On Countably Paracompact Spaces

Let X be a topological space, that is, a space with open sets such that the union of any collection of open sets is open and the intersection of any finite number of open sets is open. A covering of X is a collection of open sets whose union is X. The covering is called countable if it consists of a countable collection of open sets or finite if it consists of a finite collection of open sets ; it is called locally finite if every point of X is contained in some open set which meets only a finite number of sets of the covering. A covering is called a refinement of a covering U if every open set of X is contained in some open set of . The space X is called countably paracompact if every countable covering has a locally finite refinement.