The vehicle production process takes place every day within the "enclosed box" of auto plants, but most people rarely get to see it, said Scott Brownlee, head of social media at Toyota Great Britain.
So Toyota decided to crack the box open in front of the world Wednesday on Twitter.
Brownlee and his crew used their special "Factory to Forecourt" Twitter account to detail the birth of the Auris gasoline-electric hybrid from its beginnings as raw steel in Toyota's Burnaston, Derbyshire, plant to a finished product in showrooms.
For 14 hours, approximately 522 pre-written tweets bearing the #F2F hashtag -- some featuring onsite videos and photos -- were posted to document the 325 production processes that go into building the Auris. #F2F is short for "Factory to Forecourt."
The idea was to simulate the live production experience as if someone were at the plant tweeting on the spot.
Concise "Factory to Forecourt" tweets were sent out in rapid succession Wednesday, and Toyota's UK blog housed even more detailed descriptions on its vivid, interactive timeline. People could also tweet questions and interact with the Toyota team.
Last December, Brownlee said, they began working closely with the factory to ensure they had the process mapped out accurately and create the supporting YouTube video clips.
Last-minute preparations were still being made the day before the project went live, he said.
"It was all pre-written and the team copied and posted to a predetermined time schedule to match the process. We could not have done it live from the factory as we needed to have the material checked for accuracy and confidentiality, impossible in the 60-90 second gaps we were dealing with," Brownlee wrote in an e-mail Thursday. "So it was a simulation, but it faithfully represented the process we were describing."
Toyota's "Factory to Forecourt" Twitter account and the automaker's corresponding UK blog are the latest multimedia tour de force coming from the auto industry recently.
Toyota's Auris experiment is from the same bloodline as such outreach efforts as Ford's "Random Acts of Fusion" -- a cross-media storytelling campaign in which Ryan Seacrest led participants through an interactive tale that used social media, radio and TV -- and the Chevy Sonic's "Let's Do This" stunt-crazed digital marketing blitz.
Automakers, trying to leapfrog the creativity of their rivals, are doing their best to leverage the Internet to reach an audience spending increasingly more time on the Web ? or, as Lincoln marketing boss Matt VanDyke once said, adjusting to the "absolute reality of the times."
Brownlee said he drew inspiration for the Auris idea several years ago after spending a day in the plant with a BBC film crew. Twitter was still new at the time, but he said there was a buzz about the platform's instant-sharing capabilities even then.
"We could have done more outreach to build awareness ? couldn't you always? -- but we felt it went well," Brownlee added. "The important thing is the legacy of the material now on the various platforms."
Toyota has officially upped the multimedia ante for its competitors, and the ball is now in their court.
Who will throw down the next slam dunk?
You can reach Vince Bond Jr. at vbond@crain.com. -- Follow Vince on
On Friday, Facebook admitted that a bug made the private contact information -- either email addresses or phone numbers -- of 6 million users accidentally accessible to Facebookers who downloaded their account histories onto their own computers. Compared to Facebook's over 1 billion total members, 6 million isn't much. But any security flaw has the potential to frighten people away from a website.
A bug allowed "some of a person?s contact information (email or phone number) to be accessed by people who either had some contact information about that person or some connection to them," Facebook wrote in a note on its security page. Using the network's "Download Your Information" tool, some Facebook members were inadvertently sent the phone numbers or email address of Facebook friends that were otherwise private. Facebook assured users that the bug was fixed within a day, and that there is no evidence that the information was used maliciously.
The bug was found not by Facebook's team, but by someone going through Facebook's "white hat" hacker program, which offers a bounty for anyone who can find bugs on the site, paying a minimum reward of $500 per bug. The bounty is awarded "based on [the bug's] severity and creativity," according to Facebook's White Hat page. In April, HuffPost profiled one of Facebook's most prolific bug finders, Nir Goldshlager.
In Brad Pitt's new movie, "World War Z," a soldier gives Pitt's character the lowdown on their undead opponent: Bullets to the body only slow them down, though head shots kill them. They sometimes ooze a kind of black tarry substance, and they love biting humans "like fat kids love Twix." And as filmgoers watch, they discover that these zombies can hear a Pepsi can drop a mile away, tackle like a Dallas Cowboy in the Super Bowl, are willing to fling themselves off skyscrapers and over giant walls, and are smart enough to use the bodies of their fellow undead as a ladder to clamber toward their human targets.
