The illusion of abundant communications and the ghost of .

Twentieth-century communications law was built on the assumption of scarcity-radio spectrum as a scarce natural resource and telephone networks as a natural monopoly. Scarcity justified both rate regulation and content regulation of the services offered over these communications resources. Telephone networks were subject to the nondiscrimination rules of common carriage, and the Supreme Court in famously upheld the "fairness doctrine," which required that both sides of public issues be discussed fairly over broadcast media, expressly on the rationale that the scarcity of the airwaves justified content-based regulation under the First Amendment.

The impact of disclosure of conflicts of interest in studies comparing robot-assisted and laparoscopic cholecystectomies-a persistent problem.

Introduction: Accurate disclosure of conflicts of interest (COI) is critical to interpretation of study results, especially when industry interests are involved. We reviewed published manuscripts comparing robot-assisted cholecystectomy (RAC) and laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) to evaluate the relationship between COI disclosures and conclusions drawn on the procedure benefits and safety profile.

Methods: Searching Pubmed and Embase using key words "cholecystectomy", laparoscopic" and "robotic"/"robot-assisted" retrieved 345 publications.

Outcomes following robot-assisted versus laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy: the New York State experience.

Introduction: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) represents more than half of all bariatric procedures in the USA, and robot-assisted sleeve gastrectomy (RSG) is becoming increasingly common. There is a paucity of evidence regarding postoperative surgical outcomes (> 30 days) in RSG patients, especially as these patients move between multiple hospital systems.

Methods: Using 2012-2018 New York State's inpatient and ambulatory data from the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System, bivariate and multivariate analyses were employed to examine patient long-term outcomes, postoperative complications, and charges following RSG versus LSG in unmatched and propensity score-matched (PSM) samples.

Multisite study of Titan SGS stapler in longitudinal gastric resection.

Background: Standardization of the laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy procedure is needed to improve patient outcomes. A single-fire 23 cm stapler was developed to streamline the operation. Comparative testing conducted on excised human tissue has demonstrated the superiority of the novel Titan SGS stapler to two commonly utilized commercial devices in both staple line integrity and burst pressure.

The Early (2009-2017) Experience With Robot-assisted Cholecystectomy in New York State.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine real-life patterns of care and patient outcomes associated with robot-assisted cholecystectomy (RAC) in New York State (NYS).

Background: Although robotic assistance may offer some technological advantages, RACs are associated with higher procedural costs and longer operating times compared to traditional laparoscopic cholecystectomies (LCs). Evidence on long-term patient outcomes after RAC from large population-based datasets remains limited and inconsistent.