Modest Expectations: Gender and Property Rights in Urban Mexico

This article examines gender and property in Guadalajara, Mexico, in the light of debates that oppose formal title to the social embeddedness of rights in customary law and assert that titling is bad for women. The article focuses on urban homes, private property, and civil law but finds that qualities regarded as characterizing customary property relations also shape popular understandings of property in urban Mexico. Discussion groups and social surveys in four low-income neighborhoods addressed two aspects of family law and property: whose name should appear on titles, and who should inherit the home. The results show that women, as wives, sisters, and daughters, have a secondary relationship to property. They also suggest that the opposition of individual title to socially embedded rights is a false dichotomy and that generalizing arguments about formalization and especially the negative gender implications of titling risks replicating the universalizing tendencies of Western property models.     

The Mad Heir Apparent and the Spanish Succession: The Fate of the Infante Don Carlos

In twentieth-century Britain, the monarch no longer exercises governmental power directly, and a monarch’s incapability creates rather different issues and problems than in periods when kings ruled as well as reigned. How was a situation such as that of disabled heir apparent, or a monarch who became physically or mentally incapable while reigning, dealt with when monarchs ruled directly? This article considers some examples of monarchs in the past who were physically or mentally disabled on accession or became so while reigning, and heirs apparent who were set aside by reason of disability. It reflects upon constitutional solutions and political actions taken and how these were presented according to the ideas of the time.     

Strategic planning and budgeting in the “new texas”: putting service efforts and accomplishments to work

Texas implemented a new “strategic budgeting” system to craft the state's 1994-95 biennial budget. This performance-based budgeting system combines strategic planning, service efforts and accomplishments (SEA) indicators and reporting, and line-item appropriations. This article reviews the ideas and process behind linking strategic planning and line-item budgeting and describes the key role of SEA indicators. Interviews with agency practitioners and the experiences of the Governor's Office of Budget and Planning are used to evaluate the system.     

Why Do Adolescents Overestimate Their Peers' Smoking Prevalence? Correlates of Prevalence Estimates Among California 8th-Grade Students

Adolescents' estimates of their peers' smoking prevalence can influence their own smoking behavior. However, it is not clear how these prevalence estimates are formed, or what factors influence their accuracy. This study used data from a statewide sample of 5870 8th-grade adolescents in California to examine the correlates of smoking prevalence estimates. Best friends' smoking accounted for the largest proportion of the variance in prevalence estimates. Other significant correlates included female gender, actual smoking prevalence in the student's school, perceptions of smoking on TV, perceived access to cigarettes, low academic performance, cigarette offers, and ethnicity. The variables in the model accounted for 23.8% of the variance in smoking prevalence estimates. Adolescents with smokers in their social networks and schools may be especially susceptible to smoking, because their peers' smoking may give them the impression that smoking is more normative and prevalent than it actually is.     

Gender roles in marriage: What do they mean for girls' and boys' school achievement?

This study explored the implications of parents' traditional vs. egalitarian marital roles for girls' and boys' patterns of math and science achievement in 67 families with young adolescents. Marital roles were measured in terms of parents' relative involvement in child-oriented activities (e.g., in egalitarian families mothers and fathers participated equally in child-oriented activities). Findings revealed that girls from egalitarian families maintained a high level of achievement across the transition to the seventh grade, whereas girls from traditional families declined in math and science performance. For boys, no significant patterns emerged. Additional analyses revealed that egalitarian and traditional families differed in terms of absolute levels of paternal involvement, parents' sex-role attitudes, and indices of marital power. Our findings were consistent with a person-process-context model of development: Egalitarian and traditional contexts were characterized by different family processes and had different implications for boys and girls.This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (RO1HD21050), Ann C. Crouter and Susan M. McHale, co-principal investigators.Research focuses on gender role socialization in the family.Research interests include children's and adolescents' family relationships.Research focuses on the links between parental work and family dynamics.     

Analysis of carbohydrates in seized heroin using capillary electrophoresis

Illicitly produced heroin is commonly cut with carbohydrates to increase bulk. The analysis of these solutes is important for legal and intelligence purposes. A capillary electrophoresis (CE) method was developed for the qualitative analysis of dextrose, lactose, sucrose, inositol, and mannitol in heroin exhibits. For this method, a 64 cm (55.5 cm to detector window) by 50 mum capillary was used with the Agilent Basic Anion Buffer modified to pH 12.1. This separation was performed at 25 degrees C with a voltage of 20 kV and indirect detection with 2,6-pyridinedicarboxylic acid as the visualization reagent. The methodology is also applicable for the screening of inorganic and organic anions using indirect detection, and acidic adulterants using direct detection. For a run time of 13 min, the relative standard deviation (n = 6) of the methodology was better than 0.36% for migration times and less than 2.6% for corrected peak areas. For the analysis of carbohydrates and acidic adulterants in seized heroin, excellent agreement was obtained between CE and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.