US Navy tests sea-based hypersonic missile launch system in Florida
WASHINGTON, May 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy successfully tested a sea-based hypersonic missile launch system at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, marking a significant step toward deploying the advanced weapons at sea, the service announced on Friday.
The test demonstrated the Navy's cold-gas launch approach, which ejects the missile from a ship platform before ignition, ensuring safe distance. This method will be used in future sea-based deployments, including aboard the USS Zumwalt.
"The speed, range, and survivability of hypersonic weapons are key to integrated deterrence for America," said Navy Secretary John Phelan.
Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), opens new tab is the prime contractor for the weapon.
The test comes as the United States races to develop hypersonic capabilities, with Russia and China also pursuing similar technologies.
Russia has reportedly used hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, while China denies conducting weapons tests despite U.S. military claims.
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Health Rounds: Roche's Tecentriq reduces recurrence, deaths for certain colon cancer patients
June 6 (Reuters) - (This is an excerpt of the Health Rounds newsletter, where we present latest medical studies on Tuesdays and Thursdays. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here.) Adding Roche's (ROG.S), opens new tab immunotherapy drug Tecentriq to chemotherapy after surgery in certain patients whose colon cancer had spread to the lymph nodes led to a 50% reduction in cancer recurrence and death compared to chemotherapy alone, according to trial data presented at recent medical meeting. Patients in the study had tumors with a genetic defect known as deficient DNA mismatch repair, or dMMR. About 15% of colon cancer patients have dMMR tumors, which do not respond well to chemotherapy. "The findings from our study represent a major advance in the adjuvant treatment of dMMR stage 3 colon cancer and will now change the treatment for this type of cancer," study leader Dr. Frank Sinicrope of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota said in a statement. The data, opens new tab were presented at the ASCO meeting that concluded earlier this week. The trial enrolled 712 patients with dMMR stage 3 colon cancer that had been surgically removed and who had cancer cells in their lymph nodes. Half of the study participants received chemotherapy along with Tecentriq, which activates the immune system to attack and kill cancer cells, for six months, followed by the immunotherapy alone for another six months. The other half of the patients received chemotherapy for 12 months. The benefit of Tecentriq was seen even in the oldest patients and those at particularly high-risk. "It's extremely rewarding to be able to offer our patients a new treatment regimen that can reduce the risk of recurrence and improve their chances of survival," Sinicrope said. As patients recover after a minimally invasive heart procedure, they might be better off continuing to take a certain type of blood-thinning drug to help prevent a heart attack or stroke, instead of continuing with the traditional aspirin, a new study suggests. Early after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) - a procedure to prop open blocked arteries either after a heart attack, or to prevent one - patients often receive dual anti-clotting therapy with both a P2Y12 inhibitor such as clopidogrel, the generic version of Plavix, or AstraZeneca's (AZN.L), opens new tab Brilinta (ticagrelor), and aspirin. After several months, patients are usually switched from dual therapy to lifelong daily aspirin use. But pooled data looking at patients who took part in five earlier clinical trials found that continuing to prescribe the P2Y12 inhibitors and stopping the aspirin was associated with lower rates of death, heart attack and stroke compared with continuing the aspirin, with no increased risk of major bleeding, researchers reported in The BMJ, opens new tab. Overall, the trials involved 16,117 patients who received either a P2Y12 inhibitor or aspirin after completing dual therapy following PCI. After an average follow-up period of around 4 years, P2Y12 inhibitor therapy was associated with a 23% lower risk of a composite of heart-related death, heart attack, or stroke, compared with aspirin, with no significant difference in major bleeding. That translates into one prevented cardiovascular death, heart attack, or stroke for every 46 patients taking a P2Y12 inhibitor instead of aspirin after dual therapy. Overall, the findings suggest that P2Y12 inhibitor drugs should be preferred over aspirin 'due to reductions in major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events without increasing major bleeding in the medium term,' according to an editorial published with the study. But the editorial said that since patients are advised to continue the post-PCI therapy for life, large trials directly comparing the different strategies with longer follow up are needed. Some diabetes and weight-loss drugs from the class known as GLP-1 agonists were linked with a small but elevated risk for an age-related eye disease in patients with diabetes, according to a study