This article analyzes the evolution of banking supervision in Spain under Franco’s regime (1939–1975), highlighting how political and economic factors shaped oversight in an authoritarian setting. Two phases emerge. In the 1940s–50s, supervision—lodged in the Ministry of Finance—was weak, poorly staffed, and focused on enforcing banks’ oligopolistic interest rate agreements, reflecting regulatory capture. Following the 1959 Stabilization Plan, rising external pressure, domestic concerns about oligopolistic practices, and the 1962 Banking Law prompted reform. Supervision shifted to the Bank of Spain with the establishment of the Private Banking Inspection Service, resulting in more frequent inspections and gradual formalization of supervision. Archival records indicate that by the 1970s, inspections had become more frequent and rigorous, signaling a cautious shift toward risk-based oversight. However, the reforms remained incomplete. Persistent systemic vulnerabilities culminated in the severe banking crisis of 1977–1982, underlining the limitations of supervisory transformation under authoritarian rule.

One challenge to relationism in general relativity is that the metric field is underdetermined by the stress–energy tensor. This is manifested in the existence of distinct vacuum solutions to Einstein’s equations. In this paper I reformulate the problem of underdetermination as a problem from vacuum solutions. I call this the vacuum challenge and identify the gravitational degrees of freedom (associated with the Weyl tensor) as the “source” of the challenge. The Weyl tensor allows for gravitational effects that something outside a system exerts on the system. I provide a relationist response to the vacuum challenge.

We prove that the structure $(\mathbb {Z},<,+,R)$ is distal for all congruence-periodic sparse predicates $R\subseteq \mathbb {N}$. We do so by constructing a strong honest definition for every formula $\phi (x;y)$ with $\lvert {x}\rvert =1$, providing a rare example of concrete distal decompositions.

The crystal structure of tafamidis has been independently resolved and refined using synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction data and optimized using density functional techniques. Tafamidis crystallizes in space group P21/c (#14) with a = 3.787093(6), b = 14.97910(4), c = 22.93751(7) Å, β = 90.92672(19)°, V = 1,301.012(4) Å3, and Z = 4 at 295 K. The crystal structure consists of stacks of molecules along the a-axis. The molecules are inclined to this axis; the mean plane is (−4, 2, 11). Strong centrosymmetric O–H⋅⋅⋅O hydrogen bonds exist between carboxylic acid groups. The molecules are linked along the b-axis by C–H⋅⋅⋅N hydrogen bonds. Two C–H⋅⋅⋅Cl hydrogen bonds also contribute to the lattice energy. The powder pattern has been submitted to the International Centre for Diffraction Data for inclusion in the Powder Diffraction File™ (PDF®).

In 2023, Little Central America, 1984: A Sanctuary Then and Now by Elia Arce and Rubén Martínez premiered in Washington, DC. The play illuminates a historical moment known as the Sanctuary Movement, whereby religious institutions, nonprofit organizations, activists, and everyday people sought to create a safe place for Central Americans fleeing state-sponsored and state-condoned violence. The play was a community-based production, relying on local Latinxs—namely, Central Americans—and African Americans to bring it to life. Little Central America demonstrated how community-based theatre could (re)create sanctuary, challenge racial ideologies about Central Americans and Latinxs, and value diverse Central American lives on and off stage. Drawing on my experiences as a field producer, I examine how community-based theatre is a useful tool for Central American and Latinx communities. Ultimately, I argue that community-based theatre is necessary for enacting, processing, and understanding Central Americans’ converging and diverging pasts, presents, and futures.

Commingled human skeletons have the potential to reveal information about ancient funerary traditions through detailed bioarchaeological analyses of element representation (via minimum number of individuals, or MNI) and postmortem distribution. While MNI estimates are often presented in a perfunctory way, calculations using more nuanced methods may offer insight into taphonomic alteration and mortuary practices no longer visible to archaeologists. At the Early Bronze Age communal tombs of Unar 1 and 2 at the Shimal Necropolis in Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), MNI counts using skull, leg, and foot fragments varied dramatically, probably a result of differences in cortical bone density but also of cremation practices. Additionally, the presence of more elements from the left side of the skeleton suggests continuity with Neolithic interments in which individuals were preferentially laid on their right sides. Complex arrays of internal tomb chambers likewise demonstrate no particular preference for certain skeletal elements, indicating bone was not intentionally relocated to different areas of the tomb following cremation. These patterns differ from other tombs in the region, highlighting the need to more critically assess mortuary practices through “back-to-basics” approaches involving MNI estimates, particularly when involving large numbers of individuals represented by commingled and fragmentary bone.

Punctuated equilibria argue for intervals of long-term net stasis and comparatively abrupt change in the morphology of individual species lineages resulting from the process of allopatric speciation as recorded in the stratigraphic and fossil record. The concept of coordinated stasis extends punctuated equilibria to posit that not only individual species, but groups of coexisting lineages within a basin, display concurrent morphological and ecological stability over the same extended intervals of geologic time (105 to 106 yr). These blocks of stability termed ecological–evolutionary subunits (EESUs) are separated by shorter-lived (on the order of 103 to 104 yr) episodes of change characterized by varying combinations of speciation, extinction, immigration, and emigration. The result is a pattern of evolutionary and ecological stasis and change that is coincident and highly punctuational.

Here, we assess the connections among environment, evolution, and ecology by documenting patterns of stability, geographic extent, and synchronous turnover during medium-scale bioevents in the Middle Devonian of the eastern United States, and we briefly compare these with patterns of EESUs across the Late Ordovician mass extinction (LOME) based on ongoing work. We quantify the geographic extent and stability of faunas originally documented in the Appalachian Basin and identify their likely places of origin and refugia during turnovers. Faunas are geographically widespread during times of stability and border comparably stable faunas in adjacent provinces. During geologically brief intervals, assemblages display near-synchronous shifts involving local extirpation/extinction and coordinated migration of biogeographic boundaries over very long distances. Allopatric speciation in small, locally isolated populations along the edges of basins during brief windows of dramatically altered environmental conditions is more consistent with the geological record, emphasizes the role of environment and biogeography in driving evolutionary change, and confirms the prevalence of punctuated equilibria.

Researchers, academic institutions, and journals have an ethical obligation to correct the research record expeditiously and publicly to maintain the integrity of science.

Here, we describe the creation of a new program, Public and Applied Liberal Arts, at a regional public university in the Midwest. We discuss the values of transdisciplinary research and teaching for the public good, and how we put together a willing group of faculty from across the university to create a new kind of academic program that moves the humanities into our communities and beyond.