Estratégias de aprendizagem de léxico: como estas variam segundo o sexo e a idade?

Throughout the teaching-learning process of a foreign language, students are expected to develop their linguistic competence in order to learn how to communicate and express themselves. The lexicon is one of the key elements in this learning process since it is the basis of the communicative act, without which there is no communication. In the development of the lexical competence, speakers make use, consciously or unconsciously, of a series of learning strategies with the objective of positively promoting their lexical knowledge. This paper presents the results of a questionnaire, which was handed out to learners of Portuguese who have Spanish as their first language. The aim was to explore how these students learn vocabulary, what strategies they make use of, and which factors make their learning process more difficult. The evidence throws light on the strategies most widely used by the students of three Language Schools, how different those strategies are between men and women and if they change according to their age.Ao longo do processo de ensino-aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira (LE) espera-se que o aluno adquira e desenvolva as suas competências linguísticas com o fim de aprender a comunicar. Nesse processo, o léxico é um dos elementos fundamentais de aprendizagem pelo fato de ser a base do ato comunicativo, sem o qual não há comunicação. No desenvolvimento da competência lexical, os falantes recorrem, consciente ou inconscientemente, a uma série de estratégias de aprendizagem com o propósito de promover positivamente o seu conhecimento lexical. Com o objetivo de conhecer como os alunos de português como língua estrangeira, cuja língua materna é o espanhol, aprendem palavras, que estratégias usam e que fatores dificultam a sua aprendizagem, realizamos, em contexto de aula, um questionário que serviu de reflexão sobre o tema. O tratamento dos dados permitiu conhecer as estratégias mais usadas pelos alunos de três Escolas Oficiais de Idiomas e comprovar as diferenças existentes entre homens e mulheres relativamente às estratégias usadas na aprendizagem do léxico e se essa seleção sofre variações significativas segundo a idade dos informantes

Endividamento dos particulares e suas consequências

Mestrado em Contabilidade e Gestão das Instituições FinanceirasA temática endividamento encontra-se presente no nosso quotidiano. A controversa do excessivo endividamento dos particulares e as dificuldades sentidas no cumprimento das suas obrigações, é preocupante, sobretudo se relacionarmos as dificuldades que os particulares estão a sentir em liquidar os seus créditos, com o consecutivo aumento da taxa de desemprego. Nos últimos três anos, os níveis de endividamento atingidos pelos particulares, foram os mais altos das últimas duas décadas. Com esta investigação pretende-se compreender quais as causas que contribuíram para o endividamento dos particulares, o que os motivou no consequente recurso ao crédito, bem como a responsabilidade que as campanhas de marketing das instituições bancárias tiveram neste conceito. Desta forma torna-se imprescindível identificar alternativas para que as famílias não entrem em incumprimento. É extremamente importante que os particulares tenham consciência da importância de uma boa gestão do seu orçamento, tendo presente o conceito de literacia financeira

Nestle's dynamic forecasting process: anticipating risks and opportunities

Nestlé’s Dynamic Forecasting Process: Anticipating Risks and Opportunities This Work Project discusses the Nestlé’s Dynamic Forecasting Process, implemented within the organization as a way of reengineering its performance management concept and processes, so as to make it more flexible and capable to react to volatile business conditions. When stressing the importance of demand planning to reallocate resources and enhance performance, Nescafé Dolce Gusto comes as way of seeking improvements on this forecasts’ accuracy and it is thus, by providing a more accurate model on its capsules’ sales, as well as recommending adequate implementations that positively contribute to the referred Planning Process, that value is brought to the Projec

Polyglutamine diseases (PolyQ): construction and characterization of yeast models

Dissertação apresentada para a obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Genética Molecular e Biomedicina, pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e TecnologiaThere are a number of serious diseases which have in common the inappropriate folding of a particular protein, as polyglutamine disease group. Machado-Joseph‟s and Huntington‟s disease are grouped in the polyglutamine diseases, being the cause of the disease the presence of a CAG repeat tract in the causative gene, ATXN3 and HTT, respectively. This CAG repeats tract leads to the formation of polyglutamine tract in ataxin-3 and huntingtin proteins, respectively, that do not allow the correct protein folding. In diverse models, the expansion of the poluglutamine tract into disease related-proteins, promote their aggregation and their negative effect on cellular metabolism were described as associated to toxic effect. In this study, it was proposed the construction of the first yeast model for Machado-Joseph‟s disease and the characterization of the role of autophagy in the yeast model for Huntington‟s disease during yeast life cycle. For the yeast model for Machado-Joseph‟s disease we successfully constructed a Tet On system harboring the variant 1 genes, normal and expanded, fused with GFP gene, to further allow the subcellular localization of the expressed protein into yeast cells. In yeast model for Huntington‟s disease the chronological lifespan (CLS) of yeast cells at different physiological states after expressing the normal and the pathogenic protein and their subcellular localization, using epifluorescent microscopy was studied. It was demonstrated that cells harboring the huntingtin with 103 glutamines (pathogenic protein) during the inhibition of autophagic process, by chloroquine, presents an increased in CLS and the formation of large foci that could correspond to aggregosomes. In aged cells this effect is more pronounced leading to the hypothesis that in these cells the autophagic mechanism is impaired and enhances the toxic effects of expressed huntingtin 103Q and that the inhibition of the autophagic process can rescue the cells from the toxic effects. On the other hand, when the normal huntingtin (25Q) was expressed at exponential phase the inhibition of autophagy led to a drastic decrease on CLS, demonstrated that in functional cells the autophagy had a positive effect being a crucial process, probably removing unwanted intracellular components and providing energy