Perceptions of Medieval Settlement

Abstract

Medieval archaeologists, possessing elements of the landscape and the buildings of the past, together with a good knowledge of the historical context, can recover many aspects of the way that space was perceived in the past. A phenomenological approach has been applied not only to castles, but also to the mundane world of peasants. Phenomenology emphasizes the experience of the world whereas archaeologists have been no less interested in the way in which that experience was manipulated and also in the competing ideas of space. Examples of encultured landscapes examined include natural places, gentry houses, village tofts, liminal places, and sites of pilgrimage. Drawing upon the evidence of place-names and documents, as well as the archaeological remains, it has been possible to reconstruct how people conceived of and experienced the world around them.

Women's attitudes towards disclosure of genetic information in pregnancy with varying levels of penetrance

“…If full disclosure is practiced, women who are not interested in receiving information with incomplete penetrance (in our sample ‐ about 23% not interested in 40% penetrance, 34.4% in 20%, and nearly 45% in 10%) are forced to receive such information or refrain from testing altogether. Using a disclosure threshold of about 20% penetrance (as practiced in a few European countries 4,22 ), women/couples who are interested in information on lower penetrance (in our sample‐about 41% of respondents) may be deprived from receiving what they perceive as important information. Alternatively, providing parental choice only for SL with 10% penetrance and below (and full disclosure for over 10%), as practiced in Israel, 25 may still result in disclosing unwanted information to those women who prefer a higher risk threshold for disclosure.…”

“…Advanced genomic technologies, such as chromosomal microarray‐analysis (CMA) and whole‐exome‐sequencing (WES) are rapidly adopted into routine prenatal care 1–7 . CMA is currently recommended as the first‐tier test in pregnancies with fetal malformations 4,5,8 and adds a detection rate of 5%–7% over karyotyping 9,10 .…”

“…Advanced genomic technologies, such as chromosomal microarray‐analysis (CMA) and whole‐exome‐sequencing (WES) are rapidly adopted into routine prenatal care 1–7 . CMA is currently recommended as the first‐tier test in pregnancies with fetal malformations 4,5,8 and adds a detection rate of 5%–7% over karyotyping 9,10 . In several countries, including Israel, CMA is the first‐tier test for all invasive prenatal diagnostic testing, including parental wishes in uneventful pregnancies, 1,11,12 with 0.4%–2.5% risk of pathogenic results 10,13,14 .…”

“…Disclosure of SL in pregnancy may be psychologically burdensome on parents 19–21 . The disclosure policy of SL varies internationally from full disclosure in the USA to nondisclosure of low‐penetrant SL in several European countries (e.g., UK, Belgium) 4,22,23 . The opt in/out disclosure policy, as practiced in Israel and the Netherlands, 24,25 provides parents with a choice regarding the type of findings they wish to receive, including SL.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Studies that examined parental choice demonstrated a preference to receive maximal genetic information in pregnancy 7,26–28 .…”

The prenatal exome – a door to prenatal diagnostics?

“…The roll out of prenatal ES in a healthcare system brings with it ethical challenges, not least in terms of resource allocation and equity of access according to strict eligibility criteria. An existing document from the Joint Committee on Genomics in Medicine provides transferrable recommendations for the use of CMA in pregnancy [72]. Clinicians are encouraged to consider the context in which the test was done and to report variants which would affect the care of either the fetus or family now or in future.…”