Tradução comentada do conto "Babylon revisited" de F. Scott Fitzgerald

Este Trabalho de Projeto tem como objeto a tradução para Língua Portuguesa do conto Babylon Revisited do autor norte-americano F. Scott Fitzgerald, publicado pela primeira vez em 1931 na revista semanal Saturday Evenning Post. Na primeira parte do trabalho, procedeu-se a uma apresentação da vida e obra do autor, análise do conto e do contexto histórico e sócio-económico em que ambos se inserem. Na segunda parte faz-se uma exposição das teorias de tradução que mais diretamente influenciaram o presente trabalho, assim como uma reflexão sobre as dificuldades que surgiram durante o trabalho de tradução e a justificação acerca das soluções encontradas e do processo decisivo.

A tragédia da consciência no conto de Machado de Assis

Neste ensaio, o conto O Caso da Vara de Machado de Assis é lido não só como uma história irónica, cuidadosamente estruturada, de conflitos internos versus acções reais, mas também como uma potencial peça dramática que partilha das características da tragédia clássica. As acções das personagens são vencidas pela torrente dos seus pensamentos, medos, crueldades e dramas, conduzindo a narrativa até um desfecho enigmático e sempre adiado. Tal como no drama clássico, n‘O Caso da Vara notamos a predilecção de Machado de Assis por situações universais que revelam a feição trágico-cómica dos comportamentos instituídos, num conto carregado de implicações morais que despertam o leitor para as grandes intenções e ainda maiores cobardias do ser humano.

Multidimensional scaling analysis of the dynamics of a country economy

This paper analyzes the Portuguese short-run business cycles over the last 150 years and presents the multidimensional scaling (MDS) for visualizing the results. The analytical and numerical assessment of this long-run perspective reveals periods with close connections between the macroeconomic variables related to government accounts equilibrium, balance of payments equilibrium, and economic growth. The MDS method is adopted for a quantitative statistical analysis. In this way, similarity clusters of several historical periods emerge in the MDS maps, namely, in identifying similarities and dissimilarities that identify periods of prosperity and crises, growth, and stagnation. Such features are major aspects of collective national achievement, to which can be associated the impact of international problems such as the World Wars, the Great Depression, or the current global financial crisis, as well as national events in the context of broad political blueprints for the Portuguese society in the rising globalization process.

Matemática na hora do conto

Este artigo procura realçar que, através da conexão entre a literatura e a matemática, se podem criar situações em que as crianças abordem conceitos matemáticos de uma forma significativa permitindo que as habilidades matemáticas e as de linguagem se desenvolvam em conjunto. Uma das formas mais significativas de se construir conhecimento matemático é resolver problemas e desafios, tão comuns nos contos infantis. Apresentamos duas situações, que se enquadram nesta perspetiva pedagógica. Em ambas as situações foi usado um conto como ponto de partida para a construção de atividades matemáticas e tendo presente uma visão construtivista do ensino da matemática.

MCDA applied to performance appraisal of short-haul truck drivers: a case study in a portuguese trucking company

Performance appraisal increasingly assumes a more important role in any organizational environment. In the trucking industry, drivers are the company's image and for this reason it is important to develop and increase their performance and commitment to the company's goals. This paper aims to create a performance appraisal model for trucking drivers, based on a multi-criteria decision aid methodology. The PROMETHEE and MMASSI methodologies were adapted using the criteria used for performance appraisal by the trucking company studied. The appraisal involved all the truck drivers, their supervisors and the company's Managing Director. The final output is a ranking of the drivers, based on their performance, for each one of the scenarios used. The results are to be used as a decision-making tool to allocate drivers to the domestic haul service.

Psychometric Properties of the Portuguese Version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory Short Form Among Divorced Adults

The aim of this study was to develop and validate a Portuguese version of the Short Form of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-SF). Using an online convenience sample of Portuguese divorced adults (N = 482), we confirmed the oblique five-factor structure of the PTGI-SF by confirmatory factor analysis. The results demonstrated the measurement invariance across divorce initiator status groups. Total score and factors of PTGI-SF showed good internal consistency, with the exception of the New Possibilities factor, which revealed an acceptable reliability. The Portuguese PTGI-SF showed a satisfactory convergent validity. In terms of discriminant validity, posttraumatic growth assessed by the Portuguese PTGI-SF was a distinct factor from posttraumatic psychological adjustment. These preliminary findings suggest the cultural adaptation and also psychometric properties of the present Portuguese PTGI-SF to measure posttraumatic growth after personal crisis.

