____________________________________________ Brian Hand ii To my parents, my brother and Suranga iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisors Dr. Soonhye Park and Dr. Renee Cole for their guidance and encouragement over the last two years. Your continuous support steered me towards performing quality research and developing a professional career. I would also like to gratefully acknowledge my MS committee member Prof. Brian Hand for his valuable discussions and suggestions which helped me to successfully continue my research work.
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