Uncredited / AP
Zombies generally don't work together, but in "World War Z," they use each other's undead bodies to form a ladder to get over a wall to eat humans.
These are not your grandfather's zombies.
Moviegoers have seen the undead evolve in a thousand gruesome rotting ways since the creatures of 1932's "White Zombie" were docile enough to work in a sugar plantation. George A. Romero took the creature -- which he called a "ghoul," not a "zombie" -- to a whole new level in 1968's classic "Night of the Living Dead," making them totter out of graves to munch on the living. And from then on, Hollywood was off, shambling down a rotting cinematic pathway littered with discarded body parts and ever-evolving zombie lore.
Zombies stayed about as fast as your walker-using Aunt Fannie until the 2002 release of "28 Days Later." Purists will tell you that the infected in that film weren't dead, so are not technically zombies. But no matter, they still introduced the public to the idea of fast movie zombies who no longer staggered after you like a drunk uncle, but match Pittsburgh Steeler Hines Ward (who played a zombie on AMC's "Walking Dead") for speediness.
"I do think that if you had to be bitten by slow movers to turn, you could avoid them and eventually defeat them," said Cal Miller, author of numerous zombie books and zombie comic strip TedDead. " It would be like fighting an army of senior citizens. The fast ones are just horrifying to me. They?ll run you down."
Jaap Buitendijk / AP
Brad Pitt gets knocked over by a swarm of fast-moving zombies in "World War Z."
The zombie diet has changed along with their speed. In the Romero film trilogy, zombies would munch on any part of a living human, from scalp to sole. But in 1985's "Return of the Living Dead" -- not a Romero film -- it's said that the zombies specifically consume the brains of the living because only that soothes the pain of being dead. That film explanation led to the popularization of the ever-popular "BRAAAAAINS!" quote so many associate with the living dead.
"Most people's knowledge of the zombie genre seems to be a bit limited," Miller said. "You say 'zombies' and they answer 'brainzzzzz,' But that was pretty much just in the 'Return of the Living Dead' movies/books. You try and explain that zombies eat the whole body and, well, unfamiliar people get either intrigued or grossed out."
Miller finds the brain-eating cliche a bit odd. "Human teeth can't bite through a skull," he said. "Zombies really go for the easy spots. Arms, legs, neck, belly."
Jaap Buitendijk / AP
In "World War Z," Brad Pitt arms himself with an axe because any sound, including gunshots, draws the attention of the undead.
Mac Montandon, author of "The Proper Care and Feeding of Zombies," thinks zombies are resourceful when it comes to dining. "In my book, I point out that the zombie diet is not that far off from the Inuits, indigenous peoples of the Arctic region," he said. "I think that, paradoxically, when it comes down to it, zombies have a really clever survival mechanism that kicks in -- meaning if they had to eat, say, someone's elbow to go on not living, they would."
Zombies were once human, and movies differ on whether their intelligence or humanity still exists once they're undead. In 2004, "Shaun of the Dead" played a zombie invasion for laughs, and in 2013's "Warm Bodies," a zombie actually falls in love with a human.
"Zombies are not funny," said Montandon. "But 'Shaun of the Dead' was. In terms of ('Warm Bodies') human-zombie romance, that seems like much less of a stretch than a human-Tom Cruise romance."
Even the way to kill a zombie isn't agreed on by all moviemakers. It's generally agreed that a head injury must be involved, specifically something that destroys the undead brain. Some require zombie bodies to be burned, but in "World War Z," the fingers of a zombie that's been burned almost to solid ash are still shown to wiggle.
"The head can live if cut off at the neck," said Miller. "A personal pet peeve of mine, however, is when a disembodied head groans. No diaphragm, no lungs, no airflow, no groan."
As long as zombie movies continue to make money, the creatures will doubtlessly continue to evolve on film.
