Patent Application
20070061174
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of mechanized inventory systems, such as airline reservations systems or other product and/or service reservation or inventory systems, which are used to determine availability and pricing for products and/or services. More particularly, the embodiments of the present invention are adapted to detect and/or display pricing errors that may occur in an inventory system by comparing purchase prices to average purchase prices and detecting purchase prices and or purchase volumes that deviate from the average purchase prices and/or volumes for a selected subset or category of products.
2. Description of Related Art
Many of today's products and services are catalogued in computerized reservation or inventory systems. These systems may include simple or complex methodologies for maintaining inventory and providing product and/or service availability information. Either via direct access or remote access across a network, consumers can run queries and view availability information for selected products and/or services, as well as purchase or reserve such items. One example of such systems is a computerized reservation system (CRS). A CRS provides a communications network for travel agents and other consumers to access travel related information such as airline seat availability, hotel reservations, car rentals, event availability, leisure activities, etc. CRS systems have been in existence for a long period of time. Some of the current CRS systems are known or referred to under the following trade names and services marks: SABRE, AMADEUS, WORLDSPAN, SYSTEM ONE, APOLLO, GEMINI, GALILEO, and AXESS.
Consumer interaction with these systems has evolved in recent years. Initially, these systems were difficult to use and did not always provide the best solution to a consumer's query. For example, in the early stages, a consumer interested in booking airline tickets would input a desired flight itinerary with desired travel dates and times and possible selected class of travel. The CRS system would check availability for the dates and return with a fare price meeting the specific input dates and times requested. Although there were some algorithms in place to aid the consumer in finding the lowest-priced fare, these algorithms were typically geared more toward providing quick results with less computing time and resources than in finding the lowest priced fare. For example, some early product availability and booking algorithms used a method that would heuristically select a subset of itineraries from a larger pool of itineraries, price this subset, and select the lowest-priced fare from the subset for display to the consumer. While these early systems provided timely results and reduced processing load on the CRS, they did not always provide the best solution to the consumer.
In light of this, the assignees of the present invention, developed an algorithm, (sometimes referred to as extended implicit enumeration algorithm), that could be used to efficiently determine the lowest fare for a particular flight itinerary. The algorithm used a k-shortest path schema that identified the lowest available fare that met a consumer's request and displayed this fare to the consumer. This algorithm is described more fully in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/421,895, filed on Oct. 21, 1999, entitled Method and Apparatus for Searching for a Low Fare for Travel between Two Locations, and published as a PCT application under Publication No. WO 01/29693; the contents of which are incorporated herein.
The extended implicit enumeration algorithm was a major step forward in efficiently determining the lowest fare price for a given itinerary; it does have a few slight drawbacks. Specifically, the algorithm was designed to provide a small number of low priced answers with minimal consideration of diversity. The consumer inputs a request, and the algorithm returns only the lowest fare meeting the request. Unfortunately, such a process may not provide the best solution to a consumer or may miss an opportunity to market different fares to a customer that may maximize profits for the supplier, while also meeting the consumer's goals. Thus the assignee of the present invention developed a system, method, and computer program product to provide a plurality of low fare prices and different flight itinerary options for a given departure and return date combination, thereby allowing a user to view these different options and make a determination as to which fare and flight itinerary meets their goals as described more fully in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/573,546, filed on May 21, 2004, entitled Systems, Methods, and Computer Program Products for Searching and Displaying Low Cost Product Availability Information for a Given Departure-Return Date Combination or Range of Departure-Return Date Combinations; the contents of which are also incorporated herein.
While conventional searching systems for travel products may provide a user with a multitude of different low-cost options in the form of a results listing, such conventional systems rely on accurate pricing information, such that the consumer receives a product at a promised price that allows both the search system operator and the travel product provider to realize a profit in providing the search service and the final travel product. Pricing for travel products is often highly variable and depends on a number of factors including, for example, geographical area of travel, the travel product supplier, the travel product class, and/or other factors. Furthermore, errors in pricing of such travel products may be introduced at a number of points prior to the display of product options to a user. For example, pricing errors may be introduced by one or more of: the travel product provider (in supplying pricing information to a CRS), the CRS operator (in translating and/or listing pricing information taken from a travel product provider), and/or the search system operator (by misinterpreting and/or misreading pricing information from a CRS and/or travel product provider). In conventional search systems, however, pricing errors often go undetected until large numbers of customers have booked unusually low (and erroneously-assigned) fares for a travel product through a CRS or a search system in communication therewith.
