ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I would like to show my deep gratitude to my thesis advisor, Professor Ronald D. Ziemian, for providing me the opportunity to work with him on this research project and to learn from him a great deal. Not only did I learn deep structural behavior concepts from him, but I also had the opportunity to appreciate his extraordinary efforts in all the works that he does. I especially would like to thank him for his exceptional patience and understanding with my flaws and mistakes. I would like to acknowledge that there were several struggles involved in accomplishing this research project. There was a time when fate hit me so hard that I needed to re-complete my summer research work from almost ground zero. There were times when I had to postpone working on this research project due to other significant projects. As much as I had several imperfections, Dr. Ziemian has been extremely patient with me and supportive to me to get to this point of finally completing this thesis. I really would like to thank him for supervising me on this thesis, even when he is on sabbatical this academic year. Without learning from him, I would not have become who I am today. He has been a significance influence on my academic achievements. My profound gratitude also goes to Professor Kelly Salyards and Professor Karl Vos