Eastern Mennonite University

Sand dams are water infrastructure, built across ephemeral sandy rivers, that increase water supply by creating an artificial sandy aquifer upstream of the dam. Despite their effectiveness and recent traction in the research and development arena, empirical data on their distribution and characteristics are scattered and largely unreported. This gap represents a major barrier for understanding the large-scale potential of such a Nature-based Solution and for planning new installations. This paper presents a global dataset of sand dam locations and dimensions, developed collaboratively by research and development experts. We collected sand dam information from several sources, including local sand dam organizations. The data was reviewed and integrated through visual inspection in Google Earth. Although most georeferenced sand dams are from Eastern and Southern Africa, this dataset is a first global inventory and represents an invitation for others working in sand dams around the world to contribute their data. The dataset supports research on the effectiveness of sand dams and can aid practitioners with science-based criteria for sand dam development.

ABSTRACT This article describes the development and validation of a new observation instrument, the Scaffolding Observation Protocol for Multilingual Learners (SCOPE‐ML), designed to assess instructional changes resulting from two NPD projects at the University of Cincinnati. These projects focused on TESOL endorsement coursework and professional development for teachers of multilingual learners. The instrument was developed to measure differences in teaching practices between treatment and control groups in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), offering potential evidence of the effectiveness of the NPD interventions. The first project's treatment involved completion of the university's TESOL endorsement sequence, with participants recruited from upper elementary and secondary schools. The second project included two treatment conditions: (1) TESOL coursework and (2) completion of online modules with coaching and community of practice—with participants who taught in early elementary contexts. Development of the SCOPE‐ML followed a rigorous, rapid process—literature review, conceptualization, item drafting, revision, pilot testing, and initial research use—guided by a pedagogical stance grounded in scaffolding, understood as the systematic support of student learning through responsive, asset‐oriented instructional practice. This process produced evidence of high inter‐rater reliability (percentage agreement and Cohen's kappa) and face validity (via peer debriefing and feedback). The study highlights the crucial role of teacher–student and peer interactions in fostering multilingual learners' literacy development and underscores the need for ongoing refinement of teaching practices for this population.

Many waterways flow out of forestlands, which tend to maintain higher water quality, into agricultural lands, which tend to degrade water quality. The roles of land cover in impacting key water quality parameters (phosphorus, nitrogen, total suspended solids, bacteria, and conductivity) were investigated for the watershed of the North and South Fork of the Shenandoah River, Virginia. This area has a particularly sharp boundary between heavily forested and heavily agricultural regions. Two datasets were analyzed: 1) a large number of datapoints spanning a 20-year range in the Water Quality Portal (WQP) database, and 2) transects along three representative rivers systems over the span of a 4-year period. All parameters trended better in forested regions than agricultural regions. This was particularly true for nitrogen and conductivity; phosphorus, TSS and bacteria showed more local variability, especially in the agricultural region. Periods of high flow increased phosphorus, sediment and bacteria concentrations, and decreased conductivity, but not when drainage basin forest cover was less than 80%. Transects showed that waterways flowing out of forestland maintained higher water quality for approximately the first 8 km in agricultural land. Both transect and WQP data indicated higher water quality when the percent of forested land cover in a drainage basin was about 70-80%. Thus, forestland does mitigate the impacts of agriculture on water quality to some degree, but this effect rapidly diminishes as forest cover of the watershed lessens. Furthermore, forests themselves have degraded water quality at certain times and places; for instance, nutrients level were in the medium to high stress level for aquatic life in approximately 15% of samples. This study illustrates general trends of land cover effects on water quality, while also highlighting both site-specific variability, and the dynamics of water quality as water flows out of forested areas into agricultural areas.

The Old Order Amish church is experiencing a vibrant new chapter in its American experience as it gains agency in the areas of Christian relief and development ministries. Scholars have described the energetic and highly successful entrepreneurial spirit among the Amish over the past decades. This paper documents how the Amish are building on their success as sophisticated business leaders in creating Christian relief and development ministries. The Amish community has leveraged the lessons learned as entrepreneurs toward nonprofit ministries serving people well beyond their own Anabaptist communities. Three case studies—Gifts for Relief and White Horse Relief Center, Mennonite Disaster Service and Amish Storm Aid, and Plain Community Agricultural Exchange—serve as examples of the nascent Amish agency of doing good deeds for people beyond their own Anabaptist communities and of Amish conceptualizing and actualizing Christian relief and development ministries. These three ministries are only the beginning of what likely will be many more Amish-led relief and development ministries. The paper also notes that non-Amish relief and development ministries who seek to partner with the Amish will need to move from an often-paternalistic relationship to a peer-to-peer partnership with the Amish.