Conventional systems lack the capability to track and highlight potentially inaccurate travel product pricing (or other travel product parameters) that may be displayed erroneously to a search system user via the search system. In such cases, at least one party involved in the transaction, such as, for example, the search system user, the search system operator, and/or the travel product provider must bear the losses associated with such a mistake. For example, if an erroneously low airline fare is offered to the consumer via the search system, the travel product provider (such as an airline) must, in some cases, honor the listed price and provide the travel product at a loss. In other instances, the search system operator must bear the losses associated with such a mistake. In any case, the costs of travel product pricing errors exceed mere lost profits and may lead to a deterioration in relationships between the search system operator and its customers (the search system users, for example) and its suppliers (travel product suppliers, such as airlines, for example).
The limitations in conventional search systems may create a burden on an inventory system operator that seeks to identify and remove pricing errors before they are either presented to a customer and/or relied upon by multiple customers in the sale of travel products, such as airline tickets. Specifically, since conventional search systems are not capable of computing an average price (or other travel product parameter, such as sales volume) and systematically comparing the average price to prices for travel products presented to a customer, the search system operator is forced to constantly monitor new pricing schemes (which may be updated by the minute and may include thousands of travel products and fare categories) in order to attempt to identify potential pricing errors.
Therefore, there exists a need for an improved system to solve the technical problems outlined above that are associated with conventional search systems. More particularly, there exists a need for a system capable of automatically identifying and displaying travel products having prices (or other sales parameters such as, for example, sales volumes) that differ greatly from an average price for comparable travel products. There also exists a need for a system that periodically searches an inventory system for possibly erroneous travel product price listings such that an operator of the inventory system and/or search system may be aware of such potentially erroneous price listings before they result in lost profits and/or customer dissatisfaction. Furthermore, there exists a need for a search system that displays travel products having potentially erroneous price listings (as identified, for example, by comparing a product parameter to an average product parameter in a comparable product category) directly to travel product providers so as to efficiently notify such product providers when a potentially erroneous price listing for a product has been listed in an inventory system.
The needs outlined above are met by the present invention which, in various embodiments, provides a system that overcomes many of the technical problems discussed above, as well other technical problems, with regard to the early detection, accurate identification, and display of potential pricing errors by conventional travel product search systems. Specifically, in one embodiment, the system of the present invention detects and displays pricing errors corresponding to one or more travel products selected from an inventory system. In one embodiment, the system comprises a database comprising a plurality of first travel products in at least one category, wherein the first travel products have a corresponding plurality of first parameters. The system further comprises a host computing element in communication with the database and the inventory system. The host computing element may, in some embodiments, receive, from the inventory system, a second travel product, in the at least one category, having a corresponding second parameter. The host computing element may also determine an average of the first parameters associated with each of the plurality of first travel products in the at least one category and compare the second parameter and the average. According to some embodiments, the host computing element also displays the second travel product when the second parameter associated therewith is different from the average so as to identify potential pricing errors corresponding to the displayed second travel product. Thus, systems of the present invention may identify potential pricing errors by systematically comparing travel product pricing to stored pricing patterns for comparable travel products within the same categories.
Furthermore, in some system embodiments, the system further comprises a memory device for storing the determined average. The system of the present invention may also further comprise a user interface in communication with the host computing element for displaying the second travel product when the second parameter (associated with the second travel product) is different from the average. According to some system embodiments, the host computing element may further display the second travel product when the second parameter associated therewith is different from the average by a selected margin. In some additional system embodiments, the host computing element may also: transmit the displayed second travel product to a product provider in communication with the host computing element; and/or verify the determined relation between the second parameter and the average. Furthermore, in some system embodiments, the host computing element may also automatically remove the displayed second travel product from the inventory system so as to prevent the sale of potential incorrectly travel products via the inventory system.