"I think zombies are ready for their 'Coneheads' moment," said Montandon, referring to the "Saturday Night Live" aliens who claimed to be French. "That is, they already have so many human characteristics, it's not hard to see them passing as humans in a suburb of Chicago, for instance."
Miller's novel, "Het Madden: A Zombie Perspective," is written from the point of view of an intelligent zombie, and he believes smart zombies will be the next wave.
"I feel there have to be smart and dumb zombies, like smart and dumb people," Miller said. "The smart ones lurk and plan. They don't walk into machetes."
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Contact: Anne Brownsey abrownsey@asge.org 630-570-5635 American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. June 21, 2013 A new study reports that the use of a quarterly report card is associated with improved colonoscopy quality indicators. Endoscopists at the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Indianapolis, Ind., who participated in the study showed an overall adjusted adenoma (precancerous polyp) detection rate increase from 44.7 percent to 53.9 percent, and a cecal intubation rate increase from 95.6 percent to 98.1 percent. These two metrics are validated measures of colonoscopy performance quality. The study appears in the June issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE).
Colonoscopy examines the lining of the lower intestinal tract called the colon or large intestine. When used as a colon cancer prevention method, colonoscopy can find potentially precancerous growths called polyps and remove them before they turn into cancer. Studies assessing the effect of interventions to improve colonoscopy quality have shown inconsistent results. Since 2009, endoscopists (physicians specially-trained in endoscopic procedures such as colonoscopy) at the Indiana University-affiliated Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center have received a quarterly "report card" summarizing individual colonoscopy quality indicators as part of an ongoing quality assurance program. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the quality report card intervention on the quality of colonoscopy performance.
"Our study differs from previous research in several aspects. First, our report card initiative is based in an academic setting and involves a relatively small group of endoscopists. It includes 'hard' quality indicators such as adenoma detection rate and cecal intubation, but also information regarding documentation of bowel preparation quality, patient assessment before the procedure, and withdrawal time. Second, there were no financial incentives or penalties for achieving or not achieving preset targets. Third, the report cards are blinded to individual endoscopists, with minimal feedback administered confidentially as needed. Fourth, the intervention is administered regularly and relatively frequently, at 3-month intervals," said study lead author Charles J. Kahi, MD, MSCR, Indiana University School of Medicine and Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Indianapolis. "We speculate that a combination of these factors led to the observed global improvement in the adenoma detection and cecal intubation rates, rather than a defined and measurable change in one discrete variable."
Methods
The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy introduced a quality recognition program in 2008 that recognizes endoscopy units that have implemented quality improvement and monitoring processes as an integral part of their operations. In 2009, the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center GI endoscopy unit in Indianapolis, was one of the first to receive this distinction. The transition to the new quality monitoring program occurred during the first three months of 2009. Subsequently, physicians who performed endoscopic procedures at the Medical Center started to receive quarterly "report cards," which provided data regarding colonoscopy quality indicators including documentation of bowel preparation quality, before-procedure patient assessment, cecal intubation, withdrawal time, and adenoma detection rate (ADR).
Data from six endoscopists were included. Patients were average-risk, aged 50 years or older, undergoing their first screening colonoscopy. The study time frame was July 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008 (before intervention) and April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2011 (intervention). The report card quality initiative was implemented gradually during the first few weeks of 2009. The primary outcomes were cecal intubation or the visualization of the cecum (the first part of the large intestine or colon), and adenoma detection rates, adjusted for physician, patient age, and sex. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to determine factors associated with adenoma detection. The procedures were performed by six board certified gastroenterologists or colorectal surgeons, or by GI fellows under direct supervision of these attendings.
Results
A total of 928 patients (male 93 percent, white 78 percent) were included (pre-intervention 336; post-intervention 592). There were no significant differences in patient age, sex, smoking status, body mass index, bowel preparation quality, colonoscope model, and proportion of colonoscopies performed with a trainee between the pre-intervention and post-intervention phases. In the post-intervention phase, the adjusted adenoma detection rate and cecal intubation rates were significantly higher: 53.9 percent versus 44.7 percent and 98.1 percent versus 95.6 percent, respectively. A higher trend in ADR detection in the intervention phase was found for five of the six physicians. The increment in ADR was due mostly to increased detection of proximal adenomas. These are polyps on the right side of the colon which are often more difficult to detect and have been implicated as an important factor in the efficacy of colonoscopy for colon cancer screening. There were no significant changes in serrated polyp detection, advanced neoplasm detection, number of adenomas detected per colonoscopy, and mean size of adenomas after implementation of the intervention. The report card intervention remained significantly associated with higher ADRs after adjustment for patient age, sex and physician.