Short-term wind forecasting for energy resources scheduling

This paper proposes a wind power forecasting methodology based on two methods: direct wind power forecasting and wind speed forecasting in the first phase followed by wind power forecasting using turbines characteristics and the aforementioned wind speed forecast. The proposed forecasting methodology aims to support the operation in the scope of the intraday resources scheduling model, namely with a time horizon of 5 minutes. This intraday model supports distribution network operators in the short-term scheduling problem, in the smart grid context. A case study using a real database of 12 months recorded from a Portuguese wind power farm was used. The results show that the straightforward methodology can be applied in the intraday model with high wind speed and wind power accuracy. The wind power forecast direct method shows better performance than wind power forecast using turbine characteristics and wind speed forecast obtained in first phase.

Audiovisual translation on Portuguese news bulletin

The daily access to news broadcast is something that, generally speaking, we do not abstain ourselves from, whether it is to be aware of what is going on in our country or to be informed about international events. But are we attentive to how the information about those events, namely those that occur outside Portugal, reaches us? How is that information handled – and who handles it – until we have it at our disposal? Is the audience aware that a large part of the news must be translated and must have a linguistic treatment? And how can we describe that same translation and the way it is presented? This case study is just an example of translation‘s role and its crucial presence on TV news broadcast, considering the way translation is processed, how it is barely noticed – or not –, how it influences the construction of the story and how the story influences the translation process. This case study was presented at the 2nd International Conference ―Media for All‖, with the theme ―Text on Air, Text on Screen‖, which took place at the Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, on 7-9 November 2007. O acesso diário a serviços informativos noticiosos é algo de que, de um modo geral, não nos privamos, seja para ficar a par do que se passa no nosso país, seja para ficarmos mais informados sobre eventos e acontecimentos internacionais. Mas teremos noção de como essas informações sobre esses acontecimentos, nomeadamente os que têm lugar fora de Portugal, chegam até nós? Qual será o tratamento dado a essas informações – e quem trata essas informações – até serem colocadas à nossa disposição? Será que o público, de um modo geral, se apercebe que grande parte das notícias é alvo de tratamento tradutológico e linguístico? E como se caracterizará essa tradução e a forma de apresentação da mesma? O presente estudo de caso é apenas um exemplo do papel e da presença fulcral da tradução em serviços noticiosos televisivos, seja pela forma como é feita, pelo modo como passa despercebida (ou não), pela influência que terá na construção da peça noticiosa e pela influência que a peça noticiosa terá no modo como se processa a tradução. Este estudo de caso foi apresentado na 2ª Conferência Internacional ―Media for All‖, subordinada ao tema ―Text on Air, Text on Screen‖, que teve lugar no Instituto Politécnico de Leiria de 7 a 9 de Novembro de 2007.

Forest soil short term response to prescribed fire: an approach by Principal Components Analysis

In the current context of serious climate changes, where the increase of the frequency of some extreme events occurrence can enhance the rate of periods prone to high intensity forest fires, the National Forest Authority often implements, in several Portuguese forest areas, a regular set of measures in order to control the amount of fuel mass availability (PNDFCI, 2008). In the present work we’ll present a preliminary analysis concerning the assessment of the consequences given by the implementation of prescribed fire measures to control the amount of fuel mass in soil recovery, in particular in terms of its water retention capacity, its organic matter content, pH and content of iron. This work is included in a larger study (Meira-Castro, 2009(a); Meira-Castro, 2009(b)). According to the established praxis on the data collection, embodied in multidimensional matrices of n columns (variables in analysis) by p lines (sampled areas at different depths), and also considering the quantitative data nature present in this study, we’ve chosen a methodological approach that considers the multivariate statistical analysis, in particular, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA ) (Góis, 2004). The experiments were carried out in a soil cover over a natural site of Andaluzitic schist, in Gramelas, Caminha, NW Portugal, who was able to maintain itself intact from prescribed burnings from four years and was submit to prescribed fire in March 2008. The soils samples were collected from five different plots at six different time periods. The methodological option that was adopted have allowed us to identify the most relevant relational structures inside the n variables, the p samples and in two sets at the same time (Garcia-Pereira, 1990). Consequently, and in addition to the traditional outputs produced from the PCA, we have analyzed the influence of both sampling depths and geomorphological environments in the behavior of all variables involved.

