First, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Mark Pernarowski. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with him and truly appreciate his commitment to my project and his time, assistance, sense of humor and patience. To detail all of his efforts would require another volume, which might be more interesting to read. Third, a special thanks to my readers Dr. Jack Dockery, and Dr. Tomas Gedeon for correcting all of the errors and their helpful suggestions. Now I thank another long list .....