  The effects of the Polyakov loop and of a regularization procedure that
allows the presence of high momentum quark states at finite temperature is
investigated within the Polyakov-loop extended Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. The
characteristic temperatures, as well as the behavior of observables that signal
deconfinement and restoration of chiral and axial symmetries, are analyzed,
paying special attention to the behavior of strangeness degrees of freedom. We
observe that the cumulative effects of the Polyakov loop and of the
regularization procedure contribute to a better description of the
thermodynamics, as compared with lattice estimations. We find a faster partial
restoration of chiral symmetry and the restoration of the axial symmetry
appears as a natural consequence of the full recovering of the chiral symmetry
that was dynamically broken. These results show the relevance of the effects of
the interplay among the Polyakov loop dynamics, the high momentum quark sates
and the restoration of the chiral and axial symmetries at finite temperature.
