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With patience, persistence and support of many individuals, my stay for doctoral research has been very memorial and fruitful. Without the help and the active encouragement of some of these people, the amount of time and effort required of the Ph.D. degree would have made it overwhelmingly daunting. I acknowledge and thank Dr. Jose C. Principe for his role as advisor and mentor during my stay here. Our numerous discussions and exchange of ideas has been integral to this research. I also thank him for providing a stimulating environment in the Computational NeuroEngineering Laboratory where I have developed and expanded a lot of my engineering and research capabilities. I am also grateful to the members of my advisory committee, Dr. John G. Harris, Dr. K. Clint Slatton and Dr. Murali Rao for their time and valuable suggestions. I also would like to express my appreciation to all the CNEL members, especially, those of the ITL group for their collaboration in this and other research projects. Finally, I thank my parents for encouraging me to pursue a Ph.D. in the first place, and for supporting me every step of the way