Lowering plasma LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) and increasing HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations remain the primary targets in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk reduction. Dietary cholesterol and plant sterols differentially modulate cholesterol kinetics and lipoprotein distribution. Inter-individual variations in the rates of cholesterol absorption and synthesis, and the reciprocal interaction between them affect the responses to dietary sterols. Genetic heterogeneity profoundly influences such responsiveness. However, limited research exists on the genetic determinants of dietary cholesterol versus plant sterols responsiveness in healthy individuals, especially in a founder population, such as the Hutterites in Manitoba of European descent who practice a communal living system. Our study examined the differential effects of dietary cholesterol versus plant sterol consumption on plasma lipoprotein levels, subclasses, and cholesterol kinetics and assessed how genetic variants influenced these responses. A double-blind, randomized, crossover study with three interventional periods of 4 wk duration each was conducted. Healthy Hutterite individuals (n=49) from Manitoba consumed daily either 2 g of plant sterols or 600 mg of cholesterol incorporated into milkshakes, or a placebo during each period. Plasma lipid profile and lipoprotein subclass distribution were determined. Cholesterol absorption and synthesis were assessed by stable isotopic tracer techniques. Participants were genotyped for 38 candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms across 25 genes involved in cholesterol and lipoprotein metabolism. Dietary cholesterol consumption increased plasma TC, HDL-C concentrations and large HDL subclasses with no changes in cholesterol absorption or synthesis. In contrast, plant sterol intake failed to reduce LDL-C concentrations, with a modest reduction in cholesterol absorption, and did not affect lipoprotein subclasses. However, a large non-compensatory increase in cholesterol synthesis was observed due to plant sterol consumption. Gender and common genetic variants affected plasma HDL-C and HDL subclass distribution to dietary cholesterol and plant sterol consumption. ACAT2 and NPC1L1 gene variants affected plasma campesterol and β-sitosterol concentrations respectively, to plant sterol intake by modifying cholesterol absorption. In summary, our results demonstrate that dietary cholesterol and plant sterol intake differentially modulate cholesterol trafficking in a manner dependent on common genetic variants and gender in healthy individuals. Such knowledge facilitates the development of effective cholesterol lowering strategies for the alleviation of CVD burden. / October 2016

ABSTRACT The purpose of this qualitative multiple site case study was to explore Hutterite colony teacher/principals’ understandings related to their teaching and principal roles in a cross-cultural context. A constructivist epistemology framed an examination of issues and experiences of teacher/principals, drawing out patterns and trends regarding influences on their cultural understandings, focusing attention on their interactions with students and colony members, and illuminating their attitudes towards their previous and emergent work environment. The study investigated four teacher/principals’ understandings of how their cultural identity impacted their work, the understandings of the teacher/principals regarding similarities and differences between their culture and Hutterite colony culture, and their utilization of their knowledge of Hutterite culture to maintain positive student relations. Four Hutterite colony schools comprised the research sites. The teacher/principals, two females and two males, shared 28 years of colony school experience. This multiple site case study utilized qualitative techniques: data were gathered from four teacher/principals through pre-interviews, semi-structured interviews, on-site observations, and the examination of administrative processes. From the data, sense-making capacity, order-making ability, and intuition, also referred to as recognition-producing capability, four broad themes emerged: (a) the idiosyncratic effects of personality and cross-cultural connections, (b) the catalytic effect of similarities and differences, (c) the emphasis on the primacy of teaching, and (d) the tension between the roles of teacher/principal and principal/teacher. The study’s findings add to the existing theory and research on being a teacher and a principal in a