Conducting Assessments in Technology Needs: From Assessment to Implementation

Practitioners with an expertise in assistive technology and technology assessments are in demand to be full participants in the selection, planning, and implementation of instruction for students with mild disabilities. Frequently, practitioners with knowledge of assistive technology are assigned to evaluate students with sensory, physical, language, or severe disabilities. Our article highlights aspects of technology assessments and progress monitoring that can be used for students with mild disabilities. Given the impact that technology integration can have on the access that students with mild disabilities have to the general education classroom, we argue that all practitioners should be cognizant of protocols for assistive technology assessment and evaluation and that all evaluation teams should include an assistive technology specialist.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele