Virtual Organizations

Abstract
This paper explores the realm of Virtual Organizations (VOs), outlining an overview of the concept, and describing its attributes and their need today. An analysis or literature review on critical issues companies face that implement VOs including the examples of companies involved in VOs. The importance of VOs and its characteristics can be easily understood through charts and graphs. Lastly, it highlights the future trends and advancements that will take place in the sector and practices measures to be taken.

Introduction
As we know today the business environment has become most difficult and challenging task. In the times when there is recession, people have cut their spending because of low income this has tremendously affected the organizations to survive in the market place. Competition has increased manifolds. Businesses have to constantly use innovations and cost reduction strategies to successful run in the long term. Therefore, they are shifting towards Virtual Organizations.

When sufficiency of resources, handling of personnel and managing logistical issues becomes complicated, organizations tend to turn towards virtual organizations. Virtual organization, by definition is a network that connects individual entities to serve productsservices through information technology to its customers. (Pang, 2001) Virtual organization is termed as virtual when it has two characteristics (Joia, 2002)

More than one independent unit sharing skill and knowledge

Electronically mediated
Virtual organization can be either B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumers) (Joia, 2002)
Virtual organization does not require people at one place to serve the customers. The organization does not have a physical existence. (Pang, 2001) It requires the following
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It is centralized with almost no departmentalization. An example is movies made in Hollywood through large vertically integrated companies. Large organizations use virtual structure for outsourcing manufacturing. These companies include Dell, Nike, and Reebok. Through VO a network of relationship is built to carry out business operations on less cost basis. The strength of VO is its flexibility. One of the drawbacks of this system is that it lacks full management control over the business main areas.

History of Virtual organizations
VOs emerged as in 1982 Vincent Guiliano concluded with his theory that a network organization should be there instead if assembling all the workers at specific time and place. Computers and computing technologies shall make a virtual office.

Abbe Mowshowitz in 1994 said regarding virtual organization

Allegory of virtual memory
The virtual organization is follows the principle of switching. Management has to switch the distribution of physical means in order to assure changing theoretical requirements

Based on Mowshowitzwork, in various publications the VO is defined as an organization network, e.g. A temporary network of independent organizations that work together based on balancing competencies and connect their information systems to those of their partners via networks aspiring at developing, making, and distributing products in cooperation.

Attributes
A discrete association of skillfulness and capabilities-The VOs structure is such that it brings a larger set of skills and capabilities from multiple locations. (Pang, 2001)

Usages of telecommunications and knowledge management technologies-These technologies support VO and their existence. It can be claimed that VO physically do exist in a form of sales workers traveling, staff working from home or are outsourced. However, it is these technologies that have made the life easier to serve the dispersed work teams. Thus eliminates geographical barriers and time limitation as well.  (Pang, 2001)

Flexibility, dynamism, restlessness-traditional difficulties of time and place have been solved by these organizations as they support dynamism (changes brought into the organizations and its workforce) through this, organizations are restless meaning more towards innovating products and services among the geographically dispersed locations and communication network. (Pang, 2001)

Collective Integration-VO brings together different organizations, independent units to interrelate with each other through a process of collaboration, confidence and trust, along with cooperation to achieve success. (Pang, 2001)

Why virtual organization
Process innovation requirement-competition and stakeholder pressures to acquire increased level of productivity and quality can be achieved through the implementation of VOs. (Pang, 2001)

Distribution of core competencies-VOs help address issues such as organization start ups, turnover and retirements. (Pang, 2001)

Globalization-Many organizations have realized the need of taking advantage the vast unused skills and knowledge existing all over the world. (Pang, 2001)

Workers mobility-VO gives the concept of getting mobile workers to work for the company like auditors, sales people, consultants and technicians.  (Pang, 2001)

Cost reduction-this will help reduce overhead expenses and improve efficiency such as cost associated with physical environment and distribution. (Pang, 2001)

Transforming of employee values and attitudes toward work-organization today realizes the fact that employees life is beyond the organization too and therefore a balance of personal and work life should be there to retain competent employees. (Pang, 2001)

Traveling costs-VOs help to deal with heavy transportation cost and problems including waste of time, traffic concerns, increased fuel costs and considering environmental friendly aspect. (Pang, 2001)

Structure of VO

Examples
Aventis, commenced with a merger of Germany based Hoechst AG and Rhne-Poulenc in year 1999. Being the global leader in pharmaceuticals and agriculture, its engineering department was encountering complexities in dealing with different organizations resulting in poor quality and less cooperation among the team. To handle the situation, a virtual organization was formed consisting of five (TSGs) technical service groups and one (TG) technological group through process technologies catering customer needs. TSG engineers can be situated anywhere in North America along with one TG located in New Jersey. The organizations mobility and focus on customers, in accordance with business objectives shares information and knowledge together.    (Pang, 2001)

Company Dell is moving towards virtual organizations that put emphasis on their supply chain to be filled by business partners. Meaning Dell is outsourcing its operations to get more efficiency, reliability and cost effectiveness in the process. Dells computer material parts are prepared by other companies in the meantime Dell strive towards its strengths i.e. customer loyalty and support, marketing, and the process of integrating the components to finalize computers.

Dell as a virtual organization finds it beneficial to serve its customers who pay online. It holds lower inventory in the system to save costs. (Pang, 2001)

British Telecommunication is the largest telecommunication service provide in Europes private sector. In 2000 they decided to reorganize its operations for advance management focus. Reformation of processes was undertaken, to conducts orders in a special way to be treated in the organization. Virtual teams of British telecom and consultants worked hand in hand using virtual technologies to successfully connect system of ordering with all the current system in the organization. This facilitated reduction in processing time. Company can now deal with the same number of population but in greater volumes. According to the spokesman, their collaboration has immensely improved with other telecom companies through the interface. (Pang, 2001)

Crowley Communications firm provides public relations activities like press releases, brochures, flyers, snaps and graphics. The firm has only one employee appointed to ensure the teams are working on the projects as required. These teams are dispersed in various areas of the country including California. Moreover the team consists of specialists linked through computers and telecomm technologies. The firm makes partnership with other marketing firm to commence larger projects. (Pang, 2001)

Reuters Holdings Company of financial information services in Great Britain has formed virtual teams consisting of twelve countries working together through the interface. Through the acquiring of non-disclosure agreements by using virtual organization approach, they have save recruitment costs, overhead expenses and staff benefits. (Pang, 2001)

Literature Review
Some critical aspects of virtual organization include

Communication Issues
There arent technical communication problems but they are connected to human factors. Inefficiencies arise due to miss communication among the virtual team members or the message does not clearly state its purpose to the one receiving due to intricacy that include language problem using slang in emails or informal conversation, jargon,  puzzlement over the use of teleconferencing protocols and other technicalities.   (Pang, 2001)

A problem comes about as whom to take in the communications. Mail box may be overloaded if a team member sends every one the message. On the other side, significant constituents may be left out or not conveyed in a proper manner to the team members. (Pang, 2001)

Message is efficiently delivered as we view the other persons vocal response or body language. In the case of virtual organization the absence of such interaction reduces the chances or likelihood of effective or quality message to be delivered. Furthermore, there may be misunderstanding in the usage of words, punctuation, language or showing the sense of urgency in the message. (Pang, 2001)

Finally, there is trouble in asynchronous communication systems in that it frequently takes time to converse. Responding to the message is deferred as the message is received. This may become a problem when important information is to be transferred on time. (Pang, 2001)

Managerial Issues
There is a requirement of new managerial style for mangers dealing with virtual organization to overcome specific issues that are faced in the work environment (Pang, 2001)

Impending exploitation and wasted time-There is no in person communication may affect employees work life as they would be less focused and engage into non-work activities.

Security-- intruder and hackers may get access to organization resources.

Managing and controlling at geographical distance--Traditional managers do not feel protected predominantly in a crisis when their employees are working tenuously. (Pang, 2001)

Encouraging employee self-motivation -discipline-it becomes a challenging task for managers to keep employees continue working on their job when there exists inadequate managerial oversight. (Pang, 2001)
Outlining goals and confines of responsibility-This must be done to ensure there is no duplication of work or effort or any specific job requirement. (Pang, 2001)

Inadequate personal contact-Employees may loose the solidarity of a customary office setting. Organizational and market state of affairs would avert employees from participating in virtual organization. For e.g. a company wants to have face to face contact with their customers as compared to the use of communication technologies. Moreover, cultural aspect also creates a problem because people may resist when trust and sharing of information is required due to security reasons. VO requires knowledge to be shared to successfully perform. Finally, implementation of VO becomes difficult as lack of communication technologies become a barrier.  (Pang, 2001)

Technological Changes
Today there have been a numerous transformations and developments for the support of VOs in the future. (Pang, 2001)

To get a hold of broader bandwidths, there have been advancements in telecommunications today. A consortium is designing a project of interent2 where number of universities approximately 180 is working to create tomorrows internet. Its crucial goals are to create network services for the national community and internet applications for a broader research community. (Pang, 2001)

There is a scope of advances in wireless technologies as well. For e.g. (3G) third generation wireless networks will be offering mobile data networks at high speed. Telecommunications Union groups will be arranged to get more bandwidth on wireless communications. This will enable the users to get hold of collaborative applications from the new generation and other services.   (Pang, 2001)

A group called Gartner has claimed that in the new era contextual computing will take over i.e. increased devices at home, offices, workplace, cars and on the individual himself, containing different interfaces connected with the environment where the individual is living. For e.g. a person driving would make the use of that time by checking emails or news through a system built in the car with a mixture of built in speech and intelligent driving force. This is soon to come. (Pang, 2001)

Organizational Trends
Supplementary telecommuting-With increased costs of energy and environmental issues government today tend to promote the telecommuting concept and the various types of VO.

Outsourcing--Many organizations have realized the importance of outsourcing to deal with requirements of the business especially when they get out of their hand. An example of outsourcing includes application service providers, here the data, specific applications are situated of the premises and accessible through internet. VOs can be treated as the basis for outsourcing such activities. (Pang, 2001)

Storefronts flexibility of 24-hour-a-day internet serves the consumer need for convenience when accessing their choice of product or service. VOs help support their need.

Partnerships and premeditated alliances-increasing partnerships and strategic alliances have become necessary to gain competitive advantage and additional customers. VO help facilitate this structure. (Pang, 2001)

Enlargement in virtual intermediaries-Examples include education agent, market schemer and custom-made service supplier. (Pang, 2001)

People Trends
Prospects of employees tend to vary in the outlook. From the research and study the following trends may be projected in the coming years
No usage of agenda or workplace
Emphasis on ones own responsibility, self esteem, and self-discipline
Flexible rules and regulations to follow
Mobile individuals
Job insecurity for those not fully participating VO
Suggestions and future preparation-
Create a vision- Know the projected end position to categorize the itinerary in which the organization should focus. (Pang, 2001)

Deem new behavior at work and supervise people- Because of the unique qualities of VOs, executives should consider different ways to assess the performance of employees.

Comprehend the innovative technologies- For optimal value, it is vital to identify the benefits and limitations of the diverse technologies used to sustain VOs. (Pang, 2001)

Choose the right teammate- Consider not presently the correct team members but external partners who will be supporting the entire organizational requirements through VO strategies.

Enabling virtual organization requires technologies which are readily available-However, there has to be willingness and acceptance of the VO approach from the society, organizations and persons to comprehend the effective measure to management. Although the concept is burdened by many obstacles, but in the end the result should matter and the measuring of benefits should be important. (Pang, 2001)

Best Practices
Based on the issues regarding managerial and technical trends under the VO concept, the following are some of the best practices
Promote collaboration, confidence and delegation of authorities.
Check every partner makes significant contribution of asset as well as strength
Assure skills and competencies are corresponding, not overlying.
Make sure cohorts are adjustable.
Ensure contractual conformities are comprehensible and explicit on roles and responsibilities.
If feasible, do not swap in person interface entirely.
Give training that is vital to team victory.
Realize that building a team acquire time.
Ensure that technology is similar in temperament and dependable.
Present proficient and obtainable technical support.
(Pang, 2001)

Conclusion
Virtual organizations are the top focus of companies today. Companies have to be very careful when implementing VO and assess all the vulnerabilities and obstacles they may encounter. To stay competitive in the business world, business has to adopt these technologies to remain viable in the future.

Acid Rain

Introduction
It is in the wide interest of the humanity to protect our environment which includes forest, lakes and animals. The neglect of human beings to the environment has been done partly due to heavy industrialization as a result of such heavy industrialization earth environment has severely been effected.    
Acid rain is a direct result of the neglect of the environment and continuous burring of the fossil fuels in cars, factories, power stations and elsewhere. In this paper we are discussing the acid rain and its wet deposition, dry deposition, and the effects on humans, autos, materials, visibility, forests, and lakes and streams.

Acid Rain program
Acid rain program has been developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to get rid of the SO2 and NO2 which are the chief causes of the acid rain. The program is based on achieving the target with lowest possible cost to the public utilizing innovative and traditional approaches.

The Acid Rain program largely focuses on coal-fired electric utility boilers that emit NOx,. Acid Rain program is a very detailed and comprehensive program that lets the affected units to measure and records its emissions of SO2, NOx, and CO2, as well as heat input, volumetric flow, and opacity. Acid Rain program has been a very successful program and is being considered as a model by other environmental agencies for dealing with emerging environmental issues.

Uptil now the Acid Rain program has undergone two phases, the success of first phase can be determined by the fact that by 1995,40 percent of the total S02 emissions were decreased. The phase II target was to achieve 2 million ton reduction in NOx emissions and considerable amount of it has been reached now.
To reduce SO2 emissions Acid Rain program came up with a unique program under which incentives are given to the companies in the form of SO2 allowance to help decrease the emission
The Acid rain program has developed an allowance trading system which uses the power of the marketplace to reduce SO2 emissions in the most cost-effective manner possible. This program allows SO2 producing sources the flexibility to modify and update their compliance strategy based on their own individual circumstances. Other parts of the Acid rain program, the continuous emissions monitoring and reporting systems provide the accurate account of emissions necessary to make the program work.

Acid rain
There are two main causes of acid rain SO2 and NO2, both are produced when fossil fuels are burned , SO2 is burned when coal is burned where as NO2 is produced whenever any kind of fossil fuel is burned.
Since one of the main cause of the acid rain as is the burning of the fossil fuel hence there is a dire need to look into other sources for energy such as solar ,wind and geothermal energy  to avoid environmental damage by acid rain which is a direct consequence of burning fossil fuel.

Also there is a need to depend more on the hydro electric and nuclear power sources so that environment can be freed from acid rain. It is true that some of the sources of energies are more expensive to produce and utilize than others but if the world wants to leave the world a good place for their generations to come , it is required to do so.

There are several ways to remove SO2 production for example by using coal which has reduced Sulphur or washing the coal before burning or using devices known as scrubbers to chemically get rid of SO2 before they are released into the air.

Power plants can also switch to other kinds of environment friendly fossil fuels such as using natural gas which contains much less sulphur compared to coal.  Additional measures can help decrease Carbon di oxide that can cause acidic rain too but of lighter strength, the technique is to blown more air over the fuel. Power plant companies can also come up with innovative solutions, proposed by several scientists over a long period of time, which can produce less or no harmful gas at all.

Cars can produce significant amount of NO2, where gas is used to run the engine, the remedy is to use catalytic converters which convert NO2 to harmful Nitrogen gas , though catalytic converters is expensive but if the automobile companies start to fix it in the car during the production than the cost can be significantly reduced.

Acid deposition on soil and lakes can leave long lasting effects and it may take years or decades specially in the case of soil to recover , the immediate  remedy action plan may help in decreasing or eliminating the acid rain but the ecosystem gets heavily affected, the visibility of lake water may change back to normal  in few months but the damage to the heavily affected acidified lakes, streams, forests, and soils can take years or even centuries (in the case of soils) to restore.

To recover such chronically effected lakes and streams the process of liming can be used, this process has heavily been used in Sweden and Norway but hasnt been used widely in USA. In liming lakes an soil which has been affected by acid rain are lined with the lime stone which reacts with the acid and hence decreases the acidity. This is a fast process compared to the natural process and can help bring the the soil and lakes back to normal quickly instead of leaving them to recover on its own.

Even though liming helps in the reduction of the acidity it cant help to change the soil composition that has already been effected, it does let the fishes survive and stay in such effected lakes but doesnt help to clear visibility or material damage.

Individuals can help the environment by some only simple steps  Turning off the electronic appliances when these are not being utilized such as lights , computers , microwave , in fact this way individuals not only help the environment but also reduce their own energy bills.

By using energy saving products such as newer LCD monitors, energy saver bulbs and motors, that are more efficient, would help reduce the overall energy consumption that was actually produced as a result of burning fossil fuel and hence effect to decrease the production of SOx and NOx.

Another way to reduce the production of SOx and NOx is by keeping the home and office thermostat at 68F in the winter and 72F in the summer and turning it off or lower or higher as required when people are not present in the home or the office.

Another possible way to decrease the acid rain is by insulating offices and homes so that less energy is consumed,  carpooling or cycling to work and other places , buying vehicle that emits less NOx  and which uses catalytic converters and convert harmful gases into harmless.

EPA website
The EPA website has tons of information about acid rain in general,  acid rain program and how a power plant unit can benefit from it, the EPA website has been categorized into the following main sections
Phases and Reductions      
Operating Principles Feasible, Flexible, Accountable
Environmental Benefits
Allowance Trading
Annual Reconciliation
Allowance Management System
Auctions
Voluntary Entry The Opt-in Program
Pollution Prevention
Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) Reductions
Emissions Monitoring and Reporting
Excess Emissions
Designated Representatives
Permitting
Compliance Options Freedom to Choose
A Model Program

Other pages on the EPA website explain procedures to follow for the successful reductions in SO2 and NOx emissions. The website also provides Laws and Regulations of Title IV of the Clean Air Act which is about the control of acid deposition.

The website also offers guidance and facts sheets of the NO2 and SO2 emissions, provides forms so that newer units can sign up as well as has made available the success of the program by supplying the data.
The website also informs the visitor about the causes and effects of the acid rain and how the acid rain can be measured and procedures to follow in order to effectively reduce acid rain. Website further provides links to other related educational resources for anyone to get more information on acid rain.

Conclusion
In this paper we outlined how acid rain is caused and what are the main contributing factors for the acid rain, then we discussed the severe effects that acid rain causes in some detail and went on to describe how acid rain effects can be minimized if it has already occurred at some place , we also discussed some ways which can be employed by organizations as well as on individual level to decrease the possible acid rain .
One of the methods proposed was to start utilizing alternative energy resources such as solar, wind or geothermal power. The main conclusion of this paper is on the emphasis on the decreased dependency on fossil fuel by increasing the use of alternate energy sources and doing stuff to overcome the damage that has already occurred and description of the acid rain program of US EA.
The ceaseless developments in medicine have brought about various advantages and disadvantages to the world. Blood transfusions have extended lives for years however, its utilization entails some risks of further obtaining diseases instead of solely curing a previous one. With this at hand, scientists develop an array of ways by which they can treat the blood components and products while maintaining biological activity. It is said that the most widely known method of pathogen inactivation was known to be the Amotosalen treatment. 1 The other pathogen inactivation treatments include, but are not limited to, heat treatment, pasteurization, SD treatment, MB-UV light treatment, intercalation, leukocyte depletion, UV B light irradiation, and Q-FFP. If the development of transfusion medicine can grow at a faster pace, then, its efforts can lead to lowered blood-transmitted diseases, can provide better and cost-efficient hospital treatments, most of all, and can bring about quality lives for healthier people.

Introduction
Medicine is continuously exploring its possibilities in creating novel ways of providing cure for an array of diseases caused by pathogens. These pathogens are agents that cause diseases such as bacterium, virus or fungus. 2 The germ theory of disease of Pasteur, Koch and Loeffler defined the criteria for the causative relationship between agent and disease to be as follows agent is present in every case of a certain disease, agent is specific for that disease lastly, propagation of agent is possible through culture and its inoculation into nave host can cause the same disease. 3
 
In recent years, the utilization of blood transfusions in order to save lives has become well known.  However, there have been concerns regarding its practice due to the spread of infections among subjects. Therefore, there arises the need for reducing the pathogens causing transfusion-transmitted infections through various methods primarily involving pathogen inactivation. 4

Pathogen inactivation is advantageous as it reduces possible occurrence of emerging infections, bacterial contamination or even the risk of transfusion-induced acute lung injury during cases wherein blood transfusion is necessary. Pathogen inactivation of blood components essentially offers the choice of utilizing one method of inactivating transfusion-transmitted infections, thus reducing the need for further testing. However, the present scientific advancements are still unable to suffice in inactivating all agents. Thereby, scientists ceaselessly give effort to characterizing various types of agents and devising inactivation techniques in correspondence to the aforementioned agents. 5

This dissertations main objectives are to identify of the pathogens subject for inactivation to characterize the types of pathogen inactivation techniques for blood components or products such as, red blood cells, leucocytes, platelets, plasma, fresh frozen plasma, factor concentrates, and cryoprecipitate and to provide the possible applications of these techniques in medicine.

Pathogens List
The pathogens which are targets of inactivation are, however, not limited to Hepatitis Viruses, HAV, HBV, HCV, HDV, HIVHBVHCV, Serological Vs DNA, HCV ELISA, HCV-RIBA, HCV-PCR, Epstein Barr (EBVHHV4) Virus, HHV-8, West Nile Virus, SARS, Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Neg blood for at risk patients, HTLV 1 and 2, miscellaneous viruses, protozoa Malaria, Syphilis ,Bacterial viruses e.g. Yersinia, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Retroviruses, Enteroviruses, Parvo virus B19, Prion Disease, and vCJD. These organisms are blood borne pathogenic microorganisms capable of causing diseases to humans and in order to inactivate these pathogens, the proceeding methods can be used.

Heating Treatment with the Use of Solvent
Biological products can be derived from human blood plasma and can be used in medical treatment. Inactivation of viral agents such as hepatitis B virus is essential for the success of these medical treatments. Examples of biological products that can be derived from the blood are plasma protein fractions. Plasma protein fractions are the usual subject of heat treatment with the use of solvent. These biological materials are heated to inactivate viruses. The process is done with the initial step of drying the plasma protein fractions such as albumin, antithrombin III, fibrinogen, factor VIII and prothrombin complex. Lyophilization is performed to dry the protein fractions and to make them in powdered form. An organic liquid plasma protein fraction suspension is formed by the adding inert organic liquid. The organic liquids that may be used are the following alkalines such as hexanes and heptanes, ketones, such as acetone and diethylketone, and perfluorochemicals, such as perfluorotripropylamine. Other organic liquids are viable for heat treatment as long as a suspension with the plasma protein fraction is formed. The suspension is, then, heated to a temperature of about 60o to 100 o C. The time by which the organic liquidplasma protein fraction suspension is subjected to such temperatures is dependent on how high the temperature is. After the entire process of heating, there will be the need to separate the organic liquid from the protein fractions through filtration. The protein powder shall, then, be air dried and further processed for patient use. This method is advantageous as it sterilizes protein materials whilst maintaining biological activity. It is also relatively easy to perform. However, due to the usage of heat for the process, there is a limitation to the types of blood components and products that can be subjected to it considering maintenance of biological activity.

Pasteurization
There is a known process of pathogen inactivation in dried plasma proteins and plasma protein fractions without essentially damaging the blood components biological activity. It is performed through heat treatment via pasteurization. The process is done through heat treatment of the suspensions of plasma protein fractions and dried plasma in a liquid organic heat-transfer agent. The heat-transfer agent can be symmetrical or mixed glycerol esters, which are liquid in pasteurization temperature. The heat-transfer agent can also be saturated or multiply saturated fatty acids possessing 4-22 carbon atoms. In addition, the combination of the preceding esters can also make up the inert heat-transfer agent with the maximum water content of the suspension to be 1 by weight and the temperature to be 50o-120 o C. Glycerol esters of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids are already known to be superb pasteurization mediums which can maintain biological activity whilst being easy to perform.

The pasteurization process is most of the time performed with the use of glycerol esters as heating agents without the need for pretreatment. On the contrary, the plasma proteins and plasma protein fractions such as antithrombin III, factor VIII and fibrinogen are used in dried form obtained, for example, through lyophilization, spray-drying, or other non-damaging drying methods. Aside from being safe and biological activity retaining, the pathogen inactivation using pasteurization has another advantage of being economical since the ingredients can be taken from natural sources. In addition, there is no toxicity side effect shown and the method is easy to perform. The disadvantage of pasteurization is the limitation in the number of biological products that can be subjected to it since the dried, biologically active form is necessary. 8

Solvent Detergent (SD) Treatment
The very first commercialized pathogen inactivation technique used in blood components is the solvent-detergent treatment of whole plasma. The method relies on its ability to damage lipid envelopes of viral agents through solvent-detergent treatment, which after processing is eventually removed. SD Treatment is well known worldwide and is used by many laboratories. 5

The emulsion provides a stable oil-in-water emulsion for inactivating viruses upon contact. The oil-in-water emulsion is composed of the oily discontinuous phase, which contains an organic phosphate-based solvent dispersed in aqueous continuous phase. The treatment is successful in viral inactivating in a way that if it adheres one of its components of the oil phase to the lipid envelope of a virus, then, the envelope structure is disrupted. This process is mostly similar with contacting di-or trialkylphosphate to a blood protein composition. The di-or trialkylphosphate used can be between 0.01mgml and 100mgml in amount.  The treatment can be performed with or without wetting agents and the treatment of blood protein composition with trialkylphosphate is done at a temperature between -5oC and 70oC, preferably 0oC to 60oC. The time of treatment ranges from 1 minute to 24 hours. Considering atmospheric pressure, the normal is preferred although subatmospheric and superatmospheric are also allowed.  Afterward, removal of the trialkylphosphate and other agents is performed. If ethers are present, the plasma is subjected to 4oC to 37oC with slight vacuum for additional efficiency in segregation. 9

The advantage of this technique is that emulsions are, essentially, stable, non-toxic, easy to perform and economical. There are, on the contrary, some disadvantages for this technique. The process is only applicable for lipid-enveloped viruses and is characterized to be cell damaging, thus, red blood cells and platelets are not viable for this method. 5 In order to assure the inactivation of non-enveloped viruses, there must be another viral inactivation such as pasteurization or dry heat. However, in recent years, there has been an increased knowledge on the inactivation of non-enveloped viruses using SD treatment. It has been discovered that the use of phenol andor formaldehyde in a previously SD treated product can also aid in the inactivation of non-enveloped viruses. The process of SD treatment stipulates using prequalified concentrations of formaldehyde and phenol with SD treatments. 10

Methylene Blue (MB) Treatment
Methylene blue (MB) is a photoactive phenothiazine dye used for pathogen inactivation in single units of plasma. Methylene blue has a high affinity for nucleic acids and surfaces of viruses. Viruses treated with MB when expose to UV light are readily inactivated. However, just like when using SD treatment, non-enveloped viruses are more difficult to penetrate. In order to enhance the MBUV treatment for intracellular viruses, there is a way to liberate them and expose them to the treatment. This is done through freezing and thawing plasma which disrupts the cell membranes of leukocytes. The process of MB treatment is performed with the initial step of adding methylene blue stock solution to individual thawed plasma resulting in 1M concentration. The next step is the subjection of the treated plasma to white light luminescence of 45000 lux or higher for an hour. 11

Residual intact white blood cells possessing viruses can be removed by a micropore filters. The disadvantage of Methylene blue treatment is that it can inactivate neither protozoa nor bacteria. In addition, plasma proteins subjected to it are moderately affected as well as fibrinogen and factor VIII activity, which are reduced by up to 30. Exposure to even minute amounts of residual MB and its photoderivatives have yet to be studied in larger scale. Fortunately, up to date there have been no adverse effects reported nevertheless, long-term studies of carcinogenicity and reproductive toxicity have not been conducted to prove this. 11