cross-cultural context, specifically a monocultural setting. Policy makers, educational leaders, principals, and teachers may well reflect on the roles of life experience, personal origin and interests, belief system, educational and administrative skills, world view, temperament, and personal and professional commitment when considering school appointments. The study increases the understanding of the role and the effects of a non-Hutterite teacher and principal on Hutterite students. Ideas for further research generated from this study include a multiple site case study of Hutterite teachers, a qualitative analysis between non-Hutterite teachers and Hutterite teachers, and a mixed methods study in a colony-rich region. Within the professional domain, understanding how pre-service teachers and working teachers are prepared for teaching in diverse classrooms would be beneficial. What is being done, and what could be done, in the preparation and delivery of professional development for presently serving colony teachers are questions meriting further consideration.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The purpose of this dissertation is to compare family and educational values and practices of the Hutterite Brethren during the Reformation era with those of the main-stream of German-speaking Protestantism. Family and educational concepts and developments and the progress of elementary-vernacular education within both magisterial Protestantism and evangelical Anabaptism are described and their similarities and differences made clear. The Hutterites, who with the Mennonites constitute the two major groups of evangelical Anabaptism, are given particular attention since only they withdrew from the world to live in closed communistic societies. Within these communities they exhibited certain differences in their pattern of life from that of their contemporaries. [TRUNCATED]

La littérature de jeunesse constitue un objet culturel essentiel pour nous aider à cerner une société à un moment précis de son histoire, par exemple à travers les enjeux, les idées ou les grands principes qui l’animent, les changements qui s’y opèrent ou les individus qui la composent. En effet, puisqu’elle a souvent une vocation éducative, elle tend à refléter le contexte social dans laquelle elle est produite, à dépeindre des modèles ou des comportements souhaités, et à transmettre une vision particulière du monde – généralement celle des adultes qui y gravitent. Cette thèse porte spécifiquement sur la littérature de jeunesse huttérite – jusqu’à maintenant largement méconnue – et s’intéresse aux ouvrages produits par cette communauté établie en territoire canadien et étatsunien depuis plus de 100 ans et dont les pratiques découlent d’une approche rigoriste de l’anabaptisme. Le projet vise essentiellement à illustrer comment et dans quelle mesure ce genre transpose, à l’écrit, l’environnement du groupe, son identité unique et son héritage socioculturel, linguistique, religieux et historique. Pour ce faire, deux éléments ont été utilisés pour former le corpus de recherche : 1) les œuvres, notamment analysées avec une perspective issue de la narratologie, et 2) des questionnaires, construits de manière à recueillir l’opinion de membres de la collectivité et ainsi à comprendre leur vision quant aux différents enjeux (littéraires, langagiers, pédagogiques ou moraux) entourant cette littérature. D’abord, le projet montre que les auteur·es de la communauté proposent au lectorat des ouvrages où les pratiques présentées et ce que nous pourrions appeler un « savoir-être » huttérite sont valorisés et viennent conforter l’affiliation identitaire et socioculturelle des jeunes à l’huttérisme. Les trames narratives, composées entre autres par les thématiques, les péripéties ou les personnages des récits, véhiculent les grands fondements idéologiques du groupe, témoignent de ce qui est attendu des enfants, notamment leur rôle et leur place dans la collectivité, et les adultes, qui permettent l’accès aux œuvres, exposent dès lors ce qui constitue une lecture appropriée pour les jeunes ou confirment implicitement que certains sujets demeurent sensibles ou tabous. Ensuite, notre analyse montre comment le plurilinguisme unique des huttérites, qui parlent un dialecte qui leur est propre, l’huttérien, ainsi que l’anglais et l’allemand, se retrouve dans l’objet littéraire, de quelle manière les différentes langues s’y entremêlent, et comment ces livres « interlinguaux » illustrent le « parler multilingue » du groupe. Bien que l’anglais occupe dans les documents un espace considérable et paraisse reléguer