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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for the love, mercy, power, wisdom and strength He gave me throughout my life. It is by His grace and encouragement that I was able to complete this research. My God put my feet on solid ground and lifted me up. He gave me new hope for tomorrow and put a new song in my heart. How I love you Lord. I thank you for your faithfulness, loving kindness and patience. Praise the Lord! I gratefully acknowledge my parents, Mr. Rudi E. Fernand and Mrs. Elize G. Fernand-Buyne, my brother, Earl I. Fernand, and my sisters, Andrea I. Jubithana-Fernand with her family and Mavis R. Fernand, for their encouragement, prayers, magnificent support, love and patience throughout my years of education. I am so blessed to have you as family. I love you! I am sincerely grateful for the help I received in this research. I would like to acknowledge with gratitude Dr. Lydia Ori, Dr. Rick van Ravenswaay and Dr. Stanley Carpenter for the opportunity given to me to study at Louisiana State University. Thanks for all efforts. A deep appreciation is also extended to Dr. Cornelis de Hoop, my co-major professor, for his support, encouragement, patience and kind assistance throughout this project and my stay at LSU. I thank Dr. Zhijun Liu, my co-major professor, for his direction, guidance and patience as research advisor, and I hereby express my sincere gratitude to him for the opportunity to do my research in his lab. I also acknowledge th