  Br\"and\'en and Claesson introduced mesh patterns to provide explicit
expansions for certain permutation statistics as linear combinations of
(classical) permutation patterns. The first systematic study of avoidance of
mesh patterns was conducted by Hilmarsson et al., while the first systematic
study of the distribution of mesh patterns was conducted by the first two
authors.
  In this paper, we provide far-reaching generalizations for 8 known
distribution results and 5 known avoidance results related to mesh patterns by
giving distribution or avoidance formulas for certain infinite families of mesh
patterns in terms of distribution or avoidance formulas for smaller patterns.
Moreover, as a corollary to a general result, we find the distribution of one
more mesh pattern of length 2.