Size matters when we talk about corporate social responsibility: the case of portuguese companies

Social responsibility arises as a measure of the corporate policy that goes beyond the production activity, thus covering also the social and environmental activities. This issue has been gaining importance over time. The number of companies that are implementing socially responsible actions has been growing steadily even though it is still centered on large and medium sized companies. Social responsibility is an accessible theme to any company of any size, once the social and environmental issues are resolved through concrete actions, but in the small and micro-sized companies there are factors that inhibit such actions. Some of these factors are: reduced investment capacity; minimal expectations of medium to long term returns; or even the short-term management focus that is aimed at survival. Such facts can be verified in the case of Portuguese companies, where out of the 41 companies certified by SA 8000 only 5 are micro-sized or small and even these are linked to large organizations.

Characterization of the portuguese SSS into the Europe: a contribution

Nowadays, Short Sea Shipping (SSS) is an essential part in European multi-modal transport system, representing approximately thirty-seven per cent of intra-Community transactions in tonnes per kilometre (tkm). Since 2001, the European Shortsea Network (ESN) in partnership with the short-sea Promotion Centres (SPC) of each Member State of the European Union (EU) have managed to make significant progress in the promotion and development of this mode of transport. This paper aims to assess and analyse the SSS of containerised goods in Portugal and its articulation with other EU routes and also other transport modes. The current SSS infrastructure, how the sector is organized, as well as the future perspectives for the sector are also analysed for the case of Portugal. The analyses are based on a survey that was carried out on the logistics operators, navigation agents, freight forwarders, and the leading imports and exports manufacturers in Portugal.

The prominence of social responsibility disclosure in Portuguese companies’ web pages

This study investigates Portuguese companies’ use of the Internet to communicate social responsibility information, and the factors that affect this use. It examines the characteristics of companies that influence the prominence of social responsibility information on the Internet. Firm-specific factors that explain SRD by companies operating in a European country in which capital market fund raising is not regarded to be an important source of financing are analysed. The results are interpreted through the lens of a “political economy” framework which combines stakeholder and legitimacy theories perspectives, according to which companies disclose social responsibility information to present a socially responsible image so that they can legitimise their behaviours to their stakeholder groups and influence the external perception of reputation. Results suggest that a theoretical framework combining stakeholder and legitimacy theories may provide an explanatory basis for SRD by Portuguese companies. However, this study does not provide us with enough evidence to determine that the prominence given to CSR activities by Portuguese companies in their websites is linked to relationships with their stakeholders

Educational characteristics of adult students in portuguese technological schools

Despite a massive expansion of education in Portugal, since the 1970’s, educational attainment of the adult population in the country remains low. The numbers of working-age people in some form of continuing education are among the lowest, according to the OECD and EU-27 statistics. Technological Schools(TS), initially created in the 1990’s, under the umbrella of the Ministry of Economy in partnership with industry and industrial associations, aimed to prepare qualified staff for industries and services in the country, particularly in the engineering sector, through the provision of post secondary non-university programmes of studies, the CET (Technological Specialization Courses). Successful CET students are awarded a DET(Diploma of Technological Specialization), which corresponds to Vocational Qualification level IV of the EU, according to the latest alteration (2005) of the Education Systems Act (introduced in 1986). In this, CET’s are also clearly defined as one of the routes for access to Higher Education (HE), in Portugal. The PRILHE (Promoting Reflective and Independent Learning in Higher Education) multinational project, funded by the European Socrates Grundtvig Programme, aimed to identify the learning processes which enable adult students in higher education to become autonomous reflective learners and search best practices to support these learning processes. During this research, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to determine how students organise their studies and develop their learning skills. The Portuguese partner in the project’ consortium used a two case studies approach, one with students of Higher Education Institutions and other with students of TS. This paper only applies to students of TS, as these have a predominant bias towards engineering. Results show that student motivation and professional teaching support contribute equally to the development of an autonomous and reflective approach to learning in adult students; this is essential for success in a knowledge economy, where lifelong learning is the key to continuous employment.

Knowledge sharing and learning processes: case study of portuguese technological schools and higher education institutions

Paper to be presented at the ESREA Conference Learning to Change? The Role of Identity and Learning Careers in Adult Education, 7-8 December, 2006, Université Catholique Louvain, Louvain–la-Neuve, Belgium

Lifelong learning: case study of adult students in portuguese technological schools and higher education institutions

Paper to be presented in ESREA 2007 ADC Network Seminar - Changing Relationships between the State, Civil Society and the Citizen: Implications for adult education and adult learning, 14 -16 June 2007 - University of Minho - Campus de Gualtar, Braga (Portugal).