The parameters received and/or stored by the system embodiments of the present invention may comprise, for example, fare price, fare sales volume; and combinations thereof, as both unusual fare prices and unusually low and/or high sales volume may be indicative of a pricing error for a particular travel product. Furthermore, the category of the travel products evaluated by system embodiments of the present invention may comprise, for example, at least one of: a travel product geographical market area; a travel product supplier; a travel product itinerary; an airline fare having a selected fare code; an airline fare for travel on a selected itinerary; and combinations thereof. The parameters and categories established by the system embodiments of the present invention may be used by the host computer element to more effectively compare the second parameter associated with the second travel product to a suitable average so as to more accurately identify potential pricing errors in the second travel product.
Further, the present invention also provides methods and/or computer program products for detecting and displaying pricing errors corresponding to one or more travel products selected from an inventory system, wherein the inventory system comprises travel products and parameters associated with the travel products. According to one embodiment, the method and/or computer program product comprises: determining an average of a parameter associated with each of a plurality of first travel products in at least one category; comparing a second travel product in the at least one category, the second travel product being associated with the parameter, to the plurality of plurality of first travel products so as to determine a relation between the parameter associated with the second travel product and the average; and displaying the second travel product when the parameter associated with the second travel product is different from the average so as to identify possible pricing errors corresponding to the displayed second travel product.
According to some embodiments, the method and/or computer program product may further comprise a step for storing the average of the parameter in a memory device in communication with the inventory system. Furthermore, the displaying step described above may in some method and/or computer program product embodiments further comprise a step for displaying the second travel product when the parameter associated with the travel product is different from the average by a selected margin. Other method and/or computer program product embodiments further comprise transmitting the displayed travel product to a travel product provider in communication with the host computing element and/or verifying the determined relation between the parameter associated with the second travel product and the average. Additional embodiments of the method and/or computer program product of the present invention also comprise a step for automatically removing the displayed second travel product from the inventory system.
As described above with respect to the system embodiments, the travel product parameters monitored, averaged, and/or compared by the methods and computer program products may include, but are not limited to, price, sales volume, and combinations thereof. As discussed above, aberrant pricing levels and unusually high and/or low sales volume (within a given product category) may be indicative of a pricing error. Furthermore, the methods and computer program products of the present invention may compare parameter averages and second travel product parameters across a broad range of travel product categories, which may be defined by at least one of: a travel product geographical market area; a travel product supplier; a travel product itinerary; an airline fare having a selected fare code; an airline fare for travel on a selected itinerary; and combinations thereof.
Thus the systems, methods, and computer program products for detecting, displaying, and/or transmitting pricing errors corresponding to one or more travel products selected from an inventory system, as described in the embodiments of the present invention, provide many advantages that may include, but are not limited to: systematically comparing historical pricing and other product parameter data to newly received travel products to more effectively identify potential pricing errors in the received travel products; providing an easy-to-decipher display depicting detected potential incorrectly-priced travel products along with the comparative data used to identify the potential price error; providing a direct interface and notification system for partner organizations (such as travel product providers) such that the partners may easily view the detected potential pricing errors and take immediate action thereon to avoid potential profit losses; allowing a user of the system embodiments to select criteria used to detect potential price errors; and allowing a user to visually audit and/or verify the accuracy of price error determinations made by the system, method, and/or computer program product.
These advantages and others that will be evident to those skilled in the art are provided in the system, method, and computer program product of the present invention. Importantly, all of these advantages allow the system to accurately display travel products that, when compared to comparable pricing information, may be priced incorrectly. Since the displayed information is made more readily evident to the user and to the travel product providers, the user and/or travel product providers are more likely to identify and remove incorrectly-priced travel products before suffering significant losses in profit from pricing errors.
Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:
The present inventions now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all embodiments of the invention are shown. Indeed, these inventions may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.
