The dissertation would not have happened without guidance, support and help from my committee, friends and family. My dissertation committee Chair, Dr. Seung-Jong Park, has been a great help to me. Dr. Park provided timely instructions during the course of developing research topic, solving problems, and completing the research. In addition, his patience, tolerance, and outstanding guidance helped me to be prepared for the research and can complete it in a very tight time limit. I would like to thank committee members, Dr. Doris Carver and Dr. Ebrahim Khosravi for their kind help, instructions, thoughtful discussion, patience and comments. I thank Dr. Blaise Bourdin for serving on my committee as Dean’s Representative. His suggestions and c...