The study of palindromes and their generalizations in a word has gained a lot of interest in the last 20 years, motivated by applications in physics, biology, discrete geometry, to name only a few. Using Sebastien Ferenczi as an example, we illustrate the computation of its palindromic complexity and its relation with the usual factor complexity, via an identity attributed to Brlek and Reutenauer involving also the palindromic defect. Periodic infinite words as well as the family of words with language closed by reversal also satisfy the identity. The identity remains valid when palindromic is replaced by $\sigma$-palindromic, and we also discuss some other patterns.[-]

In a seminal paper Henry Whitehead introduced four elementary operators, collapses and expansions (the inverse of a collapse), perforations and fillings (the inverse of a perforation), which correspond to an homotopy equivalence between two simplicial complexes. In this talk, we consider some transformations which are obtained by the means of these four operators. The presentation is composed of two parts. We begin the first part by introducing a certain axiomatic approach for combinatorial topology, which is settled in the framework of completions. Completions are inductive properties which may be expressed in a declarative way and may be combined. Then, we present a transformation that is based solely on collapses and expansions. This transformation involves homotopic pairs, it may be seen as a refinement of simple homotopy, which takes as input a single object. A homotopic pair is a couple of objects (X, Y ) such that X is included in Y and (X, Y ) may be transformed to a trivial couple by collapses and expansions that keep X inside Y . Our main result states that the collection of all homotopic pairs may be fully described by four completions which correspond to four global properties. After, we consider a transformation that is based on collapses, expansions, perforations, and fillings. This transformation involves contractible pairs, which are extensions of homotopic pairs. Again we show that the collection of all contractible pairs may be fully described by four completions which correspond to four global properties. Three of these completions are the same as the ones describing homotopic pairs. In the second part of the presentation, we introduce the notion of a Morse sequence, which provides a very simple approach to discrete Morse theory. A Morse sequence is obtained by considering only expansions and fillings of a simplicial complex, or, in a dual manner, by considering only collapses and perforations. A Morse sequence may be seen as an alternative way to represent the gradient vector field of an arbitrary discrete Morse function. We introduce reference maps, which are maps that associate a set of critical simplexes to each simplex appearing in a Morse sequence. By considering the boundary of each critical simplex, we obtain a chain complex from these maps, which corresponds precisely to the Morse complex. Then, we define extension maps. We show that, when restricted to homology, an extension map is the inverse of a reference map. Also we show that these two maps allow us to recover directly the isomorphism theorem between the homology of an object and the homology of its Morse complex[-]

We consider clustering problems that are fundamental when dealing with trajectory and time series data. The Fréchet distance provides a natural way to measure similarity of curves under continuous reparametrizations. Applied to trajectories and time series, it has proven to be very versatile as it allows local non-linear deformations in time and space. Subtrajectory clustering is a variant of the trajectory clustering problem, where the start and endpoints of trajectory patterns within the collected trajectory data are not known in advance. We study this problem in the form of a set cover problem for a given polygonal curve: find the smallest number k of representative curves such that any point on the input curve is contained in a subcurve that has Fréchet distance at most a given r to a representative curve.[-]

Engineering analysis should match an underlying designed shape and not restrict the quality of the shape. I.e. one would like finite elements matching the geometric space optimized for generically good shape. Since the 1980s, classic tensor-product splines have been used both to define good shape geometry and analysis functions (finite elements) on the geometry. Polyhedral-net splines (PnS) generalize tensor-product splines by allowing additional control net patterns required for free-form surfaces: isotropic patterns, such as n quads surrounding a vertex, an n-gon surrounded by quads, polar configurations where many triangles join, and preferred direction patterns, that adjust parameter line density, such as T-junctions. PnS2 generalize C1 bi-2 splines, generate C1 surfaces and can be output bi-3 Bezier pieces. There are two instances of PnS2 in the public domain: a Blender add-on and a ToMS distribution with output in several formats. PnS3 generalize C2 bi-3 splines for high-end design. PnS generalize the use of higher-order isoparametric approach from tensor-product splines. A web interface offers solving elliptic PDEs on PnS2 surfaces and using PnS2 finite elements.[-]