We define piecewise continuous almost automorphic (p.c.a.a.) functions in the manners of Bochner, Bohr and Levitan, respectively, to describe almost automorphic motions in impulsive systems, and prove that with certain prefixed possible discontinuities they are equivalent to quasi-uniformly continuous Stepanov almost automorphic ones. Spatially almost automorphic sets on the line, which serve as suitable objects containing discontinuities of p.c.a.a. functions, are characterized in the manners of Bochner, Bohr and Levitan, respectively, and shown to be equivalent. Two Favard's theorems are established to illuminate the importance and convenience of p.c.a.a. functions in the study of almost periodically forced impulsive systems.

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We propose an effective framework for multi-phase image segmentation and semi-supervised data clustering by introducing a novel region force term into the Potts model. Assume the probability that a pixel or a data point belongs to each class is known a priori. We show that the corresponding indicator function obeys the Bernoulli distribution and the new region force function can be computed as the negative log-likelihood function under the Bernoulli distribution. We solve the Potts model by the primal-dual hybrid gradient method and the augmented Lagrangian method, which are based on two different dual problems of the same primal problem. Empirical evaluations of the Potts model with the new region force function on benchmark problems show that it is competitive with existing variational methods in both image segmentation and semi- supervised data clustering.

Planar polynomial curves have rational offset curves, if they are either Pythagorean-hodograph (PH) or indirect Pythagorean-hodograph (iPH) curves. In this paper, we derive an algebraic and two geometric characterizations for planar quartic iPH curves. The characterizations are given in terms of quantities related to the Bézier control polygon of the curve, and naturally extend to quartic and cubic PH and quadratic iPH curves.