Amotosalen (Virus Inactivation of plasma)
The amotosalen treatment contemplates methods of inactivating pathogens in a biological composition which involves a compound selected from the group consisting of primaryamino-pyrone-linked psoralens and primaryamino-benzene-linked psoralens a photoactivating means for photoactivating said compounds and a biological composition suspected of being contaminated with a pathogen which must contain nucleic acid. The addition of the compound to the said biological composition is done and thus, photoactivating said compound, in order to inactivate said pathogen. The biological composition is a blood product thought of to be contaminated. The blood products utilized are platelets or plasma. After amotosalen treatment is performed, the blood product can be suitable for its intended use. 12

Aminomethyl-trimethyl psoralen is also known as amotosalen hydrochloride or S-59. It has been used to inactivate pathogens in plasma and platelets.  The process of pathogen inactivation using amotosalen is performed through, initially, reducing volume of platelet concentrate to be suspended in 30 to 45 plasma and 70 to 55 platelet additive solution containing sodium chloride, acetate, citrate and phosphate. The amotosalen, 150molL, is added to the platelet and incubated for a period of 3 to 5 minutes. The subjection o the product to 3 Jcm2 of UV light for 3 minutes is, then, performed. In the previous step, agitation is necessary. After UV-A exposure, approximately 80 of the amotosalen were photodegraded to by-products. The residues of psoralen and by-products are removed by a compound absorption disc to avoid potential toxicity. The amotosalen-UV-A treated platelets are, then, placed in a bag containing the S-59 absorbent and incubated at room temperature. Agitation is done for 4 to 16 hours before transferring to the final platelet storage bag. The advantage of using amotosalen in pathogen inactivation is the process need for a lower dose of UV-A, thus, exposure is shorter and there is obtained corresponding avoidance of plasma damage. Also toxicity is very low if any. 11

Intercalation
S-303 (Helinx) is a molecule made for pathogen inactivation treatment of red blood cells. Helinx is an alkylating agent derived from quinacrine mustard characterized to be a frangible anchor linker effectors compounds. The Helinx technology is used in the INTERCEPT Blood System for Red Blood Cells. It uses the active compound S-303, a member of compounds known as FRALEs (Frangible Anchor Linker Effector). Frangible anchor linker effectors compounds possess an intercalator group that inserts into the helical region of DNA and RNA. Effector groups allow covalent linking of nucleic acids, and as well as a central frangible bond that organizes the degradation of the compound. S-303 can easily intercalate into the helical regions of the negatively charged nucleic acids and the process does not depend on light to pursue. A shift from a lower pH storage environment to the higher neutral pH of red blood cells causing hydrolysis activates intercalation. 11

Pathogen inactivation of components containing red blood cells has presented itself to be challenging. S-303 method is utilized on whole blood and red blood cells. Pathogen inactivation of an array of viruses, bacteria, and protozoa has been associated to S-303 which is characterized by its intercalating ability. The advantage of this technique is that there is no known toxicity. However, expertise is required in the performance of this pathogen inactivation technique. 11

Leukocyte Depletion
Leukocyte depletion is a common practice among blood banks as it was made available by Fleming almost a century ago. Its main purpose is to use filtration methods in removing leukocytes from the blood. The removal of leukocytes aims to hinder inflammatory response especially during heart surgeries and is said to decrease incidence of ventricular arrhythmias. In recent years, newly designed filtration methods are available which is enhanced by rapid flow yielding to an excellent leukocyte removal rate. These new filters remove 99.995 of the leukocytes from the blood. Unfortunately, during surgery the rate may be somewhat lower with a 96.8 removal of leukocytes for cardiopulmonary bypass perfusate. 13

Gamma Irradiation
Transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease (TA-GVHD) is a type of disease that results from unsterile blood transfusion.  The chances of obtaining transfusion-related disease is said to rely on the percentage of the contaminating lymphocytes in transfused blood, the susceptibility of the patient to the disease and the disparity between the patient and the donor. In order to attenuate this, Gamma irradiation is used in inactivating T lymphocytes while maintaining the biological function of other blood cells.  Nevertheless, gamma irradiation shall not exceed 50 Gy. In spite of this, there is evidence that gamma irradiation results in lower post-transfusion red cell recovery if storage is prolonged.   The same thing goes for granulocytes which, in order to prevent harmful effects, must be transfused as soon as possible after preparation. Hence, the use of Gamma irradiation presents its own risks for patient if performed improperly. In-depth knowledge regarding its practice is highly necessary. 14

Ultraviolet B Irradiation
Leukocytes in labile blood products are able to immunize recipients of donor HLA antigens. This can bring about induction of refactoriness. UV light was observed to damage HLA class II related surface structures on lymphocytes and monocytes. In addition UV light was also observed to remove proliferative responses to mitogens and alloantigens and as well as viability. Similar to leukocyte depletion, UV B irradiation is also able to inactivate contaminated leukocyteslymphocytes whilst maintaining biological function of platelets. The process involves treatment of normal PC with a UV B dose of 0.3 Jcm2 with a wavelength of 310 nm for the period of 22 minutes. This process is most applicable with patients who recently underwent bone marrow transplantation. UV B Irradiation is said to reduce, however not to completely eliminate, HLA alloimmunization and subsequent platelet refactoriness. 15

Quarantine of FFP
Fresh frozen plasma is a component for transfusion prepared either from entire blood or from solely plasma taken with the use of apheresis. FFP is frozen for a certain period of time with a temperature adequate in maintaining plasma proteins to be biological active. FFP contains 80-92 of plasma coming from donor and citrate coagulant which is dependent on the type of donation and hematocrit compatibility. 16Q-FFP has been developed to reduce the risk of HIV and HCV transmission. 17

Glycerolization
Glycerolization is performed to prolong the storage life of the blood components. Ideally, the glyceralization takes place within six days of collection of blood in CPD or CPDA-1. Freezing the blood components come after. Glycerol is a cryoprotectant that serves as a means for the maintenance of biological activity and, also, a limit provider for pathogen growth while being frozen. This is made possible by limiting the oxygen availability for the blood components. The method by which glyceralization is done is as follows glycerolized red cells shall have a final concentration of 40 WV of glycerol it can, then, be frozen at 80C over a period of 30 min using manual refrigeration afterwards, it can be preserved at -60 to -65C for 10 years. In the production of 40 WV of glycerol, the glycerolizing solution is composed of 6.2 M glycerol solution that consists 57 gm glycerol, 1.6 gm Na lactate, 0.03 gm KCl and a total of 25 mEq1 of monobasic and disodium phosphatesin order to create a 6.8 pH. Another concentration of glycerolized red cells is 20 WV of glycerol. It can be frozen at - 196C using liquid nitrogen for 2-3 minutes and be preserved in the gas phase of liquid nitrogen at -120C for 3 years after. 18

Nanofiltration
Nanofiltration, the most recent technique for pathogen inactivation, has been used in effectively inactivating infectious transmissible spongiform encephalopathy agents in animals also known to be agents of vCJD. 19 Since the 1990s, nanofiltration of plasma products has been available already to implement viral safety suitable for the pathogen inactivation of human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus, and, even prions. Most recently, nanofiltration has been known to be a reliable viral reduction technique that can be used for all plasma products. Nanofiltration serves as a possible safeguard against novel infectious agents potentially entering the human plasma pool. The process can be done with the use of filters of defined pore size. It is characterized by filtering protein solution through membranes of a very small pore size, typically 15-40 nm. The sizes of the pores suit retaining viruses. The advantages of nanofiltration include flexibility, efficiency, predictability of removing more than 4 to 6 logs of an array of viruses, and non-denaturing for plasma proteins. Up to recent times, nanofiltration is the only known technology to remove enveloped and non-enveloped viruses while maintaining 90-95 of protein activity20

Inactine PEN110
The Inactine PEN110 technology is a pathogen reduction process that was known to be in Phase 3 clinical studies. The study investigated the ability to inactivate mycoplasmas in human blood. The manner of execution is done by incubating whole blood or RBC units inoculated with Mycoplasma arthritidis or M. pneumoniae with PEN110 for 24 hours at 23 degrees C. Buffer treatment was also used under the same conditions. Through this Inactine process more than 107 mycoplasma CFU mL in whole blood and RBCs can be inactivated. This suggests the susceptibility of mycoplasmas to pathogen reduction. 21

Riboflavin
Riboflavin is capable of inactivating pathogens in all the three major blood components namely red blood cells, platelets and fresh frozen plasma.18 Riboflavin is known o inactivate pathogens with the aid of light. The mode of action of riboflavin photo-inactivation is essentially via electron transfer reactions in nucleic acids. The photo-inactivation procedure of riboflavin plus light can be performed with the blood components treatment with riboflavin and UV light that may result in reduction in the activity levels of some pro-coagulant factors. 22

Conclusion
The preceding pathogen inactivation techniques have proved themselves worthy to be tried and tested as means of medical treatment in a wider scale. However, one should consider the various factors that these treatments are affecting. The economic value of the treatments is rather questionable. This is in consideration of the different processes needed in order execute the entirety of the treatment. Expensive tests that are done in order to obtain blood samples from donors, the treatment, itself, can have a high cost since there are necessary materials and skills for success, and the administration to the patient can pricy, as well. Health is also a concern. There are unexpected risks in these newly developed treatments as they may have side effect in the long term scale. There are advantages and disadvantages for these pathogen inactivation techniques. This is a matter for the people, the patients, to decide whether to avail of them or not.
Chapter 3 Methodologies

3. Introduction
ThisIn this chapter we will begin with an explanation of the rationale behindfor the choice of the life cycle methodology used along withlife cycles including the alternative methodologies that could have been considered. Furthermore, there will be a brief discussion about of the type of data collectedused to collect along with the research methods used for collection. With many options to consider, a justification is shown on why the particular research method was viable for the project for collecting information abouton the user requirements along with testing and evaluation.