The various aspects of the present invention mentioned above, as well as many other aspects of the invention are described in greater detail below. The systems, methods, and computer program products of the present invention are described in an airline ticket reservation environment. It must be understood that this is only one example of the use of the present invention. Specifically, the systems, methods, and computer program products of the present invention can be adapted to any number of products and services and are not limited to the airline industry. For example, the present invention may be used with rail and bus itineraries, hotels, cruises, restaurants, car rentals, events including sports and leisure activities, etc. In addition, embodiments of the present invention may also be used in a variety of non-travel industries for automatically identifying potential incorrectly-priced products. For example, the embodiments of the present invention may be useful, in some embodiments, for computing average market price for a commodity and comparing such an average price to one or more proposed pricing schemes to identify potential erroneous and/or incorrect pricing schemes. The embodiments of the present invention may be capable of detecting pricing errors in any number of complex pricing environments wherein there exists a number of pricing information sources that may be indicative of an average price with which a selected and/or proposed price may be compared to check for accuracy.
The host computer 12 of the present invention may be in communication with one or more reservation systems 16 so as to monitor such reservation systems for potentially pricing errors for the travel products listed therein. In some embodiments, the host computer 12 may monitor the pricing of travel products on a third party reservation system 16 capable of listing travel products provided by a central computer reservation system (CRS, such as, for example SABRE) and/or a product provider reservation system (such as an airline reservation system and/or hotel reservation system, for example). As described in further detail below (and as shown generally in
One or more databases 17 may also be connected to the network 14 such that the host computer 12 may be capable of interrogating the database 17 so as to be capable of accessing stored data including a plurality of first travel products (in at least one category) having a corresponding plurality of parameters. The categories and corresponding parameters of the plurality of first travel products stored in the database 17 may comprise, for example, fare prices for a specific air travel itinerary, fare prices on a particular airline, fare prices to and/or from a specific geographical region, fare prices for a particular airline fare code, and other category/parameter combinations that may be used to more effectively compare the average parameter of the plurality of first travel products (computed as described below) to the parameter of a given second travel product (as described in further detail below with respect to
As shown in
In operation, the system of the present invention, via the host computer 12, receives, from the reservation system 16 (via the network 14, for example) a second travel product (associated with a particular category and having a corresponding parameter). For example, the host computer 12 may receive from the reservation system 16 one or more airline ticket price listings for a particular air travel itinerary (such as a Saturday night, first-class, non-stop flight from New York to San Francisco), wherein the second travel product is the airline ticket, wherein the parameter is the price listing, and wherein the category comprises airline tickets for the particular first-class air travel itinerary (Saturday night, non-stop flight from New York to San Francisco). In some embodiments, the reception of such a second travel product by the host computer 12 may be triggered by the purchase of the second travel product by a consumer. For example, as shown in the display 300 of travel product “outliers” in
Once the host computer 12 receives a second travel product (and its associated parameters) and ascertains the category of the second product, the host computer 12 may then utilize the database 17 information to generate an average parameter value that may be directly comparable to the received second travel product value such that a meaningful comparison may be made. For example, the host computer 12 may utilize data within the database 17 to determine an average of the first parameters (price listings, for example) associated with each of the plurality of first travel products (airline tickets, for example) in the category (Saturday night, first-class, non-stop flights from New York to San Francisco, for example). In some embodiments, the database 17 may comprise a commercially-available relational database program such that data within the database may be arranged and more easily manipulated by the host computer 12 in order to determine the average parameter for a specific given category of travel product (such as, for example, a price listing for airline tickets on Saturday night, first-class, non-stop flights from New York to San Francisco).
In some embodiments, wherein the system of the present invention is used to identify potentially erroneous airline fares, the host computer 12 may generate an average of the first parameters (such as an average price) in a hierarchy of different categories such that even if an exact match of the category of the second travel product (i.e., a purchased airline fare) is not available, the comparison (see description below) between the second parameter (associated with the second travel product) and the average may still be accomplished (albeit with an average of parameters corresponding to products that are part of a closely related, but not matching, category). For example, in some embodiments, the host computer 12 may determine historical airline fare averages based on the following hierarchy of categories: Level 1, flight origin and destination, travel product provider (airline, for example), travel product class, during the last 60 days; Level 2, flight origin and destination, travel product provider (airline, for example), during the last 90 days; Level 3, flight origin and destination, over the last 12 months; and Level 4, travel product provider (airline, for example), over the last 12 months. According to such a hierarchy system, if no historical average exists (or may not be computed) for the Level 1 category, the host computer 12 may next use the Level 2 category to compute and/or retrieve an average parameter for comparison with the second parameter (associated with the received second travel product).
