The commonly used spatial entropy hr(U) of the multi-dimensional shift space U is the limit of growth rate of admissible local patterns on finite rectangular sublattices which expands to whole space Zd, d ≥ 2. This work studies spatial entropy hΩ(U) of shift space U on general expanding system Ω = {Ω(n)}∞ n=1 where Ω(n) is increasing finite sublattices and expands to Zd. Ω is called genuinely d-dimensional if Ω(n) contains no lower-dimensional part whose size is comparable to that of its d-dimensional part. We show that hr(U) is the supremum of hΩ(U) for all genuinely two-dimensional Ω. Furthermore, when Ω is genuinely d-dimensional and satisfies certain conditions, then hΩ(U) = hr(U). On the contrary, when Ω(n) contains a lower-dimensional part, then hr(U) < hΩ(U) for some U. Therefore, hr(U) is appropriate to be the d-dimensional spatial entropy.

We study the effective fronts of first order front propagations in two dimensions (n=2) in the periodic setting. Using PDE-based approaches, we show that for every α∈(0,1), the class of centrally symmetric polygons with rational vertices and nonempty interior is admissible as effective fronts for given front speeds in C^{1,α}(T^2,(0,∞)). This result can also be formulated in the language of stable norms corresponding to periodic metrics in T^2. Similar results were known long time ago when n≥3 for front speeds in C^∞(T^n,(0,∞)). Due to topological restrictions, the two dimensional case is much more subtle. In fact, the effective front is C^1, which cannot be a polygon, for given C^{1,1}(T^2,(0,∞)) front speeds. Our regularity requirements on front speeds are hence optimal. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that polygonal effective fronts have been constructed in two dimensions.

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We show that given $${n \geqslant 3}$$ , $${q \geqslant 1}$$ , and a finite set $${\{y_1, \ldots, y_q \}}$$ in $${\mathbb{R}^n}$$ there exists a quasiregular mapping $${\mathbb{R}^n\to \mathbb{R}^n}$$ omitting exactly points $${y_1, \ldots, y_q}$$ .

A vast class of exponential functions are shown to be deterministic. This class includes functions whose exponents are polynomial-like or ``piece-wise'' close to polynomials after differentiation. Many of these functions are proved to be disjoint from the M\"obius function.