3.1 Methodologies
Methodologies are applied within the subject of human computer interaction using life cycles which entails a series of steps when designing a prototype.  There are many life cycles, the usage of which are imperative when developing a prototype or software as it has different activities that follow one anothercan be followed depending on how the designer goeswill go about it.this.

3.1.2 Considerations of Methodologies

Spiral Life Cycle Model
Spiral life cycle model is based on the concept of incremental prototyping and is an advanced version of the waterfall model. It aims to combine the advantages of waterfall model with the features of prototyping. It starts as a subset of the waterfall model and delivers bigger prototypes with more features each with each iteration thereby taking the shape of a spiral. It is used for large and complex projects.

Waterfall Life Cycle
This is one ofcan also be known as the most common and popular System Development Life Cycles. It isCycle. Its often used in small projectsa project which involve multipleinvolves phases for a designer to go through. This effectively means that each stage must be completed before continuing onto the next step.

UCD Life Cycle
The User-centred design (UCD) is an approach to focus the design process around people. The product will be targeting the people in the centre of this design bythrough involving the users in the phases in the design phases by receiving information from them. UCD processes focus on users through the planning, design and development of a product (Usability Professional Association 2010).

3.2 Justification of Methodology chosen
The method that waswill be adopted for this project waswill be the UCD methodology. This washas been chosen ahead of the Waterfall cycle and the Spiral Life cycle. One of the primary reasons for choosing UCD methodology for this project is the user-centricity that it provides. Since a major portion of the research for this project is going to be based on interactions with users to fulfil their specific needs, it was important to choose a method which provides special focus towards user experience. While waterfall or star life cycle methodologies could also have been adopted to conduct this project, some of the main reasons why UCD was chosen ahead of these 2 methodologies are outlined below-

Since the project does not contain a finite set of requirement definitions to begin with, it is difficult to plan each and every step ahead of the project initiation which is needed for traditional methodologies like the waterfall cycle.

The requirements can change dynamically and vary vastly between different groups in a user-centric project like this. Hence it is much easier to work with UCD in this scenario as it is quite difficult to accommodate changes dynamically in other methodologies.

UCD will help in reducing future maintenance costs and efforts in this project by carrying out user evaluations early in the project as compared to other methods. It also helps in identifying failure points early on in the project thereby reducing testing and bug fixing efforts as well.

Since the trends in mobile applications tend to vary very rapidly, using a user centred approach will help in keeping up with changing user needs by concentrating on a research and evaluation based plan and design.
Using a user-centred method will also reduce the learning curve for the target user group thereby ensuring user satisfaction and ease of adaptability of the application.

The UCD methodology will help in gathering a large amount of data with limited sampling and help in creating a robust user interface since it is scenario-driven as compared to the other methodologies which are system-driven.

The involvement of users at every stage will ensure that the product serves its intended purpose and also helps in fulfilling user expectations much better than other methods. (Abras, Maloney-Krichmar and Preece, 2004)

In addition to the points mentioned above, using a customer-centric methodology will also help in providing a compelling user experience, faster application development, more flexibility and better control of presentation layer. (Spillers, F, 2006). The information gained by user-evaluations and interviews can be applied dynamically in several iterations thereby producing an end product which provides extensive attention to individual user requirements. Due to its flexibility, it is quite easy to integrate and overlap UCD with other methodologies like Agile if needed in the future. It helps in developing applications which are relevant and custom made according to specific user needs. Since the aim of the project is to design an application catering to a specific target user group, it is possible to create a personalised solution for each target group using this methodology.

Figure 1 A symbolic representation of the UCD methodology is given below

Source of Information from Usability Professionals Association (2010)

As depicted in the diagram above, the major focus of UCD is the requirements of the user and it focuses on a human centred design. The design is validated against user requirements at various stages which is very important for this project. Hence, UCD seems to be the most appropriate choice for conducting this project.

3.3 Participant Sample used in Research

Following this approach, there will be a justification of the research methods applied within each stage of the project.

Stage 1Stage 2Stage 3Pilot StudyInitial User Requirements InterviewTesting and EvaluationUnstructured InterviewSemi-Structured InterviewLaboratory Test (Visual Basic) User Tasks  Evaluate user with Structured Interview3 Male  3 Female Participants5 Male  5 Female
Participants6 Male  6 Female
Participants
Figure Explanation of the methods applied using this user centred design process.

The aim of this research aimed at targeting is to target male and female respondents for themy primary research who are users of the gym and are interested in keeping fit and users of the gym. The choice of data will target age group of the research participants was fixedwho are aged between 18- and 30 years as this is the average age group for the users of the gym. The main purpose of the research is to concentrate on the varying these gender differences to meet their specific requirements of both genders belonging to this age group and gather specific data on what they expectentail in a mobile application.

The research involved a step-by-step approach beginning with a pilot study and gradually expanding into a full-fledged testing and evaluation. The main reason behind using a pilot study here is to permit preliminary testing and confirmation of the concept so that the testing efforts are reduced in the final phase. Since the pilot study is only a prelude to the main phase, an unstructured interview will a smaller number of participants sufficed at this stage.

The next stage involved an interview to gather the user requirements. Since the requirements were not yet finalised at this stage, it was important to allow flexibility in the interview with options to introduce new questions as and when required. Hence a semi-structured interview with a slightly bigger number of participants is justified at this stage.

During the third stage, it was important to subject the prototype to a full-fledged laboratory testing. At this stage it was necessary to finalise the scope and boundaries of the application and hence a structured interview with a larger group of participants was used.

3.4 Ethical Considerations
The foundation of this research involvedwill involve human participants of male and female participants species who must obey the ethical principles set by according to the British Psychological Society. As this research involvedwill involve qualitative study, before carrying out any research, it wasis essential to get consent fromthat the participants give consent so they are aware of the principles before agreeing to take part. Ethical principles can be used to guide the research in addressing the initial and ongoing issues arising from qualitative research in order to meet the goals of the research as well as to maintain the rights of the research participants (Orb, A et al., 2001).

Before agreeing to take part in the study, the participants wereare given an informed consent sheet (See Appendix A) which gives an explanation of the project towards whichthat they will be contributing to. These sheets were given in the stages all the three stages stated in the table above.  Once the usersthey have read the information consent sheet, they had to fill out and sign the model consent form (See Appendix A). Following the ethical rules they werehave been told that their responses will be kept strictly confidential.  These ethical issues are areas that should be considered during any stage of the research.

3.5 Research Methods
The data collection actively appliedwill apply research methodologies in order to gather data from the sample participants involved in the centre of the design. Participatory design does not just ask users opinions on design issues, but actively involves them in the design and decision-making processes, (Web Credible 2010). The), the participants involvement was spreadis across two stages during the project which include

1. Initial User Requirements

2. Testing and Evaluation process

For themy primary research these participants werewill be selected from Brunel University Gym as they were easily accessible and workingit will make it easier to work with them was easierregularly.
The involvement of the participants during the two stages mentioned above was important as applications in the UCD lifecycle are completely user centric.

3.6 Initial User Requirements
In order to carry out themy research, an investigation of the user requirements offrom male and female participants was neededto know what is required for the designer to fulfil each genders need. From a qualitative perspective, there were many considerations to bear in mind while gathering the in order to gather my research data on the user requirements. A semi structured interview approach was a chosen method of data collection at this stage.

3.61 Pilot Study
In order to conduct a fair research of the users requirements, starting off the data collection was triggered using a Pilot study to experiment with males and females who are users of the gym, using the students from Brunel University Gym. A Pilot study can refer to so-called feasibility studies which are small scale versions, or trial runs, done in preparation for the major study (Polit et al., 2001). The pilot study was used towill test out the questions considered in order to collect the user requirements tested on a small sample of participants. An unstructured A structured interview was used which lasted 8-10 minutes, involvingasking people at the Brunel University Gym. As enough data was not gathered it was followed up with an interview to gather further research on the users requirements for the mobile application based on Gym and Fitness in the later stages. .

The main reason behind conducting a
You need to be more specific about the pilot study was to capture failure points in the research in advancetoo and also make modificationsgive the same level of detail to the questions based on the user inputs.

