Acknowledgments

An English novelist named G. B. Stern once quoted that “silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone”. Taking this piece of advice personally, I decided to start my thesis by expressing my heartfelt thanks to all those who have directly or indirectly helped me with the completion of this thesis. It is said that “a Ph.D. is an academic marriage between the candidate and the adviser, meaning equal amount of effort should be put in from both sides”. I am lucky to say that my supervisor Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Bungartz lived up to the statement by continuously supporting me not just for every concept built in this thesis, but also throughout my stay at the department. I would therefore like to thank him for every idea, suggestion, help, encouragement, countless amount of thesis reading and feedback, and the occasional soft-kicking from the back (absolutely necessary for someone like me) which made me bring this thesis to what it is today. Finally, I would also like to thank him for being brutal with me when it came to learning the German language and thereby helping me indirectly to enjoy my stay in Germany all these years