The researchers concluded that a quarterly report card was associated with improved colonoscopy quality indicators. They stated that this intervention is practical to generate and implement, and it may serve as a model for quality improvement programs in different patient and physician groups. Additional work is needed to determine whether this intervention is effective in different practice settings and its beneficial effects sustained.
###
About the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
Since its founding in 1941, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) has been dedicated to advancing patient care and digestive health by promoting excellence and innovation in gastrointestinal endoscopy. ASGE, with more than 12,000 members worldwide, promotes the highest standards for endoscopic training and practice, fosters endoscopic research, recognizes distinguished contributions to endoscopy, and is the foremost resource for endoscopic education. Visit http://www.asge.org and http://www.screen4coloncancer.org for more information and to find a qualified doctor in your area.
About Endoscopy
Endoscopy is performed by specially-trained physicians called endoscopists using the most current technology to diagnose and treat diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Using flexible, thin tubes called endoscopes, endoscopists are able to access the human digestive tract without incisions via natural orifices. Endoscopes are designed with high-intensity lighting and fitted with precision devices that allow viewing and treatment of the gastrointestinal system.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Anne Brownsey abrownsey@asge.org 630-570-5635 American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. June 21, 2013 A new study reports that the use of a quarterly report card is associated with improved colonoscopy quality indicators. Endoscopists at the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Indianapolis, Ind., who participated in the study showed an overall adjusted adenoma (precancerous polyp) detection rate increase from 44.7 percent to 53.9 percent, and a cecal intubation rate increase from 95.6 percent to 98.1 percent. These two metrics are validated measures of colonoscopy performance quality. The study appears in the June issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE).
Colonoscopy examines the lining of the lower intestinal tract called the colon or large intestine. When used as a colon cancer prevention method, colonoscopy can find potentially precancerous growths called polyps and remove them before they turn into cancer. Studies assessing the effect of interventions to improve colonoscopy quality have shown inconsistent results. Since 2009, endoscopists (physicians specially-trained in endoscopic procedures such as colonoscopy) at the Indiana University-affiliated Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center have received a quarterly "report card" summarizing individual colonoscopy quality indicators as part of an ongoing quality assurance program. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the quality report card intervention on the quality of colonoscopy performance.
"Our study differs from previous research in several aspects. First, our report card initiative is based in an academic setting and involves a relatively small group of endoscopists. It includes 'hard' quality indicators such as adenoma detection rate and cecal intubation, but also information regarding documentation of bowel preparation quality, patient assessment before the procedure, and withdrawal time. Second, there were no financial incentives or penalties for achieving or not achieving preset targets. Third, the report cards are blinded to individual endoscopists, with minimal feedback administered confidentially as needed. Fourth, the intervention is administered regularly and relatively frequently, at 3-month intervals," said study lead author Charles J. Kahi, MD, MSCR, Indiana University School of Medicine and Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Indianapolis. "We speculate that a combination of these factors led to the observed global improvement in the adenoma detection and cecal intubation rates, rather than a defined and measurable change in one discrete variable."
Methods
The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy introduced a quality recognition program in 2008 that recognizes endoscopy units that have implemented quality improvement and monitoring processes as an integral part of their operations. In 2009, the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center GI endoscopy unit in Indianapolis, was one of the first to receive this distinction. The transition to the new quality monitoring program occurred during the first three months of 2009. Subsequently, physicians who performed endoscopic procedures at the Medical Center started to receive quarterly "report cards," which provided data regarding colonoscopy quality indicators including documentation of bowel preparation quality, before-procedure patient assessment, cecal intubation, withdrawal time, and adenoma detection rate (ADR).
