This Agreement shall be construed without regard to any presumption or rule requiring construction or interpretation against the party drafting an instrument or causing any instrument to be drafted. The schedules and exhibits referred to herein shall be construed with, and as an integral part of, this Agreement to the same extent as if they were set forth verbatim herein. Whenever the singular is used in this Agreement, the same shall include the plural, and whenever the plural is used herein, the same shall include the singular, where appropriate. When used as part of numbers expressed in this Agreement, a comma is used to separate thousands and a period is used as a decimal point.