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To my parents, Bill and Cindy Burkhalter, for all of their support and love. To Helen Pope for all of your encouragement and patience. I am very thankful for the technical mentorship I have received over the past few years. Thanks to Dr. Hui Hu at Iowa State for my introduction to laser diagnostics. Many thanks to my current advisor, Dr. Albert Ratnerwho has championed my path from the beginning; with application to graduate school, didactic training, and continued support through all my research efforts. While training at NASA Glenn Research Center I was able to have an excellent mentor in Dr. Yolanda Hicks, who gave me detailed guidance and also autonomy to make mistakes and learn by action. To Dr. Sarah Tedder, thank you for your advice and support. To both Dr. Clarence Chang and Dr. Kathy Tacina, I appreciate the many discussions of practice. I would like to thank Bill Jennings, Steve Struckman and Austin Krebill for help fabricating parts in the machine shop. I would like to thank Jianan Zhang and Daniel Lin for their assistance with data acquisition. Thank you to