ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 I am grateful to my advisor, Dr. Jose C. Principe, for his guidance throughout the

completion of this work. He has been incredibly helpful with his ideas and suggestions. I

admire him very much for providing me the freedom to think independently which has

made me a better researcher today.

 I would like to thank Dr. John G. Harris and Dr. Fred J. Taylor for serving in my

committee and for their useful comments.

 I am greatly indebted to Dr. Deniz Erdogmus for his valuable thoughts and helpful

suggestions. He has been instrumental in initiating the core idea and also in its

improvements. This work would not have been possible without him.

 Thanks are due to my group members including Yadunandana Rao, Kenneth Hild

II and Anant Hegde. The group meetings helped in enhancing the quality of the thesis.

 My sincere thanks go to my parents for their constant emotional support throughout

my academic career. I wish to thank all my friends including RoopKishore Matavalam

and Kartikeya Tripathi and my brother, for being enthusiastic about my work and for

providing me some interesting questions and comments.