title: Counselling in the context of suicidal ideation in Malaysia

authors: Ling, Sai Ang

subjects: counselling

abstract: Counselling is particularly challenging in the context of potential harm through suicide. This is a time when it is clear that responsibilities for and influences on practice go beyond the client in the room. Socio-cultural and political influences range across the legislative, medical, religious, cultural, institutional and educational considerations that counsellors must give attention to. In complex and challenging situations counsellors must negotiate roles and responsibilities, make difficult clinical judgements and ethical decisions, and take responsible actions. The ethical principle of ‘do no harm’ becomes complex and may not be universally understood and agreed upon. Decisions are not simple and straightforward, and care must be delicately considered for each individual in his or her specific context. Manualised approaches to suicide prevention may not always be sufficient in the face of practice complexities. In this study, I examine the shaping effects of socio-cultural and political aspects on counselling practice in Malaysia in the context of suicidal ideation. I particularly emphasise how counsellors are positioned when these aspects intersect with the counselling process; how counsellors respond to, resist and change their positioning in order to minimise the risk of harm, and enhance life-affirming possibilities. Data were generated in semi-structured interviews with counsellors in Malaysia. Analysis of data included a focus on the investigation of discourses-in-action to bring forward a range of discourses that positioned counsellors, clients and their families in a conflicting or collaborating relationship, and thus defined client resistance differently. A discursive analysis of data illustrated that within the tensions between ethical choice of respecting clients’ right to autonomy and protecting client safety, counsellors found ways to engage in practice wisdom and work to co-construct with clients a relational, flexible, care-ful, creative, ethical responsive dialogic practice. The analysis shows how counsellors skilfully and delicately wove counselling, cultural/religious and personal knowledge together to produce practices tailored to the particularity of a specific client, while taking account of serious considerations for client safety. I argue that these practices should be understood through the imaginative possibilities of philosophy, showing how a Levinasian understanding of the Face of the Other, and a Derridean understanding of hospitality, highlight the highly developed relational-dialogic-responsive skill critical to counselling practice alongside clients where there is risk of serious self-harm.

text: Counselling in the context of suicidal ideation in Malaysia Counselling is particularly challenging in the context of potential harm through suicide. This is a time when it is clear that responsibilities for and influences on practice go beyond the client in the room. Socio-cultural and political influences range across the legislative, medical, religious, cultural, institutional and educational considerations that counsellors must give attention to. In complex and challenging situations counsellors must negotiate roles and responsibilities, make difficult clinical judgements and ethical decisions, and take responsible actions. The ethical principle of ‘do no harm’ becomes complex and may not be universally understood and agreed upon. Decisions are not simple and straightforward, and care must be delicately considered for each individual in his or her specific context. Manualised approaches to suicide prevention may not always be sufficient in the face of practice complexities. In this study, I examine the shaping effects of socio-cultural and political aspects on counselling practice in Malaysia in the context of suicidal ideation. I particularly emphasise how counsellors are positioned when these aspects intersect with the counselling process; how counsellors respond to, resist and change their positioning in order to minimise the risk of harm, and enhance life-affirming possibilities. Data were generated in semi-structured interviews with counsellors in Malaysia. Analysis of data included a focus on the investigation of discourses-in-action to bring forward a range of discourses that positioned counsellors, clients and their families in a conflicting or collaborating relationship, and thus defined client resistance differently. A discursive analysis of data illustrated that within the tensions between ethical choice of respecting clients’ right to autonomy and protecting client safety, counsellors found ways to engage in practice wisdom and work to co-construct with clients a relational, flexible, care-ful, creative, ethical responsive dialogic practice. The analysis shows how counsellors skilfully and delicately wove counselling, cultural/religious and personal knowledge together to produce practices tailored to the particularity of a specific client, while taking account of serious considerations for client safety. I argue that these practices should be understood through the imaginative possibilities of philosophy, showing how a Levinasian understanding of the Face of the Other, and a Derridean understanding of hospitality, highlight the highly developed relational-dialogic-responsive skill critical to counselling practice alongside clients where there is risk of serious self-harm.