The host computer 12 may then compare the second parameter (such as price and/or number of tickets sold) for the second travel product received from the reservation system 16 and subsequently detect situations in which the second parameter differs from the computed average parameter. A difference between the second parameter and the computed average parameter may be indicative, for example, of an incorrect fare price. For example, if the determined average fare price for the first-class, Saturday night non-stop flight from New York to San Francisco is $600, a received second parameter (price) indicating a price of $50 for a comparable travel product may indicate that a pricing error is present. In more competitive fare markets, even a minor deviation from the average may be indicative of a pricing error. Thus, in some embodiments of the system of the present invention, the host computer 12 may manipulate data within the database 17 to provide detailed, multi-variable categories for the plurality of first travel products so as to be capable of determining a more comparable and/or useful parameter average.
According to some embodiments, parameters other than travel product price may be used to detect potential pricing errors. For example, historical data for a number of ticket purchases for a given category may be compared to received sales data related to a particular fare by the host computer 12 to determine situations in which the sales volume of the travel product differs substantially from the historical average.
Furthermore, in some embodiments of the system of the present invention, the host computer 12 of the present invention may also verify the determined relation between the parameter associated with the second travel product and the average to ensure that the determined difference (which may exceed, in some embodiment, a specified margin of difference, as described above) is indicative of an potential incorrectly-priced travel product. According to some system embodiments, the host computer 12 may verify the determined relation between the parameter associated with the second travel product and the average by searching for the parameter (such as an airline fare price) associated with the second travel product in one or more alternate sources that may be in communication with the host computer via the network 14. For example, the host computer 12 may be capable, in some embodiments, of automatically verifying the determined relation between the parameter and the average by searching for a confirmatory and/or commensurate parameter (such as a similar airline fare price) associated with the second travel product on one or more of: a product provider website (operated by an airline reservation system 17, for example), a secondary reservation system in communication with the host computer via the network 14 (such as, for example, a travel booking website), a centralized CRS (such as SABRE, for example), and/or other network-accessible sources. According to some embodiments, the host computer 12 may also perform a “self check” to verify the accuracy of the average parameter calculation.
In some embodiments, the host computer 12 of the present invention may comprise a desktop computer that is capable of being controlled by an operator of the system such that the operator (via the keyboard interface 26) may interrogate other computer sources to verify the determined relation between the parameter and the average. For example, an operator of the present system may manually interrogate (using the host computer 12) one or more travel websites (including, for example, travel web logs (“blogs”), online travel forums and message boards, and/or online shopping websites) to search for comparable travel products (such as a similar flight itinerary) associated with a given parameter (such as fare price). Thus, in some system embodiments (see, for example, the flow chart of
As shown generally in the exemplary display 300 of
Furthermore, because the operator of the system of the present invention may be in a business relationship with one or more travel product providers (such as, for example, airlines, hoteliers, etc), it may be advantageous for the host computer 12 of the present invention to be capable of directly and/or automatically notifying the travel product providers of potential erroneously-priced travel products such that the travel product providers may remove travel products from the inventory system 17 and/or correct the listed parameters (such as price) associated with the travel products before significant profit losses are realized due to the rapid sale of incorrectly-priced travel products (such as, for example $50 round-trip first class fares for a transcontinental flight). Thus, in some system embodiments of the present invention, the host computer 12 may transmit the displayed travel products (see element 300,
In addition, some embodiments of the system of the present invention may also trigger a number of automated processes for removing detected potentially incorrect product pricing from a reservation system 16 and/or other electronic point of sale. For example, the display of second travel products having disparate parameters (such as, for example, exceptionally low prices and/or exceptionally high sales volumes) may trigger the automated removal and/or “locking” of such products in a reservation system 16 such that the displayed second products may not be sold.
As illustrated in exploded
The various operations of the present invention may be performed either by hardware in the form of ASIC chips or other specialized hardware or by operation of software ran by a processing element. In the latter case, the storage device 22 may also further include the various computer software programs and modules used to implement the operations of the present invention.