The pilot study was conducted on a relatively smaller group of 3 male and 3 femalequestionnaires, tasks etc, that you asked participants who were similar to the final target user group in terms of gender and age. Since the main aim of this phase was initial testing of the questionnaire, an unstructured interview approach was followed wherein the questions can be altered according to the requirements and understanding of the respondent. The emphasis here is on acquiring deep knowledge and authenticity of peoples life experiences ( HYPERLINK httpwww.esds.ac.ukqualidatasupportinterviewsreferences.asp l Gubrium o Gubrium and Holstein Gubrium and Holstein, 2001). While the basic questions remained the same, some questions were gender and age group specific. The questions were also varied based on the responses of the individual participants.to use and complete

Some of the questions based on general fitness requirements and the type of exercises were also varied according to the age of the participants. Some of the sample questions which were provided to the participant based on their age group are as follows

Do you have any specific health concerns(Answer can be issues like joint pain, muscle pain etc)
Do you follow any dietary restrictions along with your gym workout (Answer can be low fat diet, no sugar etc)

3.6.2 Interview
In the second stage, aA qualitative interview waswill be used to gather requirements on gender differences. The main task in interviewing is to understand the meaning of what the interviewees say (Kvale, 1996). Using a qualitative research for interview is a good technique to investigate the user requirements as compared to other methods such as multiple choice questionnaires, surveys etc. The as the interviews are a far more personal form of research than questionnaires since the interviewee directly works with the interviewer. Also, in questionnaires, the answers are limited and hence the Although it is time consuming, it gives the researcher a great advantage as it gives them a chance to ask follow up questions to gain more of a detailed response as compared to other methods such as multiple choice questionnaires, offering multiple-choice answers can be rather dull for the participants, because there are only preselectable answers (Gillham, B 2000). As the answers are limited, respondents tend to rush the answers which are not a great help to the study. Interviews are particularly useful for getting the story behind a participants experiences. The interviewer can pursue in-depth information around the topic. Interviews may be useful as follow-up to certain respondents to questionnaires, e.g., to further investigate their responses (McNamara, 1999).

There are many methods of interviews to choose from as qualitative interviewing is often split into unstructured and semi-structured interviewing (Urmetzer, F et al., 2006). In this stage,The approach used will be a semi- structured approach was used. This was used ahead of the unstructured method used in the Pilot Study. The reasonReason behind choosing this method was as itll help to get reach a detailed answers supplemented byanswer so the respondents individualrespondent adds their own opinions. These responsesideas can help the designer in understanding what the users wantuser wants as this method will help what male and female would need to help them if they had a gym and fitness application running on the mobile phone. Since the responses come directlyThey will need to add opinions to what is beneficial to the users for the usability of this interface and it will give a direct response from the users along with their personal opinions about their specific requirements,that follow the user centred approach, where thorough data can be captured is more comprehensive and thorough.. It allows the interviewer to probe and explore within these predetermined inquiry areas (Hoepfl, 1997).

During this stage there werewas a total of ten participants (5 Male and 5 Female), who took part in the interview to understand the user requirements. GivenHere below are a few sample questions from theis an example of Initial User Requirements Interview (See Appendix B for the full list of interview questions)

1. How often do you go to the gym

2. HowWhat would you class yourself
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced

3.7 Testing and Evaluation

In this stage the participants were will be involved inwithin the testing and  the evaluation ofused to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the prototype. Further explanation will be givenshown later in this project (See Chapter 5).

Prototype Method
With testing and evaluating prototypes, there are many ways that can be used inuse within the final stages. The testing usually involveswill involve the users in experimenting withto experiment the prototype to analyse whether the initial user requirements were met. This will also investigate the users experience in order to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the prototype. The software proposed to build this high fidelity prototype will be Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition which will be used ahead of J2ME Environment mainly due to personal preference and also due to the fact that it is highly optimized. The reason for development in the UCD and RAD models. Also, Visual basic provides highly appealing user interface elements which are very important in an application that is user centric. Also, the platform provides working with these platforms is multiple features that it provides to the user so as to translateput all the imagination and innovations in the mind toon technology. Further explanation will be shown about the prototype design later (See Chapter 5).

3.7.1 Prototype Testing
The application created waswill be tested on computersthe computer so that the users coulduser can interact with it. The method used to test with the users waswill be by conducting a laboratory experiment using an emulator on a desktop computer enables testers to thoroughly capture user behaviour (Buyukkokten et al., 2002 Chittaro  Cin, 2002 Jones et al., 1999). This approach will be adopted in the usability testing. The reason for choosing to collect data in laboratory is because the mobile application prototype is not designed for a particular phone due to which thehence why field study cannot be conductedtake place by using a particular mobile device.

Also, testing in laboratory is more cost effective and provides a convenient way to evaluate
During the usability of the application. Furthermore, the use of a usability laboratory can have, in addition to this direct effect on the quality of a particular software system, can have a less direct (but perhaps more powerful) impact on procedures within the development organization (Melkus, 1985).

The laboratory test, this involved the same tasks for all participants both users (male and female) to determineassess how they use the application. The purpose of these tasks waswere to make sure that users can operate with the system well and alsoit helps to evaluate the applications performance. The result of the testing will be discussed later (See Chapter 5). Here is an example of some of the tasks used
Check custom workouts for male class beginners
Check the list of exercises available for Chest workouts.

3.7.2 Prototype Evaluation
ConsideringHowever, considering the methods used for the testing stage, here below is a framework that has been adopted for testing and evaluating mobile applications.

Figure 2 A framework for the design and implementation of usability testing of mobile applications.

 Source of information from The design and implementation of usability testing of mobile applications (Zhang D  Adipat B, 2005)

Looking at this diagram gives you plenty of options to evaluate the results shown from the testing. There are various fundamental data collection methods to consider such as observation, interview, survey questionnaire, and verbal protocol which can be adopted within usability testing of mobile applications.

A structured interview method waswill be chosen to evaluate users thoughts on the mobile application. This involvedwill involve twelve participants (6 male and 6 female) to check if the initial user requirements were met. The testing and evaluation will each lastedlast around 5-10 minutes each. This analysedwill analyse whether the user requirements have been met which in turn analysedwill analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the project. Here below is an example of the questions that werewill be asked to evaluate the prototype (See Appendix B for further list of questions).

What did you think the first time you saw the mobile application prototype

What do you think about the applications look and feel of the application

3.8 Secondary Research
The secondary research was conducted will be used from resources likeof books, journals, articles, websites and many more. This method will also be used in use during themy prototype implementation to gathergathering information. It will alsoneed to be neededrequired to help with the development of the prototype in relation to gym and fitness (diet and gym related topics such as workouts etc).  The benefits offor this approach is that it is cheap and accessible - especially a University Library, often the only resource, for example historical documents and only way to examine large-scale trends (Dunsmuir and Williams 1992).

Also, secondary resources can fill the gaps and missing pieces of information in the primary research and if well used, can act as an able supplement to the main research to provide a detailed and comprehensive set of data.

3.9 Summary
The chapter covers a consideration and justification of different methodologies and methods that werecan be applied within different stages of this project including the initial user requirements and the testing and evaluation of thethis prototype.  Depending upon the needs of the projects and evaluation of different methodologies, UCD was deemed to be the most appropriate choice for the project. Since UCD heavily relies on user inputs, the research and evaluation of the prototype werehave been planned in a way as to provide maximum bandwidth to user participation and face to face research. Overall, all this This will contributehelp in developing an application which is easily adaptable, close to real life needs, more relevant and self-explanatory.

Targeted at both genders aged between 18 - 30

Appendix B
Pilot Study Interview
1. How often do you go to the gym
2. What is your goal when you go to the gym
3 Have you seen a gym application before If so where What did you think of it
4. What is your opinion of having a gym application running on your mobile phone
5. What would you expect in the gym application in terms of information
6. What would you expect in the mobile application in terms of usability and features
Appendix B
Final Study Interview

1. How often do you go to the gym
2. What would you class yourself
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced
3. Do you follow your own routine
Yes...Would you prefer to create a routineNo...Would you like preset workouts
 
4. What is your goal when you go to the gym
5 Have you seen a gym application before If so where What did you think of it
6. What is your opinion of having a gym application running on your mobile phone
7. What would you expect in the gym application in terms of information
8. What would you expect in the gym application in terms of design
7. What are the features in a mobile gym application that you are most likely to use
Introduction
This chapter discusses the results of the interview conducted to determine the viability of implementing a gym application integrated on the mobile phone and the initial user requirements needed for such. A pilot study was initially conducted to pre-test a questionnaire composed of five (5) questions. The preliminary questionnaire was initially deployed to six (6) people, composed of three (3) males and three (3) females. The pilot study was conducted to determine the demographic data of selected gym-goers, as well as, their perception and feedback on the feasibility of the proposed gym application. The list of questions is shown in the Appendix A.

In addition, only one of the six (6) respondents said that he has seen a gym application integrated in an Ipod. According to the respondent, the said gym application is customized for men. Also, the programs offered in the said gym application is still limited and that there are possible areas for consideration in order to improve the features of the existing gym application. The remaining respondents of the pilot study were then asked of their opinions of having a gym application integrated in their mobile phones. The respondents answered positively and expressed their keen interest in the gym application. Further to such discussion, the respondents were then asked of their expectations in the gym application in terms of information, design and layout. In terms of information, the respondents wish to have a gym application that offers various programs that suit the needs of the person, i.e., the availability of routinesprograms that caters to the goal of the person  either to lose weight, to gain mass, etc.  In terms of design, the respondents wish that the application be user-friendly and that it can be accessed easily. Unfortunately, in terms of layout, the respondents were not that much responsive. A major factor that had contributed to such reaction was the inability of the respondents to see or visualize a sample gym application. It was deduced, however, that in order to achieve a valuable feedback for this, it is essential that sample interfaces be shown to the respondents.

Upon tabulation of the results of the pilot study, the proponents identified factors that need to be considered in order to gather more data from the respondents. This led to the finalization of the list of questions for the final study, as well as, the inclusion of additional three (3) questions in the questionnaire. The questionnaire used for the final study is shown in Appendix B.

User Requirement Analysis of Qualitative Interview
For the final study, the proponents interviewed ten (10) respondents who belong to the 18-30 age bracket and are gym-goers.

The demographic data of the respondents are presented below.

Of the ten (10) respondents, five (5) are male and five (5) are female. This means that 50 of the total respondents are men, while 50 of the total respondents are women. The table below shows the distribution of respondents in terms of gender classification.

