ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my special appreciation and thanks to my advisor Professor Dr. NAME SURNAME, you have been a tremendous mentor for me. I would like to thank you for encouraging my research and for allowing me to grow as a research scientist. Your advice on both research as well as on my career have been priceless. I would also like to thank my committee members, professor NAME SURNAME, professor NAME SURNAME, professor NAME SURNAME for serving as my committee members even at hardship. I also want to thank you for letting my defense be an enjoyable moment, and for your brilliant comments and suggestions, thanks to you. I would especially like to thank physicians, nurses, and nurse aids in the brain injury rehabilitation unit at University Medical Center. All of you have been there to support me when I recruited patients and collected data for my Ph.D. thesis.
A special thanks to my family. Words cannot express how grateful I am to my mother-in law, father-in-law, my mother, and father for all of the sacrifices that you’ve made on my behalf. Your prayer for me was what sustained me thus far. I would also like to thank all of my friends who supported me in writing, and incented me to strive towards my goal. At the end I would like express appreciation to my beloved wife NAME who spent sleepless nights with and was always my support in the moments when there was no one to answer my queries.