Monotonicity and local systems (Q1189090)

Using the notion of local system with some ``intersection conditions'', considered by \textit{B. S. Thomson} [Real functions. Lecture Notes in Mathematics. 1170. Berlin etc.: Springer (1985; Zbl 0581.26001)], some new theorems on monotonicity are obtained, among others giving some sufficient conditions for a function \(f:(a,b)\to \mathbb R\) to be monotonic. The author succeeds to improve or to extend some important theorems in this respect, among them those of \textit{D. Preiss} [Czech. Math. J. 21(96), 373--382 (1971; Zbl 0221.26007)]. Unfortunately, the results are too technical to be reproduced here. To give an idea of the difficulty of the proofs, let us mention that the proof of Theorem 4 (p. 306) needs several preliminary results covering a great part of the text. Some relevant and sophisticated examples are also proposed.