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The purpose of this paper is to explore stakeholder perceptions concerning four key 21st century skills required for graduates to be successful in today's workplace, and to report on common themes surrounding how a post-secondary school in the Southwest United States is preparing graduates with predominant 21st Century skills: interpersonal communication, critical thinking, information literacy, and adroit writing. A qualitative exploratory case study was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 local employers who hire graduates, and 14 faculty members and 14 administrators from the research site. Data were coded and analyzed for common themes with the support of NVivo qualitative software. Overall, the three participant strata group stakeholders indicated that the research site is not doing very well integrating the predominant four 21st Century skills into curricula. Interpersonal communication was rated as the highest skill evident in graduates, followed by critical thinking, information literacy, and the skill needing the most improvement, adroit writing.

Laughter is pervasive in Christian theological and liturgical traditions, breaking up human idolatries and totalities. This gospel laughter gives Christian ministry an essential orientation of 'open seriousness.' Key words Laughter, Liturgy, Incarnation, Carnival, Fools, Purim, Parody, Ironic literalism, Theology of interruption, Risus Paschalis, The imagery we use when talking about laughter is revealing. (1) We say we 'break up' laughing. Or we exclaim that a joke really 'cracked me up.' Or we report [...]

Multiple studies reveal that long-term aspirin dosage greater than 75 to 81 mg/d do not better prevent cardiovascular diseases. Higher dosages of aspirin increase risk of gastrointestinal bleeding.

In the face of death, live humanly. In the middle of chaos, celebrate the Word. Amidst babel, I repeat, speak the truth. Confront the noise and verbiage and falsehood of [...]

Christmas Day is not a time for explanation and analysis in the pulpit. It is a day for story and poetry and song. There will be time during the season [...]

Nineteenth century popular fiction highlighted the need for sermons to cater to the emotional needs of the people without merely focusing on theological speculation. However, story-telling dominates later day sermons and theological issues have receded to the background. Sermons should not develop a dichotomy between preaching and theology and should incorporate more of theological speculation.

Preaching from Memory to Hope by Thomas G. Long Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2009. 152 pp. $19.95. ISBN 978-0-664-23422-5. This NEW VOLUME BRINGS together Thomas Long's 2006 Lyman Beecher lectures [...]

May's commentary represents the fruit of a lifetime of studying, teaching, and worshipping with the Psalms. For many years, Mays taught a seminar on the Psalms at Union Theological Seminary [...]

Thinking Theologically: The Preacher as Theologian by Ronald J. Allen Fortress Minneapolis, 2008. 96 pp. $12.00. ISBN 978-0-8006-6232-5. IN THIS CONCISE, ACCESSIBLE contribution to the Elements of Preaching Series, Ronald […]

LANCE PAPE HAS A BOLD and vital agenda. Seeking to reclaim the scandal of the gospel, Pape explores the way in which 'scriptural and sermonic language participates in God's free [...]

Aims: To describe correlations and agreement between salivary and serum B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin (IL)-6, and IL-10 and determine which biomarkers predict worse functional class in patients with heart failure (HF). Methods: Serum and saliva were collected from 75 hospitalized patients with HF (57 ± 12 years, 43% female, New York Heart Association [NYHA] Classes I [4%], II [43%], and III [53%]). Oral inflammation was rated as good, fair, or poor. Spearman’s ρ and Bland–Altman were used to determine correlations and agreement of the salivary and serum forms of each biomarker. Logistic regressions were used to determine which biomarkers predicted worse NYHA functional class, controlling for depression, body mass index, smoking, and oral inflammation. Results: Median biomarker concentrations were as follows: BNP (serum 361 pg/ml, saliva 9 pg/ml), CRP (serum 13 ng/ml, saliva 25.6 ng/ml), IL-6 (serum 19.3 pg/ml, saliva 10.5 pg/ml), and IL-10 (serum 64.1 pg/ml, saliva 4.7 pg/ml). There was a moderate-to-strong correlation for serum–salivary CRP, weak correlation for serum–salivary IL-6, and no correlations for serum–salivary BNP and IL-10. The Bland–Altman test showed good salivary–serum agreement for all biomarkers, but as serum concentrations rose, salivary measures underestimated serum levels. Visible oral inflammation was the only predictor of worse NYHA class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]