ISTQB-Advanced-Level-1 study help - ISTQB Advanced Level Test & manager test Updated: 2024

The College encourages qualified students to pursue advanced individual study. The following plans supplement the regular course offerings and are available to students upon recommendation by their advisers.

Honors Study

If you have a deep interest and the motivation in your field of study, and you meet the standards set by the College and your major department, you have the opportunity to do honors study, an in-depth research project in close coordination with a faculty member. Learn more about the requirements for honors study.

Individual Study

Courses of individual study are available to qualified students, subject to the availability of staff time for supervision. The proposal for study must be approved by the instructor supervising the project and by the department or interdisciplinary program in which the project is to be conducted.

Seminars

Many departments offer seminars in which students may have the opportunity to work independently on different aspects of their major field or area of interdisciplinary study and to discuss the results of their research. Consult the college catalog by major or minor for more information.

Postgraduate Study and Admission to Professional Schools

Some students plan to apply to graduate or professional schools. After assisting students with the process of identifying their advanced degree goals, career advisers refer these students to the College's pre-professional and graduate school advisers, and to discipline-specific faculty advisers.

A student who plans to undertake graduate study should examine specific requirements of particular graduate programs as early in the undergraduate years as possible. Attention is directed to the foreign language requirements of the graduate schools. The choice of languages and the degree of competence expected vary with both the major subject and the graduate school. Early consultation with the major adviser is strongly recommended.

Students intending to prepare for postgraduate entrance into law, business or medical school are urged to seek the advice of Connecticut College pre-law, pre-business or pre-health advisers early in the first year.

Graduate and professional school guides and test registration booklets are available in the Hale Center for Career Development. Information on medical and dental school admission tests are also available from the pre-health adviser. At the career fair held each fall, representatives from graduate programs staff tables and provide exhibits and literature about their institutions.

The ability to transmit information coherently in the band of the electromagnetic spectrum from microwave to infrared is vitally important to the development of the advanced quantum networks used in computing and communications.

A study conducted by researchers at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil, in collaboration with colleagues at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and TU Delft in the Netherlands, focused on the use of nanometric optomechanical cavities for this purpose. These nanoscale resonators promote interaction between high-frequency mechanical vibrations and infrared light at wavelengths used by the telecommunications industry.

An article on the study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

"Nanomechanical resonators act as bridges between superconducting circuits and optical fibers. Superconducting circuits are currently among the most promising technologies for quantum computing, while optical fibers are routinely used as long-distance transmitters of information with little noise and no signal loss," said Thiago Alegre, a professor at the Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics (IFGW-UNICAMP) and last author of the article.

According to Alegre, one of the key innovations in the study was the introduction of dissipative optomechanics. Traditional optomechanical devices rely on purely dispersive interaction, where only photons confined in the cavity are efficiently dispersed. In dissipative optomechanics, photons can be scattered directly from the waveguide to the resonator. "Optoacoustic interaction can be controlled more tightly as a result," he said.

Prior to this study, dissipative optomechanical interaction had been demonstrated only at low mechanical frequencies, precluding important applications such as quantum state transfer between the photonic (optical) and phononic (mechanical) domains. The study demonstrated the first dissipative optomechanical system operating in a regime where the mechanical frequency exceeded the optical linewidth.

"We succeeded in raising mechanical frequency by two orders of magnitude and achieved a tenfold rise in the optomechanical coupling rate. This offers highly promising prospects for the development of even more effective devices," Alegre said.

Fabricated in collaboration with TU Delft, the devices were designed to use technologies that are well-established in the semiconductor industry. Nanometric silicon beams were suspended and free to vibrate so that infrared light and mechanical vibrations were confined simultaneously. A laterally placed waveguide positioned to permit the coupling of the optical fiber to the cavity gave rise to dissipative coupling, the key ingredient of the results presented by the researchers.

The study offers novel possibilities for the construction of quantum networks. In addition to this immediate application, it lays a basis for future fundamental research. "We expect to be able to manipulate mechanical modes individually and mitigate optical non-linearities in optomechanical devices," Alegre said.

The latest weight loss craze could also help people control their drinking.

Semaglutide treatments such as Ozempic and Wegovy have been shown to reduce the symptoms of alcohol use disorder (AUD), according to a study published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry on Nov. 27.

The collaborative study from The University of Oklahoma (OU) and Oklahoma State University (OSU) found a “significant and noteworthy decrease” in the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scores of six patients who were receiving semaglutide treatment for weight loss.

Lead study author Dr. Jesse Richards, director of obesity medicine and assistant professor of medicine at the OU-TU School of Community Medicine, said the study was inspired by his conversation with Dr. Kyle Simmons, professor of pharmacology and physiology at the OSU Center for Health Sciences.

“I had been hearing from a significant number of patients that their alcohol intake was spontaneously decreasing while [they were] on the medication,” Richards told Fox News Digital.

As a bariatric surgery clinic employee, Richards noted that it’s standard to screen patients for alcohol use.

At the clinic, a number of patients tested positive for alcohol consumption, sometimes in concerning amounts.

Later, while on semaglutide medication, they reported reduced alcohol intake.

One of Richards’ patients — who previously drank large amounts of alcohol — shared a new inability to drink more than two cans of beer now because it “just doesn’t sound good.”

