ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

their patience, guidance and support in countless ways. They inspire me to think crit-ically, guide my academic development and provide me valuable feedback throughout the entire process of my dissertation research. Most importantly, their passionate commitment to research and overwhelming enthusiasm in statistics have greatly impacted me. It has been a great honor and privilege to work with them. I would like to thank my dissertation committee members, Dr. Siobán Harlow, Dr. Timothy Johnson and Dr. Lu Wang for their insightful comments that have greatly improved this dissertation. Particularly, I am very grateful to Dr. Harlow for sharing her expertise in women reproductive aging, Dr. Johnson for teaching me Bayesian statistics and offering me the opportunity to be exposed to brain imaging research, and Dr. Wang for helpful suggestions on my professional development and friendship. I also wish to express my thanks to Dr. Mary Sammel at the University of Pennsylvania for providing us the interesting data used in this dissertation, always promptly and patiently answering our questions about the data, discussing the di