year: 2019

title: Active scheduling for hybrid flowshop with family setup time and inconsistent family formation

authors: Luo, Hao

subjects: hybrid flowshop scheduling

abstract: This research is motivated by a real-life hybrid flowshop scheduling problem where jobs are organized in families according to their machine settings and tools. This type of problem is common in the production process of standard metal components. The problem is complicated by the requirement of family setup time when a machine changes from processing one job family to another and the formation of job families varies in different stages. This problem has been previously solved with a non-delay scheduling heuristic in which no machine is kept idle. This research illustrates that inserting intentional idle time into a non-delay schedule can further reduce the total setup time as well as makespan. With the inserted idle time, the non-delay schedules are extended to active schedules. This paper presents a mechanism to determine the locations and lengths of intentional idle times in the efficient active schedules. Four active scheduling approaches are developed by integrating two types of waiting factor operators into two non-delay approaches. Computational experiments have been conducted to compare the proposed active scheduling approaches in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. The results have shown that the proposed active scheduling approaches are superior to non-delay scheduling. The analysis of variance has been applied on the factors related to scheduling environment, problem size and scheduling approach. The analysis has identified factors that are most influential on the scheduling result.

text: Active scheduling for hybrid flowshop with family setup time and inconsistent family formation This research is motivated by a real-life hybrid flowshop scheduling problem where jobs are organized in families according to their machine settings and tools. This type of problem is common in the production process of standard metal components. The problem is complicated by the requirement of family setup time when a machine changes from processing one job family to another and the formation of job families varies in different stages. This problem has been previously solved with a non-delay scheduling heuristic in which no machine is kept idle. This research illustrates that inserting intentional idle time into a non-delay schedule can further reduce the total setup time as well as makespan. With the inserted idle time, the non-delay schedules are extended to active schedules. This paper presents a mechanism to determine the locations and lengths of intentional idle times in the efficient active schedules. Four active scheduling approaches are developed by integrating two types of waiting factor operators into two non-delay approaches. Computational experiments have been conducted to compare the proposed active scheduling approaches in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. The results have shown that the proposed active scheduling approaches are superior to non-delay scheduling. The analysis of variance has been applied on the factors related to scheduling environment, problem size and scheduling approach. The analysis has identified factors that are most influential on the scheduling result.

year: 2013

title: Te taiao: Te titiro a te Māori

authors: Kirby, Dean Robert

subjects: Cosmology

abstract: Ko te kaupapa o tēnei tuhinga ko te titiro a te Māori ki te taiao. He mea tuhi i runga i te aroha, i te whakapono ki ngēnei mea, ki te ātaahua o te taiao me ngā kōrero mōna. E whakatangatatia ana ngā āhuatanga o te taiao, ngā rākau, ngā manu, ngā ika, te kohu, ngā kapua, ngā maunga, otirā ngā mea katoa. Ara noa atu ngā kōrero, he whakapapa ō rātou, he huānga tētehi mea ki tētehi, he mauri tō tēnā mea tō tēnā mea. E ora ana ngā mea katoa o te ao, ka whai tamariki, he mātua he tūpuna anō, te katoa tae atu hoki ki te tangata, he wāhanga ia nō te taiao.
Hei aha tēnei tuhinga? Ko tāna mahi he whakaatu i ngēnei āhuatanga. Ā he whakamātau hoki ki te whakautu i te pātai he aha i whērā ai te titiro a ngā tūpuna ki tō rātou taiao. He kohikohingā tēnei nō ngā kōrero maha e takoto mai naka i roto i ngā pukapuka kua tāia kētia. Ehake i te mea ka kōrerotia ngā mea katoa, otiia ka tirohia noatia ngētehi āhuatanga o tēnei hanga te taiao. Kāhore i tuhia i runga i ngā kōrero ā waha a ngētehi kaikōrero, whēnā i ngētehi atu tuhinga roa. He mahi nui tērā mā tētehi atu hei whai, heoi anō tēnei he huihuinga nō ngētehi kōrero kua tuhia i mua atu.
Ka whakarārangitia ngā kōrero neki i muri ake nei. Ko tōna timatanga kei te Ōrokohanga, ko te timatanga tērā o te taiao. Ko te whenua ka whai mai me ngā kōrero mōna. Muri iho ko te wai me ngōna āhuatanga katoa. Ko te rangi, ngā mea katoa o te rangi ka whai mai i muri i tēnā. Muri iho anō ko ngā manu, ko ngā ngārara me ngā ngāngara, ngā rākau me ngā ika. Ka mutu atu i ngā tupua, i ngā taniwha me ngā patupaiarehe, i ngā kōrero mō ngērā. E iwa wāhanga nui te katoa o tēnei tuhinga. Kei te timatanga tētehi wāhanga hei whakamārama i te tuhinga ā kei te mutunga tētehi atu wāhanga hei whakatōpū, hei whakarāpopoto i ngā kōrero o roto i te puku o te tuhinga nei.
Kei ngā wāhanga o te pukapuka nei he kōrero mō tēnā mea, mō tēnā mea i raro i tōna ūpoko anō, me ngā whakaāhua e rite ana mōna. Ko te tūmanako ka kite te kaipānui i te pūrotutanga o te taiao o te Māori.