The CMS detector, including its muon system, has been operating at the CERN LHC in increasingly challenging conditions for about 15 years. The muon detector was designed to provide excellent triggering and track reconstruction for muons produced in proton–proton collisons at an instantaneous luminosity (L\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\mathcal {L}$$\\end{document}) of 1×1034\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$1 \ imes 10^{34}$$\\end{document} cm-2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$^{-2}$$\\end{document}s-1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$^{-1}$$\\end{document}. During the Run 2 data-taking period (2015–2018), the LHC achieved an instantaneous luminosity of twice its design value, resulting in larger background rates and making the efficient detection of muons more difficult. While some backgrounds result from natural radioactivity, cosmic rays, and interactions of the circulating protons with residual gas in the beam pipe, the dominant source of background hits in the muon system arises from proton–proton interactions themselves. Charged hadrons leaving the calorimeters produce energy deposits in the muon chambers. In addition, high-energy particles interacting in the hadron calorimeter and forward shielding elements generate thermal neutrons, which leak out of the calorimeter and shielding structures, filling the CMS cavern. We describe the method used to measure the background rates in the various muon subsystems. These rates, in conjunction with simulations, can be used to estimate the expected backgrounds in the High-Luminosity LHC. This machine will run for at least 10 years starting in 2029 reaching an instantaneous luminosity of L=5×1034cm-2s-1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\mathcal {L} = 5 \ imes \ ext {10}^\ ext {34}\\,\ ext {cm}^\ ext {-2}\\,\ ext {s}^\ ext {-1}$$\\end{document} and increasing ultimately to L=7.5×1034cm-2s-1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\mathcal {L} = 7.5 \ imes \ ext {10}^\ ext {34}\\,\ ext {cm}^\ ext {-2}\\,\ ext {s}^\ ext {-1}$$\\end{document}. These background estimates have been a key ingredient for the planning and design of the muon detector upgrade.

Abstract John Paget (c. 1574–1638), head pastor of the English Reformed Church of Amsterdam from 1607–1637, helped to shape the future of Presbyterianism. Exiled from England for nonconformity, Paget embraced the cosmopolitanism and religious toleration of his new city, studying Hebrew and Arabic in a multicultural circle of scholars. When the plague struck Amsterdam, he preached sermons on death and visited members in infected homes. When it came to Protestant English exiles, his own tolerance ran short. His strict interpretation of Presbyterian governance met with challenges from Separatists and Puritans advocating for independent congregations (Thomas Hooker and John Davenport), and some of his own congregants who wished for more democracy in church matters. The controversy in Holland, especially via polemical publications, influenced England and America. His last years of ministry were marred by a group known as “The Complainants,” who attempted to unseat him. He relied on his relationship with the Dutch Reformed Church and the city magistrates to maintain his own position and turn away opponents. While his contentiousness dampened his influence and diminished his reputation, nevertheless, Paget was a key agent in the survival of Presbyterianism when it could not flourish in early 17th-century England.

Hundreds of community colleges exist in rural contexts across the United States, yet we know little about the work and career development of the thousands of faculty employed at such institutions. Through a review of current literature, this article demonstrates how faculty at rural community colleges encounter specific factors in their professorial development because of these rural contexts in which their home institutions reside. From that literature, one can determine that factors playing a role in rural community college faculty development include (a) isolation and institution size, (b) multiple and multifaceted roles, (c) joy of working and engaging with students, (d) recruitment and retention of women faculty and faculty of color, and (d) recruitment and retention of academically qualified individuals. From those literature review findings, policy and practice recommendations around rural community college faculty are provided, such as creating and enhancing professional development opportunities and increasing recruitment and retention efforts for women faculty and faculty of color. In order to contribute more knowledge to supporting the development of rural community college-based faculty members, this article ends with future research ideas.