The number of descents of a set partition. The Mahonian representation of a set partition $\{B_1,\dots,B_k\}$ of $\{1,\dots,n\}$ is the restricted growth word $w_1\dots w_n\}$ obtained by sorting the blocks of the set partition according to their maximal element, and setting $w_i$ to the index of the block containing $i$. The word $w$ has a descent at position $i$ if $w_i > w_{i+1}$.

The number of recoils of a permutation. A '''recoil''', or '''inverse descent''' of a permutation $\pi$ is a value $i$ such that $i+1$ appears to the left of $i$ in $\pi_1,\pi_2,\dots,\pi_n$. In other words, this is the number of descents of the inverse permutation. It can be also be described as the number of occurrences of the mesh pattern $([2,1], {(0,1),(1,1),(2,1)})$, i.e., the middle row is shaded.

The number of descents of a standard tableau. Entry $i$ of a standard Young tableau is a descent if $i+1$ appears in a row below the row of $i$.

The number of runs in a permutation. A run in a permutation is an inclusion-wise maximal increasing substring, i.e., a contiguous subsequence. This is the same as the number of descents plus 1.

The number of cyclic descents of a permutation. For a permutation $\pi$ of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$, this is given by the number of indices $1 \leq i \leq n$ such that $\pi(i) > \pi(i+1)$ where we set $\pi(n+1) = \pi(1)$.

The tier of a permutation. This is the number of elements $i$ such that $[i+1,k,i]$ is an occurrence of the pattern $[2,3,1]$. For example, $[3,5,6,1,2,4]$ has tier $2$, with witnesses $[3,5,2]$ (or $[3,6,2]$) and $[5,6,4]$. According to [1], this is the number of passes minus one needed to sort the permutation using a single stack. The generating function for this statistic appears as [[OEIS:A122890]] and [[OEIS:A158830]] in the form of triangles read by rows, see [sec. 4, 1].

The number of descents of a permutation. This can be described as an occurrence of the vincular mesh pattern ([2,1], {(1,0),(1,1),(1,2)}), i.e., the middle column is shaded, see [3].