l’huttérien à l’arrière-plan, ce dernier apparait comme un élément fondamental pour symboliser et légitimer l’univers mental du lectorat. Certain·es auteur·es stipulent même que leur ouvrage s’inscrit dans une démarche visant à maintenir, voire à revitaliser le dialecte, alors que l’anglais prend de plus en plus de place au quotidien. Si la littérature de jeunesse huttérite semble essentiellement destinée au lectorat de la communauté, elle ne se restreint pas à ce destinataire : elle offre, au contraire, à quiconque le souhaite, l’occasion de découvrir et de démystifier une collectivité dont le parcours original et les contributions littéraires mériteraient de susciter davantage l’intérêt. / Children’s literature forms an essential cultural asset that can help us understand a society at a specific point in its history, for example the issues, the ideas or the major principles driving it, the changes taking place or the people that are part of it. In fact, because it often has an educational purpose, it tends to reflect the social context in which it is produced, to depict role models or desired behaviours, and to convey a unique vision of the world – generally the one of a group or of a particular society. This thesis focusses on Hutterite children’s literature – until now largely unknown – and examines the works of this community, which established itself in Canada and in the Unites-States over 100 years ago, and whose religious practices result from a rigorous following of Anabaptism. The research corpus of this thesis is based on two components: 1) books of Hutterite’s children’s literature, analyzed with a perspective from the field of narratology, and 2) surveys, designed to gather the opinions of the Hutterite society, and therefore understand its point of view on different issues concerning this type of literature (literary, language, pedagogical or moral concerns). First, the study shows that authors from the community offer readership books in which the practices depict what we could call an ideal “Hutterite citizen” reinforcing the identity and the sociocultural affiliation of children to Hutterites beliefs. Narrative frameworks, such as the themes, the plots and the characters in the stories convey the group’s ideological basis, indicating what is expected of children, in particular their role and place in the community. As a result, the Hutterite community, which ultimately decides what books are a suitable reading for children, implicitly confirms that some topics remain sensitive or taboo. Furthermore, this research shows how the unique multilingualism of the Hutterites, who speak their own dialect, Hutterisch, as well as English and German, is reflected in their children’s literature: children’s literary works, often “interlingual books”, usually combine different languages, using the “multilingual speech” of the group. Although English is predominantly used in Hutterite children’s literature, Hutterites words and phrases appear to emphasize and legitimize Hutterite culture and beliefs. Some authors are proud to highlight the fact their work provides the means of maintaining and even revitalizing the dialect, as the English language is encroaching on their society. Though Hutterite children’s literature seems to be destined essentially to the community’s readership, it is not limited to it: on the contrary, it offers everyone the opportunity to discover and to demystify a communal group whose journey and literary contributions deserve our attention. / Kinderliteratur ist ein wesentliches Kulturgut, das uns ermöglicht, eine Gesellschaft zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt ihrer Geschichte zu erfassen. Man kann beispielsweise an die folgenden Punkte denken: die Herausforderungen, die Ideen oder die wichtigen Prinzipien, die diese Minderheitsgruppe anregt, die Veränderungen, die geschehen, oder die Individuen, die sie bilden. Da sie häufig eine pädagogische Aufgabe erfüllt, zielt sie meistens darauf ab, den sozialen Hintergrund widerzuspiegeln, Vorbilder oder gewünschte Verhalten zu schildern oder ein bestimmtes Weltbild zu vermitteln – i.d.R. die Denkweise der Erwachsenen. Die vorliegende These befasst sich mit der Kinderliteratur der Hutterer*innen – bisher größtenteils unbekannt – und beschäftigt sich mit den Werken dieser Gemeinschaft, die sich seit über hundert Jahren sowohl in Kanada als auch in den USA befindet, und deren Gepflogenheiten auf einer rigoristischen Herangehensweise beruhen. Das Projekt veranschaulicht, wie und inwiefern Kinderliteratur sowohl den gesellschaftlichen Kontext dieser Gruppe als auch