According to some embodiments, the average determining step 210 of the method embodiments of the present invention may be performed after receiving one or more second travel products from a reservation system 16 such that the category defined by the second travel product (i.e., a purchased airline fare) may be used to define the category of the first travel products (and first parameters associated therewith) to determine the average in step 210. For example, the host computer 12 of the present invention may receive notification of the purchase of one or more second travel products, having a particular parameter (i.e., a $50 purchase price) within a particular category (i.e., a block of purchased fares for a Saturday night, non-stop, first-class flight from New York to San Francisco). In response, the determining step 210 may comprise determining an average of a comparable parameter (purchase price) for first travel products (airline fares) within the same category (i.e., Saturday night, non-stop, first-class flights from New York to San Francisco) in order to perform a more valid comparison (see step 220 below). According to some method embodiments, step 210 may also comprise determining an average of other parameter types that may be associated with each of a plurality of first travel products in at least one category. For example, step 210 may also comprise determining an average sales volume for a particular travel product (airline fare, for example) in a particular category to compare (see step 220, described below) to a second travel product received from a reservation system 16 by the host computer 12.
As shown in
According to some method embodiments, the displaying step 230 further comprises displaying the second travel product only when the parameter associated with the travel product is different from the average by a selected margin (see element 317). In some such method embodiments, the display 300 (generated by a host computer 12, for example) may further include a listing (by second travel product) of the computed margin of difference 317 between the parameter 315 and the determined average parameter 316 for a comparable travel product (such as a similar itinerary, fare code, class, time of travel, airline, etc.).
As shown generally in
According to other method embodiments, the verification step 610 may be manually accomplished by an operator of the present system using, for example, the host computer 12, which may comprise a desktop computer that is capable of being controlled by an operator of the system such that the operator (via the keyboard interface 26) may interrogate other computer sources to perform the verification step 610. For example, an operator of the present system may perform the verifying step 610 by reviewing (using the host computer 12) one or more travel websites (including, for example, travel web logs (“blogs”), online travel forums and message boards, and/or online shopping websites) to search for comparable travel products (such as a similar flight itinerary) associated with a given parameter (such as fare price). Thus, as shown in
According to some method embodiments of the present invention, the determining step 210, comparing step 220, and displaying step 330 may accurately predict the presence of pricing errors in one or more reservation systems 16. In addition, as discussed above with respect to
As mentioned above, although the specific embodiments are directed to use of the present invention with detecting pricing errors associated with the sale of airfares, the present invention is not so limited. The present invention can be used to assess pricing and/or sales volume parameters associated with rail and bus fares, hotel rates, cruise fares, car rental pricing, events pricing and ticketing (including sports and leisure activities), etc. For example, if the systems described above are used for hotels, the system could determine historical pricing averages for a particular hotel room grade (i.e., suite) in a particular city, and for a particular season. It may also compare such averages to detected current and/or proposed pricing for a comparable hotel booking to detect potential pricing errors prior to listing such a hotel booking rate via a reservation system. For car rentals, the system could be used to generate an average number of luxury cars rented from a particular airport rental facility on a summer weekday. The system may then use the generated average to provide a computer threshold. Thus, a host computer 12 may then display to an operator a rental booking detail (including price and other category details) if the number of bookings in the category suddenly spike above the generated average. Thus, the system may detect rental car pricing errors revealed by an unusual rise in the number of bookings for a particular rental car category before a large number of rental bookings are allowed under a potentially erroneous pricing scheme. Similar pricing errors may also be detected in the train, cruise, and events embodiments by detecting parameter values that exceed and/or differ somewhat from specific and comparable averages.
In addition to providing apparatus and methods, the present invention also provides computer program products for performing the operations described above. The computer program products have a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code means embodied in the medium. With reference to
In this regard,
Accordingly, blocks or steps of the block diagram, flowchart or control flow illustrations support combinations of means for performing the specified functions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. It will also be understood that each block or step of the block diagram, flowchart or control flow illustrations, and combinations of blocks or steps in the block diagram, flowchart or control flow illustrations, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform the specified functions or steps, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
Many modifications and other embodiments of the inventions set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which these inventions pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the inventions are not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.
