Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 May 2009
Let E be a finite set and let = (Al, …, A2) be a family of subsets of E. A subset T of E iscalled a transversal of
if there exists a bijection Φ: T → {l, …, n} such that x ∈ Aψ(x) for all x ∈ T. If I ⊆ {1, …, n}, we shall, for brevity, write
(and similarly for families denoted by other letters). The cardinal of a set S will be denoted by |S|. If λ is a non-negative integer, we define λS as S or Ø according as λ > 0 or λ = 0.