No. of RespondentsPercentageMALE550FEMALE550TOTAL10100
90 of the respondents or nine (9) out of ten (10) respondents are frequent gym-goers who visit the gym at least twice (2) times a week to at most five (5) times a week.

GenderNo. of RespondentsPercentageBeginnerMale220Female220IntermediateMale110Female110AdvancedMale220Female220TOTAL10100

Of the respondents, four (4) belong to the Beginner class, two (2) belong to the Intermediate class, four (4) belong to the Advanced. Furthermore, each gender type has a representative belonging to the Beginner level, the Intermediate level and the Advanced level.

No. of RespondentsPercentageBeginner440Intermediate220Advanced440TOTAL10100

Moreover, from the interview, it is deduced that there are three (3) main reasons in enrolling oneself in the gym  to lose weight, to gain weight and to maintain shape. Majority of the respondents or 60 enrol in gym classes to tone up and keep fit.

Upon determining the demographics of the respondents, the respondents were asked of their routine preference  whether they opt to follow their own routine or to adhere to a pre-set routine. Of the respondents, 60 or six (6) out of ten (10) respondents prefer to follow a their own routine, while 40 or four (4) out of ten (10) prefer a pre-set routine. Looking deeper on the data results, both gender types prefer to follow their own routines than to enrol in a class with pre-set routines.
 GenderNo. of RespondentsPercentageOwn routineMale330Female330Pre-setMale220Female220TOTAL10100
The respondents were then asked if they have seen a gym application before. Only two of the respondents or 20 said Yes. As a follow up question, they were asked as to where they have seen such gym applications. The respondents said that they have seen gym applications which available in iPhone.

The rest of the respondents claimed that they have not seen any gym application before and were asked of their opinions on the possibility of a gym application being integrated in their mobile phones. 100 of the respondents gave positive feedback on the said idea.

The respondents said that incorporating a gym application in the mobile phone is a great idea and is foreseen to provide a lot of benefits. Such can serve as a handy and interactive reference during exercise time. Furthermore, it can serve as a quick guide on various exerciseroutines or a tracker of workouts performed.

Lastly, the respondents were asked what type of information would they want to see on the proposed gym application, their answers are generally related to fitness information which includes routine schedules depending on the goal of the user, exercise and motivation tips, nutrition and diet and food intake guides.

The respondents also noted that should such application be fully implemented, they suggest that the design of the gym application it should be customized depending on the physique of the user. Such application should have a separate routine module that caters to women as most gym applications addresses only mens routine needs.

Discussion
Looking at the results above, integrating a gym application in mobile phones is highly feasible and will receive optimistic response from frequent gym-goers as they find it beneficial and useful in their gym needs. There are current gym applications available in iPhone, however, these applications cater only to the needs of the men. Should this product be brought to the market, it is important that it also cater to womens needs as there is also a market for women who wish to use gym applications through their mobile phones.

As an initial user requirement, it is proposed to develop workouts or drills customised for the male and the female physique who attends the gym twice to five times a week. Furthermore, it is essential to design routines that address the following  weight loss, weight gain and toning up, in different levels (Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced). It is also proposed that such application initially provide a pre-set routineexercise and later on be innovated to take on owner-preferred workoutexercise.

Lastly, it is important to include the following information in the gym application for it to promote a sense of a handy reference for frequent gym-goers  customised programs for the male and the female and for different classes, body map picture, information of exercisesroutines, and nutrition list.

In terms of user interface, it is proposed that the application design be developed to minimize the barrier between human goal and computers understanding of the task to be accomplished. It is also suggested that the application be user-friendly in such a way that first-time users will be able to understand and use the application. Furthermore, it is also recommended that the design principle of pictorial realism be implemented. This means that certain display designs be incorporated in the application. These displays shall be devised to support the perception of system variables and facilitate further processing of information.
These displays shall come in the form of icons, pictures, colours or any signs accustomed to the users. In the case of the gym application, should there be a separate module for Advisable Food to Eat, it is highly recommended that a picture of fruits or vegetables be used as an icon to represent such. It is also important to incorporate variables that appeal to the senses of the user. For instance, it may be important to use different colours to differentiate modules. The colour blue may be used to denote modules designed for men and the colour pink for women. Moreover, the principle of the moving part may also be advantageous. Take for example the yoga module in Wii Fit. Users, while on the yoga board, are shown a black dot which indicates their sense of balance. The application shall then instruct the user to follow certain stances while keeping his balance point inside the circle. A moving sketch of the users balance point shall be illustrated, showing how accurate the user maintained his balance point. This certain user design principle is very important because it directly communicates with the user what should be and what should be done during activities.

Prior to the implementation of the application, it is also necessary to test the application and analyse which components need to be improved.

Summary
To summarize, this chapter discusses the results of the pilot study for the feasibility of the integrating a gym application in mobile phones. Furthermore, this chapter also examines and analyzes the result of the final study for the aforementioned topic. The data provided gathered a sufficient amount of information from the initial user requirements given. The discussion emphasised an interpretation of the data to be able to continue to the next stage of the prototype development in Chapter 5.

Compare and Contrast Between Cyber Terrorism and Information Warfare

According to Taylor et al (2008), people commit crime because they decide to so after weighing the benefits and risks of engaging in the act. According to this choice theory, if the risks such as punishment and apprehension outweigh the benefits, then the individual will be deterred from committing the crime. As a result, to deter people from crime, then it becomes prudent to have the offenders fear it and be deterred from committing the crime. This is based on the rationale that humans are hedonistic (Taylor et al, 2003)
Cyber terrorism and information warfare terms are technically similar but each has different objectives. The main goal of cyber terrorism is to cause terror in among members of the population. This terror is largely dependent on how people view it.   There are a number of instances on how the extremist groups have utilized the internet and computers to advance their causes. These include the coordination of terrorist operations globally, sometimes with the use of steganography, recruitment of suicide bombers from several countries across the globe, raising financing from the extremist groups around the world.

Information warfare on the other hand, is the management and use of information in the pursuit of gaining a competitive advantage over the opponent. Information warfare will entail the collection of very tactical information, making of assurances that ones information is the most valid, and the spread of the propaganda with the aim of demoralizing the enemy of the public. In essence, there is a thin line between cyber terrorism and information warfare.

According to CIA (2009), the foiled attack on the Detroit bound Delta Airline was orchestrated by Al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan where the Nigerian had received teachings. The coordination was made possible by communicating via the internet after which the attempted suicide bomber was instructed to board and explode the plane. The Al-Qaeda has since claimed responsibility for the attack (Irwin, 2009)
Cyber terrorism has varied definitions because every security expert carries their own definitions.  This term can defined as the use of information technologies by individuals and terror groups to achieve their targets. They utilize information technologies to execute and organize attacks against the computer systems, networks and telecommunication infrastructures and also they make threats and exchange the information electronically. Cyber terrorism can occur in different ways but they can be categorized as attacks against services and data.   If data is targeted, then the attackers intention is to compromise and access the data.
And if the attacker targets the services, then the intention is to cause the legitimate users not to utilize those services.

In 1998, a certain terrorist guerilla organization flooded the emails of Sri Lanka embassy officials globally with over 800 e-mails every day for a period of two weeks.  The messages indicated that they are the internet Black Tigers and that they were doing that to disrupt their communications.  This attack was categorized by the US intelligence as being the initial attack against the state computer systems (Dorothy, 1998)

During the time of Kosovo conflict, the Belgrade hackers received a denial of service (DoS) credit against the NATO servers.  What they did was that they bombarded the NATO web server with PING commands and ICMP packets which put the connectivity of servers and host on test.  Similar attacks were seen in 2000 during the time of Palestinian-Israeli cyber war.  The pro-Palestinian hackers utilized the DoS tools to launch their attacks on Israelis largest ISP, Netvision. The initial attacks against Netvision were successful but subsequent attacks were shielded off through improved security (Armistead, 2004)

Come October 2007, Victor Yuchchenko, the Ukrainian president, website was attacked.  The Eurasian Youth Movement claimed that they were responsible for the attack (Radio Free Europe, 2007).  In November 2008, the Pentagon was attacked by a certain computer viruses which culminated into the DOD banning the use of DVDs and flash drives on its systems.

Another example of cyber terrorists at work was when the Romanian terrorists illegally gained access to systems controlling the life support at an Antarctic research station, which endangered about 58 scientists who were involved. The culprits were impounded before they actually executed their plan. Also recently in May 2007, Estonia became a victim of cyber attacks in the beginning of Russian World War memorial.  The attack was actually distributed as a DoS (denial of service) attack in which a number of sites were attacked.
A most recent illustration of hacking was when Google threatened to leave China after allegations that it was a victim of concerted espionage effort whereby some hackers attempted to break into the emails of major technology and financial firms.  An estimated 34 companies were attacked including Yahoo, Dow Chemical, Adobe and Symantec. Google stated that the hackers broke into the Chinese human rights activist gmail accounts in Europe, United States and China and as a result the search company issued threats that it would be pulling out its operations from China.  Google has since published the code used by the Chinese hackers in their cyber attacks (Ashford, 2010)

Terrorists can utilize the internet to transfer or communicate their information in a covert manner. One famous covert technique of communication is Steganography, whereby the sender of a hidden data or message uses the file as the carrier.  The carrier files are normally a video, pictures or audio files (Dorothy, 1998).  The hidden messages are usually embedded with encryptions without changing the nature of the file. For instance, in case a digital picture is used as a carrier, this file will look typically the same in picture view software even after the secret message or hidden data is embedded (Cordesman, 2002)

The National Coordination Office for Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (2009) states that global interest in research and development in the area of Steganography commercialization and technologies has exploded in the past few years. These technologies are a real threat to the security of nations. Because Steganography does secretly embed undetectable informational content into the digital products, its potential in covert dissemination of malicious mobile code, software or information is high. Indeed the threat by Steganography has received several documentations in a number of intelligence reports.