published on Thursday in JAMA Ophthalmology, opens new tab. In 139,000 patients with diabetes, including 46,334 who had been using the GLP-1 drugs semaglutide or lixisenatide, researchers identified 181 new cases of neovascular age-related macular degeneration, also known as wet AMD. Wet AMD is a degenerative eye disease marked by the abnormal growth of blood vessels under the retina that leak fluid or blood and can lead to blindness. The risk of developing AMD during up to three years of follow-up was low, at 0.2% in GLP-1 users versus 0.1% in non-users. Still, the researchers point out, after accounting for patients' individual risk factors, the odds of AMD were doubled with at least six months of GLP-1 use and tripled in patients with the longest duration of use. Semaglutide is the active ingredient in the widely used Novo Nordisk ( opens new tab drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, while lixisenatide is the main ingredient in Sanofi's ( opens new tab discontinued Adlyxin. GLP-1 drugs have also been associated with higher risks for an eye condition known as nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, or NAION. Researchers did not have information about the dose, route of administration, or frequency of administration of the medications used in the study. Even with that information, the study could not have proved cause and effect. At least one earlier study with longer follow up reported that GLP-1 use was linked with a lower, rather than higher, risk for AMD. 'Our findings are not directly contradictory' with that earlier report, said study leader Dr. Reut Shor of the University of Toronto. 'Factors such as timing and duration of exposure, disease stage, and patient characteristics may all influence outcomes," Shor said. "Our results add another layer to the emerging understanding of this complex relationship and emphasize the need for further research to clarify these trends.' (To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here)
Reuters
2 days ago
- Reuters
Artificial Intelligence is now an A+ law student, study finds
June 5 (Reuters) - The latest generation of generative artificial intelligence can ace most law school final exams, a new study has found. OpenAI's newest model, called o3, earned grades ranging from A+ to B on eight spring finals given by faculty at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, researchers found in a new paper published on SSRN, opens new tab. Those high grades represent a significant improvement from previous studies done on earlier versions of ChatGPT, also from OpenAI, which scored B's, C's, and even one D's when researchers had them take law school finals in 2022 and 2023, according to the paper. Studies conducted earlier by other researchers had also found that ChatGPT earned 'mediocre' grades on law school finals and that although it improved the speed of legal writing, it did not improve the quality. Researchers also have found that AI can pass the bar exam. However, generative AI looks to be catching up to actual high-performing law students, based on the latest study. Unlike ChatGPT, which immediately generates text in response to a user's query, o3 is what is known as a reasoning model. This means that it generates tentative answers and multiple approaches to questions after internally evaluating and revising those responses, after which it produces the final text for the user. The study's authors — seven law professors from University of Maryland — graded the final answers from o3 on the same curve they use for their students. The program's answers earned an A+ in Constitutional Law, Professional Responsibility, and Property. Its answers got an A in Income Taxation, and an A- in Criminal Procedure. It scored a B+ in Secured Transactions and Torts, and a B in Administrative Law. The's answers program did well on both multiple choice questions and essays, the study found. However, there were some limitations on o3's answers. The program's relatively low grade in administrative law was attributable to the fact that o3 did not know about the 2024 U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned the Chevron doctrine, which was central to administrative law. That ruling had come shortly after the o3's knowledge cutoff date. The o3 program performed worse on one final when given access to the professor's notes — an unanticipated outcome the researchers attributed to the program being 'distracted' by too much text. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday about the study's findings. The study's authors wrote that they are already contemplating an updated experiment to determine how much of a cheating threat AI poses by instructing the program to make occasional spelling and grammar mistakes, so that those exams will be difficult to distinguish from those completed by real students. Read more: ChatGPT passes law school exams despite 'mediocre' performance AI improves legal writing speed, not quality - study
Reuters
3 days ago
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Earthquake of magnitude 5.7 strikes Seram, Indonesia, GFZ says
June 4 (Reuters) - A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck Seram, Indonesia on Wednesday, the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) said. The quake was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), GFZ said.
