Effects of Encouraging the Use of Gestures on Speech.

Purpose Previous studies have investigated the effects of the inability to produce hand gestures on speakers' prosodic features of speech; however, the potential effects of encouraging speakers to gesture have received less attention, especially in naturalistic settings. This study aims at investigating the effects of encouraging the production of hand gestures on the following speech correlates: speech discourse length (number of words and discourse length in seconds), disfluencies (filled pauses, self-corrections, repetitions, insertions, interruptions, speech rate), and prosodic properties (measures of fundamental frequency [F0] and intensity). Method Twenty native Italian speakers took part in a narration task in which they had to describe the content of short comic strips to a confederate listener in 1 of the following 2 conditions: (a) nonencouraging condition (N), that is, no instructions about gesturing were given, and (b) encouraging condition (E), that is, the participants were instructed to gesture while telling the story.

Transport barrier inside the reversal surface in the chaotic regime of the reversed-field pinch.

Magnetic field lines and the corresponding particle orbits are computed for a typical chaotic magnetic field provided by a magnetohydrodynamics numerical simulation of the reversed-field pinch. The m = 1 modes are phase locked and produce a toroidally localized bulging of the plasma which increases particle transport. The m = 0 and m = 1 modes produce magnetic chaos implying poor confinement.

[Preliminary approach to the mental component in dermatologic patients].

The aim of this study was to approach on a psychical point of view 27 patients suffering from chronic idiopathic urticaria (14), pruritus sine materia (6), alopecia areata (3), pathomimia (4), in order to examine the possibility that psychic disorders could act as triggering or aggravating the dermatological affection. Psychical assessment was evaluated by colloquy and by the administration of some psychodiagnostic tests: EPI, MMPI, Zung. The role of psychogenic factors in skin diseases is emphasized and the results obtained from the use of antidepressant and minor tranquilizer drugs are discussed.