Rumors about the terrorist who use Steganography initial appeared in the USA Today newspaper on the February 5th, 2001 in two main articles titled  Terror groups hide behind Web encryption and Terrorist instructions hidden online.   In October 2001, The New York Times did publish an article which claimed that the Al-Qaeda operatives had employed steganographic techniques to embed and encrypt messages into images and later transferred them via USENET and emails in preparation of executing the horrendous September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the US Twin Towers.  The Jamestown Foundation (2007) research found a terrorist training manual by the name Technical Mujahid with a section having the title Covert Communications and Hiding Secrets inside Images

The Steganography Analysis and Research Center (2008) has since identified an estimated 725 digital Steganography applications.   Cyber hackers have faced accusations of breaking into the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and they have also been accused for electronically stealing from the financial institutions (Taylor et al, 2008).

But the hackers have sometimes the hackers have referred to themselves to be pro-social or beneficial.  The subculture of a hacker is a group of like minded people who typically share certain values which are defined as hacker ethnic.  The hackers can act in support of common ideas or causes (Taylor et al, 2008).
Information warfare on the other hand, comes with several definitions because of its nature. It takes on different forms such as

When radio and television transmission are jammed
Radio and television transmission are hijacked for the purposes of disinformation campaign
The Logistics networks are disabled
The enemy communication networks are spoofed or disabled.
The stock exchange transactions are sabotaged by spreading disinformation, leaking sensitive information and electronic intervention.

In information warfare, the attackerenemy targets the control, command, intelligence and communications within regions or countries and has not frontline. Consequently, the information warfare extends beyond the conventional regional theater to as many countries as possible and can be launched at targets far away from real targets. Besides, the growth of information technology into the layers of government operations and business has created a perfect platform to unleash the attacks.  Information may entail the collection of tactical information, while giving false assurances that the information is valid which essentially spreads disinformation and propaganda to demoralize the public and the enemy. This undermines the quality of information and denies the information collection opportunities by the opposing forces (Cordesman, 2002).
The squadrons of information warfare launch the attacks electronically or by use of software against the strategic enemy communication targets. They disable the networks electronically and make them difficult to be re-enabled.

According to Cronin (2001), information warfare has different typologies from which we can form a spectrum of possibilities.

Information warfare seeks to destroy or damage the tangible assets or equipment associated with the control, command and communication functions such as data networks and computer systems
Information war fare seeks to prohibit the targeted personsystems from operating effectively through the launch of DoS (denial of service).  This will range from mere irritation such as the defacement of the CIA and US pentagons web site to very critical missions such as severing the computerized intelligence systems
Information warfare seeks to corrupt or degrade the targets information systems by use of some malicious software usually called malware. An instance would be hacking into the targets logistics support systems with the aim of inducing performance degradation or the annihilation of the system  constituent databases like the targets ability too organize the physical assets in hisher operations

Information warfare entails the infiltration of the targets information resource  with the aim of conducting a support warfare intelligence and espionage, generic practices  which carry considerable pedigree in diplomatic and military operations

Information warfare entails the silent penetration of the targets systems in the shaping of opinions, management of operations and the fostering of deception through the digitally enabled techniques like morphing and superimposing. In this case the aim is not to render the systems inoperative but to play mind games acts what may be termed as epistemological or neo-cortical warfare.

In system penetrations, the crooks may be packet sniffers, password hackers, password grabbers, social engineers and password guessing, while system manipulation will entail Trojan horses, trap doors, worms, logic bombs and computer viruses. The attraction of Information Warfare lies in a number of factors
Asymmetrical starting ratios and payloads
Zero latency and warnings
Attacker is typically invisible to the target
Swift strike advantage
Has the ability vary the intensity and frequency of the attacks
Fluidity of the attack mode,
Scalability is easily achieved
Multiplier effects are available to the target
Targets the behaviors are not changed
Legal and ethical ambiguities (Cordesman, 2002)

In 1991, the Dutch hackers obtained information about the US troop movements during the initial Persian Gulf War, from the US Defense Department systems and attempted to sell the same  to the Iraq, who thought that it was hoax and therefore turned it down.   In January 1991, the US Air Intelligence computers were attacked in a coordinated manner and they were traced to some Russian hackers (Cordesman, 2002)
The proliferation of cyber terrorism and information warfare has benefited a lot from the advances made with regard to the worldwide web.  The supremacist groups have been utilizing the internet to recruit ne members and spread their message of hate.  According to Taylor et al (2008), an estimated 1500 websites have been identified as being run by extremist organizations that incite religious intolerance and racial hatred besides bomb attacking and terrorism.

The white supremacist groups have formed sophisticated computer links which are meant to attack the teenagers.   It is interesting how computer technologies have helped advance ills such as ethnic cleansing where by the players of such games are encouraged to kill the Jews, the blacks, Hispanics as they run through the urban ghettos and the subway environments.  In some of these games the players adorn themselves in Ku Klux Klan robes and have a noose.  And every time they shoot or kill a black enemy, the make a monkey-like squeal while the Jewish enemies shout Oy vey after they are killed. According to Taylor et al (2008) the right wing extremist groups promotes the whites especially those who descend from the Northern Europeans as being morally and intellectually superior compared to other races on the planet.  Hate Crimes and incidents are issues of concern to many crimes because of their effect upon certain members of the community.  As a result of hate crimes, the individuals may be emotionally traumatized and terrified (Armistead, 2004).

Kevin Mitnick is certainly one of the most publicized computer criminal who make his way into one the most sophisticated systems, Department of Defense.  He possessed sufficient technical skills to gain administrative control over these systems right from his personal computer, an epic example of cyber terrorism cum information warfare.

Since information warfare and cyber terrorism have tendencies to be similar in the exploitation of information technologies especially the internet, several approaches have been used to deal with them. Authentication is one way of denying access to unauthorized individuals who attempt to tamper with the content on the website and systems. The hackers pose a potential threat of accessing confidential and invaluable information that might have otherwise been securely stored on the digital locations such as websites. They do target credit card information and other sensitie information from the hence authentication is one way of verifying the right identities of the people on the web (Macdonald, 2004). This verification procedure involves assigning customers specific user names and passwords , demonstrating the correct identity for instance fingerprints, smart card, voice recognition among others.  Individual and companies protect their information and customers sensitive information from hackers by employing various approaches. An SSL secure connection between customers and the web server are utilized to prevent hackers from accessing credit card information and other sensitive client information. SSL encrypts communication and mostly can piggyback without incurring any extra cost on our digital certificates and secure servers given by the ordering system vendors. A payment gateway will ensure that all communications with credit card processors and our website is secure. Secure order retrieval will accord the merchants the option of securing orders using encrypted mail, SSL, XML, and secure FTP while taking utmost care to customers credit card information (Ralph, 2004).

Configuration When validating usernames and passswords a comparison is made through the password file of authoritative listing which are populated with valid users and their corresponding passswords. Because of the sensitivity asssociated with the information stored in the password file, the file should be stored separately in a document directory and the passswords safely encrypted. It is advisable to caution the customers to use a totally diffrent passsword for our online shopping than for other less  crucial things (Armistead, 2004).

After creating the passsword file, it is important to allow it to demand user information (username and passsword) for it to admit genuine customers. Configuring this requires these directives AuthType- for providing the type of authentication employed AuthName-  for providing the the authentication name AuthUserFile-  for providing the location passsword file AuthGroupFile-  for providing the location of the group and the  requirements which must be satisfied in order to approve access.

Data integrity is a fundamental element in an e-business site. It can be attained in a single database with a standalone system maintained through database constraints and transactions following the ACID rule for (Atomocity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability) characteristics for ensuring the integrity of data (Vinay, 2009). it is critical to use databases which support ACID transactions if we dont want to compromise the quality of our data (Macdonald, 2004).

Distributed systems exist with multiple applications hence to ensure uncompromised quality of data in such systems, transactions need to be handled safely across multiple data sources (Vinay, 2009). normally, this is done through a centralized global transactions manager. Every transaction in distributed systems should have the ability to freely participate globally through resource  managers. Often this is always attained via the use of a commit protocol 2-phase according to XA standardization although majority of databases are able to participate in transactions globally. However, customized applications are also able to engage in global transactions through an EAI medium. In conclusion, the immediate indicator of data integrity will keep regular back ups in place. Various media for keeping back ups exist and it is advisable to maintain a formal system that is documented and has strict rules governing it. To satisfy this stategy, it is important to ensure that back up processes are working efficiently (Doug, 2006).

After login, sessions are encrypted and this is done by locking the barn door so as prevent the horses from getting out. Failure in encrypting the logins is similar to leaving the keys in the lock after you are done locking the barn door.  It is paramount to affect security precautions so that company may be able to restrict hackers who may have the intention of breaking into its highly confidential site. If they do not protect their site we they end up losing valuable data of the company, customers and the businesses will incur huge losses. If they lack appropriate web security, hackers can easily steal and change data and their web files and eventually damage the reputation of the company