Young classes of permutations

We characterise those classes of permutations having the property that for every tableau shape either every permutation of that shape or no permutation of that shape belongs to the class. The characterisation is in terms of the dominance order for partitions (and their conjugates) and shows that for any such class there is a constant k such that no permutation in the class can contain both an increasing and a decreasing sequence of length k.Comment: 11 pages, this is the final version as accepted by the Australasian Journal of Combinatorics. Some more minor typos have been correcte

2×2 monotone grid classes are finitely based

In this note, we prove that all 2×2 monotone grid classes are finitely based, i.e., defined by a finite collection of minimal forbidden permutations. This follows from a slightly more general result about certain 2×2 (generalized) grid classes having two monotone cells in the same row

2×22\times 2 monotone grid classes are finitely based

In this note, we prove that all $2 \times 2$ monotone grid classes are finitely based, i.e., defined by a finite collection of minimal forbidden permutations. This follows from a slightly more general result about certain $2 \times 2$ (generalized) grid classes having two monotone cells in the same row.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, special issue for Permutation Patterns 201

1st Report of the Working Group on Standard Development

The initial meeting of the working group on standard development took place at the 1st SAFO-Workshop, September 2003, in Florence. In accordance with the main topic of the Workshop, the discussion was primarily focused on the relationship between socio-economic aspects of the standards and the issue of animal health and food safety in organic farming. The report cover the additional issues discussed in the 1st Working Group meeting in Florence

Uniquely-Wilf classes

Two permutations in a class are Wilf-equivalent if, for every size, $n$, the number of permutations in the class of size $n$ containing each of them is the same. Those infinite classes that have only one equivalence class in each size for this relation are characterised provided either that they avoid at least one permutation of size 3, or at least three permutations of size 4.Comment: Updated to DMTCS styl

Prolific Compositions

Under what circumstances might every extension of a combinatorial structure contain more copies of another one than the original did? This property, which we call prolificity, holds universally in some cases (e.g., finite linear orders) and only trivially in others (e.g., permutations). Integer compositions, or equivalently layered permutations, provide a middle ground. In that setting, there are prolific compositions for a given pattern if and only if that pattern begins and ends with 1. For each pattern, there is an easily constructed automaton that recognises prolific compositions for that pattern. Some instances where there is a unique minimal prolific composition for a pattern are classified