I would like to take this chance to express my deep thanks and appreciation to my advisor Professor Mary Chan Bee Eng, for her great support and enormous enthusiasm in guiding me through the study of my dissertation and carefully reviewing the draft, and for her great suggestions in the progress. She supported me in every possible way to advance my academic skills. Without her continuing encouragement, this work would definitely not be as it appears today. I would also like to thank professor Miao Jianmin for his ingenious suggestions and insight, Mr. Sam Conner for the useful discussion. The author also would like to