Measures of Learning, Memory and Processing Speed Accurately Predict Smoking Status in Short-term Abstinent Treatment-seeking Alcohol-dependent Individuals

Aim: Chronic cigarette smoking appears to adversely affect several domains of neurocognition in those with alcohol use disorders (AUDs). The primary goal of this study was to identify which measures commonly used to assess neurocognition in AUDs accurately predict smoking status of individuals seeking treatment of alcohol dependence. Methods: Treatment-seeking alcohol-dependent participants (ALC; n = 92) completed a comprehensive neuropsychological battery after 33 ± 9 days of abstinence. Measures significantly different between smoking and non-smoking ALC were entered as predictors in binary logistic regression and discriminant analysis models, with smoking status as the dependent variable. Results: Smoking ALC performed significantly worse than non-smoking ALC on measures assessing processing speed, auditory–verbal and visuospatial learning and memory. Using these measures as predictors, a logistic regression model accurately classified 91% of smokers and non-smokers into their respective groups overall and accounted for 68% of the variance in smoking status. The discriminant analysis confirmed the findings from the logistic regression. In smoking ALC, smoking chronicity was inversely related to performance on multiple measures after controlling for lifetime alcohol consumption. Conclusions: Measures of processing speed, learning and memory robustly predicted the smoking status of ALC with high sensitivity and specificity during early abstinence. The results identified specific measures within a comprehensive neurocognitive battery that discriminated smoking and non-smoking alcohol-dependent individuals with a high sensitivity and specificity. The association of greater smoking chronicity and poorer performance on multiple measures after control for alcohol consumption suggests that chronic smoking adds an additional burden to neurocognitive function in those with alcohol dependence

MANUEL CASTELLS: THE IMPACT OF THE NETWORK SOCIETY ON THE NATURE OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS

The article deals with Manuel Castells’ theory of network society, corrected and updated according to the new events happened during the last 10 years. The author of the theory registers the major signals of the changing processes in the modern society, happening due to the expansion of networks in the age of technological innovations. Сhanges affected the global economy, finance, structure of labor, migration, the velocity , role and individual's perception of time. An unprecedented increase of urbanization in the world happened as well. The society became multiethnic. The network structure of the society leads to the uprise of a fundamentally new form of communication called mass selfcommunications. The launched process reduces the elitist role of the official issuer of information i.e. the information flows going vertically, and increases the importance of information published in open spaces on the Internet by individuals i.e. information flows going horizontally from individuals to individuals. New technologies let any individual create its own informational system using the Internet and mobile communication tools. Despite the appearance of mass self-communications in an atmosphere of high social instability, this form of communication turns up to be an effective tool in the matrix of social interaction in the Internet. An accelerated growth in number of mass self-communications’ users is being registered due to the revolutionary changes in the field of communication technologies which made wireless mobile communication devices able to stay connected to the Internet almost continuously. Wireless communication becomes the dominant form of communication in the world, being the fastest-spreading communication technology in history. In this regard the role and form of issue of information in mass-media changes. Synergy between mass-communication and all other forms of communication appeared. The result of this process is the emergence of a radically new culture of communication in modern society

Mechanisms of Social Consolidation in the Network Society

During the last five years the world has seen the emergence of mass global and regional social movements outside of institutional structures representing open systems with a spontaneous nature. These social movements do not have any tangible hierarchy and leaders; information within the movement activity is spread virally and mainly using new electronic communication tools - namely, mass self-communication constituting spaces of communication autonomy beyond the control of governments. A feature of the new type of social movements is their emergence in virtual space. Such mass movements manifest intensified consolidation processes in the modern society - due to fundamentally new factors. New practical mechanisms of consolidation amid an increase in the proportion of young people in countries are directly linked with technological developments that influenced in essence communication and changes in the established modern informational society. Virtual mass self-communication becomes the main practical mechanism for social consolidation in the modern informational society. The consolidation process intensifies due to government legitimacy crisis and loss of public trust in government and indicates an emergence of a new form of a civil society