From Trenches to the Crest, effectuating a Greater Beneficence of Terminology Development to National Language Policy: the Nigeria Case

Terminology development as a tool that propels the evolvement of educational and translation materials and services besides enhancing the formation of a robust terminology is widely celebrated as a great linguistic tool. This is because of its’ potency in knitting together a multilingual society like Nigeria towards a common understanding and purpose. The afore-stated promotion of national unity, effective communication and the preservation of indigenous languages directed towards the creation of an inclusive nation are the same goals pursued by the National Policy on Education which couches Nigeria’s Language Policy. Consequently, this study titled, ‘From Trenches to the Crest, effectuatinga Greater Beneficence of Terminology Development to National Language Policy: The Nigeria Case’, primarily aims to explore the meritorious services of terminology development in the evolution, realization and implementation of an effective language policy in Nigeria. By surveying the historical development of Nigeria language policy, it identifies and condemns the overemphasis of the usage of English language for instructional and legislative purposes, pointing out its disservices to indigenous languages. The study also highlights the fundamental roles and challenges impeding a fuller beneficence of a symbiosis of terminology development and the National Language Policy in achieving national integration. Adopting the hermeneutical and content analysis methods of enquiry, the research in conclusion, suggests a novel pragmatic and proactive terminology development model, which will drive a vibrant language policy and implementation

Pengaruh Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Mandiri Perdesaan terhadap Sosial Ekonomi Rumah Tangga pada Kelompok Simpan Pinjam Perempuan di Desa Ononamolo II Lot Kecamatan Gunungsitoli Barat Kota Gunungsitoli

Poverty is a phenomenal problem. Therefore, poverty is a topic that is very important and crucial to be completed. The phenomenon of poverty, which is most often found in rural areas, has been undertaken by the government to be resolved by establishing programs such as the National Program for Community Empowerment in Rural Areas or Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Mandiri Perdesaan (PNPM-MP), as a solution. This study research has the objective to determine the effect of this program on socio-economic conditions of the household in the group of women on savings and loan in Ononamolo II Lot Village, sub-district of West Gunungsitoli, Gunungsitoli. This research study considered in a descriptive study by using descriptive statistical analysis. The population in this research study were 40 women who participated in the activities savings and loan for women in Ononamolo II Lot Village, with the presentation of the data using a single table system. Methods of data collection are questionnaires, interviews, real observations, and literature study. The results showed that the influence of PNPM-MP for the socio-economic of the household in the group of women on savings and loan in Ononamolo II Lot Village, sub-district of West Gunungsitoli, Gunungsitoli, is less influential. This is caused by the lack of education that have an impact on the lack of management of the loans, the lack of participation of members of the group, and the lack of oversight by the management

Rethinking John Dewey’s Instrumentalism Vis a Vis the Igbo Notion of “Akonucheism”

This work examines John Dewey’s instrumentalism postulate against the Igbo notion of “Akonucheism”. Dewey proposes instrumentalization of man, morality and knowledge in order to pragmatically solve human problems. He prescribes the experimental method for all disciplines and insists that science be allowed to operate without a moral umpire. This overemphasis on the scientific method constitutes one of the problematics of his pragmatism and engenders the receptivity of the sciento-technological rationality among strictly cultural societies such as the Igbo. On the other hand, the term “Akonucheism” is a coinage, which derives from Igbo words for intelligence (Ako or Izu) and thought (Uche). It describes the employment of intelligent thought, which entails the pragmatic integration of the positive elements found in the moral charter (culture) of the Igbo people of Nigeria, with acquired learning, knowledge or technical skill (amumamu and nka-na-uzu) to produce problem-resolving or relevant knowledge (now styled wisdom). This wisdom, contextually solves existential problems and the process of its extraction is what is called “Akonucheism”. Our aim in this paper, therefore, is to propose a balanced and rational integration, which makes it possible for the positive moral elements locatable in cultures to readily and complementarily fuse with the sciento-technological rationality in order to produce problem solving wisdom (Amamihe). However, we observe that among the Igbo, the circuit of knowing gets only completed when humane solutions are achieved without loss of human dignity, personhood and moral values hence, our rethinking Dewey’s instrumentalism. The analytical and comparative methods of enquiry are adopted for this research.Key Words: Instrumentalism, “Akonucheism”, Experimentalism, Wisdom, Knowledg