text: Te taiao: Te titiro a te Māori Ko te kaupapa o tēnei tuhinga ko te titiro a te Māori ki te taiao. He mea tuhi i runga i te aroha, i te whakapono ki ngēnei mea, ki te ātaahua o te taiao me ngā kōrero mōna. E whakatangatatia ana ngā āhuatanga o te taiao, ngā rākau, ngā manu, ngā ika, te kohu, ngā kapua, ngā maunga, otirā ngā mea katoa. Ara noa atu ngā kōrero, he whakapapa ō rātou, he huānga tētehi mea ki tētehi, he mauri tō tēnā mea tō tēnā mea. E ora ana ngā mea katoa o te ao, ka whai tamariki, he mātua he tūpuna anō, te katoa tae atu hoki ki te tangata, he wāhanga ia nō te taiao.
Hei aha tēnei tuhinga? Ko tāna mahi he whakaatu i ngēnei āhuatanga. Ā he whakamātau hoki ki te whakautu i te pātai he aha i whērā ai te titiro a ngā tūpuna ki tō rātou taiao. He kohikohingā tēnei nō ngā kōrero maha e takoto mai naka i roto i ngā pukapuka kua tāia kētia. Ehake i te mea ka kōrerotia ngā mea katoa, otiia ka tirohia noatia ngētehi āhuatanga o tēnei hanga te taiao. Kāhore i tuhia i runga i ngā kōrero ā waha a ngētehi kaikōrero, whēnā i ngētehi atu tuhinga roa. He mahi nui tērā mā tētehi atu hei whai, heoi anō tēnei he huihuinga nō ngētehi kōrero kua tuhia i mua atu.
Ka whakarārangitia ngā kōrero neki i muri ake nei. Ko tōna timatanga kei te Ōrokohanga, ko te timatanga tērā o te taiao. Ko te whenua ka whai mai me ngā kōrero mōna. Muri iho ko te wai me ngōna āhuatanga katoa. Ko te rangi, ngā mea katoa o te rangi ka whai mai i muri i tēnā. Muri iho anō ko ngā manu, ko ngā ngārara me ngā ngāngara, ngā rākau me ngā ika. Ka mutu atu i ngā tupua, i ngā taniwha me ngā patupaiarehe, i ngā kōrero mō ngērā. E iwa wāhanga nui te katoa o tēnei tuhinga. Kei te timatanga tētehi wāhanga hei whakamārama i te tuhinga ā kei te mutunga tētehi atu wāhanga hei whakatōpū, hei whakarāpopoto i ngā kōrero o roto i te puku o te tuhinga nei.
Kei ngā wāhanga o te pukapuka nei he kōrero mō tēnā mea, mō tēnā mea i raro i tōna ūpoko anō, me ngā whakaāhua e rite ana mōna. Ko te tūmanako ka kite te kaipānui i te pūrotutanga o te taiao o te Māori.

year: 1992