Dear all, Have either of the following categories been studied before? 1. A "set with loners" is a set A with a subset U, whose elements are called "loners". A "loner-respecting function" (A,U) --> (B,V) is a function A --> B such that for any x in U, f(x) is in V and its only f-preimage is x. Let SWL be the category of sets with loners and loner-respecting functions, and Inj the category of sets and injections. Both Set and Inj are isomorphic to full subcategories of SWL. 2. For sets A and B, a "sum preorder" from A to B is a preorder on A+B. Example: A is the set of men, B is the set of women, take the preorder "younger than or the same age as". An equivalence relation on A+B is called a "corelation" from A to B. Given sum preorders R : A --> B and S : B --> C, obtain the composite by taking the least preorder on A+B+C that contains R and S, and then restricting to A+C. Let SumPreord be the category of sets and sum preorders, Rel the category of sets and relations, and Corel the category of sets and corelations. Both Rel and Corel are isomorphic to lluf subcategories of SumPreord. Paul -- Paul Blain Levy School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~pbl [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]