According to conventional wisdom, organized criminal activity is perpetrated primarily by non-state, private actors who are occasionally [or not] protected corrupt government officials. From this perspective, a hard distinction made between those provide protection criminals (e.g., politicians or law enforcement officials) and the themselves smugglers producers of counterfeit goods). It further...

Thyroidectomy is one of the most commonly performed endocrine procedures in world. Conventional open thyroidectomy more frequently undertaken than its minimally invasive counterpart. Elective treatment choice for benign and malignant thyroid disease includes total near-total thyroidectomy, lobo-isthmectomy. Open requires careful preoperative patient preparation and, among other skills, thorough...

Occlusion of the sound eye (conventional occlusion) introduced by Buffon (I 743) was the only treatment for amblyopia until Bangerter (I953) introduced occlusion of the amblyopic eye (non-conventional or inverse occlusion) combined with pleoptic treatment in cases of amblyopia with eccentric fixation. Mackensen, Kroner, and Postic (I965), von Noorden (I965), Posti6 (I966), Borgmann and Dielefel...

Background Portugal has a strong tradition of conventional western healthcare. So it provides a natural case study for the relationship between Complementary/Alternative Medicine (CAM) and Western Medicine (WM). This work aims to test the relationship between CAM and WM users in the diagnosis and treatment stages and to estimate the determinants of CAM choice.   Methods The forth Portuguese Nat...