Data from six endoscopists were included. Patients were average-risk, aged 50 years or older, undergoing their first screening colonoscopy. The study time frame was July 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008 (before intervention) and April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2011 (intervention). The report card quality initiative was implemented gradually during the first few weeks of 2009. The primary outcomes were cecal intubation or the visualization of the cecum (the first part of the large intestine or colon), and adenoma detection rates, adjusted for physician, patient age, and sex. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to determine factors associated with adenoma detection. The procedures were performed by six board certified gastroenterologists or colorectal surgeons, or by GI fellows under direct supervision of these attendings.
Results
A total of 928 patients (male 93 percent, white 78 percent) were included (pre-intervention 336; post-intervention 592). There were no significant differences in patient age, sex, smoking status, body mass index, bowel preparation quality, colonoscope model, and proportion of colonoscopies performed with a trainee between the pre-intervention and post-intervention phases. In the post-intervention phase, the adjusted adenoma detection rate and cecal intubation rates were significantly higher: 53.9 percent versus 44.7 percent and 98.1 percent versus 95.6 percent, respectively. A higher trend in ADR detection in the intervention phase was found for five of the six physicians. The increment in ADR was due mostly to increased detection of proximal adenomas. These are polyps on the right side of the colon which are often more difficult to detect and have been implicated as an important factor in the efficacy of colonoscopy for colon cancer screening. There were no significant changes in serrated polyp detection, advanced neoplasm detection, number of adenomas detected per colonoscopy, and mean size of adenomas after implementation of the intervention. The report card intervention remained significantly associated with higher ADRs after adjustment for patient age, sex and physician.
The researchers concluded that a quarterly report card was associated with improved colonoscopy quality indicators. They stated that this intervention is practical to generate and implement, and it may serve as a model for quality improvement programs in different patient and physician groups. Additional work is needed to determine whether this intervention is effective in different practice settings and its beneficial effects sustained.
###
About the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
Since its founding in 1941, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) has been dedicated to advancing patient care and digestive health by promoting excellence and innovation in gastrointestinal endoscopy. ASGE, with more than 12,000 members worldwide, promotes the highest standards for endoscopic training and practice, fosters endoscopic research, recognizes distinguished contributions to endoscopy, and is the foremost resource for endoscopic education. Visit http://www.asge.org and http://www.screen4coloncancer.org for more information and to find a qualified doctor in your area.
About Endoscopy
Endoscopy is performed by specially-trained physicians called endoscopists using the most current technology to diagnose and treat diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Using flexible, thin tubes called endoscopes, endoscopists are able to access the human digestive tract without incisions via natural orifices. Endoscopes are designed with high-intensity lighting and fitted with precision devices that allow viewing and treatment of the gastrointestinal system.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
June 19, 2013 ? Crop yields worldwide are not increasing quickly enough to support estimated global needs in 2050, according to a study published June 19 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by research associate Deepak Ray and colleagues from the Institute on the Environment (IonE) at the University of Minnesota.
Previous studies estimate that global agricultural production may need to increase 60-110 percent to meet increasing demands and provide food security. In the current study, researchers assessed agricultural statistics from across the world and found that yields of four key crops -- maize, rice, wheat and soybean -- are increasing 0.9-1.6 percent every year. At these rates, production of these crops would likely increase 38-67 percent by 2050, rather than the estimated requirement of 60-110 percent. The top three countries that produce rice and wheat were found to have very low rates of increase in crop yields.
"Particularly troubling are places where population and food production trajectories are at substantial odds," Ray says, "for example, in Guatemala, where the corn-dependent population is growing at the same time corn productivity is declining."
The analysis maps global regions where yield improvements are on track to double production by 2050 and areas where investments must be targeted to increase yields. The authors explain that boosting crop yields is considered a preferred solution to meet demands, rather than clearing more land for agriculture. They note that additional strategies, such as reducing food waste and changing to plant-based diets, can also help reduce the large estimates for increased global demand for food.
"Clearly, the world faces a looming agricultural crisis, with yield increases insufficient to keep up with projected demands," says IonE director Jon Foley, a co-author on the study. "The good news is, opportunities exist to increase production through more efficient use of current arable lands and increased yield growth rates by spreading best management practices. If we are to boost production in these key crops to meet projected needs, we have no time to waste."
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Public release date: 21-Jun-2013
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