Running away experience and psychoactive substance use among adolescents in Taiwan: multi-city street outreach survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study aimed to examine: 1) the relationship between being a runaway and the time since the first absconding event and adolescent substance use; 2) whether different kinds of psychoactive substances have a different temporal relationship to the first absconding event; and 3) whether the various reasons for the first absconding event are associated with different risks of substance use.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Participants were drawn from the 2004-2006 nationwide outreach programs across 26 cities/towns in Taiwan. A total of 17,133 participants, age 12-18 years, who completed an anonymous questionnaire on their experience of running away and substances use and who were now living with their families, were included in the analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The lifetime risk of tobacco, alcohol, betel nut, and illegal drug/inhalant use increased steadily from adolescents who had experienced a trial runaway episode (one time lasting ≤ 1 day), to those with extended runaway experience (≥ 2 times or lasting > 1 day), when compared to those who had never ran away. Adolescents who had their first running away experience > 6 months previously had a greater risk of betel nut or illegal drug/inhalant use over the past 6-months than those with a similar experience within the last 6 months. Both alcohol and tobacco use were most frequently initiated before the first running away, whereas both betel nut and illegal drug/inhalant use were most frequently initiated after this event. When adolescents who were fleeing an unsatisfactory home life were compared to those who ran away for excitement, the risk of alcohol use was similar but the former tended to have a higher risk of tobacco, betel nut, and illegal drug/inhalant use.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>More significant running away and a longer time since the first absconding experience were associated with more advanced substance involvement among adolescents now living in a family setting. Once adolescents had left home, they developed additional psychoactive substance problems, regardless of their reasons for running away. These findings have implications for caregivers, teachers, and healthcare workers when trying to prevent and/or intervening in adolescent substance use.</p

Geothermal driving force: A new additional non-gravity action driving the migration of geothermal water in the Xinzhou geothermal field of Yangjiang, Guangdong

The "nested multilevel flow system" summarized by Tóth and the gravity driven groundwater flow system theory summarized by Zhang Renquan et al are the important theoretical basis for groundwater migration.Groundwater flow may be affected by gravitational potential, compaction potential and tectonic compression force.However, the anomalous phenomenon that the groundwater recharge area is lower than the groundwater drainage area is found in the convective hydrothermal system.As the temperature rises, the density of geothermal water decreases and the pressure increases, and the actual pressure head of geothermal water increases, which is the physical basis for this abnormal phenomenon.This paper defines the additional pressure head as "geothermal driving force", which is related to the temperature, salinity and viscosity of geothermal water.And we propose a quantitative calculation method.In the case of Xinzhou geothermal field in Yangjiang, Guangdong Province, the starting point of the geothermal driving force is located at the deepest part of the geothermal water cycle of 4.34 km, where the standard head of the geothermal driving force generated by temperature rise is +351.59 m, and the standard head of the geothermal driving force generated by salinity increase is -2.78 m, and the standard head of total geothermal driving force is +348.81 m.The higher the geothermal water temperature is, the greater the geothermal driving force is.The greater the salinity, the smaller the geothermal driving force.The additional supporting effect of geothermal driving force can accelerate the circulation of groundwater in hydrothermal system