This response piqued Richards’ interest in learning more about patients’ aversion to alcohol, which directly correlated to his research.

Research has shown that this effect is “mediated through adjustments in the reward pathway in the brain,” he said.

“The GLP-1s are actually modifying dopamine, decreasing the craving and decreasing the motivation to acquire things in that compulsive intake category.”

The most surprising takeaway from the study, Richards said, was that the same significant treatment response was seen even at very low doses.

“We found that even patients on the lowest dose of semaglutide — a quarter milligram — had a quite significant and relatively … quick onset reduction in alcohol intake,” he said.

Of the six patients studied, all but one were on low doses — from a quarter to a half milligram.

“And that’s very encouraging because we know that the lower doses of these medications are tolerated much better,” said Richards.

While the results seem promising, the doctor said he does not recommend that patients use semaglutide treatments for alcohol use disorder at this time, due to supply and safety issues.

“If patients have [obesity and diabetes] indications for the medication and they also struggle with alcohol intake … having them on this treatment may potentially be beneficial,” Richards said.

“But because there has been a global medication shortage, and because we don’t have prospective trials and don’t know what the specific safety is versus the well-established safety data in obesity and diabetes, [I] would not recommend it just for patients who have AUD.”

There are three FDA-approved drugs available for alcoholic use disorder that are currently underused, the doctor noted.

Given that five million people in the U.S. are currently taking semaglutide medications, if it is proven that those drugs have a significant effect on alcohol use disorder, “by default, they are going to become the most widely used drug to Strengthen these symptoms — just by virtue of the fact that so many people are on them for diabetes or obesity,” Richards noted.

He confirmed that additional research is underway with two ongoing trials.

“Since we were able to show clinically meaningful reductions in alcohol intake and AUD symptomatology in a real-world setting, that bodes very well for these types of medications,” he said.

Looking ahead, Richard said there is a need for higher-quality evidence of the medication’s impact on AUD compared to placebo drugs or environmental factors.

Even though it’s unclear whether GLP-1 producers will market the medication to AUD patients in the future, Richards said this could become an “established medical practice once the safety and efficacy has been determined.”

For patients who struggle with AUD, Richards recommended they talk to their health care providers about available treatment.

He also alerted patients that if they experience a reduced appetite and usually consume “a bunch of calories” in alcohol, it may be necessary to look into a more balanced diet.

Avantika Waring, 9amHealth’s chief medical officer and a trained physician and endocrinologist in San Francisco, applauded the OU and OSU study findings for further supporting what clinicians “are already seeing in practice,” she told Fox News Digital.

“GLP-1 medications have a lot of effects that we are still learning about, and the ability to decrease cravings and the reward signals related to alcohol use are just some of the benefits,” she said.

“It’s an important starting point for further clinical trials,” she added.

Waring also warned that GLP-1 medications should not be used to treat AUD specifically, as they can cause side effects such as nausea and changes in appetite.

“People struggling with alcohol use disorder should consult with their physicians before starting GLP-1 medications to make sure that they can stay hydrated and safe on therapy,” she said.

Waring noted that if ongoing clinical trials find semaglutide treatments to be effective for AUD, the medical community will “have another tool to help people living with alcohol addiction and we’ll see expanded use of these already popular drugs.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Novo Nordisk for comment on the potential link between semaglutide medications and alcohol use disorder.

A new study suggests getting that cute dog in one's more mature years might be a good idea after all. 

Researchers from the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, found that pet ownership can be associated with slower rates of developing dementia. 

The study, published on Tuesday in JAMA Network Open, determined that owning a pet made a difference in verbal memory and fluency among adults who lived alone.

NEW STUDY SHOWS THE EFFECT OWNING PETS HAS ON OWNERS' BRAINS

The study's author, professor Ciyong Lu, said in the study that slower rates of declining verbal memory and fluency were seen in those who lived alone — but not in those who lived with others.

"Pet ownership offset the associations between living alone and declining rates [of] verbal memory and verbal fluency," he said. 

The research involved more than 7,900 participants over the age of 50, with roughly 35% of them owning pets and 27% of them living alone.

In the study, Lu said that those living alone with a pet showed slower rates of developing signs of dementia.

DOG OWNER GOOD NEWS: PETTING YOUR DOG MAY LEAD TO STRONGER MEMORY AND BETTER PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS

"These findings suggest that pet ownership may be associated with slower cognitive decline among older adults living alone," he said.

"Contrary to living alone," the authors also wrote, "pet ownership (for example, raising dogs and cats) is related to reduced loneliness, an important risk factor for dementia and cognitive decline."

Lu said that clinical trials will be necessary in order to confirm the study's findings.

Currently, more than 55 million people worldwide have dementia — with nearly 10 million new cases each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 

EATING ONE POPULAR FRUIT COULD HELP REDUCE YOUR CHANCES OF DEVELOPING DEMENTIA, STUDY FINDS

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, which is currently the 7th leading cause of death, the WHO also notes. 

Early symptoms of dementia include forgetfulness, being confused, losing track of time, misjudging distances, feeling anxious, personality changes, inappropriate behavior and more.

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There is currently no cure for dementia or for someone developing signs of dementia, but the WHO suggests that staying active and continuing to stimulate the brain may help.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Lu for further comment. 

For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.