Let $q$ be a complex number, $m$ be a positive rational integer and $l_m\left(q\right)=inf\{\left|P\left(q\right)\right|,P\in {\mathbb{Z}}_m\left[X\right],P\left(q\right)\ne 0\}$, where ${\mathbb{Z}}_m\left[X\right]$ denotes the set of polynomials with rational integer coefficients of absolute value $\le m$. We determine in this note the maximum of the quantities $l_m\left(q\right)$ when $q$ runs through the interval $]m,m+1[$. We also show that if $q$ is a non-real number of modulus $\>1$, then $q$ is a complex Pisot number if and only if $l_m\left(q\right)\>0$ for all $m$.

For every positive integer $n$ let $p\left(n\right)$ be the largest prime number $p\le n$. Given a positive integer $n=n_1$, we study the positive integer $r=R\left(n\right)$ such that if we define recursively $n_{i+1}=n_i-p\left(n_i\right)$ for $i\ge 1$, then $n_r$ is a prime or $1$. We obtain upper bounds for $R\left(n\right)$ as well as an estimate for the set of $n$ whose $R\left(n\right)$ takes on a fixed value $k$.

The technique developed by A. Walfisz in order to prove (in 1962) the estimate $H\left(x\right)\ll {(logx)}^{2/3}{(loglogx)}^{4/3}$ for the error term $H\left(x\right)={\sum }_{n\le x}\frac{\phi \left(n\right)}{n}-\frac{6}{{\pi }^2}x$ related to the Euler function is extended. Moreover, the argument is simplified by exploiting works of A.I. Saltykov and of A.A. Karatsuba. It is noted in passing that the proof proposed by Saltykov in 1960 of $H\left(x\right)\ll {(logx)}^{2/3}{(loglogx)}^{1+ϵ}$ is erroneous and once corrected “only” yields Walfisz’ result. The generalizations obtained can be applied to error terms related to various classical - and less classical - arithmetical...