ihre einzigartige Identität und ihr soziokulturelles, sprachliches, religiöses und historisches Erbe auf Papier überträgt. Dafür formen zwei Elemente den Forschungskorpus: 1) die Werke, die u.a. mit Hilfe der Narratologie analysiert werden und 2) Fragebögen, die die Meinung einiger Mitglieder der Gemeinschaft sammeln sollten und ihre Weltanschauung bezüglich verschiedener Themen, die diese Literatur betreffen (z.B. literarische, sprachliche, pädagogische oder moralische Fragen), demonstrieren sollten. Zuerst beweist das Forschungsprojekt, dass hutterische Autor*innen der Leserschaft Bücher bieten, in denen die vorgestellten Herangehensweisen und ein „typisch hutterisches“ Verhalten wertgeschätzt werden und die identische und soziokulturelle Zugehörigkeit der Kinder bestärken. Die Erzählstrukturen der Werke, u.a. die Themen, die Handlungen oder die Figuren, vermitteln die ideologischen Grundlagen der Gemeinschaft und zeigen, was von der Leserschaft erwartet wird, neben ihrer Rolle und ihrem Platz in der Gesellschaft. Die Erwachsenen, die die Werke zugänglich machen, deuten außerdem darauf hin, welche Lektüre für Kinder geeignet ist, und bestätigen dabei implizit, welche Themen nach wie vor sensibel sind oder tabuisiert werden. Danach stellt die Analyse dar, wie die besondere Mehrsprachigkeit der Hutterer*innen, die einen einzigartigen Dialekt (Hutterisch), Englisch und Hochdeutsch sprechen, in den Werken verkörpert wird, auf welche Weise die verschiedenen Sprachen sich mischen, und wie „interlinguale“ Bücher das „mehrsprachige Sprechen“ dieser Gruppe schildern. Trotz des großen Platzes, den das Englische einnimmt, und des Eindrucks, dass das Hutterische in den Hintergrund rückt, ist der Dialekt in der Tat ein grundlegendes Element, um die Gedankenwelt der Leserschaft zu symbolisieren und zu legitimieren. Einige Autor*innen erwähnen sogar ausdrücklich, dass das Buch zum Erhalten und zur Wiederbelebung des Dialekts beitragen soll – da die englische Sprache immer mehr Platz in ihrem Alltag einnimmt. Obgleich diese Literatur sich eher an die Kinder der Gemeinschaft zu richten scheint, beschränkt sie sich nicht auf diese Leserschaft. Sie bietet jungen Leser*innen die Möglichkeit, eine Gemeinschaft zu entdecken und zu entmystifizieren, deren einzigartige Geschichte und literarische Beiträge weitaus mehr Interesse erwecken sollten.

The Dryland Diaries is a multigenerational narrative in the epistolary style, a tale of four women, central character Luka; her mother Lenore; grandmother Charlotte; and great-grandmother Annie – cast in the Quebecoise tradition of the roman du terroir, invoking place and family, the primal terroir of a storyteller. The novel is driven by three acts of violence – the possible murder of Annie’s husband, Jordan, by her Hutterite father; the rape of Charlotte; and the probable murder of Lenore by a notorious serial killer. Set in rural Saskatchewan and Vancouver, Luka, a single mother, finds Annie’s and Charlotte’s journals in the basement of her farm home, where both her predecessors also lived. She reads their stories while attempting to come to terms with her search for her missing mother, and with her attraction to her former flame, Earl, now married. Luka learns that Jordan disappeared shortly after the Canadian government enacted conscription for farmers in the First World War, when Annie became a stud horsewoman, her daughter Charlotte born before the war ended. Letters and newspaper clippings trace the family’s life through the drought and Great Depression; then Charlotte’s diaries reveal her rape at Danceland during the Second World War. Her daughter, Lenore, grows up off-balance emotionally, and abandons her daughters. Luka returns to Vancouver and learns her mother’s fate. Told from Luka’s point of view, in first-person narrative with intercutting diary excerpts and third-person narratives, the novel examines how violence percolates through generations. It also examines how mothers influence their children, the role of art, how the natural world influences a life, and questions our definition of “home.” At its heart, the novel is a story about what makes a family a family, about choices we make toward happiness, and about how violence perpetuates itself through the generations. Inspired by Margaret Lawrence’s The Stone Angel, Carol Shields’ The Stone Diaries, and the place-particular writing of Annie Proulx and Guy Vanderhaeghe, The Dryland Diaries paints a family portrait of loss, hope and redemption, locating it on the boundaries of historical fiction, firmly within the realm of epistolary and intergenerational narrative.