A Critical Analysis of Immanuel Kant’s Transcendental Idealism

Kant’s transcendental idealism is severally described as an ‘immanetist’ and ‘agnostic’ one. Couched mainly in his Critique of Pure Reason, critics have observed that it is bedeviled by many errors, violations of the principle of non-contradiction and incoherencies of method and content. His inability to bring to our full knowledge and understanding, his noumenal reality postulate, constitutes a weakness to the system he sets out to build. This paper consequently, situates Kant’s transcendental idealism within the stream of related philosophical idealistic postulations and with the aim of highlighting the special reconciliatory role it plays between two rival cognitive pathways of empiricism and rationalism. The researcher also attempts to show how this Kantian contribution, enriches human cognition. However, the literary analysis method of enquiry is adopted in this study. Keywords: Transcendental idealism, Noumena, Phenomena, Cognition

Myths as Contextual Logic for Social Control: The Igbo Example

This work argues for the evaluation of myths within the context of their role as a means of social control through the transmission of cherished cultural values and norms, using Igbo mythology as a case study. It argues that the epistemic credentials of myths are largely determined by their historical and cultural contexts; hence, myths defy universal logic and rationalism. It is thus inappropriate, misleading and a mismatch of categories to subject myths to modern Western criteriology, which regards myth as a logically bankrupt, pre-scientific and anachronistic mode of thought. This study contends that such pejorative categorization derives substantially from enculturation, which is the process by which the dominant Western culture completely undermines non-Western belief systems. Our study also reveals that Igbo mythology richly embodies practical rules that guide social living. From three instantiations made in this paper, we observe that myths simply prefer a different logic, which is less stringent and argumentative than those of both science and Western epistemology. Its logic recognizes diversity of cultures and "polysemy" of linguistic expressions. This study utilizes the expository and comparative methods of inquiry. It recommends an acculturation ideology, which integrates the best elements of sciento-cultural rationalities. This fusion, charts a path for society's growth, thereby fostering social control and protecting human personhood from the destructive backlashes of science and technology.Key Words: Myths, Contextual Logic, Social Control, Acculturation, Igb

Coherent acoustic vibration of metal nanoshells

Using time-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy we have performed the first investigation of the vibrational modes of gold nanoshells. The fundamental isotropic mode launched by a femtosecond pump pulse manifests itself in a pronounced time-domain modulation of the differential transmission probed at the frequency of nanoshell surface plasmon resonance. The modulation amplitude is significantly stronger and the period is longer than in a gold nanoparticle of the same overall size, in agreement with theoretical calculations. This distinct acoustical signature of nanoshells provides a new and efficient method for identifying these versatile nanostructures and for studying their mechanical and structural properties.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Impaired awareness of action-outcome contingency and causality during healthy ageing and following ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions

Detecting causal relationships between actions and their outcomes is fundamental to guiding goal-directed behaviour. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) has been extensively implicated in computing these environmental contingencies, via animal lesion models and human neuroimaging. However, whether the vmPFC is critical for contingency learning, and whether it can occur without subjective awareness of those contingencies, has not been established. To address this, we measured response adaption to contingency and subjective awareness of action-outcome relationships in individuals with vmPFC lesions and healthy elderly subjects. We showed that in both vmPFC damage and ageing, successful behavioural adaptation to variations in action-outcome contingencies was maintained, but subjective awareness of these contingencies was reduced. These results highlight two contexts where performance and awareness have been dissociated, and show that learning response-outcome contingencies to guide behaviour can occur without subjective awareness. Preserved responding in the vmPFC group suggests that this region is not critical for computing action-outcome contingencies to guide behaviour. In contrast, our findings highlight a critical role for the vmPFC in supporting awareness, or metacognitive ability, during learning. We further advance the hypothesis that responding to changing environmental contingencies, whilst simultaneously maintaining conscious awareness of those statistical regularities, is a form of dual-tasking that is impaired in ageing due to reduced prefrontal function.Recruitment and characterisation of individuals with brain lesions was made possible by the Cambridge Cognitive Neuroscience Research Panel at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge. We acknowledge the contribution of Dr Sharon Erzinçlioğlu, Prof. Facundo Manes and Dr Tilak Das (consultant radiologist, Addenbroke’s Hospital) for their involvement in co-ordinating the panel, lesion tracing, and referral to the panel. This research was funded by a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award (104631/Z/14/Z) to TWR. Work was completed at the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, supported by a joint award from the Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust (G00001354). CO is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Neil Hamilton Fairley Fellowship (GNT 1091310). MMV is supported by a Pinsent Darwin Scholarship in Mental Pathology and Angharad Dodds John Bursary in Mental Health and Neuropsychiatry