Dear readers:

	First, I would like to thank you for downloading and reading my dissertation.

	There are a few things I think I need to say here. The unsteady data contained 
in this dissertation was plotted into movies. The movies are linked to the corresponding 
pictures of Chapters 4, 5, and 6 in the PDF file. Quicktime Player needs to be installed
to view those movies. However, the movies can not be viewed online. All the files on the
dissertation website need to be firstly downloaded into the same directory, the three TAR
files need to be unbundled (using WinZip) into three subdirectories. Then the movies will
pop up by clicking those linked pictures in the PDF file. The movie window can be closed 
by press the Esc key.

	If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at: ruma@vt.edu. Thanks.


								Ruolong Ma
								June 24, 2003