ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

At the outset I bow before Almighty, the Lord of the worlds, Who has
taught the use of the pen, and Whose benign benediction granted me the
courage, patience and strength to embark upon this work and carry it to its
successful completion.

I feel immense pleasure in expressing my profound sense of gratitude to

my supervisor Prof. Mohammad Ashraf, under whose supervision and
inspiring guidance, I had privilege to carry out my research work. I am
indebted to him for his constant and ungrudging encouragement, valuable
suggestions and ingenious ideas. The critical comments, he rendered during
the discussion have gone a long way in my understanding and presentation
of the contents of this thesis.
I feel honoured to put on record my profound thanks to Prof. M.A.
Qadri, former Chairman, Department of Mathematics, Aligarh Muslim
University, Aligarh who has always been a source of insipiration and
encouragement for me.
I express my heartiest thanks to Prof. Afzal Beg, Chairman, Department
of Mathematics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, for providing me all the
necessary facilities throughout the development stages of this thesis.
I am highly grateful to Dr.(Mrs.) Asma Ali, Dr. Shakir Ali and Dr.
Nadeem ur Rehman for their support and encouragement during the course
of this work.
I want to sincerely acknowledge my husband Dr. Mohd. Bilal who has
always been the source of inspiration and encouragement for me and his
useful suggestions, moral support and co-operation helped me a lot.
I owe special thanks to all my seniors especially Dr. Mujeeb ur Rehman
for his generous help and friendly discussions and also to my colleagues-
cum-friends Dr. Nargis Jamal, Dr. Farhat Usman, Dr. Akhlad Iqbal
and Mr. Noor Alam for their kind support and selfless help. I am highly

i
grateful to all my juniors especially Malik Rashid Jamal, Nazia Parveen, Abu
Zaid, Faiza Shujat and some others whose names are not mentioned here
but who continue to support my aspiration with love, encouragement and
guidance.
A deep sense of obligation on my part beckons me to mention the name
of my father Mr. Mohammad Dilshad Khan and mother Mrs. Kahkashan
Khan who helped me in good and bad times alike to keep me focused towards
my goal and for giving me everything which I needed to reach at this place
and also grateful to my father in law Mr. Abdul Ghaffar and my mother in
law Mrs. Musharraf Jahan who have been dreaming and praying for quite a
long time for my success. No amount of gratitude will suffice to my dearest
brothers Mohammad Atif Khan and Mohammad Areeb Khan.

I am deeply grateful to U.G.C and DST for providing me financial

assistance in the form of Research Fellowship and Research Project which
helped me in successful completion of the present work.
Lastly, I express my indebtedness to my glorious and esteemed
institution Aligarh Muslim University and my homage to its founder Sir
Syed Ahmad Khan.

Aligarh Almas Khan

October 2011

ii