnaires in post-secular contexts.

A platform for the international exchange of ideas: the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research celebrates its first decade

For ten years the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research has provided a platform for exchange of knowledge and insights on health policy. It is a unique attempt by scholars and practitioners in one small country to share their knowledge with the world and, in turn to learn from experience elsewhere. Never has this role been as important as during the COVID pandemic, a message that is very clear when we look at failings elsewhere.

Implementation of step 13 of the BEPS Action Plan in the context of introducing automatic exchange of information for tax purposes

The precondition for Ukraine's accession to the multilateral agreement on automatic exchange of interstate reports is the introduction of the Report by countries of the international group of companies (hereinafter - the intercountry report), which is part of the OECD-recommended three-tier transfer pricing documentation model (Action Plan 13, BEPS Action Plan 13). It has been proven that the implementation of the intercountry report is in the early stages of the implementation of Step 13(tax legislation establishes the obligation of multinational enterprises to submit such reports; the form and procedure for its preparation are designed , but there is no mechanism for ensuring confidentiality and appropriate use of information of such reports). The conclusion is made on the need to further improve the legislation of Ukraine in the field of international exchange of information for tax purposes and the relevance of research on these issues.

International Exchange of Information in the Field of Direct Taxation

In connection with continually widening public budget deficits and related attempts of States to remove (or at least to eliminate) unfair tax practices, issues regarding the exchange of information, which is necessary for the proper performance of provisions of conventions for the avoidance of double taxation and/or national laws, have become topical. The purpose of this paper which includes starting points for subsequent analyses is to describe and assess the existing situation in the area of enshrinement of the concept of exchange of information in current conventions for avoidance of double taxation concluded by the Czech Republic according to the state valid on 1 January 2013. Having regard to this objective defined, the authors ignore other aspects such as the existence of memoranda of mutual cooperation concerning the exchange of information, existence of tax information exchange agreements concluded by the Czech Republic and Euroepan Union law in the given area and their contents. They briefly refer to these and other aspects in the chapter called “Discussion” where they point to other research possibilities in this area.