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 ascents of a permutation.

The treewidth of a graph. A graph has treewidth zero if and only if it has no edges. A connected graph has treewidth at most one if and only if it is a tree. A connected graph has treewidth at most two if and only if it is a series-parallel graph.

The spin of an integer partition. The Ferrers shape of an integer partition $\lambda$ can be decomposed into border strips. The spin is then defined to be the total number of crossings of border strips of $\lambda$ with the vertical lines in the Ferrers shape. The following example is taken from Appendix B in [1]: Let $\lambda = (5,5,4,4,2,1)$. Removing the border strips successively yields the sequence of partitions $$(5,5,4,4,2,1), (4,3,3,1), (2,2), (1), ().$$ The first strip $(5,5,4,4,2,1) \setminus (4,3,3,1)$ crosses $4$ times, the second strip $(4,3,3,1) \setminus (2,2)$ crosses $3$ times, the strip $(2,2) \setminus (1)$ crosses $1$ time, and the remaining strip $(1) \setminus ()$ does not cross. This yields the spin of $(5,5,4,4,2,1)$ to be $4+3+1 = 8$.

The dinv adjustment of an integer partition. The Ferrers shape of an integer partition $\lambda = (\lambda_1,\ldots,\lambda_k)$ can be decomposed into border strips. For $0 \leq j < \lambda_1$ let $n_j$ be the length of the border strip starting at $(\lambda_1-j,0)$. The dinv adjustment is then defined by $$\sum_{j:n_j > 0}(\lambda_1-1-j).$$ The following example is taken from Appendix B in [2]: Let $\lambda=(5,5,4,4,2,1)$. Removing the border strips successively yields the sequence of partitions $$(5,5,4,4,2,1),(4,3,3,1),(2,2),(1),(),$$ and we obtain $(n_0,\ldots,n_4) = (10,7,0,3,1)$. The dinv adjustment is thus $4+3+1+0 = 8$.

The size of a minimal vertex cover of a graph. A '''vertex cover''' of a graph $G$ is a subset $S$ of the vertices of $G$ such that each edge of $G$ contains at least one vertex of $S$. Finding a minimal vertex cover is an NP-hard optimization problem.

The pathwidth of a graph.

The jump number of the poset. A jump in a linear extension $e_1, \dots, e_n$ of a poset $P$ is a pair $(e_i, e_{i+1})$ so that $e_{i+1}$ does not cover $e_i$ in $P$. The jump number of a poset is the minimal number of jumps in linear extensions of a poset.

The number of minimal elements in Bruhat order not less than the permutation. The minimal elements in question are biGrassmannian, that is $$1\dots r\ \ a+1\dots b\ \ r+1\dots a\ \ b+1\dots$$ for some $(r,a,b)$. This is also the size of Fulton's essential set of the reverse permutation, according to [ex.4.7, 2].

The size of a partition minus its first part. This is the number of boxes in its diagram that are not in the first row.