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Consider a solution tree for a description 
. Further consider the node 
, in that tree, interpreting variable 
 occurring in 
. When observed from the vantage point of this node, the nodes of the tree (hence the variables that they interpret) are partitioned into 4 regions: 
 itself, all nodes above, all nodes below, and all nodes to the side (i.e. in disjoint subtrees). 

 The variables of 
 are correspondingly partitioned: all variables that are also interpreted by 
, all variables interpreted by the nodes above, resp. below or to the side. We introduce 4 variables to denote these sets: 
 Clearly, 
 is one of the variables interpreted by 
: 
 Furthermore, as described above, these sets must form a partition of the variables occurring in 
: 
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