ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my earnest gratitude to both of my advisors, Professor James A. Ashton-Miller and Professor John O. L. DeLancey. Their guidance, assis-tance, patience, and encouragement have been of enormous importance to my research and the completion of the dissertation. I would also like to thank my other committee members, Professor Alan S. Wineman and Professor Gregory M. Hulbert, for their helpful advices and comments. I am indebted to the Biomechanics Research Lab. It has been a great pleasure pursuing my PhD in this lab. I sincerely appreciate my research colleagues, Kelly, Jinyong, Jiajia, Youkon, Luyun, and Kuocheng, for their help, discussion, and all the good times we have had in the office. I especially thank Janet Kemp, the retired senior technician in BRL, for her helps in our daily lab activities. I also want to thank the doctors, fellows and staffs of the Pelvic Floor Research Group. Their invaluable knowledge, opinions and suggestions guided me, a mechanical engineering student, into the world of obstetrics and gynaecology. I want to express my deepest thanks to my parents and sister for all the love an